In the third year of Jiaqing, on the second day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Jinhua Mansion, Zhejiang, the prefect's yamen, and the back hall, the prefect Hong Antong had an anxious look on his face, pacing back and forth uneasily, and he couldn't calm down. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, a rush of footsteps sounded, and a cautious voice came from the door: "Lord Prefect, the little one is here~"

Still frowning and worried, before returning to the office bookcase, after sitting down, Hong Antong put on his official authority and held the shelf, and then said lightly: "Zhong Zhutou, come in." ”

Soon, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes walked in, dressed in an official uniform, with gray hair and wrinkles on his forehead, which shows that this head catcher is about forty years old, and his eyes flash shrewdly from time to time.

Although his whole body exuded a sense of confidence and his body was strong, Zhong Zhutou still behaved submissively, standing respectfully not far from the bookcase, and whispered: "Lord Qiqi, I don't know why you called the little one to come?" ”

At this moment, it was okay not to listen to this sentence, but as soon as he heard this sentence, he was completely angry, and the anxiety in Hong Antong's heart faded and turned into violent anger. Hong Antong took a deep breath secretly, suppressed the anger in his chest, and said quietly: "Zhong Zhutou, it's been almost half a month, and the generals of our Jinhua Mansion garrison have been assassinated one after another, and the case has not been tense at all, you still have the face to ask me, what are you looking for?" ”

is good at judging cases, good at reasoning, can mix in the prefect's yamen until he is in his forties, and is the first of the three classes of officials, it can be seen that Zhong Zhutou's EQ and IQ are very high, although Hong Antong is trying to suppress the anger in his chest, Zhong Zhutou can still feel the surging anger in his body.

Although Zhong Zhutou was cautious and very restrained, the eyes in his eyes were unwavering, which showed that his emotions were not affected by Hong Antong's aggressive questioning, after Hong Antong finished speaking, he first waited for a while, and felt that the prefect's anger calmed down slightly, and then he said slowly: "My lord, according to the investigation of his subordinates these days, what can be judged at present is that the assassination of the garrison generals one after another is by no means a love killing, vendetta killing, but a premeditated and targeted assassination, mainly aimed at the garrison generals. ”

Hong Antong was still frowning slightly, very dissatisfied, he didn't get the answer he wanted, and the murder of the generals of the garrison did not come to light, which made Hong Antong's heart like a kitten scratching, irritable.

At this time, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang urged a few days ago, ordering Hong Antong to solve the case as soon as possible, otherwise he would be held responsible, all of which made Hong Antong have to solve the case as soon as possible, and the whole person was like an ant on a hot pot, restless, restless, and flustered.

Fang Buddha didn't feel Hong Antong's inner responsible emotions, Zhong Zhutou groaned slightly, and then continued: "My lord, according to the feedback of the brothers in the neighboring state capitals, it is not only our Jinhua Mansion that has been assassinated by the garrison generals, such as Hangzhou Mansion and Huizhou Mansion. ”

Hearing this, Hong Antong was stunned for a while, his heart was shocked inexplicably, and at the same time, there was a sense of schadenfreude spontaneously, and he said secretly, hehe, as long as the garrison general was not killed in my Jinhua Mansion, then my situation would not be very unfavorable, and there was still room for maneuver, after all, the law does not blame the public.

Secretly glad that it didn't take long for him to hear another rush of footsteps, and an anxious voice sounded at the door: "Lord Qiyu, the little one is in a hurry~!" ”

Zhong Zhutou and Hong Antong looked at the door at the same time, hearing the sound and knowing people, obviously, both of them knew the person who spoke at the door, dressed as a master, bowed and saluted, and the two beards added to the unique temperament of the master.

"Come in, Master Han." Although the conversation was suddenly interrupted and unhappy, Hong Antong still said painlessly and let people in.

As soon as the words fell, Master Han immediately walked in, leaned over, stopped on the side of Zhong Zhutou, the two did not say hello, just a battle was decided, without waiting for Hong Antong to ask, Master Han couldn't wait to say: "Lord Prefect, things are not good, what happened a few days ago is not a rumor, it is very likely to be true, there has been a large-scale rebellion in Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, trying to confront the imperial court." ”

Hong Antong and Zhong Zhutou were startled, with a look of disbelief on their faces, Hong Antong stood up even more, walked a few steps quickly, and said solemnly: "Master Han, what you said is true?" How did you not know that it was not a rumor? If something so big happens, why don't I have any news here? Why didn't the imperial court give any instructions? ”

Repeated questions did not make Master Han panic, as if he had expected it, knowing that Hong Antong would ask such a question, without any hesitation, he immediately replied: "Lord Qiyu, the reason why the little one is so sure that those news are not rumors, because Quzhou Mansion and Wenzhou Mansion have fallen, and there have been refugees pouring into Jinhua City, although the number is small, it has also caused an uproar, and now the people in the city are panicking, and they are discussing this matter privately, as for why the imperial court has not reacted, and the subordinates do not know." ”

In an instant, the atmosphere in the room became extremely tense and quiet, the sound of the silent needle landing could still be heard, Hong Antong's face became pale, and although Zhong Zhutou on the side was calm and serious, it was still difficult to hide his solemn look.

At this moment, none of the three of them said anything more, each with their own thoughts, worries in their hearts, and more uneasiness.

Gradually, as the minutes passed, the tense atmosphere became oppressive, and the three of them could hear their respective heartbeats.

Knock knock...

However, the seriousness of the matter will not change anything because of the silence of the three people, but slowly ferments, imperceptibly affecting the three people. At this moment, Hong Antong only felt that his brain was blank, very flustered, and he didn't know what to do?

After a short silence, I don't know if I couldn't bear the oppressive atmosphere, or out of instinctive reaction, I asked in a somewhat trembling voice: "Master Han, usually, you have the most ghost ideas, but now at this time, what do you think you should do?" ”

Although Master Han's performance was as usual, he was still cautious and did not dare to raise his head to answer, but his psychological quality was not much better than that of Hong Antong, and he was also flustered, out of the instinct of survival, he was taken by Hong Antong's official position, and said with some hesitation: "My lord, the matter is already 100,000 urgent, let's hurry up and report to the court, and report the news we know, no matter how big or small, I hope the court can send troops to suppress the rebellion and bandits in time!" ”

"Yes, yes, hurry up and write an excerpt and report it to the imperial court~!" Hong Antong didn't think about it, said again and again, and immediately walked towards the bookcase, and after sitting down, there was a stir, looking for a blank fold.

All this in front of him, Zhong Zhutou suddenly turned a blind eye, but fell into contemplation, his eyes flowed, constantly flickering, just when Hong Antong was writing hard, his head was so anxious that he was sweating, he seemed to have figured out something, and said to himself: "Yes, yes, it must be so!" ”

Zhong Zhutou's startled mind made Hong Antong's thoughts confused, and he didn't know how to continue to splash ink with his pen, Master Han was still restless, and looked at Zhong Zhutou uneasily.

At this time, Zhong Zhutou had completely woken up from his contemplation, as if he realized that his words and deeds were abrupt, but he did not immediately apologize, but bowed down to Hong Antong and said loudly: "Lord Prefect, my subordinates probably know about the assassination of the garrison general, what happened?" ”

Hong Antong didn't have the heart to care about that case for a long time, his mind was full of about the upcoming rebels, and he said impatiently: "Zhong Zhutou, what time is it now, the catastrophe is coming, Jinhua City will fall under the iron hooves of those rebels at any time, in the midst of the war, how can this official still care about any case?" ”

Zhong Zhutou was still not discouraged, he understood Hong Antong's mood very well, he still refused to give up, wanted to fight again and again, and immediately said solemnly and quickly: "My lord, you don't know, if your subordinates judge correctly, the case of the killing of the garrison generals of Jinhua Mansion and even Huizhou Mansion and Hangzhou Mansion is very likely to be assassinated by those rebels, otherwise, everything will not make sense!" ”

Smack!

Hong Antong's brush fell on the bookcase, and he was shocked again, even more shocked than just now, reaching an unstoppable underground, Master Liu was even more unbearable, with a frightened look on his face, his mouth was wide open, his legs were trembling, and he was shaking.

After years of ups and downs in the sea, I have experienced a lot of things, and after a short period of panic, things will be reversed, Hong Antong calmed down instead, and said in a deep voice: "Zhong Zhutou, what is the basis for what you say?" ”

After figuring out the crux of the case and getting straight to the point, Zhong Zhutou didn't have any scruples, and said straightforwardly: "Lord Prefect, you might as well imagine, once all the generals of the garrison and the city defense army die, who will get the most benefits?" ”

A word woke up the dreamer, and as Zhong Zhutou's words fell, Hong Antong suddenly brightened up, and said instinctively: "Those rebel bandits~"

"Yes, my lord, once all the generals of the city defense army and garrison are dead, the city defense army and the garrison will be left leaderless, the military camp will be disorganized, and it will be difficult for the local civilian officials to order those soldiers."

"In this way, the garrisons and city defense battalions in various places that fall into the leaderless group of dragons, the corresponding city is equivalent to an empty city, and there is no resistance at all, as long as those rebel armies are pressed and the troops are under the city, they can easily conquer the city and take each city."

The more he spoke, the more emotional Zhong Zhutou's thinking became, and the more he was convinced of his judgment, the assassination of the generals of the various garrisons and city defense battalions must have been the result of those rebels' secret plots. Otherwise, all the causes and consequences are unclear.

Seeing that Zhong Zhutou's thinking was clear and the head of the analysis was Dao, Hong Antong's eyes lit up, as if he had grabbed a straw to save the soldiers, he no longer held the official shelf, and asked in a harmonious voice: "Zhong Zhutou, now the situation is critical, we can only put the case over again, what do you think is our top priority?" What should the officer do to deal effectively with the current situation? (To be continued.) )