At this time, someone knocked on the door outside and said, "The master of the house replied, I am an officer and soldier patrolling the city, why is it so noisy so late?" But was it a thief? ”

At this time, there was a faint fire in the distance, and someone shouted: "The county order house is out of the water, come quickly, go to the water!" ”

Hearing that there was a house running by water, or a house ordered by the county order, the officers and soldiers outside the door no longer waited for the people in the house to talk, so they ran directly to the place where the fire broke out under the leadership of the leader. Li Wenyuan heard the sound of footsteps outside gradually fading, opened the door a crack and looked into the street, saw that there was no one around, then whistled, and several waterwheels came to the door at the corner of the street.

Li Wenyuan put down the incense pills brought by Zong Luohu and put them all into the waterwheel. When he was about to leave the city at the west gate, he was stopped by the soldiers at the city gate and asked, "What kind of person, what are you going to do when you go out of the city late at night?" ”

Li Wenyuan took a step forward and said, "The county commander's family has gone to the water, hurry up and open the door and let us go out to fetch the river water and come back for urgent use." ”

The soldier was still a little hesitant, Li Wenyuan pretended to be angry and slapped him: "You are so big dogs, if you delay the rescue, you will compensate for the loss of the county order?" Will you be able to afford the blame from the county order in the future? ”

At this time, a soldier next to him came over, pushed the previous soldier aside, and said with a smile: "Master, don't be angry, we are also acting in public service, don't you just want to call for water, I'll let you out, don't tell the county commander that ours is not adding to the blockage." Then he waved his hand to the head of the city and said, "Hurry up and open the gates." ”

The city gate slowly opened, Li Wenyuan snorted, and said: "You still have some eyesight, I'll invite you to dinner another day, let's have a good friendship, now I have something important to do, so I won't talk nonsense with you." As he spoke, he drove his horse out of the city without looking back.

The group left Yongdeng County and walked to the Zhuanglang River in the west, and after reaching the river, they turned north and returned to Qinglong Mountain. put Kulu and his party in a cottage prison, guarded by the dead soldiers around Li Wenyuan, and no one was allowed to approach.

Zong Luohu said to Li Wenyuan: "General Li, we have already caught these people, what should we do next?" ”

Li Wenyuan said: "Li Mao did this is a conspiracy that cannot be put on the table, this time I came to Yongdeng County to meet with Hulu, if the county order is not known, it is impossible to say, it is estimated that it should also be Li Mao's group, let's talk to the county order next to see if there is anything related to Li Mao." ”

Besides, Li Mao came to find Hulu the next day, knocked on the door for a long time, but no one responded, and wanted to push the door into the courtyard to find out the details, but he didn't dare to take the risk of offending Hulu, so he shook his head and turned away.

Li Mao couldn't help but see him, so he walked to the county mansion on the street, and saw that there were many traces of fire, and then he remembered that the county mansion was on fire last night. At that moment, he walked in directly, and the concierge saw that it was Li Mao, and hurriedly ran over and asked, "Master, you are here, is there anything wrong?" ”

Li Mao motioned for him to stand up and reply, and asked, "Let me ask you, where is your master?" ”

The porter said truthfully: "The master was too frightened last night, and he is still recuperating." ”

Li Mao nodded, and asked again: "Come, let me ask you again, why did you suddenly go out of the water last night?" ”

The porter said: "I don't know, I heard that the fire suddenly got up, and it couldn't be stopped, and the water couldn't be extinguished, and finally the firewood room and the storehouse next to it were burned before it stopped." ”

"What do you have in your storeroom?" Li Mao frowned.

"Just some firewood for cooking, and some lamp oil." The porter said.

"Then how can it catch fire?" Li Mao said.

"When someone got up last night, I saw in a daze that there seemed to be a fire flickering in the firewood storeroom, but that person was also sleeping deeply, and I didn't know whether it was a dream or a real thing." The porter thought carefully for a moment before speaking slowly.

Li Mao frowned, and faintly felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what was wrong, so he immediately said to the porter: "Let's do this today, let your master be better and I will look for me here." ”

The porter bowed: "Okay, sir, go slowly." ”

The porter saw that Li Mao had gone away, so he closed the door, walked into the inner house, knocked on the door of the inner house and said, "Master, Li Mao is gone." ”

"He didn't go to the firewood room to check, did he?" The county order opened the door and asked the concierge.

"No, the villain sent it away." The porter said with a smile.

"Okay, you go back first, find someone to replace your porter next month, you go and help the bookkeeper." The prefectural order said.

"The little one is ordered, thank you for the reward."

After the county order finished speaking, he closed the door, and then whispered to the people in the house with a sad face: "General Li, this is okay." ”

Li Wenyuan nodded, and asked Zong Luohu to continue to hold down the county order, and he wanted to try him again. Although he had long recognized that the county order and Li Mao were the same dog, the person who set the fire that day said that there was a cellar in the firewood room, and there were countless gold, silver and jewels in it. Then Li Wenyuan and Zong Luohu sneaked in secretly and found the cellar, and when they opened it, it was really a golden treasure. After a closer look at the house, he found that the county magistrate was still here, so he tied them up and interrogated them by the way. It wasn't until someone came with the news that Li Mao was nearby just now that the porter arranged for Li Mao to leave.

Li Wenyuan sat in the room, crossed his legs and asked the county order: "I know how much Yulu is in the Great Sui, where did you get the gold, silver and jewelry in the cellar of the county order?" ”

The county commander was pressed to the ground and knelt on the ground, and said, "Those were given to me by my subordinates, not what I asked for." ”

"Then let me ask you again, what about the gold and silver you looted for Li Mao?" Li Wenyuan asked.

"Those were all transported to Wuwei by Li Mao yesterday."

Li Wenyuan was taken aback, he made a dangerous move, and the deceptive question was really true, so he continued to ask: "To be more detailed, you are also a person in the officialdom, you should know that you say it and I say it, it is two crimes." ”

The county commander nodded and said, "General Li, you listen to me slowly, it's like this. The county magistrate sorted out his thoughts and said this matter as it was:

Three months ago, Li Liang sent his brother Li Mao to Yongdeng County, and came into contact with the county order for the first time under the banner of handling official business. Then he gave the county order a sum of money and asked the county order to do a business with him. This business is that the county order should collect as much gold and silver as possible in the governance and send it to the Li Mansion in Wuwei County on a regular basis, and it is unknown where the money will be spent. As for the money in the treasury, it was all some kickbacks that the county magistrate ate when he looted gold and silver for Li Liang, in his own words, he had to be infamous anyway, so why not make some real money by the way?