The leading officer among the three is called Qiao Wu, and he hugged his fist to Xue and said: "Erlang Xiu wants to misunderstand, my brother is also doing this for the good of this righteous man, Mr. Xue returned from a study tour, and his property is less than two times, if it is a simple robbery case, it is not a big case, but now that there is a human life, this has become a troublesome matter." ”

The old writer said: "The murder case should be tried in court according to the rules, and the people should be invited to hear the trial, and there will be no delay at all. It's better to go back to the city overnight and let Chen Shaofu check it, that is a fine person, but if there is an omission, it is easy to remedy, and the case will be done to death overnight, and it will be presented to Zhu Mingfu tomorrow morning. ”

Qiao Wudao: "Erlang but put his heart in his stomach, people are killed by wolves, this is the will of God, Zhu Mingfu is jealous and hateful by nature, and he will definitely uphold justice." ”

Xue Fang was speechless, and told the three of them to stay less, since he went back to his mother and eldest brother Xue Rong knew that Xue Rong and his younger brother rushed over when he was young, and explained two sentences of the scene to the three people, so he took three burdens from the hand of the attendant Qingmo and handed them to the three, and the three of them were flattered and bowed down to accept them.

Xue Rong raised his hand and bowed again, bluffing the three of them to bow back.

Xue Rong secretly instructed Li Mao: "My parents were my best friends when I was studying in Chang'an, and I have sent a letter to it, so it is safe." The people of the judicial department have also taken care of it, and you only need to state the facts according to the confession, and someone will exonerate you. I asked Qingmo to accompany me, and tomorrow I should personally go into the city to meet my brother. ”

The explanation has been completed, send the five people to Zhuangkou, the Xue family prepared cloth shoes for Li Mao to change, the burden was carried by Qingmo, and he was not shackled, Qiao Wu carried a stick to open the way, and the other two tolerances were postponed, and a group of five people said goodbye to the Xue Rong brothers and left Xuejiazhuang.

When the sky was already dark, the sky was as thick as ink, everyone walked with torches, and returned to the county seat with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and after the city guard verified his identity, he put down the hanging basket and pulled five people up to the city. After entering the city, Qiao Wu said to everyone: "Let's open the court overnight to ask the case, everyone don't sleep, and have a good night tonight." ”

Both of them were bribed by the Xue family, so they naturally agreed. Chen Shaoying, the lieutenant of Baoding County, had already been bought, and was waiting in the yazhong at the moment, as soon as Li Mao arrived, he opened the court to ask the case, and all the red tape was omitted, Chen Shaoying did not play an official tone, and after asking the whole story of the robbery in the forest, he locked his brows, meditated for a moment to know where the joints were, and clicked a few words on Qiao Wu, and asked him to take Li Mao to re-record the confession.

Qiao Wu burned the original confession, and invited Pang Ba, a senior sword and pen officer in the yazhong, to help consider it, and re-recorded a confession at the third watch, and showed it to Chen Shaoying, Chen Shaoying looked at it carefully, nodded slightly, and then ordered the promotion to the court, one question and one answer, and at dawn the robbery case in the forest was finally solved.

After the preliminary trial, the county lieutenant Chen Shaoying yawned and went all the way to the back office, saying that he wanted to make up for sleep.

Qiao Wu led Li Mao to his duty room, while sending the local soldiers to fetch water to wash their faces and prepare breakfast, and on the other hand, they pointed out to Li Mao the matters that needed to be paid attention to when the county respected the meeting was opened. There was no flaw in the performance, Qiao Wucai had breakfast with Li Mao, and the breakfast included corn porridge, steamed buns, fried fruits, pickles, and baked cakes, which were also very hearty.

After the meal, the young man who went to Xuejiazhuang with Qiao Wu last night brought a pair of shackles and asked Qiao Wu if he put them on Li Mao, Qiao Wu said: "This is a righteous man who went to thieves to save people, what kind of shackles do you wear?" The messenger said: "Today, the eldest lord invited his father and the common people to listen to the trial to show justice. If a righteous man does not wear shackles to the church, he may be criticized. Qiao Wu frowned, and Li Mao said: "Why make trouble, although people are killed by wolves, it is me who knocks people unconscious, and it should be so." ”

The county ordered Zhu Ming to open a court to try the case, because the matter involved a court official, in order to show caution, Zhu Ming invited the elders and people in the city to watch the trial, Xue Rong because he was an official, it was inconvenient to sue, and sent his brother Xue Fang to tell the bitter master. After the opening of the court, Zhu Ming's trial was at a glance, and the county lieutenants Chen Shaoying, Qiao Wu, and other messengers, servants, bitter masters, and witnesses, the elders and Li Zheng of the township where Xuejiazhuang was located, and the village chief and the chief of the village of Benzhuang were respectively present for interrogation.

Before the trial reached the afternoon, the case came to light, and the county commander Zhu Ming slapped the wood in his hand, pronounced Li Mao's acquittal in the court, and instructed the people: "Good and evil will eventually be rewarded, those three thieves escaped the law of the country, but they could not escape the wolf's mouth. All of them must be taken as a warning. "The people who observe and judge worship only the only one.

In front of everyone, Zhu Ming personally went down to the hall to relieve Li Mao of his handcuffs, shook his hand and declared to the people in the village: "Not afraid of life and death, fighting three thieves alone, sacrificing oneself for others, this is a real strong man." Immediately ordered to be honored, given ten pieces of money, two sets of clothes, sideburns and treasure flowers, riding horses and parades, and after the matter was completed, the gift was sent back to Xuejiazhuang.

Xue Jiazhuang has already prepared a feast, slaughtered 20 sheep, killed 50 chickens, 50 ducks, opened 10 jars of wine, invited the elders of the village to come to celebrate, just during the banquet, presided over by the elders in the township and the elders of the clan, Xue Rong and Li Mao officially worshiped as brothers, and wrote a congratulatory message to be enshrined in the Xue family ancestral hall. Since then, they have been called brothers.

Xue Rong has a very high rank in Xuejiazhuang, the tide is rising, Li Mao's generation has also come up all of a sudden, and there is an endless stream of juniors who come to toast during the banquet, so that Li Mao, who has a lot of wine, is also a little overwhelmed, and unconsciously has seven or eight points of drunkenness, he was shocked to realize that he was afraid that the drunken gaffe would make people laugh, so he refused to drink again. The old lady sent Xue Fang, Qingmo, Lao Gu and others to send Li Mao back to the guest room to rest.

One night asleep, the second day dawn, listening to the birdsong outside the window, and seeing the window paper is white, the wine is gone, at this moment the ears are clear and the eyes are clear, and the body is full of energy.

Li Mao quietly got out of bed, wrapped the quilt around his waist to cover his shame, his clothes were stained by wine, and let Lao Gu take it to wash.

was thinking about opening the door to call Lao Gu, but the door was suddenly kicked open, and Li Mao was startled by a "bang", and he subconsciously ducked back, fully guarded. Kicking the door early in the morning is hard to ensure that it is not a bad person.

Kicking in the door was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old young man in Tsing Yi, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, slender waist, although wearing men's clothes, but full of daughterhood, she rolled up her sleeves and held a huge wooden basin, she was staggeringly walking, kicking the door with her feet, not because of any evil intentions, but because her hands were not free and could not push the door.

Li Mao saw that she was struggling to hold the wooden basin, so he hurriedly reached out to pick it up, but the woman was startled, and hurriedly put the basin into her arms. Pulling and pulling, the water in the basin splashed, and a splash hit her face, the woman screamed with a frightened "wow", let go to cover her face, and as soon as her hand was released, a basin of water with a heavy wooden basin smashed heavily on Li Mao's feet......

"Ahh The woman covered her mouth and screamed, and quickly squatted down to clean up the basin.

"Ahh The woman screamed again and quickly covered her eyes.

Just as she lowered her head to clean up the wooden basin, the quilt around Li Mao's waist quietly slipped off, and a strange thing appeared in front of her at first glance, and she couldn't help but scream.

Li Mao's face was slightly hot, he calmly lifted the quilt to protect his body, coughed, and said with a red face: "I'm fine, the water is spilled, you go and call again." When the woman heard that she was amnesty, she hurriedly picked up the basin and fled out of the house, her steps were a little vain, but her legs seemed to be filled with lead, and she walked very hard.

She didn't come back after she went, it was Lao Gu who came, and brought a basin full of warm water with the wooden basin that the woman brought water just now, this old man's beard was white, but his face was ruddy like a child, and his teeth were snow-white. Lao Er put down the water and cloth towel, and shouted to serve Li Mao to wipe his body, but Li Mao drove him out without hesitation.

After the autumn of Hezhong Prefecture, there are often strong winds and sand, and people with conditions rub their bodies twice in the morning and evening to keep their skin clean.