Ancient promotion routine

Listening to Tu Heng's words, Zhang Yanjin asked, "Did Turks buy salt from Wei before? Did they buy a lot of salt at one time so they don't need to come here to buy it again?"

"You don't know that the salt on the grassland is very precious. The salt sold by the Great Wei to the Turkic people is almost the price of gold. It is impossible for the Turkic people to buy in large quantities. The ordinary people in the grassland can only ride horses at intervals. , I brought a cloth bag to the border town to buy, the price here is much cheaper than the border, so most of the Turkic merchants come here, but the journey is far away, so naturally it costs a lot of money. I used to just want to give convenience to some tribesmen. Think of becoming a mutual market."

"From this, you conclude that someone smuggled salt to Turks?" Zhang Yanjin said thoughtfully, whether this person is good or bad.As a county guard, he didn't have full control over the places under his jurisdiction.

"No, I personally went to the market in the Turkic grasslands, and found that the salt there is not much cheaper than that in the border towns. It just saves a lot of effort for the people in the grasslands. I found out that the people who buy salt and the Turkic tribes The leader has a relationship, so I know that because of the war, the Turks’ national strength is tight, and they rely on reselling private salt to seek the interests of the people in the grassland.”

Unexpectedly, in Tuheng, he was in Dawei and his heart was on the grassland.

Zhang Yanjin was not entangled, but Tuheng's words seemed to have a lot to do with the Turkic royal family.

"I have a deep hatred with that Turkic Khan, so it is naturally impossible to go back to live in the grasslands. This time, the smuggling was supposed to be reported to the superiors, but if there were any mistakes in the middle, the people behind would probably have dealt with me before I could do anything. "

When Tu Heng said this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Although he didn't particularly understand the official rank system of the Great Wei, but the Yan Yin was in the hands of the aristocratic family. Naturally, this news was not easy to convey. In addition, he did have some selfish intentions, but it is inconvenient to explain. that is.

Zhang Yanjin came to the Sheriff's Mansion just to verify his conjecture and the manpower. Now that he knows where the private salt is being sent, he said, "I hope Master Tu will fully cooperate with me. When the time comes, Master Tu will have full authority over the matter of private salt." Shangzuo, I only want the Turkic people behind me, how about that?"

Hearing what Zhang Yanjin said, Xiao Liu wanted to take out the general's warrant, but Zhang Yanjin blocked him with his hand.

Uncle's warrant is certainly useful, but if the plan doesn't cooperate wholeheartedly, it will be a mess at that time, so much private salt, if you want to successfully transport it out, it is impossible to have no one to take care of it.

Now Zhang Yanjin is not sure how many people the other party has, so she naturally wants to assign the most powerful people around her to herself as much as possible.

It is naturally impossible to get Tu Heng to help him with empty words, but if he returns the big cake to Tu Heng in its entirety, the effect will be very different.

After hearing Zhang Yanjin's words, Tu Heng didn't immediately agree.Originally, he just didn't want to make his enemies happy. Even if Zhang Yanjin didn't say so, he would send someone to help, but he was a little suspicious.

Seeing that Tu Heng didn't answer, Zhang Yanjin guessed that Tu Heng didn't have confidence in himself. After all, it took him a year to find out about the smuggling of smuggled salt, so he said, "The batch of smuggled salt is now in the hands of the Lin family in the east of the city." , Two groups of people are now in contact with Lin Xing, I guess they will take action in about two days."

This Lin Xing's action broke Zhang Yanjin's original opinion. He originally thought that Lin Xing was forced into the game. Originally, he wanted Tu Heng to be a lobbyist, and let Lin Xing play with them in this play.

But Lin Xing's act of setting fire pushed himself into the abyss.Zhang Yanjin expected that Lin Xing had already made contact with the backhand of the private salt, but he didn't expect that the two groups of people he thought were actually only one person.

That person was Deng Mao who was conspiring with Lin Xing at the Lin family in the east of the city at the moment.

"How many people are there to support the adults?"

Lin Xing asked, if the private salt was about to faint on the road outside the city, if no one came to pick him up, he would definitely not be able to take the risk.

"Don't worry, I met the person above yesterday. He said that everything will be arranged by himself. What are you worried about the strength of the above? Didn't he tell you that he is a big shot?" Deng Mao thought all he wanted was to get the deal. With this money, he can also donate to a small official at that time, it doesn't need to be too much, just be stronger than his brother-in-law with raised eyebrows.

"Who is this person above?" Lin Xing asked cautiously, he was cautious in dealing with people, and he was worried if he didn't get the exact news.

Putting his head in someone else's hands really made it difficult for him to fall asleep at night. These days, he didn't wake up in the middle of the night that time.

All he wanted was to send these deadly things away as soon as possible, and then head south to return to his hometown.His wife and children were already on the way.

"Hmph, what are you afraid of? I told you that the master will not treat you badly." Deng Mao said, "Your wife and child have been escorted south by the master's people."

It was a long journey to the south, and there were many bandits among them. Deng Mao naturally felt that the master had good intentions.

But when Lin Xing heard it, it was like a thunderbolt, and he said in a daze, "Okay, you can do whatever you want."

"Someone will accompany you tonight, remember, don't bring irrelevant people with you."

Deng Mao explained the good things and went out of the city from the backyard.

Zhang Yanjin was still in the county guard's mansion when he heard the news about General Zhao.

"Li Ying said that person was the one who entered the Sheriff's Mansion that day?" Zhang Yanjin repeatedly confirmed, and when the messenger confirmed, he couldn't help but look at Tu Heng.

"Master Tu, is there anyone in your mansion who is not in this yard today." Zhang Yanjin had no way of knowing the name of that person, and hoped that Tu Heng could have some good suggestions.

"There are a lot of people coming and going in the mansion every day. Today, I sent some government servants to the granary to finish the work, and the rest are in the mansion.

Tu Heng thought that what Zhang Yanjin was asking about was the yamen servants and the staff. Although he suspected that there was an insider, he didn't expect this person to know about it, which made him even more curious.

"Are all the family members and servants in the mansion here?"

That person entered the gate of the Sheriff's Mansion that day, and he and Li Ying couldn't be mistaken.

"Family? There is one person, Deng Mao, the head of my mansion, has something to go out today?"

"Who is this Deng Mao?"

"He is my wife's brother, but he doesn't like to take care of things on weekdays." Seeing Zhang Yanjin asking, Tu Heng explained Deng Mao's background clearly.

He felt that Deng Mao didn't have that ability, and he seldom interfered in even small matters on weekdays, so how could he have the guts to sell private salt.

He has neither connections nor money, how could it be possible.

Refusing to play tricks, Tu Heng thought in his heart, but what Zhang Yanjin said made him have to think about what Deng Mao had done these days.

But he didn't have any clues. He paid little attention to Deng Mao on weekdays, and he thought it was an idler raised by the mansion.

The information that Zhang Yanjin extracted from Tu Heng's words was that Deng Mao seemed to be a quiet person, could there be others?

"I wonder if Mr. Tu can help find Deng Mao? In case there is a misunderstanding, we, Ye Hao, can clarify in person."

Zhang Yanjin thought that if he had a look at this person with his own eyes, he would know.

How do you know that Deng Mao is no longer in the city.

Ten Mile Slope outside the city, as the name suggests, is a ten-mile steep slope. From the gate of the city, it is within the scope of the Ten Mile Slope. Although there are many steep slopes on the Ten Mile Slope, they are formed in a very regular manner. Pedestrian use.

Here at night, only the trees on the steep slopes on both sides can be seen, and the projections of the trees on the road are mottled.

Deng Mao went out of the city during the day and walked around the ten-mile slope, and he had to secretly praise him in his heart. As soon as this private salt came out of the city gate, he could go straight north along the road and directly pass through the ten-mile slope to enter the mountain forest. Xiaolu, at that time, even if the government sends people to chase, it will be difficult to discern the direction of the mountain forest.

"Returning to my lord, it seems that Deng Mao disappeared after he went to the Lin's house in the east of the city."

Zhang Yanjin had been waiting in the county guard's mansion, and when she heard the report from the yamen servant, she felt bad. It seemed that one of them must be Deng Mao.

"Lord Tu, can you gather all the people in the government office here?" Zhang Yanjin got up and said,

"I'll go to the Lin's house in the east of the city to have a look now, and I hope your lord's troops will be ready by then."

Tu Heng naturally knew that it was not so coincidental. What did Deng Mao go out of the city gate today for no reason, and his wife had no other relatives in his family, so he had no objection to Zhang Yanjin's actions.

It's just that Madam's side, I'm afraid it will take some effort. Originally, the brother-in-law who appeared halfway was just an extra pair of bowls and chopsticks, but now he has something to do with selling private salt, so he can't be tolerated any longer.

"I'm going to ask someone to call him back."

"Thank you, my lord." Zhang Yanjin cupped her hands in thanks.

He immediately left the county guard's mansion and went to the Lin family in the east of the city.

If he guessed right, then Lin Xing might come up with something tonight.

There was no news from Chen Su, which made Zhang Yanjin a little worried.

Seeing Zhang Yanjin and General Zhao approaching, Li Ying immediately listed Lin Xing's actions one by one.

From his point of view, Lin Xing's handling of affairs today seemed to be very normal, except for meeting someone halfway, almost all of them settled accounts on the account.

But Li Ying could see from a distance that Lin Xing's hand moving the abacus was really disorderly. It seemed that he was not calculating the accounts, but planning the beads.

When he was a child, when he was not studying, he always liked to play with the beads on the abacus, and he was most familiar with the sound of the beads.

The sound of a man who calculates accounts cannot be irregular.

"Your analysis makes sense. Lin Xing will definitely take action today." Zhang Yanjin told Li Ying the news she got from Tu Heng.

General Zhao was busy nodding at the side, he had finally realized that this tiger father has no dogs, even though he is an uncle, birds of a feather flock together.

"General Zhao, did uncle say when the post from Shangzuo will arrive in the capital?"

Zhang Yanjin thought that if the emperor hadn't received the news tonight, those aristocratic families would definitely take the opportunity to make trouble.

Wei's Yan Yin has always been in the hands of the family, if the emperor can take this opportunity to get Yan Yin into his hands, the family's restraint will be much less, and the situation between the court and China will not be so changeable.

"It is expected to arrive yesterday." General Zhao said.

At night, the darkness has come.

Carriages one after another slowly went out from the gate of the city. The soldiers who were supposed to be defending fell to the ground at this moment, but the gate that should have been closed was now wide open.

"Your defense here is too weak." General Zhao said, there were only two soldiers on guard at night, and two clubs were brought down.

Tu Heng also nodded deeply.

"Everyone is gone, hurry up and follow." Li Ying said from behind.

Sure enough, as Zhang Yanjin said, the person who made the connection was waiting outside the city.Li Ying remembered that there were only three people on Zhang Yanjin's side, so he urged the large army to go over to meet him.

And Zhang Yanjin, who was outside the city gate, never thought that he would see his old enemy.

That person is indeed Zhou Qihui, that's right, who is the serious Turkic illness on the other side.

"Give it to me." Tu Heng came to the back of Zhang Yanjin, and he saw the scene Zhang Yanjin saw. Seeing that the carriage loaded with the batch of private salt began to speed up, he immediately ordered.

Naturally, Zhou Qihui had already noticed the commotion here, and he glanced at it with a half-smile, but still did not leave.

"Beware of fraud." Zhang Yanjin shouted quickly, the look in Zhou Qihui's eyes made him very uncomfortable, as if he was laughing at himself.

Could it be that he was waiting for him here? Zhang Yanjin's hairs stood on end when he thought of this, and he rushed forward without thinking.

Rong Niang must be in their hands, it must be.

"Be careful." Li Ying looked at his friend who suddenly went crazy, saw an arrow shot in front of him, and desperately held down Zhang Yanjin.

"Zhou Qihui, it's him, it's him, Rong Niang is in his hands."

After the carriage left the city, General Zhao took another person to stop him. At this time, Zhang Yanjin was only surrounded by Li Ying, and the county guard was furious at the Turkic man in front of him.

The second prince of the Turks and the young master of Wei Ruiguo's family seemed to be watching a joke. The manpower they brought was more than enough to deal with these yamen servants.

.

"Give it to me. If you catch the leader of the salt seller, you will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver." Tu Heng shouted loudly.

The person opposite him was the villain in the grassland who destroyed his family. Seeing this villain, Tu Heng wanted to pull out his skin, drain his blood, and use the head of this villain to pay homage to his poor uncle and deceased wife.

Originally, the yamen servants saw that the other party had more people than their own, and some people had already started to take a defensive posture and slowly backed away.

But under the heavy gold there must be warriors, Tu Heng's words made the yamen servants start to move, their monthly salary was only three taels of silver, and they would never earn this thousand taels of silver in their entire lives.

"Rush, rush." ​​Someone in the crowd yelled first, and the morale of the servants in the county guard's mansion rose sharply, and Tu Heng took the lead in rushing forward.

Zhang Yanjin broke free from Li Ying's shackles, picked up the spear Tu Heng gave him, and rushed into the crowd.

"Oh, the courage of a man." Zhou Qihui sneered.

"Young Master, let's avoid it first, so as not to hurt you." Zhou Qihui's entourage persuaded him that he was here to protect the young master's safety. If something happened to the young master, the Duke would not spare himself.

"Second prince, the carriage was stopped by the Han people." The visitor hurriedly reported.

The Turkic second prince glanced at the chaotic battlefield, and said decisively, "Young Master Zhou, I'm leaving first, you can settle your affairs yourself."

The purpose of his trip was for the batch of white salt. If he delayed things because of this, he might not be able to explain it when he went back.

"No, we agreed that you will help me catch Zhang Yanjin, so that this batch of salt can be taken away." Seeing that the Turkic man was about to repent, Zhou Qihui's face immediately changed.

"Yes, Mr. Zhou also knows that if the salt is gone, the deal will not be established. I have to get the salt first, right?" The second Turkic prince has no patience and completely ignores Zhou Qihui's warning. If you don't do business with them, some of Dawei are greedy for money, and some of them are sent to your door on their own initiative.

"Nadam, come back!" Tuheng broke through the soldiers in front of him, slashing like Naadam.

"Get rid of him." Naadam, the second Turkic prince, waved to his subordinates, then mounted his horse and rushed towards Shilipo.

Although Zhang Yanjin was incompetent with swords, his bravery made Turkic people unable to get close.

"Second son, I've offended you." Zhou Qihui's entourage saw that the Turks began to retreat slowly, so they ignored Zhou Qihui and forced him to get on the carriage and leave first. There were not many of them. If the second son was injured here, he would be afraid. Nine lives are not enough for the Duke of the country to be angry.

Seeing that Zhou Qihui was about to leave, Zhang Yanjin snatched the bow and arrow from the servant next to him, and shot a few arrows at Zhou Qihui's carriage, but they missed.

"Zhang Yanjin, calm down." Seeing that the carriage had disappeared, Li Ying saw that his friend was still pulling the bow and arrow, blood was dripping from the tiger's mouth.

"Tell me, is Rong Niang in their hands?" Zhang Yanjin crouched down covering her head.

"If Rong Niang is in their hands, you can't admit defeat. You have to defeat them before Rong Niang can come back." Seeing Zhang Yanjin like this for the first time, Li Ying didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only talk indiscriminately.

At this time, General Zhao came from the front with someone, and he was relieved after seeing that the people here were all right.

"Where's the salt?"

Tuheng ran over and asked, he was really unhappy to let that villain go, seeing General Zhao's men come back empty-handed, the anger in his heart was raised in an instant.

"We tripped some of the carriages with hidden wires, but the Turkic support was quick, and most of the salt was transported away." General Zhao shook his head.

"How is Master Tu?" General Zhao asked.

"Two people were seriously injured, and three were slightly injured." As a county guard, Tu Heng quickly calmed down. His enemy is still at large. Naturally, he can't be depressed because he missed an opportunity. After waiting for so many years, he naturally He can still wait, he can't kill those villains in the grassland, he still has sons, sons and grandsons, children and grandchildren, and one day the villains will pay the price for what they have done.

Zhang Yanjin stood up and walked into the city without saying a word.

He knew in his heart that someone was setting a trap for him, but he would rather not understand, at least no innocent people would be implicated by it.

Zhang Yanjin remembered this grudge in his heart.

Early the next morning, Xiao Liu received a letter from General Zhang.

"Erlang, the general said in his letter that he wants you to return to Beijing earlier, and he has already submitted a memorial to the emperor for the smuggling of salt." General Zhao hesitated.

Erlang got up the next day and started chipping wood in the yard. He seemed to be carving something. He listened to Mr. Li's instructions yesterday and was ready to prevent Erlang from doing anything unexpected at any time.

But right now, Erlang seems to be quite normal.

"Did the emperor send the imperial envoy over here, let me go back and report to you?" Zhang Yanjin blew on the wood ash on his hand, and looked at his feet lightly.

It seemed that nothing could enter his eyes anymore.

"That's what the letter said." General Zhao replied.

Erlang seemed to be in good spirits, but he couldn't be as serious as Mr. Li said.

Although the thieves did not keep the private salt, but they dug out the people behind it, and it was not nothing.

"Let's go." Zhang Yanjin looked at the sky, there was no cloud in the sky, and I guess the color of the sky will change when I go back.

"Going back to the capital now?" Xiao Liu confirmed.

"immediately."

……

In the study room, the sound of dong dong dong sounded in the huge room, which further accentuated the quietness.

The crown prince stands first on the left, followed by the fourth prince, King Jin, the fifth prince, King Zhao, and the seventh prince, King Wei.As for the other princes, they are transparent people and do not participate in affairs of the court.

The emperor looked at the sons under his seat, young, talented, genuine temperament, each with their own characteristics, they all said that being born in the emperor's family was a blessing, but if the blessing was too great, it would become a disaster.

"How is the prince recovering recently?" the emperor asked, but his eyes fell on the other princes. This Ning Guogong cried miserably in front of him every day, saying that someone in the court wanted to kill his poor nephew. believable.

But this time Zhang Yanjin found out that he had a connection with the aristocratic family in the Turkic salt smuggling matter, and it seemed that there were people from the royal family involved in it, so he had to pay attention to it.

"Cough cough, return to father, the minister is much better, the medicine given by Mr. Zhang is very useful." The prince stepped forward and said.

The emperor saw that the prince's face seemed to be much better than before, nodded, and continued, "What do you think about the private salt involving foreign clans?"

"I feel that I should make friends with Dali Temple to investigate the relevant clues. We cannot conclude that this matter is related to Mr. Zhou's son based on the words of one person." The fifth prince Zhao Wang was the first to speak. Zhang Yanjin was in charge at the time, and Zhao Wang had a new and old grudge against Zhang Yanjin, so naturally it was impossible to speak for Zhang Yanjin.

"King Zhao's words are a bit biased. Since Mr. Zhang participated in the investigation of private salt, he must have seen it with his own eyes. However, I remember that the book said that the government and the salt dealers fought at night, so it is possible to be wrong. .”