Cangzhou belongs to Hejian Province and is located in the central and eastern part of Zhili, bordering the Bohai Sea in the east, Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and facing the Shandong Peninsula across the sea.

At first glance, this may sound like a good location, but at the time it was one of the poorest and most remote areas, which was much worse than that of Hejian Province.

Especially in the past few years, there have been several typhoons, which have made the local people miserable.

It is also thanks to this year's great maturity, and every household is full of grain, otherwise this early winter may take the lives of many poor people.

However, on September 28, due to the snow falling for two consecutive days, the already not very prosperous state city became more and more sparsely populated.

Somewhere at the mouth of an alley.

The two women were cloaking their hands, gossiping in the doorway, when suddenly a servant came rushing to the mouth of the alley, and did not stop when they reached the mouth of the alley, trotting straight to the second door in the alley.

"What's going on?"

One of the women threw a look at the next door, suppressed her voice and asked, "It can't be that Scrivener Xu is really going to die, right?" ”

"It's long overdue!"

Another woman said indignantly: "If you are sick like that, what do you have to do for your fifty birthdays, and you have been harsh all over the street and outside the street!" ”

"Shh

The woman from before hurriedly covered her mouth and said in fear: "The surname Xu is dead, and his son-in-law is still sitting in the office, is it who we dare to offend?" ”

"Phew, it's just a continuation of the old thing, what's there to be arrogant!"

The gagged woman was indignant, but she lowered her voice again.

Bang, bang~

At this moment, the official had already knocked on the door of the courtyard of the Xu scribe.

"Who?"

It took a long time to hear a dry voice respond from the hospital.

"Master Xu, the third master has an order, let you hurry up and wait at the yamen - it is said that the capital has sent a messenger to investigate Shen Li's case, and you will definitely be asked at that time."

"The top of the capital?"

The voice in the courtyard suddenly rose a little, but it was still dry: "What is the difference?" ”

"Like...... It seems to be some kind of prison. ”

"The eunuchs in the palace?"

In addition to being dry, the voice also revealed some trepidation: "Could it be that the emperor personally sent someone to investigate the case?" ”

"It doesn't seem to be a eunuch in the palace, the little one really can't remember clearly, anyway, you should hurry up and go to the yamen."

The servant urged again, and when he heard that there was no movement coming from inside, and there was no intention of opening the door, he muttered and complained, and turned back the way he came.

When the official returned to the state office, he saw that the class room and the official's room were already full.

I wanted to find a general judgment for Ma Xingyi to return to the errand, but I heard that the three court officials of Zhizhou, Tongzhi, and Tongju are all discussing in the back office now.

I had no choice but to go to find the official Kong Lupeng, that is, the son-in-law of Xu Shuren.

Not to mention how he responded.

However, it was said that in the back hall of the state ya, Pu Youren, Zhizhou Pu Youren, Tongzhi Xiang Wenshan, and Tong Ju Ma Xingyi gathered together, and their faces were full of solemnity.

Especially Zhizhou Pu Youren, with three short strands of hair under his chin, his brows were almost wrinkled into a Sichuan character.

He frowned and refused to speak, but Ma Xingyi couldn't hold back a little, and arched his hand: "Dare to ask Lord Zhizhou, do you know what is the origin of this mountain and sea prison?" ”

Xiang Wenshan, the same acquaintance, also asked on the side: "Yes, Guozijian and Qintianjian have heard a lot, but where did this Shanhai Prison come from?" even ran to our Cangzhou and turned over the old accounts. ”

"Ahem, ahem!"

Listening to the two of them ask questions one after another, Pu Youren came to his senses, coughed hard twice, shook his head and said: "I don't know exactly what the specific way is - I only heard that this mountain and sea supervisor was formed by transferring people from the factory guards." ”

"Manpower transferred from the factory guard? Could it be another West Factory?! ”

Hearing this, Ma Xingyi couldn't help but blurt out exclaim.

Xiang Wenshan on the opposite side also looked apprehensive.

Although the West Factory can only be regarded as a short-lived temporary yamen compared with the East Factory and Jinyiwei, the bloody storm set off by this temporary yamen between the government and the opposition is better than the latter two.

Hearing the two of them mention the West Factory, Pu Youren was stunned for a moment, and then shook his head again and said: "It shouldn't be, today's saints rarely use eunuchs to participate in politics, how can they repeat the mistakes of the Chenghua period?" ”

After a pause, he said again: "But we must also be careful, don't be caught by this mountain and sea supervisor-coughcough." ”

As he spoke, he let out another long series of coughing sounds.

It's easy to stop, Pu Youren covered his beard and smiled bitterly: "It's just that my body bones have been a little useless recently, and this time I am afraid that I will have to rely on the two of you more." ”

This old thing!

If you don't get sick early or late, you will be sick in the next few days, and I don't know if I have heard any rumors a long time ago.

Ma Xingyi scolded secretly in his heart, and couldn't help but say worriedly: "No matter how careful we are, I'm afraid we won't be able to stop people from picking bones in their eggs - I've heard that because of the strange illness of the Shen scribe, hundreds of people died in the capital, and they are menacing, so they can't find a scapegoat to make a difference?" ”

As soon as these words came out, Pu Youren and Xiang Wenshan were silent.

Ma Xingyi looked at this and then at that suspiciously, and suddenly a chill appeared on the back of his neck.

These two thieves and birds don't want to use Lao Tzu as a scapegoat, right?

Not!

You have to think about it first!

Seeing this, Pu Youren coughed dryly, and ordered: "Bother the two of you to go around the front first, and see if there is anything that needs to be arranged, so as not to make a joke in front of the errand - the old man will go back to use some medicine, and then go out of the city with the two to greet him." ”

Xiang Wenshan and Ma Xingyi got up and gave up, and watched Pu Youren leave through the back door, and then walked out of the inner office side by side.

"Lord Xiang."

Walking out about a dozen steps away, Ma Xingyi couldn't help but provoke: "You had a lot of disagreements with Zhizhou in the past, if Lord Zhizhou is in front of the superiors, this is ...... in front of the superiors."

"Where did Ma Tong's sentence begin?"

Xiang Wenshan didn't wait for him to finish speaking, so he scolded with a straight face: "Although I have some disagreements with Master Pu, they are both out of public intentions, where do you have any dirty personal grievances?" ”

As he spoke, he flicked the sleeves of his robe and put on a graffiti look.

Ma Xingyi didn't feel a little embarrassed, he was sneering in his heart, and was about to go back to make up a few words, when he suddenly heard a terrible scream from the backyard mew:

"Is that you? How are you?! ”

The voice was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Xiang Wenshan and Ma Xingyi hesitated, but still rushed to the backyard to the middle road.

But the passage was empty, and only a broken teapot remained, as if to prove that the two had not heard correctly.

"This ......"

Ma Xingyi hesitated and pointed to the teapot.

Xiang Wenshan shook his head and said: "It's important to meet the errand, don't worry about other people's family affairs." ”

Ma Xingyi thought about it, when his life was at stake, how could he still have the kung fu to take care of Pu Youren's family affairs?

At that moment, he hurriedly went outside with Xiang Wenshan, carefully checked the arrangement to welcome the errand twice, and made up for a few omissions.

About half an hour later, Zhizhou Pu Youren finally arrived.

The strange thing is that in such a short period of time, his condition seems to have become much more serious, and in order to cover up his illness, he even applied some fat powder to his face.

Don't die of illness on this old thing!

Ma Xingyi couldn't hate it and asked for his and Xiang Wenshan's lives, but at this time, he hurriedly prayed - if Guy Pu Youren really died at this moment, the black pot could only be shared between him and Xiang Wenshan.

"Let's go, go out of the city to meet the businessman."

With Pu Youren's order, one hundred and ten scribes, helpers, government officials, and white servants surrounded the four official sedan chairs and trembled out of the state office.

[At the end of the third watch, I said that there is no day in this chapter, and I am really uncomfortable. 】