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The mountains in this area are not high, and the slopes are not steep, but they are not small. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The forest is lush, and it spreads down comfortably from the hill, full of verdant eyes, and it is very beautiful.

The two hills in front of me are like the two sides of the word "concave" bulging.

The avenue passes through the plains and heads towards the groove between the two mountains.

The terrain of this groove is not low, but it is very flat, and even better, there is a rather small pond.

From time to time, the mountain birds swept out of the mountains and forests, slid over the pond in a wonderful arc, and shot away like arrows.

The Wuli Inn was built next to this pond, and the gate was facing the avenue. Not only is the location good, but there are also quite a lot of scenery around, so whoever comes here will have the idea of staying.

In the middle of noon, five riders dismounted at the door of the Wuli Inn and walked straight to the inn.

Walking in front was a white-robed man with a saber hanging from his waist; behind him was an old man in a brocade robe, with a clear face, a leisurely and elegant expression, and a slight arrogance, who seemed to be the leader or the master; and the three men behind him were also in high spirits.

"Hello guest officers!" Xiao Er greeted him attentively, with a smile on his face, "May I ask the guest officer: Are you eating or staying in a hotel?"

The white-robed man stopped, glanced at him, and said lightly, "Stay in the hotel." Three upper rooms. ”

After Xiao Er settled the guests, he was about to leave, when the old man stopped him and asked, "Little Second Brother, I see a pond next to me, are there any fish in the pond?"

"Yes, but it's very rare. ...... Do you want to go fishing?"

The old man smiled and nodded, and asked, "Little Second Brother, is there a fishing rod in the inn?"

"So leisurely?" Xiao Er wondered in his heart.

Since the usual receptions were all hurried passers-by, and there were very few such requests, he glanced at the old man quickly, and felt that he was very much like an official who had returned to his hometown, and while he was playing in the mountains and rivers, he slowly returned to his hometown, and suddenly said: "Yes, yes, there are small ones, let's get them!"

The pond is trapezoidal, about 80 zhang long, about 20 zhang wide at this end of the inn, about 30 zhang wide at the far end; the grass is green on the four banks, the green weeds are spread on the edge of the pond, and there is a large green water hyacinth in the pond.

The white-robed man walked at the forefront with a spotted bamboo fishing rod, the old man followed unhurriedly with his hands in his hands, and the three people behind him followed in unison.

"My lord, is it okay here?" the white-robed man suddenly stopped.

The old man nodded.

"Guest officer, the earthworm you wanted. Xiao Er ran over quickly, holding a pottery bowl in his hand, holding a small half bowl of freshly dug earthworms.

The white-robed man took the bait and handed the fishing rod to the old man.

The old man stared intently at the goose feather float in the water, while the four of them stood quietly beside him. After a long time, the float still did not move.

"Don't stand here, walk around!" said the old man suddenly.

The four of them slowly circled around the pond a few times, and then they all returned to him one after another.

"But what did you find?" the old man asked softly without looking back, still staring at the float in the water.

"Nope. All four were a little frustrated.

A man in a green robe hesitated, "My lord, are you suspicious...... Is this pond weird?" he had never thought about this question, so he looked at the pond in disbelief.

The old man was noncommittal, silent for a while, and said slowly: "I can still trust Liu Shen's methods. So, the inn doesn't need to be checked anymore...... I've looked around the inn, and the most likely thing to make a fuss about is this pond......"

"What do you mean, sir?" the four asked in unison.

The old man glanced back at them and said lightly, "This is just speculation. Suddenly beckoned to the green-robed man, "Geng Yun, you come to fish!"

Geng Yunben had no interest in fishing, and the fish were scarce, and there was no movement for a long time, which was even more boring;

"I'll go for a walk!" the old man walked slowly along the pond bank with his hands behind his back.

A thin black farmer with a slightly hunched back is pouring manure in a vegetable field by the pond, panting lightly as he works.

"Old man, how old are you?" the old man asked kindly, walking closer.

The old farmer glanced up at him, put down the dung scoop in his hand, and gasped slightly: "Nine out of sixty!"

"At such an old age, it's still so hard?"

"What's the solution? I want to eat!" the old farmer shook his head and smiled bitterly, his dark and thin face was full of wrinkles, "The children have no money, so they can only rely on themselves!"

The old man took out an ingot of silver and stuffed it into his hand, and said warmly: "Old man, take it." ”

"This ......" The old farmer stared at the silver in his hand in amazement, looked at him suspiciously, and stammered, "This ...... Master...... This ......"

"Take it!" the old man smiled, "Old man, you live around here, right?"

The old farmer nodded, took the silver into his arms, pointed to a hut not far from the left, and said, "Oh, there it is." ”

"How many years have you lived here?"

"Sixty-nine years!" said the old farmer with a smile, "my great-grandfather's generation has moved here!"

"Oh. The old man smiled, pointed to the Wuli Inn, and asked, "Old man, do you know how many years old the inn is?"

"It's bigger than a little old man!" said the old farmer, "Listen to the old people, this inn was there eighty-one years ago!"

"Is it always the way it is?" asked the old man, staring into his eyes.

"Hmm...... "The old farmer thought for a moment, and added, "However, it was demolished once thirty years ago, and then rebuilt. ”

"Oh, who demolished it?"

"The government sent someone to demolish it. ”

"Why demolish it?"

"It's not very clear. The old farmer recalled: "...... I heard that a batch of valuable things were lost back then, and the government suspected that they were lost at this inn. But I couldn't find it, and finally even the inn was demolished to find it. ”

"Oh, did you find it later?"

"No," the old farmer shook his head, "I don't think I lost it here." ”

The old man nodded and asked, "Later, this inn has never been rebuilt, has it always been like this?"

"Yes. The old farmer nodded affirmatively, and sighed, "Alas, time flies so fast! Thirty years have passed in a flash...... The inn is still so sturdy, but the little old man is already old!"

The old man also sighed, and then pointed to the pond beside him and asked, "This pond has always existed, right?"

"Yes. When Pangu opened the world, there should have been!" The old farmer said with a smile, "We rely on it for irrigation on weekdays, so it is our food and clothing!"

The old man smiled and nodded, feeling that he couldn't ask for any useful information, so he wanted to turn around and leave, but the old farmer nagged to himself: "Not only that, but because of this pond, our place is still a treasure land!"

"Oh, is it?" said the old man, slightly surprised, "how so?"

"Look, sir," the old farmer grinned, pointing halfway up the hill not far away, "Are there many tombs over there?"

"Yes. ”

"Isn't it all towards this pond?"

"Yes. The old man smiled and said, "It seems that it is really a treasure!"

"Of course!" the old farmer saw that he could talk so well, and that he was a man of knowledge, so he simply revealed the secret at the bottom of the box, so he squinted at him, and said mysteriously: "Master, I tell you, - you must not tell anyone else, - this pond will grow!"

"Elder?" the old man's heart tightened, and he stared into his eyes and asked, "What do you say?"

The old farmer looked solemn and said, "This pond didn't have such a long time before. ”

"Huh?" said the old man, looking surprised, "you mean: this pond has become longer than before?"

"Yes!" the old farmer pointed to a tall and dense locust tree behind the inn, "Sir, can you see the old locust tree clearly?"

The old man followed his gaze and nodded.

"Little Lao'er clearly remembers that the pond bank over there used to be under the locust tree, but now you see, is it growing towards the inn?"

The old man could see at a glance that the current pond bank was at least five zhang away from the locust tree, and his heart suddenly jumped, and he said in a trembling voice: "You old ...... Am I not mistaken?"

"Absolutely can't be wrong!" The old farmer was full of confidence and said with emotion: "No wonder the Nie family wants to build the inn there, it turns out that the family has already known that this is a treasure land!"

"When did you find out it was long?" the old man asked calmly, trying to suppress the excitement in his heart.

"Hmm...... I can't remember the exact time...... It should have been more than 20 years!"

"Did it grow slowly, or did it grow like this all of a sudden?"

"Hmm...... It looks like it looks like this all of a sudden...... However, maybe it's growing slowly, but I just didn't notice it......"

"Thank you, old man!" the old man arched his hand at him and walked away quickly.

The old farmer looked at his back suspiciously, and suddenly regretted that he should not have told this secret to a stranger casually; but when he touched the heavy ingot of silver in his arms, he immediately laughed again, and muttered: "You old immortal, you have exchanged a few years of rations in a few words, are you not satisfied?"

The old man walked straight to the locust tree, first stopped and looked at the inn quietly, then walked to the corner of the pond, then turned back again, and muttered to himself: "Yes, it has grown a lot!

The old man walked quickly back to the fishing place of the four people, and said excitedly: "Don't fish!

※※※

"We went to Xinyang to mobilize hundreds of errand soldiers, drained the pond, and in less than half a day, we dug out the secret passage of the year!" Miao Yizhen said proudly.

"My lord, my subordinates still haven't figured it out: wasn't that secret passage in the backyard of the inn?, why did it run into the pond?" Gao Jinlou was puzzled.

"Hey, it's not the dark passage that has run into the pond, - it's always been there, but the inn is running forward!"

Zhao Yanhao, Xu Jinshan, and Gao Jinlou looked at each other in surprise.

"My lord, do you mean: After robbing that batch of treasures, the shopkeeper moved the inn forward?" Xu Jinshan was the first to react.

"Yes. Miao Yizhen nodded and smiled: "To be precise, it was the shopkeeper who activated the mechanism and moved the inn forward." ”

"This ...... How is it possible?" Zhao Yanhao frowned and said, "Uncle Shi, this inn is not small, how can it be moved?...... Besides, even if it can move, won't it fall over?"

Miao Yizhen glanced at him, and said, "Yan Hao, you don't know: the Wuli Inn, as a whole, is actually a frame structure!"

"What is a frame structure? ”

"To put it simply, it's a whole. "Miao Yizhen twisted his beard," and the foundation beam of the inn is a large tray, which holds the entire inn. In this case, you can simply pull the foundation beam and pull the entire inn away. ”

"Tut-tut, how much force does that take?!" Gao Jinlou exclaimed, barely believing his ears.

"Didn't you say it, use the mechanism!" Miao Yizhen sneered, "Of course people don't have that much strength, but they have mechanisms!"

"My lord, what kind of organ is that?" Xu Jinshan asked.

"I think it's a noose. Tie the rope to the foundation beam first, and then activate the mechanism, and you can pull it away. ”

"Uncle Shi, can you find this mechanism on the spot?" Zhao Yanhao's eyes flashed and he asked.

"Nope. Miao Yizhen shook his head, "This mechanism should be temporarily assembled, installed on the ground, and once the inn is pulled to the predetermined position, it will be dismantled immediately! ”

"Reasonable! Reasonable!" all three agreed.

Miao Yizhen summed it up: "The thieves first used the tray and slide rails to rob the treasure, and after the treasure team left, they used the noose mechanism to move the inn forward. In this case, the backyard of the inn is certainly not where it was before. Therefore, even if you dig 3,000 zhang into the ground, you can't find the mechanism at all!"

"Uncle Shi, the little nephew is still a little confused," Zhao Yanhao listened to him carefully, thought for a while, and said: "Wuli Inn is an inn after all, not only has guests staying, but also people come and go, how can there be a chance to pull the inn without being discovered?"

"That's a good question! To be honest, Uncle Shi, I've also been puzzled!" Miao Yizhen looked at him with admiration and said, "I guess that's how the thieves operate: the first step is to let the shopkeeper Nie close down first. In this way, there are no more guests in the inn, and the second step, the time to pull the inn, is carried out at night. -- preferably in the middle of the night -- in the wilderness, where pedestrians must be scarce, so that they will not be noticed. ”

Zhao Yanhao nodded, thought for a while, and said, "However, after the inn is pulled, it will inevitably leave traces......"

"I know what you mean!" Miao Yizhen interrupted him with a smile, "Yan Hao, let me analyze it for you: let's talk about the inn first." Most likely, the ground is not the same as before. However, this is not a problem at all! I have checked the information of the year, and it has been four days since the treasure protection team left the inn until they found out that it had been robbed and returned to the inn! Not to mention four days, it only takes half a day, and the shopkeeper Nie can clean up the inn exactly as before! Yan Hao, do you say so?"

"I agree. I'm talking mainly about the traces around the inn......"

"Then let's talk about the surroundings again!" Miao Yizhen glanced at the three people who were listening intently one by one, and said in a deep voice:

"On weekdays, if there is such a big change, it is inevitable that there will be traces around the inn. This time, however, the situation was different. -- I think you all remember what I said about the situation of those days: just after the flood, the four fields were in shambles! -- The situation around the Wuli Inn, of course, is not excluded! In this case, some traces will be concealed. You're right?"

Gao Jinlou nodded and said, "My lord is very right!"

"The most obvious mark, and the most likely to be exposed, is only one place—the original backyard floor of the inn! I have measured that the distance of the inn is a foot wider than that of the backyard, and of course, it has moved out of the previous backyard ground. As a result, not only do they leave very visible marks on the ground, but they are also far away from the pond before. That's a big flaw...... What to do?"

"Oh, I understand! Dig a long pond!" Zhao Yanhao's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh.

"Exactly!"

"Yes...... This is a very small project!" Zhao Yanhao was surprised, and his tone was still incredulous.

"Cut, what is this project?" Miao Yizhen sighed, "The number of thieves is definitely far beyond your imagination...... Moreover, the project was also completed at the same time as the mobile inn! overnight...... They first removed the trees from the pond bank, dug up the vegetation along with the soil underneath, and then dug up the trees and vegetation back to the original location, just like the previous pond bank!"

"High! it's really high!" Gao Jinlou exclaimed.

"Hmm...... Inevitably, there will still be traces...... Didn't they see it?" Zhao Yanhao was still picky.

"Nope. ...... If you look closely, you should be able to see it. But they didn't notice the problem......"

"Who could have imagined this kind of means?" Xu Jinshan patted his ass at the right time, "It's just us adults who can think of it!"

Miao Yizhen glared at him, so frightened that he stuck out his tongue.

Zhao Yanhao bowed his head hesitantly, but he always felt that there was still a big flaw, but he couldn't think of it for a while.