The Three Kingdoms Of The North Are Proud And Heroic

The air suddenly smelled of gunpowder.

At this critical juncture, he suddenly saw two figures running out of the path behind the woodcutter, who were Ah Zhong and the others who had made a detour before. Seeing that the seven or eight villagers here were surrounding Zu Zhao, Ah Zhong couldn't help but pull out his sword and rush over in three steps and two steps.

"Eldest Prince, there is a situation here. These villagers are suspicious! Ah Zhong shouted loudly as he walked quickly.

Hearing these words, all the children around Zu Zhao immediately tensed their nerves and pulled out their blades together.

The surrounding villagers were frightened when they saw this, many of them hurriedly took a few steps back, and some of the timid ones threw down their instruments and fled home.

Even the woodcutter panicked, stunned on the spot, at a loss.

Zu Zhao looked around at the villagers with cold eyes, and said coldly: "Aren't you afraid to sit together with the thieves who harbor murder and steal goods?" When he said the last half of the sentence, he almost roared.

The rest of the villagers were frightened, after all, they didn't know what the identity of these outsiders was, and when they heard the words of the young man in charge, they instinctively thought that these people should be spies from the government. Immediately, a few more people turned and fled, and the remaining three or five people looked left and right, all in a panic and worried.

A thin villager shouted impatiently: "I knew that Deng Laosan would definitely get into trouble, right, this time he really got into trouble." This, this... What's this called?

Another villager also said: "Yes, yes, this matter has nothing to do with us, it is all the matter of Deng Laosan." The

woodcutter's face was gloomy, and he said no more.

Zu Zhao didn't pay attention to these villagers, and went straight forward to meet Ah Zhong and the others.

Ah Zhong said: "Just in front, Zhao Xian and Ah Bao are guarding there. The

group followed Ah Zhong briskly through a small alley to a courtyard with only three rooms. There are many weeds growing at the head of the courtyard wall, the courtyard gate is dilapidated, and the whole house has not been repaired for a long time. There was a child of the ancestral family standing outside the door, and after seeing Zu Zhao and the others coming, he immediately greeted the door.

Zu Zhao came to him, he didn't rush to ask, he glanced inside the door, and saw that the courtyard was sloppy and messy, and there was a pile of haphazard straw in the corner of the courtyard wall. The whole straw pile was visibly bloodstained, and Ah Bao stood aside, he had lifted the straw pile aside, and there was a horse's corpse buried underneath.

"When we passed by, we found that the door was not closed, there was some blood on the threshold, and there was a foul smell, so we went inside and took a look.

Zu Zhao asked, "The horse corpse has clues."

Ah Bao, who was standing on the side of the straw pile, said: "The horse has no rope, so I'm not sure if it's our horse." However, the body is still very new, and it should have been dead for less than a day. Maybe this horse is the stallion that Uncle Hong and they purchased, so there is no horse matching.

Zu Zhao pondered for a while, and then asked, "Whose home is this?" What about people?

Ah Zhong shook his head and said, "There was no one when I came, and there were traces of people living in the house, but it was in tatters, and there were no valuable belongings at all."

Zu Zhao turned around and ordered, "Find the village chief to come over."

As soon as he finished speaking, the woodcutter he had met outside had already appeared outside the door. Several children of the ancestral family who were close to the courtyard gate were staring at each other vigilantly.

The woodcutter looked worried, sighed for a while, and then said, "Where else is there a village chief?" The person you are looking for is named Deng Mao, Xingsan, there is no one else in the family for a long time, and he is alone.

Zu Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly, and there was a guess in his heart: Deng Mao? Isn't it a leader of the Yellow Turban Army in the future?

There are not many records of the generals of the Yellow Turban Army in history, and most of the people who can really be recorded in history have a detailed record of their origins fighting with the officials and soldiers of the imperial court. He remembered that Ye Shi recorded that Deng Mao was the deputy general of Cheng Yuanzhi, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army, and Ye Shi also rumored that Cheng Yuanzhi and Liu Bei were fellow villagers, that is, from Zhuo County, Youzhou. Zhuo County is not too far away, and it is not impossible to say that Deng Mao is from Lingzhi County. Of course, there is no record of Lian Cheng Yuanzhi in the official history, so he does not dare to say who Deng Mao is at the moment.

He didn't show his emotions on his face, and then asked, "Who is he and where is he now?" The

woodcutter shook his head helplessly, and said without hiding his resentment: "Hmph, this thief is not a good person, he is idle on weekdays, and the little industry at home has been corrupted a few years ago. Where is he now? I haven't been safe for months, sometimes going out for days, sometimes I can't go out. No one in the village knew where he was, and no one wanted to know.

Zu Zhao pointed to the horse on the straw pile and asked coldly, "This horse obviously died yesterday." The

woodcutter was full of helplessness and said: "I saw movement in his house early this morning, as for where the person is now, the villain really doesn't know anyway."

Zu Zhao believed that the woodcutter's words were true, and no matter what, he finally had a crucial clue now. After thinking for a while, he first thanked the woodcutter, and told him that if he found Deng Mao's whereabouts, he would send someone to the Beiguoting Post Station in Xu Wu County to inform him, and there would be a heavy thank you at that time. After sending away the woodcutter, he ordered Ah Zhong, Ah Bao and others to stay in the town, and take turns to monitor the area every day, and report back immediately if there is any trouble.

In this matter, he must leave one more hand, the woodcutter and Deng Mao are in the same village, even if he looks down on Deng Mao, a prodigal loser, he will have some feelings, if he is kind for a while and lets Deng Mao go, or gives false news, it will be more than worth the loss. After giving the order, he led the people to search around the village and in the town.

When I came to the town, I happened to meet Zu Ji and the others again. Zuj didn't get much useful news at the horse farm, after all, horse dealers never cared about the people who came to see the horses, and even wished that more and more people would pay attention to their horses.

Then he tossed for more than an hour, except for inquiring that Deng Mao was on good terms with a few rangers in Xilitun on weekdays, and occasionally went to the abandoned land temple in the west to contact the two wandering Taoist priests, he still couldn't determine the whereabouts of the other party. As for the few rangers, it is not easy to find, and they often wander around the county; I have also been to the Land Temple, but I have not seen the so-called Taoist priest.

Finally, I returned to the restaurant in the center of the town, ate some refreshments briefly, and specially arranged in detail for Ah Zhong, Ah Bao and other four children to stay here.

As soon as the dots were finished, Zu Zhao took the rest of the ancestral family out of the gate of the restaurant and came to the horse shed outside the door to pick up the horses.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion in the distance, and it came from far and near.

Zu Zhao raised his eyes to look at the commotion, and saw that more than a dozen young men with binding instruments appeared on the street in the center of the town, holding a few unkempt and dirty, blood-covered people walking towards the intersection, cheering loudly as they walked, like warriors returning home victoriously. This scene attracted many onlookers on the side, some people coaxed, some echoed the discussion, and a few young people participated in it, throwing stones or punches and kicks at those who were held hostage.

"Hey, what's going on!?"

"Didn't you catch a thief?"

The two children of the ancestral family guessed curiously.

Zu Zhao was not a lively person, so after a casual glance, he continued to arrange the rope noose of his mount and prepared to get on the horse. However, as the noisy crowd gets closer, shouts such as "horse thief" and "kill Huyi" can be faintly heard in the crowd. Now he was very sensitive to the word "horse thief", and immediately turned his head to look at it again.

I saw that the people who were being held hostage by everyone were a few Hu people, and when I looked closely, I suddenly felt that these Hu people were very familiar.

"Eldest Prince, aren't these Hu people from the fruit grove just now?" A disciple with sharp eyes hurriedly pointed and shouted.

"It's really them. How could such an incident come about? Another kid said puzzled.

Zu Zhao also felt a little strange, he was fine at noon, but he was arrested only a few hours later. He subconsciously searched the crowd, but did not find the figure of the beautiful bearded girl, and at the same time, the female dependents and children who had been in the orchard tent were nowhere to be seen.

"Da Zhuang, you go and inquire, what's wrong?" He commanded one of the children who followed closely beside him.

"Yes."

The boy answered, and walked to the vicinity of the junction to inquire about some onlookers.

After a while, the disciple turned back and informed Zu Zhao of what he had heard. It turned out that just as the guy at the restaurant at noon said, these Hu people who were not recommended offended a local ranger a few days ago, and just now the rangers gathered the local rangers and colluded with Li Zheng, the pavilion chief and the chief officials such as Sifu to find the trouble of these Hu people. happened to find a horse in the woods where these Hu people lived, so it was logical that he was "framed" as a horse thief.

"The men were all kidnapped and taken to the county for questioning, and the women and children heard that they were sentenced to be sold by the officials." Da Zhuang said.

"Horse thieves? Didn't the eldest prince say that the horse was given to them? Zu Ji had heard about the encounter in the fruit grove earlier, and he said with a frown.

"There is no excuse for the sin that you want to add. How can there be any fairness for people of different races? Zu Zhao said coldly. He didn't have any psychological burden on this, just a little displeasure in his moral outlook.

"So what now? Is that a horse?" asked Zu Ji.

"Don't make a fuss. Since the horse has been given to others, it is someone else's business. Zu Zhao didn't hesitate too much, he really didn't want to pay attention to such idle matters now. With that, he jumped on the horse.

The children of the ancestral family did not continue to talk about it, and they got on the horse one after another.

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