Chapter 31 5. The assassin turned out to be a friend of the vassal

Half an hour later, a hut was set up on the left side of the governor's yamen, and the dead man was carried into the hut, guarded by two soldiers with knives.A notice was pasted next to the thatched shed: A man died suddenly here last night, his relatives and friends can come to claim it, and those who know the information can provide clues.In a small hotel facing the street opposite the thatched shed, Sang Zhiping, Yang Rui, Dagen and others were drinking at the wine table, their eyes fixed on the movement of the thatched shed. Looking at the notices by the thatched shed, there were many dead people, but no one said they recognized the person, and more people came forward to claim it.Sang Zhiping was quite disappointed.In the afternoon, Dagen suddenly pointed to a person and said to everyone: "I seem to have met that person before."

Following Dagen's hand gestures, Sang Zhiping and Yang Rui saw a man in his thirties standing by the notice for a full bag of cigarettes, then walked into the straw shed, faced the dead man lying on the summer bed, and started from scratch. Look carefully at the feet. Sang Zhiping asked Dagen: "Where is this person from, can you remember?" "It seems to be someone from the Fantai Yamen." Dagen stared at the man while trying to remember. "Yes, I remembered. Once, my fourth uncle and Mr. Bao were discussing matters in the yamen of Taiwan. I saw this man in the concierge while chatting with Mr. Hao Erye, who was guarding the gate. He was carrying a bundle in his hand. When he entered the gate I said hello to Mr. Hao, saying that he was delivering clothes to Master Bao. After the man entered, I asked Mr. Hao who he was, and he said he was a servant in Mr. Bao's mansion. After a while, the man was empty-handed. When I came out, I took another look. I couldn’t be wrong, it was the person who gave Lord Bao the clothes that day.”

Just as he was talking, the man came out of the grass shed and left. A thought came to Sang Zhiping's mind: Could the deceased have something to do with the Fantai Yamen?After a while, I thought again: Maybe this servant is passing by here, just to see the excitement. The next day, Sang Zhiping and the others came to the small hotel early again to secretly observe the situation across the street.At the beginning of the morning, suddenly a young woman came hurriedly.The woman parted the crowd, and when she saw the dead man, she cried out loudly.After crying a few times, she left the hut, bought some paper money and candles and incense sticks from a nearby paper horse shop, lit joss sticks beside the deceased, and burned the paper money one by one, with a sullen face, neither crying nor crying. , do not speak.After the woman burned two stacks of papers in one go, they were still burning.Yang Rui said: "This woman has an unusual relationship with the deceased, and clues can be found from her."

Sang Zhiping said: "You guys sit here and keep staring, I'll go over and have a look." Sang Zhiping crossed the street and came to the thatched shed, and said to the woman, "I am a servant in the governor's yamen, come with me to the yamen's room." The woman didn't speak, and followed Sang Zhiping. When he came to the yamen gate, Sang Zhiping said to the young woman: "Who is the dead person? Who are you to him? You have to tell me the truth!" The woman was silent for a long time before she opened her mouth: "Master, although I recognize that man, I haven't had any contact with him in the past six months. I only know that his name is Hua Shanhu, what he does for a living, where he is from, and how his family is. I don't know anything. "

Sang Zhiping took a careful look at the woman.This woman is in her twenties and looks quite pretty.I thought to myself: Probably the deceased's concubine, this is a clue, I can chase it down. "Then how did you know him?" The woman lowered her head and said after a moment of silence: "I am a prostitute from Anxiang Tower, and I met him when he came to Anxiang Tower." oh!It turned out that a prostitute hangs a client, which is rare.It is usually said that a bitch is ruthless and an actor is meaningless, but this bitch in front of him seems to be affectionate.Sang Zhiping subconsciously glanced at her again.

"Since he is a client, why did you come to burn incense and paper for him?" "Although he is a prostitute, I admire him for his ability in martial arts and his generosity. Once I told him that my mother was ill and my family had no money to treat her. As soon as he heard about it, he immediately gave away all the twenty taels of silver on his body. Gave it to me. I am grateful to him, so yesterday I heard from a sister that the person who died at the gate of the governor's yamen was like a Huashan tiger, so I came this morning." Sang Zhiping is a rigorous person.He looked down on both prostitutes and their customers. Although he had wandered around the rivers and lakes for many years, he never slept in the flowers and stayed in the willows, and maintained his innocence. After hearing these words, he somewhat changed his discriminatory attitude towards prostitutes and customers.

"You really don't know anything about Huashan Tiger's situation?" "Yes, master. I only had contact with Hua Shanhu four or five times half a year ago. He always came in the evening and left at dawn. He doesn't like to talk too much, and I don't like to ask him too much." "Then how do you know that he is good at martial arts?" Sang Zhiping asked. "One night, some rascals were making trouble in the Anxiang Building. He went out and drove the gangsters away with just three punches and two kicks. The next day the host said, that man is good at martial arts, if he is willing to help us It would be good for Anxianglou to be the bodyguard."

Seeing that the prostitute was honest, Sang Zhiping relaxed his face, and said in a different tone: "Hua Shanhu had an old relationship with you, and now he died suddenly for no reason, and you are also sad. We will bury his body for the governor's office." In addition, he also wanted to recruit his relatives and friends so that he could take the corpse away. Can you recall, did Hua Shanhu talk about his contacts in Taiyuan Mansion?" The prostitute lowered her head again, pursed her lips and recalled, and it took a long time before she said: "He seldom talks, so I don't know if he has any friends in Taiyuan Mansion. There was only one time when it was late at night, and he knocked on the Anxiang Tower. I told him He said, how can anyone come to a brothel in the middle of the night? If a guest sleeps on my bed tonight, then you are not in vain? He said, drinking and drinking late at the Fantai Yamen, I want to see you, if you have a guest, I will leave Yes. I heard this, and my heart warmed up. To tell the truth, I thought to myself at that time, if Huashanhu doesn’t hate me, I really want to follow him. Unfortunately, since then, he never came to Anxianglou .”

"Drinking in the Fantai yamen", this sentence caught Sang Zhiping's attention, contacting the servant of Baogeng's family that Dagen saw, Sang Zhiping had a guess in his mind. He stared at the prostitute sternly: "You're telling the truth?" The prostitute hurriedly kowtowed: "Master, you are from the government, how dare I lie in front of you. If you don't believe me, you can go to the Anxiang Building to ask." "Okay, let's go!" As soon as the prostitute left, Dagen came in and said, "Mr. Sang, I just saw that servant of Lord Bao's family again."

"It's that person from yesterday again?" "It was the man yesterday. He looked inside and outside the thatched shed, and left after not staying for long." It seems that Baogeng is caring about this Huashan tiger!The conjecture in my mind just now was initially confirmed. Sang Zhiping decided to put Huashanhu's body on display for another day.On the third day, the number of people watching decreased significantly. Many people left in a hurry after glancing at the grass shed.Sang Zhiping and Dagen were still watching from the small restaurant opposite, and did not see anything unusual.Towards evening, for the third time, they saw the servants of Baogeng's family hurrying past the hut like other passers-by.At dinner, Yang Rui came back from Anxiang Tower and told Sang Zhiping that what the madam said was not much different from what the prostitute said.Sang Zhiping then ordered Huashan Tiger to be buried in a coffin.

At night, he came to Zhang Zhidong's bedroom, reported three days of observation and investigation, and expressed his speculation: the deceased, who was called Huashanhu by the prostitute, was probably a martial artist living in the rivers and lakes. Use a lot of money to buy the governor's yamen for assassination.Bao Geng should know that Hua Shanhu has martial arts and the chivalry of Jianghu people, so he dared to use him.Before the assassination, both parties must have made a solemn oath: if they fail, they will commit suicide, in exchange for Baogeng's reward to his family, and his family promises never to disclose the matter. Governor Qingliu, who is proficient in laws and regulations and full of poems and books, but knows nothing about the shady scenes of Jianghu, was shocked after hearing Sang Zhiping's analysis, and thought to himself: As a member of the imperial court, how could Bao Geng collude with Jianghu rogues? It's unbelievable to do such an outrageous thing! Sang Zhiping continued to analyze: "Huashanhu's three characters should not be his real name but his nickname. Perhaps his native place is in Huayin area of ​​Shaanxi Province, and he may have once shed grass in Huashan Mountain. It is very likely that he is not from Shanxi, but from Shaanxi. .” "Before Baogeng came to Shanxi, he was the governor of Shaanxi." Zhang Zhidong interjected. "That's right." Sang Zhiping nodded and said, "Perhaps it was Bao Geng who met Hua Shanhu when he was serving as the chief secretary in Shaanxi. The standard chief was responsible for protecting the safety of the place, so many chief executives were in contact with the province. The underworld tycoons in the country have secret connections. The underworld tycoons promise not to add trouble to the company, and the standard company promises to give the underworld tycoons the protection of the government. This is what the common people call the official bandit family. It seems that Bao Geng is a person who knows this well .” Zhang Zhidong was shocked again after hearing this.He admired Sang Zhiping's deep understanding of the world, and it was indeed the right thing to invite this man who knows both good and evil to come to Shanxi as his assistant. "What you said just now inspired me a lot." Zhang Zhidong said with a smile, "I don't know anything about gangsters, thanks to your rich experience. Look, should we send people to the Huazhou area?" What about investigation and investigation?" "In my opinion, don't go." Sang Zhiping pondered for a moment and said, "Firstly, there is no reason to find out after the investigation, and secondly, there is no need for it. The Huashan tiger is dead. As the saying goes, there is no evidence for death. Yes. This is the function of silence. This trick is very vicious, and there is no amount of thousands of taels of silver that can't do this step. I believe my analysis is correct. This kind of analysis can only be stored in your heart. People, including Yang Rui and Dagen, can't say anything. The reason why Baogeng sent people to assassinate was nothing more than to clean up the treasury money. His corruption was further proved. He spent a lot of money to hire assassins. It diverts the attention of the imperial court, and gives the successor a bad look, so that they dare not continue to investigate. Brother Xiangtao, you probably still remember the murder on the school grounds in Jiangning more than ten years ago." "You're talking about Zhang Wenxiang's assassination of Ma Xinyi?" "Yes, it was the horse assassination case." Sang Zhiping said calmly, "Zhang Wenxiang was chopped alive later, and there were tens of thousands of people watching. I was in the yamen of Futai, Ziqing, Suzhou. He asked me to go to Jiangning to have a look. The assassin Zhang Wenxiang was really a man. He went down with a knife and lifted up pieces of bloody flesh. The result came out. Some said that Zhang Wenxiang belonged to the Nian bandits, some said he was a long-haired one, and some said he was an assassin bought by foreign churches. There were so many rumors that the successor Jiang Du Zeng Guofan did not dare to hunt down the long-haired Nian bandits who slipped through the net. He is even more polite to the church. Who is Zeng Guofan? He trembles because of the horse case, let alone other successors! So there have been assassins since ancient times. This is the reason. A big blow, some people will rein in time and change course because of it.” Zhang Zhidong said angrily: "Baogeng wanted to scare me with this. He misjudged the person. Although I, Zhang, have no martial arts, I do have the courage. I will die! There is no death for the court. Punish corrupt officials for the court." , to die for the righteousness of the people is a worthy death.” "Brilliant!" Sang Zhiping couldn't help praising him, "You have such a spirit that you can do anything in the world!" Zhang Zhidong said: "Yesterday Ma Piyao told me that two major incidents involving Bao Geng and Wang Ding'an were discovered." "What's up?" "The year before last, when Zeng Yuanfu left Shanxi and Wei Jinglan took over in the future, Bao Geng acted as the acting governor and successively released more than 600,000 taels of silver. The money, the 18,000 taels owed by the general Wang Tongwen, and the 27,000 taels owed by the general Luo Chengxun were all for other reasons and should not be released. Bao Geng used his power to indiscriminately punish It was revealed that Baogeng did this because Zhao Jianian and others promised him a kickback of at least 10%. Based on this calculation, Baogeng could get a kickback of 7,000 taels of silver from these three people. The country's silver Through these manipulations, it was transformed into his private property. Wang Ding'an followed suit. During his time as an acting feudal secretary, he released 300,000 taels of silver, of which at least 100,000 taels should not have been released. Wang Ding'an gained from it. Many benefits. Ma Piyao also said that they have secretly investigated and visited all bureaus in the provincial capital. A big moth, if you don't get out of Wang Ding'an for a day, there will be no peace for the three Jin Dynasties." Sang Zhiping said: "In a few days, after the imperial court's censorship is released, the imperial court will definitely send officials to Shanxi to investigate and visit. These are good supporting materials." Zhang Zhidong said: "I told Ma Piyao that we must do things in a down-to-earth manner so that Baogeng and Wang Ding'an have to bow their heads and plead guilty in the face of irrefutable evidence. I, Zhang, will be responsible for the big things. Feel free to do it." "With your attitude, Ma Piyao and the others will have no worries in doing things." "Brother Zhongzi," Zhang Zhidong stood up, put a hand on Sang Zhiping's shoulder, and said emotionally, "I, Zhang Zhidong, have been a clean streamer for many years, and I have never been at odds with those who are corrupt. When I had this kind of participation, I thought in my heart, one day I will no longer rely on this piece of paper, but rely on one party to hold real power, and I will personally remove moths for the country and the people. Today, I have received the grace of the Queen Mother and the Emperor, As the governor of the three Jin Dynasties for the imperial court, it is the time when one side has real power in my hands. I can see that there are such a few officials who live on the royal salary and break the law under my nose. If the assassin is cowardly and violent, I will not only be sorry for the teachings of the sages and the kindness of the empress dowager, but also disappoint the high expectations of the 10 million people in the three Jin Dynasties. Last year in Gubeikou, you and I made an agreement in three chapters, among which were to do a few practical things for the people every year. The removal of corrupt officials is the biggest practical thing to do for the people. No matter how difficult it is, I will do this big thing It's easy to do." Sang Zhiping shook Zhang Zhidong's hand excitedly and said, "Working with a governor like you, even if I, Sang, dies from exhaustion, I will still smile."