Just as Master Cen Qi was meeting with Huang Zhiting and Gao Pangshi, Gao Zhang also entered Siming Mansion with a dozen Gao family servants.
To be precise, Gao Zhang followed Master Cen Qi into Siming Mansion - he happened to spot the Sicheng wolf soldiers along the way. Since Master Cen Qi was only visiting Siming Mansion this time, and the court officials The army had already withdrawn its troops and returned to Liuzhou, so the wolf soldiers under Master Cen Qi did not make wartime deployments, that is to say, they did not send out sentries and just rushed all the way to Siming Mansion.
This made it easier for Gao Zhang to follow him. He had already guessed that since Master Cen Qi’s team was going south, it must be going to Siming Mansion. After all, he could find that the master was traveling with the "chieftain woman". Mr. Cen Qi There was no reason for him not to know, so he didn't even bother finding the way and just followed Master Cen Qi's team south.
After Master Cen Qi arrived at Siming Mansion, his large team stopped outside Haiyuan City, and he only brought more than twenty servants into the city. Since he was an important figure in the chieftain's family, and according to the rules, he left all his accompanying guards outside the city. The Huang family's wolf soldiers guarding the city did not stop him and let him enter the city directly.
After Gao Zhang observed outside the city for a while, he also swaggered into the city. He had the Guangxi Procuratorate's customs defense that Gao Pragmatic had issued long ago. Unless the Huang family rebelled, they would not be stopped - the patrol censorship faction People come to your city, maybe to check whether you will rebel. How dare you stop them?
Therefore, this barrier was very effective. Although Huang's wolf soldiers were illiterate, the primary school guarding the city recognized the barrier pattern issued by the Inspectorate, so Gao Zhang was able to enter the city smoothly.
After entering the city, Gao Zhang ordered everyone to find a place to settle down before making further plans. A servant asked: "Don't we need to find out where the master is now?"
Gao Zhang smiled and said: "Judging from the situation that day, the person accompanying the master should be a female chieftain. Since the master entered the city at this time, he naturally went to the Tuzhifu Yamen. We can't get in now, so why bother? ? It’s better to settle down first and then wait for an opportunity to get in touch with the master.”
The servants praised him for his kindness, so they first looked for a place to stay.
Fortunately, Haiyuan City is a city with relatively prosperous commerce. Although the city is not big, there are quite a few inns. Gao Zhang quickly found an inn, but it was not called Yuelai or Tongfu, but Nankeju.
Gao Zhang and his group were actually too conspicuous, because except for Gao Zhang himself, the rest of them were dressed exactly the same, and they all wore the "standard" brown shorts for servants of the Gao family. That's not all. What's even more obvious is that they are all fully armed. In addition to Yanling knives, mulberry bows, and two pots of arrows, they even carry blunderbuss - which are actually Longqing II muskets, which outsiders are still used to call them. Bird gun.
In addition, each person also carries projectile pouches, gunpowder pouches, sundry pouches, iron kettles, dry food bags and other items. It can be said that this group of people can be pulled out to march and go to the battlefield at any time.
Fortunately, the innkeeper in Nankeju seemed to have seen armed servants more than once. Although the equipment of Gao Zhang and others was too good, the innkeeper may be confident enough in the deterrence of the wolf soldiers in the city, so when facing Gao Zhang and others, Relatively calm, he politely asked Gao Zhang and others about their needs, discussed the price with him, and quickly led them to the backyard.
Nan Keju is one of the big inns in Haiyuan City, but in fact, their inn usually mainly accommodates Annan merchants, so Gao Zhang and others felt a little noisy as soon as they entered the backyard.
There are three small buildings in the backyard, one on each of the south and northwest sides. Together with the inn and restaurant building that opens to the east, they form a courtyard. Most of the people living in the courtyard are Annan businessmen. Although what they say always sounds like Chinese, they can't understand a word.
In fact, most of the languages in Southeast Asia are greatly influenced by Indian culture, and their speech is more Indian-style. However, Annan is an exception. Since it was split from China and heavily influenced by Chinese culture, it did not experience harshness before French colonial rule. The de-Sinicized Vietnamese has a Chinese-medium pronunciation.
Gao Zhang fully demonstrated how heroic the servants of the Gao family were when they went out to perform tasks. More than ten people rented out the entire second floor of the North Tower. However, the price was not high, only four taels of silver for three days. Gao Zhang, who was used to the prices in the capital, thought it was very It was cheap and I agreed without saying a word.
The heroic and fully armed appearance of their group attracted the attention of the Annan merchants in the inn, and many Annan merchants secretly speculated on their origins.
Because Gao Zhang couldn't understand what they were saying, he didn't bother to care about it. Besides, they had come all the way and were already tired, so a group of people gathered in Gao Zhang's guest room to discuss the next arrangements.
During this period, a waiter came to clean the shop. Gao Zhang originally planned to send him out and ask him to come back later. Who knew that the waiter turned out to be an Annan man and had no idea what Gao Zhang was talking about? Seeing this, Zhang was too lazy to pay attention to him, and the group began to discuss how to rescue the master.
After all, he was the patrol commander of a province. Although he had left an acrostic poem before ordering the army to withdraw, his whereabouts were a mystery after all, and Liuzhou and even Guilin were definitely worried. Three to five days might be bearable, but ten days and a half would be hard to say. If nothing happens for a month, the deputy guard Jiang Xin and others will definitely not be able to sit still. No one can guarantee what kind of accident will happen by then.
Therefore, although Gao Zhang was not very anxious about what would happen to Gao Jingshi, he was eager to ask him to formally report his whereabouts to Liuzhou and Guilin, so as to give reassurance to those ants on the hot pot.
The result of the discussion between Gao Zhang and others was also very simple. In a nutshell, they just waited and waited. They felt that the reason why their master did not take the initiative to reveal his identity now was because he wanted to take this opportunity to inspect Siming Mansion. In this case, he would definitely find a way to get out of the government office.
In this way, as long as you stay outside the government office, you will meet the master sooner or later. If the master can walk with the female chieftain all the way, he must be regarded as an important guest. Then it is impossible to leave the government office through the back door. In this way, as long as you guard the front door and the two sides Just a side door.
After Gao Zhang finished the discussion, the waiter happened to have finished cleaning. The waiter nodded and bowed and made gestures. Gao Zhang waved his hand and asked him to go to the shopkeeper to return, and then began to arrange for turns to guard the door.
However, after the waiter left, he didn't even go to "see the shopkeeper for help". Instead, he sneaked into a guest room in the south building.
There were three guests in the guest room, all dressed as Annan people. One of them, an old man, was sitting cross-legged on the futon in the back room with his eyes closed as if he was chanting sutras. He didn't react at all when the waiter came in.
The other two were fat and thin, neither very tall, and both had shrewd looks in their eyes. At first glance, they looked no different from those big merchants and hawkers traveling north and south.
However, as soon as the waiter came in, the two people's expressions immediately became serious.
The thin man asked: "Have you found out who it is? Is it someone sent by the Liuzhou official to investigate Siming Mansion?"
The waiter had a smile on his face: "Commander Fan, these people are the servants of the Censor of Guangxi, and they seem to be here to rescue Gao Xunjian."
The thin man, known as "Commander Fan", was stunned for a moment: "Rescuing Inspector Gao? The Huang family took advantage of the courage of a bear and captured the Inspector of Guangxi? This is impossible!"
How did the waiter know this, but he provided another information, saying: "I don't know whether the Huang family has arrested Gao Xun or the younger one, but this morning, when the eldest daughter of the Huang family returned to Haiyuan City, she was with a Han man. The scholar came back together...but, it seems that that person is not the Guangxi patrol officer."
"Commander Fan" asked: "Why do you say that?"
The waiter said proudly: "The scholar is too young. He looks like he can't be more than twenty years old at most. How can he be a provincial patrol officer?"
Unexpectedly, when he said this, the thin man and the fat man immediately looked at each other, and the fat man who had been silent snorted coldly: "You idiot, it is just like what Mingren said, 'You can't see the mountain with your eyes.' Huh, look at that. Nine times out of ten, the scholar is the Ming Dynasty’s Guangxi Inspector Gao Shishi, who is also the Ming Dynasty’s top scholar in the world!”
