Chapter 267: assassinate

Chapter 267: assassinate

Li Shuo visited Lin Ruhai, and Lin Ruhai sent the competent servants in the mansion to track down the whereabouts of Li mother eight years ago in a low-key manner in Jiangnan.

The housekeeper of the Lin family remembered some people from the past in Yangzhou, because when they first came to Yangzhou, the old butler also bought people from people. So the old housekeeper finally identified the person who was responsible for going to the government office to take the daughters of the Li family. Fear that these people will hide the truth because they are afraid of the power of Dingbeihou, because when they sell people, they may not be as pleasant as they may be, and they are very likely to offend the female family members of the Li family.

There are too many people who have handled Ren Yazi, and the memories of selling people many years ago will be intertwined, but their walking routes in Jiangnan are relatively regular, and they can remember some routes and three groups of people who are suspected to be the female family members of the Li family.

Lin Ruhai's people followed this clue for half a month, and finally found Li's mother in a business mansion in Zhenjiang. They verified her previous address, her deceased husband's name, and her son's birthday. Everything would be correct.

However, she said that the sister-in-law of the Li family was still young and had seven points of color, so she became the first-class concubine of the merchant master, and the niece was fifteen this year. The eldest son was the aunt, and it was inconvenient for the mother and daughter to bring them back.

Therefore, the people sent by Lin Ruhai only bought Li's mother from the merchant with the Lin family's official position and a lot of money, and then brought Li's mother back to Yangzhou.

Although Li's mother was only fifty years old, she had already gray hair. She was a mother-in-law who made starch at the merchant's house. The original eldest daughter-in-law was not good to her after she became the merchant's concubine.

When Li's mother was a mother-in-law, she always acted like her mother-in-law, and she always thought of her eldest son, and that daughter-in-law deeply hated her husband for committing crimes, and he was a burden to the whole family. It was like this: Li Shuo's older brother, Li Nan, was working as a long-term worker in the city, and he met a few rogue friends. One day, Li Nan was playing with his friends with Poppy, and he heard from a friend that they had found a team of money-sucking merchants from other places. The Poppies became greedy and cooperated with Li Nan to plan things together, otherwise they would tie him up to prevent secrets from leaking. vent. At that time, Li Nan was also moved, and he met his younger brother Li Shuo who came to see him from home, so they lied to the younger brother who didn't understand anything to let them go. As a result, everyone was caught by the government. Because this Yunyin team is not a businessman, but a filial piety secretly dedicated to the first prince by some corrupt officials in Jiangnan.

The death penalty in this dynasty was more prudent, and it had to be sent to the Ministry of Punishment for approval, but other punishments were not used. Those corrupt officials did not want to make a statement when they saw that the money was not lost, so the prefect of Yangzhou at that time sentenced them to exile in a bitter and cold land on the frontier. A few rogues were exiled to the northwest, while the Li brothers were exiled to Liaodong, and their families were sold in cheap status.

The Li brothers were sent to reclaim the wasteland in Liaodong, but they were conscripted into soldiers again. Li Nan died of illness, and the original Li Shuo was crossed by Li Shuo, the company commander of the modern special forces.

Li's mother was placed in Lin Mu's west courtyard. Although Lin's mother did not have a mistress, Lin Ruhai still had two old concubines. Among them, the good concubine Feng Yiniang arranged for someone to carefully serve Li's mother, and Li's mother was also flattered.

Lin Ruhai invited Li Shuo to the house again and arranged for Li Shuo to meet Li's mother. The mother and son reunited with tears in their eyes. Li Shuo inherited the memory of the original owner. Although he didn't have much deep feelings for Li's mother, he also pity her as a widow to raise the original owner, and was also implicated by his son's inadvertent friendship and mistakes. Li Shuo also wanted to fulfill the responsibility of this identity.

Of course, Lin Shuo, who had been planning to marry Lin Daiyu, also deliberately owed Lin Ruhai a big favor, so he told his mother Li that it was thanks to Lin Ruhai's long tenure in Yangzhou that he could remember some people from the past and found her.

Li Shuo mentioned that his eldest brother died seven years ago, and Li's mother was even more grief-stricken.

After the grief, Mother Li was shocked by a powerful surprise. The youngest son has already been honored as the Marquis of Dingbei. Now the emperor's kindness is particularly heavy. He asked him to return to his hometown to worship his ancestors, and then took her back to Beijing to be the support of the old lady.

Mother Li has suffered too much, but she will have countless riches and honors in the rest of her life, as long as she doesn't do it.

Lin Ruhai hosted a banquet to entertain the Li family's mother and son, but during the banquet, Lin Ruhai couldn't hold back and coughed up blood, so he hurriedly asked for a doctor.

Although Li Shuo was well versed in trauma management, he had nothing to do with Lin Ruhai, a disease with five viscera failures. The five failures of the viscera are not like Western medicine, which can treat head pain and foot pain. This is the life of the human body, and only tonics such as ginseng are used.

...

But it was said that Yingchun and Sima Xuan arrived in Yangzhou in a low-key manner in mid-June. Ling Fei can also be regarded as "revisiting the old place" in different time and space, and she is quite emotional. Shen Chuozi has never lived in Yangzhou for a long time, but Zhang Su has lived in Yangzhou for a long time.

Although the times are different, they are still very prosperous. Their three awning boats have been at the dock for a long time and have not had their turn to dock.

Yingchun and Sima Xuan stood at the bow of the boat, Yingchun said, "You don't remember, I was training in Yangzhou back then, and you had me in your heart at that time, but you didn't admit it at the beginning."

Sima Xuan said, "What do you experience as a woman?"

Yingchun said: "I don't need to eat? I'm not a dragon or a phoenix. Ordinary people have exhausted all their strength to survive."

Sima Xuan said, "Didn't 'he' take good care of you?"

Yingchun said: "Actually, 'care' is a lie. It depends on culture. I never believe it. Men rely on their parents at home and friends when they go out. In the end, parents and friends can't rely on them. The same is true for women. Can fathers, brothers, and husbands really rely on them? ?"

Sima Xuan frowned and said, "So what about love, where is it?"

Yingchun said: "Not all women have the beauty of the country and the city. In the love stories that people yearn for, the requirement for women must be the beauty of the country. Isn't that the case with Zhu Yingtai, Cui Yingying, and Du Liniang?"

Sima Xuan said, "Did you look ugly before?"

Yingchun gave him a white look and said, "You don't understand what I'm talking about at all."

Sima Xuan said: "Why don't you understand? You don't have the beauty of the country, so if you develop your skills, you will be as talented as Zhong Wuyan."

Yingchun slapped her palm away and scolded, "You're just Zhong Wuyan!"

Sima Xuan put his hand aside, and the two crossed their wrists. Yingchun wanted to give him a good look, but at this moment it was their turn to land.

Instead of staying in a post house, they stayed at an inn in Yangzhou to secretly investigate the tax affairs in Jiangnan and the tentacles of several princes in Jiangnan.

The interests of Jiangnan were intercepted by these officials, which enriched the private treasury of the princes and corrupt officials, and the treasury, which had long been borrowed by the officials, was waiting to be fed.

Although the emperor is still attached to power, he has already realized this problem when he will elect a new emperor to ascend the throne. If he chooses another heir who is extravagant and greedy, the Sima family will also collapse. The emperor did not have the energy to clean up the mess himself, so he left it to his son.

The salt and iron tax and commercial tax in the south of the Yangtze River were lost, the fields were illegally occupied by officials and relatives, and the loss of land tax was also very serious.

Sima Xuan had to start with private salt first, and his subordinate official Song Qian Tiyi went to the firm to stalk and steal the ledger.

Sima Xuan did not trust Lin Ruhai much, even though Lin Ruhai had already worked hard in his tenure.

Yingchun said, "How can a firm let someone with a secret face come into contact with secrets? Besides, what about the private salt shipped to other places with Yangzhou as a transit point?"

Song Qian said, "Which place do you think is the best place to check?"

Yingchun said: "I don't want to go to where to check first, but let our team clarify the purpose, mission, and values, that is, to what extent the emperor wants to check, will we check it to the end, will the court recognize the account? If you don't make it clear, the brothers have no idea when they are doing things. end."

Sima Xuan said: "The emperor has already sent us to investigate this matter, isn't the emperor's attitude clear enough?"

Yingchun said: "Can it be understood like this: the purpose is to eliminate corruption and deficits in Jiangnan; the mission is to maintain the taxation of the imperial court and ensure the stability of the country; the value is that the prince breaks the law and the common people are guilty?"

Sima Xuan thought about his brother's temperament and said, "Brother Huang entrusts me with this heavy responsibility, so I know there are people among them that others can't move."

Yingchun said: "That's good, I don't like being treated as an abandoned child when I do things. As far as the salt tax is concerned, one is private salt, and the other is arrears or deficits. Everyone still doesn't know how much the former amount is. Lin Ruhai agrees. The latter should be counted."

Sima Xuan said: "You just want to find Lin Ruhai, and you know he must be clean? He is the inspector of salt, and if the Lianghuai salt administration has become like this, he has nothing else to do."

"Who said I'm going to look for Lin Ruhai right away? In fact, we started with officials and salt merchants. They are all old fried dough sticks, but they are closely related to a mixed group when they transport salt."

Sima Xuan said, "What is it?"

"Cao Gang." Yingchun paused and said: "These people have been indispensable for the south-to-north transfer of grain for more than a thousand years. So many officials of the court are involved in the case, and they will form a group to resist, or they will launch a scapegoat. It will be difficult for us to investigate then. It's clear, I'm afraid that the snake will not die, so I have to recognize the scapegoat they sent for the immediate benefit. But the Cao Gang composed of Jianghu people, lower-level scholars and lower-level workers in society is a breakthrough, and persimmons will be soft first."

Sima Xuan said: "This is a way. Whether it is official salt or private salt, it has to be transported by people, and getting the account book of Caobang's work is equivalent to finding out the true circulation of salt in the Lianghuai area, so as long as the salt is subtracted You can also calculate the amount of illicit salt contained in the quotation. Based on this, you can decipher the officials involved in the case.”

Yingchun said: "If the corrupt officials are removed, the land can be divided."

...

Sima Xuan sent the accompanying warriors to go out to inquire about the Cao Gang. At night, Yingchun and Sima Xuan were having a seat.

Suddenly, listening to the light footsteps outside the door, Yingchun opened his eyes and suddenly heard a small voice. After a while, there was a strange smell in the air.

"It's smoke."

Yingchun is well-informed and hastened to let Sima Xuan take a break for a while. After a while, footsteps sounded, someone moved something outside the door, and then a fire lit up.

Sima Xuan said: "They are going to set fire! Get out!"

Yingchun said: "There are also Lord Song, Siqi, and Pan Youan in the room!"

When Yingchun came, he also brought two servants with him, so it was very convenient to pack things. One woman followed so many men, and there would always be many inconvenient times.

Yingchun and Sima Xuan rushed out of the house, and those who set the fire were startled and rushed towards them. Sima Xuan slapped the left and the right, and brought down the arsonists.

Yingchun took off the clothes of an arsonist, wrapped his head and rushed into Siqi's house. Sima Xuan couldn't help but panic: "Nianxuan!"

He didn't feel relieved until he saw her come out, and rushed into the room to carry Song Qian and Pan You'an out of the room.

They ran to the yard with three people who had smoked cigarettes. Sima Xuan directly threw the two men into the large water tank that was permanently protected from water in the ancient yard, and Yingchun did the same.

Si Qi screamed, Yingchun said, "It's me!"

"Second girl, what's wrong?"

Yingchun said: "You follow me carefully, there are assassins."

Si Qi was shocked: "How can there be assassins, who would dare to assassinate the prince and princess?"

Sima Xuan said: "Now is not the time to discuss these things, let's get out of here quickly."

At this moment, four black shadows suddenly appeared on the roof, and only a few swishes were heard.

"It's an arrow!"

Sima Xuan danced his sword so tightly that he protected Yingchun and the others. At this time, all his followers were dispatched to investigate the Cao Gang. Song, Si, and Pan were all skilled in martial arts.

At this time, Yingchun had also practiced Changchun's youthful skills to the second level, and with Lingbo Microstep, the four assassins with arrows could not hit her for a while.

Yingchun picked up a few stones from the ground, and threw her inner strength at the shadow on the eaves. With a few screams, the four ambush hands fell off the eaves.

Sima Xuan took the sword, walked over to her, and said, "Are you all right?"

Yingchun shook his head, and Song Qian said, "My lord, why are there so many assassins? We disguised ourselves to Yangzhou and changed ships a few times, and we didn't live at the inn at all."

Yingchun said: "I'm afraid... there are traitors. It seems that they are in a hurry."

"Traitor? Then our plan..."

Yingchun's eyes were slightly cold, and he said, "I'm afraid that the Cao Gang is in danger!" They have to start with the Cao Gang to check the number of Jiangnan Guanyan's private salt, and the official Yan's false accounts will be hard to escape. But now that the other party knows the number of their paths, they are afraid that they will kill people in advance and rummage through the ledger when the Cao Gang escorted them.

Sima Xuan brought eighteen warriors, either his own cronies or the imperial guards beside the new emperor, who were the new emperor's confidant warriors. These people seem to have nothing to do with Jiangnan, but they will still be missed.

Sima Xuan said: "Let's leave the inn quickly, now we can't make a low-key unannounced visit."

Sima Xuan, Yingchun, Song Qian, Si Qi, and Pan Youan left the inn. At this time, it was late at night, and no one was walking on the street. It was not a festival or a celebration. Only the bright moonlight in the middle of the day could make people see the scattered buildings.

At this time, a group of assassins rushed out from the other side of the street and surrounded them layer by layer. With rich experience in fighting in the spring, he hurriedly said: "Yu Lang, protect Lord Song! I will deal with them."

Saying that, Yun Lingbo rushed over with a slight step, without a sword in his hand, Sima Xuan couldn't help but be in a hurry: "Nianxuan! Don't make a fool of yourself!"

Just as Sima Xuan was about to rush up to hold her, there were already two assassins rushing towards Song Qian. Sima Xuan raised his sword and stabbed the assassins in the opposite direction.

Over there, Yingchunyun performed light work and went to kill the assassin leader. Although she only cultivated to the first level of internal power, she was like a fledgling Li Canghai, but her decisiveness and experience of facing the enemy were not comparable to Li Canghai at that time.

She made the identification point so that no opponent had a chance to make a second move. Five people fell one after another. She had already rushed to the leader and sealed his trembling point.

A sword had already been stabbed in the back, and I saw her leaning back, flicking her fingers and flicking the opponent's sword, and with a buzzing sound, the opponent could hardly hold the sword.

At the moment when the enemy was stagnant, Yingchun's second move had already been used, kicking him away.

Yingchun grabbed the leader of the assassins and dragged him back, only to see that there were more than a dozen assassins, and they were all dumbfounded at this time.

"Stop! Or I'll kill your boss!"

Sima Xuan had already wounded or killed more than a dozen people. At this time, the leader of the assassin was arrested, and the rest of the people were a little scared and did not dare to go forward.

Sima Xuan came up with the blood-stained sword and asked, "Who sent you?"

The head of the assassin glanced at him and Yingchun, and said, "I admire the skills of the two of you. But I'm sorry I can't answer your question. Kill if you want to."

Yingchun chuckled lightly and said, "Do you think that you are very strong, and then we have to respect you as a man and not kill you?"

The assassin chief said: "You kill!"

Yingchunyun was full of infuriating energy, spit out a mouthful of saliva in the palm of his hand, turned it into borneol with Yun Gong, walked to the assassin chief, and punched it into his Tanzhong point.

At this time, she was still in the stage of cultivating the second level of immortality, and she couldn't make the life and death talisman so eloquent, and she had to use such an inelegant posture.

The assassin chief suddenly felt an itch all over his body biting from his bones. Fortunately, his acupuncture point was still lit, and he couldn't move.

Yingchun said: "Do you need to teach you to kill? Do you know why I don't kill you now? I don't want to find out who is behind you from your mouth. We can guess it, so I don't need to ask you this. I just want to find out about you. Who are your parents, who are your wife, who are your children, and where are your ancestral graves? If you are useless to me, I will drag your father and your son to the streets of Yangzhou to be castrated in public; Wife, your daughter strips naked and walks the streets, and then gives them to beggars to be their fathers... public wives."

The assassin chief was taken aback and said, "You...you wouldn't know..."

Yingchun said: "Everyone present is not afraid of death, won't they tell who your name is?"

The assassin chief endured the itch and shouted, "Run!"

Yingchun performed light work and caught up with the assassins, but after a while, he knocked down four assassins, and the others ran away.

Yingchun dragged one back and said to the assassin, "I don't ask who your boss is, I just ask who your boss is, where he is from, whether he has parents, wife and children. If you don't answer such a simple question, I will castrated you."

The assassin kept his mouth tightly shut, drew his sword in the spring, and said, "Speak, or not?"

The assassin chief let out an itch and said, "Don't say..."

The assassin was still afraid of the boss and said, "You...you kill me."

"You're the first, then the scholar can be killed, but not insulted, let's fulfill you!" As he said that, a sword was almost unbelievably fast and slashed across his neck.

It took a second for the blood to spurt out of his neck, and Si Qi grabbed Pan Youan's arm from behind and screamed.

Then, Yingchun dragged the second one back and said, "Do you want to cut a knife on the top, or a knife on the bottom?"

The assassin was stupid and said, "No...no...don't..."

Yingchun still used a sword, and the man fell to the ground spurting blood from his neck. She sneered, and in the moonlit night, she was as gloomy as a vampire.

She said, "I only let you choose, who told you to deny me?"

Yingchun went to pull the remaining two back. Those two assassins also had the will to die earlier, but their leaders were arrested one after another, killing and injuring more than a dozen people. Two more had their throats cut when they were unable to resist. leave early.

The two begged and cried: "Forgive your life! Forgive your life!"

Yingchun smiled sweetly, and said, "Well, you don't do multiple-choice questions, you do rush-answer questions. Whoever has fewer rush-answers will die. My rule is not to accept refutation! First question: Where do you come from?"

"Jinling!" Qi Qi replied.

"What's your boss' name?"

"Weng Yuandao." Almost neat.

"Does your boss have a wife?"

"have!"

"Is there an old lady?"

"have!"

"Do you have a son?"

"have!"

"Where does your chief's son live?"

"Jinling!"

"Have you seen his son?"

"I have seen."

"What is your name?"

"Weng Zifang."

"Oh, it's so neat, what should I do? Which one should I kill?"

The two hurriedly begged: "Woman, forgive us, we won't dare any more."

Yingchun said: "Okay, now you have also explained some things, I am afraid that if you go back, you will also die."

"..."

"Do you know where your only life is?"

"Please advise the heroine."

"Of course, save your life first, and show me the way to capture your father, mother, wife, and children for disposal. Then all your villains and masters will be wiped out, and they will all end, and no one will hold you accountable. I'll let you go on your merits."

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, and now they can save their lives.

Yingchun then walked up to Weng Youdao and said, "Weng Youdao, right? Now, this girl will not stop you from committing suicide. If you commit suicide, I will still go to your family."

Saying that, Yingchun untied Weng Youdao's acupuncture points. Weng Youdao fell to the ground and scratched and howled so hard that he scratched his skin.

Yingchun made another move to temporarily seal his acupuncture point, half squatted down, and said with a smile, "Give me a hundred taels, I'll give you a treat, you are a hero. But your family doesn't have such good treatment."

The deterrence of killing the chicken police monkey and the great pain of the life and death talisman consumed his toughness. Weng Youdao was really afraid of this witch and said, "Don't touch my family, I beg you."

"Tell me, who sent you here."

Weng Youdao paused before saying, "It's... Jinling Zhen's family."

Yingchun said, "Isn't the Zhen family in Jinling weaving? We arrived in Yangzhou, but we didn't go to Jinling. Why did he kill us?"

Weng Youdao said: "I only obey orders, and never care why."

Yingchun said, "Is Lin Ruhai, the imperial censor of the two Huai Huai Provinces involved?"

Weng Youdao said: "He probably doesn't know. Female hero, please kill me. I told you everything. Don't embarrass my family, but if I live, my family will die."

Yingchunyun Gong removed his life and death talisman. Although he was exhausted, he never showed his face and said, "Your poison has been cured, I will not kill you."

Yingchun held Sima Xuan's arm, and Sima Xuan realized that she was leaning on him. Although Fang Cai was shocked by her ruthlessness, she knew that she was interrogating, so she did not interfere.

At this time, there were many torches ahead, and I heard the sound of footsteps, but it was the official messenger from the prefect of Yangzhou with the government office.