"A few months ago, more than a dozen barbarians came from southern Xinjiang. When they arrived in Qinghe County, they were already penniless. These people had verbal conflicts with local residents because of their language barrier, which attracted a lot of attention."
"The county had no place to relocate them, so they were temporarily kept in jail for more than half a month. Later, it seemed that someone paid for them and bought them away."
It was Zhao Cheng who bought the barbarians, and Luo Xianwei knew it. Because he didn't know the relationship between Zhao Cheng and Bai Jingtao, he hesitated but didn't reveal it.
Sun An quickly twisted the rosary beads in his hand, showing that he was thinking quickly in his heart.
"Do you know where those barbarians live?"
Luo Xianwei glanced at Hong Battou. He believed that Hong Yuankui also knew the whereabouts of those barbarians, so he asked, "Hong Battou?"
Mr. Hong had a rare opportunity to speak, and he immediately said: "They were in prison before, but later they were sold to a man named Zhao Cheng by the gangsters to help him work in the city."
"Zhao Cheng?" When Sun An heard this name, he immediately remembered Bai Jingtao's instructions to him.
This time Sun An came to Yanyun Second Prefecture to take over from Mao Wu. He made a lot of preparations for the people and affairs here, and also conducted a lot of detailed investigations. He believed that no matter what Bai Jingtao told him, he could understand it.
However, Bai Jingtao neither asked about Zhuang Tian, nor about his livelihood, nor did he ask about the disciples and former officials of the Bai family here, so he only gave this sentence alone.
"You go to Qinghe County. There is a man named Zhao Cheng there. Pay attention to it for me. There is no need to interfere with his life, but there is only one thing, that is, he is not allowed to be an official. Do you understand?"
So when it came to Zhao Cheng, Sun An also became serious.
"Is this Zhao Cheng from Liuxi Village?"
Luo Xianwei on the side thought to himself: Sure enough, all these people from the Bai Mansion know Zhao Cheng. Fortunately, I didn't say too much just now.
Mr. Hong was surprised. He didn't expect that Mr. Sun, who came to Beijing, also knew about Zhao Cheng: "Yes, it's Zhao Cheng, a scholar from Liuxi Village, the one who was the head of the case just now."
Sun An's fingers flicking the rosary beads paused, but there was no change on his face: "Yes."
"Go on."
Mr. Hong responded and continued: "They originally bought a house next to the market in the south of the city and worked in the house. At that time, you could occasionally see these barbarians on the street. I don't know when they moved out. , they haven’t been seen in the city for a long time.”
"Where have they moved?" Sun An looked at the sky outside the window.
"They moved to a river bend outside the city, where they built a house and worked every day."
Sun An turned to Luo Xianwei and said, "Go there now. The murderer is probably hiding there. Are your dozen government officials enough?"
It was already late in the afternoon and Luo Xianwei said: "Just the yamen in the fast class is definitely not enough. In addition, there are a dozen in the strong class and a dozen in the soap class. It should be enough, right?"
Sun An said: "As soon as possible!"
After a while, all three squads of government officials were summoned together and followed Luo Xianwei and Sun An to the outside of the city.
Originally, according to Luo Xianwei's idea, the county magistrate might intervene by allocating manpower from the Zhuang class and the Zao class, but no one stopped him, and all three squads of yamen officers arrived.
Hong Baotou led the way, and Sun An and Luo Xianwei were escorted by thirty or forty government officials to Moon Bay outside the city.
The river bend is not far from the city. Once you leave the city, you can see the warehouse on the hillside in the distance.
It took only a quarter of an hour for thirty or forty people to come forward. When Shi Sheng saw so many officials coming towards them menacingly, he was already frightened and at a loss. He stood there wondering whether he should kneel down and kowtow.
A dozen yamen officers, led by a fast-shift yamen officer, went around to the back of the warehouse, while the rest stood in front of the door.
Hong Baotou shouted at Shi Sheng: "How brave! Why don't you kneel down?"
Shi Sheng trembled and quickly knelt down on the ground, kowtowing and said: "The common people have seen the great master."
"Don't talk nonsense, this is the Fourth Master, not the First Master!" Hong Captou corrected.
Sun An waved his hand to stop Mr. Hong from arguing, "Is the owner of this house Zhao Cheng?"
Shi Sheng knelt on the ground and responded: "Yes."
"Are there any barbarians in the house?"
"Yes."
"How many are there?"
"Fourteen, fifteen." Shi Sheng cooked for fourteen barbarians, so the number was clear, but when he thought about one more person, he immediately changed his mind.
Sun An took a step back, waved his hand and said, "Go and open the door."
Hong Captou knew that the time had come for him to show off. If he was braver, he might be rewarded by Master Dianshi.
"Brothers, follow me!" Mr. Hong shook the iron ruler in his hand and strode forward.
With so many government officials here, Shi Sheng did not dare to disobey, so he went to open the door of the warehouse. The barbarians had already cleaned up the warehouse. Because they were leaving, there was no further processing and fermentation, and the tanks were all empty.
When the door opened, these barbarians were sitting on the floor of the warehouse discussing the itinerary. Achi still insisted on going by sea, while Ahufeng disagreed and insisted on taking the land route.
At this moment, the door of the warehouse suddenly opened, and then a group of government officials waving iron rulers rushed in.
The barbarians didn't know what happened, and they all froze in place. Only A Chi moved and wanted to stand up, but when he saw that no one moved, he sat back down.
"Light the torch!" Because it was too dark inside the warehouse, Luo Xianwei was afraid that something would happen, so he grabbed Mr. Sun and asked the government officials who entered the warehouse to light the torch first and see the situation clearly before entering.
Under the shining light of the majestic fire, a dozen barbarians were surrounded by the government officials.
Luo Xianwei repeatedly confirmed that there was no danger, and then asked Sun An to enter the warehouse.
Sun An first looked around the surrounding environment, because there were rows of large tanks in the warehouse, but these large tanks had been cleaned, and some were filled with clean water.
After confirming that there were no more hiding people in the warehouse, Sun An came over and said to Luo Xianwei: "Take these people back and interrogate them carefully."
The government officials immediately shook out the iron chains and wanted to lock up the barbarians.
At this time Ahufeng stood up and said, "What are you doing by surrounding us here?"
"We have voluntarily terminated the contract with Mr. Zhao, and he has let us go!"
But it was a pity that neither Luo Xianwei nor Sun An could understand what A Hufeng said, let alone the government officials, who just thought it was a barbarian barking.
Seeing that the government officials turned a deaf ear and still pressed forward step by step with chains in hand, Ahufeng became angry and said to the barbarians behind him: "Get ready to punch!"
The She people are also known as the Boxers.
Their clan is good at martial arts, and the She clan's boxing is the most famous, followed by stick skills.
