Yang Cong had nothing to do and meditated and practiced in his room for several hours, until about noon, when he walked out of the room and saw that the city gate was still closed.

In the scorching heat of May, and with nowhere to go, I had no choice but to go back to my room to continue practicing.

As soon as he sat down, he heard footsteps approaching outside the house, and after a short rest, there was a knock at the door.

"Guest officer, someone is looking for you."

The shopkeeper shouted, the voice was not too high, but as long as he was not asleep in the room, he could definitely hear it.

"Here we are." Yang Congyi wondered in his heart, there were not many people in Jianpu City who knew him, who would find the inn.

When I opened the door, I saw that in addition to the shopkeeper, there were two other catchers outside the door.

"Is it Lord Yang?" Without waiting for the shopkeeper and Yang Congyi to speak, they immediately asked very respectfully.

Yang Congyi was slightly startled, surprised, and couldn't help asking, "What are you looking for me?" ”

The two catchers were happy on their faces, and said in unison: "The little one has seen Lord Yang!" ”

Then one of them immediately said: "Lord Yang, the little ones have been looking for you for more than an hour, and finally found you." Come with us to the yamen, Lord Zhizhou has urged him several times. ”

Yang Congyi was puzzled, seeing that these two people were strange, his feet did not move, and he asked in a light tone: "Lord Zhizhou is looking for me?" Why? ”

"Lord Yang doesn't know, there were many murders in the city last night, Lord Zhizhou suspects that it was done by a group of bandits, and the human and physical evidence about the bandits disappeared overnight, and now in this city, Lord Yang may be the only person who has seen the bandits. After hearing the news of the adults in the morning, Lord Zhizhou speculated that Lord Yang should be the one who returned to Jianpu with the deceased, and now it is up to Lord Yang to solve this series of murders and catch the vicious bandits. Lord Yang is the only one who has ever seen bandits, and Lord Zhizhou hopes that you can live in the yamen immediately. Seeing that Yang Congyi was on guard, the official hurriedly explained the reason clearly.

"The bandits are in town?" Yang Congyi was shocked, are the bandits so bold? After thinking about it, they dared to enter the city, which means that they are indeed not simple, and when I first met them, I felt that they were different from ordinary bandits, especially the almost identical murder weapons in their hands.

"Yes, not only did they enter the city, but yesterday they killed all the people who saw them, a full twenty-eight lives. Therefore, the Zhizhou master ordered the closure of the city, just to stop this gang of villains in the city and catch them all. ”

Hearing this news, not only the shopkeeper next to him was stunned, but Yang Congyi was also obviously stunned.

Twenty-eight lives! Are these bandits crazy?

"Let's go, go to the Yamen!" Yang Congyi didn't think much about it, if such a vicious bandit was not caught, I don't know how many people would be victimized.

He himself has encountered a lot of bandits before, for those who rob along the road, let him encounter, he will never be soft, basically kill all the people who can kill, and will never let them escape, since they dare to rob, they must accept their fate if they are killed.

He went back to the room and got the package, and the room didn't have time to retreat, so he quickly rushed to the Zhizhou Yamen with the two arresters, he knew that time was precious, and at one and a half o'clock in the evening, the possibility of capturing the bandits would be reduced by one point.

As soon as he entered the yamen, Yang Congyi was directly invited into the living room, and Yu Kuai ran to report the good news to Lord Zhizhou.

Not long after, a middle-aged man in his fourties and fifties came out of the side dressed in plain and thin clothes.

When he saw Yang Congyi, he smiled and said, "Lord Yang, I finally found you." ”

"Where do you dare to be an adult in front of adults!" Yang Congyi hurriedly got up and excused himself, and bowed his hand and said: "Yang Congyi, the former secretary of the military case of the Xiaguan Palace, has seen Meng Zhizhou!" ”

"Okay, okay, sit." After that, take a seat in the main seat.

Yang Congyi sat down after seeing the other party sit down.

As soon as he sat down, he replied apologetically: "Xia Guan really didn't know that such a bad thing happened in the city last night, if he knew, he would have come to see Meng Zhizhou earlier, and he wouldn't have let the yamen look for me everywhere." ”

Meng Zhizhou waved his hand and sighed: "There are so many murders in the city, and it is no wonder that others are wrong, but the bandits are too cruel." ”

After a short pause, he changed his tone, and then said: "Early this morning, just after dawn, someone came to sound the drum of injustice, and within half an hour, the official received twenty-three murders, and after questioning, he learned that the deceased were actually people from the Renhe medicine shop in the city, and they were all transported back to the city yesterday, and it was also yesterday that one of the deceased named Song Cheng came to report the case with a bandit murder weapon, saying that they had encountered a group of notorious bandits three days ago, and in the report's testimony, The deceased mentioned a palace secretary who saved them from danger, and the twenty-three people you saved last night who had seen the bandits were all killed, and even the murder weapons and portraits kept in the yamen were missing, so this official thought of the secretary of the palace who had seen the true face of the bandits. Overnight, 23 murders, 28 lives, it is too bad, this official has been seen for many years, and he has never heard of it, so he had to close the city, strive to solve the case as soon as possible, capture the gang of bandits, and find Secretary Yang, also for this matter. Secretary Yang can understand the difficulties of this official, right? ”

Yang Congyi listened to the other party's explanation of the ins and outs of the matter, and immediately said: "Assist in solving the murder case and return justice to the deceased, it is incumbent on the lower officials, but listen to Meng Zhizhou's dispatch!" ”

Meng Zhizhou smiled: "Okay." Secretary Yang is very pleased to know the name, whether you can catch this gang of bandits or not depends on you. ”

Yang Congyi said in a righteous voice: "It is the duty of officials to pacify the people and appease the people, and the officials must do their best." But then he said: "However, Xia Guan has a question about this case, and I don't know whether to ask it or not." ”

Meng Zhizhou smiled slightly, and said: "Secretary Yang has any doubts about this case, just ask, this official knows everything, and strives to solve the case as soon as possible." ”

Yang Congyi immediately asked: "As far as Xia Guan knows, the gang of bandits I saw a few days ago was only 12 people, how did they sneak into the city and wipe out 23 people overnight?" ”

As soon as Meng Zhizhou heard this question, he was about to open his mouth to answer, but suddenly felt that it was indeed difficult to explain, and after thinking about it for a while, he said bluntly: "This official has indeed ignored this question, what does Secretary Yang think?" ”

Yang Congyi said: "Xia Guan thinks that if the twenty-three murders in one night were done by that gang of bandits, then there are three possibilities. First, the bandits themselves were from the city, and they knew the twenty-three dead before they met them, and knew exactly who they were and where they lived, otherwise they would not have been wiped out in one night. Second, the gang of bandits had eyeliner in the city, and after the robbery failed a few days ago and their identities were exposed, they had the intention of killing people and killing their mouths, and instructed the eyeliner to find out the identities and specific residences of the twenty-three people, and then under the guidance of the informant, they killed people one by one. Third, there were more than twelve bandits in that group, at least twenty-three people, and after they failed to rob the caravan of medicinal herbs, they should sneak into the city first, wait for the caravan to enter the city in the city, and then one by one, follow and watch, and kill people at night. ”

After speaking, Meng Zhizhou seemed to be in deep thought, and said: "Of these three possibilities, the first one is actually not true, if the bandits know the twenty-three people of the caravan very well and know where they live, they must have seen the bandits, but Xia Guan walked with them for two days and found that they didn't know any of the bandits, and they hadn't even seen them before." In this way, there are only two possibilities, one is that there are bandit spies in the city, and the other is that the bandit gang has more than twenty people. ”

Meng Zhizhou was still thinking about something and didn't answer.

Yang Congyi said: "In fact, there is another problem, a gang of bandits can accurately kill twenty-three people who have seen their true faces in the city, how high is their courage, planning ability and ability to act, if a group of ordinary bandits can't do it at all, they won't think about it, instead of risking the city to kill twenty-three people, it is better to sneak into the mountains, or go away." It can be inferred from this that if the 23 people were really killed by the gang of bandits last night, the case would not be simple, and before the killing, they must have thought of a way to deal with it, and they did not worry about the yamen investigation. ”

After being silent for a long time, Meng Zhizhou seemed to have figured out something, and said with a gloomy face: "Secretary Yang's analysis is reasonable, this gang of bandits is indeed not simple, after killing people and destroying their mouths, they actually dare to sneak into the state government to steal the bandits' portraits and physical evidence." Since they want to fight, then the official will fight with them. ”

Yang Congyi noticed that the other party's expression was wrong, and seemed to have an understanding, so he hurriedly asked, "What does Lord Zhizhou mean by this?" Could it be that he already knows that the bandit has another identity? ”

Meng Zhizhou asked rhetorically: "Listening to Secretary Yang's meaning, you also guessed the identity of the bandit?" ”

As soon as Yang Congyi heard this, he knew that he was speechless, so he replied: "Xia Guan saw the murder weapon left by the bandits that day, but he was a little suspicious, and he didn't dare to guess it, and he couldn't guess it. ”

Meng Zhizhou said: "Secretary Yang doesn't have to be humble, you just prompted very clearly, in fact, you should have known their identities a long time ago." ”

Yang Congyi was silent, he also just figured it out, and couldn't help but say it for a while, some things can't be said in front of smart people, otherwise it will cause trouble, but the murderer caused twenty-three murders in the city overnight, and the killing of twenty-eight was too shocking, and he didn't take the court law into account at all, and he really didn't want to stay out of it when this kind of thing happened.

Meng Zhizhou saw that he was silent, and said meaningfully: "Secretary Yang knows why they killed twenty-three people who have seen their true faces, but they didn't do anything to you?" Don't forget that you not only sabotaged their caravans of looting herbs, but also saw each of them clearly. ”

"Because the lower officials will leave early this morning, they will not come out to identify them, and they will not pose a threat to them. In addition, although the lower officials have a lowly official position, they are also officials of the imperial court, and they dare not do it easily. "When it comes to this, Yang Congyi can't help but make excuses.

"Wrong, there is nothing for them to dare to, whether it is killing ordinary people or killing officials, as long as they have money, any hole can be filled, and any mistake can be rounded. I won't kill you, it's just that you have a special identity and the time is not right. ”