The pit was very large, large and shallow, less than half a foot deep. The corpses of the soldiers buried under the soil were in a state of decay.
Li Guohao pushed aside the crowds of people who were shoulder to shoulder. When he saw the armor on the soldiers in the pit, his eyes darkened.
It’s Hengxiang’s soldiers guarding the position again!
Li Guohao's deputy followed him. When he saw the soldiers in the pit, he exclaimed: "It's over!"
"Shut up!" Li Guohao scolded him.
The deputy quickly shut up and looked at Li Guohao with eyes full of surprise and fear.
Although somewhat decomposed, the faces of several soldiers can still be identified. They are the same corpses that were dug up in the Chen Family Ancestral Hall a few days ago. They were the ones who broke into Qu Mansion with Captain Hu and Pan Hui that day, and then came out to Hengxiang, who fled north, guarded the soldiers who were stationed.
Seeing that more and more people were gathering around him, Li Guohao hurriedly dispatched soldiers to circle and control the place.
He sent one person each, one to go to the Chen family ancestral hall to find Shen Lie, and the other to go to the city to go to the Yamen to find General Xia Junnan of the Xia family army to report the findings here.
Then, he quietly ordered his men to go to the Duwei Mansion in the south of the city to find Yao Xinzheng.
When the bodies in the Chen family ancestral hall were exhumed, he immediately sent people to find Yao Xinzheng, but Yao Xinzheng felt that it was not appropriate to tell Xia Jiajun and Yan Jun about the matter at the time. It would be better to have more trouble than less trouble.
As the sun grew stronger, the sullen corpses of the soldiers guarding the place were dug out, nine in total.
The first person to arrive estimated that they had been dead for at least four days, but they were definitely not buried here four days ago. Based on some inferences at the scene, he felt that they were buried in the middle of the night last night.
Li Guohao sent people to find nearby villagers and ask if there was anything unusual last night.
It turns out, it does.
The Perilla Dyeing Workshop near Sanbai Mountain encountered a rat infestation last night. Hundreds of rats escaped and bitten all the raw materials and dyed silk in the workshop.
To this end, the entire purple dyeing house was hunted for rats all night long.
When Li Guohao heard the word rat, he immediately felt something was wrong: "Rat? Hundreds of them?!"
Hengxiang rarely has rat infestations because there are many snakes, and the government posted notices a few days ago to capture live rats and snakes.
Ten live rats can be exchanged for one dollar. Suddenly, the fields are full of rat hunters. How could there be hundreds of rats moving together, unless...
"Could it be the rat that General Shen and the others put into the secret passage of the Chen Family Ancestral Hall?!" Li Guohao asked.
The soldier next to him said: "Absolutely!"
"Weird, so weird!" Li Guohao thought for a while, and then sent people to find Xia Junnan and Shen Lie respectively. He then led a team of soldiers and horses to the Zisu Dyeing House.
Hengxiang dyeing workshops are all gathered at the foot of Sanbai Mountain. The purple dyeing workshops are neither big nor small, and are medium in scale.
Li Guohao and his men arrived within two-quarters of an hour. The mountain ridge half a mile away from the Zisu Dyeing House was filled with rat corpses.
The mountain ridge was surrounded by nearby villagers. Seeing the soldiers and horses from Hengxiang Mansion approaching, a few booing villagers asked loudly what was going on.
Li Guohao ignored them and went to the dyeing shop with a sullen face. The owner of the purple su dyeing shop was waiting at the door with a few stewards to welcome him from afar.
They suffered heavy losses last night, and now they have offended the military commander of the Duwei Mansion. The owner of the dye house really has no place to cry.
However, Li Guohao had a bad temper and did not have a good face. He directly asked the owner of the dyeing shop to lead the way to see what the burrows where rats came out looked like.
When they disappeared from sight, the villagers beside the mountain ridge started talking.
While chatting, someone mentioned the corpses of soldiers outside.
Following what others said, the nine bodies were passed down to ninety.
The troops stationed at the Hengxiang garrison were rumored to be Xia Jiajun and Yan Jun.
There are even rumors that the most powerful general beside Ah Li was also killed there, and he described the tragic death extremely vividly.
Others may frown, sigh, or be very interested.
An old man with a plain face, dressed in gray and yellow cloth, stood in the crowd and listened.
Compared with the old man next to him, this old man's eyes are not at all hazy and cloudy, but his eyes are bright and clear, and there seems to be a snowy scene under his eyes.
He listened intently to what those people were saying, his eyes moving with their movements and expressions.
People from the Duwei Mansion in the south of the city entered the Perilla Dyeing House and never came out.
The people watching the fun on the mountain ridge got too excited and left in twos and threes.
The old man was still standing. He didn't leave until several old guys called him to go together.
However, he had long since given up on going back to work in the fields. The old man just found an excuse to buy wine and walked towards the main road into the city. After walking for several miles, he saw a group of soldiers guarding the road surrounded by martial law.
Just then a cart was pushed in, and the corpses on the ground were covered with white cloth and loaded onto the cart one by one.
There are not as many as ninety. Although this pit is big, it is really shallow, with at most a dozen or so.
"Alas," the old man sighed, "this rumor was made."
Several women passed by him and looked at him after hearing this.
The old man felt something and turned to look at them.
Several women looked him up and down and murmured to their companions as they walked. The old man's voice sounded so young.
The old man put his hands behind his back and clenched them into fists. He didn't turn his eyes, and just kept looking at them.
Several women frowned and turned around to tell their companions that this old man was extremely strange.
After they walked away, the old man looked away from them and looked back at the pit in the distance.
The body of the last soldier was carried onto a cart and towed toward the city.
A few days ago I learned that you could get money by catching rats, but today so many rats escaped from the perilla dyeing workshop.
Moreover, the bodies of soldiers were buried in this place.
The old man's bright and clear eyes became thoughtful. Suddenly, the corner of his mouth curved, revealing a bright smile, thinking, this is it.
However, they were catching rats a few days ago, and now they may be catching cats in Qingyue Pavilion. The captured soldiers who went south to Jiao Jinhu are still in Hengxiang, and it is said that the situation outside is in chaos again.
With so much internal and external confusion, this little girl must be very worried. I can only hope that she still has the energy to take care of the dye house.
"They all come from here," Zi Su's boss pointed to the dark wine cellar and said to Li Guohao, "No one dares to go down there yet. There were many snakes crawling out in the morning. I don't know if they are poisonous or not."
"It's not surprising that snakes eat rats." Li Guohao said casually.
After all, he knew where these rats and snakes came from.
Several torches were put down, and Li Guohao and others were shocked: "This wine cellar is so big."
At least half an acre.
"Yes, this wine cellar is quite big. I bought this workshop six years ago, and the wine cellar was left to me by the previous owner." Zisu Dongjia said.
"What was this place used for when it was left to you?" Li Guohao asked.
"It's also a dyeing workshop. Alas, it's a pity that I didn't learn their skills."
"Oh." Li Guohao asked casually, with little interest.
Suddenly, there was movement below the wine cellar.
Li Guohao paused, suspecting that his ears had heard wrongly. He looked at a subordinate next to him and lowered his voice: "Did you hear that?"
"I heard it," everyone whispered, "there is an old woman crying..."
