On the fifth day of the first lunar month, according to the local customs of Yongfeng, each family will set off two firecrackers at the door in the afternoon, and the year will be over after the firecrackers. After the New Year, the shops will open their doors to welcome customers, and all kinds of workshops will also start the busy new year. Of course, the farmers and herdsmen will continue to cats for a while, and they just want to be busy in this icy and snowy place, and they have nothing to do with it.

According to the custom, the Assassin's Mansion held a dinner that night, and the officials of all sizes gathered together to worship each other's old age, exchange feelings, and go back to the official room the next day to take care of things.

The host of this year's dinner was originally Changshi Yang Hao, but it was temporarily changed to Zhang Cheng. The cause was that in the early morning of the fifth day of the first month, Lu Benzhong, the deputy general of the Tiande Right Army, suddenly fell ill and died, and Yang Hao temporarily took over the post of deputy general of the unified army. Lu Benzhong's sudden death caused a lot of shock in Yongfeng City, and rumors spread on the streets and alleys for a while. But the strange thing is that the camp of the right army is unusually calm, and the generals and colonels are silent about the violent death of Lu Benzhong and Yang Hao's takeover of the right army.

Zhang Cheng was appointed as the chief historian of Yongfeng and acted as the assassin. In addition to serving as the chief historian, Yang Hao also handed over the patrol battalion to Zhang Cheng and gave him an important task: to find out the whereabouts of Hou Jie and other fifty people within three days.

On the sixth day and night of the first month, the sky was full of wind and snow.

Yang Hao and two escorts greeted him in front of the Beidaying Camp of the Right Army, which was only one mile away from the north gate of Yongfeng. At the end of the third watch, six horsemen braved the snow to enter through the north gate. The person at the head is Meng Bochang, Yang Hao received a secret report from the patrol outside the city before a stick of incense, and learned that Meng Bochang secretly came to Yongfeng, before which Meng Bochang did not know that he would come.

Meng Bochang was not surprised at all when he saw Yang Hao, he jumped off the horse and threw the reins in his hand to the attendants, wrapped his cloak tightly and walked into the Peking camp side by side with Yang Hao. The North Battalion of the Yongfeng Right Army covers an area of more than 1,000 acres, the north and south are rectangular, the north is stationed, the middle is the school field, the southeast is a pool of water, and there are several courtyards hidden in the soil slope woods by the pool. Meng Chu was strict in governing the army, and he once made a rule that the generals of each army could set up a mansion outside the camp, but the adjutant generals and the army members must live in the camp in order to control the army at any time.

A day ago, Yang Hao moved the home of Hengduan Lane here, and lived in the mansion where Lu Benzhong had lived before, compared to the simple courtyard of Hengduan Lane, this mansion in Lu Benzhong is much more luxurious, in addition to the three-entry courtyard, there are two cross-courtyards and a back garden that is not too big or small.

When Yang Hao accompanied Meng Bochang to the east gate of the courtyard, Qing'er came out of the gatehouse, she took the coat that Meng Bochang had changed and handed it to the doorman Guan, and handed him a warm pot with a hand. Meng Bochang said calmly: "Thank you." Walking straight to the main room in the front yard, Yang Hao said to Qing'er: "We have something to say, you go to sleep, don't worry about us." Qing'er looked at Yang Hao, she wanted to speak and stopped, she nodded silently, and said, "The wine has been warmed, you can talk while drinking." When he said this, he walked away with a sad face.

"You can sit down too." There are charcoal basins in the four corners of the living room of the main house, and the fire is booming, Meng Bochang took off his boots and sat cross-legged, and greeted Yang Hao with a cold face when he saw that Yang Hao was still standing on the side.

Yang Hao didn't sit down: "I put the person, if you want to punish it, I will bear it." ”

"Why are you letting go?" Meng Bochang took a sip of hot wine, slurped, picked up a piece of beef with chopsticks and put it in his mouth, the meat was stewed just right, very chewy, and it could be seen that it took a lot of work.

"Because he gave his daughter to you?" Meng Bochang looked up at Yang Hao and said mockingly. Yang Hao lowered his head and did not explain.

The door was pushed open, the cold wind carried snowflakes into the house, and a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl in a red dress stood in front of Meng Bochang panting, Qing'er followed closely behind her, rubbing her hands, with a look of anxiety and helplessness. The girl in the red dress knelt in front of the table and said stubbornly: "I let the person go without permission, if you want to kill me, kill me." ”

Meng Bochang ignored her, drank a few glasses of wine by himself, glanced at the girl in the red dress, and said coldly: "Sure enough, he is a wonderful person." Yang Hao, you let people go because of her? ”

Yang Hao said: "General Lu has fought for the country for many years, and he has worked hard and made great achievements, since he voluntarily handed over his military power, I can't figure out why he has to be put to death." ”

"Smack!" Meng Bochang slammed the wine glass on the ground, and with a bang, four murderous ironclad warriors broke in outside the door. Qing'er stood beside Yang Hao in a panic.

Yang Hao bowed his head and said, "I disobeyed the military law and am willing to be punished." ”

The girl in red said: "The three generations of the Lu family have been on the border of the country, and my father only got a younger brother at the age of fifty. If the general is willing to open the net, Lu Rui is willing to repay the general as a slave. "Words and bows.

Meng Bochang didn't have a cold face, and Lu Rui kowtowed, and after twenty or thirty strokes, his forehead was bleeding more than once. Qing'er hugged Lu Rui and shouted at Meng Bochang: "The person has already let her go, can you really bear to force her to death?" I thought that the judge who urged him was a hero, but it turned out to be a cold and iron-hearted person. When Meng Bochang heard this, he snorted heavily in his nose. The four ironclad guards retreated playfully. Yang Hao glanced at Qing'er and said, "Take her down, Brother Meng won't pursue it anymore." ”

Lu Rui was about to kowtow again, but Qing'er stopped her, but Lu Rui was very stubborn, and still kowtowed to Meng Bochang three times. After the two left, Yang Hao hurriedly found a new cup for Meng Bochang, poured wine, and sat cross-legged on the opposite side. Meng Bochang asked coldly: "Isn't it a little unkind for me to do this?" Yang Hao nodded.

Meng Bochang sneered: "You have seen the wrong person, Lu Benzhong is not worth your risk of letting him go." The day before yesterday, he also sent a secret envoy to Jiuyuan (Fengzhou Zhishu) to see Zeng Chongyang, accusing you of forming a patrol battalion with bad intentions and not worrying about him. This person seems to be loyal, but in fact he is an old fritter and an old slippery head. ”

Yang Hao saw that he was a little drunk, so he said, "You have worked hard all the way, and I have already arranged the room." Meng Bochang shook his head and scolded: "Mother-in-law, mother-in-law, what a girl." Yang Hao, let me tell you, you are so soft-hearted, sooner or later you will suffer a big loss. Meng Bochang put down the wine glass, held Yang Hao's shoulder and said, "Haven't you always wanted to know where Hou Jie is?" Let's go, I'll take you to them. ”

There is a hill thirty miles north of Yongfeng City, which looks like a giant python from a distance.

Meng Bochang pointed with a horsewhip: "Do you know why it's called Meishan?" Yang Hao replied: "Maybe there are plum trees and plum blossoms on the mountain." Meng Bochang said: "Nonsense! There is no grass here, how can there be any plum blossoms. Meishan, in fact, should be called Coal Mountain. Coal, there is endless coal under the ground. The people of Chang'an burned coal for heating, and the Uighurs also used it for heating. The boss who runs this coal mine has long been richer than the country, and his annual income is more than the sum of the three cities of Yongfeng, Fengzhou, and Feng'an. ”

Yang Hao was stunned, he didn't expect that there would be a large coal mine of such a scale so close to the city, but what does this have to do with Hou Jie's disappearance? Could it be......

"It is said that coal is the essence of the mountains, but digging coal is a chore. There are 3,000 miners in this Meishan mine, and 90% of them are coolies bought by the mine owner from the ghost gang, and your 50 brothers are sold here by the ghost gang as hard laborers. And Zhang Cheng, the person you trust the most, is a little boss in the ghost gang, and you expect him to find someone, but he is not a person. ”

Meng Bochang's words surprised Yang Hao very much, and he had also heard a little about the name of the Ghost Gang, which was a secret gang entrenched in Yongfeng City, and often engaged in some bullying and dominating the market and abducting people. Zhang Cheng, as the captain of the prison gate, said that he had nothing to do with the ghost gang, and he would not believe the ghosts, but Yang Hao still did not expect that Hou Jie's disappearance was directly related to him. As for Meng Bochang saying that what he entrusted was not a person, and he hoped that Zhang Cheng would not be able to find Hou Jie and others, Yang Hao didn't see it that way. Zhang Cheng is very angry, he really wants to do something in the officialdom, and he should do his best to explain his affairs.

Yang Hao looked at Meishan in the mist of wind and snow again, and asked quite puzzledly: "Since there is such a huge profit, why didn't Meng Wei fight his idea?" Could it be that he can still raise 100,000 soldiers in a small coal mine? ”

Meng Bochang smiled when he heard this: "You, what a fool, there are also shares of his Meng Wei in this coal mine, not only his, but the officials of Yongfeng City all have shares in it, and the Lu Benzhong you let go can take away three thousand taels of silver from here every year." The Meng Chu brothers are not good people who eat fasting and recite Buddha, and they don't want to fight coal mines, but their interests are really intertwined, and they are powerless. ”

Yang Hao said: "You brought me here in the middle of the night, didn't you want to beat him?" Meng Bochang said: "You finally said something clear." What is given by heaven is not taken, but is punished by God. When he spoke, the sky was slightly bright, Meng Bochang turned his horse's head and galloped westward, and after walking for more than ten miles, the sky was already bright, and in front of him was an abandoned ghost town. At this moment, there are nearly a thousand soldiers stationed in this ghost town, which is the main force of the right army brought by Meng Bochang from Fengzhou.

Yang Hao asked: "Lord Zeng went to Feng'an, you brought the main force of the right army to Yongfeng, are you going to part ways so soon?" Meng Bochang snorted coldly and said, "You remember, his life and death have nothing to do with you and me from now on." ”