When he was ordered to take people to Jiangnan, when Duan Shaolan left the imperial capital for about five or six days, he and his companions had already noticed that someone seemed to be following them and a group of seven people behind them.

After discovering the stalker, they chose to find an inconspicuous inn in a small town that they didn't plan to stay in, and the group discussed what to do with the stalker behind.

They all knew that the stalker still seemed to be afraid of them, and they had only followed them from a distance, never getting closer.

After discussing with his companions, Duan Shaolan decided that since the trackers who came later did not plan to approach at this time, they did not need to worry about the trackers for the time being. The immediate priority is to continue to set off for Jiangnan tomorrow, they have the emperor's order, and the most important thing they need to do is to investigate the case.

So early the next morning, the group left the inn and continued to travel day and night.

On the first night they set foot in the territory of Jiangnan, because they did not have time to reach the nearest town at night, they could only sleep in a ruined temple in the barren mountains and rest for the night. Waiting for tomorrow morning, before preparing to go to Jiangnan Fucheng, they divided their troops into three routes, and went to Songchen County, Wannian County, and Huaishu County respectively to investigate the scene of the death of the two county lords and their families, as well as to investigate the situation of Qin Ling's wife, children, and Yue's family.

Seven of them left one on guard, and the other five rested first. In such a night, it was the turn of the two to rest, but nothing happened in the night. When it was dawn, they all got up and were not ready to linger.

But just as they were preparing to set off, several feathered arrows were shot from all directions, piercing through the ruined walls, doors and windows of the ruined temple, and shooting towards them. Fortunately, they reacted in time, and dodged the next few rounds of feather arrow attacks with the help of the pillars and statues in the temple.

By this time, two of the seven had already suffered arrow wounds, but fortunately neither of them was fatally wounded.

The feather arrow attack outside suddenly stopped, and the sound of footsteps could be heard in the woods outside the ruined temple, thinking that the people who attacked them outside had decided to attack.

However, the five people brought out by Duan Shaolan this time are all subordinates who have a good personal relationship with him on weekdays, not only are they all well-trained and good hands among the pennant guards, but they also have a tacit understanding with each other's fingertips.

Everyone waited with bated breath in the ruined temple, and after passing glances to each other, the injured two simply broke the feather arrows outside the wound, and all seven of them tore off a long strip of cloth from their clothes, and tied the weapons in their hands tightly to their palms.

Listening to the footsteps outside the broken temple getting closer and closer, Duan Shaolan suddenly burst out with a loud shout, and rushed out first with the embroidered spring knife in his hand. The people outside didn't know about the casualties in the temple, and they were careful to take precautions, and they didn't expect Duan Shaolan to suddenly rush out. Before the attacker could react, Duan Shaolan had already cut down three people in a row.

While the attackers were in a bit of a hurry, the remaining five people in the ruined temple rushed out one after another.

Duan Shaolan took out three cigarette tubes from his arms, and while he drew his knife and cut down the person in front of him, he opened the lid of the cigarette barrel and threw the three cigarette tubes into the air with all his might.

The attacker watched the chimney rise into the sky, freeing up a three-colored bright smoke, and immediately knew that it was Duan Shaolan who had sent a message to the outside world. They have come with a death order to extinguish the mouth, and they must not leave a single mouth alive. Now that some of the pennant guards are asking for help, they have to fight quickly.

Then one of the attackers let out a whistle, and there was the sound of galloping footsteps on the outskirts of the woods.

Even the seven people led by Duan Shaolan. Everyone's martial arts must be above the attacker. But gradually, as more and more attackers fell, the wounds on the seven of them also increased. The attackers came in waves, but they didn't choose to rush straight up, presumably trying to kill them with a wheel war.

Fortunately, after Duan Shaolan discovered the tracker's whereabouts, he had already found a way to notify the secret pavilion arranged by the Jinqiwei in Jiangnan, and agreed that if something difficult happened to them on the way, he would immediately use a cigarette pipe to send a signal for help.

Duan Shaolan's signal was sent out in time, and when they couldn't support it, the Dark Pavilion quickly sent a helping hand, and the outermost attacker was strangled by the neck from behind, the cold blade slashed lightly across his throat, and scarlet and hot blood splattered out.

The people of the Dark Pavilion came at the right time, and they quickly finished dealing with the attackers who had not yet been solved, and saved Duan Shaolan and the others.

After a bloody battle, almost everyone of the seven has become a blood man. The people in the dark pavilion brought them back for treatment, two of them were seriously injured and had to stay in bed, and three of them, although their injuries were not yet lighter, but they had broken legs and arms, and they could not accompany Duan Shaolan to continue the investigation. There is only one young pennant guard named Duanyou, who only injured his right arm, but he can still move freely.

In the face of such development, Duan Shaolan had to find another way, asking for help from the disguise master of the Jiangnan Dark Pavilion, changing the makeup of him and Duanyou, and making a few fake household registrations and fake road guides, Duan Shaolan went to Huaishu County, Duanyou went to Songchen County, Wannian County, and the two had already visited relatives and friends, and went to the homes of the people who had been arranged in advance by the Secret Pavilion, and continued to think about secretly visiting this matter.

After Duanyou went to Songchen County and Wannian County, he found the scene of the murder of the two county officials and their families. The day of the fire was the day after they were attacked when they first entered Jiangnan, probably because the attackers behind the attackers did not succeed in killing them, so they had to set fire to completely annihilate any evidence that might have been left.

Duan Shaolan found the maiden home of Qin Ling's wife, who fell ill for a long time after knowing that her husband was missing and did not know whether he was alive or dead. Qin Ling's father-in-law should have noticed something, he not only strictly ordered the Fuzhong Nursing Home to be strictly guarded, but also recruited many good people to protect his family by virtue of his connections.

really repelled several waves of attackers pretending to be water bandits, and those people broke into the mansion and went directly to the inner courtyard, obviously looking for Qin Ling's wife and children.

Fortunately, Qin Ling's father-in-law did not let down Qin Ling, and after all, he saved Qin Ling's wife and children.

A few days later, Duan Shaolan and Duanyou reconciled, pretending to be a pair of cousins who went to the city to find work, and mixed into the Jiangnan Mansion City.

At this point, Duan Shaolan stayed in Jiangnan Mansion City for a long time and did not return, because they successfully tracked down some clues according to some hints given by Qin Ling in advance, and the more they investigated, the more incriminating evidence they found.

The prefect who was born in the Earl's Mansion of Yongchang has scored good marks in several evaluations of the officials, as long as he has been in the Jiangnan Mansion for a few years, he will be able to return to the imperial capital and be promoted.

It turned out that Duan Shaolan had also heard rumors that the prefect surnamed Liao was extremely famous in Jiangnan. Be just, and not favor the officials and the rich.

But it was this well-known prefect, but there were several corpses of young children who had turned into white bones in the dry well in the backyard of the house. After Duan Shaolan found out, he took advantage of the situation to investigate, and found that the prefect's wife would bring back some fatherless and motherless children from the Jigutang in the city every once in a while, and these young children have not been heard from since they entered the palace.

There was once a beautiful woman in the city who was very good-looking, and she was taken away in the street for three days. Three days later, the beautiful woman went home in a mad and unclothed manner, and soon after returning home, the beautiful woman hanged herself, and the woman's husband told the government to secretly abduct his wife and persecute her, forcing her to overstimulate herself and finally commit suicide.

The prefect was very generous in meeting the husband, who had just lost his wife, and the next day the husband died violently in the family, and the matter was over.

Duan Shaolan finally determined that the case of stealing official salt was the main culprit in the Jiangnan Prefecture prefect, and the county orders of the five counties under his rule were coordinated. The county officials of Songchen County and Wannian County were sent by the prefect to exterminate them, and they also sent people to Qin Ling's house that night, but they were in vain. Qin Ling's premonition saved himself, his wife and children's lives.

The huge profits from stealing official salt were only one-tenth of the five county magistrates, four-tenths of them went into the prefect's backyard, and the other five-tenths were nowhere to be found.

Duan Shaolan ventured into the prefect's mansion again, went deep into the prefect's study, and pried out a letter from the prefect's secret cabinet that had not yet had time to send away, and the original five-tenths of the profits that had disappeared were replaced with large silver tickets mixed with the Jiangnan brocade sent home by the prefect, and sent back to the Yongchang Earl's Mansion in the imperial capital.

Duan Shaolan also accidentally touched the organ in the study that day, he hid the letter close to him, and escaped from the prefect's mansion by injuring one arm. After meeting up with Duanyou, the two of them returned to the Dark Pavilion and decided to return to the imperial capital the next day.

The Dark Pavilion sent people to escort the five wounded who had not yet recovered from the bright side, Duan Shaolan and Duan You still maintained the disguise on their faces, and with the false road guide, with the team of the Dark Pavilion, they returned to the imperial capital on the same day.

On the day he came back, Duan Shaolan tore off the mask on his face, and he didn't even go back to the Zhenguo Mansion, and directly knocked on the palace door overnight to ask to see Emperor Chu.

"Your Majesty, this is a letter stolen by Wei Chen from the study of the prefect of Jiangnan Prefecture." Duan Shaolan took out the letter that had been hidden close to his body from the placket and handed it to Wu Chuan, who trotted all the way to present the letter to Emperor Chu's case. "Your Majesty, in the past four years of stealing official salt, five-tenths of the profits have been reduced to zero by the prefect of Jiangnan Mansion and sent back to the Earl of Yongchang's Mansion."

When Emperor Chu heard this, his hand stretched out to the letter suddenly stopped in the air.

"You've been on the road for months, and you're still wounded." Emperor Chu looked at the letter that was placed in front of the case, and his eyes couldn't help but sting. "This case is a big matter, I still need to think about it, you can go back to your house today to rest, I will give you ten days off."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, Weichen obeyed the order." Duan Shaolan wanted to speak and stopped, so he had to thank him and leave the Lingyun Palace.