At this time, I suddenly heard someone shouting in my ear again: "Master Hou, are you in a nightmare?"

Wang Zhizheng only felt that his eyes were sore, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that the sky was about to brighten, and Huang Zongxi and Zheng Lie beside him were holding steel knives on the left and right, guarding the side, while Zhou Gong was supporting himself. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Wang Zhizheng shook his head and said, "Maybe I saw the evil spirit last night, and I actually had a nightmare just now!"

Zhou Gong said with a smile: "Master Hou, what are those lonely souls and wild ghosts to be afraid of, I will do it tonight, and dismiss them all!" Huang Zongxi asked with a smile: "Zhou Gong, you brag, you still have some ability?"

Wang Zhizheng smiled and said, "Listen to him blowing nonsense there!

Huang Zongxi said: "About five watches of heavenly happiness!"

Wang Zhizheng nodded: "Quick, Zhou Gong fetched water for me, while the sky was about to dawn, you, Zheng Lie, and Jiang Nai would go into the city with me to explore." ”

Zheng Lie asked puzzledly: "Master Hou, what are we doing to suppress thieves in Bald Mountain, and enter the city?

Wang Zhizheng smiled coldly: "The magistrate of the county of Yancheng came to the labor army? Hehe, the county officials of the thirteen prefectures in the south of the city, including one hundred and eight counties, which one is not the descendant of Bai Jigui and the ancient classics?

Zheng Lie is a straight man: "In this case, let's go into the city and ask this kid, if it is really better for him to provoke it, you can just let his subordinates chop him alive!"

Wang Zhizheng smiled, patted Zheng Lie's shoulder and said: "Zheng Lie, he was killed alive with a knife, but he killed the official of the imperial court, this county official is small, but he is also an official of my Ming Dynasty, except for him who violated the law of the country, no one has the right to commit suicide privately! We have no evidence as to whether he provoked banditry, just speculation, hehe, so we have to go around the county town and understand the situation." Anyway, now that attacking the mountain is losing troops, it is better to set up camp on the spot and wait and see what happens!"

As he spoke, Wang Zhizheng rinsed his mouth, then changed into a coarse cloth hexagram robe of the common people, took Zhou Gong, Zheng Lie and Jiang Nai, hid a sharp blade in his sleeve, and began to walk towards the city gate.

The tent was not far from the city gate, and it took half an hour to walk, and when I arrived at the city gate, I saw that I had begun to let go.

Wang Zhizheng stared at the city gate tower for a moment, then turned to Jiang Nai and said, "Brother Jiang, what have you discovered? Since bandits have been rampant recently, why can they still enter and exit the city gate smoothly, this is not very reasonable!"

Jiang Nai nodded, pondered for a moment, pointed to the city gate and said: "Hou Ye, please see, the people who have entered the city do not seem to have decreased, it is said that the bandits are slaughtering, the people should not dare to go out, and the city gate should be strictly investigated, be careful that there are bandits mixed into the city, but there is no such situation, so it is inferred that either the county official of Yancheng is irresponsible, or he knows that there will be no bandits to loot!"

Wang Zhizheng nodded and pointed: "In this case, it will save trouble over there, let's go into the city!"

When I entered the city, I saw that the vendors in the market had already set up stalls to sell, and the people did not seem to be affected, and they were already shopping for daily necessities in the normal street.

Wang Zhizheng walked over, squatted next to a small vendor selling eggs, and asked, "Man, isn't bandits rampant now, why is the city still so lively?"

The small trader stared at Wang Zhizheng vigilantly and said, "You are from out of town, right?"

Yancheng County is very small, because of waiting for the bus, so the accent of the speech is very different from the accent of other areas in the Jianghuai area, Wang Zhizheng if he has not been exposed to the local customs, he really can't understand the local accent.

Wang Zhizheng smiled and said: "We are from Jinling City, and we are here to sell and purchase coal to the Jinling official eunuchs, and it is about to enter winter, so we should prepare early." ”

The little trader waved his hand and said: "If you are from out of town, brother, I suggest that you hurry up, don't look at the calm now, but maybe in the morning, Sun Wolf will come to loot!"

Wang Zhizheng pretended not to know how to ask: "Who is Sun Wolf? Before I came, I heard from the housekeeper of Lord Bai Jigui's mansion that there was trouble going on here, and this Sun Wolf was the leader of the bandits? Why did he come to loot, but you can still deal with the sale of commercial goods calmly?"

The small trader smiled bitterly: "It's nothing, it doesn't hurt to tell you, some time ago, a group of bandits came from other places, they fell into the grass in the bald mountain outside the city, there were only a few dozen people at the beginning, I don't know why, suddenly there were thousands of people, on the eighth day of the first month of last month, suddenly mixed into the city, led people to burn and kill and plunder in the city, captured thousands of people, men, women and children, the city was in a panic, the county magistrate Chen Ting hurriedly pursued with more than 200 people, but when he arrived at the city gate, he saw that the bandits entered the mountain, and he could not rob the abducted people back!"

Wang Zhizheng frowned and nodded, and Jiang Nai next to him asked: "This eldest brother, since the Chen County Order did not rescue the people, why didn't he act again, and the bandits did not loot again, didn't they reach any agreement? Or maybe the bandits have a source of money!"

The egg seller had to look left and right to see if there was no one, and then whispered: " The county order did not let this matter say, and then the county order took people to risk into the mountains to negotiate, but the bandits had buried the group of captured people alive, and the matter was over, but the bandits put forward some conditions, because there were no troops, Chen County Commander agreed, and the bandits no longer took the initiative to go down the mountain to loot, but only robbed and killed some passing merchants around the area, and then added a small loot, that is, more than a dozen times, but the robbery was not much, and the casualties of the people were limited, not as serious as the first time, and now I heard that the prince of Jinling led troops to suppress the thieves, stationed outside the city, alas, no matter how powerful the prince is, I am afraid that this gang of bandits will not be able to exterminate！”

Wang Zhizheng pretended to be puzzled and asked: "How can you see that since the prince personally commanded the troops to suppress the Kou, why can't he be exterminated?"

The little trader smiled bitterly: "This bald mountain is a faulted mountain range, except for a few paths that can be pierced into the mountain, the army has no way to enter the mountain, so how can the thieves be suppressed? Besides, the prince and the prince only brought one or two thousand people, and the Sun wolf bandits suffered from more than 1,000 people, so it can be said that half a catty is worth eight taels, how can you attack it? If you want me to say, it is better to give them some silver regularly to keep them safe!"

Wang Zhizheng got important information from his mouth, he nodded, took out a string of holes from his arms, handed it to him and said with a smile: "Thank you big brother for reminding me, I know so much from you, and it will be a lot of profit for our purchase this time, if it weren't for the big brother's enthusiasm to tell me so much, it is estimated that there will be danger this time!"

The small trader took a drop of money, stuffed it into his arms, and then arched his hand and said, "I advise you to hurry back to Jinling, there is chaos here, it is not safe to stay, making money is small, and saving life is big!"

Wang Zhizheng smiled, stood up and bowed and saluted: "Thank you Brother Tai for reminding me!" Then he turned to Jiang Nai beside him and said, "Brother Jiang, the situation is not much different from what we speculated, let's go, let's go to other streets to take a look at the situation!"