This is the prison of Jiyuan County Yamen. The environment in a prison like this is naturally not much better, and this place is no exception. In addition, this is just a small place in the border area, so the environment of the prison here is worse than other places.
Worse.
The surrounding walls were full of mottled old marks, even the bricks and stones were exposed, and the ground was dirty and smelly. From time to time, small insects could be seen flying across it.
In this environment, Zhao Zheng could only block his sense of smell to avoid suffering from his nose. He walked all the way to the deepest part of the prison, where there were as many as four guards guarding the door, not daring to be careless.
The reason why the jailers were so careful was because there was a seventh-level heavenly martial artist imprisoned in the cell across from them, and they couldn't be careless. If the person locked inside rushed out, they would all suffer.
Zhao Zheng greeted the jailers without putting on any airs, then turned to the prison and looked through the rusty iron gate at the woman Lu Xingyue locked inside.
At this time, Lu Xingyue had been locked tightly with several heavy iron chains, and his hands and feet were also shackled. The ends of these torture instruments were connected to several large iron balls. These days, Lu Xingyue has been locked up here, every day.
She could only eat some satiety pills and drink some water, and the treatment was not good, so that her face looked a little haggard and sickly pale.
On this haggard face, there is a pair of sinister eyes, showing an arrow-like gaze, staring hard at Zhao Zheng's face. It seems that the pain of this prison has not had a big impact on her.
Now it's like a sick tigress, still very aggressive.
"My little lover, you are finally here. It's so hard for me to wait." Lu Xingyue stared at Zhao Zheng and sneered. What she said was naturally just sarcasm.
"What you are waiting for is not me, but my fingers." Zhao Zheng said sarcastically. He winked at a jailer. The jailer understood, took off the key hanging from his waist, and opened the cell door.
opened.
Zhao Zheng's words actually mean something. In the past few days, he has come over every day to seal the acupuncture points on Lu Xingyue's body to prevent Lu Xingyue from opening the acupuncture points and escaping. It was relying on his acupuncture skills that he trapped Lu Xingyue.
Otherwise, Lu Xingyue would have escaped from here long ago, and no one could stop her. So, in a way, Lu Xingyue was indeed waiting for his finger.
Opening the cell door, Zhao Zheng stepped in and didn't stop until he was in front of Lu Xingyue. He shook his finger in a demonstration and pointed at the acupuncture points on the other person's body without being polite at all. He started very hard.
Heavy. The moment the fingers touched the skin, a considerable amount of internal force was poured into the skin, completely sealing the acupuncture points and turning them into a pool of stagnant water.
Being hit on an acupuncture point is never a pleasant thing. Lu Xingyue hummed twice and frowned.
After tapping the acupuncture points, Zhao Zheng wiped his hands, took out a small pot from his waist, poured out a satiety pill, and poured the pill into Lu Xingyue's mouth. Then he fed Lu Xingyue some water.
, finally done.
In fact, it is not impossible for others to do these things, but it is more secure for Zhao Zheng to do it, ensuring that everything is foolproof.
After finishing the business, Zhao Zheng turned around and was about to leave, but Lu Xingyue stopped him and begged: "My back is itchy, can you scratch it for me?"
"Bear it yourself." Zhao Zheng glanced at Lu Xingyue and said angrily.
"I really can't bear it anymore. Just do it and help me once." Lu Xingyue's tone became softer and she lowered her posture.
Being itchy on the back is not something that cannot be tolerated at all. Lu Xingyue must have an ulterior motive for asking for this. Zhao Zheng wanted to see what Lu Xingyue wanted to do. After thinking for a while, he raised his hand and grabbed an iron chain that went straight upwards.
Twisting slightly, Lu Xingyue immediately turned half a circle, revealing her curvy back.
Zhao Zheng raised his hand, raised it casually, and unleashed a soft inner force, hitting the jade back with neither light nor heavy force.
Lu Xingyue snorted softly and complained: "This doesn't relieve the itch at all. You'd better scratch it for me with your hands. How can you be so shy for such a big man?"
Zhao Zheng was not afraid that Lu Xingyue could do anything bad in this state, so he turned his fingers into claws and grabbed at the jade back.
Lu Xingyue hummed in comfort, enjoying Zhao Zheng's scratching, and then said: "Put it down, and then down again, it will be more itchy there."
Zhao Zheng moved his hand down to the arc of his waist and grabbed it twice.
"Put it down further, point it down further, it's not only itchy, but also a little wet." Lu Xingyue said sweetly, her voice was like an oriole's call to a green willow, and her seductive intentions were fully revealed.
Zhao Zheng finally figured out Lu Xingyue's little trick, took his hand back, and coldly snorted: "If you think you can use a beauty trap to deal with me, you are underestimating me. You'd better use this kind of trick less in the future.
, so as not to lose your body and lose your troops."
After saying that, he walked away without looking back, and never paid attention to anything Lu Xingyue said. When he arrived outside the cell door, Zhao Zheng once again told the jailers to watch carefully and not to listen to anything Lu Xingyue said, and the jailers agreed one after another.
Lu Xingyue's little plan yielded no results, and she was somewhat unwilling to give in. She glared fiercely at Zhao Zheng's back.
…
five days.
Five days have passed since Zhao Zheng and Zou Tianjin made an agreement.
In the past five days, Jiyuan County and the surrounding areas have been calm, at least on the surface, without any changes. Zou Tianjin and the bandits on Yuezhao Mountain have kept their promises and have stayed calm and have not attacked other villages. Some in the surrounding areas
The villagers, also evacuated by the government officials, rushed to Jiyuan County one after another and were temporarily resettled in the county.
But the calm on the surface doesn't mean anything. Under this calm, there are rapids invisible to the naked eye.
Zhao Zheng and the several couriers sent by the county magistrate all left and never came back. There was no news, and reinforcements from all walks of life never arrived. There was even no news from the nearest Iron Gate Pass. This is really not right.
.
It's just that the forces such as Zhujian Villa didn't come over. After all, the sky is high and the sky is far away. It always takes some time to get here. But Iron Gate Pass is not far from here. If you go on horseback, it only takes about three days to go back and forth. And now it has been enough.
Five full days.
This isolated and helpless situation made Zhao Zheng a little uneasy. If Tiemen Pass did not send troops, Jiyuan County would be in a very dangerous situation, and there was a possibility of being attacked by Yuezhao Mountain at any time.
Under this unfavorable situation, he really couldn't sit still anymore and decided to take a trip to Tiemenguan to find out the reality. With his Qinggong, it only took less than half a day to go back and forth. As long as he was not too unlucky, he would be able to make it.
What accidents will happen? And after he leaves, he will leave A Bao behind for you to take care of.
He told the local county magistrate about this idea, and the county magistrate, who had been worried about this matter all day long, agreed with his idea and the two hit it off.
In this way, Zhao Zheng left Jiyuan County and used the Thunder Step Qinggong. With the electric light surging all over his body, he galloped towards the Iron Gate Pass in the south.
More than an hour later, he passed by an inn and suddenly smelled a vague smell of blood, which immediately caught his attention.
"There is something strange in this inn." Such thoughts flashed through his mind, and he gathered his inner strength of Lei Yuan, quietly fell from mid-air, and moved towards the inn.
As we got closer, we could hear the sound of drinking and ordering people coming from time to time in the inn, which was very lively.
Zhao Zheng walked to the window, pierced the window lattice paper, and looked inside. He saw five people sitting around drinking and giving orders. Each of them was so drunk that they seemed to have been drinking for a long time. All five people were wearing ordinary clothes.
They were wearing common people's clothes, not official uniforms, and one of them had tattoos on his face from "tattoos", indicating that he had been in jail.
No matter how you look at it, these five people don't look like official servants in the inn, but more like a group of bandits. The inns are all established by the imperial court, and every inn has official servants stationed there. It is impossible for these people not to wear official uniforms.
"Could they be bandits from Yuezhao Mountain?" Zhao Zheng's eyes flickered and he made a guess. Without any further hesitation, he immediately smashed the window with his palm and jumped into the house.
When the five people in the room heard the noise, they screamed and looked at Zhao Zheng one after another. But before they could make any move, they were subdued by Zhao Zheng with thunderous force, without even a chance to resist.
Zhao Zheng has experienced so many things, and he will no longer be merciful when facing some evil people. He caught one of the people who seemed to be the timidest, and used some punishment methods to force this person to
revealed the truth.
As he expected, these five people were all bandits from Yuezhao Mountain. They came under the orders of the leader of the village. The purpose was to guard the post station and prevent messengers from passing through here. The messenger was on his way on horseback and passed by the post station.
When traveling, it is inevitable to stop for a rest and feed the horses some better fodder. These five people guarding here can prevent messengers from passing here to the greatest extent.
When the five bandits first came, they killed all the officials in the inn, and then killed a passing messenger and buried the body under the ground behind the house, so the smell of blood lingered here.
.
When Zhao Zheng heard that these people had killed a courier, his heart suddenly rose, fearing that the courier these people killed was the courier who delivered letters to Tiemenguan. In desperation, he forced the bandit who confessed to hand over the seized letters.
I came out, opened it and checked it, and found that it was not the courier sent by Jiyuan County, so I felt relieved a little.
It's right to think about it. The messenger set out earlier than the time when these bandits captured the inn, so there was no way he could have been captured by these bandits.
Zhao Zheng then began to ask for other confessions, and the bandits revealed some important information. It turned out that Yuezhao Mountain not only sent their group of bandits, but also sent several other groups of bandits. Several of them were specifically responsible for taking down the inn.
, there is also a group of bandits with the largest number, led by Lu Bao himself, who set out for Tiemenguan, ready to launch a raid on Tiemenguan at any time!
These are extremely important news. Presumably, the post stations in the surrounding areas have been occupied by bandits. There is a certain possibility that the couriers sent out by Jiyuan County will be captured or killed by the people who occupied the inn, causing the letters to be stranded.
, failed to be delivered in time. If this happened, it would be terrible. It would directly lead to the failure of the news here to be sent out, let alone the inability to attract reinforcements from all forces to come here.
In addition, the matter of Lu Bao leading his men to attack Tiemenguan is also of great importance. If Tiemenguan is severely damaged, the local situation will become even more unfavorable. Jiyuan County has been waiting for Tiemenguan to send troops to assist. If Tiemenguan is severely damaged,
Tiemenguan has too much time to take care of itself, so I'm afraid they won't send troops.
"It seems that Lu Bao and the others haven't taken action yet. Everything should be too late. I have to rush to Tiemen Pass as soon as possible and tell the news to the general guarding Tiemen Pass so that he can take precautions." Zhao Zheng gritted his teeth and thought in his heart.
Make a decision secretly.
After asking these things, there was no need to save the lives of these five bandits. Zhao Zheng was extremely decisive. He raised his sword and dropped it, directly killing the five people. Then, he left the inn and hurried there.
Tiemenguan utilizes Qinggong to the extreme.
The further south you go, the more desolate the scenery ahead becomes. It's all barren land and mountains, and it's hard to see even any vegetation.
After passing through many mountains, a copper-clad and iron-bottomed pass appeared in front of Zhao Zheng. This pass was located exactly between two towering mountains. It was more than ten feet high. There were torches on it, and there were many figures in armor.
Coming and going, it looks like the defense is extremely tight. Right above the pass, there is a plaque hanging with the three characters "Iron Gate Pass" engraved on it, with dragons and phoenixes dancing in the font, giving off a chilling aura.
Seeing that Tiemenguan was safe and sound, Zhao Zheng's heart finally dropped. It seemed that Lu Bao had not launched a raid yet, and everything could still be saved. (To be continued...)
