Walking north, you can sometimes see the figure of the Cao family and the officials, these people indiscriminately, searching and interrogating from house to house, sometimes even passers-by do not let go, making the north side of the town restless. Even Zhao Zheng, who was passing by, was stopped once and interrogated a few words. He didn't embarrass the person who questioned him, and casually prevaricated two sentences to deal with the past.

Zhao Zheng walked around the north of the town by feeling, during which he eavesdropped on the conversations of many people, but he couldn't get any useful information, and unknowingly walked to the exit of the north of the town. The town has no walls and is completely open to the outside world, allowing you to come and go as you please. If there were a city wall here, I am afraid it would have been blocked by the government and the Cao family a long time ago.

At this time, a group of men and horses came running in from outside the town, led by several officials, who seemed to be in a hurry, and kept urging the horses to whip their horses and run wildly.

There may have been a connection between the group returning from the north, and the wagons carrying the wine fleeing north.

Zhao Zheng felt that something was wrong, and decided to follow to find out a thing or two, he went around to a secluded place on the corner of the street, opened the stable warehouse, took out a white fast horse, turned over and stepped up. He rode up to the group of officials, did not chase too closely, and kept a certain distance.

The officials rushed back to the yamen, rode in on horseback, and as soon as they entered the courtyard gate, they shouted: "Lord Qiqi, things have progressed!" To the north, by the river, we found three abandoned wagons and a few dead horses, apparently left behind by the wine thieves! ”

Zhao Zheng vaguely heard the words of the servant, and hurriedly grabbed the reins and slowed down. Listen closely.

The courtyard of the yamen became noisy. The officials reported what they had seen and heard in the north to the prefectural order. The location of the carriage and the surrounding situation are explained in detail, and the prefectural order is determined. The county magistrate felt that this was very useful news, and immediately issued two orders, one was to notify the Cao family immediately, and the other was to rush to the location of the carriage to check, and if necessary, to pull the carriage back.

Zhao Zheng listened to the conversation in the courtyard. I decided to take a look at the carriages before the government and the Cao family. He turned around and galloped to the north, ran all the way out of Gujing Town, and according to the position of the official said, he hurried to the river.

It is located under a hillside cliff, and the river is about five meters above the ground, so you can't see the river without standing on the cliff and looking down.

On the riverbed and beneath the river, three broken carriages and the carcasses of several horses lay silently. Due to the cold weather, the river water is bitterly cold. The carcasses of several horses were largely well preserved, and the knife wounds on their bodies could be clearly seen. The horses had apparently been hacked to death with sharp weapons. The three wagons fell in close proximity, two on a sandy bed by the river, and one sank to the bottom of the river, revealing only the crooked wheels.

On the riverside, there were three guards, these people were too low in status to dare to touch these things casually, but just stood by to guard to prevent idle people from approaching.

Zhao Zheng rode a horse and looked down and observed for a while.

The size of these three carriages is just enough to hold seventy jars of wine, and it seems that they should be the carriages used by wine thieves to transport wine, but I don't know why these wine thieves abandoned the carriage here. Could it be that the thieves changed to another carriage in the middle of their escape? Or did you switch to a different mode of transport? The real answer is unknown.

Zhao Zheng had the intention to stay, waiting for the Cao family and the people from the government to arrive to see if there was anything left in the carriage, but in this case, it would be easy for others to find out and cause unnecessary trouble. For safety reasons, he did not take this risk, but turned around and left the river bank on horseback and returned to the avenue.

That group of thieves can commit such a big case, they must be very thoughtful, and the possibility of leaving useful clues on the carriage is really low, even if the Cao family and the people from the government come, it is estimated that they will not find anything.

Zhao Zheng was riding a horse on the avenue, and after walking a few steps, he met the Cao family and the people in the official mansion who rushed to the riverbank. The person at the head of the team is Cao Xuan and the local county magistrate.

This team turned Zhao Zheng into an ordinary passerby, and without paying much attention, they ran directly past Zhao Zheng, and the smoke and dust raised by the team wrapped Zhao Zheng in it. Zhao Zheng pulled the reins, moved away from the avenue, stopped, and looked back at the tall Cao Xuan. If the Cao family fails to find the stolen imperial wine this time, it will be a big bad luck.

Back in the town, Zhao Zheng lost his goal and could only continue to try his luck around, asking some beggars and gangsters on the underworld for news, but the news he got was either useless or false, and there was no substantial progress. When it was a little later, the Cao family and the people from the government pulled the three carriages by the river back to the town. After Zhao Zheng heard the news, he hurriedly ran over to join in the fun, he observed Cao Xuan's expression a few more times, and found that Cao Xuan frowned, his face sank like water, it seems that his previous guess was not wrong, there were no important clues left on the carriage, if important clues were found, Cao Xuan could not be this expression.

Zhao Zheng shook his head, completely lost interest in the three carriages, and went elsewhere to inquire about the news. After half a day of probing, he didn't make any real progress, and in this case, he began to try to empathize with what he would do if he were one of the thieves. After a change of thinking, he really came up with a bit of an eyebrow.

If he was a thief, he would not continue to use the three wagons to pull wine, the goal would be too obvious, no matter which escape route he chose, he would be targeted, and if he wanted to transport the wine away, he could only use other means of transportation. Presumably, it was for this reason that the wine thieves abandoned the three carriages.

But in this era, there is no better means of transportation except for horse-drawn carriages, and if you change to other horse-drawn carriages, it is meaningless, and it is still easy to be targeted.

Therefore, instead of taking a huge risk to transport the imperial sake out, it is better to find a place to hide it in Gujing Town, and wait until the limelight has passed, and then transport the imperial sake out in batches. Since even such a long tunnel has been dug up, what does it matter if there is a cellar for storing wine?

If this guess is true, the group of thieves should still be left somewhere in Gujing Town. Hibernating. Wait and see what happens.

Of course. This is just a guess, whether it is correct or not, no one knows.

Zhao Zheng didn't have any good clues on hand, so he continued to think along this speculation.

If the thieves are still in the town, if they want to find them, they will have to go around and find out who the outsiders who have recently moved to the town are and investigate from these people. There is no such a powerful thief in Gujing Town. It can only be from outside, and it should have been in the town for a short time, as long as all the people who meet this condition are found.

It's a good idea, but it's no different from looking for a needle in a haystack, and there are thousands of families in this huge town that have moved in recently, and he doesn't know how long it will take to investigate, and he doesn't have that time.

He could only continue to do it with the idea of luck, and if he didn't have it, his luck would not have been very good.

That's it. He changed the direction of his investigation and launched an investigation from the north of the town, which is more likely. Ask the locals who have recently moved in, and this so-called recent period of time is very long, as long as it is within a year, it is considered recent. There are many such people in the local area, and he quickly inquired about many people, and then screened out some people who seemed unlikely, and only kept some suspected alcohol thieves for further investigation.

Time passed very quickly, and in the flick of a finger it was evening, and the sun was sinking to the west, gilding the distant mountains to the west with a beautiful red glow.

Zhao Zheng was only looking for the wine thief, and he didn't even eat at noon, his stomach was already hungry, and he kept cooing. He secretly wrote down the residences of a dozen suspicious subjects, then found a tavern, ate and drank heavily, and filled his stomach.

When it was completely dark, he returned to the north of the town, and according to what he had heard during the day, he infiltrated the homes of the suspicious people one by one. These people all moved in within a year, and their families are large and have the conditions to commit crimes. With great effort, he jumped into the courtyard walls of these houses, eavesdropping on the inside of the houses, eavesdropping on each family for a short time, and if he could not hear anything suspicious, he went to the next house to continue eavesdropping.

He visited several houses in a row, but he didn't hear a word of useful things, but he listened to a basket of boring homely words, and the husband and wife of the family were quarreling and making a lot of noise.

As the night wore on, everyone fell asleep, and he heard less and less, and even if he jumped into the courtyard of the suspects' homes, he could only hear the sound of sleeping snoring, and he could not even hear the usual words. He was a little disheartened, and planned to listen to the three or two families one last time, and then go back to sleep.

He came to the next house, this courtyard is rumored to live in the grandfather and granddaughter, the number is a little small, it stands to reason that the conditions for committing the crime are not met, only because the family is very close to another suspicious person, so he came to take a look, in fact, there is not much hope.

The family slept late, and the house was lit with a soft light that spread out on the mullice paper, giving it a pale yellow color.

Zhao Zheng leaned under the cold corner, untied the wine jug hanging from his waist, lifted the lid and took a sip, eavesdropping on the movement in the room while tasting wine. There are two grandchildren living in this family, which naturally reminds him of the Lin family's grandparents and grandchildren in Qibao County, and he doesn't know how the grandparents and grandchildren are doing.

"How much time did I take?" At this moment, a woman's voice suddenly came from inside the house, and the speaker must be the granddaughter of the family.

"It's been almost a quarter of an hour." An old voice replied that it must be the woman's grandfather.

"This lock is really difficult to solve, even more difficult to solve than the 'Pisces lock'."

"Of course, this is the 'My Monarch Ten Thousand Years Light Lock', it is the lock in the palace of the former dynasty, specially used to lock the treasure house, if you can unlock this lock within a quarter of an hour, then you can be regarded as a complete master in unlocking."

"Alas, give me another quarter of an hour, and I won't be able to open it."

"You're still far away, learn slowly. We're a college question. There were seven points of encouragement and three points of pride in the old man's tone.

"Hmph, if you can't learn, you won't learn, anyway, we made enough money this time, five people will share one point, and the money allocated to me is enough for me to spend a lifetime. It's too risky to do what we do, and if I miss one day and don't even know how I died, I don't want to do it anymore. The woman said disdainfully.

Zhao Zheng was eavesdropping on the conversation between the grandfather and grandson outside, and the more he listened, the more he felt that something was wrong, unlocking or something. Isn't it related to stealing? He put down the flask in his hand. Cheered up the spirit. His eyes sparkled in the night.

"I don't know how many times you thought when I was young, but every time I spent all the money in my hand, I didn't have to go back to my old business. This is my life, or the life of our family. The old man continued.

"That's because you're spending too much money and don't know how to save, so you don't have enough money to spend. I spent a lot less money than you, and I made enough money this time to spend it. Besides. Even if I run out of money, I can find someone to marry and let him support me. I'm old enough, it's time to find an in-laws. The woman said disapprerovingly.

"Oops, my granddaughter Sichun."

"Phew, for the old disrespectful, don't say it so ugly, I'm not a female cat."

"If you want to get married, isn't Sichun what is it? Don't worry, this matter is on me, and I will find you a guy with good skills in the industry. Let him in, so we have six men. ”

"Phew! I won't marry my peers! I said I was going to change careers. How can I marry my peers, I want to marry an innocent family. ”

"If you don't want to marry a peer, who do you want to marry?"

"I haven't figured this out yet."

"Strike while the iron is hot, think about it now. I'm also an old man, and I know a lot of people, maybe I know the kind of guy you're looking for. ”

The woman seemed to be tempted, and after pondering for a while, she replied: "I want to find a man who is handsome, has higher martial arts than me, and has a lot of wealth, preferably a year or two older than me." ”

"You think it's beautiful, where can you find this kind of man." The old man poured cool water.

"There are too many people in the world to count, how can there be? Besides, my requirements are not very high, and I didn't say that I want to marry the emperor. ”

"There are definitely such men, but ......"

"Just what?"

"It's just that you've already married a wife, and it's not your turn at all."

"Look at what you said to me, as if I couldn't get married, don't forget my ability, as long as I want, I can dress myself up like a fairy, I don't believe that any man can not be tempted."

"I know you're very capable, but you can't pretend to be your pillow guy for the rest of your life, right?"

The old man's words seemed to poke at the woman's heart, and the woman fell silent after hearing this.

When Zhao Zheng heard this, he couldn't bear it anymore, how the conversation between the two grandfathers and grandsons sounded weird, although he didn't say it clearly, it sounded like a thief. He slowly straightened up, leaned against the window, stretched out his fingers, dipped his saliva twice, and gently placed it on the corner of the window, wetting the window lattice paper, and then with a little force, poked a small hole. He leaned over, narrowed one eye, and looked into the hole with the other, taking a look inside the room.

The room is small, with a table in the middle, and the grandfather and grandson sit facing each other. On the table, there is a brass oil lamp and a "copper-shelled drip" for timekeeping. The ancients mainly relied on two tools for timekeeping, one was a large corona, and the other was the "copper shell dripping".

The copper shell drip consists of two water containers, one on the top and one on the bottom, and a small hole will be cut out at the bottom of the upper container, and every once in a while, a drop of water will fall from it, and it will fall into the container below, and the container below stands a small arrow with a scale, and the arrow has a full hundred scales, each of which represents a moment, and the moment is about a little more than fourteen minutes in modern times, and a hundred scales is exactly one day.

Zhao Zheng's position belongs to an angle, and you can see the front of the young woman from the oblique side, and you can see the side of the old man, but you can't see the old man's face.

I saw a young woman fiddling with a large lock weighing several catties, the structure of the lock looks extremely complicated, and the complexity is no less than that of modern locks. The young woman had many tweezers, awls, hooks, and other small tools at hand, which she was using to try to unlock the lock, but so far without success.

This lock is already very complicated, and after the woman has something on her mind, she is even more powerless.

Zhao Zheng moved his gaze and stared at the woman's face, and after seeing it clearly, his pupils contracted suddenly, and he was surprised in his heart.

He recognized the woman, or just the face, and he had seen it several times in the game, so he was impressed.

The woman's face is ordinary, a typical public face, and there are a few small pockmarks on the tip of the nose. This face is actually fake, made of human skin mask, not the real face of the woman. This woman is extremely good at disguise, and she has many human skin masks on hand, most of them are women, from eighty old women to cardamom girls, everything is available, and this public face is just one of them.

Among the many human skin masks of women, there is an extremely bewitching and beautiful human skin mask, whose face is perfect and can not find the slightest flaw, which is simply the standard appearance of the lover of men's dreams. It was precisely because of this human skin mask that the woman just said the big words, "As long as I want, I can dress myself up like a fairy". And the old man also responded to this point and said "You can't pretend to be with your pillow person for a lifetime" to wake up the woman.

In fact, the old man is right, no matter how beautiful the human skin mask is, it is just a human skin mask after all, a woman can rely on this human skin mask to charm a man for a while, but she can't rely on this human skin mask to deceive a man for a lifetime, and the feelings exchanged for a human skin mask have changed the taste.

This woman's name is Xu Ruyi, she relied on the most beautiful human skin mask, ranked tenth on the list of beauties in "Horse Riding Rivers and Lakes", because this is a human skin mask rather than a real face, so her ranking is so low, if it is only about beauty, her face is not inferior to the top three.

In addition to being proficient in disguise, Xu Ruyi is also a thief. In fact, it's not just her, the five members of the Xu family are all thieves! She grew up in a den of thieves, and was nurtured by her parents and grandfather since she was a child, learning theft skills all day long, and she really couldn't think of being a thief.

The five members of the Xu family are grandfather Xu Tai, father Xu Chu, mother Zhao Ying, daughter Xu Ruyi and youngest son Xu Ling. In addition to this big nickname, each of the five members of this family has a separate nickname, Xu Tai is called the undead ghost, Xu Chu is called the soul hook ghost, Zhao Ying is called the soul snatcher ghost, Xu Ruyi is called the painted skin ghost, and the youngest Xu Ling is called the elf ghost. The family's nicknames are self-proclaimed, known only to a small percentage of those in the thieving industry, and few outsiders know the details of their family.

These "five ghosts have done a lot of cases" and stole many valuable treasures, and there are several tasks related to them in the game. Zhao Zheng has done one of the tasks, the main point of the task is to see through the disguise technique of the painted skin ghost Xu Ruyi, in order to complete this task, he wrote down all the skin masks that Xu Ruyi has, so he recognized Xu Ruyi with just one glance tonight.

The five ghosts who moved mountains made a living from theft, and just now Xu Ruyi claimed that he had just done a "business", it seems that the imperial wine must have been stolen by their family, and there was no suspense. (To be continued.) )