When you make a decision, the next thought will often overturn your decision completely. Before Ma Hong could make a decision, someone forced him to make a decision again.

Before Ma Hong went downstairs, the shopkeeper of the inn ran up with a letter and handed it to Ma Hong, and the shopkeeper's face was ugly, perhaps because his face was not washed. Ma Hong is not a woman and does not stare at a man's face, especially a not very good-looking face, and he took the letter.

The shopkeeper's voice was a little undulating: "This letter was handed to me by a strong man, saying that he wanted me to hand it over to the guest officer. ”

Ma Hong sighed and asked, "Then why are you so nervous?" ”

The shopkeeper said: "There is a cross drawn on this letter, I think it may be that you have something to do with you, guest officer." ”

Ma Hong smiled, opened the letter, and saw a familiar font, the letter was still written by Liu Ye, it seems that Liu Ye was very unlucky, and he got into trouble.

The letter reads: As soon as I walked two miles out of the city gate, I saw ten poplar trees, and I met a gang of robbers, who robbed me of my belongings, and now they have seized me again, and you and Liu Sanwu have brought twenty yuan to redeem me. Today, I took Liu Sanwu and Qian to the small river in the east of the city. [Time: 05:00-07:00]

Who is Liu Sanwu? Ma Hong asked the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, what is your surname?" ”

The shopkeeper hurriedly replied: "Don't be expensive, the surname is Wang." ”

Ma Hong nodded and asked, "So what is the second surname?" ”

The shopkeeper said: "Also surnamed Wang." ”

Ma Hong nodded and said, secretly saying in his heart: Then Senior Brother is going to tell me that there are twenty-one robbers? Because of these ten poplar trees, there is no need to write it. [The sixth word of the first sentence of the letter, the third word of the second sentence, and the fifth word of the third sentence.] 】

Tell me the number of robbers, and write the words so distorted, do you want to tell me that there will be twists and turns? Won't the robbers keep their promises? Thinking about it, Senior Brother Ziyang, who killed someone at the age of thirteen, would not have trembling hands like this, and he couldn't even write well, Ma Hong said secretly in his heart.

When the shopkeeper Wang saw Ma Hong holding the letter silently, he asked tentatively, "What happened to the guest officer?" ”

Ma Hong closed the letter and asked rhetorically, "How did the store know?" ”

The shopkeeper said: "There is a cross drawn on this envelope, and our horse bandits in Xiling have a rule, after they have kidnapped pedestrians, they will detain them, and then hand a letter to their family members to pay a ransom. A cross will be drawn on the envelope. ”

Ma Hong nodded and said, "Well, it's a trivial matter, don't bother the store." ”

The shopkeeper saw that Ma Hong didn't want to listen to him, so he retreated. After Ma Hong saw the shopkeeper Wang leave, he instructed Ma San: "Ma San, pack up, let's change to an inn to discuss countermeasures." ”

Although Ma San didn't understand why Gongzi wanted to change the inn, he didn't ask, because he liked the word "consultation" that Gongzi said very much, and in addition to his own son, how many masters would discuss things with his servants.

Half an hour later, Ma Hong and the others found an inn again, this time Ma Hong asked Ma San to recruit Ma Wu and Ma Liu, and everyone closed the doors and windows to discuss countermeasures in the house.

Ma San asked, "Why did Childe want to change the inn?" Is there any reason for this? ”

Ma Hong nodded and said: "There is a certain reason, Ma San, you have a good brain, let me talk about my analysis, you can see if there are any loopholes." ”

Ma San nodded.

"You also know that Liu Ye left last night when he was a child, and the letter said that he had just walked two miles out of the city when he met horse bandits. Isn't this too coincidental, not to mention how dedicated the horse bandits are, and when they arrive at the time (23:00-1:00), they don't sleep, but hide at the intersection and wait for someone. Ma Hong paused here and looked at Ma Wudao: "Old Five, did you not sleep in the middle of the night when you were a rogue, and did you wait for someone at the intersection?" ”

After Ma Wu listened to Ma Hong's words, his pupils dimmed for a moment and gradually shrank, obviously reminiscing. Ma Wu recalled for a while before he said, "Basically, no, unless you ......"

Ma San asked, "Unless what?" ”

Ma Wu said: "Unless we get information from the informant in advance, we will block people." ”

"In this way, does Childe suspect that Liu Ye was kidnapped and betrayed by the store?"

Ma San said with a look of surprise.

"I think it's possible." After Ma Hong answered Ma San's words, he continued to ask Ma Wu: "Old Wu, you continue to talk about it, who are your informants?" ”

Ma Wudao: "Most of them are our own brothers, and there are other people, but we also cooperate with other people, most of them are people from some teahouses or post houses, they provide news, and we pay them." ”

Ma Hong nodded, and asked again, "Is there any collusion with officials, such as the guards at the city gate?" ”

Ma Wu shook his head.

Ma Hong nodded, took a sip of bitter tea from the tea bowl, paused for a while, and said: "Then now, we can basically speculate on three possibilities for Liu Ye to be tied up, first, he was betrayed by the inn's junior second or shopkeeper, because the junior second or the shopkeeper must have gone to establish a good relationship with the guards at the city gate in advance and set a time to leave the city." So which city gate Liu Ye went out of the city, and when he went out of the city, he was obtained by the kidnappers. This is a sixty percent likelihood; Second, after the city gate guards got the news, they betrayed the news to the kidnappers, which accounts for 20% of the possibility, because the city gate guards don't know the value of the news, because they don't know whether Liu Ye is a rich man; Thirdly, the kidnappers, the gate guards and the shopkeepers are all in the same line, and they are all in a cooperative relationship, which accounts for half of the possibility; ”

At this time, Ma Liu, who had not spoken, asked, "Childe, what about the remaining half of it?" ”

Ma Hong smiled and said, "Little Liuzi, yes, it will count." ”

Ma Liuhan smiled and heard Ma Hongdao: The remaining half is Liu Ye's luck, if he is really unlucky, then there is no way.

Ma Hong teased Ma Liu, and said: "Ma San, call me senior brother in the future, don't talk about that kid, don't call him by his name, so that now when I speak, I also call him by his name, this is very impolite, understand?" ”

Ma San nodded and rubbed his hands.

Ma Hong continued: "There are two pieces of news on Senior Brother Liu's letter, first, there are a total of twenty-one kidnappers, and second, Senior Brother Liu also passed on a very dangerous number to us: fourteen. What do you think we should do? [Liu Sanwu, six plus five plus three equals fourteen. 】

Fourteen, fourteen, Ma Hong is thirteen years old this year, when Ma Hong thought of the second meaning of Liu Sanwu, he knew Liu Ye's intentions, Liu Ye meant that if things are not done well and the kidnappers do not keep their promises, then Ma Hong who came to ransom people will be caught together, then Ma Hong may not live to be fourteen years old. In addition, Liu Ye specially wrote about Liu Sanwu, in which six and five are homophonic, only three is useless, three plus one is the king, and fourteen minus one is Ma Hong's age. Liu Ye also seemed to have deduced that he was betrayed by the shopkeeper Wang, so he passed the news to Ma Hong.

Ma San rubbed his hands and said, "Childe, twenty-one people, I'm afraid it's very difficult to deal with just the four of us, if we report to the official, we may hurt Liu Gongzi." I can't think of anything to do for a while? ”

Ma Wu hurriedly said: "Childe, why don't I go to the inn with Ma Liu and tie up the shopkeeper, and take him to ransom him together, how about it?" ”

Ma Hong smiled and said: "It's worthy of being a rogue, the method is good, but I'll modify it again, Ma Wu and Ma Liu, you go and inquire where the family of the shopkeeper Wang lives?" went to tie up their whole family, and if they resisted, they would be directly disabled. I think Ima Liu's brute force should do it. ”

When Ma San heard that Ma Hong was going to tie up the shopkeeper Wang's family, he was shocked: "Son, what if I tie it up wrong?" ”

Ma Hong smiled slightly and said, "I'd rather tie it up by mistake than let it go, and besides, I'm already seventy percent sure." ”

Ma Wu just said: "Childe, such a big movement, I'm afraid of alarming the government." ”

Ma Hong waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, the people from the government will help us tie people up." ”

Ma Hong has a distant cousin, surnamed Fei, named Chai, who is a county prince in Xiling City, and has an eldest son named Fei Yi under his knees.

[There may be some loopholes in Ma Hong's reasoning here, and it is not a problem now, but whether the Han Dynasty wrote with one, two, three, or with a capital one, two, three, I don't know very well. 】