At the beginning of noon, nearly 43,000 corpses had accumulated on the riverbank, and they had been newly recovered today.

At the beginning, because there were too many corpses drifting down the river, everyone was busy participating in the recovery of corpses and carrying corpses, but people like Chu Yunniang and Liu Wuxiu couldn't help, and they were afraid of blocking everyone's way and affecting everyone's speed, so they didn't dare to come to see near the corpses.

Since the end of the time, after the number of corpses drifting down the river decreased, almost all the people who watched the excitement, including Chu Yunniang and Liu Wuxiu, gathered around the large pile of corpses belonging to the Chu army, trying to see if there were any family members or clansmen they were familiar with.

Xu Nian took the opportunity to arrange for the chiefs of each township to command the chiefs of each village to bring two or three clansmen to cooperate with everyone to identify the corpses together, and to be responsible for piling up the corpses that could be recognized and from each township to one side, so that their relatives and clansmen could come over to confirm it at that time.

After a while, Jiang Bai, Zheng Gang, and Zhang Chao came to the river with three magistrates of the next county, hundreds of painters, dozens of paintings, hundreds of doctors who can perform autopsies, and thousands of guards.

Xiao Qiongzhi was rubbing beside Xu Nian and Zheng Yuan, watching them paint portraits of corpses, and happened to hear the conversation with Xu Nian and Zheng Yuan after they came over.

It turned out that Zheng Yuan had heard from Prince Zhao a few days ago about the current situation of the Chu army fighting against the Qi army at the border pass, and it was very clear that the Chu army was recovering the lost territory near Liangzhou, and was about to start a war to recover other lost territories, including the recovery of Liangzhou.

And both the king of Chu and the king of Qi are very clear that the vast majority of the two countries will soon enter the ice and snow freezing weather, which is not conducive to the transportation of grain and grass, and it is difficult to raise troops, and the two armies must end the war as much as possible before the ice and snow freeze, so as not to be in a passive situation.

That is to say, every day before the ice and snow freeze, it will be a golden period for the Chu army and the Qi army to carry out large-scale wars and land battles.

At that time, the king of Chu wanted to go to the front line in person to cheer for the Chu army, but he gave up his plan only after the persuasion of General Yang Kai and other courtiers.

In this case, when Xu Nian received Zhou Yuandong's flying pigeon summons yesterday and discussed countermeasures with Zheng Yuan, he had already expected that there must be many corpses of soldiers drifting down the river from the upper reaches of the Peacock River in Liangzhou.

Therefore, he specially repaired three letters on this matter, and Feige sent a letter to the three county magistrates of neighboring Dingzi County, informing them to organize painters, painters, and doctors who can perform autopsies to come to support him.

He also asked them to borrow 300 guards each to assist him in disposing of all the bodies that had been fished out.

Soon, with the assistance of so many painters, doctors, and thousands of guards, the actions of painting the corpse, conducting the autopsy, and assisting the people of the townships and villages in Dingzi County to identify the corpse were not only carried out in an orderly manner, but also greatly improved in speed.

It was almost noon, and according to the arrangement of Xu Nian, the corpses that could be recognized and from each township were piled aside.

Among them, there are more than 700 corpses in Quanpi Township, but what is strange is that none of them are the corpses of the soldiers in Zhoujia Village.

Zhou Dayong was very puzzled, pointed to those corpses, and asked Xiao Qiongzhi, who was still looking at the portraits of Xu Nian and Zheng Yuan, in a low voice: "Zhi'er, look, there are so many corpses that have been fished out of our township this time, but there is not a single one, it is from our village!" ”

"But yesterday, there were only more than 200 corpses fished out of our township, and seven of them were from our village, which is really strange. What do you think? ”

Xiao Qiongzhi is also strange about this.

She thought about it carefully, her eyes lit up, and she made a bold guess: "Maybe it's because the King of Qi or the Prince of Qi, as I analyzed before, was indeed arranged by the Chu army to disguise himself during the day before yesterday, and left Liangzhou unknowingly and unknowingly. ”

"And the people who are responsible for taking them away happen to be the clansmen from Zhoujia Village who are led by my father and enslaved in the army!"

"There is such a possibility, after all, your grandfather was transferred from Beisai to Xisai eleven years ago, and according to your father, your father lived with your grandfather before returning to Beijing that year."

"He should be familiar with the important route back to Chujing from Beisai, and he is the best person to escort the King of Qi or the Prince of Qi back to Chujing."

"In addition, if he has meritorious service in the army and is promoted, and his official position reaches the fourth rank or above, he has the right to choose five to ten guards." Zheng Yuan stopped the pen in his hand and analyzed it carefully.

"My brother is loyal by nature, if he chooses the guards, he will definitely choose the clansmen from our village who are in the army, no wonder so many corpses were fished out of our township this time, and there is not a single one, it is from our village!" Zhou Dayong suddenly realized.

He immediately told Chu Yunniang and Liu Wuxiu about it.

The two of them were rejoicing that they didn't see the corpses of Zhou Dazhi and Zhou Youchong, and after listening to Zhou Dayong's words, they were even happier, calling Zheng Bang, Xiao Qiongzhi, Gouzi, and Shishi, and the family went home happily.

Who knows, when he walked to the gate of the yard, Zhou Dayong, who was walking in the front, was the first to find that the lock on the courtyard door was not only opened, but also bolted from the inside.

Everyone was surprised.

After all, when the whole family went out today, everyone saw Chu Yunniang outside the courtyard door with their own eyes and locked the door.

Xiao Qiongzhi and Zheng Bang's faces sank suddenly.

Zhou Dayong directly stretched out his hand and knocked on the door angrily, and shouted loudly: "The thief inside!" Listen! I am the owner of this courtyard, and I am now back with my family, if you know each other, come and open the door quickly, and obediently admit your mistakes to us! ”

"Otherwise, when we find a way to come in ourselves, we will definitely not be polite to you!"

There was no one in the courtyard to answer, but soon there was the sound of hurried footsteps.

Xiao Qiongzhi hurriedly took the initiative to take Chu Yunniang, Liu Wuxiu, the dog, and the stone, and retreated behind Zheng Bang and Zhou Dayong, in case the person who came over in the courtyard had bad intentions and injured their group of women and children who had no kung fu.

After a while, the courtyard door was opened, and from the door, a familiar face slowly emerged: it was none other than Zhou Youzhong!

"You dead ghost, are you a deserter? Manly man, what are you not good at, you want to be a deserter, are you crazy? ”

"Why don't you want to think about it, if everyone is like you, our Chu State will soon be destroyed? Why don't you want to think about it, you will harm our whole family like this, and we won't be able to hold our heads up and be human beings in the future? When Liu Wuxiu saw it, he immediately exploded, rushed forward quickly, and scolded Zhou Youchong with his head and face.

Moreover, she didn't think it was pleasant to just scold, and when she rushed to Zhou Youzhengen, she stretched out her fist and hit him indiscriminately.

Zhou Youqian knew that before, when Liu Wuxiu was angry in public, he would directly beat her in public, but this time he didn't fight back, nor did he fight back, but immediately got out of the way from the gate of the courtyard, laughed in a low voice, and let her beat her.

Xiao Qiongzhi was a little surprised.

Zhou Youcheng looks a lot darker and thinner, the clothes on his body are relatively thin, there is no padded jacket, his complexion is not very good, his face is a little pale, his lips are a little blue, and he has obviously been having a bad time recently.

Liu Wuxiu indiscriminately decided that Zhou Youcheng was a deserter, ignoring Zhou You's current pitiful image, and stepping forward to scold and make trouble with Zhou Youcheng in public, which was really irrational.

She lowered her voice and reminded Liu Wuxiu: "Aunt Liu, Lord Zhixian and Master Zheng are them, but in our village, you are shouting so much, do you want others to hear, report to Lord Zhixian and Master Zheng, and arrest Uncle Zheng for questioning?" ”

Farmer's Gate Golden Branch