Zhou Hu...

In the county yamen, in Magai's class room, the county magistrate Magai sat in a chair for a morning break. He saw his hands and hands pillows, putting his feet on another chair in front of him, closing his eyes to rest, while thinking about what had happened recently.

For him, he has been plagued by everything recently.

His entanglement with the Black Tiger Thieves has long been an old age, and even he himself has realized that from when he began, he has gradually stopped worrying about this matter - what this means is self-evident.

In contrast, the "Wang Girl" has become his most troublesome problem at present.

About seven or eight days ago, Wang Fu, who runs the "Wang Inn" in Qian Street, came to the county government and asked to ask Liu Pi to ask for an explanation from Magai and his daughter.

In Wang Fu's words, the whole county now knows about his daughter, Liu and Ma. Not only did no one dare to come to propose marriage and matchmaking, but even those who had such an intention were scared away, so he asked Liu Pi and Ma Gai to deal with the matter.

...Isn't this a joke?

Magai felt incredible.

After all, the rumors were not spread, and your Wang Fu's daughter has ruined her reputation because of this. You go to find the Black Tiger Thieves who spread rumors. What is it about us?

What made Magai feel frustrated was that Liu Pi turned his head and threw the matter to him: "You can solve the problem you caused!"

Although I understand that Liu Gong was afraid and did not want to be rushed to the study to sleep by his wife, I can't just give him a hand. Who did he provoke whom?

In recent days, many people in the county government have been secretly speculating about when Magai will propose marriage to the Wang family. It is said that even the county magistrate Li Xu was involved, and Magai was quite powerless about this.

Speaking of which, his wife, Zou, didn't want to be as strong as the wife of Liu County Magistrate, and was not very resistant to his concubine. In recent years, he occasionally mentioned the daughter of Wang, saying that she secretly went to see the woman with a few neighbors who were close friends, and she felt quite well-behaved... Why did you tell me this?

The most annoying thing is the wedding gift given to Zhou Hu, the Black Tiger thief, in advance, a silver hairpin, a bronze mirror, and a jade bracelet.

Looking at the current situation of the Black Tiger Thieves, Zhou Hu, as the leader of the bandit, actually gave such a simple wedding gift, which was really shabby, but Ma Gai felt inexplicably comfortable, as if he had received praise from another angle.

...When it comes to this matter, isn’t this guy the one who took it?!

"Du, dumb, dumb."

The closed door came a slightly slow knocking sound.

"who?"

Magai opened one eye and asked casually.

As soon as he finished speaking, a voice came from outside the door: "County lieutenant, it's me, Deng Ren."

Deng Ren…

Magai immediately remembered this person.

Due to the recent two years of attack on the Black Tiger Thieves, the officers and soldiers in his county government have suffered a lot of losses, so he selected many newcomers. Ma Gai couldn't guarantee that all of them knew each one, but Ma Gai was still very familiar with old people in the county government government like Deng Ren.

Not to mention, the other party also has a unclear relationship with the Black Tiger Thief...

Hmm?

From when did I feel close to those people related to the Black Tiger Thieves?

Frowning, Magai said in a deep voice: "Come in."

As soon as he finished speaking, Deng Ren pushed the door and saw that there was no one else in the room except the horse cover. He smiled embarrassedly and said, "County lieutenant, are you resting?"

Ma Gai was puzzled by Deng Ren's guilt, nodded slightly and said, "It's okay to be idle, take a nap... Is there anything wrong?"

Hearing this, Deng Ren looked outside the house carefully, then closed the door and walked to Ma Gai.

Seeing this, Ma Gai became more and more sure that Deng Ren had something to do. He lowered his legs on another chair and said Nunuu's mouth to signal Deng Ren to sit down.

"Thank you."

Deng Ren clasped his fists and thanked him, then sat on the chair and looked at Ma Gai and whispered: "County lieutenant, there is a Black Tiger thief who has contacted me, and it is Chen Cai who was in charge of the Black Tiger Yishou."

“…”

Ma Gai looked at Deng Ren in a little surprised, then lowered his voice and asked, "What are you doing?"

Deng Ren shook his head and explained from beginning to end: "A few days ago, he suddenly found me, and didn't say anything to me. He just asked me if I still recognize the people from Heihu Village. How dare I resist? I admit it. Then he threw me a cloth bag, which contained money. Afterwards, my wife counted it, and it was almost a thousand......”

At the end of the day, his eyes were a little slight.

Seeing this scene, Magai certainly guessed that the kid must have lied about the amount of the bag of money, but he didn't care and asked in a deep voice: "Have they contacted you afterwards?"

"without."

Deng Ren shook his head, then looked at Ma Gai and whispered: "I dare not say this, but in the past two days, when I was chatting with Xu Wu, Sun Gong and others, they suddenly asked me privately whether there were people from the Black Tiger Thieves who contacted me and whether they had collected the Black Tiger Thieves' money. Only then did I realize that they were all bribed by the Black Tiger Thieves..."

Xu Wu, Sun Gong...

Ma Gai stroked his short beard and a figure appeared in his mind.

He knew that the people Deng Ren mentioned were all captured by the Black Tiger thieves when he attacked the Black Tiger thief last time and were forced to sign the county soldiers who surrendered to the title. It was precisely because of this that the rest of the county government had prejudice against them and the two sides were not harmonious.

But what did the Black Tiger Thieves bribe those people for?

Just as Ma Gai was thinking to himself, Deng Ren lowered his voice and said, "County lieutenant, you have to be careful. The Black Tiger Thieves may be coming for you..."

"ah?"

Magai was not careful for a moment and his reaction was a little confused.

Seeing this, Deng Ren's face showed a little confusion and explained: "You think, you have led people to fight against the Black Tiger Thieves several times and killed many of them. Now the Black Tiger Thieves have made a comeback and have secretly bribed unsuccessful county soldiers. The subordinates think it is very likely that they are coming for you and want to be unfavorable to you."

"oh oh……"

Ma Gai suddenly realized, stroked his beard and lowered his head, trying not to let Deng Ren see the strange look on his face.

After calming down, Magai comforted Deng Ren and said, "Okay, I understand this matter. Don't make any noise to avoid causing trouble. I will investigate this matter."

Hearing this, Deng Ren left.

He personally sent Deng Ren out of the work room and watched him walk away. Ma Gai closed the door and shook his head as if laughing.

He sat back on the chair, closed his eyes and rested.

To be fair, he was not worried that the Black Tiger Thieves would be unfavorable to him. After all, according to Zhou Hu's statement, he was at the level of "big boss" no matter how much he said it - well, this is not something worth showing off.

...Do you really plan to fully control Kunyang? Zhou Hu?

Magai thought to himself.

According to his observations during this period, the Black Tiger Thieves have indeed changed a lot, of course, in a 'terrible' direction.

I won’t talk about Heihu Yishe. The most popular news in Kunyang is that many Ye County merchants took the initiative to build workshops in the city.

In just half a month, many Ye County merchants built workshops in Kunyang County were like spring bamboo shoots after the rain. Although the horizontal plaques hung on these workshops all had family prefixes such as "Huang Family" and "Liang Family", without exception, these workshops had an additional sign with the words "Kunyang Brotherhood Cooperation Workshop".

This incident reminded Magai of the rise of the Luye Masonic community a few years ago.

When the Luye Freemasonry was first established, merchants from Luyang and Ye County expanded wildly to neighboring counties. At that time, Kunyang was also hit. In just a few days, countless shops with plaques of "Luye Freemasonry" appeared in the city. These shops joined forces to suppress local merchants from Kunyang people, and the latter defeated them step by step. At that time, many merchants were destroyed by Ye County merchants, either closing the shop sadly or turning to the other party.

As of now, at least 30% of the shops in Kunyang City have plaques of "Luye Masonic".

It is no exaggeration to say that in the nearby counties, only the Black Tiger Thief dared to touch the brows of the Luye Freemason. In addition, even if he and the county magistrate Liu Pi were polite to those Ye County merchants.

Previously, Magai thought that the situation of "Luye Masonic dominance" would continue, but he never expected that a brotherhood broke out in Kunyang. With the rapid rise of the Luye Masonic, many workshops and shops hanging in the county with the words "Brotherhood Cooperation Workshop".

The Brotherhood, which was first built, suddenly had workshops and shops in Kunyang that were no less than Luye Masonic.

Those workshops that sprouted like mushrooms in the city meant a stable job for the people of Kunyang, but for the county government, it was an undeniable political achievement...

Magai still remembers that the day before yesterday, Liu Pi of the county magistrate Li Xu summoned him to discuss privately with the county magistrate Li Xu.

At that time, Liu Pi asked Li Xu to take good care of every Ye County merchant and persuade the other party to stay in Kunyang for a long time as possible, and even give those merchants some special care. For Magai, Liu Pi asked him to seize the security issues in the city and make sure that those Ye County merchants feel that Kunyang is a county with strict security...

He even remembers Liu Pi's words with a little excitement at that time: "This is an opportunity."

Yes, this is an opportunity to strengthen Kunyang, a chance to dig out the corners of Ye County, and a chance to be rewarded by the county. Ma Gai has no doubt that this Liu Gong no longer cared about the Black Tiger Thieves at this time.

It is no wonder that although Kunyang and Ye County are close, they belong to two different counties, and this is destined to be unable to avoid comparing Kunyang and Ye County.

Of course, he is not as good as Ye County in Kunyang, and at least he has not had the opportunity to catch up so far.

But in the past two years, a lot of things have happened in Ye County. For example, the county magistrate Mao Gong died suddenly, and the candidates who have not sent to replace the court can only be temporarily managed by the county magistrate. In addition, the once huge Luye Freemasonry also split. It is no exaggeration to say that Ye County is now far from as strong as two or three years ago.

Now, there are various signs that the merchants in Ye County intend to transfer some workshops to Kunyang County. Kunyang, as the county magistrate, naturally seize this opportunity.

"What should I do if I suppress the thief?"

Afterwards, Magai asked Liu Pi alone.

As he expected, Liu Pi had no time to care about this matter, so he only said: "You can do it."

Hearing this, Ma Gai asked again: "What if Lu Kuang refused to let go?"

County Magistrate Liu said without hesitation: "Let the Zhou surname find a way."

As soon as he heard this, Ma Gai knew that Liu Gong had already followed his footsteps and was brutally "buyed" by the Black Tiger Thieves.

Then... let's do it.

At noon that day, Magai took a comfortable nap with his eyes closed.

It’s not that he was not willing to do his best. In fact, he had wanted to organize the suppression of thieves before. At least on the surface, he had to act like a show. Don’t worry about the hearts of the people in the county. But what’s embarrassing is that the people in Kunyang did not seem to realize that the Black Tiger Thieves were a threat, especially in the county town, where almost no one talked about the Black Tiger Thieves.

And it has become even better in recent days. When the merchants in Ye County came, the people in the city were talking about it. They were surprised that many stable errands suddenly appeared in the county, which made Magai unable to attract any manpower.

The settled rangers were hired by Chen Zu and became the rich man Chen and the guardian of the charity Chen...
To be continued...