Two days later, Nantong State Wharf.

Compared with Beitongzhou, Nantong Prefecture has a complete post station system and developed transportation, in addition to an open water transport wharf, which is the end point of the Grand Canal that connects the north and south.

Since the opening of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, it has been the most important transportation hub in the Central Plains. Water transportation has the safety and comfort that the land route lacks, and the loading capacity of ships is far better than that of chariots and horses on land, so the canal played an extremely key role in the subsequent traffic of various goods between the north and the south, and thus produced a large number of water transportation industries, and the Cao Gang, the world's largest gang that was born with it.

In addition to the bulk of goods and tribute will be transported from the canal, many court officials and merchants will also choose this more convenient passage when entering and leaving the capital, which makes Nantong Prefecture much busier than Beitongzhou, especially on the wharf, which is crowded every day, thousands of sails back and forth.

When it was in the middle of the sky that day, Lu Zhen sent Chu Yunrong and Cuimei's two daughters, plus two county officials, to the pedal of a passenger ship with an official flag that was about to set sail. This ship is the car of an official who went to Jiangnan to collect taxes from the Ministry of Households, and Lu Zhen sent the second daughter to this official ship through Hu Hui's relationship.

Although it is now a peaceful and prosperous era, the situation outside the capital is still complicated. If Chu Yunrong's second daughter was allowed to go on the road alone, Lu Zhen would not be able to feel at ease no matter what. Now that they can be entrusted to their colleagues who are also officials in the DPRK and China, there is no longer a problem in terms of safety, and those bandits, no matter how bold they are, will not dare to fight the idea of official ships.

Before sending the second daughter to the ship, Lu Zhen suddenly called out "Yunrong ......"

Chu Yunrong looked at him in response, his eyes full of reluctance. She and this man just showed their hearts to each other, but they were about to separate, which made her heart full of feelings. After the two looked at each other for a while, Lu Zhen finally stretched out his hand and put a money bag in her hand: "This trip to Suzhou is precious, you take this money with you, if there is anything wrong after you go back, remember to send me a letter." Even if I am far away in the capital, I will definitely think of helping you. ”

The affectionate entrustment made Chu Yunrong's eyes red, and the attachment in his heart became deeper and deeper. But the mother is sick, how can she, the daughter, not rush back? So he just nodded lightly: "I remember, you also have to take care of yourself in the capital, don't be too tough in case of trouble, some things can be done......

Lu Zhen nodded: "Then you have a good trip!" As soon as he had said this, he slammed into the arms of the woman in front of him.

This sudden change was not only unexpected by Chu Yunrong, but everyone around was also surprised, especially Cui Mei, who stood on the side in a daze, not knowing what to do.

Chu Yunrong was suddenly hugged by Lu Zhen in public, and the sadness on his face suddenly turned into panic and shyness, and he subconsciously wanted to struggle. But then, after feeling the warmth and strength of the embrace, her movements slowed down again, and her body, which was originally a little stiff, slowly softened. This feeling of peace of mind and comfort made her forget her shyness, and she just wanted to stay in this embrace for a while.

Lu Zhen hugged her tightly in his arms, and after a while, he let go of his arms and said softly: "Be good all the way, remember that I will always be by your side." ”

Leaving this embrace, Chu Yunrong's face was so red that he almost dripped blood, and it took a while to respond like a gnat, then lowered his head, turned around and went to the boat. Cui Mei on the side came back to her senses at this time, and looked at her young lady and aunt with surprise and some pleasure, and then saluted Lu Jinfu: "Master, let's go." Please take care! Then he hurriedly chased his own lady and got on the boat.

After a commotion, the boat finally removed its pedals, hoisted its sails, and left the dock and headed south. At the stern of the boat, two shadows have been standing there, constantly waving goodbye to Lu Jin. And Lu Zhen also stood there and waved accordingly, until the boat finally became a small black dot and was never seen again.

After watching the ship go away and putting down his hand, Lu Zhen first let out a long sigh, and then his face gradually cooled, completely swept away the warmth and nostalgia just now, and replaced it with a resolute and resolute expression: "It's okay for you to leave the capital at this time, so that I don't have too many worries, and some things don't have to be tied!" ”

When he said these words in his heart, his right hand, which was shrunk in his sleeve, pinched a piece of paper, on which was a text from the yamen of the Ministry of Punishment......

@@@@@

Just yesterday, when Lu Zhen got the exact news from Hu Hu that there was an official ship that could carry the second daughter to Jiangnan, before he had time to be happy, a messenger sent a document from the Criminal Department.

At that time, Lu Zhen didn't care too much, as a yamen in the capital, although Daxing County did not have a high status, it could also receive many documents from various yamen every day. But after casually opening the document and reading it, his expression suddenly became grim, and the content on it was very simple, only asking him to retry a murder case that occurred in the county administration in March this year, and attaching some case files.

In fact, logically speaking, it is not a big deal for the criminal department to send a certain case back to the county government for retrial, and it has happened many times before. But you must know that Lu Jin, the magistrate of Daxing County, only took office in July, and the case in March had nothing to do with him.

Now that the Criminal Department has actually sent the case back for him to try, it is naturally worth touching. Linked to the previous incident of Li Gu in the criminal department who was deflated in the county government, and his son Li Huan was tortured and finally left Beijing, it naturally makes people wonder if there is anything wrong with this.

And when Lu Zhen saw Li Gu's seal at the end of the document, he completely implemented his guess. Obviously, this is revenge from Li Langzhong, that is to say, this case that has been retried in Daxing County must be unusual, and there must be some terrible dangers and traps hidden in it.

After understanding this, Lu Zhen immediately called Zeng Guang and Yue Liqiu over to ask for details. These two were in the county government at the time, so they naturally had some impressions of this case. Especially Yue Liqiu, at that time, he was still in charge of the county government prison history, and all kinds of big and small cases always had to go through his hands.

was called by Lu Jin, and after hearing about this, the two of them also looked very solemn. After circulating and reading the documents related to those cases, Yue Liqiu's face became more solemn: "My lord, this case is indeed a little strange. ”

Just now, Lu Zhen also hastily flipped through the case file, but the description above was very simple. It is only said that on the morning of the seventh day of the third lunar month, an early riser found the body of a man lying dead in a pool of blood at the mouth of an alley, and immediately reported it to the government.

Because this case occurred in Daxing County, the county government took the lead in dispatching people to investigate the scene and the body, and then found that the deceased was the owner of a Qinglou called Juchun Building in the capital, named Feng Changchun. Judging from the wounds on his body and the environment in which his corpse is displayed, it seems that it is just an ordinary robbery and murder.

The only thing that made Lu Zhen feel strange was that such a robbery and murder case had not been solved for several months, and now it was almost sealed by the Criminal Department, and was finally used by Li Gu to target him. Therefore, when Yue Liqiu said that this case was a little strange, although he frowned, he was not too surprised.

"What's wrong with this case? Tell me about it. Lu Jin was stunned for a moment before he said.

Yue Liqiu nodded and said, "Actually, when we first took over this case, we all thought it was just an ordinary robbery and murder case, and we also investigated and handled it according to ordinary cases. Although the status of the deceased is not low, he is only a businessman after all, so the things that should be asked have not been left behind. But as a result, after careful investigation, it was found that the Juchun Building was not simple, and it seemed that there were big people behind them taking care of them. ”

Lu Zhen nodded slightly, which he could understand very well. Although he has not been to this Juchun Building, he has also heard of its name for a long time, it is a gold cave that can rank among the top five in the capital, although it is not the industry of the Teaching Workshop Division, but the girl in it is not worse than the Teaching Workshop Division.

Such a good deal that is making money every day, it would be unbelievable to say that there is no backer behind it.

Yue Liqiu continued: "This thing is strange that there are obviously people behind them, but after this Boss Feng was killed, our county government was not under pressure from above, that is, neither the Criminal Department nor the Shuntian Mansion sent anyone to let us solve the case within a time limit, as if it was just an ordinary person who died." ”

Lu Jin's brows also frowned when he heard this: "If something goes wrong, there must be a demon, so it seems that his death is indeed very unusual." ”

"Exactly, but after all, this case is a matter of human life, and neither Xiaguan nor Li County Ling dared to take it lightly, so they visited several times, and even looked for some people and beggars who lived nearby......" Speaking of this, his face showed even greater confusion: "But when Xiaguan found a beggar who stayed at the nearby Guandi Temple overnight, and when he heard him say that he remembered that he had seen such a person, Shuntianfu suddenly sent someone over and took the case over completely." ”

"Is that so?" Lu Zhen was stunned: "The case just had a clue, and they took over?" ”

"Not bad. Because it was a homicide case, Li Xianling and Lu Tu both felt that it would be of great benefit to us to clear up the relationship, so they did not insist anymore and sent all the relevant case files and witnesses to Shuntianfu. After that, how to investigate the case has nothing to do with our Daxing County. Yue Liqiu said softly.

Lu Zhen glanced at the file in his hand, and became more and more curious: "This matter is even more strange, obviously the county government has found clues, why has it become such an unsolved case now, and it is almost sealed?" What unspeakable secrets are hidden in this case? ”