A small boat is docked by the Huangyang River in the south of Jinzhou City.
Before the three of them got close, a man stuck out his head: "Li Sanlang, this way!"
Li Bao immediately speeded up and forced himself on the boat. After boarding the boat, he said, "Thank you, brother."
The man's name was Liang Ping, a government official recommended by Wang Jia. He lied about being sick and went home to rest, so he quietly left the city and hired a boat.
The boatman asked: "Which way to go?"
Zeng Xiaoduan said: "Pingli County, Yaowanggou."
The boatman punted and sailed away from the shore, then paddled and said, "I know about Pingli County, but I have never been to Yaowanggou."
Liang Ping said impatiently: "I'll ask again when I get to Pingli County. Why are you talking so much nonsense? It's also a waste of your shipping money!"
The boatman immediately shut up, and everyone remained silent.
After rowing for two or three miles, the boatman started to talk nonsense again: "It didn't snow much last year, and it won't rain this year. Even the Huangyang River is shallow. I'm afraid we won't be able to harvest much food."
No one paid attention to him, everyone was thinking about the case.
It was almost dusk when we left the city, and it soon became dark. The boat stayed by the river for the night.
We continued on the next day and soon arrived at a grass market called Huangyangkou (south of Xianhe Town). It is located at the junction of two rivers and is similar in size to Baishitou, but it has a private tax card set up by Xicheng County to intercept medicinal materials and Tea collects tolls.
Ju Ming plans to ban this type of private card and has already sent official documents to all counties.
There is a tax card over there in the prefecture city, but if it is collected again here, how can the merchants bear it? Many small businessmen would rather hire people to cross the mountains than take the more convenient waterway.
The boatman stayed behind, and everyone went ashore to eat in the grass market.
Liang Ping took two mouthfuls and asked the stall owner: "Where is Yaowang Valley?"
The stall owner shook his head: "I don't know."
When they couldn't get any information, they had to give up. Li Bao bought some cakes and took them back to the boatman.
The Huangyang River has become dry and shallow, and its tributary Pingli River (County River) is even worse. Small boats can still pass in the middle of the river, but large areas of the river bed have been exposed on both sides.
The barrel trucks are no longer available, so farmers along the river can only go down to the river to carry water, bucket by bucket, to irrigate the paddy fields.
Li Bao finally became alarmed: "The spring drought is serious and there may be a famine. I have to remind my husband to prepare early when I get back."
Not only here, there is also a spring drought in Hanzhong this year. Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong are all experiencing drought. Even Xixia is facing severe drought.
Pingli County in the Song Dynasty was located in Laoxian Town in later generations.
There are mountains everywhere in the county, and only some river valleys are convenient for farming. Otherwise, it has to rely on mountain streams for irrigation, and agricultural production is extremely unstable.
The mountain people collect herbs and hunt to supplement their family income. There are many hunters here.
While staying in the county town, they finally asked about the news about Yaowanggou.
We continued southward along the Pingli River, then turned north, asking about the situation along the way, and finally approached our destination after two days.
Yaowanggou is a valley. The water flow has dried up to a small amount, and even small boats can easily run aground.
Li Bao found a village outside the valley and decided to inquire about it and stay one night before going in.
The village is very poor. The west bank of the river is full of hillsides, and the villagers live on the east bank. There is only a few dozen meters of alluvial flat land, which is all paddy fields and is owned by the wealthy households in the village. However, the river is dry and shallow, and half of the paddy fields have insufficient water storage. .
More villagers make a living by farming the mountainous areas, and corn has not spread here, and they are still growing corn, sorghum and other crops.
In this year's dry weather, it is most suitable to plant corn because corn is drought-resistant.
Arriving at the most luxurious house in the village, Li Bao said: "We are businessmen from other places. We plan to collect some medicinal materials and furs. Please inform your master."
"Guest, please wait a moment." The doorman came in and announced.
They were soon invited in. The house was far inferior to that of Lao Bai's wife's house, and there were far fewer servants. Counting fixed assets, the wealth of the richest man in this village could be a few hundred to a thousand dollars at most.
I saw the owner in the living room, a middle-aged man.
After exchanging a few words, I found out that his surname was Li, so I called him Yuanwai Li.
Li Bao smiled and said: "My surname is also Li, so maybe we were in the same family five hundred years ago."
Mr. Li was also very happy and asked his servant to bring home-steamed tea leaves and asked Li Bao how much mountain products he planned to buy.
I'm in a remote place and I'm too lazy to pretend.
Li Bao said: "Please ask the staff to retreat to the left and right."
Mr. Li waved the servant away.
Li Bao took out the official document signed by the magistrate and said: "We are the officials of the state government, and we are here to hunt down a fugitive."
"Fugitive?" Li Yuanwai quickly checked the seal of the official document.
Zeng Xiaoduan said: "This man's name is Han He, also called Han Da. His parents are both from Yaowanggou. Forty years ago, the family fled famine and came to the city to beg for food."
Officer Li asked: "What are his parents' names?"
Zeng Xiaoduan shook his head: "I don't know."
Li Yuanwai said: "I am only forty-two years old this year. It is really impossible to know someone who moved away forty years ago. Why don't I invite some elderly people in the village and ask them if they have heard of it?"
"I'm worried, Mr. Li, but don't let the news leak out, lest the fugitives be scared away," Li Bao said.
"I can save it." Officer Li called his servant and asked him to invite the old man in the village.
Several elderly people came one after another. Li Yuanwai asked: "Elders, do you remember that there was a family named Han in Yaowanggou? Forty years ago, he fled to Jinzhou. He also had a son named Han He."
An old man said: "There are two villages in Yaowanggou. In Laohuyan Village, there are indeed several families named Han. My sister-in-law is named Han, and she married from there."
Li Bao immediately said: "Can I ask my father-in-law's sister-in-law to ask me a few words?"
"She has been dead for thirty years, and my nephew has been to Laohuyan." The old man said.
So he invited the old man's nephew Li Si.
His nephew, who was also almost fifty years old, stated: "When my mother was alive, I went to Laohuyan with me. Later, my mother died and my grandfather died too, so I never went there again."
Zeng Xiaoduan said: "The man named Han is about the same age as you. You went back to your parents' home with your mother, and you may have played with him."
This person scratched his head and thought about it for a long time. He really couldn't remember a friend named Han He. He only said: "Forty years ago, there was a severe drought. Many people fled. Even my family fled to the county town. My father was also that person.
They starved to death at that time. I remember that the Han family in Laohuyan all fled the famine, and my grandmother died while fleeing the famine."
I asked repeatedly, but got nothing.
After staying in the village for one night, Li Bao took the people out and took the old man's nephew Li Si with him.
Li Bao inquired in the villages outside Yaowanggou, while Yang Pu followed Li Si to Laohuyan Village to investigate.
Yang Pu pretended to be Li Si's nephew. He was afraid that his accent would reveal his secrets, so he didn't speak during the whole process. He only told Li Si what to do in advance.
Li Si entered the village and found his grandfather's house based on his memories from more than 20 years ago. There was only a woman feeding chickens, and they didn't know each other.
After talking for a long time, they finally recognized their relatives. The woman was Li Si's cousin-in-law.
Li Si said: "I was seriously ill and had only a few years to live, so I wanted to go back to Laohuyan. When I was a child, I had a playmate named Han He who fled to Jinzhou forty years ago. Did he come back alive?
"
"I don't know." The woman shook her head.
Yang Pu pretended to be mute, babbling and gesticulating, and kept raising his fingers to sign "six".
Li Si was reminded and said again: "I heard someone said that he came back six years ago?"
"Six years ago?" The woman suddenly laughed, "I remember wrongly. The man who came back six years ago was not called Han He. His name was Han Shun. In terms of seniority, he is still my uncle."
"Then I have forgotten it. Han Shun is still in the village?" Li Si asked.
The woman said: "I come back every year to visit the grave, stay for a few days and then leave."
Li Si asked: "Where does he settle down?"
The woman said: "He said he was in the county town, and his son said he was in Shizituo. I'm afraid he was confused and confused and couldn't understand. He also didn't say what he was doing for a living."
Yang Pu immediately took Li Si away. The woman left them to eat, but she couldn't stop them.
The woman murmured: "Everyone in the Han family is very strange."
Everyone gathered again outside Yaowanggou, and Yang Pu quickly explained the situation.
Li Bao asked: "Why is it called Han Shun?"
Zeng Xiaoduan said: "Maybe the name has been changed."
Li Bao asked again: "Does he have a son?"
Zeng Xiaoduan said: "I have a son who just turned ten years old six years ago."
Li Bao went to ask Li Yuanwai again: "Where is Shi Zituo?"
Li Yuanwai said: "Twenty miles southeast of the county seat, along the river, is a grass market."
Everyone took a boat back to Pingli County and searched hard for several days, but couldn't find even a single bird feather.
Li Bao said: "There is no way to go on like this. It is better to divide the army into two groups. Brother Zeng and I will stay in the county to continue searching, while Brother Yang Pu and Brother Liang will go to Shizituo to search for him."
All transportation in the mountainous area relies on rivers. Going south, it is a tributary of the Pingli River, which can be regarded as a tributary of a tributary of the Han River.
It is twenty miles away and can be reached in one day of rowing.
Shizituo is smaller than Baishitou, with only a dozen shops in the town.
Yang Pu had a foreign accent, so Liang Ping was responsible for making inquiries. He only took the opportunity to observe the situation.
Liang Ping started from the first shop and asked: "My name is Han Ping, and I have a cousin named Han Shun. I heard that I came to Shizituo. Does the store owner recognize me?"
The shopkeeper said: "There is also someone named Han who came from other places to settle down a few years ago. But his name is not Han Shun, his name is Han Tian."
"Maybe he changed his name," Liang Ping said, "Where is he?"
The shopkeeper pointed to the left: "That's the Han's Leather Shop. It stinks to heaven and they sell leather all day long."
Yang Pu and Liang Ping looked at each other and immediately left, following the smell to the end of the street.
This Korean fur shop only performs rough processing of furs, buys skins from hunters for tanning, and then waits for fur merchants to purchase them.
"I heard your leather is good, I want as much as you want!" Liang Ping shouted as he entered the door.
Seeing a big customer come to the door, the store owner immediately warmly welcomed him.
Yang Pu scanned the structure of the leather goods store, the front store and the back house, and there were people tanning skins in the backyard.
Yang Pu secretly winked.
Liang Ping understood immediately: "Take me to the backyard to have a look."
The store owner smiled and said, "Guests please come in."
This is a small family workshop. There is a boy in his teens and a woman about forty years old. The woman also has a three or four-year-old child.
There is no one else but them.
Yang Pu finally spoke: "Are you called Han He, Han Shun, or Han Tian?"
As soon as these words came out, the store owner's expression changed drastically and he ran away immediately.
Yang Pu was not good at martial arts, but he was very flexible. He was able to catch him in a few steps and then kicked him to the ground.
Liang Ping took out the short blade from his arms and scolded the young man: "The government is handling the case, don't move around!"
When the woman heard the word "government", she fainted with fright on the spot, and the children beside her burst into tears.
Yang Pu grabbed the shop owner's lapel and asked, "Tell me, what's your name?"
The store owner looked helpless: "My name is Han Shun, and Han He is my eldest brother."
Yang Pu asked: "Who is the slave in the Zeng family?"
"It's my brother." Han Shun replied.
"Where is he hiding?" Yang Pu asked.
Han Shun said: "My brother gave me a sum of money to bring my sister-in-law and nephew to Shizituo. He also asked me to wait for him for a year and a half. If a year and a half passes, he will die before he comes. Let me wait for him for a year and a half.
I live with my sister-in-law and take care of her and nephew for him."
Liang Ping muttered: "It seems that the adulterer was silenced."
