The mountain breeze is coming slowly, and the coolness is refreshing.
Gu Zhengchen called everyone closer and asked calmly: "Have you ever seen a lion dance?"
Wang Liang, Zhao Hailou and others looked at each other, a little unaccustomed to Gu Zhengchen's jumping words. Wang Liang replied: "Lion dance is common among the people. I've probably seen it before. Why does Mr. Gu ask about this?"
Gu Zhengchen played with a copper coin and said with a smile: "The lion dancer opens and closes in a controlled manner, majestic and majestic, just like a real lion. Everyone has seen this and doesn't think it's strange. But among you, have any of you seen the tiger dance?" ?”
"Dancing tiger?"
Zhao Hailou stretched his neck, and Wang Liang was a little surprised.
Zhang Pei and Yao Zhen were thoughtful.
Yang Guanggang remained silent, and Lin Si raised his head, alert to the movements around him.
Zhao Hailou laughed dryly: "Where can I find tiger dancers? Sir, laugh."
Gu Zhengchen shook his head and looked at Lin Sishi: "The other seven hunters in Zhexi were not killed by tigers, but by people who danced with tigers. In other words, some people were wearing tiger skins, pretending to be tigers, and doing evil! "
Lin Sishi looked at Gu Zhengchen in shock and quickly said: "No way, it must be a tiger, I saw it with my own eyes!"
"It was night. If I gave you a tiger skin, could you tell whether it was a human or a tiger?"
Gu Zhengchen asked rhetorically.
Lin Si was at a loss for words, his expression still suspicious.
Gu Zhengchen placed the things he found in front of him and pointed at the tattered cloth strips: "Look clearly, these two strips of cloth are wide and long, with no holes in them. Look at these three broken backpacks, and this The three-pronged wooden pole, the palm bones, and the smooth and straight edges are obviously cut with sharp weapons. No matter how fierce the tiger is, it is impossible for him to achieve this step."
"This this……"
Lin Sisi collapsed on the ground, the flesh on his cheeks trembling continuously.
Gu Zhengchen pointed to the high slope to the north and said sternly: "At that time, you came chasing the musk deer, and you were so quiet. But the man pretending to be a tiger appeared on the hillside and did not notice you. As a result, you suddenly took action. , kill it. At that time, it is likely that only one person died. When the other person saw this, he quickly went to inform others, and then a group of tigers appeared behind you. "
Lin Sishi shook his head: "After killing the tiger, we only took a few breaths to calm down before cautiously approaching the high slope. How could we have been so fast if we were notified by someone?"
Gu Zhengchen picked up the copper coin and reached out to grab it. He looked at Dachaling and said coldly, "Because this is a tiger's den."
Seeing that the bonfire in the pit was about to go out, Gu Zhengchen added two branches and quietly watched the bonfire in trance.
Yao Zhen and Zhang Pei were lying on the ground and fell asleep, snoring loudly.
At night in the forest, there will be some movement from time to time. It may be a rabbit or a musk deer.
The bright moon is cold and cannot illuminate all shadows.
In the dense mountain forest, there is invisible darkness everywhere.
suddenly.
An energetic tiger appeared fifty steps west of the bonfire, its dark brown stripes trembling on its yellow fur. Its huge figure moved forward with vigorous steps.
And after this tiger, there were two more tigers. To the east and south of the bonfire, three tigers also appeared.
Gu Zhengchen lowered his head and fiddled with a tubular iron stick.
The stick is one and a half feet long and divided into three sections. The front two-thirds is the front chamber, the back one-third is the urn-shaped powder chamber, and the remaining part is the buttocks.
This is the fire gun of the Ming Dynasty. It is very different from the gun standard of later generations. It has no stock, no trigger, and no sight. It is just a tubular iron rod.
The body of the fire gun is engraved with the inscription "Xiaoqi Youwei Shengzi No. 401, the long gun barrel weighs eight pounds and three taels, made by Baoyuan Bureau on an auspicious day in August of the fifth year of Hongwu."
Gu Zhengchen looked at the fire that had been drawn out, picked up a piece of wood that was still burning, lit the fire, turned sideways, pointed at the tiger less than ten steps away from him to the west, and said coldly: "Congratulations. You have fallen into a trap."
When the tiger heard this, he immediately looked around.
Gu Zhengchen only felt his hand shake suddenly, and choking smoke spewed out from the gun. Then he saw a tiger lying on the ground and letting out a pitiful scream.
"Do it!"
Gu Zhengchen dropped the blunderbuss, stood up, drew his sword, and shouted sharply.
Whoosh!
The bow moved, and the arrow shot straight down from a high place.
Zhang Pei and Yao Zhen, who were sleeping, were guarding Gu Zhengchen with their sabers drawn out. Seeing a tiger charging at them, Yao Zhen was about to fight, but saw that the tiger seemed to have stumbled on something and fell heavily on the ground. land!
Before Yao Zhen could come forward to strike, Lin Sisi jumped down from the tree, stabbed the three prongs of the fork into the tiger's head, then rolled out, grabbed the bow on the ground, and took out an arrow. Aiming sideways at the moving tiger's tail, he loosened the bowstring.
The arrow shot out of the hole, and the tiger's tail fell to the ground with a crash, and there was no movement!
"kill!"
Zhao Hailou chopped off half of the tiger's head with one knife. As the tiger's body tilted, a cold light appeared at his feet. Zhao Hailou took a step back and laughed loudly: "Damn it, it's all human beings! Brother! They, kill!"
A man in black emerged from under the tiger's skin and swiped the steel knife in his hand at Zhao Hailou's legs. Zhao Hailou took two steps back to look, then reached out and slashed the opponent's head with the knife. The opponent fell to the ground, clutching his head. He looked at Zhao Hailou with his head in confusion.
Zhao Hailou swiped the opponent's throat with his knife and spat: "My knife is two inches longer than others!"
The man in black covered his neck, and blood kept gushing out, making a gurgling sound mixed with bubbles.
Not a real tiger, but a human being, which greatly inspired the sergeant.
It is impossible to fight tigers without being timid or fearless, but to deal with people, haha, what does that mean? Aren't the Beijing troops just brave people killed on the battlefield?
Twenty Beijing troops and one hunter killed nearly a dozen "tigers" until they screamed in agony. In the end, two tigers ran very fast, and Wang Liang killed one with a bow and arrow, while the other was driven crazy. Lin Sishi chased after him, and by the time Zhao Hailou and others arrived, the two men in black had already been stabbed through.
Zhang Pei and Yao guarded Gu Zhengchen and Yang Grang and did not take action.
The battle ended quickly, and tiger skins were taken one by one. Of the twenty-four men in black, thirteen were killed on the spot, and five were seriously injured.
Gu Zhengchen just said that there was no need to save him, and Wang Liang wiped his neck. As a result, there were only six prisoners left, five with minor injuries, and one who was lucky enough to trip over the rope and fainted.
Of the twenty Beijing troops, only three were slightly injured and were not seriously injured.
Gu Zhengchen ordered people to untie the rope tied to the tree, tie the prisoners up, then lit the bonfire, picked up the blunderbuss, opened the fire door, cleaned up the gunpowder residue, looked at the prisoners kneeling in a row, and said: " I only give you three times to think about who ordered you to kill me, one!"
"two!"
"three!"
No one answered.
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Lin Sishi. Lin Sishi kicked someone down, raised a three-pronged fork, and stabbed it into the chest without hesitation!
The three-pronged fork was pulled out, and blood immediately flowed out.
The other five people panicked.
Gu Zhengchen took a handful of gunpowder powder, stuffed it into the medicine chamber, and counted coldly: "One, two!"
"I, I am Guo Baijin!"
When a prisoner looked at Lin Si right in front of him, blood slowly dripped from the three forks, and he suddenly collapsed.
"Wang Hu, how dare you betray!"
One prisoner puffed out his chest and roared.
"kill him!"
Gu Zhengchen ordered coldly.
At this moment, human life is like grass.
Before Lin Siji could speak again, the three-pronged fork had already moved!
Zhao Hailou arranged for people to carry away the two corpses. Gu Zhengchen looked at the person who had just spoken: "Wang Hu, right? Do you know who I am?"
Wang Hu's heart skipped a beat and he confessed: "I know, Jurong County Magistrate Gu Zhengchen. Guo Baijin issued an order not to allow you to leave Wucheng Mountain alive."
"How dare you take action even though you know I am the county magistrate? You are so courageous. From your accent, you don't sound like a southerner."
Gu Zhengchen closed the medicine room and reached out to take the "bullet" handed over by the sergeant. He glanced at it and couldn't help but be stunned. What kind of bullet is this? It's just broken stones and iron slag. At least he can get some lead bullets and iron beads... …
Wang Hu nodded: "I am from Huai'an."
"Why would you sacrifice your life for the Guo family?"
After Gu Zhengchen loaded the gun, he paused and looked at Wang Hu coldly.
"Mr. Gu, they are definitely not ordinary gangsters, they look like remnants of soldiers."
Zhao Hailou interjected in a deep voice.
The faces of Wang Hu and others suddenly changed. Seeing that they could not hide it, they had to admit: "We were originally Zhang Shicheng's subordinates. After we were dispersed, we fled into the mountains and forests. Zheng was later taken in by Guo Baijin, and that's why we worked for him."
"Zhang Shicheng!"
Gu Zhengchen rubbed his brows. This guy had been dead for several years and had caused a lot of trouble.
"How many of you are there?"
Gu Zhengchen asked.
Wang Hu looked at the corpses not far away and said: "There were originally fifty-two people. Later, they opened the mountain to mine and lost eight people. In addition to the people here, there are twenty brothers in the mountain."
Gu Zhengchen stood up, handed the gun to the sergeant, walked towards the tiger skin beside him, looked at Zhao Hailou and others, and said with a smile: "It seems that you tigers are going to carry me into the mountain."
Zhao Hailou understood, laughed loudly, and greeted everyone: "Come, divide the tiger skin, and prepare to go into the mountain."
Wang Hu shivered when he saw Gu Zhengchen's people. It was obvious that this group of people wanted to let him and others lead the way into the mountain.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Wang Hu and others and threatened: "Whoever cooperates will make a contribution to the court. I can hide you without repaying you at my discretion. But if anyone is disobedient and reveals a flaw, I will not be harmed." If you catch Guo Baijin, you will only have one fate!"
"We cooperate."
Wang Hu and others agreed simply.
Gu Zhengchen took out a few Cornus officinalis pills from his backpack, stuffed them into several people's mouths and swallowed them, pretending to be poison.
A group of tigers return to the mountains.
Gu Zhengchen, Yao Zhen, Zhang Pei and others followed the tiger group. After climbing to Dachaling, they looked at the mining area at the foot of the mountain. There were no lights there, but under the moonlight, many figures could still be seen moving around.
After descending from Dachaling and approaching the mining area, Zhao Hailou arranged for six people to stay on the outside. Gu Zhengchen and three other people were tied up, lay down, and were carried into the mining area by others.
In the mine, there was the sound of hammering iron tools, intermittent, distant and near.
"There's a checkpoint ahead."
Wang Liang whispered.
Gu Zhengchen opened his eyes, looked at the night sky, and whispered: "Proceed with caution, don't panic."
Not far away, I heard footsteps, and then a sinister voice said: "Have you caught anyone?"
Wang Hu took off the tiger's head, nodded and bowed and reported: "Boss Guo, he was captured alive by our brothers. This coward paralyzed to the ground when he saw the tiger, unable to move."
Guo Baijin came out of the darkness and asked, "Wang Hu, why didn't Guo Cheng send it?"
Wang Hu raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat and said: "Guo Cheng is cleaning up the mess to avoid leaving any human traces. He sent us to Guzhi County first and handed it over to Boss Guo."
