After Captain Shan escorted Yu Zhi and the other arrested servants of the Yu family out of Yan Jiting, Xiang Kang, Xiang Guan, and Feng Zhong of course immediately returned directly to the Yu family, which was under close surveillance, and told the father and daughter of the Yu family about the story of going to negotiate with Shan Youwei. Knowing that his son was tortured in the pavilion, Yu Jian was of course in tears, and begged Xiang Kang and Feng Zhong repeatedly, "Xiang Gongzi, Feng Youxi, please, hurry up and find a way to save my dog, otherwise, he may not survive this hurdle and have to send his life to prison." ”

"Don't worry, Gong Yu, we will try our best to find a way to rescue Brother Yu as soon as possible." Xiang Kang comforted him, and said: "When I came back, I discussed it with Brother Feng on the road, and I felt that Gong Yu was afraid that he would have more blood this time, so that it would be possible to save Brother Yu from prison and help Brother Yu save his life in prison." ”

"No problem, no matter how much food you have, I'll do it." Yu Jian is quite generous in terms of money, far more open than his mediocre son, and immediately said: "Xiang Gongzi, how much does it cost?" The old man will go and get it to you. ”

"Let's take a hundred gold first." Xiang Kang was not polite, opened his mouth and asked for a hundred gold equivalent to 50,760 yuan, and said: "Gong Yu, you have to be prepared, this 100 gold is just the beginning, whether you need money in the future, the younger generation does not dare to guarantee it." ”

The Yu family does have a strong family background, even if one hundred gold is enough to buy more than a dozen adult slaves in this era (the unearthed Qin Jian records that each slave is worth 4,300 yuan), an ordinary family may not earn so much money even if they don't eat or drink for a lifetime, Yu Jian still didn't hesitate to tell the two daughters to help him get up, took the key and went to the back room to get money. Xiang Kang also asked Feng Zhong at this time: "Brother Feng, do you have any trustworthy people in the officialdom of Ling County who can speak well in the county?" ”

"I know two little officials, but the friendship is average, I'm afraid it can't be trusted." Feng Zhong replied: "If I want to ask them to help, I can only guarantee that they can try for us to see if we can get through that Wu Prison Peng's door, but whether I can get through it, I'm not sure." ”

Xiang Kang frowned, and said after a while: "I don't think there's any need to try, Shan Youwei's power in Ling County is too great, and your friendship with them is very ordinary, I'm afraid they don't have the courage to risk offending Shan Youwei to bribe Wu Xuanpeng for us." ”

"What then? Go directly to Ling County to meet that Wu Prison Peng? Feng Zhong asked, "We don't know him before, and if we want to go directly to him, I'm afraid it will only be more difficult?" ”

"I can only ask for a Zhou county order." Xiang Kang, who had already considered the aftermath, replied: "Ask him to investigate the robbery and injury case of the robbers as an excuse, and send a subordinate official with enough weight to Ling County to investigate the case, during which he took the opportunity to buy that Wu Prison Peng, and asked him to save Yu Gongzi's life no matter what, don't let Shan Youwei vent his anger with him, and directly kill him, and then find a way to prove Yu Gongzi's innocence and rescue him from prison." ”

"That's a good idea." Feng Zhong nodded and said, "Zhou County Ling admires you so much, and we have enough weight in our hands, begging him to send someone forward, it must not be a big problem." ”

"Then we will get the money, and we will go back to the prime minister immediately and go to see Zhou County Order overnight." Xiang Kang said: "Tomorrow, I will ask Zhou County to send someone to Ling County to investigate the case and take the opportunity to act." ”

When Xiang Kang and Feng Zhong discussed the idea, Yu Gong had already returned to Xiang Kang with the support of his two daughters, and asked his daughter to hand over Huang Chengcheng's 100 gold to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang took it, and asked Yu Gong to lend himself and Feng Zhong a two-horse carriage, ready to immediately rush back to Xia Xiang to find Zhou Xianling for help. Yu Zhi agreed, and then took the initiative to say: "Xiang Gongzi, Feng Youxi, it's not early, you better rest for a night and then go." ”

"You can't waste time." Xiang Kang shook his head and said, "That Shan Right Lieutenant is already going crazy, he will definitely continue to make Brother Yu angry, we waste a little more time here, and Brother Yu will suffer a little more in prison." ”

Hearing this, Yu Jian inevitably burst into tears again, choked up and thanked Xiang Kang and Feng Zhong who worked tirelessly to run back and forth for his son, Yu Miaoge's eyes were also red, bowed to Xiang Kang and Feng Zhongyingying, and choked up and said: "Xiang Gongzi, Brother Feng, don't thank you for your kindness, the little girl will definitely repay you in the future." ”

"Brother and sister, when you say this, you will see the outside." In front of the beauty, Feng Zhong also had a lot of words, and said with a smile: "What is the relationship between you and Brother Xiang, and what is the relationship between me and Brother Xiang?" Do you need anything to repay us? If you really want to repay it, in the future, you and Brother Xiang's children will just call me my father-in-law. ”

Hearing Feng Zhong's words, of course, Yu Miaoge, who was very thin-skinned, had a pretty face that blushed directly to the base of his neck, and he blushed and agreed, nor did he agree, it was embarrassing. Yu Jiao, who had been hanging her head next to her, secretly went to see Xiang Kang's reaction, and then was very surprised to find that Xiang Kang's eyes were actually looking at herself, Yu Yao was suddenly ashamed, and quickly lowered her head again, her heartbeat immediately accelerated, and she secretly said: "I know it's my sister, why are you still looking at me?" Do I have there well? Is it good for my sister to have there? Why didn't you forget about me in a hurry? ”

In order to prevent accidents, Xiang Kang decided to rush back to Ling County immediately with Xiang Guan and Feng Zhong, so that all the other Xiang family children stayed in the Yu family and were responsible for protecting the father and daughter of the Yu family. Then he and Feng Zhong also sat in a two-horse carriage drawn by two horses, and let Xiang Guan hurry back to Xiaxiang, and the result was quite smooth, and at the second watch of the day, Xiang Kang and Feng Zhong returned to Xiaxiang City smoothly.

At this time, of course, the gate of the county seat of Xia Xiang has been closed, but fortunately, Feng Zhong took the talisman to prove his official identity, and there was an excuse to urgently handle the case, a piece of gold was thrown in the hands of the city gate officials, and the city gate of the lower prime minister was immediately opened, Xiang Kang and others rushed into the city, and came directly to the door of Zhou County's residence to ask for a meeting, and with the help of Brother Kong Fang, they easily asked Menzi to report overnight, and sent the request to meet to the bed of Zhou County, who had fallen asleep.

Zhou Xianling really admired Xiang Kang very much, and when he heard that it was Xiang Kang who asked to see him, not only did he not lose his temper, but he immediately got up in his clothes and met Xiang Kang and Feng Zhong and others in his living room. Xiang Kang was also not polite, and after finishing the salute and waiting for the scene, he immediately told Zhou County Ling about the truth of the matter, and frankly admitted that Xiang Guan's robbery was just a fake case fabricated by himself in a hurry, and then offered thirty gold in both hands, begging Zhou County Ling to send someone to Ling County to investigate this fake case and create an opportunity for himself to rescue Yu Zhi.

"You are really not small, you dare to fabricate such a false case, do you know what the consequences are?" Zhou Xianling's expression seemed to be smiling, neither too angry, nor did he promise to accept the gold given by Xiang Kang's hands, but just asked, "Have you thought about it?" What if Ling County really caught that Zhang Ji and proved that you were doing a fake case? ”

"Please rest assured, the juniors are ready to deal with it." Xiang Kang said in a deep voice: "If that Zhang Ji is really caught, when the younger brother's clan brother goes to confront him, he will say that the person who robbed it is not him, but someone else." In this way, the false case fabricated by the younger generation can be completely dead without proof. ”

"Great Qin's Codex!" Zhou Xianling smiled bitterly and said: "It's so strict, you can still exploit loopholes if you want, and even the official can't expose them, it seems that the Qin law formulated by this Shangjun will sooner or later be destroyed in the hands of people like you." ”

Xiang Kang left the table and bowed, and said with a sincere expression: "County Zun, the juniors are also forced to be helpless for their friends, if the juniors don't make this decision, Gongzi Yu will either die under torture, or he will be tortured into a trick, and he will also die without a place to be buried, so the juniors have no choice but to fabricate this fake case and give my Brother Feng an excuse to intervene, this is all the fault of the juniors, and it has nothing to do with Brother Feng." After this incident, if the county honorable wants to sacrifice the solemnity of the Qin Law with the body of the junior, the juniors will definitely sue (surrender) to ask for guilt. ”

Speaking of this, Xiang Kang paused for a moment, and then said: "But now the junior can't do this, because my friend Yu Gongzi was indeed wronged, and the junior can't watch him be punished innocently and die innocently, and the junior must rescue this friend first, and then he can ask the county for his guilt." ”

As mentioned earlier, what Zhou Xianling admires most about Xiang Kang is that Xiang Kang's love and righteousness are enough for friends, and now seeing that Xiang Kang is still committing crimes for his friends, and listening to Xiang Kang say it so high-sounding, the anger in his heart temporarily dissipated, sighed, and said: "Let's talk about the crime later, let's discuss how to save your friend first." ”

"Thank you, county." Xiang Kang was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "County Zun, the junior is presumptuous, please pretend not to know that this is a fake case for the time being, and send a county official to lead Brother Feng and the juniors to Ling County to investigate and handle the case, so that the juniors can have an excuse to contact the officials of Ling County, and try to let the officials of Ling County save Yu Gongzi's life first, lest he be used as a punching bag by that single right lieutenant, tortured to death in Ling County's prison, or tortured into a trick and punished without guilt." ”

"Robbers robbing and injuring people is not a small case, and this official can send officials to Ling County to participate in the investigation." Zhou County Ling groaned and said, "But Xiang Gongzi, after you managed to temporarily save that Yu Gongzi's life, how do you plan to prove his innocence?" ”

"This ......." Xiang Kang was a little dumbfounded, and replied hesitantly: "County honor, forgive me, the younger generation has not yet figured out how to prove the innocence of Gongzi Yu, so he can only take one step at a time and find a way temporarily." ”

"What if you can't figure out how to do it?" Zhou Xianling asked again and said: "Although Qin Fa does have loopholes to exploit, if you want to rescue your friend, you must come up with ironclad evidence to prove that your friend did not hire a murderer, and then it is possible to rescue people." ”

"It's ......." Xiang Kang, who was not very proficient in the laws of the Qin Dynasty, was completely out of luck, but fortunately, Xiang Kang was very anxious, and he said as soon as he had an idea: "The younger generation is bold, please send a senior official who is proficient in the laws of Qin to Ling County to investigate this case, so that the younger generation can have a discussion and consultation in case of trouble." ”

"You don't have to ask for help." Zhou County Ling smiled happily and said quite proudly: "In Xia Xiang County, when it comes to being proficient and familiar with Qin Law, this official claims to be second, and no one dares to call him first!" ”

"Really?"

Xiang Kang's eyes widened, and he pretended to be surprised, but Zhou County Ling was even more proud when he saw it, and said: "After this official walked out of the school, the first official position he held was the Linjin Law Officer, which was the upper county of Neishi County (a county directly under the central government of the Qin Dynasty). ”

"It's a pity that your old boy is not a good thing, otherwise how could you appreciate me so much, a brave and ruthless country gangster?" Xiang Kang was full of slander in his heart, but his face was full of surprise, and he hurriedly bowed to Zhou County Ling again, and said respectfully and happily: "The younger generation is disrespectful, and I don't even know that the county is so talented. Great, now my friend is saved. ”

"The premise is that your friend is really wronged." Zhou Xian Ling said proudly: "In some inconsequential matters, this official can turn a blind eye, but if your friend really hires a murderer, then this official will not only not save him, but will also punish you for the crime of fabricating a false case!" ”

"Please rest assured, the junior dares to take the head guarantee of the item, my friend definitely did not hire a murderer!" Xiang Kang, the real hired murderer, was extremely confident in his tone, and replied solemnly: "If the county honorable finds out that the son of the right lieutenant was really killed by my friend's hired murderer, the younger generation is willing to apologize with death!" ”

"That's good." Zhou Xianling nodded and said: "Tell the official what happened, the more detailed the better, and there must be no omission!" ”

Xiang Kang agreed, and quickly introduced the situation he knew to Zhou County, and tried his best to be as detailed as possible, but Zhou County's order felt very strange after listening carefully, and asked suspiciously: "Xiang Gongzi, who did your friend offend?" How could someone deliberately use his banner to go to Lingxian City to trick that Shan Gongzi to Yan Jiting and send him to death? How could the murderer deliberately kill people under his banner? ”

"It's ......." Xiang Kang was dumbfounded again, and hesitated for a moment before replying: "I don't know about this, that Shan Gongzi is rampant and domineering in Ling County, and he is desperate, and anyone can kill him if the enemy wants as much as he wants." However, the younger generation speculated that it might be that the real culprit behind the scenes knew that my friend Yu Gongzi had a holiday with Shan Youwei, so he deliberately planted the blame on Yu Gongzi, led Shan Youwei astray, completely disrupted his vision, and allowed him to get away with it. ”

"That Young Master Yu, what do you have to do with Captain Shan?" Zhou County Ling asked, Xiang Kang hesitated, hesitating whether he should tell Zhou County Ling the truth, Zhou County Ling saw Xiang Kang's thoughts, and said: "Xiang Gongzi, if you want to save your friend, it's best not to hide anything." Otherwise, this kind of death has no proof, let alone the official, even the gods can't save your Yu Gongzi! ”

"There's no way, I can only tell the truth, anyway, even if I don't say it, this Zhou County Order wants to know the truth, and he can know about me and the Yu family with a casual check. Anyway, it shouldn't be possible for the government to catch Fan Xu, and it won't implicate me. ”

There was no choice, Xiang Kang could only bite the bullet and truthfully state the grievances between the Yu family and the Shan Right Lieutenant, and also calmly admitted that he and Yu Miaoge were married, and then quickly explained: "County Zun, the younger generation can swear to the sky, the reason why the junior asked Yu Jiayushu for marriage that day was really not greedy to marry Yu Jiayushu, it was because the Shan Right Lieutenant bullied people and forcibly married Qiangna, and the younger generation did not like it, so he deliberately stood up and made trouble, but I didn't expect that the Yin and Yang were wrong, and Yu Gong really agreed to marry his daughter to the junior." ”

Zhou Xianling didn't speak, just looked at Xiang Kang quietly, and after a long time, Zhou Xianling suddenly shouted: "Someone! ”

"In!"

A few errand officers immediately rushed in outside the hall, and Zhou County Ling pointed at Xiang Kang again, and shouted: "Take this Xiang Kang down to this official!" ”

"What?!"

Feng Zhong, who was sitting next to him, couldn't believe his ears at all, and Xiang Guan, the only child of the Xiang family who accompanied Xiang Kang, jumped up directly, and subconsciously went to support the hilt of the sword on his waist. And although Xiang Kang was also shocked, he was still calm, and hurriedly shouted: "Brother Guan, don't mess around!" ”

Several messengers pounced on Xiang Kang and pressed Xiang Kang's hands on a few back, and two other messengers stopped Xiang Guan and Feng Zhong with horizontal swords to prevent them from breaking out and hurting people. Xiang Kang asked Xiang Guan to calm down again, then raised his head with difficulty, and tried to keep calm and said: "County Zun, what crime did the junior commit, why did you take the junior down?" ”

"Xiang Kang, that murderer named Zhang Ji was bribed by you to kill the son of Shan Right Lieutenant, right?" Zhou Xianling asked coldly: "You covet the beauty of Duke Yu's daughter, and you also covet Duke Yu's money, and you are worried that Duke Yu will not be trustworthy and refuse to marry his daughter, so you bribe the murderers and robbers, deliberately use the banner of Gongzi Yu to trap and kill that Shan Gongzi, and then take the opportunity to give Gong Yu a favor, so that he can only marry his daughter to you, right?" ”

"This guy is a god? How can you guess so accurately? Xiang Kang was taken aback - although Xiang Kang had long expected that sooner or later someone would suspect him, and even the old Yu family would suspect himself as a benefit winner after coming back to his senses, and he was also prepared to deal with it in advance, but Xiang Kang never expected that Zhou County, who was usually quite good to him, would be able to suspect himself in such a quick time, and immediately took action.

"You must be wondering, how did this official know what you were trying to do?" Zhou Xian Ling said coldly: "It's very simple, your family background is very clear, when you came to visit the official before, you were so poor that there was only an iron sword left by your ancestors, how could Duke Yu look down on you for someone like you?" Even if you are forced to agree, how can you not regret it afterwards? If this official is not mistaken, you may find that Yu Gong is ready to repent, or Yu Gong has already repented and broken his promise, so you took the risk and set up this poisonous plan to hire murderers, wanting to sell a great favor to the Yu family, so that Yu Gong can only marry his daughter to you and repay your kindness, isn't that so? ”

Zhou County's precise reasoning made Xiang Kang completely speechless, and Zhou County's order said: "Xiang Kang, this official knows that with your shrewdness, you will definitely deny it or not, but it doesn't matter, this official can slowly investigate, find out the evidence of the crime, and immediately kill you." Don't tell me, you can take the initiative to divorce the Yu family, to prove that you have no intention of coveting the Yu family's money and beauty, and when things come to this point, everyone knows which is more important than the one that is more important. ”

Xiang Kang's heart was in turmoil, knowing that he could still use the trick of denial to die and not admit it, but he also knew that if he insisted on playing a scoundrel, not only would Zhou County Ling completely look down on him, but Yu Zhi, who had been taken to Ling County Prison, would definitely die, and at the same time, what Fan Xu and Han Li had appeared in Shiling Pavilion would also be found out by Zhou County Ling sooner or later, even if he couldn't catch someone and couldn't form ironclad evidence, he would be at a loss.

At this time, Feng Zhong and Xiang Guan were already completely stunned, and they couldn't help but start to suspect that Xiang Kang was the real culprit behind the scenes, and Zhou County Ling said calmly: "Xiang Kang, what else do you have to say now?" If you can prove your innocence, the official will release you immediately, but if you quibble or deny it, even if the official has no evidence now, he will detain you and investigate you thoroughly. ”

"Stealing chickens doesn't cost rice." Xiang Kang, who was completely helpless, smiled bitterly in his heart, but he had no choice but to say in his heart: "Brother Yu Zhi, I'm sorry, I just wanted you to suffer a little and teach your family's snobbery ungrateful, but I didn't expect to use too much force and kill you." No way, deny it, huh? Wait a minute! Can't deny it, I have one last chance! ”