Xu Zan and Wen Baolin greeted them in the shadow under the city gate.
"You are finally here." Xu Zan stepped forward and held Chen Anning's horse. He was full of complaints, "If you don't come, I will be bled and boned by Lord Yin Tang of Guangling Mansion."
Thinking of the life since the robbery of the merchant ship, Mr. Tang followed him wherever he went, Xu Zan couldn't help complaining again: "Guangling County is the place of residence of your Guangling Palace. When such a big thing happens, you really don't care at all." Worry."
Xie Xun said: "Isn't it you?"
"What's the use of me?" Xu Zan hummed, "I don't know how to investigate cases."
"Isn't this coming?" Xie Xun shook the dust off his body and said calmly.
Xu Zan hummed again: "You are here, but if you come earlier, the next few cases will not happen."
"First of all, I am neither a human nor a god!" Xie Xun snorted, "Secondly, I plan to stay in Wen Mansion when I come to Guangling County this time. Do you want to go with me?"
Xu Zan's tired eyes suddenly shone brightly, "Go! You must go!"
Chen Anning looked at Xie Xun.
Xie Xun raised the corners of his lips, "Then you still want to blame me for being late?"
"Bah!" Xu Zan spat hard and said, "Why are you late? You obviously came just in time!"
"That's right." Xie Xunqian hummed, "Just to come here as early as possible, I gave up all the betrothal gifts on the second day."
Xu Zan couldn't help but secretly glance at Chen Anning with a guilty conscience, "Actually, it doesn't matter if you come here two days later, it's already like this anyway."
"Don't you think it's too late to say it now?" Xie Xun hit him on the head twice.
Xu Zan did not hide.
Although they said they were going to Wen Mansion, because it was early in the morning and they couldn't be disturbed, everyone stayed at the inn that night.
Early the next morning.
When Xu Zan was urging him to leave for Wen Mansion, Mr. Tang arrived.
When Xu Zan saw him, he immediately rolled his eyes.
Mr. Tang chuckled and didn't take it seriously. He handed the cases of several robberies to Xie Xun. As he looked through them, he continued to explain in detail: "The first case occurred at the dock of Jiaxing County, Wu County on the ninth day of September. The robbers committed the crime between Chou Shi and Yin Shi. At that time, the robbed merchant ship arrived late and docked at the edge of the pier. Because when the robbers took action, everyone was already asleep. When the neighboring merchant ships heard the sound, the robbed merchant ship had already died. Sea of fire.”
"According to the account of the only remaining boatman, he drank too much that night. When he got up and went to the side in the middle of the night, he saw a group of men in black rushing onto the merchant ship and killing everyone on sight. These men in black had heads and faces He was covered with a black scarf, and there was no moon that night, so he didn't see anything."
"He hid in the water along the side of the ship. After the ship caught fire, he quietly swam to another merchant ship and was rescued."
"The second case occurred in Danyang County on September 13th. The incident was similar to the first case, except this time all the boatmen were killed."
"The third case occurred on September 15th..."
Xie Xun finished reading the case and handed it to Chen Anning.
Chen Anning quickly scanned it and found that out of ten cases, three were in Danyang County and two were in Guangling County. Later, they were distributed in Wu County, Wu County, Jiaxing County, Jinling County, Jinling County, Xixian County and Huaiyin County.
In other words, the main places where these robbers rob ships are located in Jiangnan River and Cangou.
"What do you think of these ten ship robbery and murder cases?" After Mr. Tang finished speaking, Xie Xun asked.
Mr. Tang frowned and said tentatively: "Could these ship-hijacking gangsters have something to do with the assassination of the prince?"
Xie Xun raised his eyebrows slightly, "Why do you say that?"
Mr. Tang considered it carefully and said: "The investigation of the assassination of the prince is getting tighter and tighter. I believe it will not take long to get to the bottom of the truth. This must be something the mastermind behind it is not willing to face. Since he is not willing to face it, then he can only So that the case cannot be investigated. And the best way to prevent the case from being investigated is to transfer you out of the capital."
The fog that had troubled Chen Anning for many days suddenly dispersed.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have let him come over." Xu Zan was annoyed, "You wouldn't have told me earlier."
Master Tang said slyly: "I'm going to tell you, can Master Xie still come over?"
Xu Zan said angrily: "You just asked him to come over. Have you ever thought that the dowry gift between him and Miss Chen Er will be done soon. Just because I kept urging them, they didn't even do the betrothal gift, so they hurried coming!"
Mr. Tang didn't know that there was still this problem, so he quickly said: "I was not careful and didn't think about this problem. Please forgive me, Mr. Xie and Miss Chen Er."
"It's okay, we're here." Xie Xun replied casually and then asked, "Where is the living boatman from the first case?"
"He lives in Guangling Mansion." Mr. Tang said. "I was afraid that the gang of robbers would find him when he went out and kill him, so I have been arranging for him to live in Guangling Mansion and do some odd jobs."
Xie Xun stood up and said, "Let's go and see him."
Mr. Tang immediately stood up and led the way.
The boatman's name is Jiang Wu. He is seventy-seven in his thirties, tall and strong, and is the only person to survive ten ship robberies.
When Mr. Tang introduced Xie Xun, he quickly put down his work and vividly recounted what happened that night.
Xie Xun did not try to expose the exaggeration in his words, "Approximately how many robbers are there?"
Jiang Wu scratched his head and said, "I don't know how many people there are specifically. Anyway, if you look around, there are at least twenty or thirty people. They started killing people as soon as they got on the boat, and after killing people, they started to move the grain bags. There was no one in the process. Someone said something.”
It seems that the robbers were not familiar with the hijacked merchant ship.
Otherwise it would be impossible not to know the number of boatmen.
Xie Xun curled his fingers, tapped the armrest twice, and continued: "You reported it to the police after you were rescued?"
Jiang Wu shook his head, "They set fire to the boat. The fire was very big. The patrolmen came over when they saw the fire. Then, they asked if anyone was alive, and I went out. After dawn, I was picked up by adults. Guangling Mansion.”
So brave.
After Xie Xun glanced at him twice, he asked according to the procedure: "Does your shopkeeper have any enemies or has he made any enemies recently?"
Jiang Wu scratched his head again, "I don't know. I'm just a porter. I've been working on the ship for almost three years and I haven't said anything to the shopkeeper."
Xie Xun changed his words, "Have you seen any strangers on your ship recently?"
Jiang Wu shook his head, "No."
Xie Xun asked again: "Have you seen any strangers asking about your ship recently?"
Jiang Wu shook his head first, then nodded and said: "About five or six days before the ship was robbed, when the ship was loading in Yuhang, someone seemed to have inquired about it, but it was Zhou Daji who inquired about it. I heard him talking to others The boatman overheard a few words when he said this.”
Xie Xun said politely: "What are you asking about? Did you hear it?"
Jiang Wu thought for a while and then said: "It seems that they asked us when we would sail. However, we had only loaded less than half of the cargo at that time. No one could predict when the ship would sail. Zhou Daji responded to the inquiry When people say it’s time to load up, that’s when it’s time to set out.”
Xie Xun tilted his head and asked Mr. Tang, "Have you checked the location where they parked the ship? Is it another merchant ship that was originally supposed to be parked?"
Mr. Tang glanced at Jiang Wuhou and shook his head.
"Have someone check it out immediately." Xie Xun ordered.
Mr. Tang immediately got up and made arrangements.
Xie Xun stood up with the case and said to Xu Zan: "Let's go to the Wen Mansion that you miss so much."
Xu Zan said rather shyly: "It's better to go empty-handed. Do you want to buy some snacks or something?"
Xie Xun said slowly: "Then you go buy it, I'll go first."
Xu Zan immediately said: "I'll go with you first. You can buy snacks or something later."
However, before they could leave the house, Mr. Tang rushed back and said, "Another ship robbery occurred last night!"
