After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 154 The Tu Family and the Du Family

The old military advisor is still very efficient in his work.

Two-quarters of an hour later, the people he sent went to Du and Tu Villages to inquire about the news.

Haijiao had just arrived and did not dare to offend the owners of these two villages easily, but the old military advisor did not have so many worries.

The Tu family was once a major merchant of medicinal materials, but it has declined a lot in recent years.In the past, they could still dominate their local counterparts under the banner of Zhou family in-laws, but now his aunt has been dead for nearly 40 years, and the only remaining eldest grandson, Zhou Jinpu, is ineffective and obeys his step-grandmother Mrs. Ma in everything. Even the birth mother's maternal family is not very close, and the Tu family can't show off.His family now relies on caravans traveling north and south to barely maintain their family business.Not to mention the relatives from the mother's family who were hostile to Zhou Ma's family, they didn't dare to show off when a steward from the third room of the Zhou family came to visit, let alone an old soldier under the command of the Duke of Zhen, who came to inquire about some gossip.

Most of the people living in the Tujia Village were the families of the caravan guys and guards. The head of the village was a cousin of the family. He didn't report the matter to the police at all. He answered all questions in front of the old soldiers of the Zhou family. Will help inquire about the residents in the village.He heard that it was related to the murder case of bandits intercepting the road a few days ago. How could he dare to hide anything?

But he did provide some useful information.

Some elderly people living on the roadside in his village were sleepy at night and had heard and seen some noises.There were indeed young men uniformly dressed passing by at night or in the evening. They once rode horses. I don't know if they were carrying weapons. Some said there were a dozen or so, while others said there were only six or seven.These people did not enter Tu's village. They went northwest in the evening and southwest in the night.The northwest direction leads to the place where the Jin family was killed, while a few miles to the southwest is where the Zhou family's old soldier Zhuangzi and the Zhou family's three-bedroom villa are located.

As for which direction that group of people came from, the old people could only infer that it was from the direction of Dujiazhuangzi.Dujia Zhuangzi is very strict and never allows outsiders to easily enter to visit relatives.No one can be sure whether the group of young men came from the Du family's Zhuangzi, but the Du family's Zhuangzi was next to the mountain. Maybe those people came down from the mountain and simply passed by the Zhuangzi. It is unknown.

When they arrived at Dujiazhuangzi, the Zhou family veteran did not alert the owner or the owner of the village. He only asked acquaintances in the village to inquire.

There are also veterans who were born under the generals of the Zhou family in the Du family's village.Commander Du Boqin was actually the son-in-law of the Zhou family. He married a niece of Marshal Zhou, the Duke of Zhenguo. However, his wife died ten years ago and left no legitimate children.Commander Du never remarried, and there was only one old concubine in the family who was in charge of the middle class.The old concubine gave birth to his only son, who was quite respectable at home.As for the old people left behind by the mistress during her lifetime, she sent them all to several villages at home to be raised in honor.There happened to be a veteran in this village. He had worked as a nurse in the Du family for several years. He was too old to see people and the road, so he retired.

The home of this half-blind veteran is next to the foot of the mountain. According to his reaction, although some people have come down and some people have gone up the mountain in recent days, they are all farmers or children familiar from the neighborhood. There are no strangers who are well-trained and have high martial arts. No horses ever went up the mountain.He was very confident about this.He has good hearing and memory, but because his eyes cannot see clearly, his children and grandchildren do not allow him to go out. He can only stay in his house all day long, listening to the movements of passers-by near his house for entertainment.He dared to guarantee that he was absolutely not wrong.

However, his home is located on the edge of Zhuangzi. If the group of people did not pass by his home but took another way, he couldn't tell.No matter how good his hearing was, he could not hear the movement on the other side of Zhuangzi across the entire Zhuangzi.

However, his son recently went up the mountain to cut firewood. From a high position, he saw strangers coming and going in the village from a distance.The family did not know the identity of the stranger, but they only knew that there were three of them, dressed as warriors, and they looked very difficult to deal with.Since their family had only a mediocre relationship with the people in the village, no one told them whether there were outsiders visiting the village.

The veterans of the Zhou family reported all this news to the old military advisor.The old military advisor ordered people to inquire about the list of caravan guards on the Tujia Zhuangzi, and be sure to check the name, origin, and appearance of each guard to see if there had been any missing persons in recent days; at the same time, he also asked people to continue to monitor the movements of the Dujia Zhuangzi.A half-blind veteran from the Zhou family has lived in the Du family village for several years, but has alienated himself from the villagers and shows signs of being ostracized. What is the reason for this?
He had never heard of anything wrong with the relationship between Commander Du and the Zhou family?Didn't his old concubine often visit her late mistress's natal home to pay her respects?

The old military advisor didn't hide anything, so he told Hai Jiao all the information he had learned, and asked him to think about it by himself. He also smiled and said: "Brother Hai, if you think of something, just come and tell me, don't be a heretic. You He is a direct disciple of Xie Hanlin. Xie Hanlin and I are also old friends. We worked together for many years and got along very happily. I admire Xie Hanlin's resourcefulness very much."

Hai Jiao was a little flattered. He hurriedly said a few words of humility and asked a few more questions. Seeing that it was getting late, he hurriedly left and rode back to his home in Chang'an City.

It was already evening when we got home.Grandfather Hai Xiya has been leaving early and returning late these days. He seems to be busy at the Yamen until dark every day. Grandmother Ma has long complained.Seeing that her grandson was also at home, she couldn't help but complain: "What are you doing in other villages all day long?! Your grandfather and cousin have both told you that the Jin family's case will be solved by the Zhou family. They told you not to get involved, but why didn't you refuse?" Are you obedient?! It’s okay to catch spies when you were in Suzhou, but now you want to catch even robbers and murderers, why don’t you go to the prefect’s Yamen and become a head catcher?!”

Hai Jiao laughed and blurted it out, but when he turned around, he was a little confused: "The prefect's Yamen... arrested the head..."

Haitang heard it from the side, blinked, and reminded him in a low voice: "Brother, don't you really want to be a head catcher in the prefect's Yamen? Be careful that grandma hears it."

The head arrest in the prefecture's yamen sounds respectable, but in fact it belongs to the ranks of "officials" and has a low status.The Hai family is a hereditary military household, and Haixiya now has a seventh-rank official position. They still hope that their grandson will excel after joining the army in the future. How can he be reduced to the ranks of "officials"?Ma was just joking before. If he knew that his grandson was really thinking about catching a head, he would definitely explode.

Hai Jiao hurriedly smiled and explained: "I don't want to be a head catcher. I just remembered a person. In his previous life, he was a head catcher in the prefecture's yamen. Although he has not yet been promoted, I think his troubles already exist. I happen to know how to help him solve the problem. If everything goes well, I may be able to call the government yamen's information channel, and I won't have to rely on my elders to reveal information about the case in the future."

Haitang raised her eyebrows: "Brother, go ahead and do it. If you need my help, just ask."

Hai Jiao nodded and pulled his sister out of the main room and into the east wing where he lived: "I have gained a lot today. The old military advisor even praised me..." He told everything that happened today. I told my sister.

Haitang thought thoughtfully: "Although there are many caravan guards on the Tu family's village, the number of people is relatively fixed and they are familiar with each other. If a stranger appears, he will definitely not be able to hide it from others. Besides, the Tu family is not qualified to become a member of the Sun family. Allies have little influence on the Zhou family."

Hai Jiao snorted: "I also think the Du family is more suspicious. Du Boqin is the third-grade military commander and the son-in-law of the Zhou family. This is the powerful mole. I'm afraid the Zhou family has never suspected him at all, right?" He was deeply moved. He looked at his sister deeply and said, "Do you know what Du Boqin's status was when I entered the industry in my previous life?"

(End of this chapter)