The rustling of the reeds obscured the children's calls.

"Say what? Roll up for Lao Tzu! ”

One of them, panting from the front, climbed from the bow to the deck, stretched out his head and said to the people on the sandbar behind him: "Big brother, it's not good, the sixth son said that this group of people is going to kill all the villagers, and now, the village chief is leading the stove households, and they are confronting them."

"Let's go! Come back with me! ”

"But big brother, this. What about this ship? ”

The man wanted to say whether to run away or not, don't go back and send it back, but seeing that so many brothers' families were inside, he couldn't say anything, so he didn't have anything to say, so he didn't have anything to say.

The eldest brother patted the side of the boat fiercely: "What else can I do, of course I have to row out and hide again!" ”

The water was not big, and soon, the boat docked, and more than a dozen people jumped off the boat one after another, running in the direction of the salt pan outside the entrance of the village, and the person who spoke just now also followed closely.

The eldest brother shouted as he ran: "Quick, take the good guys!" ”

Originally, they had the intention of hiding or fleeing, but it was based on the fact that their relatives were fine, just like the folk rumors of Liangshan heroes, although there was no appearance of "Water Margin" at this time, after all, this thing encourages rebellion, and Jiang Xinghuo can't write it, but some related legends and scripts are real, especially in Shandong and Jianghuai.

You must know that in history, Song Jiang and his group were ambushed by Zhang Shuye, the governor of Haizhou, and after the ship was burned, Song Jiang was defeated and captured, and the uprising failed, and the area of Haizhou was changed to Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, that is, the area around Lianyungang, which is now the area under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Mansion.

At the same time, in a tree in a woodland near Yantian, Chef Hao was adjusting his crossbow.

Chef Hao rode on the tree, the military steel crossbow, under the warm and smoky sunlight of autumn and winter, reflected a cold glow, and the wolf's tooth arrows on it were even more daunting to look at.

The horses have been hidden by him in the distance, because there are no decent hills or mountains around the salt pan, only some water, so the only commanding height is here, and here is more than a hundred steps away from the location of Xie Jin, even if it is a military crossbow, it has basically reached the limit of the theoretical range.

Even so, Chef Hao is actually in a more dangerous position, and it is still very difficult for him to retreat with his whole body, because whether it is the reserve army or the Jinyi guard here, there are war horses, but because of the salt fields, the war horses can't enter, so they are placed in the village and around the salt fields.

Coincidentally, if it is usual, the guard post must be far away, but because of the last time, as the so-called "eat a trench and grow a wisdom", this time these armed forces are responsible for the sentry, the warning range is only a few dozen steps, the main reason is naturally to protect the safety of Qin Cha Jiejin, so that in the surrounding stoves, there will be no more personal assassination last time.

By mistake, it also gave Chef Hao a chance.

Of course, it's just a hint, because Chef Hao only has the opportunity to shoot an arrow at the extreme range, if he misses, then he must escape immediately, and even if he is the fastest, there is still a high chance that he will be caught up.

But Chef Hao had no choice, he knew very well that since Shi Youmin entrusted him with such an important task, he must send someone to monitor his family.

It is impossible for him to get out quietly, because once this kind of news leaks out, for Shi Youmin, it will be an out-and-out disaster, even if he is a senior official from the third grade.

At this moment, Chef Hao let out a light "huh" and put down the binoculars.

I saw that in the open space in the middle of the salt field, there were a bunch of people, officers and soldiers, and brocade guards, and the atmosphere on both sides was warm and harmonious.

Because Xie Jin has already changed his words.

"The state has the law of the country, but in addition to the law of the country, there is also human affection."

"Your Majesty has observed the people's feelings, and now you have asked the Dharma Temple to revise the regulations on salt affairs in the "Da Ming Law", and you have been exempted from the crime of selling surplus salt for your livelihood."

But at this moment, more than a dozen salt men ran over here with weapons in their hands, and Xie Jinjie literati, even if they were to take care of the people, shouted and spoke, to be honest, the voice was not loud, not to the extent that it could spread dozens of steps.

The salters failed to detect the change in the situation in time, and the soldiers of the garrison army who were in charge of guarding drew their swords one after another, and several hard bows were also wound.

The scene was extremely embarrassing at one point.

"Sanwazi, why are you back? Put things down, Lord Chincha has forgiven us without sin. ”

As the village chief spoke, these salters looked at each other and put down their weapons one after another. If that could be called a "weapon".

Xie Jin also probably saw the specific situation, the effect of this desire to promote and suppress is good, the emotions of the stove households are mobilized very well, and the next step is to encourage them to stand up and report the real data.

This is Jiang Xinghuo's trick to teach him to comprehensively and thoroughly investigate the salt business.

If the stove households say that they can't remember anything else, it's fine, but just like the farmers of this era must remember how many acres of land they planted and how many catties of grain they harvested, and how much salt they produced, they had an account in their hearts.

And as long as it corresponds to the account books of the salt farm, it is easy to find out that it is tired.

Perhaps this intermediate data will produce some errors because of the large base, but the important thing is not the error, but the re-trust of the stove households in the imperial court, and the first time the court crossed the salt envoy Yamen, the direct contact with the stove households, which is more significant.

Since the stove households have already been embraced, Xie Jin naturally doesn't mind giving a little favor to these reckless salt dings.

Xie Jin stepped down from the high platform, and the surrounding Jinyi guards formed a human wall, vigilantly isolating Xie Jin from the stove households.

"This is the time!"

Chef Hao put down his binoculars and rode on a tree to pick up a well-wound steel crossbow.

The final blow.

Because the military crossbow is not an arm crossbow, but a pedal crossbow, which needs to be wound with his feet, he can't wind it on the tree, but after the wind is done below, he brings it to the tree.

Whether it is the realistic condition for retreat, he only has this one chance.

Chef Hao's heart thumped, his breathing became a little short, he grabbed the trigger in his hand, and aimed at the center of the crowd opposite—the middle-aged official in official robes.

Chef Hao exhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

He didn't know if he could hit, but he had to try it with all his might, after all, it was the last fight, even if there was only the slightest possibility, he had to be a dead horse as a live horse doctor, as successful as possible.

Chef Hao opened his eyes, and his heart was full of waves, and he slowly pulled the plate machine.

The bowstring sounded.

The sound was very small, just a "buzzing" shock, but it echoed in Chef Hao's ears, and the movement seemed as loud as the explosion of 10,000 catties of black powder.

A gust of wind blew and swept away the dead leaves.

Chef Hao's eyes didn't dare to blink, staring closely at the direction of the arrows flying in the distance.

Xie Jin didn't know that danger was approaching him at this moment, he had just been surrounded by many soldiers and walked out, he was in a very happy mood, and thought that his fate had been rewritten, and he would probably be able to move forward smoothly from now on.

However, he didn't think that just a moment before his success, fate played a joke on him.

The person next to him smiled very flatteringly, and Xie Jin's heart beat a few beats, his face changed suddenly, and he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

Immediately after, he heard a soft "poof" sound, which seemed to ......

What is the sound of something piercing the skin?

When he looked back, he saw an arrow stuck in his chest.

Blood, flowed out.

There was silence all around, and everyone was stunned, including himself.

He lifted his hand to his chest, the red, viscous liquid staining his fingers, but his fingers couldn't stop the gushing blood, it spilled down his fingers like a blooming flower.

The light in Xie Jin's eyes gradually dimmed until he fell silent.

At this moment, he finally understood that all the praise, honor, and hope over the past few days were a deception, all an illusion, just to allow him to embark on such a road of no return to the grave

"Murder!"

"There are assassins!"

"Chincha is dead!"

After a brief silence, screams of fear erupted in the crowd and panicked footsteps of escape, and Xie Jin's body collapsed in a pool of blood.

The crowd surged wildly in all directions, rushing out as if there was some flood beast chasing behind them.

The brocade guards, on the other hand, reacted quickly, some rushed in the direction where the arrows were fired, and some went to the horses to pursue.

In the chaos, a pair of black boots rested next to Xie Jin's corpse.

Zhao Haichuan squatted down and stretched out his hands stained with red liquid to pick up Xie Jin's miserable white face.

Xie Jin lay on the cold ground, his bloodshot eyes closed.

Blood gushed on the ground and merged into a meandering river that flowed into the snow-white salt pans.

"Wake up, sir!"

——————

Chef Hao didn't run far, he still underestimated Jinyiwei's ability.

Under the pursuit of Jinyiwei, limited by the terrain of Jianghuai, Hao Chef was chased and surrounded before he ran out of a few miles, and after being injured, he committed suicide unsuccessfully and was captured alive.

But none of this can change the bad situation.

If there is still luck in misfortune, it is because the bow and crossbow are on the edge of the theoretical limit range, according to the saying that "at the end of the strong crossbow, it is impossible to wear Lu Min", this crossbow arrow without quenching poison is not pierced very deeply, and Xie Jin still has hope of being rescued.

With the second assassination of Qincha, Huai'an Mansion also began to become silent.

This kind of vicious incident, it's just one time, and if you do it again, it's just slapping Zhu Di's face.

It's not that Shi Youmin doesn't understand this truth, but he doesn't have a choice.

Because with Jiang Xinghuo Sect Xie Jin's hand of "drawing salary from the bottom of the kettle", his secret will come to the surface sooner or later.

Rather than sit back and wait for the last exposure, it's better to take the risk.

But Xie Jin's luck was bad, and Shi Youmin's luck was even worse.

Because not only was the assassin captured alive, Xie Jin was only seriously injured but not dead.

Jiang Xinghuo, who was in Nanjing, heard about this, and Zhu Di was also furious, and soon, Song Li, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, rushed to Huai'an Mansion with a large number of troops, and the situation began to develop in the worst direction.

Although the two Huai Salt Envoys have jurisdiction over more than 100,000 stove households, the number is very large, and it seems that the workload of recounting is very large, but once the state apparatus is fully operational, all these "seeming" obstacles cannot become obstacles.

The pardoned stove households began to provide data according to the different salt districts, and with the help of the petty officials, and even the bookkeepers seconded from the merchants, they rechecked the account books of the salt envoy Si Yamen, and the salt envoy Si Yamen was completely shut down at the same time.

The room was brightly lit, a row of long tables covered with tablecloths, and below them were a dozen tables arranged in a row of brushes, and on the tables were thick account books, and a short and fat man in his thirties and forties, with goat's whiskers, was looking down through the summary account books, sometimes using a brush to draw numbers on the paper.

At this time, someone walked over quickly, closed the door tightly, and said in a low voice: "Vice President Zhu, I found out." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Heng slowly closed the account book and raised his head.

"yes, got it."

Zhu Heng's reaction was extremely flat, as if he was just saying "I ate today".

"This time it was not a false accusation, but genuine evidence, and it was found out"

Zhu Heng didn't say anything, just looked at the person who came quietly, and only after he finished saying did he smile faintly: "Shi Youmin's courage is really big enough." ”

In the torture room, the tortured and dying Chef Hao had completely lost his strength.

Just now he had summoned everything he knew.

Maybe it's because Jin Yiwei's methods are too powerful, or maybe it's out of longing for his family, or maybe it's a touch not long ago.

But whatever the reason, in short, Song Li now has a reason to arrest Shi Youmin.

"This is an important witness, give him medicine and save his life."

Song Li was just about to get up, but Chef Hao struggled to open his red and swollen eyelids, looked at Song Li, and his lips were squirming.

"What is he talking about?" Song Li asked suspiciously.

Zhao Haichuan stepped forward and put his hand over his ear and didn't ask why he did it, because there are many examples of being bitten into one ear by a hated prisoner in the Jinyi Guard, but biting the back of the hand is generally nothing, not to mention wearing gloves to facilitate execution.

After a long time, Zhao Haichuan finally understood what Chef Hao was saying.

"He said that his daughter should have been kidnapped by Shi Youmin, let us rescue his daughter, he is willing to die, and he is willing to be a witness."

Hearing this, Song Li glanced at the man with blurred flesh and blood in surprise, and nodded quietly.

Afterwards, Song Li walked out of the torture chamber to visit Xie Jin.

"Master Xie, how are you?"

Xie Jin had already passed out in a coma, his lips were pale and bloodless, his eyelids moved slightly, as if he was awake, and it was difficult to get out of it as if he had fallen into a nightmare.

Song Li sighed secretly and looked at the two servants next to him.

The two unlucky people smiled bitterly, but they couldn't say anything, so they could only say goodbye and leave.

After they left, Song Li turned his head and asked the imperial doctor who came from Nanjing, "What should I do with the injuries on the bachelor's body?" Do you want to go to Nanjing again and ask for a dose of allicin? ”

The imperial doctor shook his head and said, "Bachelor Xie is seriously injured, and it can't be solved by the allicin invented by the national teacher, I'm afraid ...... I'm afraid ......"

"I'm afraid what's wrong?" Song Li frowned and asked.

"Bachelor Xie was assassinated because he lost too much blood and fainted, although the arrow passed through the flesh and was stuck in the ribs, but it still injured his right lung a little, whether he can wake up or not, I'm afraid it depends on whether his life is hard enough."

The Imperial Physician replied in a hesitant manner, obviously he was very clear about Xie Jin's physical condition.

"This" Song Li was also a little worried, Xie Jin's trip, if he went out in a carriage and went back lying on the board, the national teacher would not look good on his face.

"After all, Master Xie is young, and his body is still strong." The Imperial Doctor reassured.

Song Li instructed: "You go back and rest, just stay with the official." ”

"Yes." The Imperial Physician bowed down to receive the order.

"Well, go ahead." Song Li waved his hand.

When the imperial doctor exited the room, Song Li's brows were tightly locked, and his eyes looked gloomily at the unconscious Xie Jin.

Song Li held a towel in his hand and wiped it for Xie Jin, but his mind was not on it at all.

He knew very well in his heart that Xie Jin couldn't die.

Because this is the first time that His Majesty has sent a messenger to Huang Huai, if he dies in Huai'an Mansion, it will make the whole thing even more out of control, and the situation that was originally persuaded by Huang Huaibu's political envoy and the governor of Caoyun will immediately expand.

At this moment, Xie Jin's eyelids suddenly moved.

Immediately, a glittering tear slid down his cheek.

Next, Xie Jin opened his eyes.

He looked around blankly, but saw that he was actually in bed!

Moreover, there was also a man in the room, who was wiping his face with a towel.

"Ahh

He exclaimed suddenly, okay, it was actually a muffled whisper coming from his throat, Song Li couldn't even hear it clearly, he was still mechanically wiping Xie Jin's face in his hand, and his mind was spent thinking about what was next.

Xie Jin struggled to get up, but a torn pain in his chest caused him to fall back onto the bed.

At this moment, Song Li finally discovered Xie Jin's abnormality.

"Don't move."

Song Li hurriedly pressed Xie Jin, and said very quickly: "Ling's injury is quite serious, you need to rest in bed, don't move, otherwise the internal organs will bleed again, and it will be troublesome." ”

Waiting for the towel to be removed from his face, Xie Jin stared at Song Li in a daze, and it took a long time to react, and he muttered, "Song Shilang?" Where am I? ”

"Huai'an Mansion City."

Song Li said: "Bachelor Xie was stabbed with a strong crossbow, fortunately he didn't completely succeed, but only injured his lungs, the doctor and the imperial doctor who came to deal with Bachelor Xie's injuries properly, just said that waiting for Bachelor Xie to wake up, he survived the most difficult level, and the allicin of the national teacher was also used for you, don't worry about the wound. Inflammation, infection, I don't know much about the words I heard from the national teacher, in short, it's okay to take care of it well. ”

"Assassinated"

Xie Jin seemed to remember something, his pupils dilated instantly, and he gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice, "Who is it?" Who did it?! ”

His indignant expression was the same as before, Song Li knew that he was worried and even afraid, this was someone who wanted his life, and he couldn't wait for him to return to the West as soon as possible.

If the first assassination was still in Xie Jin's grasp, then this second time it was really a walk around the ghost gate before coming back.

"It's still being investigated, and there is evidence, but I can't say it yet."

Song Li stood up and was about to call the imperial doctor, Xie Jin suddenly grabbed his sleeve: "Don't go, Song Shilang, you make it clear, who stabbed me?" Who is trying to harm me? Tell me quickly! ”

He was filled with resentment and fear, as if it was about to overflow from his voice.

Xie Jin is a world-famous talent, but he is also really facing life and death for the first time, and there is a great terror between life and death.

"Bachelor of Solution"

Song Li lowered his head, raised his head after a moment of silence, stared at Xie Jin, and said seriously: "The only thing you can do now is to rest well, take care of your body, and leave the rest to me." ”

Xie Jin's expression became cold when he heard this, he also understood, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Thank you, Song Shilang." ”

"Don't overthink it."

Song Li smiled faintly: "Bachelor Xie, what you should be most worried about now is not how fierce and powerful the enemy is, but what kind of reward you will receive when you return to Nanjing this time." ”

"The national teacher admires you very much."

Then, Song Li commanded a few words outside the door.

The imperial doctor, who did not go far, was soon chased back by the servants.

Song Li gently patted Xie Jin's shoulder with the tips of his fingers, and said warmly: "Master Xie, you recuperate from your injuries first, and if you need anything, I will try my best to satisfy you, and in addition, regarding the mastermind behind the assassination, I will inform Your Majesty, don't worry." ”

Xie Jin breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to say something.

Song Li waved his hand and asked a few servants to take care of Xie Jin, and then left the courtyard.

Xie Jin looked at the empty courtyard behind the briefly opened door, and was stunned for a long time before he sighed.

After Song Li walked out, Zhao Haichuan was already waiting in front of the door.

"According to the clues provided by Chef Hao, detain Shi Youmin first, and then search for places where he may have hidden the Tianliang salt tax that has been greedy for ink all these years."

(End of chapter)