Records of the Lost Cases of Helaitang in the Ming Dynasty

After leaving the North City Gate, the official road from Songling to Pingwangyi is flat. Everywhere you look, you can see the green autumn scenery. The green donkey's feet are fast. Compared with the stop-and-go walk when you come here, the official road of more than ten miles seems to be arriving in an instant.

When I arrived at Pingwang, I asked for news again and was taken to the inn by the enthusiastic father-in-law.

Pingwang Posthouse is an official posthouse, located side by side with the express delivery shop, and occupies a large area along the canal.

Wang Heng took out the token and told the servants in the post that he wanted to find the Yi Cheng.

Yi Cheng was short in stature and wore a green-brown cloth robe. After seeing the token, he invited Wang Heng and Xiaocai to sit down in his office.

Yi Cheng's eyes were bright and he looked very capable. When he saw two young scholars with extraordinary bearing, he asked with a little doubt: "Why isn't Mr. Luo here?"

Wang Heng didn't want to tell him in detail, so he said, "He asked us to bring a letter with the number Tianzi Yi."

The Yi Cheng was startled and said: "Are you going to use the Tianzi Yi Hao?"

Wang Heng said nothing and looked at the token majestically. The postmaster's face was solemn, and he turned around and went out to tell the postman: "Five hundred miles, hurry up, hurry up and get ready."

The postman was stunned for a moment, then quickly ran to the stable, obviously he rarely heard such an order.

When Yi Cheng returned to the office, he brought a sandalwood box and handed it to Wang Heng along with pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

Wang Hengzhi asked him to write it down and put it in a wooden box, but Yi Cheng couldn't read the message.

"The guests of Taxue Villa will disembark from Zhigu Village to Beijing." He didn't know if it was these words, but he didn't want to show his timidity in front of Yi Cheng, so he wrote them directly and put them in the sandalwood box.

The postmaster took the box, wrapped it in furoshiki, and turned to hand it over to the postman who was driving a speeding horse. Wang Heng and Xiao Cai watched with their own eyes as the postman set off at full speed.

From this, the merits can be regarded as complete.

Yi Cheng returned the token to Wang Heng. When Xiaocai saw a large number of books stacked in the office, he suddenly had an idea and asked: "Can you still find the talisman of the post boat that went to Panmen, Gusu yesterday to pick up people? "

The Yi Cheng said: "Why does Shangguan ask this?"

Wang Heng nodded and said: "It has something to do with what Mr. Luo wants to visit."

Yi Cheng obviously knew little about Mr. Luo's affairs, but he knew that it was a very important official business. He immediately found a copy of the Yi Talisman and handed it to Wang Heng.

The post talisman was issued by the Chariot and Driving Department of the Ministry of War. Shen Junzheng, the head of the Staff Department of the Ministry of War, went to Suzhou Prefecture on official business. After passing the post station, he was allowed to deal with horses, boats and ships by holding this talisman for verification.

Shen Junzheng, who is Shen Zhai?

Wang Heng asked: "This Chief Shen, did he come to the inn in person to ask for the boat?"

Yi Cheng said: "No, it was his subordinate who came here." The young man suddenly had an idea: "Is that a burly young man in his twenties?"

Yi Cheng nodded repeatedly: "That's him. Yesterday, both of our Pingwangyi ships were dispatched by him."

"Two boats?" The two of them were surprised.

"Master Shen's chief attendant asked our post to send a small boat to Panmen to pick up people early in the morning. The big ship stopped under Ande Bridge. After picking up the people, they would change to a big ship and go to Guazhou Post." Yi Cheng said.

"Did they say where the destination was? Is it Guazhou Station?" Wang Heng asked carefully.

"That's not to say that our station is only responsible for the boats to the next station. According to common sense, when officials from the capital come to Jiangnan, the destination on their return trip is usually the Imperial Capital." Yi Cheng said.

It turns out that this is the case. Wang Heng couldn't help but suddenly realized that he had figured out the reason for asking them to bring the letter around the deceased Mr. Luo in the woodshed.

The two of them led the green donkeys and strolled towards the side of the canal near Pingwangyi. In a few steps, they came under the Ande Bridge. The autumn water was gurgling, the boats were like clouds, and there was no one around. Wang Heng said: "We were very wrong."

Xiaocai said: "I can also identify some smells."

"That Shen Junzheng must be a son of the Shen family in Songling. He is the Sixth Chief of the Imperial Military Department. He probably returned to Suzhou a while ago on official business. What he wanted to do was confidential. The owner of the token, Mr. Luo, followed him thousands of miles away. Come to Suzhou Mansion."

"Shen Junzheng wanted to rob someone from the Suzhou magistrate's yamen, a woman with a mysterious identity. Although he was an official, he could not openly rob someone from the magistrate's yamen, so he thought of a way."

"This method was to provoke a civil uprising. They manipulated public opinion and released the script of Lu Fuzun being extremely corrupt and bribery, and Yi Zhimei getting rid of the violence. The manpower they brought from the imperial capital was not enough, but they discovered that Cheng Xiucai was very skilled, so First, Cheng Xiucai and others were allowed to commit crimes in Suzhou City, making the noise known to everyone. Then they announced that Yizhimei was going to steal three thousand taels of gold at the Suzhou magistrate's office the night before yesterday, and attracted the people in the city to watch the fun, waiting for an opportunity to cause friction. Sure enough, It leads to the plot of the Five Righteous Soldiers uprising in Yaqian." Xiaocai rushed to speak first and sighed: "What about the Inspector, is he also an accomplice of Shen Junzheng?"

"Nine times out of ten we are in the same group. How could such a coincidence happen?" Wang Heng thought for a while and said:

"The woman in the sedan chair shouldn't be Miss Ye San. She is a very important person. In Mr. Luo's words, it is related to the safety of the imperial court. Yesterday, the small boat that picked up the woman arrived at Ande Bridge and changed to a larger boat. We have gone to Beijing, and I guess the person on the same boat is Shen Junzheng." "Our boat arrived a little later than the official boat. When we saw the boat stopped under the Ande Bridge, we carried the sedan to the shore, thinking that the woman was still in the sedan. In fact, Big mistake, the woman has already left, and we followed the sedan all the way to Songling. It doesn’t look as relaxed as an empty sedan, and it’s probably Lord Luo in the sedan.”

"Master Luo missed his hand and was poisoned by them. They thought he was dead. They probably wanted to find a desolate place to dump his body in the middle of the road. Who would have thought that we followed along and they must have discovered him. The twenty men who were leading The young man, who must be Shen Junzheng's long-term follower, simply carried Mr. Luo back to Shen's house to deal with it. He was a little confused about where we came from. Was it Mr. Luo's accomplice who set a trap for us that night? We were arrested, but Master Luo was not completely dead yet, so he escaped to the woodshed and met us again to give us a message."

Xiaocai said with emotion: "I also think that's what happened. Although Shen Junzheng successfully brought the woman to Beijing, we still sent the message 500 miles away in a hurry. In total, it's half a pound to eight taels."

After looking at the canal scenery for a while, it was getting late, so the two of them wanted to ride back on their donkeys. They saw a carriage slowly stopping on the Ande Bridge. A middle-aged man in a ge robe got out of the carriage and waved to them. : "Seventh Young Master, a young talent, has always been good."

Wang Heng took a closer look and saw that it was Zhao Zhanyun who had once taught in Wang Yaqiange's old mansion.

"Mr. Zhanyun, nice to meet you."

It turns out that Zhao Zhanyun resigned from the opera troupe of Ge Laofu and went to Wujiang Shengze to teach at Guijiayuan. Today, at the invitation of a girl Yang, he went to Songling, the county seat, to teach opera for a few days.

Zhao Zhanyun smiled and said: "What a coincidence, this Miss Yang is an old friend of the Seventh Young Master."