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Chapter 45 Capture
The people of Qingshui County had never seen such a scene.

A tall man in a dark suit and a golden mask sat on his horse, walking forward proudly, like a god from heaven.

Behind him were fifty imperial guards, each of them looking majestic. Their armor gleamed with dazzling silver light under the sun, with swords hanging from their waists and iron spears tightly grasped in their hands.

Although no one shouted loudly and no one drove away passers-by, the people in the county were all intimidated by their momentum and took the initiative to make way for them to pass smoothly. The braver ones were curious about what these people were going to do, so they simply followed them from a distance and followed them all the way to the official warehouse in Qingshui County.

The government warehouse was located in a remote area. Originally, the two yamen runners guarding the warehouse had nothing to do. At this moment, they were sitting on the ground, one of them leaning against a pillar, dozing off with his head drooped. He was awakened by the sound of horse hooves and was still in a daze and looked unhappy.

But when they both woke up and saw the situation in front of them, they were shocked. Their sleepiness disappeared instantly and they hurriedly got up from the ground.

"You, you...what are you doing?" The two yamen runners had never seen the Golden-faced Censor and did not know Lu Qing's identity. They only knew that the man in front of them had a hideous mask and exuded a murderous aura, which made people's hearts tremble and their legs shake.

However, they were not particularly blind and recognized that the soldiers following Lu Qing were dressed as imperial guards.

But recognizing that they were dressed as imperial guards did not make them feel at ease.

If ordinary people are not aware of it, then the yamen runners who make a living in the yamen must know it.

The current emperor was able to sit on the throne after experiencing a lot of blood and gore, and overcoming mountains of corpses and seas of blood. In the process, he also encountered the betrayal of military generals and almost failed.

Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he took back the military power in all parts of the country into his own hands, stationed imperial guards in various states, and the managers of the imperial guards checked and balanced each other with the state government offices, and only obeyed the orders of the emperor.

It is not easy for anyone to mobilize the imperial guards.

This means that no one can see the imperial guards under normal circumstances, and when they are really seen, it must be a big event.

Judging from the situation now, big trouble is about to fall on them?

The two yamen runners looked at each other, still wondering in their hearts, when Lu Qing had already spoken.

He waved his hand and said to the imperial guards behind him, "Come here, take these two people down."

The yamen runner was startled, and before he could come to his senses and speak, the imperial guards twisted his arms and pressed him to the ground, with his cheek pressed against the ground. He had no time to react except for a look of fear on his face.

However, the commotion here still attracted the attention of other guards in the official warehouse. Soon someone opened the door and came out to check the situation. When they saw a group of imperial guards outside, they were shocked and didn't even care about the two of their own people who were pinned to the ground outside. They immediately wanted to close the door and keep the people out.

"Leave ten people to guard the door. No one is allowed to approach within two meters of the government warehouse gate. The rest of you follow me in." Lu Qing got off his horse and ordered the centurion.

The centurion did not delay after receiving the order. He immediately selected ten men to guard outside, and the rest went forward to break down the door.

The runners inside the door were usually lazy and indolent. In terms of numbers and strength, they were far inferior to the well-trained imperial guards. It only took a few pushes to knock the two doors open, and the soldiers rushed in. A few of them went in first and caught the runners who tried to escape and took them aside to wait for Lu Qing's decision. The others followed in and lined up in the yard to wait for the next order.

Zhu Yu followed Lu Qing from beginning to end. Now he got off his horse and went into the government warehouse with him.

Lu Qing ignored the captured yamen runners and went straight to the rice warehouse with Zhu Yu and the talisman.

The warehouse door opened, revealing a glimpse inside filled with bulging grain bags, looking just like any other government warehouse. Lu Qing sneered, walked over to the mountain of grain bags, drew his sword, and slashed a long slit in one of them.

"Sir, be careful!" One of the imperial guards was startled and subconsciously wanted to rush over to block it.

In his mind, if he cut open the bottom bag of grain bags piled high like this, the rice inside would spill out onto the ground, and the bags above would also collapse because they suddenly lost support from below.

But when he rushed over, he found that nothing had happened.

The tall bags of grain were still piled there, without any impact at all.

He was stunned and looked down at the cut made by Lu Qing. It would have been fine if he hadn't looked at it, but when he did, his face changed color - the bag was not filled with rice, but straw!

"Come here, check." Lu Qing said to the imperial guards who came in with him, "Move all the grain bags out. Put the ones that contain grain in one pile in the yard, and put the ones that don't contain grain in another pile."

Soon, the rice warehouse was counted, and then the remaining grain storage rooms were opened and counted in the same way.

I saw more and more grain bags piled up in the yard, but the side filled with straw was already piled up like a mountain, while the side filled with grain was very little. I could count the number at a glance.

Later on, the imperial guards gained experience and knew that anything light was straw, and anything heavy was grain.

But when they moved to the back, a heavy grain bag was accidentally torn open when it was being lifted out, and a lot of yellow sand flowed out of it and spread all over the ground.

Everyone was shocked. They didn't expect there would be such a trick.

He hurriedly looked at the heavy grain bags that he had carried out earlier, and found that there was a pile of sand in the yard.

Zhu Yu understood it now. He guessed that when the trick was first started, the mastermind behind it was quite cautious, fearing that others would find out, so he secretly replaced the rice with sand of the same weight.

But later on, this guy became more and more courageous. After all, the sand was heavy, and it was very hard to pack it into bags and carry it, so he simply got some straw, which also looked like bulging bags, making it much easier to carry and stack.

In the past, whenever she heard the saying "the rats in the government warehouse are as big as a bucket", she thought it was an exaggeration.

Now, looking at the official granary in Qingshui County and the county magistrate Li Wencai, who had been locked up at home and starved for several days but was still plump, she felt a different kind of emotion in her heart.

After all the grain bags were moved, Fu Lu brought a few soldiers to weigh and measure the few remaining grains.

"Sir, the total amount of grain stored in the Qingshui County government warehouse is no more than a hundred kilograms." Fu Lu reported to Lu Qing with a frown.

Before Lu Qing could say anything, two imperial guards came running over hurriedly, carrying something in their hands.

"Sir! We found another set of weights and a grain measure in the rice warehouse over there!" They said, placing their belongings on the ground next to the scales and measures they had just used to weigh the grain. "But... these two scales and measures... they are not the same size!"

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(End of this chapter)