Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1406 The People on the Boat

The bustards and shopkeepers of the courtyard are known for being greedy, as long as they spend enough money, they dare to hide from anyone, and the courtyard is a relatively closed environment.If you don't speak outside, you can't speak inside.Spending hundreds of taels of silver, hiding in Fantou's boudoir, eating, drinking and having fun for months without leaving the door, there are countless gangsters waiting for the yamen to slack off before escaping.

Zhao Tong also agreed with his thoughts: According to the information obtained from further interrogation of Jia Le: the letters sent from Hao Yuan recently all have a scent of powder.

The fragrance of the powder is very weak, but as a young girl with a spring heart, she is very sensitive to it.

Even though the letters had been burned, Jia Le was forced to recall many details during the harsh interrogation like a juicer that took turns day and night.For example, these letters are all written on high-grade paper—and they are not the things of ordinary literati, they are things in the boudoir.The ink stains did not have the smell of bad ink used for bookkeeping that Hao Yuan used to use in the past.

Obviously, there was a woman in Hao Yuan's hiding place, and the woman's residence was not in a poor place.If it was said that he was hiding in the courtyard, it would be consistent with these details.

Zhuang Haoren, as a "gentle scum" who has been in and out of the academy for a long time to "help", is very familiar with all kinds of shady scenes in the academy, so when he first hunted down Hao Yuan and others, Zhuang Haoren focused all his attention on the academy.He had worked as a servant, and he was very familiar with the people in the courtyards inside and outside the city of Hangzhou. He wanted people and money, and he quickly brought the courtyards in the city and by the West Lake under surveillance.

However, Hao Yuan did not hide in the courtyard—not only did he himself, but his subordinates did not hide in it either.Although there were several suspicious characters hiding in the courtyard, none of them was what they were looking for.

This put a lot of pressure on Zhuang Haoren——I cast myself under Mr. Zhao's family, but I didn't make any achievements, not to mention that I couldn't explain to Mr. Zhao who was sticking to the stick. public.

He thought over and over again, could it be that his guess was wrong?After all, he has been in the lower society of Hangzhou City for many years, and he knows the world of the city fox and the mouse very well.After thinking hard for several days, he finally discovered a blind spot that he hadn't considered: the painting boat on the West Lake.

Although the West Lake is outside the city, it is only separated from the city by a wall, and the transportation inside and outside is extremely convenient.The painting boats on the West Lake are busy with business, people are sent in and out of the city gate every day, there are frequent arrivals and departures, and there is a lot of movement of personnel and items. Just by arranging a few eyeliners at the gate of the city to follow, you may not be able to detect anything unusual.

If Hao Yuan was hiding on the boat and swimming among the lakes and mountains, not to mention that it would be difficult to find him while floating on the water, even if he found it, it would be difficult to arrest him: as soon as he landed, he would be surrounded by the mountains by the West Lake, and he could hide anywhere , Without hundreds of people searching the mountains, they could not find any traces.

However, Zhuang Haoren is not very sure about this: although the painting boat on the West Lake is also a business of prostitutes.But this business is not the same as the courtyards outside the city of Hangzhou, and most of the practitioners are boat people with nine surnames.

The boat people with the nine surnames belonged to the untouchable class of Ming Dynasty, and they were a more closed group. As long as they paid their taxes on time, the government didn't care about their internal affairs.Therefore, the outside world knows very little about their interior.

However, although the boat people with the nine surnames were engaged in lowly business, they would fish in troubled waters from time to time and treat guests on the river to eat "wonton noodles or bandao noodles", but they rarely sheltered people outside the group.For them, the distinction between "inside" and "outside" is very clear - in Zhuang Haoren's view, it is hard to imagine that it would be difficult for Zhuang Haoren to "put a knife in both sides" and risk "a lawsuit".

However, if the boat people with nine surnames really sheltered Hao Yuan, then Zhuang Haoren would be at the end of his rope.No matter how wide-eyed he was, he still couldn't get any useful information from the boat people with the nine surnames.

After much deliberation, Zhuang Haoren couldn't come up with any clever plan, so he resorted to a stupid method, sending people to keep an eye on all the boat docks by the West Lake day and night to see if there was anything unusual.

After staring at it for seven or eight days, he finally noticed something strange.Some people reported that there was a painting boat that was behaving strangely. It stopped at the Baidi area every morning and sent people ashore to buy it.Then drift on the lake.At dusk, every family began to return to the dock to dock, but it set sail for the area around Yanggongdi.At night, it berths at Yanggong Dike.

Although the area around Yanggongdi is not a wild country, there are temples and nunneries in addition to the villas of wealthy people, which is very remote. This painting boat is not a private boat of rich people. Such an approach is suspicious.

Zhuang Haoren immediately sent someone to inquire about the details of this painting boat, and learned that the boat was named "Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou".It was the boat of a bustard named Mei Niang.It used to be parked outside Yongjin Gate at night or when there was no business.

"Coincidentally, I know this boat!" Zhuang Haoren listened to his report and remembered that Mr. Zhao had chartered this boat to entertain guests many times, but Mr. Zhao was not very interested in Yeyou. No more boats were called.

Zhuang Haoren heard that Mr. Zhao was very interested in Meiniang's "daughter" Meiyan'er at one time, but then he became cold again for some reason——so that Meiniang came to the villa several times to say hello, and wanted to find out where her family was. Offended Mr. Zhao, causing him to "break off contact".This is a very serious matter in the traditional business field.

"Our Mr. Zhao, sometimes he is terribly smart, and sometimes he is ignorant of the world. I really don't understand..." Zhuang Haoren thought, and decided to find out the details of this boat first.

At present, he spent money to buy a few small boats selling goods on the West Lake, and watched around the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat", and then sent himself to watch near the Baidi to see what the people on the boats bought when they went ashore every day. .

Although the people on the small boat didn't notice that there was a man on the boat, but after several days of watching, Zhuang Haoren knew that there were other men hiding on the boat besides the boatman and the turtle slave!
"Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou" has been doing business here for many years, how many people are on board, how many men and women, how old and how young, these are all things that can be clearly inquired about.How much they spend on food every day, and how much rice they eat are fixed numbers--the painting boat is for fishing business, not a cargo ship, and the less irrelevant things on board the ship, the better.The required ingredients are bought fresh every day, even the rice, salt, charcoal, etc. that are used every day will not be stored.

Zhuang Haoren followed them for a few days, and investigated the shops where they bought ingredients and groceries, and got the detailed purchase quantity, and quickly analyzed that there are more people eating on the "Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou" these days!
There has been no new imports on this ship recently, and no tourists charter the ship—if there are guests, they must buy exquisite and high-end ingredients for the banquet, and they must also buy good wine.

Zhuang Haoren felt that this was a clue, and after further investigation, he became more confident, so he went to report to Zhao Tong.

"...In addition to food, I spent money to buy an old woman who helped them do chores and wash clothes on the shore. According to her, among the clothes sent for washing these days, there seem to be too many men's clothes."

"What kind of clothes are they?"

"It's the fault here." Zhuang Haoren was in high spirits, "Apart from the two boatmen, there are only two, Mei Niangniang, and a servant who does rough work and also does shopping. The extra men's clothes are by no means the same as those worn by the boatman." This kind—it’s the kind of long gowns made of cheap silk that are often worn by big clerks in shops, teachers in private schools... You know, such people don’t have the money to go shopping.” Zhuang Haoren then took out another He took out a piece of paper, "I asked about the approximate size of the gown and trousers, which are the ones that Hao Yuan can wear!"

Zhao Tong nodded. According to Zhuang Haoren's investigation, it can be roughly confirmed that there is a man with a stature similar to Hao Yuan hiding in "Fang Fei Xiao Yu Zhou".But in the end it is hard to say, it is best to be able to confirm.

"Should I find someone to call a boat and test it..." Zhuang Haoren suggested.

"No, this will scare the snake." Zhao Tong shook his head, he thought for a while, "Can you get someone from the boat and ask him to draw a picture?"

"I'll figure out a way." Zhuang Haoren hurriedly patted his chest.

"It's not been a day since we caught Hao Yuan at the gates of various cities in Hangzhou City. I think everyone on this boat has seen it. If that person is really Hao Yuan, everyone on the boat must have suffered a lot from him." Good..."

"Little one understands, it's too soft to be too hard..."

"Try not to startle the snake." Zhao Tong said, "If he is willing to give benefits, we will too. I will send a few more people to go with you."

For this reason, he has been squatting at the painting boat wharf for several hours-"Fangfei Drizzle Boat" has recently berthed here every two or three days, and let the servants go ashore to deliver clothes and buy food.

While he was bored, suddenly a peddler who set up a stall on the Baidi shook his fan, and Zhuang Haoren suddenly became energetic——the painting boat is coming!
Sure enough, the "Fangfei drizzle boat" on the lake came slowly from the lake.A boatman was standing at the bow of the boat, tapped the penny lightly, and the boat swayed slightly towards the pier.From the outside, there was nothing unusual about the boat.

As soon as the boat was docked at the pier, a maid in green clothes got out of the boat as soon as the gangplank was set up, holding a big rattan basket with a cover on her arm.She is about 37 or [-] years old, with a bun tied loosely and a coral hairpin inserted.Although the youth is gone, but every move, every frown and smile still retains the old charm.Zhuang Haoren knew that she was originally a seductive woman who ate on the boat, but when she was old and had no savings, she could only work as a servant for the boat.

Zhuang Haoren tilted his head and signaled to the sticky staff on the shore: the target has appeared.The staff at the sticky poles nodded calmly and followed silently.

In order to prevent people around from monitoring and leaking the wind, although the pre-clearance work had been done in advance, the person at the sticky pole still waited for her to hand in the laundry and go to the city to cover her mouth and nose, and stuffed it directly into a Go to the city in the sedan chair.

(End of this chapter)