Not far from the entrance of the village, the group saw a middle-aged man in his forties walking unhurriedly from the center of the village with a few people. Judging from the middle-aged man's dress, he should be the steward of this village, and the people who followed him must have been his entourage.

The middle-aged man approached Wang Feng and his entourage, glanced at the team of strangers in the mouth of his entourage, and then began a series of changes in his body, expression, and movements. The tense face immediately relaxed, and a smile was piled up.、The straight waist gradually bent down.、The unhurried pace began to change to a broken trot.、The hands behind the back also stretched out to the front to make a thousand jiashi。

Others, especially the people in the village, were very puzzled by this change in the steward, and they didn't know how this steward, who had always been in the village and arrogant, suddenly seemed to be a different person, a portrait of the courteous and flattering people who wanted to see the master. Among the large group of people, only Wang Feng reacted after being stunned for a moment and figured out the key.

Since the stewards of all the granges in the crossing team are selected by several local subordinates of Zhao Min'an, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, and then the head of the "Qingyuan", Deng An, is responsible for the training, except for Zhao Min'an in charge and Liang Ziyue who is in charge of the personnel, there will basically be no contact with other traversers. Therefore, in order to prevent these stewards from recognizing only their own superiors and the few chief stewards who selected and trained them, and not the other brothers in the traversal crowd, the committee stipulated that all the stewards of the grange -- including the so-called middle and lower-level cadres such as shopkeepers and mine directors who had similar situations -- should be uniformly assigned by the committee, and that before they went to the various places, they had to go to the "Qing Garden" to meet the travelers who lived there, and to know other travelers who did not live in the "Qing Garden" through very realistic portraits. This is done to clarify the relationship between the master and servant of both parties, and secondly, to prevent these people from doing something that violates the rules of etiquette in front of them because they do not know other masters.

Now, Wang Feng can be 100% sure that this steward has definitely seen him in "Qingyuan", knows his identity, and these changes in the other party's behavior and expression obviously recognize him and want to salute him. But the problem is that now is definitely not the time for the other party to greet the other party, just now at the entrance of the village Wang Tang Master and the person in charge of the secret contact point Lu Gang spent half a day and acted for a long time, just not to let the identity of his party be known by outsiders, in case the people in Zhuangzi leaked the news and attracted the attention of the Khitan people in Gu'an City. At this time, if the steward of the Grange continued to do it and called out, the previous series of cover-ups would be in vain.

Therefore, without waiting for the steward to really be a master of the Dao, Wang Feng first sank his face, glared at the other party with stern eyes, and gave the other party a very covert look. Fortunately, the steward was also a smart man—otherwise he wouldn't have been looked down upon by Deng An, who had always been strict—after seeing Wang Feng's face and eyes, although he was stunned for a moment, he immediately reacted and understood the meaning contained in Wang Feng's eyes. So, the steward once again showed his "acting" talent to everyone present. In the blink of an eye, he replaced the posture of his subordinate who was ready to bow with the demeanor of his master. The smile on his face was gone, his waist was no longer bent, his hands were behind his back again, he pointed at Wang Feng and the others, and asked Lu Gang, the acting joint defense captain, in an official tone: "Brother Lu, can you check the origin of these people?" Now that this army is in chaos, if you bring someone from unknown sources into Zhuangzi, once something happens, we can't explain to the fifth master, Zhao Ye and the other masters. ”

Lu Gang, the acting captain of the joint defense team and the person in charge of the secret contact point, as a person in the cross-team system, naturally knew the rules of the Grange steward to visit the master before he was released, and also understood the reason for the very dramatic change in the other party's expression and movements just now. While secretly "admiring" the acting skills of the steward in his heart, or the ability to pretend to be garlic, he cooperated with the other party and replied: "Don't worry, Steward Yan, my brother has already inquired, they are businessmen from Zhuozhou, and they originally wanted to go to Gu'an County to discuss business, but unfortunately there was chaos in Gu'an City, and they could only turn around and rush back if they couldn't do business." Last night, I walked all night in the dark, and happened to pass by our Zhuangzi at dawn, and wanted to come in to rest and have a hot meal. When he saw that they were all serious businessmen and looked tired, he took it upon himself to allow them to enter the village for a while. I didn't ask for your consent in advance, and I ask my brother not to be surprised. ”,

-- In fact, since the establishment of the "Security Army," the joint defense team responsible for sending Ding Zhuang to it has become a system independent of the Grange and directly obeys or is subordinate to the Ministry of Security. Its main task has also become to provide reservists for the "security forces", and the protection of the Grange has gradually become its side business. The captain of the joint defense team and the steward of the Grange are the same as their rank in the crossing team, and they are basically equal in the Grange. The reason why this captain showed respect to Steward Yan was because he was only an acting captain, and his original position was just a small leader in charge of logistics and material management, and in terms of rank, he was one level lower than that Steward Yan -- in terms of the position of the person in charge of the secret contact point of "Dark Feather", he was actually higher than Steward Yan, but that was another level of identity, and it could not be disclosed to people outside the system. On the other hand, this captain Lu also wanted to explain the identities he had designed with his boss, the Wang Hall Master of the "Dark Feather" Gu'an Branch, for Wang Feng and his party to this Yan steward, so as not to let the other party understand the situation and ask some questions that should not be asked. Moreover, he himself is younger than this Yan steward, so he should be called an elder brother.

With Wang Feng, a serious master, standing in front of him, how could the steward surnamed Yan dare to blame this Acting Captain Lu. Moreover, even if Captain Lu didn't explain it to him in such detail and clearly, he wouldn't ask another word or say another word. Therefore, after listening to Lu Gang's "briefing", this Yan steward just pretended to think about it for a while, and then said to Lu Gang: "Brother Lu, where did you come from, brother, you have been working in the joint defense team for many years, and your ability to know and see people is far above my brother and me, brother, you say that this line of people is no problem, that is, there is no problem, brother, how can I blame you." Besides, the two of us have the same rank, brother, how can I blame you, brother. ”

After speaking, without waiting for Lu Gang to say a few more polite words to him, he continued to ask, "Where does Brother Lu plan to arrange these people to rest?" ”

"Brother, I want to take them to the house where the joint defense team usually exercises for a while." Lu Gang replied.

When Steward Yan heard this, he waved his hand and said, "It's not proper, it's not proper." One is that the courtyard is a training place for the joint defense team, and it is inconvenient for 'outsiders' to stay there. Second, there are only a few thatched houses for the joint defense team to rest after training, and there is not even a bed in it except for tables and benches, so how can the guests rest. In my brother's opinion, it is better to invite all the guests to my brother's house, first, we can also do our best to fulfill the friendship of the landlord, and secondly, brother, I can also take this opportunity to talk with the guests and understand the situation in Gu'an City. After all, our Zhuangzi is only a dozen miles away from Gu'an City, and if the chaos in the city is big, the impact on us will be very great. ”

Lu Gang said that he wanted to invite Wang Feng and others to the training ground of the joint defense team, which was just an introduction, and the purpose was to give Steward Yan a chance to speak. So as soon as the other party proposed to invite Wang Feng and others to his home, he agreed without objection. And that Yan steward was also very straightforward, after talking to Lu Gang here, he turned his head and stretched out his hand to Wang Feng and the others, inviting them to his home to sit as guests. In this regard, Wang Feng and the others naturally did not shirk, immediately nodded in agreement, and followed Steward Yan to his house.

After entering Steward Yan's house and sending away all the temporary joint defense team members and entourage except for Lu Gang, Steward Yan reverted to the appearance of a standard domestic servant, bowed to Wang Feng and said, "The villain Yan Jibang, the steward of the Grange at No. 94 in the west of Gu'an County, has seen the twenty-seventh master. Fang Cai has a lot of offenses to the twenty-seventh master, and hopes that the twenty-seventh master will forgive the sins. ”

Wang Feng calmly accepted the other party's salute, and then said, "Steward Yan is exempt from courtesy." As the saying goes, 'do things urgently'. Steward Yan can adapt to the situation, and he didn't reveal the identity of the master, not only is there no fault, but he has merit, how can the master blame you. ”

As he spoke, Wang Feng praised Yan Jibang a few more words, and arranged for the steward, who was very excited after receiving his praise, to prepare breakfast for everyone.

After sending away Steward Yan, Wang Feng immediately ordered the accompanying telegraph operator to set up a radio station, and made a detailed report to the committee on the incident from the attack last night to the settlement in his grange today, and hoped to get the committee's instructions as soon as possible. And the response of the committee was also very fast, Wang Feng and the others had just eaten the breakfast sent by Steward Yan, and the committee's call back arrived. The central meaning of the telegram was twofold, one was to express condolences to Wang Feng and others, and the other was to ask everyone to stay in the "No. 94" Grange for the time being and not to venture out of the village again. After the "Rangers" sent by the Committee to meet them arrived, they returned to the "Cool Garden" under the protection of the "Rangers". ,

Wang Feng and others naturally had no objection to the committee's instructions. After informing Steward Yan, everyone waited patiently for the arrival of the "rangers" on the Zhuangzi. However, considering that although it is only a hundred miles from "Liangyuan" to Gu'an County, if the "Rangers" hurry up and do not stop on the road, they will be able to reach the "No. 94" Grange as soon as that night. But now is a tense period of war between the two countries, and the "Rangers" may not be able to swagger along the official road to meet them as usual, but are likely to take the path that is not easy to be perceived. Therefore, Wang Feng and others estimated that the "rangers" would not arrive at the Grange until the afternoon or evening of the next day. In other words, Wang Feng and the others had a day and a night or more to spend before leaving the grange and returning to the "cool garden".

Since they had time at their disposal, Wang Feng and the others decided that they couldn't waste it on chatting and sleeping. So, under Wang Feng's arrangement, Wang Tang, the master of the "Dark Feather" Gu'an Branch, selected two witty, flexible, and "business" henchmen from his entourage, and asked them to sneak back to Gu'an County secretly, first, to observe the situation in the city, and secondly, to find out the whereabouts of the group of brothers who were responsible for staying behind to block the Khitans - although he did not have much hope, but before Zuihou, Wang Feng was still unwilling to admit that Zhou Zhoulang and others had died heroically.

The two agents set out that morning and returned to the Grange at noon the next day, and reported to Wang Feng the news they had found that day.

However, due to the rush of time, the two agents received limited information. One of the more important ones is that Ren Wufu, the commander of Gu'an County, and his subordinates have been arrested and imprisoned by Cao Jiyun on the charge of collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country. In addition, because the advance of the Zhou army had gradually approached, the city of Gu'an was heavily guarded, and the Khitan cavalry led the local infantry army to capture the so-called "comrades" related to Ren Wufu while patrolling around the city, making everyone in the city in danger, panicked, and a chaotic scene.

As for the whereabouts of Zhou Lang and others, which Wang Feng is most concerned about at present, the two agents have not been able to bring accurate news to Wang Feng. What they could tell Wang Feng was that there was nothing more than that the secret stronghold of "Dark Feather" in Gu'an County had indeed been destroyed by fire, and that the ruins of the secret stronghold were still guarded by soldiers in the city and could not be approached. Although Wang Feng was very disappointed by such news, he was helpless. He now has nothing else to do but pray for Wednesday Lang and the others.

Soon after arranging for the two agents to go down to rest, Lu Gang, the acting captain of the joint defense team, came to report that a reinforced company of the "rangers" led by the 35th grandfather had entered Zhuangzi. At the same time that Wang Feng took Mutel into his temporary residence, a telegram from the committee was also delivered to him.

The content of the telegram was very simple: on the 14th day of the third lunar month of the ninth year of the Ying calendar (the sixth year of Xiande), the forward troops of the Zhou army led by Zhang Zangying and Xu Shaoan had arrived at 15 miles south of Gu'an City and set up camp.