As for Jingxu, Gu Yun only took a glance at him and found him unremarkable, so he quickly threw this big bandit leader aside along with the others - at this moment, he was more concerned about when Chang Geng would leave.

Coincidentally, Chang Geng said at the right time that he was going to meet up with his companions who were investigating the bandits' secret passage. Gu Yun breathed a sigh of relief, but on the surface he was still serious and nervous and assigned him a small group of soldiers from the Black Iron Camp, telling him to be careful of the bandits who had escaped.

After watching him leave, Gu Yun said to Xuanqi beside him: "Find two people to watch over him. If the Fourth Prince comes back too soon, find him something to do and don't let him come over."

Xuanqi took the order and left. Only then did Gu Yun retract his gaze.

He scanned the captured bandits from head to toe, his eyes showing a gloomy look that was not usually there: "I just have one question, how many entrances and exits are there to these underground rat holes in your area? Please be sensible, starting from the first person on the western side, those who don't say anything will be beheaded on the spot, and after the person in front has finished speaking, the person behind can add to the story, and it will be a pity if they can't add anything new, and the person in the front can still take advantage - let's start, count to three, and those who don't say anything will be beheaded, and those who talk nonsense will also be beheaded."

All the bandits were stunned by this Marquis of Anding, who was worse than a bandit.

Xuanqi, who was ordered to interrogate, started asking the first person with an expressionless face. The first person instinctively looked around, hesitant.

Gu Yun made a downward cutting gesture without hesitation, and the wind-cutting blade in Xuanqi's hand moved in response.

Xuanqi usually only cared about killing people. He had never raised monkeys, nor did he study beheading. The wind-cutting blade circled around the bandit's neck, but unfortunately it got stuck in the cervical joint. The bandit's head was cut in half and still connected in half, but his throat was not broken. The screams scared the birds in the mountains near and far, and their feathers stood on end.

Xuanqi narrowed his eyes, moved his wrist, and exerted a lot of force to finally kill the unlucky guy.

The blood gushed out like a mountain spring, splashing all over the people next to him. The second bandit trembled like an overloaded golden box, his mind went blank, and he pointed to the exit behind him tremblingly: "There, there is a..."

Gu Yun sneered: "Nonsense, can't I see it?"

Then the second head fell to the ground.

The third bandit was so frightened by the tragic sight of half his head that he peed his pants. He fell to the ground with a plop, holding his head in his hands, fearing that the executioner in black armor would chop him off impatiently. He revealed the entrances and exits of more than ten secret passages in one breath, and the people behind him almost shot him through the back.

With this beginning, the rest is too easy. It's a matter of life or death. There's no point in keeping the secret anyway, as people will always tell later. It's best to confess as soon as possible and save your life.

Gu Yun remained calm, but in his heart he was shocked by the huge roots of the southern border bandits. Linyuan Pavilion had already discovered some of the entrances and exits revealed by these bandits - otherwise, even the Black Iron Camp would not have been able to stop these rolling rats halfway, but there were many more that even Linyuan Pavilion had never heard of.

The black iron soldiers behind him left quietly, verifying the authenticity of these entrances and exits one by one, and guarding every secret passage. In less than an incense stick of time, the bandits had already emptied the underground secret passages like a drum passing parcel, leaving nothing behind.

In a blink of an eye, this fatal "flower" was brought to the attention of the instigator of the incident, the bandit leader Jingxu.

Jingxu had fought his way out of a pile of corpses and became the king of a mountain in his life. Although he was not particularly talented, he was courageous and ruthless. Seeing the blade approaching him and blood flowing like a river on the ground, he took a deep breath, straightened his back, and used the breath he had been holding up for years to support his body, and stared at Gu Yun who was strolling in front of him with his triangular eyes.

Jingxu said, "I've only heard people say that Marshal Gu is unparalleled in his elegance, but I didn't expect he's also good at torture and forced confessions. It's true that having many skills is always a plus."

"No need to flatter me," Gu Yun said with a fake smile, "War is about killing people. I didn't lock you up in a dark room, put a nail bed on you, or ask you to sit on a tiger bench. I really don't deserve the words 'torture and forced confession'. If you have nothing to say, just go with them."

Jingxu's eyes twitched. "There are a total of sixty-four entrances and exits in this secret passage. They have already described them all. Those useless guys in front have obviously started talking nonsense. Forgive my stupidity, but I don't know what Marshal Gu is up to."

"It's just insurance, there's no real purpose," Gu Yun said with a smile, "What if there are fish that slip through the net that haven't been explained? Why, do you want to persuade me to cut them sparingly? Anyway, you have a lot of people, don't worry, we can't cut them all."

Jingxu: “…”

Gu Yun: "Since they are led by you, you must know something else. Why don't you tell me something I haven't heard of?"

Jingxu clenched his teeth tightly, thinking of Fu Zhicheng, the culprit who caused all this, and wanted to skin that man alive. He gritted his teeth and said, "If I tell you about Fu Zhicheng's smuggling of purple gold to rebel, would you be interested in listening?"

The cold smile on Gu Yun's face gradually faded: "If I didn't know this, how could I guess that you would be so bold as to come to the Southwest Baggage Department to deliver food? I'll give you another chance, tell me something I don't know."

The black iron wind-cutting blade was erected beside Jingxu's ear. He could feel the cold iron's inhumanity if he moved a little. He also knew that with just a thin wisp of steam, the wind-cutting blade would cut off his head like cutting melons and vegetables. Gu Yun was cold and ruthless, and his good head would roll to the ground like all mediocre people, covered in dust, without any special features.

Jingxu: "What do you want to know?"

Gu Yun waved his hand, and the wind-cutting blade moved a few inches away from Jingxu: "I want to know who was the person who contacted you after the Nanyang Purple Gold entered the country, who asked you to store the purple gold and hoard weapons, who gave you advice and asked you to use those kites to confuse me and take advantage of the opportunity to occupy the southwest baggage storage area?"

Jingxu clenched his teeth tightly.

"If I were you, I wouldn't risk my life to protect that person," Gu Yun suddenly stepped forward and lowered his voice, "Look at the sixty-four exits of the secret passage behind you, Taoist priest. You said that when you have nothing to do, you guys just go in there. Even if a great immortal came, he couldn't dig you out... Who encouraged you to gather the power of the three mountains together so that we can catch you all in one fell swoop, huh?"

Gu Yun was a master at confusing right and wrong. He had three specialties in his life: good typing and good deception - even the most untrue things sounded true in his mouth. Moreover, if you think about it carefully, what he said was not untrue at all. He made Jingxu break into a cold sweat.

He spent more time interrogating the bandit leader here than Chang Geng spent searching for people. Not long after, Chang Geng brought his people back, but before they got over the hilltop, they were stopped by the soldiers of the Black Iron Camp. The young soldier honestly imitated Chang Geng and said, "Your Highness, the commander-in-chief asked you to rest here for a while."

Chang Geng was not surprised at all. Hearing this, he did not ask any questions and just waited there obediently.

Although Chang Geng had never seen Gu Yun in person over the years, he had studied with General Zhong every battle that Gu Yun had fought, every change in his ideas from the time he was made a marquis in the previous dynasty to the present, and even his handwriting. If Chang Geng went to Gu Yun's study now and randomly picked out an old copybook, he could roughly tell how old Gu Yun was when it was written.

This would help you understand Gu Yun much better than hanging out with him all day and listening to him brag about being the "most beautiful girl in the Northwest".

When Gu Yun glanced at him with a little hesitation, Chang Geng knew that he was planning to force a confession and didn't want him to see it. To this day, Gu Yun still instinctively defended his precarious "kind father image" in front of Chang Geng.

Chang Geng had no objection to this, and he cherished and enjoyed the unspoken favor from his little adoptive father.

Chang Geng was followed by two people, they were Fatty Ge and Madam Cao who had come to Beijing with him from Yanhui Town that year - now they were called Ge Chen and Cao Chunhua.

Ge Chen was a cute little chubby boy when he was young. Now that he has grown up, he can't be said to be fat, but he looks tall and strong. Just looking at his physique, he can be called a "big man". Unfortunately, the head on his shoulders seems to be the wrong one, with a white and tender round face on it, and two small lumps of trembling tender skin on his cheeks. His small nose, mouth and eyes are wrapped like water tofu, and his seven orifices reveal a simple and harmless look.

Cao Chunhua had changed even more. No matter what he thought in his heart, his body had involuntarily grown into the skeleton of an adult man. It was no longer possible to have the androgynous appearance that he had as a teenager. He had no choice but to admit that he was really a stinky man. He changed back into men's clothes, but he insisted on changing his name to "Cao Chunhua" - except for himself, probably no one could tell how "Chunhua" was better than "Niangzi".

"Why won't you let me in?" Cao Chunhua asked, stretching her neck. "I haven't seen my Lord Marquis for several years. I missed him so much that I couldn't sleep for the past few days."

Chang Geng glanced at him obscurely and silently made a note of it for Cao Chunhua. When he had collected fifty such silly words like "my marquis" from this man, he would find a way to give him a beating.

Cao Chunhua was unaware and asked, "By the way, big brother, when you return to the capital this time, you will be crowned as a king and inherit the title, right? I heard that the late emperor had already prepared the Yanbei Palace, so will you move there or live in the Marquis' Palace in the future?"

Chang Geng was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "That depends on whether the Marquis wants me or not."

Looking back now, Chang Geng could no longer remember where he had the courage to leave the Marquis' Mansion and Gu Yun a few years ago. It would have been fine if he hadn't seen them, but this time he was caught off guard by Gu Yun in Shu, it was as if he had been dealt a heavy blow of fate, and it would have been difficult for him to muster the ruthlessness he had back then, even if he was beaten to death.

Chen Qingxu told him to "calm down and have fewer delusions", which certainly helped to control the attack of Wuergu, but a person's joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all connected. If one suppresses resentment and anger, joy will naturally become almost invisible. Over time, a person will be like a grass that has never seen the sun - although it is still alive, the green leaves will almost turn white.

Chang Geng thought he was about to become a Buddha.

Until I saw Gu Yun again.

Although driving with Gu Yun was exhausting, and the whole day he had to deal with rebels and bandits, Chang Geng's heart was always filled with unreasonable joy for no reason - it was as if as soon as he opened his eyes in the morning, he knew that something good was going to happen that day, a kind of full of energy, anticipation and eager joy.

Even though he knew that nothing good was going to happen, Wuergu still visited him like a dream every day.

If he were to be crowned king, would Gu Yun keep him?

Thinking rationally, Gu Yun would definitely stay, and the Marquis' Mansion would at least be willing to take him in until he could officially start a family. If he never got married, maybe he could continue to stay with the family shamelessly. This idea was too good to be true, and Chang Geng had to use all his strength to not let out an irrepressible giggle.

They waited for about two quarters of an hour before Gu Yun arrived.

The secret passages in the mountains were like a huge spider web, extending in all directions and interconnected. Gu Yun chopped off more than forty heads in total, eliminated the nonsense of some people who were scared to tears, and finally found sixty-four entrances and exits to the secret passages.

Ge Chen was shocked after hearing this: "What? We two brothers have been living as savages in the mountains for more than half a year, and we have only found more than 30 entrances and exits. How come the Marquis has found more than 60 as soon as he arrived!"

"If you hadn't figured out their background, I wouldn't have been able to stop them, let alone interrogate them." Gu Yun glanced at Ge Chen, and after holding back for a moment, he couldn't help but waved at him, "Come here."

Ge Chen thought the Marshal had something important to tell him, so he hurried over. Unexpectedly, Marshal Gu, who had been serious just now, suddenly stretched out his hand and pinched him on the face.

Gu Yun had wanted to do this for a long time. His finger-touch problem had become so serious that he couldn't help but want to pinch anything he saw.

"It's so fun." Gu Yun pinched it for a while, still wondering, "How did it grow?"

Ge Chen: “…”

Cao Chunhua's eyes were full of love, and she was so envious that she looked forward to it. She whispered softly, "My Lord, you are partial to me, why don't you pinch my face?"

He didn't dare to say this in front of Gu Yun, so only Chang Geng heard it. Chang Geng thought: "Okay, forty-eight times."

Cao Chunhua shuddered for no apparent reason, looked around, and suddenly had an ominous premonition of approaching danger.

Following Jingxu's confession, Gu Yun drew a blueprint of the secret passage in the mountain area, and then ordered people to blow smoke into the secret passage from its entrance. After three days of fumigation, the mountain was turned into a chimney. The bats, rats, and poisonous insects living inside all ran out with their families, but the person Gu Yun wanted to catch was never seen.

Several soldiers volunteered to pull the rope and go into the secret passage to search. They searched the secret passage with 64 entrances and exits from sunrise to nightfall, but did not find even a hair. They only carried out the sand table mentioned by Jingxu.

On the fourth day, the men reported that they had checked around Kuai Lantu and indeed found a suspicious person - a guest official kept by Kuai Lantu, named Wang Bufan, which sounded like a pseudonym.

This guest official seldom came out to see people, but several of Kuai Lantu's confidants knew about him. Kuai Lantu respected and trusted him very much. He specially set aside a courtyard for him to live in his mansion and assigned his trusted servants and beautiful maids to serve him.

Gu Yun: "Where is this 'Extraordinary' now?"

The subordinate replied, "He ran away. The servants in his courtyard were poisoned to death without anyone noticing. When the people in the mansion found him, his body was already cold."

"General," another cavalryman came over to report, "We checked the hiding places of the Purple Gold that Jingxu had recruited, but the people were gone, not even a piece of paper was left."

Gu Yun silently turned the old Buddhist beads in his hand. The mysterious guest beside Kuai Lantu, the "Mr. Ya" in Jingxu's mouth... Everything seemed to be accidental, but Gu Yun had an indescribable intuition that he always felt that there was a big conspiracy involved.

These people who secretly stirred up the situation in southern Xinjiang appeared without anyone noticing, and then disappeared without a trace. Their identities and purposes remain a mystery.

They seemed to be enemies, but it was as if they were helping him to quickly and easily deal with this group of people.

Gu Yun couldn't figure out whether he had disrupted someone else's plan or had gotten himself into someone else's plan.

The person that Gu Yun had been looking for so hard was now in a small, unremarkable cargo ship on the South China Sea.

Mr. Ya had changed back into his complicated Western clothes and was looking down at a map. The vast mountains and rivers of Daliang were all on this small sheepskin map. He picked up a cinnabar red pen and drew a small red circle in the southern part of Xinjiang.

Including this stroke, there were already three red circles on the old map, the other two in the northern border and the East China Sea.

"Mr. Ya" moved the pen tip over the map for a moment, and finally landed on the entrance of the ancient Western Silk Road.

"As of today, our plan has been set up." Mr. Ya laughed, "There is only one fuse left. Once it is lit, there will be a loud bang--"

Wang Bufan, who looked like a man from the Central Plains, continued, "Start a fire in the Central Plains."

The two smiled at each other, raised their glasses and clinked them together crisply.

Such a big thing happened in Southern Xinjiang, the emperor was naturally furious, and urged Gu Yun to quickly escort the bandit leader and the judge back to the capital.

Gu Yun had no choice but to put aside his doubts temporarily and set off north.

However, thinking that his precious godson had finally agreed to go back with him, and that the Marquis's Mansion would be bustling again, he began to look forward to "returning to the capital" again.

"He has become much more likable since he grew up," Gu Yun secretly said to Shen Yi with great relief, "but I am a little uncomfortable with him suddenly becoming so sensible."

"Bitch." Shen Yi commented succinctly, and then got whipped as he wished.

Shen Yi asked again: "By the way, what are you going to do after you catch Fu Zhicheng?"

Gu Yun stopped joking, remained silent for a moment, and said seriously: "Ji Ping, in fact, I have often wondered over the years whether it is a bit of a waste of your talent for you to follow me."

Shen Yi looked at him silently.

Gu Yun: "You are well-versed in history and the present, you are qualified to be admitted to the Imperial Academy with your literary skills, and you are capable of maintaining peace in a region with your martial arts skills. You have been stuck in Lingshu Academy and Xuantie Camp for so many years, it is time for you to come forward..."

Although Chang Geng had already analyzed it, Shen Yi was still moved when he first heard him say this.

The two were both comrades and friends. Although they were close friends to each other, Gu Yun was a dog that could never spit out ivory, and had never expressed his appreciation to him directly in person.

Shen Yi's eyes felt hot for a moment: "Zi Xi, actually you don't have to..."

"Besides, I feel really bad about it," Gu Yun added sincerely, "You said that a handsome man like me, who was born with good parents, always stood by to block your romantic opportunities, causing you to become a bachelor all these years. It's really... Tsk, I'm so sorry."

Shen Yi: “…”

This "naturally born handsome man" had finished his quota of two serious words a day and was about to start talking nonsense. Shen Yi had no choice but to hastily pick up the bitter taste that was stuck in his throat, let out a "pah", and ran off.

Chang Geng saw this from a distance, and took the opportunity to run over, took Shen Yi's place, and rode side by side with Gu Yun: "Why did General Shen get angry and run away again?"

Gu Yun touched his nose with a half-smile.

Chang Geng saw a leaf stuck on his light fur armor, so he reached out and picked it off for him, saying carefully, "Foster father, even if the armor is light, it still weighs more than 40 kilograms. Can you take it off to loosen it up?"

Gu Yun did not object and let Chang Geng help him take off the light fur armor one by one. The people were too close, and the two horses somehow made eyes at each other and actually became entangled with each other.

Gu Yun freed up one hand to stroke his horse's head and scolded, "Don't be a hooligan."

The armor on his arm was half removed, and with such a slight flick, it almost flew off his wrist, bringing out something from his sleeve.

Chang Geng quickly took it in his hand and found that it was actually a crudely made bamboo flute.