Zhao Heishan, who gritted his teeth, scolded like a poisonous curse for a while, and then gradually calmed down, and pulled the bloodstained thin monkey over, "You stay, now turn around and enter the city, check for Lao Tzu, see which hero met us, Lao Tzu won't be so calculated,"

"Yes, the little one understands, and he must check it out," also a skinny monkey with a sulky belly, grinning and reassuring; The big boss pulled at his wounds, he didn't dare to complain, but he was willing to find the opponent who had a black hand to vent his anger.

Holding the twenty taels of silver given by the big boss, the thin monkey asked the horse thief to wrap his wounds, and then handed back the short fire/spear thunder in his hand, and then returned along the same road; Cao Shangfei led a dozen of his men and walked to the place where the horses were hidden in the distance.

Qin Shi and his entourage left the Tian family compound, turned around a few times along the alley, and approached the city wall on the south bank near the river; During the day, the place he observed to go out of the city was actually a distance of more than ten zhang from the place where they flew on the grass, and this was also the weak point of the patrol of the garrison sergeant.

Qin Shi, who was checking the head of the city with a shimmer mirror, looked to the right coldly, and found that there were more than a dozen black shadows, shaking a few times on the city wall, and then disappeared, and suddenly struck a spirit, "It can't be those people who ran out of the Wang family, right?" Looks like a horse thief,"

Qin Shi was very surprised that the horse thief dared to enter the city so boldly to patronize the Wang family, you must know that this Gansu town has thousands of border troops, and there are several thousands of households around, and they can rush to support at any time.

"Really?" A trace of doubt flashed in his head, he was not good at thinking, he shook his head and stopped thinking about it, it was very uncomfortable to use his brain too much, so he could go back and report to the hundred households.

After staring at the city for a while, the black shadow disappeared, and he didn't see any patrolling sergeants passing by, Qin Shi felt that there was something strange inside, but if he followed to catch the ride, he would be happy.

When the group touched the river, Qin Shi sent two sergeants to cross the river and investigate the situation along the foot of the city wall; After waiting for a cup of tea, the wet sergeant came back, "Flag officer, there is a collapsed gap there, it is only repaired with bricks and wood, the guards are not there, it is no problem to climb the city wall from there, there are no soldiers on the wall,"

"That's right, this thief is not simple, and it is not necessary to have an internal response," Qin Shishi, who sneered twice, suddenly noticed that there were still people from the Tian family around him, touched his head in embarrassment, and waved his big hand, "Go, cross the river, and protect Miss Tian,"

Although Qin Shi's muttering voice was not loud, in this quiet night, Tian Xiuxiu still heard his words clearly, and his face changed very bad for a while, but fortunately, he still ran away for now, but he didn't say much.

Tian Xiuxiu, who was wearing a field uniform that was two sizes larger and did not smear grass juice on his face, was silently driven by two strong sergeants, and crossed the river about a foot wide; I didn't care about the sergeants of Xiaoju, and I took my arm and followed, and the maid who was soaked with a soaking lower body scolded the tall sergeant in my heart.

Ascending the city wall, sure enough, the two thick ropes tied to the women's wall were still there, and the sergeants, who were not polite at all, went down two first to spread the guard, and the rest tied Tian Xiuxiu's waist with ropes, and Qin Shishi handed her a pair of tattered sheepskin gloves.

"Put it on, otherwise your hands will wear out," helping Tian Xiuxiu put on her gloves, Qin Shishi grinned, "Miss Tian, you just hold the rope, look up with your eyes, don't care about the rest, remember not to shout,"

Putting the two women down, Qin Shi, who had wasted almost half an hour, finally jumped down, although he was dissatisfied with these two big families who exclaimed in a low voice, he only raised his eyebrows; Following the ropes left by the thief in the trench, they came to the barren meadow outside the city.

Taking a breath, Qin Shi didn't dare to stay for a long time, and after asking the two women, the whole team was about to leave.

At this moment, the two sergeants who were guarding the front suddenly collapsed, and then sank into the knee-high barren grass; Qin Shishi, who noticed the abnormal situation, hurriedly pulled Tian Xiuxiu to squat in the artemisia grass, "Silence, don't speak,"

The two well-trained sergeants beside him also pressed Xiao Ju's shoulders and quietly squatted down, holding the fire/gun in their arms.

Soon, a sergeant dragged the whimpering horse thief thin monkey to Qin Shishi, shook off his dirty hair, and stepped on his body with a big foot, "Flag officer, this thing sneakily wanted to hide just now, and the small one was caught,"

A heavy bag of broken silver, as well as a sheathed dagger, was thrown in front of the thin monkey's eyes.

The thin monkey with a rag in his mouth twisted his body with his hands scratching around, but the big foot on his back was so strong that he couldn't even breathe, and hummed in vain, and the wound opened directly.

Qin Shishi stepped forward, didn't look at the money bag on the ground, grabbed the thin monkey's bun, lifted it up fiercely, and stared at this guy with gunpowder on his face, "Hehe, good boy, don't you have a lot of courage, you just ran out of the Tian family's compound, what's the matter, you still want to go back and walk around?" ”

The strong smell of gunpowder smoke on the horse thief thin monkey has not dissipated until now, these sergeants from Orion, anyone can smell it when they close their eyes, this guy must be the group of people who went out of the city just now, but I don't know why they came back again.

The thin monkey, with a little blood on his scalp, was so pained that his eyebrows and eyes were pressed together, and he was forced to raise his neck high, and whined without a sound; The oily rag in his mouth was pulled off, and the thing was panting heavily.

"Say, who are you, why did you go to the Tian family compound? There is only one chance," After speaking, Qin Shi threw down this embarrassed guy, glanced at the sergeant who was approaching, and took Tian Xiuxiu and the two of them directly to the front and waited.

The next scene will be a little bloody, especially the black hand whose words don't count, Qin Shishi doesn't want Tian Xiuxiu to see it all, then his image in Miss Tian's heart is even worse; You must know that this is the concubine room of a hundred households, and it is related to your future status in front of a hundred households, and you must take good care of it along the way, not to mention, even your image cannot be too bad.

The two sergeants, who picked up the money bags on the ground, pulled the thin monkey with a smile and hid in the grass; The 100 households stipulate that when they go out for tasks, they don't have to hand over the piecemeal seizures below 50 taels, and they can be regarded as having a good deal.

As for the dagger, the flag officer stepped on it as he left, and they looked good, so they stopped moving.

In the grass, after being cut off by a sharp knife, the thin monkey couldn't stand the questioning, and quickly confided his identity, but the name he hoped to survive made the sergeant cut off his way out; "What are you flying on the grass? I haven't heard it," the words landed, and a sharp knife quickly slammed into his heart.

Dropping the body of the thin monkey, the sergeant lifted his feet and left; Not far away, a figure squatting in the shadows, as if rubbed into the grass, did not move for a long time, until the slight footsteps in the distance left, then slowly dived over, looked at the thin monkey's gradually cold body, snorted, and slowly retreated to the north.

Without touching any trace on the ground, the black shadow silently followed Qin Shi and them, hanging far away.

When the day was about to dawn, Qin Shi and the others had already gone out of the city for thirty miles, and if it weren't for the two weak women who needed to rest from time to time, it would have been very easy to rush to the two remaining sergeants.

The sergeant who caught up reported that the guy who turned around and returned was a subordinate of the horse thief Cao Shangfei, and his mission was to go back to the city to find out the news, and to find out which force had also been involved in the Tian family compound.

"Hehe, the original grass flying, this name is very ugly," Qin Shishi, who couldn't say the word elegant, now that he knew the details of the other party, he didn't pay attention to it anymore. Flying on the grass is very famous in the area of Gansu Town, Qin Shi has vaguely heard of it, but he has not remembered it at all.

In Gansu Town, there is still no sign of the city gate opening after dawn, and the caravan vendors who go out of the city and enter the city, looking at the large army of soldiers with knives and guns on the city wall, can only mutter a few times without anger, and obediently wait for the city gate to open.

In the courtyard of the Tian family, in the main hall, on the mahogany chair next to the table of the Eight Immortals, Tian Xiuxiu's father, Tian Mengjia, sat upright with a gloomy face, and a wisp of gray beard on his chin moved without wind, showing his inner irritability.

On the left hand sat three old men of the Tian family, and on the right hand were several core members of the Tian family, Tian Xiuxiu's second uncle Tian Guangcheng was impressively listed.

At the top of the guest seat, sitting is Huang Changzu, the young master of the Huang family, and sitting below is Jiang Jie, the commander of the capital sent by the Wei Command Envoy.

Jiang Jie, the commander of the commander of the envoy in the Si Yali, the commander of the Tongzhi stationed in Wuguan Town, and the commander of the city and the responsibility of guarding the city, was unfortunately supervised by the patrol and survey of the soldiers last night, and as a result, he encountered a disaster that happened to the Tian family.

In the silent main hall of the main hall, "Deng Dengdeng," at the steps of the gate, the Tian family's chief butler hurriedly walked in, bowed to the patriarch headed by him, and said, "Patriarch, the villain has been counted, the family guards have suffered thirty-one casualties, and there are eight corpses of thieves, looking like horse thieves on the grassland,"

As he spoke, the housekeeper presented a sheathed dagger with both hands, "This is a sharp weapon found by the guards when they searched outside the city, and there is a corpse next to it, identified by the old man in the yamen, it is a subordinate of Caoshangfei, but the young lady is nowhere to be found." ”

The solemn guard on the side came up, took the dagger in the butler's hand, and stepped forward to put it on the table next to Tian Mengjia.

"Cough, Jiang Yanshi," Tian Mengjia pinched the armrests with both hands, his half-jaw eyes slowly opened, and he didn't look at the things on the table, "My Tian family has been operating in Gansu Town for decades, and this time I encountered a big disaster, my beloved maid disappeared, and I was in a hurry but there was rudeness, and I still hope for Haihan,"

Needless to say, the horse thief can enter the city, and he Jiang Jie is directly responsible, but the strangeness revealed in this makes Tian Mengjia very angry, and he has been looking at Jiang Jie coldly just now, which is also a pressure on the officials and soldiers.

However, the horse thief's ability to easily enter the compound, and the fact that he could find the family's money cellar mechanism, as well as the gunpowder/gun, and the explosion of gunpowder, could not help but make him angry; The four thieves who were obviously killed by arrows, although the arrows were missing, they had been identified by the guards as arrows fired by the crossbows of the continuous army.

In other words, it was not only the horse thieves who sneaked into the Tian family's compound last night, but thinking of this, Tian Mengjia couldn't sit still; What is it that can make two ruthless thieves target their family.

Out of the corner of his eye, casually swept over Huang Changzu, who was under him, Tian Mengjia secretly guessed.

There was such a dynamic fire/shootout at the Tian family, and he didn't understand why the officers and soldiers patrolling the city were late. However, the final result is that the daughter who is about to get married disappears with the maid in an unknown way, and the thief escapes easily.

As for the little silver taels lost in the money cellar, Tian Mengjia didn't see it yet.

"Hehe, Brother Tian, I'm also in a hurry," Jiang Jie shook his head tiredly, "Si Yali received news a few days ago that a group of horse thieves were going to enter the city from the southwest to plunder, and the subordinates of the lower officials also discovered their spies in the south of the city, who would have thought, they actually played a hand to attack the west, the team of men and horses were on guard in the south of the city, and the northwest city wall was slack,"

While speaking, Jiang Jie inadvertently floated Huang Changzu opposite, the young master of the Huang family, shaking the silk paper fan, as if he was listening attentively, and he didn't seem to care at all, just to comfort him.

The day before yesterday, Huang Changzu sent his henchmen to find him and asked him to ask his subordinates to get out of the way of the military post at the corner of the southeast city wall at the specified time last night, and the time was until dawn, and he complied, but he didn't expect such a big thing to happen.

"Then, I hope that Lord Jiang can take pity on the misery of those two women and add more people to investigate," Tian Mengjia, who had dry lips, although he had sent most of the guards to search in the city with the officials and soldiers, the anger in his stomach was still uncomfortably tight in his chest.

"Xia Guan knows that Xia Guan will personally lead the team, and he will definitely turn all over the city upside down, and he will also find Miss Tian Jia," Jiang Jie got up, replied solemnly, arched his hands, and left the hall quickly.

"Oh, Uncle Tian, the little nephew was ordered to come, but there is a sending, my Huang family will not sit idly by," Jiang Jie left, Huang Changzu put away the fan snapped, stood up calmly, and arched his hand, "Although the official army and the yamen have sent out personnel to investigate, but our merchants have encountered such a disaster, and we must work together to protect ourselves,"

Flying on the grass and robbing the Tian family's money cellar at night was just a matter arranged by Huang Changzu, trying to find some trouble for the Tian and Wang families before they got married; Unexpectedly, Zhao Heishan was so bold that he actually touched Miss Tian's family, which made Huang Changzu take a high look at this horse thief.

Thinking about Tian Xiuxiu's robbery and the failure of the marriage between Tian Wang's two families, Huang Changzu was faintly excited in his heart, but it was a pity that he was a little tender and tender; How can a woman who falls into the hands of a horse thief be spared to keep her innocence?

No, after the Tian family's disaster broke out last night, the Wang family quickly sent a steward to hear that Tian Xiuxiu was robbed, and even the Wang family's chief housekeeper has not shown up until now.

On the first day of the next month, there are only a few days left, and the marriage of the two families of Tian Wang in Gansu Town has made the Tian family publicized, and even Tian Mengjia, who has lived in Taiyuan City for a long time, came early, but he encountered such an embarrassing thing.

Huang Changzu's words, although Tian Mengjia didn't hate and felt comfortable, Tian Guangcheng nodded frequently, and sighed very much, "Yes, the horse thief is so bold that he actually enters and leaves the city as if he were walking on the ground, and the officials and soldiers are also unreliable, what Young Master Huang said is reasonable,"

Even a few members of the Tian family who were sitting on the side nodded secretly, and they didn't see that their own money cellars were touched in, but fortunately, the recast silver melon was inconvenient to carry and was given up by the thieves, otherwise the loss would be great.

"Okay, let's talk about the matter in front of me first, Huang family boy, old man, thank you Tian family for your help, this time Cao Shangfei dares to attack my Tian family, then I am not welcome, the Tian family has a reward of 10,000 taels of silver, hang the head of the red grass and its accomplices, find the whereabouts of Xiuxiu, and reward 1,000 taels of silver,"

Tian Mengjia can be in charge of the Tian family's business and mines for more than ten years, and the background is still quite strong, and the family members who only manage a few workshop businesses, including Tian Guangcheng, who participated in the business, dare not show his prestige for the patriarch's decision.

This kind of slap in the face happened at home last night, and his daughter's whereabouts are unknown at the same time. However, he now has more important things on his hands that make him unable to separate.

Taking advantage of this happy event of marriage with the Wang family, Tian Mengjia personally came to Gansu Town, the main target is the Persian shops in the back mountain of Shiguantun, if you can ask the Persians to transfer the shops to Gansu Town, or even Taiyuan Mansion, it will be better.

Perhaps, the current Wang family and the Huang family's talkers took advantage of this opportunity early to go to the workshop in the back mountain of Shiguantun, and even, several other major merchants will shamelessly stick to the past; Otherwise, in front of me now, at least those old guys are sitting here watching their own jokes.

Thinking of this, Tian Mengjia felt a stumble in his heart, he had to deal with this matter immediately, and he had to go to the Persian shop.

For a time, the hanging red notice posted by the Tian family caused an uproar in Gansu Town, not only the officials were scurrying like wolves, but some people in the border army were ready to move, and the surrounding swordsmen also rushed here.

The businesses of the Huang and Wang families in Gansu Town immediately posted a large reward of 1,000 taels to support the Tian family, and by the way, the Tian family owed a small favor.

As for the other three major merchants, because the focus of business was not in the northwest, they did not show up to join in, but the parents of each family sent their henchmen to visit Tian's house in the afternoon.

Gansu Town, which was stirred up by a group of soldiers, government servants, and Tian Jiajia guards in black, was lively for several days, and then gradually settled down, but Miss Tian and her maid did not find a shadow in the end.

In the woods southwest of Wuguan Town, Qin Shishi and his entourage met with the two sergeants who stayed behind on the second day, seven people and two women, dressed up in the cloth of the local villagers, led two mules and horses, and joined a group of individual packers who went out.

Although he faintly felt that someone was watching him, Qin Shishi secretly observed left and right for a long time, and found no abnormality, so he also pressed his mood.

The road strip has been registered in the Gansu Town Inn, and it has been destroyed by Qin Shi, but as long as you have silver in your hand at this time, it is not difficult to get the road strip or something. In the team of retail merchants, when Qin Shi found the merchant who took the lead, he secretly stuffed a piece of silver into it, and the road strip of Shaye County with the names of seven strangers written on it arrived in his hands.

Buying a carriage, five mules and horses, plus more than a dozen stones of grain, the silver in Qin Shishi's arms was almost spent.

When the news of Wuguan Town came, after the traces of a group of horse thieves flying on the grass were found in a mountain village, the soldiers and servants in Gansu Town and Wuguan Town, as well as hundreds of scattered swordsmen, all focused their attention on that small mountain village; No one would have thought that a team of packers who were passing outside the city of Wuguan Town, and Tian Xiuxiu and her maid were sitting in the carriage inside.

Approaching Qingfeng Valley, as the brigade was resting on the side of the road, Qin Shi found a rude-looking subordinate, and after some threats, the young man aggrievedly changed into a big red sleeve skirt, a beard with black stubble on his mouth, and sat in the carriage with a butt.

"Xiaodao, you can come down after you pass the pass, remember, three hundred big sons, you earn too easily," Qin Shishi, who held back a smile, pushed the sergeant into the carriage, and faced Tian Xiuxiu and Xiaoju, who were dressed as two family members beside him, "After passing the pass today, then we will basically get home,"

In the afternoon, the caravan entered the valley, paid the tax and silver, and then went out to the grassland; As long as they don't carry controlled materials such as iron tools, even if there is more grain and tea in the caravan, the officers and soldiers in the checkpoint will not care, after all, they will have more oil and water if they have business.

Of course, several carriages with sheds were the focus of strict investigation by the officers and soldiers, and an officer who was careful and responsible put his head into the carriage and saw a strong woman with stubble inside, smiled slightly, and immediately vomited.

On the contrary, it was the two handsome housekeepers beside the carriage, their faces dirty, and no one cared; Miss Tian came from a big family, and no one would have thought that she would change her dress up and stay with her vulgar subordinates.

The next day, Shanshan, the guard sent by the Tian family, came to the Qingfeng Valley checkpoint, and when they were guarding the checkpoint, Qin Shi, who had already passed the pass, had already rushed to the depths of the grassland; The horse team was guarding the carriage in the middle, and Tian Xiuxiu and Xiaoju were looking at the green grassland around them curiously from the window.

The two of them were wearing the same earthy green field uniforms as Qin Shi, and the thick clothes were a little hot in summer, but they were quite practical in the cold grassland in the morning and evening.

In the Gobi Desert, just as they were about to turn to the direction of Bailong Lake, standing on a high ground, Qin Shi took a telescope and looked around for a while, and then took the horse team down the high ground.

In the pile of rubbles more than 800 meters away from the high ground, a small man dressed in an earthy gray short beat, his head covered with dust slowly showed his head, looked at the high ground for a long time, and then got up and touched it.

When he came to the high ground, he looked at the horseshoe prints on the ground, and the little man was half-squatting, looking up at the west, and if he didn't look at it, he almost screamed in fright.

On the gentle slope to the west of the heights, a team of horses swung away, guarding the wagon, and a long line of sergeants pulled out from north to south, sitting on horses with fire/guns, and the muzzles of their guns pointed at the high ground.

"Oh," the little man with a gray face, his voice stuck in his throat, his eyes rolled awkwardly, it was not that he didn't want to run, he could see the shadow of a sergeant in the right and left directions; Needless to say, behind him, people probably surrounded him.

Besides, the water bag on his body is empty, even if he runs, can he outrun the horse? Can you overrun/gun projectiles?

"Gotta get it," Qin Shi, who was riding on a horse, with a fire/gun hanging on the saddle, shook the reins and drove the horse up to the high ground, stopping in front of the little man, carrying a jet-black revolver.

"I'll just say, Lao Tzu's eyelids are jumping vigorously, it turns out that someone is really following," Qin Shi pouted, and pressed the machine spring with his thumb clicking, "Boy, you are not small, you have run hard enough along the way,"

Looking at the silent little man, Qin Shishi knew that this guy was definitely a hard stone, and the horse thief couldn't compare, at least, he couldn't ask anything.

"It's good, but it's just with the wrong person," Speaking of this, Qin Shishi raised his gun, pointed at the little man's head, and squinted at this rather ordinary-looking guy, "You can die,"

"Peng," a dull gunshot rang out, and the little man fell back sharply and fell to the ground, his chapped lips half-open, and after a few convulsions, he was dead.

A sergeant jumped off the horse, stepped forward to search the side, from the small man's belt lining pit, tore the cloth layer, turned out a palm-sized paulownia oil plate, the sauce red front engraved a pair of facing pig nose faucets, four claw patterns on both sides, which is engraved in block letters "Jinyi Wei Lieutenant, Zhang Ermu", and the back seal is engraved with the words "Gan Wei Ling".

Others, the sergeant didn't find anything to identify himself, so he threw the body on the ground, "Flag officer, there's only a broken sign,"

"Well, let's go," he glanced at the wooden card, although he didn't know much about it, but the three words of Jinyiwei still made Qin Shishi's heart jump suddenly, and his eyes widened.

Qin Shi solemnly put the sign in his arms and led the team to continue on the road; Even if they have umbrellas, there are many poisonous insects in the Gobi Desert, so it is better to leave as soon as possible.

Riding on a horse and heading west, the more Qin Shi thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong, how did that inconspicuous little man keep up all the way, even if he used a telescope, he didn't see the shadow of a horse behind him, it was simply evil.

Qin Shishi, who was a little uncertain, led the team around the Gobi Desert in a big circle, kept holding monoculars, observing the movements around him, and finally, in the afternoon, he ordered the team to rest temporarily.

At night, gusts of wind blew away the clouds in the sky, taking advantage of the hazy moonlight, with the convenience of the glimmer mirror in hand, the horse team that hurried overnight quickly crossed the Gobi Desert and went straight to the grassland due north.

In the desolate Gobi Desert, a carriage was abandoned alone.