The two of them talked for a while, and Zhou Xian got up and said goodbye.

The leader of the village Song kept sending Zhou Xian outside the gate and asked casually: "Zhou guerrillas, I wonder how long the imperial army is going to stay here? If the imperial secrets are not involved, can I tell you that I can also let the villagers in the village make some preparations early."

Zhou Xian shook his head and smiled, "This is not a secret of the court. But the whereabouts of the thieves are uncertain. Before they find out their movements, they should continue to stay here. I can't say how long they will stay, and I still have to wait for the decision of the supervisor."

The leader of the village Song frowned and was silent for a while and said, "When it comes to the movements of the thief army, I have a message here. I wonder if I can help the supervisor?"

Seeing Zhou Xian’s face showing doubts, the master of the village continued, “About 100 miles southwest of Baidi City, there is a place called Monkey Pass. It is at the junction of Fengjie and Kaiyang counties, and it belongs to a two-way area. A year ago, more than 300 bandits occupied the place, intercepted and killed merchants and bullied the local people.”

"Did the local officials completely ignore them?"

The Song village leader shook his head and said, "No, half a year ago, under the pressure of countless gentry and people, Fengjie, the county magistrates of Kaiyang once summoned nearly a thousand yamen runners and soldiers to encircle and suppress the bandits that occupied the bandits there. However, because of the steep and complex terrain and the cunning bandits, the official army finally lost countless soldiers and returned in vain. After that, they allowed the bandits to run rampant there."

Zhou Xian nodded and sighed: "These officials gave up when they encountered difficulties, and they were betrayed the court and the people. But the Song Village Master, after all, it was all about these bandits. Could it be that they had any connection with the bandits who fled to Sichuan?"

The leader of the village Song shook his head and said, "I can't explain it clearly. It seems that there is, but it seems that there is no."

"Master Song Village, what does this mean?"

The master of the Song village said lightly: "Don't be anxious about Zhou Youzhao, let me tell you slowly. My Song family has a foundation. Although it started with farmland, it also operates some fur and medicinal products in Sichuan. Although the scale is not large, it also travels between counties in Sichuan once or twice a month. Baidicheng is a goods distribution center for my Song family in eastern Sichuan. The goods purchased from Sichuan are transported to Baidicheng and then transported from here to the Lianghu area for sale."

Zhou Xian said "Huh" and praised: "The distance between Sichuan and the two lakes is not close. Although the Song Village Master said that the scale is not large, it should be not small!"

The Song Village Master smiled and did not deny it. "Business requires generally having multiple relationships. Among them, the relationship with the government should rank first. In addition, there are people who supply goods, peers who operate the same goods, and merchants at all levels who sell goods for us. In peaceful times, these are generally the case. But in troubled times, there is another force second only to the government and even higher than the government. That is, the powerful local bandits occupying key passes and dangerous roads and various mountain passes."

When the leader of the village Song said this, he turned to look at Zhou Xian and found that his face was still unchanged. He felt relieved. He was particularly worried that Zhou Xian would mistakenly think that his Song family had something to do with the bandits. Seeing that Zhou Xian was always calm, he couldn't help but feel a little admiration in his heart. "The bandits at the Monkey Pass blocked the trade route from Kaiyang County to Fengjie County. If you pass elsewhere, you should at least take a dozen miles of mountain roads. Moreover, you will inevitably be targeted by them. Therefore, sometimes, we will take the initiative to give them some gold, silver and treasures in exchange for them to make way."

Zhou Xian nodded to express his understanding. In the chaotic times, this matter is normal. Only in this way can people who are versatile can protect the lives and wealth of their own people. "Master Song, please continue."

The master of Song village paused for a moment, summed up the words, and continued: "But the day before yesterday, my family had another batch of goods to be transported from Kaiyang to Baidi City. And according to the past practice, they prepared enough gold and wealth for them. However, as soon as the truck arrived near the Monkey Pass, nearly a hundred bandits rushed down from the mountain. Without saying a word, they began to kill them. More than a dozen rural heroes who were escorting goods were killed by them immediately. The remaining people resisted stubbornly, but in the end they were outnumbered and killed one after another. Only a young man who was usually very clever, hid in the grass, was lucky enough to escape. He came back to inform me of the whole thing, and mentioned a detail in it. That is, some of the bandits who killed them had a Shaanxi accent."

Zhou Xian's face changed drastically, and he said excitedly: "Master Song Village, what do you mean? These bandits who intercepted the Song family's goods were not the bandits of the past, but were pretended to be bandits who fled to Sichuan. Because they had no idea about the transaction between you and the original bandits, they started a massacre."

The leader of the Song village nodded and said with a serious expression: "I think so too, otherwise all this would not be explained. I originally planned to send a few more people to the Monkey Pass to investigate, but today the Commander Yang suddenly led a large army here. I put this aside for a while. Just now, Zhou Guerrilla suddenly mentioned that the bandits disappeared, and I thought of this again. In your opinion, is it possible that they had escaped there? Kill the local bandits and occupied the Monkey Pass. The terrain there is very clear. It is difficult to hide tens of thousands of troops, but it is not completely impossible."

Zhou Xian lowered his head and pondered for a while, finally raised his head and said, "Master Song, what you said is very reasonable. But this matter is of great importance. It is not advisable to announce Zhang at will before you get the exact news."

The leader of the village Song bowed and said, "Don't worry, Zhou Juejie. What should I say? Song knows. If it weren't for this, I would have reported this to Yanggemen long ago."

Zhou Xian couldn't help but feel some admiration for the fat Song Village Master in front of him. It seemed inconspicuous at all, but he took all aspects of everything into consideration. He bowed and thanked him: "Don't tell the supervisor before you figure it out. Please give me a piece of clothing that the villagers and several local people who are familiar with the geography of the Monkey Pass and several sets of local people. I will send a scout to follow him to investigate immediately. If Zhang Zhe really hides there, the supervisor will definitely reward the Song Village Master in the future."

The leader of the village hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement. "Please wait for a while, I'll find someone to arrange it now."

Zhou Xian bowed and said, "Thank you, Master Song."
Chapter completed!