The brothel's madam and shopkeeper are known for their insatiable greed. As long as they spend enough money, anyone will dare to hide. The brothel is a relatively closed environment. [Read the latest chapter] External words cannot enter, and inner words cannot come out. There are countless thieves who spend hundreds of taels of silver to hide in Fantou's boudoir, eating, drinking and having fun for several months without leaving the house, waiting for the Yamen to slack off before escaping.
Zhao Tong also agreed with his idea: According to the information obtained from further interrogation of Jia Le: the letters sent recently from Hao Yuan all have the scent of powder.
The fragrance of the powder is very light, but as a young girl with an aroused love for love, she is very sensitive to it.
Although the letters had been burned, Jia Le was still forced to recall many details during the harsh interrogation that took turns like a juicer day and night. For example, these letters are all written on high-grade paper - and they are not the stuff of ordinary literati, but the stuff of boudoirs. The ink also didn't smell like the inferior, smelly ink that Hao Yuan used for accounting in the past.
Obviously, there was a woman where Hao Yuan was hiding, and this woman did not live in a poor place. If he was hiding in the courtyard, it would be consistent with these details.
As a "gentle scum" who has been in and out of the courtyard to "help" for a long time, Zhuang Haoren is very familiar with all kinds of shady things in the courtyard. Therefore, as soon as he started chasing Hao Yuan and others, Zhuang Haoren focused all his attention on the courtyard. He had worked as a helper and was very familiar with the people in the villas inside and outside Hangzhou. He needed people and money, and he quickly put all the villas in the city and by the West Lake under surveillance.
However, Hao Yuan was not hiding in the courtyard - not only was he not hiding there, but none of his men were hiding there either. Although there are several suspicious characters hiding in the courtyard. But none were what they were looking for.
This put a lot of pressure on Zhuang Haoren - he joined Mr. Zhao and failed to make any achievements, not to mention that he could not explain to Mr. Zhao who was stuck in the stick. Even in this Wulong Club, even though I am the leader, I cannot convince the public.
He thought over and over again, could his guess be wrong? After all, he had spent many years in the lower class society of Hangzhou City, and he knew the world of urban foxes and rats very well. He thought hard for several days and finally discovered a blind spot that he had not considered: the painted boat on the West Lake.
Although West Lake is outside the city, it is actually only separated from the city by a wall, so transportation inside and outside is extremely convenient. The painting boat on the West Lake is busy with business, and people are sent in and out of the city gate every day. There were frequent arrivals and departures, and there was a lot of movement of people and items, so we only had a few informants at the city gate to keep an eye on them. You may not be able to notice anything strange.
If Hao Yuan hid on the boat and floated among the lakes and mountains, not to mention it would be difficult to find him while floating on the water. Even if he was found, it would not be easy to capture him: as soon as he landed, he would be surrounded by the mountains beside the West Lake. Hide anywhere. Without hundreds of people searching the mountain, no trace could be found.
However, Zhuang Haoren is not very sure about this: although the painting boat on the West Lake is also a prostitution business. However, this business is not in the same line as the businesses outside the city of Hangzhou. Most of the practitioners are boat people with the nine surnames.
The boat people with the nine surnames are the untouchable class of the Ming Dynasty, and they are a more closed group. As long as they pay taxes on time, the government will not interfere with their internal affairs. Therefore, the outside world knows very little about them.
However, although the boat people with the nine surnames are engaged in low-income jobs, they will fish in troubled waters from time to time and ask guests on the river to eat "wonton noodles or flat noodles." But they rarely protect people outside their own group. For them, "inside" and "outside" are very clearly distinguished - "instrument" for an outsider and risk "litigation". It's hard to imagine in Zhuang Haoren's opinion.
However, if it is true that the boat people with the nine surnames protected Hao Yuan, then Zhuang Haoren would be at the end of his rope. No matter how broad his eyes were, he still couldn't get any useful information from the boat people with the nine surnames.
Zhuang Haoren thought about it over and over, but couldn't come up with any clever ideas, so he had to resort to stupid methods and send people to watch the boat docks around the West Lake day and night to see if there was any abnormality.
After keeping an eye on him for seven or eight days, he finally noticed something strange. Someone reported that there was a painting boat that behaved strangely. It stopped in the Baidi area every morning and sent people ashore to buy things. Then floated on the lake. At dusk, everyone began to return to the dock to dock, but it headed towards the Yanggongdi area. At night, they anchored at Yanggongdi.
Although the Yanggongdi area is not a wilderness, in addition to the villas of wealthy people, there are temples and nunneries, which is very lonely. This painting boat is not a private boat of a wealthy family, so this approach is suspicious.
Zhuang Haoren immediately sent someone to inquire about the details of this boat, and learned that the boat was named "Fangfei Drizzle Boat". It was the ship of a bustard named Mei Niang. It used to be parked outside Yongjin Gate at night or when there was no business.
"What a coincidence, I know this boat!" After listening to the report from his men, Zhuang Haoren remembered that Mr. Zhao had chartered this boat to entertain guests many times. However, Mr. Zhao was not very interested in Yeyou. In the past six months, the villa has been busy with affairs, so he Never called for a boat again.
Zhuang Haoren heard that Mr. Zhao was once very interested in Mei Niang's "daughter" Meiyan'er, but later he became cold for some reason - which made Mei Niang come to the villa several times to pay her respects and to find out where his house was. I offended Mr. Zhao, causing him to "cut off all contact". This is a very serious matter in traditional business circles.
"Our Mr. Zhao is sometimes very smart, and sometimes he is so unsophisticated. I really don't understand..." Zhuang Haoren thought and decided to find out the details of this ship first.
Now he spent money to buy several small boats selling goods on the West Lake to monitor around the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat". Then he sent himself to monitor near Baidi to see what people on the boat bought when they came ashore every day. .
Although the people on the small boat did not notice any men on the boat, after several days of watching, Zhuang Haoren already knew that in addition to the boatman and the turtle slave, there were other men hiding on the boat!
"Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou" has been doing business here for many years. How many people are on the boat, how many men and women, how many older and how younger. These are all things that can be inquired clearly. Their daily food expenses and the amount of rice they eat are all determined - Huafang is a tourist ship, not a cargo ship, and the fewer irrelevant things on board, the better. All the required ingredients are bought fresh every day, and even the rice, salt, charcoal, etc. that are used every day are not kept too much.
Zhuang Haoren followed them for a few days, and then investigated the stores where they purchased ingredients and groceries, and obtained detailed purchase quantities. He quickly analyzed that there were more people eating on the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat" these days!
There have been no new imports on this ship recently, and no tourists have chartered the ship - if there are guests, they must buy exquisite and high-end ingredients to prepare for the banquet, and at least good wine.
Zhuang Haoren felt that this was a clue. After further investigation, he became more and more sure and went to report to Zhao Tong.
"...In addition to food, I spent money to bribe an old woman who helped them do chores and wash clothes on the shore. According to her, among the clothes sent to be washed these days, there seem to be too many clothes for men."
"Whose clothes are these?"
"The blame lies here." Zhuang Haoren said with great interest, "In addition to the two boatmen, there are only two Mei Niangniangs and a servant girl who does rough work and does shopping. The extra men's clothes are definitely not what the boatmen wear. This kind - the kind of long gowns made of poor silk that are often worn by shop clerks, teachers at private schools, etc... You know that such people don't have money to go to the boat." Zhuang Haoren then took out another pocket. He took out a piece of paper and said, "I asked about the approximate size of the gown and trousers, the ones Hao Yuan can wear!"
Zhao Tong nodded. According to Zhuang Haoren's investigation, it was generally confirmed that there was a man with a figure similar to Hao Yuan hidden in "Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou". But it is difficult to say whether it is true or not, and it is best to confirm it.
"Why don't you find someone to call a boat and test it out..." Zhuang Haoren suggested.
"No, this will alert the enemy." Zhao Tong shook his head and thought for a moment, "Can you get someone from the boat to come and ask him to draw the shadow pattern?"
"I'll find a way." Zhuang Haoren quickly patted his chest.
"It's not been a day since we captured Hao Yuan by drawing shadows and graphics at the gates of various cities in Hangzhou. I guess everyone on this boat has seen it. If that man is really Hao Yuan, everyone on the boat must have suffered a lot from him. The benefits..."
"I understand, little one. If you are too soft, then you must be too hard..."
"Try not to alert the snake." Zhao Tong said, "If he is willing to give you benefits, so are we. I will send a few more people to go with you."
For this reason, he has been squatting at the boat dock for several hours - the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat" has been docking here every two or three days recently, allowing the servants to go ashore to deliver clothes and buy food.
While he was bored, suddenly a hawker setting up a stall on Baidi waved his fan, and Zhuang Haoren suddenly became energetic - the boat is coming!
Sure enough, the "Fragrant Drizzle Boat" on the lake slowly sailed from the lake. A boatman was standing on the bow of the boat. He tapped his pen and the boat swayed slightly towards the pier. From the outside, the ship looks nothing out of the ordinary.
The ship docked at the pier, and as soon as the gangplank was set up, a maid in green clothes got out of the ship, holding a large covered rattan basket. She was about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, with her hair tied loosely in a bun and a coral hairpin. Although her youth has passed away, her gestures and smiles still retain the charm of the past. Zhuang Haoren knew that she was originally a promiscuous woman who lived in Huafang. As she got older and had no savings, she could only live as a servant girl in Huafang.
Zhuang Haoren tilted his head and signaled to the stick stick staff on the shore: The target has appeared. Several people at the sticky pole nodded calmly and followed silently.
In order to prevent someone from watching around and leaking the news, even though pre-clearance work had been done in advance, the people at the sticky bar waited for her to finish handing over the laundry and went to the city. They covered her mouth and nose and stuffed her directly into a taxi. Go to the city in a small sedan. (To be continued...)
