The location of the Chenghuang Temple in Yongzhou Prefecture is not remote. Logically speaking, it should be the most valuable place in the city, but there is a large open space behind it.
Because it has been neglected, it has now become a bush.
Shen Zhonglei also expressed confusion about this after taking office, but I heard from the old people in the Yamen that in the early years, several wealthy households in the city originally wanted to pool money to expand the City God's Temple, so they vacated a piece of land behind it.
But just when the workers were hired and they were about to buy materials, something unexpected happened.
Several families who contributed money had troubles one after another. Everyone said that this was a warning from the City God not to start construction.
Later, it seems that someone was specially hired to do the calculation, but the result was still that it was not suitable to start construction.
So the expansion matter was put aside, and the land was implicated and became an ominous place that no one wanted to get involved with. It was abandoned for more than ten years.
Shen Zhonglei led people from the Yamen to the grove behind the Chenghuang Temple.
This place has been carefully checked inside and out.
Because Lao Dao and others had released the news, when Shen Zhonglei arrived, there were already three floors outside and three floors surrounded by people watching the excitement.
Shen Zhonglei got off the carriage and shouted into the woods: "I'm already here, why don't you show up?"
Not long after, a man wearing black clothes and black trousers, with a black cloth covering his face, walked out of the forest.
The people who were watching were immediately in an uproar, and the sounds of rustling chatter could be heard all the time.
"Is this Lao Dao?"
"It doesn't look very fierce!"
"You can tell when he covers it so tightly!"
“As the saying goes, dogs that bite don’t bark, and dogs that bark don’t bite.
"I heard that people who are so heinous and murderous without batting an eyelid don't look ferocious. Instead, they all look ordinary."
No matter what the people said, Xie Yan could tell at a glance that although the person who came was very similar to Lao Dao in size and shape, he was definitely not Lao Dao himself.
Xie Yan tilted his head slightly and whispered to the men behind him: "Lao Dao is not here. Send the order and act according to the second plan."
"Yes!" His subordinates took the order and left.
Xie Yan also took advantage of everyone's attention to the fake Lao Dao and left quietly with a bow and arrow.
Shen Zhonglei carefully kept a distance from the fake Lao Dao and said loudly: "Lao Dao, you are surrounded now and have no way to go. It's better to just put down your weapon and surrender..."
"It is true that I, Lao Dao, am not a kind person. I have been doing things like taking people's money and eliminating disasters, but we also have rules in this industry.
"No matter how much money we pay, we will never touch the children."
Shen Zhonglei said solemnly: "You can save these words until you get to the Yamen."
"Go to the Yamen? Are you going to beat me up?" The fake old knife raised one corner of his mouth when he heard this, and approached the two steps with a smile on his face, "Even if my crimes over the years are countless, I admit those I have done, and those I have not done. , don’t even think about settling on my head..."
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill in his heart, followed by severe pain.
Fake Laodao slowly lowered his head and found a cluster of arrow feathers that had appeared on his chest at some point.
He looked up blankly ahead, not even knowing where the arrow came from.
But there is no time left for Fake Lao Dao to figure it all out.
The arrow hit his heart, and blood rushed out, quickly soaking his clothes.
Everything happened so fast that no one could react.
It wasn't until the fake old sword swayed and fell to the ground, stirring up countless smoke and dust, that the crowd of onlookers suddenly burst into deafening exclamations, which were also mixed with the sound of a small number of people clapping their hands.
And what finally settled on the fake old knife's face was a blank look.
Only his wide-open eyes faintly told that he was unwilling to finish the sentence...
"My lord, my subordinate was reckless. When I saw him approaching my lord, I immediately drew my bow and shot an arrow." Xie Yan, carrying the bow and arrows on his back, came to Shen Zhonglei and knelt down on one knee to plead guilty.
Shen Zhonglei sighed and said: "Although I told you to try to catch as many as possible alive, this thief has no remorse and is still resisting and shirk responsibility. You took action in time, so you are not guilty."
At this time, the person who stepped forward to collect the body suddenly shouted: "Sir, he is carrying a crossbow!"
"He was actually carrying a crossbow. He suddenly took a few steps forward just now, just to assassinate Lord Shen, right?"
"Fortunately, the officer just now took action promptly and decisively, otherwise Mr. Shen would have been in danger."
"You just said that this old swordsman doesn't look fierce, now you know that people can't be judged by their appearance, right?"
"Sir, let's go back too!"
Xie Yan escorted Shen Zhonglei out and whispered a few words in his ear.
Shen Zhonglei looked stern and nodded to indicate that he understood.
The government's carriage stopped at the entrance of the City God's Temple, and Shen Zhonglei got on the carriage while many people watched.
Xie Yan sat sideways on the shaft of the carriage and raised his hand to pull the reins.
"drive!"
The carriage started slowly, and before it reached the intersection, a loud bang was heard not far ahead.
The road suddenly became filled with dust, bricks and stones flew everywhere, and the people were so frightened that they scattered and hid.
Xie Yan, however, looked calm. He knew the amount of gunpowder on these roads. Even though it sounded scary, in fact, at most it would only explode the road surface and collapse the walls on both sides.
And using Shen Zhonglei's excuse to come to meet Lao Dao, the government officials had already sealed these roads tightly so that no one would be accidentally hurt.
So he raised his hand and tightened the reins, turning the horse around and walking towards another road.
The same scene happened again. When the carriage arrived at the intersection, an explosion occurred inside.
Xie Yan was too lazy to continue playing this childish game with Lao Dao this time and drove directly onto the road Lao Dao wanted.
Sure enough, this time the carriage drove in very smoothly and no more explosions were encountered.
Xie Yan tapped the horses' buttocks with the whip, urging them to speed up, as if he wanted to send Shen Zhonglei back to the government office safely as soon as possible.
Just when the carriage was about to reach the middle of the road, a trip rope suddenly popped up on the road.
Xie Yan suddenly pulled the reins, raising the front hooves of the two horses and neighing.
The carriage suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, and Xie Yan was shaken so much that he almost fell off the carriage.
All the officers drew their long knives and formed pairs in tacit agreement, facing different directions, protecting each other's vests and looking around warily.
The man hiding in a pile of junk on the roadside opened the fuse with a grin. Seeing that the number of lit fuses became shorter and shorter, he also felt a little scared. He quietly crouched down and wanted to evacuate before the explosion. .
But as soon as he moved, a steel knife penetrated straight into his body.
The two people who were holding Masuo off also followed him.
Lao Dao was lying in an old house not far away that had been unoccupied for a long time, looking here through the tattered window paper.
After waiting for a long time and still no gunpowder exploded, I knew something was wrong.
He suddenly stood up, put on a waistcoat that had already been filled with gunpowder, put on his blouse, held the gunpowder tightly in his hand, and climbed out of the window.
