Chapter 684 The clues appeared

"Well, your analysis is good, since it is not my Suzhou officials who are doing ghosts, the next thing is to do it, you secretly ordered to go down, and order credible merchants to buy grain on a large scale!"

Zhao Yougong's trick is not clever, it is to lure him to profit, as long as the other party wants to make money from food, he will definitely not be able to help but tempt to sell grain, and whoever has a big hand will be likely to participate in this time. If no one shows up for a long time, then there is only one last possibility left, that is, the other party wants to use food to accomplish some purpose, rather than simply seeking money.

At the end of August of the seventh year of Xuanhe, Wu County and Suzhou Prefecture giant businessman Shang Xuebin released a rumor to buy grain, this Shang Xuebin is the Taishan Beidou in the wealthy businessmen of Suzhou Prefecture, and the influence of that sentence is very great. Of course, Shang Xuebin did this because of Peng Xin's instructions, the purpose was to see if he could find some abnormalities through the act of collecting grain, and of course, it was also very good to be able to collect some grain to alleviate the disaster, although the amount of food that could be collected was limited. Although this matter is the mouth of the Suzhou Mansion, Shang Xuebin still knows who really ordered this matter, Shang Xuebin climbed the road of Qin Wangfu, and he didn't see that Hangzhou fat pig Cao Fugui relied on His Royal Highness King Qin to rise to the top, so ah, Shang Xuebin did things, and he did his best.

On August 21, there is a shed in the southern suburbs of Wu County, many servants are constantly busy, this is the place where Shang Xuebin collects grain, at this time there is a long queue of people outside the shed, but although there are many people selling grain, they are all local people, and these people will not have too much rich grain. After all, the current situation in Suzhou is unstable. It is better to have food than not to have food. Shang Xuebin personally sat on the east side of the shed. Next to him sat a person with a gloomy expression, this person was Tang Miao, the head of the Dark Hall. The matter of food is too heavy, Tang Miao will not let go of any clues, since he collects grain, then he has to keep an eye on it personally, maybe there will be an unexpected harvest.

Shang Xuebin was still a little afraid of this General Tang, he always felt that General Tang was gloomy. Especially those eyes, which penetrate people's hearts, like a knife. Sitting at the table, it was Shang Xuebin who was talking all the time, Tang Miao just snorted from time to time, and gradually Shang Xuebin also felt bored, so he simply closed his mouth. The long queue outside the shed is getting longer and longer, but the harvest is small, and the only thing to be thankful for is that the harvest is much more than expected.

It is understandable that merchants near Suzhou do not sell grain. Before, Suzhou Prefecture gathered baggage and sent it to Kunshan, and it is estimated that it was bought in the hands of these merchants. If we collect grain now, these merchants will not be able to get it. Jiangnan and the north are different, like the northern tribes have the habit of storing grain, but the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River are different, the things in their hands are closer to circulation, the food is enough, and the surplus will also be used in exchange for money, so it seems that there are many rich merchants in Suzhou, but in fact there is not much food, and most of the grain here is Bianliang and Luoyang in the north of King Yun. Seeing that the day was about to pass and nothing was gained, in desperation, Shang Xuebin could only suspend the acquisition first and wait for the reopening early tomorrow morning.

Shang Xuebin was a little anxious, he was afraid that this method of collecting grain would be broken, so he was a little hesitant to continue, he didn't feel sorry for money, Suzhou Dahao, his family is rich, and he is richer than that Mantuo Villa, how can he care about this money? He was just afraid that he would be busy for a long time, and he would not gain anything, so he would not be able to please His Royal Highness King Qin, wouldn't he be very wronged?

Tang Miao was very waiting for people, of course he knew Shang Xuebin's thoughts, and when he returned to the merchant mansion in Wu County, he said, "Shang officials can rest assured, His Royal Highness has already instructed when he came, whether this matter is successful or not, the Qin Wangfu will read the help of the big officials." ”

Huh, in this way, Shang Xuebin completely put his mind at ease, as long as His Royal Highness King Qin reads it well, he smiled and arched his hand, "Where does General Tang say, helping the people of Suzhou to do something, it is a matter for someone to do it, please come in the general, eat first!" ”

Tang Miao showed a smile in her eyes, she deserved to be a famous big merchant in Suzhou Prefecture, and this mouth kung fu was really first-class. On the second day, the southern suburbs of Wu County set up a shed again, but there were many fewer people who came to sell grain today, as if they were afraid that the fish would not be baited, Shang Xuebin also increased the price and purchased it at three times the market price, but even so, there are still so few people who sell grain, it is very understandable, what can be sold was sold yesterday, and the rest are the necessary grain for life, that is, no one will sell it if it is ten times the price. Shang Xuebin was quite disappointed, but Tang Miao still sat firmly like a mountain, Tang Miao has a characteristic, that is, he is very patient, and he firmly believes that the other party will definitely show flaws under heavy profits.

At the end of the day, a thin man pushed a cart to the outside of the shed, and saw that the man was wearing a small hat, with a pair of sparse eyebrows, very thin lips, hanging eyes, and dark eyes, and at first glance he was a slippery man. Tang Miao just glanced at it, and felt that something was wrong, because there were three big bags of grain on the cart, and more importantly, there was a lot of mud on the wheels, and the man's forehead was sweating, which showed that this person had traveled a long way to come here. As far as Tang Miao knows, the richest village near Wu County is Mangxing Village on the edge of Taihu Lake, but even if it is rich, can a villager take out three bags of grain at once? You must know that this is more than 500 catties, and the grain left by a household in a year is usually only 200 catties, and it is impossible to sell it so much.

To Tang Miao's deep surprise, Shang Xuebin's eyebrows also raised, and Tang Miao immediately asked, "Shang official, what's the matter, do you know this person?" ”

"Don't hide it from General Tang, this son's name is Wang Kai, he is a good Lai Touzi, he lives in Huangye Village, he usually wanders around in this Wu County, and lives by those hawkers in the pit, and over time, everyone gave him the nickname Lai Touzi, which is the strength of his Laipi pit people, but looking at the appearance of this guy, I don't know where this grain came from, it is estimated that it came from that big family, right?"

Tang Miao smiled disapprovingly, he didn't think it was from the hands of some big family, from the direction of Wang Kai, it was not from Wu County at all, and then looking at the mud on the wheels and the sweat on Wang Kai's forehead, it was certain that he was not from Wu County, but from the south. Is it Mangxing Village or Huangye Village. Or maybe not any village. Tang Miao's face remained silent. But he called the two of them and commanded in a low voice, "Bring the grain sold by Lai Touzi over in a while, and besides, send someone to keep an eye on this person." ”

Tang Miao had already seen that Lai Touzi Wang Kai had a little problem, but he was still not sure, that Lai Touzi didn't know that he had been targeted, so he happily sold hundreds of catties of grain, and left happily with an unknown amount of money. Just as Tang Miao thought. Lai Touzi did not go back to Wu County, but pushed the trolley and walked south, so Tang Miao's suspicion of Lai Touzi deepened. Soon the two strong men moved a bag of grain, and when the sack was opened, Tang Miao smiled, and Shang Xuebin also poked his head to look, but it took a while for him to react. It turned out that the grain in this sack was a mixture of grain and rice, and if there was a little mixture, it would make sense, but it could be so much mixed. But it's kind of weird.

Tang Miao's policy of buying grain was based on these. At that time, the grain stored in the warehouse was rice and grain, and the other party could not throw the whole sack out of the hole, so they had to untie the sack and pour the grain down, which caused a problem, that is, the rice and grain would be mixed together. I didn't have much hope for this method, but I didn't expect it to work so quickly.

Lai Touzi walked happily on the road, he was happy in his heart, anyway, he grabbed so much food, and the leader would not find out if he lacked a few bags. Lai Touzi thought very beautifully, but he didn't know that there were already two more tails behind him, Bao Sen and Chen Ke followed all the way, and cautiously, Lai Touzi didn't notice it at all. Maybe it's because he got money, his spirit is refreshing, Lai Touzi walks easily and quickly, when passing by a willow forest, Lai Touzi also deliberately stopped to bury the money he got under a big willow tree, he looked left and right, a careful look, but he didn't know that this qiē had already fallen in the eyes of others. After doing a good job of concealment, Lai Touzi threw the trolley into a pile of artemisia grass and continued to walk south, but he did not go to Huangye Village, but the northwest of Huangye Village became Qingshi Village. Bao Sen and Chen Ke sneered and continued to follow, at this time it was close to evening, I saw Lai Touzi come to a courtyard, stretched out his hand and knocked on the courtyard door, maybe ordinary people sound no different, but smart people can still hear it, Lai Touzi's knocking sound is very rhythmic, first one heavy, then two light, and the gap between them is also very regular. After knocking four times, the courtyard door finally opened, and after Lai Touzi entered the courtyard, the courtyard door was closed.

It is estimated that this is the hiding point of Lai Touzi and others, Bao Sen lay on the high slope, stretched out his hand and pushed Chen Ke's shoulder, "Old Chen, you quickly go back and tell His Royal Highness and General Tang, Bao is staring here, you are fast"

Before Bao Sen could finish his words, his expression changed, his mouth opened, his eyes widened, and he was greatly surprised, because both he and Chen Ke heard a scream from the courtyard, and this scream belonged to Lai Touzi Wang. Bao Sen chuckled in his heart, and he couldn't hide his identity anymore, he got up from the high slope and jumped down, drew his knife and shouted angrily, "It's not good, something happened!" ”

Chen Ke also heard the scream really, so he drew his knife and rushed to the courtyard with Bao Sen, Bao Sen kicked the door open, but they were still late, only to see the door of the main house open, and Lai Touzi Wang Kai lay silently in a pool of blood. Bao Sen and Chen Ke are also military men who came out of the sea of blood in the corpse mountain, but when they saw the scene in the house, they couldn't help but feel numb on their scalps, Lai Touzi's hand was cut off by force, lying two steps away from the corpse, and his face was also cut several times, which should have been left after death.

Bao Sen didn't understand, could it be that he and Chen Ke were exposed? Or is it something else? didn't have time to investigate in detail, Bao Sen asked Chen Ke to go back first, and he stayed in this mansion. After Chen Ke left, Bao Sen searched the courtyard, but unfortunately he was disappointed, there was not even a figure in the entire courtyard, as if the courtyard was originally based on the head alone. Bao Sen dared to conclude that there was something strange in this courtyard, but he couldn't find it alone, and he was also afraid that if he checked it alone, he would die worse than Lai Touzi.

At night, Zhao Yougong and Tang Miao led a large group of people to Qingshi Village, and the first thing Tang Miao did was to disperse half of the people around Qingshi Village to strictly check for suspicious signs. Zhao Yougong led Sanniang and Mu Wanqing into the courtyard, and Bao Sen, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, this courtyard is very strange, at that time, Chen Ke and I obviously saw that there were other people there, but after rushing in, only Wang Kai's corpse remained. ”

Zhao Yougong nodded slightly, it is right to be weird, but it is not normal if there is no weirdness. He was instructed to go down and conduct a careful search of the entire courtyard. Especially the underground like a stove. water tanks and so on. After making the arrangement, Zhao Yougong came to the house, the house was an ordinary house, the furnishings were very simple, and there was nothing useful, but Lai Touzi's corpse was a little interesting, and his face was also scratched, as if venting. The wooden lady is used to seeing dead people. There is nothing to be afraid of, she stared at Wang Kai's corpse for a while, shrugged her shoulders, and whispered, "The other party is also a cautious person, even if he finds out that Lai Touzi steals grain to sell, he is as much as he wants, why be so cruel?" ”

Mu Niangzi's words have always been unreliable, but this time her words went to Zhao Yougong's heart, and the other party must be a narrow-minded person. And there's something wrong with me, and it should even be bloodthirsty. When a person dies, he shaves his face and breaks his arm, just like an obsessive-compulsive patient. In psychological analysis, people who do this generally have some kind of defect and can't see others perfect, such as insisting on scratching people's faces, usually with scars on their own faces, and they have been insulted. This qiē is all a clue, but it is just a conjecture.

After about a stick of incense, there was also a discovery in the yard, after the efforts of the soldiers, a secret passage was finally found under the water tank, Tang Miao was the first to go down to check, and after making sure that there was nothing Zhao Yougong followed, this is a very large underground space, judging from the rice grains left at the scene, this should be a place to store grain. Maybe it was because Lai Touzi stole grain to sell it was discovered early, and the other party urgently transferred the grain, although he didn't find the grain in the end, Zhao Yougong was still very happy, just like a rope, as long as he found the head and went down the thread, he would definitely be able to find the tail. The food was gone, Zhao Yougong kept walking along the tunnel, but after walking for a while, he stopped again, because he was walking too fast, the wooden woman behind him couldn't stop, and suddenly hit His Royal Highness Zhao's shoulder, she touched her chin, and said sullenly, "Thief, what's the matter with you?" ”

"Hey, hey, go back! In addition, let the people outside get a few dogs in, and tie the dogs' mouths first! Zhao Yougong grinned, took the lead and turned around and walked back, Tang Miao was a little stunned, what the hell is Your Highness doing? But after thinking about it carefully, it is a little clear, after the other party took away the food, he directly destroyed the secret passage, and destroyed the clues as much as possible, why didn't he destroy it this time? Because you're pressed for time? Hmph, how is it possible, the other party has time to torture Lai Touzi, so he doesn't have time to destroy the secret passage? Soon Tang Miao remembered what happened outside Shaomu Mountain, how similar was that time to this time, His Royal Highness was almost blown up and killed underground, and this time the other party wanted to repeat the old trick?

Back in the distance, he let out a few dogs with their mouths tied, and the dogs snorted and ran towards the other side of the secret passage. Soon, a few dogs disappeared, everyone was waiting patiently, in fact, it didn't take long, but it seemed like a long time, finally, a loud noise came, the whole earth seemed to be about to collapse half, the rumbling sound thought for a long time, Zhao Yougong and the others standing on the ground were all pale, fortunately stopped in time, otherwise everyone would be buried in the secret passage. What kind of person is this, if you have to put him Zhao to death, is it listening to Yuge again?

I don't know why, there is a feeling in the dark, Zhao Yougong feels that this is not Tingyuge's doing, because the whole thing seems to be rigorous, but in fact it is full of loopholes, let's take Lai Touzi as an example, Tingyuge will definitely not use this kind of person to participate in confidential matters. I have dealt with Tingyu Pavilion many times, and I know how treacherous and secretive Tingyuge's methods are.

"Hmph, if you want this king to die, it's almost weather" Zhao Yougong's face was gloomy and terrifying, and if he was blown up several times in a row, even the people who pinched the mud would burst out with anger. Gunpowder, only the artillery of the Dingguo Army can be developed on a large scale, of course, others can imitate it, but the power is not so great, the traitor, this traitor is not eliminated, there will never be a peaceful day in the future.

However, the mole hidden in the shadows is not easy to get rid of, I have thought of various methods, deception, fishing and other methods do not seem to have any effect on this mole, he seems to be very tolerant, as if he can see through a qiē. Sanniang squinted her phoenix eyes, but she looked at Tang Miao next to her, and snorted a little coldly, "General Tang, Your Highness handed over the dark hall to you, haven't you found out the problem of gunpowder until now?" ”

"The subordinates are incompetent" Tang Miao hurriedly bowed down, her face full of shame. It is entirely the responsibility of him Tang Miao that the traitor can make gunpowder quietly, but it is not investigated, because this matter has always been the responsibility of the secret hall, and after such a long time, there is no clue at all, and it is not easy for His Royal Highness and the princess not to suspect that he Tang Miao has a problem.

Zhao Yougong did not put all the responsibility on Tang Miao, he could understand Tang Miao's difficulties, there were many arms craftsmen in the Dingguo Army, although the control of the artillery camp was very strict, and the gunpowder in and out was recorded in detail, but after all, there was inevitably a problem. For example, there are craftsmen who secretly hide gunpowder, such as the outflow of gunpowder formulas, etc., these are all possible, Tang Miao can't check them one by one, "Okay, Tang Miao, you get up, put aside the gunpowder matter first, and now give this king all efforts to search for suspicious people, especially those who have scars on their faces, are yin owls, and are good at martial arts, but if they see this kind of person, they will all be arrested." ”

Zhao Yougong's order is a bit unreasonable, all the people who have injuries on their faces are arrested, this is really a bit of a meaning that it is better to kill three thousand by mistake than let go of one. Tang Miao naturally would not disobey Zhao Yougong's order, on the one hand, let people search for traces of car prints to see if they could find the next place to hide grain, and on the other hand, he ordered Suzhou Mansion to search for people with scars on their faces in Suzhou Prefecture.

The efficiency of Suzhou Prefecture is still very high, and the next day several county towns and villages in Suzhou Prefecture were occupied by government soldiers, and these government soldiers saw that there were scars on their faces, whether they were men or women, all of them were arrested. This time, Suzhou Mansion was made complaining. But will it work? Of course there is, from beginning to end, Zhao Yougong never thought of catching the person who killed the leader, he just created a panic atmosphere, this person, once he panicked, it was easy to show flaws. In addition, this large-scale search can also play a role in diverting attention, in fact, it is not important whether the person is caught or not, the important thing is to take advantage of the other party's inattention, closely check the news of the grain.

Cheung Chau, in an ordinary house, a man with a face as white as snow sat on a wooden stool, his body was well-proportioned, he could be regarded as a first-class amorous, but further up, when he saw that face, he had the feeling of seeing a ghost. There were three deep scratches on his face, including one at the corner of his eye, which looked like earthworms, terrifying. His mouth was sometimes cocked, sometimes closed, sometimes laughing, sometimes angry, as if he were enchanted.

His name is Mei Xingsheng, when he was a child, everyone called him a milk doll, and he must be a first-class beautiful man when he grows up, but Yiqiē changed on that thunderstormy night. That day, the man named Metten came home drunk, he beat and scolded his mother, and wanted to go up to stop him, but the Metten took out a boning knife and cut his face like crazy, and at that time, he passed out. Half a year later, there was one less milk doll and more ghost child in Changzhou City, and the original little friend was far away from him, and no one dared to approach him, because he was a ghost, more frightening than a ghost. Fourteen years have passed in a blink of an eye, and the ghost child has grown up, and it is time to go on a blind date, but he is a woman, and he can't make it, because he is Mei Xingsheng, nicknamed "Ghost Child", who wants to marry a ghost?

So on a thunderstormy night, when the man named Metten poisoned his mother again, he stabbed Metten to death with the boning knife and shaved Metten's face desperately. But he didn't know why, his mother cried, and she snatched the boning knife and chose to commit suicide. Hehe, everyone has to leave him, everyone dislikes him as a ghost child, then let everyone become a ghost.

Mei Xingsheng grinned, his mouth full of white teeth glowing, but his smile was more ugly than crying, making people feel hairy on his back. Suzhou Mansion is looking for him, hehe, great, the name of the ghost child will definitely be known to everyone.

"According to the original plan, you will transport the grain to Kunshan, hehe"

Several black-clothed men hurriedly bowed their hands and said, "Yes, it's just Mr. Mei, aren't you going with you?" The master has ordered it, and Mr. Mei must send it himself. ”

"Huh? Does the master know that the people from Suzhou Mansion are looking for me again, or will you show up in my place? Hey, hey, hey, "I don't know when, Mei Xingsheng has an extra short sword in his hand, this sword is really short, but the cold light is shining, and it is very popular. The black-clothed men gasped, didn't dare to say more, and disappeared as if they were fleeing. (To be continued......)