Chief Chen's face turned pale, and he didn't make any answer, but turned the ledger towards Xu Pengju.

Xu Pengju looked at the ledger facing him, his eyes immediately flashed with shock, and the exquisite glass cup in his hand fell off his hand and shattered on the ground.

The glass cup is already an imitation, or this is a beautiful glass. But that doesn't seem to matter altogether.

But I saw that there was a blank on the open ledger, which had already been stolen by someone, and this important ledger had already been stolen.

Xu Pengju lost his former demeanor as a national prince, and reached out to grab the account book, and even turned a few pages blank. His last bit of luck, at this moment, has been torn to shreds.

His biggest secret, the most important thing in the Guogong Mansion, was stolen like this. After confirming that the ledger was indeed stolen, he suddenly turned his head to look south as some fragments of memories kept flashing through his mind.

"Master, this ...... What's going on here? Director Chen had already woken up from the shock, looked up at Xu Pengju and seemed to know some truths, so he asked cautiously.

A haze flashed on Xu Pengju's face, and he immediately ordered angrily: "You go to Jiangning County immediately, you must chase that woman back, you must chase her back!" ”

Although Director Chen had a lot of confusion, he still ran out in a panic. He naturally knew who the woman in the old man's mouth was, and that Oiran was the one he had done with his own hands, but he didn't dare to have any hope of chasing people back.

In order to exile people as soon as possible, he can be said to have worked hard, and now how can he intercept people so suddenly. However, everything has to be done to know the result, and he hurried to Jiangdu County.

Earlier, in the official road outside the city gate of Nanjing, a group of people headed southwest.

"You all hurry up for Lao Tzu, there is a broken temple two miles ahead that can deal with a night, if not, we all have to spend the night in the wilderness tonight!"

Four yachas, with swords at their waists, were escorting the four prisoners, and one of them, a fierce middle-aged man, shouted loudly.

Li San was a servant of the Jiangdu County Ya, and was escorting the four prisoners sentenced to exile to Guizhou. It was undoubtedly a chore to escort the offender to a place of exile and walk thousands of miles on two legs.

It's just that in this world, except for those children who were born in the royal family, or the officials and masters who are under the emperor of Wenkui, no one will have an easy time. He is a supernumerary member of the Jiangdu County Ya, and this kind of drudgery will naturally fall on his head.

But for those of them who are outsiders, escorting exiles is not all bad.

Compared with the oppression in the yamen, the freedom of escorting prisoners is higher, and they can usually get the flattery of the prisoners. From the lowest level of the county government to the "official master" in one fell swoop, many officials enjoy it very much.

In addition, it is the "travel allowance" that they can earn from the yamen by doing such drudgery, which is far more than staying in the yamen and receiving a meager salary.

If they met some wealthy prisoners, their families would usually use silver to save the prisoner from some sins on the road, and even equipped with retinues and carriages.

Li San has been doing this job since he was young, and he has run four times in Guizhou alone, and he is already an old man in this industry.

Although he knew the hardships and risks of this errand, he was willing to accept this hardship without being angry in the yamen, and he could leave a little money for his wife and children.

The four prisoners were three men and one woman, wearing heavy shackles.

They looked unkempt, and they were walking hobbly on the edge of the official road, and their eyes were all dull. Even when they heard Li San's shouting, they looked indifferent.

Although exile can save oneself from death, not everyone is willing to suffer such a crime, and there are many who choose to commit suicide. When they left the city of Nanjing, they were walking towards hell step by step, and the only thing they fought for was to live.

They have to wear this heavy shackle to walk thousands of miles, which is a great test of the body.

When they arrive in the Exiled Lands, they will be faced with two choices: one is to choose to join the army directly and become the lowest sergeant of the guard; The second is to open up farming and become tenants of the guards, which are destined to be oppressed and exploited.

It is this gloomy future that makes them suffer greatly in body and mind, and they don't know how long they will live.

Yu Ji was wearing a plain white prison suit, her hair was simply tied up, and her face was stained. Even so, she couldn't hide her good figure and beautiful face, and she was resolutely moving.

She wore a shackle weighing more than ten pounds and silently followed the team forward. Along the way, she didn't cry out bitterly, and she had endured all this silently.

Li San was originally worried that Yu Ji would become a burden to the team, but seeing that her performance was no worse than the other three male prisoners, he couldn't help but cast an approving look.

In the evening, the group finally arrived at a ruined temple.

Li San was an old expert in this area, and asked the other three companions to help the prisoner untie the shackles, and he went to the forest to collect some firewood.

It is not necessarily used to drive away the cold, in this ruined temple, it can drive away a lot of snakes, rats and poisonous insects at night. They do this kind of work, and they seem to have the heroism of going south and north, but in essence they contain all kinds of crises, and they can die if they are not careful.

"Brother Li, go ahead, I'll take care of it here!" When a young yacha who looked like he was angry heard Li San's order, he responded with a smile.

Li San glanced deeply at this yacha named Sun Xiaoliu, nodded in response, and strode out of the temple gate.

This Sun Xiaoliu has just entered Jiangdu County, and he is also a supernumerary. It's just that there is gossip in the county government that this Sun Xiaoliu is a related household of the county master, and it is a sure thing.

Li San originally thought the same, but seeing that Sun Xiaoliu followed over to escort the exiled prisoners this time, he felt that the rumors in the county government might not be taken seriously.

The two yacha were about to step forward and remove the prisoner's shackles, which could not only prevent the prisoner from escaping, but also make it difficult to consume the prisoner's physical strength, which could be described as killing two birds with one stone.

In fact, this shackle is not really carried all the way, if in the second half of the journey, everyone has a familiar relationship, or they think that a prisoner can be trusted, it will also help them remove the shackles and reduce the burden.

"I'm coming!"

Chen Xiaoliu took the initiative to take over the work of removing the shackles, and his eyes were already firmly fixed on Yu Ji who was sitting alone over there.