Lu Jinping shook his head and said to Xiaoxiao, "Didn't you hear? They said that there were mountain demons who wanted to eat them, and that was related to the purpose of our visit, so I don't know how to do it. You don't have to follow, I'm going to go alone, and they won't do anything to me. ”

Xiaoxiao hurriedly said: "That's not good, you must not be allowed to take risks alone." ”

Lu Jinping smiled and said: "Don't worry, if they really want to riot, I can't escape anywhere, do you really think that our hundreds of people can be worth thousands of them?" What's more, there are thousands of felons in the penal colonies, and once there is a riot inside and outside, and we will not be able to escape. So listen to me, stay where you are, don't follow, I'll deal with it first. ”

With that, he walked towards the patriarch on the rock.

Ye Qingqing still wanted to follow, but Xiaoxiao stopped him, and whispered Listen to the lord's orders, what we pay attention to here is that if there is anything wrong, rush forward immediately. I'm in charge of repelling the other party, and you're in charge of protecting the prince. Ye Qingqing nodded in agreement, and then stopped.

Lu Jinping walked all the way to the bottom of the rock with his hands behind his back, turned his face, looked at the old man, and said: "Patriarch Zhang, I am the loyal prince sent by the imperial court, and I came to the exile center to investigate the matter of the mountain demon eating people. ”

When the old man heard this, this young man was actually the prince, because the matter of Lu Jinping coming to the exile was relatively secretive, and it was not publicized to the outside world, so the villagers did not know.

When Patriarch Zhang heard this, he raised his hand. As his hand was raised, the noisy villagers around him immediately fell silent, revealing the patriarch's personal prestige and organizational skills.

Patriarch Zhang looked Lu Jinping up and down, and his inquiring eyes looked at the Thorn Shi and Commander Wang in the distance.

Feng Tingshi hurriedly took a few steps forward and said loudly: "This is the loyal prince of the imperial court. You are here to investigate the cannibalism of the mountain demons in the exile center, and you must not be rude to the prince. ”

Patriarch Zhang came down from the rock. He clasped his fists and said: "It turned out to be the prince, that's right, what you say should represent the imperial court, you just say a word, do you move in exile or not?" If you don't move, we'll bomb you away. If you send troops, we'll have to fight against you. Ugly words can be said to the front, we are barefoot are not afraid of you wearing shoes, anyway, a head, whoever wants to take it. Instead of giving it to the mountain demon, it is better to fight to the death and see if it can be saved. We can't defeat the mountain demons, but the officers and soldiers have not been defeated, and everyone is flesh and blood. What's the big deal? The head fell off the bowl and there was a big scar. ”

As soon as they heard this, the people around them began to heckle again, shouting at the officers and soldiers to remove the penal colony immediately.

Looking at the patriarch who was squinting at him, a smile appeared on the corner of Lu Jinping's mouth.

This smile is neither a bully nor a flattery, just a kind of friendliness.

Lu Jinping said loudly: "Fellow villagers, I am the loyal prince, can you listen to me first?" ”

There was a penetrating power in his voice. In the noisy crowd, it clearly reached everyone's ears. Lu Jinping himself was surprised, he didn't shout this with all his strength. But in his heart, he hoped that this word could be heard by everyone, and under this psychological drive, the words that came out actually carried a strong penetrating power, piercing through all the noise.

The patriarch couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and looked at Lu Jinping again, without waiting for him to raise his hand. Lu Jinping's voice has suppressed all the villagers, especially his identity as a prince, which represents the royal family, these people will not kill officials and rebel unless they have to. They're more about trying to solve problems. It was not an uprising, so when they heard that Prince Zhong had something to say, they all quieted down and were silent for a while.

Lu Jinping said: "I just heard the patriarch talk about the mountain demon, indeed, I think you have all heard that the exile of everyone was murdered, and the legend is that the mountain demon did it." Is it that this prince is investigating, but I heard the patriarch just now say that there are people in your village who have been injured by mountain demons, and even threatened the lives of the whole village, I want to know what is going on? Can you tell us about that first? ”

The patriarch said: "The prisoners who were exiled in your penal camp were bitten to death, and we watched the excitement and thought it had nothing to do with us, but just two days ago, most of the people working outside in one of our villages were also bitten off by the mountain demons and died in the ground. The family of the villager who died tragically has been looking for him, and only found him last night, and when he told me, I knew that this matter was serious. After discussion, I came to the penal colony to discuss with you, now that the prince is here, it would be great, our request is very simple, the mountain demon must have been brought by your exile, because the mountain demon first bit the people in your penal colony, and the people in the penal colony are all criminals who have violated the king's law. The mountain demon doesn't like it, that's why he bites it to death one by one, and we villagers are affected by you, this kind of thing has never happened before, if it wasn't for the bad luck you bringed, how could it be possible to provoke the mountain demon to bite our villagers to death? Therefore, you should move out immediately, otherwise we will have to use force. That's it, okay, prince, give me a word. ”

Lu Jinping said: "Can you bring the body of the lost villager here, I will conduct an autopsy to see if it is the same as the prisoner who was bitten to death in our exile." To rule out whether it was caused by other reasons, this will be of great help to me to find out this case, whether it is a mountain demon or not, it will be clear after investigation. Don't worry, I'm with you as a prince, the mountain demon is really coming to let him bite me first, I live and die with you, what else is there to be afraid of. ”

One of the villagers shouted, "Your lives are worthless? Our lives are to support our families, and we can't afford to die, so you should move out quickly. Immediately, this sentence ignited like a spark again, and quickly burned through everyone, and they all started to coax again.

Patriarch Zhang waved his hand, and everyone fell silent.

Patriarch Zhang said: "The prince said that he wanted to investigate, of course there is no problem, bring the body here, please take a look at the prince, I will also have an explanation after reading it, don't worry." ”

The corpse had been carried with them before, and it was easier to exaggerate the atmosphere and provoke people's emotions by carrying the coffin, so the corpse was placed in a cypress coffin behind the crowd. So he immediately carried it over and placed it in the open space on both sides.

Lu Jinping stepped forward to take a closer look, the dead was an old woman, half of her head was gone, and judging from the mutilated edges, it was almost the same as the previous nine corpses, judging from the wound itself, it could be judged that it should be the same person.

Lu Jinping extracted a swab of saliva that may have remained on the edge of the corpse, and the same identification was to be made.

However, the villagers were not prepared to give him enough time to investigate, and they recognized that it was the thousands of prisoners in the penal colony who brought their bad luck. angered the mountain demon, so he was angry with the nearby villagers. By the time Lu Jinping examined the body, the villagers were already buzzing and talking. And Patriarch Zhang seemed to want to put pressure on Lu Jinping, but he didn't stop it. When Lu Jinping finished the inspection, the commotion resounded one after another through the mountains.

This patriarch Zhang is a township leader, and several nearby villages are all from the Zhang family, and only the young and middle-aged people who came, and after the news spread rapidly, some elderly women and children also came from all directions to respond, so there were more and more people, and the black pressure was all over the mountains, so that the hundred officers and soldiers felt cold sweat on their foreheads.

Lu Jinping had just investigated, and before he could make a decision, or even go back for a DNA test, some officers and soldiers came to report that the prisoners in the exile center had begun to make a fuss again. Because I don't know how the news got inside, it was said that the villagers around them were coming to kill them. These people were all nervous, and the main forces were transferred to the side of the entrance to deal with the villagers, for the thousands of prisoners in this penal camp, except for the dozen or so soap subordinates guarding a small number, there was no other force enough to suppress and mutiny, and the consequences were unimaginable.

Lu Jinping immediately called Commander Wang and Assassin Shi to the penal camp to appease the prisoners, while he dealt with the manic villagers himself. He believed that the villagers would not openly rebel. Now I can only believe this, otherwise the other party will take care of it, and I still have nowhere to escape.

So Lu Jinping patiently explained this matter to the royal patriarch, and asked him to give himself a certain amount of time to investigate whether the mountain demon had bitten their villagers to death, including the nine prisoners in the penal colony, but no matter how hard Lu Jinping explained, the royal patriarch seemed to have decided that this matter did not need to be investigated at all, and it was definitely done by the mountain demon, so he only made a strong request, asking them to transfer all the prisoners immediately, otherwise they would rush in and release the prisoners and drive them away.

Ideological work is very difficult, especially when your side is weak and the other party is strong, it is even more difficult to persuade the other party to listen to your own opinions, and now it is like this, although Lu Jinping is the prince, and there are one hundred and ten officers and soldiers under him, but the other party has thousands of people, and it is a wild land far away from the emperor of the sky, these villagers who have never obeyed the teachings of the king's law, there is not much meaning of the king's law in their thoughts, and the control of the remote mountainous areas in ancient times is extremely weak, The imperial court would not have mobilized a large number of troops to deal with such villagers, unless they openly rebelled.

Now, although he does not rebel, he is no different from rebellion. Because they gathered a crowd to force the imperial court to move the penal colony to other places, the excuse was the legendary mountain demon, of course, this was only Lu Jinping's own opinion.

For these villagers, they have already decided that this mountain is spiritual, and the monsters in the mountain all exist, and if they really offend these mountain demons, there will be no good fruit to eat. Now this situation has appeared, their villagers have been bitten to death by the mountain demon, and they believe that it is impossible for people to commit such a terrible crime, only the mountain demon. (To be continued.) )