The ground beneath his feet was so hard that it looked as if the sand was about to freeze into iron sheets in the bitter cold. The pedestrians who walked by were dressed in thick clothes, wrapped themselves tightly, and from time to time looked up at the sun above their heads in and out of the clouds, and the hot breath from their mouths turned into a white mist in the blink of an eye, and disappeared without a trace.

The Prosecutor's Office covers the entire territory of the Chu State, and in this small border city, in front of an inconspicuous yamen, stands an old man in a black coat. He doesn't look outstanding, and the clothes on his body are just ordinary goods he bought, with the erosion of the years, his wrinkles are already very deep, and the vicissitudes of life revealed at the corners of his eyebrows and eyes have already seen through the world.

There was no one standing guard at the yamen of the Prosecutor's Office, and the gatehouse was empty. The old man's eyes flowed, and he didn't reveal any more expressions, and slowly walked into the yamen compound.

In the simple and desolate compound, there were many miscellaneous things, but there was laughter and laughter in the main hall.

The old man walked straight into the main hall, pushed open the door with both hands, and a wave of heat rushed towards him. There were at least two charcoal stoves in the room, and the large table that was supposed to be used for the office was filled with slices of meat and side dishes. A small stove sits in the middle of the table, and seven or eight spies sit in a circle, happily eating hot pot.

Perhaps it was the cold wind brought by pushing the door that stimulated them, and seven or eight eyes gathered on the old man. Due south, an officer of the Prosecutor's Office with his left foot on a chair and a piece of steaming beef in his hand with chopsticks in his hand shouted: "Who is it? Dare to break into the yamen of the prosecutor's office? If you make a mistake, get out quickly. ”

"From the Eastern Capital." The old man took out a pass token and threw it away.

The officer took the token and looked at it, and sure enough, it was a pass token issued by the Prosecutor's Office, although his official rank was very small, and he was just an inspector in this small border town, but he had been trained in the Department of Teaching and Training, and he could still tell what kind of token was real. Usually the holder of this token has an urgent mission, and along the way, the Yamen of the Prosecutor's Office must fully cooperate with the licensee's request. Of course, it doesn't have to be a high-ranking official who holds the sign, and in some cases, a Inspector-in-waiting can get a passpass - as long as his mission is urgent enough.

A warm smile appeared on the officer's face: "It turned out to be a colleague from the Eastern Capital, it was freezing outside, and he suffered a lot along the way, right?" I said, uncle, you are about to retire, are the adults in the Eastern Capital too much to send your old man out of the house? Come on, come on, sit down, this hellish weather, the front teeth can be frozen, and it's best to eat some hot pot. ”

The rest of the spies were very enthusiastic about their colleagues from the Eastern Capital, and they moved a large chair and put a soft cushion on it very carefully. It's not that they want to pat the sycophants of people coming from Dongdu, according to their estimates, this person who has to come to the border to go far away at an age is afraid that it will be a miscellaneous life in Dongdu. Whether it is an officer or a spy, it is always as warm as spring for his own people, and it is not easy to go out.

The old man didn't shirk either, thanked him and sat down, his eyes swept around the table, it was all beef and mutton and side dishes, but he didn't see the wine.

As if he saw what the old man meant, the officer got up with a smile and took out a small copper kettle from the drawer of the other table and put it in front of the old man: "The yamen strictly orders that you can't drink alcohol during office hours, in fact, our brothers have already broken the precept of eating hot pot at this time, but it's nothing if it's cold, just eat some, but don't dare to drink." Uncle, you're fine, drink some. Our local audit department doesn't care about people from the Eastern Capital. ”

The old man smiled slightly, unscrewed the lid of the small copper kettle, and the smell of inferior wine rushed into his nose. Putting down the flask, the old man smiled and said, "The inspectors here are very loose." ”

The officer waved his hand again and again, took two large pieces of meat and put them in the bowl in front of the old man: "It's not loose, behind closed doors, everyone is a family." Birds don't lay eggs here, and it's winter for seven months of the year. After this city, there is the garrison area of the Northwest Army in front of it, the bandits do not come, the spies do not love the broken place, and the prosecutor's office does not have much to do. As you can see, the biggest of this yamen is me, a small inspector, and there is only one inspector in the whole city, and all the people under my command are here. Everything will pass with a blind eye, do you think it is as strict as the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office? ”

The old man did not answer immediately, but ate the two pieces of meat that had been scalded, although the wine was very bad, and the meat was average, but the ingredients were really enough, and the taste was strong enough. He put down his chopsticks and asked, "I'm here to track people." There should be two of them, and it is impossible for them to swagger through the garrison of the Northwest Army, let alone enter the city. I remember that here in the Western Regions, the supervision of the mountains and waterways before the garrison area was the responsibility of the Prosecutor's Office. Have you seen anyone suspicious lately, going off the beaten path? ”

The officer was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and said to one person next to him: "Yuan Yin, the ...... you told me two days ago"

The old man turned his head to look at the young spy, and his uniform showed that he was no more than a lowliest spy.

The old man's smile seemed to carry irresistible magic: "Your name is Yuan Yin?" Tell me, what did you find? ”

Yuan Yin glanced at the inspector officer, and then said: "My lord from the Eastern Capital, you know that there are many mountains here in the Western Regions, and there are naturally many paths. Many fugitives from the interior or those who did not dare to take official roads and towns for other reasons would sneak through the mountains and mountains to the garrison area, and then use the vast terrain of the Western Regions to hide their whereabouts. We are undermanned and cannot supervise every trail, in fact, the Northwest Army used to send troops in groups of ten to patrol these main mountain roads. In the end, it turned out that the army of several thousand men was thrown into the mountains, like pouring a glass of wine into the river, and it was impossible to see it. ”

"So, our inspector came up with a good idea, which was to apply for a grant, hire a few hunters, and buy a few falcons. Use the eagle flying in the sky to supervise the people who travel on the mountain road. ”

The old man couldn't help but look at the grinning inspector officer twice: "This inspector, what is your name?" ”

"I ......" the inspector was a little difficult to answer, he didn't know the old man's official position, and his humble position seemed to be lower, but people understated his official position, eighty percent of which was higher than his official position. After hesitating for a moment, he replied without humility or arrogance: "Guo Xiang, Inspector of the Procuratorate Office of the Four Corners City." ”

The old man nodded and said to Yuan Yin, "You continue." ”

Yuan Yin's young face was full of pride: "Those falcons are trained, and they can distinguish between hunters, troops, and ordinary pedestrians. Naturally, we don't have to take care of the army, and it is impossible for those alien races in the Western Regions to organize a large army into the mountains. There is nothing wrong with the hunters, but pedestrians are more suspicious when they enter the mountains, and when we get a report from a falcon, we will immediately have someone go into the mountains to see who it is. ”

Guo Xiang picked up a large bowl of tea, took a sip of it, and said with a smug smile: "We relied on this trick to catch two Jiangyang thieves." ”

The old man praised: "Not bad. So what did your falcons see the other two days? ”

"After the falcon came back, I confirmed through the habits I had cultivated in training that two people had entered Crouching Tiger Mountain in the south of the city, which was a barren mountain, and it must be suspicious. I immediately told my lordship. Then the Inspector took us in to check it out. It's a pity that after we went in, we didn't even see the shadow of the people. What's even more strange is that the falcon immediately searched a radius of twenty miles, but found nothing. Yuan Yin sighed: "We all thought it was a falcon with a flower eye, you must know that in such weather, two people can run out for twenty miles in the blink of an eye, is that still a person?" However, listening to your old man, there should be such two people. ”

The old man couldn't help laughing, he knew that those two were definitely people, and they were dragons and phoenixes among people. Although the weather is a mess, and although the mountain roads are rugged enough to kill a donkey, for people of that level, it is no different from walking in their own garden.

From the words of these agents in the Prosecutor's Office, the old man knew that his judgment had not been wrong. From the beginning of the Eastern Capital, he felt that a very powerful force was deliberately leading him westward. He is such a character, he is at peace when he comes, and in this world, there are almost no places he dares to go...... The Western Regions, it's not that you haven't been here, and you're afraid of a bird?

"It's hard to be on an errand here, isn't it?" The old man asked kindly.

Guo Xiang laughed: "Bitter? Actually, I really don't feel too bitter, the environment here is not very good, and I can enjoy it. You see, the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office is so busy that it doesn't have time to catch its breath all day. My brothers can also have a hot pot together. After finishing work, you can still go to drink a few glasses, gamble a few hands, go home to get a wife if you have a wife, and if you don't have a wife, you can go to the building to find a girl and have fun a few times. ”

He looked at the old man with a smile and teased: "If you want to talk about bitterness...... The most bitter thing is that we have a broken place here, and there are really no good-looking girls in the building. ”

Several young spies laughed along, the poor mountains and remote places were bitter and happy, and their hearts used to yearn for the city, and they didn't need much reason, there were good-looking girls there, and that was the reason.

"The falcon you came up with? You found those two people? The old man didn't laugh with them, but pointed at Guo Xiang and Yuan Yin respectively and asked.

The two were stunned for a moment, and each nodded.

The old man opened the drawer, found a piece of official paper, a pen, dipped it in red soup and wrote a few lines, and handed it to Guo Xiang casually.

"Guo Xiang, as an inspector, you can adapt measures to local conditions, come up with new methods, be able to enjoy hardship, and do not complain, you are a material that can be made. From now on, you will go to the Eastern Capital to teach and train for another three months, and Admiral Jun will arrange for you to be released as the governor of Tongzhi. Yuan Yin, you also go with you, if you practice well, you are an inspector, and if you don't practice well...... Just go back and continue to be your spy. ”

The old man got up slowly, walked towards the door, and said leisurely: "Thank you for entertaining me with wine and meat, but tell your inspector to ask him to go to the branch office and get thirty whips from the town governor." You can eat meat during working hours, but his supervision is not effective! ”

Looking at the back of the old man leaving, Guo Xiang couldn't help laughing loudly, and almost burst into tears: "Brothers, this old man must not be very good in Dongdu, and he is nervous." Thrown here to travel, but he said it in a tone like an admiral, oh no, like a governor. Writing a few words in red soup and saying that I want Lao Tzu to go to training, I really laughed to death......"

Yuan Yin pointed to the red soup paper, with a shocked expression.

Guo subconsciously looked down, and the lower left horn dragon and phoenix danced with a 'Yi'.

There is definitely more than one person surnamed Yi in the Prosecutor's Office, but there is only one person who dares to sign like this.

Guo Xiang suddenly felt a bang in his head, his legs couldn't help fighting, he almost couldn't stand up, staggered towards the door, and shouted: "Your Excellency the Governor......"