That night, the four of them slept on the street, found a corner sheltered from the wind, threw Niu Er's body on the ground, and crowded in the car to spend the night.
There was nothing to say all night. Early the next morning, Yuan Feng tightened his belt by two buckles and said to everyone: "Let's go to the Yamen."
Although Yuan Feng was young, he was everyone's master. After the master had spoken, no one dared to say anything, so they threw Niu Er's body into the car and drove the carriage towards the government office.
Several two-wheeled sedans were passing by, with luggage tied on top of the carriages. It looked like a family was moving. The road was narrow, so Zhang Tietou stopped the carriage on the side of the road to let others pass first.
Walking at the front of the motorcade was a young man in his early twenties, dressed as a martial artist with a gloomy look on his face. He just glanced at Yuan Feng and the others before riding past. The wooden wheels of the four cars squeaked against the stone pavement.
, slowly passed in front of the teenagers, the curtain of the last car opened a small gap, and a pair of shining almond eyes blinked inside, but none of Yuan Feng and the others noticed.
When we arrived at the gate of the government office, it was still very early. There were not many pedestrians on the street in the early morning. There was only smoke from the breakfast shop in the distance. The two boys who were making sesame cakes looked at the four people with dew on their bodies suspiciously.
young man.
Yuan Feng pointed at the grievance drum placed at the entrance of the yamen and said to Zhao Ding'an: "Knock!"
The grievance drum had not been used for a long time. The drumsticks were covered with cobwebs and the surface of the drum was covered with a layer of dust. Without saying a word, Zhao Ding'an jumped on the stand, grabbed the drumsticks and started banging hard.
"Bang bang bang bang" the dull drum sound spread far away, causing several houses to open their doors to watch, and some people passing by also stopped to watch. When Zhao Ding'an saw people watching, he started beating harder.
Zhang Tietou was a little scared and said, "Brother Feng, isn't this good?"
Yuan Feng said: "Then what's the best? We don't have any big boys. How can we survive by drinking the wind? Even if we can wait, he can't wait. If he waits another day, he will stink." He pointed at the cart.
Straw mat on the tube.
Zhang Tietou stopped talking, shrugged his shoulders, and watched Zhao Ding'an playing the drum. After knocking a few more times, he heard hurried footsteps in the yamen. After a while, the side door opened, and a yamen servant wearing a black hat roared fiercely.
Said: "Knock on what?"
"Master, we are here to receive the reward." Zhao Ding'an replied gruffly.
"You guys are crazy. This is the main hall of Lanzhou Prefecture. There is no reward to be received. If you don't get out, I will lock you up." The Yamen officer continued to yell.
Yuan Feng squinted inside and saw seven or eight government officials cleaning the house. It looked like there were some important arrangements today, so he was sure that the prefect would show up. He took out a notice from his arms and said: "This is what we received."
Reward, the fierce bandit Niu Er, regardless of life or death, every sight of people and corpses will be worth a thousand taels of silver."
The yamen servant was stunned for a moment, took a look at the notice, and tore it into pieces after three times: "You are late, this notice does not count, Mr. Liu has been demoted again, the reward notice issued by the predecessor, the new prefect is
I won’t admit it.”
The four of them looked at each other, dumbfounded. Yuan Feng reacted the fastest and asked, "May I ask this gentleman, where did Mr. Liu go to become an official?"
The yamen servant looked impatient, "Let's go, let's go, I don't have time to chat with you." Suddenly he seemed to remember something and asked: "Did you take two pieces of cattle?"
Zhao Ding'an jumped off the stage, came to the carriage and pulled out Niu Er's body. The body had been left for more than ten days and had turned green, but his face had not changed. The yamen officer obviously knew Niu Er and was shocked at the time.
He staggered and said in a trembling voice: "It's really Mr. Niu."
Yuan Feng said: "Of course it's Niu Er. I dare to ask again, where did Master Liu go to become an official?"
I originally thought that it was four poor country boys who came to cause trouble, but I didn't expect that they were hidden swordsmen. The yamen officer calmed down and looked at it again. The eyes of these four people were indeed different from those of the traffickers and lackeys. He had seen the Lanzhou prison.
The looks in the eyes of those gangsters here were somewhat similar. They were just making ends meet by eating yamen rice. Who could make themselves uncomfortable for nothing? He immediately replied kindly: "Master Liu was demoted to Luyang County Magistrate. Yesterday's transfer order, this morning
"Those who are leaving, if you can catch up in time, you may be able to catch up."
Yuan Feng cupped his fists and said, "Thank you." He turned around and left. The other three people also cupped their fists in the same manner and turned away in a quack-like manner. The servant was left standing at the door, secretly thinking that Magistrate Liu was really a broomstick.
Xing, he caused so much trouble in just one month after taking office, and even brought a corpse to bring bad luck to others before he left. Such an official should be demoted.
Luyang County is hundreds of miles north of Lanzhou and is an extremely remote place. However, it is not far from Shibali Fort, less than a hundred miles away. Since Magistrate Liu went to Luyang, we will go to Luyang to find him.
The only thing about the reward was that the young men did not understand the broken rules of their official circles. They only knew that whoever said something had to honor it, so the four of them drove the carriage towards the north gate.
However, after a few steps, the horse was unwilling to leave. It also seemed that the horse had not eaten all day and night. It had no energy to travel a long distance. The four of them had no choice but to stop and discuss countermeasures.
To go to Luyang County, you must have money to travel, but Yuan Feng felt a little embarrassed to ask Deng Ziming again. He had already borrowed 500 taels of silver from someone to fight horse thieves, and promised to return it after taking the reward.
But what should I pay in return? Of course Deng Ziming didn't care about this, but Yuan Feng did. The young man's vanity took over and he resisted the idea of asking the caravan for help.
What to do if you have no money, sell your horse.
Fortunately, this horse was quite tall and had a light mouth. There were many horse markets in Lanzhou City. I took off the bridle and took him to the market. He quickly took action and got eighty taels of silver. He also found an old and frail donkey.
, bought it for twenty-five taels, and the four of them took the remaining money and went to a ramen restaurant to have a good meal. They also bought some sesame seed cakes to take with them, then drove out and rushed to Luyang County.
When leaving Lanzhou Mansion, Yuan Feng found another notice on the wall and stuffed it into his arms.
Needless to say, it was a difficult journey, with food and sleep in the open and a combination of stubbornness and laziness. It was already ten days later when we finally arrived in Luyang County. The corpse of Niu Er had begun to swell, and the straw mat could not hide the smell at all.
Fortunately, we have arrived at our destination. This is an extremely dilapidated county town. The city walls are all made of rammed loess with no bricks on the outside. The gate building is also dilapidated and full of crows' nests. There are no soldiers guarding the door.
It seems to be many times worse than Lanzhou Prefecture. Even compared with Shibali Fort, it is not much better.
Entering the city, there is a dirt road with flat-roofed loess houses on both sides. At first glance, there is a ridged house with a flagpole erected at the door. I guess it is the location of the county government.
Wild dogs were scurrying around on the dirt road, and the gray-headed people looked at the foreigners with blank eyes. No one paid them any attention.
"This county is really small, I'm afraid it doesn't have a hundred households." Zhao Ding'an said.
"Luyang County is very poor. Our shopkeeper never comes here to do business. He said there is nothing but sand here." Zhang Tietou continued.
"But... I heard that our Shibali Fort is under the control of Luyang County. Speaking of which, we are all from Luyang." Zhao Ding'an said helplessly.
"Put it down. I've never seen an official come here. Look at this county government office. I'm afraid it's been empty for many years." As he said that, he had already arrived at the gate of the county government office. Zhang Tietou pointed at the crooked plaque and the
A doorway covered with spider webs.
"Since we're here, let's go in and take a look. If there are any jujubes, let's take a shot." After Yuan Feng said this, he motioned for Ye Kai to knock on the door. Ye Kai went over and knocked on the mottled door. Not even twice, the door actually turned
fall down.
The door panel slammed to the bottom, raising a cloud of dust. Several people who were cleaning in the yard looked up and one of them shouted: "Who is here?"
Yuan Feng saw that this person looked familiar. It turned out to be the moving people he met in Lanzhou Prefecture that morning. They actually passed by the person they were looking for. What a coincidence.
"We are the people of Shibali Fort, and we came to Master Liu to receive the reward." Zhao Ding'an replied loudly.
The young man threw away his broom and walked over, stared at Zhao Ding'an for a few times, and asked, "How do you know that the new county magistrate's surname is Liu?"
"We came from Lanzhou Prefecture. Two months ago, Lanzhou Prefecture put up a red notice to arrest the gangster Niu Er. He was killed by us when he was committing robbery, so we followed him all the way from Lanzhou Prefecture with his body, just to get the gangster Niu Er.
A reward of one thousand taels of silver." Yuan Feng explained, and took out the notice from his arms to show it to the young man.
The young man did not answer the notice, but simply asked: "Where is Niu Er's body?" There was a hint of urgency and a hint of joy in his tone.
"It's at the door. Please take a look, sir." Zhao Ding'an ran over and opened the straw mat, revealing Niu Er's somewhat deformed body. The young man quickly covered his nose, held back his nausea, took a look, and nodded: "No.
Wrong, it’s indeed Niu Er, throw this guy’s body away as soon as possible.”
"Since your Excellency is sure that it is Niu Er, please reward me with silver." Yuan Feng said.
The young man laughed loudly: "Niu Er's martial arts skills are not bad, and he has dozens of thugs, how could he be killed by you? I think he hit an arrow right in the heart. His accuracy and strength are first-rate. Could it be that he is one of you?"
Position shot?"
Everyone exchanged glances and felt something bad in their hearts. Could it be that this person was defaulting on his debt again?
"Presumably Niu Er was killed by someone else. You took advantage of it and took the body away. This is taking the reward at the risk of your merits. If I don't punish you, it would be merciful. You still want the reward. It's really ridiculous. Hurry up and get the body."
Find a place to throw it away, don't make trouble here." After the young man finished speaking, he turned around and left.
"If we can prove that Niu Er was indeed killed by us, can we receive the reward?" Yuan Feng asked calmly behind him.
"Proof? How to prove it? Do you want Niu Er to come alive and talk? Hurry up, I don't have time to accompany you little beggars." The young man waved his hand impatiently.
Zhao Ding'an was so angry that he wanted to go over and beat someone. Two servants who were cleaning the yard hurried over to stop them. During the commotion, a voice came from the main hall of the Yamen: "Jingyun, what's the noise?"
"Dad, some beggars brought Niu Er's body to collect the reward, and the boy was beating them."
A middle-aged official wearing a green official robe walked out of the hall. He had a fair complexion and three strands of beard. His temperament was incompatible with this dilapidated yamen. The patch on his chest and the black gauze hat showed that he was the parent official of Luyang County.