Li Mao and Xu Jiuye's trip to Jinling was not pleasant, Xu Jiuye's family's Tang Northwest accent and Yang Da's family's Jingxiang accent were particularly harsh in Wu Nong's soft-spoken Jinling City, but Li Mao didn't know why he spoke Song Guoguan, which made their party communicate with the outside world more smoothly.

The passenger ship of Li Mao and his entourage arrived at Jinling City at noon on 23 November, preparing to enter Jinling City through the Dinghuai Gate of the Water Gate in the west of the city, but the special composition of their group of 10 people attracted the attention of the Dinghuai Gate City Guards and Naval Army, and after a little inquiry, they immediately detained Li Mao and his party.

Dinghuai Gate is the largest of the three water gates in the outer city of Jinling, stationed more than 200 city guards and more than 10 fast boats, the two fast boats quickly divided into left and right to hold Li Mao their passenger boats, guide the passenger ships to the shore on the inner side of the city gate, to avoid the passenger ships blocking the entire waterway.

Li Mao didn't expect to encounter such trouble when he entered the city, but he had been through the wind and waves for a long time, and after review, he felt that if he was guarding the water gate, he would also strengthen the investigation of his own group with suspicious deeds, so Li Mao did not get angry, and tried to appease the other people on the ship.

Under the threat of the spears and arrows of the city guard army, Li Mao led everyone to the shore, and the barracks of the Dinghuaimen water army were on the shore, and after arriving at the barracks, Li Mao and his party of ten people were quickly separated and interrogated, so as to prevent them from colluding confessions.

According to Li Mao's previous instructions, everyone deduced that Li Mao was the leader of this trip, and everyone had a relationship with him as a son-in-law, husband and wife, master and servant, and the purpose of coming to Jinling City was to do business and settle down.

Because they told the truth, there was not much discrepancy in the confession, and in the end, the deputy of the Shui Military Battalion focused the interrogation on Li Mao alone, and the others were temporarily imprisoned.

Although Li Mao felt a little breathless, he controlled his emotions well and patiently cooperated with a sailor's questioning.

Soon after, Li Mao saw a battalion deputy dressed in an officer's uniform walk in, and knew that the others were safe for the time being, and the focus of the other party's interrogation was on him alone.

Li Mao was also very depressed in his heart, in order to hurry along the way, all the rivers he walked, even if he went ashore along the way, they were all market towns and wild crossings, and did not enter the city to rest, so that there was no trace of the state capital along the way on the customs clearance documents, which was very suspicious in the eyes of Jinling Chengwei.

The Jinling City Guards recently received a "Notice on Vigilance against the Infiltration of Cult Members" from their superiors, and they are particularly concerned about those with suspicious deeds.

For example, Li Mao and his entourage of ten people with different appearances and costumes and different local accents are gathered together, which is very consistent with the suspicious characteristics, and their customs clearance procedures are incomplete, so they are naturally the targets of strict interrogation.

The deputy of the battalion of the water army was in a good mood today, and not long after the notice from the superiors, the soldiers under him caught the suspicious person, and it seemed that he had carefully investigated, because it was the first batch of suspicious people who were caught, and the battalion deputy decided to interrogate him personally.

The deputy of the battalion of the navy army walked directly into Li Mao's interrogation room, and the team that was questioning him hurriedly got up and said respectfully: "The deputy of the battalion, you are here." ”

The battalion deputy was not polite, sat on the chair that the team was sitting on just now, and asked in a deep voice, "Has this kid confessed?"

The team is flattering: "Battalion deputy, this kid is very slippery and calm, and he insists that they have come to Jinling to do business and settle down, and they can't ask anything else." ”

The battalion deputy laughed and said: "No one can lie in front of me, you go and pour some tea for Lao Tzu, I was in a hurry just now, my throat is thirsty, this kid will be interrogated by me personally." ”

The team responded, and went out to find tea.

The battalion deputy looked Li Mao up and down, and saw that he was not tall, his body was not strong, his skin was dark, and he did not look like the legendary cult members, and he was inevitably a little disappointed in his heart, but according to the rules of Dinghuaimen, suspicious people would have some blood if they did not die.

The battalion deputy thorn asked: "What is your name, where is your family, and why are you coming to Jinling?"

Li Mao had dealt with many rough men in the army in Dunhuang City, and he didn't have much ill feeling towards the low-level officers in front of him, seeing that the other party was pretending, he simply replied: "In Xia Limao, a native of the northwest of the Tang Kingdom, he is disgusted with the bitter cold land in the northwest, so he brought his family and servants to Jinling to do business and settle down." ”

The battalion deputy smiled and said, "It turned out to be from the Tang Kingdom, since it is for business and settlement, why do you want to enter the country without permission?"

Li Mao said: "I did not enter the country without permission, and we have customs clearance documents and entry seals. ”

The battalion deputy picked up the customs clearance document on the table and flipped through it casually and said, "You started from Jingxiang and entered Jiangzuo, why didn't you have any investigation from the state capital along the way? Do you deliberately avoid inspection?"

Li Mao said helplessly: "Because I was greedy for the distance, I walked all the way to the river, and I didn't go ashore to enter the city, so there is no survey from the state capital, and I ask the adults to check it." ”

The battalion deputy general slammed the document on the table and said: "You are not a native of your nationality, and you can't tell your origin clearly, how can you let this official know clearly? ”

Li Mao knew that he couldn't prove that what he said was true, and he didn't want to be entangled here for too long, after all, Xu Jiuye and Mrs. Xu were old, and they couldn't rest in time after a bumpy journey, and if they were frightened again, I was afraid that they would really get seriously ill.

Li Mao decided to settle the matter in a simple and brutal way, and he reached into his arms to get some silver tickets to send the pretentious battalion lieutenant.

As soon as Li Mao's hand reached into the placket of his shirt, the battalion deputy reflexively bounced up from the stool, pulled out his saber with a "choked" sound, and shouted: "What are you going to do? Sit down, or the officer has the right to slash you on the spot!"

Li Mao smiled: "Don't be nervous, my lord, I have evidence to prove that what I just said is true." ”

The battalion deputy said nervously: "You throw the evidence on the table, don't go near the table." ”

Li Mao didn't expect this battalion deputy to be so afraid of death, so he had to shake his hand and shoot out two silver tickets, fly to the table in front of the battalion deputy, and land steadily on the table.

Li Mao's hand shocked the battalion deputy greatly, such ingenuity and accuracy, I am afraid that I can't do it without one or two decades of internal strength, I am far from being an opponent, it seems that the other party really concealed his identity.

However, the battalion deputy's eyes were quickly attracted by the silver tickets on the table, he grabbed the two silver tickets on the table, and before he could see the numbers on them, the team that went out to make tea just now rushed in with a knife in one hand and a kettle in the other.

The team rushed into the house, quickly blocked in front of the battalion deputy and shouted: "Don't panic, my lord, my subordinates have come to the rescue." Oh, the villain is going to be rampant, with me, I won't let you hurt a single hair of my family. ”

The battalion deputy turned red on his face, slapped the back of the team's head and said, "Get out, you are here to save the driver?" I am scaring the suspect, and as soon as you rush in, I will waste all my efforts. ”

The team hurriedly turned around, crying and said, "My lord, I heard you yell, and I thought you were attacked, so I ...... in a hurry."

The battalion deputy waved his hand impatiently, signaling him to hurry out.

The team saw the corner of the silver ticket in the hand of the battalion deputy waving, and said in his heart: "This horse's fart slapped on the horse's leg, and rushed in when the adults were accepting bribes, I really damn it!"

The team hurriedly put the kettle on the table and said, "My lord, you continue to interrogate, and your subordinates will leave." After saying that, he quickly fled the scene, and by the way, he also closed the door.

The battalion deputy was a little embarrassed to put the knife into the sheath, and quickly glanced at the silver ticket in his hand, which turned out to be a denomination of one thousand taels, and two were two thousand taels, and the battalion deputy hurriedly stuffed it into his arms and said: "Your name is Li Mao, right? Mr. Li, there was a misunderstanding just now, don't stand still, sit down first, and we will talk slowly." ”

A battalion officer in the Song State had a year's worth of silver taels but more than 80 taels, and the battalion deputy was only 60 taels, and the battalion officer could still eat empty pay and drink the blood of the soldiers, but the battalion deputy did not have this qualification, and 2,000 taels was definitely a huge amount of money for him, which made him restless and at a loss.

The reason why Li Mao took out two thousand taels meant that one thousand taels would be given to the battalion deputy and the other one thousand taels would be divided among his brothers, but he didn't expect the battalion deputy to be so greedy that he was ready to be greedy for everyone.

But this doesn't matter to Li Mao, as long as he can successfully pass the test, he doesn't care who takes the silver given out.

The battalion deputy brought himself a cup of tea, and because he was unsettled, he poured a cup of hot tea into his mouth, "poof" and spit it out, desperately inhaling to relieve the burning in his tongue and mouth.

This accident also woke up the battalion deputy from his chaotic thoughts, and he suddenly thought that the other party could take out two thousand taels of silver so easily, it was nothing more than two possibilities, one was that they did have a problem with the group, and the other was that there was a way to calm down people.

In either case, it means that the other party wants to use money to solve the problem in front of him, and such a bold owner will not meet a few in his life, and if he misses it today, he doesn't know when he will meet the next one.

The greed in the battalion deputy's heart instantly turned into a demon, devouring his heart, and he secretly said in his heart: "If this wave is caught, maybe you can be relieved and return to the field this year to become a rich man, who is still begging for a living in Watergate, people are about to rust." ”

The battalion deputy made up his mind, and said with a smile: "Mr. Li, I just looked at the evidence, and it can indeed prove your innocence, but you are a group of ten people, and the other nine people can't prove their innocence." ”

Li Mao was stunned, before in Dunhuang City, the soldiers there also liked money, but taking people's money and eliminating disasters for others is the minimum moral standard of the soldiers, but he didn't expect the battalion deputy on the other side to be so greedy, which he didn't expect.

Li Mao's face sank: "What do you mean, do you want each of them to come up with the same evidence?"

The battalion deputy saw that Li Mao's face was not good, but at this time, his heart had long been blinded by greed, forgetting Li Mao's profound martial arts, and forgetting that the other party could report him, gritted his teeth and said: "You are the leader, naturally there is more evidence, as for them, at least half of your evidence must be there to prove your innocence." ”

The battalion deputy has been calculated, and the rest will have at least 1,000 taels each, so that there will be 11,000 taels of income today, which is enough for himself to spend two lifetimes, and the bastard will be a petty official here as a janitor, or a deputy.

Seeing Li Mao's low expression, the battalion deputy felt dark in his heart, it felt great to bully a rich man, but it was a pity that he would not be a battalion deputy immediately, and he would never have such a wonderful feeling in the future.

Just when the battalion deputy was dreaming of being a rich man, Li Mao reached out and took out two signs and threw them on the table, and said coldly: "Such evidence can pass the test, right?"