Chapter 116: Thick-skinned Song Gongming: A cunning rabbit has three burrows

While Cao Jie was meeting with Shi Wenbin, Song Jiang did not leave, but returned to Songjia Village first.

He was about to flee far away and didn't know when he would be able to return home, so naturally he wanted to come back and take a look at his old father.

Xiaoyi Heisabalang, not to mention the word "righteousness", the word "filial piety" is quite acceptable.

In fact, logically speaking, Song Jiang had already severed ties with his family at this time, so he should be considered an unfilial son.

However, since the Song Dynasty implemented a system of collective responsibility where the entire family would be punished if one person committed a crime, Song Jiang severed ties with his family early in order to avoid implicating his family if he committed a crime in the future.

This is not because Song Jiang is unfilial, on the contrary, it actually shows Song Jiang's filial piety.

Moreover, Song Jiang was not the only one who did this at that time. This practice had become the norm in society. Many playboys broke off relations with their families for fear of bringing trouble to their families.

Lei Heng and Zhu Tong both carried official documents and, along with a dozen clerks, hurried to Songjia Village, the farm of Duke Song Tai.

Song Taigong came out to greet them, leaning on a cane and hunched over. He read the arrest warrant and sighed, "My two captains, my ancestors have been farmers for generations, and we make a living by guarding this farm. I am an unfilial son, Song Jiang, who has been disobedient since childhood and refused to do his duty in farming. He wanted to be an official, but he refused to obey no matter how much we tried to persuade him.

Therefore, a few years ago, I reported him to the county officials for disobedience, and he was removed from the register and no longer in my household. He lived in the county, and I and my son Song Qing stayed here to look after the old house and the fields to make a living.

He had no relationship with the old man and did not interfere. The old man was also afraid that he would do something wrong and cause trouble, so he filed a petition with the former official..."

After taking the expulsion document and looking at it, Lei Heng and Zhu Tong looked at each other and nodded, saying, "Since the old man has this expulsion document, we can go back and explain to the county magistrate."

After all, they were Song Jiang's half brothers, so they didn't make things difficult for him. They just copied the certificate of expulsion from the register and headed back without even searching their house.

Duke Taigong of Song was also a good man. He gave twenty taels of silver to Lei Heng and Zhu Tong and asked them to take their brothers to buy some wine.

As soon as the petty official who was searching for Song Jiang left, Song Qing came to the back hall, where there was a statue of the Three Buddhas, with a cellar under the seat where one could hide.

"Brother, they've already left."

When Song Jiang heard the report, he crawled out of the cellar and said anxiously, "I have to go. I don't know when I can return home from Cangzhou. My brother, please take good care of my father."

"Don't worry, brother! I'll take care of the house."

"Well, I'm going to talk to my father. You stay outside."

Song Jiang closed the door, kowtowed three times to Song Taigong, and whispered, "Father, my son was implicated by the thieves and had to flee to the ends of the earth. Please take care."

"Alas! Now that things have come to this, you should hide away from Mr. Chai."

"Father!" Song Jiang leaned close to Taigong's ear and whispered, "I told others that I was seeking refuge with Mr. Chai in Cangzhou. If you have any news, please send a letter to Hua Rong in Qingfeng Village. Brother Hua Rong is now the chief of Qingfeng Village. I am really seeking refuge with him."

"Okay! I understand. You can go without any worries! Do you have enough money?"

"That's enough! Please forgive me for being unfilial."

Song Jiang bowed three more times and left.

It is said that when Lei Heng and Zhu Tong led their brothers back to the Yuncheng County Government Office, they were severely reprimanded by the County Magistrate Shi.

He rode his horse again to Songjia Village.

The two of them were not tired from riding on horseback, but the dozen or so younger brothers who had to travel on foot would be almost exhausted.

"Lei Heng, do you think Gongming really robbed the birthday gift?" Zhu Tong still didn't believe it.

Lei Heng was in a heavy mood and shook his head, saying, "Whether Gong Ming robbed the birthday gift or not, he has colluded with the second leader of Qingfeng Mountain, the short-legged tiger Wang Ying. Now that the adults have put that great crime on his head, even if he has nine mouths, he can't explain it!"

"Alas! How did we get into such a big trouble? If it was just murder, we would just pretend we didn't see it and let him get away. Now it's related to this big case, if we... Alas!" "I don't know what happened to Gongming. He even brought that dwarf tiger home. He is a man-eating demon. It's no wonder that Wu Dutou wiped out Qingfeng Mountain. Why bother to cause such trouble now!"

"Maybe I lost my mind for a moment. It's no use talking about this now... Think about what to do next! There are so many people around!"

"Who knows if he is in Songjia Village? He might have escaped long ago!"

"That's right!"

When a group of small clerks came back, Song Taigong felt a pang in his heart, knowing that things would not go smoothly.

Wanxing Saburo sensed danger and fled early.

When asked, Song Taigong's soul was scared out of his wits and he almost died.

After a lot of trouble and searching inside and outside, Zhu Tong and Lei Heng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and hurried back to the county government office again.

"Reporting to the Lord, we have searched the village twice, and Song Jiang is not in Songjia Village. And Mr. Song is ill in bed and cannot move, so we..."

Shi Wenbin slammed the table and shouted, "Can't we arrest him if the father-son relationship is severed? Isn't Song Jiang known as the Filial and Righteous Black Sanlang? As long as his father is arrested, Song Jiang will surely show up."

"This..." Lei Heng was extremely embarrassed.

At this time, Zhu Tong clasped his fists and said, "Sir, his father is already sixty years old and not in good health. I'm afraid he will die before he even reaches the county jail. If that's the case, Song Jiang will have nothing to worry about and will take risks... If he is really the thief who robbed the birthday gift, he must have a group of thieves helping him. If..."

As if considering the extremely bad consequences, Shi Wenbin's face froze, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he said with a wave of his sleeve: "Forget it! Since the father-son relationship has been severed, there is no reason for joint punishment."

call!
Lei Heng and Zhu Tong both breathed a sigh of relief.

If they really want to capture Song Taigong, that would be putting them in a difficult position.

While Yuncheng County submitted a petition to the government, it also issued a warrant for the arrest of Song Jiang, and it went without saying that Song Jiang was being hunted down all over the country.

And what about Song Jiang!

Did he go to Cangzhou to seek refuge with Mr. Chai? No.

Did he go to Qingzhou Qingfeng Village to join his brother Hua Rong? No.

Where did he go?
He went to Kong Taigongzhuang on Baihu Mountain.

Mr. Kong had two children. The eldest was called "Maotouxing" Kong Ming, and the second was called "Duhuoxing" Kong Liang. They had often come to visit him and admired Song Jiang's character. They had expressed their willingness to take him as their teacher many times.

More importantly, Song Jiang was confident that he could control these two brothers.

It’s not like going to Cangzhou or Qingfengzhai, where you are really handing your life over to others!

On Liangshan Mountain, Cao Jie once again invited Gongsun Sheng to deduce the situation.

Gongsun Sheng said with a bitter face, "Brother, this method of divination is most accurate the first time each month. If you do it too many times, it will be useless. And if you do it over and over again for the same person, there will be ambiguity. It's better not to do it."

"Is there still such a rule?"

"If every practitioner of the God of Pregnancy can predict the future at will, is the future still the future?"

"Makes sense!"

Cao Jie nodded, and did not make things difficult for Gongsun Sheng. He only arranged for people to go to various places to inquire about the whereabouts of Song Jiang and Wang Ying, and to find out the whereabouts of Chen Liqing and Liu Huiniang...

(End of this chapter)