When the county and the chief bookkeeper returned to Nan'an, the city office had already been established, many fishing boats had been registered, and the raw rice had been cooked. But the two were by no means reconciled, because the two of them were actually the leaders of the smuggling merchants in Nan'an County, and they were used to making huge profits from smuggling trade, and now a market office suddenly appeared to collect taxes and silver by ship, which was unacceptable under any circumstances.

In addition, among the goods they smuggle, there are also a considerable number of contraband, such as weapons and copper. Once these goods are seized by the government, it is a big crime to lose your head. Therefore, the two gathered the smugglers in Nan'an County to discuss and decided that no ship should be allowed to register with the city. The market can't collect taxes and silver, and Xiong Rulin has so many people in the militia group, which is a huge expense, and it depends on how he ends up then.

More than ten days have passed, and there is still not a single merchant ship registered with the city, Xiong Rulin said that he is not in a hurry, but it is false. The "start-up capital" in his hand was only 8,000 taels of silver, and the first month's salary of the militia group had already been spent 3,000 taels. The silver taels paid by the fishing boats are really a drop in the bucket, and if there are no merchant ships to pay the tax silver, it can only last for more than two months at most.

In the secret recital of the flying pigeon, Xiong Rulin truthfully reported the situation to Zhu Youzhen. Zhu Youzhen's reply is also very simple, only a few numbers: "Consume, see who can consume whom, I will be your backing!" ”

With the emperor's approval, Xiong Rulin was relieved. He has not been idle these days, first, let patrol boats continue to patrol the sea, second, let the militia group spread out manpower along the coastline, third, let the egg people go to uninhabited islands, build houses and monitor the movement of the sea, and fourth, let all fishing boats also report the situation of ships coming and going at sea at any time. The purpose of these measures is only one, that is, to keep an eye on the smuggling vessels, and if they do not come, they will be detained. After receiving Zhu Youzhen's reply, Xiong Rulin investigated more diligently.

Sure enough, as Zhu Youzhen expected, although the market office was gritting its teeth and insisting, the life of those smugglers was even more difficult. For them, as long as the ship goes on the sea, the silver can flow in with a roar; If you can't go to sea for a day, you will lose a day's silver. This stop is more than half a month, and the county Cheng and the chief bookkeeper and others are at home every day to calculate how much less they make, and the more they calculate, the more they feel pain.

What made them even more worried was that the smuggling boats in Nan'an County were divided into two parts, one part was moored in the Jinjiang River or the seaside, and the other part was already out to sea. Although the government knew that these ships were used for smuggling, the owners of the ships refused to admit their debts, insisting that they had never participated in smuggling, and refused to register with the city. Xiong Rulin didn't have conclusive evidence, so it was difficult for him to arrest the boat.

But the ships that have already gone to sea, this is beyond control. The ship sails on the sea, of course, it will not know what is happening on land, and once it comes back, is it not caught? The prefectural and the chief bookkeeper could only hope that the sailors on the ship were experienced and could avoid patrol ships and land sentry posts at night and sneak ashore to complete the transaction.

After all, the coastline of Nan'an County is very tortuous, with a total length of more than 300 li, and the militia has limited manpower, so no matter how much they patrol, there are loopholes to exploit. In the past, there were as many as a dozen hidden places where smuggling ships docked to load and unload cargo, but now only one has been exposed, and it may be possible to get away with it.

However, only two days later, the smugglers paid a heavy price for their luck. Three smuggling merchant ships returned to Nan'an from Greater Luzon, smuggling porcelain and tea when they went, and tortoiseshell and coral when they returned.

But when the three boats had just sailed to the sea fifty miles from Nan'an, they were spotted by the fishing boats of the eggmen who were fishing in the area. In the past, smuggling boats did not avoid the egg people at all, because the egg people have always avoided the government and will never report to the officials.

But the egg people on this ship have been registered with the city, and they have also been assigned to an uninhabited island, and they are worried about having no money to build a house, and after discovering these three smuggling boats, they immediately returned to Nan'an quietly to report. Xiong Rulin was overjoyed when he heard the news, and asked all the militia members to mobilize plus 100 officials, but he was afraid of a shortage of manpower, so he temporarily gathered hundreds of egg people and ambushed them in various locations along the coastline of Nan'an County.

It was not until after the third watch in the middle of the night that the three smuggling boats arrived in Nan'an. It is said that the sailors on the ship have been careful enough, but the militia is waiting for the rabbit, and after the regimental Yong who was ambushed in this place found the target, he immediately sent someone to inform Xiong Rulin, and Xiong Rulin immediately rushed over with a large group of men.

Although the smugglers did not dare to trade, the hawksbill turtles, corals and other goods on the ship alone were estimated to be 780,000 taels at market price! He also seized 20,000 taels of silver, from which Xiong Rulin immediately took 5 percent, that is, 1,000 taels of silver, according to the prior agreement, and rewarded the personnel who had made meritorious contributions in the anti-smuggling operation on the spot. The rest of the cargo, along with the silver, and the three smuggling ships, were confiscated by the city, and the sailors were immediately imprisoned.

Hearing the news that the smuggling ship had been confiscated and the sailors had been imprisoned in the county jail, the county clerk and the chief bookkeeper could not sit still. Because of these three ships, the county clerk and the chief bookkeeper each have one, and the sailors on board are also their men. The cargo is gone, the ship is detained, or is it a trivial matter, once the sailors confess that they are the owners behind the ship, then the two are not finished?

The two men discussed that the sailors must not be allowed to bite themselves out. was ruthless, and sent a henchman to work as a scribe in the yamen, bought a lot of arsenic from the pharmacy, and quietly sneaked into the kitchen specializing in prison meals, and sprinkled arsenic in the rice. After the scribe did all this, he excitedly looked for the county Cheng to show his merits, but he didn't expect the county Cheng to let his subordinates knock him to death with a stick in the back of the head, and the corpse was thrown into the Jinjiang River at night, killing people and killing people.

And after the sailors in the prison ate the arsenic, they were poisoned one after another, and they almost died in a short time. Xiong Rulin was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly came to the prison to check, but found that there was a little sailor who was only thirteen years old, and he escaped because he was afraid that he had not eaten. His father and brother were also sailors on the same ship, and they all bled to death at this time.

This time, there is no need for Xiong Rulin to interrogate, although this child is not big, he also understands that it must be the owner who killed people. In order to avenge the tragic death of his father and brother, the child told all the information about the county and the main bookkeeper's participation in smuggling.

Originally, Xiong Rulin didn't want to do anything to the two, because he didn't want to stimulate these smugglers too deeply. But now that it was a major murder case, the nature had changed, so he immediately gathered all the officials and went to the county and the chief bookkeeper to get people.

But he was a step too late, and the two had already heard the news and fled!