The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

After a while, Fu Bi quietly came outside the wall with two soldiers carrying a ladder. The ladder leaned against the wall. Fu Bi picked up his windy cloak and stepped up. Su Jin stopped him and said, "No, I Come on, your silver cloak is dazzling, too eye-catching, since those people attacked at night, they may be wearing the same clothes as me, and the dark cloak is more suitable for the actual situation."

Fu Bi said: "It's better to tell the brothers to go up. If you don't fall off with your little body, how can I explain it?"

Su Jin rolled his eyes, and had to call a soldier to explain a few words in a soft voice. The soldier then walked up the ladder lightly, slowly climbed up the wall, stretched his head slightly when he was close to the top of the wall, and then went down Shrunk, well done.

There was no sound on the stone pagoda, as if he didn't notice it; the soldier turned his head and looked down at Su Jin, asking for his instructions; Su Jin gestured twice, and made a gesture of turning over the wall and pulling up the ladder; the soldier nodded, He climbed up to the top of the wall softly, and stayed still, there was still no sound on the stone tower.

Fu Bi anxiously opened his mouth to talk to Su Jin, Su Jin stretched out his hand and pressed his lips to make a gesture of silencing, and listened attentively; only hearing the sound of "jumping" on the stone tower in the distance, Fu Bi and Yan Biyun were stunned, Suddenly, Su Jin yelled: "Come down!"

The soldier on the wall was stunned, and slid down the ladder like a slide. At this moment, a feathered arrow flew down obliquely against his head, and fell into the open space outside the wall. Its wings fluttered and buzzed. Voices.

At the same time, there was a shout on the wall: "Who is it? Dare to break into the imperial post, patrol team, hurry up and get someone outside the courtyard."

There was a commotion in the post station, and the sound of footsteps was heard. The patrol team of postmen alarmed the patrol team of personal guards, and all the people turned their backs on their backs.

Su Jin said loudly: "Facts have proved that the vision on the stone pagoda can completely spot the person who climbed over the wall. It's time to report to the Lord and take these postmen for questioning."

Fu Bi said loudly, "Go back to the station quickly to prevent chaos."

The three of them quickly returned to the gate of the post station, and there was a lot of noise in front of them. A dozen postmen holding torches were blocked at the door by forty or fifty Yan Shu's personal guards. No one is allowed to leave the gate, and the two sides are arguing endlessly.

Fu Bi shouted loudly: "Take them down and hand over their weapons."

The guards rushed forward, three times, five divisions and two, and handed over all the weapons of the postmen. The postmen were confused and shouted: "My lord, what is the meaning of this? We are waiting here for the postmen!" , Even if we quarrel with them a few times, we won’t surrender our weapons.”

Fu Bi shouted loudly: "Don't make noise! ​​Everyone, let's be wronged for now, stay in the yard obediently and don't move. We will only have separate teaching later. The figures on the wall just now are us, so you don't have to worry about anyone coming in."

The postmen, Monk Zhang Er, couldn't figure it out, so they had to sit by the fire under the threat of Pu Dao, and a group of personal guards raised their swords to watch over them. Take all of them and take them to the front yard, while going to Yan Shu's room to report in person.

Yan Shu had already fallen asleep, when suddenly there was a noise, and he ordered someone to ask what was the matter. Fu Bi who hurried over quickly reported the situation, Yan Shu got up quickly, and followed Fu Bi to the front yard of the inn.

"Where is the courier general?" Yan Shu asked majestically.

A middle-aged man in his forties raised his hand and said, "My lord, I'm next."

"What's your name, He Fangren?"

"My next brother, Liu Youlun, is from Zhecheng."

"Liu Youlun, are you convicted?"

"...Well, where did your lord come from?" Liu Youlun said aggrievedly: "I was leading my brothers to patrol the aisle of the back house, and I heard the brothers on the stone pagoda say that there are people on the wall, so I just rushed out with them to take He was ordered by the rich man to hand over his weapons, my lord..."

"Shut up, I'm asking if this is the case, but the case that happened in Niutou Station nine days ago. The former Yingtian Mansion Yin Tangjie was killed in your station, along with the dozens of guards escorted by the old man. Kill, is there such a thing?"

"This... my lord, I am wronged. This is not the work of the little ones. The incident happened suddenly and without warning that day. I didn't even know that Mr. Tang was killed. The servants went to wake them up in the morning, only to find a All sixteen people in the yard died, and we were wronged."

Yan Shu paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, staring at the postman's expression and said, "Don't you have patrol posts and lookout posts on the stone tower? Why did more than a dozen people die in the post station without knowing it?"

"This..." Liu Youlun's expression was extremely unnatural, and he faltered and refused to speak out.

Fu Bi yelled: "What about this and that, my lord is asking you something, it's easy to answer."

Liu Youlun shuddered, and mumbled, "The thieves... the thieves come and go like the wind, and I won't be able to detect it. This is also unthinkable."

Su Jin stepped forward and said with a smile: "Coming and going like the wind? Just now we just went up to the wall, your tower sentry found it, and you opened your bow and shouted loudly. How come it came and went like the wind that night, so you can't detect it?"

Liu Youlun trembled and was speechless; Fu Bi sneered and said, "It seems that you won't tell the truth if I don't show you some color. Come on, tie up all of you, bring a whip, and take off your shirts, everyone Let’s draw thirty whips first.”

With a roar, the guards came forward like wolves and tigers, and tied up the postman, the postmen and the handymen with ropes to tie up a boar and hooves. Someone had already brought a big cowhide whip, and two big men took the whip Dip in the water in the basin, shake the tendon meat, grab Liu Youlun, stab and stab twice, and tear off the clothes on the upper body, exposing the meat.

A big man spat two mouthfuls of foam in his palms, rubbed his palms, rubbed them with a sneer, and said, "You son of a bitch, you've raised a whole body of white meat. When the whip is whipped up later, that's called being very particular."

Su Jin smiled and said, "Brother, what are you particular about?"

"Hey, our lingo is a little bit of red plum blooming in the snow. It's the best metaphor for beating this kind of thin-skinned and white-fleshed person."

Su Jin rolled her eyes, mother's executioner had so much to say, and even named him such a poetic name, it was really dumbfounding.

The executioner lifted the whip, shook it twice in the air, the tip of the whip made a crackling sound, it was very scary to hear, after shaking it fancy, it was lifted high and fell on Liu Youlun's body.

Liu Youlun shouted in horror: "Don't fight, don't fight, I told you! Brothers, don't blame me."

The whip barely stopped in mid-air, the executioner spat at him and said: "You bastard, you have to beat me to say, I wasted my hard work, all of them are like you, man, do you still have work to do?"

Yan Shu snorted and said, "Xiong Daxiong Er, step back."

The two retreated to the side with a whimper, and Yan Shu walked up to Liu Youlun and shouted, "Tell me, what happened that day? Where were you when the strong man killed the man?"

Lie on the ground, Liu Youlun gasped for breath, and murmured, "I said, our lord spared us, and we did it unintentionally."

Fu Bi scolded: "What nonsense, don't you hurry up?"

Su Jin leaned close to Yan Shu's ear and whispered, "I'll ask you in the hall so that I can record a statement. In addition, it seems that this matter involves not only him, but in front of everyone, I'm afraid I can't say enough."

Yan Shu nodded and said, "Pull him in for questioning. All the others will be detained here waiting for questioning."

Liu Youlun was brought into the hall half-dragged and half-lifted by the soldiers, and the door of the hall was closed, and the noise from the outside world was immediately cut off.

"Say, be quicker, and you'll be happy with me, too. You can't hide this matter." Yan Shu said flatly.

"I said, I said." Liu Youlun kowtowed like garlic, "I said everything."

"What the hell happened that night?"

"That evening, more than a dozen soldiers and one person came to the post station for the night. After the villain waited for them to show their fire cards for confirmation, he arranged them in the T-shaped courtyard in the northeast corner according to the rules. Several soldiers told the villain that they The escort was a high-ranking official, so they couldn't leave, and I could just wait for the food and water to go in, and the little one knew that it should be like this according to the rules, so he agreed."

"Later, Chen Xiaoer secretly came to tell me..."

"Who is Chen Xiaoer?" Yan Shu asked sharply.

"Reporting to my lord, it's a postman under my subordinates, and I'm just outside."

"Well...continue."

"Chen Xiaoer came and secretly told me that the person escorting him looked like Mr. Tang, the mansion of Yingtian Mansion; of course I didn't believe him, calling him an idiot, Mr. Tang was promoted to the post, why did he act like he was escorted to Beijing..., That Chen Xiaoer swears that he is the magistrate of Tang Dynasty, and he also said that he went to Yingtian to watch the dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival, and Master Tang went to the stage to hang green, and said a lot of things; he said that he squeezed under the stage to see clearly."

"The villain is skeptical, but he thinks in his heart that we don't have to ask too much about being an official. We can do our job well and get paid well, but we don't care too much about it."

Yan Shu twisted his beard in thought, and asked, "Then why did the strongman come again? Where were you when the strongman came?"

"My lord, the little one hasn't said anything yet, can you give the little one a sip of water?"

Fu Bi was furious and wanted to kick him, but Yan Shu waved his hand to stop him, "Give him tea, talk slowly after drinking, the night is still long anyway."

The master put down his pen and handed a cup of herbal tea to Liu Youlun. Liu Youlun thought his mouth was dry because of fear, so he drank the tea in one gulp, licked his lips and said, "Thank you, sir."

Yan Shu said, "No need, keep talking."