Since the accident of the governor's yamen that day, the old man went again and asked to see the governor, but of course he still couldn't see the governor himself. However, I felt that we were being monitored, and there were a few fruit vendors near the inn, all of whom did not have many fruits, and I was absent-minded when I asked, and I also specially tried it, and it seems that the governor of the yamen also has a high person, I am afraid that we have been suspected.

I've looked for a few of them, and I should hurry into Beijing, anyway, my injuries are almost healed, and it won't affect the hurry. Everyone agreed, simply cleaned up, and did not go to the palace to say goodbye, I wrote a letter, the letter said some words of gratitude, but also said to see each other in the future, and then thank you, who knows that you will not see you in the future, people are the county lord, a few polite words are still necessary, after writing to leave the inn shopkeeper, the shopkeeper is the confidant of the county lord's maternal uncle, and the county lord is also very familiar.

Our army of donkeys was walking all the way, and it was the end of August, and the autumn was crisp and the weather was not so hot. Along the canal embankment, through Dezhou, through Cangzhou, because everyone was worried about Wang Jian's affairs, the speed along the way was also a lot faster, and arrived in Tongzhou on seven or eight days. Tongzhou is located in the southeast of Shuntianfu, at the northern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It is the terminal terminal of the canal into Beijing, and the geographical location is very important. Tongzhou has always had a prominent position in North China, and in ancient times, there was a saying of "one Beijing (Beijing), two Wei (Tianjin), and three Tongzhou".

As the northern starting point of the Grand Canal, Tongzhou was once the royal wharf that flourished in history, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is 42 kilometers long in the Tongzhou basin, and tens of thousands of ships are loaded and unloaded at the canal wharf every year, forming one of the eight scenic spots of Tongzhou. In the past, there was a special festival in Tongzhou - the Kaicao Festival. Every year, when the first batch of grain arrives, it is a grand festival, and officials, merchants, shipwrights and ordinary people participate in the celebrations, which is very lively. The poet Gong Kui of the Yuan Dynasty wrote the poem "February 2 Datongzhou": "The river ice is like the sky at the beginning of the water, and the first boat comes from the south." The good wind blows the dawn all night, and the red sun and five clouds are raised. ”

We entered Beijing by land, so we didn't pass through the wharf, but the official road was not far from the canal, and the sails covered the sky and the sun, so we could see it clearly from a distance.

When the donkey army arrived in Tongzhou, it was the end of Shen Shi in the afternoon, and the old man said: "Now there are still seventy miles away from the capital, we will stay in Tongzhou tonight, and we can go to the capital tomorrow evening." ”

Everyone is not familiar with here, the old man is from the capital, we unanimously agree, at this time Tongzhou has the old and new cities, the new city is the warehouse of the imperial court, all the official grain from the canal north is unloaded and stored in the new city, which is dominated by the official yamen and the grain guards, and the prosperity is still the old city, so the old man chose to enter from the south gate of the old city.

We entered the old city of Tongzhou, found an inn and chartered a single courtyard to live in. I saw that it was still early, so I asked everyone to go out for a walk and see this famous northern city. Wei Zihan was tired from riding in the carriage, so he and Xiaoyu Shunzi rested at home.

I and the old man and Wang Jinhuai, out of the inn, along the street to the dock, walking on the street I have a feeling of being watched, just like in Jinan, I looked behind, there are a lot of pedestrians on the street, I can't see which one is following us.

I whispered to the old man, "Old man, someone is following behind." The old man said, "You two go straight ahead, and I will go into the alley in front of me, and I will go to the dock to find you later." ”

When we walked to the alley in front, the old man flashed into the alley, and we Wang Jinhuai continued to walk towards the dock. I know that Jinan sent down to follow the old man, and a few of us small fish and shrimp are not worth following.

I came to the wharf all the time, but I saw that the wharf was crowded with people, horses and horses, dozens of large ships were unloading, and thousands of stevedores were busy up and down.

There were also a dozen officials who set up posts at the ferry, and a man dressed in a government house sat behind a table, and a man dressed as a scribe wrote something beside him.

Wang Jinhuai looked at me looking at the few tax collectors, and said: "That's the tax department collects taxes, and every single order of goods unloaded on the ship is recorded, and taxes are collected by piece, you see that there are a few people dressed as eunuchs on the ship, and they also collect taxes, but they simply collect taxes by the ship, and there is a fixed amount of taxes on how big the ship is." ”

I looked over the boat, and sure enough, a few people in eunuch costumes were pointing at something on an unloading ship, and after a while the voice gradually became louder, as if there was a quarrel, and the noise was still very fierce, because it was far away, and I couldn't hear the specifics, but I heard the cry of a woman.

After a while, the eunuchs got down from the boat and walked this way, and the two of them dragged one person, and when they arrived at the place where the tax was collected, they saw that the person who was being dragged was a middle-aged man, in his forties, and shouted as he walked: "I didn't bring any private goods, you blamed me, and I was wronged." There was also a middle-aged woman crying and crying behind.

The middle-aged man was dragged towards us, and when we were still four or five steps away, the middle-aged woman caught up with the eunuchs, holding the eunuch's legs, and the eunuch couldn't walk, so she pulled out her waist knife and smashed it on the woman's head with the back of the knife, and the back of the knife smashed on the woman's head, and immediately blood gushed out, and the woman's face was full of blood.

Wang Jinhuai couldn't stand it anymore on the side, so he stepped forward and said to the eunuch: "In broad daylight, how do you beat people, is there no royal law?" You count the maggots of that thatched hut. Uncle has no part in your speech. As he spoke, the eunuch was about to throw himself at the woman's head. As soon as Wang Jinhuai grabbed the eunuch's hand, the eunuch was also angry, and the other hand swung his fist into Wang Jinhuai's chest. This punch went down, directly smashed Wang Jinhuai to the ground, I saw that Wang Jinhuai was beaten, originally to see their bullying virtue is angry, now beat Wang Jinhuai, where can I hold back, fly up a leg and kick him to the ground, if it weren't for the middle-aged woman still holding his leg, at least fly seven or eight steps.

I kicked the eunuch away, and the other few looked at it, and it didn't matter which middle-aged man it was, they drew a knife and surrounded me, then my Wang Jinhuai was still on the ground, pulled him up and said, "You go first, you will wait for me at the inn." After saying that, he pushed him out of the circle.

At this time, several eunuchs swung their knives at me together, and I flashed and moved, and in a few clicks, these eunuchs who only knew how to oppress the common people were beaten to the ground, and I saw that Wang Jinhuai had gone away. He said to the middle-aged man, "What the hell is going on, why are they arresting you?" ”

The man said, "They said that I had hidden illicit salt on the ship, and that they would confiscate the ship and the goods, and that they would put me in prison, but in fact, they knew that I had no backstage, and asked me for five hundred taels of silver, or they would arrest someone and detain the ship, and I was also the first time to come to the capital, and the goods on the ship had not yet been sold, and there was not so much silver for them, so they arrested me." I'm really wronged, or you can check it out on my ship. Several eunuchs underground also got up at this time, and when they saw that they couldn't beat me, one of them shouted: "There are anti-thieves, catch anti-thieves." ”

The people on the dock are getting more and more, and most of the onlookers are scolding those eunuchs and killing a few eggs after listening to the middle-aged man, it seems that these guys have offended too many people here, and some people picked up stones and dirt and smashed them.