667 flintlock gun theft

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In late July of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in Haizhou City, Liaodong, a caravan from Shanxi in Guannei entered Haizhou.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although Chongzhen ordered that private merchants were not allowed to trade with the Tartars in the north, this decree of the imperial court was not strictly enforced.

At this time, among the people, and even some court officials, they were secretly trading with the Tartars outside the Guan.

Merchants in the customs transported the scarce salt and iron of the Tartars to the outside of the customs, and exchanged them for furs and medicinal herbs from the Tartars, and after transporting them back to the customs, the price of the furs and medicinal materials increased several times.

It was really too profitable that the merchants of the people did not hesitate to take risks and went to trade with the Tartars outside the customs.

And when they went out of the customs, they bought off the officers and soldiers at the checkpoint and bribed the court officials of the northern guards, basically all the officials in the north of the court turned a blind eye to this situation.

Among them, among all the Ming merchants who traded with the Tartars, Shanxi merchants were the most, which was mainly determined by their unique geographical location.

Merchants pursued profits, and in the late Ming Dynasty, the concept of the state was far less influential than the concept of the family.

As soon as everyone is born, they have to fight for the rise of the family.

As for the country, they still think that it is the old Zhu family, whether the old Zhu family sits, or the Tartars who sit, they think it is the same.

In the face of such a rich return on trade with the Tartars, the merchants of Shanxi would not care whether they were helping the Tartars or not, at least trading with the Tartars would make their family very profitable.

To tell the truth, the family system in China is unfavorable to the rule of the imperial court, which is why Li Zixiao's own ruling area vigorously promotes the policy of 'separating the family' and does not allow the existence of big families.

At the same time, in Li Zixiao's ruling area, all private schools taught children's thoughts, with patriotism as the first and loyalty to the monarch second, and vigorously promoted the concept of the Chinese state.

Haizhou is also one of the largest trading centers of the Tatars in Liaodong, and basically all the caravans from the Guannai will come to Haizhou to trade with the Tatars after crossing the Great Wall and leaving the customs.

And it is for this reason that it has also become a center for the trade of Tartar intelligence.

Whether it is the news sent back by the spies sent into the pass by the Tartars themselves, or the information entrusted by the Tartars to some merchants to obtain information from them, it is all carried out here.

At the same time, Haizhou City is also the intelligence center of the Guanwai Division of the White Dragon Army Intelligence Bureau, and the spies of the Intelligence Bureau who are active in Haizhou account for one-fifth of the intelligence personnel outside the Guan.

After a Shanxi caravan entered the city, they completed the transaction as usual at the location that had been negotiated with some of the Tartar tribes.

On the way, they will secretly hand over a package to the owner of an inn, which they smuggled out from Xuzhou, Jiangbei.

When they smuggled the parcels in, the innkeeper would pay them a lot of money, because the small investment and huge harvest made it difficult for the merchants to refuse.

In fact, the shopkeepers of these Shanxi merchants, of course, know that in these packages, there must be some things that are not good for the Ming Dynasty, but the Tartars are in urgent need.

But so what, as long as they can make money, they don't care what the Tartars are transported out of the customs or anything, if they don't carry it, the Tartars will find someone else to transport it.

"Shopkeeper, your goods."

When the caravan came to the front and back of the inn, a young man was already ready, took out the rectangular package, walked into the inn with his arms, and shouted to the innkeeper.

"You come with me."

After the innkeeper saw the young man, he had known this young man for a long time, and he had delivered goods to them before, but this time he was so solemn.

"Shopkeeper, your package is intact, you can accept it."

The young man followed the innkeeper to the backyard with the package, handed it to the middle-aged shopkeeper, and waited there.

The shopkeeper carefully examined the package, and when he found that there was no sign of it being opened, he nodded, took out a pocket from the side, and threw it to the young man.

After the young man took the pocket, he checked it, felt the weight of the pocket, and said with a smile to the middle-aged shopkeeper: "Thank you shopkeeper, the little one has retired." ”

The young man guarded his pockets, turned and left the inn, returned to the caravan, handed the bags to their shopkeeper, and the caravan continued on its way.

At the same time, in Xuzhou, Jiangbei, at this time in Li Zixiao's house, the old man Sun Tong also took several craftsman leaders and was kneeling in Li Zixiao's study.

Peng!

"Why didn't you report this until now?" Li Zixiao slapped the heavy desk, his face was cold, and he roared angrily.

Sun Tong and several other craftsmen saw Li Zixiao angry, and they were all frightened, and they all leaned down and didn't dare to speak, only the old man Sun Tong raised his head.

"Sir, it's because of the old decay that the supervision is not strict, so there is such a mistake, and I ask the lord to punish him."

"What's the use of punishing you?" Li Zixiao said angrily, this time he was really angry.

It turned out that just this morning, Li Yan hurriedly sent a piece of music, saying that it was sent by the old man Sun Tong himself.

This made Li Zixiao wonder for a while, at this time, the First Arsenal was working day and night to create firearms, how could the old man Sun Tong have the leisure to enter the city!

Immediately, when Li Zixiao finished reading the piece sent by the old man Sun Tong, he was furious.

It turned out that when the old man Sun Tong inspected the flintlock pistol warehouse of the No. 1 Arsenal once again today, he found that they were missing two flintlock pistols.

This frightened the old man Sun Tong a lot, he clearly remembered that three days ago, he took someone to personally inspect the warehouse, and did not find a single gun missing.

But when I checked again this morning, I found that the two flintlock pistols on the far side were missing.

Due to the fact that there are now more and more firearms in the warehouses of the First Arsenal, each inspection takes a long time.

But even so, Sun Tong still led people to inspect all warehouses every three days and count all the registered firearms.

You must know that the First Arsenal fully implemented the military management system at this time, so the firearms were strictly supervised from the construction, storage to transportation.

In the first arsenal, there are 300 white dragon sergeants, and 1,000 city defense sergeants are responsible for long-term garrison, responsible for guarding the warehouse and gate.

Without Sun Tong or Li Zixiao's personal warrant, no one is allowed to enter and leave the arsenal and enter and exit the warehouse at will.

It is precisely because of such a strict secrecy system that three years have passed since the establishment of the First Arsenal, and there has not been a single theft of firearms.

And this time, the theft of two flintlock pistols frightened the old man Sun Tong.

He really didn't dare to hide such a big thing, and immediately rushed to Xuzhou with several responsible craftsman leaders to report the situation to Li Zixiao.

"The lord is angry, now that the matter has happened, the important thing is not to hold Director Sun responsible, but to see if you can find out, how the two flintlock pistols were lost, and whether they can be recovered."

Li Yan saw that Li Zixiao was angry, and he also felt persuaded.

"Li Yan, immediately call Zhang Fugui to Benjue."

"Yes!"

When Li Yan went to call Zhang Fugui, Li Zixiao calmed down his emotions, looked at Sun Tong and the others kneeling below, and asked in a deep voice: "Sun Tong, think about it now."

Recently in your arsenal, there are any suspicious people approaching the warehouse, or some craftsmen or apprentices in your arsenal have disappeared recently. ”

"Sir, after the incident, Lao Yu checked all the people in the factory, and no one was absent from work in the past three days, and no one was seen, everything was normal.

Because of this, the old man really can't figure out what the problem is there, it's really the past month, the arsenal has been too busy.

However, in the humble opinion of the old age, the theft of the flintlock pistol must have been committed by our insiders, otherwise with the defensive strength of the arsenal, it would be difficult for outsiders to sneak in and steal the two flintlock pistols. ”

"Humph!"

After hearing Sun Tong's words, Li Zixiao snorted coldly and didn't speak again, but he also agreed with Sun Tong's old man's statement.

Now, Li Zixiao is waiting for Zhang Fugui to come over, hoping that Zhang Fugui can find out about this matter as soon as possible, but Li Zixiao feels in his heart that it is estimated that it will be difficult to recover these two flintlock pistols this time.

As for who stole these two flintlock pistols, Li Zixiao had two suspicions in his heart, and the first target of his suspicion was, of course, Guanwai Tartar.

And Li Zixiao's second target of suspicion is the current imperial court.

The imperial court has always wanted to get a flintlock pistol from Li Zixiao, as long as the imperial court gets a flintlock pistol, the old craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court can definitely copy it.

If the imperial court sent someone to steal the two flintlock pistols this time, Li Zixiao would still be able to accept it, but if the Tartar people stole it, Li Zixiao would probably be angry.

"Sir, it's subordinate."

Half a day later, Zhang Fugui came panting, sweating all over his head, he was originally thin, but after two years of comfortable life, he also gained weight, and his big belly came out.

"Fugui, do you know the situation?" Li Zixiao looked at Zhang Fugui with a gloomy face and asked.

"Yes, my subordinates have learned from Master Li."

Zhang Fugui didn't dare to look directly into Li Zixiao's eyes, lowered his head, and answered.

"That's good, I'll give you a day, and by this time tomorrow, Benjue will know the ins and outs of this matter, and no one of the people involved in the case will be missed.

I will let the people of the government cooperate with you to arrest people, and within one day, you can transfer the officials of the government at will and arrest anyone.

If you can't figure this out, then you can get me home and pick up the baby! ”

Li Zixiao finished speaking in a calm tone, but Zhang Fugui was already frightened, and his sweaty back felt cold at this time.

"Yes, sir, within a day, my subordinates will definitely investigate this matter." Zhang Fugui hurriedly assured.

"Go ahead."

"Yes." Zhang Fugui responded and left immediately.

"Li Yan, you go down and give an order, Xuzhou will be under martial law for one day, and at the same time, all the checkpoints going north from Jiangbei will be closed immediately, and no one will be allowed to leave Jiangbei within one day, but I hope it will be too late."

"Yes, my subordinates will send someone to pass the order."

Zhang Fugui left the Li Mansion in fright, got into the carriage, and shouted to an entourage beside him: "Go back to the lair, and immediately let the directors of the three divisions come to see me."

It's all a bunch of waste, and when such a big thing happens, no one even notices that they're all eating dry food!

If Lao Tzu is masturbated by the lord this time, none of you will be better. ”

"Yes, the little ones will go."

The entourage was also taken aback by Zhang Fugui's anger, and felt that he had run to summon the other leaders of the Intelligence Bureau.

"General, what's wrong?"

After the entourage left, there was a thin middle-aged man in Zhang Fugui's carriage, and there were only the two of them in the carriage at this time, and the middle-aged man opened his mouth to ask Zhang Fugui.

This middle-aged man's name is Xu Chen, and he is still Zhang Fugui's brother-in-law, thoughtful, treacherous and cunning, and he follows Zhang Fugui's side at this time and assists him wholeheartedly.

"Something's wrong!" Immediately, Zhang Fugui told Xu Chen about the matter.

"Brother-in-law, what do you think I should do now?" Zhang Fugui asked Xu Chen's opinion.

Over the years, the reason why Zhang Fugui was able to take charge of the White Dragon Army Intelligence Bureau was because Xu Chen secretly helped, otherwise with Zhang Fugui's ability, it would be difficult to control the Intelligence Bureau that had become a behemoth.

"Brother-in-law, don't worry, this matter is not difficult, there is our inside line in the first arsenal, and the arsenal has always implemented military management, and the entry and exit are strict, and there will not be many people who can take away two flintlock pistols.

After the director of the three divisions arrives, let their people take action, and they should soon find clues. ”

After dark, Xuzhou City, which was supposed to be quiet, became very 'lively' this night, and a team of government officials were commanded by Zhang Fugui and quickly left Xuzhou City.

The Intelligence Bureau also has its own action team, but Li Zixiao stipulates that under normal circumstances, the intelligence bureau's action team is not allowed to arrest people at will in his own territory.

The intelligence bureau's action team is mainly used in the territory of the enemy, and in his own ruling area, Li Zixiao has government officials and military personnel at his disposal.

However, under normal circumstances, the arrest of criminals in one's own area of domination is still carried out by the use of government officials, and the use of the army is a trivial matter.

And when Zhang Fugui led people to arrest people at night, Li Zixiao was also in the study that night and summoned Zeng Qi, the owner of the 'Tianting Pavilion'.

"Sir, my subordinates have sent someone to check, and in the past three days, there have been twenty-seven caravans leaving Xuzhou City, and thirteen of them have gone north.

According to our previous investigation, there are seven caravans that should be able to trade with the Tartars, and only three of them go to the capital.

The subordinates focused on investigating the seven caravans that went out of the customs, five of which were from Jin merchants and two were from merchants in the capital.

And these seven caravans out of the customs, all of them have a black history, that is, they once secretly sold information to the Tartars and maintained some kind of deal with the Tartars.

During the time that these seven caravans stayed in Xuzhou, four of them had sent people to Chengxi Town (the area where the arsenal was located).

Moreover, these four families are all Jin merchants, among which the Cao family and the Qiao family of Jin merchants have been married to two local merchant families in Xuzhou at this time.

And these two merchant families have industries in the west of the city, and they are the most convenient to get close to the arsenal.

The subordinates didn't know how the Tartars stole the flintlock pistol from the arsenal, but if they wanted to smuggle it out of Jiangbei, it was undoubtedly the most suitable to use the caravans of the Cao and Qiao families.

Moreover, according to the reports of his subordinates, General Zhang's investigation during the day also seems to confirm the conjecture of his subordinates, and now General Zhang is arresting people in Chengxi Town with his officials. ”

(End of chapter)