Renqiu County is not big, but because it is a large county in the south of Baiyangdian, commerce and trade are still prosperous, and the brick city that was built ten years ago is boxy, although it looks a little low, but it is not dilapidated. The white stone embankments that extend along the banks of the Yudai River all the way to the banks of the moat make this place a thoroughfare, and the people's livelihood and politics inside and outside the county seem to be like two worlds with the place where the horses are rampant not far from the north.

Zhenmo Academy is located in the northwest corner of the county, next to the Li Mansion, occupies a piece of more than 20 acres of land, a river canal from the north of the county water pass into the city, around the periphery of the academy after a circle from the west water pass out of the city, is to moat the water flow to be able to connect the outside of the city in the city, now just as the autumn flood is about to end, the water depth in the city is still Zhangxu, can still sail. Because of the existence of this canal, it has become a double barrier for the Li Mansion, and there is only one Henggu Street across the river leading to the market outside the canal, which is also unique.

In addition to passing through Jinliang outside the south gate of Li Mansion on weekdays, Master Li often takes his family boat from Beishui Pass out of the city, where he can go directly to the wharf on the Yudai River from the water diversion channel outside the moat, and the wharf is connected to the Wuguandian Lake, which is a unique scenery in the north that is good at driving chariots and horses.

Today, because of the things agreed earlier, Master Li came out of the mansion early, took his own boat out of Beishui Pass, two or three twists and turns along the way, and soon entered the port fork of the Yudai River.

What Master Li didn't notice was that when he went out of the city through Beishui Pass, on the mountain tower in the northwest corner of the city wall not far away, a young man was silently watching the conspicuous shadow of the boat, the five-mile circumference of the county city wall, spread over this distance of only two hundred meters, standing on the railing of the corner tower of the city wall, without using a telescope to take in the bottom of it, the young man smiled, and waited until the boat was far away before Shi Shiran came downstairs, there were things over there Jinyiwei and Yelangying cuisine, and the old man Tian was cold on his face, But he doesn't look like an indifferent personality.

At this moment, Master Li is still thinking about the business of wealthy businessmen in Henan, and it will not be too difficult to have an old steward come out, as usual to go to the dock to order goods, the ships were not hindered along the way, and the road left behind the gate was even smoother.

At the right time, the T-shaped pier is already in sight.

But Master Li felt uncomfortable in his heart, and always felt that today's dock was a little different from the past, but soon his doubts were dispelled, and it was the nephew of the steward who waved to this side on the dock, who went out of the city with the old steward yesterday, and it seemed that the cloth sent by the wind was in the cargo ships parked next to it.

When the ship was stable, the nephew of the Li family immediately greeted him diligently.

"It's been a smooth ride." Li Ruoxu asked without being salty.

"Thanks to the old man, the journey has been smooth."

"Why don't you see your uncle?"

"That's it, the second uncle is old, he can't bear the hurry of this night, and he took the car to follow behind, and it will probably take half a day to arrive. He was afraid that he would delay the big thing on the counter, so he asked the villain to escort the boat to the dock overnight to wait for the master. The words of the nephew of the Li family did not leak, and he did not forget to glance at the nurses beside Master Li a few times.

He sang the promise again, and then turned respectfully and walked towards a bunk by the dock.

But as soon as this person left Master Li, he noticed that something was wrong, not far from the pier was Beigezhuang, which should have been crowded even at this time, but today it seemed deserted.

Looking at the boats on the pier, they all seem to be a family in terms of shape, are they all the cloth boats that were robbed at the beginning? But he obviously only said that he would bring the sackcloth first, how could there be so many of them, this is to drive all the ships over? This Steward Li is also an old man, how can he do things so without brains, and now that he has transported all the stolen goods here, he is not afraid of being targeted by the people of the Bian family?

Thinking of the Bian family, Master Li suddenly realized that he had always felt that something was wrong, and why was the flag of the Bian family still on the boat that started with it?

"Things are strange, and this place should not stay for long."

As soon as Li Ruoxu's words fell, a man's voice came from the room behind him, "I think it's better for Master Li to stay." ”

"It's not good, let's go......"

"Do it!"

Two voices rang out almost at the same time, the door of the dock hut was kicked open, and more than a dozen people rushed out of the cargo compartment in all directions. The two loyal guards almost subconsciously blocked it, but they were immediately shot to the ground by the hidden weapons of the incoming people, and when the rest of the people drew their weapons and were about to fight, what they saw in their eyes turned into panicked shouts.

"Jinyi Wei ——!" No thief will come out in a flying fish suit and carry an embroidered spring knife to commit murder.

"On orders! Capture the thief! The other party also responded in a timely manner.

A shout was accompanied by the approaching steps of the man in the flying fish suit, and soon the circle had shrunk to no longer be small.

"Death to those who resist arrest!"

"This ...... There must be some misunderstanding in between...... Below is Renqiu Li, not a thief. ”

Seeing that the guards around him were already frightened, Master Li had long lost his previous calmness.

"That's right, it's you thief."

"The ancestor of the family is Li Wenkanggong, and my family still has a plaque written by the master of the temple, you can't frame it out of thin air."

"The plaque of the master of the temple, and my family still has the iron coupon of the temple master's Danshu." Tian Ergeng snorted coldly, and laughed twice.

This is not Tian Ergeng's arrogance, his father Tian Le is a famous minister of the Wanli Dynasty, and he was awarded the title of Songshan Bo because of his merits during his lifetime, plus Fengtian Yiwei Tui Cheng Xuanli Shou Zhengwen Chen, 1,600 stones, he really didn't talk nonsense about this imperial gift of Danshu iron coupons. It has been less than ten years since the death of the head of the Tian family, and there are still many protégés, and the Li family will really be looked down upon when it comes to power.

"Bring Li Zetian to verify his identity."

As soon as Tian Ergeng finished speaking, his subordinates had already pulled the old steward's nephew out.

"That's right, this person is Li Ruoxu, and he has a share in everything that the wind has done."

"Good dog." When Li Ruoxu saw this person, he hated it.

"Master, you have violated the law of the country, and the villain has no choice but to protect the family." Li Zetian was originally a little cowardly, but seeing that those usually high-spirited Li Mansion Guards were now trembling under the gaze of Jinyiwei like mice seeing cats, and even throwing his blades aside, his courage has also risen a lot.

"Good...... It's ......" Li Ruoxu continued to scold, but his eyes gradually blurred.

"Take it!" Tian Ergeng shouted loudly, and the shackles had already been added to Master Li, and the other guards didn't dare to stop him at all.

…………

At this moment, in the mirror hall in the backyard of Renqiu County, Wang Xingping and Bian Dashou were sitting with Huo Qiang, the magistrate, for tea, and when the young man took out Tian Shengzhi's private message and informed him of his Jinyiwei's actions, Huo Zhixian looked very solemn.

He and Tian Shengzhi are the same Jinshi in the forty-fourth year of Wanli, and the young brother Ma Shiying is also the same year as him. Tian Shengzhi is now working as a Baili Hou in Gu'an in the north, this young brother was born thick and honest, and the two of them are not small in terms of official documents or private letters, and the relationship is not bad, so the attitude towards Wang Xingping is naturally a lot more easy-going.

In the letter, Tian Shengzhi briefly explained Wang Xingping's identity and the purpose of their visit, which can be regarded as a certificate issued for him. As for how these hundreds of new troops stumbled upon the collusion of the big clans in this county to kill Xiangma for money and death when they were suppressing bandits, it was described by Wang Xingping as if it were a coincidence.

Master Huo naturally understands the stakes, not to mention that the bitter master this time is not an ordinary businessman, but also a big family in Renqiu, and at this time, the representative of the Bian family, Bian Dashou, is still sitting, looking bitter and hateful.

Regarding the contradictions between local clans, Master Huo is naturally happy to watch from the wall.

He is a native of Mayi County, Datong Prefecture, Shanxi, and originally had no foundation here, and he was only in Renqiu for a short time, so he was worried that he didn't have a good comment, if he could solve such a big case in his own hands, it would be good for both public and private, after all, the triennial external investigation was coming.

What's more, I heard Wang Xingping say that the leader of Jinyiwei this time is also a local clan, and he is the grandson of the late military department Shangshu Songshan Botian Letian Xianggong, and the Tian family seems to be connected with Tian Shengzhi, which inevitably makes people think more about the fact that there is a big reason behind this incident.

"In this way, it is still the credit of Wang Xiaoqianhu to exterminate the sound horse this time."

"It's all the work of the gentlemen, Xingping is just running errands, the student is just a prison student, and the matter of leading the troops is still advocated by Xu Lianchen, and there will be a lot of disturbance in Renqiu in the next few days."

The new army still suffered some losses in the first battle of Guzhou City, but it was nothing from the perspective of military training, and then Wang Xingping naturally planned to use this momentum to sweep away the Xiangma around Baiyangdian, and all the major families needed to be properly beaten to cultivate power here, and the big clans that were not connected with Xiangma were very rare, and the Li family was just a chicken that only killed the monkeys.

Sure enough, before noon, Tian Ergeng had already returned.

With his identity and background, even a civil official like Huo Qiang did not dare to slack off, and Tian Ergeng was not polite, and directly suggested to Huo Zhixian that he wanted to summon the major families and the old platoon to come to watch the trial of the Li family's case of acting as the owner of the ringing horse nest. And the most important thing at the moment is not to let the 'thieves' escape, to search the Li Mansion and Zhenmo Academy, it is not enough to have Li Zetian lead the way, at least the county must also participate.

With Wang Xingping's foreshadowing, and seeing that Li Ruoxu had already been arrested, and with the support of Jinyiwei, Master Huo also simply put his heart on the sidelines, and ordered a class of arrest to send out a ticket to go with Tian Ergeng.

Wang Xingping just listened to what Bian Dashou said, because he soon went out of the city to order troops.

From Bian Dashou knows, in the afternoon of the same day, the brigade blocked the Li Mansion, Tian Ergeng personally sat in the pavilion next to the Li Mansion, which was built by his father when he was Zhishi, it is rumored that in order to build the pavilion and analyze the land, the Tian and Li families also gave birth to a little discord, I don't know if Tian Ergeng's move has another meaning.

In short, the various types of thieves and gold and silver that were finally searched from the Li Mansion were quite considerable, and both the county and Jinyiwei could get a piece of the pie, and no one who participated in the case in public or private would suffer, as for the various business shares vacated by the Li family, the other families would naturally not let it go, but that was no longer something that Wang Xingping needed to care about.

In the next few days, Wang Xingping attacked several ringing horses around Baiyangdian with lightning speed, and behind these ringing horses were the figures of the Renqiu clan, in addition to the gold and silver that were collected and fell into their own entrainment, those ringing horses that fell or died were distributed to Huo Qi, Tian Shengzhi and Tian Ergeng with the leader as the capital, and a good fate was greatly formed.

After some training, the new army hurriedly returned to Tianjin with the newly commissioned soldiers of the two hundred lakes and Guangtu, and hurried back to Tianjin the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

And Wang Xingping himself returned to the capital earlier, and there will be no less things in Beijing in comparison.

[References]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "History of the Late Ming Dynasty" Fan Shuzhi

4, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

5, "History of the Ming Dynasty • Biography No. 8"

6, "History of the Ming Dynasty • Biography Eighty-first"

7, "History of the Ming Palace"

8, "Records of the National Dynasty" Jiao Huang

9, "Wan Department Miscellaneous" Shen Bang

10, "Renqiu County Chronicles

11. "Wanli Accounting Record" Qi Chang

12. "Research on Folk Literature in the Ming Dynasty" Zhang Bo

13, "Records of Emperor Mingguang Zongzhen"

14, "The Rest of the Tiger's Mouth" Bian Dashou