PS: I'm a little late to come back today, so I'll put a chapter first."

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"Yo, it's getting lively......"

On the sixth day of the fourth month, when the entire Kunyang County was busy with spring ploughing, Shi Yuan, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui drove back to Kunyang County in a carriage and saw those who were farming in the fields outside the county.

To tell the truth, Kunyang is not the hometown of any of the four of Shi Yuan, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui, just because one of their companions died in the war against the Black Tiger Thieves, the four of them temporarily came to help in Kunyang County, and decided to help their companions take revenge, and by the way, help the county eradicate that group of evil bandits.

In the autumn of last year, Yang Tong, the leader of the black tiger thief, was killed, and the rest of the thieves fled overnight, and they did not know where to go, so Ishihara and others took the ashes of their companion Ayuan to the latter's hometown, preparing to bury their companion in their hometown, and by the way, they took care of the old mother of the companion's family.

But it's a pity that the old mother of the companion Ah Yuan did not want to drag them down, and in the case of repeated persuasion failed, Ishihara and the others could only spend a little extra money up and down, hoping that the village of the companion Ah Yuan's hometown would take care of their mother on their behalf, and several of them also decided to visit the companion's old mother every once in a while to fulfill the agreement they had made with each other.

As for why they wanted to return to Kunyang County, Shi Yuan, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui couldn't say why.

Probably because they have lived in this county for a long time and have developed feelings for them, or maybe they are grateful to the county lieutenant Ma Gai for their respect.

"Yo, Zhu Zhi."

As he passed the gate of the county seat, Ishihara, who was driving, greeted several county officials at the gate with a smile.

When the head of the county heard his name called, he subconsciously raised his head and saw Ishihara.

"Stone catcher?"

Under the curious attention of the people in the past, several county officials surrounded in surprise and talked to Ishihara, including Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui, who greeted several people from the car window.

"Stone Catcher is back?"

"Great, with the stone catcher head here, there must be no problem with this crusade."

"Crusade?"

When he heard this word, Ishihara, who was originally smiling a little, flashed a little puzzlement in his eyes and asked, "Who is the crusade?" ”

"Black Tiger Thief."

The county guard named Zhu Zhi looked left and right, and whispered: "Shi Zhutou doesn't know, in the past few months that you have been away from the county, the black tiger thief has come back, or in the former thief village, robbing the caravan passing under the mountain, and the county government is ready to organize a crusade again after spring ploughing." ”

"The Black Tiger Thief is back?"

Shi Yuan, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui were all shocked and eager to find out, but unfortunately, Zhu Zhi and other ordinary county officials did not know much.

Seeing that Zhu Zhi and other county officials in the county town also knew nothing, Ishihara and the others didn't pay much attention to it at first.

After bidding farewell to the county officials, Ishihara drove the carriage slowly into the city, preparing to go to the residence that he had rented in the city.

On the way, Ishihara chatted with Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui about the black tiger thief.

"How dare they come back?" Xu Bai said with a frown.

Last year, in the battle of Xiangcun, the officers and soldiers suffered heavy losses, and more than 500 officers and soldiers under the command of Gao Chun, the county lieutenant of Yexian County, lost more than 300 people overnight, but the black tiger thieves were not happy, in view of the fact that several of them discovered the abnormality of Xiangcun in time, and intercepted and killed the black tiger thieves halfway, which also greatly damaged the vitality of the black tiger thieves, and even the head of the thieves, Yang Tong, also died.

In the eyes of Ishihara and others, it was this encounter that contributed to the rout of the Black Tiger Thief.

However, did the Black Tiger Thief really break up at that time?

In fact, even Ishihara and a few people couldn't understand this matter, after all, the remnants of the Black Tiger Thieves at that time escaped under their noses.

Recalling that at that time, those remnants of the Black Tiger Village were united and advanced and retreated together, Ishihara and the others strongly suspected that this group of evil bandits had elected a new leader, otherwise those evil thieves would not have acted in such a consistent manner.

Returning to the rented accommodation and putting the carriage in the courtyard, the four people who were too lazy to cook at home went outside to solve the problem of eating and stomaching.

They came to a tea stall at the corner of the street.

The owners of the tea stall are an old couple with a son, who run a tea and confectionery business, and they used to have a good relationship with Ishihara and others, and Ishihara and his family often took care of their business.

Therefore, after a few people came to the tea stall today, the old couple immediately recognized the four Ishihara and greeted the latter with a smile: "Isn't this the stone catcher?" Is the stone catcher back? When did you come back? ”

"Ah, I'm back, just today." Ishihara greeted with a smile: "Old man Wang, how is your business lately?" Have you made a fortune? ”

"It's still the same...... I want to get rich, old man. The old man shrugged helplessly and brought the tea and snacks.

During this period, other regular customers of the tea stall also greeted Ishihara and the others, but after greeting them, they continued to talk about the topic before.

It is said that the county commander Liu Bi and the county lieutenant Ma Gai are at odds with each other for this woman, and the whole city is also itchy, and they are very curious about who the Wang girl will end up with.

I have to say that this matter is nothing new in the county, but the Ishihara people heard it for the first time and were dumbfounded.

Marrying a second room, to be honest, is nothing new, Ishihara and others have seen those rich families, marrying seven or eight concubines is not a strange thing, what is interesting is that this matter actually involves the county commander Liu Bi and the county lieutenant Ma Gai, and said that these two turned against each other for the sake of the Wang girl, which is interesting.

"Really?" Ishihara immediately joined the discussion with interest.

But it's a pity that the regular customers of the tea stall have different opinions about the authenticity of this matter, some say it is true, some say it is false, and even Ishihara didn't realize that something was wrong for a while: at the moment when the black tiger thief had obviously returned to Kunyang, the people in Kunyang County didn't even mention the black tiger thief.

After filling their stomachs, Ishihara and the others paid the bill, and immediately, Ishihara went to the county government to report, while Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui went back to their residences to sleep, after all, they had really accumulated a lot of tiredness on this trip.

About half an hour later, Ishihara came to the county office alone, and happened to bump into Yang Kang, the head catcher with a team of county guards who were about to patrol the streets.

Among the several old catchers, Yang Dang and Ishihara have the best relationship, after all, the two of them risked their lives to wipe out the rest of the cottages together, and they can be called brothers who have experienced hardships.

"Aha, Ishihara, you kid still know to come back!"

After seeing Ishihara, Yang Dang immediately greeted him happily, and while relying on the age of the eldest brother, he reached out and patted Ishihara's shoulder, and talked to Ishihara: "How many of them are Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui?" ”

"Sleeping in the accommodation, in order to rush back to Kunyang as soon as possible, we haven't closed our eyes much in the past few days."

"Hah! …… In the evening, the eldest brother invited a few of you to eat and drink. ”

Seeing that Yang dared to insist on this, Ishihara accepted the former's kindness with a smile, and immediately, he couldn't help but ask: "Brother Yang, I heard that the black tiger thief is back, what's going on?" ”

"Huh? Yes. ”

Yang Dang was stunned for a moment at first, but then he reacted, nodded with a restrained smile and said, "There is indeed such a thing." ”

Ishihara asked strangely, "Why didn't the yali organize people to encircle and suppress it?" ”

"It's hard."

Yang Dang looked left and right, and said to Ishihara in a low voice: "You also know the situation of the villages in Xiangcun and Fengcun. …… Those villages were originally subservient to the black tiger thieves, and when the black tiger thieves quietly returned to my Kunyang County at the beginning of this year, those damn guys only cared about themselves, and they didn't report to the officials at all, and when the county learned of the situation, the gang of thieves and thieves had even finished building the main village...... Do you know that those guys actually help the bandits build cottages, you talk about it, alas. ”

“……”

Ishihara frowned when he heard this.

Strictly speaking, there must be problems in the villages of Xiangcun and Fengcun, even if they are convicted of the crime of 'colluding with thieves', it is not an exaggeration, but from the perspective of human feelings, these villages are not willing to want to collude with thieves, they are just for the sake of their own lives and the lives of the villagers, and they are forced to submit to the bandits, so this matter is really difficult to do, even the county government used to turn a blind eye - you can't ask those villages for all the crimes, right? How many people do you have to implicate?

Understanding is understanding, but there is one thing Ishihara still doesn't understand, frowning and asking Yang Dangdao: "Brother Yang, you said that those black tiger thieves returned to Kunyang after the beginning of this year?" It's been April, and the county government just learned about the thief? ”

Yang Dang shook his head and said, "That's not it, if you want to say that you know, you learned about it a month ago......"

After hearing this, Ishihara was very puzzled: "Then why don't you organize people to encircle and suppress it?" If you don't take advantage of the black tiger thief's weakness, it will be bad if he grows bigger. ”

"The Black Tiger Thief is weak?" Yang Dang chuckled when he heard this, shook his head and said: "You just came back, I don't know the situation, the black tiger thieves are not weak now, according to He Feng and their attention to the black tiger thieves, there are no less than five hundred people in this group of bandits......"

Ishihara was stunned when he heard this, and exclaimed, "How is this possible? ”

He couldn't believe it, you must know that according to their estimates, when the remnants of the Black Tiger Village escaped last year, the Black Tiger Thieves counted only more than 200 women and children, but just a few months later, this group of thieves had skyrocketed to 500 people?

"Where did they get the manpower?"

"Where's the manpower?" Yang Dang snorted lightly and said, "Naturally, someone defected." The county government failed to exterminate the black tiger thief after three encirclements and suppressions, but the black tiger thief became famous because of it, and those restless guys all defected to them. Thanks to them, the security in the county has improved much better, and the idle people who used to cause trouble in the county town are now gone......

"Wait."

Ishihara heard something wrong, raised his hand to interrupt Yang Kang's words and asked, "You mean, someone in the county took the initiative to defect to that gang of bandits?" ”

Yang Dare nodded: "Well, and there are quite a few of them." ”

As he spoke, he patted Ishihara on the shoulder and said with a smile: "So, this matter is not in a hurry, and after the spring ploughing, the yali will naturally discuss the matter of suppressing the thief." …… By the way, you're going to see the county lieutenant later, right? ”

"Hmm."

"Then you must not pretend to be the 'Wang Girl' in front of the county lieutenant, let alone in front of Liu Gong, it is all malicious rumors, Liu Gong and the county lieutenant were both misunderstood by their respective wives about this matter, and they are feeling a headache about it...... Do you know about the 'Wang's Daughter'? ”

“…… I know, I've just heard about it. ”

"That's fine, don't talk nonsense. …… Let's not talk about it, I'll go to the streets first, and let's get together tonight. ”

“…… Good. ”

Seeing Yang Dang leave with a team of county guards, Ishihara frowned deeply.

At this time, he had a vague sense that something was wrong.

At a time when the number of black tiger thieves has skyrocketed to 500, this is obviously a very serious threat, but for some reason, almost no one in the county town feels this urgently.

There is also a funny 'Wang Girl' that touches the hearts of many county people......

『…… It seems that someone deliberately spread rumors to confuse the public.'

Ishihara thought to himself.