since your farewell

All night.

Everyone had breakfast in the mansion, so they planned to set off for the western suburbs. Li Wencai naturally accompanied the princess, but it was different from yesterday. Instead, he glanced at Jia Yunqing indiscriminately, and Situ Che looked at him frankly, with a very pure and friendly smile.

"Princess, today is the Lantern Festival, you might as well go to the street to buy a mask first, otherwise we may be too conspicuous in the crowd",

Zheng Rong carefully reminded, Master Li just patted his forehead,

"What this lord said is that Nanyang County has the custom of wearing masks during the Lantern Festival. Everyone must wear their favorite masks when they go out today. The princess is just a coincidence."

Situ Che understood that the commander of the imperial guards was thinking differently from Li Wencai. Even if she walks on the street on weekdays with the princess's appearance, people will inevitably turn their heads and look sideways. Really.

On the street, as Li Wencai said, no matter it is a vendor setting up a stall or a store owner in Chen Li, whether it is a child of two or three years old, or an old man in his sixties or seventies, they all wear all kinds of masks. A few people without masks looked very abrupt in it, frequently attracting the eyes of others to investigate.

"Young masters and ladies, come and take a look. My mask is unique, so I won't bump into others when I keep it."

"Nuo people's masks, time-honored brands, dragons, tigers, lions and beasts all have them."

"..."

One after another, the street was filled with the sound of hawking, and it was very lively. Under the recommendation of Li Wencai, several people walked into a shop with a wide variety of products, and each selected their favorite masks.

Qiu Ye didn't hesitate to pick up a mask of ghosts and gods. The color of the mask is dark brown. The open bloody mouth and the sinister eye sockets are embellished with dark red. It is even more gloomy, and the crimson spots are like fresh blood.

Situ Che didn't like this type of mask inexplicably. It looked like props used by ancient priests to pretend to be gods and ghosts.She chose a clean and moist white jade mask, which fit her face very well, with only one lip exposed after wearing it.

Looking at Zhou Nan, he also chose a simple and elegant golden mask, which can cover a pair of beautiful eyes. The curved edge of the mask cast a layer of mystery on this noble lady.

Mingyue and Zheng Rong also picked out suitable masks. Situ Che casually glanced at Zheng Rong's, and sure enough, the silver mask this guy picked matched the princess's very well.

Zhou Nan didn't care, and she didn't care about it. They walked westward along the street. It was quite lively along the way. Maybe because of the Lantern Festival, there were especially many boys and girls on the street. It was the spring heart. Regardless of age, no one wants to miss this unexpected encounter.

The princess is only 16 years old. I don't know if she has someone she likes. Situ Che remembered the son-in-law they discussed last time. She couldn't think of anyone who was worthy of this unparalleled princess.

Thinking of this, and thinking of her own marriage contract, she couldn't help feeling a little annoyed, now that it was her crowning year, after this mission, she would return to Beijing as a major general to marry the prime minister's daughter.

She is not unreasonable either, knowing that her marriage is a political marriage.Over the years, Situ Qingyun's prestige has been increasing day by day. I don't know how many people in the court gossip in front of the emperor. Military power is easy to touch the taboo of the emperor. If it weren't for the good relationship between the prime minister and the general, and working hard to deal with it, I am afraid that the Situ family would not be able to make it to today. , the other party proposed a marriage, it is not too much, but...

Except for enemies and missions, she doesn't like to lie, but now she wants to deceive a woman with a big lie, she doesn't know what to do, although this marriage... was proposed by the other party - Zheng Jiada The young lady met her several times, and when she returned, she bluntly said that she would not marry.

If she hadn't disguised herself as a man, she would have married the commander of the imperial army in front of her, and the major general would suddenly feel discouraged. From this point of view, no matter what, she would not be able to escape the marriage.

Seeing her staring at Zheng Rong's back, with sorrow in her eyes, as if she was looking at a heartbroken person, Zhou Nan frowned slightly, but there was no need to be so obvious, for fear that others would not know that she was as good as Long Yang. He also said that it was just the princess's pretty face. Zhou Nan looked at her with the same eyes, and Situ Che was a little puzzled.

"Princess, just ahead",

Li Wencai pointed to a large stone standing in the field not far away, with "Taiping Village" engraved crookedly on it, and there was a line of small characters on the side, which was a little blurred by people's wear, but the words "heavy recruiting place" could still be vaguely seen .

Since then, the road has become much narrower. The bluestone road has been submerged in mud, and it has been disconnected from nowhere. There are wide fields on both sides, but there are no farmers wearing straw hats, and there are no small hills of rice and rice. The crops, after the entire field was covered by heavy snow, seemed to be covered with a layer of ice.

A few people walked to the village for a while, and Zhou Nan found that the village was deserted, and the doors of the few houses were closed, and the people they met on the road were old people, children and women. Clothing and body posture can be roughly judged. As Li Wencai said, all the men with strong bodies have gone out to do business, but it is still the New Year, and they don’t want to go home to reunite with their relatives?

The more people walked in, the popularity gradually increased, and a few people quickly attracted the attention of the villagers, nothing more, just because there were a few young men in the team.

When outsiders came, the villagers seemed to be very defensive. They all stared at them with hostility. Coupled with the mask of ghosts and snakes, it made people feel a little shivering.

Li Wencai had no choice but to flip up the mask to reveal his identity. The villagers still recognized the magistrate, so they put away their vicious gazes, and knelt down around him in the next second.

"Master Li, please help me find my son, his mother is dying, and she wants to see him again before she dies."

"Yes, Mr. Li, Minnv's husband has been missing for more than half a year, and no news has come back. The child cannot live without a father."

A young woman shed tears, seeping out of the mask was even more miserable. For a while, the villagers cried bitterly and screamed.

Mingyue couldn't bear it, and turned her head slightly. She was also born in this kind of place. Because her parents died, she was abducted and sold to a brothel. Zhou Nan patted her on the shoulder to comfort her. The others also grew up in the capital. Yes, I'm still a little overwhelmed by this scene.

Li Wencai also has a headache, where can he find someone?

"Uncle, where did your son go? Can you tell us more details?"

Situ Che squatted down to get close to the old man. Firstly, she wanted to get closer to everyone. Second, she found that the old man had six fingers on his right hand. She observed it secretly. Many villagers in this village have this kind of situation. Yue Moo is a close relative. caused by marriage.

Her words seemed to have magic power, the white-haired old man stopped sobbing, glanced at her, and slowly opened up the conversation.

About a year ago, two people in the village who went out to do business came back with a lot of money. They said they had opened a big shop in the capital and wanted to recruit assistants.Because of the cessation of the war, fewer officials came to Taiping Village to recruit soldiers, and the subsidies they gave were also reduced, and those two people took out a large number of gold and silver bills, which was a big deal for the villagers who had been farming for generations They were tempted by the temptation, and immediately a few bold men followed them in violation of the law.

In less than two months, these men went back to their hometown to visit their relatives, saying that what those two people said was true, they lived very well in the capital, and earned a lot of money, which was much faster than farming land, which caused a lot of trouble in the village. There was an uproar, and people followed them into the capital intermittently.Humans are competitive and profit-seeking animals. Seeing other people's life getting better and better, their own hard-earned income is less than half of that of others. The rest of the people can't help it, pack up their bags and leave their hometown decisively, but this time, Then there was no news.

"If I knew it would happen, I wouldn't let him go out if I broke his leg."

The old man wiped away his tears,

"If my lord can find him, I will accept him even if he spends the rest of his life in prison."

Situ Che fell silent. It turned out to be like this. The old-fashioned matryoshka technique is really a trivial skill in the art of war, but it can be regarded as a big move for the ignorant villagers.It must have been premeditated. Leaving these old, weak, sick and disabled can't cause any trouble, and then burn them down. Taking advantage of the flaws in the official system of the imperial court, county officials from all over the country dare not intervene in this matter. Therefore, the most urgent thing is to find out Xu Zhi.

"Do you know that the recruiting village is in charge of a special village official? Didn't he make any movement when the villagers went far away?"

The old man shook his head blankly. He had never heard of any village official, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to see Li County Magistrate.

The villagers didn't know this person, she was sure that Xu Zhi must have something to do with this case, either one of the instigators or an accomplice, she didn't give up, and asked again,

"Then have you heard of the person "Xu Zhi"? "

Still shaking his head, but the old man said,

"I'm an old man. I don't know anything except the people and things in the village. If you want to inquire about something, you can go to Xu Changqing. He is well-informed and knows more than us."

Xu Changqing was the only scholar in the village. Although he was a bit older, he was a scholar and knew more than ordinary villagers. Zhou Nan made a decisive decision and asked the villagers to lead the way to Xu Xiucai's home.

"Brother Jia is very concerned about this matter."

Qiu Yeyou, who hadn't spoken to Situ Che along the way, said something, the ghost mask on his face was full of sarcasm, with malicious intentions, Situ Che only felt that the yin and yang were weird, and he didn't want to answer.

"There are ulterior motives in selecting villages for recruitment. This Xu Zhi is not a spy arranged by Quan Rong in Dazhou, is he?"

Zheng Rong suddenly made a sound, and the guess is not unfounded.

"Find him anyway",

Zhou Nan saw Situ Che's back stiffen in front of him, did she think so too?

Of course, Situ Che didn't think so. Although it seemed reasonable to say so, it was not a good strategy to start from the recruiting village. Quan Rong would not make such a laborious and laborious plan that would not yield quick results. The reason why she didn't speak was because It's just that because of border matters, she, a dude in the capital, really shouldn't know so much, not to mention that Qiu Ye is still by her side, and her every move is under surveillance.