Gu Zhengchen took the dagger, picked off a piece of meat, and chewed it slowly.
Yang Canggu lost his appetite as he recalled the horrific past: "I saw at least eight people mining. These were just people in a mine. I don't know how many people there are in the entire mine. They I’m not allowed out of the mine.”
Gu Zhengchen frowned, glanced at Yang Ganggang's mutilated body and asked, "You are not allowed to leave the mine. Mining mine matters need to be kept secret, right?"
"It should be so."
Yang Guanggang replied.
Gu Zhengchen took out his handkerchief, wiped the dagger and asked: "Why did you leave the mine alive? Guo Jie dared to break your legs, and he also dared to kill and silence you, right?"
Yang Ganggang looked at his calloused hands and said bitterly: "Guo Jie is not a human being. Even if I lost my legs, they would not let me go. Half a year after I broke my legs, they threw me a stone hammer and an iron drill. He sent me back to the mine to pound the ore all day long!"
"I lost my legs and couldn't walk. There were a lot of gravel in the mine, and I had wounds several times. As a last resort, I turned to practicing walking with my hands. It took me nearly a year to master my balance. Escaped at night Several times, I was injured. It wasn’t until two years ago, with the help of Wu Sanqi, that I hid in the mine truck and found the opportunity to escape from the mine together. I didn’t dare to go home and separated from Wu Sanqi. "Tao, now we have arrived at the Zheng of this ancient temple."
Gu Zhengchen stared: "Wu Sanqi?"
Zhang Pei thought about it and came over to ask: "Is this Wu Sanqi the Wu Sanqi who was in the backlog of cases and was sentenced to exile? I looked through the files a few days ago and mentioned this name."
Gu Zhengchen's face became solemn and he looked at Yang Ganggang: "Two years ago, that is the fourth year of Hongwu, but do you still remember the specific month and day?"
Yang Ganggang grimaced and shook his head: "If it's cloudy and cloudy, I can't tell the difference between day and night when I stay in the mine all day, so I can only remember the time roughly. But when Wu Sanqi was sent in, he was on July 2 day, and the day I leave is more than ten days later, it should be July 13th or 14th."
Gu Zhengchen stood up and looked up at Kong.
Just fifteen days later, the moon began to change from round to waning again. The clear light shines on the mountains, and the forest below the mountains is filled with only the gentle breeze.
A few birdsong occasionally dotted the night.
Gu Zhengchen thought for a long time and looked at Yang Ganggang: "The Wu Sanqi you are talking about is not a man of about five feet, right?"
Yang Guanggang was a little stunned and asked in surprise: "How did you know?"
Gu Zhengchen held the sword at his waist and said slowly: "On the evening of July 14th, the fourth year of Hongwu, a corpse appeared outside Wucheng Mountain. The body was covered with bruises and suffered several heavy blows to the head. One of the parts should be iron. Caused by drilling through with a drill. What is it that makes people so angry at a person that they even hesitate to use big rocks to press them into the ravine after killing him! Now that I think about it, the skeleton is probably the captured Wu Sanqi."
Yang Guan was in agony.
Gu Zhengchen said a few words of comfort and asked, "You should still know the specific location of the mine, right?"
Yang Ganggong nodded heavily: "To the northeast, it's about seven or eight miles away. You can reach it after crossing Dachaling."
"Dachaling?"
Lin Sishi's expression changed.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Lin Sishi: "What's wrong? Is there a problem here?"
Lin Sishi's face was solemn, with a look of fear in his eyes: "Master, when I was hunting with people from the same village, Dachaling was where we encountered tigers."
Gu Zhengchen looked to the northeast and said slowly: "Dachaling, it seems that we must go here. Have a good rest tonight and go to Dachaling early tomorrow morning."
Just as Yang Gugang was about to refuse, he heard the words "You go too," and he suddenly fainted. Officials don’t give people any choice...
Gu Zhengchen lay in the prepared meditation room and thought for a long time before falling asleep.
The sergeants took turns keeping watch until the long night passed.
Gu Zhengchen didn't have the time or thought to sit on the top of the mountain and wait for the sunrise. After packing, Yang Ganggang and Lin Sishi led the way to Dachaling.
Rugged mountain roads make the journey longer.
After more than two hours, at nearly noon, the group arrived south of Dacha Ridge.
Dacha Ridge is undulating and far away, with a "concave" in the middle, but the concave part is halfway up the mountain. If you want to get over, you still need to climb the mountain.
Lin Sishi relied on his memory to find the location where the eight people were attacked by the tiger.
After walking around in the forest for more than an hour, Lin Sishi passed by a place several times and turned back. It was not until he saw three burls side by side on a tree that he said to Gu Zhengchen, "Yes, that's right. here!"
Gu Zhengchen looked at the tree tumor and nodded slightly.
Yao Zhen asked in confusion: "Can this also be used as a mark?"
Lin Sishi picked up the three-pronged fork and put it aside. The distance between the fork and the tree tumor was no different. He explained: "This is the scar left by throwing the three-pronged fork, and I was the one who threw it! It's just a little strange. I didn't do the three-pronged fork." It was not recovered, so why is it missing? Also, there are no other corpses nearby."
Zhang Pei looked at Lin Sishi who was anxious: "Master, the eight of you hunted a tiger here. Could it be that someone passed by here afterwards, took away the tiger, and collected their bones and buried them?" ?”
"You'll know if you look around."
Gu Zhengchen arranged for Zhao Hailou, Wang Liang and others: "Leave four brothers to guard the surroundings, while the others search carefully to see if there are any missing items, clues, and to see if there are any soft spots."
"yes."
Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang agreed and led people to search.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Zhang Pei and Yao Zhen and said seriously: "If someone had passed by here not long after the seven people were involved in the accident and found Rao's body and the tiger's body, they might have buried Rao's body, but they would never let go of the tiger's body. The tiger is so big that it takes only two or three people to carry it out of the mountain.”
"If there are many people here, they will carry the tiger out. This move will definitely cause a sensation in Jurong. Tiger hunting is a big event. But there are no rumors of tiger hunting in Jurong's senior capital. If there are few people here, they will definitely take it away. Tiger skins and tiger whips, and tiger bones are either exposed or hidden on the spot. They cannot stay long in a place where tigers roam."
"Mr. Gu!"
Zhao Hailou shouted, bent down to pick up an arrow, and handed it to Gu Zhengchen who was walking over.
Gu Zhengchen took it and looked at it. The arrow shaft was made of bamboo wood. The iron head of the arrow was already rusty. The feathers on the arrow tail were still there. After wiping off the mud on the arrow shaft, a "three" was revealed.
"This is Uncle Sancai's arrow!"
Lin Sishi recognized it and quickly pulled out one of his arrows. The arrow shaft was engraved with the word "four".
Gu Zhengchen handed the arrow to Lin Si and solemnly said: "Search carefully!"
For sure, the place is right.
The dead leaves under the trees were swept away little by little, and two more rags, three broken backpacks, a three-pronged wooden pole, and a palm bone were found.
However, I continued to search for a long time and dug close to the ground, but there was no trace of digging a hole. Until dusk, I searched within a hundred steps of the surrounding area and found no burial place.
"No other findings were found."
Zhao Hailou replied, Lin Sishi also sat on the ground tiredly, with a look of reluctance.
Gu Zhengchen arranged for people to light a fire to cook on the spot, then sat on a fallen tree trunk, holding a palm bone in his hand, and looked at Lin Sishi: "You eight of you encountered a tiger that night, right?"
"That's right!"
Lin Sishi responded.
Gu Zhengchen continued to ask: "Where were you at that time, and where was the tiger?"
Lin Sishi identified the lower position and looked at Gu Zhengchen: "The location we were at at that time was probably Taiye's position. The high slope twenty steps away to the north was where the tiger was."
Gu Zhengchen looked at Gao Po's position and asked, "When you shot the tiger, did it move or hear any noise?"
"Motion? There's no movement..."
Lin Sishi was very confused.
Gu Zhengchen stared at Lin Sishi: "Are you, the tiger showed its head, you fired a volley of fright, and the tiger fell on the high slope in an instant, without even struggling or roaring? "
Lin Si was stunned.
Isn't that how it should be?
A tiger only has one life. If it were hit by six or seven arrows at this distance, it would be dead.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Gao Po again and asked, "After you shot the tiger, did you provoke Gao Po?"
Lin Sishi recalled: "Hunting a tiger is a big deal. We wanted to carry the tiger out of the mountain, but we were worried that other tigers would come after us, so we planned to peel off the tiger's skin first and then get out of the mountain quickly. But it didn't work. I thought, before we even reached the high slope, five or six tigers appeared behind us, and they pounced on us with their claws and teeth bared."
"Baring teeth and showing claws?"
Gu Zhengchen looked down at the palm bones, and then asked: "What happened next?"
Lin Sishi shook his head: "Later I saw several people being pinned down by the tiger and unable to move, and biting them bloody. In the end, Uncle Sancai and I escaped, and a tiger chased us behind us. I threw the three-pronged fork , but the three-pronged fork was nailed to the tree."
"In order to let me escape, Uncle Sancai pushed me into the ravine to the west and fled to the north alone. The tiger chased Uncle Sancai, and I took the opportunity to escape from the mountain. Because everyone else was dead, I was I live in obscurity and don’t dare to publicize this matter.”
Gu Zhengchen nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
After dinner was served, Gu Zhengchen climbed to the high slope where the tiger died and looked at Dacha Ridge in the moonlight with a cold smile on his lips.
"Master seems to have discovered something?"
Zhang Pei came over and asked in a low voice.
Gu Zhengchen looked sideways at Zhang Pei, handed over the palm bones, and said, "Take a look at these palm bones. Can you find anything abnormal?"
Zhang Pei took the bones and examined them: "What's wrong with the palm bones? Isn't it the palm that was cut off? Master, what's going on?"
Gu Zhengchen put his hands behind his back, stared at Dachaling, and said slowly: "There are two explanations. One, this palm is not the palm bone of the Orion from Zhexi, but someone else. Second, if this is Zhexi The hand bones of the Orion Hunter, haha, it means that there are not only many tigers in this mountain, but they are also terrifying."
Zhang Pei looked at the broken position of the palm bones, which were neat and without unevenness.
The tiger's mouth is full of teeth, so it would be impossible to cause such a wound unless——
It's a sharp weapon, like a knife!
