Chen Ao thought that it was unlikely that the horse bandits would come to Hulu County to take revenge. Even if you want to seek revenge on him, you won't find them so quickly.

However, the facts took him by surprise. Early the next morning, Feng Hu hurriedly woke up Chen Ao, who was still asleep. Feng Hu led Chen Ao out of the county office and rushed to the west gate. At this time, the sky was just bright, and the city gates had just opened. There were no people at the gates, but a dozen or so guards gathered at the gates.

They stood outside the gates, pointing and whispering in the direction of the gates. Chen Ao rushed to the outside of the city gate and looked back, only to see a corpse nailed to the city wall, and next to the corpse hung a strip of cloth with a few lines of large characters written in blood.

Chen Ao had a gloomy face and said, "Get the corpse and the blood book down!"

Feng Hu immediately commanded the manpower and carefully put the body down. A small official next to him immediately exclaimed: "Isn't this the big merchant Master Jia Fang in the west of the city!"

Chen Ao frowned, and went to look at the blood book again. I saw that on the white cloth, the dark red blood characters were particularly eye-catching. It reads: "Hulu county official, kill my brother." Within ten days, the merchants of Hulu County gathered 10,000 taels of silver and sent them to the poplar forest thirty miles west of the city. Otherwise, ten days later, a gust of wind will kill all the merchants of Hulu County!"

Chen Ao shouted in a deep voice: "What a big breath!"

Feng Hu rolled up the cloth and said, "My lord, I personally led people to inspect the streets last night, and I didn't find any horse bandits entering the city!"

Chen Ao nodded, and suddenly said to the few guards guarding the door: "Your mouth is tight for me." If this leaks out, I'll ask you!"

How dare those little officials disobey the order of the magistrate, they immediately nodded and agreed. Chen Ao ordered the body to be transported back to the county office. While the people have not yet risen up to move, we must stabilize this matter first. If the merchants from all over the city know the news, I am afraid that the people will be immediately confused.

Chen Ao didn't say a word, returned to the county office, and went straight to the second hall. The officials in the front hall looked at each other, not knowing what happened to the magistrate who went out so early in the morning and came back angrily.

Last night, Chen Ao slept in Zhao Ling's room. He woke up early in the morning and woke up Zhao Ling. Zhao Ling was already waiting for him in the second hall at this time, and after briefly asking what happened, Zhao Ling's face changed. She asked, "What are you going to do about this?"

Chen Ao shook his head, sighed and said, "It is simply impossible to get the merchant to take out the money. Now that we are in the light, the enemy is in the dark, and it is not easy to do it...... 10,000 taels of silver, if you can't do it, you can take it out of our family......"

Zhao Ling sighed and said, "We can come up with this silver." But have you ever thought that if we compromise with the horse bandits this time, will they bully us even more?

Chen Ao said: "Of course I thought about this situation. Therefore, I will never use money to buy peace unless I have to. He stood up, gritted his teeth and said, "They want to start a war with me, then I will deal with them!"

Chen Ao is no longer the hairy boy who just came to this world. When he was in Liangcheng, when he faced the huge power of Liang Mansion, the first thing he thought of was to hide if he could. If he hadn't been pushed to his head, he would never have thought of resisting.

However, in the past two years, Chen Ao has experienced the Liangcheng Rebellion, the turmoil of the Salt Gang, and also participated in the martial arts conference, and even led troops to fight with the Khitans with real swords and guns. These experiences invisibly reborn Chen Ao, not only increasing his bloodiness, but also making him understand that in this era, it is impossible to solve the problem by blindly avoiding compromise. If you want not to be bullied, you can only face it bravely.

It takes a lot of strength to face the challenge head-on. And does Chen Ao have the strength? Of course he has! In terms of financial resources, Chen Ao's current money can arm an army of 1,000 people. In terms of manpower, his eldest wife Xuanning has amazing martial arts, and his second wife Zhao Ling is witty. He also has a killer under him who is willing to die for him.

With such strength, would he still be afraid of any horse bandits? What Chen Ao was worried about was that horse bandits would harm innocent people. And the horse bandits have always been hiding in the shadows, Chen Aokong has all the strength, and he can't use it.

Zhao Ling and Feng Hu looked at Chen Ao and said nothing. They were waiting for Chen Ao to make a decision. Chen Ao pondered for a long time, and suddenly said gloomily: "If I guess correctly, there must be a traitor with a gust of wind in Hulu County!"

Feng Hu was taken aback, but Zhao Ling was not too surprised. This kind of dispatching traitor spies is a very common thing, and she has done many such things before.

Chen Ao looked at her and said, "In your Ghost Hidden Society, there must be people who have been meticulous. I'd like to ask you to send people out and see if any of them are suspicious!"

Zhao Ling nodded, but frowned again: "But although Hulu County is small, the flow of people is complicated, and it may not be easy to find such a person." ”

Chen Ao said: "I understand. But I suddenly thought of someone, and that was the guide!"

"Guide, what guide?" Zhao Ling and Feng Hu no longer remembered the person Chen Ao was talking about.

Chen Ao said: "Yesterday you intercepted a gust of wind, and the caravan that was ambushed by a gust of wind was the guide you invited. What's even more coincidental is that when we first encountered this case last year, this person came to the county government to report the case!"

Zhao Ling suddenly remembered, thought carefully for a moment, and immediately blurted out: "It's the one named Hu Sanlin!"

Chen Ao said: "It's him! This person always appears at such a coincidental time." The first time he found the body, and the second time he led the caravan himself, he was targeted by a gust of wind. Isn't this a coincidence? And as you mentioned yesterday, the place where the accident occurred was actually a few miles away from the official road. What if the guide had deliberately led the caravan to this path?"

Zhao Ling bowed slightly: "That's right! In this way, the first time he came to report the case, it was very likely that it was the old cloth maze!"

Chen Ao nodded. Feng Hu suddenly said: "Then I will arrest this person back for interrogation!"

Chen Ao hurriedly said: "No! To catch him now is to startle the snake." I have a faint feeling that the ghost doesn't know Hu Sanlin alone. It's a deep pool......"

Several people in the room were silent. After a long while, Chen Ao said: "Feng Hu, you send people to pay more attention to the city, not only to pay attention to those suspicious characters, but also not to startle the snakes. The fact that they were able to silently nail corpses to the walls shows that they are capable of posing a direct threat to us. From now on, we must be careful and not make a mistake!"