Although it has been out of the dog days, the weather in Nanjing is still hot and humid. Especially in the weather like now, the clouds are shrouded in the sky over Nanjing, and the whole city market is shrouded in the stuffiness before the rain, until more than nine o'clock in the morning, the drizzle begins to fall from the river, all the way down to the city of Nanjing, from the rain, the Zhongshan is a fog, and the water and sky are intertwined into a gray piece.

Because of the rain, there are not many passers-by on the road, and occasionally you can see some passers-by hurrying with umbrellas or people waiting for public carriages on the side of the road. In this weather, few people ride horses, but for patrolling, they don't have much choice.

Ma Hui, who was riding on a horse, although he was wearing a raincoat, still felt that his calves were soaked, as a detective of the murder department of the Yingtianfu Inspection Bureau, in such weather, he also wanted to stay in the office, drinking tea there, reading the newspaper, chatting with colleagues, and talking about life.

But now, he had to ride his horse and drive out of the city.

"What the hell is ...... weather"

After scolding in his mouth, Ma Hui spread the cavalry poncho on his body as much as possible, so that the horse would also be less drenched, although now such a tall horse is no longer as expensive as ten years ago, but the heart aches the horse, this is the natural instinct of the cavalry.

When riding a horse in the rain and rushing to Zhongshan, on the way, Ma Hui felt that he had returned to 8 years ago, as if he was riding on horseback, commanding his cavalry squad, quietly approaching the Mongol rebels in Qinghai in the night rain, and then launched a sudden charge.

That battle was very enjoyable.

"When I have time, maybe I should go to Xi'an to see my comrades......"

I looked at my pocket watch. Just after 9 o'clock.

There were also two horse-drawn carriages parked on the side of the road ahead. The coachmen of the two carriages sat there wearing raincoats, and the horses of the two carriages were northeast horses. It is also the best horse in the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the best horse in the Ming Dynasty has always come from the Northeast.

Because the local mules and horses are far inferior in size and strength to the Yanmares, and the progress of weapons also puts forward new requirements for horses, the pulling of artillery needs to improve the strength of horses, and the training of cavalry also needs excellent military horses. As early as more than ten years, the bad horses were the biggest problem faced by the Ming army. This was true in the interior, and it was also true in the reconquest of the northeast and the annexation of the Horqin steppe, where the army still could not find a horse to ride.

In the end, the horses introduced from the West completely strengthened the determination of the Ming Dynasty to improve the military horses. At that time, the imported Western horses included Arabian horses, which were 16 feet high and high-speed and durable, which allowed the cavalry to give full play to their mighty mobility; There are strong and stout medium-sized and heavy horses, which allow the artillerymen to walk like flying. In the War of Reconquest of the Northwest, a large number of Mongolian horses were requisitioned due to the mobilization of the army, and those Mongolian horses faltered in the rugged terrain, and they could only watch with a small eye as they rode the second-generation improved horses galloping between the steep slopes of the mountains. And the artillery is even more embarrassed, in a section of the steep mountain road, the artillery using medium-sized horses only used four horses, and the entire artillery company of the artillery cart was easily dragged out of the mountain pass, and the same mountain road, the artillery using Mongolian horses used eight horses before and after, and a bunch of soldiers were added to push and pull, so they could barely pass.

The performance of the Northwest Campaign made the Ming Dynasty ruthless in improving the horse breed. Almost before the end of the war, the Ministry of Industry formulated the "Horse Administration Ten-Year Plan", which introduced a large number of Arabian horses and other peony horses (stallions) as stallions, and distributed them to the countryside after one or two generations of crossbreeding in the stallion farm, and fully crossed with the local horses (mares). In order to ensure that the plan could be completed as quickly as possible, the government formulated the "Castration Law" to comprehensively castrate Mongolian horses, southwestern and other local stallions, so as to fundamentally change the situation of backward horses.

In this improvement plan, the Northeast is undoubtedly the top priority, where there is the most extensive grassland in the Ming Dynasty, as well as the largest number of Mongolian horses, with Arabian horses and Mongolian horses crossbreeding, breeding a new style of "Amun" passenger horses, is the first step in the improvement of the Northeast horse.

Horse breed improvement is by time grind out, in the beginning of the "Horse Politics Ten Year Plan" in the first seven years of Xingqian, 92% of the Ming national horses are native horses, and ten years later, only 50% of the purebred local horses remain, the average height of the new generation officially broke through the 15 palm mark of the northeast horse, southwest horse and Jiangbei horse has become the main force of the Ming horse.

Now, in addition to the southwest, northwest and Mongolia and other places can also see dwarf native horses, in the interior is difficult to see their figures, Ma Hui can not even remember the appearance of Mongolian horses, but at a glance can recognize those horses as Northeast horses. It is a kind of small heavy pull horse with excellent performance, because the good material is much less than the large heavy pull horse, and the pull force is large, and it is popular with people, and at least half of the pull horses in Nanjing are Northeast pull horses. And the horses of the inspection office are all Northeast horses.

Tie his horse to the side of the road, and Ma Hui searched around for the local patrols, and finally found them gathered by the lake below, crouching next to the willow trees. There was a young man sitting on a bench next to him, and from the clothes he was wearing, he was supposed to be a bachelor from a nearby school. The man looked dejected.

"It must have been the body he found."

Ma Hui took the last puff of his cigarette and threw the cigarette butt on the ground. The cigarette butt fell to the ground and quickly went out.

When walking towards the lake, Ma Hui looked at the surrounding environment again - it was very quiet here, there were no people in Fangyuan for about half a mile, nearby, there were only a few academies, obviously this park should be very few people, after all, it was not the first year of Xingqian, there would be two parks in Nanjing.

Seeing a detective coming, a patrol stood up.

"It's the body found around 7 o'clock this morning."

Ma Hui just nodded, and went straight through the grass by the lake, and when he walked to the scene, a pair of boots were already covered with mud.

It was the corpse of a middle-aged man.

The body is slightly obese and the complexion is snow-white. There was some sludge on the corpse, its back was down, its upper body was stranded on the shore, its arms were outstretched, and there was a clear trace of a rope stranglehold on the corpse's neck.

"Is there any protection on site?"

Without taking his eyes off the corpse, Ma Hui asked the patrolman who was saluting him next to him. There was dissatisfaction in his voice, even if these patrols were trained for three years, they couldn't remember to protect the scene.

"When we came, there were a lot of people at the scene, so we didn't pay special attention at that time."

On the collar of the patrolman was the bronze number "1036" on one side, and on the other side was his military rank, corporal, which was almost equal to the corporal of the army. His age is about thirty-five years old, for this kind of person, Ma Hui knows very well, he applied at least twice to become a detective, but must have been rejected, and now he has given up hope, there is a wife at home who is a husband and a child, and he has a few children for him, with an income of 15 taels a month, if he is a native of Nanjing, there may be two houses, one for self-residence, one for rent, and there will be an additional income of about 10 taels per month, in this case, some people will even consider buying a Nanyang maid or a sex maid. During the day, he takes care of the housework and waits for the wife, and at night he waits for the lord in bed.

A typical petty clerk lives a relaxed life, but he can't be rich and rich.

Of course, people with a long-term vision will send their sons to the best schools and receive the best education to change their destiny......

Ma Hui is such a person, for this reason, 20 taels of his monthly salary of 45 taels are used for the education of his four sons and two daughters, of course, the two daughters are studying in ordinary social studies, otherwise they will spend more silver.

"Okay."

Ma Hui nodded, forget it, they are still getting used to and adapting.

"Have you identified the deceased?"

"Not yet, he doesn't have any documents on him, so I can't determine his identity, but guessing what he is wearing, he should be working in a nearby academy or factory, and he is a middle-level or technical person in the factory."

"Who found him?"

The patrol pointed to the young man behind him.

The young man who looked like a student stood up. He is no more than 20 years old. His clothes were almost soaked due to the rain. He noticed that the child was careful not to look at the corpse.

"Why don't you get him a raincoat?"

Ma Hui said deliberately to shorten the distance between the two. He handed him an umbrella after another patrolman brought him.

"What's your name?"

"Zhang, Zhangdu, Sir"

His voice has a Shaanxi accent, but the Shaanxi accent may also be from the Northeast, there are millions of Shaanxi people in the Northeast, and the whole person is cringe, obviously he was frightened.

"Students at Jiangning Engineering School."

Ma Hui knew that this school, which was not far from the foot of Zhongshan Mountain and not far from Xiaoling, was a private school, but it was easy for students to find employment after graduation, and engineering talents were needed everywhere.

"I pass by here every morning for my run. At the time, it scared me. ”

The young man glanced at the corpse over there a little nervously, and his face changed again. Obviously for him, this is a very frightening thing.

The patrol on the side had a disdainful expression on his face. Ma Hui knew what he was thinking.

How can a man be afraid of corpses?

No wonder it's been ten years, and the court still hasn't decided whether to attack the Western Regions.

Now the pig-tails have even conquered the Kazakhs, and according to the newspapers, in a maximum of five years, they will be able to join Wu Sangui, although this is unlikely, because they are still separated by the Mughal Empire!

But who knows?

Wu Sangui has already annexed Bangladesh, Bihar and other places, and now "Wu Zhou" is also a large country in Tianzhu with a population of 10 million.

In case they join forces!

I'm afraid there will never be peace in the southwest and northwest!

"Did you see anyone else?"

Ma Hui asked in as gentle a tone as possible, sounding like a relative to him, not a detective.

"There was no one, and when I found the body, I ran to the main road, almost three miles, before a patrol appeared, and then I came here with them."

This child, although he is young, is very conscientious.

Ma Hui looked at the corpse again.

"Pull it out of the water."

Ma Hui looked at the corpse, his brows furrowed, the scene had been destroyed. And it was raining again, so it was hard to tell if the body was thrown here, or if it was thrown into the river and floated here.

The rain is heavy, the lake is foggy, and the smoke and rain in the south of the Yangtze River have appeared in the pen of many literati and ink writers, turning into poems and paintings. I don't know how many people who have been exiled to Nanyang Jiangnan are heartbroken, but for Ma Hui, he doesn't even want to take a look.

The rain formed a curtain of beads around the pavilion, and Ma Hui stood in the pavilion like this, observing his surroundings, and then he stood in the raincoat again, letting the rain wet his hair, and the rain flowed down his scalp and into his neck. He didn't even notice. For him, every case, no matter how it ends, always excites him at the beginning.

"Was the body dumped here?"

Walking by the pavilion, Ma Hui carefully observed the surroundings, obviously, this is also a suitable place to throw corpses, but this pavilion, what if there is someone in the pavilion?

Thinking of this, he came to the corpse again and looked at it closely.

The deceased is very heavy, if this is the place where the body was thrown, and there are no drag marks on the ground, then the murderer is carrying him, then the footprints should be very deep, but if you choose this place, why not throw the body into the water, but half in the water, half in the water, half in the ......

Observing the surroundings, suddenly, the stones in the distance caught his attention, Ma Hui walked over, and he saw that the stones had traces of movement.

The process of throwing the corpse was interrupted by Zhang Du!

It's a pity that he didn't see the murderer, what does this mean?

The murderer is sophisticated!

"Send the body to the inspection office and ask if anyone is missing nearby!"

After exchanging a few words with the patrolman, Ma Hui walked on the shoulder of the road, untied the reins of the horse, and then stood on the side of the road, looking at the road.

It's sure to be a great place to dump corpses!

There are no residents around, no one will find out, and of course, this also means that the other party must have a carriage!

Carriage!

The scope of the reconnaissance narrowed a lot, Ma Hui raised his lips, jumped on the horse, and then left the scene, on the way, he observed the roadside from time to time, until he saw a breakfast stall, he went over and asked them if they saw a carriage passing by.

"There is a carriage coming, there are usually few carriages here, those who have carriages at home will not live so far, and those who live here do not need to rent carriages, and the cars come less, so they can naturally remember."

"What does the carriage look like?"

Ma Hui said as he took out a notepad and drew it on paper.

The old man who watched the breakfast stall said while gesturing.

"yes, that's it, yes, the windows are bigger......"

It took more than ten minutes to draw the shape of the carriage, Ma Hui was basically sure that it was the kind of carriage, so he left here, and for the next whole day, he was in various carriage shops in Nanjing, and when he returned to the inspection office, it was almost evening, and as soon as he entered the office, a colleague told him.

"The identity of the deceased in your case has been confirmed, and he is an engineer from the Jiangning Arsenal."