Although Chi Leshan had already prepared in his heart, when Du Gutu saw the dagger, he still felt a tingling on his spine, which had nothing to do with guts, but was just an innate human being alert to the coming of danger. He gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice, "My lord, what if you really don't know?" “

"Hehe, I don't know?" Du Gu stood up, walked to Chi Leshan's side and sneered: "Your village is the largest within a radius of dozens of miles, and such a big thing is separated from you by a mountain beam, do you say you don't know?" Okay, you open the gate of the wall, let us go in and search it, if it really has nothing to do with you, this official will naturally return you a clean slate. ”

Chi Leshan knew that he had been forced into a corner, and the dilemma made layers of cold sweat appear on his forehead, but he didn't dare to reach out to wipe it, beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks and fell on his chest, and soon a dark sweat stain soaked.

"Xiucaigong, why don't you speak?" Du Gu smiled: "Isn't this case really related to you?" ”

"No, no-" Chi Leshan hurriedly denied it, this is not a joke, if he is buttoned on his head by this hat, it is a crime of extermination.

"None? So why not open the gate? Du Gu's face suddenly became gloomy: "Someone! ”

"In!"

"Let me stay with this talented man, and treat it well! When I take down the stockade, I'll deal with him again!" Du Gu shouted.

"Open, open!" Chi Leshan's nerves were finally crushed by Du Gu's final blow, and he shouted in succession: "My lord, calm your anger, I will let my brother open the door immediately!" “

"Wouldn't that be good!" Du Gu laughed, and he gently patted Chi Leshan's shoulder: "Xiucaigong, why do you want to make it so ugly?" ”

Under the door of the cave, Chi Leshan's face was pale, and Chi Lechuan's face was not good enough to see where to go. Under the command of Hao Shaoqi, the soldiers rushed in from the walled gate. The gate and other points in the village were controlled, the gates on both sides of the road were closed, and the residents carefully peeked out through the cracks in the door, and even the crying doll was immediately gagged by the mother with a nipple to avoid causing trouble.

"Mr. Hao, you search me carefully, search carefully, you must give Xiucai a clean slate!" Du Gu's voice was not loud, but he bit the last word "innocent" very hard, as if he wanted to chew those two words and swallow them.

"Yes. My lord! Hao Shaoqi answered, and ran towards the Le family's mansion with a team of soldiers. Chi Lechuan wanted to say something, but was pulled by his younger brother. Seeing that more and more belongings were being moved out of the yard, the look on Chi Lechuan's face became more and more excited, and finally he broke free from his brother's pull and rushed forward, and before he could run two steps, his knee was hit by a shot and fell to the ground, and he was forced by several spears as soon as he wanted to get up.

"Your Excellency!" Chi Leshan stepped forward and begged: "Please forgive my brother for being rude, spare him this time!" ”

Du Gu ignored Chi Leshan. Turning his head, he asked the scribe behind him, "Tell me how much tax this Chi family brother owes?" The clerk opened a book, turned to one of the pages, and read: "Tell your lord, the Chi family brothers have owed a total of more than 1,700 stone of gross grain and 450 taels of silver over the years; In addition, there is also Liaoyu, and this village has paid a total of the year of the Apocalypse. It is still paid according to two hundred acres. “

"Two hundred acres?" Du Gu turned around and asked Chi Leshan, "There are only two hundred acres of land in such a big village?" So what do you all live on? “

Chi Leshan didn't answer, and only after half a sound did he whisper: "If the adult asks for money and food, just ask, the villain should break the family and repay the service." “

Du Gugang wanted to agree. suddenly remembered Liu Cheng's advice before parting: "Why did I pick the Chi family brothers this time?" It's not for anything else, it's because these two people have a bad enough reputation, and they won't have any fellow teachers to protect them. So you go ahead. Let those who wait and see what will happen if they don't pay for food. It doesn't matter how much oil and water can be extracted from them, as long as the Chi family ends up as miserable as possible! When the words came to his mouth, he swallowed back, coughed twice, and said with a smile: "Look at what Xiucai said, we seem to be coming for the money and grain of your village, you must know that we are the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, and the persuasion of the past few days was just voluntary." I came to Guizhai today just for two things: one is the more than 30 lives and the money and food that were robbed; The second thing is the arrears of your mansion and the salaries, which are the imperial grain and national taxes, and they must be paid! “

Chi Leshan looked at Du Gu's clumsy official tone, but his heart was getting colder and colder, with the experience of dealing with all kinds of people over the years, he had already seen that what Du Gu was saying now was just some nonsense to hide his true purpose, and the real purpose of this group of officers and soldiers was neither to solve the case, nor to solve the so-called arrears of formal endowments and salaries. According to the division of local political power in the late Ming Dynasty, such as the killing of officials and the payment of taxes in arrears, these were all local administrative affairs, and passing officials and soldiers like Du Gu had neither the responsibility nor the power to intervene in them. The only thing that can be reluctantly related to Du Gu is that if the money and food that was stolen were given to him, so he came to investigate, but only then Du Gu rejected the money and food that Chi Leshan took the initiative to take out, obviously his interest was not in the money and food, if everything that happened before was linked, then its real purpose was really chilling.

Thinking of this, Chi Leshan had already made up his mind in his heart, he drank his brother who was scolding, and said to Du Gu: "My lord, the robbery of money and grain, and the killing of the servants really have nothing to do with us, these days there are thieves everywhere outside, and our village is closed to ourselves, how do we know what happened across a mountain beam?" As for the arrears of positive endowments and salaries, it is our fault, and please report a number, and the two of us brothers will pay it off even if they are broken. ”

"Paid?" Du Gu took the book from the scribe's hand, flipped through it casually and laughed, "Isn't this a decimal number? ”

"The villain just said that even if you break the house, you should pay it off."

"Good!" Du Gu threw the account book to the scribe on the side: "You can count it to Xiucaigong." ”

"Yes!" The scribe replied: "But there is one thing I would like to ask the lord to instruct, what method should be used to calculate the interest on this money and grain?" ”

"Interest?" Du Gu frowned and asked, "What's the point?" ”

"Tell my lord, the Chi family owes some years of Zhengfu and Liaoyu. If you think about it, the people borrowed a liter of millet between the two families, and when they repaid it, they had to take a few more heels. After all these years, how can there be any reason to return the original to the original? ”

"That's right, it's a matter of course to repay the principal and interest, but there are still many ways to calculate the interest?"

The scribe smiled and said, "My lord, there are many such tricks. There is lamb rest, which is commonly used by the Mongols in the previous dynasties, to lend you a ewe in the spring, and to return one more lamb after the autumn, to obtain one of the livestock cubs; For example, if you have an object in your hand to the pawnshop, and the court says that the object is worth 10 hanging money, you can take nine hanging money and go, which is considered to be a month's interest deducted in advance, and after three months, in addition to repaying the principal of 10 hanging money. In addition, it is necessary to give a monthly interest payment, which is a total of 13 hangings, so it is called nine out of thirteen. ”

The scribe introduced six or seven ways to calculate interest in one breath, and Du Gu was dizzy when he heard it, and he slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, who can understand such trouble?" By the way, Xiucaigong, don't you often lend money at home? Choose one of the above! ”

Du Gu's words caused a burst of laughter in the crowd of onlookers, and even a burst of irrepressible laughter came from the houses on both sides, the Chi brothers did not take into account the affection between the clan and their neighbors when they used usury to exploit them. Many people in the same village lost their land and property because they couldn't change the usury, and became tenants of the Chi family.

"Leave it to your senses." At this time, Chi Leshan was extraordinarily calm. may have been influenced by his younger brother, but Chi Lechuan didn't say anything. The performance of the Chi brothers surprised Du Gu, who originally thought that this would provoke the other party and give him an excuse to do it. Chi Leshan's tame performance made him a little unhappy. Du Gu waved his hand lazily: "Forget about the lamb's breath, what kind of Mongolian method do we Han people use, just use that nine out of thirteen returns!" ”

"Thank you, for your kindness!" Chi Leshan bowed and bowed. He smiled bitterly and said, "I have some urgency to urinate now, please be gracious!" “

"Hmm!" Du Gu glanced at Hao Shaoqi, Hao Shaoqi stood up, Chi Leshan hurriedly followed, when he walked by Chi Lechuan's side, he secretly glanced at his brother, Chi Leshan knew very well in his heart that this was probably the last time he looked at his brother.

Like most ethnic groups that have entered a civilized society, the Han people will generally arrange toilets on the edge of residential areas, and the Chijia village is no exception, because this village is built on a high ground with steep slopes on three sides, and the back of the toilet is a steep slope more than ten zhang high. Hao Shaoqi looked at the toilet, and there was no other way out, so he motioned for Chi Leshan to enter the toilet, and sat at the door by himself, blocking it tightly.

But Hao Shaoqi sat at the door of the toilet for a while, and suddenly heard a noise inside, and hurriedly jumped in, only to see that there was a big hole in the wall facing the toilet in the direction of the steep slope, and Chi Leshan was long gone. Hao Shaoqi ran to the entrance of the cave to look outside, only to see Chi Leshan under the steep slope is standing up from the ground, it turns out that the toilet is just a thatched hut, the four walls are just a layer of mud fence, on the surface it looks like a wall, in fact, it fell apart when it hit. Fang Cai Chi Leshan took advantage of Hao Shaoqi and didn't pay attention, hit the back wall and rolled down the steep slope with his head in his hands.

"Dog thief, stop me!" Hao Shaoqi at the top of the steep slope was angry, but he didn't dare to roll down with his head like Chi Leshan, after all, the other party had already jumped over the wall in a hurry, and it was already the blessing of the ancestors if he didn't break his head. If Hao Shaoqi is copied as it is, I am afraid that he will not be so lucky, but if he goes down from other roads, he will have to bypass half of the mountain, Chi Leshan has long been gone, Rao is Hao Shaoqi jumped like thunder on the steep slope, and he could only watch Chi Leshan limp away into the col.

"What? If you pull, you let that Chi Leshan run away? Du Gu's eyes widened, looking at Hao Shaoqi, who was hanging his head, his good mood had been completely destroyed.

"Damn, that pit is on the edge of the steep slope, and I'm guarding the doorway, but I don't want the guy to crash through the back wall and roll down the steep slope." Speaking of which, Hao Shaoqi's black face was almost as swollen as a pig's liver: "He broke his leg and definitely won't be able to run far, so I'll take someone to chase him immediately." ”

"Chase a fart, there are ditches and bumps everywhere here, and that guy is familiar with the terrain, just find a dog hole and drill where do you find him?" Du Gu thought for a while: "Forget it, you hurry back to the county seat and tell Lord Liu about this matter." ”

"Yes!" Hao Shaoqi answered and was about to leave. But when he heard the forgotten Chi Lechuan, he laughed. Du Gu walked up to him and asked, "What are you laughing at?" “

"I laugh at you two idiots who fell into the trap of my second brother, hmph, my second brother must be in the county and not in the state to sue, and I will let you all die when the time comes!" Chi Lechuan scolded viciously.

"Really?" Du Gu smiled, although he pulled out his waist knife and strangled the other party's neck, the sharp blade immediately cut Chi Lechuan's throat and artery, blood sprayed out from the wound and splashed far away, and his body, which was very vigorous, twitched on the ground for a while before he died completely.

Du Gu took advantage of the fact that the blood had not completely coagulated on the blade, and wiped it clean on the corpse before returning the knife into the sheath, and sneered: "Sue? Go to Lord Yama to sue you, I'm afraid that there are too many unjust ghosts who want to sue us at Lord Yama, and it won't be your turn for a while. ”

"Mr. Du Qian, just kill him like this?" Although he is no stranger to killing Hao Shaoqi, he is all knife-to-knife and gun-to-gun, and he is still a little unaccustomed to being ruthless like Du Gu.

"Well, before I came, I told the lord that I wanted to use the heads of these brothers to scare the old rich people who refused to pay for it, but it's a pity that you let one go." Du Gu sighed: "Anyway, the charges are ready-made, robbing military salaries, killing officials without permission, as well as arrears of taxes, and oppressing the good, that's pretty much it." “

"It's a showman who runs out."

"He's not going to be a showman right away." Du Gu said with a smile: "As soon as you go back, the Quxian Commander will write a letter to the state school administration, asking him to deprive him of his talent status on the grounds of colluding with bandits and insulting Sven, and it will only be a matter of two days to approve the document." Speaking of this, Du Gu patted Hao Shaoqi's shoulder: "You and we will have a short life, I don't know how powerful he is." We will do things as a ring and a ring, you deal with a move, followed by another move, if you don't do it, you have to put it to death. The one surnamed Chi bumped into us, and the lord was considered to have fallen for eight lifetimes. (To be continued.) )