I never thought about the account books before, and Xiao Feng dealt with the horse bandits too decisively. Those horse bandits who had killed people were the ones with high status in the bandit camp.
After the two finished eating, they went to the house where the deceased second in command used to live.
The people living in this house now are Li Dazhuang and two other men without wives or parents. Li Dazhuang and another man are on guard patrol outside the village, while the remaining Zhang Yun is lying on the stone bed and snoring.
Zhang Yun worked all day and was exhausted. He fell asleep after eating.
Both of them heard the deafening snoring outside.
After waking Zhang Yun up, he explained that he was looking for something, and Zhang Yun tactfully went out.
The two searched every corner but found nothing. Xiao Feng stepped on a wooden stool and checked the roof.
Wan Jinlan shifted his gaze to the stone bed in the room, rolled up the bedding and put it aside, knocked on it a bit, and found that the end of the bed was empty.
"Found it."
Wan Jinlan looked up and saw Xiao Feng holding a yellowed notebook in his hand.
Wan Jinlan separated the stone beds that were spliced together along the gaps in the stone beds, and finally, what appeared before her was a small mahogany box.
There were exactly ten thousand taels of silver notes in the box.
The second-in-command's house had been ransacked once, but several thousand taels of silver notes were found. Now, unexpectedly, tens of thousands of taels of silver notes could be found.
"I think the boss's house can also be searched again."
Where did this group of horse bandits get the money from? The wealth of the second-in-command alone is probably more than the annual tax revenue of a county.
The two went to check the boss's house again.
Since the boss died in there, people have a taboo against it, so this best house is still unoccupied.
The two checked inside and out again, but found nothing.
When Wan Jinlan returned to the house and saw the contents of the account book, he was speechless.
Xiao Feng opened it and read it as soon as he got it, and he was still calm at this time.
Wan Jinlan concluded that the second-in-command was not very knowledgeable, otherwise the account book would not be full of scribbles.
Is it necessary to hide this thing so carefully? If it is clearly placed there, no one will know what he has memorized.
Xiao Feng was not discouraged. "If it's useless, then it's useless. If it is useful, we still have to take the trouble to arrange it."
As the two were talking, Xia Feng hurried in from outside, "Boss, Madam, Deputy Captain Gao has sent someone."
"Where are they?"
Xia Feng said, "Before they came up, Li Dazhuang was on patrol outside with his men. He recognized the man's size from Wu Zhong's previous stronghold and called out "Master Li". The man actually responded. He was the man that Deputy Captain Gao always sent to the stronghold to deliver messages. Dazhuang sent someone back to report the news. What do you think we should do now? Should we kill him directly or try to trick him into leaving?"
Whether it was the second in command or the first in command, they were all dead. As soon as this person came up, he would be able to find the clues.
Xiao Feng didn't know whether this person was sent by Kaohsiung to test him after hearing the news, or whether he really had something to convey.
Xiao Feng tapped the table thoughtfully and said, "Vice Captain Gao always sends a man named Ge whenever he has something to do. Everyone in the village calls him Master Li, so it seems this is him. If there is no exception, this time he should be returning to the village after eating and drinking as usual, and he won't stay overnight in the village."
Xiao Feng had a fairly good understanding of Deputy Captain Gao's situation. Ge Li was the middleman between Deputy Captain Gao and the bandits. He was one of Gao's personal soldiers, and his family lived in a village only a dozen miles from the mountain stronghold. However, it was in a completely different direction from Xiaping Village. He knew the route well, so riding from the mountain stronghold back to the village would be quick.
Wan Jinlan: "Why not send a few people who are originally from the village to negotiate with him and say that the first and second in command have taken their men out."
What did they go out for? Of course, they went to rob. Since that person could represent Deputy Captain Gao to deliver the message, he must have known about the collusion of the bandits in the mountain stronghold.
Xia Feng agreed with this proposal. After seeing Xiao Feng nod, he immediately went to find someone to make arrangements.
Ge Li, a personal soldier beside Deputy Captain Gao, was brought into the mountain stronghold.
On the way up the mountain, Ge Li wrinkled his nose. "What's that smell? Bitter and bloody?"
A man smiled and said, "Mr. Li, you came at the right time today. The first and second in command just killed a few sheep before they left, and they left some for you. You can enjoy them later."
"I heard that the refugees brought an epidemic. Doctor Liu, for the safety of the village, ordered everyone to drink a bowl of medicine every day to keep warm."
Ge Li laughed disdainfully: "If I really catch a cold, the one who will die the fastest will definitely be that damn old man. If he can find a way to resist the epidemic, then the palace doctors are all useless!"
At this time, there was a flickering firelight in the village house, and a woman came out with a wooden basin to pour water for washing feet.
Seeing that it was a woman he was "familiar" with, Ge Li took two quick steps forward, pinched her face, then pulled her over and kissed her.
The woman was angry but dared not say anything. After breaking free, she walked back in fear. Ge Li laughed out loud.
This woman was naturally arranged to come here so that Ge Li could see someone familiar and not notice anything unusual in the village.
Seeing Ge Li's military ruffian style, Wan Jinlan, who was observing secretly, frowned.
After he entered the house, he saw mutton and wine on the table. After eating and drinking, he grabbed a familiar face and whispered in his ear: "Wait for your boss and second in command to come back, and tell them that there is work to do!"
"Master Li, what kind of job is this? Is it lucrative?"
After Ge Li's wine bowl was filled, he drank it in one gulp and tossed the bowl away. "This time, it's enough for you to eat for a few years. After you grab it, you don't have to send it to our boss yet. You can hide and wait until the storm has passed."
"For the past two weeks, we've been keeping an eye on the road from Yixin County to Qingyuan County. When the convoys carrying military pay and food arrive, we'll just grab the pay, at most half, and keep at least half."
A man deliberately said loudly: "Why should we keep it? Now that we have seen it, it can only be ours!"
Ge Li slapped him fiercely in the face. "Boss, if I say half, it means half. You dare to take all the military rations sent by the court? Don't you want to live?"
When everyone heard this, one man said in surprise, "How dare you, Deputy Captain Gao, rob the imperial court's military pay? Aren't you afraid of being investigated by the court? In the past, you could just rob the merchant caravans, but now you're doing something so big!"
Ge Li downed another bowl of wine and said with a smug smile, "The emperor is far away, so what if we pursue the matter? In Qingyuan, the county magistrate's words don't count. In the entire Liangzhou, whoever has the troops under his command is the boss! This task has been taken on by our boss. If he does it well, he will be promoted to the position of captain in charge of Gu'a Town in the future, and you will also get benefits!"
Ge Li finished eating the mutton, drank a large bowl of wine, wiped his mouth, picked up the two mutton legs specially given to him by the village and left.
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