Hou Men Splendid

Chapter 73

The prison, which has not been exposed to light all year round, exudes a musty smell, mixed with rancidity, which is very unpleasant. It is getting hotter in May, and the air in late spring is very humid, which makes the smell in the prison even more weird.

Shao Ziyu went in, and those locked near the door were petty criminals. Those who sneaked in for a few days, and then committed crimes after going out, continued to be arrested and locked up. According to the words of a beggar locked outside, he robbed passers-by of money. Come in, you don’t have to worry about food or housing here, except that you can’t bask in the sun, everything else is fine.

The smell gets stronger the further you go in. The deepest prisoner is the prisoner with the longest years of detention. Shao Ziyu walked to a room in the corner, and there were ragged people sitting there under his dim eyesight. He didn't move until there was any movement, until someone called him, then he quietly turned around and saw a row of people standing here, his eyes were fixed on Shao Ziyu, his voice was hoarse after a long time of silence, "Time Arrived?"

In the past ten years, he has entered and exited many times. The last time he was imprisoned was four years ago, and he will be released after serving his sentence in half a year.

"Change into clean clothes and bring them to the hall." Shao Ziyu turned around and walked out of the prison, followed by the master secretary who was very admirable. My lord is too tolerant, ordinary people can't stand this place for a long time.

After simple care, the prisoner was quickly brought to the hall. This was not a public trial, there were not many people in the hall, and Shao Ziyu was not wearing official clothes. Watching the prisoner kneel down, Shao Ziyu walked down the hall, "Prisoner Zhu Qi."

Cleaned up, still with a stubble on his face, the prisoner looked up at Shao Ziyu, and Shao Ziyu then took a file, "I should still call you Jiu Lao Qi, or Wei Lao Wu, or Sorrow Lao San."

After saying this, the prisoner's eyes moved, but he still didn't speak. Shao Ziyu was not in a hurry, and slowly talked about the case 15 years ago, "Floods in the southern border, the imperial court provided disaster relief. At that time, Master Shao, the Minister of Taichang Temple, brought his wife to deliver relief to the disaster." The silver, when passing through Pengcheng, encountered robbers. In order to escort the relief silver, Mr. Shao, the husband and wife both died under the knife of the robbers. The silver was not robbed. The robbers blamed the dozens of people killed at that time. Afterwards, the imperial court sent troops to clean up the robbers' villages in Wuzi Island, but still let them escape some of them."

"Wuzi Island used to be called Titian Island. The robbers here have always robbed passing merchant ships, never passing by. There are seven masters in the village of Titian Island. Four of them were arrested back then, and three of them escaped. Well, later Wuzi Island moved in a group of people. Yesterday was the River God Festival. I still remember that in the past, on this Tiandao Island, every time the River God Festival came, he liked to catch boys and girls to sacrifice to the River God. Do you think I remembered correctly? Shao Ziyu looked at the man coldly, "What is the relationship between Wuzidao Luo He and you?"

"I don't know who you are talking about." The prisoner shook his head, and Shao Ziyu ordered someone to open his sleeve. It was a tattoo, which was similar to the one he saw on the arm of the village head of Luohe yesterday. Those four people also have such tattoos on their hands, you seven brothers have all sworn oaths, Jiu Laoqi, I am wrong to call you that.”

The prisoner still didn't speak, Shao Ziyu glanced at the governor and asked him to read, the governor picked up a file and began to read, "Zhu Qi, Dongxu 21 years, robbed a good house, wounded people, was arrested and imprisoned in the prison of the prefect of Pengcheng, 24 He was released in the spring of 28, and in the summer of the same year, he was arrested for robbing a good house and hurting people, and was imprisoned in the prison of the prefect of Pengcheng.

Shao Ziyu added his words, "During your detention, the magistrate's prison was questioned several times and tried to invade. You said, if I release you early, I will not arrest you even if you rob a good house. Your life will be returned." Can you continue to live?"

"Yesterday at the River God Festival, people on Wuzi Island used animals to sacrifice during the day, and at night they got a few officials who went there drunk, and then used virgin boys and girls to sacrifice in the middle of the night. The iron chains under the river bank should have been there for many years. .”

"The imperial court suppressed them all these years, but they haven't found those who fled back then. Those small thief dens that were suppressed were not people from Titian Island. Tell me, where are they?"

The most dangerous place is the safest place. Knowing that you catch me, I'll be moving right under your nose, but you just can't find it.

More than ten years have passed. I used to act in a high-profile manner, but now I am acting in a low-key manner. Today, the emperor is far away, and there are no officials in Pengcheng who are re-elected. They all come for three years and then leave. No one will pay attention to Wuzi Island. , the danger of that vortex is well known to everyone, and it is not uncommon for several ships to have accidents a year.

If Shao Ziyu hadn't come here for the events of that year, he would not have discovered these events.

After a long time, the prisoner sat slumped on the ground, "As expected of the new magistrate, he was stabbed when he came here. Hey, how did you know that I am a drunkard?" The prisoner threw all his messy hair back, Looking at Shao Ziyu with a dirty face.

"Jiu Lao Qi, cunning, timid and fearful, you want to enter the magistrate's prison so repeatedly, not because the wall is high enough and there are enough people to save your life." It's still the same. Entering someone's house, making a mess, hurting people, then pretending to run away, not running far, and then being caught back and locked up. There are wolves, tigers and leopards outside. You can't stay outside too much.

"Who said that I, Jiu Laoqi, was timid and afraid of getting into trouble, who wrote it like this for me!" The prisoner was about to get up from the ground, with chains on his feet and hands, and there were guards behind him, so there was no room for him to mess around.

"There is a way to get the best of both worlds." Shao Ziyu squinted at him, "You don't have to worry about being chased and killed, and you don't have to stay in this dark prison. You can't eat well, and you can't sleep well."

Jiu Laoqi turned his head and sat back on the ground, saying roughly, "I won't cooperate with the government. Now that you know who I am, I will die."

Shao Ziyu motioned to Ah Jiu at the door, and after a while, Eleven came in with a beautiful woman, Jiu Laoqi turned his head and went over, now in a hurry, got up from the ground, pointed at Shao Ziyu and scolded, "Old Ge Xiaoche, you What to do with a woman, you can just come to me if you have anything to do."

Who didn't have any romantic affairs? Jiu Laoqi robbed houses in the same village. Shao Ziyu sent someone to inquire and got some interesting news. The four men who were injured by Jiu Laoqi, They are all interested in a woman in the village. This woman moved here 15 years ago and she considers herself a widow. Shao Ziyu checked later, ah, this woman named Le Niang used to be a girl in the Tianxiang Building in Pengcheng.

Shao Ziyu smiled, but he was not angry. Jiu Laoqi couldn't get rid of the guards, and he was so embarrassed that he didn't want to face the woman, so he cursed Shao Ziyu, "The people in the government are the most shameless in the world. If I can't be forced, I will bring women Threat, what kind of a good guy, old Xiaoban."

That beautiful woman came to see him, but he refused to let him, and hid away cursing, "What do you look at, I have never seen such a handsome look, why don't you stay at home and go out to be arrested for what, you see , what should I do now."

Halfway through watching this, Jiu Laoqi refused to let it go, Shao Ziyu didn't say anything, the beautiful woman got angry, afraid of slapping Jiu Laoqi on the back of the head, "Drunkard, do you want me to watch it or not?"

There was a sound of chains, Jiu Lao Qi parted his hair and showed half of his face to her, "Look at it, you want to have a good time."

There was another crack, and Jiu Lao Qi muttered, "I haven't been out for a few years, why is my temper getting worse as I get older."

Shao Ziyu just watched and didn't stop her. This beautiful woman looked weak and had a strong temper. Jiu Laoqi couldn't hide and could only look at Shao Ziyu, "Old Xiaoche, what do you want!"

"Do you want to cooperate?"

Jiu Lao Qi glanced at Le Niang, then looked back at him, and said impatiently, "Hehehehehe, but it's agreed, I won't take you to arrest people, I can't betray my brothers so thoroughly."

"They are going to hunt and kill you." The governor on the side added, and Jiu Laoqi turned his head and yelled, "You know what, this is the morality of the world, he is not benevolent and I have to be unrighteous, otherwise what will I have with him the difference."

After finishing speaking, he looked at Shao Ziyu, "Also, brat, you want Le Niang to live in this yamen to ensure her safety. I haven't been willing to let her come to see me for so many years. I'm afraid there are people ambushing around this yamen. Bring it, you kid is responsible for protecting her."

Shao Ziyu nodded, "Okay, I am not without morality."

Shao Ziyu didn't want to delay this matter for a moment. He first asked Jiu Lao Qi about the past, and prepared good wine and good food for him. Now, tearing the chicken legs with his hands, he began to tell him about those things back then.

"Your boy is right. We only robbed boats on the river back then. Don't tell me, the villages around Pengcheng, the whole of Huizhou, and the villages of all sizes are the largest and most populated in Tiandao. The law governs us, we have occupied this waterway, and naturally the people on the road will not fight with them."

"Later, the imperial court became more oppressive, and many brothers were arrested when they left the stockade. Fifteen years ago, the eldest brother said that he would do a big one. After that, the brothers left here and settled down in other places. The imperial court cannot be the first Let's be attacked, and after a few months, the second brother came back and said that he had a goal, a team of big darts from the north, carrying money for disaster relief, tens of thousands of taels of silver, brothers will not worry about food after this trip Chuan, these things are all contacted by the elder brother and the second brother. We waited for them to ambush on the official road, waited for them to cross the valley, and saw the escort cart. We knew that this was an official escort, and the person in charge of transporting it turned out to be an official from the court."

Shao Ziyu heard him continue talking, Jiu Laoqi took a sip of wine, and his tone was a little angry, "At that time, the third brother disagreed. It was very risky to rob the imperial court's bodyguards. It would be better to let the bodyguards come. Now it is the imperial court The officials led their own troops to transport them. When an accident happened, even if they had money on hand, it would be easy to use the money that was hidden in hiding. But the eldest brother, the second brother and the fifth brother all said that the knife was already on their necks. There was no risk in that robbery, so the brothers still went up."

The subsequent robbery process is also recorded in the file. When Shao Changzhong saw a robber, his first reaction was to separate the carriage from the escort carriage to reduce the drag, and let him stand out from the encirclement and take Yinliang to Pengcheng. Those who remained, Some died, some were injured, and few survived.

"Then where are Wei Lao Wu and Chou Lao San now?"

(End of this chapter)