Cao Xiong comforted the thin monkey for a few words, and then threw a few people in place.

According to the beggar's orders, he was in charge of keeping vigil tonight, and when he returned, he had to pick out a few unlucky people as soon as possible, and the task was not easy.

A group of people came and went faster, and there were only three skinny monkeys left at the pond.

The other two laborers looked at each other and asked cautiously, "Brother Monkey, are we still going?" ”

The thin monkey's face turned red, and he said angrily: "Why don't you go?" Those bastards look down on us so much, they will definitely complete the task beautifully and go back and slap them in the face. ”

Several people were frightened once, and they were ignored and mercilessly ridiculed, and the sense of superiority that had been dialed out before was long gone.

At this moment, they are united in their hatred of the enemy, and their determination is stronger than before.

The three of them hesitated in place for a while, and then divided each of the talismans they had brought out from the mansion before, and stuffed them into their close-fitting underwear, and their hearts were somewhat settled.

After grinding for a while, he set off to Wutang Village.

The village is only two or three miles away from Wutang Village, and the villages are connected by paths, and there are ponds of different sizes scattered among them.

Without exception, these ponds are overgrown with water mandarin grass.

With the previous lesson, several people avoided the pond from a distance, and came to Wutang Village step by step.

There are only a dozen households in Wutang Village, of which Xu Yuanwai's family accounts for four-fifths of the total area, and most of the remaining households are related households such as subordinates and servants of Xu Yuan's family.

The textile factory is in the middle of Wutang Village.

Even though it was night, it was still brightly lit, a stark contrast to the darkness of the nearby village.

The strange thing is that a few people walked all the way, and they didn't meet half a person, and they couldn't even hear the sound of chickens and dogs barking, as if they had come to a ghost domain, and it was quiet and terrible.

After a while, several people came lightly to the courtyard wall of the textile factory.

They looked nervously at the door, and found that there was not even a single gatekeeper, but there was a rustling sound of weaving in the courtyard.

"Brother Monkey, what should I do?"

The two laborers looked at the thin monkey in the middle, waiting for him to make an idea.

The thin monkey licked his lips, pretending to be a calm old driver, and said hatefully: "Go in and take a look and leave, let's go over the courtyard wall and go in." ”

The three of them gathered together and discussed quietly for a while, and then set up a human ladder roughly.

The courtyard wall was about two meters high, and there were no obstacles such as broken tiles on it, so with the cooperation of the three of them, it was easy to climb up.

The courtyard walls were still empty.

Strangely, along both sides of the courtyard wall, there are water tanks, and at a cursory glance, there are no less than hundreds of them.

The thin monkey kicked on the courtyard wall to observe, but found no threat, and stroked the corners of his mouth downward, signaling the two laborers to jump down first, and he pressed the formation behind.

"Ouch!"

When a laborer went down to the ground, he accidentally stepped on a gravel and hit his foot.

Another laborer hurriedly helped him up.

The two of them carefully hid behind the water tank, hid their bodies through the shadow behind the water tank, and kept waving to the thin monkey on the courtyard wall.

The thin monkey secretly scolded, looked around again, found no abnormality, and jumped down.

The three of them hid behind the water tank and discussed in a whisper.

"Brother Monkey, there is no one in this courtyard, or we just go over and take a look and leave, even if we are discovered, it is nothing, no matter how awesome Wutang Village is, they will not dare to do anything to us."

The skinny monkey thought for a moment, and quickly rejected the stinky idea.

The three of them hid and hid all the way, and finally entered the courtyard, but they were lucky not to be discovered, how could there be a reason to take the initiative to expose their bodies when something happened.

What's more, he is also a little uncertain in his heart, and the identity of this layer of county government on his body may not work.

There was a strange smell of this textile mill from beginning to end.

If you can't expose it, you don't expose it, it's better to be careful.

The skinny monkey hesitated for a moment, but still decided to act in the shadows.

He helped the handle of the knife and whispered, "You guys are hiding here, I'll go ahead and take a look." ”

Unexpectedly, the two laborers were very righteous, and took the initiative to speak: "Brother Monkey, let's go with you, and the three of them can take care of each other together." ”

The three of them reached an agreement in a short time, and just hunched their backs, hiding in the shadows behind the water tank, and lightly touched forward.

This front yard covers an extremely wide area, and the place where the three people jumped down is the middle of the front yard, even so, if you want to touch the door of the factory, there are still dozens of water tanks away.

The three of them each held their weapons and moved forward with their hands and feet, and suddenly, a strange noise came from behind them, which frightened several people into lying motionless.

The thin monkey glanced back, a flash of alarm on his face.

The faces of the two people in the back turned pale with fright.

Just when a few people thought that they had heard it wrong, or that a wild cat passed by and accidentally made a movement, the strange sound came out again.

This time, several people quietly knelt to the side, listening very clearly.

It's like the sound of a wooden plank scratching over a water tank.

"Water tank?"

The thin monkey was shocked, and he dared to come back again, and finally stopped outside a water tank.

The water tank placed in the front yard is slightly larger than the water tank used by large households to hold water, and it is not crowded for five or six people to be stuffed in one go.

If you stand up straight, the lid of the water tank can reach the person's chest.

The three of them secretly observed, and soon found the water tank that made the abnormal noise, and looked closely, and found that the wooden lid on the water tank had been removed.

This discovery made the three of them extremely nervous.

"Could it be that there is someone in this tank?"

Otherwise, why would the lid of the water tank be automatically removed?

The three of them lay motionless in the shadows, their hearts beating faster and faster, almost jumping out of their chests, and the air around them seemed to condense together.

At this moment, the lid of the water tank moved again, and it fell from it coldly.

The lid wandered around the ground for a moment, and slowly stopped at the feet of the skinny monkey.

The two people next to him had already been scared into a small shrimp, but they just shrank in place and kept shaking.

"Brother Monkey, is there something in this tank, or let's go back?"

"Bag!"

The thin monkey whispered impatiently.

He worked as an errand in the county office, and occasionally encountered Jiangyang thieves who killed people without blinking, as well as all kinds of strange phenomena, even dead corpses, and touched them from time to time.

Just a strange noise scares people like this?

It's all here, how can there be a reason to give up halfway.

He pulled out his knife, quietly touched the water tank, and took advantage of the white moonlight in the sky to stretch out his head and look at the water tank...... It turned out that the tank was half filled with water, and there was a half-meter-long fish lying in the water lying motionless.

There are also some scattered aquatic plants floating in it.

The skinny monkey just glanced at it and saw that the fish in the water was a catfish, and several long whiskers swayed in the water from time to time, making people judge that it was not a dead thing.

He quietly picked up the lid on the ground and carefully put it back on.

If such a large catfish is found in the pond, I am afraid that it will make him worry that it is the change of the water ghost.

It's just this tank...... So far, no one has been heard of drowning in a tank.

It definitely won't be a change from a water reckless ghost.

Several people waited in place for a few more moments.

It was still silent, and no sound could be heard.

After Cao Xiong breathed a sigh of relief, he put the Pu knife back.

At the moment of collecting the knife, he quietly touched the silver ingots in his arms, thinking that after this matter was over, he would give each of them one or two pieces of silver.

behaved so cowardly, even if they only divided five dollars of silver, they didn't expect to be able to jump out of half a fart.

The rest of the big head naturally belongs to him.

After this episode, there was no abnormality in the back, and Cao Xiong smoothly touched the front of the factory.

Between the building and the water tank, there is also a step and a distance of four or five meters.

Cao Xiong asked the two of them to hide behind them and not move, took three steps and made two steps, walked up briskly, and then hid in front of a window, and took advantage of the open gap in the window to hold back a glance inside.

The brightly lit factory is full of looms.

In front of each weaving machine, there are people sitting in front of it, both men and women, and most of the costumes are villagers in the vicinity.

It's just that...... Judging from Cao Xiong's many years of experience as a servant, he always felt a little weird.

These people were expressionless, repeating the movements of their hands over and over again, like dead people without the slightest bit of life.

Cao Xiong just glanced at it, and quickly retracted his gaze.

He forcibly suppressed the surprise in his heart, and was about to turn around, when his eyelids suddenly jumped, and he pulled out the Pu knife at his waist with a puff of his right hand.

At some point, several people appeared behind him.

The leader was dressed as a butler, and the others consciously took a few steps behind, all of them looked like servants, staring at him silently.

A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Cao Xiong's back.

"Exposed?"

A thought flashed through his mind, and his mouth was still stubborn, and his years of service gave him some courage.

"We are from the county government, what do you want?"

"The people of the county office?"

The leading steward was slightly surprised for a moment, but he didn't expect to meet the officials of the county government in his own courtyard.

He looked at Cao Xiong with a cold face, and quietly slid over the Pu knife in his hand and the clothes on his body, and suddenly judged the identities of several people.

Then he opened his mouth and spit out a gloomy word, "Since you are a person from the county government, why would you enter the house in the middle of the night as a thief, but you have to entertain yourself." ”

Then with a wave of his hand, several people behind him fiercely rushed towards Cao Xiong.

Cho Woong wielded a Pak knife and parried with all his might, and after a few rounds, he was thrown to the ground by these minions, and even his two companions who were hiding behind the water tank were captured.

The three of them were like plucked hens, and they were carried motionless in the open space in the front yard.

The strange thing is that even if there is such a big movement in the courtyard, the workers in the factory are still meticulously working, and they do not take the opportunity to be lazy and come out to see the excitement.

Cao Xiong's face turned red, and he was still shouting and scolding: "You dare to beat the people of the county government, aren't you afraid of being raided and exterminated?" ”

The two people who came with Cao Xiong didn't have the courage of Cao Xiong at the moment, but they kept quibbling: "We just came in to take a look, we didn't steal anything, and asked the steward to let us go." ”

The two of them were lying on their stomachs softly.

It's like a thief who steals something from a house and is taken seriously by his master.

Although he was justifying, there was no hardness in his tone.

The butler glanced at the three of them coldly, and suddenly cracked his mouth, just stood in place and clapped his hands, and let out a burst of applause.

The voice was indescribably abrupt and absurd in the silence of the night.

What's even more absurd is that just as Cao Xiong was guessing what they would do, there was a sound of wooden planks moving the water tank one after another.

It's just that this sound, compared with the previous sporadic bits and pieces, seems to be much more noisy.

With the miserable white moonlight cast from the sky, the next scene discovered made Cao Xiong and the other two caught laborers numb.

The water tank, which had been placed motionless in the front yard, was now moved from the planks above its head one by one as if it had been summoned.

From time to time, the sound of jagged water tank heads falling to the ground sounded in the front yard.

In the water tank, there was even a cold and cold voice.

"Steward Xu, it's always my turn this time, right?"

Steward Xu and a few servants in the front yard seemed to be accustomed to this situation.

"Xu Laosan, you still have 9 months left in your ten-year period, I asked the master to help you see it last time, and your soul power is still sufficient, what is the hurry?"

In the water tank called Teacher Xu, there was a trace of unwillingness in the water tank, and he continued to shout indignantly: "My ancestors have been tenants of your Xu family for generations, and even if they die, they also work for your Xu family, and there are only 9 months left, so what about being accommodating?" ”

Steward Xu stood in the middle of the front yard, arguing with the voice in the water tank without hurry, treating Cao Xiong and the other three as if they were nothing.

At this moment, the three of them just listened to the voice, and instantly remembered a half-meter-long catfish they saw in the water tank before, and they had already tensed up and struggled continuously, and their hearts were full of coldness.

Cao Xiong had a bad premonition in his heart, and he argued loudly: "We are from the county government, and there is the county magistrate standing behind us, you are bold and don't put us down." ”

"Lord Zhixian...... Hehe......"

Steward Xu took the opportunity to end the argument with the water tank, turned his head and looked at Cao Xiong coldly, and let out a permeating laugh, "You are on an errand in the county government, you don't know the more than 1,000 taels of filial piety silver every year, right?" ”

"So what? If the county government knows, you treat us like this, and the army will definitely overwhelm the border and exterminate your Xu family. ”

"Haha......"

Steward Xu laughed a few more gloomily, "As soon as you cross the river, how can you know about the agreement reached between Xu Yuanwai and the county officials?" ”

"1,000 taels of silver every year, what is filial piety money, it is clearly life money and hush money, and what you buy is the life of a dog slave...... It's better to gag the mouths of these people, so as not to scratch on the side. ”

This voice was addressed to the servants in the courtyard.

As soon as Steward Xu's words fell, a servant took out a few ropes and rags out of nowhere, tied a few people tightly, and blocked their mouths.

There were only a few people left, like fish on a chopping board, struggling in the open space in the front yard.

The blocked mouth and nose kept whining.