Lin Fan and his entourage went out of Jiming Town, and without any further delay, they went straight to the county seat.

When they arrived at the county office, Lin Fan and others reported their intentions. Not long after, Lin Fan was called in by Gao Wensheng, while the others could only wait outside the county office first.

When Lin Fan followed the servant to the living room, he found that Gao Wensheng and Yang Yuanwang were already waiting for him inside.

Seeing Lin Fan come in, Yang Yuanwang got up to greet him, and said with a smile: "Lord Lin is here, it's really hard Lord Lin these days!"

Lin Fan nodded to him, said hello, and then bent down to Gao Wensheng, who was sitting there, and saluted, "Xiaguan has seen the county commander!"

Gao Wensheng hummed lightly and said, "Lin Patrol has worked hard all the way, sit down!"

Lin Fan respectfully said yes, and then sat down with Yang Yuanwang, and looked at Gao Wensheng at the same time.

Gao Wensheng picked up the teacup, stroked the floating tea leaves, took a sip of tea gently, and then said: "I heard from my subordinates just now that you came here for Fu Tianlin's case, but what progress has been made in this case?"

Lin Fan nodded in response, stood up again, and respectfully handed the copper coin that Fu Tianlin gave him to Gao Wensheng.

Gao Wensheng took the copper coin, looked at it, and put it aside. Suspiciously, he asked, "Inspector Lin, what is this?"

Lin Fan sat back in his seat and said, "This is the legendary copper coin of Fu Tianlin, which means that this is his identification."

Gao Wensheng sighed: "In this way, the Lin Inspector should have already caught Fu Tianlin." Now that this thief has been caught, I wonder where he is being detained. When will this judge be able to bring this person to trial? ”

Lin Fan shook his head and said, "Don't dare to deceive the adults, the lower officials have not been able to catch Fu Tianlin."

Gao Wensheng was extremely dissatisfied with Lin Fan's answer, seeing Gao Wensheng's unhappy expression, his face was gloomy, and even the gaze that looked at Lin Fan contained a bit of unkindness, as if he might get angry at any time.

Yang Yuanwang hurriedly stepped forward to relieve Lin Fan and said, "In that case, how did Lord Lin get this copper coin?"

Lin Fan nodded gratefully to Yang Yuanwang and explained to Gao Wensheng: "My lord doesn't know, yesterday I found Fu Tianlin's traces, chased him out, and fought with Fu Tianlin for half the night. This man is quite tall, and it is inevitable that he will lose weight in the fight, and he will be knocked off the cliff by me with a slap. Due to the suddenness of the incident, I couldn't save it, so I just caught this copper coin. ”

Gao Wensheng asked in a deep voice: "Then according to what you say, Fu Tianlin has already fallen off the cliff and died?"

Lin Fan replied again: "Xiaguan is not sure, after the incident, I went down to the bottom of the cliff to search for a night, but I didn't find Fu Tianlin's body, I think it should have been washed away by the river." But after all, there was no one alive or dead, and the lower officials did not dare to draw conclusions in vain, so they hurriedly came to report to the adults and asked them to send someone to search. ”

Yang Yuanwang saluted Gao Wensheng and said with a smile: "According to Lord Lin, Fu Tianlin must be dead. Now Fu Tianlin, who has been crisscrossing Huainan Road for several years, if he reports this matter to the imperial court, it will be a great achievement, and the imperial court will definitely reward him. Congratulations, congratulations, for this great achievement. ”

Yang Yuanwang's words made Gao Wensheng's expression stretch a lot, and a hint of joy flashed on his face, but he immediately said: "It's too early to say this, now that Fu Tianlin's life and death are unknown, it's better not to be too happy, arrange for someone to search and salvage as soon as possible, and confirm the news is the right thing."

"Lest we be kept in the dark, and we have to happily count the money for others, and if the time comes, we can't afford to blame it."

Lin Fan is not a stupid person, so he can naturally hear what Gao Wensheng said, and his eyelids jumped with a series of knocks.

He suddenly spoke: "Lord Qiqi, in fact, Fu Tianlin's life and death are not as important as you think."

Yang Yuanwang glanced at Gao Wensheng's eyes and asked Lin Fan, "What does Lord Lin mean by this?"

Lin Fan said: "Lord County Order, Lord Bookkeeper, the two of you are not from the rivers and lakes, and they may not know much about the rivers and lakes. The reputation of people in the rivers and lakes is the most important, and now that Fu Tianlin has lost the imprint of the copper coin that he used to become famous, he is naturally unable to gain a foothold in the rivers and lakes. In other words, from now on, there will be no more Fu Tianlin on the rivers and lakes, which means that he is dead. ”

Gao Wensheng is a scholar, and he really doesn't know much about the affairs of the rivers and lakes, and he doesn't look down on those vulgar martial artists.

And if what Lin Fan said was true, it was indeed a good thing for him. So he asked Lin Fan, "Is what Inspector Lin said true?"

Lin Fan hurriedly said: "Xia Guan will not dare to deceive the adults. Moreover, his subordinates had already found out where Fu Tianlin was hiding the stolen goods, and after his subordinates went down, they asked people to search it. With this copper coin, coupled with the stolen goods as evidence, the outside world will naturally no longer have any doubts. ”

Gao Wensheng's expression was completely relaxed, and he said with a laugh: "Okay, good!" This time he was able to make the thief Fu Tian lie in ambush, and the Lin Patrol Envoy made a great contribution! ”

Lin Fan replied: "It's all the wisdom of adults, and the officials don't dare to be greedy!"

Seeing Lin Fan so sensible, this made Gao Wensheng very useful.

He nodded with satisfaction, the smile on his face was even greater, and said with a smile: "Inspector Lin can rest assured, the reward from the imperial court is indispensable for you."

Lin Fan said: "The lower officials thanked the adults first!" I don't know if you still have something to tell the lower officials, if not, the lower officials will retire first and go down to arrange for the search of the stolen goods. ”

Gao Wensheng said with a smile: "I have nothing to do here, since the Lin Inspector has something, let's go down and get busy first."

"Yes, sir." After speaking, Lin Fan slowly retreated.

After Lin Fan left, Gao Wensheng carefully played with the copper coin, and asked Yang Yuanwang with some meaning: "Master Yang, what do you think of this person made by Lin Inspector?"

Yang Yuanwang didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly replied: "Lord Lin is extremely capable, although he is young, he is steady. The most rare thing is that he is humble and humble, unlike ordinary young people who show their edge with a little talent and do not take others in their eyes. He is a rare talent, and his future is limitless. It is really gratifying to have such a talent under the command of adults! ”

Gao Wensheng was silent for a long time, put aside what he said, and asked again: "Do you think what he just said is true or false?"

Yang Yuanwang smiled: "My lord, does it matter if what he said is true or false?" According to his meaning, Fu Tianlin will not appear again no matter what, right, as long as Fu Tianlin does not appear, who can say that what he said is false. Hahaha! ”

Gao Wensheng was noncommittal, and said: "But now Fu Tianlin can't see anyone alive or dead, and it's hard to explain it to the imperial court!"

Yang Yuanwang thought for a while and had a way.

He asked Gao Wensheng to retreat, and whispered: "This matter is not difficult, now outside here, there are not a few people who died that day." We just need to pull one over at random, put it in the water and soak it for two days, and then say that it was salvaged from the river. When the time comes, it is estimated that even relatives will not be able to recognize it, let alone the above. ”

"Besides, even if Fu Tianlin really didn't die, he came out again to make waves, and the above blamed him, wouldn't there be someone else who stood up for the adult? Don't forget, he handled the case single-handedly. ”

The two glanced at each other, both with a smile in their eyes, Gao Wensheng nodded and said, "Hide from the sky and the sea!" It's a good idea, so I'll leave it to you! ”

Yang Yuanwang hurriedly replied: "Yes, my lord, the next official will do it, and the next official will retire."

Gao Wensheng waved his hand and said, "Well, you go."

Yang Yuanwang slowly retreated to the door, and when he turned around, he suddenly stopped, and silently looked back at Gao Wensheng, who was sitting firmly in the hall and closed his eyes.

He knew that Gao Wensheng didn't think of such a way, he just wanted to pull himself into the water, and he wanted to tie himself and him to a rope, and Gao Wensheng and himself knew this.

"Alas!" Yang Yuanwang sighed secretly. Even if he knows what he can do, he can't change anything, Gao Wensheng is the lord of a county, if he does it against him, there will be no good fruit to eat.

Not to mention that Yang Yuanwang was busy looking for the corpse and wanted to confirm Fu Tianlin's death, but to return to Lin Fan's side.

It is said that after coming out of the county office, in addition to searching for stolen goods, this case basically has nothing to do with Lin Fan.

Lin Fan didn't expect that what he said just now would be able to hide from Gao Wensheng and the others. After all, it is difficult to justify one's own words, and there are too many smart people in this world, and no one can be smarter than the other.

But the result of the matter is actually the same, Lin Fan did not hide it, so he couldn't talk about it.

As for whether they reported directly and truthfully based on Lin Fan's description, or faked the false impression that Fu Tianlin was dead in order to receive greater credit, it was not up to Lin Fan to decide.

Of course, he and Gao Wensheng also knew that if the result of Fu Tianlin's death could not be confirmed, not only would the rewards of the imperial court be greatly reduced, but also the merit book that Gao Wensheng had in his hand that could have been written in a big book would be appropriately reduced.

Now Gao Wensheng has a huge reward and achievements from the imperial court in front of him, and in Lin Fan's opinion, Gao Wensheng is not a person who regards money, fame and fortune as dung. And even if something happens, there is Lin Fan, a natural scapegoat, on top, and the result is obvious.

According to the address given by Shen Nian, as soon as he returned to the Inspection Division, Lin Fan immediately asked An Ning to take someone to search overnight, and asked him to bring all the things back, and then send them all to the county office.

Pingyang crossed the dragon and snake mixed, in order to prevent chaos, he asked An Ning to directly order thirty people to go to Pingyangdu, and worked for most of the night before he rushed back.

The next day, Lin Fan asked An Ning to escort these things to the county government, and let the county government be responsible for sending these things back to each family. It's better to leave this kind of selling favors to your boss.

After An Ning left, Lin Fan called Jin Hai over again and asked him to send the money for buying a horse to Jin Yinshan.

Sending out so much money made Lin Fan also feel a little distressed. If it were placed in previous years, a military horse in good condition in the horse market was only twenty taels of silver, and in these years of war in the north, the trade grounds between the imperial court and the Manchu were all closed. In this way, the channel for buying war horses from outside the customs disappeared.

And with the gradual pressure of Manzhen, the imperial court's horse breeding land in Liaodong was gradually lost, and the thieves were everywhere, and the Longxi horse farm was also seriously damaged, so it can be said that the imperial court almost lost all the high-quality horse sources.

The Manzhen cavalry is too powerful, and the imperial court needs to maintain an elite Zhenbei iron cavalry in Liaodong in order to compete with the Manzhen cavalry, so it needs to constantly replenish a large number of excellent war horses.

And now the traitors are ravaging the Central Plains and Longxi and other places, and the officials and troops are going around to quell the rebellion.

Therefore, the imperial court could only continue to collect horses from the people to suppress bandits and quell rebellions, and the number of horses raised by the people decreased rapidly.

Horses are scarce, which naturally leads to a rise in the price of horses.

Take the five horses of the preparation of the Golden and Silver Mountain, which can only be said to be inferior among the military horses, but slightly better than the ploughing horses and pack horses.

In the past, the price of such inferior horses was 123 taels and 1 horses, but now it is at least more than 20 taels.

Lin Fan called Jin Hai to the front and said, "Jin Hai, here is one hundred and thirty taels of silver, you go and send it to Jin Yuanwai, and say that one hundred and twenty taels of it is the money I gave him to buy horses, and the remaining ten taels of silver should be used as our food and clothing in the Jin Mansion these days."

Jin Hai said: "My lord, my uncle told me that he gave these horses to the inspection department in order to thank you, and he does not charge money. Besides, how are these broken horses worth so much money? And this is the official business of the inspection department, but the money is paid by the adults themselves, I think the adults might as well take the money back! ”

Lin Fan reprimanded: "What nonsense are you talking about, the imperial court levies horses and has its own laws." If I keep these horses today and don't give them money, what do you want others to think of us? ”

"Yes, I know you mean that the Jin family doesn't care about this money, but what about the others, there are a few ordinary people who can be as rich as the Jin family, but they care very much about every penny. So no matter what, you can't let the people suffer, although the Jin family is a big family, isn't he a common people? ”

"Moreover, as long as you don't give money this time, who can guarantee that there will be no next time, how dare you let the people believe you! If the people don't believe you, they won't help you sincerely. In the future, we really need to collect things from the people's homes, and the people are unwilling, so you can't force them. Are you doing this to force the people to rebel? ”

Jin Hai didn't expect Lin Fan to be so angry, and said with some grievances: "Don't be angry, my lord, I'm not worthless for you." Other officials are all energetic to scoop up silver in their pockets, for fear that they will make less money. ”

"But it's good that you've been digging money out of your own pocket, as far as I know, you've spent ten years of money in just two months since you came here. No matter how rich you are, there's no way to go on like this, right? ”

"I know that the adults are all for the inspection department, but the inspection department has its own imperial court appropriations, so he doesn't have any reason to let your lord pay out of your own pocket, right?"

Lin Fan looked at the aggrieved appearance of Jin Hai, a strong man, and laughed out loud.

He laughed and scolded: "One yard is one yard, but this opening can't be opened anyway." I don't care about what happened before I came, but since I am this inspector, I have responsibility. First, we can't let our brothers suffer, but what we can't do is to bully the people. ”

"So, you guys have corrected all the stinky faults of the past. We are paid as soldiers to protect our families and defend the country, not to bully the common people. I don't want to one day have to take a knife on my brothers. ”

Jin Hai didn't dare to complain anymore, and said: "It's my lord, I will definitely restrain those bastards when I go back, and don't let them go out and make trouble."

Lin Fan smiled: "It's good to know, go down, send the money to your uncle, and explain it clearly."

"Yes, I'll go." Jin Hae took the money, turned around and went out.