Pei Che spent two days finding out all the missing cases in the past seven years, and then began to compile some statistics on the missing persons.
This statistic was incredible. Pei Che was surprised to find that in the past seven years, the number of missing people in all the counties in Cangzhou combined had reached hundreds.
Among them, there were about 70 to 80 men between the ages of 20 and 40. In addition, there were some young children, young women and the elderly.
Among them, some people's bodies were found soon after they disappeared and the cases were closed, while others were suspected of being kidnapped and the government could not find any results, so the case files had to be kept in the government office.
However, of the 70 or 80 missing men, only a few bodies were found, and the rest were mostly found with blood-stained clothing or personal accessories. Since most of them disappeared in the mountains, the government closed the case based on the claim that they were injured by wild animals.
After Pei Che told Jiang Miao the statistical results, Jiang Miao was also greatly shocked: "This means that there are about 70 people whose bodies are missing. Didn't the people in the government suspect anything before?"
"These missing people are distributed in various counties, and each county has its own towns and villages. Take Tuyan Village, for example. They only had two missing people in seven years. These two people were not enough to arouse the government's vigilance. Moreover, most of these missing cases are closed directly by the local county government. They submit many case files every month. For cases like this that do not involve homicide, few people will look at them again."
Pei Che said, This is not to make excuses for those people, but it is the fact. If it weren't for Zhang Quan's words, he wouldn't have deliberately looked up these closed cases. However, the yamen runners in the county government were indeed not vigilant enough. They rushed to close the cases that were obviously questionable in order to speed up, and missed many clues.
Jiang Miao sighed: "If there is someone behind this, then he is too insidious. He has to arrest people in different places and control the number. What on earth do they want to do?"
Pei Che shook his head: "That's what I want to know, but one thing that is certain is that these cases are indeed unusual. The most urgent thing is to mobilize some people and go to Tuyan Village to see if we can find any clues."
"Well! Go ahead, I'll go with you. You guys go up the mountain, and I'll go cultivate the tea trees." Jiang Miao said. He was not very skilled, and was not particularly agile on the mountain. Instead of following them and getting in the way, it would be better for him to wait for them down below.
Pei Che breathed a sigh of relief. He was just thinking about how to persuade A Miao not to follow him up the mountain. Although Zhang Quan said that there were no large wild animals on the mountain and his father was captured by someone, all this was just speculation. If a large wild animal rushed over, and A Miao was injured in the panic, wouldn't it be a loss
Pei Che selected fifty yamen runners to accompany him, and there were also four guards from the Duke's Mansion. Although there were only four of them, they could fight against dozens of people.
The group headed towards Tuyan Village in a mighty procession. When they reached the entrance of the village, the villagers who had come out to watch the noise were almost frightened to their knees. Village Chief Huang hurried over from home, sweating profusely in this late autumn day.
"Sir... Sir, what are you doing here?" Village Chief Huang was trembling with fear, fearing that someone in the village had committed a crime and brought trouble to everyone.
Jiang Miao and Pei Che lifted the car curtain and got out of the car. Jiang Miao said, "Don't worry, Village Chief Huang. We came here this time to go deep into the mountains to see if there are any tea trees."
Village Chief Huang heaved a sigh of relief when he saw him, but he couldn't help but persuade him, "Master Jiang, it turned out to be you! You can't go to that deep mountain. What Quan said that day was all nonsense. Don't believe it!"
"It's okay. We have enough manpower today. We are not afraid even if a blind bear comes." Jiang Miao said with a smile.
Suddenly, a man emerged from the crowd. It was Zhang Quan, whom Village Chief Huang had just mentioned. He came forward excitedly and said, "Sir, let me lead the way for you! I can find the place where my father disappeared!"
Jiang Miao shook his head: "It's enough for them to go up the mountain. You wait for news at the foot of the mountain. If there is any situation, we will tell you." In Jiang Miao's view, Zhang Quan is just a little junior high school student, so how could he be allowed to take risks in the mountains.
"Sir, please take me with you! I can lead you, I'm very familiar with that road!" Zhang Quan fell to his knees, frightening Jiang Miao so much that he almost fell to his knees as well. He hurried over to help him up, but Zhang Quan refused to get up and kept kneeling until he agreed.
"Okay, get up quickly, follow if you want!" Jiang Miao was helpless. He gave Pei Che a look, indicating that he should take good care of the boy. Pei Che nodded in agreement and walked towards the back mountain with a group of people.
After passing the gentle slope planted with tea trees and walking a little further in, you can enter the deep mountains. Zhang Quan was obviously a little excited, and from time to time he turned back to point the way to Pei Che and the others.
After walking for about half an hour, Zhang Quan pointed to a place in front and said sadly: "This is where I found my father's clothes."
Pei Che waved his hand, and everyone immediately dispersed and searched everywhere. Pei Che followed Zhang Quan and walked towards a shallow pit in front.
Pei Che was thinking. Zhang Quan took a look and walked over to him and said, "Sir, you've also discovered it, right? This was carved by my father, and the picture on it is my family's yard."
Yard? Pei Che finally understood that the fence above was his home.
"Does your father have the habit of making secret signals?"
"Yes, my father is a woodcutter, and he would often look for some mountain products while chopping wood. But in the deep mountains, the trees are tall and the grass is long, and sometimes it is impossible to tell the direction and it is easy to get lost. So my father is used to making some secret codes and carving them on conspicuous trees to prevent him from getting lost and unable to leave the mountains." Zhang Quan explained.
"Are they all made of this?" Pei Che touched the marks on the tree.
Zhang Quan shook his head: "No, every time my father goes out of the mountains, he asks me to think of one for him. That day he went into the mountains and said he wanted to look for Uncle San. I was afraid that he would be dragged away by wild beasts and hoped that he could come back soon, so I asked him to carve the yard of our home as a secret signal so that he would miss home when he saw it. I didn't expect that -" His eyes turned red, and when the tears were about to roll down, he rudely wiped them away with the back of his hand.
"So, you followed the secret code all the way to this place, but didn't find your father. After you went back, you followed the people from the government office to look for him, but you found the blood-stained clothes here." Pei Che summarized what he said.
Zhang Quan hummed, "My father didn't come back that night, and I was very worried. The next day, I secretly went up the mountain while my mother went to look for the village chief and his men. Uncle San disappeared here, so I went straight to the mountain. At that time, I found a secret code made by my father on the tree, so I followed the code all the way to find him, but after arriving here, I didn't find anything else."
"So, your father should have disappeared around here. Moreover, there are people around who have been observing your village. After knowing that you reported the case, they released the Bloody Robe to make them mistakenly believe that it was a wild beast that injured people."
Pei Che was still puzzled after he finished speaking. If their purpose was to capture someone, why did they release the bloody robe to scare the villagers and make them afraid to go up the mountain again? If their purpose was to hide the secrets in the mountain, why didn't they just kill the person directly, but instead created suspicion and caused the government to search
"Sir, we have searched the area nearby and found nothing. There are no signs of people living around here either." A constable came over to report the situation, interrupting Pei Che's thoughts.
Pei Che waited for a while, and the people who went to the other side came back and said they found nothing. Pei Che sighed and announced that he would go to the next place.
Zhang Quan walked in front. The next place they were going to was where he had found footprints before. It was about four miles away from where his father disappeared.
After walking for a quarter of an hour, they arrived at the place Zhang Quan mentioned. Pei Che took a look and understood why there were footprints here. There was a mountain stream here. When it rained, the stream would rise and overflow the surrounding area. There were few plants in the places that were often flooded, leaving bare mud. After the rain, the ground was muddy, and people would indeed leave footprints when they stepped on it.
"Where were the footprints you saw at the time, and which way did they leave?"
Zhang Quan recalled for a moment, then walked over and pointed to them: "Here, here, and here, there are footprints. The direction of the feet is forward, and they disappear after here."
Pei Che looked at the patch of weeds at the end. After those people stepped on the grass, their footprints disappeared, and their whereabouts became a mystery. He glanced across the mountains and felt as if there were people watching them secretly everywhere.
When Pei Che returned with a group of people, Jiang Miao was in the greenhouse of Tuyan Village, carefully pressing the thick branches of the transplanted tea trees into the soil and burying them. This step was not easy. First of all, it was necessary to ensure that it would not be broken when pressed into the soil, and secondly, it was necessary to be careful not to let it rebound when buried. These branches were resilient. After several unsuccessful attempts, Jiang Miao directly chose to press them with something. After finally pressing the tea trees in this room, he went to the other side and inserted the cut thick branches into the soil pit dug in advance for fattening, then covered them with soil, watered them, and patiently waited for them to take root.
"Tomorrow morning, go up to the roof and turn over the straw mats to let the sun in." Jiang Miao instructed the people who stayed here. When the house was built, Jiang Miao had said that tiles should be laid at intervals on top and the empty spaces should be covered with straw mats. In this way, the plants underneath can be exposed to the sun by turning over the straw mats.
Village Chief Huang was puzzled at the time. If so, wouldn't these rooms leak when it rains? But when he saw Jiang Miao had people transport soil and trees inside, he had nothing to say.
People built a room specifically for a few trees to live in. Would they be worried about it leaking? I'm afraid they would be very happy!
Poor farmers like them, they used to have poor animals that were not as well fed as the rich families, and now they don’t have many trees to live in, I really don’t know what God is thinking! Why do these weirdos make all the money
(End of this chapter)