According to this calculation, what Steward Su and Lu Jianzhong said is likely to be referring to the smuggling of smuggled salt. If they can intercept this batch of illicit salt and catch Lu Wanli's younger brother Lu Wanzhong, they will also hit the death hole of the boat gang, and then they can first be banned according to this criminal fact, and the boat gang can be designated as an organized criminal group that trafficks illicit salt, and then all of them can be arrested and arrested, and the boat gang's killing of Shen Zhizhou's wife and children and other crimes can be investigated.

Yang Qiuchi originally wanted to lure the snake out of the hole, wait for the rabbit, catch Steward Su and Lin Xiang, on the one hand, conduct a surprise interrogation, find clues to the crime of the boat gang, and on the other hand, see which official will protect them, so as to discover the behind-the-scenes umbrella of the boat gang. However, now that the clues of the major crimes of the boat gang have been discovered, they can break through in one fell swoop, so there is no need to wait slowly. Therefore, Yang Qiuchi decided to seize this rare opportunity and take out the boat gang in one fell swoop.

However, it is still unknown where they will traffic the illicit salt from and how they will intercept it, Yang Qiuchi thought for a while and asked, "Where do you estimate that they will transport this batch of illicit salt from?" ”

Lin Xiang said: "Our Bazhou Shu Road is difficult, we can only carry it on our shoulders, and it is okay for small traders to walk, but if we want to traffic illicit salt on a large scale, it will not work, the cost is too great, and it is too easy to be exposed." So, it is estimated that they will not go by land. ”

Yang Qiuchi nodded and said, "To traffic illicit salt, taking the waterway is the most cost-effective and safest. ”

"The lord is right, as far as I know, most of the private salt in our Bazhou area is smuggled down the river by commercial ships of Fushun County and Zhenrong County (now Zigong), and then goes up the Jialing River through Yucheng Mansion, and passes through Shunqing Mansion to Baoning Mansion for distribution and wholesale. If the boat gang were to trade illicit salt, it would most likely come from this route. ”

"Makes sense!" Yang Qiuchi nodded and said, "I just don't know when the two of them said it will be delivered before the full moon?" ”

"I guess I should mean the fifteenth full moon of this month."

"Today is already eleven, there are only four days, it should be too late, but we must hurry." Yang Qiuchi was very happy, "If the information you provided is verified to be true, I will be lenient with you!" ”

Lin Xiang was grateful, and he made a gesture.

Yang Qiuchi was secretly proud, it seemed that his trick of framing Lin Xiang and forcing him to rebel still had an effect. This Lu Wanli thought that Lin Xiang was just a small shopkeeper and didn't know the inside story of their crime, but he didn't expect that he overheard an important conversation between Steward Su and Lu Wanli, and leaked the important news of a major criminal activity of theirs, and he wanted to seize this opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the underworld of the Boat Gang!

Since this news was overheard by Lin Xiang from Steward Su, this Steward Su must know the inside story, so Yang Qiuchi decided that he had to pry his mouth open as soon as possible.

Steward Su and Lin Xiang were both imprisoned in the northern felony cell of the Yamen Prison, but in order to prevent collusion, they were detained in the east and west rooms of the felony prison respectively.

Yang Qiuchi and the others hurriedly came to Steward Su's prison, Yang Qiuchi glanced at Steward Su lying in the haystack, saw him lying there motionless, slightly surprised, and said, "Steward Su, have you thought about it?" To say or not to say? ”

It was dark, it was raining lightly outside, and although there were lanterns lit in the corridor of the cell, the light was still very dim, Yang Qiuchi couldn't see it really, but Song Yun'er noticed that something was wrong at a glance, and exclaimed: "It's not good!" Steward Su was shot to death! ”

Yang Qiuchi's heart sank, and he looked at it fixedly, and sure enough, he saw Steward Su lying on his back in the grass with his back facing the sky, with a carved arrow stuck in the middle of his throat!

The guards in charge of the prison were shocked, and there were fatalities in the cell, and they were repeat offenders, so they had to walk around without food, and they were all frightened with earthy faces, and their bodies were like sifting chaff.

Two of them were about to open the door of the prison cell, but Yang Qiuchi shouted, "Don't move!" Exit them all! ”

Song Yun'er knew that Yang Qiuchi was worried that if they moved, they would destroy the scene, she followed Yang Qiuchi for a long time, of course she knew the important surname of the scene protection, and motioned for everyone to retreat outside the door, took the key from the handler and handed it to Yang Qiuchi, following behind him to protect at any time.

Nangong Xiong and the other guards were also surprised and glad that the killer actually sneaked into Lord Yang to kill people, fortunately Lord Yang was fine, although so, it also shocked them into a cold sweat, and hurriedly guarded carefully.

Yang Qiuchi took the key to the prison cell, first carefully looked at the surrounding situation, and then carefully avoided the places where there might be traces on the ground, came to the fence, and first looked at the door lock, which was intact and there were no traces of prying.

He took out a sweat towel from his arms, held the iron lock, opened it with a key, and then covered his hand with a sweat towel and gently pushed open the door of the prison cell. Standing by the door, he carefully observed the situation in the prison cell, and found no signs of fighting.

Came to the corpse of Steward Su and squatted down to check, there were no obvious injuries on other parts of the body, only an arrow was hit in the throat, and the carved arrow had been shot deep into the neck, judging from the part, it just cut off the vocal cords of the throat, so this Steward Su couldn't shout at all, and was killed by an arrow through the throat.

Yang Qiuchi carefully observed the posture of Steward Su falling to the ground, squatting next to the corpse, and observing them one by one, and then he got up and walked out of the cell and called the two guards on duty in this row of prisons to question.

The two guards had been on duty just now and had not left, except for the two of them, no one else had entered, and they had not heard any unusual movements.

"That's weird! Could it be that the ghost shot him? Song Yun'er kept following behind Yang Qiuchi, listened to the words of the two jailers, and muttered to herself. Immediately saw Yang Qiuchi's solemn expression, and he didn't dare to say more, so he followed honestly.

Yang Qiuchi walked straight out of the row of prison cells, came to a small open space behind the house, first looked around, and then carefully inspected it along the wall of the cell. Although the light rain has mostly stopped, the ground is already wet.

The Bazhou Yamen cell is only the size of a football field, and the felons are kept in isolation in a separate courtyard, and the entire prison is quickly inspected, Yang Qiuchi asked the guards at the gate of the cell and the guards at the gate of the yard for felons, and no strangers have ever entered.

Then, Yang Qiuchi called the cell boss over and asked, "Do we have bows and arrows in our cells?" ”

The head of the Yamen prison is surnamed Wu, because he has six fingers, and he is nicknamed Six-Fingered Wu. There is such a big thing in the cell, and as the head of the cell, he is afraid that he will not be able to escape from the crime of dereliction of duty.

Hearing the question of the eldest master of Zhizhou, the six-fingered Wu bowed forward and said tremblingly: "Go back to ...... Back to my lord, there is no ...... in the cell There were no bows and arrows, and the brothers were armed only with waist knives and ...... and an iron ruler, if the big lord needs a bow and arrow, the small one ...... The little ones are going to find someone right away...... Go catch the fast house and get it. ”

Yang Qiuchi said again: "No need, how many people are on duty in the cell tonight?" ”

"There are ...... There were twenty-one on duty. ”

"What about this felon's prison? How many are there? ”

"Plus me, there'...... There are twelve"

"Well, immediately call all the people who are on duty in the courtyard of the felon's cell tonight to gather here!"

"Yes!" Six-fingered Wu hurriedly ran out.

Taking advantage of this time, Yang Qiuchi pondered, now that Su Renfu and Steward Su are dead, there is no way to further verify the news that Lin Xiang said, but it is only a few days before the middle of the month, and there is no time to verify and fully prepare for himself, so he must make a decision immediately and make arrangements immediately.

The only thing we know now is that the boats trafficking illicit salt are likely to go up the Jialing River and arrive at Boryeong Province before the 15th, and it will take two days to reach Boryeong Province from Bazhou, and they must intercept the smuggled salt fleet before they reach Boryeong, leaving little time for themselves.

Yang Qiuchi immediately thought about the arrest plan, so he could only divide his troops into two routes, one way to the Jialing River, one way to arrest the boat gang trafficking illicit salt, and the other way to Baoning Mansion to monitor and control Lu gradually leaving, to prevent him and other important leaders of the boat gang from absconding or destroying criminal evidence. Once the interception of the boat gang smuggling salt fleet is successful, the important leaders of the boat gang such as Lu Yili will be arrested immediately.

He now only has a guard of 40 people and more than 20 arresters, and his strength is insufficient, but Baoning Mansion has 100 Jinyi Guards, so he can only recruit Jinyi Guards from 100 households in Baoning Mansion to participate in the arrest and rush to the Jialing River for reinforcements.

Thinking of this, Yang Qiuchi called Nangong Xiong aside and instructed him to immediately arrange a male escort team, prepare to leave overnight, rush to Baoning Mansion, and inform Xia Ping to do a good job of guarding the yamen and protect Song Qing and her lair.

Then, he called Zhan Zheng, the head catcher, and asked him to gather all the catchers and prepare to set off on a mission. In order not to startle the snake and facilitate the secret search of fishing boats on the river, Yang Qiuchi asked all catchers to wear civilian clothes. Zhan Zheng didn't dare to ask more, and after agreeing, he hurriedly summoned people to go.

During this time, Liuzhi Wu had already called the twelve guards of the felony prison to the courtyard and lined them up.

Yang Qiuchi stared at their faces one by one from beginning to end, then turned back and slowly stared at them again from tail to end, and stopped from time to time to look in all directions, front, back, left and right. Then he walked around behind them and looked back and forth twice. Seeing these twelve jailers, their hairs straightened.

After reading it, Yang Qiuchi returned to the front of them, glanced at the guards coldly, and said, "Just now, right now, under the nose of Master Ben, there was a murder case, and an important prisoner in the felony prison was shot to death with a bow and arrow!" Master Ben is very angry, and the consequences are serious! ”

Why is this sentence so familiar, Yang Qiuchi seems to remember it, it was said by the old thief Uncle Li (Ge You) in "There Are No Thieves in the World", he wanted to laugh a little, so he quickly gritted his teeth and held back, and roared: "What a fucking boldness!" dared to kill people in front of Lao Tzu, and he simply didn't take Lao Tzu in his eyes. ”

After a pause, he pointed to the row of guards in front of him, now, the official has found out the real culprit, he is one of the twelve of you! ”

The guards were all stunned and looked at each other.

(To be continued)