Sure enough, Müller had returned, and Pedro and the butler soon found him, and when Pedro saw Müller, he immediately said: "Brother, good news, there is news of those robbers, and the beer that appears on the market now is the goods of the shipment that I secretly brought from Dirmit, and now the owner of a caravan is staying in the house of a merchant named Gebuus, and I secretly took the goods from Gebuus and this caravan, but then I was ambushed by a gang of robbers and robbed all the tax silver and goods, The last thing I saw was that the caravan's guards had finally taken the goods, and if we could catch the leader of the caravan or their boss, Petheus, we would be able to find out who had stolen the tax money and where! ”

Pedro was a little confused, but Müller understood, and he asked: "You mean that you were in the city of Dimit from the caravan led by Pethaus, and then you were robbed on the way, and the person who robbed you was not Pethaus's caravan guard, but someone else, and finally the caravan guard of this caravan took back the goods from those people, but did not know whether the tax money was in the hands of those people or in the hands of Pethius, right?" ”

"Yes, yes, that's it!" Pedro nodded hurriedly.

Muller thought for a moment and turned to the butler and said, "Prepare the carriage immediately, I'm going to the City Guard station to find the sheriff!" ”

"Okay, sir, the villain will go and prepare immediately!" The butler said yes and immediately walked out.

After the butler left, Mueller said to Pedro, "Brother." You can't come forward in this matter, and you can't go out until the tax money is found. Even if you find the tax money, you can't escape the responsibility for dereliction of duty, and I must intercede with the queen to see if I can exonerate you from responsibility! ”

Pedro hurriedly said: "Don't worry, Muller, I won't trouble you!" ”

…….

An hour later, a large number of City Guard soldiers stormed Gebuus's house, causing a flurry of chickens and dogs. Gebuus, who was at home, saw so many soldiers breaking into his house, and immediately stepped forward and shouted: "What are you doing? What are you going to do? ”

An officer looked at Gebuus and said coldly: "Gebuus, you are suspected of hiding and harboring robbers who robbed tax silver. And we got the news that one of the robbers is hiding in your house, come on, search for me! ”

"Yes. Captain! The soldiers shouted yes. Immediately rushed into rooms all over the house and began to search. Gebuus's house was turned upside down, and everywhere could be heard the screams and cries of women, and even the screams of male servants.

The situation at Gebuus's house quickly attracted the attention of the neighbors, who came out of the house and gathered around the door of Gebuus's house to watch, and they all gathered together to talk.

At this time, Pethius was coming from the street with a few guards, and when he saw so many people gathered at the door of Gebuus's house, he immediately walked over, and when he saw a soldier standing at the gate with a spear, he turned his head and asked a middle-aged man next to him, "What's the matter?" ”

The middle-aged man didn't look at who Pethius was. He casually said, "I heard that there is some robber who robbed the tax money in Gebuus's house, and now the soldiers of the City Guard are searching his house under the leadership of the officer." It is estimated that this time Gebuus will be miserable! ”

Pethius's face changed when he heard this, and then he slowly retreated, and retreated to a nearby alley with a few guards to observe the situation at the door of Gebuus's house, but he felt that he couldn't see clearly here, so he took a few guards to the second floor of a tavern, asked for some food and drink, and observed the situation in Gebuus's house while eating.

It wasn't long before Pethius saw Gebuus being dragged out of the gate like dead dogs by the soldiers of the two city guards, and some of the soldiers behind him were stuffed with their pockets, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that the soldiers had stuffed the belongings of Gebuus's house into their pockets.

After some soldiers came out, another officer came out, there were four soldiers behind this man, and each of them carried a box, and when the officer walked out of the gate and saw so many people surrounded outside, he said in a loud voice: "Gebuus is suspected of robbing the tax silver with the bandits, and is suspected of harboring and hiding the robbers, these are suspected of being stolen goods, and they are temporarily confiscated by the city guards, and Gebuus himself is also imprisoned, waiting for the court's ruling!" ”

During this period, both the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire had courts, and the Eastern Roman Empire inherited the relevant laws of the Roman Empire very well, and the laws of Byzantium were a continuation of the Roman tradition, not only customary law, but also statutory law. But Byzantium, while inheriting the Roman tradition, incorporated more of its own characteristics. For example, Byzantium also had an electoral system, which was the same as it was in Roman times. The consuls of the Roman Empire were elected by the senate and the people, while the consuls of the Byzantine Empire were elected by the army, guilds, merchants, burghers, and the church. In order to achieve the goal of allowing blood relatives to inherit the throne, the Byzantine Empire created a special position of co-consul, which shook the foundation of the electoral system and moved towards an oriental-style absolute monarchy.

Gebuus was captured, and the city guards took away a large amount of property, which they said was the stolen goods of Gebuus's robbers, and should be confiscated and taken away, and the three-year-old children knew that after they had entered their pockets, they would not return it, but would spend it themselves.

Pethius saw Gebuus being captured with his own eyes, he knew that things were in trouble, he didn't know how these soldiers of the city guard knew that Gebuus was related to the robbery of the tax silver, but he knew that since Gebuus was arrested, it was a matter of time before the people of the city guard found out about him and Qin Dong and others, and now he had to do his best to tell Qin Dong about this matter, let him get an idea, and after dropping a few silver coins, he immediately left the restaurant with a few guards and went to the house that Gebuus rented for them to find Qin Dong.

After rushing to this house, Peteus found that Qin Dong was not there, Afald and some guards were here, Afalde saw Peteus coming with a few guards, and was a little surprised, Peteus had only been here once, and that time he was here to know the way, what was he doing this time? He immediately asked, "Lord Peteaus." How did you get here? ”

Peteus was no longer in the mood to answer Arfard's question, and he hurriedly asked, "What about my lord?" ”

"My lord is out, and I don't know when I'll be back!"

Pethius was in a hurry: "Something happened. The robbery of the tax silver was discovered, I went out for a walk just now, and when I came back, I found that there were many people gathered at the door of Gebuus, and when I walked over and asked, I learned that the city guard had gone in to arrest people, and it was said that it was related to the robbery of the tax silver, and I saw Gebuus taken away with my own eyes, if he confessed. It is likely that this place will be confessed, and now we must withdraw from here and find a safer place to stay. In addition, you must send someone to inform the adults! ”

After hearing this, Alfald was taken aback, and he had to admire Qin Dong's foresight, and immediately said, "Okay, let's get out of here now." Nothing. Anyway, there's nothing of value to go, so we'll leave now, but leave two people to squat nearby, and if you see an adult, tell him about it! ”

The guards had few things, and they were simple, and they all gathered up and evacuated under the leadership of Alfard, heading to a house he had secretly rented, near one of the gates of the seaside wall. A few steps out of the city gate to the docks.

……

Gebuus never imagined that he would one day go to prison, and he had no idea that it would be so dirty. It's not just dirty, it's stinky, how can people live in such a place? It's hell here.

He was kept alone in a cell, which was very dark and damp, and when he walked in, he quickly felt a chill invade his body.

The walls around the cell are made of hard and cold stone, it has been some years, he has been a native of Constantinople since he was born, and he is naturally very familiar with this place, it is said that this prison has been built since the time of Constantine the Great, and it has been more than a hundred years now, and the stones on the walls have changed color, and some places are covered with green moss.

The floor of the cell was covered with a layer of moldy wheat stalks, which smelled musty, and there was a terrible smell of urine in the corner, and two hours had passed since he had been locked in, and during those two hours he had vomited three times in a row, all of them smoked by the disgusting smell of the place.

"Bang dang dang ......" came the sound of chains rattling outside the cell.

After a while, four armorers in chain mail came up with the hilt of their short swords, and one of them used the key to open the door of the cell where Gebuus was and shouted, "Gebuus, come out!" ”

When Gebuus heard this, he walked to the door of the cell, and one of the armorers took out the chains and tied his hands and feet, and then pushed him out of the cell: "Let's go, my lord is going to be interrogated!" ”

The four armor soldiers escorted Gebuus out of the cell, and after passing through the corridor in the middle of the guò cell, he walked to the end of the corridor and turned left into a room, and when he walked into this room, Gebuus saw a blazing brazier, the prison was originally dark and damp, and there was even a cold air in this prison, so that it was now July, and the prisoners still felt very cold in this prison, and in this room, Gebuus obviously felt like he had entered a stove, and he was a little fat and sweated quickly.

The furnishings of the room were frightening to him, and in the burning charcoal brazier were several iron rods that had been burned red, and on them there was a square piece of iron, which was the soldering iron of torture, as he had heard.

There were chains and hooks hanging from the walls around them, and on the right side of the wall was a table with a chair behind it, and on the opposite wall of the table was a thick wooden pillar, the thickness of an adult's waist, and the wooden pillars were stained with blood, and there were many black lumps on the ground under the wooden pillars, which Gebuus recognized as blood clotting after it had clotted.

Before he could take a clear look of the room, he was dragged to the side of the wooden post by two armor soldiers, and was firmly tied to the wooden pillar, no matter how much he shouted, cursed, and struggled, to no avail, and the two armorers did not pay any attention to him, and he could not struggle with the two armorers.

After tying him up, the two armorers walked out of the room, and just when Gebuus thought he could rest, several more people came in from outside, one of them was very young, his face was a little pale and gloomy, and behind this person were all prison people, and there were three big men who were bare-chested, showing strong muscles, and these three shirtless men were all holding leather whips, and one was the warden of the prison, and he always nodded to the young man.

The young man was Muller, and as soon as he was sent to prison, he came in a carriage to interrogate him, hoping to get the money and the whereabouts of the robbers from his mouth.

The warden respectfully invited Mueller to sit behind the desk, and said with a smile: "My lord, now you can ask!" ”

Mueller stared at Gebuus for a moment and asked, "I heard you've been borrowing money lately?" Is it to order the remaining batch of goods for Peteaus? I have three questions, if you can answer me truthfully, I can apply to the judge for a pardon of your sins, and return to you all the money and property found in your house, and I can also give you all the goods of Petheus that have been confiscated, and not a single copper plate will let you out, you are a merchant, don't you like money? There are a lot of gold coins waiting for you right now, as long as you answer my questions, first, where is the tax silver now? Second, where are the robbers who robbed the tax money now? Thirdly, where is Petheus, who has been living in your house? ”

Gebuus couldn't answer these three questions at all, because he didn't know at all, and he said with a sad face: "My lord, the villain doesn't know! ”

"Hmph, it seems that I won't give you a little color to see, you don't know how powerful Lord Ben is!" Mueller shook his head at the warden after saying that.

When the warden received the order, he immediately instructed a shirtless man to do it, and the pointed man immediately walked up to Gebuus with a leather whip, waved his arm and began to twitch.

"Smack!"

"Ahh

The big man smoked for several minutes before he stopped beating under the order of Müller, and by this time Gebuus was already dying of pain, and said before he fell unconscious: "Don't fight, as long as the lord fulfills the conditions he just promised, I will say, I say!" ”

Gebuus, who had been unconscious, was soon woken up by a bucket of cold water, and without waiting for Müller's interrogation, he immediately confessed everything he knew: "Petheus has been living in my house, and today he went out, and when the City Guard went to my house, he happened to be absent!" Where is the tax silver, I don't know, I only know that it was the two mercenary groups that jointly robbed the imperial army that escorted the tax silver, the location of the two mercenary groups should be not far from the original ambush site, I know that the tax silver is not Peteaus's place, nor is it with his escort, it should have been taken away by those two mercenary groups, Peteaus's escort team is now in a house I rented for them, if they don't get the news that I was captured, they should still be there! (To be continued......)