During the Song Dynasty, in Nanxiang, Kaifeng Province, there was a large family with many good fields, and they made a living by collecting rent on weekdays. The owner of the large family is surnamed Fu Mingren, and the family has a high-class horse. It is very conspicuous in the local area.
One day, Fu Ren rode his horse and led his men to the northern village to collect rent, and his subordinate Ma Fu led a mule below to prevent an accident. Arriving at Zhuangzi, Furen sent Ma Fu to ride the horse home first. Ma Fu was halfway through the journey, a little tired, and got off the horse to rest. At this time, a man came from the opposite side, and the man introduced his surname to Huang Mingshan, saying that he was from Nanxiang. He rode a skinny horse, saw Ma Fu by the side, and got off his horse to rest.
The man approached Ma Fu slowly and asked, "Where did the brother come from?" Ma Fu replied, "I am sending my master to Zhuangzi to collect rent, and now I am on my way home." ”
The two looked at each other, there was no one else around, meeting was fate, sitting on the ground, chatting about home. After a while, Huangshan began to set up. He said to Ma Fu, "Big brother, your horse is very good-looking, and it has a good fat." Ma Fu was also interested in hearing this, and asked curiously, "Will the brothers see it?" Huang Shan couldn't help but laugh after hearing this: "The younger brother has sold horses before." Ma Fu said, "The master just bought this horse for a big price not long ago!" Huang Shan pondered for a moment and said, "If the eldest brother is not disgusted, the younger brother wants to try this horse." ”
Ma Fu looked at the little brother with a good face, and did not have any doubts, and happily gave huangshan a test ride. Huang Shan quickly jumped on the saddle, slammed the horse whip, and the horse galloped out. After running for miles without turning back, Ma Fu suddenly felt that the situation was not right and hurried to chase. Huang Shan told Ma Fu to chase after him, sped up the whip to beat the horse, and quickly threw away Ma Fuyang and left.
A good horse was stolen for no reason, and Ma Fu had not yet eased up, standing in the same place in a daze, regretting that it was too late. Now he could only ride the unwanted skinny pony back to zhuangzi to find his master and take the blame. When Huang Ren heard that the horse had been lost, he was very angry, scolded Ma Fu bitterly, and ordered Ma Fu to lead the skinny horse to the government office to report the crime. Ma Fu did not dare to be idle, and hurried to the official palace, when Bao Zheng was sitting on the lobby. Ask someone to report the case, Bao Zheng asked who it was?
Ma Fu hurriedly went in and replied, "The villain's name is Ma Fu, a Nanxiang man, a servant of the Furen family, and he wants to sue a scoundrel for robbing our family's horse." ”
Bao Zheng asked, "Which bandit, report your name." Ma Fu replied with great embarrassment: "I met on the road, I don't know the name." The man stole my family's good horse and kept his skinny pony. Bao Zheng was a little angry when he heard this: "The bold villagers dare to come here and talk nonsense, and they don't know the name and address of the other party, how dare they come to file a complaint?" Ma Fu was so frightened that he quickly knelt down and said, "Lord Jiuwen Bao is the best at solving strange and difficult cases, so Xiao Min dared to file a complaint of injustice." Bao Zheng saw that the other party was very sincere and said, "I have a plan, you leave the horse behind." Come back in three days and tell you the plan. Ma Fu was grateful, prostrated his head and knelt down and left.
Bao Zheng ordered Zhao Hu to lead the skinny horse into the stable and not feed the hay for three days, because the hungry horse screamed! Three days later, Ma Fu came to Yamen to meet Lord Bao. Bao Zheng asked Ma Fu to lead the skinny horses out of the city, and Zhang Long led the people behind him and told Tuo to act according to the plan. Ma Fu was ordered to return the same way, release the reins and let the horses move freely. As long as the horse bows its head to eat, it immediately knocks on the block to prevent the horse from eating. After a while, the horse began to run at a faster speed, without the need for anyone to throw a whip.
In this way, the horse walked for about forty miles and stopped at a place called Huangni Village. I saw that there was a tile house next to it near the center of the village, and there was a hut next to it. Zhang Long and Ma Fu watched curiously, not knowing what to do. And this is the horse suddenly rushing out, straight into the hut and screaming.
Huang Shan in the house heard the movement and quickly ran out of the house to check the situation, and was very happy to see that it was his own horse returning. At this time, the two men were already hiding in a secret place, quietly observing.
The next day, Huang Shan rode his own horse to the mountain, thinking of keeping it in captivity with the horse he had stolen earlier. Zhang Long had already ambushed Ma Fu with him, and when the horse appeared, Ma Fu directly rushed up and scolded Huang Shan as a villain. The scolding was not enough, and the man went to the horse to lead it home. Huang Shan still wanted to block it, but he was subdued by Zhang Long, and even someone took his horse to the palace.
When they arrived at the mansion, Bao Zheng loudly rebuked the horse thieves: "Your courage is really big, a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs, and he doesn't even know how powerful I am, and he is doing things under my jurisdiction." What a crime you should be guilty of blatantly robbing people's good horses on the road in broad daylight! "Huangshan knows that he is wrong and cannot be refuted. Bao Zheng then ordered Zhang Long's heavy staff to rebuke Huang Shan, and put him in chains to parade the streets to show the public to make an example. He also used huangshan's horses as a function, and finally beat seventy rods and drove them out. And Ma Fu was not spared, because he did not know who the other party was, he arbitrarily gave the master's horse to others to test ride and was also punished.