"My two lords, please enjoy your time. I have to go to the government to do my work first!"

After sending off the constable from the yamen, Mr. Xu confessed his crime with a smile on his face, then picked up the portrait and prepared to post it in the most conspicuous place.

Zuo Yu glanced at his back, a hint of coldness appeared on his face, as if he had already developed murderous intentions towards Zhang Xianzhong in the portrait.

Zhao Lihe said softly: "Don't worry, I sent a satellite to the police department a few days ago. He can't escape..."

Zuo Yu turned to look at Zhao Lihe and said calmly, "Why wait for your subordinates to catch him? This guy is more or less a historical figure. Why don't you and I go and see him in person?"

Zhao Lihe thought for a moment and nodded gently: "Okay!"

Upon hearing this, Zuo Yu immediately stood up, threw down a silver dollar, and left the teahouse with Zhao Lihe.

These silver coins were newly issued currency by the Great Xia Dynasty. Since the Great Xia Dynasty was established not long ago and had not yet cultivated enough credibility among the people, it would be difficult for the people to accept the paper money if it was issued rashly. Therefore, it started with silver coins and copper coins.

As the saying goes, it is easy to conquer a country but difficult to rule it, and Zhao Lihe deeply agrees with this.

He now realizes that the difficulty of governing the people's livelihood after the founding of the People's Republic of China has increased exponentially compared to the difficulty of conquering the world before the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The technology tree of the Great Xia Dynasty was deformed to begin with, a typical result of forcing growth. Its military strength was comparable to that of the major warring states in the late World War II, but its people's livelihood was at best at the level of China in the late 19th century, and was not even as good as that of the Republic of China.

The country was just established and the economy was in decline. The talents Zhao Lihe needed had not yet grown up, so it was impossible to achieve comprehensive development in people's livelihood and he could only focus on people's food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Other aspects have not yet had time to develop.

For example, mobile communications, etc. Although the Great Xia Dynasty possessed sufficient technology and information, it had not had enough time to build communication base stations in various places. Currently, only local governments had laid telephone lines, and even landline telephones had not yet entered every household.

Because of this, there are still many remote areas where the imperial court's power cannot reach.

This is also normal. After all, how can we expect the Great Xia Dynasty to handle things that the Chinese nation in other worlds has not been able to handle in decades?

But at the same time, this also gave Zhang Xianzhong the opportunity to roam around and avoid pursuit.

At the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, there is a place called Dongtangyu. It has been a good place for bathing in hot springs since ancient times. When the Ming Dynasty was at its peak, wealthy families built countless mansions here to cool off and bathe.

Later, as the Ming Dynasty gradually declined, more and more bandits entrenched in the Qinling Mountains, and this place was no longer as safe as before.

It was not until Shaanxi took the lead in the uprising that the Qinling bandits thought the time had come and immediately responded. They kidnapped and even massacred many dignitaries who came to Dongtangyu to bathe, and threw their bodies into the hot spring pool of Dongtangyu.

Since then, Dongtangyu has inevitably been abandoned.

Now that Daxia has been established, ninety-nine percent of the bandits entrenched in the Qinling Mountains have been wiped out, but this place is still deserted.

This is not because there are no survivors in the nearby villages and towns, but because the survivors are unwilling to return here to live.

Although the turbulent times only lasted for a few years, it was during these years that the bottom of the hot spring pools in Dongtangyu was covered with white human bones.

Thousands of ghosts linger at the bottom of the hot spring pools in Dongtangyu, making the locals fearful of this place and they actively make up and spread many horror stories.

Thanks to these horror stories, Zhang Xianzhong didn't have to worry too much. He could just pretend to be the soul of an innocent dead person and scare away innocent passers-by who mistakenly entered Dongtangyu.

Of course, not all innocent passers-by are spared. For example, today, a hunter passing by was in trouble...

“Crackle—”

The precious fragrant wood removed from the mansions of wealthy families continued to burn in the rising flames. The flames licked the wild boar meat skewered on branches above, and the fatty fat made the fist-sized pork sizzle.

In front of the campfire, three big men sat on some randomly found stones, looking greedily at the pork skewers that gave off a burnt aroma.

Behind them, there was a medium-sized hot spring pool with a fresh human corpse sunk in it.

His clothes had long been stripped off, and his waist was tied with a thick hemp rope, on which were tied a number of large stones with charred marks. His skin had turned white and rotten due to being soaked in hot water.

There was glistening oil floating on the surface of the pool, emitting a disgusting and strange fishy smell in the steaming white air.

Ordinary people who smelled this smell would either vomit on the spot or at least find it unbearable. However, the three big men in front of him did not react at all. They were fully immersed in the barbecued pork in front of them. It was obvious that they had adapted to this strange smell.

Finally, the wild boar meat hunted by the unjustly killed hunter was roasted.

The big man in the middle immediately picked up a skewer and ate it with relish, regardless of the scorching heat of the pork.

After he finished eating a skewer, the two men next to him dared to reach out to take the meat and began to eat it greedily.

After eating and drinking, the leading big man sat by the hot spring pool, holding the pig bones shaved with a knife, and threw them into the pool from time to time. From time to time, they would hit the corpses at the bottom of the pool. It seemed that he was having fun with the bones.

But if you look closely, you can see that this person's gaze is not focused on the corpse, but is looking straight into the distance, as if he is thinking about something in a daze.

This person was Zhang Xianzhong, who was famous in the late Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Xianzhong, whose courtesy name was Bingwu, was a native of Liushujian, Dingbian, Shaanxi. He studied when he was young and later joined the army. He worked as a constable in Yan'an Prefecture, but was dismissed for an incident. He then joined the army in Yansui Town and was executed for breaking the law. The commander Chen Hongfan saw his strange appearance and pleaded for him. For the sake of Chen Hongfan's face, the general Wang Wei beat Zhang Xianzhong with a hundred military sticks and then expelled him from the army.

From then on, Zhang Xianzhong wandered in the countryside.

In the original timeline, this man should have gathered peasants from the Eighteen Villages in his hometown to form an uprising army in the third year of Chongzhen. From then on, he fought in various places and grew into a giant bandit as famous as Li Zicheng in battles of all sizes.

But in this world, Zhao Lihe's rise was too fast.

When Zhang Xianzhong wanted to persuade his fellow villagers to revolt, Daxia had already taken over Guanzhong at a very fast speed. Those young officials who came out of the Tongmenghui easily won over the people's hearts that he had worked so hard to incite by relying on the account books used for land distribution.

Looking at the villagers whose faces were full of excitement and who were cooperating obediently with the officials in distributing land, Zhang Xianzhong felt just disappointed.

But he did not dare to really go against Zhao Lihe and Daxia, so he could only leave his hometown with a few equally unwilling fellow villagers, planning to go to other places to join the real rebels.

But I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but the army of Daxia was like a great white shark that smelled blood, following him closely.

Wherever he went, the Daxia army would push him back.

The rebel forces he wanted to join were completely powerless in front of the Daxia army and were easily defeated.

Finally, after the same experience happened several times, Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but curse angrily. He felt that these people were all good-for-nothings, so in a rage he took his fellow villagers to gather refugees, built a stronghold in the mountains, and planned to set up his own army.

But the new army of Daxia was too powerful. The gathered bandits were no match for them and had to flee down the mountain in defeat, fleeing everywhere.

In this way, Zhang Xianzhong, who was desperate, took his two trusted brothers and roamed in the countryside where the government power could not reach. Relying on his bravery and a little cleverness, he committed major crimes many times and has not been arrested yet.

But if you walk by the river, your shoes will get wet.

Zhang Xianzhong knew that he would fail sooner or later.

If he wants to survive, he must either find a way to forge his identity and turn over a new leaf, or he must leave Daxia as soon as possible.

As for surrendering himself, Zhang Xianzhong never thought about it. He had already killed many people and there was no turning back...

Suddenly, a man came hurriedly and said anxiously, "Brother, someone else is coming!"

Zhang Xianzhong glanced at him and said calmly, "What are you afraid of? Look at how ugly you are. Hurry up and change your clothes and scare them away."

The man quickly explained: "Brother, the people who came this time are not ordinary people from the mountain, but a group of constables!"

Zhang Xianzhong stood up suddenly, frowned and said, "A constable from Daxia?!"

The man nodded repeatedly, with a hint of fear and retreat in his eyes.

Zhang Xianzhong also became nervous and asked immediately, "How many have come?"

The man said quickly, "Eight, just the right number for a detective team."

Zhang Xianzhong thought for a moment and said decisively: "If we can't defeat them, prepare traps and see if we can trap a few of them first. If that doesn't work, we can hide in the cellar we found two days ago and avoid the limelight for a few days."

"Yes, big brother!"

The man quickly agreed, turned around and left in a hurry.

At the same time, on the mountain road two miles away, a group of eight people were striding forward at a brisk pace.

Beside them, a clear mountain spring was rushing down the valley, with white steam rising above the spring. There were no fish in the water, and no insects could be seen. The rocks on the shore and the bottom of the lake were covered with charred marks left by sulfur.

Smelling the smell of sulfur in the air, the young man holding the knife among the eight people couldn't help but frown slightly.

"Brother Yun, do you really think Zhang Xianzhong would hide in a place like this?"

"Yes, Brother Yun." The shorter boy among the eight people shrank his neck and whispered, "I heard from the people in Tangyu Town that there are thousands of dead souls buried in Dongtangyu. Zhang Xianzhong is hiding here. Isn't he afraid of the dead souls taking his life and being haunted by evil spirits?"

“…”

The heroic young man, whom everyone called Brother Yun, glanced at the boy and said calmly, "Good people are afraid of evil spirits, and evil spirits are afraid of evil people. Zhang Xianzhong has been on the run for more than three months. He has been traveling around and committing serial murders. The government alone knows about 17 of them, and there are countless more that it doesn't know about."

"Such a person is already a wicked villain. He only worries about being sieged by the government, so how can he be afraid of being haunted by evil spirits?"