Yong'an County, Huizhou Prefecture, is located between Guangzhou and Chaozhou, with mountainous territory, and is the only way for land transportation in western and eastern Guangdong.

It is rumored that since the beginning of the Jiajing period, with the prevalence of the Japanese bandits, the bandits in Yong'an also began to prevail, these bandits are less than dozens of people, more than tens of thousands, according to the mountain called the king, robbing and coming and going merchants, scourge the township, stretching for nearly a hundred years, has not been exterminated.

On this day, in Nantang, Yongan County, a team of more than 100 people appeared on the official road leading to Chaozhou Mansion.

In the middle of this team are more than 20 carriages, 200 are more than 100 men with long knives at their waists, they also lead dozens of horses, and there are two big bags on the horses' buttocks, and they don't know what they are loading.

Xie Zhenggang rode his horse and walked in the forefront, holding a telescope in his hand to sweep the mountain road in front of him from time to time, his expression was extremely focused, and behind him, the eyes of the elite platoons of the special operations battalion kept sweeping to the hillsides on both sides, and their expressions were extremely serious.

At this time, Xie Zhenggang suddenly stuffed the telescope into his arms and reminded: "Attention, there are people blocking the road with big trees about three miles ahead, prepare." ”

They didn't actually come to suppress the bandits, but there was no way, Huizhou Mansion was full of mountains for hundreds of miles, and if they looked for them one by one, I was afraid that a year would not be enough, so Zhang Bin simply asked them to pretend to be a team of darts and go all the way to lure the bandits out.

Ten groups of well-equipped elite special operations battalions, Zhang Bin believes that they can repel the teams sent by the bandits to plunder, first repel them, and then follow them to find out the location of their cottage, this is the most time-saving method that Zhang Bin came up with.

Of course, surprises cannot be ruled out.

If a random raiding team is sent out and can't even defeat ten well-equipped elite teams of special operations battalions, then this group of bandits will be quite terrifying, and it is estimated that all the 10,000 Qi family army foot soldiers will have to be transferred to exterminate them!

Fortunately, the first group of bandits they encountered seemed to be about a hundred people.

At this time, the thieves had already moved out a few dead trees two or three feet long to block the official road, and a large number of people stood in front of the dead trees, their clothes were messy, just like asking for food.

This should be a small group of bandits, otherwise it wouldn't be so miserable, Xie Zhenggang didn't hesitate to lead the team to press up, as if he hadn't seen them at all.

As soon as he approached the boulder about a hundred paces, a strong man among the thieves stood up and shouted: "Oh, I opened this mountain, I planted this tree, and I want to pass by from here, and leave to buy road money." ”

Good standard roadblock robbery routine, this kid is afraid that he has watched too much drama, Xie Zhenggang glanced at his mouth, pointed his hand forward, and shouted: "Shield array, throwing guns, two groups, up." ”

Behind him, two teams of twenty-four people immediately lifted the thick cloth covered by the two carriages, the front one was full of wooden shields that were one person high, and the back one was a cart of five-foot-long throwing guns, a group of five poles, packed in cloth bags, neatly arranged, the two groups of people took shields and throwing guns, and quickly lined up in two rows in front of Xie Zhenggang, with wooden shields in front and guns behind, and rushed forward quickly.

Those bandits didn't actually have many bows and arrows, and they shot at them sparsely, and there was no threat at all.

Fifty paces closer to the bandit in front, the twelve men behind suddenly took out a spear from the cloth bag tied to their shoulders and threw it with a whoosh.

The bandits suddenly became a mess, and after a few screams, several of the bandits lay on the ground and did not move, and several more bandits were pierced by guns, and the ghosts cried wolf.

This is not over, the twelve people behind the shield are not over by throwing a round of throwing guns, they keep drawing out the throwing guns, keep throwing, your bandit leader seems to want to rush up, but after looking at the people behind the shield array, he finally gave up.

After three rounds of shooting, there were already more than a dozen bandits lying on the ground, and the bandit leader directly yelled "Run", and took the lead and ran to the mountain on the right.

Xie Zhenggang sneered disdainfully, and then ordered: "Zhang Pan will take someone to follow and see where their cottage is." Go to the two groups and move the corpses and dead trees away. ”

Soon, the dead trees and corpses in front of them were removed, and the guns were all wiped clean and recovered, everyone retreated to the side of the road to rest for about half an hour, Zhang Pan also came back with the team, and then, Xie Zhenggang waved his hand, and everyone continued to walk forward.

After walking all the way for a few days, I encountered more than a dozen bandits before and after, and all of them were repulsed.

On this day, they came to a place called Waxi, and finally encountered hard stubble, and there were three neat phalanxes lined up on the official road in front, and there were three hundred people at a glance, and there were also a hundred people standing neatly with bows and arrows on the left and right slopes, and the posture was simply the same as that of a regular army!

One hundred and two against five hundred, what to do, run away?

When Xie Zhenggang was still one hundred and fifty steps away from the other party, he raised his hand to ask everyone to stop, and then said loudly: "Everyone, take the flintlock pistol!" ”

Before they could understand what was going on, more than 100 special operations battalions took out flintlock pistols and shot at them.

This is a fart, ordinary bows and arrows can't shoot a hundred and fifty steps, but people are holding muskets for a while, and the elite of the special operations battalion has just fired two shots, and the bandit leader runs away with people.

Xie Zhenggang gave another order, asking Zhang Pan to follow.

As a result, within half an hour, Zhang Pan reported with the team panting and puffing: "General Xie, run, they have organized thousands of people to come over!" ”

, there are so many people, Xie Zhenggang hurriedly ordered, everyone turned their horses' heads, those with horses rode horses, and those without horses climbed into the carriage, and ran back with a smoke.

I don't know if those bandits will catch up, after running for a quarter of an hour, Xie Zhenggang ordered everyone to stop and wait for a while, then took out the binoculars and looked back, fortunately, the bandits did not catch up.

He stopped and thought about it, anyway, he couldn't get through that place just now, and he might not be able to come back if he passed, so he just went back and reported first.

So, with a wave of his hand, he ordered the people to go back.

After walking for less than an hour, there was a sudden sound of scattered horses' hooves behind him, listening to the sound, there should not be many people, Xie Zhenggang couldn't help but take out the binoculars curiously and looked back, it turned out to be five people dressed up quickly!

These people have official business, five people, even if they are bandits pretending to be robbers, it doesn't matter much, so Xie Zhenggang didn't care much, just waved everyone to continue to go back.

Unexpectedly, after the five catchers caught up, they shouted angrily: "Stop, which of you are in the dart game?" If you don't plant a dart flag, you won't be a bandit! ”

Xie Zhenggang wondered, which of our darts game is your, why do you have to plant a dart flag, can't you do it, do you have to take care of this?

In order not to make any extraneous branches, he still arched his hand and said: "We are from the Guangzhou Mansion Fenwei Dart Bureau." ”

One of the head-hunting people sneered: "Fenwei Dart Bureau, okay, you dare to hide firearms privately, and hand over the firearms, you go to the county government with us." ”

Wrong, Xie Zhenggang said inexplicably: "What kind of private firearms, why should I go to the county government with you?" ”

When the catcher heard this, he looked at him, drew his knife and shouted angrily: "You want to resist arrest, don't you? ”

The other four caught quickly and quickly pulled out their waist knives, looking like they were going to eat them.

If it was really a dart game, it would probably be scared by them, but unfortunately, they found the wrong person.

Xie Zhenggang said without hesitation: "Zhang Pan will take your people up and take them down." ”

These people must be in the same league as the bandits, so they should be arrested and interrogated.

When Zhang Pan heard this, he didn't hesitate to pull out his waist knife and rushed towards the headcatcher, and the other members of his team also took out their waist knives and surrounded them.

Seeing this, the head catcher shouted: "What are you doing, you want to rebel, right? ”

Zhang Pan was too lazy to take care of him, and when he went up, he hurriedly raised his knife to parry, "click", his thin waist knife was cut off by the Qi family knife in Zhang Pan's hand, he didn't understand what was going on, his chin was pressed by the tip of the knife, Zhang Pan said coldly: "Put down the knife, otherwise I will kill him." ”

The other four catchers were scared silly, what kind of speed is this, in the blink of an eye, their head-catching knife was broken, and the other people's knives didn't know how to appear under the chin of the head-catcher, as soon as Zhang Pan spoke, they immediately subconsciously threw the knife in their hands.

Seeing this, Xie Zhenggang said coldly: "All tied up and thrown in the car." ”

The people sent out to investigate came back one after another, and they also caught a lot of bandits, Guangdong is really the same as Huang Cheng said, bandits are prevalent, even the place is not wrong, Yongan is the nest of bandits, Shunde is the nest of water bandits, the beggars pretending to be caught by the women's gang are a nest, and the madman gang did not dare to arrest them, but they also found several gathering places.

Zhang Bin looked at the confessions that came out of the interrogation, and his face became more and more angry.

The slightest thing that has been passed down by the people, officials at all levels really dare to let it go, how dark it is!

Well, one by one, I'll see how dark you are.

After reading the confession, Zhang Bin directly slapped the table and shouted angrily: "Zhao Ru, send someone to inform Wang Er and Sun Biao, and let them bring all their subordinates to surround the yamen of the procuratorial envoy, and Zhang Jiuxian, the procuratorial envoy, will arrest me first, and I will interrogate him personally." ”

Zhao Ru, who was on duty outside, replied and obeyed, and immediately sent someone to inform Wang Er and Sun Biao to go.

At this time, the whole city of Guangzhou was in a sensation, and the Yamen of the Provincial Punishment and Prosecution Department, who was in charge of the province's criminal names and lawsuits, was surrounded by people, and Zhang Jiuxian, the Inspector of Justice, was arrested by the Governor and went to the Yamen of the Metropolitan Division!

The common people couldn't help but discuss, some people were very confused, some people were very frightened, some people were very excited, some people gritted their teeth, and some people clapped their hands and applauded.

In fact, what Zhang Bin saw when he first came, the smiling faces of the common people were not their real heartfelt laughter, they were indeed oppressed by the local gentry, and they were also miserable by bandits, but people always have to live, at the beginning, they must have been angry, and they may have resisted.

However, after a long time, a year, two years, ten years, or even decades, everyone is numb, and even feels that this is normal life.

Although it is not enough to be squeezed, it is not enough to starve to death, right?

Although he was killed, he was still alive, right?

Cry when you should cry, laugh when you should laugh, and be happy when you encounter happy things, you can't be bitter and hateful all day long, but the days are over, right?

It was hard to see a court official, and the usual villains were gone, and they could get a handful of flowers for free, which was already a relatively happy thing, so they laughed.

As for blocking the road and shouting grievances along the street, these things may have been done before, but the bandits are still so rampant, which proves that they did it in vain, and once the court officials leave, they will be retaliated against, so they don't shout or scream, they just get by.

However, this time, the Governor actually sent people to surround the Yamen of the Inspectorate and arrest the Inspector, they seemed to see real hope, but no Governor had done this before, perhaps, this time, the Governor really wanted to rectify the officialdom and clean up the bandits, so the people's already numb hearts began to throb again.

So, can Zhang Bin completely straighten out the Guangdong officialdom?

He was naturally confident, but Zhang Jiucheng was skeptical of him.

Therefore, Zhang Jiucheng was still a little arrogant when he was escorted to the lobby of the Dusi Yamen, and he kept scolding and threatening Zhang Bin's personal guards in the lobby until Zhang Bin came in with a stack of confessions, and they stopped scolding, stood there upright and said coldly to Zhang Bin: "Lord Governor, what do you mean, why don't you arrest me at all?" ”

Zhang Bin sat down and sneered: "Nothing? All the common people know that there are many mountain thieves in Yong'an, many water bandits in Shunde, the women's gang abducts and sells children everywhere, kidnaps the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, and the madmen gang extorts and is insatiable all day long. ”

Zhang Jiucheng quibbled: "These are all folk rumors, Lord Governor, how can you believe the rumors?" ”

Zhang Bin raised the confession in his hand and asked rhetorically: "This official has arrested a lot of bandits, is it also a rumor that they confessed themselves?" ”

Zhang Jiucheng continued to quibble: "Confessions are sometimes not credible, and civilians sometimes bend to confess that they are bandits, these are not necessarily true, anyway, I have never heard of it." ”

Damn, this guy is really shameless, shameless in front of me, you're afraid you're looking for the wrong person.

Zhang Bin picked up the startling wood and slapped it, and said coldly: "Kneel." ”

Zhang Jiucheng rolled his eyes, and slowly knelt down, he is also a veteran of torture, knowing that the above trial told you to kneel, if you don't kneel, your knee socket will be seriously injured, the hero doesn't suffer the loss in front of him, anyway, just grit his teeth and don't admit it, these things, if you want to talk about it, it has nothing to do with him, I don't know, what can you do to me!

Zhang Bin asked coldly: "Zhang Jiucheng, do you recruit or not?" ”

Zhang Jiucheng simply played a scoundrel and said: "Lord Governor, I don't know anything, what are you recruiting?" ”

Zhang Bin sneered: "All the people know it, but you, as the chief judge of a province, don't you know?" ”

Zhang Jiucheng continued to play scoundrel and said: "Ordinary people are easy to be deceived, I am not so easy to deceive, and I will not listen to the general nonsense." ”

This guy is really shameless, Zhang Bin gritted his teeth and said: "Don't force this official, say, how many bribes you have collected and how many benefits you have gained, and you have connived at bandits so much!" ”

Zhang Jiucheng said very simply: "My lord, I am wronged, I don't know anything!" ”

Zhang Bin suddenly softened his face and pretended to be puzzled: "You really don't know anything?" ”

Zhang Jiucheng nodded seriously and said, "I really don't know anything." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said: "Okay, it seems that those people in the Crazy Gang are all liars, and it just happens that the prison cells are not enough, you can be wronged first, live with them for a few days, and then release you after the official finds out the truth." ”

When Zhang Jiucheng heard this, his face changed drastically, what kind of joke are you kidding, live with the madmen to help those tuberculosis ghosts live for a few days, and this life will be over!

He hurriedly begged for mercy: "My lord, don't lock your subordinates with them!" ”

Zhang Bin sneered: "Don't you know nothing, didn't you say that it's all fake, what's wrong with living with them for a few days?" Come....... ”

Zhang Jiucheng shouted in fright: "My lord, slow down, slow down." ”

Zhang Bin said lightly: "The official will ask you again, whether to recruit or not." ”

Zhang Jiucheng thought for a long time with a struggling face, and finally hung his head and said, "I'll recruit." ”