Nightwatcher

All the villains on the official ship, Xu Qi'an was taken aback.

But he didn't make a judgment rashly, because there are often water bandits on the canal, and these officials may have just repelled the bandits who were trying to loot.

"What kind of ship is that, and why is it different from ours?" Xu Qi'an looked at the official ship that was getting closer, and casually asked his colleagues around him.

There were many old gongs present, and they were well-informed. After identifying them, they replied, "That's a barge. Judging by the flags, it seems to be from Yuzhou."

Barges are large, flat-bottomed boats that are mostly used to carry cargo.

Xu Qi'an let out an "oh", eyes flashed slightly, and continued to ask: "Are there any water bandits near Yuzhou?"

Song Tingfeng laughed "chih", and put his hand on Xu Qi'an's shoulder: "It's only half a day's journey away from Yuzhou Queguan. Have you ever seen someone blocking the road at the gate of the Yamen?"

"Then there's no problem." Xu Qi'an nodded, as if he had confirmed the tone of something.

"What's all right?"

"It's no problem to make meritorious deeds." He glanced at Song Tingfeng, saw that the two ships were about to pass each other, and quickly said: "Tingfeng, go back to the cabin immediately to find Jiang Jinluo, and say that there is something urgent."

He then swept across the seven or eight gongs on the deck, and said in a deep voice, "There is a problem with that boat, you follow me."

After finishing speaking, he turned to the barge on the side and shouted: "Stop the boat!"

The sound rolled and echoed across the river.

The officials on the barge ignored it and pretended not to hear. Some boatmen even quietly adjusted the angle of the sails, and the barge slanted away from the official ship where the watchman was.

At this moment, the other gongs also sensed that something was wrong, and before they could speak, they saw Xu Qi'an leaning on the guardrail, the deck under his feet snapped, and his whole body shot out like a cannonball.

It spanned a distance of tens of meters in an instant, and landed firmly on the deck of the barge.

"click"

The sound of the deck breaking was endless, and seven or eight gongs jumped up one after another, relying on their exaggerated jumping power and blower, they also jumped onto the barge.

Seeing a group of gongs "invading" the barge, the expressions of several officials on the deck changed slightly, and they quietly pressed the handle of the knife on the back waist.

"Several adults" a bearded man rushed out of the cabin, wearing a yamen uniform, a tall hat, and a pair of black boots on his feet.

He looked around at the gongs on the deck, cupped his fists and said, "What's your business?"

Xu Qi'an didn't speak, carefully observing their micro-expressions and subtle movements, Zhu Guangxiao said in a deep voice:

"Who are you from the Yamen?"

"The humble job is to catch the head of the escort ship of the Water Transport Yamen and escort a batch of iron ore to Beijing." The bearded man replied. The official uniforms they were wearing, with patterns of water waves printed on them, were the official uniforms of the Water Transport Yamen.

Yuzhou is rich in iron ore. Both salt and iron belong to the lifeblood of the country. In layman's terms, they are strategic resources and financial leaders.

The Gongs were not surprised by this, and turned to look at Xu Qi'an. I don't understand why he suddenly intercepted the ship.

Xu Qi'an squinted his eyes and noticed a detail. Up to now, the barge is still sailing and has not broken down.

"Guangxiao, stop the boat." Xu Qi'an said in a deep voice.

Zhu Guangxiao immediately went to the stern and kicked the huge and heavy anchor into the water, and the barge slowly stood up.

When the taciturn colleague returned, Xu Qi'an questioned, "Why didn't the ship stop just now?"

"This..." the bearded man showed embarrassment, and said in a low voice, "Gentlemen, wait a moment."

He returned to the cabin, folded a few silver bills in a short time, handed them over secretly, and said with a smile:

"The humble official knows that no matter where you are, as long as you see the adults who beat the watchmen, you have to respect the humble official who was ignorant just now. If you want to fool around, you deserve death. Please forgive me."

Xu Qi'an glanced at them, they were all fifty taels of silver bills, about three hundred taels in total.

Did he think that we blocked the ship to accept bribes? The watchman present reacted, angry and funny.

Although the watchmen were not too clean, they were not to the point of plucking a goose's hair. However, the reputation of the watchmen is indeed very bad. This is due to the fact that the civil servants poured dirty water day after day, turning the watchmen into Wei Yuan's eagle claws, doing evil deeds of killing Zhongliang and corrupting the law. .

Scholars are best at punishing their hearts with the pen.

"Ning Yan" Zhu Guangxiao frowned, and turned his gaze to Xu Qi'an.

Including him, all the Tongluos did not believe that Xu Qi'an was intercepting the barge for money. Whether this guy would kill Yinluo for an irrelevant woman is another matter, but his character is worthy of recognition.

The bearded man saw that no one took the banknote for a long time, and his heart sank. He didn't think there was anything wrong with his response, but it seemed that people didn't buy it.

"Take me to the cabin." Xu Qi'an took a few steps forward and stared at the bearded man.

At this time, Xu Qi'an stood in front of all the gongs, with his right hand inadvertently behind his back, and quickly made a gesture.

The gesture was subtle and subtle, but the gongs behind him quietly tightened their expressions.

Because this gesture is the professional sign language of the yamen, which means: ready to act.

"Take me to check it out." Xu Qi'an asked.

"Okay, please." The bearded man agreed immediately.

Is it too happy to promise? Normally, there should be no protest: the matter of water transportation is not under the control of the police.

Well, it could also be that he persuaded Xu Qi'an to think, and led his colleagues into the cabin with a beard, and followed the narrow stairs to the bottom cabin.

The candles were lit one by one, and the bearded man led the men to inspect the ore filled with each container.

A Tonggong grabbed a handful of finely crushed iron ore and said, "It's all high-quality iron ore, which has been screened."

The bearded man laughed a few times as a response.

The Tonggong dropped the iron ore calmly, touched Xu Qi'an's waist with the scabbard, and gestured with his eyes.

Xu Qi'an said: "You guys continue to check."

He walked aside with the gong and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

The gong lowered its voice: "The ore is too finely ground, and the quality is too good."

Xu Qi'an didn't understand: "This is shipped to the capital, what's the problem?"

Tongluo glanced at the people not far away, looked away, and said in a low voice: "I investigated a corruption case of the Ministry of Industry a few years ago, and it was related to iron ore. The ore is calculated by weight, not quality. .

"In order to grab profits and fill their own pockets, officials will mix iron ore with gravel or low-quality iron ore impulse. As long as a certain degree is grasped, there will be no problem."

In other words, the quality of the iron ore here is too good Xu Qi'an nodded.

After the inspection, there was no abnormality, everyone returned to the cabin, and Xu Qi'an made another request: "Give me your paperwork."

The bearded Hu obediently fetched the document issued by the Water Transport Yamen, and after confirming that it was correct, Xu Qi'an said: "There is no problem on the way."

"No way, I just left Yuzhou," said the bearded man.

Heh, then explain to me what the green light on your head, the blood light means?

Xu Qi'an inspected the cabin while walking, accompanied by a bearded man the whole time, answering every question, with a surprisingly good attitude.

When they arrived at the kitchen, four cooks sat on the small wooden bar, silently watching Xu Qi'an and the others.

There are many seasonal vegetables stored in the baskets in the kitchen, which look quite fresh.

Xu Qi'an smiled and said: "Now when I see the leaves of vegetables, my eyes glow green. I ate fish on the boat for several days, and it was fishy and unpalatable."

He glanced at the four cooks and said, "Right."

A cook glanced at the bearded man, met his eyes, understood, and showed a humble smile: "Yes, the fish in the river will inevitably have an earthy smell. Adults are precious, and it's normal if they don't adapt. Like us, we live on the water all the year round. Yes, I'm used to it."

"Oh, you don't know how to remove fishy smell." Xu Qi'an nodded with a smile.

Um? The four cooks felt a little strange from Xu Qi'an's meaningful smile.

The same is true for the bearded man, he tentatively said: "My lord"

He didn't say a word, but the gong slapped his jaw from bottom to top, his gums collided, and a mouthful of broken teeth popped out.

Immediately afterwards, the gong punched him twice in the chest at an extremely fast speed, and the force of the bang bang pierced through the back, tearing the uniform.

The bearded man flew out from the blow, hit the wall, and fell limply to the ground.

Xu Qi'an, who made a sudden attack, stopped paying attention to him, turned his head and swept his legs, breaking the ribs of a cook, and then with the force of a warrior, he broke the sternum of the remaining three cooks with double A's.

The whole process takes no more than five seconds.

Even so, the fight in the kitchen still attracted the attention of both parties outside.

Xu Qi'an shouted: "Take down everyone on board and keep them alive."

The gongs who had been reminded by the gestures reacted very quickly, and shot without hesitation, knocking down a famous boatman and official.

For the guards with average Qi training level, subduing a group of officials with fairly good skills is not much more difficult than Xu Qi'an beating Xu Lingyin.

At this time, Xu Qi'an noticed a powerful air force landing on the deck, and in order to protect the bearded man from diving to escape, he carried them out of the cabin and came to the deck.

Jiang Lvzhong frowned, looking at him silently.

Xu Qi'an turned his head and looked in the direction of his official ship, and found that Governor Zhang was also alarmed, standing on the deck looking over here with a solemn expression.

This barge is also an official ship, belonging to the Yuzhou government, Xu Qi'an's actions are no different from water bandits. If there is no plausible reason, this matter is not easy to deal with.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Lvzhong cast a questioning look, and glanced at the beard in Xu Qi'an's hand.

He recognized at a glance that it was the official uniform of the Water Transport Yamen.

"There is a problem with this ship, but it's hard to say what it is." Xu Qi'an explained.

"This is the barge of the Yuzhou Water Transport Yamen, and the escort is iron ore?" Jiang Lvzhong asked.

"Um."

Jiang Lvzhong nodded, and said in a deep voice, "How did you find out that there is something wrong with it?"

PS: Happy Children's Day to everyone in advance. With our enthusiasm for playing games, shouldn't we celebrate June 1st? Based on the life of our mothers who have been single until now, shouldn't we celebrate June 1st?

PS: Thanks to the leader of "mustlin" for the reward.