Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 585: The whereabouts of the imperial army in Yanzhou
Let’s go back to July 25th.

A small mountain village under the jurisdiction of Sheng County, Yanzhou.

This village is also called Tao Village. Every household in the village has peach trees. When the peach blossoms are in full bloom in spring, it looks like a sea of ​​peach blossoms for ten miles. Now is midsummer, and the peach blossoms on all the trees have fallen, replaced by lush greenery.

The village is located at the foot of a big mountain called Helan Mountain. There is a small fenced courtyard closest to the foot of the mountain. Two thatched houses stand quietly in the courtyard. The previously neat and thriving nursery is full of weeds, and the fence is covered with vines.

The two thatched houses in the yard looked like they hadn't been lived in for a long time. The eaves were covered with spider webs, making them look a little desolate.

Tap tap tap.
A group of slow footsteps approached from afar, and two staggering figures stopped outside the fence.

The two figures seemed to be an old couple in their fifties, wearing very simple clothes. Both of them were hunched over and looked very haggard. The old woman was holding a pottery jar, her eyes were red, her face was sad, and she muttered, "Son, we're home, we're home."

"You are?"

At this moment, an old man carrying a hoe, who looked like he had just returned from working in the fields, looked at the two figures standing outside the fence, frowned and looked carefully. After a moment, the old man asked in surprise: "Shigen, Yingzi?"

Hearing the voice, the old couple raised their heads and looked sideways. The old man looked at the old man in a daze and then said, "Uncle Youtian?"

"Shigen, it's really you." Hearing this familiar voice, Cui Youtian put down his hoe and asked in surprise, "Weren't you taken to the city by Xiaohua to enjoy life? Why are you back? Gangzi didn't come back?"

Hearing the words "Gangzi", the old couple was even more hurt. The old woman lowered her head and looked at the pottery jar in her arms, and said incoherently: "Son, Uncle Tian is calling you, wake up, Uncle Tian is calling you."

Cui Youtian stared at the pottery jar in the old woman's hand in astonishment, and asked in surprise: "Shigen, what is this, Yingzi?"

"Gone, Gangzi is gone. It's all because of that bastard Xiaohua. It's all her fault. If it weren't for her, how could Gangzi die? How could he commit suicide? Gangzi." The old man, whom Cui Youtian called Shigen, sobbed with a sad face. He then looked at his wife beside him and cursed:
"It's all your fault. If you hadn't given birth to that bastard, how could Xiaogang die? How could he die?"

As he said that, Shi Gen suddenly kicked the old woman beside him.

The old woman was kicked to the ground without any defense. Her clothes were opened a little, revealing her scarred skin. But she held the pottery jar firmly in her hand. She lay on the ground and cried, "It's all my fault, it's all my fault, my son, I'm sorry for you."

"Give me back my son."

"Shigen, stop it." Cui Yougen hurriedly grabbed Cui Shigen. Maybe because of his age, his brain was a little slow to react for a moment, and he said belatedly: "You said, Gangzi is dead?"

Cui Shigen ignored his uncle and opened Cui Youtian's eyes. He bent down and tried to take the pottery jar that the old woman was holding, but the latter refused to let go.

“Bring it here.”

He snatched the pottery jar from the old woman's hand, held the jar, opened the fence, and walked towards the thatched hut. The old woman got up and hurried to follow.

Cui Youtian looked at the backs of the two people, a little confused, but from the few words just now, he could guess that the Shigen family might have encountered a big thing.

He put his hoe outside and followed them. He and Cui Yougen were from the same family. Seeing how pitiful the two looked, he felt sympathy for them and helped them clean up the yard.

While cleaning up, he learned that the jar contained Cui Gang's ashes, who committed suicide by hitting his head against the wall. It seemed that it was because of Cui Shigen's eldest daughter Xiaohua.

Cui Shigen left Tao Village for many years and never returned once.

When they left, people in the village were saying that it was Xiaohua who took them to the city to live a good life. Some said that Xiaohua became a concubine of a master in the city, and that she had transformed from a crow into a phoenix.

Because of this, Cui Shigen's relationship with the village became more distant.

On the day Cui Gang was buried, only Cui Youtian's family and Cui Shigen's relatives came to see him off.

Cui Gang was buried in the Helan Mountains.

The day after Cui Gang was buried, Cui Gang's mother also passed away.

Some people in the village said that Cui Gang’s mother missed her son too much and died of excessive grief.

But an old woman who was burying Cui Gangniang knew that the cause of Cui Gangniang's death was not simple, because she knew that Cui Gangniang's body was covered with bruises and swellings caused by punches and kicks.

She suspected that Cui Shigen had beaten him to death.

When he was in the village, he beat Cui Gang's mother many times, and everyone in the village saw it.

But it’s better to keep things small than to worry about more. The old woman is also from Tao Village, and her husband’s surname is also Cui, so she simply turned a blind eye and said nothing.

In August, when Cui Youtian went to visit Cui Shigen, he found the latter hanging from the beam. When he let Cui Shigen down, Cui Shigen was already dead.

Cui Youtian sighed and told the villagers about Cui Shigen's suicide.

Perhaps because they felt guilty for talking about Cui Shigen's family in the past, every family in the village contributed some money to bury him next to the graves of Cui Gang and his mother.

August 5th.

Several burly men came to Tao Village and asked people about Cui Gang. Coincidentally, the person they found was Cui Youtian.

Cui Yougen frowned and asked, "Who are you to Gangzi?"

"We are friends of Cui Gang's sister. Her sister asked us to come here to find him. Has Cui Gang come back?" said the leader among the burly men.

"Xiaohua's friend?" Cui Youtian frowned, then changed his expression and waved his hoe in the air, saying, "Go quickly, Tao Village doesn't welcome you. Xiaohua is a troublemaker. If you don't leave, don't blame me for calling for help."

Hearing this, several big men looked at each other. Before setting off, they were told by their superiors that Yanzhou was not their territory and they had to be careful and keep a low profile.

The leading sturdy man thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Old man, don't get me wrong, we are good people. It was Cui Gang's sister who asked us to take him over to enjoy a good life. We have no ill intentions."

"Enjoy a good life?" Cui Yougen snorted coldly, "Gangzi is dead. He was killed by Xiaohua. What good life is there for him to enjoy?"

At this time, Cui Yougen saw some villagers coming and shouted, "Hurry up, these are the bad guys Xiaohua hired to cause trouble for Gangzi and his family."

"what?"

"They're already buried, but they still don't let people rest in peace."

"Come on, come on."

Upon hearing this, the villagers were filled with indignation and surrounded these strong men.

"Boss, what should we do? If we go back like this, we won't be able to report to our superiors." The strong men were obviously well-trained. Looking at the people rushing over, they stood back to back and formed a battle formation. One of the strong men whispered to the leader.

"Let's go first, and then we can find out more later."

As the leader spoke, he suddenly shouted, "Don't move. We are from the government. Cui Gang is involved in a murder case. Do you want to be thrown into jail?"

After hearing this, the villagers of Tao Village were so frightened that they dared not move.

In their eyes, the yamen is scarier than the King of Hell, and they don’t want to have anything to do with it.

At the same time, they were also suspicious. Since these people were from the yamen, why didn't they wear yamen clothes?
When the sturdy leader saw that they had been frightened, he did not stay for long and left with his men.

The villagers didn't dare to chase after him. They were just suspicious. What if the other party was real? They didn't dare to take the risk.

The reason why the strong men left first was not because they were afraid of the villagers, but because they were afraid of alerting the local government.

They are not from Yanzhou. They sneaked here secretly from Huaizhou and are illegal residents. If their identities are exposed this time, they will be in trouble.

At night, they quietly went to Cui Youtian's home, controlled Cui Youtian's family, and immediately said: "I ask you questions, as long as you cooperate with us, no one will be in trouble."

Cui Youtian was frightened and nodded quickly.

"Very good. You said earlier that Cui Gang was dead. Is that true?"

"Really."

"How did you die?"

"His sister Xiaohua killed him."

"You fool me."

"No, I don't dare. It was Shi Gen who told me that Xiao Gang committed suicide because of his sister." "Who is Shi Gen?"

"Cui Gang's father."

"What about others?"

"died."

"died?"

"Yes, he died a few days ago, he hanged himself, his mother died too, she was buried in the back hill."

The atmosphere was silent for a moment.

The sturdy leader asked, "When did they come back?"

"It was at the end of last month. I forgot the exact time, but it wasn't long after that."

"Where is the back mountain?"

"It's the Helan Mountains, the mountain behind the village."

"Let them go, and we'll go."

A noodle restaurant in Sheng County.

"General Wen, let's just go back like this and report back." Before a sturdy man could finish his words, he was slapped on the back of his head by his companion next to him.

Wen Heng, who was sitting opposite, said in a deep voice: "I've told you so many times, when you come to Yanzhou, call me Boss, don't refer to me by my title."

He glanced around and saw that no one was paying attention to this side. He whispered: "This Yanzhou is not our territory. Once our identity is exposed, we will most likely die. Do you want to harm everyone?"

"Boss, I was wrong."

"The higher-ups just asked us to confirm whether Cui Gang has returned. If he has, take him back to Linzhou. But now Cui Gang is dead, and we have confirmed it. What happens next is none of our business."

……

When Wen Heng and his companions were returning, they suddenly encountered a large merchant caravan. In addition to the caravan's own guards, there were also many escorts accompanying them. Pedestrians on the road all avoided the traffic on both sides of the road, and Wen Heng and his companions did the same.

After the caravan passed by, a sturdy man asked curiously, "What is this escort? Why does it require so many escorts and guards?"

"No, these are not bodyguards." Wen Heng frowned.

"If it's not a bodyguard, then what is it?"

"They are all military personnel. Did you see the shoes they wear? They are all military boots."

"People from the army?" Wen Heng's men became curious and asked in confusion, "If they are from the Yanzhou Army, why are they disguised as escorts?"

"In my opinion, this is not the Yanzhou Army. The Yanzhou Army's military boots are not of this standard. Instead, they look like the Imperial Guards."

"Imperial Guards? Impossible. How could the Imperial Guards appear in Yanzhou?"

“That’s why I’m surprised.”

……

a few days later.

On the outskirts of Yuan County, Yanzhou is the county closest to Huaizhou.

"Phew, I'll be able to go back soon. Calculating the time, the provincial examination has already started, right?"

"The provincial examination was on the 10th, and now it's the 13th."

"Boss, look, it's the caravan we met on the road before."

A sturdy man pointed at the carriages and horses lined up to enter the city not far away and said.

Hearing this, Wen Heng glanced over and then frowned tightly.

This is Yuan County, not the capital of Yanzhou or any of those prosperous cities and counties. Why would a caravan come to such a place? Although people from Yanzhou and Huaizhou are allowed to travel back and forth between the two sides, no trade has been established between the two sides.

In this case, the business activities between the two parties are illegal.

Of course, the authorities on both sides will turn a blind eye to such behavior, but the premise is that it should not be too extreme.

But now the scale is so large that it is impossible to turn a blind eye.

This also confirmed Wen Heng's previous guess.

There's something strange about this caravan.

Wen Heng entered Yuan County with doubts in his heart.

Soon after they entered the city, a ban was issued, allowing only entry but not exit.

In the next two days, more and more caravans and escorts came to Yuan County, and Wen Heng became more and more uneasy.

"Oh no, something must have happened. We must report the situation in Yuan County to Duke Anguo as soon as possible." Wen Heng said in a deep voice.

……

And before that in Jiangnan, that is, three days before the imperial examination.

Following orders from above, Jiangnan's spies prepared to cause a major riot.

They decided to attack the treasure ships heading to Huaizhou from Jiangnan.

This treasure ship has been traveling back and forth between Jiangnan and Huaizhou since late last month, responsible for transporting candidates to Huaizhou to take the imperial examinations.

Their mission was to create an accident to sink the treasure ship and kill everyone on board.

In this case, the Chen Mo regime, the party responsible for the treasure ship, must be held accountable for this matter.

This group of candidates from Jiangnan all have some status in Jiangnan.

If they all died, it would definitely cause a huge uproar in Jiangnan, and would also be a big gift to the imperial examination of the "Chen Mo regime".

It’s a pity that they died before they could accomplish their mission.

To create such a big accident, the spies in Qinhuai City alone are definitely not enough, so it is necessary to mobilize and assemble spies from all over Jiangnan.

In this way, Chen Mo, who was responsible for having people keep an eye on the people in Qinhuai City, happened to follow the clues and found their gathering location.

Finally, the Fish Scale Guards were dispatched and the whole nest was wiped out.

In the dungeon where the Fish Scale Guards hold criminals.

A man with tattered clothes and covered in blood was tied to a cross-shaped wooden stake.

Under the leadership of Nangong Xian, Xiao Quan came to the man.

When the man saw Xiao Quan, he immediately became excited and said with blood in his mouth: "Master, save me, save me, I am Xiao Ge, these people arrested me here without knowing right or wrong, Master, you have to make a decision for me."

"Shut up." Xiao Quan shouted coldly.

(End of this chapter)