It is said that Cao Cao led twelve heroes and stayed overnight, not for one day, and when he arrived in Dengzhou, it was November 10.

At this time, not long after noon, Cao Cao and the others were quite hungry and thirsty, and seeing the city in sight, they all said happily: "Let's find a hotel first, have a big meal, and then go to Sun An and Song Jiang is not too late." ”

Before the words fell, I saw a path in the oblique thorn, and there were a hundred and ten men and women gushing out, of which thirty or twenty were all men, and the rest were all dressed as Zhuang Ding, all of whom were seven long and eight short men, the first four, and they lifted two steel forks with high spirits, and the steel forks were tied with heavy burdens.

Behind the two horses, an old man and a middle-aged rich man sat on them, and behind them were two poles, lifting the two bare-striped men like pigs, and in addition to many broken household utensils, each of which was carried or carried to the city in a noisy manner.

The two men who were carried were so angry that their faces turned red, and they shouted one after another: "Mao Taigong, Mao Zhongyi, your father and son are rich and unkind, bullying their neighbors, what kind of ability are they?" You rely on me as a big worm, and you bend my brother to be a thief, if you don't die at the mercy of this time, you swear not to rest with your family. ”

The middle-aged man was furious when he heard this, and scolded: "You two pickled beasts, don't you know that my brother-in-law is the Confucius of the six cases in this state!" Even if the governor of this state is a frequent visitor to my Mao family, don't you want me to take a break? I'm going to take your two dogs' lives first. ”

commanded: "Plug their mouths, and then tell me to listen to him let out a fart, and they will all take you and others to blame." ”

When those Zhuang Ding heard this, they hurriedly took off their socks and stuffed them into the mouths of the two people, the two struggled desperately, but they were really tied up tightly, and each took a few heavy hands, after all, they were forcibly gagged, and they could only make a whining sound, and Mrs. Mao's father and son saw it and laughed.

In the eyes of Lin Chong and Hua Rong, they couldn't help frowning, and they were about to ask, but they were secretly stopped by Cao Cao and said, "Don't interfere in a hurry, follow them, and wait and see what happens." ”

He was a group of thirteen, so unhurried, hanging behind the Mao Taigong brigade, watching them carry people into the city, to the prefect's yamen, leaving those Zhuang Ding outside, the Mao family's father and son, and entered with a cadre of dukes.

When Cao Cao saw this, he beckoned everyone to dismount, so he waited at the gate of the state government and asked Jiao Ting and Zhou Tong to buy some snacks to feed their hunger.

The magistrate heard that why was our old Cao waiting at the door?

It turned out that according to the Song law, the magistrate of Fanzhou County must personally sit in the court and write the copy, and he is not allowed to go out of the government at will. And the construction of this government office is also quite exquisite, sitting in the north and facing south, along the gate on both sides of the oblique construction of two walls, the gate is open and not closed, these two walls are like the extension of the door panel, the so-called "Yamen eight characters open to the south" is also.

Entering the door, there is the lobby, the second hall, and the third hall in turn, and all major ceremonies, or major cases, must be tried in the lobby, and a fence is set up outside the door, and the common people can be heard outside the bar; The second hall deals with civil cases such as household marriages and land, and is not allowed to observe because it involves family privacy; As for the three halls, they are the places where the officials live on official business, and the people are not allowed to enter.

Like Mao Taigong's father and son, they brought the crowd to arrest people, and the momentum was huge, and it was bound to be tried in the lobby, so Lao Cao was outside the door and made a special trip to wait for the audit.

Not long after, Jiao and Zhou brought back four large food boxes, containing all kinds of snacks, nothing more than pine nut cakes, bean cakes, lily honey porridge and the like, all of which are local specialties of Dengzhou.

Cao Cao laughed and said: "No wonder I brought many people here, but I want to isolate the public, this family is very calculating." ”

Everyone listened to it and secretly scolded Mao's cunning, Zhou Tong wanted to be a hero, and scolded "His grandmother's is so shameless!" "Walk over and divide your arms, how can those Zhuang Ding resist his strength? Immediately stumbled and was forced to get out of the way.

Seeing that Zhuang Ding looked at him angrily, Zhou Tong sneered, and showed the demeanor of the former strongman - his arms were raised, his chest was straight, his eyes were full, and his mouth was down, making a fierce and vicious posture, and sure enough, where the big eyes stared, Zhuang Ding lowered his head.

Shocked this dry Zhuang Ding, Zhou Tong turned his head, bent his legs, bent his waist, and bowed his back, and instantly turned into a street slipper, and said with a sneer: "Big brother, come on, you can see it clearly here." ”

Cao Cao and the others laughed in unison, and walked up, but they didn't stretch out their arms and wrists, just because of the momentum of everyone, they had forced those Zhuang Ding's faces to turn pale, and they couldn't help but retreat and dodge.

Cao Cao stood at the front, looked at the hall, under the plaque of "Ming Jing Hanging", sat high in the Dengzhou prefect, the lower seat on the right side, sat on the six cases of Confucius Wang Zheng, the two sides of the hall were standing with water and fire sticks, and there were steel forks, packages, and tattered household goods on the ground.

Further down, on the left are Mao Taigong's father and son, and on the right are the two men who were brought in, with red stripes and five flowers, and their mouths were full of cloth and socks.

Cao Cao got closer this time, looked at everyone's appearance carefully, and couldn't help but secretly ask: Huh? It turned out to be his two brothers, strange, these two people were handy, how did they get to this step?

Then he saw that the prefect yawned slowly, touched the startling wood, and knocked weakly, and the officials on both sides hit the ground with their canes at the same time, and shouted: "Wei...... Wu ......"

Tang Wei shouted, and the prefect looked up at the roof and asked casually, "Who is the hall and what is the complaint?" ”

Mrs. Mao shook his spirits, stepped forward, gave a deep salute, and said with a sneer: "Back to my lord: the small one is Mao Shan in Maojiazhuang outside the city, and next to it is Mao Zhongyi, who is a dog under the rule of adults. ”

His son Mao Zhongyi also helped: "My lord, recently the big insect has frequently hurt people, the hunters and Li Zheng in each village have commissioned a tiger catcher, dozens of men in my village, have worked hard for many days, only to shoot a big worm, but these two robbers, after hearing the news, came to the door, forced to ask for it, and took the opportunity to rob the house, what are his two nicknames 'two-headed snake', 'two-tailed scorpion', the most vicious. Look, my lord, the two steel forks were his murder weapons, and he smashed all the furniture, and there were two hundred pieces of silver in the package, which he had robbed. ”

The prefect was listless until he heard the word "silver", and then he was in good spirits and went to see the Confucius Wang Zheng: "Is the thief only two hundred taels?" ”

Wang Zheng said with a smile: "Enxiang heard it, I clearly listened to four hundred taels." ”

Mao Zhongyi hurriedly said: "Four hundred taels, exactly four hundred taels." ”

The prefect grinned, straightened his waist, slapped the shocking wood hard, angrily pointed at Xie Zhen and Xie Bao, and shouted: "In broad daylight, robbing homes and houses, if it weren't for the early arrival of the officials, wouldn't you want to kill people?" Unexpectedly, the people of Dengzhou are happy to work, and the world is peaceful, and there are two snake and scorpion thieves of you! What do you say now that people have taken stolen goods? ”

Xie Zhen and Xie Bao listened to them reversing black and white, and they wanted to explode their hearts, and the two of them roared desperately, their faces and chests turned red.

The prefect listened: "Huh? Oh? Really? I see! The two of you have also confessed to the sin of 'relying on the big worms, each holding a steel fork, and thus robbing the property', then it will be simple. ”

Nodding at Kong Mu Wang Zheng and said: "That's it, since they are all willing to admit it, they can be regarded as good men and good men, anyway, they will be good men after eighteen years!" You wrote a confession and asked him to draw a prisoner's shackle, take two sides of the 25-pound death row prisoner, and put him in the prison first, ready to be beheaded. ”

Wang Zheng heard Shangguan's words, the pen walked the dragon and snake, the text did not add points, wrote a confession, and asked the public to take it, and wanted to solve the treasure and solve the treasure according to the handprint, where can the treasure and the treasure be recognized? clenched his fists and didn't send it, and several officials couldn't pull his hands away from him in a sweat, Wang Zheng said coldly: "Why is it so troublesome? How can you do this kind of thief if you don't fight it? After the fight, he passed out, so he was naturally willing to draw a charge. ”

When several officials heard this, they raised their water and fire sticks and were about to hit them, but they heard two voices sounding at the same time: "Slow!" ”

One of them was naturally Lao Cao, but the prefect and the six cases of Confucius had no time to take care of him at the moment, just because the other "and slow" came from the back hall.

The two hurriedly turned around, but saw a short official with a black face, walking from the back hall to the front of the hall, and said unhappily: "Brother Zhou, it is inevitable that the case is scribbled like this, why don't you let him say a word about the two defendants?" ”

When Governor Zhou heard this, his face also sank, and he said anxiously: "Brother Song, you are the head of the Soldiers and Horses, and you are in charge of the military, do you still want you to teach you when the case is decided?" Don't you stretch your hands too long? ”

Cao Cao stabilized a few restless brothers, but he was not in a hurry to open his mouth, he had previously corresponded with Li Jun, it is said that Song Jiang's reputation spread all over Dengzhou, and the officialdom and rivers and lakes sold his face, and the affairs of the state were larger and smaller than the prefect, but looking at the situation at the moment, it was not necessarily true.

Song Jiang's eyes didn't look at the door at all, nor did he notice Cao Cao and the others, in the face of the prefect's accusation, he saw that he was neither humble nor arrogant, pointing to the top of Zhou Governor's head and saying loudly: "Although the civil and military affairs have different paths, they are all doing things for the country and making decisions for the people. ”

Hearing this, Governor Zhou was furious, snapped a shocking sound, jumped up and shouted: "Song Jiang! Zhou has endured you for more than half a year, are you really afraid of you? Zhou is afraid of Gao Yu behind you! Now that Gao Yu is dead, the big trees have fallen, you still dare to be arrogant, aren't you afraid that I will write a letter to Captain Liang and take away your clothes! ”

Cao Cao suddenly understood in his heart that it was more and more because Gao Yu was dead, and the Fuzhou brothers lost their backstage, so Zhou Zhifu had the courage to listen to it, and it was quite a coincidence that Liang Shicheng, who succeeded the lieutenant, should be his backstage.

Won the crown?

This sentence can be regarded as touching Song Jiang's scales, Song Jiang suddenly lowered his face, and said angrily: "It's all traitors like you, who have ruined a good country, you want to take away my clothes, I will peel your face first!" ”

As he spoke, he jumped up, grabbed Xie Zhen and Xie Bao in front of him, bent down, pulled out the blocked thing in his mouth, and said loudly: "Don't be afraid, two brothers, I, Song Jiang, am here today, and I must be the master of the people, you just tell the truth!" ”

Xie Zhen and Xie Bao are the two of them, Lao Cao has long been with Song Jiang and told him to take care of the characters, this year, Song Jiang has a lot of contacts with them, and the two of them also admire Song Jiang's righteousness very much, and now seeing Song Jiang openly and the state official for himself, he can't help but cry.

Xie Zhen shouted: "How my brother behaves, my brother knows, how can the two of us bully others?" That tiger, in fact, my brother lay in wait on the mountain for three days, before shooting down with an arrow, rolled down the slope to the backyard of Mao's house, I two good voices and good anger to beg, but he deliberately delayed, leaving the two of us to use tea and rice, before I was willing to take it to the backyard, although the big insect is gone, the flattened grass on the mountain is still stained with bloodstains, how to do it fake? He verbally abused him again, saying that my brother robbed during the day, and the two of us were so angry that we broke the tables and chairs in his hallway, so why not rob him of a penny? ”

Xie Bao said: "My brother and I were going to report to the official, but his son came with many public servants, saying that his father must have been deceived by his subordinates, and deceived me and my brother to go back to his house in a thousand words. ”

When Song Jiang heard this, he sneered again and again, looked at Governor Zhou and said, "How?" ”

Governor Zhou rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "What the thief said can also be counted?" Song Fuzhou, how are you still asking me? These two thieves call you brother, but what about them? No wonder they are bold enough to commit crimes in their hometowns, it turns out that you, the head of the Soldiers and Horses, are behind them to be a big backer! You thieves shout that you are thieves, how can you fool your own officials? Come on, catch me this madman who is making a big fuss in the court and shielding the strongman! ”

Song Jiang's heart sank, and he secretly complained: It's too big! I heard the idler's report about catching my brother, so I hurried here, but I didn't expect this guy to openly turn against me, and he didn't bring anyone, wouldn't he have to suffer a loss in front of him!

shouted: "Who dares to step forward!" "Pull out the clothes pressure knife from the belt, smack twice, cut the rope of understanding the treasure, and said in his heart that he is strong in both skills, and he should be able to protect me from harm!

However, when I looked at it again, the two brothers were dumbfounded, and it was difficult to struggle to get up, but they had been tied up for too long, and they were unable to get through their blood for a while, and they were shocked, so they put their short knives horizontally in front of the two of them, and shouted: "Wuna people, I am Song Fuzhou, you go to the barracks and call someone to save me." ”

He thought that he had made a lot of friends in the past year, and he was easy to give, and the people must be willing to help him, as long as he supported him for a while, he would naturally have no worries when Kong Ming and others brought people to kill, but he slowly dealt with this dog official.

Suddenly, a calm voice outside the door shouted: "Lord Song is sonorous, and he will not hesitate to offend the prefect for the sake of justice, such a good official, I will definitely help him!" ”

Song Jiang was overjoyed in his heart, and secretly said that I am really respected among the people, and suddenly felt that the voice was familiar, and when I turned my head, it turned out to be Cao Cao who was smiling and looking at himself, and the faces next to him were even more familiar, and he suddenly felt a big set, and laughed wildly.

Governor Zhou was so flustered by his laughter that he smashed the startled wood: "What are you waiting for?" Go get this guy! ”

I only heard a handsome man outside the door shouting: "I see who dares to touch my brother!" Flying up and kicking the fence to smash, he took off the spear behind his back and strode in front of Song Jiang, Song Jiang only felt extremely happy, so he hugged the man behind his back and smiled: "Brother Hua Rongxian, I want to hurt my brother!" ”

Lin Chong stepped in with a spear and said with a smile: "Unexpectedly, Brother Song Jiang really deserves to be a good official!" ”

San Ruan each pulled out a steel knife and entered with a laugh: "The officials in the world are like brothers, but they are not in the Gongming world?" ”

Xu Guanzhong, Luan Tingyu, Shi Wengong and others also gave up: "A good official scolds a dog official, I have only seen such a scene in the play, and my brother has opened my eyes." ”

Cao Cao walked over slowly, patted Song Jiang on the shoulder and said: "Brother, the foolish brother has never looked at the wrong person, just because you told that guy not to forget the four words hanging high, he is worthy of your official body!" ”

Song Jiang was slapped by him, only to feel that his bones were a few taels lighter, and suddenly his eyes were hot, only to feel the pride in his chest, nodded heavily, strode forward, kicked over the table of the prefect, and shouted angrily: "You dog official, today Song picked up your official robe, and went to Dengzhou for a big harm." ”

Seeing that Hua Rong, Lin Chong and the others were amazing, Governor Zhou had already weakened his legs in fright, and forcefully said: "You are a martial artist, dare to say such things, do you want to rebel?" ”

But I heard Cao Cao say lightly: "It was the father and son of the Mao family who rebelled, these two people framed Xie Zhen and Jiebao, and were discovered by Lord Zhou in the court, and in anger, they actually killed the official, hehe, thanks to General Song's effective rescue, he killed his father and son in time to avenge your lord." ”

The father and son of the Mao family saw that he reversed black and white, and his liver and gallbladder were completely cracked, and he collapsed to the ground in fright, and the feces and urine suddenly flowed sideways.

This is exactly what it is: black and white are reversed and empty mouth, and this way is also given to them. The wicked still want the wicked to rule, and Lao Cao Xin punishes the traitorous ministers.

(End of chapter)