At night, the lobby of the East Gate Inn is very lively, and all kinds of masters of unknown origin gather together, drinking and frolicking, and the voices are full of people. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In order to avoid being too conspicuous, Zhao Bufan specially instructed Erhuazi to get some food into the house, and after eating it hastily, he took Wu Song and Yang Zhi out quietly from the back door of the inn, intending to familiarize himself with the layout of Luokou Town. He had already asked from Erhuazi earlier that so many people suddenly appeared in this town because everyone said that Li Bangyan's 300,000 people would pass through here, and they would take the Yellow River waterway.

In fact, there are two pieces of news circulating about the birthday gang that Li Bangyan gave to Tong Guan, one of which is that he said that he would take the land route, first go south to Henan Mansion, pass through Xijing Luoyang, and then go east to Bianliang. The second is to take the waterway, which goes down the Yellow River, and then reroutes it in this small town of Luokou to enter the Bianhe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, and go straight to Bianliang, Tokyo.

Judging from the current situation of dragons and snakes gathering in Luokou Town, I am afraid that these 300,000 people are really going to take the waterway, many people in the rivers and lakes are not stupid, they have not heard the news, and they will never act hastily, and Zhao Bufan combined with Xue Ling's reminder, then it is basically certain that the Birth Gang must pass through here, but how this batch of money will be sent is a very big puzzle, not to mention that Tong Guan also hopes to borrow this batch of huge funds to kill Zhu Bocai.

Zhao Bufan is now facing two problems, one is to find out where the 300,000 Guan is, and the other is to try to help Zhu Bocai.

After leaving the East Gate Inn, he took Wu Song and Yang Zhi to the river beach near the ferry, and the three of them walked along the river beach for several miles, carefully observing, until they were almost far away from Luokou Town, and his brows were furrowed more and more, as if he was puzzled.

Wu Song looked at him and said in a low voice: "Owner, many fishing boats on this river are all thief boats, these 300,000 people covet them, who dares to take the waterway?"

"Yes, this generation is almost occupied by thief ships, how dare they still take the waterway? But why are all those people of unknown origin gathered here?" Zhao Bufan took a step forward, facing the river breeze slowly, his eyes quietly staring at the fire on the river in the distance. "Brother Yang, if this birthday gang is sent by you, how will you go?"

Yang Zhi did not hesitate at all, and lightly spit out two words: "Waterway!"

"Oh, why?" Zhao Bufan looked at him in surprise.

Yang Zhi thought for a moment, and a faint light flashed in his eyes. "Owner, this trip is much more complicated than the one I sent for Liang Zhongshu, the birth gang I sent at the beginning, there are not many people who know after all, and the situation of all parties is more simple, so the core problem is to be cautious. But Li Bangyan's 300,000 guan shocked the world and involved the power struggle between the DPRK and China, so it is not a question of sending it at all, but how to hide it!"

"Zang?" Wu Song wondered.

"Yes!" Yang Zhi was very sure, and said in a deep voice: "Unless this Birthday Gang sends a large army to transport, it can only be hidden, and it is absolutely impossible to dispatch a large army to transport it, this Birthday Gang is to be sent to Bianliang, Kyoto, and if the garrison of the capital dares to approach Tokyo, it will be punished as a rebel, except for His Majesty's personal order, who has the courage to do this? If you really do that, if you go up with a letter, Your Majesty will directly execute all of them, and the entry of foreign troops into Beijing is the most taboo thing for the emperors of the Great Song Dynasty!"

Zhao Bufan became interested.

"This is reasonable, Brother Yang continued!"

Yang Zhi nodded: "Therefore, this trip can only be hidden, but it is also hidden, and the risk of taking the land route will be far greater than that of the water route, one is a long journey by land, the second is over the mountains and mountains, and the third is that there are more places for others to ambush, so it is inevitable to take the water route." ”

"Then do you think there is a possibility of striking the west?" Zhao Bufan asked again.

"It's useless, in the case of a large-scale leak of information, the bandits can also arrange manpower to investigate and monitor by land, no matter how you look at it, it is more dangerous, and there is no point in attacking the west. Yang Zhi replied.

Zhao Bufan's brows furrowed even tighter.

"But there are so many thief ships on this stretch of the Yellow River, who would dare to pass through?

Yang Zhi didn't reply again, also bothered by this confusion.

The three of them then walked around the river beach a few more times before slowly walking back to town.

Suddenly, there was a terrible scream from the depths of the darkness ahead, and it was very terrible, especially piercing in the darkness.

"Help......!

Zhao Bufan and the three of them reacted instantly, and quickly urged the light power to rush over, but because the distance was too far, it was still too late after all, and he only saw the black shadow of the murderer from a distance.

Wu Song wanted to chase after him, but Zhao Bufan grabbed him.

"Second Brother Wu, there are many dangers here, don't take risks!"

Yang Zhi on the other side squatted down to check the corpse, and after a while, he suddenly lowered his voice and exclaimed, "Isn't this the Erhuazi from the East Gate Inn?"

"Erhuazi?" Zhao Bufan suddenly lowered his head to take a closer look, and when his identity was confirmed, he was instantly stunned. "Why did the shopkeeper come to the river beach far away from the town alone?"

Wu Song checked the wound on Erhuazi's back, and quickly said: "Owner, Erhuazi was stabbed in half when he turned around and fled, although he died, but not much blood even gushed out of the wound, it can be seen that the man's knife is very thin and sharp, it should be a light short knife, and that person's martial arts are not weak!"

Yang Zhi on the other side also touched the ground of the river beach and said: "There are still traces on the ground here, that person should be a leap, spanning half a zhang, and stabbing in the air with a volley!"

"Oh?" Wu Song turned his head to look at the traces that Yang Zhi was pointing at, and the picture that happened at that time flashed in his mind, and quickly continued: "Judging from the knife edge that penetrates Erhuazi, that person's body shape should not be tall, at least a head shorter than me!"

As the three of them were talking, there was a sudden sound of breaking wind from the depths of the darkness, and it seemed that a master was approaching quickly.

Wu Song was the first to feel the movement, and said urgently: "Someone is coming, more than a dozen masters!"

"Let's go!" Zhao Bufan immediately made a decision, urging Qinggong to turn around and run.

The trio quickly disappeared into the darkness......

A moment later, a middle-aged man arrived quickly, it was none other than Zhu Bocai, who had mentioned the Imperial City Division.

Immediately after, more than a dozen masters rushed to the scene one after another, Zhu Lian turned into a short and thin young man, looked at the corpse on the ground, and immediately asked, "Father, didn't you see the murderer?"

"I can see it vaguely, but the three of them are wearing masks, it should be the three masked people in the town this afternoon!" Zhu Bocai's face was solemn, and he replied to Zhu Lian while carefully examining the traces on the ground.

But hearing his words, Zhu Lian's heart suddenly burst out: How is it possible? One of the three masks should be Zhao Bufan, why did he kill the shopkeeper of the Dongmen Inn? Could it be that I recognize the wrong person? No, I will never admit the mistake, it must be him!

Thinking of this, Zhu Lian couldn't help but ask urgently: "Father, are you sure that those three masked people are murderers?"

"No, they are not murderers!" Zhu Bocai had already seen the traces of the scene at this time, and his eyes were bright. "Judging from the traces of this riverbank, there were three of them, and when they came here, this man was already dead. One of them crouched down to check the body, one went to check the footprints nearby, and one stood still, which means that they should have heard the screams before rushing over, but they were closer, so they came first, and the murderer should have been someone else. ”

Zhu Lian secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, but he didn't say that Zhao Bufan was among the mask people, and instead asked: "Father, why did Erhuazi die here? We just suspected that he was the liaison of Li Bangyan's subordinates, and he was killed immediately, why is it so coincidental?"

Zhu Bocai snorted coldly.

"Why else, there must be a mole among our people, I suspect now, someone wants my life this time!"

"Why?" Zhu Lian was shocked and incomprehensible.

Zhu Bocai looked at his daughter dotingly, and said with a slight smile: "Lian'er, you still have a lot to learn, those prefects jointly wrote a letter to impeach Li Bangyan, obviously in accordance with Cai Jing's orders, and His Majesty encourages civil and military greed for money and lust, as long as it does not exceed the bottom line, he will not care, but once he has a birthday, he will take out 300,000 yuan, which is already outside the scope of His Majesty's tolerance, so he will send me over to investigate, but this matter is a trivial matter in the eyes of His Majesty, and I should not have been allowed to come, so my father has always suspected that someone is trying to take the opportunity to kill me!"

"Is this still a trivial matter?" Zhu Lian was stunned.

Zhu Bocai smiled and touched her head: "Yes, this is a trivial matter in the eyes of His Majesty, even if you collect all the evidence, at most you will confiscate the money, and then degrade the official and punish the service!"

"Why is this?" Zhu Lian was a little incredulous.

Zhu Bocai sighed softly: " Emperor Taizu was in a yellow robe because of his military power, forcing the Great Zhou royal family to abdicate, so the Son of Heaven of the Great Song Dynasty was most afraid of the civil and military and worried about the power, but encouraged the civil and military to be greedy for money and lustful, especially the martial arts, the more greedy for money and lust, the more barbaric and ignorant of education, the more assured the Son of Heaven, if you are not greedy for anything, it will inevitably be a big disaster soon, the Son of Heaven will doubt what you want, especially your Majesty today, especially care about this, even if you are greedy for millions of dollars, life is corrupt, that is a small crime, far less than you staring at the throne。

Lian'er, you have also grown up, it is time to know this, don't think that Your Majesty does not know that civil and military greed for money. No, Your Majesty knows, he knows better than anyone else, many rare and strange treasures offered by civil and military dedications, the value far exceeds his own wealth, how could His Majesty not know? Then Suzhou and Hangzhou should be given the bureau every year to collect strange stones for His Majesty, transport the flower stone gang, and the cost is often millions of yuan, but does Your Majesty care? No, Your Majesty cares more about how to keep the country, you look at the generals who can fight well and get reused, there are a few generals who are not greedy for money and are not lustful, this is all the temperament raised by the Son of Heaven in the past dynasties!

Zhu Lian suddenly heard his father tell so many truths, and his heart felt like he had been hit hard, and he couldn't understand it at all.

"Father, haven't the loyal generals of the Great Song Dynasty been admonished?"

"Advice?" Zhu Bocai smiled bitterly: "I have advised, many people have advised, even Cai Jing and these people have been euphemistic when they were young, but those who are unlucky are now dead and have all turned into loess." Those who were lucky were also exiled or demoted to remote areas and were not allowed to be reused. Your Majesty is sorry for the people, but only worthy of us, the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty, and the glory and wealth of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs are all given by Your Majesty. In fact, His Majesty is very smart, but he has received the royal education of the Great Song Dynasty since he was a child, and his ideas have been deeply rooted, and he can't understand the hardships of the people and the difficulties of his subordinates.

Zhu Lian was worried when he heard this, and said helplessly: "But how long can the Great Song Dynasty last if it goes on like this?"

These words seemed to touch Zhu Bocai, and he smiled faintly, with relief, and the light in his eyes flashed.

"If you want to revive the Great Song Dynasty, there is only one heir to the throne who understands the sufferings of the people, understands that courtiers are not easy, and can really understand and communicate with courtiers. My Great Song Dynasty is not unpopular, as long as this heir can truly understand our twists and turns, can truly understand our intentions, can ignite the lost heart of the Manchu Dynasty civil and military to serve the country, and truly unite everyone and no longer fight for power and profit, then my Great Song Tianwei, who can match!"