When the letter was collected and picked up by his subordinates, Li Xie didn't even need to look at it, he knew that the kidnappers' request must be to put more gold and silver taels in a certain place, otherwise they would kill people.

Sure enough, there wasn't much written on this little piece of paper. It's just that if you want Cao Zhixiang's life, then put 500 taels of gold on the dock outside Xicheng.

The location was chosen at the pier outside Xicheng, which shocked Li Xie. Li Xie didn't understand what the kidnappers were thinking, and during the day, the entire dock was sent out to find people, and Li Xie didn't believe that the kidnappers didn't know this.

Knowing this, you must know that the dock outside Xicheng is inextricably linked to the Cao family. Otherwise, they wouldn't have left a good business and sent almost all of them out to find people.

And after knowing this, they dared to let the Cao family put the gold on the dock outside Xicheng, because they were really so confident, or was it just a temptation. Try if this little young master is worth 500 taels of gold in the hearts of the Cao family.

When Cao Song saw the letter, he began to ask his subordinates to prepare gold without saying a word. It can be seen from this move that Cao Zhixiang is really heavy in Cao Song's heart.

Before dawn, Cao Chung had already put the gold on the dock in Xicheng as stated in the letter. Because he was worried about accidents, Cao Chung personally led people to put the gold there.

Of course, this is 500 taels of gold after all, not a small amount. Cao Song still secretly sent someone to guard it, if the 500 taels of gold can really be exchanged for his son, it is acceptable, but he is afraid that the money will not come back after giving his son, which is what he can't accept.

However, Li Xie felt that the trick of sending people to guard was probably useless, and put himself in his shoes, if he was a kidnapper, he would definitely not be his own person who came to get the money. Even the person who came to get the money might not know what was inside the box.

If this kidnapper is cautious enough, the first, second, or even third, and fourth waves will not be their own people. They just know where to put the boxes and walk away with the money the kidnappers gave them.

Even the boxes may be dropped halfway through, and then they will be dropped on the surface, and the boxes will continue, and the people hired by the kidnappers will go to several places and then ignore them.

Sure enough, no one who can be a kidnapper is a stupid person, because in this industry, all stupid people have been arrested, and the rest of the people who can still thrive in this industry are all good players. The one who only came in to get the money turned out to be a junior apprentice in the firing workshop.

Li Xie, with his extraordinary memory, even vaguely remembers that his name is Miao Sanzi. Seeing Miao Sanzi driving the carriage without panic, he carried the heavy box into the carriage, and then left leisurely and walked in the direction of Xicheng. Li Xie knew that there was no need to chase this side, and it was impossible to chase it no matter how much he chased.

Sure enough, after Li Xie came back, the people sent by Cao Song and Cao Ying followed Miao Sanzi together and tossed and turned in Xicheng for a day, during which the box was put on a carriage and an ox cart, and finally thrown into a no-man's land.

waited until it was dark and no one was there, and then Cao Ying, who realized it later, stepped forward, and when she opened the box, she saw that there was still any gold in it, and all of it was replaced with stone. In fact, Cao Ying's mind should have thought of this a long time ago, but she was worried that her younger brother was messing up, so she was fooled by someone for a whole day.

And for such a thing, Li Xie is not good to say in advance, and if he says it, it actually has no effect. When people get in the carriage, you can't see what they're doing in the carriage.

So when the box is shipped out again, you can't go up and open it. Because once you go up, the kidnapper will definitely follow him secretly, then he will know. The transaction will certainly not be able to go any further.

If you don't open it, you'll only be deceived. It's almost flawless. Even if you find out, you can't do anything about him.

Of course, if you follow the carriage and the people instead of the box, if there are enough people, you may be able to find the kidnappers directly. But this requires at least 100 people, and if the kidnappers were more cautious, they would even need fewer people, maybe more.

Not to mention that the Cao family does not have such manpower, even if there is such a manpower, it is impossible not to let the kidnappers detect so many people sent out at once.

Having said that, he went back to the dark twenty side, and searched all the places he could find according to Li Xie's request. He really found the scene of the first crime where the little guy was killed.

Because he died by cutting his throat, there are still many traces of blood sprayed there. Li Xie rushed there and took a closer look. Aside from the discovery of a small piece of purple petals at the scene of the crime, which did not belong there, nothing else was found.

I thought that this purple petal would be a clue, but I didn't want to ask anyone to find out. These purple petals are the petals of the very common Chinese medicine flowers. Not to mention that there are mountains and wilderness, but there are really many places where they are distributed. There is no way to trace the kidnappers to their whereabouts with this small petal.

In the evening, everyone gathered at the Cao family and told their own discoveries. Li Xie thought carefully according to what Cao Ying said. I didn't find any flaws at all.

And Cao Chung also began to worry at this time. The kidnappers have already gotten the money, but his son is still missing, Cao Chung is really afraid that the kidnappers will tear up the ticket. is old and has a son, and there is only such a son, Cao Song's attention to Cao Zhixiang can be imagined.

But Cao Chung is just a middle-aged person, without much ability and not too good a brain. has lived a life of resignation all his life, even if he is worried to death and irritable to death now, he doesn't know who to be angry at?

So Cao Chung could only show irritability, Li Xie couldn't bear to see this, after all, Li Xie still wanted this person to become his father-in-law, so he still opened his mouth to comfort him: "Master Cao, don't worry, the kidnappers won't tear up the ticket now, and they will definitely continue to ask you to take the money out to ransom people." ”

"But ......" Cao Song frowned, and was just about to speak, when an arrow shot in the direction of Cao Song. Li Xie's eyes were quick, and he directly grabbed the arrow in his hand.

After secretly scolding the kidnapper, Li Xie immediately took down the note on the arrow, spread it out, and saw that the content on it was almost the same as the last time. But the ransom of silver taels was changed to 1,000 taels of gold.

Repeatedly asking for money, it seems that the kidnappers are either insatiable or in difficulty.

After Li Xie sighed in his heart, he carefully touched the paper and found that the paper this time was different from the paper last time.

The last time I used it was just ordinary paper, and I couldn't use it anymore. But this time, it is Su paper, a specialty of Nanping Road, which is thicker and waterproof. It is not a common paper used for writing, but for oil umbrellas.

In this world, paper is a thing that has not entered every household because of backward production technology. And in this era when more than 80% of people are illiterate, it is useless for ordinary people to use paper, so there are not many places to sell paper on the market.

Moreover, the current paper is also very expensive to sell due to its low production, and it is sold one by one. It is impossible for the kidnappers to plan to divide the money into several times in the first place, because the risk of being found in this way is high. So this time they asked for money, because they felt that this thing would come quickly, and seeing that Cao Ying didn't notice it, they felt very safe, so they temporarily decided to come again.

The last time the kidnapper shot at one shot was more than a dozen small notes, which means that the kidnappers may have run out of paper last time. So the paper used this time may have been stolen nearby, or bought nearby.

After all, someone has already started to investigate this matter, and they can't go to the street to buy paper with great fanfare. So for fear of being discovered, they can only buy nearby, or steal some nearby.