After thinking about it repeatedly, Yin Yuan decided to change his strategy, everything to avoid the edge, investigate secretly, and let Du Shuo relax his vigilance and leak clues.

A few days later, Pei Xing, the county guard, got the news that since the Lord Assassin arrived in Yangzhou, he had not dealt with any government affairs, either stayed in the post house to study, taste tea, or go to the Qinglou to listen to music, except for going to the Pingnan General's Mansion once, he did not meet any Yangzhou officials.

Pei Xing sneered: "It seems that this person is also a strong outsider, and he has nothing to show for himself, and he keeps saying that he is patrolling on behalf of the Son of Heaven, but in fact, he is at ease all day long and does not do business." ”

A few days later, someone came to report, saying that Yin Yuan had met with several county officials under the rule of Yangzhou in the past few days, including the long history of the county guard, and everyone brought gifts, as if Yin Yuan did not refuse.

Pei Xing sighed lightly: "It's duplicity again, how is this different from those adults in the capital, it seems that I am looking at the wrong person." ”

The cronies on the side said: "My lord, why bother, this thorn Shi heard that it is a popular person around King Huiji, and he can't be offended, so my lord might as well prepare some generous gifts for him, and then entertain him for a few days, and send this plague god away." ”

Pei Xing reprimanded angrily: "This official doesn't want to talk to him, Pei is also an official of the imperial court, Yangzhou has not dared to say that the people live in peace, peace and clarity since Pei took office, but there has never been a big mistake, what can he do, it's a big deal to abandon the official and return to his hometown, but it also saves pretending all day long, and he welcomes him." ”

Another day, Yin Yuan sent someone to invite Pei Xing, Pei Xing didn't know what was going on, he didn't dare to delay, and rushed to the post house. But he saw that Yin Yuan was untidy and full of wine, and he seemed to be drunk. Pei Xing bowed and saluted: "I don't know what happened to Lord Assassin Shi calling the officials here?" ”

Yin Yuan's eyes were slightly closed, his cheeks were slightly red, he leaned back on the chair, burped before speaking, and said with a smile: "Let Master Pei see and laugh, Shicai and Wang Sima have eaten a few more glasses, and they are a little drunk." ”

Pei Xing forcibly suppressed his dissatisfaction in his heart, and said with a smile: "Since the adults are drunk, please rest early, and the lower officials will retire for the time being." "I want to quit.

Yin Yuan smiled and said: "Wait, Pei Junshou, this official invited you here, is it just to let you see the drunken state of this official?" The official drank a few more glasses, but his mind was still clear. By the way, I heard that Lord Junshou is proficient in music, and he has a good piano, and the official is also very fond of music, can Pei Taishou help the official to play a song? ”

When Pei Xing heard this, he suddenly hit the flames, and he wanted to turn around and leave immediately, but when he thought of his wife and children, he gritted his teeth and endured it, and nodded in agreement. Someone on the side set up the guqin, Pei Xing was full of humiliation and grief turned into a qin song, Pei Xing stroked Cai Wenji's "Hu Ji Eighteen Beats", the tune was euphemistic and sad, tearing the liver and intestines, Pei Xing was playing, suddenly his eyes were dark, and then he felt a hot pain in his face, as if he had been hit by something, and immediately stopped, and looked at it as a shoe.

I heard Yin Yuan shouting from the other side: "What are you fussing, the official's Yaxing has let you stir it up." ”

At this time, Pei Xingzai couldn't bear it anymore, and suddenly broke out, pointing at Yin Yuan and scolding: "Dog official, you are trusted by the imperial court in vain, but you are so filthy, Pei is blind, and I think you are a rare clean official, and you can finally make decisions for the people of Yangzhou, but I don't want you to be worse than those who are greedy and fraudulent in the fish and meat country all day long." I'm sorry, what kind of talking about the first person, what kind of genius, it's all fake. ”

Pei Xing's eyes were wide open, his face was flushed, and the crown scarf on his head was crooked to the side, Yin Yuan just listened, looked at Pei Xing, neither angry nor spoken, and when Pei Xing finished scolding, he sneered: "Pei Xing, aren't you afraid that I will go back and join you in front of the Son of Heaven?" I'm afraid you'll end up ruined! ”

Pei Xing sneered: "The matter has come to this, what else do I have to be afraid of, it's a big deal that this official Pei doesn't do it, what else can I do?" ”

Yin Yuan continued: "You think it's that simple, let me ask you, is that whistleblower letter from you?" ”

When Pei Xing heard Yin Yuan ask, his face changed instantly, and he pretended to be calm again, and said, "What kind of letter, Pei doesn't know." ”

"You don't pretend here, don't think that this official really doesn't know, you have always had a discord with General Pingnan, and you have quarreled because of the rectification of the ditch, so you hold a grudge and make anonymous false accusations, saying that General Pingnan embezzled special funds and embezzled military salaries?"

After hearing this, Pei Xing calmed down and said, "Since you already know everything, you still ask me what I did, but I didn't falsely accuse Du Shuo, and his corruption is all true." It turns out that you nominally visited Du Shuo that day, but in fact you went to stammer with him, and you and they are really the same dog. The other Pei didn't say much, and if he wanted to kill, he would listen to him. After speaking, he raised his head, closed his eyes, and said nothing.

Pei Xing waited for a while, but didn't see Yin Yuan make any moves, Pei Xing opened his eyes again, but saw that Yin Yuan had already sorted out his clothes and bowed to himself, Pei Xing said, "What are you doing here?" ”

Yin Yuan said with a smile on his face: "Yin is guilty of making the county guard suffer. ”

Pei Xing was stunned again, and Yin Yuan continued: "The official is only testing Your Excellency, if you don't use the method of agitation, how can you let the adults say their true words, Yin was forced to do this, so he made this decision." Yin's real purpose in Yangzhou this time was to be ordered to investigate Du Shuo's corruption case. ”

Pei Xing still didn't believe it completely, and asked again: "How did the adult know that the secret letter was from Pei?" ”

Yin Yuan helped Pei Xing sit down, and said: "At first, Yin couldn't be sure who exposed Du Shuo, but after analyzing the content of the secret letter, he can describe Du Shuo's corruption in such detail, and he is familiar with the transfer and delivery of the treasury special bank, especially if he can also know the content of the Son of Heaven's reply to the Zhizhishangshu about Cao Yun, you can basically judge that this person is not an ordinary official, then there are only two situations, one is that this person's official rank is not low, and the other is that he is in charge of all the accounts in and out of Cao Yun, but it is impossible for someone to have both at the same time. When Lord Yin first arrived in Yangzhou, although he was extremely attentive, he showed very subtle artificiality, I think, the adult's 'courtesy' was just a test of Yin's personality, and 'pretentious' was out of instinct. Before Yin came to Yangzhou, he visited your mentor, Mr. Yu Zheng, the former Guanglu doctor, and learned about the county guard from the old gentleman, and knew that the county guard was of good character and integrity, and was not reused because he did not want to participate in the party struggle. So Yin knew that Pei Junshou was by no means a sycophant, after arriving in Yangzhou, Yin was idle all day long and did not ask about political affairs, but in fact, he just wanted to hide people's eyes and ears, paralyze the other party, and also wanted to stimulate the county guard. Then, connecting many factors together, Yin roughly deduced that Pei Junshou might be the person who reported it, and coupled with Yin's excitement just now, it was enough to conclude. ”

Pei Xing finally believed what Yin Yuan said at this time, and was very excited, and said: "To be able to remove corruption moths like Du Shuo for the country, Pei Mou suffers this little hardship, and what does it matter to suffer this grievance." If you have any orders, please speak up, and the officials are willing to do their best. ”

Yin Yuan got up and grabbed Pei Xing's hands and said, "Lord Pei is really a good minister of the Great Jin Humerus, and with the help of adults, a thorough investigation of this case is just around the corner." ”

"But? It seems that Yin has also ignored a point, it seems that there should be one more person in this case who knows the inside story, what do you say, Master Pei? Yin Yuan said again.

Pei Xing was really convinced, so he told Yin Yuan the whole thing like a bamboo tube pouring beans.

It turned out that when the imperial court decided to rectify the ditch, Pei Xing initially strongly supported and agreed, although he had always been unaccustomed to Du Shuo's arrogant and domineering approach, but in this matter he put aside his prejudices, and even personally ran around to coordinate the relationship between the parties. Later, after Du Shuo's unauthorized tampering with the accounts was learned by Pei Xing, Pei Xing had a conflict with him, Pei Xing raised objections, but Du Shuo put pressure on the imperial court and took out the imperial approval of the Son of Heaven, Pei Xing had no choice but to give in, and he was also very distressed, and he no longer cared about the project under his indignation, and the power of the ditch dredging project fell into the hands of Du Shuoru alone. One night, after Pei Xing reviewed the official documents, he was about to go back to the inner house to sleep, when suddenly a servant came to report, saying that someone outside the back door asked to see him, and this person was panicked, saying that there were 100,000 urgent things to see Pei Xing. Pei Xing felt that something was wrong, and then met this person in the study, and the person who came claimed to be surnamed Fan Mingliang, who was a Confucius under Du Shuo, because he found that Du Shuo used bamboo poles and yellow mud instead of sand and gravel to build a cofferdam, and was hunted down and killed by fictitious names to obtain empty salaries and false accounts, hoping that Pei Xing could shelter him.

"Does this person have any evidence?" Yin Yuan asked at this time.

Pei Xing sighed lightly and replied: "Fan Kongmu said that he has an account in his hand, which records all the entries of Du Shuo's false opening and corruption funds, but the evidence was hidden by him, and he is not with him for the time being, and he will hand it over to Pei after taking refuge." It's a pity that I was still hesitant at the time, and I didn't believe it, thinking that it was Du Shuo's design that harmed me, and I didn't take Fan Kongmu in. ”

Yin Yuan said: "Then where is this Fan Kongmu now?" ”

"Hey, it was Pei who hurt Fan Liang, and later I heard that Fan Kongmu was caught by Du Shuo and convicted of embezzling special funds and filling his own pockets, and it is said that he also seized a large amount of stolen silver from his home, and so far Fan Liang is alive or dead Pei doesn't know." Pei Xing sighed.

"Covering the sky with one hand and ignoring people's lives, in Du Shuo's eyes, there has long been no royal law, I think the county guard can't stand Du Shuo's wanton behavior anymore and reports it to the court, right?" Yin Yuan asked again.

Pei Xing smiled bitterly: "I'm ashamed, the adults are only half right, and half of the reason is that Fan Liang has found Pei, Pei is worried that after Du Shuo knows, the next person to deal with is me, so he also wrote a secret letter to the court for self-protection." Because the adult was only routinely inspecting Yangzhou, Pei was not sure that the adult was ordered to investigate Du Shuo's corruption case, so he tried it many times, and laid eyeliner around the post house, but he didn't want to be tested by the adult in the end, and the adult's astuteness and ability were admired. ”

Yin Yuan said with a smile: "Where is Yin Mou's cleverness, it's just that the county guard's style is too abnormal from the past, and he accidentally missed the horse's feet and was discovered by Yin."

Pei Xing said again: "It's just that there are no clues now, and Du Shuo is already alert, I'm afraid he has already prepared to deal with it, so it will be difficult." ”

Yin Yuan said: "Yes, but it's not without the slightest progress, now the key is in that account, if you can find it, everything can be solved." Therefore, the top priority is to investigate the whereabouts of the ledger, although this is tricky, but now that Yin has Brother Pei's right-hand man, he has some confidence. ”

Pei Xing arched his hand and said: "The lower official is the head of the adult, and how to arrange it is all up to the adult's orders." ”

Yin Yuan said: "Brother Pei doesn't need to be polite, you and I are now in the same boat, and we must be in the same boat through thick and thin, advancing and retreating together." Yin felt that the investigation of the whereabouts of the ledger was still handled by Brother Pei, for two reasons, one was that Yin had an obvious goal, and Du Shuo could master every move, but Du Shuo had no time to take care of Brother Pei for the time being, and the other was that Brother Pei was familiar with the situation in Yangzhou, and it was more convenient to investigate. And Yin is in the Ming Dynasty, continuing to act to paralyze Du Shuo, and he can cooperate with Brother Pei at any time, but today's play still needs to be performed, and Du Shuo must not be allowed to notice that you and I have joined forces, so that Brother Pei will have to suffer a little if he is wronged. In this way, you and I will be dark and bright, and the day when the water will come out is not far away. ”

Pei Xing turned up and said: "The adults are thoughtful and the arrangements are seamless, if you can bring down Du Shuo, what is it for Pei to suffer a little." ”