The night in Bianliang is always so intoxicating.

The river flows slowly, and the city is filled with the fragrance of osmanthus flowers in August, and even the moon is a little rounder than before.

Zhao Jun was strolling home at this time, raising his head and looking up at the night sky.

He went to Fan Zhongyan just now and asked Fan Zhongyan why he provoked Kaifeng Mansion, but the other party avoided his edge.

As a result, Fan Zhongyan told him that in addition to the previous two conjectures, Fan Zhongyan also told him another possibility.

That is, the middle and lower-level officials of Kaifeng Mansion, obviously want to use Ding Du, the Yin of Kaifeng Mansion, as a gunman.

After all, Ding Du is a confused official, what he thinks is what he says next, and he has always been stereotypical and pedantic, hearing that the Imperial City Division is snatching the power of Kaifeng Mansion, it is very likely that he will directly find Zhao Zhen to complain.

A treacherous villain is easy to deal with, but it is difficult for such a righteous and confused minister to deal with it. Because they already have their own cognition, they are in a high position, and their private morality is quite good.

Like Ding Du, who is less than fifty years old, is an official in Bianliang, has been living in a humble room, has no wives and concubines, lives simply, and helps the poor with his salary.

So Zhao Jun felt that his brain hurt, why did Zhao Zhen add to his own blockage, can he change to a corrupt official or a smart and capable person to be the Yin of Kaifeng Mansion? Come to an upright foolish official, isn't that looking for trouble for yourself?

However, Fan Zhongyan still had to stand by them, at least on the surface, he had to maintain the interests of the entire bureaucratic system, so as not to be excluded before he carried out the Qingli New Deal, and there was no way to help him persuade Ding Du.

Therefore, if Ding Du is really used as a gun by the people of Kaifeng Mansion, basically Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun can only resist this pressure.

Forget it, let's take it one step at a time.

Zhao Jun returned home, and at this time there were already several inspectors waiting at his door.

When they saw him coming, they all bowed their hands and said, "Meet the Zhiji." ”

"Well, let's come to the yard."

Zhao Jun asked.

The people arrested during the day were brought back to the government office, and he did not have so much time to interrogate them personally.

I don't know how many cases happened in Bianliang a day, and if he had to ask about everything, then he would simply try the cases every day, and he wouldn't be able to do anything else.

So he asked one of Cao Xiu's henchmen to deal with it, fortunately, Cao Xiu is still quite competent, if the Imperial City Division is full of people like Wang Shilong, and his orders are disobeyed, I'm afraid that nothing can really be done.

The group followed Zhao Jun into the courtyard, Zhao Jun sat on the stone table under the big tree in the courtyard, and the escort of the team leader came over to salute him.

"Did you make that clear?"

After asking clearly, the old woman said that the woman came to Zhongmu a few months ago, saying that she was lonely and married to the old woman's son. After a month or two, everything was fine, but the old woman's son was suddenly killed, and Zhongmu County ordered her to be compensated with two silver taels, and the woman fled with money soon after. ”

The man told him what had happened, and then said: "The woman denied it, and said that she was not from Bianliang, and that the two men were her brothers, and she came to Bianliang to pass by on her way back to her hometown." But asking her where she had been before and where her hometown was was vague was vague. We interrogated separately, and the man said he was from Gyeonggi Road, but the woman said he was from Caizhou. ”

"It seems that there is a problem between this woman and those two men."

Zhao Jun knew with his toes that the problem was very big, that is to say, this woman was not cautious, but she didn't expect to be discovered by the old woman when she ran to Bianliang, and she didn't collude with the two men in advance to confess, which led to the separate interrogation and immediately exposed.

"Yes."

"And today a brother told me that he knew those two. ”

"Let him come."

"Qian Li, Zhisi asked you."

Oshiban beckoned back.

Immediately after him, a chazi came over, bowed his head and arched his hand: "Villain Qian Li, I have seen Zhisi." ”

"Let's talk about it."

"Those two are from the city beggars."

"Beggar gang?"

Zhao Jun was surprised, he didn't expect that the things in Jin Yong were actually in reality.

It was also when he was in school that he did not revise the "History of Beggars", otherwise he would not be surprised at all.

The beggar gang was initially formed in the Northern Song Dynasty, the boss was called the head of the group, and the beggars at the bottom were in rags, but the head of the group was rich and wealthy.

According to historical records, in the city of Hangzhou in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a hereditary beggar gang leader for seven generations - "Tuantou Jin Boss". He governed the beggars in Jincheng, Hangzhou, collected their money, and took care of the beggars' lives accordingly.

"Boss Jin" is like the general status of the patriarch, enjoying considerable authority among the beggars, through the worship of many beggars, he earned a "lot of corn", "pocket money" of the solid family wealth, so that "money lenders", although not the richest man in the city, is also a number of rich.

It can be seen from this that the underground underworld of the Song Dynasty is wonderful, the beggar gang, the Sanssouci Cave, the ghost Fan Building, the ghost market, etc., dozens of large and small forces, and the relationship with Kaifeng Mansion is also complicated, often behind these forces there is a big man or magnate in Kaifeng Mansion.

"Yes."

Qian Li said: "Those two people are the blue poles of the beggar gang, specializing in doing some unsightly things. They will find a woman, and when they see that a family has few sons and no power, and cannot marry a mother-in-law, they will arrange for the woman to marry, and then encourage her husband to make trouble with the powerful, and after being beaten to death by the powerful, they will reconcile with the people, and run away after taking the money. ”

"Huh?"

Zhao Jun was shocked by this outrageous criminal method, and said: "Is that husband so stupid that he dares to make trouble with the powerful?" ”

Qian Li said with a smile: "So the people they pick are generally stupid men, and they will not directly provoke the powerful, and go to the shops opened by the powerful to make trouble, sometimes these blue poles will be hired as thugs, and when the man is instigated by his mother-in-law to come and make trouble, he will deliberately beat people to death and then run away, and the trouble will be handed over to the powerful, and the powerful don't want to make a big fuss, so they can only lose money." ”

Zhao Jun's face sank.

In addition to the beggars, it also involved the county order of Zhongmu County to shield the powerful, and beat people to death to turn big things into small things, so they paid some silver taels to the old woman, and the silver taels were also swept away by the woman, no wonder this old woman wanted to come to Bianliang to complain, and the son was really dead.

"How do you know about this secret?"

Zhao Jun was a little puzzled.

This criminal modus operandi, Zhao Jun never dreamed of it, how did Qian Li know?

Qian Li looked embarrassed.

Zhao Jun thought for a while, then didn't ask, nodded and said: "Well, you did a good job, remember a meritorious service, those three people were tortured, you must ask all the details of the beggar gang, it is best to find evidence of the crime." ”

"Yes."

The crowd bowed down.

Zhao Jun was about to wave them away, when he suddenly noticed that Qian Li's face was discolored, and guessed that he might have something to say to himself, so he said: "Others go to handle the case, Qian Li stays, I still have some details of the beggar gang to ask you." ”

"Yes."

Qian Li bowed his hand and saluted, and the rest of the people left.

Soon only Zhao Jun was left in the courtyard, surrounded by Di Qing, Zhou Xin and other guards.

Zhao Jun said: "These are my confidants, and they are also people who can be trusted, if you have anything to say, just say it to me." ”

Qian Li knelt down and said, "Zhisi, the villain should die." The reason why the villain knows this is because he has seen his boss protect them before, so he recognized them. ”

"Oh?"

Zhao Jun said with interest: "Then why do you dare to tell me?" Aren't you afraid that your boss will retaliate against you? ”

Qian Li said: "The villain knew that the Zhisi would definitely do great things, so he was willing to do it, and the Zhisi ordered the villains to check some things, but the boss secretly leaked the news. ”

"Okay."

Zhao Jun said happily: "There is an old Chinese saying, called the person who knows the times is the handsome, you can abandon the darkness and turn to the light, it means that you are very smart, go back and continue to monitor your boss, if you can make a contribution, the knowledge of the division will inevitably be reused for you." ”

"Thank you, Chiji."

Qian Li was overjoyed, and he also took a big risk this time.

After all, the Imperial City Division's Chazi doesn't have much oil and water, and it all makes money by selling news, so the Imperial City Division is also very bad.

This time, Zhao Jun deliberately released the news that he wanted to investigate some powerful people, and those people below hurriedly went to report the news and fabricated false information to report it.

Qian Li originally planned to do this, but he was lucky, he had a cousin who was one of Cao Xiu's henchmen, and this person was also the spy who had been protecting him when Zhao Jun was traveling.

This person knew that Zhao Jun had the right to enter and leave the palace at will, and even after entering the palace, the official family ordered Zhao Jun to take charge of the Imperial City Division the next day, and let the Imperial City Division have the ability to arrest, censor, and set up a public court, and the power can be described as monstrous.

Therefore, he immediately understood that the sky of the Imperial City Division was about to change, so he hurriedly instructed his cousin and friends who had a deep relationship in the Imperial City Division, asking them not to continue to deceive their superiors, so as not to cause a big disaster.

And it's not just him, there are more than 100 Chazi spies behind Zhao Jun, and there are many smart people among them, and when they see Zhao Jun's treatment, they also guessed a few points.

Everyone has relatives and friends, and for a while the news spread.

Soon in the next few days, sure enough, many people came to report the spies that Zhao Jun had sent out to investigate.

There were even spies who had colluded with the person being investigated to find out about what they had been reported, which made people panic within the Imperial City Division, and many people felt that a catastrophe was coming.

And Zhao Jun didn't do it immediately when he got the letter, but pressed down the news, because if he made a move now, at most he would catch some of the surface at most, and the big traitor hidden inside would not surface.

So he decided to calm down first, continue to go deeper according to the original plan, and wait until all the investigation reports come up and deal with it again, so that it can be wiped out.

Meanwhile.

August 14 is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This is the seventh day after Zhao Jun was appointed as the Imperial City Governor, and there are only three days left before the Autumn Lock Courtyard.

The time of autumn in the Song Dynasty was not fixed, and it was generally calculated according to the distance from Bianliang.

Because it is necessary to give enough time to the scholars of the middle lift to go to Bianliang to participate in the spring of the coming year after the middle lift, such as Guangxi, Lingnan, and Fujian, the autumn township test is often held in June.

Bianliang is a little later, usually before August 15 to September.

For example, the examination of the fourth year of Song Renzong's Tiansheng was on August 19, and this year is August 17, and on that day, all the scholars who participated in the autumn festival had to go to the Tribute Academy, but the Tribute Yuan would be locked, and the examination would be for three days, and food, clothing, and accommodation were all in it.

Zhao Jun did not reject Lu Yijian's proposal to participate in the imperial examination, but pretended to deal with it in line with the principle of letting the other party not know that he knew their intentions.

Anyway, it doesn't matter if you can pass the exam or not, I used to think that I went deep into the officialdom to understand the officialdom, but now after forming an alliance with Lao Fan, with Lao Fan, an old official who has been in the officialdom for decades, what are you afraid of not knowing the disadvantages of officialdom?

However, he doesn't plan to completely turn his face with Lu Yijian and them now, unless the other party is stubborn to the point where he can't bear it anymore, so it should be perfunctory or perfunctory.

In the past two days, he pretended to be reading a book, and during the day, he continued to investigate secretly, and saw a lot of social darkness, and slowly learned a lot about the criminal methods of these underground forces and the methods of the powerful behind them to accumulate money.

And just when Zhao Jun was still moving steadily according to his plan, at this moment, in the drunken township building in Yulin Lane in Dongcheng, several officials from Kaifeng Mansion were sitting in the room, talking about some things.

When Fan Zhongyan was in Zhikaifeng Mansion, he had always punished the law strictly and cracked down on the underworld, so he was frightened for a while, and the security on the streets of Bianliang was much better than before.

In the future, to reach this level, it will be necessary to wait until Bao Zheng, who is now guarding filial piety to his parents in his hometown, to know Kaifeng Mansion twenty years later, so that he can once again purge the cancer inside Kaifeng Mansion, and then devote himself to fighting the underworld forces and making Bianliang a new one.

It's a pity that whether it is Fan Zhongyan or Bao Heizi, they can basically only be clean on the surface, and the Song Dynasty has not eradicated the large-scale underworld forces such as the Worry-Free Cave, the Ghost Fan Building, and the Beggars Gang underground.

It wasn't until the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty directly did not talk about martial arts, lowered ten meetings with one force, and frantically poured water into it, so that the Sanssouci Cave that had been entrenched in Bianliang for hundreds of years was eliminated.

At this time, with Fan Zhongyan being transferred, Zhang Yi took office for too short a time, Ding Du was a confused Confucian, and after there was no crackdown by Qingming officials, the dirty Xiaoxiao below began to be active again.

At present, there are five prefects of Kaifeng Mansion in the room, namely Liu Yuanzhi, the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, Liao Yu and Li Dewen, who joined the judicial army, and Zhang Pengfei and Zhan Wu, who joined the army.

Kaifeng Prefecture is a government yin, a general judge, two judges, and three pushers.

Fu Yin is the actual person in charge, the general judgment is the deputy position, the judge is in charge of the left and right halls respectively, and the push official is part-time to lead the embassy of the South Division, and then there is a government department, there are six judicial and Silu members in charge of the army, and they are also the bosses of the six Cao.

However, with the intensification of redundant officials, the number of officials of all sizes in Kaifeng Prefecture increased sharply, although most of them were inactive and did not have the right to know. But now it has swelled to the point of two general judgments, three judges, five pushers and more than a dozen government courts to join the army, and the redundancy of officials is very serious.

As a result, Kaifeng Prefecture is actually divided into several small groups and factions, competing for power and profit, and opinions are not unified.

The strength of Liu Yuanzhi's faction is still good, including Liao Yu and others, and there are a few Liucao and Tiaodian below. Moreover, in Kaifeng Mansion, the resident officials are at the top level when they reach the promotion of officials, and they can do it for a few more years.

Because these people are all civil officials, most of them are from the shadow of the door or the same jinshi and the same jinshi are born into the office, although the officialdom status is low, but in the lower official position, it can be done for a longer time.

And when it comes to judges and above, they are generally from Jinshi and have a high status, but they are rogue officials, and they can do it for a year or two at most, and they can't form long-term interests.

Therefore, Kaifeng Mansion hides dirt and dirt, and it is generally mostly below the official level.

At this moment, Liu Yuanzhi met with several cronies to discuss the behavior of the Imperial City Division in the past few days.

"The Imperial City Division is becoming more and more rampant now, this Zhao Jun doesn't know what the origin is, but he can actually bewitch the official family and let the Imperial City Division have the right to arrest and judge."

"I heard that on the first day he took office, he hinted to his subordinates that he had something to do with the royal family, isn't he the son of the clan?"

"The clan can't be a leader, Your Majesty is doing this to break the law of the ancestors."

"There is no word from the Zongren Mansion, which means that this person is not in the Sect Jade. Could it be the first emperor?"

"Don't think too much about it."

Several people first pushed each other's cups and exchanged lamps, and chatted about the situation of the Imperial City Division.

Then Liu Yuanzhi looked around at everyone and said in a deep voice: "You may not know that on the first day of his tenure, this magistrate asked the following inspectors to secretly investigate the officials of my Kaifeng Mansion. ”

"I also know about this, and someone sold me the news on the same day."

Li Dewen sneered: "This Zhao Jun is really interesting, on the first day of taking office, he wanted to check my Kaifeng Mansion, but all the people below him came to me." ”

"How many people are coming to you?"

Liao Yu asked.

Li Dewen said: "I'm afraid there must be more than a dozen people." ”

"You bought them all?"

"I don't have anything to do with buying so much."

"Confused."

Liao Yu frowned and said, "Aren't you afraid that those people will hold a grudge and really investigate secretly?" ”

"Huh."

Li Dewen sneered: "Let them check, what can they find." ”

"If you are not careful, you will be killed sooner or later!"

Liao Yu was very unhappy.

Although he joined the army in the same government, Liao Yu was admitted to the same jinshi and came in, and he always looked down on Li Dewen, who entered the office.

Now that he has done something stupid, it makes him even more angry.

But Li Dewen didn't know it, and said coldly: "You don't know how big the other party's appetite is, I don't have so much spare money to buy more than a dozen copies of the same news." ”

"What stupidity!"

Liao Yu couldn't help but scold.

"You TM"

Li Dewen was furious.

"That's it!"

Liu Yuanzhi patted the case and said: "What are you arguing about, let you come to discuss countermeasures, not to quarrel, now that the Imperial City Division is clearly eyeing us, you are still fighting here?" ”

The two of them stopped talking.

Zhang Pengfei groaned: "Brother Cen (Liu Yuanzhi's character), in your opinion, what should it be?" ”

Liu Yuanzhi said: "What do you think? Speak it all out and listen to it. ”

"I listened to the above people before, this Zhao Jun's new official has been in office for three times, and he has been favored by the officials, so it is not appropriate to have a direct conflict with him."

Zhan Wu analyzed: "That's why we ordered the people below to be cautious, but now that they have put their hands on our heads, I suspect that not only us, but also Ma Tui Guan and Gao Tui Guan, they are the same, why don't you join forces with them?" ”

"United?"

Liu Yuanzhi said with a smile: "I fought with them to the death before, can I still unite now?" ”

Zhan Wu said: "It didn't work before, but now there are foreign enemies, and it is indeed time to unite." ”

"Yes, if the Imperial City Division is really allowed to continue to investigate like this, it is hard to guarantee that something will be found."

Liao Yu also said: "After all, Ma Yi's brother is the imperial history in the Imperial History Tower, if he can unite with Ma Yi and let the Imperial History Observatory impeach the Imperial City Division, maybe Zhao Jun can stop and stop." ”

Li Dewen immediately scolded him and said: "In the past few days, has the Imperial History Observatory and the Imperial City Division been impeached by the Imperial City Division?" The official family is clearly protecting Zhao Jun, what role can it play? ”

"Huh."

Liao Yu said with a smile: "If the Imperial City Division can find out the case, it will naturally be useless." But if the case can't be found, or if the unjust case or wrong case is investigated, and others are framed, then wouldn't the impeachment of Yushitai be useful? At that time, it will be difficult for the official family to protect it. ”

"What do you mean?"

Liu Yuanzhi looked at him.

Liao Yu said: "It's very simple, if they want a case, they give it to them, as long as it is not a case involving us, we can even create a case for them." ”

"Hmm"

Several people looked at each other and smiled.

They may not be good at solving cases, but creating cases is their forte.

Only Li Dewen looked at Liao Yu very dissatisfied, this guy has always been at odds with him, a broken fellow jinshi, looking down on his background, and now he is in the limelight, which makes him very unhappy.

"And Fu Yin's side can also complain to him, saying how arrogant the Imperial City Division is now, and ask him to go to the official family to complain."

"Well, it's still Minghui (Liao Yu's character) who is wise, comparable to the ancient Cheng Yuye."

Liu Yuanzhi was overjoyed.

If these methods continue, I don't believe that the Imperial City Division will not comply.

(End of chapter)