The Daguan Building on the bank of Dianchi Lake was built in the 29th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, facing Taihua Mountain from afar, and is known as "a water building in Wanli Cloud Mountain". Since the Qianlong period, Sun Fuweng inscribed a long couplet of one hundred and eight crosses for it, the fame has risen, the sensation has spread all over the world, celebrities and scholars have come one after another, and the poetry has become a lively place.

At noon, Mo Yan came to the front of the Daguan Building alone, when he was in a private school, Mr. Mu had explained Sun Weng's first long link in the sea, and he was fortunate to see it today.

"Five hundred miles of Dianchi Lake, rushing to the bottom of the eye, draped in the shore, the joy is boundless. Look at the East Xiang Shenjun, the West Zhu Lingyi, the north winding, the South Xiang Su, the high rhyme, why not choose to win. Take advantage of the crab island luozhou, sparsely wrapped in the wind and fog sideburns, more reeds, dotted with some green feathers and danxia. Don't live up to it, surrounded by fragrant rice, thousands of acres of clear sand, nine summer hibiscus, three spring willows.

Thousands of years of the past, poured into the heart, the wine is empty, sighing who is the hero? As far as the bead curtain is painted, the roll is not as good as the twilight rain and the clouds, and the remnants of the monument are broken, and they are all paid in the smoke. Only win, a few pestles and sparse bells, half a river fishing fire, two lines of autumn swallows, a pillow of frost. ”

Mo Yan looked at Changlian and admired it in his heart.

"What do you think of Sun Weng's long couplet?"

Mo Yan looked back, it turned out to be He Shen, and saw that he was dressed in civilian attire, with a folding fan in his hand, Yushu was chic and handsome in the wind, followed by two guards in civilian clothes hanging swords.

"It's good to be able to write so long. Mo Yan replied casually.

"Buyi Sun Beard, born with a beard, so named 'Beard', a Han Shi, never a career, poor chatter, to divination for a living, three meals are difficult to continue. But his mind is like a hundred rivers, standing on the wall, going alone, standing out from the crowd, who in the world can know?" He Shen said with emotion, as if from the bottom of his heart.

Mo Mo looked at He Shen suspiciously, not knowing what he meant.

He Shen sighed: "In his later years, Sun Fu once inscribed himself and said, 'This time I have to be busy, famous and profitable, after all, I am confused to the end; ”

Listening to He Shen, he was moved, but Mo Yan was even more confused in his heart, it was obvious that a world-famous corrupt official was a bosom friend with Sun Weng, who regarded fame and fortune as dung, wouldn't it be the opposite?

"Let's go and sit in the teahouse. He Shen waved his hand and let the two guards retreat far away, and then went to the teahouse with Mo Yan and asked for a pot of high-quality Pu'er to taste tea slowly.

"Mo Yan, how did you get along with Liu Yong on the way south?" He Shen took a sip of tea and asked slowly.

Mo Mo understood what He Shen meant, but how to answer it well?

"Don't be embarrassed," He Shen smiled faintly, "The old man and Liu Yong are officials in the same hall, although there are disagreements in politics, but no one can help anyone, just say what you think." ”

Mo Mian secretly made up his mind, so he said: "And my lord, I thought about it for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion. ”

"Oh, what's the conclusion?"

"Please forgive me for saying that in this world, clean officials will also do wrong things, and corrupt officials will also do good things. Liu Yong is a Qing official, but he openly harmed the Xu family, and the people said that you were a corrupt official, but he secretly sought justice for my Xu family. Therefore, Mo Remnant is always grateful and adults. Mo Yan said what he really thought in his heart.

He Shen was silent when he heard this, and only after a long time did he slowly speak: "Do you also think that the old man is a corrupt official?"

Mo Yan nodded, but he was embarrassed to say it clearly.

"People all over the world think that the 'guilty silver' system proposed by the old man is the root cause of official corruption, in fact, even if there is no law, are the officials incorruptible? They still have a lot of corruption, no matter how many people's heads you cut off, you still can't put an end to [***], this is determined by people's greed and surname, people like Liu Yong are rare and different, it can be said that there is no one in a thousand miles. ”

"What is 'Guilty Silver'?" Mo Yan didn't understand.

"This is the old man's proposal to set up a system of money to pay for crimes, according to the severity of the official's crime, different amounts of silver to reduce or exempt the punishment, and hand over the money to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and give it a lenient handover. Since the corrupt officials can't be killed, it is better to let them bleed and confiscate all the money they have embezzled and bring it to the internal affairs office to cover the expenses of the emperor and the harem. The whole world is not the king's land, otherwise the emperor still has to go to the household department to withdraw the money, which is actually equivalent to reducing the expenditure of the treasury. For example, Bi Yuan, the governor of Henan, was fined 20,000 taels of silver for 'failing to quickly find important criminals', Leerjin, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, was fined 40,000 taels of silver for 'neglecting to inspect the merchant **jade', Bayansan, the governor of Liangguang, was fined 80,000 taels of silver for 'Tan Laogui, a common man under his jurisdiction, hanged himself", and Li Tianpei, the political envoy of Shanxi, was fined 40,000 taels of silver for poor prison management, which led to the 'death of a heavy prisoner', and so on. ”

"Does the emperor need a lot of money?" Mo Yan asked.

"Of course, the Holy Lord went to the south of the Yangtze River six times and built more than forty palaces in various parts of the Central Plains with this money, and did not use a penny from the treasury of the Ministry of Users. ”

"I don't understand these and I'm not interested, but if it's a good thing, why do the people of the world still say that you are a corrupt official?" Mo said secretly in his heart, I don't know how many gifts I received on the way from Yangzhou to Yichang, so it's inconvenient to say it.

He Shen smiled slightly: "Since everyone in the world says that the old man is a corrupt official, think about it, the emperor today has so many eyes and ears, and there are many officials in the court, can this word not be spread to the emperor? Why does the emperor never investigate it?"

Mo Yan suddenly remembered the knowing smile of He Shen and Qianlong in the south study of Qianqing Palace before leaving Beijing, and the words of He Shen and "do it according to the old rules". Could it be that all this was agreed upon by the two of them in advance? Could it be that Qianlong acquiesced in He Shen's letting go of his hands and feet to collect the bribes of those corrupt officials? He vaguely felt that there was a secret hidden behind this.

"And my lord, you told me so much, do you want Mo Yan to do anything?"

"Yes, the old man wants you to do something for me in private. ”

"Say it, as long as you can. ”

Now that Li Shuyao has been dismissed, it is necessary to find out the evidence of his embezzlement, especially where the huge amount of silver is hidden. The old man nominally asked Liu Yong to investigate, but Li Shuyao has been in the position of the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou for so long, and it is not easy to break through the complex relationship, and if you want to open the gap, you need to open the gap from one person. ”

"Is it Mao Gongluo?" Mo Yan thought of Li Shiyao's staff.

"No, it's his big butler Zhao Yiheng, this person is not only astute, but also has studied art in Maoshan since he was a child, not only has good martial arts I heard but also understands some spells, and his subordinates are not full of some masters of unknown origin, and they can't do anything by relying on the old man and Liu Yong and those big internal guards. Therefore, the old man hopes that you can secretly investigate and find the place where they hid their illegal gains, so that Li Shuyao can confess to the law. ”

"Can I do it?" Mo Yan felt at a loss as to what to do.

"The old man won't look away. ”

"But where do I start?"

"The old man doesn't know. ”

"Okay, let's give it a try. Mo Yan agreed.

"Li Shiyao has moved out of the Governor's Mansion, and the old man and Lord Liu live in it temporarily, so they can come directly to the Governor's Mansion if there is a situation. He Shen stood up, shook the paper fan in his hand and swaggered away.

Mo Yan fell into deep thought, what kind of person is this Heshen? It seems that the rumors in the mouths of the people in the past are just superficial, and this water is too deep.

Mo Yan returned to the inn and told Lai Bu about the meeting with He Shen, asking him to cooperate with him to investigate.

"It's still the old way, you have to find out the situation of this housekeeper Zhao Yiheng first, and then you can decide the direction of the investigation. Reebs said.

"Well, be careful, this man not only knows magic, but also has some strange people under his command. ”

The two discussed some more details, and felt that there were still many difficulties.

In the afternoon, Lai Bu went out with a fortune-telling stall to inquire about the situation, and when he came back in the evening, he had already learned about Zhao Yiheng's appearance and the address of Zhao's mansion, which was not too far from the governor's mansion on Yongdao Street, only separated by two alleys. This person's whereabouts are secretive, he likes to surf the Internet in the rivers and lakes, and Li Shiyao, who is currently dismissed, and his staff member Mao Gongluo live in Zhao's mansion.

"There is a Fulai Inn opposite the Zhao Mansion on the straight street of the Confucian Temple, and we will move there tonight, and we can directly observe the gate of his house. Raib said.

"Okay, let's go. Mo Yan and Lai Bu cleaned up, took advantage of the night to come to the Confucian Temple Straight Street and lived in the Fulai Inn, and asked for an upstairs house facing the street, just in time to see the Zhao Mansion through the window.

The two agreed that Lai Bu would go downstairs to set up a stall to see the hexagram during the day, and Mo Yan would be responsible for observing the movements of the Zhao Mansion at night.

The next time, Lai Bu walked out of the inn and went to set up a stall in front of the Zhao Mansion, and Mo Yan stayed in the house and watched through the window.

As usual, Lai Bu spread a white cloth on the ground, and the couplet was still on it: a stroke is like a knife, splitting Kunshan into stone and jade. The eyes are like electricity, and you can see through the sea to distinguish the fish and dragon. The horizontal connection is: the iron mouth is directly broken. Only a compass is placed on it, which means that it is also looking at feng shui.

This is an old street, not far from the Temple of Literature, the flow of people is non-stop, very lively. Vendors selling all kinds of snacks, jugglers, and a few gentlemen who show people the word "look", and it is very natural for Raib's stalls to be mixed up.

Mo Yan sat on the bed in the room, looking at the Zhao Mansion opposite. The high blue brick wall, the green trees in the courtyard faintly visible the gray tile ridge, the branches and leaves of the osmanthus tree poke out of the wall, the vermilion gate is closed, and a stone lion squats on each side.

Not long after, the door opened, and a servant cleaned the empty field in front of the door with a broom, and few people entered and exited all day, and Zhao Yiheng was not seen. Until the evening, when Lai Bu was about to put away the hexagram stall, two more people came out of the door, one was wearing a gray robe and a scarf, an old Taoist priest in his fifties, and the other was a middle-aged man dressed as a scribe.

The two of them looked around, and finally their eyes fell on Raib's fortune-telling booth, and then slowly and leisurely walked over. (To be continued.) )