Wu Taigu has been serving as an escort for more than ten years. He is forty-five years old this year. He really wants to be promoted to the first level, but there is a hard condition, that is, he must be admitted to the Ming Jing Ke. What he learned when he was young has long been forgotten.
It is obviously unrealistic for a middle-aged man like him to have to be clean before taking the imperial examination.
Seeing that there was no hope of promotion, Wu Taigu began to focus on making money. He thought about making more money before retiring from office so that he could live a more decent life after retiring from office.
He is in charge of household registration and population. He doesn't have a lot of money. He mainly changes people's names and surnames, or sells short household registration privately. For example, some people who want to remain anonymous can buy an empty household registration, change their name, and completely change their identity to another person.
It's just that although Wu Taigu is relatively greedy, he is very timid. He will do it secretly once in a while, and then he can't sleep well for several months, for fear of being exposed and reported.
He usually only dares to make small moves, mainly changing the name of his child.
Usually when someone comes to ask him for help or offers some favors, he accepts them with a smile, but they are not too much. At most, they only have five guan of money, and usually only one or two guan.
But after his distant relative He Sheng in Hebei found him, he suddenly turned around. In just two years, he made at least two thousand guan and bought a piece of land outside the city to build a house.
Moreover, the information for sale is not confidential and can be sold by other civil servants. It is all public information piled in the corner of the warehouse, but outsiders do not know it.
So he didn't have any worries when selling information, and he could get money easily. Only once did He Sheng ask for the household registration information of Cao De, the prefect, including Cao De's address and family information.
Wu Taigu knew it, but he didn't dare to tell the other party. That was the first time he was afraid.
But Wu Taigu was also a little restless today. The reason was that He Sheng gave him two hundred taels of silver. On the surface, he didn't seem to care, but in fact he was very nervous. Two hundred taels of silver could be exchanged for one thousand, two hundred guans on the black market.
.
In the room, Wu Taigu closed the doors and windows and sat in a chair in a daze. There was a pile of white money on the table. He knew very well that the other party's demands would not be simple. If he did it for them, would he be arrested and beheaded?
"Dalang, Magistrate Peng is here!" His wife's voice came from outside.
Wu Taigu was excited, quickly put the money into the drawer, stood up and said: "I'm here!"
When they came to the yard, they saw the county magistrate Peng Shirong standing in the yard, followed by two people. It was already dark at this time, and Wu Taigu couldn't see the person behind him clearly, so he thought he was the magistrate's entourage.
He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "In this humble position, I see you as the County Lord!"
Peng Shirong pointed behind him and said: "Actually, I'm not here to find you, I'm just leading the way!"
He gave way to the tall young man behind him and said, "This is the general of the internal defense. He wants to investigate some situations with you!"
When Wu Taigu heard the word "inner guard", it was like a blow to the head. He was so frightened that his face changed drastically. He took a few steps back, could no longer stand, and sat down on the ground.
Zhong Huan said lightly: "He Sheng should have come to see you!"
Wu Taigu was so shocked that his liver and gallbladder were split. He turned over and kowtowed, "The villain is guilty! The villain is guilty!"
Peng Shirong sighed secretly. When Zhong Huan found him just now, he didn't quite believe it. Now he understood that there was indeed something wrong with Wu Yasi.
"You are busy, I will go back first."
It was inconvenient for Peng Shirong to participate in the investigation, so he took the first step.
Zhong Huan led several people into the study, and Wu Taigu quickly took out the silver from the drawer, "This is the silver that He Sheng gave me today. I dare not refuse it!"
"You must have received a lot of money from He Sheng in the past two years!"
Wu Taigu's face turned pale, and he knelt down, "I received the money, but I promise that I did not provide any confidential information, only household registration information for ordinary people."
“But household registration also involves officials’ addresses and family members, doesn’t it?”
Wu Taigu lowered his head and whispered: "There are no important officials, they are just ordinary officials."
"boom!"
Zhong Huan slammed the table and shouted angrily: "You are guilty of collaborating with the enemy and should be executed!"
Zhong Huan pulled out the sword from his waist, it was gleaming with cold light and extremely sharp.
Wu Taigu was horrified and kowtowed desperately: "General, spare your life, I know my fault for being humble! I know my fault for being humble!"
Zhong Huan put the sword on the table and said slowly: "I can give you a chance. If you perform well, you may be dismissed from your post. It depends on whether you are willing to seize this opportunity!"
"I am willing to do this! I will definitely change my mind and never do it again!"
"That's not true. You must continue to contact them, but you must follow my instructions. Do you understand?"
"I understand my position, I will definitely do it, no ambiguity!"
"You get up first and sit down!"
Only then did Wu Taigu notice his wife standing at the door holding tea and looking at him in surprise.
He waved his hand quickly, "You go out first, we are talking about business!"
His wife quickly stepped back, and Zhong Huan said to him, "Sit down first!"
Wu Taigu sat down nervously with his butt next to the corner of the chair. Only then did Zhong Huan ask, "What does He Sheng want from you today?"
"He just gave me two hundred taels of silver. He didn't ask for anything. He had to wait until his manager Pi Xiangyang came back. But I guess it was an important matter, otherwise he wouldn't have given me that much."
"When will Pi Xiangyang come back?"
"He said there is no guarantee tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
Zhong Huan nodded and said: "That's it for today! I will arrange for a subordinate to be at the county government office. Once they make a request to you, you must contact my subordinate immediately. He will find you tomorrow."
"Remember your humble position!"
Zhong Huan left with his men, and Wu Taigu slid weakly to the ground, holding his head in pain with both hands.
His wife walked in and asked in horror: "Dalang, who are they?"
"They are the inner guards!"
"Ah! Have you committed a crime?"
Wu Taigu nodded, "Where do you think I got the money to buy the land? He Sheng is a Jin Kingdom spy."
The wife patted her thigh and said anxiously: "What should we do? Otherwise, you can run away overnight!"
"Run away!"
Wu Taigu sighed, "Now that I'm doing something for him, if I do it well, I can avoid the death penalty. I hope that bastard He Sheng comes to me as soon as possible!"
The next morning, Pi Xiangyang returned to Taiyuan. The journey was dusty, but he couldn't afford to rest and called Song Kuan to give him the task.
"This time, Marshal Du personally gave me a task, asking me to get the formula or sample of Iron Fire Thunder no matter what. This is also the emperor's will. Our task is very heavy."
Song Kuan hesitated and said, "Don't I remember that I got an iron fire thunder once before? It cost 50,000 yuan."
Pi Xiangyang shook his head, "I suspect that it is a fake iron fire thunder. Both the gunpowder and the iron shell are suspicious. Before I left, I personally looked at the iron shell left behind. It was polished very smooth, dense and thick. Although the wood fire
Mines and porcelain fire mines are both thick-walled, but they are easy to break. They must be thicker, and they can explode even if they are thicker. But this is pig iron! How can such a thin and thick iron fire mine explode? It’s not that
Does it need to be thinner to explode?"
Song Kuan smiled and said: "The manager is right!"
Pi Xiangyang snorted and said: "But those gunsmiths said that I was full of nonsense, didn't understand anything, and talked nonsense. They just said one sentence, this iron fire thunder must be real. I had nothing to say, so I just wanted to find it.
One really shows them."
"If you want to find the real thing, I'm afraid you have to go to Jingzhao!"
"You don't understand this!"
Pi Xiangyang said calmly: "The closer you get to Jingzhao, the stricter the management, and the harder it is to find things. If you want to find Iron Fire Thunder, you have to go to a remote place."
At this time, his subordinates reported in the hall, "General Manager, Zhou Qing is here!"
Pi Xiangyang smiled and said: "Just when I was looking for him, he came. Let him come quickly!"
Not long after, Zhou Qing hurriedly walked into the hall, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See the steward!"
Pi Xiangyang asked: "Have you done everything Lao Song asked you to do?"
"Before Beizhi, I knew a Dutou who was specialized in handling firearms. This time, Commander Song gave special instructions, and Beizhi treated him to two more drinks."
Pi Xiangyang was very interested and asked quickly: "Have you talked about Iron Fire Thunder?"