The madam of the brothel, the shopkeeper is known for his insatiable greed, as long as he spends enough money, anyone will dare to hide, and the brothel is a relatively closed small environment. No external words can enter, and internal words cannot be spoken. For a few hundred taels,
Yinzi hid in Fantou's boudoir, eating, drinking and having fun for several months without leaving the door, waiting for the Yamen to slack off before escaping. There were countless criminal thieves.
Zhao Tong also agreed with his idea: according to the information obtained from further interrogation of Jia Le: the letters sent recently from Hao Yuan all have the scent of powder.
The fragrance of the powder is very light, but as a young girl with a spring in mind, she is very sensitive to it.
Although the letters had been burned, Jia Le was still forced to recall many details during the harsh interrogation that took turns like a juicer day and night. For example, these letters were all written on high-grade paper - and not ordinary
It belongs to the literati and belongs to the boudoir. The ink does not have the smell of the inferior and smelly ink that Hao Yuan used for accounting in the past.
Obviously, there was a woman where Hao Yuan was hiding, and the woman did not live in a poor place. If he was hiding in a courtyard, it would be consistent with these details.
As a "gentle scum" who has been in and out of the courtyard to "help" for a long time, Zhuang Haoren is very familiar with all kinds of shady things in the courtyard. Therefore, as soon as he started chasing Hao Yuan and others, Zhuang Haoren focused all his attention on the courtyard. He
Having worked as a helper, I was very familiar with the people in the villas inside and outside Hangzhou. I needed people and money, so I quickly put all the villas in the city and by the West Lake under surveillance.
However, Hao Yuan was not hiding in the courtyard - not only himself, but none of his men were hiding in the courtyard. Although there were several suspicious characters hiding in the courtyard, none of them were the ones they were looking for.
This puts a lot of pressure on Zhuang Haoren - he has joined Master Zhao and has not made any achievements, not to mention that he cannot explain to Master Zhao who is stuck in the stick. Even in this Oolong Club, he cannot be convinced that he is the leader.
Public.
He thought over and over again, could his guess be wrong? After all, he had spent many years in the lower class society of Hangzhou City, and he knew the world of the city's foxes and rats very well. He thought hard for several days and finally discovered that he
A blind spot that I didn’t consider: the painted boats on the West Lake.
Although West Lake is outside the city, it is actually only separated from the city by a wall, so transportation inside and outside is extremely convenient. The painting boat business on the West Lake is busy, and people are sent in and out of the city gate every day. There are frequent welcomes and deliveries, and there is a lot of movement of people and items, so they can only be arranged at the city gate.
A few eyeliners may not be able to notice anything strange.
If Hao Yuan hides on the painting boat and floats among the lakes and mountains, it will be difficult to find him, not to mention floating on the water. Even if he is found, it will not be easy to arrest him: as soon as he lands, he will be surrounded by the mountains beside the West Lake. Hide anywhere.
.Without hundreds of people searching the mountain, no trace could be found.
However, Zhuang Haoren was not very sure about this: although the painting boats on the West Lake were also a prostitution business, this business was not the same as the brothels outside the city of Hangzhou. Most of the practitioners were boat people with the nine surnames.
The boat people with the nine surnames were an untouchable class in the Ming Dynasty. They were a more closed group. As long as they paid their taxes on time, the government had no involvement in their internal affairs. Therefore, the outside world knew very little about their internal affairs.
However, although the boat people with the nine surnames are engaged in low-income jobs, they will fish in troubled waters from time to time and ask guests on the river to eat "wonton noodles or flat noodles". But they rarely protect people outside the group. For them, "inside" and "outside"
The distinction is very clear - "spending time" for an outsider and taking the risk of "litigation". In Zhuang Haoren's view, it is difficult to imagine.
However, if it is true that the boat people with the nine surnames protected Hao Yuan, then Zhuang Haoren would be at the end of his rope. No matter how broad-minded he was, he would not be able to get any useful information from the boat people with the nine surnames.
Zhuang Haoren thought about it over and over, but couldn't come up with any clever plan, so he had to resort to stupid methods and send people to watch the various boat docks around the West Lake day and night to see if there was anything abnormal.
After keeping an eye on it for seven or eight days, he finally discovered something strange. Someone reported that there was a painting boat that behaved strangely. It stopped in the Baidi area every morning and sent people ashore to buy. Then it drifted on the lake. At dusk, everyone began to return home.
After the dock docked, it headed towards Yanggongdi area. At night, it docked at Yanggongdi.
Although the Yanggongdi area is not a wilderness, in addition to the villas of wealthy people, there are temples and nunneries, which is very lonely. This painting boat is not a private boat of a wealthy family, so this approach is suspicious.
Zhuang Haoren immediately sent someone to inquire about the details of this boat, and learned that the boat was called "Fangfei Xiaoyu Boat". It was the boat of a bustard named Meiniang. It was originally moored at night or when there was no business.
Outside the Golden Gate.
"What a coincidence, I know this boat!" After listening to his subordinate's report, Zhuang Haoren remembered that Mr. Zhao had chartered this boat to entertain guests many times. However, Mr. Zhao was not very interested in Yeyou. The villa has been busy with affairs in the past six months, so he just
I never called for a boat again.
Zhuang Haoren heard that Mr. Zhao was once very interested in Mei Yan'er, Mei Niang's "daughter", but later he became cold for some reason - which made Mei Niang come to the villa several times to pay her respects and to find out where his house was.
I offended Mr. Zhao, causing him to "cut off all contacts". This is a very serious matter in the traditional business world.
"Our Mr. Zhao is sometimes very smart, and sometimes he is so unsophisticated. I really don't understand..." Zhuang Haoren thought and decided to find out the details of this ship first.
Now he spent money to buy several small boats selling goods on the West Lake to monitor around the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat". Then he sent himself to monitor near Baidi to see what people on the boat bought when they came ashore every day.
.
Although the people on the small boat did not notice any men on the boat, after several days of watching, Zhuang Haoren already had a good idea - in addition to the boatman and the turtle slave, there were other men hiding on the boat!
"Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou" has been doing business here for many years. How many people are on the boat, how many men and women, how many older and how younger. These are all things that can be inquired clearly. How much do they spend on food every day, and how much rice do they eat?
The number is determined - Huafang is in the smelting business, not a cargo ship. The fewer irrelevant things on the ship, the better. All the required ingredients are bought fresh every day, even the rice, salt, charcoal and the like that are used every day.
Will save more.
Zhuang Haoren followed them for a few days and investigated the stores where they purchased ingredients and groceries. He obtained detailed purchase quantities and quickly analyzed that there were more people eating on the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat" these days!
There have been no new imports on this ship recently, and no tourists have chartered the ship - if there are guests, they must buy exquisite and high-end ingredients to prepare for the banquet, and at least good wine.
Zhuang Haoren felt that this was a clue. After further investigation, he became more confident and went to report to Zhao Tong.
"...In addition to food, I spent money to bribe an old woman who helped them do chores and wash clothes on the shore. According to her, among the clothes sent to be washed these days, there seem to be too many men's clothes."
"Whose clothes are these?"
"The blame lies here." Zhuang Haoren said with great interest, "In addition to the two boatmen, there are only two Mei Niangniangs and a servant girl who does rough work and does shopping. The extra men's clothes are definitely not what the boatmen wear.
This kind of people - the kind of people like the big guys in shops, teachers in private schools, etc. often wear long gowns made of low-quality silk... You know, this kind of people don't have money to go to the painting house." Zhuang Haoren then took out another pocket.
He took out a piece of paper and said, "I asked about the approximate size of the gown and trousers, the ones Hao Yuan can wear!"
Zhao Tong nodded. According to Zhuang Haoren's investigation, it can be roughly confirmed that there is a man with a figure similar to Hao Yuan hidden in "Fangfei Xiaoyuzhou". However, it is difficult to say whether it is true or not. It is best to confirm it.
"Why don't you find someone to call a boat and test it out..." Zhuang Haoren suggested.
"No, this will alert the enemy." Zhao Tong shook his head and thought for a while, "Can you get someone from the boat to come and ask him to draw the shadow pattern?"
"I'll find a way." Zhuang Haoren quickly patted his chest.
"It's not been a day since we captured Hao Yuan by drawing shadows and graphics at the gates of Hangzhou City. I guess everyone on this boat has seen it. If that man is really Hao Yuan, everyone on the boat must have suffered a lot from him.
The benefits..."
"I understand, little one. It's hard to be too soft..."
"Try not to alert the enemy." Zhao Tong said, "If he is willing to give you a favor, so are we. I will send a few more people to go with you."
For this reason, he has been squatting at the boat dock for several hours - the "Fangfei Drizzle Boat" has recently docked here every two or three days, allowing the servants to go ashore to deliver clothes and buy food.
While he was bored, suddenly a hawker setting up a stall on Baidi waved his fan, and Zhuang Haoren suddenly became energetic - the boat was coming!
Sure enough, the "Fragrant Drizzle Boat" on the lake slowly sailed from the lake. A boatman was standing on the bow of the boat, tapping his pen, and the boat swayed slightly towards the pier. From the outside, the boat looked nothing strange at all.
.
The ship docked at the pier, and as soon as the gangplank was set up, a maid in green clothes got out of the ship, holding a large covered rattan basket. She looked about thirty-seven or eighty-year-old, with her hair tied loosely in a bun.
Wearing a coral hairpin. Although her youth has passed away, her gestures and smiles still retain the charm of the past. Zhuang Haoren knew that she was originally a promiscuous woman who lived on Huafang. As she got older and had no savings, she could only work as a servant for Huafang.
Spend the day.
Zhuang Haoren tilted his head and signaled to the stick-sticking staff on the shore: the target had appeared. Several stick-sticking staff nodded calmly and followed silently.
In order to prevent someone from watching around and leaking the news, even though pre-clearance work had been done in advance, the people at the sticky bar still waited for her to finish handing over the laundry and go to the city. They covered her mouth and nose and stuffed her directly into a taxi.
Heading to the city in a small sedan. (To be continued...)