Lin Fengsheng waved his hand and said: "At this time, when the crime is not investigated, hurry up and pass the 1510 road of the robbery of the grain." ”

Duan Zhiying said tremblingly: "Yes, General." He was ordered to escort the food and wages, and set out from Beijing five days earlier. Due to the heavy loads on the car, the movement was very slow. At noon today, we arrived at Qingfeng Ridge, because the weather was hot and the road was difficult, we stopped at the ridge to rest, the brothers were hungry and thirsty, and happened to see a village girl carrying water passing by, so I bought a load of water from her to quench her thirst. After drinking it, he fell unconscious, and when he woke up, his food had been stolen, and he deserved to die for his carelessness. As he spoke, he bowed to the ground and kept kowtowing.

Li Baohua said: "The area around Qingfeng Ridge is deserted, how can there be a village girl carrying water to pass by, don't you think it's strange?

Duan Zhiying said: "My lord, I am all humble and confused. It's just ......" glanced at Li Baohua after speaking, and stopped talking.

Lin Fengsheng said: "What's the secret, but it's okay to say it." ”

Duan Zhiying said: "Yes." Yesterday evening, he met seven or eight brothers from Master Li's subordinate thirty miles outside Qingfeng Ridge to meet him, and today he worked together to escort the food and salary back to his home. After the food was robbed, one of them, a brother named Fu Daen, disappeared. ”

Lin Fengsheng heard it and said, "Could it be that the officials under Master Li are guarding and stealing and colluding with that village girl to murder you?"

Li Baohua's face was very ugly, and he snorted: "General, robbing the imperial court is a capital crime, and Fu Daen will not dare to be bold even if he has the courage, and please ask the general to investigate." ”

Lin Fengsheng said unhappily: "The top priority is to find Fu Da En and his person first, as for whether the truth is really the case, it will always come out, and adults don't have to rush back to defend themselves." ”

After speaking, he muttered: "It's no wonder you, the world is sinister, and it is difficult to prevent it." I wonder if there are bandits in this Qingfeng Ridge area?" stretched out his hand to hold up Duan Zhiying.

Li Baohua looked embarrassed, coughed before saying: "Most of the bandits have defected to Zhang Stammer, and most of the bandits are gathered in the south, so there are no remnants of bandits in the Qingfeng Ridge area. ”

Lin Fengsheng nodded and said, "General Duan, did you find any clues at the scene?"

Duan Zhiying said: "The brothers searched all over the radius of ten miles, and they were humble and stupid, and they didn't find any clues. However, twenty brothers had been sent to block the road to prevent the thieves from destroying the trail left behind. ”

Lin Fengsheng was secretly surprised when he heard this, he was able to rob a large amount of food and salary, but he didn't leave any obvious traces, could it be that the thief actually gave wings and couldn't do it? He gave Duan Zhiying an approving look and said, "Let's rush to Qingfeng Ridge immediately." ”

This person was escorted to the theft of food, and at first he secretly felt that he was incompetent and ignorant, but at this time he couldn't help but look up to him. It is impossible for so many food and salaries to be robbed without leaving a trace, and if the clues left at the scene are completely destroyed, then it will be even more difficult to solve the case.

immediately asked Yun'er and Duan Zhengyu to stay, and took Mei Ruoxue and Chen Fengyi to rush to Qingfeng Ridge with Duan Zhiying. After the thief succeeded, he naturally fled long ago, and he would not encounter him again, so he did not bring extra men and horses.

Qingfeng Ridge is more than a hundred miles away from Weichu Mansion, and several people do not stop until the horses can't run anymore before they stop to rest for a while, and finally arrive at Qingfeng Ridge in the second half of the night.

The barren mountains and mountains were very cold, only to hear the mountain wind howling, the night owl roaring, and several people couldn't help but shrink their bodies. Seeing several soldiers dozing off each other by the fire on the side of the road from a distance, Duan Zhiying felt that his face was dull and he was greatly annoyed. When he went up, he punched and kicked everyone, waking everyone up together, explaining Lin Fengsheng's identity, and several people hurriedly came over to see it, and asked for a lot of words.

Lin Fengsheng waved his hand and asked them to find some dead branches and make torches to light them, illuminating the road as if it were day. Seeing that there was an avenue in front of him, and the road was full of criss-crossing ruts, Duan Zhiying said: "General, we landed here." ”

Lin Fengsheng nodded, walked over with a torch in his hand to check, and saw that the road was surrounded by dense forests, and there were two opposing cliffs on the way.

He secretly said: "Since the thieves can carry away so much grain and grass, there must be a lot of manpower, even if the officers and soldiers are not fascinated, I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape." ”

Mei Ruoxue said: "Cousin, did you think it was the person who stuttered about it?"

Chen Fengyi interjected: "I think it is very likely that this is most likely a plan by the thieves to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, and the rebels will not be able to fight them without food." ”

Lin Fengsheng shook his head and said, "I don't understand either, if they come in a big way, the local authorities will definitely notice it." But if it's not a bandit, who would dare to pay for it?"

Walked over to carefully check the direction of the ruts, the ruts on the road were very deep, and they stopped abruptly after a few zhang to the south, and after a closer look, they found that there were several shallow ruts that folded to the west, Lin Fengsheng said: "This gang of thieves should have escaped from here." ”

Several people immediately followed the rut for several miles, and the rut came to an abrupt end again, and there was a cliff in front of it, and the clue was never cut off, and they couldn't help but feel like they had fallen into the clouds.

In desperation, Lin Fengsheng took the three of them around the woods near the left, and returned to the place where the crime occurred, but still did not find any clues, and couldn't help but say in a loud voice: "Strange." ”

Mei Ruoxue said with a smile: "Cousin, what's so strange about this, the officers and soldiers who escorted the food and salary came from the north to the south, and now the rut has turned to the west, which means that the thief is indeed going there with the food." ”

Lin Fengsheng shook his head and muttered: "No, no, there is a cliff at the end of the path to the west, could it be said that the thief fell off the cliff in a panic with food." ”

Mei Ruoxue said: "This is unlikely, since the thieves chose to do it in this dangerous place, it means that they are very familiar with the terrain of Qingfeng Ridge, how can they be stupid enough to throw themselves into the cliff without considering retreating." Moreover, at that time, the officers and soldiers were already fascinated, and they could have calmly chosen a way to escape. But the rut is obviously going west, isn't it the hell?"

Chen Fengyi said: "I hope they really have a fate, otherwise we will not only have no food and grass and will not be able to sustain ourselves here for a long time, but also help those bandits a lot, they have enough food and grass armor, which can be said to be like a tiger with wings." ”

Lin Fengsheng lowered his head and pondered for a moment, a glimmer of light flashed in his heart, and said: "Most of them are thieves who are playing tricks to hide people's eyes and ears, they unloaded the food and salary in place, and then deliberately drove the empty car to the west, creating the illusion of falling off the cliff. Then he fled in the other direction with his food. ”

Duan Zhiying said: "The general's analysis is very reasonable, but there are no ruts in the other directions, what method did they use to transport the grain?" ”

Lin Fengsheng said: "I also think it's strange, there are no other traces nearby, how did they transport so much grain? Since these thieves chose to outwit them with medicine, it means that they don't have many people, if they rely on people to carry it, it is impossible to transport so much baggage grain and grass in a short period of time." Thinking that the officers and soldiers were all fascinated, he overturned Fang Cai's conjecture again.

After thinking for a long time, they still didn't have a clue, and they wanted to return to Weichu Mansion to think about it for a long time, but they were worried that they would miss any important clues by their unclear vision at night, so they rested in a small town thirty miles away.

Early the next morning, a few people ate some casual meals, and then rode back to Qingfeng Ridge. Lin Fengsheng paid attention to observe again, but still found nothing, and accidentally saw a path next to the road, the weeds on both sides of the path were miserable, but the center of the road was very plain, and there should be people walking around often.

At the moment, a few people walked along the path into the woods, and at the end there was a well, and the spring was silent and very clear. From this point of view, it was reasonable for the village girl to meet the officers and soldiers who were escorting the food and wages, and said: "There must be a house at the other end of this path, and let us go and see if the person who sold you water to drink lives there." ”

The men turned around and turned back together, crossed the avenue to the other end of the path, and walked to the land of Lixu, and saw a lonely thatched hut in front of them. The wooden door was closed and silent.

Duan Zhiying sighed and said, "General, it's all to blame for the uselessness of the humble position and the pustules of the subordinates, I didn't find out that there was a thatched hut here last night." After speaking, his face showed apologetic expression.

Lin Fengsheng smiled slightly, waved his hand, and stepped forward and said, "Is the host's house here, I am a passing guest, and I have come to beg for saliva to drink." ”

After a while, there was still no sound in the hut, Mei Ruoxue was anxious, and said: "Cousin, this person is most likely a fellow party of the gang of thieves who robbed food and wages, why be so polite to them." As he spoke, he pulled out his long sword, kicked the door open, and jumped in to protect the door with his sword.

Then she exclaimed, "Cousin, come and see, there is a dead man here." ”