As the saying goes, under the heavy reward, there will be a brave man. Li Cunliang used silver and grain to buy the whereabouts of the two kings, and in half a day, it spread all over Yuechi County, and thousands of pieces of news were collected in one day. But it is difficult to confirm whether these news are true or false, so one or two pieces of silver and half a bucket of rice were not rewarded.

Shangguan was furious, and his subordinates naturally trembled. The fans of Jinyiwei analyzed and judged the news overnight. By the next morning, the fans finally confirmed that there was a piece of valuable news. So, Jin Yiwei immediately found the messenger and quickly sent it to Master Li for personal trial.

When this person was sent to Li Cunliang, Li Cunliang was surprised by the sloppiness of his image.

This man was short and thin, his hair had not been washed for several years, and he was fluffy and messy like a lion; The clothes and pants were in tatters, revealing a pair of ulcerated, red and swollen feet. Li Cunliang wanted to take a closer look, but a foul smell hit, making Young Master Li almost suffocate. Li Cunliang had no choice but to rely on his temperament to have him washed and fed, and asked the military doctor to take medicine to wrap the sores, and after waiting for a long time, he could finally reopen the trial.

When I saw it again, this person seemed to be reborn, from a little flower to a little scholar. The squirming cheeks, clear eyes, and flexible movements rekindled Li Cunliang's almost extinguished hope.

Here's how the interrogation began:

"Name, age, gender, occupation!"

"Big man, the villain's name is Liu Jin, and his nickname is Danzi. The villain is a man, not a woman! ”

"What did you do before!"

"Before...... Before my father died, I studied with my father. After my father died, he studied in the morning, and in the afternoon he helped his mother spin and weave cloth in the Jacquard House (Note 1). The local thug came, and my mother and I hid in the mountains. After my mother died, I had to ask for food. ”

"His mother was defiled in the mountains by one of the refugees...... His mother went crazy and fell into the valley! Li Erha whispered in his ear.

"Did the ruffian find out?" Li Cunliang asked viciously.

"Found out. Arrested, prepare to be beheaded with the heinous local tyrants! ”

"Do you hear me?" Li Cunliang shouted loudly in front of the children, "The Protector Army avenged the murder of your mother for you, you should know how to repay your kindness and tell the original situation you know!" Don't lie! ”

"Big man, the villain didn't lie!" The child's throat bulged and swallowed the last food, "The villain didn't ask the official for a reward, he just wanted to repay the official!" ”

"Now that you know how to repay the favor, that's good!" Li Cunliang took out ten times the voice of normal speech to praise Liu Jin, and then immediately returned to the topic: "When did you see the soil tyrant entering the mountain!" ”

"I can't remember the days. Anyway, in the middle of the night, it was very dark around, and the moon and stars could not be seen! ”

Li Er buzzed in his master's ears like a mosquito: "The captives confessed that Wang Gao and Wang Guangxing fled from Yuechi County on the morning of the 24th of the lunar month last year. They fled into the mountains, it was a moonless night, and the time was right! ”

Li Er's analysis is clearly flawed. The Protector Army only entered Yuechi City on the night of the 26th of the lunar month, and Wang Gao and Wang Guangxing had already walked for three days at this time. At the slowest speed of forty miles a day, they had actually approached Pengzhou or Yingshan. It must have been in Pengzhou or near Yingshan that Wang Gao and Wang Guangxing were forced to turn back, and later fled to Jincheng Mountain for refuge under the search and arrest of the Protector Army. However, even if it was four or five days late, the moon at the end of the month and the beginning of the month was still very dark.

Li Cunliang brushed the mouthy Li Er away, and then showed a kind smile to the child: "Where did you see the local thritch?" ”

"On the mountain road." The child replied, "I just passed the stone archway of the Golden Purple View in front of the mountain." ”

Why do you run to the stone archway of Jinziguan in the middle of the night? Li Cunliang didn't ask these questions, he was more concerned about the subject of the interrogation: "The local tyrant went to the Golden Purple Temple?" ”

Well! The children made a 100% affirmation, "After the stone archway, there are only two places, either the Golden Purple View, or the ...... of the back mountain."

Of course, it is impossible in the back mountain, and there are thousands of people who have fled, all of whom say that they have not seen the local thugs, except for the one in front of them.

"Then how do you know it's a thug? As you said, the moon and the stars are blind in the middle of the night! Li Cunliang returned to the maximum volume, his face changed from a kind appearance, and became as fierce and fierce as the Dharma Protector Heavenly King.

It's a pity that the children were not frightened by his bluffing tricks.

"Do you still need to see it?" The child's face was innocent, "You can hear it with your ears!" ”

"How do you hear that?"

"The sound of horses' hooves! How can there be so many horses in the Yuechi realm! Before the local tyrants entered the city, they didn't even have horses for the county officials! ”

"Only a throttle has a horse?"

"Yes, it must be a thug! The villain listens clearly. There are a lot of horses, but they are all walking, walking very slowly, not running! ”

Li Cunliang finally smiled. He nodded to Li Er, indicating that he was satisfied. Just when everyone was already fully relaxed, Li Cunliang revealed his true colors.

He casually asked the children: "The moon is dark and the wind is high, and the little ghosts are running all over the mountain!" You don't sleep if you have nothing to do, what are you doing running from the back mountain to the front mountain? Say! Don't say that Young Master Ben picked your skin! ”

Li Cunliang never expected that his nirvana would hit the golden bell jar.

As soon as the child's eyes were red, he began to cry bitterly in front of him. As a result, Li Er came up again to solve the mystery:

"His mother went crazy and ran out of the mountains. This little Liu Jin is a filial son, and he chased him out. The brothers have already interrogated the thief, and the time and place in the confession are all right! ”

……

The 1st Platoon of the 2nd Company of the 12th Battalion was ordered to search for a mountain peak in the mountains west of the Golden Purple Temple, and to reach this peak, it was necessary to pass through the Golden Purple Temple.

A row of people and horses, led by Ma Xun and Jiang Dou, hurried to arrive at the Golden Purple Temple at noon. Qing Yunzi, the steward of Jin Ziguan, greeted the gate and warmly invited the soldiers of the Protector Army to take a break, but the platoon commander Ma Xun ignored the repeated hints of the deputy platoon Jiang Dou and refused on the grounds of military urgency.

He led a dejected platoon of men to eat dry rations and continued westward, leaving secret posts at various vital locations along the way that were easy to observe. Each outpost is in teams of two, a firework cannon for the alarm, and the necessary food and water.

Ma Xun gave these secret posts a strict order, each group to hide in place for at least three days, and those who exposed it without permission were punished for violating the order. If you don't hear the joint code or fireworks alarm, even if the Shangguan or your comrades walk in front of you, you are not allowed to show your figure. Ma Xun also emphasized that the red leather armor worn by the Protectors was too conspicuous, so they had to take off the leather armor and cover it with grass or earth and rocks when they were lurking.

Ma Xun's arrangement is very different from Jiang Dou's previous practice.

Jiang Dou's previous practice was to scare snakes. Because there are more than 200 old bandits in the local tyrants, Jiang Dou and the others searched the mountains, and they all lined up in a horizontal battle formation with the standard of the Protector Army, shouting loudly while preparing to fight at any time. But as soon as Ma Xun came, he became guarded by divided troops and lurked along the road.

Jiang Dou was not good at tearing his face on the first day of the new official's appointment, so he had to endure all kinds of discomfort and follow Ma Xun forward.

The row quickly split into more than a dozen groups, and only six people remained at the end of the trail. There is a bottomless canyon with a rattan suspension bridge less than three feet wide connecting the two ends of the canyon. But the rattan bridge broke, and the long rattan rope hung under the cliff opposite.

Ma Xun turned around the scene and said to everyone: "A few days ago, someone cut this bridge with an axe!" ”

Jiang Dou, who was unhappy in his heart, immediately seized the opportunity. He pretended to discuss, but in fact he wanted to make Ma Xun ugly: "It's not just people who cut it off, but it's also axe that cuts it off, I don't know how the platoon commander knows?" ”

Ma Xun didn't care about Jiang Dou's careful thinking at all, he bent down to pick up a few broken vines on the ground, and showed Jiang Dou and the soldiers the section: "It's very simple!" The fracture is neat and fresh, there is no trace of decay, and it must have been cut off recently! ”

"The axe ......"

"The old vine is extremely tough, and the general waist knife is too light, and it is difficult to cut it in two! Even if you use an axe, you have to find a solid place to put it on, otherwise the vine rope will be cut and swayed......"

Ma Xun said, threw down the broken vine, and came to the stake that supported the rattan bridge. THE STAKE WAS TALLER THAN A MAN, WAIST-THICK, AND THERE WAS A DISTINCT ZHUO MARK ON THE STAKE SURFACE. The scars are deep and narrow, with a few vine wires sandwiched in the middle.

"Look, the slash is here!"

Ma Xun was not satisfied with what he had discovered. He turned his head around the ground twice, and found a new piece of evidence on the ground:

"People who wield axes have a bad habit. Come and see, when he was tired, he threw his axe at will. The axe is top-heavy, and the axe runs with the axe handle, so it leaves a complete axe mark on the soft soil here! ”

The axe mark is naturally different from the knife mark, and everyone knows this.

Ma Xun showed his hand and suppressed Jiang Dou. Jiang Dou hurriedly inquired about the platoon commander's previous occupation, but Ma Xun didn't have the time to pay attention to him. Ma Xun commanded the soldiers, carefully digging a deep circular trench in the soft soil around him, leaving only the one with the mark in the middle.

"Platoon commander, what are you doing here?" Jiang Dou was puzzled.

"I want to collect evidence!" Ma Xun said.

He cut off the twine that binds the man, and breaks it apart, making a thin twine intact. Then he curled sideways into the dirt pit, twine-threaded around the bottom of the imprinted piece of dirt, and began to carefully pull back and forth.

"You use twine as a saw!" Jiang Dou and the soldiers suddenly realized.

"The whole piece of soil was taken back and filled with plaster. When the plaster hardens and the dirt is removed, the size and shape of the axe will be clear at a glance! ”

"Platoon commander, you're really amazing!" Jiang Dou shouted, "If we don't look for someone, we'll look for this axe!" If you find the axe, you find the suspect! ”

Ma Xun shook his head and said, "Axes are not easier to find than people!" Don't worry, since we're here, let's go and have a look! Bring the twine, and we'll fly over and see! Cutting the rattan rope bridge, it is really three hundred taels of silver here, and it is smart to be smart! Doesn't that tell us that there is a famous temple in the mountains opposite? Stupid! ”

Ma Xun scolded while pulling a looper with hemp rope. With a slight glance, the looper flew leisurely over the canyon six or seven zhang wide, and accurately attached the bridge pile on the opposite side. Ma Xun pulled the hemp rope fiercely, and felt that it was quite strong, so he tied this end to the stake.

"Alright, I'll climb the rope first. After I passed, I tied the hemp rope to the broken rope, you hurry up and pull the broken bridge up to repair it, and then hurry here! Ma Xun commanded as he wrapped a few more loops of rope around his waist. After he finished speaking, under the gaze of Jiang Dou and the other soldiers, he leaped and grabbed the hemp rope hanging above the abyss with both hands.

I saw Ma Xun's hands moving quickly alternately on the shaking hemp rope, and his body was swaying back and forth by the mountain wind.

"The platoon commander must be a monkey!" A soldier was so adored that his eyes lit up with stars.

"The platoon commander must have been a mountain hunter before!"

"I was also a catcher!"

While everyone was gossiping, Ma Xun had already crossed the middle six or seven zhang, and he was close to the opposite bank. But instead of landing on the other side, he let go of his hands and fell to the bottom of the cliff!

Yes! Jiang Dou exclaimed with everyone.

Just when everyone was screaming, they saw Ma Xun stretching his ape arm in the air, reaching out and grabbing the broken vine rope hanging on the cliff in the middle of the mountain.

After the body was stable, Ma Xun used both hands and feet, and after a few climbs, he went down to the end of the broken bridge. He untied the rope from his waist and fastened the broken bridge. Then, like an ape, he climbed up to the opposite bridge. In an instant, another looper was thrown over and caught the bridge pile on this side.

Jiang Dou wiped the sweat from his head and let out a sigh. He waved his hand to interrupt the soldier's discussion and said, "I heard that the platoon commander was rescued by Shizi himself from the pile of dead in the south of Guang'an City. There are thousands of dead people, and the son of the world is not saved by others, but only the platoon commander. It can be seen that our platoon commander is not ordinary! Come on, everyone hold on to the rope and work hard together to pull the broken bridge up! ”

Note 1: Hualou, a kind of high-grade jacquard machine for textile, is now in kind in Nanjing Yunjin Museum and Sichuan Shujin Museum. Two people operate, one person sits up and down, one person warp, one person weft. Each pedal controls a line of color, so the more colors, the more pedals there are, and the work is dizzying. In ancient times, there should be complex and delicate patterns on the solid color cloth, either woven into it or embroidered, and the printing and dyeing (whether it is batik, tie-dyeing, dial dyeing, etc.) process is difficult to achieve, so weaving and embroidery are much more high-grade than dyeing.