Ruins of the past

In the darkness, a beast shadow suddenly jumped into the yard, and a low roar came from its mouth. The fishy smell then poured out and dispersed in all directions.

In the yamen, the governor's pacesetters heard the movement and immediately gathered in the direction where the beast's roar erupted.

Under the illumination of the fire, the true face of the beast's shadow was instantly exposed.

A pacesetter looked at it and was slightly startled: "The ears are long and pointed, shaped like a dog...is it a fawn? Be careful..."

But before he could roar, the monster called Jian had already rushed into the crowd.

I saw that this monster moved like the wind, and a random collision would turn people upside down.

A pair of sharp claws were like steel, leaving deep claw marks on the ground with a single leap.

The monster rushed all the way to the backyard of the Yamen, killing or injuring everyone it passed, causing waves of exclamations.

The pacesetters began to hesitate one by one. Only Ningyu roared angrily, and his muscles swelled under the infusion of Qi and blood, and he stood directly in front of the monster.

boom!

One beast and one person collided hard, a burst of fiery air burst out, and the green bricks under the feet of both sides shattered inch by inch.

Ning Yu's face turned pale, and she was surprised: "This monster's brute force burst out is more powerful than the five-level masters who have practiced horizontally, and its fangs and claws are comparable to divine weapons... How could such a thing appear in the city?" A ferocious beast? ’

Roar!

There was a fierce exchange between the two sides, but Ningyu didn't even check, but the beast's claws had already brought up gusts of fishy wind, and slammed into her chest.

Seeing the claws getting closer to her chest inch by inch, the sharp air currents scratched her cheeks.

At this moment, a palm appeared between the two as if it had traveled through space.

That palm seemed to carry a strange magic power, and everyone present could not help but focus on it.

Under the extremely fast collision, the giant beast's sharp claws stabbed hard into the center of the palm of the hand.

But the palm was unscathed, but the violent repulsion shattered the flesh of the claw, revealing the white bones.

Then the palm of his hand turned slightly, as if the atmosphere was stirred.

Dao Dao Gang Qi screamed and spread out like a whirlpool.

Under the rotation of Gang Qi, the beast began to spiral from its claws.

It looked as if a pair of invisible hands grabbed the beast and twisted it as hard as a towel.

With a crunching sound, the beast was crushed from its claws to its chest to its trunk and hind paws, and was crushed into a mess in the blink of an eye, causing a shower of blood to pour out.

Chu Qiguang swept out with a gentle palm, and under the sweeping influence of Gang Qi, he gathered the burst of blood rain into a ball and turned it into a blood ball that appeared in his palm.

Then a burst of high temperature came, and the blood turned into a burst of mist and floated up into the sky, disappearing.

The surrounding pacesetters all stared at this scene in shock.

From the beginning to the end, with just one block, one shock, and one roll, without even taking a breath, the monster that was so powerful just now turned into a broken corpse on the ground.

Ning Yu felt this more deeply, because her martial arts realm was higher than these pacesetters, so she knew how terrifying the power and explosion of this beast was.

And such a ferocious beast was crushed to death like a small fish.

Chu Qiguang clapped his hands and said casually: "Find someone to put it away. The rest of the people should do whatever they are supposed to do. Don't get together here."

Everyone was deeply impressed by Chu Qiguang's hand, and subconsciously did what he said.

After Chu Qiguang finished doing this, he turned around and walked towards the study. Ningyu quickly followed him in to check on Li Qingyun's condition.

I saw the governor sitting at his desk processing official documents, his expression as normal as he wrote, as if he was not worried about outside matters at all.

Obviously, with Chu Qiguang in charge, he was extremely relieved and didn't worry about his own safety at all.

Chu Qiguang said softly: "Xuanyuan Wuji, listen to my orders!"

The magic weapon 'divine general' in his body suddenly activated, and in one breath he summoned five golden dharma-protecting god generals, guarding Li Qingyun.

"They will stay here next, I will go out for a walk and I will be back in a while."

Seeing Chu Qiguang take one step and disappear into the study, he became more and more mysterious in Ningyu's eyes.

She asked in surprise: "Zhongcheng, who is this person? Can he summon the divine general who protects the law? Could he be a master from Dragon Snake Mountain?"

Li Qingyun did not have this answer. He just looked at the official document and said, "Anyway, there will be no safer place than his side in Shuzhou."

"Don't worry about my safety. Next, we need to find out who did it..."

…

On a street a hundred meters away from the governor's yamen, several big men in well-dressed clothes were pushing a carriage, looking in the direction of the yamen from time to time.

"Why is there no movement?"

"Did the beast that was put in be subdued?"

"Does this governor have a master around him?"

At this moment, a voice came faintly from the darkness behind them.

"I heard that there are three families in Jinrong Mansion: Mao, Song, and Xiong. Which family do you belong to?"

Several people quickly looked back. After seeing Chu Qiguang's appearance, one of them breathed a sigh of relief: "It turned out to be a young boy."

After all, geniuses are very few in this world.

According to the common sense of most martial artists, the level of martial arts is related to the length of hard training.

According to common sense, a person's martial arts level can be roughly judged by his appearance and age.

In their opinion, the Chu Qiguang in front of them didn't look like a powerful person.

"Let me help you find another job."

As Chu Qiguang spoke, he took a step forward, and the aura swept over him, like a walking storm that suddenly surged.

The screams were buried in the strong wind.

As Chu Qiguang stepped out step by step, he swept away with the storm around him.

He wrapped these well-dressed men in front of him in the strong wind, and then carried the strong wind back to the previous yard, stopping in front of Li Qingyun.

Then Chu Qiguang slapped his palm casually, and Gangfeng threw several big men to the ground.

"Let's take a closer look and see which family these people are from. They should be the ones who did it this time."

Before dawn the next day, several big men were dragged in front of them covered in blood.

The soldier in charge of the interrogation said: "They are all martial artists hired by the Mao family. The monster was drugged by the Mao family in advance and was awakened after they sent it."

"What a Mao family, how dare you attack the governor of a state? He is indeed greedy and daring."

A cold light flashed in Li Qingyun's eyes, and he was about to gather his soldiers and go to Mao's house to get someone.

An aide on the side advised: "Zhongcheng! No, this Mao family has been rooted in Jinrong Mansion for hundreds of years, and has been married to prominent families from all over Shuzhou for generations. The relationship is intricate, and if you touch his family, you are afraid of stirring up a hornet's nest." "

Li Qingyun sneered when he heard this, but despite his low martial arts skills, a fierce light erupted in his eyes that frightened everyone present.

"Tangled roots? This is what we are fighting! Call all the soldiers and let me capture the thief."

The governor had subordinates who were directly subordinate to him. Several staff members laughed bitterly when they heard this, thinking that Li Qingyun was still impulsive.

…

Inside the Mao family manor.

A young man ran into the backyard with a nervous expression: "Dad! Oh no, the newly appointed governor is here with his troops."

When an old man heard this, he sneered: "Well done, after letting him come back defeated this time, I don't think he has the nerve to figure out Qingtian."

"I don't care what kind of place Shuzhou is. No matter how governor or scholar he is, he will have to lie down for me when he comes here."

"This land has been saved by the hard work of my Mao family over the generations. How could it be defeated by me?"

This old man is Mao Ying, the current head of the Mao family. To him, Li Qingyun's plan to find Qingtian means cutting off his flesh and draining his blood, and he will never give in.

…

On the other side, Chu Qiguang and Li Qingyun rushed to the Mao family's manor outside the city with their soldiers.

Walking along the way, you can see the vast fields outside the manor, where countless tenants are working.

The Mao family has been developing in Jinrong Mansion for many years, and annexing land is a basic operation. Most of the nearby farmland has already been occupied.

The local people either stayed and became tenants, or fled and became refugees.

Li Qingyun sighed at the side: "I estimate that the land occupied by the Mao family in Jinrong Mansion is at least more than 300,000 acres, but the land that is handed over to the land tax every year is less than a thousand acres, and the shops and properties under his control are countless... "

Chu Qiguang laughed: "It must be this kind of wealthy family who copied it."

While they were talking, they saw thousands of villagers in front of them, carrying hoes and sickles, all standing in front of their team.

The people standing in the front row were all old, weak, women and children.

Apparently someone on Li Qingyun's side had already leaked the news, and then someone organized people to stop him.

Seeing the farmers blocking here silently, neither speaking nor taking action, Li Qingyun sighed.

In fact, most of these are tenants of the Mao family. Logically speaking, their ancestors had their farmland taken over by the Mao family, so the two sides should be enemies.

But now Chu Qiguang and Li Qingyun are bringing people to deal with the Mao family, but these tenants are encouraged by the Mao family to come and stop them.

Just because the Mao family is still there, they can still make ends meet as tenant farmers.

If the Mao family fell, they would have nowhere to go, and they would be worried about being taxed even heavier than before by the court.

In the eyes of these tenants, the imperial court was more vicious than the Mao family, and taxes were more terrifying than land rent.

Ever since Li Qingyun began to abbot Qingtian, many local people were uncooperative because the gentry and right-wingers spread rumors that the imperial court measured the acres of land in order to increase taxes.

The common people firmly believed in this, just because the imperial court was like this in their eyes, and it was useless for Li Qingyun to explain it in every possible way.

It was the same now. Li Qingyun shouted a few words, but the tenants in front of him remained motionless.

At this moment, Bian Tai, the governor of Shuzhou, ran over and persuaded: "Li Zhongcheng! The Mao family is a kind family in Shuzhou. It is famous for donating money to build bridges and pave roads every year and to support poor families. He is kind and generous."

"It is absolutely impossible for the Mao family to attack an official of the imperial court. There must be villains among them, and Li Zhongcheng cannot be deceived."

Li Qingyun sneered: "Occupy farmland, evade taxes and servitude, attack the governor of a state...and then spend some money every year to build bridges and pave roads, and invest in poor families. Is this a good family that is willing to give to others?"

But Bian Tai, the envoy from Zuo, was only the first one. Then, the envoy of Shuzhou, the magistrate of Jinrong Prefecture, the Prefectural Education Minister, the magistrate of Qingchi County... all came over one by one.

Even Han Jueyong, deputy Qianhu of the Demon Suppressing Division, ran over, but when he saw Chu Qiguang standing next to Li Qingyun, he froze and said, 'Why is this person here? ’

Wang Xuan, the prefect of Jinrong Prefecture, was still there to persuade him: "Li Zhongcheng! If you have any long-term plans, you must not provoke a civil uprising."

Originally, once this kind of 'civil uprising' broke out, and with the cooperation of so many officials, outside officials, even governors, had only two choices, either to join in the trouble, or to be forced out.

But Li Qingyun's expression became darker and darker, and he didn't speak for a long time. He just looked at Chu Qiguang aside.

Chu Qiguang saw almost everyone and coughed.

He glanced at Han Jueyong, who was looking at his nose and heart in the distance, motionless, and said, "Han Jueyong, what are you doing here?"

Han Jueyong was still a little unclear about Chu Qiguang's attitude, so he just said vaguely: "Mr. Chu, I heard that there are people gathering here to make trouble, so I came over to take a look because I was worried that a demon was causing trouble."

I saw that Deputy Qianhu of the Demon Suppression Division, who was usually fierce and powerful, was so humble in front of the other party.

The other officials present looked at Chu Qiguang in surprise, and some of them had thoughtful looks in their eyes.

Chu Qiguang said calmly: "There's nothing to see, go back."

Han Jueyong nodded, turned around and left immediately.

Bian Tai, the envoy from the left, couldn't help but said: "Han Qianhu, you... are leaving now?"

Han Jueyong thought for a while and then reminded: "Don't worry, with Chu Zhen Demon Envoy here, no monsters or ghosts can cause trouble. I still have official business to do, so I have to go first."

Several officials were immediately shocked: 'The demon-suppressing envoy named Chu... is so young... could this person be Chu Qiguang? ’

As more and more people's eyes focused on Chu Qiguang, he felt evil fire coming out of his heart.

On the other side... when they thought of the other party's identity, the officials who had just been persuading Li Qingyun immediately fell silent, as if they had fallen into trance.

Only Bian Tai, the political envoy from the left, had received too much money from the Mao family. At this moment, he stepped up and said, "But envoy from Chu Town? The Mao family is a well-known local family. I think there must be a misunderstanding..."

Chu Qiguang looked at the other party coldly, suppressing his heartache, the fierce light in his eyes flashed away, and said calmly: "Get out."

Bian Tai's face froze. He was the envoy to the left and was in charge of the political orders of a state. He was also a border official. He didn't expect that the other party would be so disrespectful.

Chu Qiguang turned his head, looked at Bian Tai who was still frozen there, and said coldly: "Do you want to stay and let me check you as well?"

A trace of anger flashed in Bian Tai's eyes, he glared at Chu Qiguang, and said forcefully: "The official suddenly remembered that he still had some official business to deal with, so he left first."

Seeing Bian Tai, who had the highest official position and received the most money, leave in such a dejected manner, several other officials looked at each other in disbelief, and even less interested in speaking for the Mao family.

Even the magistrate of Qingchi County had a bit of a good show mentality.

He was relatively young and relatively healthy, so he fell into the Mao family's beauty trap not long after he took office. In the past two years, he had been pinched by the local gentry, and the county magistrate felt extremely aggrieved.

Chu Qiguang looked in the direction of the thousands of tenants again, the evil light in his eyes getting stronger and stronger.

As soon as he opened his mouth to drink, waves of sound swept away, like thunder on the ground.

"Disperse quickly."

Accompanied by the effect of the 'Buddha's Throat Zen Sound', Chu Qiguang's voice spread in all directions, carrying a strong shock and arousing a wave of response.

"Disperse quickly."

"Disperse quickly"

"go!"

The faces of the tenants in front of them showed hesitation, and some were already running away in shock.

But I heard a big man yell: "Don't be afraid, everyone! This official doesn't dare to attack us!"

"They want to take our land! We can't retreat!"

Some warriors hiding in the crowd encouraged the people.

They were too far away and did not hear the conversation between Chu Qiguang and several officials. They thought everything was still as planned.

Chu Qiguang snorted coldly and glanced at a deer-headed and rat-eyed warrior among the crowd.

I saw him flashing, rushing into the crowd in the blink of an eye, grabbing the other person by the back of his neck and lifting him up.

"The government forces the people to rebel! Fight them!"

"The official killed someone!"

Seeing Chu Qiguang's actions, several other warriors in the crowd shouted.

A fifth-level warrior who had been hiding in the crowd shouted angrily, and his energy and blood suddenly exploded, and he rushed towards Chu Qiguang with a billowing heat wave.

This fifth-level martial artist is the elder of the Mao family. Although he has cultivated to the fifth level, he has never participated in martial arts. This is just because the sky is high in Shuzhou and the emperor is far away. In his opinion, staying here is better than going out to be a martial artist. The officer feels much more comfortable.

Chu Qiguang glanced at the approaching Five Realm old man, punched the air, and saw strong Gang Qi blowing towards his face.

boom!

The fifth-level warrior roared and blocked the Gang Qi, but almost in the blink of an eye, his whole body exploded, turning into flesh and blood scattered all over the sky amidst the screams.

He was punched directly by Chu Qiguang.

The villagers who saw this scene immediately screamed in fear and ran away like chickens.

The warriors of the Mao family also exclaimed: "Grandpa Zu!"

Chu Qiguang flicked his fingers. Under the blessing of the 'All Things Gangliu', his Gangqi became more agile and wonderful.

With just a flick of his fingertips, streaks of Gang Qi flew out like meteors, knocking out a Mao family warrior who was screaming in shock.

Li Qingyun on the side immediately waved his hand when he saw this, and rushed towards the Mao family's manor with his soldiers.

Looking at the huge gate of the manor and the small building in the distance that was five or six stories high, he couldn't help but cursed: "The manor that Eunuch Chen Zhong built outside the capital before was not this big. The Mao family is a small building." The small local gentry are really cowardly."

…

Following Li Qingyun's command, his soldiers rushed into the Mao Manor and arrested everyone they saw.

Chu Qiguang stood next to him and sat down.

Mao Ying, the head of the Mao family, walked out quickly and came to Li Qingyun and Chu Qiguang.

He had obviously received the news. He cupped his hands and bowed to Chu Qiguang, and said with a respectful expression: "Envoy Chu Zhen, this time we are blind and have offended a great god like you."

"I'm willing to give you twenty thousand taels of silver. I just ask you to show your kindness."

Chu Qiguang laughed: "Twenty thousand taels?"

Mao Ying felt the intense gaze of the other party, gritted her teeth and stamped her feet and said: "Fifty thousand taels! This is all our Mao family has in total."

Chu Qiguang said calmly: "I can still get the 50,000 taels if I rob the Mao family."

Mao Ying was shocked and said angrily: "Do you have to kill all the envoys from Chu Town?"

Chu Qiguang flicked his fingers and let out a burst of energy. He said slowly and calmly: "No one in the Mao family can escape today."

Behind Mao Ying, a young man roared: "You official! You are spitting blood! I will go to the capital to file a complaint..."

Mao Ying's eyes widened, and he regretted that he was still too loose on his own children. He stretched out his hand to stop this impulsive playboy.

But Chu Qiguang glanced at the other person, and there seemed to be an afterimage flashing before his eyes. Then a ball of blood mist burst out from the young man's body, and he flew out like a cloud.

Chu Qiguang touched his chin, and a cold light seemed to flash in his eyes: "Does anyone else have anything to say?"

Mao Ying and several other Mao family members fell to their knees on the ground and kept kowtowing: "Envoy of Chu Town! How can you let my Mao family live?"

Chu Qiguang said nonchalantly: "When you kill a pig, do you care how the pig sounds?"

Mao Ying looked at Chu Qiguang bitterly, and at the same time couldn't help but look at the door behind him, but no official came to intercede for him.

He still didn't know that he had been given up by the officials of Shuzhou.

Those officials tested the governor's purpose and trump card through the Mao family, and found out that the trump card turned out to be Chu Qiguang, which frightened everyone.

That night, boxes after boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, silk and satin were transported out of Maojiazhuang.

All the men, women and children of the Mao family were taken to Shuzhou Prison, awaiting trial by the government.

Some relatives and friends of the Mao family still want to run back and forth to think of a solution.

However, they found that among the officials of the three divisions, censors, and magistrates in Shuzhou, they were either ill, temporarily away, or could not find anyone, and no one dared to stand up for the Mao family.

Next, Li Qingyun used the monster incident as a breakthrough point to personally interrogate the Mao family.

In the blink of an eye, one shocking, cruel and vicious case was revealed one after another.

The Mao family has been the local emperor of Jinrong Mansion for hundreds of years, and the government cannot control it.

There are so many acts of scorning human lives, bullying men and women, and all kinds of banditry that it is impossible to describe, and Li Qingyun's eyes are splitting from the trial.

According to what he said afterwards, if everyone in the Mao family was killed, they might be unjustly accused. But if you kill every other person, there will definitely be fish that slip through the net.

Under severe torture, the Mao family confessed many things about other local wealthy families.

Li Qingyun simply posted a notice and held a meeting to accept the appeals from the people of the whole government.

Seeing that the Mao family was arrested, it was like a wall fell down and everyone pushed against it. More and more people came to Li Qingyun to complain.

However, not everyone among the people is a good person. There was real evidence at first, but later more and more false accusations were made, so Li Qingyun had to punish those unruly people.

A few days later, the other two families in Jinrong Mansion, the Song family and the Xiong family, were also arrested by Li Qingyun and Chu Qiguang. Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were taken out of their cellars in one go.

Coupled with various jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, and the items seized from the Mao family, the total value has exceeded one million taels of silver.

Li Qingyun immediately arranged a team to transport the seized silver to the capital.

The various properties and fields of Mao, Song, and Xiong were returned to the owners by Li Qingyun. If the owners could not be found, he sold them on the spot, intending to collect the money and send them back to the capital.

However, there are not many local people who can swallow up so many properties and fields.

Now Li Qingyun couldn't sell it, and it was of no use to him. He just wanted to sell it at a discount, and suddenly he felt a little worried.

…

Between the mountains, Qiao Zhi looked at the troops and horses in the distance and said, "This is the troops and horses, get on!"

In the blink of an eye, monsters all over the mountains and plains rushed down and robbed the team transporting the silver.

Soon after, news came that the team escorting the silver had been robbed.

Li Qingyun was shocked and angry after hearing this, and felt that Shuzhou was really lawless.

Chu Qiguang, who was standing by, had a murderous look on his face, and said in a cold voice: "How could this demon know the route of the team escorting Bai Yin?"

"They can roar in the mountains and forests, so they must be connected with the local gentry and indigenous people. I will send people from the Demon Suppression Division to find out who is colluding with the demons."

Li Qingyun nodded, and said with a frown: "We have to get the money back quickly. I have already informed the court about the confiscation of the house. If I can't receive the money..."

Although Li Qingyun is a reformist, he also knows his Majesty's temperament deeply. If the promised money is gone, he will definitely lose a lot of points in the other party's heart and will be blamed.

Chu Qiguang waved his hand and said: "I run a chamber of commerce in Shuzhou and have some money left. I will just eat the properties of these three families. Mr. Li, you can use this money to pad it first."

"As for those stolen by the demons, I will track them down and I will definitely find them out for you."

Li Qingyun was originally dissatisfied with Chu Qiguang's management of the Chamber of Commerce for abusing power for personal gain and maintaining privacy.

But at this moment, he couldn't care about this, and asked quickly: "Mr. Chu, how much money can you give me?"

Chu Qiguang thought for a while and said, "Two hundred thousand taels, maybe. I don't have much money in my hand, so that's all I can get out of it."

Li Qingyun frowned and said, "Two hundred thousand taels? Master Chu...can you come up with a little more?"

A few days later, the Bashu Chamber of Commerce swallowed up hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Jinrong Mansion, as well as countless shops and real estate.

The Chamber of Commerce began to train local farmers to farm, just like the process in Lingzhou, first the Tianyao Foundation Building Method, then learning new farming techniques, composting techniques, and then renting land for farming...

A similar process has been improved many times in Lingzhou, and now it has been brought to Shuzhou by the Bashu Chamber of Commerce, and it is now operational after some slight improvements.

The actions of Chu Qiguang and Li Qingyun also caused countless waves in Shuzhou.