In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

After Zhao Jun dealt with the internal affairs of the Imperial City Division, he went to Fan Mansion.

As a result, as soon as he left Donghua Gate, he met the housekeeper of Yan Shu's residence who was squatting outside Donghua Gate. The housekeeper gave him a letter. Zhao Jun read it and cursed him in the letter.

Obviously, the copying of "Linjiang Immortal" made Yan Shu very angry. Even if he hid in Gongyuan for three days, he could not escape the scolding.

Zhao Jun had no choice but to collect the letter and ask the housekeeper to go back and apologize to Yan Shu before leaving.

He just finished the exam in the morning, went to Laoya Lane to arrest people in the afternoon, and then dealt with the internal affairs of the department. It's already dark now, night has fallen, and the Bianliang Night Market has opened, with lanterns and colorful decorations.

Daguan Alley is also very lively at this time, with stalls, night markets, shops, and jugglers coming and going in an endless stream.

Zhao Jun walked through the crowd and arrived at the door of Fan's Mansion. After knocking on the door, the housekeeper of Fan's Mansion opened a crack. When he saw it was Zhao Jun, he quickly said: "My master is waiting for me."

"Well, thank you."

Zhao Jun greeted politely and then stepped in.

After walking all the way to the main hall, I saw Fan Zhongyan drinking tea in the hall with a piece of paper in his hand.

"coming?"

Fan Zhongyan took a sip of tea, raised his head, glanced at him, and said with a smile: "Sit down."

"How can you predict that I will come?"

Zhao Jun wondered.

Historically, Fan Zhongyan was indeed very smart. For example, he had great experience in governing local areas and quelling floods.

He even knew economics. One year there was a drought in Hangzhou and the price of rice skyrocketed. Not only did he not curb it, he also drove up the price of rice, making rice expensive in Hangzhou.

When the common people were scolding their mothers, merchants saw the skyrocketing price of rice in Hangzhou, so they shipped rice to Hangzhou to sell it. As a result, because there was so much rice, the price of rice fell to the bottom overnight.

There has also been a large-scale infrastructure construction project, and Buddhist and Taoist temples and the government have been invited to jointly fund the renovation of temples. This has stimulated a large number of industries and promoted local economic development.

The reason why people think he is upright is because he has a stubborn personality. When he sees things clearly, even nine cows can't get him back, and even the prime minister dares to challenge him.

But that doesn't mean he isn't smart.

But no matter how powerful he is, can you still guess when he will come to him?

Can this be counted if pinched?

Fan Zhongyan put down his tea cup with a smile and said: "In terms of knowledge and experience after a thousand years, there are countless differences between you and me. But when it comes to official experience, you are still very young. If you encounter some problems, naturally you can only come to me."

"All right."

Zhao Jun had no choice but to sit down and said, "We did encounter some problems."

As he spoke, he glanced at the piece of paper in Fan Zhongyan's hand, and saw that the first sentence on it was "The tower behind the dream is locked high". Needless to say, it was the song "Linjiang Fairy".

When Zhao Jun saw the poem, Fan Zhongyan laughed and said, "This poem was sent by Uncle Yan Tong, saying it was written by him, but I don't think it was written by him."

"Why not?"

"Uncle Yan Tong's style of poetry is elegant and thoughtful. This style of poetry is completely different from his style. It is quite profound and affectionate, so it is not. Do you know whose poetry this is?"

"I copied his son Yan Jidao's work. I just heard today that his son was pregnant some time ago. Someone came over and scolded me."

"Ha ha ha ha."

When Fan Zhongyan heard about this, he burst into laughter and said, "No wonder he was in a hurry to write notes everywhere and send people to every house, saying that he had a new poem. He was afraid that you would steal his son's poem and focus on himself first." head."

Zhao Jun's face became even more embarrassed.

Seeing that something was wrong with his expression, Fan Zhongyan realized that things might not be simple.

After thinking for a moment, Lao Fan slowly stopped smiling happily, stared at Zhao Jun with an evil look on his face and said, "You guys didn't copy my lyrics too, did you?"

"No."

Zhao Jun shook his head and denied it.

"That's good."

Fan Zhongyan picked up the tea cup and took a sip.

"I copied your five-character quatrains and used them as test poems."

Zhao Jun said honestly.

"puff!"

After spitting out a mouthful of tea, Zhao Jun turned his head and hid. Fortunately, he hid quickly.

Fan Zhongyan wiped his mouth, but his face looked strange at that time, as if he had eaten an Ollie and felt uncomfortable.

"Don't feel so bad. There's nothing I can do. I was hurt by Lao Yan. He said he might take a test on lyrics, but I just thought about lyrics. When I came down, I saw that it was a test on poetry."

Zhao Jun changed to the seat opposite and said while sitting: "You also know that I have a good relationship with you. At that time, my mind was full of your poems, so I wrote them casually. Anyway, they were poems you wrote later. You don't know how. Blame me."

"So I have to thank you for remembering me."

Fan Zhongyan was furious.

"Don't pay attention to these details. By the way, a clan daughter was lost outside Xuande Gate. That clan has already reported the case to Kaifeng Mansion. Kaifeng Mansion has blamed the Imperial City Secretary. It is estimated that they will go to the officials tomorrow. If you can Can you find anyone?"

Zhao Jun waved his hands and said.

Fan Zhongyan barely suppressed his anger and said: "I have also heard about this. It should be Gui Fanlou who did it. Guifanlou never dared to attack the clan before, but now he is taking such a big risk. Maybe he is behind this." Those people in Kaifeng Mansion are acting like monsters.”

Although Lao Fan was fired in April this year due to the impeachment of Lu Yijian, he had worked in Kaifeng Mansion for nearly two years and cultivated some capable subordinates, so naturally he had his informants among them.

It's hard to say that Zhao Jun only caught Li Dewen in the afternoon, but the situation had already been reported to Fan Zhongyan, so Zhao Jun didn't wonder why he was so well-informed.

The problem is that Li Dewen didn't explain the matter about his eldest daughter. After chopping off his fingers and operating on his two unlearned sons, Li Dewen actually almost explained the matter. He denied the matter about his eldest daughter and everything else. Ten explanations.

According to Li Dewen, this is probably Liao Yu's handiwork. Liao Yu is a ruthless person. If Zhao Jun arrests people directly and knows what will happen if he kidnaps his clan daughter, he will probably kill her and refuse to acknowledge her. Then she will never be able to get her back.

Zhao Jun is not a thief. He now has all the evidence in his hands, so it doesn't matter if he takes them directly. Mainly because he was afraid that something would happen to his eldest daughter and it would be difficult to deal with Zhao Zhen. After all, he would harm an ancestor of his family.

"I don't have much else to do now. I can only say that I didn't expect that these people would be so crazy and crazy that they would even dare to kidnap the eldest daughter. This is something I never expected."

Zhao Jun scratched his head and said: "I can only think that they were trying to force the Imperial City Secretary to submit. It was impossible to really kill the eldest daughter, so the eldest daughter should not have been sent to Guifan Tower, but Bianliang is so big , it’s so hard to find someone.”

Fan Zhongyan said: "You can first investigate the places where Liao Yu often hangs out, but he won't do it himself. He should have ordered his subordinates to do it. If I were you, I could use the knife on his subordinates."

"I think so too. I have sent people to follow his men a long time ago. Now I am afraid that if we take direct action, his men will attack the clan daughter and kill her."

"Then you are still so reckless? Just arrest Li Dewen?"

"The first is to see if Li Dewen is related to the disappearance of this girl. I heard that this person is the most reckless. I suspected that he did it, but I didn't expect him to do it. The second is to alert the snake. Maybe these people will be frightened when they see Li Dewen being arrested. Choose to transfer that clan daughter so that I can wait for the opportunity."

"Well, that's right."

"Unfortunately, I have thought of these two methods for the time being, but I still feel that they are not very safe, so I came to see you."

Zhao Jun shook his head.

In ancient cases, this kind of abduction of young beautiful girls often happened. The method of Gui Fanlou was once used on an eldest daughter during the Xuanhe period, and the eldest daughter was sold to a rich man as a wife. concubine.

This is something recorded in historical materials, but now during Jingyou's reign, Gui Fanlou was not so rampant. Under normal circumstances, not to mention the eldest daughter, even the ladies from official families would not dare to attack.

Unexpectedly, in order to bring down the Imperial City Division this time, the people behind it would be so insane and crazy. This was something that Zhao Jun could not consider. Therefore, in addition to making preparations, he also asked Fan Zhongyan for his opinion.

Fan Zhongyan thought for a moment and said, "There is another way."

"What method?"

"Wuyou Cave, Ghost Tower, Beggar Gang, Ghost Market and other places are places where nightlife is rampant, but most of them are poor homeless people with no place to go. Some people are attached to them and specialize in doing business prohibited by the government. The trading of goods has given rise to the ghost market, which not only buys and sells things, but also buys and sells news.”

"You mean to ask me to go to the ghost market to buy news?"

Zhao Jun opened his eyes wide.

Although it is common to see spies buying information in later generations, it is indeed rare in real life.

Even though historical materials have recorded underground evil organizations in the Song Dynasty such as Wuyou Cave, Ghost Fan Tower, Ghost Market, and Beggar Gang, they tend to record more about how vicious they were and what bad things they had done, and less about the specific circumstances.

So Zhao Jun naturally didn't know about the ghost market news trading.

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Yes, Gui Fanlou likes to plant slaves in the mansions of rich people to steal, cheat, and kidnap property and children. If those rich people want to buy back the kidnapped young masters, they naturally have to ask someone to find connections. To ask, this middleman was born.”

"understood."

Zhao Jun immediately understood that this so-called middleman was an insurance policy for criminals. If he directly sent someone to the other person's residence to negotiate, he might not be able to report the matter to the authorities and arrest him.

And if there is a middleman, even if you arrest him, you will still arrest the middleman. It has nothing to do with the criminals, so it is naturally convenient and easy to use.

Therefore, this kind of middleman was generally called a tooth shop in ancient times. Some black tooth shops were engaged in human trafficking and helped traffickers deal with abducted people. Therefore, in ancient times, there was often a saying that "car and boat shops, foot and tooth, even if they are not guilty, they should be killed." statement.

"You can also check that slave."

"This is already being done."

"It seems that you have done a pretty safe job and have thought of all the ways you can think of."

"There is really no other way, so we can only kill Liao Yu first. Unless this person is so insane that he doesn't even want any heirs, I won't believe him and won't speak up."

Zhao Jun shook his head helplessly.

Fan Zhongyan said: "Well, you can do it yourself, but let me remind you that you may have to be careful with Ding Du."

"Watch what he does?"

Zhao Jun wondered.

This old guy is indeed stubborn. He has been quarreling with Zhao Zhen every day recently, but what's the use?

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile: "I know the methods of those people in Kaifeng Mansion very well, and I also know who is standing behind them, but the people above them will not come forward, so they will definitely find a fool."

"Is that fool Dindo?"

"Yes, based on my understanding of those people, they would probably use the Imperial City Division to take Li Dewen away as an excuse to provoke Nadingdu to force his way into the Imperial City Division to rob people. Will you be able to fire your crossbow by then?"

"That's a problem."

Zhao Jun frowned. Lao Fan had actually told him the background of the Kaifeng Mansion gang.

For example, Ma Yi entered the government through the influence of his family. His uncle was Ma Liang, a corrupt official in the late Zhenzong and early Renzong periods of the Song Dynasty. Although he had achievements in local and imperial courts, historical records show that he was "completely corrupt", meaning that he abused his power to seek benefits and make money for himself wherever he went.

As the superiors set an example, the younger generation of the family followed suit. Relying on his elder brother Ma Yuan and cousin Ma Zhongfu, one in the Imperial Censorate and the other in the Three Departments of Finance, and the care of his uncle's students and old officials, Ma Yi committed evil in Kaifeng Prefecture and often competed for power and profit with Liu Yuanzhi and Gao Dingyi.

Liu Yuanzhi's background was average, and his family had never produced any high-ranking officials, but it was said that there were often officials above to take care of him, and it seemed that he had a close relationship with a senior official in the court.

The remaining Gao Dingyi was a confidant of the former magistrate Han Yuan. He was just a fellow Jinshi who entered the government, but he married a member of the Han family and got close to the Han family. This Han family is the Han Yi family, and Han Yuan is Han Yi's nephew. From this, we can see how deep the water in Kaifeng Prefecture is.

Not only Kaifeng Prefecture, but the entire court is very deep. Like the Ma Liang family and the Han Yi family, they have in-laws with many high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the court now, so the entire court can be said to be an unspeakable network of relationships.

This is also an important reason why Zhao Jun has a hard time.

Even Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, and Wang Sui, who know his true identity and should support his reforms, are playing tricks behind him, hoping to let him pass the imperial examination and enter the officialdom, and pull him into this big net, not to mention others.

So if Zhao Jun wants to take action against Kaifeng Prefecture, he will inevitably touch this big net, and this big net obviously doesn't know his details yet, and may not fight with him immediately.

But Ding Du is now the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, and it is very likely that these people will use this person to test Zhao Jun's bottom line.

At that time, Ding Du, this confused official, is used by others and really brings people to the Imperial City Division to rob people, what should he do?

If he is killed, Ding Du is indeed a good official, but a little stupid.

If he is not killed, Ding Du will lead people to break into the Imperial City Department. If he really lets him take away the person, the Imperial City Department will lose face and how can it establish its prestige?

"Old Fan, do you have any ideas?"

Zhao Jun looked at Fan Zhongyan.

When it comes to officialdom, he is more capable.

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will persuade him, but you have to promise me that after the matter is over, you will personally apologize to him. After all, it is indeed a bit excessive to directly use his authority and arrest his people without even saying hello."

"Okay."

Zhao Jun muttered, "Although I am also helping him clean up the cancer of Kaifeng Prefecture, I did not discuss it with him before arresting people. I am in the wrong. I will treat him to a meal when the time comes."

If he is a corrupt official, let alone treating him to a meal, it is considered good not to invite him to the Imperial City Department for tea.

Although Dingdu is a little silly, his personal morals are beyond reproach. He lives in a shabby house and uses his salary to help poor people. He is a good man. It's not a big deal to just treat him to a meal. Just consider it as admiration for his character.