After moving to the shore, it was not until the second half of the night that the team stationed on the shore completely calmed down. It was also at this quiet moment that a boatman quietly left the team, and walked quietly towards a wooded field in the distance, suddenly, he heard an abnormal movement in the right rear, he immediately realized that the situation was not good, so he quickly ran to the left front, and at the same time turned his head to the side and tried to observe, but he paid attention to the back but did not pay attention to the foot, stepped on the air, fell into a big pit, the incident happened suddenly, the boatman was defenseless, and fell directly and fainted.

As soon as the boatman fell, three figures immediately appeared on the edge of the pit, and one of them said, "There should be a note on him, find it." ”

Sure enough, they found a note on the boatman, and by the moonlight, seeing the content of the note, the bald head in the middle of the three smiled, shook the note and said: "As expected, brother, the rest depends on you, the handwriting must be imitated, and the tone will follow his." ”

Early the next morning, in the county office of Cao County, the closest county seat to the anchor of the Cao boat, Cai Mi, the magistrate of Cao County, was urgently called out from the bed by his subordinates, and the subordinates who called him up told him very nervously that the imperial court had sent someone.

As soon as Cai Mi heard that someone from the imperial court was coming, he was frightened and trembling in his heart, this is not the performance appraisal period of the ministry, and he has not heard of any changes in the yamen of the political envoy, how can the imperial court come out of thin air? Could it be that something leaked out? If it is really found out, his whole family will have only a dead end. But when I think about it, I can't, I've always been cautious, and I haven't made any mistakes.

With a nervous mood, Cai Mi came to the second hall of the county government tremblingly, only to see three people sitting in the middle of the second hall leisurely drinking tea, Cai Mi did not dare to slack off, quickly bowed forward, and said with a smile: "The next official is the magistrate of this county, everyone is coming, there is a long way to welcome, forgive your sins." ”

The shortest of the three spoke: "Cai Zhixian, you are guilty." ”

Cai Mi chuckled in her heart, her face turned white with fright, what were she afraid of, could she really be found out? Somehow, his tongue suddenly stopped obeying, and he stammered when he spoke: "I don't know...... What does the difference mean, the lower official...... The lower officials have always been diligent and diligent in their official duties, and they don't know what the crime is. ”

"I really don't know what the crime is?" This person walked up to Cai Mi and stared at Cai Mi deadly, "Do you need me to remind your county?" ”

Cai Mi's lips are already blue, he really can't bear it, his official hasn't done enough, he has studied hard for many years, and he is a scholar and a first, just for the black gauze hat on his head, but, hey, why didn't he resist the temptation in the first place, if he didn't accept the money, "Xiaguan...... Xiaguan, I really don't know what the upper chagrin is talking about. ”

The person who spoke to Cai Mi was Yao Guangqi, he circled Cai Mi twice, and at the same time took out a waist card from his arms, shook it in front of Cai Mi, and said very confidently: "Do you see it clearly", what Yao Guangqi showed Cai Mi was the waist card of the "Dadu Governor's Mansion" that Yuan Heng showed Chen Shu before, "We are the secret faction of the Dadu Governor's Mansion, and we were ordered to secretly visit the important criminal wanted by the imperial court, the anti-thief Zhang Dingbian, and it has been ascertained that Zhang Dingbian and his comrades are hiding in your county" Seeing Cai Mi looking at himself nervously, Yao Guangqi continued: "Someone secretly reported that you accepted bribes from the anti-thieves, deliberately connived at and harbored the anti-thieves, and plotted against them. ”

Cai Mi almost jumped up in a hurry, although what he said was not what he was worried about, but harboring and colluding with thieves is a bigger and more fatal crime, this crime is also a big crime of killing the head and destroying the door, the crime he said, don't say that he doesn't have it, even if he has it, he can't admit it, so Cai Mi almost shouted: "Whoever spews blood, please call this person out, I want to confront him face to face, the lower official receives the favor of the country, serves the court, and can't suffer this injustice." ”

Yao Guangqi put away his waist card and said: "As an official of the imperial court, if you want to say that you colluded with the traitor, we don't believe it." Moreover, we have secretly visited in the past two days, and the reputation of your county is still good, and the people of Cao County say that you are a good official, and we have not found any evidence of your collusion with the anti-thief. However, in order to set the record straight, we still hope that your county can personally lead people to capture the anti-thieves with us, of course, since assisting us in capturing the anti-thieves is to serve the imperial court, then in the future, your county will definitely be a great merit in the book of merit of the Metropolitan Governor's Office. ”

Cai Mi secretly let out a sigh of relief, it's good that the incident leaked, but how could there be a fork in the coffin to harbor the thief out of thin air? Why did Zhang Dingbian's bastard come to my Cao County, where did you go to kill a thousand knives, but you ran to me. There's no way, since the anti-thieves are here, hurry up and gather people to do it, pick it up first, and just like the boss said, if you really catch a few anti-thieves, maybe you can really have your own credit in the future book, and when the officials report on their work and evaluate their merits, they will definitely be promoted.

Thinking of this, Cai Mi Zhengse said: "The lower official is only the head of the horse, the county will convene the officials, and the county can also summon hundreds of people, I don't know how many people are there who are thieves, whether these people in the county are enough, if the manpower is not enough, the county will immediately report to the government and ask the government to send people for reinforcements." ”

Yao Guangqi waved his hand and said: "Don't report it, it's not clear if anyone in your house has colluded with this gang of thieves, once there is collusion, then reporting it is equivalent to reporting to the thieves." Speaking of this, Yao Guangqi smiled: "Besides, you don't want others to share your work." You quietly gather people, don't make a noise, don't say it's to catch the traitor, just say that someone from the prefecture wants to check the vacancies. ”

Cai Mi hurriedly nodded yes, and then went to gather people.

In the evening of the same day, Cai Mi gathered more than 600 people gathered in the square in front of the Jingshan Pavilion in the county seat. ”

Yao Guangqi took a step forward and said loudly: "According to reliable information, dozens of anti-thieves have infiltrated the territory of Cao County a few days ago. When everyone hears this, kill a thief and exempt your family from servitude for three years, and capture a thief alive and exempt your family from taxes and grain for three years. ”

As soon as Yao Guangqi finished announcing the reward, the people below began to chatter, in the face of such a tempting reward, although these farmers were temporarily gathered, but they were all already eager to try, Yao Guangqi saw that the morale had been boosted, and shouted: "Go." ”

At the same time, in a hidden water village more than 60 miles away from the county seat, a group of water bandits had also been assembled, and the water bandit boss Chaojiang Long also gave an order, and all the water bandits were also dispatched.