The house where the master lived was very quiet, there was no one, there was originally an old man who was looking after the house, and he was also driven to the barracks by Zeng Huai.

"Didn't Zeng Huai's entourage follow?" Yan Qing asked, looking around.

At this time, the woman had already discovered that they were not robbers, but officers and soldiers, and the fear in her heart subsided a little, "He never brings his entourage here, he always comes alone." ”

"How do you know there's a secret room?"

"Rokuro took me in and showed me the gold inside, and I saw a lot of books, placed on iron shelves."

The woman led them into a study-like room, and she groped for a moment on the wall, only to hear, 'Click! With a bang, the bookcase moved a few inches to the side, "The entrance is in the back!" The woman pointed to the bookcase.

Li Ying stepped forward and pushed open the bookcase, revealing an iron door behind him, Yan Qing took out a bunch of keys found in Zeng Huai's clothes, and tried one by one, only for a moment, 'Click! With a bang, the iron door was opened.

Yan Qing grabbed the woman and walked inside, if there was a hidden weapon inside, it would be this woman who died first.

Fortunately, there is no organ in it, the secret room is a very large room, three zhang in length and width, nearly two zhang in height, the walls are surrounded by large pieces of bluestone, this is a secret room made of bluestone, there is no window, but there are ventilation holes, and I don't feel stuffy, and the design is very ingenious.

The soldiers lit a few oil lamps, and Yan Qing saw several rows of iron shelves placed next to the wall at a glance, the iron shelves were full of account books, Yan Qing slashed at the back of the woman's neck with one palm, and the woman fainted immediately.

He said to the two soldiers: "Take her to the room, tie her up, shut her mouth, and leave her alone." ”

The two soldiers put the woman out, Yan Qing walked to the wall and flipped through the register, the lines on it were densely filled with names, and there were handprints on the back, which was the original register of taxation, and sure enough, it was the record of military collection, which was the best evidence, and there were also account books compiled by local governments next to it, with records of storage and withdrawal.

There were more than two hundred of these account books, and Yan Qing ordered the soldiers to pack them into large boxes, and at this time, Li Ying shouted inside: "Commander, please come here." ”

Yan Qing walked over quickly, and saw that the corner of the house was full of large iron boxes, and one box had been opened, which was filled with yellow and clear gold ingots, at least ten catties a piece.

Yan Qing did not hesitate to say to the stunned soldiers on both sides: "These are our military expenses, and they are the brothers' money, and no one is allowed to be greedy!" ”

Li Ying secretly screamed ashamed, he was almost fascinated by these golds, or the control vision was higher, he was completely convinced of Yan Qing, and he could not change his face in front of tens of thousands of taels of gold, which is not something ordinary people can do.

"And how do you get all this gold?"

Yan Qing saw that there were at least twenty large boxes of gold, so he said to everyone: "Let's take the account books away first, go back and kill the armed family in the manor, and then it's not too late to transport the gold!" ”

The crowd sealed the wooden cover, carried away several large boxes of account books, and then closed the iron door of the secret room, and Xin quickly left the house.

.........

Although Yan Qing did not kill the middle-aged woman, it did not mean that Yan Qing was merciful, and in the subsequent raid on the villa, the soldiers of the 500 scout battalion opened fire, killing all the 300 armed Zhuang Ding who were asleep, and transported away 50,000 taels of gold hidden in the manor.

Hundreds of soldiers escorted the gold behind to slow down, and Yan Qing took 400 soldiers to march quickly with account books, and rushed to Chengdu County at the fifth watch.

The gate of Chengdu County has not yet been opened, the night is still deep, there are only a few township soldiers on duty on the north city gate patrolling back and forth, because the state troops of Chengdu Fu Road have gone to Jingzhao Mansion, only a small number of township soldiers in each state and county are responsible for opening and closing the city gate.

In Chengdu County, only 200 township soldiers are responsible for guarding the four gates, and there are more than 100 government officials responsible for maintaining law and order.

Dozens of village soldiers defending the city were still asleep, and only three village soldiers were yawning and pacing back and forth at the head of the city, when they noticed a team outside the city, so they asked in a loud voice, "Who is under the city?" ”

"We are the performance team invited by Xu Tongju to celebrate the New Year, please open the city quickly!"

The soldiers of Chengtou Township heard that it was Xu Tongju who invited the people, they did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ran to report to the regimental training, the regimental practice surnamed Wang, and slept in the city tower, he heard that it was only now to the fifth watch, and there was still an hour before the opening of the city, so he yawned, waved his hand and said: "It's not good to disturb Xu Tongjuan's rest, let them rest outside the city for an hour!" Open the city gate on time. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier ran to report, "Xu Tong's sentence is here!"

Wang Tuanlian was startled, and hurriedly got up and ran down the city, only to see Xu Qinghui standing at the city gate with more than 20 subordinates, and the torches in his hands illuminated the city gate.

Wang Tuanlian climbed forward and saluted, "I don't know that the general judgment is coming, and I will miss the distance." ”

Of course, more than 20 people are Li Yanqing's subordinates, at this time Li Yanqing is standing behind Xu Qinghui, he nodded to Xu Qinghui, Xu Qinghui immediately sank his face and reprimanded: "People outside the city have traveled hundreds of miles, coming from afar, but we don't even have the most basic politeness, do you still want to do it?" ”

Wang Tuanlian was really depressed in his heart, not opening the door at night is a century-old rule set by the imperial court, except for the emergency military report, no one is allowed to open the city gate, how did it become rude to Xu Tongju here, and he was also a little strange in his heart, the people outside just came, Xu Tongju arrived, did they make an appointment?

Although he was puzzled in his heart, he didn't dare to say more, and hurriedly said: "The humble post is about to ask for a general judgment, and the general judgment has arrived." ”

Xu Qinghui scolded in his heart, if it weren't for Li Yanqing's worry about alarming Zeng Xiulin, none of these township soldiers guarding the city would have survived.

He angrily rebuked: "In that case, don't hurry up and open the city!" ”

Wang Tuanlian was helpless, so he had to order the city to be opened, the city gate creaked open, Yan Qing led four hundred soldiers to rush into the city, Wang Tuanlian was stunned for a moment, this is clearly an army! Where is what the performance team.

At this time, Yan Qing knelt down on one knee to report the situation to Li Yanqing, and Wang Tuanlian recognized at a glance the person who was standing behind Xu Tongju just now, it turned out to be Li Yanqing, who was the envoy of the strategy, and he was completely stunned.

Xu Qinghui walked up to him, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a low voice: "If you don't want to die, pretend that you don't know anything." ”

Wang Tuan practiced a spirit, and nodded again and again, "I understand my humble duties, thank you for the reminder." ”

Li Yanqing had already checked the account books, he beckoned to Xu Qinghui, Xu Qinghui stepped forward to carefully check the account books, nodded and said, "That's right!" That's it, a lot of them, very complete. ”

Li Yanqing said coldly: "Since this is the case, then arrest people!" ”

...........

The 400 soldiers quickly began to move, and they were divided into two teams, one team pounced on Zeng Xiulin's mansion, and the other team pounced on the Zeng family's family house in Chengdu County, where Zeng Xiulin's brothers lived, and the Zeng family's stronghold for controlling the tea and wine monopoly in Chengdu Prefecture.

The two mansions are not far from each other, are located in the north of the city, only more than 100 steps apart, these two mansions are the two largest mansions in Chengdu County, Zeng Xiulin's official residence alone covers an area of more than 30 acres, the pavilions and pavilions inside, rockery pond fish, all kinds of carved beams and paintings, extremely luxurious, there are Zeng Xiulin and his more than a dozen wives and concubines.

Zeng Xiulin has four sons and two daughters, the eldest son is the magistrate of Leshan County, Meizhou, the second son and the third son served as the county governor and county lieutenant on Kuizhou Road, only the youngest son is still studying in Lin'an, the second son and the third son live with him, and the other two sons-in-law are also officials in Bashu.

Maybe Zeng Xiulin is overindulgent, he will get up on time at night to diarrhea at the fifth watch, this old problem has been ten years, tossing him miserable, no matter how to treat it is useless, to a certain extent, Zeng Xiulin wants to pave the way for his son and family, and he doesn't care too much about his future, it has something to do with his old problem.

Today's fifth watch was particularly serious, and Zeng Xiulin was dizzy with a toss, and he couldn't sleep, so he simply half lay down in the study and closed his eyes to recuperate.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside, and someone was faintly crying, Zeng Xiulin was stunned, what was going on?

"Help me up!"

The two little maids hurriedly stepped forward to help him up from the recliner, and a rush of running sounded in the yard, and the housekeeper shouted out of breath: "Master, something is wrong!" ”

Zeng Xiulin opened the door and asked dissatisfiedly: "What are you panicking, say it well!" ”

"Master, there are a lot of troops coming out there, and they have already been killed."

Zeng Xiulin was taken aback, "Where did the army come from!" ”

At this time, the sound of footsteps outside the courtyard suddenly sounded, and I saw dozens of soldiers rushing into the courtyard from all directions, and instantly surrounded Zeng Xiulin, the housekeeper was dragged out, and the two little maids hid behind Zeng Xiulin and trembled in fright.

Zeng Xiulin's pupils suddenly contracted into a line, he had already vaguely guessed the reason, and couldn't help gritting his teeth and said: "Where is Li Yanqing, let him see me!" ”

At this time, there was a burst of applause from outside the courtyard, and I saw Li Yanqing walking in from outside the courtyard gate, "It's worthy of being mixed in officialdom for decades, and I really have a sharp mind, and I thought of it all at once!" ”

"Li Yanqing, what are you doing again?"

"I'm just doing my job!"

"Duties?"

Zeng Xiulin sneered, "Your duty actually came to my house." ”

"Who made me the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and who made you the prefect of Chengdu? Of course I have the power to control you, Zeng Xiulin, you should know what you have done? ”

"I don't understand!"

"Alright! Then I will tell you, you levied taxes on Chengdu Fulu without authorization, deceived the monarch, poisoned the people, filled your pockets, and were suspected of embezzling 3.8 million yuan of national wealth and people's capital, do you think I have the right to arrest you? ”

"You're talking about the anti-gold military spending! Only a hundred thousand guan was levied before and after, and I had already sent all of them to Jingzhao Mansion, and it had nothing to do with me. ”

Li Yanqing smiled faintly, "I'm sorry, my army just came back from Minghe Villa." ”

Zeng Xiulin's face turned pale, and his whole body began to tremble, and he suddenly roared, "Xu Qinghui, you bastard!" ”

His eyes went dark, and he fainted.

Li Yanqing waved his hand, "Take him away and take care of him, and thoroughly search his mansion!" ”

The soldiers stepped forward to lift the fainting Zeng Xiulin into the carriage, and the two hundred soldiers began to search the Zeng Mansion thoroughly, at this time, Li Yanqing saw that the sky was gradually brightening, so he ordered: "Send a pigeon letter to the Jingzhao Mansion, and order Wang Gui to immediately lead 10,000 cavalry south!" ”