The terrain of Pheasant County is remote, in fact, it is sandwiched between the two bifurcated mountain ranges of Funiu Mountain, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and only the terrain in the southeast direction is gradually open and flat, and it leads directly to Wancheng.

As the saying goes, the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, in this era of vast land and sparse population, even if Great Qin has a strong army and strict laws, but for this remote mountainous area, it is not a peaceful place.

And Qinghe Town is more than 50 miles away from the county seat of Pheasant County, more northwest, so it seems that all around are rolling mountains, coupled with sparse population, so that villages are scattered in large and small mountains and ravines, each village and the outside world have little communication, the villagers also go to the town occasionally to sell some local products to buy some salt, basically can not go out a few times a year, live a completely self-sufficient primitive small peasant life, some women have never been out of the village in their lives, do not know what the outside world is like, The spread of the news is basically brought by the pavilion chief twice a year or occasionally levied by the husband, and what is heard is basically limited to the situation near Qinghe Town, and the news of the county seat is basically about half a year to spread to some villages.

In the remnants of Funiu Mountain, northwest of Qinghe Town, there is a village that is almost completely isolated, with a total of thirty or forty households, and there are more than two hundred people of all ages, young and old, who have to pass through an extremely narrow primitive crack to enter, and the people in the village hardly go out, ploughing their own fields, weaving their own cloth, and firing simple pottery by themselves.

The origin of these people is very complicated, at first there were only seven or eight families here, mainly relying on hunting for a living, half a century ago when the Qin State occupied Nanyang, it existed, and then several successive Qin-Chu wars, one after another, some displaced people fled in, and then some escaped farmers and slaves also fled in, and slowly expanded to the current scale.

In order to survive, the young and middle-aged people in the village gathered together and occasionally went down the mountain to rob the passing merchants, and the village slowly became a den of bandits and became a nest of mountain bandits.

Although they hide it well, they still have to go out to buy some salt, so they have some communication and understanding of the outside world.

On this day, several bold mountain bandits went down the mountain together, and after lying in ambush on the side of the road for a long time, they did not meet a suitable target for robbery, so they went to the county seat of Pheasant County.

Mountain bandits, this kind of profession has existed since ancient times for thousands of years, robbery is the main business, stealing things can be regarded as a sideline, these people have been to the county seat a little, as long as the clothes are worn better, walk swaggering, the guards are too lazy to take a look, occasionally stopped to ask a few words, just say that the identity card forgot home, so pay a little fine can still go in, and a few of them are not the first time to enter the county.

However, this time, a few mountain bandits were a bit of a disaster star cover, and they didn't look at the yellow calendar when they went out.

When I was searching for a target in the county town who could steal first, I saw more than a dozen horses tied to the door of a foot house, and no one had even taken care of them, these horses were not only tall and sturdy, but they were also good horses, and the well-made leather coat pockets on the back of the horses had not been removed, and there were many good things at a glance.

So a few mountain bandits were moved, and then they also acted, and a few people scattered and slowly approached the horses, and secretly opened a few pockets while people were not paying attention, and then they were dazzled by the golden copper coins and gold coins inside, and they took a lot of money out of the excitement.

At this time, it was almost noon, and there were five or six gorgeously dressed young people in the foothouse, several of whom still had bruises on their faces and eyes, and it was Ma Teng's group of gentlemen who had been beaten by Yu Wuya in Wancheng who were all sitting on the couch drinking water to rest and cool off, and there were seven or eight big men with swords standing around.

Listening to the horses outside, they seemed to be slightly disturbed, and kept snorting, and a big man glanced out.

"Thief, look for death!"

With the roar of this big man, seven or eight big men in the store swarmed out, and the big-footed girls went up and stepped on them randomly, and then choked on the sword out of the sheath and rested on the neck, and several mountain bandits were suddenly so frightened that they almost peed their pants.

It is true that they are mountain bandits, but they are just a group of homeless slaves, who have robbed houses and houses, but they are faced with those weak chicken merchants and farmers, where have they seen this kind of battle, and they immediately lie on the ground and kowtow and beg for mercy.

"Dare to steal our things, it seems that they are impatient, send them to the county office, and let Jiangbei Pavilion punish them heavily!" Ma Teng saw that it was just a few small thieves, and suddenly lost interest, waving his hand impatiently like catching mosquitoes.

"Brother Teng is slow, dare to steal in the county, it is estimated that there is still a little bit of origin, get it in and ask carefully!" A young man hurriedly said.

"Alright, get in!" Ma Teng put down the water cup and looked at the five mountain bandits who were carried in and thrown to the ground like chickens by seven or eight big men.

"Childe spares his life, I won't dare to wait any longer!"

A few mountain bandits kowtowed like pounding garlic, knowing that they ran into hard stubble today, they didn't say anything about resisting, and they would definitely lose arms and legs when they moved, but if they were sent to see officials, then their identities would be like lice under the sun exposed instantly, and then there would be only one end, that is, to beat half to death and then flow three thousand miles to the border to repair the Great Wall, don't think about coming back alive in this life.

"Say it, if you say it well, you don't need to see the official today, if you don't say it, you can discount your legs, choose it yourself!" Ma Teng, as the leader of a group of people, and of course the first brother in Wancheng, spoke with a natural and imposing posture.

The five mountain bandits looked at each other, and one of the older ones gritted his teeth and said: "Don't hide it from the son, we are a group of stateless mountain people in the Funiu Mountain, occasionally go down the mountain to rob the past farmers and merchants, today I came to the county to hang out, and I saw the wealth for a while and collided with your sons, please let me go, I will naturally honor you if I have good things in the future!" ”

"Huh!" Saying this, Ma Teng and the others became full of interest, and one of them, a young man who looked a little old, said in surprise: "Brother Teng, it seems that our revenge has an eyebrow this time!" ”

"What do you mean by that?" Ma Teng asked, touching his chin.

"Brother Teng, didn't we just find out about Chen Xu's whereabouts, and today we are going to Qinghe Town to find him for bad luck, hehe, with these mountain bandits, I'm afraid we don't need to do it ourselves, and this evil breath will naturally dissipate!"

"You mean...... Let them beat Chen Xu? Ma Teng hesitated and asked.

"How can a beating eliminate the hatred in our hearts, a mountain village wild man, naturally he wants to die, and the flesh and skin are gone!" Zhao Zhe, who had not spoken beside him, had a hideous face, and his speech was a little out of style.

"Brother Teng, these mountain bandits must be more than these five in front of you, it's inconvenient to talk here, let's go, get these people out of the city to interrogate them!"

"Okay, take these out of the city!" Ma Teng stood up, so a group of people poured out of the cool house, and seven or eight big men also put five mountain bandits on horseback, and then more than ten horses rushed out of the county seat, and threw a few mountain bandits down in the field for re-interrogation.

……