stubborn thief

Chapter 169
Ma Maoguan followed the Yunyin team to leave the Guanzhong Plain and head north.

When the great plain recedes to the back and walks along the winding Qishui River Valley mountain road, there are deep gullies and huge gullies on both sides, forming large plateaus in the mountains.

The plateau is densely populated, and the endless villages and fields are dug up and planted everywhere during the busy farming season.

It rained in favor of God, and people said it was a good omen for a good harvest.

Adjacent to Jinsuo Pass, the road became narrower and narrower, and the large plateaus on both sides became small plateaus with thousands of ravines and ravines, and there was no flat land where the edge could not be seen at a glance.

After passing the Jinsuo Pass, Ma Maoguan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and looked at the carriage carrying the silver with increasing eagerness.

But that day, someone in front suddenly shouted: "Officer Ma Mao, come forward, Officer Ma Mao!"

Ma Maoguan's heart skipped a beat, and he turned his head to look at his brother-in-law Qi Shuangquan.

The brother-in-law still had scars from the horse whip on his face, and he was also full of vigilance, with his hand already on the handle of the knife at his waist.

Ma Maoguan shook his head, took a deep breath and strode forward.

I saw a group of people and horses parked in front of them. The leader was wearing a peacock patch and scarlet robe, and there were generals riding horses to accompany him behind him.

Ma Maoguan was startled, thousands of thoughts flashed in his mind, but at this moment he didn't care about it, he hurried forward a few minutes and saluted.

"Little man Ma Maoguan, please greet Lord Bingxian."

This man is called Zhang Yundeng, who was a parent official in his hometown Xianyang in the early years. He has benefited the whole area and has a reputation for good governance.

The teacher is Tang Binyin, the leader of the Xuan Party, and he appointed his Jinshi, but he is not attached to Tang Binyin, so Tang Binyin doesn't like him, and everyone in Donglin also doesn't like him because of the Xuan Party.

However, his outstanding political achievements in Xianyang were the most prominent in the triennial inspection of local officials at that time.

Therefore, Zhuo Yi was promoted by Shaanxi Province, and promoted by the imperial court to be the head of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs.

I was supposed to go to Huguang to participate in politics, but I didn't go because I was ill last year. This year, I recorded meritorious service in Shuixi, and sent him to Shaanxi to participate in politics, and was assigned to guard Yanqing as the deputy envoy of military preparation and inspection.

"You come with me." Zhang Yundeng nodded, turned to the general and said, "Yang is taking care of the commander-in-chief, Xie Yin, so be careful and vigilant all the way."

On the way to Fuzhou, Zhang Yundeng asked Ma Maoguan to walk beside him, and he didn't say anything during the day.

When he arrived in Yijun City in the evening, Zhang Yundeng left him in Yunyang Post City and went to the county government by himself.

Not long after that, the entourage of Bing Bei Dao went out to deliver relief food outside the city.

Ma Maoguan was restless, always wondering whether his contact with Liu Chengzong had been revealed, and whether he should run away, but he was afraid that his family would be implicated by running away.

Zhang Yundeng didn't come back until dark, he looked very angry, but he was swearing in a Sichuan dialect, and he spoke so fast that Ma Maoguan couldn't understand.

I only know that it probably means that rich people are plague pigs and are not enthusiastic about disaster relief.

But I didn't expect Zhang Yundeng to be very enthusiastic towards him, and saw him slap his head: "I forgot about you, it's midnight and I haven't eaten yet, come over and eat together."

Then he called Ma Maoguan to the official room, asked the post station to prepare meals, and asked him if he would drink alcohol. When he said no alcohol, Zhang Yundeng smiled and said: "It's better not to drink, it costs a lot of food."

After sitting down, Zhang Yundeng asked: "I heard people say, are you from Xianyang?"

Ma Maoguan quickly said: "Yes, the villain is indeed from Xianyang, speaking of which Lord Bingxian is the villain's parent officer."

"Yes, I found out that it is a Xianyang native, a Xianyang native who fought in Wen'an Station, tell me."

Ma Maoguan blinked: "Say, what are you talking about?"

"What can I say?"

Zhang Yundeng said cheerfully: "I know that you used to be in charge of the team. When you went back, you were dismissed from your official position, but people will always recover, but you are just in charge of the team. With a little merit, you can be reinstated as an official. It's okay to go further."

"Liu Chengzong, what are the numbers of soldiers and horses in his army, how is his armor, where are his nests and strongholds, what is his food and grass, why..." Zhang Yundeng said, "Why are you all released?"

Zhang Yundeng has always been very curious about Liu Chengzong, he has heard of this name a long time ago.

He was recuperating in his hometown last year, and he heard about the prison robbery in Yan'an Mansion through a letter from a friend.

In his eyes, this thief is different from others.

In fact, most thieves in northern Shaanxi do the same thing, that is, robbery. It is normal to rob wherever they go.

Zhang Yundeng can understand that it is natural for people to eat.

But if a person depends on robbing for food, then he will rob if he lacks clothes, money, and wife.

Therefore, as soon as he took office in the Hexi military equipment, he thought that the most important direction of his work was not to organize the military equipment, but to do everything possible to relieve the disaster.

Only by providing disaster relief first, can the new people be prevented from becoming thieves. Isn't it difficult to deal with thieves who are full of robbery?
Therefore, in addition to disaster relief, he paid special attention to unique thieves.

Then Wang Jiayin and Liu Chengzong were discovered.

How to say these two people, a little silly.

Wang Jiayin is the enemy of Fugu County, where is Fugu County?There are only two cities like this in the key land connecting Yulin and Xuanda, one Fugu and the other Hequ, guarding both sides of the Yellow River.

But this impregnable Fugu County, as if the county seat was built by Wang Jiayin's father, has reserved a doorway for him.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the army started from breaking Fugu, and Bang Bang Bang led the soldiers and local bandits to break through a series of military fortresses, and finally broke through Fugu County.

Chongzhen repeated this process again in the second year, and when he went to Hequ in the spring of this year, he broke Fugu County first.

Anyway, if you can defeat the officers and soldiers, you have to break through a mansion to boost the morale of your brothers; a commemoration.

Wang Jiayin's ability to fight is understandable. From the beginning to now, he has been fighting against the frontier army, fighting in the nest of the frontier army.

But Liu Chengzong was different. Zhang Yundeng knew very little about Liu Chengzong. He never heard of which county or state city Liu Chengzong besieged, nor which county or state city he broke.

The only Yan'an prefecture city also caused a big riot during the prison robbery, and it was defeated by a hundred households of Yan'an Guard in a blink of an eye, which shows that it was not yet a climate at that time.

But Zhang Yundeng was also puzzled by this. According to the thieves' strategy, this Liu Chengzong should rob wealthy gentry, but there is no news about this in Yan'an Mansion.

Only small thieves like Shetatian, Guotianxing, and Cao Cao looted around, and then the station was gone.

When Zhang Yundeng found Liu Chengzong again, Li Bei's Yan'an camp with more than a thousand officers and troops was defeated, and then Ai Mu's nearly full Yan'an camp was defeated.

He arrested Yan'an camp and beat him.

So Zhang Yundeng felt that this thief was a little silly, and the person who defeated him was Yan'an Wei, why did he hold on to the Yan'an camp?
One is a guard and the other is a battalion. Is it so difficult to distinguish?
Zhang Yundeng hoped too much for Liu Chengzong's information.

However, Yan'an Mansion is a bit hard to describe.

On the one hand, he communicated with Zhang Nian, the magistrate of Yan'an. The magistrate said that although the information was not easy to transmit, there were some small thieves in the countryside, the people occasionally resisted taxes, and the tax collectors were as timid as mice.

But the problem is not big, there is Ren Quan'er of a thousand households stationed at Saimen in the north, Shi Wanzhong of a deputy thousand households in the south to guard the besieged city, and Chen Ruji of a deputy thousand households in the east for Zhuantianmao.

The vicinity of Fucheng is under control.

I only hope that the Hexi Bingxian can quickly catch Liu Chengzong. This thief is extremely fierce, and he still kills people near Fucheng when he returns home in winter.

The people sent by Zhang Yundeng also said that the situation in Yan'an Fucheng is not bad, as long as there is no tax collection, everything will go smoothly and the people's mental state is also good.

But the problem is that this place only collected a tax of twenty taels of silver in the past year, and even if other counties moved the tax to the vicinity of the prefecture, the tax money would be gone, and there would always be a messy thief to rob the silver.

Now the population of this place has been greatly reduced, and the remaining people are no longer living in dire straits. However, according to the fact that the prefectural and county towns are still functioning well, it should not be impossible to collect taxes.

This is not reasonable.

But his question was a bit difficult for Ma Maoguan.

Ma Maoguan didn't want to tell him, but he thought about it and didn't find a reason for himself not knowing.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "The villain was captured last time. It can be seen that Liu Chengzong's troops are indeed elite. There are four thousand people under his command. The soldiers are well equipped, and the food and grass should be relatively sufficient."

Officer Ma Mao thought for a while, and he couldn't hide these things anyway, so he said: "He gave the prisoners porridge with jerky and healed the wounded soldiers. Get some money for travel expenses, give two or three catties of yellow noodles, and let us go."

Zhang Yundeng pondered for a moment, then asked: "What about the lair?"

"The villain really doesn't know its lair, only that it came from the east of Yanchuan last time."

"now it's right."

Zhang Yundeng raised his hand and tapped heavily on the table, raised his head and closed his eyes and sighed with a solemn and sad face.

It seemed his guess was correct.

Why did Liu Chengzong go from east to west?Either, someone communicated with the thief to let him know the news of General Ai's appointment as a general; or, he was going back to Yan'an Fucheng and ran into Ai Mu.

His lair is near Yan'an Fucheng.

If Liu Chengzong's lair is near Yan'an Fucheng, Yan'an Fucheng shouldn't look like everything is normal,
If everything looks fine, what is the problem?

Zhang Yundeng left Ma Maoguan to eat alone, got up and left the table, walked out of the official room, found General Yang Xun, and said in a low voice: "General Yang, my guess is right, Ma Maoguan doesn't know where Liu Chengzong's lair is, but he led troops from east to west , most likely to return to Yan'an Fucheng."

General Yang Xun was taken aback for a moment, Hexi Bingbei told him that he suspected that there was something wrong with the Yan'an government office, and then asked seriously: "Master Bingxian said..."

Zhang Yundeng nodded slowly: "Now I seriously suspect that the magistrate Zhang Nian is raising the bandits' self-esteem and embezzling tax money."

Yang Xun said: "This... If this is true, then Liu Chengzong must have known the transportation route of the official bank, and the road to Yanzhou and Yan'an Mansion may be blocked by him."

"That's right. Go to the city to find another box and eight thousand catties of stones. At midnight tonight, we will secretly send our confidantes to break the seal and transfer the official money."

"You and I will go straight to Yichuan without passing through Fuzhou, and transport it to Yulin Town via Yanchuan in the north; as for the official silver box, it will be transported to Yan'an Fucheng by the official Ma Mao."

The opening strip is a big deal.

Yang Xun hesitated, and said: "My lord, even if you don't talk about breaking the seal without authorization, you just change the road to Yichuan, that road is far away, if Liu Chengzong makes a move in Fuzhou and finds that the box is filled with stones, he will definitely march to Yanchuan again. "

Zhang Yundeng nodded and said: "So we need to be quick, I will write a secret letter to the new governor of Yansuihong, asking him to send troops to Yanchuan to respond."

Yang Xun no longer hesitated, and immediately agreed.

Zhang Yundeng then returned to the official room, his brows looked much more relaxed, and he said: "Maguan Team, do you want to continue to serve the court?"

Ma Maocai was so heartbroken by what he said, afraid that his thoughts would be exposed, he asked quickly: "What does your lord mean? The villain has been working for the court!"

Zhang Yundeng shook his head and said: "You are from Xianyang, I trust you so much, just now Yanchuan came to report that there were thieves harassing, if you escort this batch of silver and transport it to Yanchuan via Yan'an Fucheng, I will wait for you there .”

"You, can you finish it?"

Ma Maocai frowned, he felt that something was wrong.

It sounds like... It's like Zhang Yundeng was afraid of Liu Chengzong, that's why such an arrangement was made.

But he knew very well that Zhang Yundeng had participated in the quelling of the She'an Rebellion in Shuixi, so he shouldn't be a person who would shrink back.

But before he could answer, it seemed that he was hesitant, Zhang Yundeng said: "If you finish this matter, you are willing to stay in Hexi, and I can recommend you as Baizong; if you intend to go to the frontier, I will also recommend you I can recommend you to Governor Yan Suihong and work by his side."

Ma Maoguan was dumbfounded.

It doesn't matter whether you are the chief executive of Bing Beidao or the governor of Yansui, you can reach the sky in one step.

If there is such a good thing, you should have said it earlier!
He didn't take the risk just because the officer in charge of the team was slapped.

As long as he lost the battle and was not promoted, his family and relatives lived well, even if he was in charge of the team, he would not try to find a way to contact Liu Chengzong.

Regardless of whether Liu Chengzong is willing to share 500 taels or 200 taels, is it comparable to serving as an officer for the imperial court for this little money?
But it's too late to talk about it now. Liu Chengzong already knows about the money, and he is waiting in Ganquan County. Who can keep the money?
"The villain is willing to serve the adults, but... the humble official is worried about encountering thieves along the way."

Ma Maoguan thought for a while and said: "My lord, why don't you let the villain deposit two silver, and follow the adult from Yichuan to the north. Although the road is a bit far away, the mountain road that the villain took when he was released last time is familiar to him."

Zhang Yundeng didn't speak, and gave Ma Maoguan a meaningful look.

Look, Ma Maoguan knew that it was not safe to go to Yan'an Mansion, but Zhang Nian, the prefect of Yan'an, didn't know, and said that everything was under control!
This matter is becoming easier to distinguish, either there is a problem with all the generals, school banner troops, officials and subordinates in the guard and Fucheng, or there is a problem with Zhang Nian, the prefect.

Which of the two might be bigger?
Obviously, other people may or may not have a problem, but Zhang Nian must have a problem.

Could it be that everyone is making up nonsense just to deceive the magistrate?
"Maguan team, you are a smart man. If you meet a thief on the road, you just need to find out one thing for me. Is it Liu Chengzong?"

Zhang Yundeng said: "If it's not Liu Chengzong who comes, you must be able to stop it; if it's Liu Chengzong, you leave the official bank and withdraw. Afterwards, I will recommend an official position for you, and it is bigger than Baizong."

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)