On the 14th day of the first lunar month, it is the eve of the Lantern Festival, and the city of Jeju is full of lights and dragon and lion dances. However, there were hundreds of men on the wharf outside the east gate, and they boarded three large ships separately and were about to untie the cables and set sail.

I saw a person in the crowd who looked like a fast catcher, and accidentally made physical contact with a helper at the dock, he raised his hand to palm, and then cursed a few words before getting on the boat.

Before long, three large ships quietly sailed into the night, and a small boat soon sailed out of the dock and quickly disappeared into the night.

The time passed midnight quickly, and under the clear moonlight, in the vast water, three large ships were moving quickly to the northwest. Yin Tianci and Yu Zhi were on a boat in the middle, and the two of them fell asleep early and dreamed of making a fortune. He Tao led the first boat, but he couldn't sleep, as a local arrest official, he had already heard about the rumors of the Lijia Daokou market, in fact, he knew better than others whose territory it was, but the prefect handed over this tricky matter to him, but there was no way to push it. At this moment, he was thinking about how to round the field when the time came, when he suddenly saw a catcher from outside come in to report that a convoy of merchant ships had come in front of him and was coming this way.

He Tao's heart jumped suddenly, and he asked Zhao Neng to go and have a look together, and the two of them got out of the cabin, and they saw that on the lake not far ahead, five or six boats were coming, and they had no intention of avoiding it.

"Bad things, bad people!"

He Tao suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart, and he immediately thought of the mountain villa not far ahead, and hurriedly asked Zhao Neng to quickly let the boat turn to avoid. Then, after a period of scramble, the ship was able to sail out of the channel, but a fierce crash was heard behind it.

"Look, it's broken, those two ships have been knocked and sunk. ”

Zhao Neng's panicked shout sounded immediately, He Tao turned around and looked, but saw that the two boats had overturned on their sides in the lake, and those soldiers from Gaotang Prefecture struggled a few times in the icy lake water, and then disappeared.

However, those lake bandits did not let him go, only to see two boats one left and one right chasing closely, a boat of people tried their best, just into the reeds on the shore, then heard a crash from the stern, He Tao stood in the bow of the boat, only felt that it was violently shaken, and then fell into the lake, when he was in a hurry, only to see two gourds floating beside him.

"Observe, give you a waist boat."

He Tao knew that it was Zhao Neng when he heard it, and he couldn't help but be grateful to this brother, and the two of them each held a gourd float and quietly touched the shore from the reeds. But in the cold winter months, the two came up from the icy lake, and they could hold on. At this moment, I heard Zhao Neng shouting again.

"Look, there's a house there!"

Yes! He Tao heard the excitement, turned his head and saw that there was a faint light flashing not far from the southwest, and the two of them were overjoyed, and they couldn't take care of others anymore, so they ran away. In an instant, I came to the place of light, but I saw several thatched huts surrounded by a simple courtyard, and when I knocked on the door, it turned out to be a tofu workshop. The owner of the house is a middle-aged couple, but they are warm-hearted, seeing that the two are embarrassed, they don't ask anything, and quickly take two bowls of hot soy milk, and then move the stove to warm them. After being warm, the two of them recovered some vitality, and after inquiring, they realized that it was already the beginning of the year.

"Shopkeeper, where is this?" He Tao asked.

"This place is called Yemulberry, more than 20 miles south is Yuncheng County, I want to make some tofu to sell in the county seat as soon as possible, and I don't want to meet two guest officials."

After the man replied, he asked hesitantly:

"Looking at the two guest officers like this, could it be that they met the lake bandits?"

"Lake bandits! When did there be a lake bandit in this lake? Zhao Neng asked in surprise.

"It was only a few years ago, and I don't know where it came from, there have been several merchants who have been killed, and people are saying that someone is jealous of the market at the Li family crossing, and specially intercepted merchant ships here."

He Tao was not calm when he heard it, he originally thought that someone from Liangshan Manor did it, but it seems that there is another person when he says this, so who is the market at the Li family crossing? At this time, Zhao Neng muttered on the side:

"I heard that after the opening of the Li Family Daokou, the business of the Poison Dragon Gang has deteriorated a lot."

"The Poison Dragons have the guts! ——”

As soon as He Tao spoke, he immediately remembered the two figures behind the Poison Dragon Gang. As the head of Jeju's public security, he naturally knows these things, but he is introverted by nature and does not want to offend people. If those two intervened, the matter would be complicated, and he was stunned for a moment.

"Observe, so far, we still have to save our lives, just tell the prefect the facts, and it is up to him to decide how to deal with it." Zhao Neng proposed at this time.

He Tao had to say that he had to do so. So the two sat down for a while, waited for the clothes to dry, thanked the couple, and left for Yuncheng County.

That night, He Tao and Zhao Neng borrowed the fast horses of Yuncheng County and rushed to Jeju City, the prefect was shocked when he heard this, he had already offended Prime Minister Cai Cheng before, and if he provoked Gao Taiwei again this time, then his official would really come to an end. He sat for a long time, racking his brains to find a person to take the blame, the Poison Dragon Gang would definitely not work, even if He Tao and the two vaguely mentioned Zhong Qun and Zhao Bowen, but these were all speculations, and they couldn't solve the urgent need. In the end, he decided to put the blame on the kid from Gujiazhuang, who was the person Gao Taiwei hated and might be able to transfer Gao Taiwei's anger to him. So he immediately started to write two letters and sent his cronies to the capital and Gaotang Prefecture respectively.

However, in the two or three days after the accident of the Gaotang Prefecture official, the news that the water bandits specially intercepted the northbound merchant ships appeared in the water was also spreading everywhere. There are constant gossip that the Poison Dragon Gang and its behind-the-scenes owners are the culprits, and some people even swear that after the Gaotang State ship set sail that night, the Poison Dragon Gang's clippers followed out.

And as if they were afraid of something, the arrogant Poison Dragon Gang in the past has disappeared for the past two days. Even Zhao Bowen and Zhong Qun, who were behind the scenes, were leaked out by someone and were rumored to be in Jeju City.

Zhao Bowen and Zhong Qun were aggrieved to death in the past two days, they knew that the Poison Dragon Gang had not done that, but they were dumb and suffering from eating Coptis chinensis. And the Jeju prefect's heart was as bad as a mess, that he expected that as soon as he got his official document left, the public opinion of the people behind him would be overwhelming, but it was completely contrary to himself, and he completely imagined what kind of situation he would be in if the imperial court took any action against Yangsan Manor. This is completely the flip board of the Shijie Village incident, what kind of opponent is this other party! He felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

A few days later, Gao Lian, the governor of Gaotang Prefecture, received an official letter from Jeju, and he was furious, thinking that what he thought was an easy trip to make money would result in the death of his brother-in-law and dozens of cronies in Jeju Shuibo. While he was deeply annoyed by the incompetence of the Jeju government, he gritted his teeth even more with hatred for that old family boy, if it weren't for the limitations of his power and responsibility, he was afraid that he would have to lead troops to attack. In desperation, he had to send a quick letter to his cousin asking him to be the master.

The market opened on the tenth day of the first month of the first month of the Lijia Road Crossing, and the murder of the bandits in Shuipoli Lake also spread quickly in the market

The promise dispelled the doubts, so the business of the dart shop was much better, the influence of the market also expanded a little, and the evil deeds of these officials and bandits also spread with the caravan to the states and capitals.

In the Zhonghua Hall of Liangshan Manor, a group of people sat in the conference room and discussed. Gu Haotian and others have been assessing the possible impact of this incident these days. The information fed back by Zhao Neng shows that the Jeju prefect is bent on putting this blame on Yangsan Manor. In fact, everyone also imagined this result, and the reason why they wanted to direct this play was actually to strive for the initiative in public opinion for the upcoming conflict.

Wen Huanzhang spoke first: "The army of the imperial court should come soon, Gao Yu originally had a stomach for Haotian and Liangshan Manor, and the death of Yin Tianci and the officers and soldiers of Gaotang Prefecture this time is an excuse for him to send troops, I can see that there will be movement in the first month." ”

"Come on, let's come, we were waiting for them to come, just to accompany our escort team to train soldiers, otherwise those boys in the escort team will not see blood, and they will not be able to become elites." Xiao Jiasui said disappreciatively.

"Anyway, this layer of skin between us and the imperial court will be torn sooner or later, and now we have to try our best to win the support of the people, at least the people of Yuncheng and Jeju will support us, so that we will have the confidence to confront the imperial court. In my opinion, it is not enough to just the current public opinion, we also need to let the people have more feelings of seeing and touching. ”

Zhao Ding has now completely integrated into his role, and his advice is also very insightful.

What is the feeling of letting the people see and touch! Gu Haotian remembered the revolution of later generations of "fighting local tyrants and dividing the land", but it is obviously not time to implement this policy at this stage, but some methods can be used for reference, such as robbing the rich and helping the poor, because there are too many phenomena of being unkind to the rich in this era, and I used to think about the reflection of the government, and I will have no scruples in this regard in the future.

"Director Zhao Ding's suggestion I think it is very reasonable, the confrontation with the court in the future must be long-term, we can't let the people stand on the side of the government, otherwise we will become a tree without roots, water without a source, we must reflect the interests of the people in action, can not stay in words, some things that we want to do in the past, as long as it is righteous and beneficial to the people in the future, we will boldly do it, so as to slowly win the hearts of the people."

After Gu Haotian finished speaking, everyone seemed to have heard the declaration of "rebellion", which was a blatant attempt to attack those corrupt officials and bullies, and there was no need to tie their hands in the future, especially the leaders of the escort team were even more excited. What's more, they are already thinking about attacking those people with their fingers crossed.

"Haotian's intention is not to get rid of all the rich people who can't see through, but only to target a few extreme people, and you must not misunderstand."

Wen Huanzhang is worthy of a wise man, he immediately saw the signs of something wrong from it, and immediately opened his mouth to warn.

Gu Haotian was also suddenly taken aback, and suddenly felt that what he said was vague, thinking that the united front in later generations would only attack a very small number and unite the majority, if his meaning was misunderstood by these "Liangshan heroes", then no matter whether it was good or bad, big or small, the rich landlords would all be cut off without leaving a single one, and it would not be long before Liangshan would definitely provoke the anger of the heavens and the resentment. Immediately hurriedly said:

"What Mr. Wen said is reasonable, you must know that no one is perfect, everyone here is also at fault, not everyone who is at fault has to be cut, our object is some of the most heinous crimes, the people's resentment is boiling big evildoers, this matter management office also has to discuss a provision to all departments and battalions for reference and implementation."

Everyone listened and slowly calmed down, but at this time, the new director of intelligence, Gongsun Sheng, proposed a matter, and said that this person might be able to be used in the manor, and it must be very happy.

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