Chapter 264 The secret in the village, the head in the box
Watching Cheng Wuzhong leave with high spirits, Li Yan walked into the house with a smile in his eyes.
Zheng Sanlang, whose body was tense, immediately sat up: "Li Jiyi!"
Li Yan pressed his hand: "No, just lie down!"
Yuan Dalang quickly stepped forward and helped him lie down. Li Yan came to the couch and asked, "How do you feel?"
Zheng Sanlang whispered: "It's okay..."
Li Yan sighed: "I won't say anything to comfort you. I don't know the suffering of others, so don't persuade others to be kind. No one without a disability can empathize with what you are going through now..."
Zheng Sanlang's body trembled when he heard this, and tears quickly filled his eyes, and he said sadly: "I can no longer shoot arrows, so I might as well die, I might as well die!"
Yuan Dalang changed his color: "You must not think like this!"
Zheng Sanlang shrugged his shoulders and cried loudly. Yuan Dalang also had red eyes and hugged his body tightly.
After a moment, he calmed down, wiped his face with his left hand, and said in a hoarse voice: "To make Li Jiyi laugh, is Li Jiyi going to ask about the traitor?"
Li Yan nodded: "I want to know the cause and effect of your disappearance yesterday, how you and Guo Wulang entered the secret passage, what kind of confrontation they experienced, how you survived afterwards, don't let go of every detail..."
Zheng Sanlang pursed his lips, and after a moment of silence, he began to tell: "Yesterday, I was ordered to lead the army. We went up the mountain to exterminate the bandits. I shot and killed three bandit leaders. The fourth one was wearing leather armor and blocked the arrow. There was no
Killed with one arrow, I rushed forward and beheaded with a knife. The thief's morale collapsed, but then I found a thief rushing towards the center of the village. His steps were not panicked, and he seemed to have an ulterior motive."
"I chased after him, but there were more thieves rushing towards me along the way. I was a little slow in dealing with the thieves. Before I arrived at the big house, I found that Guo Wulang had also arrived. He struck hard and killed all the thieves..."
"We met in front of the house. I told him that there must be a reason for these people to rush here without resisting foreign enemies. He also said that when he first arrived, he heard strange noises coming from inside and wanted to go in and have a look."
Yuan Dalang nodded from the side: "I also saw the two of you talking for a few words outside the house at that time, and then you disappeared. Alas, if I had known this, I would have passed by, and the following things would not have happened!"
Zheng Sanlang sighed: "Who knew he would be like that..."
"I naturally followed in and soon discovered a secret passage. I wanted to wait for the others to come, but Guo Wulang said that we should not waste the opportunity. The thief must have had a compelling reason to expose the secret passage. He has always been brave and resourceful, and I also
Convinced, I went in with him. I never expected..."
"We had just entered, and he suddenly pulled out a knife. The secret passage was small, and I was completely unprepared. I couldn't avoid it, and my hand was cut off..."
"My hand! My hand! I shouldn't believe him! I shouldn't believe him!!"
Having said this, Zheng Sanlang grabbed his right forearm with trembling left hand, veins popped out on his fingers, his facial features were distorted in pain, and his brows were full of regret.
This regret is real and comes from the heart.
Yuan Dalang was affected by his emotions and showed hatred: "This evil thief is taking advantage of our brotherhood. If I see him, I will definitely chop off his head!"
Li Yan listened calmly, and when he got here, he nodded and said: "This kind of betrayal is intolerable!"
Zheng Sanlang sobbed: "Please Li Jiyi testify for us Baiqi. Evil thieves like Guo Wu are just individuals. We are loyal to His Majesty!"
Yuan Dalang thought of Wu Laoshi and gritted his teeth: "Are they blinded by lard? What is the purpose of letting them risk the crime of exile for the whole family and commit such a thing?"
Li Yanze said: "Don't worry, I will definitely give justice to the innocent people. What happened later? Why did Guo Wulang let your life go?"
Zheng Sanlang looked at the broken wrist and was filled with grief: "After he broke my hand, he seemed to have said something else, but I was in too much pain at the time and couldn't believe that my former brothers would do this, so I didn't hear it clearly...
"
"At that time, there was another noise outside the secret passage, and it seemed like someone was coming. Only then did I react. Just when I was about to call for help, he punched me and knocked me out."
"When I woke up, I was already in the prison in the cave. I don't know why he didn't kill me. Maybe he wanted to use me for something else, or maybe he saw that I was a useless person and left me to fend for myself.
He probably never expected that you could discover the secret passage and found it all the way in."
Li Yan heard this and concluded: "You were attacked because you noticed that the bandits were moving differently. You followed them all the way outside the village owner's house and wanted to get in. When Guo Wulang saw what happened, he had to reveal his true colors?"
Zheng Sanlang nodded: "That's exactly it."
Li Yan said: "Then since Guo Wulang has completely controlled you, why doesn't he return to the team?"
Zheng Sanlang said: "I also thought about this in prison. There may be two reasons..."
Li Yan raised his eyebrows: "Oh?"
Zheng Sanlang said: "Due to the narrow secret passage, he broke my hand, and a lot of blood was splashed on my head and face. We killed the thief with a crossbow, and when fighting closely, we would also avoid our head and face to avoid affecting our sight. It would not be like this."
Embarrassed, he must be afraid of being exposed."
Li Yan said: "It's very reasonable."
Zheng Sanlang added: "And there must be something they want to hide in the village. Guo Wulang should have left to deal with that matter. His original purpose, perhaps, was to wait until the matter was dealt with and then come back to deal with me?"
Yuan Dalang said solemnly: "He left you alive, maybe he wanted to put the blame on you and fake his own death to escape!"
Zheng Sanlang closed his eyes: "We were brothers!"
Li Yan added: "It's quite reasonable... By the way, how is the situation at Guo Wulang's family?"
Zheng Sanlang did not answer, but Yuan Dalang said: "His wife is diligent and simple, respects her elders, and her children are also very sensible."
Li Yan said: "It's a pity that after this, his whole family will be convicted and exiled."
Yuan Dalang let out a long sigh, but Zheng Sanlang still closed his eyes and remained motionless.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Li Yandao: "You have a good rest."
This meant that the questioning was over. Yuan Dalang stood up and went to see Li Yan off. Zheng Sanlang heard the footsteps go away and suddenly collapsed on the couch and let out a long sigh of relief.
Li Yan came to the door and suddenly asked: "When you saw Zheng Sanlang yesterday, how did you deal with his broken wrist?"
Yuan Dalang thought for a moment and said, "He tore off his clothes and wrapped the wound with cloth to stop the bleeding."
Li Yan said: "Fortunately, you are elites in the army. Ordinary people would have died of blood loss long ago if they suffered such a serious injury. However, we must prevent the wound from getting worse. We managed to save one of them. No more accidents can happen. You have to keep an eye on him every step of the way."
Follow him, and if anything happens, call someone to notify me immediately."
Yuan Dalang said gratefully: "Yes! Thank you Li Jiyi for caring about us. I will definitely take good care of him!"
Li Yan nodded and started walking in the village.
After walking around the village, he thought thoughtfully: "The food has been hidden in the heart of the mountain for a long time. There are no traces of heavy objects dragging on the dark road. So what are you trying to hide, and you are not willing to expose the traitor in Baiqi?"
He returned to the village master's house and called Yan Dazui and Hu Laizi: "Does your village master have a wife, children, and children?"
When mentioning the leader of the village, Yan Dazui didn't want to say anything, while Hu Laizi showed a flattering look: "If I tell the general, there is only one leader of the village, and we have never seen his wife and children."
Li Yan said: "Then he lives in such a big house alone?"
Hu Laizi laughed: "How could he be the leader of the village?"
Li Yan shook his head: "But I heard what you said before, your village leader is a very loyal person, and he will feed you when there is food. You go down the mountain to plunder the villages, and you know how to leave some rice for them, so as not to cause trouble in the future.
The roots are broken and there is no place to rob...What he did is obviously different from ordinary thieves."
Hu Laizi was stunned for a moment: "That's true. I've traveled all over the country and I haven't seen anything like this before, so I stayed here."
Yan Dazui couldn't help but proudly said: "Our village leader is a reckless hero. Of course he is different from others."
Li Yan did not comment on people he had never met before, and then asked: "So if your village leader lives in such a house, no one will criticize him, um, just say bad things about him behind his back?"
Yan Dazui said: "This is not what our village master cultivates. It has been like this a long time ago. In winter, the house at the back cannot keep out the cold. The village owner still lets people live in it. We all trust him and obey him. How can we say that?
He talks bad things!"
Li Yan said: "Since you have convinced the village leader, what happened to your village leader who hurried down the mountain this time without taking anyone else with him? Did he often leave before?"
Yan Dazui looked downcast: "Never before, the leader of the village will not abandon us, something must be wrong with him..."
Hu Laizi rolled his eyes and whispered: "General, I do know something about the situation."
Li Yan looked at him: "Tell me, if you make meritorious deeds, I won't be stingy with rewards."
Hu Laizi's eyes lit up: "Six or seven days ago, a box of goods was transported from the mountain and moved into the village owner's house. It was mysterious and the youngest just happened to see it."
Li Yan asked: "What is inside?"
Hu Laizi shook his head: "I don't know, the box is not big. It should be a treasure in your hands... I have a small suspicion. It was because of the box that the village leader hurried down the mountain. Before leaving, he also carefully looked after several leaders, so that
They must be taken care of!"
Yan Dazui curled his lips when he heard this: "General, don't believe him. This cripple can boast better than me. What kind of careful care can you see with your own eyes?"
Hu Laizi was anxious: "I didn't see it, but it must be like this! After the village leader left, didn't the leaders never let us approach the house again? If nothing happened, how could it be like this?"
Li Yan stopped their argument: "Come in with me..."
The three of them entered the house. Li Yan said to Hu Laizi: "Look carefully to see if the box is in the house."
Hu Laizi looked for it limpingly, shook his head and said: "It's gone, it's gone, but the box must be there, could it be..."
He looked towards the entrance of the secret passage guarded by Baiqi and did not dare to approach, but the meaning was very obvious.
Li Yan did not look at the secret passage, but looked around the room.
After a while, he came to a shelf against the wall and stretched out his hand to touch it.
Each layer is covered with fine dust, until the side of the penultimate shelf is left unstained.
He sniffed lightly with his nose, raised his brows, and gestured with his hands: "Is it such a big box? Made of wood, the kind that can be burned?"
Hu Laizi was startled: "Yes, it looks like this. How did the general know?"
Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly: "I also know that what is inside is probably not the jewelry you thought, but a bloody head!"