Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 42: Jumping out of the quagmire
Tang Tiande led his troops to retreat to the military camp in a panic. Deng Gui had just returned from Qingxi Village after seeing the bloody scene left by Xu Wujiang and others.
Tang Tiande didn't have the face to say that he was scared back by Xu Huai's stupid arrows.
Even if it was for the benefit of the Tang family, he would put everything on Xu Wufu's head:
"Xu Wufu allowed his slaves to commit crimes, and Tiande was incapable of arresting Xu Wujiang and his family. Please punish them, Lord Deng!"
Deng Gui sat behind the desk with a gloomy face and said nothing.
To say that it was just a guess in the early morning, but after he personally went to Qingxi Village, he could confirm that Xu Wujiang and his men had used the strategy of escaping from the shell to hide in Tongbai Mountain.
Speaking of which, Xu Wujiang and his men had limited weapons and armor, so apart from slaughtering horses and creating pools of blood, they were reluctant to leave a few broken weapons and spears at the scene.
However, in order to avoid the sight of mountain hunters and to avoid contact with the bandits in Hutouzhai, they could only hide in uninhabited and remote places, and the horses had to be abandoned.
All these can prove that Xu Wujiang and his men were hiding in Tongbai Mountain.
However, Deng Gui could not use these details to prove to the prefecture and county that Xu Wujiang and his men had surrendered to the bandits.
If Xu Wujiang really wanted to join the bandits, why didn't he take those military horses to Hutouzhai?
If all these details were reported, it would seem that the bandits killed Xu Wujiang and his men but did not have time to capture the army horses.
At this time, Deng Gui was carefully considering his words to ensure that the prefecture and county would go with the flow and judge Xu Wujiang and others as bandits without causing any other complications.
Of course, he was not afraid that Xu Wujiang would really stand up.
The crime of deserting a battlefield is definitely not much lighter than joining the bandits. What can Xu Wujiang do by standing up to confront them?
As for the fact that Tang Tiande returned empty-handed after rushing to Lutai Village, Deng Gui was not surprised.
Although Xu Wufu longed to wipe out the roots of the evil, as the head of the Xu family, he had to pretend to protect the clan first. It would depend on how the prefecture and county would exert pressure on him.
As for Su Di's escape back to Lutai Village, and whether Xu Wujiang would secretly contact his family, Deng Gui didn't want to think too much about it.
At this time, he was hoping that after the prefecture and county received the report, they would hold him accountable and transfer him to other places so that he could get away from this shitty vortex as soon as possible. Neither Wang Bing nor the old soldiers of the Jingsheng Army would have anything to do with him from then on.
"I have written down everything you said, Captain Tang, in this letter to the county. Captain Tang, you and Captain Jin, come and take a look to see if this is appropriate..." After Deng Gui finished writing the letter, he politely invited Tang Tiande and Jin Longquan to come and help him review it. After that, he signed and sealed it and arranged for the soldiers to send it to Biyang overnight.
In the early morning, Tang Tiande learned that Xu Wujiang's second wife had escaped from the military camp. He clearly saw Deng Gui jumping up and down in anger, but he didn't expect that Deng Gui would calm down at this time. He felt puzzled: If all this was to be held accountable, wouldn't Deng Gui be the one who was most guilty?
"Okay, that's it for now. Everything will be decided after County Magistrate Cheng knows the situation, and we'll just follow his orders." Deng Gui patted his butt and stood up from behind the desk.
Deng Gui was so exhausted over the past two days that he originally wanted to go back to the back house to rest, but after walking out from behind the official desk, he walked out of the yamen and headed towards Wang Bing's residence.
…
…
"My husband is absent-minded today. This chess piece has fallen into the wrong place again!"
Lu Xiong did not think as deeply as Wang Bing. When he confirmed that Tang Tiande had suffered a defeat in Lutai Village, his heart, which had been hanging in his throat, finally settled down. However, Wang Bing was still worried and kept making mistakes in his moves.
"Mr. Wang..." Deng Gui saluted while standing behind the courtyard wall.
"Mr. Deng, you have worked hard today!" Wang Bing nodded.
"We all work for the court, and it's hard work, but the most frustrating thing is that we get nothing in return."
Deng Gui walked into the yard and stood beside the stone table, looking at the messy chessboard. He could see that Wang Bing and Lu Xiong were sitting in front of the chessboard, but their minds were not on it. He said,
"I rushed to Qingxi Village today and saw the place where Xu Jieji's body was missing. To be honest, it doesn't look like two groups of people were fighting to the death to kill him. Many people also believe that Xu Wujiang has joined the bandits. What do you think, Mr. Wang?"
"I have been demoted to a commoner, how dare I comment on local military and political affairs? Mr. Deng's words really make it difficult for me." Wang Bing raised a chess piece, placed it on the chessboard, and said.
"Deputy Captain Tang Tiande went to Lutai Village today, intending to invite Xu Wujiang's family to the Inspection Office to assist in investigating the case. However, he couldn't even do such a small thing and retreated in embarrassment. Do you think he should be punished, Mr. Wang?" Deng Gui asked.
"Tang Tiande acted according to the court's orders but returned empty-handed. He is incompetent. Mr. Deng knows whether he should be punished or not. Why does he need my comment?" Wang Bing looked at Deng Gui and said with a smile.
"What a great imperial decree! I, as an official, will learn from it." Deng Gui bowed again, turned around and walked out of the yard.
"This Mr. Deng didn't accomplish anything today, but he looks so relaxed. It seems like he really can't wait to get out of this quagmire!"
Deng Gui looked relaxed and calm, but Lu Xiong's rare good mood was gone and he said dejectedly.
When they first arrived in Huaiyuan, they realized how cunning Deng Gui was. How could they not guess what he was thinking at this time?
After Deng Gui was "held accountable" and transferred to another place, Cai Ying would send his direct subordinates to take over the Huaiyuan Inspection Office, which was extremely inconspicuous in the territory of Dai Viet.
What awaits them next will be the fate of being captured without a fight.
How could Lu Xiong be in a good mood?
Wang Bing hesitated for a long time and said, "On the day Deng Gui leaves office, you should take Xuan'er to Lutai Village—"
"Husband..." Lu Xiong shouted.
"It's pointless for you to stay, and Xuan'er's best years shouldn't end here." Wang Bing sighed.
…
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Jinshagou and Yuhuangling are separated by two or three mountains, and the straight-line distance may be only seven or eight miles.
However, many tributaries of the upper reaches of the Huai River mainly flow into the Huai River in a north-south direction within the Tongbai Mountains, and also cut out north-south passages of varying widths, narrowness, danger and flatness between the mountains. As a result, most villages between the mountains have roads connected to the main road, the Zoumadao, built along the Huai River.
However, the villages distributed in different river basins are mostly blocked by steep mountains and hills.
Fortunately, although Tongbai Mountain is dangerous, there are not many cliffs hundreds of feet high that are difficult for birds to cross. Instead, there are continuous steep slopes, streams, and valleys.
Although it was hard work, Xu Huai still rushed to Jinshagou overnight to meet Xu Wujiang, Xu Xin'an and others.
However, Xu Huai had walked through Jinshagou once before with Xu Wujiang and others, but they came from the downstream direction. This time they came directly from the east across the mountains and ridges, so it was impossible for them to find the hiding place agreed upon by Xu Wujiang, Xu Xin'an and others.
Xu Huai climbed over a mountain ridge and went down a steep slope. There was a long stream sandwiched between two mountains. The clear stream water was not deep, and the soft sand at the bottom of the stream could be seen , with a slight golden glow...
Xu Huai squatted on the steep slope, wondering whether to go south along the stream or north to find the hiding place agreed upon by Xu Wujiang and others, when a passage flashed in his mind:
"In the Huai River, metallurgy is done by taking sand from streams and panning it with wooden pans, but the gold obtained is very small and laborious. In the Chu Mountain, there are gold mines where households use large wooden saws to split the mines, leaving blade marks, and then throw sand on top, then flood it with water, so that the sand goes away and the gold remains. This is the chute method..."
Xu Huai was suddenly startled and stared hesitantly at the soft sand at the bottom of the stream that was shining with a slight luster.
In the past two or three months, there have been a few words and pictures that suddenly flashed through his mind, most of which were meaningless or indistinguishable, but this piece of text memory was definitely related to the Jinshagou in front of him.
Jinshagou is quite famous in Tongbai Mountain.
Xu Huai had heard that there was gold hidden in the sand in the valley, but the gold hidden in the sand was very tiny, and even working hard for a year might not be enough to make a living.
Only the nearby mountain people would come here to pan for gold to supplement their family income during the slack farming season in autumn and winter. However, when the water level rises in spring and summer and the fields become busy with farming, the mountain people would return to the villages.
People in Lutainan Village often participate in gold panning.
However, the output was so insignificant that not only did the government not think of setting up a mine here, but even big clans like the Xu family did not think of occupying this place and running it.
The previous method of gold panning was to use a wooden tray. Xu Huai had never heard of the chute method in Tongbai Mountain!
This further proves that those memories are from future generations that have not yet happened.
Xu Huai had never seen his clansmen panning for gold using the old method before, and he had no way of figuring out the details of the chute method in a short period of time. He hesitated for a moment and decided to find Xu Wujiang .
