Seeing their agreement without hesitation, Peng Ju felt sour and almost cried.
When Zhang and Liu were seven or eight years old, Peng Ju's natural strength and height attracted Peng Ju's attention, and he kept him close to him. He also sent the most skilled martial artist in the White Lotus Sect to teach them martial arts, and became his bodyguards when they grew up.
Although they were just Peng Ju's guards, he only took them by his side as guards to train them at first, but gradually they got along with each other for a long time and developed feelings for them. Peng Ju gradually treated them as nephews and nephews, and still thought about it.
When they are a few years older, they will be sent down to serve as incense masters, and will be promoted to hall masters in the future. But today they are in danger and they need to make sacrifices to escape. How can Peng Ju not be sad?
But he also knew that this was not the time to be sad, so he reluctantly held back his tears and said nothing more. He just patted their shoulders and hid at the edge of the woods away from the Ming army searching for the forest. But in his heart, he said to himself
: "If I can escape this time, I will definitely not treat their two sons badly."
Zhang and Liu also hid in the forest not far from the two tattered straw mats. After a while, the Ming army who was searching the forest walked into the woods and started searching slowly. They were careless at first, as if they didn't think there would be anything hidden in the woods.
There was someone there; but when they discovered the traces left by someone in the forest, they immediately became vigilant. When the first few people found two broken straw mats, they raised their swords and guns and pointed them in all directions.
At this moment, Zhang and Liu suddenly sprang out. They were hiding in a tree hole not far from the straw mat. There were several Ming soldiers beside them. They were caught off guard and were immediately chopped down. The other Ming soldiers were killed.
The army shouted and rushed to surround and kill the two of them, but after all, it was difficult to move in the woods and their martial arts skills were not as good as those of Liu and Zhang. Not only could they not kill them, but several more were killed.
When the Jinyi Guardsman outside the woods saw the fighting in the woods, his face showed joy at first, but then his expression changed and he shouted: "There are White Lotus cult bandits in the forest, soldiers, go and eradicate the cult bandits!"
He urged his horse to come to the woods, then dismounted and walked into the woods, but did not get close to Zhang and Liu. However, his soldiers rushed into the woods, surrounded the two of them, and wanted to kill them.
At this moment, Peng Ju quietly escaped from the woods. Therefore, the sky was already a little dark, and everyone's attention was focused on Zhang and Liu. They did not find him and allowed him to escape.
After a while, Zhang and Liu were beheaded. A guard named Zhao De came over and reached into the arms of one of them, took out something, and said with a smile: "They are indeed White Lotus cult bandits."
"Sir, what is this?" Wu Hai, the commander-in-chief who was transferred from Laizhou Guard next to him, took a look at the engraved sign and asked. In fact, the commander-in-chief is considered a low-ranking official, and the ordinary imperial guards are not officials.
, he didn't need to call Zhao De "sir"; but this time, the local guard post was temporarily handed over to the command of Jin Yiwei, and the final calculation of credit was also based on Jin Yiwei's report. Moreover, Jin Yiwei's reputation spread far and wide, so he called Zhao De "sir."
.
"Mr. Wu, look at this brand. Does the pattern on the front look like the sun, and does the pattern on the back look like the moon?"
"Sun? Moon?" Wu Hai looked at it carefully for a few times and said, "It looks a bit similar, adults. If you don't tell me, you won't be able to tell."
"It looks like it." Zhao De continued with a smile: "The patterns on the front and back of this sign represent the sun and the moon respectively. The word 'ming' is composed of the sun and the moon, which means that this sign represents the word 'ming'. And Mingjiao
It’s also the original name of the White Lotus Sect, so anyone with this brand on their body must be a White Lotus sect.”
"Not only that. Since the late emperor ordered the ban on the White Lotus Sect, it has become increasingly difficult for the White Lotus Sect to maintain itself. How can it be bothered to do such a useless thing as carving a brand? And look at this brand, how exquisitely carved it is, and it looks like it has been around for a while.
It was probably carved when the White Lotus Sect was in its prime. Therefore, those with this brand on their bodies are probably important figures in the White Lotus Sect. They have made great achievements this time."
While talking, Zhao De reached out and groped for another person. After groping for a while, he took out a similar brand. He was even more happy and ordered: "Go to the nearby village to pick up a car, put these two people in the car and transport them.
Return to Binzhou. As long as we can find out their identities, our rewards will be indispensable! The brothers who died in the battle will be cared for more favorably. You can take away anything they have on them, as long as it has nothing to do with the White Lotus Sect."
His words made the soldiers present alleviate some of the sadness caused by the death of their comrades in the battle. Everyone gathered the bodies of their comrades and stood up. Several others came forward to search the bodies of Zhang and Liu, while others were in the woods again.
Stop by and see if they've left anything behind.
Zhao De also walked slowly in the woods. He was very happy at this time. As far as he knew, only the confidants of the altar master Peng Ju and the hall master would have such a brand, regardless of whether they were the hall master.
The master is still Peng Ju's confidant, and killing them is a great achievement.' With this merit, he should at least be promoted to a small flag, and his salary will be more. The general flag is not young anymore, maybe when he gets old
You can take over as the general banner.'
'Speaking of which, the two of them look quite young. They should not be the hall master, but they should be Peng Ju's cronies. Then why are they here?'
Zhao De was just thinking when he suddenly heard a scream: "There are people in the woods!"
"What! There is someone else!" Upon hearing this, Zhao De immediately turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound, but did not hear the sound of fighting, and asked loudly: "Where is the person?"
"Sir Zhao," a guard officer ran over to him and said, "Sir Zhao, no one was found, but there were no footprints in the forest left by these two people."
"Didn't they leave it behind?" Zhao De asked curiously.
"Yes, Master Zhao." The soldier led Zhao De to a place, pointed to a footprint on the ground and said, "The size of this footprint is different from the size of the shoes of the two killed White Lotus cultists. It is larger."
Zhao De took the two left shoes and compared them. Sure enough, he found that the sizes were different. And he took a closer look at the footprints and found that not only were they different in size, but the patterns seemed to be not exactly the same.
He carefully looked at the shoes in his hand and found that although these two pairs of shoes were badly worn, they were obviously good shoes. In the capital, such a pair of shoes would cost almost two guan, which a clerk might not have enough money for a month.
So much monthly money.
In an instant, he figured out something and shouted loudly: "Quick, check around the woods to see if there are any footprints!"
"Sir?" Wu Haizheng was carefully leading his soldiers to search in the woods. Suddenly he heard Zhao De's shout and asked: "Sir, do you think the remaining person has run away?"
"They've probably run away." Hearing Wu Hai's words and seeing the soldiers still searching in the woods, he shouted: "We can't rule out the possibility that they are still hiding in the woods. Half of the soldiers continued to search the woods, and the other half looked around the woods.
."
Wu Hai immediately assigned soldiers according to Zhao De's words. Not long after, a soldier who was searching around the woods shouted: "There are footprints here!"
Zhao De immediately ran over, took a serious look at it, and murmured: "Sure enough, sure enough."
"Damn it, I finally understand. These two dead people rushed out to seek death just to let the last person escape. I said, why didn't they run away at all and just fought with our brothers? It turned out that they were fighting
Such a calculation." Wu Hai cursed.
"Quickly, follow the footprints and catch up!" Zhao De said quickly.
"Sir," although Wu Hai was cursing, he glanced at the moon that had appeared in the sky and said: "It's getting late now. To be honest with you, half of my brothers have bird eyes and can't see at night.
I'm afraid it won't work to clear things up and smear them!"
"Then leave those with night blindness and let those who can see clearly at night chase them!" Zhao De said again.
Wu Hai didn't say anything for a while. It would be impossible to leave half of the people behind. This was to chase the White Lotus cult bandits. It was worthwhile to catch up, and no one wanted to be left behind. He was not an ambitious person, and felt that being a general banner was enough.
, I don’t want to make my brothers unhappy because of this.
Zhao De gave the order again, but Wu Hai still made no move. Seeing him acting like this, Zhao De gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Wu, you know who the escaped person is! He is Peng Ju, the master of the Shandong altar of the White Lotus Sect!"
"The person who escaped is Peng Ju!" Wu Hai was shocked, but immediately asked: "How did Mr. Zhao guess that he was Peng Ju?" Just based on a shoe mark? Wu Hai didn't believe that a shoe mark could prove that he was Peng Ju.
'It can't be why Zhao De asked me to lead people to chase nonsense, right? Anyway, if I catch up, he won't be punished even if it's not Peng Ju.' He thought again.
"Brother Wu!" Zhao De said urgently and quickly: "I just said that the two people who were beaten to death had waist badges representing the word 'Ming'. They should be important figures in the White Lotus Sect, not Peng Ju.
Their cronies are the hall master. But since they are young, they are unlikely to be the hall master, so they are Peng Ju’s cronies.”
"Since they are Peng Ju's cronies, why are they here? Brother Wu thought about it again. They didn't seem to have any intention of escaping after they rushed out just now. They just fought with the soldiers. Plus some people escaped, so they must be covering this place.
People are escaping. With their status as Peng Ju’s cronies, who is worthy of their cover and escape?”
"This." Wu Hai's heartbeat also accelerated. Zhao De's analysis was very reasonable. Apart from Peng Ju, who else was worth the cover and escape of two people with high status in the White Lotus Sect?
"Master Zhao, is it possible that you guessed wrong? These two people actually do not have a high status in the White Lotus Sect, and it was just a coincidence that they got such a belt?" Wu Hai raised another possibility.
"This," Zhao De's blood pressure rose sharply when he heard these words, and he struggled to suppress the curse words. He thought for a while, and then said: "Brother Wu, send someone to tell Feng Baihu and Lu Qianhu quickly, just say
As I said, traces of Peng Ju were found fifteen miles east of Qingcheng County." Then he tore off a piece of cloth from his body, bit his finger and wrote four words on it with blood: "Peng Ju was found."
He handed the cloth to a soldier and said, "Hurry up and deliver the order!"
"Go and deliver the order!" Wu Hai also said quickly. Zhao De dared to report the discovery of Peng Ju to his superiors, and also wrote a letter in blood, which shows that he was very confident in his guess. Although he was not very ambitious, he wanted to capture or kill Peng Ju alive.
Ju's contribution was too great. According to Lu Qianhu, he had won three levels in a row. His contribution to capturing Peng Ju alive was enough for him to be promoted to Deputy Qianhu, so he couldn't help but not be tempted. Moreover, Peng Ju was already alone at this time, and there was no way to pursue him.