"It's unheard of for a group of fake tax collectors to pretend to be officials to collect taxes in Jinling City. Investigate! We must investigate this matter thoroughly!" In the Nanyuan study room, Xiao Shiyu angrily patted the imperial case with his left hand and pointed at the lower head with his right hand. Li Chongde: "Li Shangshu, I asked you to give me some advice on how to increase the treasury's silver. What's better, you actually increased taxes by 10% privately? With this alone, I can punish you!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down. I really have never issued an order to increase taxes." Li Chongde knelt on the ground with his head lowered, trembling all over, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead: "I will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly."
"Your Majesty, Lu Zhan, the commander of the patrol in the left capital, would like to see you." Gao Xian heard the chamberlain whispering at the front door for a moment, then waved him away.
"Xuan." Xiao Shiyu raised his hand towards Li Chongde: "You should get up first."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Li Chongde's knees were numb from kneeling for too long, but Gao Xian at the side helped him.
"Lv Zhan, a humble man, kowtows to Your Majesty." A burly man in armor knelt down and kowtowed to Xiao Shiyu.
"Without courtesy, stay on your own." Xiao Shiyu raised his hand: "Commander Lu, what do you want to see me for?"
"Your Majesty! Many shopkeepers in the city closed their doors to protest against tax increases and tax fraud, and some unscrupulous people gathered to make trouble. The gate of the Jinling Lingfu has been blocked. I have come to ask for permission to increase troops to suppress them. "Lu Zhan bowed his hands towards Xiao Shiyu.
"Troublesome people? Making trouble?" Xiao Shiyu frowned: "Lu Zhan, who are these so-called unruly people? Why do they want to surround Jinling Mansion? Can you find out the reason?"
"I don't know about this... this humble position." Lu Zhan looked stunned when asked.
"Lu Zhan, I order you to restrain your soldiers and not to have any conflicts with these troublemakers. If anyone loses his life, you are the only one who has to deal with it!" Xiao Shiyu said sternly.
"In this humble position, I will obey the Holy Order." Lu Zhan wanted to take credit for this, but he didn't expect to be reprimanded and had to retreat angrily.
"Humph! They are all idiots." Xiao Shiyu turned around and said coldly: "Li Shangshu, you heard it too, how should we deal with the current situation?"
"This, this, I think it should be..." Li Chongde was confused by this sudden incident and didn't know how to answer for a while.
"Your Majesty, Grand Secretary Zhang Shumin is here to ask for an audience." Gao Xian saw that Li Chongde was in all sorts of ugliness and coincided with Zhang Shumin's arrival, so he hurriedly reported to Xiao Shiyu.
"He came at the right time. Let him come in." Xiao Shiyu heard that Zhang Shumin had arrived, and his angry face improved slightly.
"Your Majesty, Zhang Shumin, bows to your Majesty." Zhang Shumin was still so calm.
"Zhang Sinong is exempt from the courtesy." Xiao Shiyu raised his hand: "I believe you have heard about what happened outside. I asked you to come here to discuss this matter together."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhang Shumin said to Xiao Shiyu: "In my humble opinion, the current plan can only be carried out in two steps; first, we can only appease the people who protest behind closed doors and gather in crowds to cause trouble. It cannot be suppressed by force, otherwise it will just fall into the scheme of those with ulterior motives; secondly, the fake tax collector has done it so flawlessly, there must be help from within, and please Your Majesty to send capable officers to assist Li Shangshu in thoroughly investigating this matter."
"Well! What the scholar said makes sense, but who should be sent to investigate this matter thoroughly?" Xiao Shiyu was in trouble: "Li Shangshu, what do you think?"
"I, I believe that the Tingwei Mansion should investigate this matter thoroughly." Zhang Shumin's accurate analysis finally made Li Chongde relax.
"Well! I always feel at ease when Zhi Shan does things, but this matter is very important..." Xiao Shiyu hesitated before speaking, as if he was worried.
"Your Majesty, do you remember the last time the Imperial Academy asked for advice?" Gao Xian reminded him softly, looking at Xiao Shiyu's frown.
"Huh? That's what happened. Last time, it seemed that Chang'an Dafang, the guard of the Jingwei Mansion, got good advice from the teacher to solve my worries." Xiao Shiyu said thoughtfully: "Where is this person now? Where?"
"Your Majesty, I heard that this person was suspected of assassinating Si Ruoshui, the head of the Xuanwu Academy of the Jingwei Palace, at the engagement banquet between my sister-in-law and Ye Wuyan's son Ye Hu. He is currently being held in the prison of the Tingwei Palace." Zhang Shumin said helplessly. Shaking his head: "That girl Ning Shi came to Wei Chen about this matter and wanted me to intercede for him."
"Oh? Is this happening?" Xiao Shiyu seemed to be interested: "Shumin, in your opinion, is this person available?"
"This... I don't know this person very well, so I would like to ask His Majesty the will of Heaven." Zhang Shumin bowed.
"Gao Xian, pass on my decree and give An Da a 20-day deadline to prove his crime. If both cases can be solved, I will reward him heavily. If one case is not solved, or he deliberately assassinated the hospital master, both crimes will be punished." ." Xiao Shiyu pondered for a moment and immediately made a bold decision.
"Your Majesty is wise." The three of them praised in unison.
"Chief An, I haven't seen you for a long time. How did you become like this?" By coincidence, the cell where An Da Fang was imprisoned happened to be the one where Zhang Da and Ge Er lived. The moment Ghost Face walked into the cell , he was shocked. The guard captain who had fought against him in the Liu Mansion and was so heroic now had a decadent face and unshaven beard, as if he had aged ten years.
"It turns out to be Brother Gui, why are you here?" An Dafang only raised his head slightly to glance at Gui's face, and then lowered his head: "Didn't I just go to court the day before yesterday? Why can't Mr. Tingwei can't wait any longer?"
"Ha!" Ghost Face sighed and spread his hands: "Dafang, what are you thinking about? I came to let you out on the order of Lord Zhi."
"I almost got twenty blows from him the day before yesterday. Why are you letting me out now? Has my case been cleared up?" An Dafang stood up and stared at the ghost's face.
"Dafang, what are you thinking?" Ghost Face patted An Dafang on the shoulder: "It is His Majesty's decree that you must not only investigate your own case, but also the case of the fake tax collector."
"Brother Gui, what do you mean by this? I'm confused." An Dafang's mind was indeed a little confused at this moment.
"It's getting late today. Brother, I will take you to bathe and change clothes first, and then go to Zui Feng Building to find a private room and slowly explain the situation to you." Ghost Face pointed at An Dafang's appearance and almost couldn't help it. laugh out loud.
In the west of Jinling City, three men wearing official uniforms with the word "tax" kept knocking on the wooden door of the bamboo fence on the wasteland with their hands: "Is there anyone inside who answered the door?"
"Gentlemen, what's the matter with coming to my house so late?" Wang Ma heard the shouts outside the door and hurriedly walked out of the thatched house on crutches.
"Is this your home?" The leading official took the account book and looked through it for a while: "This land does not belong to you; if you repair thatched huts here, you need to pay a land tax of ten taels to the court."
"This is just uninhabited wasteland, and we still have to pay taxes?" Mother Wang's kind voice was slightly dissatisfied: "This is the house repaired by Miss Liu, and I was entrusted by her to live here and take care of several children."
"I don't care what you do about Miss Liu and Miss Li. In short, everyone must abide by the laws of the court." The officials behind shouted impatiently.
"I don't have any money. If you have anything to do, we can wait until Miss Liu comes." With that, Wang Ma was about to close the bamboo fence door.
"The damn old woman has such a tough mouth, she's just looking for death." One of the officials bared his fangs, kicked open the wooden door, and barged in.
"What are you going to do?" Wang Ma shouted in horror: "Someone is here to rob me."
"What are the ghosts howling? It's so noisy." One of the officials pulled out a dagger and stabbed Wang Ma in the heart.
"Huh? Why did you kill her?" The leading officer frowned when he looked at Wang Ma, whose pupils were dilated and she fell softly.
"Boss, this old woman is too noisy. I couldn't hold back my bad temper." The officer looked at the leader of the officers and honestly spared his head. In his eyes, killing someone was like playing a game.
"Wang Ma, you kill Wang Ma." Xiao Tudou rushed out first and yelled. The two little girls following him were frightened when they saw this scene.
"It turns out there are still a bunch of brats." The murderer's officer smiled sinisterly and said, "Boss, what do you think we should do?"
"Eradicate the weeds and leave no one behind." The leader of the official made a killing gesture, and in an instant there were several "pops", and all three children were killed.
"Brother Da Fang, Brother Ren, why are you so slow? Ning Shi has been waiting here for a long time." When An Da Fang and Gui Mian stepped into Private Room A of Zuifeng Tower, they found that Liu Ningshi was already sitting in the room. The table was full of laughter and waiting for them.
"Miss Liu, your brother Da Fang has just come out of Netherworld Palace. He must spend some time to freshen up, otherwise he will not go out." The ghost face smiled and glanced at An Da Fang with his eyes, then glanced at the table full of delicacies, and used his nose to He sniffed lightly and said: "Jicheng roast duck, boiled cabbage, jade belt shrimp, spicy tofu, Zuifenglou's dishes are really varied in style, but..."
"It's just what?" Liu Ningshi heard the ghost face praise, and she was secretly proud in her heart, but she was made doubtful again by a but.
"Miss Liu comes from a famous family, so she is very good at controlling the banquet." Ghost Face looked at the steaming wine flask on the table: "This bamboo leaf green is also a fragrant thing, but when I see this wine, I think of Murong Li's coward , makes people angry; why not switch to burning knives to show the true nature of a man?"
"Brother Ghost's words are very much in line with my wishes." Just now, An Dafang felt that the smell of Zhuyeqing's wine was not strong enough, and he couldn't help but cheer when he heard Ghost Face's words.
"I really don't understand what's so good about this wine." Liu Ningshi rolled her eyes at the two of them and suddenly asked, "Why isn't Brother Xiangyun here?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm asking too?" An Dafang also looked puzzled.
"He has owed so many night patrols to his colleagues recently. He has to pay them back." Ghost Face waved the folding fan: "I guess he is still wandering back and forth across the courtyard."
After a while, the burning knife placed in the warm wine filled the private room with the smell of strong alcohol. Ghost Face took out the wine jug and filled An Da Fang's wine bottle with wine, and then poured himself a glass: " Come on, Dafang, let’s have a drink first.”
"Ah! It's really good wine." The two drank it all with their necks raised, and Ghost Face filled the wine for them and prepared to drink again.
"Brothers, can you drink a little less? We have something serious to talk about." Liu Ningshi knocked on the table and glared at the two of them dissatisfied.
"Ning Shi is right, Brother Ghost, do you think?" An Dafang looked at the bottle of wine in his hand. He wanted to drink more, but he was worried about Liu Ningshi's mood and looked at Ghost's face with a troubled expression.
"Oh, yes, you see it's easy to forget things after just one drink, but Miss Liu reminded me." Ghost Face put a shrimp in his mouth: "Dafang, please tell us what happened to Li Shu at that time. .”
