Qin Official

Chaoyangli is surrounded by mountains and rivers. There are sixty or seventy households and a population of four hundred. It has the largest number of households in the Huyangting public security area. However, upon closer inspection, the layout is not much different from Heifu's house in the sunset. It is still surrounded by a single wall, like a self-contained cottage, with the inner door being the only exit.

This pattern is firstly due to the fact that since ancient times, villages and communities have gathered to build walls to prevent thieves and bandits. Secondly, the Qin State has imposed it in order to control the population and not to wander and migrate at will.

Heifu was sincerely grateful for this system. Otherwise, if he could come and go at will, no matter how powerful he was, he would not be able to catch the person who submitted the letter.

When the three of them came outside the inner gate, the inner prison gate was squatting by the door, holding a pottery bowl and eating with a wooden dagger. The black man's red and crimson clothes were clearly marked, and his identity was obvious without asking. The inner prison gate quickly turned around. After spitting out the food in his mouth, he wiped his mouth, smiled, and greeted him, bowing and saying:

"I heard a long time ago that a new pavilion director of Huyang Pavilion took office. I didn't expect that I would be in Chaoyangli on the first day. I really love this pavilion."

The prison gate here looks like an honest and simple middle-aged man, in his 40s, with a yellow face and a black beard, and a bun with crimson cloth. He is obviously a high-ranking man. Hei Fu did not hesitate, and said with a hand, "I'm here to visit unexpectedly. Sorry to bother you."

Li Zheng's gate waved his hands repeatedly: "What are you talking about? The chief of the pavilion is a senior official. We want to invite him but he can't come! What do you mean by disturbing or not? Li Zheng discussed with me yesterday and said that he would go to the pavilion when the snow melts. Visiting..."

He was very polite, and finally looked at the rope tied around Heifu's waist, narrowed his eyes, and asked with some vigilance: "I just don't know what the president is here for? Is there someone here who has committed some crime?"

Hei Fu shook the two-foot wooden tablet in his hand and said with a smile: "Nothing else, it's just a routine inspection. After winter, there are often thieves. Yesterday, I caught a wandering group of soldiers in the poplar tree and sent them to the countryside." . Chaoyangli is a big li, so don’t let your guard down against thieves..."

The two-foot wooden slip and the rope are two things that the chief of the pavilion carries with him. The two-foot wooden slip is engraved with laws and is equivalent to a police ID. The rope is used to tie prisoners and is equivalent to handcuffs.

Hearing that it was just a routine inspection, the prison gate seemed relieved. If someone committed a crime here, he might be implicated.

Heifu chatted with the inner prison gate for a while at the door, and then mainly asked, did anyone from outside come in yesterday?

"Yesterday?"

The inner prison gate touched the beard on his chin, rolled his eyes, thought carefully, looked at Ji Ying and said: "I dare to tell you, the director of the pavilion, except for the mailman, no one else came in yesterday."

"So from yesterday afternoon to today, was there anyone who went out but didn't come back?"

"Everyone who went hunting has returned. Except for the two people who went to the county to serve as guards at the beginning of the month, no one else stayed outside."

At this time, Heifu was basically sure that if the inner prison gate did not lie, the person who submitted the letter would still be in the inner prison at this time!

"Leham."

Heifu said, "You stay here and sit with Li Zheng at the prison gate, while Ji Ying and I go to visit Li Zheng." Heifu said, and he winked at Li Xian.

They had discussed it before. If a pavilion chief came to Chaoyangli with his soldiers to patrol, they would definitely not be able to hide it. When the person who wrote the letter knew about it, he might panic and leave in a hurry, so Heifu asked Li Xian to guard here - -In fact, even the inner prison gate cannot completely clear away the suspicion at this moment.

"What if that person climbed over the wall and escaped?" Ji Ying asked quietly as the two walked side by side.

"It's possible."

Heifu nodded: "In that case, as long as we ask Li Zheng to count the number of people inside, we will know who ran away. The person who ran away is the person who submitted the letter. Although we can't catch him for the time being, we at least know who it is. Do it.”

The two of them walked towards Li Zheng's house. On the other side, Li Xian and Li Jianmen were chatting without a word, while looking at Hei Fu's back, he couldn't help but have mixed feelings.

He came from a relatively good background. He was a distant descendant of the "Li family", a larger clan in his hometown. He could read and write, and he was also proficient in laws and regulations. However, he was not able to inherit because he was not appointed as a "poster" by his father, that is, a successor. With nobility and land, one can only make a living by oneself as a soldier. Originally he wanted to work as a minor official in the county, but in the Qin State, officials must have a title, so he had no choice but to work as a pawn in Huyang Pavilion where there was a vacancy to make ends meet. After all, he had a wife and son at home. feed.

But even so, Li Xian was still somewhat arrogant in his heart. Not only did he look down on Xiao Tao and Yu Liang, who were both soldiers in the pavilion, but he actually didn't even look down on him for seeking to steal the Dongmen Leopard. In the past few months, all the affairs in the pavilion would have been in chaos if he hadn't been there.

Therefore, Li Xian was a little conceited and felt that with his ability, he could be the chief of the pavilion.

However, after Heifu arrived, Li Xian's arrogance disappeared.

The chief of the pavilion was a real meritorious person, and he won the first prize in the martial arts competition. He was favored by the county right lieutenant. He was not the kind of person who relied on nepotism, so Li Xian had nothing to say, but he was still a little unconvinced. .

But when he heard that Heifu had answered all 20 legal questions correctly in the assessment, Li Xian was also shocked. He was not sure he could achieve such a good result.

In the subsequent anonymous letter incident, Heifu showed careful judgment and narrowed down the scope of suspects little by little. This surprised Li Xian even more. He always felt that the chief of the pavilion seemed to have received special training in solving crimes. …

That's why Li Xian admired Heifu but was unwilling to do so.

Time passed quickly, and a moment later, Heifu and Ji Ying came back from Li Zheng's house.

"How is it?" As soon as Heifu arrived, he asked Li Xian to come over and asked in a low voice: "Is there anyone who wants to go out just now?"

Li Xian shook his head: "I kept watching, but no one came."

Heifu muttered: "So... the person who submitted the letter is either too timid and is still hiding in the house because he is lucky, not daring to go out. Or he is too timid and thinks that we will definitely not be able to find him. Or maybe...he has jumped over the wall and ran away!"

"Would you like Li Zheng to call everyone here and count the number of people?" Ji Ying felt that they were very close to the person who submitted the letter, and he was gearing up.

"If you can avoid disturbing the people here, don't disturb them. If the place is disturbed, we will have done nothing but merit."

Heifu thought for a while and said, "I asked Li Zheng carefully just now and found out that there are only twenty literate people here, and among these twenty people, only the one who had contact with Ji Ying yesterday and had the opportunity to submit a letter Three people!”

"Three people!?" Li Xian's eyes lit up, it was much easier to find them.

"Are we going to arrest these three people for questioning?"

"Don't worry." Heifu said, "We don't know what that person wants to report. If we arrest so many people rashly, we might scare snakes and even the rabbits away."

Nowadays, what Heifu is most concerned about is not the identity of the "Chaoyang People", but the content of the letter written by that person. Knowing that it is illegal to send anonymous letters, the mailman and the director of the pavilion may just burn them without reading them. Even so, he still took the risk and invested. If something goes wrong, there will be a monster. He must peel off the cocoon like a surgical operation and find out bit by bit!

After Heifu thought for a while, he said: "In this case, let's keep quiet for now and go find these three people separately to see if they are still at home, and then try to test them!"

…

"Bang bang bang."

In Chaoyangli, the courtyard door of a certain official's house was knocked loudly!

"who is it?"

This gentleman was holding his son in the house. After a long time, he came out impatiently and opened the door. He looked at the person who knocked on the door fiercely, but he was a thin man with a playful smile. He had just come to the house yesterday to congratulate him on the birth. My son’s mailman…

"What's the matter?" The gentleman was very confused. He had no relatives serving in the army, so it was impossible for someone to send him a letter.

"Master, come here, I have something to tell you." Ji Ying was mysterious. After the gentleman came over, he whispered in his ear: "I have seen that object!"

"What?" The gentleman's face was full of confusion.

"It's that object!" Ji Ying blinked and tried his best to hint to the master.

"I'm sick!" The master was still confused. After scolding Ji Ying angrily, he slammed the courtyard door and continued to comfort his son...

"You are so rude, there must be something wrong with you!" Ji Ying screamed angrily, causing the neighbor to poke his head out to see him, so he quickly covered his mouth and slowly backed away.

At the same time, on the other side of the morning sun, Li Xian also left Tian Dian's house to say goodbye. He looked in the direction of Li Dong with a serious face and frowned.

"The most suspicious son of Tian Dian has also been eliminated. The pavilion chief's trick of pretending to know and asking questions, and defrauding the person who submitted the letter without being exposed, is it really useful?"

Li Xian was full of doubts, and at the same time he became more and more curious about who the person who submitted the letter was and what the purpose of the letter was...

"I wonder what's going on with the pavilion chief?"