Jiaohua

Chapter 1133 This is a trap
The pit was dug bigger and bigger until there was no more water, and a stone ladder about six feet wide and long was exposed at the edge of the water.

The crowd had retreated to the ancestral hall, Xia Junnan squatted beside the pit, and poked a wooden branch on the stone ladder again and again: "It's quite strong!"

As he poked it, the wooden branch splashed water, it was yellow, muddy and disgusting.

The entire stone ladder was soaked in water, and the water was two feet deep, making it difficult to swim down.

"Second Miss, shall we drain the water?" Zhan Ning said, "There are a lot of farmland here, and there must be thirsty black tubes for absorbing water."

"The water comes from the river." Xia Zhaoyi looked up at the stone bridge in the distance. "We have to send people to open a canal upstream, and then block the waterway. After the water is pumped, it will be restored."

"Second Miss," Xia Junnan got up, "I'm here to watch, you go back to the city first."

Xia Zhaoyi shook his head: "You have been quite tired these few days, you go back first, and call the people from the Weifu in the south of the city to work."

"There are ready-made captive soldiers here," Zhan Ning said, "At any rate, there are hundreds of them, and they just happen to work for us!"

"Hey!" Xia Junnan yelled at him, "These are just ordinary soldiers, who knows if they will join the army voluntarily, and they are not the same as the group of rampant soldiers in the capital city south of the city."

"General Xia Junnan is right," Xia Zhaoyi said, "Leave fifty soldiers and horses for me, and you go back to the city first."

When she is not smiling, her face is beautiful and cold, and there is an inhuman alienation, accompanied by a commanding tone, she is not angry but mighty.

Xia Junnan had no choice but to take the order and take the man away first.

Many of the nearby villagers were sleepy and yawning, but in order to watch the excitement, they were still crowded outside.

Because this is a rural road, it is some distance away from the village, and there are only scattered residents. The village chief did not arrive until they left.

The mayor stepped forward and said timidly, "General, this is..."

"I got someone to dig it up," Xia Zhaoyi said, "Are you the village chief?"

"Yes, yes, Xiaomin's surname is Pan, and Shan's name is De."

"Major Pan, who owns this ancestral hall?"

The mayor looked towards the nearby ancestral hall and suddenly felt his scalp go numb.

This ancestral hall is very simple, or crude. Xia Zhaoyi has been to many ancestral halls in Xizhou before to pretend to be gods and ghosts, but those ancestral halls, even in the most remote corners, are of a higher grade and scale than this one.

"This...has been abandoned for a long time."

"How long is a long time?"

Mayor Pan thought for a while and said, "I guess so, ten years."

"I thought it would be a hundred years old," Xia Zhaoyi looked up at the ancestral hall, "Just looking at its construction, it shouldn't be doing well before it was abandoned."

"Well, it's really not good."

"Before it is abandoned, there should always be an owner. Who is the original owner?"

"This..." Mayor Pan pursed his lips, showing some hesitation.

"Say!" Zhan Ning shouted.

"Yes, it's a person surnamed Chen."

"People from the Chen family?" Zhan Ning said, "If this family is still alive, you should call them over right now. If you dare to lie or hide something, you can do it yourself! Our people will go to secretly investigate from time to time!"

"...I don't know if it's an extinct house, or it's gone. In one night, there will be no one."

Xia Zhaoyi looked down at Mayor Pan's legs and found that he was shaking all the time.

"Tell me." Xia Zhaoyi turned to look at the person who came with Pan Township Chief.

Several people looked at her and pursed their lips, not daring to speak.

"Take down this Township Chief Pan!" Xia Zhaoyi suddenly shouted.

Mayor Pan fell to his knees with a plop behind her: "No, no, General, don't! I know I was wrong!"

"Wrong?" Xia Zhaoyi looked sideways, "What's wrong with you?"

"At the beginning, the Chen family came to me and said that they wanted to build a ancestral hall, and they had already selected this land. I saw that it was remote, so I agreed. He also said that he didn't want outsiders to pass by when building the ancestral hall. Of course I don’t agree to this, the road goes up to the sky! But give me, give me five taels of silver, and I will seal the road here.”

"When did they disappear?" Xia Zhaoyi asked.

"After it was built, it disappeared within a few days. It's strange to say that the ancestral hall was half built like this, and it was left here..."

"The entire Chen family is gone?"

"It's gone! There is still blood in the Chen family's compound! Only blood, no people, let alone corpses! The house is also abandoned there, and now passing by there, I feel gloomy, and my back is cold!"

"That's right, we haven't seen any members of the Chen family since then." Someone echoed.

Xia Zhaoyi asked: "I haven't seen any of them, so how many people are there?"

Mayor Pan looked at the village chief and the others.

Everyone started counting with their fingers on the spot.

"Probably... 16 people!"

"How many men and women, how old and how young?"

Everyone counted again.

One person said: "Nine men and seven women, none of them old, but three children! One of them is a girl, but the water is already alive. If she is still alive, she will be eighteen years old."

"Passing through the house will make you feel gloomy, but if you pass the ancestral hall, you should feel the same way." Xia Zhaoyi smiled lightly, turned around and looked at the corpses still on the ground not far away, "Where is the girl who found these corpses first."

Zhan Ning paused, and hurriedly looked around.

Looking around and around, Zhan Ning showed annoyance: "Second Miss, I was careless. I saw her crying sadly, so I asked two women who came to join in the fun to comfort her, but..."

However, he did not remember the appearance of the two women, and he even forgot the appearance of the girl.

Xia Zhaoyi said in a low voice: "The lights nearby are not dark, but here is the darkest place. The surrounding roads are wide and there are many roads, and she can't go here just because she took a small path. She led us here to let We saw these corpses, or..."

Xia Zhaoyi looked at the small pool exposed in front of everyone.

Zhan Ning frowned: "If it's a trap, then shall we still pump this water?"

"Puff." Xia Zhaoyi said.

"Yes!"

Xia Zhaoyi thought for a while, then looked at Zhan Ning: "I'll go to Chen's house to have a look, you stay here and wait for the soldiers and horses of the Weifu in the south of the city."

Zhan Ning was taken aback: "Second Miss, are you going alone?"

"Ah."

"I..." Zhan Ning hesitated to speak, and suddenly took off the knife beside him and handed it over, "Second Miss, take it with you."

Xia Zhaoyi smiled lightly, and said lightly, "I'm not good at knives, so keep it."

As she said that, she looked at Township Chief Pan and the others: "Please lead the way, I'm going to Chen's house to have a look."

Township Chief Pan and the others turned pale all of a sudden.

"It's time...General, maybe tomorrow." Mayor Pan said.

"I don't make it difficult for you, just take me to the door, you don't need to go in, I will go in alone."

"You go in alone?!"

Just passing by the door of Chen's house, I feel the wind blowing, but I still have to go in, alone, without my subordinates...

Xia Zhaoyi looked at Zhan Ning: "Give me a torch."

After receiving the torch, Xia Zhaoyi said, "Major Pan, lead the way."

(End of this chapter)