scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 39

On October 28, the sixth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Mu Tianyan, the magistrate of Xinghua Prefecture (Putian) in Fujian Province, felt that something would happen today after she woke up. At the beginning, Mu Zhifu's right eyelid, who had a strong sixth sense, began to jump non-stop.The left eye jumps for money, the right eye jumps for disaster, Mu Tianyan and the magistrate firmly believe in this statement.

Mu Tianyan's worry and nervousness were not for no reason. Just yesterday afternoon, Mu Tianyan suddenly received a report from the people, saying that a large number of corpses were found at the junction of Putian and Fengting, lying everywhere, roughly It is estimated that there are at least hundreds of them.What's more terrible is that the places where these corpses appeared were almost impossible to die, but they appeared in Putian within two miles from the border of Quanzhou prefecture—you said that if this appeared in Quanzhou prefecture within two miles from the border of Putian prefecture How good would that be for our well-known prefect Mu Tianyan?

More than 100 lives are not a joke, no matter how much you call it unlucky, Mu Tianyan had to send Putian County Magistrate Cheng Qipeng and Chief Qian Zhang An to investigate the situation at the scene of the murder, just because the distance was too far away. Too far away, until now there is no return.But still the same sentence, because the right eyelid kept twitching, Mu Tianyan, the magistrate always felt that this matter must not be that simple, and something big must happen.So much so that when she got up and went to the government office to handle official business, Mu Tianyan couldn't wait to ask Wu Ying, the general of Xinghua, who came to discuss matters: "General Wu, how is it? Did you get any reward for the Fengting murder case yesterday?"

"Not so fast." Wu Ying replied casually: "Fengting is sixty or seventy miles away from Fucheng, and the road is not easy to walk at night. Unless it is a fast horse back and forth, there may be news in one night."

"Really?" Mu Zhifu was a little regretful, and regretted, "Why didn't I explain something yesterday, let Mr. Cheng and the others go to the scene to investigate the situation, and report back to us right away? It's all right now, with Cheng Qipeng's procrastination, after today It’s great to have a presentation inside.”

"Your Majesty, you don't have to worry. It's probably not a big deal." Wu Ying and Mu Tianyan got along fairly well. Seeing Mu Tianyan was worried, Wu Ying couldn't help but casually comforted him: "More than 100 lives. It is not small, but it can be said that it is not a big deal. Since Shunzhi moved to the forbidden sea in 17 years, in our Xinghua Prefecture alone, did not kill thousands of people who violated the forbidden border? There is also Zheng Ni in Taiwan. Hundreds of people were killed without harassing the coast every year? Murder cases have become an old habit! In my opinion, these people are likely to be robbed by bandits on the unlucky caravan, or landed by Zheng Ni in Taiwan. The army was robbed."

"It's really that simple." Mu Tianyan sighed, pointed to her right eyelid, and said with a mournful face, "Did you see that? My right eyelid kept twitching. The last time I did it in the morning, I jumped in the afternoon. Father died right away, causing me, Ding You, to miss three years of examinations."

"Master Futai is overthinking." Wu Ying laughed, and said with a grin: "My right eyelid twitches often, what happened?"

"My lord, my lord, something is wrong!" There was a slap in the face, and then, the county magistrate Cheng Qipeng and Zhang An, the county magistrate who was sent by Mu Tianyan to investigate the situation yesterday evening, rushed in, covered in bruises. Dust covered his face with sweat, he knelt down in front of Mu Tianyan as soon as he entered the door, and cried loudly, "My lord, it's not good, something serious has happened! I went to the scene of the murder and saw that the people who died were all Ping Nan." The people of the palace!"

"What's worse, I heard that this team was to escort Little Gege from Pingnan Palace to Beijing to celebrate the birthday of the Empress Dowager Lafayette. Little Gege's whereabouts are missing!"

"What?" The teacup in Mu Tianyan's hand fell to the ground with a slam, and she was so distraught that she even forgot how to stand up.

"What? People from the Pingnan Prince's Mansion?!" Wu Ying, the general soldier of Xinghua, who was careless just now, was also dumbfounded, and there was such a scene in front of him - his own red cap, and Mu Tianyan's red cap , Cheng Qipeng, and Zhang An's red tops all grew wings, and flew up one by one, flying farther and farther...

"Idiot!" Wu Ying jumped three feet high, pointed at Zhang An and roared: "When something like this happens, you are in a hurry to come back and report it to the authorities? Why don't you move all those corpses to the boundary of Quanzhou Prefecture overnight? ——Do you usually do less of this kind of thing?”

"The end general also thought so at the beginning." Zhang An replied with a sad face: "But the Quanzhou government also received news that the county magistrate of Hui'an sent a large group of yamen servants to monitor us under the pretext of helping us investigate the case, just to guard against us. Come on this trick! Now that Huian is under martial law, many troops have been deployed to guard the border of the mansion under the pretext of arresting the murderer. It is clear that they want to tell the court and the prince that Pingnan Wang Xiaogege came out of Putian. thing!"

"Damn, these cunning bastards!" Wu Ying almost cried.

"What are you still doing?" Mu Tianyan finally came back to her senses, jumped up and roared: "Get your horse ready, get the fastest horse, and go to the scene right away, all of you, go together! Also, send someone to report Lord Jingnan! Governor-General Zu! No way, it’s too late to send people, use carrier pigeons, carrier pigeons——!”

Leading a large group of yamen servants and soldiers, they rushed to the scene without hesitation. It was already after noon, and after taking a closer look at the scene of the murder, poor Mu Tianyan, the prefect of Mu, almost fell off his horse.On the grass in the surrounding area, bloody corpses of horses and horses were scattered everywhere, as well as luggage and parcels scattered all over the ground, and even a flag that was stained with blood and fell to the ground—the flag of Pingnan Palace!

"It's over, it's over, I'm an official, and I'm done." Mu Tianyan burst into tears, "The team of Pingnan Palace had such a big incident in my territory, and little Gege is still missing. , It's completely over! Whether you can keep your head is also a big question."

"Reporting to Mr. Taifu." The Putian county magistrate who directed the cleanup of the scene didn't have eyes. The prefect Mu was already so sad, and he came to report the casualties. "190 corpses were found at the scene, including six female corpses. Judging from the color of her clothes, she should be the personal maid of Xiao Gege in the Pingnan Palace. In addition, within five miles, we found fourteen more corpses, and five miles away, we found more than twenty corpses, so we can be sure that the number of dead is certain. It will exceed the current number, but the body has not been found yet."

"Did you find Little Gege?" Mu Tianyan asked with a sad face, "Are there any survivors?"

"The whereabouts of Little Gege have not been found." The county magistrate shook his head and said, "Two seriously injured people were found, but they only said that there was Little Gege in this team, a county magistrate from Qujing, Yunnan, and other They were ambushed by a group of men in black, and then died of serious injuries one after another. In addition, a yamen servant team leader from Hui'an came to negotiate with us, saying that the guard general Li Tianzhi of this team fled with thirty or forty wounded soldiers When they got to their side, the county magistrate of Hui'an said that the incident happened in Putian, so he didn't dare to ask General Li and their confession, but arranged for a doctor to treat their injuries. case."

"Damn it! If you want to put all the responsibility on the old man's side, just say so!" Mu Tianyan became anxious and yelled, "Tell them, just say that since the survivors have fled to Hui'an, they are Hui'an County and Quanzhou Prefecture. The case-accepting yamen! If you want to get rid of it, there is no way, if you want to investigate, everyone will investigate together, if you want to die, everyone will die together!"

"Huh?" After roaring here, Mu Zhifu suddenly realized that something was wrong—why did his left eyelid jump up again?This right eye jumps disaster, isn't the left eye jumping for money?
"My lord, my lord! Little Gege has been found!" Sure enough, at this moment, another yamen servant rushed over and shouted joyfully from a distance: "Master Futai, I am overjoyed! Little Gege has been found! A monk from Shaolin Temple sent her to the Yamen of our Putian Prefecture! An accompanying official and a servant were also alive, and they were also sent back to the Yamen together with Little Gege!"

"Amitabha, Buddha bless you!" Mu Tianyan jumped three feet high again, she was so excited that she almost shed tears, and said in her heart that as long as little Gege is fine, at least things won't be so bad that they will lose their heads.

"Mu's Terrace, Mu's Terrace!" At this moment, a middle-aged man suddenly jumped out of the crowd of Hui'an government servants, bowed to Mu Tianyan and said, "Your Majesty, Luo Nai, the county magistrate of Hui'an, has seen Xinghua Mansion Your Majesty Taimu, I was in the crowd just now, and I heard Master Futai say that I want Huian County, my subordinate, to cooperate with the case, and I dare not disobey this order, so I came here to listen to the order."

"Damn it!" Mu Tianyan's nose was almost out of breath, and she couldn't help but yelled, "Master Luo, aren't you too cunning? I heard that Little Gege's whereabouts are unknown, so you tried your best to shirk responsibility , I heard that Little Gege found it, so you desperately took credit for it! Do you want to take all the good things in this world by yourself?"

After finishing speaking, Mu Tianyan got on his horse and turned around to leave, and ordered: "Chengzhi County, Mr. Zhang Qian, you continue to lead troops to search to see if there are any survivors and corpses, Mr. Wu, you and I will go back and greet Xiao Gege .As for Mr. Luo, please ask him to cool down there!"

"Mufutai, Mufutai, don't worry, Little Gege's team happened at the junction of our county and your mansion. Now that she has found her, the officer should kowtow to her! Mufutai , please wait for the next officer——!"

………………

Throwing away the shameless Luo Nai, the poor Mutianyan rushed back to Mufutai, almost exhausting the horse all the way, Mutianyan and others finally rushed back to Xinghuafucheng, and rushed straight into When the city arrived at the Zhifu Yamen, Mu Tianyan and the others didn't even have time to take a breath, they immediately scrambled off their horses, stumbled into the Zhifu Yamen, and shouted before entering the hall, "Little Gege is here!" Where? Where? Xiaguan Mu Tianyan (Wu Ying), please greet Little Gege!"

"My lord, little Gege has already gone to rest." A master came up to meet him and said respectfully: "Little Gege seems to have been greatly frightened. After the masters of Shaolin Temple sent him back, little Gege has been dumbfounded and silent. , without talking or laughing, the young one has borrowed two maids from the old man and his wife, and has invited her to rest in the room."

"Good job." Mu Tianyan was overjoyed, and said again: "But there are too few maids, go and call all the maids around my yellow-faced woman, and transfer them all to serve Little Gege!"

"Yes, the student will arrange it now." The master agreed, and said: "One more thing, Lu Yifeng, the magistrate of Qujing County in Yunnan, who accompanied Xiao Gege to Beijing, and his servant who was seriously injured, also He was sent back by the masters of the Shaolin Temple. Hearing from the masters, Little Gege was taken by Master Lu to escape into the Shaolin Temple, and he must know the inside story about the attack on Little Gege and his party."

"Great!" Mu Tianyan was overjoyed, and said in her heart that if she could successfully find out the truth about the assassination of Xiao Gege's team and get the murderer, not only would her life be saved, but her official title might also be saved.

Overjoyed, Mu Tianyan hurriedly asked her master to lead the way, and quickly came to the room where Lu Yifeng's master and servant lived, but when she opened the door, Mu Tianyan was almost hit in the nose by a teacup, only to see a fat, white The fat man huddled in the corner, clutching a teacup lid in his hand, trembling with fear on his face, and kept shouting, "Don't come here! Don't come here! I'm the imperial order, you can't kill me! You can't kill me!"

"What's the matter?" Mu Tianyan asked the master in confusion.

"It was like this when it was delivered." The master replied with a wry smile: "Master Lu seems to have been very frightened. When he was sent here, everyone said that someone was going to kill him. Listen to the masters of Shaolin Temple. Said, he was also like this in the temple, and little Gege was so frightened that he didn't speak at all, and finally his seriously injured servant told their identities, and the masters of Shaolin Temple sent them back."

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Fatty Lu suddenly screamed like a pig, and kept throwing teacups and bowls at Mu Tianyan and the others, "Please, don't kill me! I beg you! I just became an official, I have no money! I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything——!”

"Lord Lu, don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" Mu Tianyan had no choice but to hide from Fatty Lu's teacup while sweating profusely and said, "My name is Mu Tianyan, and I'm from Xinghua Prefecture, Fujian. Prefect, magistrate here, I will not kill you, calm down."

"Mu Tianyan?! The magistrate here?" Fatty Lu seemed to have regained his sanity, and there was some doubt on his face.

"Yes, I am the magistrate here, the magistrate of Xinghua." Mu Tianyan smiled and nodded.

"Prefect?!" Fatty Lu suddenly yelled, and then ran out, yelling, "Ghost! The ghost is here to catch me!"

"Lord Lu, what's wrong with you? Calm down!" Mu Tianyan was completely speechless, so she could only shout: "Quick, hold down Lord Lu."

The servants behind Mu Tianyan agreed, and quickly stepped forward to stop Fatty Lu, who never thought that Fatty Lu would plop his knees and kowtow to Mu Tianyan, crying loudly: "Fu Futai, we have no grievances in the past. , I have no grudges in recent days. When I was in Chaozhou, I didn’t offend you! I dare not stop you from killing Xiao Gege. Now that you are a ghost, don’t come to me. I beg you to spare my life!”

"Fufutai? Chaozhou Mansion? You don't dare to stop Xiao Gege? Don't come looking for you if you become a ghost?" Although Mu Tianyan is famous for flattering - it can be seen from his name, but he is not a person. Very shrewd and meticulous, Mu Tianyan couldn't help turning pale when she heard these crazy words shouted by Fatty Lu, and vaguely guessed something.

"Fufutai, Mr. Fu, Mr. Fu!" Fatty Lu's cries and screams became louder and louder, and he kowtowed desperately at Mu Tianyan, "I am not the one who killed you, you know the one who killed you, I don't know! I don't know anything, I have seniors and juniors, so please forgive me!"

"What the hell is going on? What nonsense is this fat man talking about?" Wu Ying, the general soldier next to him, became more and more confused when he heard it, and hurried forward to hold down fat man Lu, and said, "Master Lu, don't be afraid, I am from Xinghua Mansion Chief Soldier Wu Ying, with me here, no one will dare to kill you, so calm down and speak slowly if you have anything to say!"

"Mr. Wu, Wu Junmen, help!" Fatty Lu wailed like a pig butcher, hugged Wu Ying's thigh again, and cried, "Wu Junmen, you are the master of Qingtian. Make the decision, Fufutai said he wanted to kill me, and the person who killed Fufutai would also kill me, I didn’t! Wu Junmen, I have an 80-year-old mother on the top, and a child who is just one month old on the bottom, you must save it Me! Help me——!"

"Calm down, calm down for me!" Wu Ying was sweating profusely, and really didn't understand what happened.

"Wu Junmen, I'm afraid something big is going to happen this time, bigger than we imagined!" Mu Tianyan, whose right eyelid jumped up again, trembled all over, and ordered, "Quickly, go to the doctor and come to Master Lu and Xiao Gege heals you. Also, you need to mobilize some of the troops in Wu Junmen, and search carefully on the road from Fengting to Shaolin Temple. Maybe the body of Fu Honglie, the prefect of Chaozhou, is also in that area!"

"Fu Honglie's body?" Wu Ying was taken aback and exclaimed, "How is it possible? Fu Honglie is the prefect of Chaozhou. How could he be in Putian? He died in Putian?"

"How do I know? I also hope that my guess is wrong." Mu Tianyan said with a pale face, "But didn't you hear what Lu Yifeng said just now? Fu Honglie planned to kill him and Xiao Gege, but in the end Killed by another group of people, if this is true, then the matter is too big to imagine."

………………

For the next night, Mu Tianyan didn't even know how she spent it. The doctor came to check and said that both Fatty Lu and Shang Wanyi were greatly frightened and needed to be recuperated slowly. Fatty Lu's servant Xiao Erlang He was sane, but his body was too weak to speak clearly, and he couldn't find out what happened.But in the early morning of the next day, the sergeants sent by Wu Ying reported that they found eight more corpses in the mountain stream next to the mountain path leading from Fengting to Shaolin Temple, but they couldn't confirm their identities, and they didn't know what happened in between. Is there Fu Honglie, the prefect of Chaozhou mentioned in Fatty Lu's crazy talk?

Fortunately, Mu Tianyan had met Fu Honglie once, and the incident was so big that Mu Tianyan didn't dare to take it lightly, so he had to ask the sergeant to transport the eight corpses to Chaozhou Prefecture, and personally lead a large group of Putian Local officials went over to identify the body.

"My lord, the eight corpses have been put away." Cheng Qipeng pointed to the eight corpses that had been dispatched one by one, and said respectfully: "The lower official also asked the yamen servants to scrub their faces clean, please identify them."

Mu Tianyan nodded, resisting nausea and fear, stepped forward, and carefully identified the eight corpses.Fortunately, the weather has been cold recently, the decay of the corpse is not serious, and the face is clearly visible.But because of this, when Mu Tianyan walked in front of a disembowelled corpse, her whole body trembled immediately, and she screamed with a pale face, "It's Fu Honglie! It's really Fu Honglie!"

"Is it really Fufutai?" Several civil and military officials next to him were also dumbfounded.

"Yang Guotai!" Wu Ying screamed like a pig, pointing to a corpse and shouting: "Mu Futai, this corpse is Chaozhou general Yang Guotai! Why did he die in our Xinghua?! "

"Chaozhou Governor General Yang Guotai?" Mu Tianyan was in a tizzy—both the Chaozhou Governor and the general died in his territory. This is another crime that could lead to his dismissal from office!In panic, Mu Tianyan screamed like a pig, "Hurry up, take out the corpses of Mr. Fu and General Yang, put them in coffins and enshrine them! Wait, let's do an autopsy first to see if there are any clues that can solve the case!"

The officials and government servants obeyed the order, and hurriedly carried the bodies of Fu Honglie and Yang Guotai out, carried them to the mortuary table to examine the corpses, and for an autopsy, Fu Honglie and Yang Guotai's clothes must be stripped naked. When the coat went to pick off his underwear again, the yamen servant who undressed Fu Honglie screamed, "Master Futai, there seems to be something hidden in Mrs. Fu's underwear, which was sewn with needle and thread."

"Bring it quickly!" Mu Tianyan regained her spirits, and quickly grabbed the blackened and blood-stained underwear. Seeing that there was a large patch sewn on the inside of the back of the underwear, the patch didn't have an opening. Sure enough, there was something hidden between it and the underwear, like a few sheets of paper stacked together, or a letter.

"Master Futai, it should be a letter, quickly open it and have a look." Wu Ying hurriedly said.

At the critical moment, Mu Tianyan's usual slickness and prudence saved her life, she shook her head and said in a low voice, "No, none of us can read this letter! Just think about it, Fu Honglie is the prefect of Chaozhou, and the Dingnan Prince's Mansion coats him. , came to our Xinghua quietly, and died in our Xinghua inexplicably. Do we dare to read the letters he hid on his body? If there is something in it that we should not read, we will die ?”

"It makes sense, Master Futai has a good opinion." Wu Ying and others nodded together, and Cheng Qipeng asked tremblingly: "Then Master Futai, what should we do with this letter?"

"Let's hand it over to Prince Jingnan or Governor Zu." Mu Tianyan said in a low voice, "As long as we don't read it and hand it over to them, then there are really things that shouldn't be seen here, even if the sky falls. The tall one is on top."

"That's the truth." Wu Ying, Cheng Qipeng and the others echoed one after another, agreeing with Mu Tianyan's cautious approach.

"Report-!" Said Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrived.Just at this time, a servant came in a hurry and said to Mu Tianyan: "My lord, Jingnan Wang Shizi learned that Pingnan Wang Gege was attacked in Xinghua Mansion, and personally led the Governor of Fujian Zu Zepu Lord Zu, Governor Liu Bingzheng, Lord Liu, Commander-in-Chief Kong Yuanzhang Kong Junmen, and Navy Admiral Shi Langshi Junmen have come together, and they will be outside the North City Gate immediately, please come and greet Master Futai!"

"What a big battle!" Mu Tianyan gasped, and said to herself, "Too bad, with so many big officials coming in one go, it's likely someone will be in trouble this time, I hope it won't be me. "

Muttering, the eyelids of Mu Zhifu's left and right eyes jumped together.

Note: Mu Tianyan's appearance in this book is indeed a coincidence, and it is definitely not a pure wolf. The county magistrate moved to Tongzhi in Nanning Prefecture, Guangxi. In the sixth year of Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Ren Zuren, he moved to the magistrate of Xinghua Prefecture in Fujian."

(End of this chapter)