Chapter 533: When did it become yours [Thanks! Bow again!

Inside Beizhou city,

in front of the large warehouse storing wealth, military equipment, etc.,

Zhang Fangyan, the heir of the Duke of England, wearing gorgeous armor, stationed his horse at the main gate, with General Zheng Jun, the elder brother of Zheng Xiao, beside him.

Zheng Jun tilted his head and looked at General Gan, who was talking to the school lieutenants under the Zhang and Zheng families not far from the large warehouse, with disdain flashing in his eyes.

"Eldest Brother, look at these traces!"

Zhang Fangyan on horseback touched the arrow holes on the main gate and said.

Zheng Jun turned his head, looked at where Zhang Fangyan pointed, and said: "Hmm! The feathered arrows are deeply nailed into the door, becoming a borrowing point for climbing upward."

As he spoke, Zheng Jun pointed to the distance from the main gate, where there was still a dark bloodstain, and continued: "I heard that Zaijing and the others carried the thief leader with a long spear, placed him on a carriage, and came directly to the front of the large warehouse like this..."

Zhang Fangyan looked up at the heavy main gate of the large warehouse and laughed lightly: "These two kids are really newborn calves not afraid of tigers! They dared to attack this place with only a dozen people."

Zheng Jun smiled: "They captured the thief after capturing the king; otherwise, how would that Inspector Du surnamed Du turn from darkness to light and rebel before the formation?"

Zhang Fangyan nodded: "This Inspector Du helped Zaijing and the others take the large warehouse, avoiding damage to the military supplies inside, which can be considered making up for his crimes."

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Fangyan said again: "Eldest Brother, if it weren't for this kid Zaijing, if the military supplies were burned, I don't know how difficult our days ahead would be!"

Zheng Jun: "The heir is right!"

After finishing, Zheng Jun looked at General Gan not far away again and said: "I see, that one wouldn't want to send female musicians and concubines to the lieutenants under my command, right?"

Hearing this, Zhang Fangyan raised the corners of his mouth and smiled.

The Gan family can command an army of ten thousand people, and they also have some foundation in Bianjing.

But ever since General Gan married the current Madam, he has had the hobby of sending beautiful concubines and female musicians.

And he looks at people and serves dishes; for those with good status and high positions, he sends concubines who are daughters of various relatives of the Gan family or that Madam.

For ordinary school lieutenants, he sends girls bought from slave markets and brothels.

Zhang Fangyan and Zheng Jun both understand the purpose of doing this; it is nothing more than winning people's hearts and expanding their power.

The effect is not said to be very good, but it is not without effect; many lieutenants in the army have a good impression of this "compassionate to subordinates" General Gan.

At this time,

a clerk in the large warehouse, accompanied by a sturdy lieutenant, walked over.

After bowing and arching his hands in front of Zhang Fangyan, he said: "General, the various military supplies in the large warehouse have been recounted! Checked and correct, the details are here!"

Zhang Fangyan nodded, and after his personal guard beside him took the details, he said to the lieutenant beside the clerk: "Let the sons guarding this place keep their spirits up; there will be heavy rewards afterward! But, if there is any slip-up..."

"Subordinates, etc., will offer their heads to see you!"

"Hmm!"

After finishing, Zhang Fangyan said to Zheng Jun again: "Eldest Brother, at this time Zaijing and the others should have entered the city; let's go and have a few words with him."

In front of the Beizhou government office,

the ground, which had been washed several times with hot and cold water, was much cleaner and wet.

At the entrance,

many Great Zhou soldiers gathered.

Huang Qingyue, Zheng Xiao, and the Yi family boy from Zhending stood together talking,

listening to them say "Yesterday some thief soldiers took advantage of the chaos to escape the city, Zaijing chased them out" and other sounds,

Xu Zaijing and Gu Tingye and others stood to the side, accompanying a middle-aged military general in his forties wearing armor, who led a unit of the Guangrui Army to Beizhou, talking.

Only to hear this middle-aged military general say: "Fifth Young Master, is it really as Second Brother said, your maternal grandfather's surname is Sun, and your maternal grandmother's surname is Gu?"

Xu Zaijing nodded repeatedly.

The middle-aged military general had a thoughtful look in his eyes: "Hiss... the Sun family genealogy, let me think."

As he spoke, his thumb pointed and pointed on his other four fingers.

After a while, Gu Tingye said: "Uncle, have you remembered?"

That middle-aged general didn't pay attention to Gu Tingye, but his thumb stopped in the middle of his ring finger, and he said uncertainly: "Fifth Young Master, was your maternal grandmother's ancestor a concubine-born?"

Xu Zaijing smiled and nodded.

"That matches up."

Afterward, this middle-aged military general, who was from the Gu family and quite familiar with the genealogy, began to straighten out the relationship for Gu Tingye, which made Gu Tingye dizzy and nod continuously.

At this time,

the sound of horse hooves came from afar,

Zhang Fangyan, Zheng Jun, and others rode over.

"Greetings, General."

Seeing Zhang Fangyan, everyone at the entrance bowed and arched their hands to salute.

"Hmm!"

Zhang Fangyan dismounted, came to Xu Zaijing and the others, patted Xu Zaijing's shoulder with both hands, and patted Gu Tingye's, looking at the two with full relief, saying:

"Fifth Young Master, Second Brother, don't blame me for urging you! It's really that His Majesty is in a hurry to see you, and the military orders in the capital are urging, wanting you group of meritorious officials to return to the capital quickly. Otherwise, we would definitely drink with you for a whole night."

Zhang Fangyan said, turned his head and looked behind, and Zheng Jun, General Gan, and others nodded repeatedly.

"Wait until the school holiday in the twelfth lunar month, you must leave time to come to my house for a banquet!" Zhang Fangyan continued.

Xu Zaijing and Gu Tingye smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"Alright, while the sky is still early, go!"

Zhang Fangyan patted the two on the shoulders again.

On the way out of the city,

He Guan looked around and asked in doubt: "Fifth Young Master, where are Master Zhao and Master Gao?"

Xu Zaijing said: "Brother He, they have things to do and are temporarily not returning to Bianjing."

He Guan nodded: "They should be busy for a while; a major disaster almost happened!"

The next day,

it was already the first day of the twelfth lunar month.

Xu Zaijing and the others had already started their journey back to the capital for more than a day.

End of the Wu Hour (after 1:00 PM)

Qizhou,

Imperial City Guard Prison,

inside the prison, it was dim and cold,

torture room,

winter sunlight shone in from a small window, forming a beam of light.

The beam of light also made the dust and steam floating in the prison visible.

Under the beam of light,

a man sat in a chair,

his body and face full of various scars,

the fingers placed on the chair armrest were deformed, and the legs under the chair were also hanging down powerlessly.

By the light, this man grinned, his mouth full of blood, but there wasn't a single tooth inside.

"Hehe... even if Master Jia breaks his head, he wouldn't think... the original Prime Minister of the Bai Gao Kingdom was actually a person from the Imperial City Guard, ha! Hahaha, ridiculous!"

"No wonder... *cough cough* Bai Gao was destroyed so quickly! I really knew your identity, whatever I say, I'm a dead man, so why would I say it?"

Looking at the man in front, Zhao Taifeng, standing to the side, had no emotional fluctuation in his eyes and said: "I also didn't expect that I could see someone I knew in Xingqing Prefecture before in Qizhou; it can be seen that our fate is quite deep."

"Pfft!" The man in the chair spat out a mouthful of blood foam in disdain.

Zhao Taifeng continued: "That's fine too, it can save a lot of nonsense! I do things, I say what I mean, you should know!"

The man in the chair looked at Zhao Taifeng and nodded: "The Prime Minister of the Chuichuan Division, says he won't kill, he won't kill, I know this."

Zhao Taifeng: "Hmm. As long as you tell me why there are so many fewer spies from the garrison office and the Buddha-decorating platform near Qizhou, I will give you a quick end, and I will also let your wife and children go."

The man in the chair was stunned, and then, his tone was panicked: "I, I, I'll talk!"

Zhao Taifeng waved his hand to interrupt: "You wait a moment! Listen to me clearly!"

Man: "Hmm?"

Zhao Taifeng: "The wife and children I speak of are not the ones in Qizhou city, but that family of three in Xianzhong Lane of Xijin Prefecture... by the way, there's also an old servant woman!"

"Clatter!"

In the chair, the man who had suffered heavy torture struggled violently, ignoring his injured legs, and stood up to look at Zhao Taifeng, his eyes fierce as if he wanted to eat him.

Zhao Taifeng's emotions still had no fluctuation and said: "Now, can you talk?"

After two breaths of staring,

"Pop"

The man sat dejectedly in the chair and said: "If you want me to talk, you can, but you first tell me how you knew about this."

Zhao Taifeng shook his head: "You are not qualified to ask this."

The man panted twice and said: "We initially received a secret order from Xijin Prefecture to move the stakes quickly, but later we received a secret order to cause chaos, burn houses, and kill people in Qizhou."

"After finishing the errand, we were originally going to retreat to Northern Liao, but before leaving, we were ordered to... go and ambush a group of people returning to the capital from Beizhou."

"The secret order said that Beizhou failed, and the people who ruined things would inevitably be happy and relaxed when returning to the capital, paralyzed and careless, so we were ordered to find an opportunity to ambush and kill them."

Zhao Taifeng's tone remained calm: "How do you know when they will leave Beizhou?"

"We don't know, we just have to wait along the way." The man said, spitting blood again.

"How to ambush?"

The man looked at Zhao Taifeng in confusion and said: "Naturally, if there is a chance to poison them, poison them; if there is no chance to poison them, find an opportunity to use heavy crossbows to ambush them."

"On the way back to the capital, those people who achieved great merit for Great Zhou, they wouldn't wear armor all the way, right? Right?" As he spoke, the corners of the man's mouth revealed a smile, as if he saw his side's conspiracy succeeding.

"How to find them?" Zhao Taifeng continued to ask.

The man shook his head: "I didn't leave Qizhou city, they just assumed I had already rushed to Ultimate Bliss, so how would I know how to find them?"

Zhao Taifeng turned and left the torture room.

Watching Zhao Taifeng's back, the man's eyes darted, then he widened them and shouted: "I know, it's..."

Before he finished speaking, the Imperial City Guard soldiers in the torture room walked up.

Zhao Taifeng, who had left the torture room, suddenly quickened his pace.

After some instructions, several Imperial City Guard soldiers rode fast horses and galloped in different directions.

Standing in the courtyard, Zhao Taifeng looked at the sky and muttered to himself: "Qizhou can send people, Daming Prefecture and Chanzhou must have sent people too!"

In the sunset,

beside the official road,

"Whoosh~"

A sharp feathered arrow shot out like lightning,

the neck of the rabbit jumping and running in the distance was pierced, and it fell to the ground. A moment later, the heat of blood began to rise.

A moment later,

the sound of horse hooves thundered, and when they arrived in front of the rabbit, they didn't stop. The rider just leaned over and grabbed the rabbit.

Holding the rabbit by the ears, Gu Tingye said happily, exhaling white steam: "Zaijing, we can add a meal tonight!"

As he spoke, Gu Tingye pulled out the feathered arrow and hung the rabbit behind the saddle next to the pheasant.

Because Xu Zaijing and the others had the Emperor's decree, they naturally couldn't return to the capital slowly.

At the same time, they were returning home after achieving merit, and their hearts were happy.

The direction of travel was from north to south,

not only was there no headwind coming toward them to increase resistance and chill, but there was also a tailwind to increase assistance.

The north wind actually became better all of a sudden, wishing it could be even stronger.

Therefore, Xu Zaijing and the others traveled unconsciously, and their speed was somewhat fast; at this time, they had already arrived near the south of Zhangyuan County.

Watching Gu Tingye galloping over from not far away,

He Guan, who was beside Xu Zaijing, skillfully put the feathered arrow back into the quiver, and said with no psychological fluctuation, accustomed and calm:

"Zaijing, I think we might as well whip our horses and enter Bianjing tonight! Just let the chefs at Yang Lou cook these wild games for us!"

Xu Zaijing looked at the sky and nodded: "That works!"

At this time,

"Whoa~"

Gu Tingye rode his horse back to the official road: "What are you two talking about?"

When He Guan repeated the words just now, Xu Zaijing looked at the three dark-colored, saddled small donkeys coming from the opposite direction in the distance.

Qingyun, who was following Xu Zaijing, smiled and joined in: "Young Master, I didn't expect us to have such fate with those three, to be able to meet them on the way back to the capital, but I don't know if they will ask us for wine!"

Xu Zaijing smiled and nodded, with some doubt in his eyes, saying: "Qingyun, you say at this time, why are they walking toward Zhangyuan County?"

Qingyun furrowed his brows and nodded: "Yes! When they get closer, we'll ask them."

As they spoke,

Qingyun said again: "Eh? Young Master, could it be they recognized us? Today they actually have the courage to look up toward us."

As they walked,

gradually seeing the appearance of the three people and three donkeys, Xu Zaijing shook his head, his tone somewhat self-deprecating, saying: "We seem to have recognized the wrong people!"

Qingyun, who was following behind, looked at the three people and three donkeys and nodded, saying: "But these donkeys, I feel they look the same!"

Gu Tingye smiled to the side: "Qingyun, don't donkeys all look the same?"

Everyone around laughed.

Xu Zaijing also smiled and moved his gaze away from the saddle on the donkey's back.

Since they weren't the people they had met and talked to before, Xu Zaijing and the others couldn't talk to them.

The three people and three donkeys coming from the opposite direction didn't make way to the side like before,

the group walked toward each other like this,

and when they crossed,

Qingyun kept tilting his head to examine the three people and three donkeys,

until the three passed by Qingyun's side,

Qingyun's gaze looked from the direction of the donkey's butt, and when he could see the situation on the other side of the donkey,

Qingyun's eyes narrowed fiercely, and when he wanted to turn his head to talk to Xu Zaijing, he saw his young master had already pulled out a feathered arrow from the front of the saddle and was placing it on the bowstring.

"Zaijing, what's wrong?" He Guan asked.

Gu Tingye also looked at Xu Zaijing with a blank face.

"Giddyup!"

Saying that, Xu Zaijing and Qingyun had already turned their horses around and galloped toward the three people and three donkeys.

Looking at the expressions of Xu Zaijing and Qingyun,

He Guan and Gu Tingye exchanged a glance and followed.

"Stop!"

Qingyun's cold voice shouted behind the three people and three donkeys.

Hearing this, the three people beside the three donkeys hurriedly stopped, looking at Qingyun behind them with terrified eyes.

And Xu Zaijing had already ridden his horse off the official road and walked to their side.

"What are you doing? Where is the owner of these donkeys?"

Qingyun asked.

"Military Grandpa, we are, we are from the county town, going to the surrounding villages to collect and sell dates."

One of them said with a fearful tone and trembling lips.

At this time, Gu Tingye and He Guan also rode their horses to block the other directions of these three people.

"Going to sell dates, and carrying a gourd? Is there wine inside? It's too cold this afternoon!" Qingyun continued to ask.

"Yes, yes! Does Military Grandpa want wine?"

"Throw it over, let me smell it!!"

"Hey, hey! If Military Grandpa wants wine, take it, just don't harm our lives!"

As he spoke, the wine gourd was thrown over.

Qingyun pulled out the stopper and sniffed it, incidentally looking at the knot mark on the gourd, and said: "This gourd is quite good-looking, where did you buy it?"

"Reporting to Military Grandpa, it grew from a gourd planted at home; among the few, this one looked good, so I used it to hold wine!"

Hearing this,

Xu Zaijing, to the side, smiled, shook his head, and said: "You really dare to say that!"

"Whoosh!"

"Thud!"

Four or five breaths later,

the three donkeys were fine, but the three people beside the donkeys were all hit by feathered arrows.

Qingyun squatted beside the person who had just responded and was now lying on the ground, and said: "The good gourd cultivated by Uncle Deng of the Marquis residence, when did it become yours?"

Looking at the confusion, shock, and incomprehension in that person's eyes, Qingyun sneered: "Come, let's talk properly."

Ignoring the screams of the thief to the side, Xu Zaijing stood beside the donkey, patted the donkey's neck, and sighed.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 534 =====