Chapter 180

Jiangnan, Songjiang Prefecture, and Huating County.

At dusk, Chen Xiaozong finished handling the last case, changed into ordinary clothes, and left the county government office with two attendants.

At the end of June, it is the hot summer season, even though the sun has gone down, it is still sweltering like a steamer.

Chen Xiaozong waved a folding fan in one hand, and wandered to the street where Xu's mansion was located, like taking a stroll in the courtyard.

Two camphor trees were planted in front of Xu's mansion. They were old and lush. Under the trees, two old men were playing chess, surrounded by a few old men and urchins.

"Oh, the magistrate is here again!"

When Chen Xiaozong appeared, a naughty boy called out with a playful smile.

All the old men raised their heads together, recognized Chen Xiaozong, immediately found an excuse to leave, and took away their grandson.

In a blink of an eye, there was only a thin old man in his eighties with thin beard and hair left under the tree, and two children aged six or seven.

This is the son of the Xu family, and the thin old man waved at them: "Go in, all of you go in."

The two children stared at Chen Xiaozong a few times, and left obediently.

Chen Xiaozong had already approached, sat down opposite the old man very familiarly, looked at the chessboard, then smiled and said to the old man: "Such a simple chess game, Master is trying to make the neighbors happy?"

The old man: "They are happy, and I am happy too, everyone has their own fun."

Chen Xiaozong: "Then I will have fun with Master."

After speaking, he picked up the sunspots and continued to play the current chess game.

The old man glanced at him and played chess silently.

This round was extremely long, and when it finally ended, the sky was already dark.

Chen Xiaozong sighed: "Jiang is still old and hot, let alone me, even if my father came, he would have to be defeated by the master."

The old man: "Your father is much better than you, and my chess skills are not as good as his."

A gust of wind suddenly blew up in the alley, and the camphor tree leaves above his head swayed rustlingly. Chen Xiaozong looked up and smiled at the old man: "Playing chess also pays attention to the right time, place and people. My father's chess skills are not as good as yours.Occasionally winning two games is also taking advantage of other aspects."

The old man stroked his beard and smiled: "You are more eloquent than your father."

Chen Xiaozong: "That's because he's the best. Otherwise, I wouldn't have won your favor back then. Without your promotion and cultivation, my father would have been demoted to nowhere."

The old man glanced at his stomach: "Have you eaten? Didn't you eat a home-cooked meal with me?"

Chen Xiaozong: "Master still loves me, and I came here at this time just to give you a meal!"

The old man shook his head.

Chen Xiaozong walked around, helped the old man up like a grandfather, and walked into Xu's mansion familiarly.

It can be said that since he came to work in Huating County, he has been running to the Xu Mansion every three days. If the Xu Mansion hadn't kept him overnight, he would have been able to eat and live here.

The cook of the Xu family prepared two meat, two vegetables and one soup, not too much, but everything was delicious in color, fragrance and taste, and he was very particular about it.

Chen Xiaozong said contentedly: "My father still loves me, let me come to you to enjoy the blessings, like my elder brother, there must be no such good food in Guangdong."

The old man: "Every place has its own soil and water, and Guangdong also has local famous dishes."

Chen Xiaozong: "Master has a lot of knowledge, tell me about it?"

While eating, the old man told him some delicacies from Guangdong.

Chen Xiaozong listened with gusto.

The old man's eyes kept scanning Tan Hualang's somewhat familiar handsome face, and suddenly said: "The summer rice harvest is coming soon, are you really not in a hurry?"

The imperial court implemented the New Deal, and the county magistrates in the surrounding counties were already busy with their work. Only Chen Xiaozong, who arrived at the end of the first month, came to his side almost every day, but never mentioned the New Deal once.

In terms of patience, he thought he would not lose to a junior, but Chen Xiaozong was so leisurely, the old man was also afraid that the young man would suddenly make a ruthless move at a critical moment, and he did not leave any room for both sides.

He wouldn't really think that Chen Xiaozong didn't have any ruthless moves just because Chen Xiaozong smiled handsomely.

When Chen Xiaozong heard this, he smiled even better. While spooning white jade tofu for the old man, he said confidently: "With your help, I don't have to worry."

Old man: "What can I help you with?"

Chen Xiaozong: "You are the richest man in Huating County, and you are also the only person who looks up to the leaders of all the aristocratic families in Nanzhili. As long as you are willing to cooperate with the New Deal, who will dare to shirk the blame from other aristocratic families?"

The old man lowered his eyelashes and lowered his head to eat tofu.

Now that this incident was mentioned, Chen Xiaozong didn't evade it anymore, and said with a smile: "When my father sent me here, I was so angry that I was afraid that you wouldn't let the Xu family pay the land tax, and I couldn't fight the letter."You, are you a savage, aren’t you deceiving your teachers and destroying your ancestors? My father gave me a hard scolding, thinking that I was careless, and said that when you were always in the Inner Pavilion, you put the emperor and the people first in everything, and the new policy is beneficial to the people., is also beneficial to the emperor, you can never object."

The old man ground his teeth several times, swallowed the tofu that could melt in his mouth, and just about to speak, Chen Xiaozong's top hat came again: "I was scolded, and my heart really opened up. My father's words are indeed true,You are always the number one virtuous prime minister of the dynasty, and you are destined to accompany the emperors of the three dynasties to leave your name in history, there is no reason to fight against the court for that little land tax when you grow old, and you will be stigmatized for not being safe at the end of the festival, is it?"

old man: ...

Chen Xiaozong scooped up another spoonful of tofu: "My father also said that you will celebrate your 80th birthday in October next year, and the emperor always talks about you. When you celebrate your 80th birthday next year, the emperor will definitely give you a birthday seal."What an honor it is to give you the book. Seeing that my father was envious, I quickly coaxed him, saying that he could get this even when he was old, but my father said again that he is not as virtuous as you, so it is impossible."

old man: ...

Chen Xiaozong: "By the way, brother Chun will participate in Chunwei next year, right? At that time, I will give you a first-class Jinshi and come back. Double happiness for a year!"

Chundi refers to the grandson of Xu's parents.

old man: ...

He took a deep look at Chen Xiaozong.

Chen Xiaozong: "Come on, this tofu is delicious, eat more!"

Guangdong, Guangzhou Prefecture.

The summer rice harvest here was earlier, but there were not as many gentry as there were in the south of the Yangtze River. Chen Bozong used force to suppress all troublemakers, which could be called iron and blood, and directly suppressed the arrogance of the local gentry who tried to block the New Deal.

It's just that this year is the first year of the implementation of the New Deal. Big problems have been solved, but various small problems have emerged one after another. Chen Bozong is still busy leaving early and returning late.

In the evening of that day, when Chen Bozong returned to the magistrate's yamen, it was already dark.

An informant had already been waiting here.

Chen Bozong backed away from the left and right sides, and asked the informant to sit down with him, and the two chatted while eating.

At that time, King Yu and King Jing were defeated at Wuduo Mountain, leaving more than 20,000 soldiers, and the officers in charge were beheaded, but the more than 20,000 soldiers were all young and middle-aged. It is a pity that they were killed in vain.It was tattooed on their foreheads and sent to various places to do hard labor.

The imperial court is short of labor every year. People are used to build the Great Wall at border gates, build dams on two rivers, and mines and mines everywhere. In addition to requisitioning people, they send prisoners to do things.

Under Chen Tingjian's secret instruction, more than 20,000 soldiers were distributed to five places.

Just when a new iron mine was discovered in Guangdong, the imperial court directly dispatched 8,000 troops.

Chen Bozong wanted to investigate the evidence of Qi Jin collaborating with the enemy. In addition to sending people to watch over the 300 or so surviving Qi Jin and Jin Wu Qianwei, he also had to contact the surrendered soldiers from the rebel army.

King Jing slayed himself, King Yu was a pig, and another person who knew about it was Guo Jixian.

Guo Jixian's confession was that they caught a scout and learned from the scout that the fourth brother was going to cross Bai Heling.

In fact, one of the scouts sent out by Ling Rucheng did not come back. If this scout really falls into the hands of the rebels, someone must be responsible for catching it, taking the scout to see King Jing and Guo Jixian, and then dealing with it.Some soldiers saw this process, including Qi Jin secretly cooperating with the enemy. No matter how powerful he is, he would leave some clues instead of directly contacting King Jing and Guo Jixian.

From November of the year when the first emperor died to the twelfth month of last year, Chen Bozong's subordinates investigated for two full years.

Based on the news from all over the world, Chen Bozong finally gathered the list of soldiers who were in charge of the night watch on the night Qi Jin colluded with the enemy in the twelfth lunar month.

Most of them were killed in battle, and seventeen of them were alive. His people in the other four places were gradually prying open their mouths. After making up this list, only five were left in Guangdong, and three of them had died in theHard labor torture or illness, the remaining two, the informant has not had the opportunity to contact.

Chen Bozong came to Guangdong, in addition to implementing the New Deal, the other thing is to investigate these two people.

He didn't show up, and arranged for two informants to go to the mine where the two were located as prisoners. He first got to know each other's temperament, and after getting acquainted, he could try to find out about the past.

"My lord, Zhang Qiang has no intentions, he almost asks and answers, Li Xin hides his words and is very vigilant. I have helped him a lot in the past six months. Apart from thanking him at that time, he still behaves alone at other times.I just couldn't find a chance."

Chen Bozong: "The more such a person is, the more he can hide secrets."

Informant: "Then what should we do?"

Chen Bozong: "Take him out secretly, and make him escape from the mine."

Three days later, Li Xin woke up from a coma and found himself tied up in a study room with simple but elegant furnishings.

In front of the desk facing the window, sat a man in his thirties who was calm and introverted, with a breezy breeze and bright moon. The candlelight danced like a jade.

Li Xin looked around silently, and finally his eyes fell on the opponent's face again.

Chen Bozong glanced at him and asked, "Can you read?"

Li Xin nodded.

Chen Bozong picked up the letter paper on the desk and held it in front of Li Xin.

Li Xin took a closer look and found that it was written on the letter paper: If you catch a sparrow and catch a rabbit, you can exchange for a pot of wine money.

After confirming that he had read it, Chen Bozong put the letter paper into the copper lamp, and watched the flames engulf the letter paper leaving only a thin layer of ash, Chen Bozong explained in a low voice: "We are investigating the case of collaborating with the enemy on the court side during the battle of Wuduo Mountain.".”

Li Xin's face was expressionless, only his pupils shrank imperceptibly.

Sitting opposite him, Chen Bozong looked into his eyes and said, "I forgot to mention that before I was transferred to the prefect of Guangzhou this year, I was originally Chen Bozong, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple."

Li Xin's throat rolled slightly.

These soldiers know more than ordinary people, but anyone who has heard of Chen Tingjian's Pavilion Elder Chen almost knows that Pavilion Elder Chen has three sons, the most famous son-in-law, who won the first prize but married an arranged childhood marriage civilian wife in Dali TempleShaoqing Chen Bozong ranked second, and the other Tanhua Lang had no rumors worth mentioning.

Chen Bozong glanced at his Adam's apple, and continued: "The sparrow refers to the people at Jin Wu's vanguard. The other party knows the identity of the collaborators. As long as the rebels have evidence to prove that someone really tipped you off that night, not youWhen we get to the scouts, we can be convicted of traitors."

Li Xin: "Why did you tell me?"

Chen Bozong: "You were one of the night watch soldiers of the rebel army that night. If you can provide evidence to make up for your mistakes, I can set you free."

Li Xin: "What if I don't know?"

Chen Bozong smiled: "If you don't know, but you know my secret, then you can only be silenced by me."

Li Xin: ...