After moving to the shore, it was not until the second midnight that the team stationed on the shore had completely calmed down. At this quiet moment, a boatman quietly left the team and walked quietly towards a forest in the distance. Suddenly, he heard something unusual in the right rear. He immediately realized that the situation was not good, so he quickly ran to the front left, and turned his head to the side and tried to observe it. However, he paid attention to his back but did not pay attention to his feet. He stepped on the air and fell into a big pit. Suddenly, the boatman was unprepared and fell to faint.

As soon as the boatman fell down, three figures immediately appeared on the edge of the pit, one of them said: "There should be a note on his body, find it."

Sure enough, they found a note on the boatman. Taking advantage of the moonlight, they saw the content on the note. The bald man in the middle of the three smiled, shook the note and said, "As expected, brother, the rest depends on yours. The handwriting must be imitated, and the tone will follow his."

The next morning, in the county yamen in Cao County, the county town closest to the anchorage of the canal ship, Cai Mi, the magistrate of Cao County, was urgently called out from the bed by his subordinates. The subordinates who called him up told him very nervously that the court had sent someone.

When Cai Mi heard that someone had come from the court, she was so scared that she was trembling. This was not the performance appraisal period of the Ministry of Personnel, nor did she hear any changes in the yamen of the governor. Why did the court come out of thin air? Could it be that the matter was leaked? If it was found out, the whole family would have a dead end. But then she thought, no, I have always been cautious and have never made any mistakes.

With a nervous mood, Cai Mi came to the second hall of the county government tremblingly. Three people were sitting in the middle of the second hall drinking tea leisurely. Cai Mi did not dare to neglect her. She quickly bowed forward and said with a smile: "The emperor is the magistrate of the county. You are here, and you will be welcomed by mistake. I will forgive you for your crimes."

The shortest among the three of them spoke: "Cai Magistrate, do you know your guilt?"

Cai Mi's heart skipped a beat, her face turned pale, she was afraid of anything she was afraid of. Could it be that she was really found out? Somehow his tongue suddenly became disobedient and he stuttered: "I don't know what the purpose of the superiors is, the subordinates... the subordinates have always worked diligently and worked hard in official business, but I don't know what the crime is."

"I really don't know what the crime is?" The man walked up to Cai Mi and stared at Cai Mi. "Do you need me to remind you about your county?"

Cai Mi's lips were already green, and he really couldn't stand it anymore. He had not been able to do enough. He studied hard for many years and passed the Jinshi just to make the black hat on his head. But, hey, why didn't he withstand the temptation at the beginning? If he didn't charge that money, "The lower official... the lower official really doesn't know what the upper official is saying."

The person who spoke to Cai Mi was Yao Guangqi. He circled Cai Mi twice again, took out a waist card from his arms, shook it in front of Cai Mi, and said confidently: "Did you see clearly?" Yao Guangqi showed Cai Mi the waist card of the "Grandmaster's Office" that Yuan Gong had shown to Chen Shu before. "We are the secret faction of the Great Governor's Office. We were ordered to secretly investigate the wanted criminals of the imperial court. The thief Zhang Dingbian. It has been found that Zhang Dingbian and his accomplices are hiding in your county." Seeing Cai Mi looking at him with a nervous expression, Yao Guangqi continued: "Someone secretly reported that you accepted bribes from the thief, intending to indulge and hide the thief, and have made up for evil intentions."

Cai Mi almost jumped up in a hurry. Although the upper-class person said that it was not the thing he was worried about, harboring and colluding with rebels was a bigger and more deadly crime. This crime was also a serious crime of beheading the family. He said that the crime he said was not even if he had it, he could not recognize it even if he had it. Therefore, Cai Mi almost shouted: "Whoever slandered me, please call this person out. I want to confront him in person. The lower-class person received the national favor and served the court. He could not suffer such a ruthless injustice."

Yao Guangqi put away his waist sign and said seriously: "As a court official in Guixian, we don't believe that you collude with the thief. Moreover, we have secretly investigated in the past two days. Guixian has a good reputation. The people of Caoxian all said that you are a good official, and we have not found any evidence of your collusion with the thief. However, in order to keep a close eye, we still hope that Guixian can lead people in person and capture the thief with us. Of course, since assisting us in capturing the thief and serving the court, then in the future, Guixian will definitely be a great contribution to the request book of the Grand Governor's Office."

Cai Mi secretly let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't that just that matter was exposed, but why did a mistake hiding the thief out of nowhere? Why did Zhang Dingbian come to my county? Where is the one who kills Qiandao? He just ran to me. There is no way. Since the thief is here, hurry up and call people to take action. Let's take it clean first. And as the senior official said, if you really catch a few thiefs, you may really get your own contribution in the future. Then, when the Ministry of Personnel reports on the performance and test, you will definitely be promoted.

Thinking of this, Cai Mi said seriously: "The subordinate officials are the only ones who are in charge of the horse. The county will call for the yamen runners. The county's Lijia can also summon hundreds of people. I wonder how many thieves there are and whether these people in the county are enough. If the staff is not enough, the county will report to the government immediately and ask the government to send people to reinforce."

Yao Guangqi waved his hand and said, "Don't report it. It's not clear whether anyone in your mansion has collusion with this group of thieves. Once there is collusion, reporting it is equivalent to calling the police to the thieves." Speaking of this, Yao Guangqi smiled and said, "Besides, you don't want others to share your credit. You quietly gather people and don't want to make a statement. Don't say it's just to catch the thieves, but it's someone from the prefecture to check the staffing vacancy."

Cai Mi nodded quickly and said yes, then went to gather the troops.

In the evening of that day, Cai Mi gathered more than 600 people gathered in the square in front of Jingshan Pavilion in the county town. Cai Mi only said on the ground platform: "I have a teacher from Beijing who invites me to give me a lecture."

Yao Guangqi took a step forward and said loudly: "According to reliable news, dozens of rebels had sneaked into Cao County a few days ago. Tonight, your county magistrate, Lord Cai, led you to quell the rebels. Everyone heard that they would kill a rebel, exempt your family from three years of corvee service, capture one rebel alive, and exempt your family from three years of tax grain."

As soon as Yao Guangqi announced the reward, the people below began to chatter. Faced with such a tempting reward, these farmers were temporarily gathered, but they were already eager to try. Seeing that their morale had been boosted, Yao Guangqi shouted: "Go."
Chapter completed!