It was dusk, and a gust of wind whizzed past the courtyard, sweeping up countless withered yellow leaves.
In the study room of the yamen, a dim yellow candle was also blown slightly. The magistrate, who had just taken office, was carefully checking the accounts with an account book and an abacus.
After half an hour, he finally came to a conclusion with a sad face.
This vast city is really very poor...
Cangmang City is poor because there are bandits on the mountain outside the city. It is said that they are very vicious, not to mention ordinary people, they even dare to rob Yamen. It is precisely because of this reason that the previous prefects were all strong men with five big and three thick, and there was even a Wu Tanhua, but it was a pity that they all resigned not long after, and there was even a person who directly returned to the mountain with his seal. His reputation spread in the official circles, and no one wanted to come.
The newly appointed magistrate is named Wen Liunian, he is a thin and weak nerd, he used to be a small county magistrate in the middle of Sichuan, but one day, an order came from his superiors to promote him from Wenzhi county to a county magistrate with drums and gongs. Wen Zhifu, packed and sent to Cangmang City. The previous magistrate was looking forward to the day and night, but he was looking forward to the savior. He couldn't help crying. He handed over all the matters within an hour. I don't want to stay longer for meal time.
Looking at the dilapidated government office, Mr. Wen's servants were very desperate.
And looking at the new magistrate who has no power to restrain the chickens, the people in Cangmang City are also very desperate-how the wind blows, how to lead the officers and soldiers to suppress the bandits, it is really sad!
Wen Liunian didn't take it seriously. On his first day in office, he led the yamen servants and the old lady to do a big cleaning together, and then invited a local scholar to be his master, intending to read all the backlog files.
The master's name is Mu Qingshan, he is dressed in white and has a folding fan, his eyebrows are thin and his voice is soft, his waist is like a woman's, and he stands with Wen Liunian. No matter how you look at it, they were both pressed to the ground by bandits and beaten fat looks.
The common people couldn't help but began to wipe their tears for their own official. It is said that the Yunlan City under his jurisdiction was so rich, but he was transferred to Cangwu City for no reason.
"Before I came here, I had heard about Cangwu City." Wen Liunian sighed while flipping through the file, "I never thought I would be so poor."
"There is no other way." Mu Qingshan sighed, "The soil here is originally barren, and the road leading to the outside is blocked. In addition, there are bandits in the mountains. It is not bad for the people to barely make ends meet. Naturally, it is not as good as that in the south of the Yangtze River in central Sichuan." Like fish and rice abundant."
"Then we can't be so poor from generation to generation." Wen Liunian stood up, "I'm going out for a walk, do you want to go with me?"
Mu Qingshan looked at the sun, wondering, "I invited a few local folks to repair the house, I'm afraid they will come soon."
"It's okay." Seeing that he had other things to do, Wen Liunian didn't force it, and left the mansion alone, intending to look around.
At noon, most of the people were resting after eating, so there were not many people on the street. The land with poor mountains and bad waters is naturally not as prosperous as Yunlan City, and there are not many shops. It only took Wen Liunian about an hour to memorize the layout of the city. Looking at the time, it was still early. So he went out of the city gate again, intending to go to the farmland of a nearby village.
The soil in Cangwu City is poor, so the fields are full of rough and easy-to-grow crops. Soybeans are in harvest season. Wen Liunian stands on the ridge and stretches out his hand, wanting to pick a bean pod to see how it is growing.
"Hey!" Before the pods were picked, there was a sudden shout from behind.
Wen Liunian instinctively turned his head, and saw a stone whizzing towards him, he hurriedly dodged to the side in a panic, but he didn't notice that his foot stepped on the ground, so he cried out in surprise, and rolled into the soybean field.
…
"Who are you?" Wen Liunian was frightened and angry, and finally climbed up. Although there was no water in the ground, his head and face were covered with dirt.
"You are really..." The other party looked at him with an indescribable expression, and strode forward to pick up a burden from the ground.
Only then did Wen Liunian see clearly that the thing that flew towards him just now was not a stone, but a small cloth bag.
But hitting someone with a cloth bag is no good!
"Seeing that you want to steal food, you are probably hungry." The other party opened the cloth bag and threw another steamed bun, "Here, raw beans will be poisoned if eaten."
Wen Liunian picked it up quite accurately this time, looking at the white flour steamed buns in his hand, he was a little surprised, and then took a closer look at the other party's appearance.
He was about twenty years old, with a knife hanging around his waist, his hair was a little messy, his expression looked fierce, his nose was high, and there was a hint of disdain and impatience in his long and narrow eyes, which was obviously a bad temper.
"What are you looking at!" The other party frowned.
"Thank you." Wen Liunian cupped his hands and saluted, Wen Zou Zou said, "I don't know this hero—"
Before he finished speaking, the other party had already walked past him.
"Wait for me." Wen Liunian hurriedly ran all the way to follow.
The opponent quickened his pace.
Wen Liunian simply started to run wildly.
The other party had to stop with a headache.
Wen Liunian was out of breath, "This hero, I, cough cough."
The other party shook his head, knelt down to open the bag, and stuffed all the steamed buns to him, "Is this enough?"
"No, it's not." Wen Liunian waved his hand.
"Not enough?" The other party looked at him with the eyes of a rice bucket, thinking that this scholar looks very thin, how can he be able to eat, his appetite is too big.
"It's not steamed buns." Wen Liunian finally managed to catch his breath, "This hero wants to enter the mountain?"
"Yes." The other party nodded, "You want to go the same way?"
"No, I live in the city." Wen Liunian said, "But there are bandits in the Cangwu Mountain, and now it's getting dark, if the hero wants to enter the mountain alone, he may be in danger."
"Bandits?" The other party was amused when he heard the words, "Are you worried that I will be robbed?"
"It is said that it is very cruel." Wen Liunian said, "If you are not in a hurry, it is better to stay in the city for a while. Four days later, there will be local villagers leading a caravan to go around Cangmang Mountain and leave the city."
"Such a big mountain, I'm afraid it will take a lot of work to get around it." The other party reminded.
"That can't be helped." Wen Liunian sighed, "Bandits are rampant in the mountains, it's better to be safe."
"Are you from the city?" The other party seemed to be interested, and asked casually.
"I just moved here not long ago." Wen Liunian replied, "I have relatives here." Facing a stranger, even if he had just been given a steamed bun, he was not honest enough to reveal his whole family.
"It's getting dark, let's go back quickly." The other party did not continue to chat with him, packed his bags and planned to continue walking into the mountains.
Wen Liunian shook his head inwardly. Although the other party seemed to be someone who knew kung fu, it was obviously not an easy task to deal with the bandits in the mountain with one enemy, so he just wanted to continue to persuade him, but suddenly in the distance There was a blast of horns.
At the end of the mountain road, smoke and dust billowed, and more than a dozen men dressed in black were galloping all the way on horseback. Wen Liunian was shocked when he saw this, seeing that this posture was most likely a bandit, surrounded by farmland, and there was nowhere to hide, so in desperation, he just dragged the man and jumped into the field together.
"What are you doing?" The other party was caught off guard, staggered a few times and almost fell.
"Shh..." Wen Liunian made a silent gesture to him, "The bandits are coming, quickly squat down and hide."
"Are you afraid of being taken away by bandits?" The other party broke off a piece of dog's tail grass and brushed it on his nose.
"Ah!" Wen Liunian sneezed.
"Hide well, I'm going home." The other party stood up and jumped up the field ridge with one hand.
Then he was dragged back by Wen Liunian, "Squat down!" He was very majestic as a parent official.
"You really are a nerd..." The other party couldn't laugh or cry, "Do you know what a bandit looks like?"
"Of course I've seen it." Wen Liunian took out a booklet from his bosom, and on the first page when he opened it, there was a picture of a ferocious man with disheveled hair, a huge black mole on his left cheek, and a scar on his back. Carrying a big knife, one can tell at a glance that he is not a good person.
"The painting is quite similar." The other party stroked his chin and whispered to himself.
"His name is Zhao Yue, and he is the bandit leader in the Cangwu Mountain." Wen Liunian said.
"What?!" The other party's eyes widened upon hearing this.
"He is the leader of the bandits." Wen Liunian repeated again in good temper, "his name is Zhao Yue."
Before the words fell, there was a heavy knock on the forehead.
"Nerd." The other party gave him a hard look, "This person is called Wang Tianhu, nicknamed Wang Dadao, not Zhao Yue, so I will remember it clearly when I tell someone next time!"
"How could you know so clearly?" Wen Liunian frowned.
The other party jumped onto the ridge of the field, took out a jade whistle from his bosom, put it to his mouth and blew it.
The clear and melodious sound of the whistle reached the head of the cavalry, so he waved his hand and ordered a pause. After looking this way from afar, he turned his horse's head and came galloping, "The leader!"
"Who the hell are you?" Wen Liunian wondered.
The man quickly got on his horse, tightened the rein and raised his eyebrows to look at him, "Zhao Yue."
Wen Liunian gasped.
"Don't remember your face wrong again in the future." Zhao Yue's tone was a little teasing, and then he whipped his horse and said loudly, "Brothers, go back to the mountain!"
"Yes!" The voices of the other dozen or so people were in unison, countless smoke and dust were brought up by the rolling horseshoes, and Wen Liunian stood in the field, covered in dust all over his head and face.
The people in the city are spreading rumors that Zhao Yue is a big bandit in the vast mountains, who has always killed people without blinking an eye, with infinite power in his head, and a Jiyue knife in his hand. As long as there is no blood for three days, he will buzz and stir in the middle of the night. It is an evil thing more sinister than the Chiyan Sword.
But the rumors in the market seem to be not accurate—at least this portrait is not accurate.
Wen Liunian opened the booklet, looked at the flesh-faced demon on the first page, thought about the young man just now, and felt that no matter how bad the painter's eyes were, he wouldn't be able to draw like this—the difference is more than ten Apart from the fact that they are all men, they have nothing in common.
The pamphlets were drawn up and distributed by the government, mainly to help the common people identify the major bandit leaders in the mountains, so that they could run away faster if they encountered them in the future. Wen Liunian carefully looked through more than a dozen portraits, but he still didn't find anyone who looked similar to the person who called himself "Zhao Yue" just now, so he patted the dirt on his body and planned to go back to the yamen to ask Mu Qingshan.
"My lord, what's the matter?" In the government office, Mu Qingshan was watching the craftsmen mending the roof, and seeing Wen Liunian coming back covered in dirt, he was startled.
"Have you met Zhao Yue?" Wen Liunian asked him.
"Of course I haven't." Mu Qingshan quickly shook his head, "It is said that anyone who has seen him will probably die in nine out of ten, sir, please don't curse me."
"Then where did this portrait come from?" Wen Liunian took out the booklet.
"According to the dictation of the people." Mu Qingshan said, "Bandits have been infested in Cangmang Mountain for a long time, and there will always be people in this city who have seen them."
"That means it can't be done right." Wen Liunian was thoughtful, "What about Wang Tianhu, nicknamed Wang Dadao?"
"This person is also one of the bandits in the Cangwu Mountain. He has robbed the city several times." Mu Qingshan said, "But in terms of ferocity, he is far inferior to Zhao Yue."
"What did Zhao Yue do?" Wen Liunian asked.
"My lord, wait a moment." Mu Qingshan entered the study room, and soon brought out a large pile of files, some of which were even yellowed at the edges, "These cases are all related to Zhao Yue, my lord can take your time."
Wen Liunian was shocked by the number first, then he took out a book to dust off the dust and opened it, then was shocked by the year, "In the thirty-seventh year of Zhaochu, Zhao Yue's gang has already started rampaging in Cangwu City?"
Mu Qingshan nodded, "According to the records in the file, it is indeed so. It's just that I was still in my infancy, so I don't know the specific situation."
In the thirty-seventh year of Zhaochu, the first emperor was still in power. Even if Zhao Yue was in his early thirties this year, he was nothing more than a child with a yellow mouth. How could he lead hundreds of horse thieves into the city to burn, kill and plunder? What's more, judging from what we saw today, he is only in his twenties at most.
Wen Liunian frowned slightly, and put the file back.
Either the person I saw today was not Zhao Yue at all, but other gangsters, or these files were fake. But no matter which one, as a local parent official, there is absolutely no reason to ignore it.
Wen Liunian pondered for a moment, then called Mu Qingshan, "Is there a painter in this city?"
"Yes." The master said, "I live next door to the yamen. He is a scholar who failed the exam. His literary talent is mediocre, but his painting skills are not bad."
Wen Liunian nodded, "Go and invite him over, just tell me that I have something to ask."