Chapter 42 The handle
"Feng'an Ling, are you so bold? You dare to touch my people and covet my wealth?"

Since Xu Jian knew about the incident but did not report it, Li Xuan would definitely hold him responsible.

He was also very upset.

As a soldier, he defended the frontier. Lu Yu had already made Li Xuan upset.

All kinds of monsters and demons are popping up now.

Li Xuan was uneasy as he did not know whether his confidant Luo Xing was alive or dead.

"I don't know. I don't know anything..."

Xu Jian is still making excuses.

But he was extremely confused and afraid that Li Xuan would find direct evidence based on the clues.

"Is there any shop in Feng'an City?"

Seeing that Xu Jian was not giving up, Li Xuan asked a merchant.

"Yes, the owner of the shop and the county magistrate are brothers."

The merchant answered Li Xuan truthfully.

Xu Jian's legs went limp and his face turned pale. He knew he was done for.

"No doubt about it."

After Li Xuan finished speaking, he asked the soldiers to escort Xu Jian out of the county government office, and took the county soldiers to the house of Xu Jian's brother.

Xu Jian's younger brother Xu Jun thought his brother could help him, so he did not leave Feng'an City.

It was not until the county soldiers tipped him off that he realized something was wrong.

Having committed such a serious crime, Xu Jun did not think that Li Xuan would forgive him, so he ordered his servants to stop the soldiers.

Time was running out, so he packed up some things and escaped through the back door with his two sons.

Under the slave system of the Tang Dynasty, domestic slaves were deeply bound to their masters.

If the master committed a crime and the slave reported it to the authorities, the slave would be executed.

Therefore, when the powerful seek wealth and kill people, domestic slaves often help them to commit atrocities.

It can be said that the quality of the master determines the behavior of the slave.

After Li Xuan arrived, the slaves raised by Xu Jun knew that their crimes were unforgivable and chose to obey orders. They picked up swords and fought with the county soldiers.

Two servants took advantage of the chaos and rushed towards Li Xuan and others.

"Pfft!"

Ashina Fuwen stepped forward, snatched the long sword from a servant, kicked him away, and chopped down another servant with his backhand.

Although the county soldiers were incompetent, it was still easy for them to deal with the drunken and incompetent servants, and the battle was resolved in a short while.

"General, Xu Jun and his two sons have escaped through the back door."

Feng'an Wei found Xu Jun's family, but there was no sign of Xu Jun and his two sons.

After asking the maid, I learned that Xu Jun escaped through the back door.

"Mr. Feng'an, Lieutenant Feng'an. The city gates are closed. I don't think Xu Jun can escape, unless someone deliberately lets him go. If that's the case, you might as well go home and farm."

Li Xuan warned Feng'an Cheng and Feng'an Wei.

"I will definitely bring Xu Jun back."

Feng'an Cheng assured Li Xuan, and then immediately ordered Feng'an Wei to lead the county soldiers to search for Xu Jun house by house.

But Li Xuan was worried about them, so he asked Ashina Fuwen to take a few soldiers to follow Feng'an Wei.

"Where did you take those two people?"

What Li Xuan was most concerned about now was Luo Xing's life or death. He came to a slave with a knife at his neck and asked him.

"Isolated in the basement."

The servant knew his fate and feared further physical pain, so he did not hide it.

His words made Li Xuan's worry turn into joy, as Luo Xing and Wang Shi were still alive.

He asked the servant to lead the way to a basement in the backyard.

Luo Xing and Wang Shi, tied up like dumplings, were thrown into the basement.

"Thank you very much, Qilang, for saving my life. I feel guilty for not completing Qilang's task."

After being rescued, Luo Xing burst into tears. At the same time, he felt guilty for his master, who had to work so hard late at night.

He brought Wang Shi into the city this morning, asked for directions and headed straight to the counter.

After taking out a large amount of gold, the cashier invited him to the backyard.

Luo Xing was careless and didn't react in time, so Xu Jun's servants rushed over and pinned him down.

Wang Shi did not escape either.

Afterwards, Luo Xing revealed his identity and Xu Jun regretted it deeply.

He was tempted by the wealth and blinded by the large amount of gold. He also thought he had a backer, so he did not care about the consequences.

The new deputy envoy of Feng'an Army, Li Xuan!
His brother Xu Jian had already informed him of Li Xuan's identity and had told him to prepare generous gifts for the visit.

Now that he had done it, it was too late to reverse the situation. Xu Jun hurried to see Xu Jian.

After receiving the news, Xu Jian slapped Xu Jun dozens of times with both hands.

This is a deadly trap for his brother.

Li Shizhi was the left prime minister of the dynasty. As long as he expressed a wish, local officials would find ways to fulfill it. He could crush a county magistrate to death with just a flick of his finger.

But as an older brother, can he just sit back and watch?
What's more, he knew very well how dirty his brother was.

If Xu Jun is arrested, he will be guilty of the same crime.

So Xu Jian came up with a countermeasure, threatening merchants and residents who saw Luo Xing, making it appear that Luo Xing had never come to Feng'an City.

His idea was simple, making Li Xuan think that it was his servant who became greedy and escaped with the gold.

People die for money, birds die for food. This is human nature.

But Li Xuan has lived two lifetimes, so how could he be so easily fooled?

Luo Xing and Wang Shi were lucky. Xu Jun wanted to kill them and get rid of them as soon as possible.

But because Xu Jian was afraid, he asked Xu Jun to lock Luo Xing and Wang Shi in a secret room first and wait until the storm was over before taking any action.

"You are my arm! Fortunately you are alive. The gold is not valuable."

Li Xuan gently stroked Luo Xing's back to comfort him.

After these words were spoken, Luo Xing was so moved that he felt an urge to brave fire and water for Li Xuan.

Luo Xing's wish from now on is to block the most fatal arrow for Li Xuan on the battlefield, even if he dies without regrets.

Immediately, Li Xuan ordered a search of Xu Jun's mansion to find his gold.

He couldn't break his promise to those herdsmen.

In the basement of Xu's mansion, there are millions of coins and various strange and weird items.

But Li Xuan's gold was not found.

Li Xuan suspected that Xu Jian took the gold away when he left.

"Qi Lang, I found this in the study."

Luo Xing was responsible for searching Xu Jian's study. He found a small notebook in a secret compartment under the table.

Being hidden so well, Luo Xing subconsciously thought it would be useful.

"Ledger?"

Li Xuan took the little notebook and smiled slightly.

Throughout the ages, dignitaries have all loved this!

Luo Xing stood by with a lamp in hand, and Li Xuan flipped through the books casually.

It is clearly recorded here which day he bribed the county military officer and which day he bribed the county lieutenant.

When he saw a name, Li Xuan's face became serious.

On the third day of September in the first year, the deputy envoy of Feng'an Army, Lu Yu, and Jin Hu were a pair.

Wow, when Lu Yu was still the deputy envoy, he actually accepted gifts from Xu Jun.

The border generals and the powerful are in collusion with each other.

This is a taboo!

Li Xuan immediately closed the account book and put it in his arms.

He calmly came to the storage warehouse of Xu Jun's residence.

“Some of the items seem to be from the Western Regions.”

Li Xuan marveled at the abundance of items in Xu Jun's house.

"What is this? Looks so familiar!"

Suddenly he saw a large bag of seeds in the corner. The mouth of the bag was open and some seeds had spilled out.

“Are they watermelon seeds?”

Li Xuan grabbed a handful and observed it carefully under the light.

How could there be watermelons in the Tang Dynasty? Watermelons should be grown in Central Asia now.

The color is brown, with stripes on the surface. Apart from watermelon seeds, Li Xuan couldn't think of what other vegetable or fruit seeds these were.

“You’ll know whether it’s a watermelon after you plant it.”

It is not impossible to bring seeds from Central Asia to the Tang Dynasty.

Li Xuan has never seen a watermelon in this life.

We have to wait until we catch Xu Jun and ask him where he got the seeds from.

Pick up all the seeds on the ground and put them away, leaving no grain behind.

Li Xuan waited at Xu Jun's residence for an hour, and Xu Jun was finally caught.

(End of this chapter)