The officers and soldiers of more than 50 people marched straight to the horse market, and the pedestrians on the road avoided it one after another. Li Yanzhao and Ye Chao walked side by side, and after entering the horse market, Li Yanzhao pointed to the corner on the west side, and said to Ye Chao: "Ye team rate, those two horses are the military horses in the battalion that we lost before, and the brand and so on are all available, and the Ye team rate can be seen at a glance." ”

Ye Chao nodded, at this time, the war horses, mules and horses and other livestock used in the army were all branded on the horse's buttocks, so to distinguish whether it was a military horse, just look at the horse's buttocks. Ye Chao took more than 50 of his subordinates through the bustling horse market, and walked straight to the west of the horse market, where the Black Tiger and the others were.

When Heihu and the others saw this group of officers and soldiers rushing towards them violently, they immediately panicked. However, the leader of it, Heihu, still forced his composure, and said to his subordinates: "The officers and soldiers are not afraid when they come, and we will not admit it until we die." But he didn't know that the two horses he grabbed were military horses, and he didn't know that there were imprints on the hips of the military horses, so he was also fearless. When the rest of the people saw him speak, they gradually calmed down, and they no longer looked panicked.

The officers and soldiers approached a few people, and then they spread out into a circle and surrounded several people and the two military horses in front of them. However, a few people still stood up, and the black tiger led by him also waved at the surrounding officers and regiments, and Gujing asked without waves: "The little man got two good horses, and he was reluctant to use them for himself for a while, so he came to this horse market to sell them for some silver, but I don't know what the military masters have to do?" ”

Li Yanzhao and Ye Chao came out of the crowd, looking at the black tiger's casual expression, even Li Yanzhao had to admire this person's good psychological quality and cheekiness. And the black tiger looked at the two people who came out of the crowd, one was wearing iron armor, and his hand pressed the head knife around his waist, it was Ye Chao. Although the other man was dressed in leather armor and did not carry a weapon, his eyes were extremely sharp, staring at the black tiger tightly, as if he could pierce the black tiger with his eyes. Seeing this, the black tiger didn't dare to slack off, and waved at the two of them again and again.

Li Yanzhao looked at the black tiger with disgust, and said lightly: "Where did you come from, this horse?" ”

When Heihu heard Li Yanzhao's question, his face did not change and his heart did not beat, and he said: "This horse is a merchant from Gu Zang, who came here, the business failed, and it was given to me in desperation, but I thought, I am not good at riding a horse myself, so I might as well bring it to this horse market and sell it." ”

Li Yanzhao couldn't help but sneer for a while when he saw the black tiger's face not changing his color and lying, and then strode forward, pointed to the branded mark on the horse's hips and asked, "Do you recognize this brand?" ”

When the black tiger heard this, he was shocked, and hurriedly stepped forward to check, but saw three words branded on the horse's buttocks: Guangwu Army.

"What else do you have to say?" Li Yanzhao sneered and said: "The imprint on the horse's buttocks is there, this is the military horse used in the army, what kind of merchant should give it to you, it's nonsense!" ”

Seeing this, Ye Chao waved his hand: "Take it!" ”

The soldiers behind Ye Chao stepped forward one after another with knives, and the armor leaves were sonorous, and the cold light on the knives in their hands was shining. Seeing this, Black Tiger and the others couldn't help but take a few steps back. The soldiers stepped forward with swords and forced several people into a pile, and then several soldiers with ropes stepped forward, opened the ropes in their hands, tied them up one by one, and then strung them together with ropes.

Li Yanzhao saw that several people had been bound, and turned around to salute Ye Chao and thanked him. Ye Chao hurriedly returned the salute and said with a smile: "The head of the hundred people don't have to be polite, now everyone has obtained all the stolen goods, but the head of the hundred people still needs to go to the official office with me." ”

Li Yanzhao arched his hand and said: "That's natural, follow the orders of Team Ye." ”

When Heihu and other bandits and bullies were tied up with ropes and escorted out of the horse market, the onlookers on both sides of the road applauded when they saw this. The Guangwu soldiers who escorted these bullies also suddenly felt a light on their faces. However, the tied black tiger quietly raised his head from time to time, but there was a trace of imperceptible ruthlessness in his eyes.

Li Yanzhao looked at the black tiger's eyes as if he was going to choose someone to devour, and his heart was even more unhappy. He took a few steps forward, slightly pushed away the escort sergeant, and when the black tiger saw this person coming, his vicious gaze turned to look at him. Li Yanzhao walked to the side of the black tiger, and couldn't help but say that he hit the black tiger's face door with a punch. Black Tiger Fang Jue fist style, Li Yanzhao's fist has arrived. The fist that was rapidly enlarged in the eyes of the black tiger made intimate contact with his face like a heavy hammer. Li Yanzhao clearly heard an inaudible click, and the black tiger had already fallen to the ground, bleeding from his mouth and nose. When he fell to the ground, he also brought down two people who were connected to him with ropes in front of and behind him. The three of them fell to the ground, and the two people in front and behind looked at the black tiger's hideous face after being punched hard, and their horror suddenly appeared.

The black tiger felt that he had been punched for no reason, and he was angry in his heart. endured the severe pain and staggered to the station, and Li Yanzhao had already been slashed by a thousand knives in his heart. However, at this moment, facing the heavily armed officers and soldiers beside him, no matter how stupid he was, he would not be stupid enough to trouble Li Yanzhao at this time. These bullies are the most knowledgeable about current affairs.

Li Yanzhao saw the black tiger stand up from the ground in embarrassment, although his expression was extremely angry, but he did not act unusually. In addition, seeing the embarrassed appearance of his bleeding mouth and nose, he was already satisfied with the current affairs of the black tiger. Fang just punched out, and when he heard the click, it was probably the nose bone of the black tiger.

Li Yanzhao was very satisfied with the light punishment he had imposed. The black tiger was bleeding from his mouth and nose, but he continued to hurry without expressing any dissatisfaction or dissent. The blood gushing out of his mouth and nose dripped all the way along the way the officers and soldiers escorted them to the official office.

Along the way, when the people saw that the official army had taken down this bully, they were all overjoyed and applauded. The escort soldiers had no sympathy for the bully who stole the horses in his battalion. Along the way, he was allowed to bleed from his mouth and nose, but no one stepped forward to bandage him. Li Yanzhao thought of this person's behavior of stealing military horses and threatening and intimidating his subordinates' relatives, and he also felt that he deserved this person's situation at this time, so he was also full of disdain, and only cared about watching the jokes of the black tiger.

The soldiers escorted the bullies for about a quarter of an hour before they came to the gate of the county hall. Ye Chao stepped forward and whispered a few words to the little official guarding the county government, and the little official went in and summoned a few officials, and escorted these big bullies into the government one by one. Ye Chao and Li Yanzhao also brought two horse-leading soldiers into the palace. When Taishou heard that a patrol soldier had caught a few horse thieves, he also came to the main hall of the palace and sat down. And Ye Chao, Li Yanzhao and the two horse-leading soldiers also followed behind the officials who escorted the prisoners, walked through the lobby courtyard, and walked to the front of the main hall of the government to stop, waiting for the summons of the Taishou. The escort officer escorted the person to the front of the main hall, and then went to the hall to report to one person.

Li Yanzhao waited outside the hall for a few breaths, and then heard Xin Taishou shouting in the main hall: "Bring the prisoners in!" Immediately, those officials escorted the bullies into the main hall of the mansion. Another official signaled Ye Chao, Li Yanzhao and others to follow him into the main hall. Li Yanzhao understood, and walked towards the main hall with Ye Chao. The two stolen horses were left outside the church.

Originally, according to the usual practice, it was necessary to submit a pleadings to the government to file a complaint and request the government to make a ruling. However, Ye Chao and Li Yanzhao were originally from the army of the county government, and the two horses involved in the robbery were also military horses, which undoubtedly belonged to the public property of the county government. Therefore, even the procedure of handing over the pleadings was exempted, and Xin Taishou directly promoted the case to the court without hesitation.

"Who are you waiting for, you will quickly become famous, and you will come together from your hometown." Xin Taishou knelt in front of the first few cases, and spoke sharply to the few people in the hall who were tied up by five flowers.

"Huifujun, the villain Sun Dawang, a person from Guangwu County." A little minion kneeling beside the black tiger in the hall opened his mouth. The rest of the people were silent, including the black tiger who was broken on the bridge of his nose and was still bleeding from his mouth and nose at this time.

Xin Taishou stared at the bullies kneeling in the hall with great interest, and then asked, "Sun Dawang, is this matter headed by you?" ”

The person who spoke just now bowed calmly to the head of the Tai Shou: "Huifu Jun, it is the villain." ”

Li Yanzhao quietly observed the prisoners in the main hall. He never imagined that among these bandits and bullies, there would be someone who would willingly and voluntarily jump out to help the leader take the blame. You must know that the theft of military materials, including military horses, is a felony in any era, and at this time, regardless of the afterlife, even if you are in the afterlife, you will also be punished with the crime of theft and will be severely determined, and the maximum sentence will be the death penalty. And in this era, you don't even have to think about committing this crime, and a sentence of exile (life imprisonment) is already burning high incense.

However, although some people jumped out to take the blame, Li Yanzhao had no choice. He had no conclusive evidence to prove in front of Taishou that among the bullies who stole the military horses, it was the Black Tiger who was the leader. In court, the inability to provide evidence means that you cannot support your assertions. Therefore, as long as the person who bears the blame bites and kills at his own instigation, and the others do not provide a different confession, the evil will be regarded as escaping.

Taishou listened to Ye Chao, who captured them, and told Li Yanzhao, who lost his military horse, in detail what happened. Li Yanzhao explained to Taishou why he and Dou Tong rode back to the county town and why they lost these two military horses. But he skipped Dou Yi's description of these bullies and that he caught a little thief on the street, and then forced him to ask about the whereabouts of the black tiger. I just searched everywhere, but I accidentally saw these people in the horse market leading their lost military horses to sell in the horse market, so I found the Ye team on duty to patrol the city and captured this group of people in one fell swoop.

Xin Taishou listened carefully to what the two had said, and he had already made a judgment in his heart, and he instructed the scribe who was recording the file on the side to record the names and places of origin of the prisoners in the hall one by one. Then the verdict was rendered.

"The first offender, Sun Dawang, is a person from Guangwu County. On the eighth day of September in the ninth year of Jianxing, together with Jia Pan, Wang He, Qi Hu, Yang Hua and others, they stole the military horses ridden by Li Yanzhao, the commander of the 100-person army under the county, and the soldier Dou Tong, and transferred them to the horse market to sell them after they succeeded. was discovered by Li Bairenchang, and immediately sought the assistance of Ye Chao, the city patrol team, recovered the two military horses, and captured several people. ”

"Can you dispute these facts?" Xin Taishou turned his head to the next few people and asked.

Several of the prisoners shook their heads. Seeing this, Xin Taishou continued to sentence: "After investigation, the above things are true, the first offender, Sun Dawang, will be given a cane of fifty, and he will be ordered to fill the army in Juxian County. Accomplices Jia Pan, Wang He, Qi Hu, and Yang Hua. All have twenty rods, and they are also assigned to order the county to fill the army. The officials and people of the county government should take this as a warning and do not violate the law of the country. ”