Chapter 1189 Impossible (Happy Birthday to Book Friend "Si Qinglanyu")
"Impossible," Bai Shan said, "All military households are registered. Since you said he brought his mother with him, he can't be a deserter. Otherwise, the village head would have known about his return. If you shelter a deserter and don't report it, you will be punished."
"I'm almost dead, why would I lie to you?" Ba Pu said angrily, "When he came back, the bag contained armor. I was a soldier before, so I knew it by just touching it."
Bai Shan looked him over and asked, "Are you the deserter?"
Bapu: ...
He lowered his head and took a big bite of chicken. "I'm going to die anyway, so there's nothing to hide. Yes, I'm a deserter. I haven't dared to go home since I escaped. I just make a living by stealing."
Bai Shan still frowned, feeling it was unreasonable. "How could a deserter dare return home? Most of them are just wandering around like you. Maybe they'll change their identities after getting rich, but they definitely won't dare return to their hometown openly. If they're discovered, the village head and the neighbors will be punished as well."
Ba Pu was a deserter himself, so he was aware of this. He frowned, but quickly relaxed his brows and said nonchalantly, "I don't need to lie to you. If he wasn't a deserter, how could he have armor at home?"
He said, "He's still in good health. His limbs are intact, and he's young. There's no way he'll retire."
Bai Shan pondered for a moment, "Qijia Village, Maozhou?"
Ba Pu ignored him and continued to eat the chicken.
Bai Shan and Man Bao looked at each other. County Magistrate Tang once said that when something is abnormal, there must be something wrong, and this is also written in the book.
Manbao asked, "Are you familiar with Maozhou? Why did you escape to Maozhou?"
"Not really. I'm most familiar with Yizhou and Mianzhou," Ba Pu said. "My hometown is Mianzhou, but I don't dare run back, for fear of being recognized by acquaintances. I usually just wander around Yizhou and spend some money. But life in Yizhou has been tough these past two years. The new county magistrate is particularly ruthless. Several times I was caught just as I was about to get something. In the end, I had no choice but to escape."
In fact, Ba Pu had evaded military service for many years and his life was easy in the meantime. But just when he had saved up some money and was ready to return home to change his identity, the Jianwei Weir burst, and grain prices skyrocketed. He spent all his money on the way back.
After the flood, life soon became good again when he first arrived in Yizhou City. Although there were few people in Yizhou City at that time, wealthy families began to return.
He stole a lot of money.
But his life became difficult after County Magistrate Tang took office. The city's defense became much stricter, and County Magistrate Tang was able to find his residence several times. He had no choice but to hide from place to place, and finally had to leave Yizhou City.
Ba Pu didn't hide anything, but he mostly boasted about the things he had stolen. "It would be nice to get out of Yizhou. Things are pretty easy to steal in Maozhou. I stole a box of jewelry from someone's house, but it was hard to sell. I happened to run into someone from the family when I went to the pawnshop, and I got stabbed. It took a lot of effort to escape."
"Do you know how big a commotion that was? Seventy or eighty people were trying to catch me, and I finally escaped by running into the mountains."
Bai Shan didn't believe it. "Seventy or eighty people can't catch you when you're injured?"
Manbao said, "The wound is bleeding. We can find you just by following the blood trail, right?"
Ba Pu said complacently, "God bless me. They chased me into the mountains and stopped."
Bai Shan said, "And then you arrived at Qijia Village?"
"That's right," Ba Pu sighed, "Actually, I'm not a bad person. Old Lady Ban saved me, and I was originally planning to give her a jade bracelet I brought with me. But her son came back from outside with my wanted poster in his hand. I knew it was armor the moment I touched his bag. My stomach wound hasn't healed yet, so I definitely can't beat him..."
Bai Shan and Man Bao were still lost in thought when Ba Pu simply poured a glass of wine beside them and babbled, "Brother, if you had listened to me, you would have pretended not to see me, and I would have pretended not to know you were a deserter. Then we could have all gone our separate ways and nothing would have happened."
"You refused to listen and insisted on capturing me to get the bounty. I had no other choice but to kill you..."
Bai Shan's expression instantly grew serious, and he interrupted him, "Are you familiar with Qijia Village? Do you think there are any other deserters in that village besides Old Lady Ban's son?"
Ba Pu rolled his eyes in annoyance and said, "You think deserters are like big carrots, they're everywhere. It's bad luck for me to run into one. Besides, I'm running for my life. I haven't left the house much since I arrived at Old Lady Ban's house. What if someone sees my face?"
Bai Shan looked at Ba Pu seriously and said, "If you don't go out during the day, you'll definitely go out and take a look at night, right? As a thief, how could you not be familiar with the environment you're in?"
"Hey, you seem quite familiar with him, young master," Ba Pu said with a smile. "That's right. I did go out there at night, but I didn't see anyone there."
"Do you feel that their village is different?"
Ba Pu finally realized something was wrong. He went up to Bai Shan and asked, "Why, do you think there's something wrong with their village?"
His eyes lit up and he grabbed the railing, "Does that mean I don't have to die?"
Bai Shan said calmly, "Didn't Lord Xu say that you killed an officer who arrested you? Do you think you can survive?"
Ba Pu was deflated when he heard this. There was nothing to hide from Bai Shan anymore. He waved his hand indifferently and said, "What difference can there be? Except that their village is richer, there is no difference."
"How do you know their village is rich?"
"Of course I know," Ba Pu said, "There are many families with lights on at night, and many of them have dogs. You can tell they are wealthy families."
Not every family can afford to light an oil lamp. Even though the Zhou family is so rich now, Mr. Zhou is reluctant to light an oil lamp at night.
When people were poor, the number of times they lit oil lamps throughout the year could be counted on one hand, so if many houses in the village had lights on, it meant that the village was wealthy.
The female prisoner, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly said in a hoarse voice, "Qijia Village has no money."
Bai Shan and Man Bao turned back to look at her, "How did you know?"
"Oh, she was escorted to Beijing with me. She is from Maozhou." Ba Pu replied.
Bai Shan's eyes lit up when she looked at her. The female prisoner did not hide anything and said, "I have an aunt who married in Qijia Village. Their village is notoriously poor because it is in the mountains. It is impossible for them to have money."
Ba Pu sneered, "Even though they don't have money, they can still light oil lamps and keep dogs in their village. And the houses are still half made of stone?"
The female prisoner fell silent again.
Bai Shan then took Man Bao and bowed to the female prisoner, saying, "Thank you very much."
He said to them, "Eat slowly. We'll come back to see you in a few days. Manbao and I have something else to do, so we'll leave first."
After saying that, he took Manbao and left.
Manbao asked him, "What's wrong with you?"
Bai Shan pulled her into the carriage and whispered, "I suddenly remembered that iron ore book. Several entries in it mentioned the destination with the word 'Qi' written on them. I used to think it was the surname of the person who mentioned the ironware, but after hearing what Ba Pu said today, I think it could mean Qijia Village, the place where the ironware was found."
"What if we're wrong?"
"Who cares?" Bai Shan said, "Tell Magistrate Tang and Magistrate Yang to investigate. What if they find something?"
Manbao thought so too.
I wish my book friend "Si Qinglanyu" good health, happiness every day, and finding love this year.
It's an epidemic right now, Lanyu must still be working overtime in the hospital, please pay attention to your health and safety.
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
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