By Jia Xiuzhen

Unexpectedly, before the imperial envoy who announced the decree left Beijing, the urgent letter from the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang was sent to the imperial court.

On Dingyou Day, when there was a black wind at sea, dozens of teams of stevedore porters on Deqingkou Guijian who were dealing with wharf business braved the strong wind that hurt and scraped meat, and loaded the last batch of boxes on the sandboat. A very small sand boat was pushed into the water, even in the wind, it still steadily circled the lonely reef like a dead tree pointing to the sky, and sailed towards several lucky boats parked in the distance.Fuchuan, also known as heavy-building boats, are huge in size and cannot be bought by a large fleet with strong strength. Six or seven ships of various sizes are parked here at once, which is not an unusual move.

The black iron-clad box was unloaded from the sand boat and transported to the blessing boat, and dozens of people were in a hurry.The man on the sea is a heroic man. This job should be done with a lot of people's voices, but now it is done quietly, only a few rough panting can be heard occasionally, and the rest is the sound of water sliding with oars and boxes falling. The dull sound of landing on the deck, the sound of inadvertent bumping.

As it got late, the sand boats finished unloading their cargo, and brought the coolies who followed them back the same way.When the last box was transported to the bilge, the man in the zhang velvet robe wiped the sweat from his forehead with trembling hands.He yelled towards the bow of the boat: "Boss Pang, light up the lamp! It's pitch black and stuffy."

A burly man in a fur jacket casually came over on foot after hearing the words, and saluted respectfully: "Master Zhen, it's all loaded on the boat. Let's go to the sea now, let's light up the lights after a long journey. Be careful." Don't worry, 99 heads have been kowtowed."

The man in the robe waved his hand: "Then quickly lift the anchor and leave! Put me down in Taicang."

The burly man looked distressed, thought for a while and said: "Old Master Zhen ordered, this time we have to hurry up, I'm afraid we won't be able to land until we arrive at Laiyang."

Hearing that it was the old man talking, the man lost his temper, closed his eyes and said: "It's done, ah, I wish I could go down now. This damn weather makes me feel uncomfortable no matter how I look at it, I feel weird. "

The brawny man grinned and said, "Master Zhen was joking, we rough people can only sail a boat, if there is no sensible person like Master Zhen on the boat, then there will be no one who can stop us if the screwdriver is crooked. You have to work hard, Mr. Zhen. You sit inside for a while, the weather looks terrible, our boat is big, so we are not afraid of it. Once you get out of this beach and get out of Deqing's mouth, everything will be fine. You might as well sit inside and have some wine."

The man listened to the persuasion and walked into the cabin, and said in his mouth: "You guys have a lot of rules! If you don't stop me from taking Yang Liu'er early in the morning, I will care where you dock right now?"

The brawny man nodded and bowed while leading the way and smiled apologetically: "No way, no way, the ancestors ruled that I'm afraid that the Yin man would get on the boat and bump into the Sea Dragon King. You have some wine first, and I'll let the little water chestnuts come up to have fun with you."

The two of them hadn't reached the hatch when they saw several brightly lit boats approaching the far river mouth.Then they stopped talking, the strong man frowned, thinking about the other party's background, but the robed man felt more and more uneasy in his heart.As the fleet approached, there were several people standing on the opposite deck, among them a golden pheasant with a sick face, if it wasn't Lin Ruhai, who else?

Zhen Jue's heart trembled, and he felt a bit jealous, secretly cursing: "Why hasn't this old man died yet!" But he was afraid that someone would leak something, so he should not show up.

Just as he was about to take refuge in the cabin, he heard someone on the boat say: "The boat in front of you listens to the truth. Someone has lodged a complaint against a boat for smuggling salt to the north. The Yamen has issued a search order here! Slow down and moor the boat, and lower the rope bridge." !"

When Boss Pang heard this, he swallowed hard and stared at Zhen Jue.Zhen Jue was annoyed in her heart, after thinking about it, she finally walked towards the bow of the boat, smiled and said to the boat, "My nephew has seen Master Lin!"

The other side seemed to discuss it before raising their voice again: "Who is here?"

Zhen Jue was annoyed, but had no choice but to reply: "Little nephew Zhen Jue, I have met Master Lin."

The other side said: "So it's the eldest son of the Zhen family, so it's better. Please hurry up and moor the boat, I will finish the business first and then talk about friendship."

Zhen Jue laughed angrily, and he said: "There may be a misunderstanding on this matter, this trip is to go to Beijing to go to Korea, because there are too many boats for water transport, fearing that it will delay the favor of the nobles in the palace, so I turned to the sea. If all the documents are complete, my nephew can send someone to present them to you, and ask your lord to have a look."

Oil and salt did not enter at the other end, and he still said: "We just came out of Deqingkou, and we have not seen any ships from your house for customs declaration within this month. I don't know what the document Mr. Zhen said. The search order of the salt department is here. , I am afraid that you will retreat because of your son's words, so please quickly lower the rope bridge, and I will register and release it after inspection, so as not to miss important matters of your residence."

These two trips lasted no less than a dozen rounds, but they refused to let them go, and at the same time refused to allow people to board the boat for inspection, so the situation was stalemate.As it was getting late, a few thin men in swimsuits came up from below, and said to Zhen Jue, "Return to Master, there is no one behind the other end."

Zhen Jue asked, "Just those three and a half big boats? Is there anything else behind?"

A few people replied: "The younger ones went past them to investigate, and it's true that they didn't."

Zhen Jue nodded, closed his eyes, and after a long while, he suddenly said, "Boss Pang, order the whole team to open their mouths."

Boss Pang was taken aback, and asked, "Master Zhen, then...then what should they do if they come after us?"

Zhen Jue still didn't open her eyes, and said slowly: "Go out, reach the sea, if you still chase after me... then hit it...not leave anyone behind."

Boss Pang shivered, and he only hoped that the other party would not be so dumbfounded, no matter how much money he had, his life didn't matter!After a salute, he took his orders and went.

Sure enough, after a while, the team of lucky boats slowly turned to the wrong direction, trying to let the boats that passed the Yanke Yamen sail out.How could Lin Ruhai let him easily fulfill his wish?A small boat was lowered, stuck to the surface of the water, bypassed the reef, and headed for the first deep harbor behind the Fuchuan fleet.

This Lin Ruhai let down a few small boats again, and ordered the followers: "It seems that it is difficult to be kind today. I don't have much time, and I will be loyal to the Lord. It is also the duty of a courtier to die. You don't have to." In this way, I quickly took the boat to the mouth of the river, no need to say more."

A few loyal ones refused to leave, Lin Ruhai smiled and said: "What are you doing for nothing? If you really miss me, why don't you go back and see if you can call for rescuers? That's the most important thing." , just followed.

There are only 30 to [-] people left on the three ships, but none of them belong to the Yanke Yamen. Lin Ruhai looked at Mo Yansong and said, "Your cattail fan looks much more suitable now."

Mo Yansong shook his fan excitedly, and said in his mouth: "That's right, I also borrowed the east wind like Zhuge Liang, and he only burned a few people. I'm all money! Money! Hey yo , Everyone is fighting for face and life, look at the tricks of this immortal! It's a pity that there are too many, it's useless if I want to come, I still want to make others cheaper, tsk tsk."

While talking, I called two people to ask about the arrangement later, only to find that there was a person who shouldn't be here, "You, little girl, when did you come up?! Hurry up, there's nothing exciting to see here! "

Gui Liu said with a blank face: "The girl said that the master's expression has changed in the past few days, let me watch it. What is the master doing?"

Lin Ruhai is also one head and two big, and I don't know what to say, but Gui Liu took out a small sachet the size of a finger from his sleeve, and handed it to Lin Ruhai, saying, "This is a peace talisman made by the girl for the master." , asked me to give it to the master, I saw that the master was not in the Yamen, so I followed it out. Please also wear it to the master."

Lin Ruhai took it over and looked at it. It was bulging and the size of half a finger. It was embroidered with only the thin word "Ping An" on it, and both ends were sewn tightly with thin threads.Gui Liu glanced outside, not knowing what to do, Lin Ruhai's finger that was caressing the peace talisman hurt, and a drop of blood oozed out and just penetrated into the talisman.

Gui Liu acted as if he hadn't seen him, and said dumbly, "Master, please hang the peace talisman around your neck, so that I can go back and explain to the girl." Although the situation was strange, Lin Ruhai was in great pain when he heard the words.

After getting along with each other these days, and Mo Yansong Xin's sister mentioned some points aside, Lin Ruhai already had a rough idea of ​​Lin Daiyu's life in Jia's mansion.After all, blood relationship between father and daughter, although it is a matter of conspiracy now, but it is really necessary to part with the daughter, there is nothing perfect in the world, I don't know if father and daughter will be reunited in their lifetime.It is also the age of knowing the fate, with such a little blood, but now I have to give up, I don't know how to live like an orphan without my old tree, I have mixed feelings for a while.

Mo Yansong couldn't watch it from the sidelines, and said: "I have deduced this matter several times from the beginning to the end, and I have made complete preparations. Why is Brother Ruhai suddenly acting hypocritical now!"

Lin Ruhai wiped his face, hung the peace talisman under his clothes, and said, "Wait a moment."

He took pen, ink, and letter paper from one side of the table, and started to write quickly. After a while, he handed a letter to Guiliu, and sighed: "I know you are from Grandma Zhu in Jia's mansion. She had to reciprocate several times for her kindness, so I think she is a loyal person. This letter you handed over to my niece and daughter-in-law for me, but I have the audacity to entrust it to you, go quickly."

A few more people came up and said: "It's all ready." Mo Yansong became impatient, so he waved his hands to coax Guiliu and said, "Go, go, there will be a lot of noise in a while, don't scare yourself."

Gui Liu saluted, and Gu Zi withdrew, and no one cared about which boat she boarded at the moment.

Zhen Jue made up his mind, and the lucky boats adjusted their direction and were about to speed up slowly.But seeing the small boats that Lin Ruhai was sitting in also started to move, it seemed that they wanted to chase after him, and he was furious, and cursed: "I don't know what to do!" The reason is, or coax them to drop the sail and stand still, and it will save a lot of trouble to rush over later.Unexpectedly, when the boat arrived, it would not come forward or shout out, but just followed them to the sea outside the mouth.

I sneered in my heart, not to mention much.Gradually approaching the open place, I was about to order to take a closer look, but saw a fireball falling from nowhere in mid-air and falling on the deck, exploding with a bang, and the flames scattered in all directions.Everyone was shocked, Boss Pang called for people to put out the fire, and at the same time called for the archers on the boat to investigate the enemy's situation.After a while, another fireball struck, but this time it was clearly seen that this monster was shot from one of the boats following Lin Ruhai's boat.

Zhen Jue was furious and scolded: "Lin Hai, old man, what do you mean?!"

But without hearing a sound from the opposite side, Zhen Jue said to Old Pang, "Rush over there, hit and sink, and it's over! Everyone from the shark gang will go down, don't leave me alive!" Boss Pang was also really angry at this time, without saying a word So I went to give orders.

Unexpectedly, before he had time to move, Lin Ruhai's boat had already rammed straight into the lead boat where Zhen Jue was in. With a bang, the flames rose several feet high, and a layer of black oil surfaced. The fire scattered along the oil surface, surrounded the big ship, and burned blazingly.

Zhen Jue was shocked, since water and fire are incompatible, how can there be fire that is not afraid of water, what to do.Boss Pang had two senses, and he turned pale with fright and shouted: "Fire oil! Fire oil! How can there be so much fire oil!" There was chaos here, and there were a few more roars, but two more ships were killed. Hit, the fire spread.

When the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang took the Jingyuan ship and led the East China Sea Navy to surround Deqingkou, the sea had been burned into purgatory.Several official ships sailed out of the estuary, also stunned by the scene in front of them.Zhen Yingjia was shaking her fingers to save people, when there was a loud bang, the lead ship of the Fuchuan fleet exploded in the sea of ​​flames, Zhen Yingjia choked her breath, rolled her eyes and passed out.

The fire took advantage of the wind, so they couldn't get close at all. Everyone could only watch helplessly as the lucky boat split in two slowly tilted and sank, accompanied by miserable human voices. Those who experienced this incident many years later couldn't help but feel sad when they recalled the scene of that night. General cold.

Presented to the emperor's Mingzhe, the Yanke yamen heard that there were several big salt lords concentrating on smuggling smuggled salt to the north. , the Yanxiao fleet also sank.Due to the black storm that day, the conflict between the two sides broke out again, and the scene was out of control when the East China Sea division arrived.Afterwards, the scene was cleared, and there was no trace of dead bodies at sea. The life and death of Lin Ruhai, the censor who inspected salt, was unknown. In addition, Zhen Jue, the eldest son of Zhen's family in weaving in Jiangning, was threatened by bandits and died in the chaos. The body has been taken back by the Zhen family.and so on.

The government and the people were shocked for a while, Jiangnan has become like a country's sore carbuncle, and everyone knows it well. In front of the world, it is difficult to turn your face away and act as if you have never seen it.

His Majesty was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. The East China Sea Marine Division sealed off the ports along the route, counted the registered ships of various fleets, and conducted an audit of the government-run saltworks.Some officials wanted the old sage's order, but the salt censor was the confidant hand-picked by the old sage when he was in power, and now he was murdered. Saints can't say anything.

This big case of one hundred lives, I am afraid that another hundred and ten lives will not be enough to fill it.For a while, fires broke out everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River, making it hard to see from head to toe. Countless officials, businessmen, and civilians were involved.

When the noise was raging, no one came up with a medium-sized fleet of the Jiuzhou Commercial Bank, carrying some local rice from the south, quietly sailed from the place where the East China Sea Marine Division has been training all the year round to Kyoto, passed the city gate, and arrived at the Jiuzhou Commercial Bank. A small dock in the inner city unloaded the cargo.The black and iron boxes were neat and uniform, and the person who came to carry them was not an ordinary porter. Although he was dressed as a laborer, he seemed to have kung fu in his walking.

The secret letter written by the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang arrived half a day earlier than the open letter. Lin Ruhai was poisoned in his body and had the will to die.With his own strength, he stopped the salt tax merchant tax silver in Jiangnan for the past two years at Deqingkou, and arranged for people to use the fire to help the East China Sea Division transfer the silver goods loaded on several lucky boats to the warships and transport them back to the military port. .But he didn't expect that Zhen Jue would order the ship to ram directly. The governor of Fujian and Zhejiang had already sent people to search and rescue, but by the date of the report, his whereabouts were still unknown.

King Xin saw the booklet handed over by the emperor, and said with a wry smile: "This is too much credit!" Now that the situation is stronger than others, the old man can't say much, so he just took this opportunity to mess up Jiangnan and wedge a few nails in. It is not an exaggeration to say that Lin Ruhai took Jiangnan alone.

The emperor also said helplessly: "But this old boy doesn't even have any descendants. If I want to reward him, I can only chase after his ancestors."

King Xin shook his head and said, "I thought he was a soft-boned weed and didn't bother to take care of him, but now it seems that he was wrong. It's a pity to use such mental means."

The emperor nodded and said: "I was wrong, I missed a capable minister." After thinking for a while, he ordered the eunuch beside him: "Let someone go and check, is there anyone else in the Lin family?" After giving the order, he turned his face and looked out the window , his expression was blurry in the lights, only a faint voice could be heard: "Chi, the Zhen family..."