The turmoil in Yangzhou has subsided, and the work of governance in various places is proceeding in an orderly manner.

Officials from all over the country heard that Li Liangjin, the king of the Nine Mountains, had been killed, and they all calmed down, otherwise they would be worried every day and ready to lose their heads at any time.

And during this period of rampant banditry, the security in various places is also quite poor.

Many thugs took this opportunity to make trouble, and there were countless cases in various places.

Somewhere in the county, a county magistrate named Feng An was dealing with a murder case, and he lit a lamp to look at the file at night, checking the identity of the deceased and how he died.

"It's strange, the suspect is the Zheng butcher in the county, and the deceased had a conflict because of the sale of pork, and the Zheng butcher threatened to kill the deceased, which is a fact that many people have heard, and in a few days, the deceased died near the Zheng butcher's house, and the murder weapon was a boning knife in his house, since it was killed

The person is Zheng Butcher, so why is the wound of the deceased from left to right?"

"It is clearly a wound caused by people who use their left hand well, and there must be something strange in this case. ”

Feng An took the file and frowned and thought about it, he decided to retry this case.

But just when this idea just came to him, suddenly, an exclamation came from outside the house: "It seems that you are not confused in this county, if this case is not retried, this is another unjust case." ”

Feng An looked startled, and suddenly looked up at the window, and vaguely saw a dark figure reflected there.

"Who are you, and why are you in my officer's house? ”

"I am a newly dispatched Chenghuang to this county, and when I visited the city at night, I saw a ray of clear light flickering in this room, so I was curious to take a look. The voice outside the window said.

City God?

Feng Anxin was shocked, this is a ghost.

"Since you are a god, then dare to ask who the murderer of this case is? This official almost made a mistake just now and framed a good person, this is a dereliction of duty on the part of this official. Feng An stood up and bowed in the direction from which the voice came.

The ghost outside the window said: "This is the work of the county order, how can I do it on my behalf, only occasionally see the county order has a mistake and remind me to say a good word, I still have to arrest some local ghosts, so I won't disturb the county order to handle the case." ”

The dark shadow outside the door seemed to be strong, and then in a flash, it disappeared.

Feng An hurriedly put on a coat and went out to take a look, but saw that there was no one outside the house, only a faint smell of incense still lingering in the air.

He was frightened and frightened, but then he thought about it, and after a while, he returned to the house to continue to deal with the backlog of government affairs, and did not dare to slack off.

There are gods three feet above my head, and the ancients did not deceive me.

And in another county seat.

A county magistrate named Fang Tu was sitting proudly in the government office at this moment, his house was brightly lit, and a wooden box was placed in front of him, and when he opened it, he saw a silver ingot.

"Three hundred taels of silver, tsk, that merchant is really generous, and I will award that batch of goods to him tomorrow." Fang Tu touched the short beard on his chin, squinted at the silver in front of him and smiled.

"Do you really want to collect the stolen money? These three hundred taels of silver do not belong to you, and after taking them, your merit and official fortune will be correspondingly reduced. ”

Suddenly, a voice sounded from the rooftop, and drifted into the room.

The candles in the house flickered, and the dark shadows flickered around, as if someone had entered the house.

"Who, who? Where did the thieves dare to sneak into the yamen and don't want to live? Fang Tu hurriedly closed the wooden box and hid the silver, and shouted.

"You don't have to shout, I'm already in the house, but you can't see it, I'm the city god who came here a few days ago to take office, and today I saw evil thoughts rising in the government office, turning into black smoke and covering the roof, so I came to find out, but I didn't expect it to be the local county magistrate who took bribes here

。 A voice rang out in the room.

The voice is ethereal and unpredictable.

Fang Tu's eyes shrank, and he was shocked: "You, are you a ghost? What do you want to do, this official is not afraid of you." ”

"Your deeds have been recorded in the city book, and if you do take bribes tomorrow and commit an unjust case, the crime will be handed in. The voice continued.

"What will happen if the crime of bribery is handed in?" Fang Tu asked tremblingly.

The voice replied: "The saint has a book of life and death in his hand, and everyone's name is in the book of life and death, maybe when the time comes, it will reduce the life expectancy and reduce the merit, the specific punishment is not something I can know, but I also ask the local county magistrate to know that the money obtained by improper means does not belong to him."

Although it is temporarily kept in the hand, but after that, the corresponding merit and fortune will be subtracted, and if the merit and wealth are insufficient, it will be offset by the life expectancy, and if the crime is so big that the life span cannot be offset, then it will bring disaster to the wife and affect the children and grandchildren. ”

"How many years should I lose my life for these three hundred taels of silver? Fang Tu said with fear in his heart.

"About ten years. ”

When Fang Tu heard this, his hands and feet were suddenly cold, and his whole body was stunned for a moment, and he panicked again: "What if the official returns the silver taels and handles the case impartially." ”

"Then this is accumulating merit, prolonging official luck, if there is official luck after death, you can still be an official in the next life, if you don't want to be of good character, maybe you can still be a yin in the underworld. ”

The voice replied: "Although I am the local city god, I have no right to interfere with the county order and handle the case, I can only mention it, if the county order still insists on taking bribes, I can't stop it, now it's getting late, I'm leaving, so I won't disturb the county order." ”

After saying that, a cold wind suddenly blew in the house, blowing out a few candles.

Fang Tu, who was the prefectural magistrate, saw a corner blown open next to the window, and a black shadow flashed away, completely disappearing.

Then there was no more sound in the room.

Fang Tu was already covered in a cold sweat at this moment, and he only felt fear in his heart when he looked at the wooden box containing three hundred taels of silver on the table again.

Receiving these three hundred taels of silver will reduce one's life by ten years?

Perhaps there will be a reduction in official fortunes and the removal of officials.

Thinking of this, he was excited, and hurriedly shouted to the outside world: "Come on, come on." ”

After a while, a night watchman came to the door: "My lord, do you have any orders?"

Fang Tu took the box of silver and stuffed it into the hand of the servant: "Send this thing back to the merchant during the day, tell him that tomorrow's case will be handled by the official, and let him wait for tomorrow's verdict." ”

"Yes, sir. The official answered and sent the box away.

There are many similar things, which are happening one after another in the counties of Yangzhou.

Ghosts and gods can't take care of the affairs of the world, but they can't ignore it, they must let people know that there are gods in their heads, know awe, and know the price of doing wrong things.

Why do corrupt officials continue to be banned?

Because the benefits outweigh the harms, they are repeatedly banned.

If every account of the corrupt officials is recorded in the city book, and then the ghosts and gods in charge of the book of life and death will punish them accordingly, so that they can know that even if they are full of good corruption, they will be detected by the ghosts and gods and pay the price.

However, there are also officials who do not believe in ghosts and gods.

But it doesn't matter, they will soon get the corresponding retribution for their misdeeds, and it doesn't matter whether they believe it or not.

It can only be said that those who believe can reflect and avoid mistakes.

And this is only the first step of Li Xiuyuan's co-governance of man and god.

After Yangzhou's governance entered the right path, Li Xiuyuan was going north to Beijing to report on his work.

However, before preparing to go to Beijing, the blind Taoist in Guo Beicheng seemed to hear the news, so he couldn't sit still anymore, he got up and came to Jinling City, and found Li Xiuyuan.

Early this morning, Li Xiuyuan washed and changed his clothes under Xiaomei's service, and prepared to light some guards and go north tomorrow.

However, in the courtyard, the voice of the blind man suddenly sounded: "Apprentice, I heard that you are going to the capital?"

"Huh?"

Li Xiuyuan looked around, but saw a crack in the courtyard wall of his house, and the gap gradually became larger to form a passage, and the blind Taoist walked in wearing a Taoist robe and holding a whisk.

As he walked into the courtyard, the cracked courtyard wall behind him closed again, and there was no trace of any crack in the wall.

This is a Taoist spell, the art of opening mountains.