The Ming Dynasty Inspection Division, since the Hongwu Dynasty began to set up, pick up the Guanjin main road, mining premises, the place where merchants converge, the ethnic staggered places, the border areas of states and counties, the places far away from the governance office, and the places where the displaced people gather and other places, the inspection department is not only located in the towns, but also in the countryside; It is not only located in prosperous places, but also in remote places, or even deep mountains and forests, or sparsely populated, or vast lakes, or barren mountains and lakes. Whether the ground is "critical" is the main criterion for setting up the inspection department. The inspection department has an inspector, ranging from the ninth grade or the ninth grade official rank, depending on the status of the inspection department, leading the local people strong archers to inspect the place, guarding the checkpoints, with the main responsibility of anti-theft and smuggling, under the jurisdiction of the local government. And the Huaiyuan Inspection Division in front of him is an extremely important checkpoint inspection.

Huaihe River to here, the river channel gathers and narrows, the cliffs on both sides of the bank stand steeply, the water flow is turbulent, and bends a big bend, after the bend, the river surface is impressively cheerful again, the reef in the water is dense, only a narrow waterway in the middle is left for the boat, it is the natural place of the card, so when the Hongzhi Dynasty cut the inspection division of the world, this place is not affected, and it still exists as the first pass of the Huaihe River waterway.

The inspection department stands on the shore and hopes to build two, about ten zhang high, when the weather is good, you can stand on it and look out for more than ten miles, and the reef in the river locks the river with iron chains, and lays out barges, and really achieves the effect of holding the throat of the Huai River, if you want to rush through here, it is more difficult than climbing to the sky.

At this time, it was getting late in the evening, but there were still soldiers guarding the inspection checkpoint, and there were passing ships docked by the shore water village, waiting for the inspector to board the ship for random inspection and pay the customs duties.

Li Tingyu stood at the bow of the boat, squinted his eyes and looked at the water pass in the distance, shook his head and sighed: "I didn't expect that when the world is turbulent today, the Huaiyuan Water Pass is still operating, and I still hope that the guard inspection on the gate has slipped away." ”

Wang Huan stood aside, the book in his hand had been put into his arms, and he also looked at Shuiguan in the distance and said: "It has been more than a year since HN and SD fell into the hands of the Tartars, such a long time, enough for the Tartars to operate, I heard that the state and county officials in various places have been appointed in place, and this is close to the Huguangshun regime, and from here over the Dabie Mountain is the important place of Jingxiang, and it is also a common thing for the inspection department to be guarded by soldiers." ”

Li Tingyu nodded: "That's true, it's just that we have to pass the test, but it's a little troublesome." ”

Wang Huan smiled, took out the road guide given by the ancestor from his arms and said: "It's okay, there is a road guide for the Qing court's customs defense, which proves that we and others are good people who do business, and they will be fine." ”

Li Tingyu looked at the road guide that had been filled in with some apprehension, and said in a deep voice: "I heard that Li Zicheng has been kicked out of SX by Prince Azig of Tatar Ziying, and even the old nest of Xi'an has been occupied, just like a lost dog fled to Xiangyang and Wuchang, but our road guide is filled in to Xiangyang, will it be stopped and not let go?" ”

Wang Huan muttered: "There is indeed this risk, but since we are pretending to be cloth merchants in Sichuan, we want to return from Songjiang to SC Nanjing is fighting, the Yangtze River waterway is cut off, only this waterway is the fastest, and it is reasonable to go from here. ”

When Li Tingyu heard that he was going to bribe the silver again, the flesh on his face suddenly twitched involuntarily, and he said painfully: "Ah, I have to throw the silver out again, Senator, we don't have much silver with us, and I still want to keep some back to pay pensions to the families of the brothers who died in the war." ”

Wang Huan couldn't help but look at Li Tingyu with tears and laughter, seeing that this burly man was really reluctant to throw his hard-earned property to the Qing Dynasty soldiers in vain, so he had to comfort: "I can't bear the wolf, adults don't need to be thrifty with this bit of silver, and when I get to the stone pillar, I have my own way to sit on the ground and make money." ”

Li Tingyu pursed his lips and said, "Wang Huanna, if you can change your bragging, it will be better." ”

While the two were talking, the boat took advantage of the wind and slowly approached the water village standing by the river, which was a wooden castle built by a man with both hands around a thick and thin giant tree and deep into the mud and sand at the bottom of the river.

As soon as the fleet approached, a soldier shouted from the tower: "Pull over, come ashore, the owner of the ship will come ashore to report!" ”

More than 10 patrol soldiers in short clothes rushed down on the city tower, hooked the boats one by one with a long bamboo pole with an iron hook, and pulled them to the wooden raft of the water village, and the sailors on the boat hurriedly jumped on the wooden raft, tied the ship firmly to the wooden raft with the cable on the ship, and then put on the gangplank and set it up on the bow of the boat.

Wang Huan looked at the clothes of these soldiers and found that they were still wearing variegated short clothes, but they were all wearing bamboo cool hats unique to the Qing court, with a bunch of red tassels on them, indicating that this was the water gate of the Qing court.

Li Tingyu and Wang Huan smiled on their faces, turned sideways to let the soldiers who had been on the boat to check, go up the water village along the springboard, and politely asked a soldier a few words, the soldier stretched out his hand and pointed at the wooden row, Wang Huan hurriedly pointed to a fat man standing on the wooden row with a chest and belly.

This fat man was dressed in leather armor, tall, with a fat face full of oil, leather boots on his feet, a long iron knife hanging on his waist, and a bamboo cool hat on his head.

"The little people knock on the big man." Wang Huan smiled like a ball, and knelt down one step forward, while Li Tingyu was like a follower, with a stiff expression of neither yin nor yang a few steps behind.

"Where did it come from?" The fat man asked, picking his teeth.

"Back to the lord, the villain is a merchant in Sichuan, this is going home from Songjiang." Wang Huan replied respectfully: "The road is still far away, please make it convenient for the lord, it is getting late, and the little people still want to go ahead to find an inn." ”

"That's hard to say." The fat man raised his eyes to the sky, and said lazily: "You have so many ships, you have to spend some effort to carefully inspect and inspect, these days Li Rebel Thief's bandits are running around, maybe one or two of them are on your boat, wait, it is possible to check so many ships for a few days." ”

Wang Huan hurriedly said: "The big lord can get a clear understanding, the boatmen on the villain's boat are all clansmen brought out of the river by the villain, and they have nothing to do with the thieves, they are all the people, besides, the villain does business, and he pays attention to peace and security, how can he do that thing that kills his head and loses his head?" ”

The fat man snorted in his nostrils, didn't say anything, and walked to the side with his own thoughts, as if he didn't want to pay attention to Wang Huan who was kneeling on the ground.

Li Tingyu's anger suddenly rose from the soles of his feet, in order to get out in the past, he could still swallow his anger in the Qing military camp and pretend to be his grandson, but today in front of this sesame-sized inspection, he actually has to suffer from this nest of gas, so he can't calm down, standing in place, his hands tremble faintly, and he almost can't help but go up and twist the fat man's neck, but he saw Wang Huan quietly turning around and shaking his head at him, signaling him not to make a mistake.

Li Tingyu stiffened his neck, and simply stood aside like a subordinate, out of sight and out of mind.

And Wang Huan rolled his eyes, and saw that the fat man was walking in a figure-eight step, walking very slowly and steadily, and there was no one at the end of the wooden row, the corner of his mouth chuckled, and he immediately followed with his waist, and his right hand quietly touched his pocket, and a silver piece weighing ten taels arrived in the palm of his hand.

When leaving Mudun Island, Wang Huan and Ma Quan sorted out some broken gold and silver pieces that were not remembered or marked, about 50,000 taels, and distributed them to several thousand general officers of Li Tingyu's cronies, and Wang Huan also brought some with him, which came in handy at this time.

Wang Huanmei smiled and nodded her head behind the fat man, and said softly: "Master, my owner is still waiting for this batch of goods I brought in Sichuan. ”

As he spoke, Wang Huan handed his hand to the fat man's back behind his back, and the silver ingot immediately changed owners.

The fat man squeezed his hand and weighed the weight, but he didn't look back, and continued to look up at the sky.

Wang Huan waited for a few seconds, and when he saw the fat man's appearance, he scolded in his heart, so he had to reach out and touch it in his arms again, and this time he found a golden fruit, about the size of a walnut, put it in the palm of the fat man's other hand, leaned close to his ear and whispered: "Master, this is golden!" ”

The fat man's body trembled, and he withdrew his hands with lightning speed, glanced at it, and immediately put the gold and silver into his pocket quietly, and waved his hand at Wang Huan.