For more than half a month, the sun had made the leaves wilt and roll up, and the city full of soldiers and cattle stinked.

In the evening, the sky finally began to be cloudy, and before the clouds covered the sky, it was already dark on the ground. The bright and hot sunny day suddenly seemed like night. Soon there was thunder and lightning, and then the raindrops of beans crackled and smashed down, smashing Saturn all over the ground.

The soldiers screamed, stripped off their clothes and jumped in the streets, while the officials and servants hurriedly covered the grain and straw equipment stored in the open air with rain gear. But it's too late. Without any buffer, thousands of waterfalls fell from the sky, and in the blink of an eye, heaven and earth were inseparable, becoming a white and bright water world.

The rain was fast and rapid, and in only half an hour, the streets were flooded, and the garbage made by the soldiers was floating everywhere. More officers and men were transferred to the rescue, and when all the rain cloth was laid out, the warehouses were stacked with sacks, and the rain stopped. The people who were drenched in soup sat down and lost the strength to curse God.

But in any case, this heavy rain relieved the heat, and the people in Hengyang City finally got a long-awaited cool night.

The dark clouds quickly cleared, revealing the last rays of the horizon. In normal times, it means a sleepless midsummer night with bright street lights and crowds. However, under the shadow of the war, all shops were closed. People who were blocked by the torrential rain also hurried home, lest something happen to them when it was dark.

In the hurried crowd, there were two men in soap uniforms. The former one is Wang Jingui, an old messenger in Hengyang County, and the latter one, who is thin and looks like a laugh if he doesn't smile, is actually Song Duanping. It is said that Chen Ke was going to go this way, but was resolutely stopped by Wang Jingui, in this era, the southerners were already short, and his six-foot height was really standing out from the crowd, which was too eye-catching.

In fact, Song Duanping is also tall, but he is not as exaggerated as him. So this trip can only be taken by Brother Monkey.

The two walked side by side on the street, Wang Jingui shook his head and sighed as he walked: "What do you say I'm messing around with you bastards." ”

"Didn't Saburo say it, this is called a sense of justice." Song Duanping said with a smile: "I'm not afraid of a young man who is less than twenty years old, what are you afraid of an old man of fifty or sixty?" ”

"Hey......", Wang Jingui scolded with a smile: "Is there such a comforting thing?" After speaking, he said: "When you go in, don't say anything, it's all up to me to deal with, otherwise your mouth will be exposed." Remember? ”

"I'm sure I'm like a gourd."

The two were talking, and came to the back door of the punishment yamen. The Criminal Division, also known as the Constitutional Division, is in charge of the prison of Benlu County and has the duties of a supervising official. The Sentencing Division of Jinghu South Road is located in Hengyang City, Hengzhou. Because there is also a constitutional prison inside, it is heavily guarded on weekdays, and idle people are not allowed to approach.

But the snake has a snake road, the rat has a rat hole, Wang Jingui was stunned and led Song Duanping into the yamen and went straight to the prison.

The waterproof oil silk lantern hanging on the alleyway in front of the prison was swaying, and the cell head guarding the door saw Wang Jingui and said with a strange smile: "You haven't seen you here for a long time, why did you come to me." "The officials of the Song Dynasty basically served in different places, but the soap subordinates were locals, living in one place for decades, no matter what the relationship was, at least there was no face.

"Hey", Wang Jingui sighed and said: "Today is the birthday of our unlucky order, and on behalf of my brothers, I came to give him a birthday banquet." ”

"It's not quite right." The cell head frowned and said, "Shangfeng has an order not to allow anyone to approach Chen Daling. ”

"You know, this doesn't come when the official is home. I'll just send him one meal, don't worry. Wang Jingui stepped up, took the hand of the cell boss and said: "Although Da Ling has been in Hengyang for less than a year, how many good things has he done for our county?" Now he will be beheaded at any time, and this birthday banquet may be another severed head meal, so you can be accommodating.

The cell boss nodded, not only moved by his words, but also moved by the silver he stuffed into his hand, in short, he opened the cell door and said, "The innermost cell, go and go back quickly." ”

"Thank you." Wang Jingui turned around and scolded Song Duanping: "What are you doing in a daze, don't thank you quickly." ”

"Who is this?"

"My cousin's nephew just came over from Guangdong, and he temporarily let him follow me." Wang Jingui snorted and said: "Those guys, just what they said soundly, really let them come, and they hid faster than rabbits one by one." ”

"It's human nature." The cell boss smiled: "I'll go in, you hurry up." ”

"Okay."

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Entering the gloomy cell, the two of them walked all the way to the end and stopped in front of the innermost single cell. Without a light, the black ones couldn't see anything.

"Da Ling, Da Ling, it's me." Wang Jingui shouted.

"Lao Wang—" A familiar voice sounded from a cell at the east end.

"There." Wang Jingui and Song Duanping heard that it was Chen Xiliang at the same time. Listening to his voice, he was quite confident, and he was immediately relieved ......, you know, this old brother was carried into the cell, and they were worried about his illness.

"Honor, today is your birthday, and we are here to celebrate your birthday." Coming to the side of the cell, Wang Jingui shook the fire fold. The two of them looked through the fence and saw Chen Xiliang sitting inside.

Chen Xiliang squinted his eyes, and only opened it after adapting to the bright light, wanting to see Wang Jingui and telling him, you are mistaken, my birthday is still two months. Who thought about it, but saw Song Duanping. I couldn't help but sigh in surprise.

Song Duanping hurriedly shook his head at him and gestured to write.

"Well, it's hard for you to remember, I thought I had to spend this birthday alone." Chen Xiliang said and leaned over to the fence: "I'll see, there's something delicious." "But he took Song Duanping's left palm and quickly wrote a few words with his fingers: 'Why are you here?' ，

It's not just me, Saburo, and Gorou are here too. , Song Duanping answered quickly with his right hand, on Chen Xiliang's left palm, and then asked: 'What happened?' ，

"Are you cured? We've been thinking about it all the time. Wang Jingui slowly opened the food box and asked.

"Lord Yama won't accept me, it's basically fine." Chen Xiliang replied to Wang Jingui verbally, and his subordinates replied to Song Duanping: "Eighty percent of people want to harm me. , paused, and continued: "The grain cart is strange, all the civil officials are dead, strange, after I come back, indiscriminately, condemn me to death on far-fetched charges, even more strange!" ，

'Why?' ，

Probably they found out I was looking at them. ，

'Who are they?' What are you looking for? ，

'The transshipment envoys of Hunan and Guangzhou, and perhaps higher-ups; I discovered the secret of their perennial embezzlement of military funds. ，

......, Song Duanping was extremely shocked, he didn't know what to say.

'I was going to carry the investigation account book with me, and I was going to hand it in as soon as Lord Yu Jingyu arrived. , Chen Xiliang wrote with frustration: 'When I was arrested, I was searched directly, fortunately I wrote in pinyin, and they shouldn't understand what it is. ，

'What now?' ，

I'll give you another rough idea. , Chen Xiliang sighed lightly and said: "If you can remember as much as you can, you will try to hand it over to him as soon as Lord Yu arrives." "Fortunately, he personally investigated it, otherwise it would have been a chicken and an egg.

The next quarter of an hour was spent in silent writing, and Song Duanping concentrated all his mind, trying to remember every word.

After that, the cell boss began to urge, and after urging three times, Wang Jingui whispered: "If you don't leave, you will be suspected." Then he said loudly again: "Alright, alright, this is out." ”

'You're going to be okay, are you?' , was interrupted by him, Song Duanping couldn't remember it, so he had to hurry up and ask.

"No, the dynasty will not kill the scholars, at most they will be exiled to Salmon Island. ，

'But they can kill you......"

'Life and death are fateful. , Chen Xiliang was speechless, he could only sigh lightly and wrote: 'Kong said Chengren......"

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"Why is it so long?" After the two came out, the cell boss was already visibly displeased.

"Turn back, Xu Cuilou invites you." Wang Jingui said this, and the cell boss softened and said, "Let's go, there will be an official coming to patrol the prison soon." ”

"Okay." Wang Jingui hurriedly pulled Song Duanping out of the prison.

came out to mention the criminal division, Wang Jingui breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at Song Duanping, I saw that his lips were moving with a serious face, as if he was silently chanting something.

asked him what he was doing, Song Duanping didn't say, but walked quickly. Wang Jingui hurriedly accelerated to keep up, who knew that in the blink of an eye, he would only see his back, and in the blink of an eye, even his back disappeared around the corner.

"Isn't it haunted?" Wang Jingui rubbed his eyes, unable to believe that humans had such speed.

When he got home, he saw Song Duanping already sitting in the house, writing hard.

He wanted to enter the house, but was stopped by Gorou, he wanted to speak, but was glared at by Gorou fiercely, and he was so frightened that he retracted his words, and said infinitely aggrieved in his heart: "Is this my family's ...... good, so he had to squat in the courtyard aggrievedly, and stared at the meditating monk with big eyes.

Inside, there was no table, so Chen Ke stacked two bookcases. Holding the bookcase in one hand and holding a candle in the other, Song Duanping wrote on it.

After writing for nearly a quarter of an hour, Song Duanping put down his pen, wiped the sweat on his face, shook his head and said: "I don't have such a good memory as you, I can only remember so much......",

"It's already shocking." Chen Ke said in a deep voice: "I really can't imagine that the Great Song Dynasty, which has always been proud of putting an end to corruption, has crazy corruption. ”

"Yes," Song Duanping sighed and said, "I really don't understand, how dare they." ”

(To be continued)