The moment of the release of the imperial examination finally came, and the sound of gongs and drums, firecrackers, and cheers came and went in Pingkangfang, but this was like a few small waves on the sea, and tens of thousands of scholars only admitted less than 200 people, and the vast majority of scholars were silent, or sighed, packed up and prepared to come again next year; or keep your eyes open to look for signs of collusion between officials and officials, and find a psychological comfort for your own fall, every year.

But this year they seem to smell a little bit of smell, a piece of gossip quietly circulated among the scholars, half of the Jinshi admitted to the imperial examination this time are the younger brothers of the wealthy and powerful in Chang'an, the fourth place is actually Yang Xuan of Taifu Siqing and Jingzhao Yin Yang Guozhong, and the eighth place is Zhang Zheng of Yushi Cheng Zhang Yizhi, which is a bit ambiguous, regardless of whether people understand their talents or not, but there are two high-ranking officials in the top ten, neither a big family, nor a scholarly family, especially Yang Guozhong, doesn't he climb up by nepotism?

For a while, there was a lot of discussion in Chang'an, but the suspicions of the scholars did not seem to have enough evidence to support them, and the time passed quietly in silence, and it was the third day in a blink of an eye.

In the early morning of this day, Li Qing just arrived at the Yamen of the Ministry of Households, but suddenly received an urgent report from the Huichang County Yamen, the Huichang County cabinet was stolen last night, and the tax money that was not stored in the warehouse was stolen, which was the first theft case since the establishment of the cabinet workshop, the matter is not very big, but Huichang County is very close to Chang'an, once the news spreads, the impact will be very bad, the tea that has just been rushed has not been drunk, Li Qing turned over and got on the horse, and hurried under the escort of a group of guards.

Huichang County was renamed in Tianbao three years by Xinfeng County, that is, today's Lintong County, the large-scale Shanhua Qing Palace is in the county, about more than ten miles away from Chang'an, Li Qing and his party quickly whipped up, and arrived at the place of the incident in less than an hour.

Huichang County cabinet is located in the north gate of the county, was originally a grocery store, after the death of the shopkeeper property no one inherited, it was collected by the government, after the establishment of the county's official cabinet workshop, this shop was changed to a place of business.

The problem lies in the structure of the grocery store, its walls are rammed with yellow mud, not bluestone, but the wall was wet with water at night, a large hole was dug out, and the 200 yuan that had not yet had time to be delivered to Chang'an was stolen, but fortunately, the account books were not damaged, which was an unfortunate blessing.

The official has blocked the scene, the men and the deacon have been invited to the yamen to interrogate, this is actually just a routine procedure, the scene did not leave any clues, let alone the high-tech extraction of fingerprints in later generations, etc., it is a typical headless public case, Li Qing came here to do the main thing to make a statement, to characterize the matter, as soon as possible to eliminate the impact, to restore the normal business of the cabinet, as for the case to solve the case and arrest people, it is not a top priority, only one hour, the shopkeeper and the clerk began to return one after another, filling the double loopholes on the wall and management, reopened for business, and the theft storm passed temporarily.

When he went back, Li Qing took another road, that is, through Lishan Mountain, bypassing Huaqing Palace and returning to Chang'an, he wanted to recognize the road, Li Longji came to Huaqing Palace almost every year to spend the winter, and this road would inevitably run back and forth.

A group of people walked along the foothills, the scenery in this area is beautiful, the dense towering ancient trees on the official road cover the sky and the sun, the breeze is gentle, the ears are full of cheerful birdsong, there is no pedestrian on the road, it seems very quiet.

"Governor, there seem to be several carriages blocking the way two miles ahead." Li Fei Shouyu urged the horse forward, pointing to the distant road, his eyesight was better than ordinary people, and he saw a carriage parked at the turn of the official road from afar.

Li Qingshun looked at his fingers, but he couldn't see anything, and walked hundreds of steps, only to find that there were several carriages in the distance, and further on the road up the mountain, a narrow white mountain road was faintly visible winding upward.

"What are they doing in their way?"

The carriage was on the official road blocking the way, and dozens of fierce-looking family members saw that there were more than 200 people from the government riding over, and they did not dare to provoke, so they hurriedly ordered the coachman to stop the carriage to the side to make way, Li Qing couldn't help but slow down the speed of the horse, and looked at the fierce-eyed family members in surprise as he walked.

After walking more than a hundred steps, he saw that there were several carriages blocking the road at the other end, and it was the path up the mountain, Li Qing gradually became suspicious, he looked up at the mountain, only to see that the mountain was very quiet, and he couldn't see anything unusual.

"Shouyu, what do you see?" Li Qing turned around and asked.

Li Fei Shouyu watched the curtain for a long time, and shook his head and said: "I can't see the movement, but I think that the more calm it is, the more ghosts it has." ”

"It's the same as what I saw."

Li Qing turned around and gave Li Fei Yuanli a look, he nodded knowingly, and at the moment when he approached a cluster of trees, Li Fei Yuanli tapped the saddle, and his huge body floated away like a paper silhouette, and disappeared into the trees in an instant.

The group passed the car blocking the road, walked another hundred steps, stopped at a turn, waited for the news of Li Fei Yuanli, about two quarters of an hour, only to see him out of the bushes, with a strange look on his face, forced to hold back a smile, Li Fei Yuanli flew from the tree and jumped onto the official road, and couldn't help but cover his mouth and smile and bend over.

Li Fei Shouyu was so anxious that he complained: "Big brother, don't laugh, you can talk quickly!" What exactly do you see? ”

Li Fei Yuanli took a breath and said, "I saw a large array of human flesh, and in broad daylight, more than a dozen pairs of men and women gathered

Do that kind of thing. ”

"What?" Li Fei Shouyu couldn't believe his ears, "Who are they, so **?" ”

"I don't know, but judging from the clothes they took off on the ground, they should be scholars."

Seeing Li Qing's cold eyes and gloomy face, the smile on his face retracted, and he carefully added: "Those women are all wearing heavy makeup and smiling debauchery, like prostitutes. ”

"Enough!" Li Qing interrupted him, this kind of thing happened in the daylight, Li Qing's face was pale, he pointed at Brother Lifei, and ordered: "You take the brothers to arrest all these bastards, and whoever dares to stop and resist will beat me hard!" I want to see, whose brother is this? ”

"Obey!"

More than 200 guards under the leadership of the Li Fei brothers, galloping towards the intersection of the road, dozens of family members saw that the situation was not good, one after another turned around and fled, a few people who did not know what to do and rushed up, but they were beaten in three or two hands and feet, paralyzed to the ground, the guards immediately jumped off the horse, like the tide against the current rushed to the mountain.

After a few moments, the sound of screaming and crying gradually came, getting closer and closer, and finally dozens of disheveled men and women were escorted down the mountain, barefoot, with their hands on top of their heads, all of them frightened, and the few who walked in front were beaten to the point that their noses were blue and swollen, and they walked with a limp.

"Governor, that's them!"

Li Fei Shouyu handed over a bag of searched student records, "They are all from Chang'an, and most of them are new science and technology scholars this year." ”

Li Qing took it, flipped through it casually, and read their names one by one: "Zheng Yu, Liu Shen, Guo Baoheng, Wang Chong, Zhang Daoyin.

A group of young people trembled with fright, and fell to their knees one after another, begging Li Qing to let them go this time.

"You have all read the books of the sages in vain!"

Li Qing's eyes glared fiercely, and he said sharply to them: "If you want to go to the brothel of the Qinglou, just close the door, and no one will stop you, but you dare to collectively prostitute yourself in broad daylight and do such a scandalous thing that corrupts morality, if people like you can also be officials and officials and educate the people, wouldn't it become a great shame for me to be a big shame for the Tang Dynasty!" ”

He waved his hand and said hatefully: "Escort them all to me back to Chang'an and go to the Ministry of Officials for the record!" ”

Speaking of this, Li Qingxin suddenly moved, this is an opportunity for Yang Shenjin to solve the trap, in his plan, if you want this Li Linfu to be about to make trouble to protect Yang Shenjin, one is to let Yang's father pretend to be crazy and hide from the king: =., this is an opportunity, Yang Shenjin pushed the boat down the river, and he could resolve this crisis without leaving a trace.

After thinking about it, he no longer cared about the pleading of these soldiers, and waved his hand and ordered: "Take it away for me!" ”

The guards rushed up like wolves, dragged the slumped taxis and prostitutes to the ground, stuffed them into several carriages, and locked them up, and the carriages rumbled and marched towards Chang'an with shouts and shouts.

.

When Li Qing returned to Chang'an at dusk, hundreds of Hedong scholars who were dissatisfied with the imperial examination had gathered near the Suzaku Gate in the imperial city, carrying portraits of Confucius, and they were enthusiastic and denounced the fraud in the imperial examination.

Before and after them, a large number of Jin Wuwei were already waiting for them, and if this group of soldiers did anything out of the ordinary or said anything disrespectful, Jin Wuwei would forcibly disperse them.

As night fell, the situation began to expand, and more and more taxis rushed to hear the news, and they sat silently on the ground, expressing their protest with silence, and the black pressure outside the Suzaku Gate was filled with tens of thousands of soldiers.

Li Linfu has already come out to express his position, he patted his chest and said that he would definitely report the matter to the emperor and strictly examine whether there was any fraud, this is the opportunity that Li Linfu was waiting for, he originally wanted to instigate Li Qing to come forward to expose Yang Guozhong's fraud in the imperial examination for him, so as to trigger the case, Li Qing also agreed, but after the case of King Qing, he seemed to smell something, and he was not at ease with Li Qing, so he changed his strategy and turned to stir up the dissatisfaction of the Shi to create opportunities, and now, he has succeeded, and Li Longji has been alarmed, A eunuch was sent to inquire what had happened?

Li Qing had already secretly imprisoned the group of soldiers, at this moment he was hurrying up, in a race against time, he had to rush before Li Linfu was summoned by the emperor to let Yang Shenjin submit the report first, otherwise Yang Shenjin would have to shoulder the responsibility for the dereliction of duty of the officials, the war horse quickly passed through several small streets, and quickly stopped in front of Yang Shenjin's house.

Li Qingfei dismounted, ran up the steps in a few steps, slammed the door hard, and several family members opened a crack, and suddenly recognized him as the person who wore linen and filial piety on the old lady's birthday and came to make trouble. Scared 'Bang!' The door slammed shut again.

"Hurry up and tell Yang Shilang to me, if you don't see me again, he will die without a place to be buried."

But Li Qing said it a few times, there was still no movement inside, and no one went to pass the word for him, Li Qing was furious, and immediately turned around and ordered: "Come here, knock the door open for me!" ”