The first thought in Ji Gang’s mind was: It’s over, I lost Hu Shanwei, Mu Chun will beat me to death.
Ji Gang tried desperately to calm himself down and used his limited wisdom to analyze the current situation:
The entire inn was searched yesterday, especially the room where Liu Siyan had stayed. Even the floors and walls were pried open, but no secret passage was found.
The bed was cold, which meant that Hu Shanwei had been away for at least half an hour.
I looked at the chair next to the bed; it was empty.
When he came in to blow out the candles last night, Hu Shanwei's cotton coat was neatly folded and placed on this chair.
Then he looked at the pair of leather boots given to Hu Shanwei by Empress Ma beside the bed, but they were gone.
The teapots and cups in the room were neatly arranged, and there were no signs of a fight...
Hu Shanwei did not pull the rope. She put on her clothes and shoes, and even tidied the bed a little and smoothed out the quilt.
There are only three possibilities. The first is that someone threatened Hu Shanwei with a weapon and wanted her to obey. The second is that she knew the person and was willing to go with him. The third is that she discovered something and it was not a good situation to alert others, so she went to pursue the clues alone...
Which one is it? Ji Gang fell into deep thought. The first one seemed unlikely. With Hu Shanwei's character, she dared to contradict the imperial concubine at that time. It was impossible for her to not resist at all. Moreover, she was very cunning. Even if she really couldn't resist at that time, with her wisdom, she should have left some clues...
Ji Gang lifted the quilt and poured out the water from the hot water bottle to see if there was anything inside.
At this time, the postmaster and General Lu arrived after hearing the news. Ji Gang was turning a blind eye to see if there was any foreign object hidden in the vase.
"Master Ji! What should we do now?" The postmaster was frightened out of his wits.
General Lu also looked anxious. "Last night, five hundred of our soldiers camped outside. I just lined up and counted the people. None of our soldiers were missing. There was nothing unusual. Lord Ji, do you want to count the number of Jinyiwei? There are a total of eight hundred men protecting Hu Dianzheng. Unless the bandits have wings, how could they kidnap Hu Dianzheng without anyone noticing?"
"I have sent people to line up and count the number of people. The report just now shows that not a single one is missing." Ji Gang put down the empty vase and asked General Lu, "You have searched the mountain for these days and didn't catch any bandits. How can you be sure that it must be the bandits who kidnapped Hu Dianzheng?"
General Lu remained calm and said, "Perhaps the bandits have a secret room in the mountains, or they came from the city at night. Apart from the bandits from the Eighteen Villages, I really can't think of anyone else who would harm Hu Dianzheng."
Ji Gang thought for a moment and asked, "It's late at night and we are all fast asleep. It's a good time to launch a surprise attack or steal something. But the bandits don't want money, weapons, or horses. They don't even want the lives of us imperial officers and soldiers. Why would they kidnap a female official?"
The postmaster offered advice, "Maybe he thought Hu Dian was pretty, so he kidnapped her and made her his wife?"
"Are you tired of living now that you are slandering the reputation of a female official?" Ji Gang's eyes turned cold. He drew his sword, put it on the neck of the postmaster, and cut it so hard that a line of blood spurted out.
"This is Xi'an Prefecture, not the capital! The Jinyiwei are not allowed to do whatever they want!" General Lu's pupils shrank, and he drew his sword almost at the same time, pointing it directly at Ji Gang.
"The Jinyiwei are investigating the case. Who dares to stop us?" Ji Gang's men drew out their embroidered spring swords and placed them on General Lu's neck, one on the left and one on the right, like a pair of scissors.
Qin Wangfu's soldiers rushed in from the main gate and windows, shouting, "Release General Lu!"
So, the host and guests at the post station, who were enjoying themselves yesterday, immediately turned into enemies today and fought with swords!
Where is Sister Shanwei
At midnight last night, Hu Shanwei was holding a warm hot water bottle and sleeping soundly without even a dream.
"Hu Dianzheng, wake up."
A voice sounded in my ears, and from the sound of it, it was a man.
Hu Shanwei woke up and deliberately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He stretched out his right hand, under the cover of the quilt, towards the rope under the pillow, and felt left and right, but found nothing.
"Hu Dianzheng, are you looking for this?"
Hu Shanwei opened his eyes and saw a thin figure standing beside the bed, holding a rope in his hand.
Hu Shanwei was about to yell for help, but the man covered her mouth and moved his face closer, "It's me, Captain Shi of the Eagle Guard, and a close confidant of Lord Mu."
Mu Chun was one of the eight bandit households recruited from Guaishiling, Jiangxi. They became Mu Chun's first batch of confidants in his life, and Hu Shanwei had even met them.
At that time, Bai Hu was a famous thief in Jiangxi, who was good at picking doors and locks.
Hu Shanwei slapped his hand away and whispered, "What are you doing here?"
Bai Hu Shi said, "The eight of us have followed Lord Mu's orders to follow the team from a distance to protect Hu Dianzheng."
Hu Shanwei felt warm in her heart. Mu Chun cared about her. She thought so in her heart, but said, "I have 300 Jinyiwei around me. Mu Chun is unnecessary."
The current situation is unclear, and Hu Shanwei does not want to drag Mu Chun into this mess.
Baihu Shi pointed at his nose and said, "I can sneak in, but where are those bad guys? Hu Dianzheng quickly put on his clothes and follow me."
Hu Shanwei refused, "I came from afar to find the whereabouts of Liu Siyan and his group."
Baihu Shi stamped his feet anxiously, "It's too late to explain. We came to find you in the middle of the night because we found something, so we took the risk and sneaked in."
Hu Shanwei said, "What did you find? I'll go get Ji Gang right away."
"No." Captain Shi whispered, "There is a traitor in the Jinyiwei, and there are problems with the 500 soldiers stationed outside. I don't think Ji Gang can be trusted. The mission of the eight of us is to protect your safety. If you come out with me, everything will be clear."
If it was Mu Chun, Hu Shanwei would have followed him, but the captain at that time would have…
Hu Shanwei said, "Okay, it's cold outside, I want to wear a fur hat."
Fan Gongzheng gave me a white fox fur hat that even covered my ears and was very warm. This hat was placed on the table next to the bed.
Hu Shanwei picked up the hat with his left hand, and with his right hand, covered by his sleeve, he reached out to the rope on the bed curtain and pulled it hard.
Ji Gang didn't come and the rope broke.
The cut was neat and tidy, it turned out that Bai Hu had already cut the rope.
Hu Shanwei was about to scream when someone covered her mouth and nose from behind. She only smelled a strange floral fragrance and fainted.
Captain Shi had a beard on his face. A big man dressed in the clothes of the Jinyiwei sprinkled some wine on Hu Shanwei, put a Jinyiwei robe and a big hat on her, and then he and Captain Shi held Hu Shanwei on the left and right, and walked out in a swagger.
From the outside, it looked like two Jinyiwei were escorting a drunk colleague, and the night patrolman didn't notice anything unusual.
When they arrived at the small door in the backyard, the person who had been waiting for them opened the lock, put the unconscious Hu Shanwei into a large bamboo basket used to store vegetables in the kitchen, and disappeared into the night carrying her on his back.
When Hu Shanwei woke up, she found herself in a cave halfway up the mountain. She was wrapped in a thick wolfskin mattress, feeling very warm. Mu Chun's eight bandit captains smiled at her flatteringly, "Hu Dianzheng is awake?"
Hu Shanwei was terrified: "What are you going to do?"
Bai Hu apologized immediately and said, "We had to act swiftly at that time, so we used the second plan to knock you out and force you to come out. Hu Dianzheng, you were surrounded by bandits a long time ago, but you didn't realize it."
Hu Shanwei thought Captain Shi was talking nonsense. "What bandits? The postmaster said that all the bandits in the Eighteen Villages have fled."
At that time, the eight people including Bai Hu said together: "We are kidding you! They are all bandits!"
"The postmaster, the waiter, Captain Lu, and the so-called five hundred soldiers are all bandits!"
"Everything below the mountain is an illusion, only the post station is real..."
It turned out that Shi Baihu and others, under the order of Mu Chun, disguised themselves as small vendors, secretly followed the team, protected Hu Shanwei, and came all the way to Zhuoying County.
On the way, the small caravan encountered Qin/Wangfu soldiers who were "searching the mountain" and felt that something was wrong.
First of all, this group of soldiers had no interest in the vendors who spoke with obvious foreign accents. They did not stop the car to check the household registration and travel permit. They just took a look and then continued to look for something at the foot of the mountain, with their hunting dogs on a lead.
Everyone felt strange and emptied their water bags. Then, holding the water bags, they approached the group of soldiers carrying the Qin/Wang Palace flags, under the pretext of looking for water, and asked where the water was.
Some soldiers had fierce looks in their eyes, and some even drew their swords halfway. The officer-like leader winked and pointed to the west, saying, "Go about half a mile ahead, and there is a hidden spring seeping out from the cracks in the rocks."
The captain thanked him and left with the water bag.
After walking about ten steps, Shi Baihu vaguely heard someone behind him say, "It's a lottery ticket from outside the city. It's quite fake. It's not as good as ours..."
The man didn't continue speaking, probably because someone gave him a look.
The bandit profession has its own jargon. There are various local accents in China, but they are all under the same Chinese civilization, so some of the jargon is universal.
For example, lottery refers to wealthy businessmen and rich people.
For example, water represents wealth, which means money.
Bai Hu Shi was a bandit recruited from Jiangxi. When he heard the familiar jargon, he immediately realized that this group of people were not the army, but local bandits in Xi'an.
A group of bandits disguised as Qin/Wangfu soldiers and flying the palace flag!
In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Captain Shi did not stop and walked all the way to the dark spring to fill his water bag before returning to the caravan to inform them of the matter.
The palace soldiers are fake, how could the people at the post station not know that
Impossible. So the people in the post station must have been disguised as bandits. The real servants and postmaster may have been kidnapped by the bandits, or even killed!
The 300 Jinyiwei led by Ji Gang were well-equipped, and each of them was equipped with a musket. The bandits did not dare to act rashly. They gave the post station to the Jinyiwei to sleep at night. They set up camp outside in the cold weather in order to surround them, not out of hospitality.
So Bai Hu and his men disguised themselves as Jinyiwei and sneaked into the post station at night and rescued Hu Shanwei.
Hu Shanwei was skeptical and asked, "Where is the evidence? Just because of the two jargons "lottery" and "water", you are sure they are bandits from Shibazhai? Also, why didn't you tell Ji Gang so that he would be on guard? Why did you have to sneak around and knock me out and take me away alone?"
"The evidence is our instinct as bandits. We are as sensitive to our own kind as hounds." Bai Hu smiled sarcastically at the post station in the distance and said:
"The eight of us brothers were recruited into the Jinyiwei. From the commander, Lord Mao, to the Jinyiwei soldiers, everyone looked down on us. If it weren't for Lord Mu's protection, we brothers would have been discouraged and returned to Jiangxi to resume our old jobs. Only Lord Mu treated us as centurions and always encouraged us to make progress. We only listened to Lord Mu's orders. He asked us to protect you, and we would complete the mission even if it cost us our lives. As for Ji Gang and the three hundred Jinyiwei..."
Captain Shi spread his hands helplessly, "We don't care about their safety. If we had told Ji Gang last night, the Jinyiwei would have taken action. If it aroused the suspicion of the bandits pretending to be palace soldiers, we would not be able to save you."
"You are our only target."
As soon as he finished speaking, a gunshot was heard from the direction of the post station!
Hu Shanwei hurried out of the cave to see.
At the same time, at Zhuoying County Post Station.
A gunshot outside broke the stalemate in the guest room. Ji Gang was about to kill the postmaster, but General Lu, whose knife was pointed at Ji Gang, put away his knife and ordered all his men to lay down their weapons and not to hurt anyone.
Ji Gang was confused. General Lu let go of the sword and it fell to the ground with a snap. He raised his hands above his head and said, "Master Ji, can you sit down and talk? Release the postmaster first."
Ji Gang refused to let her go and asked, "Where is Hu Dianzheng? Where did you hide her? If you dare to touch a hair on her, I swear, no matter if the King of Qin protects you or not, you will be imprisoned and your entire family will be exterminated!"
General Lu smiled bitterly and said, "I really don't know. I don't know why two female officials have been in trouble one after another in my territory. But I swear, even if we, the Eighteen Villages, have eaten a bear's heart and a leopard's courage, we dare not rob your Jinyiwei, let alone intercept twenty gifts for the emperor. We can't swallow these things at all."
"After all, we are just bandits, not devils. We usually collect tolls from wealthy merchants along the way to make a living, and never disturb civilians or soldiers. We did not rob Liu Siyan and his group, and we don't know why they mysteriously disappeared in our territory. We think someone deliberately framed them. So, we searched the nearby mountains and forests, and even our own village, to prove our innocence, but we found nothing."
"Yesterday morning, before you, we just kidnapped the entire post station, combed the post station, and tortured the postmaster and the waiters. They all said that they received Liu Siyan and his group, and they did not deliberately frame us. They checked the identity card, looked at their waist badges, and registered them, but they could not tell us their specific appearance. So we suspect that the group of people on the way back were not Liu Siyan and his group at all. Someone intercepted them early, stripped their clothes, took their waist badges and identity cards, and then registered them at this post station to confuse people and divert the disaster to our Eighteen Villages."
Ji Gang was very shocked, and after a while he said, "You five hundred people are actually all bandits from the Eighteen Villages?"
The postmaster used a handkerchief to stop the bleeding from the knife wound on his neck and said, "My staff and I are all bandits. The real postmaster, staff, cooks, etc. are all guests in the Eighteen Villages."
Ji Gang: So I slept in the bandit’s den last night! I slept soundly!
"General Lu" saluted Ji Gang and said, "I am Chen Xuan, the leader of Eighteen Villages. I am honored to meet you, Lord Ji. I beg you to spare the Eighteen Villages. We are willing to cooperate with you to find out the truth and find the real culprit."
The author has something to say: There are 100 red envelopes waiting for you for the new chapters updated every night. I won’t keep reminding you little angel readers anymore. I will send them out every day. Thank you for your company.
Tonight's quiz is a bit beyond the scope. A 100-point bonus will be given, but the rules remain the same.
Please listen to the question:
In this chapter, the leader of Eighteen Village, Chen Xuan, said, "After all, we are just bandits, not devils." After all, I am not a devil either.
Please tell me which TV series this sentence comes from:
a I am the big brother b back street girl c uncle's love d inuyasha