Detective in the Red Chamber

As soon as I got interested, I ran into the free card!

Sun Shaozong returned to the bed dejectedly, and was about to call Fu Rong to come in and take care of freshening up, but Ruan Rong said again, "Master, first recharge your energy, and send someone to bring Second Sister Na You to the house after tomorrow. It's not too late for the spirit of the dragon and horse."

She finally took the initiative to mention this matter, it seems that the family letter is really not in vain!

Sun Shaozong was secretly happy in his heart, but he couldn't show it on his face, he just said, "It will be sooner or later, everything is up to you."

"Bah~"

Ruan Rong spat, and said, "I haven't mentioned this matter for a long time, so I'm afraid the master has already blamed me?"

As he said that, he took out a few letters from the drawer, threw them into Sun Shaozong's arms, and said, "This is from the second sister Nayou. Master, let's take a closer look. Is it true that I am jealous at all? It's outrageous!"

Sun Shaozong took it over, and took a rough look under the lamp, but it turns out that Ruan Rong has been helping Second Sister You to decorate the new house since the meeting in Wangjiang Tower, and changed the style of Xiangling's mother's small courtyard to prevent them They fought with each other.

In the letter, Second Sister You praised Ruan Rong even more, she spoke one sister at a time, calling her very affectionate.

After Sun Shaozong saw it, he couldn't help feeling more and more fond of Ruan Rong, so he clung to Ruan Rong recklessly. When Ruan Rong didn't want to be rejected by the battle card, he shyly begged some slender hands and tricks...

Chapter 403

After more than a month of depression, it finally rained again!

Not to mention that the peasants who depended on the sky were overjoyed, even the officials in the Shuntian Mansion looked a little happier than before.

Only because Sun Shaozong tossed with Ruan Rong until midnight yesterday, he was a little sluggish when he arrived in the yamen.

Fortunately, he had already dealt with the official duties yesterday, and now there was nothing important, so Sun Shaozong simply set up a leisurely chair under the porch, listening to the sound of the rain, while closing his eyes and resting his mind.

He was wandering between sleeping and not sleeping, but he heard someone rushing to the corridor stepping on the water, lingering beside him for a while, and then went into the hall to talk to Sun Chengye.

Not long after, the man stepped on the water and hurried away again.

"how."

After sending that person away, Sun Chengye also went to the corridor. Just as he was about to call out, Sun Shaozong asked lazily, "The Governor of the Han family sent someone here. Is there some urgent business or is there a meeting again?"

But it turned out that he had already squinted his eyes to see who was coming, but he was just too lazy to pay attention to him.

Sun Chengye hurriedly said, "It's still a matter of 'checking slave keeping'. Now the merchants in the city have been roughly screened, and it will be the turn of the officials and eunuchs—so Mr. Fu Yin hopes to summarize the experience and lessons first, and discuss the merits of the discussion." Go through the gains and losses and see if there is anything that can be improved.”

In the final analysis, I was still afraid that the following people would not know the severity and offend some dignitaries who shouldn't be offended.

But this is just right, after this round of investigation, Sun Shaozong has indeed summed up some experience and lessons, and plans to discuss it internally before presenting it to the court.

So he got up and stretched his waist, and ordered Sun Chengye to take out the coir raincoat, and walked towards the inner hall by himself.

Who knows the inner hall, but sees that there is no one in it, only a small official stands behind the door.

Seeing Sun Shaozong coming in from the outside, the little official hurriedly bowed and said, "So that Master Zhizhong will know, because the Prime Minister of Jia's Mansion thinks the room is stuffy and the good rain has been wasted, so the discussion will be held in the gazebo in the backyard instead."

tsk~

This is really random.

Sun Shaozong had no choice but to turn back again.

On the way, he bumped into Wei Ruolan and led him to the backyard.

The two of them had nothing to talk about on the road. When they saw the pavilion, Wei Ruolan suddenly asked, "Sun Zhizhong, what progress has been made on the 'Tao Zhu Jinbei' incident you mentioned the day before yesterday?"

This sudden question made Sun Shaozong really stumped.

Even if King Zhongshun didn't confess, Sun Shaozong would not be so stupid as to reveal the news to Wei Ruolan.

But Wei Ruolan is the second in command of the Department of Criminal Justice, if he is perfunctory, he only needs to do a little comparison when he goes back, and it will not be difficult to see the flaws.

After a little hesitation, Sun Shaozong pretended to be embarrassed and said, "I have found out some clues, but..."

While talking, he purposely glanced at Wei Ruolan, and stammered, "It's just that I haven't checked it out yet, or maybe I'm really worrying."

"Is it?"

Hearing Sun Shaozong's answer, the corners of Wei Ruolan's mouth turned up slightly, showing a smile that I don't know whether it was playful or contemptuous, and said, "It's really a pity."

pity?

Does this fellow hope that he and the King of Beijing will face each other head-on, so that he can get a bargain, or do he have other ideas?

Sun Shaozong speculated in his heart, but after all he had scruples in his heart, so he couldn't ask any further questions, so he and Wei Ruolan went to the pavilion with their own plans.

Seeing the two of them arriving, Jia Yucun laughed and said, "It's better to come early than coincidentally. It just so happens that the green plum wine has just been cooked, and Sun Zhizhong and Wei Tongjue arrived."

Plum wine?

This cultural person likes to engage in petty bourgeois sentiment.

After Sun Shaozong and Wei Ruolan took off their coir raincoats and greeted everyone, they also sat down respectively - because it was a hexagonal pavilion, the three hall officials and the three general judges each occupied a corner, which was quite harmonious.

Only Chen Zhichuang's treatment was a bit worse, and he couldn't be on par with all his superiors, so he had to move a small horse and sit near the copper stove. Grandson seems.

Han Anbang got to the point when they shared a cup of hot green plum wine and pretended to drink a round, but it was too hot to drink.

"My lords."

He heard him say loudly, "Through the joint efforts of the whole family these days, the situation of slavery in the merchants' homes in the city has been roughly investigated and cleared up."

"However, the next step is the real highlight, so the government specially convened everyone to discuss the previous gains and losses, and see if there is anything that can be used for reference and needs to be improved."

Sun Shaozong held a glass of green plum wine and leaned against the fence with a look of contentment. After Han An finished speaking, he immediately said, "Actually, the investigation of merchants was completed ahead of schedule this time, thanks to Wei Tong's hard work and diligence." .”

Wei Ruolan heard him praise herself, and was about to say a few words of modesty, but Sun Shaozong suddenly changed the subject, saying, "But first the 'Shenxian San' case, followed by the inspection of slavery, Wei Tong's judgment is really hard , it is really inappropriate to continue to toil.”

Wei Ruolan's complexion suddenly sank, and she was about to refute the words of killing the donkey, but Han Anbang, Jia Yucun, Fu Shi, Zhao Liben and others all nodded in unanimous agreement, saying that Wei Ruolan should live well Rest and recuperate.

In this way, it was a foregone conclusion that Wei Ruolan would retreat behind the scenes, and it would be useless to distinguish, but the veins on his forehead were throbbing, but he really couldn't understand why he suddenly became the target of public criticism!

In fact, these days, Wei and Qiu's resolute efficiency is certainly eye-catching, but their unscrupulous behavior style makes everyone's hearts beat wildly.

Now that officials at all levels are about to be investigated, it is time to be prudent, how dare the big guys let them do whatever they want?

It was precisely because of this that Sun Shaozong took the initiative to mention this matter, causing Wei Ruolan to suffer a small loss.

However, after Sun Shaozong's first proposal was almost unanimously passed, he took out a few pages of thin paper from his sleeve pocket, shook it away and said, "In addition, after these days of investigation, the lower officials found that those slaves who were trafficked were actually Thirty percent were captured by beggars or people dressed as beggars."

"In view of this, the lower officials made a simple statistics. Over the years, beggars have committed various crimes in the city, and found that the proportion has been increasing year by year, and the probability of gang crimes is far higher than that of ordinary people."

"So I'm going to go to the imperial court to try out the beggar Baojia system in our Shuntian Mansion."

"Beggar Baojia system?"

Han Anbang frowned when he heard the words, and questioned, "Let's not say that this matter has nothing to do with the inspection of slavery. I'm afraid it will be inconvenient to implement Baojia just because the beggars have no fixed place to live?"

The so-called Baojia system is actually a system of consecutive sittings. The government came forward to organize the common people into Baojias of varying numbers. Once one of them was convicted, the entire Baojia would be implicated.

Therefore, in order not to be implicated by the same Baojia people, the people will spontaneously supervise each other.

But that's something that can only be done between neighbors, and it seems that such operations are not suitable for highly mobile people like beggars.

"Master Fu Yin doesn't know something."

Sun Shaozong shook his head and said, "Although there are quite a few beggars wandering around in the city today, more beggars are begging within a certain range, and there are even beggars who exploit other beggars."

"This generation is lazy and lazy, and now they have formed a gang. If they are not brought under the jurisdiction of the government as soon as possible, they will inevitably become disasters over time."

"So the lower officials hope that the beggars begging in fixed streets will be organized into Baojia, and the government will designate Baochang and Jiachang, and then delineate their respective areas. If there are beggars in the area, no matter whether they belong to Baojia Therefore, they will all be punished together.”

This is equivalent to apportioning part of the government's responsibilities to the beggars. If it is replaced by ordinary good people, it would be too harsh to do so.

But the beggars these days are already discriminated against by the government and the people—since the government’s responsibilities can be reduced and there is no need to spend any expenses, who cares whether the beggars are wronged or not?

Therefore, everyone asked about some details, such as whether the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled should receive certain pardons and preferential treatment, or how to distinguish bad people from pretending to be beggars, and so on.

Seeing that Sun Shaozong answered each other fluently, obviously after a long time of deliberation, everyone expressed their support.

Jia Yucun even took advantage of the situation and suggested, "Since this is the case, I might as well sign my name on Sun Zhizhong's memorial, so as to attract the attention of the court."

As he said that, he bowed to Sun Shaozong again, and said with a half-truth and half-fake joke, "If it's because of my brother's idea, those beggars can't bear it, and they have become self-reliant. This kind of enlightenment is disrespectful for a brother." gone."

The words of "good brother" and "brother" made Han Anbang's face darken a bit—Sun Shaozong couldn't help but secretly wondered, could it be that Han Anbang didn't know that he was about to be demoted to another place until now?

Chapter 404

The sky is bright.

Hong Jiu squatted in the ditch near Shanxi Lane, regardless of whether the stream flowing through thousands of households was dirty or not, he stretched out his arms and used a broken earthen pot to scoop up scoop after scoop, scrubbing from head to toe.

The skin that had been rubbed was almost broken, and with the reflection of the emerald green stream, he tidied up his messy hair, and felt that he was already looking like a dog, so he straightened his back in satisfaction.

Of course, this is only for his own satisfaction. In fact, no matter how hard he scrubbed his sloppy tattered clothes, he still couldn't get rid of his identity as a 'beggar'.

That's right, Hong Jiu is a beggar, and he is a 'famous beggar' - one of the most famous beggars near Shanxi Lane.

The reason why he can become a 'famous beggar' is because he is obviously more lazy than others, relying on that eloquent mouth, he can always have a good harvest, and his life is a hundred times more nourishing than others.

"Ninth Brother, Ninth Brother!"

At this moment, two little beggars rushed over, and before they could get close, one of them, who was fourteen or fifteen years old, held up a broken bowl covered with a wooden board in his arms, and said triumphantly, "Ninth brother, Listen to this voice, it's quite festive!"

"Caught it?!"

Hong Jiu was also overjoyed when he heard the words, striding towards the two of them, staring at the broken bowl with burning eyes, as if he was looking at some kind of cornucopia.

"Of course! Brother, if I take the shot, can I still have a run?

Showing off in his mouth, the little beggar carefully opened a gap, and saw a magpie sticking its head out of the bowl, yelling 'scum, slag' endlessly.

"With it, everything works!"

Hong Jiu laughed, stretched out his hand to grab the magpie out of the bowl, tied it with a straw rope and held it in his arms, and waved his hand to say, "Go, brother Jiu will lead you to please me!"

"Go for fun~!"

The two little beggars cheered happily, and followed Hong Jiu through the streets and alleys until they arrived at the gate of an inconspicuous courtyard.

Hong Jiu stopped, made a silent gesture, and touched the flower magpie out of his arms, stroked the feathers, and said in his mouth, "Good man, you have to work hard today, otherwise Jiu If brother can't get the wedding money, I can only use you as a tooth sacrifice."

While talking, the two little beggars squatted side by side in the corner of the wall. Hong Jiu was not polite, stepped on their shoulders and climbed to the top of the wall, put the magpie on the wall, and pressed the straw rope tied to the magpie under the tiles .

After arranging the mechanism, he leaned on the wall and took a look in, and saw that there were indeed a few red double happiness stickers on the window of the inner room, so he jumped down happily, and said with a smile, "Second son, you really belonged to me, as expected." It is today to marry!"

The two sons rubbed their shoulders, showing off triumphantly, "That's right, I've heard what this old woman said with my own ears, can there be a lie?!"

The little beggars next to him also scrambled to show their merits, "What are you? If I hadn't discovered that there were two beautiful girls hiding in this house first, and there were high-ranking officials who came to the door from time to time, you would have come here to find out the news. ?”

"But you insisted that it was an 'outside house' at the time. If I hadn't found out about it, then my sister is a concubine to be married, so I wouldn't have missed it..."

"All right!"

Seeing the two of them quarreling, Hong Jiu scolded impatiently, "The magpie didn't make a cry, but you two scumbags are arguing endlessly!"

The two little beggars quickly stopped talking.

But after a while, I heard a few "slag" from the wall, the voice was rapid and loud.

Hong Jiu's eyes lit up as well, and he hurriedly gestured to get the two little beggars aside, then took out a pair of bamboo boards from his arms, waited for the magpie to chirp a few times, and then went to the door. chirp chirping bamboo board, singing the lotus falling

"My bamboo board is rattling, and I'm boasting about a family of good people. If you want to say that this house is not simple, there have been magpies chirping for a long time-this magpie has a mouth, and good things are sure to happen!"

He sang up and down here, and when a woman inside heard the movement, she opened the door and peeped through a gap, only to see a beggar with a fair face standing outside, and she couldn't help but wonder, "You Huazi are so ignorant, why don't you beggars before dawn?" Come to beg for food?"

Hong Jiu slumped his shoulders, slanted his shoulders with a smile on his face, and sang flatteringly, "The magpie's branch is called chirping, it must be that the nobleman wants to get rich. It's better to get rich sooner rather than later, and congratulations should be done early!"

Today was originally a day of great joy for the family, and Hong Jiu was full of auspicious words. The old woman was not good at driving him away, and was thinking about whether to donate some leftovers, when someone asked inside, " Wu Ma, who is here?"

Then Madam Wu hurriedly said respectfully, "Ma'am, she is a beggar who said she heard a magpie calling at our house, and she is in a hurry to congratulate our family."

While talking, a well-dressed middle-aged woman came out from inside. She looked at Hong Jiu in surprise, and before she could speak, Hong Jiu sang happily again, "Look at the door splitting left and right, and a woman walked out of the room." Blessed people, the heaven is full, and the longevity will not end; the earth is round, and the wealth and glory can't be enjoyed, and the enjoyment can't be finished!"

Hearing that he was so sweet-talking, the wife couldn't help laughing, and today she got her wish, and finally married her daughter to a wealthy family, so she went back to the house for an unprecedented time, took more than two taels of silver, and threw it to Hong Jiu Dao said, "For these auspicious words, I will reward you!"

Hong Jiu took the silver in his hand, couldn't help smiling, knelt on the ground with a thud, and said crisply, "Thank you, madam! If you want to do business, you can specify gold and silver to fill the warehouse; if you want to marry children, you can specify extra children to import!"

The latter words were on the mind of the wife, so she smiled and said, "What a sweet mouth——Mother Wu, I also rewarded him with the half pot of chicken soup that our family left yesterday, and then gave it to him." A few white flour steamed buns!"

With that said, he went back to the courtyard on his own.

"Thank you, madam, thank you, madam!"

Hong Jiu kowtowed happily, holding the broken clay pot, and waited for the woman to give away half a pot of chicken soup and some big white steamed buns lit with cinnabar.

"Brother Nine, this time we're really on fire!"

When Mama Wu also returned to the courtyard, the two little beggars approached happily, staring at the clay pot of chicken soup with bright eyes, drooling uncontrollably.