When more than sixty Northern Navy cavalry arrived at the ruined temple, it was just past Sichu, which was a little after nine in the morning. The deputy company commander who led the team found a mountain col to hide the group, and then sent a few soldiers to conduct reconnaissance at the ruined temple.
In less than half an hour, a soldier came back and reported that the beggars were still there. The deputy company commander left a few people to look after the horses, and then set off with the others. When he arrived at the gate of the ruined temple, he divided his men into two groups and asked one platoon to guard the exits of the backyard. He led the other platoon directly to the entrance of the backyard. After a while, when he learned from the walkie-talkie that everyone was in place, he raised his hand and fired a shot into the air.
"boom!"
The sound of gunshots echoed in the small yard, and the snow on the tree branches was shaken and scattered. The beggars in the house were all startled. They thought to themselves that it was Chinese New Year, who came to set off firecrackers in this broken temple? ?
"Everyone inside, listen! You are surrounded! I will shoot you dozens of times if you don't come out! Everyone comes out with their hands on their heads! Anyone who dares to resist will be shot to death!"
Hearing the sound, several beggars rushed to the window and looked out through the gap in the straw curtain. Unexpectedly, when they saw this, they were all shocked and trembled. One guy was so frightened that he peed. A fishy smell began to float in the room.
The face of the beggar on the kang suddenly changed. He also moved to the window and looked outside. He saw at least twenty people in white cloaks standing or squatting in the yard, all holding "muskets." There is actually a sharp "dagger" under his mouth.
The beggar's head was buzzing, his ears were ringing, and his whole body was paralyzed. This is not an official official, but a Beihai soldier who made the Qing court frightened!
It was said that the sudden departure of the theater troupe and the villagers of Chuiliu Village certainly aroused his alarm, but after thinking about it carefully, he didn't take it too seriously. The reason why I think so is mainly because of the traditional "New Year seal" system of the Qing Dynasty government.
The sealing system of the Qing Dynasty was inherited from the Ming Dynasty. The Qintian Supervisory Committee determined the sealing date of the next year in the previous year and stated it in the "Shi Xian Shu" promulgated to the world. Almost from the early Kangxi period, the sealing time was determined to be on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of the twelfth lunar month, while the opening of the sealing office had to wait until the 20th of the first lunar month of the next year.
Although military affairs, disasters and homicide cases must be handled during the seal period, and local officials are not allowed to delay, for homicide cases, someone must first report to the official to provide evidence; as for ordinary petty theft cases, no one cares at all. We have to wait until the printing is released.
The beggar head thought that the previous case was done flawlessly, and he also thought that today was the New Year's Eve. Even if the new dynasty government investigated the case, if anything happened, it would be after the New Year, and the official would not go out of the city for dozens of miles to visit this ruined temple. Coming. After discussing with his men, he decided to wait until the snow stopped before taking the money from the robbery and running away.
How could he know the problem, because the four counties had just been conquered a few months ago, and the closer the New Year was, the more the military control committees in various places did not dare to take it lightly; and the system in Beihai Town was completely different from that of Daiqing, and there had never been any rules about sealing during the New Year!
"Boss, what should we do?"
The beggar head rolled his eyes rapidly and whispered to several of his men: "Howl!"...
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of beggars in the house began to shout: "Master, you are wronged! We are just a bunch of flowers, using this ruined temple to hide from the wind and snow for a few days."
"Master, please do it! We have never done anything illegal!"
Taking advantage of this time, the beggar head quickly opened the corner of the earthen kang, took a few bundles handed over by his men, stuffed them in, then covered them with kang bricks, sprinkled some soil on them, and then used broken After the mat was covered, he picked up a pile of hay to cover it, and finally put his own tattered bedding on top. There was no fire in this earthen kang because the flue was blocked, so it was perfect for hiding things.
"Bang!" The Beihai navy outside didn't talk nonsense at all. He fired another shot into the sky, and then began to count: "Ten, nine, eight."
At this time, the beggars in the room were frightened, and those who were begging for mercy did not dare to say anything anymore. The beggar was at his wits end. There were dozens of "muskets" outside, and there were no windows on the west side of the west wing where they were, so even if they wanted to jump out of the window and escape, there was no chance. He rolled his eyes rapidly and whispered urgently to everyone in the room: "Be strict with your words! They don't have any evidence and don't dare to do anything to us. As long as they can hold on, they will be out in a few days!"
After hearing this, all the beggars nodded hurriedly.
When the beggar saw this, he shouted in a hoarse voice: "Master! Let's come out! Come out!"
Bei Haijun outside waited for a while and saw that the straw curtain finally moved. The first thing that stretched out was a hand, followed by a guy in ragged clothes holding a pair of broken cotton shoes.
At this time, the soldier closest to the door took two steps to the right, pointed to the open space behind him and shouted: "Hold your head with both hands! Squat there!"
As soon as the beggar tremblingly walked over and squatted down, two Beihai navy pounced on him, pulled one arm back from his ribs, and passed the other arm behind his neck, and then used a black plastic The handcuffs were put on both wrists and he performed the "Su Qin Back Sword Style". The beggar screamed in pain and fell to the ground. After that, other beggars filed out, all in the same posture as the first one, and were cuffed.
All the beggars were shocked at this moment. They must know that this method of binding people is usually used by the old policemen in the yamen, and is specially used to lock up those big thieves and repeat criminals. After an ordinary prisoner is tied up like this, as long as the rope is tied firmly, it is difficult for the prisoner to break free; and there is another advantage to tying people up in this way. The arms are controlled, so even if they escape, they can't run fast.
"Go and bring those two detectives in." The deputy company commander who led the team waited until all the beggars were tied up, and then asked his men to go outside and call for help.
Not long after, two guys wearing casual cotton jackets, felt hats, and iron rulers on their waists walked into the yard. When he saw the beggars squirming all over the place, one of them had a smile on his face. Don't mention it, the method of binding people was his idea!
It turns out that in the Qing Dynasty, the group of "quick catchers" was actually two types of people, called "quick catchers" and "fast hands" respectively. The catcher specializes in catching theft, similar to the criminal police in later generations. There are chief catchers, catchers, catchers and white catchers. The white catchers are temporary workers. Although Kuaishou sometimes assists in catching thieves, their main responsibility is Collect food. Although the two are often referred to together as catchers, they are by no means the same thing. …
Since there are currently no people in the Ninghai Prefecture Military Control Commission who are good at catching robbers and solving crimes, after receiving the checkpoint report last night, they temporarily recruited two people from the city who had worked as police officers. The older of the two is called Cao Guifu, who is in his early thirties and used to be a catcher; the other is Guo Yu, who is only 19 this year and used to be a catcher.
Cao Guifu is well-known in Ninghai Prefecture. He is good at catching thieves. By observing people's movements, he can often find flaws that are difficult for ordinary people to find. Guo Yu was a young man who just inherited his father's position and used money to become a catcher at a young age.
Although the social status of the policemen in the Qing Dynasty was not high, and their salary for work and food was only six taels a year, they were still a profession with rare goods. Moreover, many leaders of secret sects were from the policeman group, such as Lin Shuangwen, and others before Duan Wenjing was examined by Xu Shounan.
In a place like Dengzhou Prefecture, where maritime trade is developed, not to mention the despicable activities of stealing furniture and sharing the wealth with thieves, just from the default monthly fees and bad rules, a trapper can get hundreds of taels every year. In terms of silver, the head catcher and the chief catcher can get thousands of taels.
Cao Guifu and Guo Yu had a pretty good reputation among the police. Of course they took the money they deserved, but they did not do anything unscrupulous; such as bullying men and dominating women and sharing the spoils with thieves.
The two of them had been hiding at home since the Northern Navy captured Ninghai Prefecture, for fear that the adults of the new dynasty would use them as rafts and end up ransacking their homes. When people from the Military Control Commission came to the door last night, the two of them answered half in panic and half in joy.
Although Cao Guifu has earned a lot of money in recent years, he is used to being nodded and bowed by others, and he is really uncomfortable being a commoner. Guo Yu is young, and has just taken over his father's position. He has not made much money yet and has no errands. .
Although it was very hard to travel in the wind and snow on New Year's Eve, both of them felt that they were selected by the masters of the Military Control Commission, and that they were lucky enough to be able to eat official meals and wear official clothes again. . As for whether the imperial court would fight back, the two of them were not worried about this; the merchants traveling to and from Ninghai Prefecture had long spread the news about how the Beihai navy pressed the imperial army to the ground and rubbed it.
At this moment, the deputy company commander said to the two of them: "I'll leave it to you to search for evidence and interrogate criminals."
"I will do my best to handle my errands, sir. Please rest assured."
Cao Guifu and Guo Yu knew that there was no rule of kneeling in the Beihai Navy, so they bowed and then looked at the group of beggars on the ground. Guo Yu was young and didn't know anything about the criminal group "Laogua Thieves", so he just looked at them with wide eyes. Cao Guifu was different. He squinted his eyes like an eagle and looked at these people one by one, and finally set his eyes on the beggar head.
He stared at the other person from head to toe twice, then moved closer, squatted down and stared at the other person's face carefully for a while, and suddenly grinned.
"Yang Kui, I have been looking for you for so many years, but I didn't expect to meet you here today!"
Because of the tied position, it was very difficult to raise the beggar's head. When Cao Guifu looked at him just now, he kept his head lowered and did not dare to look up. At this moment, I was shocked when I heard the other party calling my name. He glanced sideways, lowered his head and pretended to be pitiful: "This official, did you admit the wrong person? My surname is not Yang, my surname is Li, and everyone I know calls me Li Erling."...
Cao Guifu chuckled and said: "Stop pretending, Master Nen's name is Zhu Shengwu, and there is a senior brother named Wu Sanmao. Seven years ago, when Master Nen and his senior brother came to Dengzhou Mansion to commit crimes, I brought several brothers with me to the Mansion. I arrested them on your Lord's orders and chased them all the way to Laizhou Prefecture, but unfortunately they escaped. Later I heard that they were caught committing crimes in Qingzhou."
The more the beggar heard, the more frightened he became, but he still had a pitiful look on his face, saying in his heart that as long as he doesn't admit it and can't find any evidence, let's see what you can do to me!
"My lord, I am just a flower child. I lead a bunch of brothers everywhere to beg for food. You can't do anything wrong to us!"
When the other beggars heard this, they also cried out that they were wronged. Several Beihai soldiers nearby shouted angrily and tried to hit them with their rifle butts. Only then did the beggars stop talking.
Cao Guifu knew that as long as people like Yang Kui were caught, they would never escape being cut to pieces; so as long as there was no evidence, they would not admit it even if they were beaten to death. So he turned around and entered the west wing, and Guo Yu followed him.
As soon as the straw curtain was opened, a smell of sweat, feet, and stinky smell hit his nose. The fuming Guo Yu hurriedly covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves, while Cao Guifu just wrinkled his nose and casually removed the straw curtain hanging on the door. It was torn off.
With the flow of air, the smell in the room became much lighter. Cao and Guo took out the iron rulers on their waists and searched everywhere in the house. The two of them spent a long time digging through the weeds on the ground. They even used an iron ruler to pry open the cracks in the bricks on the ground, and carefully checked whether there were any traces of digging in the soil below.
After searching all the houses in the south, they went to the north house. He did not miss piles of firewood and hay, and searched the ground, but unfortunately found nothing. Only then did Cao Guifu set his sights on the earthen kang.
Guo Yu was so tired that he was sweating now. He jumped on the kang and tapped the empty space with an iron ruler a few times. After tearing away the bedding, he punched the hay a few times with the iron ruler, but found nothing. Just as he was about to get off the kang, Cao Guifu suddenly stopped him.
"Uncle Cao, what's wrong?"
"Xiao Guo, please move that pile of grass away."
Guo Yu had no choice but to turn around and move the grass away, revealing the broken mat underneath. Cao Guifu's eyes lit up, he got on the kang, tore open the mat, and pulled it a few times with an iron ruler.
Cao and Guo entered the house and started writhing. Taking advantage of this moment, the deputy company commander asked his men to escort all the beggars to the open space outside the temple gate. After waiting for a long time, the deputy company commander and the soldiers were a little impatient. They were about to ask someone to go in and ask. Suddenly, there was a noise from the gap in the courtyard wall, mixed with the sound of running. Only one person was heard shouting breathlessly. : "The stolen goods were found!"
After hearing this, the faces of the beggars changed dramatically, and the beggar leader also secretly complained in his heart. At this time, they saw Cao Guo and two soldiers accompanying them walking out carrying several bulging bundles, which looked quite heavy. When I put the things on the ground and opened them, I found that in addition to some silver, there were more than a dozen slings of copper coins, jade pendants, rings, clothing belts, etc., a lot of miscellaneous things.
Cao Guifu sneered: "Yang Kui! The stolen goods are here, but you still haven't confessed!"
Guo Yu also shouted: "Speak quickly! Where did Nen bury the bodies?"
Although Yang Kui, the head beggar, looked a little depressed, he still put on a pitiful expression and said, "What an injustice! These things were picked up by villains, and no one else knows about them."
Cao Guifu said: "You said you picked up so much money? Where did you pick it up? Let's tell you the same thing."
Yang Kui lowered his head and rolled his eyes wildly, saying: "These baggage were picked up by the villain and his brothers on the road. After waiting for a whole day and no one came, they lived in this temple. The villain makes people come every day Go to the post road and see if there are any passers-by looking for him."
When the deputy company commander heard this, he was so angry that he really couldn't shed tears until he saw the coffin. Then he said to his soldiers: "Take these guys back!"
At dusk, more than sixty Northern navy soldiers on horseback escorted a dozen named Hanako into Ninghai Prefecture City. At this time, every house in the city began to set off firecrackers and cook New Year's Eve dinner. The air was filled with the smell of the New Year, making the soldiers on horseback feel homesick.
