After a shout from the mountain tiger, the men and horses on both sides rushed over, and for a time the shouts of killing in the woods shook the earth. This is a real hand-to-hand fight, the two sides do not give in to each other, either you die or I live.

With such a scene, Li Qiongying and Ruan Aoyue who watched it were shocked, and even Yue Su, who had seen a big scene, could not avoid palpitations. This kind of hand-to-hand combat, I have only seen it on TV in my previous life, but I didn't expect to experience it first-hand, it is so terrifying.

He didn't come forward to stop it, because he knew that he was not able to stop it now, you said that you are the prefect, who believes it, if you don't do it, you have to put your head in it. Yue Su is righteous, but not stupid. There is a saying that when a corrupt official is to be eliminated, a clean official must be eliminated.

In addition to being frightened, Yue Su inevitably wondered again, so many errand soldiers suddenly appeared, what were they doing to eat, how could they sit back and watch the private fight between the two parties, ignore it, could it be that they had come over to fight soy sauce.

The answer was finally revealed, after nearly an hour of fighting, the shouting and killing completely stopped, and the open space was full of corpses, one by one. The winning side was Ma Han, and the slaughtered side was the mountain tiger, the mountain tiger was stabbed six times, and he died quite tragically, Yue Su still remembered that when he was dying, he twisted a person's neck to the death, and he broke that person's neck alive.

Everything is over, the two head catchers who were standing on the side to watch the excitement finally moved, and the two of them walked towards Ma Han together, clasping their fists and saying as they walked: "Boss Ma, congratulations, congratulations...... Boss Ma dominates Tongyin Mountain, and my brothers will have to rely on it a lot, and if there is anything in the future, Boss Ma will take care of one or two. ”

Hearing this, Yue Su almost lost his breath, how is this very similar to the black eating black in Hong Kong movies, a family of police and bandits.

"Tan Zhutou, Zhang Zhutou, the two of you are really polite, little brother, I have to rely on the two of you a lot in the future. It's a little meaning, it's not a tribute, I hope the two of you don't dislike it, and when this time is over, the little brother will be thanked. As he spoke, Ma Han took two stacks of gold leaves from his arms and stuffed them into the palms of the two headcatchers.

These two people got the gold leaf, and they were even more smiling, "Boss Ma is too polite, he will be rewarded for nothing, and he will be punished for nothing......"

Seeing this, Yue Su really couldn't stand it, but in order to understand the situation, he could only endure it. At this time, Ma Han ordered to take away all the corpses on his side, and the corpses on the side of the mountain tiger were asked to be affected by the two heads. The two head catchers who got the money immediately expressed their duty.

Now Yue Su understands that so many errands have come, it turns out that they are stevedores, moving corpses out of the forest, with pre-prepared vehicles outside, and then pushing them back to the town, and that's it.

Yue Su and the three of them waited until the scene was cleaned up before they walked into the clearing, and when they saw the patches of red blood stains on the soil, Yue Su couldn't help but scold: "There is such a thing in the world, it still happened under my rule, so careless of human life, if it is not rectified well, what else should I be the prefect!" ”

"Brother Yue, this is really strange, so many people died at once, how can the murderer and those errand servants act like they are all right, it seems to be commonplace, aren't they afraid that the family of the deceased will report to the official?" Don't look at Li Qiongying as the daughter of a big family, but her mind is extremely meticulous, otherwise she can't easily escape from the house and elope with someone.

Ruan Aoyue on the side also nodded and said, "Brother Li is right, I look at this matter, let's go to the town to inquire, see what is going on, and then make a plan." After speaking, she looked at Yue Su.

"That's it, let's go back to the town now, go find the Iron Monkey and meet them first, and then go and inquire."

The three of them soon returned to the town, and as soon as they entered the town, they heard the sound of crying, which was supposed to be the family of the dead just now. After walking around the town for a while, I saw an errand officer pushing a cart and carrying the corpse from house to house, and the deceased's guy immediately wept bitterly when he saw the corpse. However, it is useless to cry, you have to stuff money into the hands of the servants, otherwise you will not be able to get the corpse back.

"What kind of world is this, isn't it that under my Ming rule, there is no king's law!" Yue Su kept scolding in his heart, but at this moment, he heard someone shouting on the opposite side of the road: "Master, you have arrived." ”

Yue Su turned his head and saw that the person who shouted was Pang Xiao, an officer in the house, so he walked up to Pang Xiao in a few steps and said, "Where are they now?" ”

"Back to the master, everyone stayed at the inn in front, and the iron steward sent us to look around and greet the master."

"Lead the way, let's go to the inn first."

Pang Xiao led the way, crossed a street, and came to an old shop, which could have more than a dozen rooms, and had been taken care of by Tie Qiu. Yue Su was thrifty, and they were looking for some small inns along the way, because of his identity and the fact that there were female dependents around him, they all contracted these small shops. After all, there are many people, and there are many rooms that they need, and there are not bad two or three rooms left.

After entering the store, Yue Su found Tieqiu, entered the pre-arranged room, and asked an errand to take care of the wind, and then asked: "Tieqiu, after you stayed, did you ask why these people went out to fight privately with weapons?" ”

Tie Qiu replied: "Back to my lord, after checking in, I found a man, and only said that when I entered the town, I met many people with weapons and went out in a hurry, I don't know what happened, whether there were bandits here." Unexpectedly, the guy replied that they were there to rob the mine. I then asked what kind of mine I was robbing, but when the shopkeeper called the man, he went in a hurry and didn't have time to answer. ”

"Grab the mine......" Yue Su groaned, remembering that those people in the forest also said that the mine cave was handed over to the mountain tiger and the copper seal mountain, otherwise he would do it. It seems that it is really for the sake of grabbing mines.

Thinking of this, Yue Su reacted, "No, the imperial court has a ban on private mining, and once it is discovered, it will be raided and destroyed." Who is so bold and dares to mine without authorization, locally, the errand officer clearly knows, no matter whether he asks or does not say, he still acts for the tiger. If you want to come to the local county order, it can't be clean. ”

Estimating the hour, it was already Shen time, and it was not far from dinner time, Yue Su said: "In this way, when we have dinner later, let's ask that guy again." ”

***************************************************

At two o'clock, Yue Su and others went to the front hall to eat, thirteen people sat at two tables, six servants at one table, Yue Su and others at one table, this is also Yue Su's rules are small, especially when going out, in order not to arouse suspicion, it is not easy to be seen by casual orders.

For this meal, Yue Su deliberately ordered eight dishes and asked for some wine, and only after the guy had the wine and dishes served together, he said: "Man, when I just entered the town, I saw the messengers sending corpses from house to house, what is wrong with you here, it can't be a horse thief?" If that were the case, we would have hurried away as soon as we had eaten, and we would not have dared to stay here. ”

The man's name is Jia Si, he is the nephew of the shopkeeper, his parents died, he lived with his uncle, and he spent all his time eating and drinking at this inn. It is rare to have so many guests in the inn, and when he heard Yue Su say that he was worried about horse thieves and did not plan to live, he was startled, and hurriedly explained: "This master, you misunderstood, we don't have any horse thieves here, this is Ma Ye and Hu Ye in order to grab the Tongyin Mountain Mine, and they fought." ”

"Ah......" Yue Su pretended to be surprised, and said: "How can this really kill people in order to rob the mine, aren't you afraid of the government being guilty?" You will slander me, and you will not believe or believe......"

"Master, you are from a foreign country, and you may not know much about the world here. Listen to me, there is a mine in our Yinjiang County, called Tongyin Mountain, which is ten miles outside the west entrance of the town. This mountain is rich in copper mines, and in these years, there is no money for copper, so some local people with some skills have gone to the mountain to open mines. The copper seal mountain is so big, and it is not something that a few people can hollow out, so more and more people are mining it. That tiger master is a person from our Maqiao Town, and he is also the first one to lead people to go up the mountain to open mines, and over the years, he has made a lot of money, and later recruited a lot of people in the town to do things for him, and his strength is getting stronger and stronger. There are more people, and the mine is still so big, and the money is obviously not as much as before, so the tiger master began to rob other people's mines. Other mine owners are also counting on mining to make money, how can they give up the mine, the two sides do not agree with each other, and there will be casualties, and the dead are also considered unlucky, and the losing party must of course let the mine out. After a long time, an unwritten convention has been formed in Yinjiang County, and whoever wants to occupy someone else's mine must defeat the original side. After another two years, Hu Ye occupied nearly thirty percent of the territory on Tongyin Mountain by robbing other people's mines, and belonged to the few big people in Yinjiang County. Today, the side that confronted him is Ma Ye, Ma Ye was originally a subordinate of the Tiger Master, because he had many ideas, he won the weight of the Tiger Master, and he also pulled dozens of people, relying on the power of the Tiger Master, and robbed two mines on the Tongyin Mountain, but at that time, Ma Ye had to sacrifice to the Tiger Master every year, and obeyed the orders of the Tiger Master. Who knows that after another three years, Ma Ye invited a group of people from nowhere, this gang of people is very fierce, less than two years, helped Ma Ye to seize nearly sixty percent of the territory of Tongyin Mountain in one go, during which there are countless fights like this, and the number of dead is hundreds, it can be said that the owner of mining on this mountain, none of them is easy to provoke. After laying such a big foundation, Ma Ye will of course no longer be under the control of the tiger master, but the two sides are well water and not river water. But not long ago, Ma Ye suddenly announced that he would let Hu Ye get out of the mine, and of course Hu Ye would not show weakness, and the two sides were scheduled to fight it out in the woods outside the town today. I just heard that it was the tiger master who was defeated, and even his life was put into it, and now his family is crying in the house. ”

After listening to Jia Si's story, Yue Su realized even more what lawlessness is, he still pretended to be surprised, and said: "There are such things, you won't brag, so many people died at one time, don't the government just ask?" ”

"The big men in the county, all of them have eaten the east and the west, whether they are beaten or beaten, they all give him silver, who do you let him do, he can only turn a blind eye and don't see it. The family members of these people who died began to go to the yamen to complain, and the county lord gave them back a word, 'A slap doesn't make a sound, you are also willing to work hard, and now you are dead to sue, so why do you want to go up and fight?' And when he had said that, he ordered the servants to take a board and drive out the complainant. Since then, no one has complained, but the battle on Tongyin Mountain has never stopped. Maybe this is called the death of people for money, and the birds are killed for food, and they are willing to fight and suffer. ”

After hearing this, Yue Su nodded with a wry smile, and said secretly in his heart: "It's true, I really want to fight, I know that I may die, and I still carry my head to do it, it seems that the temptation of money is too great." Whether ancient or modern, there are people who take risks for money. ”

He coughed dryly, and then said: "I remember that there is a ban in the imperial court, prohibiting private mining, and violators will raid their homes and destroy their homes, don't you people here know?" ”

"Who can not know about this, but as long as the county lord collects the money, he doesn't care, there are so many mine owners in the mountains, who doesn't give him filial piety, and in the past few years, the family is full of gold and silver, how can he have the heart to pay attention to any bans. Having said that, he doesn't care about this kind of thing, how can the emperor Lao Tzu know if he is so far away in Yanjing. ”

Okay, your Yinjiang County, it's really the emperor of Tiangao, and he is the emperor of the soil here. Yue Su hated so much that the roots of his teeth itched, his face was still silent, and he said: "They beat people to death in order to earn mines, how can they still have the county government's poor master to help deliver the corpse?" It's hard to understand what's going on. ”

Jia Si said: "The head of the horse fast squad in the yamen has long been fed by these mine owners, and when they fight for mines, these poor men eat people's short mouths, of course, they ignore them. In the past, most of the people who were killed were abandoned in the wilderness, and wild dogs passed by, or vultures flew in the sky, and the corpses were inevitably lost. If you can't see the corpse, even if the family is sad and angry, they can still bear it, if they don't see the corpse, they will inevitably have emotions, and they can't sue in the county, so they go to Tongren Mansion to file a complaint, and they have to let the county magistrate spend a lot of money. Seeing that the county magistrate was always worried about this matter, Ma Ye came up with an idea, and when there was another fight, he must report it to the yamen in advance, and the yamen would be responsible for supervising and returning the body of the deceased. The errand cleans up the corpse, this is not in vain, the victorious side will give a reward, I heard that all the gifts are gold......" Speaking of this, Jia Si paused, and said: "When those errand officers return the corpse, they can also get benefits, and the family of the deceased must give the errand money money, which is called errand fees." In order to see the corpse of a concubine, the family acquiesced to this case of money. ”

After listening to Jia Si's series of words, Yue Su quickly concluded that this person named Ma Han was a very scheming and powerful character. Thinking of the Tongyin Mountain, it must be a mixture, he can stand out, and swallow up the entire mine in just a few years, and it is not difficult to imagine his superiority. Yue Su remained silent and said politely: "It turned out to be such a thing, it seems that I misunderstood, everyone doesn't need to rush to eat, eat slowly, eat well and sleep well." ”

Jia Si saw that Yue Su didn't leave, he was happy in his heart, and ran to the back kitchen to eat.

Li Qiongying, Ruan Aoyue and the others snickered in their hearts, thinking that this Yue Su could really deceive people, and the little er who bluffed was stunned, no wonder he could solve so many cases. Du Siniang and the others were shocked by Xiao Er's words, they really couldn't imagine that this place is so unruly that there is no royal law, it seems that our Lord Yue is going to be angry again.

After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms to rest, Yue Su was in front of everyone, of course, he had to share a room with Ruan Aoyue, but there was only one bed, so he had to make a bunk on the floor.

Blowing the lamp to rest, Ruan Aoyue asked Yue Su how to deal with Yinjiang County, Yue Su smiled slightly, and said: "What else can be done, Ming Zhengcanon." ”

*******************************************************

After a night of nothing, after getting up, everyone went to Yinjiang County, in the restaurant, Yue Su privately inquired with Xiao Er about the robbery of the mine, but I didn't expect that this matter was almost all over the city in Yinjiang County, Xiao Er was talking about foaming at the mouth, and the content of what he said was about the same as Jia Si. Yue Su was even more aware of this, and took the opportunity to ask: "It seems that your county magistrate has made a lot of money in this regard, I don't know how it is in other aspects, is it fair to judge the case?" ”

Xiao Er spat on the ground and said, "Fair fart, don't look at this guy who has made a lot of money in mining, and he doesn't let go of other money, it's never too much, it's really a goose plucking." His yamen, no matter whether you are justified or not, as long as you have no money, you will definitely not be able to win the lawsuit. ”

"If you can't win the battle with him, you can go to Tongren Mansion to sue, it's not like there is no king in the world." Yue Su said with a smile.

"In the past, of course, some people overstepped the level to sue, but whether it was sued to the magistrate, or to the general judgment or the prefect, all of them upheld the original verdict and did not say anything, and they also had to be beaten with a board, saying that you crossed the level and made false accusations. In these years, officials and officials protect each other, how can there be any place for us ordinary people to reason, just make do with life, have something to eat, and don't die of hunger. At the end, Xiao Er shook his head and sighed. In his heart, he just regarded Yue Su as a guest from other places, and said it, it was no big deal. This is unhappy, and it can only be comfortable when you spit it out.

After lunch, everyone walked around the city, bought some souvenirs and special snacks, and in the evening, found a small inn to stay, and left Yinjiang and went to Dejiang.

Dejiang County is located at the junction of Wuling Mountain and Da Lou Mountain. It is adjacent to the Yinjiang River in the east, Sinan in the south, Fenggang in the west, and between the river and Wuchuan in the north. The climate is pleasant, the scenery is beautiful, the four seasons are distinct, the sun is abundant, and the rainfall is abundant, which is a particularly beautiful place.

Not only that, the people here are simple and simple, far different from Yinjiang. Sima Chen, the county magistrate, is a very elegant person, often indulges in the mountains and rivers, the official reputation is not good or bad, and everything is precious to harmony. It is not true to say that he is incompetent, he is never confused when he encounters major events, and some big cases, gift-giving does not work; Say he is incorruptible, but he is not, you give him gold and silver, he refuses, if you send celebrity calligraphy and paintings, you will be happy to smile.

The officials of the world, it is good to be able to do this, but how many Qing officials there are in the Ming Dynasty. Even the world-famous first assistant Zhang Juzheng, isn't he also a corrupt criminal.

It is rare to encounter such a person who does not collect money, and Yue Su will close his eyes and get by.

After living in Dejiang for two days, Li Qiongying and Ruan Aoyue were reluctant to leave, to be honest, Dejiang was too beautiful. Especially the Wujiang River that was visited yesterday, the scenery is charming, the canyon is deep, the forests on both sides are lush, the mountains, water, forests, springs, caves, and cliffs are integrated, and the male, strange, dangerous, showy, ancient, and secluded in the first line are breathtaking.

Born in the water town of the south of the Yangtze River since childhood, Du Shi Niang, who had infinite scenery, couldn't help but be amazed, standing on the bank of the Wujiang River and singing a song, which really has a long aftertaste. The women were reluctant to leave, saying that they would play for a few more days. At that time, no matter where you went to play, there was no admission fee, and Yue Su also felt that it was rare in life, so he promised them to visit other local scenery.

Dalongqian, Longqiao Cave, and White Dragon Cave are extremely strange; The high cave, the white water spring, and the cold water rock waterfall are even more spectacular, which can be called "flying down 3,000 feet, suspected to be the Milky Way falling for nine days"; The cliff fiber road and the winch beach wonder are known as the "pillars of Guizhou".

After visiting for more than ten days, I finally took a rough look at the scenery of Dejiang, and when I calculated it, I said that the golden cicada escorted the prisoners should also return, and could not be delayed any longer, so everyone left Dejiang with reluctance and went to the next stop - Songtao.

The distance from Dejiang to Songtao is not close, it can be 400 miles, and everyone rushed for seven days before they arrived at the ground of Songtao.

As the name suggests, there is a small river at the entrance of the town, the river is more than 20 meters wide, and a stone bridge is erected. Everyone walked in the direction of the bridge, and when they got closer, they noticed that there were six men gathered at the entrance of the upper bridge, and one of them was still wearing soap clothes. In front of the six people, there was a wooden box, and all passers-by had to throw money into the box.

Yue Su looked carefully, and wondered in his heart, he had never heard of any place where he had to pay money to cross the bridge, what was going on in this place?

He did not pause, rode forward slowly, walked to the bridge, and was about to go directly to the bridge, when a man immediately stood up, blocked the way, and said very arrogantly: "Is it from a foreign country?" ”

Yue Su smiled and said, "Exactly." ”

"Be literate, look at the other sign yourself!" The man said loudly.

Yue Su turned his head to take a look, and this time he noticed that there was a wooden sign hanging on the bridge railing, with two lines of large characters written on it, "Pass the tax tax, pedestrians two texts, livestock four texts, vehicles eight texts." ”

"I've never heard of paying taxes on bridges all over the world, why do you still have to collect taxes when you cross the bridge, does the imperial court have such a tax system?" Yue Su asked.

"The system of the imperial court can't be controlled, crossing the bridge to pay taxes is the rule of our Songtao County, if you pay, you can pass, if you don't pay, please detour!" Dahan shouted unreasonably.

Tie Qi was beside Yue Su, and when he heard that this guy dared to speak to Yue Su like this, he became angry and said angrily: "Boy, you dare to talk to my master like this, are you looking for a fight!" With that, he raised the whip in his hand.