The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The news of Zhu Shiyong's escape soon reached the ears of the guards at the city gate. The soldiers who thought it was an inexplicable move to prevent the imperial envoy from entering the city suddenly realized that everyone was deceived by Zhu Shiyong, an old thief. This old thief took the risk and took everyone into the ditch.

Amidst the yelling, the guards of the city ordered to open the city gates to welcome the arrival of the forbidden army. The officers, soldiers and government servants who refused to guard the city gates were also obedient.

Ouyang Xiu's face was ashen, and he was not polite. He ordered people to tie up all the more than 200 people who refused to guard, and killed them all the way to the government office.

Su Jin led the crowd to meet Ouyang Xiu in the middle of the road. Ouyang Xiu saw that the men and women in front of him were all drenched in blood, and knew that they must have suffered a lot. Find a place to rest.

How could Su Jin be willing to rest? He ordered a hundred forbidden troops to escort Mrs. Wang, Yan Biyun and others to the back hall of Hefeng Building to take a bath and rest, while he led Chao Mahan and others to follow the army all the way to the government office.

The officials of Luzhou in front of the government office had already stood at the door tremblingly to welcome Ouyang Xiu, and when they saw each other, they all stepped forward to salute, Ouyang Xiu said with a dark face, "Don't come here, where is Zhu Shiyong?"

Master Liu hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Prefect Zhu..."

"What is Zhu Zhifu? The old thief was a bandit first, and today he is embracing troops to cause chaos. He is an out-and-out rebel, and you still call him the prefect?" Su Jin scolded angrily.

Liu Tongpan took a look at Su Jin's appearance. His hair was disheveled and his clothes were torn, his body was covered with blood, and his eyes were as red as rabbit eyes. He knew that he must have suffered a great loss under Zhu Shiyong's hands, so he didn't dare to stroke his beard, so he quickly changed his words: " Zhu Shiyong didn't go back to the government office, and when I got the news, it was said that Master Ouyang came here and specially greeted him here."

Ouyang Xiu looked at Su Jin, Su Jin thought for a while and said: "It must have escaped with the pack, but it can't escape very far, Ouyang Zhongcheng should immediately send someone to replace the guards of the four cities, find out the direction of escape, and quickly chase after him. Full text.."

Ouyang Xiudao: "I'm not familiar with Luzhou, you can arrange it. There are still thirteen imperial guards here, and everything is at your disposal."

Su Jin didn't refuse, and immediately ordered: "First, send four capitals to replace the guards at the four city gates, disarm the Xiang army, and detain them in the barracks to wait for their release; and send troops from the two capitals to patrol the city in order to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to make trouble; Of the remaining seven capitals, except for one capital to protect Lord Ouyang, the rest will be dispatched by me."

Ouyang Xiu nodded and said: "Wang, Zhangjiang, and Yao are the four heads, you wait to take the headquarters to take over the defense of the four cities, and according to the words of the Special Envoy of Luzhou, disarm all the soldiers of the Luzhou Baoxin Army and put them under custody. Ge Du, you are in charge." It is the duty of patrolling the city, if anyone takes advantage of the fire and loots, he will be shot and killed; Ma Dutou will follow this officer to use his Walkman."

All six of them agreed in unison, and each acted quickly.

Ouyang Xiu pointed to the six imperial guards in front of him and said to Su Jin: "These six will be at your disposal. I will be promoted in the government office, and I will call Luzhou officials to come to inquire. It's not too late. Special envoy Su hurriedly After chasing Zhu Shiyong, more than half an hour has passed, and the old thief probably left the city long ago."

Su Jin nodded and said: "Don't worry, my lord, this old thief will never escape. If he can escape, it would be unreasonable."

Immediately, Su Jin ordered that the dynasty lead the way and lead a group of people to the chamber of commerce to arrest Tang Jiyuan and others, seal up their properties, and detain their relatives.

He also ordered Ma Han, Zhao Hu, Zhang Long, and three others to go to the three city gates in the southeast and west to find out where Zhu Shiyong came out of the city, while he led the imperial guards from both capitals to go straight to Yuema Bridge.

Su Jin knew in his heart that Zhu's mansion at Yuema Bridge must have been empty, but when Zhu Shiyong escaped, he must pass through the house first, and his family and children would always run away with them, so it would be easier to go to Zhu Shiyong's mansion first. Knowing where he came out of the city, and corroborating the news that Ma Han and the others inquired, it is also possible to know the exact direction of escape.

By the time they arrived at Yuema Bridge, Zhu Shiyong's mansion had already been screaming and screaming. The soldiers guarded the front and rear doors and rushed into the house, only to see the men and women in the house carrying big bags and robbing each other. Ready to escape.

Su Jin shouted: "Everyone, please put down your belongings and gather in the front hall immediately. If anyone refuses to obey the order, don't blame the sword without eyes."

Everyone in Zhu's family was in mourning, and they were driven to the front hall by the imperial guards to gather. Su Jin shouted: "Anyone who knows where Zhu Shiyong fled can avoid the crime of sitting on the ground if he tells it."

The members of the Zhu family looked at each other in blank dismay, shaking their heads to express their ignorance.

Su Jin pulled out his waist knife and shouted: "I don't have time to play riddles with you. If Zhu Shiyong runs away, you will all die. I will count to three. If no one tells the whereabouts of Zhu Shiyong, I invite you to taste the taste of a steel knife."

Everyone was so frightened that their faces turned pale, an old man in green robe stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "My lord, this old man is the steward of the Zhu family. My master Zhu came back and took Mr. Ya Nei out of the house. No one knows where he went. How can he tell our servants what happened?"

Su Jin narrowed his eyes and said, "Who is Zhu Shiyong's wife?"

The old man glanced at the women standing below, and pouted.

Su Jin shouted abruptly: "Mrs. Zhu, you are wearing a servant's attire. Are you trying to fool me? Why don't you come forward and answer?"

Zhu Shiyong's official wife, Sun Shi, was shaking like a sieve. She was quite old, about 50 to [-] years old, and she seemed to be honest and responsible. Hearing this, she hurried forward and said, "My lord, I really don't know where he fled to. I have been eating vegetarian food and praying to Buddha for several years. The master never said anything to me. Hearing everyone said that the master committed a crime, the old man was bluffing hard, so he ordered people to pack up his things and planned to avoid it. All this is true. I don't know."

Su Jin frowned and looked at the other women, who were probably Zhu Shiyong's wives, and asked, "It's still the same sentence, if you know where he is going, you will be exempted from the guilt of sitting down. Maybe you don't know what Zhu Shiyong is doing. What did he commit? Let me tell you that it was a crime of rebellion. He instigated the soldiers to fight against the forbidden army of the imperial court, and also intended to kill the officials of the imperial court. This crime can implicate you all. Even if you don't tell me, I can still catch him, it's just a lot of trouble."

Everyone in Zhu's family looked pale. Some people heard that they would lose their heads, and they couldn't help cursing. Those wives and concubines even scolded 'old dogs, old thieves, old killers' unbearably. .

A red-robed woman suddenly came out and came to Su Jin to give her a blessing and said, "I heard from Zhu Zhifu that he bought a house in Lianhua Mountain in the countryside of Fanchang County, and said that he was going to retire after resigning from office when he was old." reclusive."

Su Jin said: "Who are you?"

The woman said: "My boudoir's name is Yushu, and it was sent by Mr. Tang from the Chamber of Commerce to serve the prefect Zhu."

Su Jin said: "Why would he tell you this?"

The woman's face turned red, and she swayed: "The slave family has not been with Zhu Zhifu for a long time. Zhu Zhifu... likes the slave family very much. During this time... the slave family stayed with him...overnight, and he said he would take him with him. Let the slave family return to seclusion, and the slave family asked casually, and he said it casually, as for whether it is true, the slave family does not know."

"Little hooves, I know you are a vixen. If my husband hadn't been bewitched by your Chamber of Commerce Mr. Tang, how could you have today. You vixen is also one of the accomplices. I wish I could kill you, a prostitute." Sun said scold.

The woman named Yushu sneered back: "The slave family is also a person who is manipulated by others. Do you think the slave family is willing to serve this half-dead man? If it is not involuntary, the slave family is willing to let him trample on his innocent body; it is you who do this." A regular wife is incompetent, how can you do anything like a husband and a child, the elders in the family break the law, and the younger playboys are all your own crimes."

Angrily, Sun stepped forward and grabbed Yushu by the hair and started to fight. Yushu was not reconciled to being beaten, and fought back. His face was bloodstained, and his hair fell to the ground.

"Okay, okay, how decent is it!" Su Jin didn't know whether to persuade or gloat, turned around and stared at the disheveled clothes and bare skin of the two women and shouted: "Don't look at it, what's so interesting , Have you never seen women fight?"

All the forbidden soldiers coughed twice, and looked away reluctantly.

"Leave 50 people guarding the courtyard. All items are sealed and recorded, and they are not allowed to be tampered with. All the relatives and servants of the Zhu family are not allowed to leave the house for half a step; the rest will follow me to chase people."

The imperial guards headed up and asked, "Master Special Envoy, where are we going to chase?"

Su Jin said to the side of the guide: "It must be the south gate. Ten miles out of the city is the wharf. After boarding the boat, go down the river and you will go directly to Fanchang Lianhua Mountain. Since the old thief bought property there, he must have gone there."

Nadu hurriedly said: "Then it must be done as soon as possible, it will be troublesome when you get on the boat."

Su Jin waved his hand and said: "Gather all the horses and chase people on horseback. If you are late, you have to board a boat to chase people. That is a troublesome thing."

The people didn't dare to delay, they rushed out one after another, stepped on their horses, and went straight to the south gate; on the way, they met Zhang Long who was rushing to report, and compared them twice, the soldiers guarding the south city also said that Zhu Shiyong was going south in a cart The door went out, and this time there was no doubt, everyone rushed to chase along the official road at the south gate all the way to the pier.