Zhou Lezhi saw that the gentleman's face was pale, full of disappointment and disbelief. Afraid that he would go crazy if he couldn't think about it for a moment, he quickly whispered in his ear: "Sir! Sir!"
The gentleman then came back to his senses and whispered: "I feel a little uncomfortable, so I won't listen to you for now. What Mr. Gou said, please note it down and give it to me in the evening."
Zhou Lezhi was suspicious, wondering what happened to Mr. Wang Yehao was secretly happy, knowing that Gou Chengxuan's words moved the Hearthstone Immortal.
These thieves are all rough, there are no good people at all!
It seems that his "provocation" has worked. This Hearthstone Immortal will not think of defecting to his accomplices for a while.
Wang Yehao immediately asked Mr. Gou to take a bath, change clothes, and arrange a place to live.
"I'll leave him to you." Mr. Wang ordered Liu Zheng, "Take good care of him! Don't let him run away!"
"yes."
"One more thing, he said that his father and two servants are still there, and you have to try to find them."
"The younger one has connections with the Guandi Temple people, so I'll leave it to them. You can find him wherever you go in Guangzhou."
"You have to be careful about this matter. Before I came to Guangzhou, I estimated that there must be many spies in the city. There are probably also spies from them in the Sansi Yamen and the Governor's Yamen. So I plan to stay in Zhaoqing, and you stay in Guangzhou to do the research. The department is investigating the matter of the thief - it must be done secretly. You go and recruit some brothers from the past, and I will give them a share of the money and food in the supervision bid. "
"I understand, little one! Thank you for your grace, sir!"
"Mr. Jin..." Wang Yehao turned to Jin Wenchi, "You talk to Gou Chengxuan every day and write down everything he knows about the bandits, including this battle in Qiongzhou."
That night, Zhou Lezhi served his husband to rest and slept outside. When I woke up during this period, I could hear vaguely and was tossing and turning inside. When I got up early the next morning, I saw that my husband's face was dull and his eyes were swollen.
"Sir, did you sleep well last night?"
"Um."
"I'll help you wash up first and bring you some snacks while you take a nap..."
"No need, I can't sleep." The gentleman's face was stern, "Where is Mr. Gou now?"
"Mr. Wang has arranged for him to be well placed. I heard that he knows a lot about Australians, and I want him to write it all down..."
Hearing this, the gentleman nodded and said, "Where is Mr. Wang?"
"I heard that we are going to the Wuyang Station construction site in Nancheng today."
"Wuyangyi?"
"When we came to Guangzhou and disembarked at Lijia Pier, there was a large area of ruins..."
"That's Wuyangyi?!"
"Yes, I heard from Brother Liu that the Australians set off rockets when they besieged Guangzhou and burned down Wuyang Post. After taking office, I started to rebuild it."
"Rocket? Be good!" Mr. Zhou made a strange sound, "Unexpected, unexpected, Katyusha?"
"What sand?" Zhou Lezhi asked, not understanding.
"It's nothing," Mr. Zhou, who was originally very sick, suddenly became energetic, "Hurry up and bring breakfast. After eating, we will go to Wuyangyi to have a look!"
Zhou Lezhi didn't know why his husband suddenly became interested in Wuyangyi. When they arrived at the Li family's dock, it was nightfall, and they saw a large area of dark ruins, nothing special about it.
After breakfast, Zhou Lezhi, Liu Zhao and others followed Taoist Hearthstone all the way south along Chengxuan Street to Guangzhou Nancheng. From a distance, you can see that the city tower has also been burned down, with only a small amount of carbonized wooden structure remaining standing.
Not far from the city gate, there is a large area of ruins after being burned by fire. Many shacks have been erected in the ruins, and refugees live in them. Among the broken walls, some low and dirty shacks were erected here and there, and a few vegetable plots were also opened.
Such a scene has no emotion for the Hearthstone Immortal, but he was very surprised to see a large area of ruins before leaving the city.
"This is Wuyangyi? Isn't it outside the city?"
"This was originally a residence in the city. I heard that the thieves also shot many rockets in and burned down many houses."
Mr. Zhou looked solemn, stopped the sedan, got out of the sedan and looked at the entire ruins. After being silent for a while, he saw a shed not far away and a lot of people gathered there, and asked, "What's going on with this shed?"
Liu Zhao hurried over to inquire, and came back after a while to report: "Sir, this is a soup kitchen shack where several wealthy families give soup every day to help refugees."
Mr. Zhou said oh and strolled towards the porridge shed. Liu Zhao and Zhou Lezhi didn't know why - they didn't want to go to Wuyangyi? Hurry and take your family to follow.
Many refugees had gathered around the porridge shed. After asking, I found out that porridge is given out once a day. Only the people who originally lived here and were affected by the war can receive it. So when you get the chips, you have to go through the card.
"Where is the card?"
"Dad Jia was still here just now, but the housekeeper of Liang Mansion came and was asked to speak."
"Liang Mansion?"
"That's Liang Cunhou and the Liang family in this city."
Liu Zhao had studied "Guangdong Jin Gentry Records" before coming to Guangzhou, and knew that the Liang family was a well-known local wealthy family, so he whispered: "The Liang family is the local Jin Gentry."
After a while, Pai Jia came back. This card A's life is not easy either, he is disgraced and his clothes are in rags. I heard that the master was looking for me, so I came over quickly to answer the call.
Liu Zhao called Pai Jia over and showed his waist card. Pai A trembled all over and almost knelt down. Liu Zhao said: "No need to be polite! My master has a few words to ask you. Please be honest!"
Pai Jia doesn't speak Mandarin very well, but fortunately Zhou Lezhi is a local native and can translate.
"Why is this place under fire? Didn't the thieves destroy the city?"
"I don't know what I know, but the bandits used rockets, and a lot of them fell in Nancheng. This area was hit by the rockets, which caused the fire to become a disaster. Rockets also fell in several places in Nancheng, but the burned area was not so big... …”
As he spoke, he described the rocket attack that night, like a meteor falling to the ground, instantly setting fire to many houses. Although there is a dragon club to put out the fire at any time, there are too many places to take care of it. Finally, the weather was humid at that time, so it didn't cause a fire throughout the city.
"But there are many places that were burned, and this one is the largest. Alas, more than 500 people were burned to death in one night. I don't know what the thief's rocket contained. He burned anything that stuck to it. Everyone was burned. Burnt to charcoal! Alas, alas, it's so miserable..." Paijia said, with lingering fear.
Mr. Zhou's face didn't look good to begin with, but the more he listened to Pai Jia's words, the more ugly his face became. Whispered: "That's enough!"
Zhou Lezhi hurriedly scolded: "Stop talking!"
Zhou Lezhi and Liu Zhao saw that Taoist Hearthstone's face was ashen, and they didn't know what taboo he had violated, so they didn't dare to say anything more. Paijia was even too frightened to say a word.
After a long time, Taoist Hearthstone let out a sigh of relief and said, "What's going on with the Liang family's porridge?"
Paijia said that this porridge shed was set up by Runshitang. Since the war hit here, tents have been set up here to serve porridge.
"Although Runshitang has more than a dozen directors, he is now in charge of the Liang family. His housekeeper comes here every day."
After hearing this, Taoist Hearthstone said nothing. The group walked through the ruins and came to the dock outside the city. Looking at the ruins of Wuyangyi, the gentleman stood by the river for a long time, with a look of sadness and indignation on his face.
After a long time, Zhou Lezhi heard his husband whisper: "Go back!"
The next day, Zhou Lezhi came to his husband to ask for leave.
"...I want to go home and have a look. I heard from Brother Liu that there are many thieves killing and looting in the countryside. I'm worried about the people in the clan..."
"You just go." Mr. Zhou waved his hand feebly, "Go early and come back early!"
"As long as the clan is safe, the students will return in two or three days." After that, he was about to exit. Suddenly he was stopped by Mr. Zhou: "I'll go with you."
On the second day, they took a boat to Hetou Village under the escort of the Liu brothers and others.
Hetou Village is only more than ten miles away from Guangzhou, but it has not been attacked by the war. The clan leader said that when the bandit army passed by, he indeed sent people to the village to collect grain, grass and "reasonable burdens".
"When soldiers pass through the border, being able to avoid robbing or burning is already a manifestation of the ancestors' spirit." The clan leader said.
"Did you do any other bad things?"
"We collected the grain and went there without doing anything bad." The clan leader said, "On the contrary, it was the local scoundrels who took advantage of the opportunity to plunder a lot of them. Later, they were all wiped out by the bandits."
After hearing this, Mr. Zhou's face looked better. Then he asked: "Where are the nearby villages?"
"I heard that some villagers who refused to bear the burden and organized brave resistance were massacred in the village. How miserable!" The patriarch seemed to be frightened and a little lucky when he talked about it.
"Slaughter the village?! Is this really happening?" The gentleman's eyebrows rose.
"Young people can also listen to what others say..." The clan leader said in fear when he saw his ferocious expression.
"Can you tell me which villages there are?" Mr. Zhou asked.
The patriarch didn't want to say it until Liu Zhen said, "Since I'm asking you, neither the left nor the right will implicate you! Just say it!" Then he timidly mentioned the names of several villages.
"Sir, do you want to go take a look?" Liu Wei asked.
"Go! Go!"
After resting for one night in Hetou Village, the group set off on the next day, all the way to Sanfan. After staying there for half a day, they sailed in the direction of the original intrusion of the bandit fleet and visited the villages along the way.
As the journey progressed, Mr.'s face became increasingly ugly: the burned-down houses, the new graves of the deceased, the cries of family members... one by one, they hit his heart.
In Zhou Lezhi's view, the thieves can be regarded as "benevolent and righteous". They are very restrained whether they are burning, killing or looting. As long as you surrender in time and pay money and food, you will basically be considered innocent. In addition to the person in charge, innocent people are not implicated. Tu Cun's statement is really too much.
The gentleman obviously doesn't see it that way. It was obvious that his anger was gathering.
On this day, they cruised to Sanliang in Dongguan. As usual, I was looking for local elders to interview the past stories of the thieves crossing the border. After everyone heard Qingxia's deeds, they all sighed, saying that she was really a strange woman with love and righteousness. A group of people went to the gravesites of Qingxia, Luo Tianqiu and others to pay homage to them.
Returning to the boat in the evening, Zhou Lezhi could only hear his husband muttering to himself: "Beast!" Then he gritted his teeth and said: "Scum!"
(End of chapter)
