Ouyang Xiu immediately made a decision and withdrew the soldiers who were gathered on the left side of the inn, because it was not necessary to mobilize the army, Su Jin had no intention of resisting or running away at all, as long as he wanted to take him, he didn't even need to move a single soldier, just hook his fingers, and Su Jin would immediately go to Beijing with him.

On the banquet, the two sat down, this was the first time the two drank at the same table in Yangzhou, but they didn't expect to sit together under this situation.

"If Lord Zhongcheng has any questions, just ask, and the officials will answer everything." Su Jin put down the wine glass, lifted the wine jug and diligently helped Ouyang Xiu fill it.

"I have a lot of questions, the first of which is why do you want to travel by land instead of by water? Don't you know that bandits are rampant on official roads? ”

"I really don't know that the bandit is so serious, the lower officials only know that there are bandits in Bagong Mountain, but they really don't know that the bandits are so serious; However, transporting grain by land is forced by the situation, and in the year of the great drought, the Luzhou Weishui River and the canals in Yangzhou are close to drying up, and the big ships cannot pass, if the time of the delay in transshipment by small boats is too long, the situation in Yangzhou cannot be delayed. ”

Ouyang Xiu nodded and said, "I see, but since bandits are rampant on land, why don't you ask the Luzhou soldiers to cooperate in transporting grain?" ”

"In fact, whether the soldiers escort or not is not the most important thing, even if there are thousands of bandits in the two hundred horse army, they are not afraid; And when the bandits in Bagong Mountain robbed the grain, they only dispatched five or six hundred people, and according to common sense, there would be no such thing at all. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "Are you saying that the Ma Army did not resist at all? ”

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's right, according to what the two heads of the Ma army said, that night in Liangyuan Town, Long Zhen didn't even give an order to fight, and when he saw that there were bandits, he immediately ordered a retreat, almost giving away the food, which really made people angry." ”

Ouyang Xiu frowned and said, "Is that really the case?" ”

Su Jin said: "Do the officials dare to talk nonsense about this?" There are the confessions of the head of the Ma military and the head of Zhao Dutou as evidence, and if the adults do not believe it, they can casually summon the soldiers of the Ma army for questioning. ”

Ouyang Xiu took a sip of the wine glass and scolded: "This dragon is really lawless, where are the others?" I heard that you took him into custody, right? ”

Su Jindao: "I am in custody and ready to be escorted to Beijing for trial." ”

Su Jin didn't dare to say that Long Zhen had run away, once Ouyang Xiu knew that Long Zhen had run away, he would never hide the military rations for himself again, because if Long Zhen escaped from the city and ran back to the capital, the matter of the military rations would basically be leaked.

"This official also has to find a time to meet him, this wretch." Ouyang Xiu scolded.

Su Jin said with a smile: "Your Excellency is angry, don't you think it's a little strange for Long Zhen to abandon his food and run away?" ”

Ouyang Xiu pretended not to know and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Su Jin said: "He is a little commander of the horse army, and he came to follow me on an errand, and the matter of escorting food is so important, will he not understand the powerful relationship here?" If you really can't fight hard, it's understandable, and if you see bandits, you run away, which is unreasonable; Could it be that the Ma Army is all a wreck? ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "What do you want to say?" ”

Su Jin secretly scolded the old fox, but he didn't want to go around the bend, so he said: "He delayed in Luzhou for many days at the beginning, and then abandoned the grain and fled, and a line was strung down, and the lower officials suspected that there was someone behind him. ”

Ouyang Xiu was shocked and said, "Who do you think instigated it?" ”

Su Jin spread his hands and said, "How do I know? This person clearly doesn't want me to finish my errand, as for who it is, the lower official can only ask the adult to help me analyze and analyze. ”

Ouyang Xiu shook his head and said, "You are too worried, maybe it's just that Long Zhen is greedy for life and afraid of death." ”

Su Jin knew that Ouyang Xiu would never guess what the instructions were in front of him, and said with a smile: "I hope, but if I find out who it is, the lower officials will never let this person go." ”

Ouyang Xiu's heart was like a mirror, although Su Jin was guessing, but Long Zhen's behavior was indeed abnormal, and this guess was somewhat reasonable; As for who is behind the scenes, there is almost no need to think about it, who can command the moving dragon? He is a general of the forbidden army, and the person who can instruct him must be a high authority, and he is aimed at the matter of food affairs, obviously the spearhead is not aimed at Su Jin, but the third division in charge of food affairs; In this way, who is behind the bad water, it is about to come out.

But Ouyang Xiu knew that there was no need to investigate this matter at all, and there would be no evidence for this kind of thing at all, unless that person came out with written evidence and ordered Long Zhen to stir up the situation, it would be a bit of a trouble; But in fact, there will never be such evidence, what Long Zhen accepted must be verbal instructions, even if Long Zhen confesses, the final result will inevitably be determined to be false accusations; Investigating such things is simply making yourself uncomfortable.

"This official advises you not to pursue this matter." Ouyang Xiu sincerely comforted Su Jin, if this kid made a mistake, he would make a big leak again.

"After talking for a long time, the biggest question of this official is that the bandits chose the time and place of the grain robbery so cleverly, is this still a bandit? Moreover, it is said that they were severely injured by the two Xiang armies in Luzhou and Shouzhou several times, and they actually dared to use five or six hundred bandits to rob the grain escorted by the two hundred horse army, isn't this self-defeating? ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "This is the first big gift that the lower official wants to give to Lord Ouyang; Why do the bandits dare? Because someone reported the news. ”

Ouyang Xiu was shocked: "What? Someone tipped off? Eyes and ears of bandits? ”

Su Jin said: "No, it's an official in Luzhou." ”

Ouyang Xiu's hand shook, his chopsticks almost slipped to the ground, and his voice changed: "You mean someone is a bandit?" ”

Su Jin said: "I don't know if it's a bandit, but as soon as the team carrying grain set off, an official named Chen Laogen in Luzhou was ordered to send an official letter to Suzhou City, and it was an urgent official document, and it was limited to one day of arrival. ”

"Suzhou? What's going on in Suzhou? ”

"Because the nearest road from Luzhou to Suzhou must pass through the foot of Bagong Mountain, which is the control area of the bandits."

"The more you talk about me, the more confused I become."

Su Jin smiled and said: "At first, the official was also confused, but this official Chen Laogen was in my hands, according to his confession, at the beginning of the Ma army's grain transportation, he went out of the city to send an urgent official letter, asking him to take a shortcut and must deliver the letter within half a day, otherwise he will be severely punished; Chen Laogen knew that he could only pass down Bagong Mountain if he wanted to arrive in one day, so he objected, but was told that the bandits had been eliminated and there was no need to worry. ”

Ouyang Xiu heard some doorways and asked, "In other words, this official document was deliberately sent to the bandits?" ”

Su Jin said: "Exactly, the content of the official document is the time and number of people transporting grain, and this official document was intercepted by the bandits without any suspense." ”

Ouyang Xiu's face changed drastically, and he said in a deep voice: "Who sent someone to send the official document?" ”

Su Jin said softly: "Zhu Shiyong, the prefect of Luzhou." ”

Ouyang Xiu's body shook and muttered, "I can't think of it, how could it be him?" Why is he doing this? ”

Su Jin said: "When Xia Guan was in Luzhou, he had a holiday with Zhu Shiyong and the Luzhou Chamber of Commerce, if it wasn't for Lord Bao to save me, I'm afraid I would have been exiled to the barbarian land at this moment." ”

General Su Jin talked about the grievances between Luzhou and the Chamber of Commerce and Zhu Shiyong, and finally said: "When they learned that I was the special envoy of grain affairs, they must have felt fear, so they started first, as long as I can't do my errand, then I will lose my official position and be punished; The Chamber of Commerce and Zhu Shiyong colluded together, and the Chamber of Commerce also hoarded hundreds of thousands of stone grain, I know all these things, it is obvious that if I go to Luzhou to do grain affairs, none of them will be able to run, so it is not unusual for me to become their target. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "This must be the case, I am in charge of this matter, and I will definitely find out and give you justice." ”

Su Jinxin said: You concluded that this matter is only for me personally and not for Yan Shu, of course, I want to investigate it energetically; If they are also instructed by the people above like Long Zhen, they will keep your fart and not let go of a single one.

For Ouyang Xiu, this is indeed a big gift, for a year or two, as an official of Yushitai, he didn't make a big case that pulled the wind out, and he was a little idle; This time, a big fish at the level of a four-grade prefect suddenly appeared, and the case was handled well, and it was another opportunity to be promoted; What's more important is that this big fish has no backstage, although it is rumored that Zhu Shiyong has a relationship with Lu Xiangpan, but Lu Xiang doesn't seem to want to see him, otherwise he would be on the central waiting list, and Ouyang Xiu still has this political sensitivity.

"Later, you will hand over the letter and the old root of Chen to the official, and the official will start to investigate." Ouyang Xiu raised his glass to Su Jin with joy.

Su Jin said: "The letter is gone, but Chen Laogen is alive." ”

Ouyang Xiu was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and said, "It's okay, I have my own way." If there is no physical evidence, I will find more witnesses, the bandit chief Shen Yaozu must have seen it, and maybe other small leaders have also seen it, and it is enough to have these confessions. ”

Su Jin was stunned and said: "There is no physical evidence, just human evidence?" ”

Ouyang Xiu said proudly: "No one else can, but my Yushitai is redundant." ”

Su Jin scolded secretly, forgetting that Yushitai could even impeach officials based on rumors, not to mention that there were witnesses; Unless they don't want to, as long as they keep an eye on you, they will basically even be asked what color the underwear is.

"The lower officials have a second gift to give to the adults, that is, the self-confessions of the officials collected from Feng Laohu."

"Didn't all the confessions be handed over to the official?"

Su Jin said with a smile: "My lord, forgive me, those are just the self-confessions of the incumbent officials of the current government, the officials of the Yangzhou government have changed a few times, how can Feng Laohu only control the officials of the Song prefect's mansion, and there are more than a dozen self-confessions in the hands of the lower officials." ”

Ouyang Xiu was furious: "You are fooling around, how dare you hide the evidence of the crime?" ”

Su Jin said: "My lord, I just don't want to make trouble, after all, I'm just a food envoy, and so many people are involved, can I still handle food affairs?" Some of them are officials in other state capitals, and some have even been promoted to the six central departments as officials, and the lower officials can't afford to mess with them. ”

Ouyang Xiu said with a straight face: "Then hand over these self-confessions to this official together with Chen Laogen." ”

Su Jin smiled: "Don't worry. ”

"Why not be in a hurry?"

Su Jin said with a smile: "Please write a recital first, and request that these criminal officials in Yangzhou be executed locally, and then the lower officials will naturally hand over these physical evidence." ”

"What, you're actually bargaining with this official?" Ouyang Xiu was furious again.

"This ...... Don't say it so ugly, the adults voted for me with a peach, and the lower officials naturally reciprocated with Li, which was mutually beneficial; My lord has taken my good subordinates to heart, how do you see my performance in the future? It's just that now this matter is related to the head of the lower official, how about allowing the lower official to be presumptuous once? ”

Ouyang Xiuqi is terrible, this guy doesn't see a rabbit or an eagle, it seems that he can only report the case first; Ouyang Xiu couldn't tell what he felt in his heart, and he didn't know whether he had embarked on the road or stepped into the bottomless abyss.