There was a burst of crying in Xiangyang Gate, and the family members of the two murdered people came and gathered around the bodies and howled incessantly.
Dozens of Zhuangban government officials armed with swords and guns blocked the streets, keeping the onlookers at a distance.
"Bring a money bag, a cloth-wrapped wooden scabbard, a piece of silk underwear, and half a candy cake..." Ruan Jin squatted on the ground and placed the items found on Na Huazi on the ground one by one. Pang Yu
He knelt down and picked up the money bag, which had a plum blossom embroidered with golden thread.
"This purse is for the woman. It must have been stolen somewhere."
Pang Yu opened the mouth of the money bag, and inside there were two small silver ingots, more than ten pieces of broken silver, dozens of copper coins, a pearl, and half a piece of gold inlaid with jade.
"The broken silver may have been exchanged at Baozi Shop.
This flower didn't bring enough broken silver and copper coins, probably because it was inconvenient to carry on the road, so he had to use silver ingots when he arrived in Tongcheng, which aroused people's suspicion."
Ruan Jin said with lingering fear, "I have been on duty for several years, and I have never seen such a ruthless character in the fighting industry."
Pang Yu nodded, such ferocity was definitely not something that an ordinary Hanako could do. He appeared in Tongcheng from other places on the New Year's Eve, and his origin seemed very strange.
"Those last few voices he called out, can you tell what accent they came from?"
Ruan Jin shook his head and said, "It's hoarse and I didn't hear it clearly, but it's definitely not from Anqing. It's probably from the north. I can't say for sure from Huguang."
Pang Yu recalled that the accent at this time was still somewhat different from that of later generations, and he couldn't figure out where he came from. He let go of the problem for now, turned over Hanako's right palm, rubbed it carefully with his fingers, and then picked up the almost
Broken left hand observed.
"The callus is thick on the right hand and thin on the left. This person should not be a poor farmer."
The sound of horse hoofbeats came from far and near on Xiangyangmen Street, and the onlookers there all gave way. Jiang Fan quickly came to the doorway with more than ten horses.
Jiang Fan jumped off the horse and said, "Squad leader."
Pang Yu pointed to the corpse on the ground, "Captain Jiang, take a look at this person and see if you can tell where he came from."
After Jiang Fan squatted down, he was shocked for a moment by the countless knife wounds on the corpse. It took him a long time to recover, and he stretched out his hand to pull Huazi's jacket, touched his left and right shoulders, then gathered up Huazi's hair, and finally turned over like Pang Yu.
He looked at the palms of his hands, but he also looked at the soles of his feet.
After a long while, Jiang Fan said, "Although this person's hair is not tied up, two small marks can be seen. His bun was loosened only a few days ago and has not been washed. Although he is thin, he has strong muscles. He eats ordinary flower seeds."
If you don't have enough food, you will lose weight, but you will never have such a figure.
There are no calluses on the shoulders caused by the heavy loads of farmers, which shows that he was not a farmer or a porter before.
From the sole of the foot, large areas of dead skin have fallen off, and no new calluses have grown. It seems that the foot was barefoot in the past, but has been wearing shoes recently.
On the hands, only the right hand has thick calluses. It is obviously that the right hand is often used to hold hard objects, maybe the handle of a knife or the like.
There are two old wounds on the chest, one on the left leg and one on the base of the left ear. The wounds are not small, like knife marks. They must have been fighting with others. This person must have just been a flower boy for a short time, otherwise..." "Otherwise it is..."
Pretend Hanako.”
Pang Yu added casually, "Why would a person who often fights with others dress up as Hanako and enter Tongcheng?"
"That's Liu..." Ruan Jin blurted out, and Pang Yu reached out to stop him from continuing so as not to be overheard by others.
There was a trace of panic in the eyes of Jiang Fan and Ruan Jin. Ruan Jin felt his head tingling for a while. The rumored brutal bandits had appeared in Tongcheng and around him.
"Don't make any noise yet."
Pang Yu did not look around, but faced the two people and continued, "If they are really rogues, I'm afraid these two are not the only ones who just escaped. There may not be any of their accomplices among the people watching."
Jiang Fan resisted the urge to observe the crowd and kept staring at Hanako's body.
Pang Yu asked the other quickies to take a few steps back. After a moment of silence, he calmly whispered to the two of them, "Pull down his pants."
Ruan Jin immediately understood the meaning, pulled off Na Huazi's pants in twos and twos, and looked at the inside of his thighs and calves.
Jiang Fan breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "There are no thick callus marks on the thighs and calves. He is not a regular horse rider. I heard that those bandits are all riding horses, so this person is not a bandit."
Pang Yu pondered, "There is no news about rogue bandits around. It may be that they are just desperadoes who escaped from other places and committed a murder in Tongcheng. If they feel that they will die in the hands of an official, they will be so desperate."
"In any case, we must land on the escaped Hanako."
Ruan Jin gritted his teeth and said, "If that Huazi is also on the run, he will hurt many lives by lurking in the streets."
Jiang Fan said carefully, "Ban, class leader, what do you think we should do?"
Pang Yu stood up and said, "Let's not guess whether it's a bandit or a murderer. Let's go after the escaped Hanako first.
There was a moment of confusion, and Lan Jiaozi stayed here, not knowing whether the Huazi left the city or stayed in the city. Ma Kuai continued to control the north and south official roads to prevent the Huazi there from escaping, and left a few more Ma Kuai on standby at Xiangyang Gate.
Hanako's men, who had just been seen at the city gate, were assigned to various gates and intersections inside and outside the city to strictly check people coming and going.
This time we must take him alive and find out where he came from."
"Should we close all the city gates?"
"Wait until I report it to Mr. Mingzhi County."
..."Don't close the city gate, never!"
Mr. Sun said without any doubt, "Quick Ban has not yet confirmed that they are rogues. Just as Pang Bantou himself said, they may have committed crimes from other places and escaped to Tong. Thinking about the Anqing area in Chizhou, there are many gangsters, miners, and salt dealers."
The desperate people just fled through Tongcheng.
If the door is closed just because of two sluts, it will disturb the people, cause panic among the people, and inevitably lead to countless troubles. When the Anqing Prefecture sends a letter asking, how should the county government respond?"
Pang Yu did not argue. What Mr. Sun said made some sense. If it was just a simple murder case, and the county government went to war to close the city, it would affect the livelihood of the people and the business of the merchants, and it would become a nuisance to the people. Yang Erming would be under a lot of pressure. If it was finally discovered
If he is not a rogue bandit, then the people will still laugh at the magistrate as a frightened bird.
Yang Erming turned around twice with his hands behind his back, and when he stopped, he said to Pang Yu, "As Mr. Sun said, you must first get the actual evidence.
Right now, we should pursue the escaped Hanako first, and we must not let him hurt the people again. Has Team Leader Pang formulated a complete plan?"
Pang Yu cupped his hands and said, "My subordinates arranged for Ma Kuai to patrol the official road. Hua Zi cannot escape. His hiding place must be in the city and the area from Zilai Bridge to Nanxun Gate. My subordinates assigned the government officials who have seen Hua Zi to various places."
The gates and intersections have been blocked at all exits. The next step is to mobilize the Zhuangban dragnet to check the streets and alleys, starting from Xiangyang Gate and first search the city to narrow down the hiding area of Na Huazi step by step.
The other thing is to send horses to go far away for reconnaissance, just in case there is really a group of rogue bandits behind us, the focus is on the direction of Qianshan, and some manpower should also be sent to Luzhou."
Yang Erming, a young man with little experience in this kind of thing, listened to Pang Yu's eloquent words. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Pang Bantou's arrangements are very appropriate. Is there anything else where I need my help?"
Pang Yu heard what Yang Erming said, and immediately said, "Please summon the chiefs and gentry in the city, and ask them to summon strong men to conduct a house-to-house inspection in the neighborhood, and at the same time, see if anyone has settled recently, and each household
Check whether everything is safe and sound, and whether there are any abnormalities in the secluded areas of each building, in case the murderer is hiding in private houses.
If you find anything, no matter whether it is verified or not, you will report it to the Yamen immediately."
Mr. Sun and Yang Erming looked at each other, and both of them could tell that Pang Yu still suspected that Hua Zi was a rogue spy. The current proposal was to mobilize Tongcheng's civilian forces to track down other spies in the name of chasing the murderer. This was naturally better than just
Using yamen is much more efficient.
After the two were silent for a moment, Mr. Sun nodded to Yang Erming. This method seemed more appropriate. The name of arresting a murderer was very legitimate, and the elders among the gentry would be more supportive. After all, no one wanted a hidden murderer in the city.
.
Yang Erming turned to Pang Yu and said, "I will take care of this matter."
"One more thing. In the northwest corner of the city, my subordinates plan to build a watchtower on the city wall in the next few days. It must be higher than the hillside outside the city."
Pang Yu was talking about a hidden danger in the northwest corner of the city wall. There was a hillside just outside the city wall. The height of the slope exceeded the city wall. It was also discovered during their city defense inspection, but it could not be solved in the short term because the mountain was mainly rocky.
It is difficult to level a mountain.
According to the original history, it was only after the 14th year of Chongzhen that Tongcheng was built by the new magistrate Zhang Limin.
In Pang Yu's mind at this time, the hill outside the city was a huge threat.
"Then...the household has no money or food."
Yang Erming pondered and said, "Since we can't confirm that any bandits are coming, we can wait until the spring tax is collected to build it."
"I will build a wooden watchtower first as an emergency, as long as it is usable, and then renovate it when the county government has enough money and food."
Seeing Pang Yu's resolute attitude, Yang Erming had no choice but to nod his head and said, "Then I'll follow Pang Bantou's wishes, but these are just details. The first thing is to arrest that Huazi and protect our people."
"My subordinate understands."
Pang Yu saluted and then exited the second hall and hurried out.
The fierceness of that Hanako left a deep impression on him, and he always felt that something was not prepared properly.
When passing by the fast shift duty room, Pang Yu stopped and took a look. There were only two households related to the arrest team, and the others were strong squads who were transferred to guard the county government.
The two related households were talking loudly to seven or eight young men about their and buying activities. When they heard that He Buying had made twenty taels of silver in one purchase, the young men all looked at the two men with envy.
Pang Yu walked into the check-in room. When the strong men saw Pang Yu's figure, they all stood up as if conditioned by reflex, which shocked the two fast players.
"I asked you to guard the county government office, but who asked you to sit in the duty room?"
Pang Yu coldly said to several people, "Go outside the eight-character wall. A quick team will come over soon to check the people passing by Xianqian Street."
"yes!"
The strong men all agreed and filed out with their heads down.
Although their combat skills are not good, after this period of discipline training, they have developed a high level of obedience.
After they went out, Pang Yu put on a smile and exchanged some perfunctory words with the two relatives.
When they came out of the gate of the county government office, the captain of the fifth squadron had gathered more than thirty strong men and stood neatly outside the eight-character wall.
Pang Yu just felt a little unhappy. The people in this arrest team were almost the same as the former Kuai Ban. He didn't want the new Kuai Ban and Zhuang Ban to be influenced by these people, so he would rather live with Zhuang Ban in Ye's house.
Inside the house.
Ruan Jin came with a few quickies at this time. He was arranging the people who had seen Hua Zi at various major traffic arteries.
Xianqian Street has a dense flow of people and is also where the county government is located, so it is a place that needs to be investigated intensively.
Pang Yu glanced at the eight-character wall and saw that there were still many helpers, and they were all far away from the strong squads.
On the right side, there were a few more people standing in the cage, probably flower households who had not paid their autumn taxes in full. Pang Yu saw a familiar figure in front of the cage, and Xu Lengzi was standing in front of the cage, staring blankly at the people inside.
Xu Lengzi has been staying in the arrest team, and he is probably the only person in the team who can do anything.
Pang Yu went over and kicked Xu Lengzi's butt. Xu Lengzi only trembled slightly and looked at the cage for a moment before turning back.
"Do you want to stand on the cage?"
"I want to... I don't want to. You said, class leader, that we in the fast class can't be our substitutes. I don't want to."
"Then follow me for the next two days, and bring your knife."
Xu Lengzi took out the waist knife beside him and quickly asked Pang Yu, "What are you doing with the squad leader?"
"First go visit the injured comrade, and then go check the inn with me!"