The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

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As Su Jin expected, the city of Luzhou was very restless. In the evening, under the instruction of Zhu Shiyong, another group of desperadoes from the Xishan gang, led by the bandit leader Qian Erhu, sneaked into a house on West Street. .)

At the beginning of the shift, a large car slowly approached the gate of the house, and Lang Shaodong got out of the car with a face full of alcohol, and was about to enter the house with the support of two assistants; Looking at the sound, I saw more than ten masked men rushing from the corners of the houses with steel knives.

Lang Shaodong woke up most of the wine, and kept yelling: "Open the door and go in, there are villains."

Two young fellows swung their hammers and slammed on the gate, shouting: "Steward Ma, Steward Ma, open the door quickly!"

Steward Ma was scolded by Lang Shaodong that day. The weather has not been smooth these days. He drank a few bowls of yellow soup at noon. "Is it all fucking dead? To open the door, I have to go in person, little baldy! Little baldy! Go and open the door."

He didn't even see the boy in the front yard, the little bald boy, even yelling a few times. He guessed in his heart that this guy must have gone out to make money secretly while the young boss was not at home again.

The knocking on the door was louder, it was no longer knocking, but knocking on the door. After all, Butler Ma was afraid of punishment. Young Master Lang’s family was vicious when they started a fire and beat someone. Unable to bear it, he quickly put on his coat and hat and hurried to the front yard. Strangely, only halfway through, the knock on the door suddenly stopped.

Butler Ma said loudly: "Here we come, come here, don't worry, the Young Master, no one in the front yard is here, I didn't hear you in the back yard just now."

There was no sound outside, as if no one was at the door; Steward Ma shook his head, thinking that he was hallucinating, perhaps because he was too afraid of the young master, and dreamed that the young master smashed the door.

However, he still walked quickly to the door, lifted the wooden board of the small door and looked out. There was no one outside the door, but a large cart was parked at the door. The guy didn't see any of them.

Steward Ma pulled the latch suspiciously and stretched out his hand to pull it. When the door opened, a bloody thigh suddenly fell in and hit Steward Ma's foot directly. He screamed in fright and turned around to run.

After running for two steps and seeing no movement, he turned around cautiously and stared at him carefully. He saw Lang Shaodong's family fell head-down on the ground, with one thigh resting on the threshold, trembling; a stream of blood flowed down like a small fountain. The neck is swollen and blown out.

Butler Ma covered his mouth and looked towards the porch. On both sides of the porch, one leaning against the door, there were two corpses sitting crookedly on the ground. They were the two boys who went out with Shaodong's house. A huge shocking wound, the heads of the two people were tilted to one side along the wound, and it seemed that they were about to roll off their shoulders.

Steward Ma's scalp was numb, and after staying for a long time, he suddenly let out a howling cry: "My mother! It's terrible, someone died!"

……

In the Su family's house in Dongcheng, Luzhou, the red lanterns at the gate swayed in the wind, but the house was completely dark.

More than a dozen black shadows outside the house quickly sneaked out of the shadows, and slowly entered the base of the wall in the front yard of Su's house. Looking at the high wall of the house, which was more than ten feet high, a black shadow made a gesture and patted his shoulder with both hands. , All the black shadows nodded frequently, and quickly stepped on the shoulders one by one to climb the ladder in groups of three; after a while, more than ten black shadows had already climbed onto the wall.

Qian Erhu, the leader, leaned on the wall and looked into the house. It was dark inside, and there was no light, so everyone must have fallen asleep; Qian Erhu made a gesture, jumped off the wall lightly, and landed on the flower bed in the courtyard. , the rest of the people filed down, tiptoeing towards the main hall.

The door of the main hall was ajar, and Qian Erhu and the others approached the second entrance unimpeded, passing through the corridor and the patio is the back house, the closer to the back house, Qian Erhu felt that something was wrong, the whole house was silent, Not even a snoring sound.

"Where does that kid live?" Qian Erhu asked softly.

"It is said that the small courtyard at the east end of the back house is the residence called Su Jin. Let's not go around and get that Su Jin directly, force him to hand over his things, and then chop him up with a knife." One person approached the money. Er Hu whispered in his ear.

Qian Erhu nodded and said, "Alright, everyone, be careful, I always feel a bit evil."

Everyone nodded silently. Qian Erhu took the lead and quickly came to the small courtyard where Su Jin lived through the blind corner of the corridor screened by flowers and trees.

Qian Erhu scolded in a low voice: "***, I'm afraid I'm not at home."

The people around said: "It doesn't matter if he is at home or not, just rush in and talk; if he is not at home, we will wait for him here."

Qian Erhu nodded and said, "Go."

Everyone jumped up and went up the steps quickly. The main door was ajar and was not tied at all. Qian Erhu couldn't control that much anymore. He stretched out his hand and pushed the two doors, and shouted: "Don't move, move! I want your life!"

In the silence, I heard a 'click' on the door, followed by the wind blowing overhead, Qian Erhu shouted: "No, there is an ambush."

Thanks to his quick reaction, he jumped out, but he was a step too late. He only heard the sound of splashing water, and a large basin of cold water was poured on the door, immediately throwing Qian Erhu and the five or six people who rushed in first. Drenched head and face.

On a cold windy night, the bone-chilling water flowed down from his neck, and his whole body was frozen instantly. After jumping out of the door, the cold wind blew, and he sneezed more than a dozen times, covering his whole body with goose skin.

"F*ck, evil!" Qian Erhu wiped the ice water off his head and face, shaking his lips and shouted, "Rush in and chop him up as a dog."

Everyone rushed forward, and there was ping-pong-pong hacking in the left and right wing rooms, the quilt on the bed was hacked into pieces, but there was no one in sight.

"Light the torches and look around the houses." Qian Erhu cursed angrily.

Everyone quickly lit torches and searched around, and reported one after another: "Brother Erhu, the house is empty."

Holding a torch, Qian Erhu stepped into the house, and searched the rooms on both sides carefully, except for the mess after the mess just now, there was no one.

Qian Erhu reached out his hand to touch the cabinet, leaned closer to the torch to look at it, and cursed: "A layer of dust, it seems that no one has lived in it for a few days, this son of a bitch has run away."

Everyone stared at him with big eyes, no wonder Zhu Zhifu said that this kid was cunning, and told himself and others to be more careful. Sure enough, he was poured cold water down his neck without even seeing him.

"Brother Two Tigers, what should we do?"

"Ah... I owe." Qian Erhu sneezed and said angrily, "I know what to do, Ge Laozi?"

Everyone was speechless, a big man gasped and said, "What is that?"

Everyone looked in the direction of his fingers, and saw a piece of paper on the desk. Qian Erhu reached out to take it, and leaned closer to the torch for a closer look, and saw a drenched and distressed local dog drawn on it. There are also a few large characters written: "Dog that fell into the water, please punish him, if you don't get out quickly, you will die without a place to bury you."

Qian Erhu cursed, tore the note to pieces, and shouted, "Burn this puppy's kennel."

Someone nearby hurriedly stopped him and said, "Don't worry, Brother Erhu. Once the house is burned down, isn't it tantamount to committing a crime openly? Didn't the prefect Zhu say it? You can only do it secretly, and you can't make it public."

"**** What a bird, he said it so lightly, I have been teased..." Qian Erhu cursed.

"It's better for us to report back to him. It's not that we don't do anything, but that we haven't met anyone. If we burn the house down and scare the snake, that kid disappears without a trace. If the dog officer blames him for not fulfilling his promise , Aren’t we at a loss? We have no grievances with this Su Jin, no matter if he catches him or not.”

Qian Erhu thought for a while, stomped his feet, and cursed: "Fucking is really annoying, just according to your son of a bitch, report it first and then talk about it."

……

On the third watch, in the government office of Luzhou.

Zhu Shiyong looked at Qian Erhu, who looked like a drowned chicken, and was furious, cursing: "It's useless to live, the cowhide was blowing loudly earlier, and it became a drowned chicken in the blink of an eye."

Qian Erhu sneezed repeatedly and said, "Can you blame us? You leaked the news yourself, and no one is here, why kill?"

Zhu Shiyong's face was gloomy, his eyes turned to Vice President Liu who was sitting on the side, and he said, "President Liu, what do you think?"

Vice President Liu frowned and said: "It seems that Su Jin has been prepared for a long time, which also shows that the news was released by Su Jin through the mouth of Lang Yongping. Take precautions."

Zhu Shiyong's nose was so angry that he spread his hands and said, "What should I do? What should I do now?"

Vice President Liu said: "Now we can only pray for Shouzhou to succeed. As long as the evidence is destroyed, we can say anything."

Zhu Shiyong said: "What about Su Jin? What if all the evidence is in his hands?"

Vice President Liu gritted his teeth and said: "Su Jin has disappeared without a trace, but his family, mother, and servants are no less than 50 people, and the monks can't escape the temple if they run away. He himself can get away, and his family members don't even want to get away; now the only thing he can do is to take the risk, take Su Jin's family and relatives, and force him to show up in exchange for evidence. The evidence is naturally very good in his hands. If he is not there, let him find a way to ask Ouyang Xiu for it."

Zhu Shiyong said: "That's fine, he won't ignore the life and death of his family members; come and pass my order, the gates of the four cities will be closed tightly, and all people who come and go will check their identities; The government doesn't believe it, it can't deal with a stinky doll." -No pop-up window reading_m