"My Lord, Dr. Zhang's trick is really good! He actually uses stamping on people's hands to identify the recipients of the reward!"
In a three-story tavern half a street away from the county government office, which overlooks the street in front of the government office, Zhu Tingfang saw the guys who fanned the flames being brought forward one by one. The initial chaotic atmosphere turned into joy and excitement of receiving a reward. He also heard Zhang Shou personally praising everyone's bravery in capturing the thieves and asking them to wait in the front street for a while, as the reward money would arrive soon. He could not help but nodded approvingly.
When the news of the fire at the city gate came, he immediately led his men to rush over, but they split into two groups halfway. One group went to check the fire scene, and he only brought two guards back. He also found two people sneaking around at a street corner, who seemed to be lookouts. From this, he judged that the person behind the scenes should have hired more people to lookout, so he actually took a detour and quietly entered the tavern.
But he saw Zhang Shou and his party's carriage coming back from the palace from afar, and he should have caught the eye of the lookout, but he found that the rioters still did not disperse, which made him feel a little strange. But then he thought that although Zhang Shou had made a great reputation in less than a year, in the eyes of people like the eldest prince, he might still be regarded as a weak boy who was just lucky.
Furthermore, people might think that Zhang Shou is not him, has never led troops, and has never dealt with chaotic people. Even if there is a master like Ah Liu, the law cannot punish the masses, and it is not certain that the instigator hiding in the crowd can be caught. But these people never expected that such an ugly old man would appear and break the situation, and then Zhang Shou used another extremely rogue trick!
Zhu Tingfang stroked the scar on his face and laughed, "Zhang Shou's response was indeed good. What a great reward for capturing the thief. It seems that I don't need to go out in person!"
The guard who had just spoken looked at the other guard and said flatteringly, "Young Master, you are worrying too much. The future husband that the young lady has chosen is a handsome man with extraordinary character. How could these street urchins be able to plot against him?"
"You're wrong. This has nothing to do with his extraordinary character. To be honest, it's because Zhang Shou himself comes from the common people and can get along with ordinary people without any airs, so he can use them like an arm. If that old guy hadn't jumped out to disrupt the atmosphere just now, do you think that Zhang Shou's bounty would really move everyone?"
At this point, Zhu Tingfang turned around and saw the guard smiling awkwardly, as if he was embarrassed because he had flattered someone. He said with a half-smile, "I transferred you to follow me because you can fight, not because you can flatter. Don't learn these things in the future! Although I'm not as good at winning people over as Zhang Shou, with you here, are you still worried about not having enough people?"
Among his personal soldiers, there were very few who were originally from the Duke of Zhao's mansion, because when he was driven away by his father to lead the army, he only had two family generals by his side. Now, many of these personal soldiers were former subordinates who had been captured with him, shared hardships and escaped from a death sentence, and knew each other well.
When he said that, the guard immediately touched his nose and said awkwardly, "That guy Lao Xi taught me all this. I thought he was always good at talking, so I wanted to learn from him how to flatter people. I didn't expect that I would be rejected by the eldest master the first time I tried!"