Font Size:
Zhao Long was dead, dead without a sound.
When Xu Zheng and the other servants entered, they found him lying on the bed, with blood foam at the corner of his mouth and his limbs stiff. It could be inferred that he had died the night before.
They checked his room, the door was locked from the inside, and the windows hadn’t been touched. Everyone ate and drank the same thing, and there was no noise or commotion the night before. There were no abnormalities, how did he die, it was a mystery.
The nephew of the innkeeper was the stationmaster of a nearby station. His uncle’s inn had a death, so he also rushed over. After checking, he discussed with Xu Zheng, and finally decided to classify Zhao Long’s death as accidental death. Both of them signed and pressed their fingerprints, and the other servants also signed as witnesses.
Finally, Xu Zheng took charge and bought a new straw mat, wrapped Zhao Long up, carried him to the foot of a nearby mountain, dug a pit and buried him.
Next, the Yang Wei Escort Agency, as before, took care of Xu Zheng and his group’s food and drink.
Yang Wei also gave the Qin family an ‘old’ swaddling cloth, which could be used to tie the baby to their chests, and it looked very warm. Everyone also received two pieces of candy, saying it was for them to eat if they were hungry on the way. The candy was supposedly made with milk flower and sugar, it looked delicious and smelled very fragrant. Those who received the candy put them in their pockets.
Not only did they not restrain themselves, they even went further! Xu Zheng was already speechless, he just let them be.
The servants touched the candy in their pockets: they didn’t dare to say anything, they didn’t dare to do anything.
Zhao Long was just out of his mind, he didn’t know how to enjoy good fortune. If the Yang Wei Escort Agency had taken care of them like this all the way, it would have been easier for them.
Anyway, their task was to escort the criminals to Pingzhou, as for what happened to the criminals on the way and whether they were living well or not, the superiors didn’t ask, they just needed to deliver the criminals within the stipulated time, right?
The remaining four servants thought very openly, anyway, if the sky fell, there was Xu Zheng, the tall magistrate, to hold it up, why should they stick their necks out?
Think about it, Zhao Long’s body had just been buried, and the soil on the grave was still fresh.
The next day, in the evening, after leaving the inn, they arrived at their scheduled resting place – an old house in the mountains and fields.
Unsurprisingly, the people from the Yang Wei Escort Agency were already waiting there, and they had already prepared the meal.
Only Yang Wei’s expression was a bit off when he came out to greet them.
“What’s wrong?” Xu Zheng asked.
“When we got here, there was already a group of people staying here.”
“What kind of people?”
Yang Wei thought about what the other party had said, “It’s a group of merchants returning home to bury their relatives, they brought along many bodyguards and servants.”
“How many is ‘many’?”
“At least thirty people.” The key point was that they all looked like they had good martial arts skills.
What? They’re escorting a corpse, and they’ve arranged so many bodyguards and servants!
Xu Zheng asked, “Did you find out where the merchant’s hometown is?”
“They’re very tight-lipped, they didn’t say.”
Xu Zheng frowned, the other servants looked at each other, this situation felt a little familiar, wasn’t it exactly the same script as when they first met the Yang Wei Escort Agency?
What the hell, it’s almost New Year’s Eve, and there are still so many people wandering around outside?
As they were talking, a burly man with a thick beard walked out from the main room.
Xu Zheng and Yang Wei were on their guard, the man had a strong murderous aura about him, clearly someone who had seen blood.
Qin Heng suddenly spoke, “Zhou Da, is that you?”
Zhou Da was puzzled at first, then when he realized who it was, he immediately looked at Qin Heng with surprise, “General Qin, it’s me.”
Lu Songli asked, “Big Brother, do you know him?”
Qin Heng nodded slightly, “Zhou Da used to serve under our father, but he later returned home after retiring from military service because of some things. I didn’t expect to meet him here.”
Xu Zheng and Yang Wei were looking at each other just now, now they both twitched their mouths together. This family, for the sake of exile, how many after-effects did they prepare? Just like, what was it, onions? Layer upon layer, endless.
“Haha, since you know each other, it’s fate. It’s cold and freezing, everyone don’t stand outside, come in.” What else could Yang Wei do, he had to act as a middleman.
After a hearty dinner, Qin Heng, Qin Zhao, Qin Sheng, and Lu Songli and his wife met again as a group of four.
“Third Brother, Sixth Brother, Sixth Sister-in-law, I’m sure you’ve already guessed that Zhou Da is my man.”
The three of them nodded in unison, yes, they had all guessed.
Qin Heng looked at them and said with a smile, “At first, I didn’t expect Sixth Sister-in-law to prepare so thoroughly.”
“Now, thanks to Sixth Sister-in-law’s proper arrangements, we’re safe and sound all the way to Pingzhou, no problem. Then I want to say that, in this way, Zhou Da following us, his usefulness can’t be brought out.”
“Another thing is, over in the northern border, Second Mother, Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, and Fourth Sister-in-law are exiled to Pingzhou on the spot, they probably haven’t prepared anything, and they’re still carrying five such young children, I’m very worried.” The preparations he had made, he had divided the personnel he could mobilize in half, and the other half went to the northern border to protect them. Even with this arrangement, he was still very worried because of the unknown situation in the northern border.
“My idea now is to have Zhou Da send half of his men north, directly go ahead and secretly protect them. The other half will join the Yang Wei Escort Agency.” In this way, they would also have more than thirty strong men escorting them to Pingzhou, plus the fighting ability of the three brothers, they would be able to handle any unexpected events and dangers.
Lu Songli and the other three had no objections to his arrangement.
At night, Lu Songli also asked the Yang Wei Escort Agency to bring out a box of candy and rice cakes for them to take with them, as well as medicine and other emergency supplies. Zhou Da was a big man, and he didn’t prepare things as carefully. Besides, it was freezing cold in the northern border, and they needed high-calorie food even more than they did. And they had plenty of food now, enough to eat all the way to Pingzhou.
So the next day, Zhou Da left half of his men with them, and the rest followed him, carrying a coffin, and headed north.
Xu Zheng and Yang Wei watched the coffin pass by, the shallow imprint left behind, and couldn’t help but shake their heads.
That day, after dinner, Qin Zhao rubbed his full stomach. To be honest, their exile all the way here was really smoother than he had imagined. It should be said that it was much, much better than he had expected.
At that time, his youngest daughter had just been born, and his wife had just given birth, and then they experienced such a major change, he really had no confidence in being able to protect them. Although he vaguely knew that his elder brother had made some preparations, he was still uneasy.
But he didn’t expect that, except for the first two days when they suffered a little, they could almost eat their fill and sleep soundly afterwards.
On the journey of exile, they didn’t encounter any vicious magistrates or servants who liked to torment people, they could eat their fill and keep warm, they didn’t have to go through constant beatings and deductions of food, and the food was pretty good, he was already very satisfied.
All of this was thanks to the planning of their elder brother and sixth sister-in-law. Especially sixth sister-in-law, all the arrangements were so appropriate and meticulous.
This made Qin Zhao think of the Xie and Zhao families who were also implicated and exiled. “Sixth Sister-in-law, how did you bring down the Xie and Zhao families?” Qin Zhao asked curiously.
Qin Heng and Qin Sheng also looked over when they heard this. They only saw the Xie and Zhao families fall, but they didn’t know the inside story.
Seeing that all three of them were curious, Lu Songli thought, “It’s normal that they don’t know, as information is scarce in prison. And I didn’t mention my plan in detail at the time to prevent eavesdropping.” Lu Songli felt that it wasn’t a bad time to tell them now.