Temporarily burying his conjecture in his heart, Ishihara immediately went to visit Ma Gai and surrendered his life to the latter.

In Kunyang County, he respects Ma Gai the most, and the reason why he returned to Kunyang this time is that it is undeniable that Ma Gai played a great role in his retention last year.

With a little excitement, Ishihara arrived outside Ma Gai's class room.

Without knocking, from the open door, he saw Ma Gai writing and drawing on the table.

"County Lieutenant." Ishihara called out outside the class room.

Hearing the voice, Ma Gai glanced up, and immediately a trace of strange color flashed in his eyes, and it disappeared in a flash.

"Ishihara, ha, back? Come on in. ”

"Yes!"

Under Ma Gai's greeting, Ishihara walked into the class room, walked to Ma Gai's desk, saw that the latter was writing and drawing on a piece of paper, and asked curiously, "Is the county lieutenant busy?" ”

"Busy."

Seeing Ishihara looking down at the paper on his desk, Ma Gai did not hide it, and said with a smile: "I'm thinking about a usable military formation......"

"I see."

Ishihara nodded abruptly.

In his opinion, Margai thought of a usable military formation, which must be to encircle and suppress the Black Tiger Thief.

Who said that a county lieutenant who is partial to martial arts only needs to be outstanding in martial arts, but it doesn't matter if he is illiterate or not?

If you are illiterate, how can you understand the art of war left by your ancestors?

In addition to secretly admiring it, Ishihara straightened his face, and said solemnly with his hands clenched into fists: "Humble Ishihara, I have come to surrender to the county lieutenant and implore him to return to the county office." ”

"That's right."

Ma Gai smiled and nodded, stretched out his hand to signal Ishihara to sit down, and casually asked the latter about his experience on the way home.

Ishihara picked up a few things.

After a while, seeing that the time was almost up, he asked in a low voice, "County Lieutenant, I heard that the black tiger thief is back again?" ”

At the mention of this topic, the atmosphere in the room instantly became much more serious, and Ma Gai was silent for a moment, and then asked with a slight frown: "Have you heard?" ”

"Hmm." Ishihara nodded and said, "When I entered the city, I chatted with the brothers at the gate of the city, and learned about the black tiger thief from them......

As he spoke, he asked Ma Gai in disbelief: "County Lieutenant, I heard that there are nearly five hundred Black Tiger Thieves?" ”

"Hmm......"

Ma Gai nodded slightly, thinking about how to send Ishihara away.

It is undeniable that he does admire Ishihara, after all, Ishihara is both capable and loyal, so when he submitted his resignation in order to return to his hometown last year, Magai granted him a vacation for some reason.

However, at that time, Ma Gai never expected that the Black Tiger Thief would return to Kunyang so strongly, let alone that the Black Tiger Thief lost the original leader Yang Tong, but in exchange for the stronger current leader Zhou Hu.

In today's situation, this Ishihara has become a source of instability......

Thinking of this, Ma Gai slightly regretted keeping Ishihara in the first place.

"County lieutenant? County lieutenant? ”

"Huh?"

Hearing Ishihara's call in his ears, Ma Gai came back to his senses and said with a little apology: "Sorry, I was distracted." In the months you've been away, a lot has happened in the county......"

Ishihara nodded in understanding, and then said with a little smile: "For example, the matter of the Wang family's daughter? ”

Ma Gai was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile.

I have to say that every time he thinks about it, he has a headache.

Worshipping the rumor of the black tiger thief, his relationship with his wife Zou became tense again.

Speaking of which, in fact, Zou is not against him taking a concubine, Zou is just angry that Ma Gai does not consult with her - what Zou is most angry about is that her husband wants to take a concubine, but the neighbors actually told her.

「…… Does the husband know how humiliating the concubine was at that time?"

Recalling his wife's indignation that day, Ma Gai secretly smiled bitterly.

He must admit that any woman will undoubtedly feel ashamed when she encounters this kind of thing, but the problem is that he was framed, by that group of unscrupulous black tiger thieves!

Although through this incident, Ma Gai also learned his wife's thoughts, and learned that his wife did not object to him taking a concubine, which was much luckier than a certain county magistrate who poured the grape trellis, but is this important? He didn't think about taking a concubine.

"Even you're here to make fun of me?" Ma Gai said with a wry smile.

Looking at Ma Gai's distressed appearance, Ishihara really felt a little funny, but he really didn't want to make fun of Ma Gai.

I saw him put away his smile and said: "The county lieutenant misunderstood, I believe that Liu Gong and the county lieutenant were both framed, but who released the rumors?" The lowly office thinks that there is a big difference in it. As he spoke, he clenched his fists and asked Ma Gai, "Has the county lieutenant ever caught the rumor-monger?" ”

“……”

Ma Gai shook his head slowly, and added after a while: "This rumor has spread throughout the city in just one day, and the county government has no way to track it down. ”

"This further proves the conjecture of lowliness."

Ishihara Masasei said, "Although this rumor can indeed be of interest to ordinary people, the fact that it wants to spread throughout the city in just one day shows that the rumor monger is not alone, but many people spread the rumor together." Considering that the Black Tiger Thief took advantage of this period of rapid growth, he was very suspicious that it was the Black Tiger Thief who released this rumor, confusing the public, and distracting the attention of our county government, so that they could secretly increase their power. ”

『……』

Ma Gai took a deep look at Ishihara.

As one of the insiders, he certainly knew that Ishihara's guess was actually a little different from the real facts.

What are the real facts?

The real fact is that Zhou Hu, the leader of the Black Tiger Thieves, didn't want the county to fall into a panic, so he sacrificed him and Liu Bilai to divert the attention of the county people, and by the way, diverted the attention of the county people to the Black Tiger Yishe.

Of course, even if he didn't guess everything, Ishihara did guess probably.

『…… How do you reply?'

Margai pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, what you said is exactly what I was thinking about earlier......"

Hearing this, Ishihara showed a little embarrassment on his face, and said, "It turns out that the county lieutenant has already thought of it." ”

After that, he was puzzled and asked, "Since the county lieutenant has already thought of it, why did the county government take no action?" ”

Ma Gai shook his head and said: "Regarding the matter of 'Wang's daughter', the county government has already refuted the rumors, but the county people still talk about it and can't prohibit it. As for the person who released the rumor or the black tiger thief, I doubt this, but the rumor-monger is nowhere to be found, and this matter cannot be verified, so I can only ......"

Only then did Ishihara suddenly realize.

In the evening, Ishihara, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui were invited by Yang Kang and He Feng to drink together in the city's wine shop.

When they were drinking, everyone couldn't help but talk about the topics they were talking about at the moment.

Yang Dang said with a smile: "County Lieutenant Ma is okay, but Gong Liu has been hurt by this rumor." ”

Hearing this, everyone present laughed, after all, everyone in the county government knew that as soon as the rumor of the county magistrate Liu Bi was afraid of the 'Wang family', the poor county magistrate could only sleep in the study every night, and the people in the county government laughed secretly behind their backs.

Hearing everyone talking about this, Ishihara frowned and said, "Why don't you refute the rumors?" ”

"It's useless to refute rumors."

Yang Dang spread his hands and said: "After the rumors came out, I immediately came forward to refute the rumors, but it was useless, and the people in the whole city were curious about this matter......

From the side, He Feng said with a smile: "Don't blame them, if I didn't know the situation, I would be curious about it...... Ishihara, aren't you curious? ”

Ishihara shook his head helplessly, and then said, "I think there must be a black tiger thief in the county. ”

"The Black Tiger Thief's finesse?" Yang dared to glance at Ishihara.

"Hmm." Ishihara nodded, and said: "The matter of 'Wang's Daughter' will indeed arouse the interest of ordinary people, after all, whether it is Duke Liu or the county lieutenant, they are all high-ranking people in the eyes of the county people, and when it comes to these two things, and it is this kind of flower matter, it will definitely attract everyone's attention." …… It can be seen that the black tiger thieves are really cunning, and they use this rumor to confuse the public and cover up the facts, so that they can secretly recruit people without alarming ......"

Speaking of this, he turned his head and asked Yang Dangdao: "Brother Yang Dang, when I met you this morning, you said that the Black Tiger Thief sent people to recruit people in the city, didn't the county government catch it?" ”

Yang Dang shook his head, but from the side, He Feng spoke: "I think that Black Tiger Yishe is very suspicious. ”

"What righteousness?" Ishihara asked again in astonishment.

Knowing that Ishihara had just returned to Kunyang, He Feng explained: "You heard it right, the black tiger I said is the black tiger you think." …… At the beginning of this year, there was a rich man surnamed Chen who returned to my Kunyang, and it is rumored that this person's ancestral home is also in my Kunyang, in the early years, his father sold his property and went out to save a fortune, and later after his father's death, the rich man Chen was entrusted by his deceased father on his deathbed, and then returned to Kunyang. The first thing this person did when he returned to my Kunyang was to open a righteous house in the city, and provide free vegetarian food and rice to people for free, 300 people a day, oh, it seems to have increased to 500 people a day recently...... No one is exempt. ”

After a pause, he said: "At first, there was no plaque in this house, but suddenly one day, a plaque was hung out in this house, and what was engraved on the plaque was what I just called the four words 'Black Tiger House'......"

Shi Yuan, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui looked at each other when they heard this.

Xu Bai couldn't help but ask: "What does this Black Tiger Righteous House have to do with the Black Tiger Thief?" ”

"Who knows?" He Feng shrugged his shoulders while holding the wine bowl: "If there is really anything to do with the two, then I can only say that this group of black tiger thieves is too arrogant." …… But I don't think it's very likely, if that Yishe really has anything to do with the Black Tiger Thief, why would they deliberately attract attention? ”

"Not necessarily ......"

Ishihara shook his head slightly, and then turned his head and asked He Feng, "Then this Black Tiger Righteous House, has you ever made any suspicious moves?" ”

"There is no righteous sacrifice."

He Feng shook his head and said: "Although the name is strange, but this righteous house itself is really doing good deeds, it is overcrowded every day, some poor people, even drag their families to eat three meals a day, the steward of the righteous house, has never been driven away, in short, now the righteous house has a very good reputation in the city, but I heard that near this righteous house, every night there are people who will give out some black tiger thief tokens, as long as you get that token, you can go to the black tiger thief, thanks to this gift, the original ruffians and lazy people in the city, They all went to the Black Tiger Thief, which made us a lot easier......"

"Black Tiger Righteous House......

Listening to Yang Kang, He Feng and other headcatchers, Ishihara secretly remembered the location of the Black Tiger Yishe in his heart.

Although Yang Kang and He Feng didn't think that the Black Tiger Yishe would have anything to do with the Black Tiger Thief, after all, in their opinion, there would not be such an arrogant bandit in the world, but Ishihara didn't think so.

What if, the black tiger thief is so arrogant and unscrupulous?

『…… I'll see it tomorrow!'

While staggering with everyone, Ishihara thought secretly with a wine bowl.

Although Kunyang is not his hometown, he will not tolerate the black tiger thief coming in Kunyang!