end song

Chapter 373
"Oh!"

There was a loud bang, and there was the sound of pottery pots falling in Pan's Restaurant on the east bank of the Bianhe River in Kaifeng City, followed by crying father and mother, and screams from time to time.

Li Xia stood on the side of the street, looked around, and saw a group of soldiers plundering wantonly in the restaurant, a middle-aged man was kneeling there begging, and next to him were two corpses, bleeding all over the floor.

Amidst the scolding, Li Xia probably understood what he was doing.

The so-called "hook test" checks money, grain and taxes. Mongolia's management of the Han land is very loose, and what is needed is money and grain to pay tribute every year to supply its endless wars.

Now that Zhao Bi, the warden, has been arrested on the charge of "withholding military rewards", Kaifeng's taxes are clearly in shortfall.The hook test bureau then began to personally collect this part of the money and food.

It's like a rough man occupying a piece of land, and usually leaves it to the manager to take care of it, and he doesn't care about everything.But from time to time, I have to come and see in person, slap the manager a few times, search it again, and then tell the manager, "See clearly, this is how the money and food are collected."

For senior Han officials such as Shi Tianze and Zhao Bi, five years of painstaking efforts managed to manage Henan in an orderly manner, and Kaifeng City regained its prosperity... but they became fattened chickens, pulled out to be slaughtered.

Officials at all levels were arrested, tortured, and died tragically in prison.

But for Dousheng Xiaomin, it was truly cruel.

Looking around, all the people walking in the streets are meat on the cutting board.

Li Xia looked at it for a while, and saw that there were 12 soldiers in Pan's restaurant, so he turned and walked towards a small alley.After a while, the front convenience heard crying.

"Without this food, the villain's family really can't survive..."

I saw an old man hugging a soldier's calf and weeping unceasingly. One of the two soldiers was carrying a small cloth bag, and the other was holding a broken floral robe, kicking at the old man.

Li Xia didn't go to see the old man, because there were too many people like this in Kaifeng, and he couldn't take care of them.

He just stepped forward quickly, stabbing a soldier in the back with the dagger in his sleeve.

This happened suddenly, the soldier fell to the ground before he could react, the other person turned around, and the dagger had already slashed his throat.

The small cloth bag containing the food fell to the ground.

Li Xia didn't pick it up, didn't say a word, turned the corner, and left the scene quickly.

Turning around, he approached a dilapidated house, took the key to unlock the door, and quickly took off the Taoist robe on his body after entering the house.

When she went out again, Li Xia was already dressed in rags, her face was covered with stains, holding a broken bowl in her hand, like a beggar...

~~
"You mean, there was a Taoist priest in the city who killed two soldiers from the Gou Kao Bureau?"

The old man who spoke was named "Liu Taiping", a Mongolian minister, who was ordered by Mengge Khan to assist Alan Da'er in the examination, and was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi Province to participate in politics.

Although Liu Taiping was a Han Chinese, he was not of Kublai Khan's lineage.

Although Kublai Khan's policy of "governing the Han land with Han law" has won over most of the Han people, such as Yao Shu, Hao Jing and other literati, such as Zhang Rou and Shi Tianze, they still can't let go of the etiquette inheritance of the Han family. What I have done is to let the Mongols practice the Han law. This is not a betrayal of the country, but a fusion and naturalization of the Hu people.

But not all Han officials in the Mongolian Kingdom were moved by this sentiment.

For example, Liu Taiping and others believe that the Great Khan is the Great Khan, whether it is to use Han law to govern the Han land, or to allow Hui people to manage money, they are essentially collecting money and grain for the Great Khan. What is the difference?
In their eyes, the Han people in Kublai Khan's shogunate seemed to be selling themselves in a brothel but still boasting of being noble, which is ridiculous.Whether it's horn prostitutes or sex prostitutes, who isn't doing it for money?
This time, Brother Meng ordered Liu Taiping to assist Alan Da'er, and the division of labor was also very clear.What Alan Da'er has to do is to eradicate Kublai Khan's influence, and what Liu Taiping has to do is to search for money and food from the Han land.

Therefore, Liu Taiping is responsible for "making up for the shortfall" in Henan in recent days.

After hearing the report today, Liu Taiping murmured: "Quanzhen Sect...Chongyang Temple..."

"What uncle said is true, and my nephew also thinks it was done by the Quanzhen Sect." Liu Zhongzhi cupped his hands and said, "My nephew wants to thoroughly investigate the Chongyang Temple."

Liu Taiping said: "Nowadays the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism is fierce, it may not be that Buddhism deliberately planted Taoism, you don't have to preconceive it."

In the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism, Liu Taiping still prefers Taoism, just look at his name.

"Yes, if there is no conclusive evidence, my nephew will not mess around. Then my nephew will go to Chongyang Temple right now?"

"Go." Liu Taiping buried his head in the copybook again.

To him, this was just a trivial matter. The death of two people showed that some people were dissatisfied with Goukao, which was expected.

Liu Zhongzhi got permission, so he ordered a group of people to go to Chongyang Temple.

He is different from his uncle Liu Taiping, he doesn't care about Buddhism and Taoism, he just wants to do the errands at hand well.

Someone who dared to kill him, no matter if he was a Taoist priest or a monk, Liu Zhongzhi would definitely find him out...

~~
Sun Deyu is not happy these days.

He managed to save some money, but the restaurants and Gou Lan in Kaifeng City were closed, people were panic everywhere, and he didn't know how to spend his money.

"In the past, I only knew the troubles of not having money. It turns out that having money also has troubles. I took the saint as my belly and my eyes, so I went and took this. Now I am not a saint, and I still need to practice."

He muttered to himself, and he hadn't meditated for a long time, and couldn't help but take out the two ingots of silver.

"You're bothering me in my cultivation, I wish I could spend you out..."

Suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps, Sun Deyu hastily collected the silver ingots, and then closed his eyes, and heard someone say: "Junior Brother, someone from the Gongmen has come, and I am calling you to come over."

"Ah? Brother Miao, is it a good thing or a bad thing?"

"The person who came here has a bad look, it must be a bad thing."

"Oh, then you should say 'it's not good' anyway..."

Sun Deyu complained, but quietly hid the money in his sleeves under the cushion, and then followed out anxiously.

Before reaching the side hall, he heard the conversation inside, but it was Yu Dechen who was explaining the matter of going south to kill Li Xia again.

Yu Dechen has said this over and over again many times, and in Sun Deyu's ears, he feels that Senior Brother Yu is really getting more and more proficient at telling lies, how can he still look like a pure cultivator?
~~
In the side hall, Liu Zhongzhi had been interrogating Yu Dechen for quite a while.

"You really don't know where Zhang Junbao went?"

Yu Dechen said: "I really don't know."

Liu Zhong took a few steps straight, glanced at the god statue in the hall, and asked, "Do you dare to swear in front of Venerable Sanqing?"

"I swear by the poor, I really don't know where Zhang Junbao went, and I don't know if Zhang Junbao is a secret agent of the Song court."

Liu Zhongzhi frowned, just as he saw a little Taoist priest coming in from the door.

"You are Sun Deyu?"

"Poverty is right."

"Someone saw you swimming with Zhang Junbao yesterday, didn't you?"

"Yes." Sun Deyu said bluntly, "Yesterday I took Senior Brother Yu and Zhang Junbao to eat fried vegetables."

"Where did Zhang Junbao go after that?"

"It disappeared in the blink of an eye, and said that he wanted to find Xuan Yi to recognize his relatives." Sun Deyu said: "But I think he is really suspicious."

"Oh?" Liu Zhongzhi's eyes lit up, and he said, "Explain in detail."

Sun Deyu lowered his head, rolled his eyes, and said, "This official, I, Senior Brother Yu, am actually a little dumbfounded."

Yu Dechen glanced at Sun Deyu and frowned.Because there are people in the public door, I have to keep silent.

"Senior Brother Yu grew up on Zhongnan Mountain since he was a child. He only knows his homework every day and is ignorant of world affairs. How can he compare with Song people who are old-fashioned and cunning. If he travels far away to do such a thing, people will probably see through..."

Sun Deyu first excused Yu Dechen in this way, and then talked about his inference again.

Liu Zhongzhi was a little surprised after hearing this.

"You mean, that Zhang Junbao was pretended by Li Xia? What did he do in Kaifeng?"

Sun Deyu's eyes were wide open, and he said seriously: "People from our Quanzhen sect killed him, and when he came back...of course it was revenge, maybe he wanted to assassinate Master Qiyun."

"Heh." Liu Zhongzhi chuckled lightly.

Although he didn't know Li Xia well, he already knew from today's investigation that Li Xia was the county magistrate of Song Ting.

The dignified parents of a county came to kill an old Taoist priest alone?Ridiculous... If Li Xia really came to Kaifeng, what he had to do would definitely not be such boring things.

Thinking up to this point, Liu Zhongzhi's eyes were filled with contemplation.

Sun Deyu said again: "But oh, my Senior Brother Yu is definitely innocent, he just stayed a little bit, maybe he was used by someone."

"That's right, that Zhang Junbao claimed to be looking for relatives, and what he said was true. Our Chongyang audience members believed him. Who would have thought that he would dare to kill people in the street..."

"That's right." Sun Deyu said, "Yesterday I told Shi Jia Erlang about this inference, and even Shi Jia Erlang didn't believe it."

"Shi Jia Erlang?" Liu Zhongzhi frowned suddenly, staring at Sun Deyu, and asked, "What happened to Shi Erlang?"

"I... poor..."

Sun Deyu suddenly realized something and dared not say any more.

In his heart, the Shi family is a top-notch figure, so he brought Shi Zhang out to show Zhang Junbao's good performance and prove Yu Dechen's innocence.

But seeing Liu Zhongzhi's unkind expression at this time, Sun Deyu thought that this sentence might bring trouble to Shi Zhang, and regretted it.

Liu Zhongzhi didn't let him go, stepped forward, and asked forcefully, "Tell me, what happened to Shi Erlang?"

Sun Deyu was a little frightened and didn't know where to put his hands.

He didn't say it, someone else said it.

"Yesterday, Shi Erlang came to check on Li Xia's head..."

Liu Zhongzhi was still frowning and thinking, another subordinate came in quickly, and said in a low voice: "Someone saw the Taoist priest who killed today."

"where?"

"Yesterday at the former site of the Fanlou, someone saw Shi Jia Erlang meeting the Taoist priest with his own eyes."

Liu Zhongzhi turned his head abruptly and stared at Sun Deyu.

The next moment, Yu Dechen strode forward and stopped in front of Sun Deyu.

"Yes, we did meet Shi Jia Erlang when we went out yesterday. But my junior brother and I don't know the identity of Zhang Junbao. If there is a crime, I will be held accountable."

(End of this chapter)