Chapter 157 Second Visit to the County Government Office
Inside the county government office, a large group of people, including the county magistrate, were making preliminary preparations for the interrogation with unpleasant expressions.
Making them work overtime late at night is one thing, but these constant spies and bandits are really giving me a headache.
Indeed, Yi County is a border town, but such a place shouldn't be experiencing so many major incidents! Especially since it's not even late autumn or early spring, the season when bandits and foreign tribes are most prone to causing trouble...
Something unusual must be going on. Everyone in the county government had a bad feeling, which made it hard for them not to have a long face.
The caravan members were understandably apprehensive about dealing with such county officials, but Xie Wanniang and the others, having already experienced the spy incident and knowing that the county officials were generally reasonable, remained quite calm.
After obediently cooperating with the county officials to record their statements, Xie Wanniang and the others dragged their tired bodies back home.
They had no idea they were returning today, nor did they know about the other people they had encountered on their journey. It wasn't until there was a knock on the door and they heard a familiar voice outside that they realized something was wrong.
Everyone started asking Xie Wanniang and the others why they had rushed back at this time, and whether something had happened.
Xie Wanniang only replied, "Something did happen," and then directed everyone to prepare hot water and dinner for them.
"Just make something simple, the important thing is to make a large quantity so that everyone is full." After a pause, she added, "Those who aren't afraid, go and help clean up the bloodstains."
It was somewhat better for her to use a stick, but the long knives of Haitang and the others were all emitting a strong stench of blood.
"I'll go!" Several people, including women and teenagers, eagerly offered to take on the job.
They lived in a border town and were the widows and orphans of fallen soldiers. They had seen blood quite often, so none of them showed any fear.
Those who didn't try to find work had already gone to boil water and cook.
With everyone working together, they quickly prepared hot water and food for Xie Wanniang and the others. Their weapons were also cleaned and left to dry.
Xie Wanniang was very satisfied. She waved to everyone, "Go to sleep, we'll clean up the mess ourselves after we finish eating."
The group didn't stand on ceremony with Xie Wanniang. They all had to get up and work the next day, so they definitely needed plenty of sleep to ensure they were in good spirits.
Xie Wanniang was never the kind of harsh master who treated his employees like servants, and she didn't feel resentful just because they didn't treat her like a master.
Everyone went back to their rooms in twos and threes, while Xie Wanniang and the others, regardless of master or servant, all sat around the dining table, picked up their chopsticks, and began to eat heartily.
Fighting someone is very physically demanding, not to mention that they were never idle before and after that.
Hot noodle soup with meat sauce and various pickled vegetables, plus pancakes that everyone made the night before to eat for breakfast the next morning, which can also be rolled with meat sauce and various cleaned green vegetables.
After quickly filling their stomachs, everyone scooped up hot water into buckets, carried them back to their rooms to wash, change, and prepare for rest.
Haitang was very self-aware as a personal maid. Even though she was yawning from exhaustion, she insisted on squatting outside and keeping watch while Xie Wanniang was washing up.
Xie Wanniang said she wouldn't listen to her and couldn't beat her, so she had no choice but to let her be stubborn.
Of course, this is also because Xie Wanniang knows very well that Haitang was frightened by what she had experienced back then and needs time to recover.
They slept soundly through the night, but the caravan members suffered through most of the night at the government office.
The officials questioned them repeatedly and in great detail, because they suspected that there might be bandits or even spies from other ethnic groups in their ranks.
The caravan leader also had this suspicion, because when the bandits found them and surrounded them, they were indeed "clear in their objectives and decisive in their actions," without even taking a good look or making a final confirmation.
Most importantly, they even disguised themselves as another caravan and risked their lives to follow them into the interior of China.
Taking such a huge risk, their aim is clearly not just the goods they are openly transporting.
He could count the number of people who knew about the one they were secretly transporting on two hands.
Even if these insiders weren't bandits' informants, they must have had people they trusted implicitly who chose to betray them for personal gain or other reasons.
He was too busy defending against bandits to find the traitors before, but now that they are temporarily safe, he will certainly not tolerate evil anymore.
Therefore, all those in the caravan who were dissatisfied with the county government's pursuit and questioning of them, the victims, instead of communicating with the border troops and cooperating with them in interrogating the bandits, were suppressed by the caravan leader.
He demanded that everyone fully cooperate with the county officials, and even prepared for the possibility that the goods might not arrive on time and that they might suffer a significant financial loss as a result.
The group of people from the Marquis's mansion who escorted the bandits away were also very busy, since the border troops were suspected of dereliction of duty for allowing the bandits to successfully sneak into the pass disguised as a merchant caravan.
They needed to find out as soon as possible where these guys had entered the pass from, and whether the soldiers who let them in were simply mistaken, blind, or had taken bribes and deliberately turned a blind eye.
If it's the former, appropriate punishment and extra training will suffice; if it's the latter, the ringleader and the main accomplices will most likely be executed by their lord according to the household register.
Everyone was busy, grumbling and cursing, but Xie Wanniang, who was accidentally caught up in the matter, only told Hao Yu and his wife about it privately the next day.
Hao Yu was shocked, but also relieved. He told Xie Wanniang, "Next time you go out, remember to bring more people with you."
Xie Wanniang nodded, "I will."
She planned to write to Jiang Yuan and ask him to help her hire a few more people.
After playing with Hao Yu's little girl for a while, Xie Wanniang left behind the brown sugar, pastries, pig's trotters, and black carp she had brought for Chen Shi, and then strolled back home with Haitang and the others.
To her surprise, she found the Hou family's daughter, dressed in simple clothes, and Chang Yuan, dressed as a black-faced maid, whom she almost didn't recognize at first glance, by the stone table in her backyard.
Xie Wanniang froze, one foot inside and one foot outside the door.
Her eyes widened, and the question kept echoing in her mind, "What are these two doing here?"
After the echo had been repeated countless times, Xie Wanniang awkwardly lifted her foot and continued walking towards her own courtyard.
To be honest, if she hadn't been so sure that she hadn't mistaken the storefront, and hadn't actually seen her group of employees busily working in the shop and front yard, and if the environment these two were in was indeed the place she spent almost every day, she would have really wondered if she had gone to the wrong place.
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