In this restaurant located in the center of Yangzhou City, the richest and most lively restaurant, whether it is because of the sightseeing in Yangzhou this season, or businessmen from other places come here to do business, anyway, it makes the already good business in this restaurant more prosperous.

"Little Er, if you come over and let me ask you, although it has been a good day these days, compared with last year, you have come and gone today, but it is a bit much!" A guest who often sets up a banquet in Guangxing Building in this Yangzhou city and invites people to eat asked.

The miscellaneous man proudly put the tablecloth in his hand on his shoulder, and said: "Hey, I said shopkeeper Wang, did you just come back from somewhere else, just the case of private salt in Yangzhou City a while ago, didn't the capital send a messenger, just live on the second floor of our house, arranged by the prefect himself, don't all the officials of Yangzhou have to come to visit and visit!" ”

The man swallowed the food in his mouth while listening to what Xiao Er said, and said: "These officials, if they don't investigate cases, they think about flattery every day, and there are few good birds!" ”

As soon as this person finished speaking, several groups of people came down upstairs one after another, but the expressions on these people's faces were not very good, and several people were still talking to each other, and the others were too far away to hear what was said.

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The face of this distant Lord Qincha was even more ugly than that of those downstairs at this time, and the entourage on the side did not dare to speak.

It turned out that when he and Xue Luping were talking about the real chapter just now, this group of local officials under the rule of Yangzhou flocked to the city after receiving the news that the Qin mission had arrived.

These officials, who were busy giving gifts to the Qincha, only to find out when they arrived at Guangxing Tower that the prince who was far away in Chang'an was actually in this restaurant.

So where is there anything left for this Lord Qincha, it was all sent to Li Yuanqing.

Zhou Wenbin prides himself on being honest and honest, and he doesn't take it to heart, he doesn't have a few friends in Chang'an City, so he doesn't care much about this kind of polite exchange.

And because he is not so tactful in dealing with people, even if he has outstanding political achievements, he has reached the end of his career when he reaches the position of a squire.

To his displeasure, Xue Luping directly abandoned him in order to make these officials under Yangzhou better flattery, and directly arranged a separate room for the prince.

He originally wanted to explain the matter of arraignment of the prisoner to the prefect according to the intention of offering the king, but he did not expect to be delayed by these people.

"Hey, you guys talk about this, one by one, I didn't know how to investigate the case when something happened, and when I saw that the two highnesses of the court came down, I was anxious to come to the door to give gifts, asking for a familiar face, something!"

After Zhou Wenbin finished venting, he sat there and didn't speak, and it was the first time for the people next to him to see this person have such a big temper, and no one dared to step forward and say something.

In addition to being a little rigid in terms of human affairs, Zhou Wenbin is actually a smart person, otherwise it would be impossible for him to come to such a high position in this intricate officialdom.

Just as he was thinking about how to get the prince to let go of his prejudice against the king first, and should go to the prison to interrogate the prisoner first, a few small pitiful knocks on the door interrupted his thoughts.

The person outside the door was Liu Xiao, who was stripped naked and thrown on the side of the road!

Liu Xiao was naked, directly exposed to the noon sun, and after the vicious Yang Guan woke him up, he realized that he had been dizzy for so long.

He first touched the scattered clothes, then put them on three times and divided them by two, and looked around with some vigilance, for fear that the two were still nearby.

He checked it carefully, except for the osmanthus cake that Xi Yuanxiu took from Aunt Hao, which was shattered, the rest of the things were there, and not even a copper plate was lost.

While he was relieved, he scolded a few times from his heart, and the two people looked at the sun above their heads, and hurriedly got on their little yellow, and then quickly whipped up, and finally rushed to Yangzhou City before the pinched osmanthus cakes were eaten.

It turned out that the greedy master was still thinking about the osmanthus cakes that had not moved, and he still couldn't bear to waste those delicious cakes before he got on the horse.

Although it was powder, he couldn't resist the wriggling of his stomach, so he put everything he thought was clean in a box and took it on the road.

Zhou Wenbin looked at the little fat man who entered the door, very puzzled, and asked, "Who are you?" ”

Liu Xiao wiped the sweat from his face, smirked at Zhou Wenbin, then saluted and said, "The little one is Liu Xiao, the personal master of Lord Yuanxiu Xi of Huangcheng County, who is here to meet Lord Qincha!" ”

After hearing this, Zhou Wenbin carefully looked at Liu Xiao, who was still wiping his sweat with his sleeves, and found that he didn't bring anything, so he was very relieved and asked people to give him a seat.

And Liu Xiao didn't think so, he felt that it was better to come empty-handed with an empty box.

But when he saw Zhou Wenbin looking at him like this, he thought that this Qin was very unhappy when he saw that he didn't bring anything.

Liu Xiao said in his heart: "Xi Yuanxiu, let me tell you, this is not to blame Lao Tzu, there is a debtor and a debtor, if you are not happy, let Xu come and find the two men in black, it is their business!" ”

Zhou Wenbin poured Liu Xiao a cup of tea with his own hands, and then looked at Liu Xiao with an unnatural expression on his face, Zhou Wenbin asked him again: "Why didn't you Lord Xi come, are you busy with this private salt matter?" Your Huangcheng is one of the salt-producing lands in Yangzhou! ”

Liu Xiao, who was annoyed that the osmanthus cake was destroyed, didn't react when he heard this, and promised yes again and again, and when he came back to his senses, he had a headache even more.

Xi Yuanxiu explained to him before leaving, and now Xi Yuanxiu doesn't want to have contact with the officials in the court, so Liu Xiao will do everything because he is sick!

Hearing Liu Xiao's affirmative answer, Zhou Wenbin was overjoyed and said to Liu Xiao: "There is still that person who is clean and self-conscious, loyal to the national court, and knows that he is worried about the king, and then look at those things that came just now!" ”

Zhou Wenbin felt that he was a little too excited, took a sip of tea, and said to himself: "Xi Yuanxiu, yes, this official has written it down!" ”

When Liu Xiao just wanted to pick up the teacup on the table, he heard some voices that annoyed him.

"Master Zhou said it well, the people under my Yangzhou will only please the people above, you are so high-minded, naturally you don't need them to handle the case for you, right?"

Xue Luping pushed open the door and said, looked at Liu Xiao again when he entered the room, and said with a smile: "Isn't this the master of Lord Xi, why didn't he come over today?" ”

In the past, the prefect had been to Huangcheng, but because of the problem of controlling the salt farm, Xi Yuanxiu was ridiculed in public and his head was full of paste, which made Xue Luping unable to get off the stage in public.

Therefore, Xi Yuanxiu's money was deducted every month, which also led to Xi Yuanxiu having to go to Xinghuayuan every month to tell stories to subsidize his family.

So he was naturally impressed by this Xue Luping, Liu Xiao was afraid that he would get into trouble, so he got up from his chair and stood against the wall.

Seeing this, Zhou Wenbin had already seen something, and said to Xue Luping: "Since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has settled down, let His Highness rest for a while, but I still have to worry Lord Xue, you will take me to the prison first, I want to meet the prisoner first!" ”

When Xue Luping heard this, he snorted coldly and said, "My lord, don't treat my prison as your own compound, without His Royal Highness the Prince, no one will be able to see the prisoner!" ”

Zhou Wenbin was furious, slapped the table, and said: "Bold, you are a small Yangzhou prefect, dare to openly say such things to me, the Qincha, you are now resisting the decree, I now order you as a Qincha, and now take me to interrogate the prisoner!" ”

Xue Luping was unmoved, and said tepidly to Zhou Wenbin: "Why should Lord Zhou be angry, this matter is not what I say, the whole world belongs to the Li family, my Yangzhou, your Qincha, are all from the Li family, how can we have the weight to speak!" ”

There was applause outside the door, and the poor door, in less than half a cup of tea, was pushed open again.

"Lord Xue, it makes sense, since it is all my Li family, then the king wants to meet the prisoner, I don't know if the adult can be accommodating!"

Xue Luping, who had his back to the door, wanted to turn his head to see which immortal dared to be so presumptuous, and when he saw this person's face, he knelt on the ground in fright directly from the chair.

It's none other than Li Yuanhuan.

Xue Luping said in a panic: "Your Royal Highness, Your Highness the Offering King, the lower officials don't know that you are coming, and you have missed the welcome, please don't blame Your Highness!" ”

Li Yuanhuan asked him to get up, straightened the official hat on his head, and then said to him: "Why did Lord Xue say this, this king is not used to so many people around him, so he picked a person to come over when there are few people, and the king is going to see the prisoner now, you don't have any opinion!" ”

"I have!"

It was Li Yuanqing, who had just met with the officials, who spoke, and he strode into the room and looked indifferently at Xianwang who was patting Xue Luping on the shoulder.

At this time, this small room where Zhou Wenbintu lived in a trouble-free way was almost crowded.

Now in this room, a brick can be stoned to death for a big official, of course, excluding Liu Xiao, who is standing in the corner and is already stunned, he has never seen so many big people standing in front of him in his life.

Li Yuanhuan turned sideways, smiled, and said to Li Yuanqing: "The third brother means that I can't go to see the prisoner!" ”

Li Yuanqing sat on Xue Luping's chair just now, turned his back to Li Yuanhuan and said, "The fourth brother can misunderstand me, I mean how can you go to see it alone, since we and Lord Zhou were both sent by our father, naturally we went together!" Lord Xue, what do you think? ”

Xue Luping raised his lowered head and said, "If the two highnesses and Lord Zhou don't dislike the darkness of the prison, the lower officials will lead the way!" ”

Xue Luping looked at the standing Xianwang on the left and the sitting prince on the right, neither of them spoke, and he was even more embarrassed at this time.

Liu Xiao said hesitantly in the corner: "You can't take it to the court, it's really a pasty head!" ”

After saying that, he regretted it, then Xue Luping looked at him with cannibalistic eyes, Liu Xiao closed his eyes, and muttered: "I can't see, I can't see!" ”

The prince beckoned Xue Luping to the front and said, "I think this little fat man is right, you go to the prison first and bring the prisoner to the lobby, and the three of us will arrive later!" ”

After speaking, he patted him on the shoulder and motioned for him to go quickly, and Xue Luping glared at Liu Xiao again before leaving.

Liu Xiao was afraid that he would cause more trouble if he stayed, so he went out after asking the prince and the king to say goodbye.

Zhou Wenbin suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly caught up with Liu Xiao and explained that he must Xi Yuanxiu help to thoroughly investigate the vicinity of Huangcheng, and Liu Xiao had no choice but to agree.

When he left Guangxing Tower and rode out of the city, he looked in the direction of Guangxing Tower, and muttered: "The secret fight between the prince and King Xian in the past few years is finally going to become a battle in Yangzhou?" ”