In the Yangzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Wei Tao was sitting in front of the case to deal with official business, he seemed a little absent-minded, this morning, he had just received a letter from King Di, that is, his son-in-law, although the letter did not blame him for Yangzhou's affairs, but there was a faint trace of dissatisfaction with himself in his tone.

Wei Tao was in a very bad mood, originally he didn't approve of the villain trick of assassination, last time he couldn't hinder King Di's request, he sent Luo to join the army to attack Li Qing'an, but failed, but now, King Di actually blamed himself for not doing things well, which really made him feel annoyed.

'Bang! Wei Tao slammed the pen on the ground, paced around the room with a gloomy face, and after a while, his anger disappeared slightly, glanced at the pen on the ground, and couldn't help shaking his head and picking it up.

At this time, there was a report from Luo joining the army at the door, "Wei Changshi, there is something important to repay for your humble position." ”

"Come in!"

Wei Tao sat back in his seat, the door opened, and Shi Cao Shen Military Luo Wu walked in quickly, he bowed and saluted: "See Wei Changshi!" ”

"Say it! What's the matter? ”

Luo Wu closed the door and said in a low voice: "Changshi, I have a distant relative who is from King Qing's Beppu, he came to my house last night, and he told me that King Qing has 100,000 taels of gold missing, King Qing's staff Yan Kai is looking around, just near Yangzhou, Wei Changshi, do you think we want to ....."

Wei Tao sneered and asked, "What is that relative of yours doing in King Qing's Beppu?" ”

"He's the kitchen steward."

"Humph! A small kitchen steward can know about 100,000 taels of gold? Luo joined the army, you were taken advantage of. ”

Luo joined the army for a moment, "What does Changshi mean is that Yan Kai's deliberate arrangement?" ”

"Of course! Li Li escorted more than 100 ships of treasure to the north, and basically took away King Qing's warriors in Jianghuai, so Yan Kai was short of manpower, so he wanted to use me to help him find it, he thought I couldn't see through it? ”

"But why can't we just do it?"

Wei Tao's mind turned, this is also true, if he can get the 100,000 taels of gold, King Di can also explain.

"Hmmm! You have a point, well! I'll leave this matter to you, remember, you can't let anyone suspect that we did the last assassination. ”

"The lowly duty understands, the lowly duty will go!"

Luo joined the army and left in a hurry, Wei Tao picked up the pen again, '100,000 taels of gold', he muttered to himself, his eyes gradually brightened.

．．．．．．

The spring rain is raining, the dense rain is as fine as a needlepoint, the entire Jianghuai Plain is shrouded in misty rain and fog, in Jiangdu South City, Li Qingan's henchman He Yanming is taking two of his subordinates to look around, "Your eyes widen for me, don't look at women, let me find the bronze shop quickly." ”

While he gave the order, his eyes secretly turned to the beautiful orchid who was recruiting customers at the door of the wine shop, and his heart was itching, and he ordered: "My leg was injured in the last battle of Xiao Bolu, and it hurts on a rainy day, I want to take a rest, you go to the bronze shop, and find the wine shop to call me." ”

The two sergeants were disdainful in their hearts, so they had no choice but to go, and when they saw their men walking away, He Yanming immediately ran to the wine shop, and said with a smile: "Little beauty, I'm here." ”

"Yo! The military master is here, hurry up and please come in. ”

Orchid, a wine seller, took his arm affectionately and entered the wine shop, "Do you want to drink a few glasses of Gaochang wine?" ”

He Yanming pinched her face and smiled: "As long as you are willing to drink with me, you can drink as many glasses as you want." ”

Suddenly there was a laugh like a silver bell from the wine shop, "The military master is dead, and he actually molests others." ”

As soon as He Yanming sat down, before he could order wine and food, two of his subordinates came running, "Captain, next door to the wine shop is a copperware shop." ”

He Yanming was stunned for a moment, and scolded with a smile: "Grandma's, if you want to drink, just say it, hey!" Call two more little beauties to come, Master Jun, I am very happy, and the reward is indispensable to you. ”

The two soldiers smiled and sat down as well, "It's a pleasure to follow the military master, there is wine to drink, and there are orchids to accompany the wine." ”

After drinking the wine for half an hour, He Yanming paid the wine money and reward, and came to the copperware shop next door with satisfaction, which is a big shop, full of all kinds of copperware inside and out, because copper is the raw material for casting money, so the price is relatively expensive, ordinary household items, such as copper mirrors, copper basins, ** pounds, they will be sold for consistent money, and the bronze that belongs to the handicrafts, such as Buddha statues, copper flowers and copper trees, etc., these prices are even more expensive.

He Yanming walked to the copper shop for money, and a guy stepped forward and said with a smile: "Does the military master want to buy copperware?" ”

He Yanming tilted his face and said arrogantly: "I want a lot of money, do you have it here?" ”

"Yes! Yes! The proprietor of my house has three copperware shops, and we have hundreds of them in our store, and there are many more in the warehouse. ”

He Yanming stretched out a finger and said, "I want a thousand, and I want it today." ”

'A thousand! ’

The man's eyes widened, and he immediately turned around and shouted, "Shopkeeper, a big guest has come to the door." ”

A middle-aged man ran out, the guy whispered a few words in his ear, the shopkeeper's eyes lit up, and he immediately bent down and said with a smile: "Master Jun, please sit inside." ”

The shopkeeper invited He Yanming into the inner room, and let people serve tea, and then asked, "I don't know what kind of bronze ware the military master wants?" ”

"All kinds of bronze utensils should be a little bit, and the size should not be too large, among which the bronze utensils used in the temple should be 400 pieces, and they should be sent to the place I designated."

He Yanming took out a piece of paper, handed it to the shopkeeper and said: "These are these two places, someone will come to pick up the goods, and the money and goods will be cleared on the spot." ”

"Okay! I'll prepare it now, but a thousand pieces of bronze ware will cost more than a dozen ships, and the freight is very large, can the military master pay me a nod first. ”

"No problem!"

He Yanming took out two cakes of silver from his leather bag, put them on the table and said, "This is one hundred taels of silver, enough for you to pay for the freight, besides, I don't want you to transport goods during the day, you set off tonight." ”

The shopkeeper took the money and smiled, "No problem, I'll prepare!" ”

．．．．．．

These days, the situation in Yangzhou is quite calm, and Du Bosheng and the money and goods have been on the road two days ago, and they were personally escorted into Beijing by the Taishou Lu Lian.

But the people's discussion of the salt case began to heat up, all kinds of theories emerged in endlessly, among the countless sayings, the Du family's wealth was the most discussed, the Du family sold illegal salt for at least five years, and no one knew how much huge profits they made in the middle, but there is a saying that many people believe, that is, the wealth of the Du family must not have been all discovered.

In Qingwang Beppu, Yan Kai sat in the room and carefully checked the information, these information were sent some time ago when the salt case was at its most tense, and now they have become waste paper, but Yan Kai always wants to find out the clues of the 100,000 taels of gold from it, and there are not many people in his hands at the moment, and it is impossible to attack in an all-round way.

Yan Kai picked up a copy of the information of Duliangshan and bowed his head and pondered, this is the information written by one of his subordinates after interrogating several Duliangshan horses, that night the third elder of the Du family transported his belongings and prepared to board the ship at the Xuyi County Inspection Office, but was ambushed by Li Qing'an, and all the property of the Du family was intercepted.

The intelligence mentioned that there were hundreds of iron boxes, but among the property that Li Li stole from the state warehouse, there were no iron boxes, all of them were wooden boxes, could it be that the problem was here?

Yan Kai hurriedly found the list given by Li Qing'an to Li Li from a pile of information, and wrote a line of words at the bottom of the list: The night battle was quite urgent, and some items sank into the river, which was completely consistent with the report of their subordinates, Xuyi Inspection Office had one hundred and twenty boats, but after the fierce battle that night, only one hundred and sixteen boats were left, and four boats were missing.

Suddenly discovering this clue, Yan Kai trembled with excitement, he stood up and shouted, "Someone! ”

An attendant walked in and said, "Is there something wrong with the gentleman?" ”

"Prepare my horse at once, and I will set off at once."

A quarter of an hour later, Yan Kai led more than a dozen followers to ride towards the north of Jiangdu City, and about an hour later, another twenty or so people, under the leadership of Luo Wu, who joined the army, also quietly followed.

．．．．．．．

In the barracks, Li Qing'an was receiving an important guest, who came from the capital, that is, Chen Zhong, Li Linfu's personal guard.

"Xiangguo's order is that Du Bosheng must not enter Beijing and must be disposed of halfway, so I was ordered to come and ask the general to send someone to assist me."

After Li Qing'an read Li Linfu's warrant, he gave him back and said: "Since there is Xiangguo's order, I should obey it, please wait a while, I will arrange it!" ”

He went out to find Li Fei Shouyu and said a few words to him, Li Fei Shouyu was surprised for a while, and he immediately said excitedly: "This is the best, kill Du Bosheng, and no one will know about the 100,000 taels of gold again." ”

"I think so too, just take this opportunity to get rid of this trouble, you bring a dozen brothers to assist Chen Zhong."

"I know, I'll go."

"Wait a minute!" Li Qingan stopped him again, "How is the situation in Xuyi County?" ”

"Don't worry! With Cui Ping's assistance, we have all set it up to ensure that it is seamless. ”

Li Qing'an nodded, he had just received the news that Yan Kai and Luo Shenjun from the Dadu Governor's Mansion had gone north one after another, if he had guessed correctly, he should have gone to Xuyi County.

After arranging all the links, Li Qingan breathed a sigh of relief, he looked up at the drizzle, it was already afternoon, and immediately ordered: "Prepare a horse for me!" ”

Li Qingan turned over his horse and galloped away in the direction of Gaoyou County with a few henchmen.

．．．．．．．

Like Yangzhou, Xuyi County is also drizzling these days, from morning to night, the rain is continuous, there are few people on the official road, and the river is the same, since the Du Bo salt case has come to an end temporarily, the work of the inspection office has obviously relaxed, no longer every boat must be checked, in the continuous night rain, they prefer to stay in the house to drink and gamble, more than a dozen officials do not want to go out.

"Yes, there seems to be a ship coming outside." One of the servants saw several small boats coming from the river.

Zheng Zheng glanced at it and kicked a servant, "Qin San, go and take a look!" ”

"Why do you always ask me to go?"

The official named Qin San got up and went out with a mutter, he came to the river, covered his eyes with his hands and looked, there were four boats, and there were figures shaking on the boats.

"Hey! What do you do? ”

"Blind you, we are from Qingwangfu." Someone on the boat replied coldly.

The official was startled, and hurriedly ran back to the house, shouting in a low voice: "Agency, the boat outside said that it was from the Qingwang Mansion." ”

He was stunned, how could someone from King Qing's Mansion come to him? At this time, a servant on the other side shouted, "Look, there are still a few boats over there." ”

The department was lying in front of the window and looking out, and in the night, I saw that there were also a few small boats on the other side of the river, but they did not move, as if they were waiting for something?

He secretly screamed in his heart that something was not good, I was afraid that something would happen tonight.

"Everyone listen to me, sneak out one by one, run as far as possible, and save your life."

After saying that, he ran out of the back door by himself, spread his feet and ran desperately into the night, and more than a dozen servants followed one by one, and ran clean in a moment.

In the river, Yan Kai stared nervously at the surface of the water, the water surface was undulating and shaking, someone dived down, suddenly, a splash of water rolled, and a fisherman floated to the surface and said: "Master, there are several sunken ships below, and the boats are all iron boxes." ”

Yan Kai was overjoyed and said continuously: "Quick! Grab a few iron boxes and take a look. ”

The fisherman pulled a rope and dived again, and two other hired fishermen also went into the water, and they were tossing and turning at the bottom of the water, and in a moment, one of the fishermen came up and said, "It's all right, pull the rope." ”

Yan Kai grabbed the rope and slowly pulled it up, his hands trembled with excitement, and slowly, an iron box was pulled up, several attendants carried the box onto the boat, wiped the water off the box, and one person lit a torch and stepped forward.

"Open it!" Yan Kai said in a trembling voice.

'Click! With a bang, the iron box was pried open, and the attendant took out several small bronze Buddha statues from inside, "Sir, they are all bronze statues." ”

At this time, another iron box was also pulled up, and when the box was opened, there were several copper wooden fish inside, "Sir, this is also a bronze tool." ”

Yan Kai was stunned for a long time, he suddenly thought of something, and immediately pulled out his dagger and slashed heavily on the bronze Buddha statue, carving a deep trace, which was still copper.

Yan Kai sat down weakly, "What's the matter?" It's all bronze. ”

Suddenly, the attendant with the torch screamed, and an arrow pierced his chest and fell into the water.

The people around were stunned, and they suddenly reacted and shouted together: "Someone attacked us!" ”

Everyone fell down one after another, Yan Kai was also pressed down on the boat, but after the other party shot an arrow, there was no movement, Yan Kai struggled up and looked in the direction of the arrow, only to see a few boats appear in the dark, there were twenty or thirty people on board, all holding a hard crossbow, black clothes and masked, led by a tall officer, the faint light shot from the official office reflected on his face, although he covered his face with a black scarf, but still could not hide the smug smile on the corner of his eyebrows.

"Luo joins the army."

Yan Kai recognized this person at a glance, he slammed his fist on the hull of the ship, and scolded in a low voice, "Damn bastard! ”

"Sir, what shall we do?"

Yan Kai unwillingly glanced at the bronze vessels on the ship, so he had to order: "Quick! Get out of here! ”

Fishermen in the water pushed the boats, and several boats slowly left the river and headed for Huaishui.

When Luo Senjun saw them fleeing, he smiled coldly and said, "This is called praying mantis catching cicadas, and yellow finches are behind!" ”

With a wave of his hand, he ordered, "Go down and scoop up all the boxes!" ”

．．．．．．．

Caijia Village, Gaoyou County, is a small fishing village located on a small island in the middle of Fanliang Lake, thirty or fifty households, the folk customs are pure, every household depends on fishing for a living, the land route is not accessible here, only by boat to enter and exit, because the geographical location is very remote, there are few officials to come to inspect.

About half a month ago, in a bay north of the village, a few small boats began to moor, full of goods, guarded by a dozen soldiers on the shore, no one dared to approach, the night before yesterday a dozen small boats came, bringing a large number of bronze objects, packed and stacked on the shore.

In the afternoon of this day, a convoy of boats sailed into the lake bend of Caijia Village, and the villagers were already surprised, and no one came to see the excitement.

Li Qing'an stood at the bow of the boat, looked at a few small boats in the bay from a distance, and smiled, who would have thought that these boats were full of Qingwang's salt profits for several years?

At this time, He Yanming on the shore waved his hands to the boat, "General, this way!" This way! ”

Li Qingan's fleet slowly docked.....

About half an hour later, all the bronze utensils were loaded onto the ship that had just sailed, and the fleet sailed away from Caijia Village, and the villagers watched the fleet go away, and their hearts that had been hanging in the air for half a month were finally put down.

On the boat, Li Qingan handed the official document issued by Dugu Haoran to He Yanming and instructed him: "Yan Ming, this time you escort the treasure back to the capital, you must be careful all the way, don't be careless." ”

"Don't worry, general! I know in my heart that I will never make a mistake. ”

Li Qingan nodded, and said: "Also, if you encounter an inspection, you must be tougher and no one is allowed to get on the boat." ”

"Whoever dares to get on the ship, it is clearly written in the official document, this is a birthday gift for Colliers, unless their officials are impatient."

The boat entered the Cao River, Li Qingan got off the boat, he waved his hand, "Have a good journey, I will return to the capital soon." ”

"General, see you in the capital!"

．．．．．．

(To be continued)