East City!

A group of yamen soldiers, like wolves and tigers, broke into the backyard of the merchant surnamed Tu. The merchant was so scared that he didn't know why. His family and his servants hid on the side and did not dare to speak. Du Sansheng snorted coldly and said, "Tu Jing, you are so brave!"

Tu Jing knelt down with a pounce, trembling on the ground, and said, "County lieutenant, the villain has always been obedient and I don't know what crime he has committed?"

"I don't know what the crime?"

Du Sansheng waved his hand and said with a dark face: "Search! When the evidence is found, you will know what crime you have committed! At that time, I see how you can argue!"

"Slow down!"

The person who spoke was Zhu Zhi, followed by Zhu Rui and a dozen Zhu family troops. He walked to the Tujing, comforted him with a gentle voice, and said, "If the government searches for thieves, if it has nothing to do with you, you naturally don't have to be afraid!"

"Thieves?" Tu Jing shouted and said, "I will never dare to hide thieves. I am just a villain's family. A thousand coins were stolen by thieves some time ago."

"Oh, is there such a thing?" Zhu Zhi would not believe his words easily. The thief might have a place to settle in Qiantang, and this is probably one of them. He said: "Prince Du, please ask him for his confession first. Remember, no torture is allowed! Others in the house are detained in a concentrated manner, and I will ask later!"

He knew the ills of the yamen, and in order to exploit the people, he could create a lot of crimes, so he was unwilling to do something big, so he did not want Du Sansheng to make a big move, so as not to betray and ruin a big deal.

"Yes, don't worry, husband!"

When I opened the cellar, there were simply some debris piled up inside, which was clear at a glance, and there was nothing special. There were only a dozen interlaced traces on the wall, which were several inches deep, and it was shocking.

Zhu Zhi brushed his palms by, as if he could feel the surging power and unwilling anger contained inside. Zhu Rui stood behind him with a surprised expression and said, "Fingering power?"

"At being able to make such a deep mark on the stone wall with the power of your fingers, you must at least be as good as a master." Zhu Zhi shook his head and said, "What a master, how could we be forced to Qiantang step by step by step? We should have jumped out of the encirclement and flew away."

"That's true!" Zhu Rui squatted down, looked carefully, and said, "It's not a sword, it's concave and outward, turning into teeth, and maybe it's an iron tool on his finger."

"Lingbo said that he went out the night before and didn't come back until the early morning. He suddenly became furious and cursed and said a lot of words. It's a pity that she couldn't figure it out and didn't understand a few words."

Zhu Zhi turned his head and looked around and smiled, "If what I expected was not bad, the thief went out to find the contactor, but was told that he could not stay in Qiantang for a long time and could not provide him with more shelter. Therefore, he was furious and uncontrollable, so he vented his anger on the wall."

"Lingbo described this person as strange and elusive, but after being rounded up for so long, no matter how urgent the situation was, he never showed any despair or irritability. He should be a person with a strong personality. Suddenly he was furious, and there must be a major change."

Zhu Rui was shocked and said, "Uncle Fourth's inference is very reasonable. We gradually increased the intensity of the roundup and joined forces with Gu Yun's government forces to form a big net in Qiantang. As long as we are not fools, we know that sooner or later we will find the house of the slaughter merchant. The mastermind behind the scenes saw that things were not done, and immediately threw the barge to protect the cart and abandoned him like a piece of shoes. The thief had no choice but to change his previous habit of hiding out at night. He ventured out of the cellar during the day, robbed the ox cart and fled in a panic, and did not care about covering up his whereabouts as carefully as before. This explained our previous doubts, why he suddenly fled from Qiantang and even took up the ox cart with a bold and arrogant attitude... After all, it was inconvenient to take a woman during the day, so he could only put Lingbo in the cart to avoid people's eyes and ears."

"However, these are just speculations. It is not ruled out that there are other situations. There are still too few useful information in our hands..."

“Those are enough!”

Zhu Rui said excitedly: "Once there is no hope of survival, you will make mistakes, and mistakes will leave flaws. If you search again, you may find the origin of this person!"

Everyone carefully checked the cellar again, not letting go of any dead corner, but found no valuable clues. Zhu Rui was very disappointed and turned his head to look at Zhu Zhi. Seeing him standing in the corner without saying anything, he was a little confused, so he said, "Uncle Fourth, have you discovered something?"

"This man was born into a gentry, and his family might have fallen into trouble later, so he became a thief."

Zhu Rui touched his head and said, "Uncle Fourth, there is nothing on the ground as big as a palm. How can you tell that the thief is from a gentry? Why did he lose his family's fortune?"

"Look, what is this?"

Zhu Zhi pointed to a bamboo stick placed in the corner. Zhu Rui walked over and looked at it. There was some white powder inside. He grinded it with his hands and said, "Salt?"

"Yes, salt! And it's not the common coarse salt in the market, but the best Linhai salt." Zhu Zhi smiled over the corner of his lips and said, "Do you know how much Linhai salt is sold to Qiantang for one or two?"

"This..." Although Zhu Rui didn't know the details, he also understood that the price must be very expensive. His eyes were full of doubts and said, "He doesn't make a fire and cook, so he stole all the food. What should he do to make salt?"

"Clean mouth!"

Zhu Zhi said lightly: "This person was not busy preparing food and money on the way to escape, but was still thinking about using salt to cleanse his mouth. It must be a habit that he developed at home when he was a teenager and could not be changed easily."

"Not bad! Those lowly Qi people have never been clean. Even if they are a little clean, they usually bite the branches and rarely use salt, let alone Linhai salt. This person is indeed from a gentry!" Zhu Rui has always admired Zhu Zhi's wisdom and said sincerely: "The fourth uncle is very knowledgeable and is really worthy of being Zhuge from Jiangzuo."

Zhu Zhi intended to cultivate Zhu Rui, so he explained it to him without getting tired of it. He just heard that he also called Qimin a lowly person, and immediately rebuked: "How many times have you said, don't underestimate Qimin, and don't speak ill of each other. Why can Zhu and even the Jiangzuo family be superior? It is precisely because the untouchables you mentioned come to farm, work, weaving and corvee service. Without them, we are rootless trees and water without source. Where did the century-old Chinese people come from, and they are undefeated? "

Zhu Rui may not be convinced, but he did not want to argue with Zhu Zhi, saying, "What the fourth uncle taught me is that my nephew will keep it in mind!"

"When I go back and read "The Three Kingdoms", I am so arrogant and proud, and I am so violent but have no grace. What will happen in the end! I hope you really keep my words in mind!"

Zhu Zhi shook his head and said nothing more. Like Zhu Li, he was optimistic that Zhu Rui was more than Zhu Cong, but his eldest brother Zhu Ren valued his eldest son Zhu Cong even more. As a brother, he didn't want to object directly. So he took care of Zhu Rui in private, hoping that he would mature as soon as possible and be able to take over the power of the sect leader at the right time.

But... Zhu Rui is good at everything, has lofty ambitions, is brave and resourceful, but he believes that he has noble blood, respects gentlemen and despises the common people, and looks down on everyone outside the aristocratic clans. From the people of Qi to slaves, he can beat and scold, and whip at will. It is hard to say whether he will repeat the mistakes of Guan Zhang.

After leaving the cellar, Zhu Zhi briefly asked Tu Jing's family and had some conspiracy. He said to Du Sansheng: "No need to interrogate them anymore. Let them come out. You must not disturb them based on what happened today in the future. Have you heard it?"

Du Sansheng felt that the Tu Jing was very suspicious of hiding the thief, but before coming, Gu Yun explained that he followed Zhu Zhi's instructions on everything, and he was too lazy to offend people, saying, "No!"

"I have hit the place today, and I, Zhu, are responsible for all the losses. Also, the servants from the yamen also have rewards, so they can't let this trip go in vain."

Those who know how to be a human will always receive the greatest respect from the people below. Du Sansheng smiled and said, "What are you doing in a stand-in? Have you thanked Zhu Langjun?"

"Thank you, Langjun Zhu!"

The shouts shook the sky, and everyone was excited. Zhu Rui looked at the yamen coldly, full of disdain. How to win people's hearts? He even did better than Zhu Zhi when needed, but these yamen were just the lowest-class low-level soldiers, so there was no need to waste this trick on them.

The fourth uncle really likes to take care of all aspects, everything is very small and trivial, as if it were a woman. No wonder she has unparalleled wisdom, but she has never been able to take the initiative and control the power in the family and the court.

Zhu Rui knew very well that with Zhu Zhi's nature, he was only suitable to be a counselor, but he wanted to become a master, so some things could be followed by his teachings, while others had to stick to their own ways.

After leaving Dongcheng City, according to Zhu Lingbo's memories, he found the owner of the ox cart with his hands tied back in a forest several miles outside the North City Gate. The thief was ambushed here, knocked the owner unconscious while the ox cart passed by, threw it into the hidden place in the woods, and then put Zhu Lingbo in the cart and drove north. The owner of the ox cart went out to do business and returned for five or six days, so his family did not report the case, which just gave the thief time to escape.

Go north along the road, and then turn to a path that is rarely visited on the west without any warning. This is a good way to set up a suspicion array and get rid of tracking. After leaving the path, you will arrive at another path and follow this path to the stone bridge where the conflict occurs. You can clean up the snow covered on the bridge deck, and you can see the traces of the fight at that time, and find the crossbow arrows that shot in the air and the broken hats in the water.

After traveling north from the bridge for several miles, Gu Yun knew that Zhu would definitely come back to investigate. Last night, he sent someone to protect the scene and set up a cloth shed to block the wind and snow. The burned corpse of the thief was buried in the falling ash soil without moving at all.

"This place is still north of Qiantang. This man is meticulous and turns several times in the middle. It seems to be messy, but in fact his purpose has always been clear, just go north and go north!" Zhu Zhi said: "If I hadn't happened to meet Xu Qilang, he might have escaped..."

"He can escape for a while, but he can't escape for a lifetime. He robbed the ox cart to prevent Ling Bo from being discovered, but he also committed a big taboo and could not hide his whereabouts. As long as he showed clues, he would always be caught. At that time, huh, leave a living slap, and he won't be able to die just like this!"

"Yes!" Zhu Zhi sighed: "As soon as he dies, it's easy to deal with, but it leaves us with many mysteries. Fortunately, the corpse is still there, and sometimes dead people will speak, even more credible than living people!"
Chapter completed!