The cold wind gusted, and the winter snow was once again piled up in a thick layer, Fu Quan looked at a broken temple on the mountainside in the distance, his face was not good, this was the seventh wave of brocade thieves he led people to round up, but he still didn't catch the brocade thief he wanted the most, how could this make him willing, after all, he was so troubled by Gan Ning, he didn't know how much energy he wasted before and after, and if he couldn't catch this Gan Ning, wouldn't it be too much of a loss?

Of course, it's not that Fu Quan only chased the seven waves of thieves in the dozens of waves of brocade robbers, doesn't this mean that the government's efficiency in catching thieves is too low?

Three days ago, Fuquan in Linjiang City out of the whole army, the two sides of the army divided the road, one route led by Fuquan personally to the direction of the county, along the road to search for pedestrians, once found suspicious people immediately arrested, those who have the courage to resist, killed on the spot, the other way Huang Zhong led the team along Fuling County to search, two of the cavalry led by Han Dang to contact and respond.

Now Fuquan has been searched for seven waves, and Huang Zhong has also been arrested for five waves, although I don't know how many waves of these brocade thieves have traveled, but so far there are nearly 100 people arrested, according to the statement that some of them confessed that there are more than 200 people in their brocade robbers, Fuquan thinks that he should have arrested almost half of the brocade thieves.

In fact, these brocade thieves don't look at the past under Gan Ning for the tiger, arrogant and unscrupulous, now in Fuquan under a strict order, after the whole county searched and arrested the brocade thieves, they and the grasshoppers after the autumn, can no longer jump for long. Now they also miss the time when their leaders were under the previous Taishou, they have one eye open and one eye closed by the government, and they can do whatever they want without any scruples, how can they be as aggrieved as they are now.

However, no matter how nostalgic it is, it is too late, in the feudal centralized dynasty, even though the central government's control over the local government has declined, the local governor is still the local emperor of the region. After all, no matter how strong the brocade thief is, compared with the feudal officials who can mobilize soldiers and horses in a county, distribute money and food, and recruit countless soldiers, it still seems too weak.

There were bursts of fierce shouts in the distance, and it didn't take long for them to calm down, this voice Fu Quan had heard several times, because it was the shouts of the officials and soldiers who surrounded a small group of brocade-clothed thieves and persuaded them to surrender, and if they did not surrender, they would kill if they dared to resist. On the other hand, the surrounded brocade thieves on the opposite side, after the intimidation of the officials and soldiers, did not hesitate too much, they abandoned their weapons and surrendered, and the surrender was so free and easy, and there was no momentum of fighting against the government that they were not afraid of the sky and the earth in the past.

Sure enough, I saw a light horse coming, and with the neighing of the horse, the knight stopped skillfully controlling the horse, dismounted and saluted: "Prince, all the thieves in the temple have surrendered." ”

"Is there a thief Gan Ninghu?"

"Not found."

"Can the thief know Gan Ning's whereabouts?"

"I don't know."

Fu Quan nodded, and then motioned for the knight to retreat, clenched his fist, looked at the barren temple on the mountainside, and couldn't help but think in his heart, doesn't this Gan Ning have stealth skills? I haven't even heard from him until now, these thieves all said that Gan Ning hadn't left when they left, and they should be behind everyone according to the distance, but Fuquan and they chased them from behind, but they didn't find Gan Ning's figure in any team of brocade thieves at all, this is too incredible, right?

After thinking about it, Fu Quan still decided to personally investigate the pair of arrested brocade thieves, and the six waves of brocade thieves he hunted down in the past were all questioned by him one by one after they were surrendered and arrested.

Naturally, there are righteous people among these thieves, although they surrendered, but they will not leak the news of their brothers, like this kind of thief Fu Quan admired it very much in his heart, and did not deliberately embarrass him. After all, there are people who value righteousness and trust, but there are also many people who have backbones in the back of their heads, and there will always be people who will be traitors, no, he only needs to pay a little price and ask those who are not strong-willed.

In the previous life, Fuquan saw such a sentence, loyalty is just that the chips you give for betrayal are not enough, in other words, only the chips you put in for betrayal are enough, and you will always let the other party betray, and often the other party can't betray, it's just that you can't afford to give the price that can make the other party's heart move.

Take people on foot, walk to the mountainside, only to see a dilapidated and dilapidated temple in front of you. The courtyard was covered with snow, and there seemed to be nothing in the white expanse, and it was vaguely possible to think that this temple would not be open except for some weeds on a snow-free day.

There was a well under a withered old locust tree, and the wooden ban covered with snow that had been found out of nowhere had been covered with snow, and beside the wellhead were four thieves in brocade clothes who had been seized by the officers and soldiers and tied by them with ropes. Behind them was an officer and soldier who kept a close eye on them, and if they made any changes, they were killed on the spot.

At this time, an officer dressed as a tun commander walked quickly, carrying a pile of baggage in his hand, and said respectfully to Fu Quan: "Return to the prince, this is the burden carried by the thief." ”

Taking the burden, Fu Quan hurriedly glanced at it, and after finding that there was nothing unusual, he opened it. There are four of these burdens, and there is nothing special in them, just like the brocade thieves he captured in the previous six waves, in addition to the usual clothes, there are only the "passes" they use to pass, and the brocade clothes that can prove their identities and have blood stains.

Of course, the identity content on the "biography" is certainly not the true identity of these people, even if they begin to deny it in every possible way, thinking that they can get away with it by relying on this "biography", but not to mention that their bloody brocade clothes are not just a sentence "It happens that the clothes are stained with blood" can be clearly explained, not to mention that among these people, the portrait of one person happens to be on the wanted list of the official army, and no matter how much they want to quibble, they can't match this evidence.

After checking the baggage, Fu Quan did not immediately interrogate the thieves, but took people into the deserted temple to take a look, saying that he would not find other clues. The deserted temple is built on the mountain, this mountain is not a big mountain, and the place on the mountainside is not very wide, so this temple is only a house with a stone statue of the god in addition to the courtyard that I saw at the entrance of Fuquan just now.

Entering the small temple, a faint damp musty smell came from the nose, showing how long the house had not been inhabited, but fortunately it was winter, but the smell was not big. However, if you think about it from another perspective, since this deserted temple can emit a damp musty smell in winter, it can be seen that the years of desertion here must be not small, and perhaps only occasionally passers-by who come here, settle down to rest, and spend the night coming here.

The small temple is full of dust, the broken wall is cold, there is a statue in the middle, the statue is covered with a thick layer of spider webs, I don't know if these brocade thieves do not believe in the gods in this temple, enter the deserted temple, and do not wipe off the dirty dust and spider webs on the body of this god.

Since ancient times, there have been people who have a country and a family, all of them have built temples and established shrines, and the barren temples in the deep mountains of Ba County naturally have to worship a god. In front of the statue of the god in the main hall, there is a faintly visible handwriting on the god card, on the book six characters "Erlang Zhenjun God Position", with a sharp knife engraved on the wooden god card, this temple ** Feng is no one else, it is Ba County, Shuzhong, the entire Sichuan and Shu region oral "Guan Kou Erlang".

In the pre-Qin Warring States period, Qin destroyed Bashu, incorporated the fertile land of Bashu into the territory, and then in order to turn the land of Bashu into his own rear granary, he ordered Li Bing, the Taishou of Shu County, to build Dujiangyan. During his tenure, Li Bing led the people to build Dujiangyan, whose merits stretched for hundreds of years, making the land of Sichuan and Shu "the land of abundance, fertile fields for thousands of miles", and even today, Dujiangyan still plays an important role in irrigation and flood control in Shu today.

Guan Kou Erlang, the former Qin minister, the second son of Li Bing, the Taishou of Shu County, is called "Guan Kou Erlang" because of his second ranking. In the folklore of Shuzhong, the Erlang Temple of Guankou was the temple of Li Bing because of the meritorious work of opening the pile, and in the huge project of Dujiangyan, Li Bing's second son "Erlang" had the great merit of assisting his father to dig away from the pile and open the Erjiang River, so he was worshiped by the people as a god.

In the Sichuan and Shu area, especially in the shrine of Shu County, because of the reason that "Li Jiaerlang helped his father to dig away from the pile and open the second river", many ancestral halls worship his people, which is a typical representative of being born as a famous minister and dying as a god.

Legend has it that Guan Kou Erlang, born with three pupils, can suppress all the charms and spirits, demons and monsters, and can bless the people from floods, and at the same time can bring a bumper harvest, Fuquan does not know that this is the superstitious brainwashing of the self-consolation of the people of Sichuan and Shu, or the remembrance of the feat of the predecessors who built this immortal feat, anyway, he came to Yizhou to see the temple of "Guan Kou Erlang" to worship the shrine is very much, but like the dilapidated and barren temple shrine seen today, it is the first time he has seen it since he entered Shu.

Looking up, the main hall in the temple, behind the god card, the stone statue of "Guan Kou Erlang" located on the throne of the god has three pupils, the head is with a fan cloud crown, the water suit, the waist is tied with silk, the feet are on the hemp shoes, the left hand holds the plow, the right hand is waved out, the robe sleeves are bulging with the wind, the eyes are blazing, the spirit is flying, and it reproduces the majestic posture of leading the people of Shu County to dig Dujiangyan. The statue is made of coarse granite stone, the image of the god is simple and solemn, just like the folk customs of the land of Sichuan and Shu, which makes people reverie that when the incense of this temple is prosperous, how many simple people of Sichuan and Shu come to see the spectacular scene.

Before Fuquan could make any moves at this time, Yang Hong, the superintendent of the post who accompanied him, had already taken the lead in stepping forward, ordering someone to find a coarse cloth and wash the dirt on the statue of "Guan Kou Erlang" with the snow outside the house. Then, Yang Hong paid homage to this Guan Kou Erlang, and then, not only Yang Hong alone, but almost all the people around Fuquan devoutly paid homage to this "Guan Kou Erlang", which shows how much the Shu civil and military forces around Fuquan worship this "Guan Kou Erlang".

Everyone around him is like this, although Fu Quan himself does not believe in gods and ghosts and superstitions in these ways, but he has crossed over and is a bit, and he can't tell the way. Seeing that everyone was like this, Fuquan himself couldn't help but follow the crowd, and couldn't help but bow to everyone at a glance.

After saluting, Fu Quan led people to look around, although they also knew in their hearts that there was not much chance of finding clues here, but they still couldn't help but search. However, the result is obvious, except for the few brocade thieves who made a fire to cook water and cook rice, as well as a sleeping place, and some new traces in this temple, no other clues have been found.

In the end, Fu Quan had to order someone to bring the four brocade thieves and interrogate them again. After a while, the bound hands of those people, pulled by the soldiers, reluctantly walked in.

Walking up to a few people, Fu Quan asked, "Can you see Gan Ninghu?" ”

The four of them were silent, they didn't speak, only one of them kept shaking his head when he didn't speak, Fu Quan saw that the three people next to the person saw this person's appearance, and their eyes showed a burst of disdain. He knew that the brocade-clothed thief who couldn't stand the questioning and confided the truth just now from the soldier must be this person.

Waving his hand to take the three people away, Fu Quan planned to question this person, not that the three would not reveal the truth if they were interrogated harshly, just because Fu Quan knew that the three of them really did not know Gan Ning's whereabouts. The expressions of these three people, he has seen many times, the first six waves of captured brocade thieves, when he asked where Gan Ning went, the brocade thieves who had been gritting their teeth and not opening their mouths were exactly the same as these three people, that is to say, if he asked again, it would be in vain, even if they spoke, they would not tell Fuquan Gan Ning's whereabouts, because they didn't know at all.

The reason why the person who left this opening at this moment was mainly that Fu Quan planned to find out about Gan Ning by asking for other clues, since it was a dead end to ask directly, then he would ask in another way. He didn't believe that Gan Ning hid his whereabouts so thoroughly, through interrogation a few times ago, Fu Quan learned that these brocade thieves had been hiding in the Gan family manor outside Linjiang City when they came, so the government searched everywhere and found no trace of the brocade thieves, after all, unless the Gan family reported to the official themselves, who else could enter the Gan family manor that was strictly blocked and protected, and knew that there was a brocade thief hidden by the Gan family?

Putting these aside for the time being, Fu Quan's purpose in asking for other clues was that he didn't believe that since Gan Ning had been together with these thieves before he fled, it was impossible for him not to leak anything about it. As long as there is a clue, Fuquan will definitely try his best to find it.

At this moment, Fu Quan's heart faintly had some bad guesses, this Gan Ning may have played a trick again, maybe he let his brocade thieves disguise themselves to escape to Jiangzhou is a trick, in fact, he himself did not flee to Jiangzhou at all, but escaped in another direction alone. As for where to go, or went to Hanzhong County, or left Yizhou, went to Jingzhou by taking the mountain road alone, and so on.

In other words, Gan Ning once again played a trick of "hiding from the world", but this time he played it bigger. He used the power of the brocade thieves under his command for several years, and used the number of them who escaped in batches to confuse the government, and used the two hundred brocade thieves as a shield and a kind of bargaining chip in exchange for his chance to successfully escape.

Losing pawns to protect the car, a tactic that generals like to use the most, but this time there are more pawns.

Of course, how Gan Ning hid and escaped, Fuquan is unknown, these are just speculations, so at this time, finding other valuable clues has become a top priority, the top priority. 21010