More than 20 people on horseback surrounded Long Chen and blocked Long Chen in front of the cliff. The war horse next to him was very nervous and kept making noises, and his four hooves trampled the ground restlessly.
"You are the businessman from the daytime, right? Did you kill our brother?"
"Where are your accomplices? There are more than a dozen of them, why are you the only one left?"
"Stand up and speak for me!"
The thieves were fierce, the swords in their hands reflected the light of the fire, and their faces were ferocious.
Long Chen sat on the ground, slowly picking up stones in his hand, and said with a smile: "Are you talking about those people during the day?"
The bandit soldier scolded sternly: "Yes, it's just west of Guancheng during the day."
Long Chen smiled and asked, "Have you all brought water?"
The thieves were confused by Long Chen's question.
They were questioning whether Long Chen killed the bearded man, but Long Chen asked them if they had brought any water? What does this mean?
"Do you still want to ask for water from us?"
One of the thieves raised a knife and moved forward, pointing at Long Chen and sneering.
Long Chen smiled and said: "Yes, I'm not familiar with this place. I can't find the water source, so I can only find a solution from you."
Isn't it a coincidence that these people came to my door when I was worried about running out of water?
"Hahaha, did you hear that? He wants to ask us for water."
"I want to drink your blood!"
"Kill him!"
The thief at the front suddenly raised his sword and struck down, and a stone from Long Chen's hand flew out, hitting the thief's eye accurately.
The stone was so powerful that the bandit's eyeballs exploded instantly.
"ah!"
The bandits screamed, and upon seeing this, the other bandits immediately rushed forward and slashed at Long Chen with their swords.
Long Chen dodged the random knives, stones kept flying out of his hands, and the thieves screamed one after another.
The scene was very chaotic. It was impossible for Long Chen to hit everyone in the eyes, but there was no problem if he hit everyone in the face.
The thieves were beaten with stones and screamed repeatedly. Long Chen picked up a knife and quickly moved through the crowd.
In a few breaths, more than twenty thieves were all felled. Some were dead, and some were still groaning.
Long Chen held up his sword and struck out one by one, killing them all.
After killing the people, Long Chen collected the water bags. He had enough water to drink and enough water to feed the horses.
"Come on, have a drink. It's been a hard day."
Long Chen took the water bag to feed the war horse, and then took out the bandit soldiers' dry food and fed it to the war horse.
There were too many corpses around, so Long Chen rode west to find another place to rest.
That night, we spent the night in the Gobi Desert.
When the morning light dimmed the next day, Long Chen faced the cool morning breeze, mounted his horse and continued heading west.
After another day's journey, Long Chen arrived outside Xingqing City.
This is the third time I have been to Xingqing City, and there are obviously fewer pedestrians outside the city.
The city's defenses have been strengthened a lot. Forbidden troops patrolled back and forth, and Jingzhao Mansion's agents and plainclothes men mingled among the crowd, as if to guard against thieves.
"Shopkeeper Long."
Zhe Er walked over with a smile and saluted Long Chen.
Feng He sent a message to Zhe'er, asking him to meet Long Chen.
Zhe'er has been waiting outside the city every day, and today we finally saw him.
"Shopkeeper Cao."
Zhe'er's pseudonym was Cao Fu, so Long Chen called him Shopkeeper Cao.
"Does Shopkeeper Long have a place to stay?"
Zhe'er led the horse for Long Chen. Long Chen got off the horse and said with a smile, "I was thinking of staying at Shopkeeper Cao's place."
Zhe Er smiled and said: "That's the best. Shopkeeper Long please."
Zhe'er led Long Chen inside and when they arrived at the city gate, the soldiers stopped them for questioning.
"Shopkeeper Cao, who is this person? I've never seen him before."
The soldiers guarding the city gate looked at Long Chen carefully and felt strange.
Zhe'er smiled and said: "Master Jun, this is a regular customer in my store, specializing in wolfberry cistanche."
When the soldier heard about the harvest of wolfberry, he immediately asked: "What's the price?"
Long Chen said with a smile: "It depends on how your wolfberries are. A pound of high-grade wolfberries costs a hundred cents, a pound of medium-grade berries costs fifty cents, and low-grade berries won't be accepted if not many people buy them."
Zhe'er smiled and said: "This shopkeeper specially collects these and sells them to dignitaries. The military master also has wolfberries at home?"
The soldier was a little embarrassed and said: "I have wolfberry at home, but the quality may not be very good."
Long Chen immediately understood what the soldier meant and said: "Sir, please tell me, I will accept the wolfberries from your house no matter what, but the price is..."
When the soldier heard that he was willing to accept it, he immediately said: "It doesn't matter, the quality is not good, just give me less money."
Long Chen immediately said: "Thank you, Master Jun, for taking care of my business. I'm staying at Shopkeeper Cao's Inn."
The soldier said happily: "Okay, I will pick it and bring it to you."
Long Chen was worried about causing unnecessary trouble, so he whispered in a low voice: "Master Jun, I only accept people from your family, don't tell anyone else."
Long Chen is going to the palace to hang out. If this soldier tells other people to come and sell wolfberries to him, it will be very troublesome.
The soldier immediately said: "Don't worry, we will never tell anyone else."
It is most comfortable to eat alone and make a fortune in silence. Of course, soldiers will not take the initiative to tell others.
Long Chen bowed and said, "In that case, I would like to thank the military master first."
The soldier chuckled and said, "Please tell me what to say."
Long Chen and Zhe'er walked inside. As soon as they entered the city, they saw a group of well-armored cavalry approaching. The leader was a man in bright yellow clothes, who was in his early 20s.
Behind him was a military commander, it was Zhou Hao, the commander of the Forbidden Army.
"This is the second prince Shi Yuncheng. Now the imperial army in the city is under his command, and the officers of Jingzhao Mansion will also be under his control."
"I heard that this is Shi Le's royal order, in order to prevent you from sneaking into the royal city again."
Zhe'er explained in a low voice on the side, Long Chen said in surprise: "How did Shi Le know that I was coming?"
Zhe'er smiled and said in a low voice: "This... adults have to ask Shi Le. How can I know about this?"
It has to be said that Shi Le and Long Chen had a good understanding of each other, and they actually guessed that Long Chen was coming.
Long Chen was muttering in his heart: If Shi Le knew I was coming, would he have laid a trap in the city for me to get out of?
"Get out of the way!"
The imperial guards shouted harshly, and pedestrians retreated.
In front, a few ragged little beggars were begging, and the imperial guards picked up their whips and started whipping them.
Crack!
The whip fell and the little beggar was beaten until his face was covered in blood.
The little beggar dropped the broken bowl in his hand and ran away with his head in his hands.
Shi Yuncheng's domineering and ferocious behavior aroused a burst of dissatisfaction, but no one dared to say anything.
After Shi Haoran left, Shi Le's royal orders came. Shi Yuncheng took control of the soldiers and horses in the royal city and became ruthless.
Beating a few beggars is considered an easy task. Yesterday, they beat the whole family to death in the street because they collided with their mounts.
When the royal family kills people, no one can control them. When the people die, they die.
Any justice must have an enforcer. If no one can punish, then justice is empty talk.
The royal family stands at the top, overlooking the lives of all people, and no one can punish them at all.
They commit murder and arson, but no one can control them. As for the Buddha, he is a lie.
Even after they killed someone, no one was allowed to talk about it, and no one in the world knew about it. The government would cleanse them and make them clean.
There is no fairness and justice in the world made up of humans.
Shi Yuncheng walked through the street under the guard of the imperial guards. Pedestrians retreated and bowed their heads in salute.
After the people passed by, Long Chen immediately bought a dozen meat buns, walked in front of the little beggar, squatted down, and handed the buns to the little beggar.
"Thank you, sir."
The little beggar didn't care that his face was still bleeding, so he picked up the bun and ate it.
Long Chen felt sad, but Zhe'er said: "Sir, there are a lot of beggars like this in Xingqing City, we can't control them."
Long Chen sighed slightly, of course he knew he couldn't control it.
"It turns out that I heard that Shi Yuncheng is a good person, quite virtuous, and has a good reputation in the court. How could he act like this?"
I heard before that Shi Yuncheng was very kind to the people, and that both the government and the public spoke highly of him. Today, he beat people in the street and behaved in such a arrogant and domineering manner, which is really puzzling.
Zhe'er shook his head and sneered: "I'm just pretending to show it to others. In the past, there were Shi Le, Shi Haoran, and Kong Ji in the royal city, so we naturally had to pretend to be a good person."
"Now that Shi Yuncheng is the dominant one in the royal city, he is naturally domineering."
It turned out to be a disguise, which is not surprising.
"Let's go."
Long Chen shook his head and smiled, then returned to the inn with Zhe'er and entered the guest room on the second floor.
After closing the door, Long Chen asked: "Is there any clue about the matter?"
