On the dirt road leading from Jiangjiazhuang to Datian Town in Datian Town, a gust of north wind blew, raising gusts of yellow dust, and the big trees on both sides of the road also fell to the ground, indicating that winter was coming again.

Now there were several people walking on the road, they were wearing square flat hats, and a few feathers were stuck in the right side of the hat, and they were wearing long robes of green cloth with arrow sleeves, and the leader in front of him still had a waist knife hanging on his waist, while the others only held an iron ruler in their hands.

They are all officials in Putian County, Quanzhou Prefecture, and they are the officials of the "fast class", and their main job is to arrest, that is, what ordinary people call fast arrest. This arrest is actually equivalent to the current members of the criminal police brigade of the county and city public security bureaus. It is subordinate to the supervision of the yamen of the local government, and in today's terms, it is the official staff of the municipal public institutions.

In the yamen of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the "fast class", there are soap and Zhuang two classes, generally speaking, the soap class is on duty, and the strong class is poor, in fact, there is no clear separation, soap, Zhuang two classes are responsible for internal service, standing hall, execution, guard, hedao and other responsibilities.

In terms of the nature of their work, the "soap class" is equivalent to the current municipal government office and the municipal armed police detachment. The "Zhuang class" is equivalent to the current logistics office of the municipal government and the police station of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

These catchers are usually dressed in casual clothes, with a waist tag to identify themselves around their waists, and an iron ruler and rope in their arms. Their foremen are called "head catchers" and "team heads". And the common people call them "Catcher", "Pai Tou", "Tou Weng", "Pai Weng" and so on.

In the legal provisions of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was called "should be arrested" or "should be arrested", that is, "a person who has the responsibility to arrest the criminal". In some large states and counties, the fast fishing is often equipped with horses to perform official duties, so it is also called "horse fast". Hikers, on the other hand, call it "fast walking", or "healthy walking" or "chu foot". The number of people in charge of the "regular service" in each prefecture and county depends on the size of the prefecture and county.

The investigation tasks undertaken by the arrest are all time-limited, called "ratio", generally 5 days for a "ratio", and 3 days for major homicides. After a "limit", if you can't solve the case, you will be punished if you are arrested, so once you can't solve the case, this ass will be beaten to the ground, and if it is serious, maybe you will be beaten to death on the spot by the official as an explanation.

Moreover, the profession of catching fast was a "cheap industry" in ancient times, and it was strictly stipulated that their descendants could not participate in the imperial examination, so as not to insult Sven. Even if they leave the fast catching industry, their children and grandchildren must be three generations later before they are eligible to participate in the imperial examination!

And there is still no salary for catching fast, and the annual food subsidy, that is, "working food silver" is only about ten taels of silver, and it is naturally very difficult to support the family, so extortion has become a kind of atmosphere, and they often set up various names to collect benefits, and even collude with state and county officials, or create unjust, false and wrongful cases, or extort tyranny from the common people, and arbitrarily arrest.

Of course, as a subordinate class of the state and county yamen, in addition to these three classes of yamen, there are also Minzhuang, archers, poor grain, menzi, forbidden sons, cooks, umbrella fans, sedan chair men and sedan chair men, etc., and the sedan chair is now a forensic doctor, and the women are also called stable women, they all belong to this class.

Anyway, they are all the servants of the yamen, forced labor, but also officials in a broad sense, by the yamen to pay the rated "work and food silver", only about six taels a year, the county officials and the people must rely on the "officials", the officials are the hub of the handover between the government and the people, they are the most basic "law enforcement personnel", it is from the activities of the yamen, can the people feel the existence of the state and the majesty of the county.

……

"Team leader, I didn't find any clues today, I'm just afraid that the adults will punish me again, how can I wait?"

Liu Bantou, the leader, sighed, isn't it, two months have passed since this case, and he and others have been working around tiringly, but there is no news about the surviving people of the Jiang family.

I couldn't help but think of that day, the sky had just lit up with fish belly white, and there was no one outside the public hall of the Yamen in Putian County. However, that day happened to be the day of the yamen's announcement, the so-called announcement day, that is, the day when the yamen was going to open the court to hear the case, and the ancient yamen generally set the third, sixth, ninth, and public notice of the third day of the month, that is, the third day of the first month, the sixth day of the first month, the ninth day of the first month, the thirteenth, the sixteenth, the nineteenth and so on. The rest of the time, except for particularly serious homicide cases, it is generally forbidden to beat the drum and voice grievances.

And Liu Bantou and they had just arrived at the Yamen to finish their work, and the county magistrate had just finished his errand and was about to go to the back hall to rest, when they suddenly heard the sound of drumming outside the Yamen, and there seemed to be a lot of people gathered outside the public hall, and there were many gossips there.

The county magistrate shouted, "Who is making noise outside?" ”

At this time, Wang Er, who was standing at the door of the public hall, came in and reported, "I know that the county lord knows that Li Bao, who is now in Datian Town outside, is asking to see him outside the hall, saying that there is a case in the local Jiangjiazhuang, and the county lord is invited to go to investigate." ”

"Jiangjiazhuang!" When the county magistrate heard this, the horizontal flesh on his face couldn't help twitching a few times, and he said in his heart, "Why do Jiang Da and Jiang Er make trouble for themselves every time, and they don't do their hands and feet cleanly, and they also let the bitter master run to the yamen to complain." ”

The county magistrate didn't want to accept it if he had a heart, but the big drum placed on the east side of the yamen was beaten, so he couldn't help but accept it. Because the big drum is called "Dengwen Drum", commonly known as "shouting grievances is a drum", it is for the people to complain about grievances. According to the provisions of the Ming Code, the magistrate heard the sound of the drum to immediately summon the drummer and go to the court to accept it, if the case is very serious, the magistrate must immediately go to the court for interrogation, if the matter is minor, then immediately carry out torture to use the court to take the law seriously.

So the county magistrate cleared his throat, picked up the shocking wood on the table, and slapped it heavily, "Silence!" ”

"Wei ...... Wu ...... "As soon as he heard that it was the county magistrate's eldest master, the officials standing on both sides of the public hall immediately shouted in unison, and the voice dragged the old elder. At the same time, the sound of "bang bang" also sounded, and it turned out that they also picked up the canes in their hands at the same time and began to chop the ground.

After seeing the silence inside and outside the court, the county magistrate nodded with satisfaction, and said slowly, "Wang Bantou, go and take the plaintiff to the court!" ”

Hearing the words of the county magistrate, Wang Bantou, who was standing on the side of the public hall, walked out, and after receiving the order, he walked out of the public hall and brought in a person from the crowd outside.

After the man came in, he didn't know whether he was scared or nervous, so he walked tremblingly to the middle of the public hall and knelt on the ground with a bang, "Xiaomin Zheng Dan greets your lord." ”

The county magistrate still has some impressions of Zheng Baozheng, as if he is Jiang Xunjian's in-laws, and he also has a lot of land in his family. So the county magistrate thought to himself that he had a falling out with the Jiang family, so he came to the yamen to file a complaint.

The county magistrate glanced at Zheng Baozheng and asked, "What's the matter with you?" I have to beat the drum and shout injustice! ”

That Zheng Baozheng saw the county lord asking, and immediately kowtowed again, "Go back to the lord, the little people are ......."

"What, that's the case?" After listening to Zheng Baozheng's crying, the "buzz" of the head suddenly became louder, and the startling wood that had just been raised in his hand couldn't hold it for a while, and it fell on the bookcase with a "snap" sound.

"The county magistrate, what the villain said is true, and there is no lie." Zheng Baozheng knelt on the ground, heard the sound of the startling wood, and thought that the county magistrate didn't believe his words, so he raised his head and glanced at the magistrate, and saw that the magistrate was wearing a black veil, wearing a blue-blue style round-necked robe, and the chest was embroidered with the complement of the bird "emu", and his eyes were looking straight at himself.

So Zheng Baozheng panicked, kowtowed a few more times on the ground, almost nodded and was about to bleed, and swore that what he said was true, and there was no falsehood. Because when he first heard about it at home yesterday, he was also so unbelieving, and let the person who reported the news slap his mouth a few times.

It's just that when other subordinates also reported that the Jiang family's tenants were rumoring that the Jiang family had done too many things that hurt the heavens and reason, and the whole family had been taken in by the gods, he was a little suspicious, so he ordered a few more capable subordinates to go to Jiangjiazhuang to inquire together. When the news came back, they said that it was all true, and Zheng Baozheng rushed to the yamen in a panic to report the case.

However, he thought to himself that according to the Jiang family's old man's Zhuangzi wall, it is impossible for ordinary thieves to break into the village, and as for the larger bandits, it seems that the old man Jiang is a good man who sits on the ground and shares the spoils with them, which is even more impossible. Is that really as those mud legs said, this Master Jiang and they were all caught by the gods and monsters.

……

Because the Jiang family is a gentleman's family, Master Jiang is the inspector of Datian Town, and the second master Jiang is a talent and quite famous, this case is very important. Therefore, the county magistrate discussed with Hu Zhubo, and immediately ordered to prepare the bridge quickly and go to Jiangjiazhuang, Datian Town.

If the county magistrate wants to go on patrol, he must pay attention to pomp, so the officials of the yamen hurriedly prepared sedan chairs, umbrella covers, gongs, billboards and other objects. After a lot of chaos, and after more than half an hour, I set off.

Zheng Baozheng rode a donkey, and a few of his subordinates followed behind the team of the county master, he looked in front of a servant who shouted "go", and then the errand officer in the team rang the gong, every seven beats, and then there were other errand servants blowing suona to follow behind.

There are also officers in the ranks who are armed with sticks, steel forks, and tin lances, and some are holding tall cards that say "quiet" and "evade". The umbrella man followed the official sedan chair of the county lord, holding a Qingluo umbrella on the official sedan chair.

"What a majesty!" Zheng Baozheng looked at the big team of the county lord hugging and blowing, and he was very envious in his heart, but when he thought of the miserable appearance of Jiangjiazhuang, his heart couldn't help but be gloomy.