Under the auspices of Xue Ze, the king of Huai, the first batch of grain was quickly transported from the capital to the affected places, Gu Qian was excited to receive the news, and hurriedly found relevant personnel to discuss the matter.

Lin Zhaowen said happily: "I really didn't expect the imperial court to move so quickly this time, it seems that those refugees outside the city are saved now."

Gu Qian said: "I heard that this disaster relief matter is personally presided over by His Royal Highness King Huai, His Royal Highness King Huai cares about the people, if he goes out, of course, the results will be immediate." ”

The other officials finally breathed a sigh of relief, if the court did not allocate grain, I am afraid that their family's grain storage would be almost looted by Gu Qian.

Zhu Miao had a feeling that the sun was coming out of the west, but he didn't expect the imperial court to respond so quickly this time, and he began to think about his own little abacus in his heart.

"My lord, this disaster relief is very important, and the lower official asks for full responsibility for this matter."

Gu Qian didn't expect that Zhu Miao, who had always been reluctant to interfere in other people's responsibilities in the past, would take the initiative to ask for help, and guessed some of his intentions in his heart, "Lord Zhu is so sympathetic to the people, Gu is deeply grateful, if the officials of Yunzhou are like Lord Zhu, it should really be a blessing for the people of Yunzhou!" ”

He paused again and said, "But Lord Zhu is a county magistrate, and there are still many things in the county that you need to take care of, and Gu really can't bear to put all these burdens on you alone." This food has always been the responsibility of Lord Lin, so let's leave it to him this time. ”。

Zhu Miao saw Gu Qian refute himself on the spot, and felt that he had no face, and froze there for a while.

A few days later, Lin Zhaowen hurriedly found Gu Qian, and said with a panicked face: "My lord, something is wrong!" ”

Lin Zhaowen is usually moody, but this time Gu Qian's expression surprised Gu Qian, and he vaguely felt that something big must have happened. "What's the matter, aren't you supposed to go and meet the food today?"

Lin Zhaowen's health has always been poor, and he came all the way, so he couldn't breathe, "It is precisely because of this incident that the lower officials just learned that the grain was robbed as soon as it arrived in Yunzhou!" ”

"What!" Gu Qian was so shocked that he stood up directly from his position.

Lin Zhaowen continued: "According to the plan, the first batch of grain and salary should be transported to this county today, and the lower officials specially sent people out of the city to greet them, but unexpectedly, the corpses of the officers and soldiers transporting grain were found on the way, and the food and salary were gone. The matter is very high, and as soon as the lower officials got the news, they specially came to tell the adults. ”

Gu Qian could still sit still, and rushed to the scene of the incident with Lin Zhaowen.

Gao Dianshi, who had already arrived, greeted him and said with righteous indignation: "These people deserve death, not only robbed us of our food, but also killed so many people!" ”

Gu Qian saw more than 20 people lying on the ground, and the carriage escorting the grain had long been missing.

Lin Zhaowen pointed to the blood stains on the ground and said, "My lord, the blood stains on the ground have not completely dried up, indicating that they have not left for a long time." ”

Gu Qian nodded, "There is grain on the carriage, they shouldn't be able to go far, and we should be able to catch up with us on fast horses." ”

When they chased out more than ten miles, they came across two men on horseback.

Gu Qian stopped them and asked, "I wonder if you two saw a carriage passing by?" ”

One of the men thought for a moment and replied, "My lord, are you talking about the wagons carrying grain?" ”

Gao Dianshi hurriedly replied: "That's right, it's them." ”

"Half an hour ago, we saw a group of people, but they looked like they were bandits from the Black Tiger Village, so we didn't dare to approach and bypassed the side path."

Gu Qian didn't know the details of the other party, so he didn't dare to rashly confront him, and continued to ask, "Do you know how many of them there are?" ”

The man said, "I guess there are twenty or thirty people. They couldn't outrun the fast horses of the officials in the carriage, and the officials would be able to catch up in less than an hour as long as they chased all the way down this road. ”

"Thank you!" Saying that, Gu Qian turned to everyone and said, "Let's chase after us!" ”

After chasing them for more than an hour, a river blocked their way.

Angju said: "Childe, we have been chasing until now, why haven't we even seen a figure along the way?" ”

Gao Dianshi pointed to the ground, "My lord, look, there are still traces of wheels on the ground, could it be that they used a boat to transport the grain away?" ”

Gu Qian felt a little strange, "Black Tiger Village is located in Thorn Ridge and is not connected to waterways, what are they doing by waterway?" ”

Angju said: "That son, what should we do now?" ”

"Gao Dianshi, you take people to look upstream, and Angju, you lead people to look downstream. Once you find any traces of them, don't startle them, and send someone to inform me as soon as possible. Then he paused, "If you can't find it in half an hour, come back directly." ”

After waiting for more than an hour, Gao Dianshi and Angju both came back one after another with their men and horses, obviously finding nothing. This was also expected by Gu Qian, he saw that it was getting late, so he could only take his men back to the city before making plans.

As soon as they returned to the county office, the officials surrounded them one after another, and the robbery of the grain was the top priority, and everyone was anxious at this time.

Zhu Miao asked: "My lord, the lower officials heard that this grain was robbed, have you found it?" ”

Gu Qian's body was already exhausted after running around for a day, he didn't speak, just shook his head.

The officials on the side couldn't help but scold, "It's all this damn mountain bandits, and they usually don't do evil, but I didn't expect to rob our life-saving food today!" ”

"I thought I would be able to eat a full meal, but I didn't expect such a fork now!"

"You still have the heart to think about this now, you must know that what you lost this time is the food for disaster relief, in case the court is to blame, we will lose our heads if we don't get it right!"

I don't know who came up with such a sentence, which made everyone gasp, and their eyes looked at Gu Qian again.

Gu Qian said: "You can rest assured that Gu will bear the responsibility for the robbery of this grain, and you will not be implicated." It's just that I hope you don't spread the word about today's events, and if it causes panic among the people, I will punish you severely! ”

The night gradually covered the whole land, and generally speaking, the city gate would be closed after nightfall, but Gu Qian specially left the north gate for the people to enter and exit in order to prevent any emergencies from happening to the victims outside the city.

After Xinghua finished dividing the last pot of porridge, he and the people who came to help packed up and prepared to enter the city.

As soon as he passed through the city gate, he heard the guards shouting behind him, "Who are you, why do you enter the city so late?" ”

Xinghua turned to look, and a group of horse teams came.

At this time, a man got out of the carriage and stepped forward, "This official, I am the housekeeper of the Wu Mansion, and my master asked me to go out to do goods a few days ago." As you know, the weather has been surprisingly hot lately, and we can only choose to travel at night, so we hope you can make it easy for you. ”

As he spoke, he quietly stuffed a piece of silver into the hands of the officers and soldiers guarding the city, "These are the ones I drink as a filial tribute to the officials." ”

After the guard checked it, he suddenly smiled, "It's easy to say, it's easy to say." Since it was Steward Wu who personally took the goods, then of course we should release them. ”

Xinghua snorted coldly when he saw it: "Wait until I tell Gu Qian, I will definitely make you look good!" ”

Just as he was about to turn around, his eyes inadvertently caught a glimpse of a face, and he thought about it carefully, that person was actually the one who robbed him halfway when he came to Yunzhou.

In the past, those people pretended to be Black Tiger Village to rob houses outside, but now they have appeared in Yunzhou City. Xinghua felt that there must be something strange in it, so he quietly followed them.

When it was time for dinner, Gu Qian waited left and right, but he still didn't see Xinghua come back, so he planned to go out to find it.

Qinghe saw that Gu Qian was indeed tired after a day of running, so he hurriedly stopped and said, "Childe, you are tired all day today, you better sit down and rest and let me go to him." ”

Gu Qian said: "Okay, you eat first, I'll be back soon." ”

The moon is bright and the stars are scarce, and the city gate is inaccessible at this time. The sound of crickets and frogs sounded together, which was also a special taste to Gu Qian's ears.

After the soldiers guarding the door heard the sound of horses' hooves, they hurriedly greeted Gu Qian when they saw it: "I've seen my lord, but my lord is here to find Xinghua Gongzi?" ”

Gu Qian nodded.

"He entered the city half an hour ago, but the lowly seems to have seen him go in the direction of the west of the city."

Gu Qian felt that something was wrong, the county government was clearly in the east of the city, what was Xinghua doing in the west of the city?

The carriage came to the back gate of the Wu Mansion and stopped, only to hear the Wu housekeeper shouting quietly in front: "Hurry up, you quickly unload the things and move them to the warehouse in the backyard." ”

Xinghua saw them so sneaky, and the more curious he was about what was on this carriage. While the men were unloading in front, he quietly ran to the last carriage and hid.

He cut the dagger in his hand through the sack, and in an instant white flowers flowed out, and by the moonlight he knew that it was full of rice.

"Wow, there's so much rice!" Xinghua couldn't help but shout.

"Who is it?"

Xinghua didn't expect this sound to attract the attention of others, and hurriedly covered his mouth.

Seeing that the man was slowly leaning over with a knife, he broke out in a cold sweat and ran away.

After running for a while and seeing that no one was catching up behind him, he stopped and took a breath, "These people are so sneaky, I must tell Gu Qian later." ”

"What are you going to tell Gu Qian?" At this time, a figure suddenly appeared in front of Xinghua.

It's the person Xinghua thought he had gotten rid of just now.

Xinghua felt a little weak in his heart, and hurriedly explained: "You must have heard it wrong, I didn't see anything!" ”

The man said, "You really won't say anything?" ”

Xinghua said: "Yes, I'm just hanging around here. It's not too early now, and if I don't go back, I'm afraid it'll be worrying. ”

"In that case, then you can go!"

"Then I'll take my leave!" Seeing that the other party was going to let him go, Xinghua was overjoyed in his heart, "Hmph, it's strange if I don't say it, when the time comes, I must let Gu Qian clean you up!" ”

He had barely taken a few steps when the other party's knife had already slashed at his abdomen.

"Hmph, since you already recognize me, how could I let you go so easily? You know, there are only dead people in this world who can't talk nonsense. If you want to blame, blame your curiosity too much! ”

Xinghua clutched his abdomen, and fell to his knees with weak legs.

The man raised the knife in his hand and slashed at Xinghua.

Xinghua couldn't move at this time, and muttered in his mouth: "Gu Qian, save me!" ”