Jinyi Town Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 233 The Secret in the Candlestick
He Liu handed over the Ye Mingzhu and the sandalwood box to several soldiers and ordered them to guard them strictly.

Continuing to search the meeting hall, He Liu spent a full two hours listening to the entire meeting hall, but found nothing.

He Liu put it away and listened, took out the wall tiger, and was about to "scrape the wall", inadvertently, he glanced at a candle hanging stand in the center of the meeting room.

He Liu frowned, and asked Li Bofeng, "Do Xu Hai and the others often discuss things in the conference hall in the middle of the night?"

Li Bofeng said: "You don't know, there is a rule in Puluo Island. During the day, discuss matters in the meeting hall. In the evening, talk about affairs in the bamboo building of Erdang Yingzuo Pingcheng. Because all the people living around the meeting hall are Han Chinese, Ying Zuo was afraid that the Han people would murder him in the meeting hall at night, so he made such a rule."

He Liu turned his head and asked a soldier of the Qi family army who was carrying a firecracker: "How many years have you been eating under the command of Marshal Qi?"

The soldier replied proudly: "If you go back to the post, your subordinate is a veteran of Qi's army when Yiwu was founded. It has been almost five years under Qi Dashuai's rations!"

He Liu asked again: "Oh? For the past five years, you have been a gunner?"

The soldier replied: "This subordinate has been a swordsman for two years, and a gunner for three years."

He Liu ordered the soldier to spread his right hand.On his right index finger, there was a thick layer of calluses.This is the mark left by pulling the trigger of the gun for a long time.

He Liu looked at the firecracker in the soldier's hand.This blunderbuss was made by the Office of the Ministry of War to imitate the Francine blunderbuss.

He Liu asked the soldier, "How is your gun technique?"

The soldier patted his chest and said: "I'm on duty, I dare not say anything else. We are experts at playing guns! Within thirty steps, I can shoot birds with a gun. From thirty steps to fifty steps, I can shoot straight with a gun. The head of the Japanese pirate! It will fail at fifty paces, and the gun will float to the ground after flying fifty paces. Whether it can hit the target depends entirely on God's blessing."

He Liu pointed to the hemp rope hanging the candlestick above the hall.This hemp rope is as thick as a finger.

"Can you break that hemp rope with one shot?"

The soldier replied: "The superior is making fun of his subordinates. The hemp rope is only two or three feet away from me. Breaking it with a firecracker is just a matter of raising your hand."

He Liudao: "Okay! If you can break the hemp rope with one blow, I will reward you with 50 taels of silver!"

Hearing this, the soldiers unhurriedly loaded gunpowder and blunderbuss, lit the matchlock, opened the fire door, and raised the blunderbuss.

He Liu and Li Bofeng covered their ears.

With a sound of "Boom~", the gun directly broke the hemp rope.The candle hanging table fell to the ground with a clang.

Outside the conference hall, Wu Weizhong from a hundred households is leading one or two hundred brothers to stand by.Hearing the sound of the gun, he thought that something had happened in the meeting hall, so he drew his waist knife and rushed in with someone.

"Who fired the gun?! Is the messenger safe?" Wu Weizhong shouted.

He Liu smiled: "It's okay. I just tested the accuracy of your gunner. Go out first."

Li Bofeng leaned over and looked at the candlestick on the ground: "Master Liu, do you think this candlestick is strange?"

He Liudao: "Usually the candlesticks hanging on the ceiling of rich and noble people are all alive. There are two ropes that can be pulled, put them on the ground to light candles, and then go up. The candlesticks in the meeting hall are dead. There is only one A thick hemp rope is fixed to the ceiling. Didn’t you just say that no one will come to the meeting hall at night. What do you do with candles? Look, the candlesticks are full of wax marks, which means that these candles were lit on the ground Halfway through, they were put on the candlesticks, and the candlesticks were hung up to the ceiling."

Li Bofeng took half a candle from the candlestick and broke it open with his hands.A few diamonds the size of rice grains fell out of the candle!
"Master Liu, look quickly, diamonds! One, two, three, a total of three!"

He Liu smiled slightly: "Sure enough, there is something strange!"

The two broke open all the candles on the candlesticks, and found a total of fifty diamonds among the eighteen candles!

He Liu took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and carefully placed the diamond on the handkerchief.

Li Bofeng asked: "Master Liu, how much are these diamonds worth?"

He Liu put a diamond under the sun to take a photo, and said: "Diamonds are divided into three grades. The first grade is flawless, the second grade is slightly flawed, and the third grade is slightly flawed. The more than 50 diamonds are almost all flawless! But It’s not that big, it’s about the size of a grain of rice, and if it’s on the market, it’s probably worth 1 taels of silver.”

He Liu wrapped the diamonds with a handkerchief and asked a soldier to put the bag of diamonds into the ambergris sandalwood box.

In the next afternoon, He Liu found two hidden compartments on the wall of the meeting hall, and found out 500 taels of gold and 3000 taels of silver.

Li Bofeng looked at the setting sun outside the conference hall, and said, "Sixth Master, it's getting late. Shall we take a break today?"

He Liu waved his hand: "No! After ransacking the house, a book must be made in time. This is because the people who ransacked the house will have their own pockets. Come on, send an order to gather all the property found yesterday and today, and register and make a book!"

In order to prove his innocence, when He Liulai came, he specially asked the food and Taiwan officials of the Qi family army to keep accounts with him.

More than 2000 soldiers of the Qi family army gathered all the property they found today.

[-] soldiers cast their nets to search the bamboo buildings on the island, and all they found were scattered silver and gold beans, and rarely whole pieces of gold bricks and silver ingots.

In this way, the scattered silver and gold beans still piled up into two hills.

He Liu had already made preparations and ordered people to take out ten steelyard scales to weigh these broken silver and gold beans.

Half an hour later, the grain platform official held the account book in his hand and reported: "Sir, this large pile of broken silver is 7000 taels in total. These gold beans are 500 taels in total. All of them have been recorded."

He Liu nodded: "Well, go ahead and record: In the bamboo building where the leader of the Japanese pirates lived, a box of high-quality Suzhou and Hangzhou silk, a box of women's jewelry, and 6000 taels of silver were seized; Two boxes of gold bars, gold ingots, and gold coins were delivered, with a total of 5000 taels of gold; in the Japanese pirates meeting hall, 60 yuan of gold bricks were hidden in the iron door of the secret room, with a total of 6000 taels of gold; One, one dragon birthday incense sandalwood box; inside the candlestick of the Japanese pirates meeting hall, 500 first-class flawless diamonds are hidden; 3000 taels of gold and [-] taels of silver are hidden in the hidden compartment on the wall of the Japanese pirates meeting hall..."

After recording precious items such as gold, silver, and jewelry, the grain and Taiwan officials began to record inferior items such as Japanese knives, firecrackers, and fine porcelain.

Before He Liu asked Qi's army soldiers to search the many bamboo buildings on the island, he told them to move out as long as they had something of value.

The soldiers of the Qi family army are the most obedient to military orders in the entire Ming army.Several soldiers even brought out a pile of stinky cloth socks worn by Japanese pirates.

He Liu couldn't laugh or cry: "I told you not to let go of every needle and thread. You are really obedient! Are these stinky cloth socks for you or for me? Don't you think Japanese pirates' feet stink?"

A dark-skinned, simple-faced black and strong soldier touched the back of his head: "Hey, on the job, no matter how smelly the Japanese pirates' feet are, they are not as smelly as mine! Before I followed the Qi family army, I used to play ball and cuju!"

He Liu, Li Bofeng, and all the soldiers of the Qi family army around them laughed loudly when they heard this.

(End of this chapter)