At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a restaurant called "Judezhai" in Bianliang City. Because the shopkeeper Zhu Laoliu was well-run, it was well-known in the capital, and it was a place where dignitaries often gathered. On this day, a gorgeously dressed young man came to Judezhai, asked for a private room, ordered the most expensive food and drink in the store, and said that several friends were coming.
But the dishes are all ready, but the guests have not been seen for a long time. The young master got impatient and ate up the table of wine and vegetables like a cloud, and then said to the waiter: "Ask your shopkeeper to come here."
The shop waiter immediately called Zhu Laoliu. The young man took out a bead and said to Zhu Laoliu: "I was tricked by my friends today. They agreed to treat me and asked me to order first, but these people didn't come. I don't have enough money with me, I want to put this bead with you as a pawn, and I can redeem it with silver tomorrow. How do you think?"
Zhu Laoliu took the bead, looked carefully, and knew that it was not something that ordinary people could have, so he said, "Okay, I'll give you a written receipt."
The young master waved his hand and said, "There is no need for written documents, I can trust you."
Zhu Laoliu politely sent the young master to the door of the restaurant. When he came back and passed the hall, two big men who were eating saw the beads in his hand. Your beads are rare treasures!"
Zhu Laoliu smiled and said: "That young master just forgot the meal money and put it on me."
"What about the young man?"
Zhu Lao Liu said, "I just walked out!"
A big man suddenly pulled out a knife, put it on Zhu Laoliu's neck, and shouted: "Three days ago, a batch of treasures were lost in the palace, and this bead was among them. Come, come with us to the Yamen!"
The guests who were eating heard the noise here, and all gathered around. A big man took out a waist card with the words "Shangshufu" written on it, and waved it towards the crowd. When they saw it, they all returned to their seats without saying a word.
Zhu Laoliu shouted for grievances, and the two big men couldn't help but tie him up with a rope, took him to Shangshu's mansion, locked him in a room, and said, "When the lord comes back, I will interrogate you!"
Zhu Lao Liu couldn't escape even if he wanted to, so he had to stay in the room obediently, but he was ignored for two whole days, and stayed until the third day, when a big man came in and said to Zhu Lao Liu: "We have caught the thief. The treasurer of the palace is gone, it really has nothing to do with you, you can go."
Zhu Laoliu was full of anger, and he didn't dare to act wildly in Shangshu's mansion, so he returned to Judezhai without saying a word.
The next day, shopkeeper Wu from Chengdong Buzhuang came to Judezhai. Zhu Laoliu put down what he was doing, took shopkeeper Wu to an elegant seat, and accompanied him for a drink. Shopkeeper Wu drank two cups and asked, "I heard that you were called to the Shangshu Mansion?"
Zhu Laoliu said: "Yes, I don't know what kind of bad luck happened. I was arrested for no reason, locked up for two days, and then released out of nowhere."
Shopkeeper Wu was surprised: "I let you back without asking a single question?"
Zhu Laoliu shook his head and said, "I was locked up for three days, and no one came to ask me a word except to deliver food."
Shopkeeper Wu stared at Zhu Laoliu, and said, "Theft in the palace, how could it be the people from Shangshufu who came to solve the case?" After speaking, he bowed to Zhu Laoliu and left.
The next morning, Zhu Laoliu was busy in the store when he suddenly heard two customers saying: "The shopkeeper Wu of the cloth village in the east of the city was killed last night."
Zhu Laoliu was taken aback, and hurriedly called a buddy to inquire about it.
The guy came back not long after he left, and said that yesterday, shopkeeper Wu went to visit two friends after he left Judezhai, and it was late at night when he returned to the store. This morning, the guy found him hacked to death in the room.
Another day later, at noon, a big man came to Judezhai, found a seat by the window, drank wine alone, saw Zhu Laoliu passing by the lobby, he suddenly stood up, raised his hand, A dart flew towards Zhu Laoliu, Zhu Laoliu was taken aback, grabbed a chair beside him and threw it at the man. The dart was blocked by this, and it lost its aim. It "slammed" and stuck on the pillar beside Zhu Laoliu.
The man missed a hit and jumped out of the window. The clerks in the shop picked up the stuff, and chased them downstairs yelling. At this time, an officer patrolling the street happened to pass by, and quickly stopped the shop clerks. Zhu Laoliu hurried forward and told what happened just now. The officer heard this and said, "It seems that you have offended your enemy. If he misses a hit, he will definitely not give up. Well, I will send two soldiers to the store to protect you."
Zhu Laoliu hastily declined, and the officer said: "You just need to worry about their food, and you don't have to worry about anything else. Judezhai is a good place to eat, and there is nothing missing." The officer said, and called two soldiers, one tall and one short. , changed attire, and stayed in the restaurant.
Zhu Laoliu had no choice but to accept the officer's arrangement. One of the two soldiers, one tall and one short, stood at the door every day to observe the customers entering the store, and the other was always beside Zhu Laoliu. Zhu Laoliu asked the soldiers not to watch so closely, and the soldier said, "No way. , if something happens to you, we won’t be able to keep our heads.”
Two days later, another person came and wanted to assassinate Zhu Laoliu. The tall soldier made a timely move and knocked the assassin's weapon to the ground, but it was a machete. Zhu Laoliu's expression changed with fright.
From then on, the two soldiers guarded even tighter.
That night, Zhu Laoliu, who was sleeping, was awakened by a sound, and there was a fierce sound of weapons clashing outside. Suddenly, a short soldier slammed into the door, pulled Zhu Laoliu up, and shouted, "Go!"
Zhu Laoliu was taken aback, and hurriedly asked what happened. The short soldier shouted: "There are several people here this time. We can't stand it anymore. Come with me!" Sure enough, the fighting outside became more and more loud. As the dwarf mule ghost got closer, while Zhu Laoliu was still hesitating, he rushed into a masked man with a scimitar and slashed at Zhu Laoliu.
The short soldier held the masked man's knife, kicked him out with a flying kick, closed the door with his backhand, pushed down the cabinet in the room, and pushed it behind the door. People outside began to knock on the door, and the soldier pulled Zhu Laoliu and shouted: "Go quickly, jump downstairs from the window." Zhu Laoliu was terrified, followed the short soldier, and jumped down.
At this moment, the dwarf mule ghost also jumped out of another window. It was the tall soldier. The two masked men also jumped down, and the tall soldier immediately rushed up with a knife and fought with them.
At this time, several masked men jumped down one after another from the upstairs, and the short soldier ran away pulling Zhu Laoliu. Just after he ran not far away, he heard a scream from the tall soldier behind him, and the short soldier trembled. He called out "brother" and dragged Zhu Laoliu to continue running.
A few masked men were chasing after them desperately. Seeing that they were about to be overtaken, a group of soldiers patrolling the night suddenly came in front, and the short soldiers quickly shouted: "Brothers, help me quickly, there are assassins behind!"
As soon as these soldiers heard this, they immediately ran over and rushed towards the masked man. Seeing the situation, several masked men immediately scattered and fled.
The officer leading this group of soldiers on patrol was the same officer I met last time. Zhu Laoliu hurried forward to thank him for saving his life. The officer glanced at him and said, "You are a restaurant owner, how did you offend such a powerful enemy?" ? Look at this posture, these people are not small, I can't deal with them, if you want to survive, follow me to meet General Zhao!"
When Zhu Lao Liu heard that he had a chance to survive, he quickly agreed.
After a while of tossing around, the sky was gradually getting brighter. The officer brought Zhu Laoliu to General Zhao's mansion. When Men Ding saw them, he said, "The general has already woken up and is waiting for you. Go!"
The officer took Zhu Laoliu to meet General Zhao, and just as he sat down, another officer came in and reported that there were three corpses in Judezhai, two of them were masked men with wolf head tattoos on their bodies, and another patrol team The soldiers on the street also caught a masked man, who has been interrogated. He confessed that he was a Jin man and was assigned to assassinate Zhu Laoliu.
When Zhu Laoliu heard this, he was frightened out of his wits and shouted: "General, save me!"
General Zhao said: "You are a restaurant owner, why would you recruit these golden men to kill you? If you don't explain clearly, how can I save you?"
Zhu Laoliu knelt down towards General Zhao with a "boom" and said, "General, I am also a Jin man, a spy stationed in Bianliang by Jin Guo."
It turned out that two years ago, the Kingdom of Jin signed a contract with the Song Dynasty to jointly fight against the Liao Dynasty, but the Kingdom of Jin had long been uneasy and kind, and planned to continue southward after destroying the Liao Dynasty and annex the Song Dynasty. They sent many spies to Bianliang, using various identities as a cover, forming a huge network of spies in Bianliang, and Zhu Laoliu was one of them.
Zhu Laoliu said: "It's all because of the robber who stole the treasures of the palace, so I was imprisoned for three days. The shopkeeper Wu of the cloth shop is also my accomplice. Seeing that I was imprisoned, he had some doubts about me, but he saw me. I was killed as soon as I went back, and your soldiers guarded me every day, so I couldn’t tell my accomplices clearly, so those accomplices must think that I had a different heart, so they kept sending assassins to kill me to silence me.”
General Zhao said, "You can save your own life only if you identify all those spies."
Zhu Laoliu nodded in agreement, wrote a list of all the spies he knew, and handed it over.
The general handed the list to the officer and said, "Arrest all the people above immediately!"
Zhu Laoliu asked: "General, what should I do?"
General Zhao laughed loudly: "Your master didn't send anyone to kill you, everything was arranged by me. You can rest assured to eat our prison meal in Song Dynasty!"