Lucky husband

At this time, there were still children crying in the cottage, but it was much smaller than when they first arrived at the foot of the mountain. I don't know if they were tired from crying or what.

In order to take care of several children with sore feet, Lin Cheng didn't walk very fast.

But it was precisely because they walked very slowly that Li Mingjin felt that they had walked a very, very long time for a short distance.

After turning a few corners and passing through a few thatched houses, they came to a relatively flat place, with a small pile of firewood burning in the middle, and more than [-] children of different ages sitting scattered nearby.

Some of these children gathered together in twos and threes, and some sat on the ground with their legs crossed, not talking to each other, and some of them were still crying.

Li Mingjin roughly counted them. There are about seven or eight teenagers like them, eleven or twelve younger ones who are about eight years old, and five or six people who are about six years old.

Because the sky was already dark at this time, and it was all illuminated by the fire in the middle, so Li Mingjin could only roughly distinguish that among this group of people, boys accounted for the absolute majority, at least seventeen or eight, and only a few girls.

As for whether there is a brother, Li Mingjin didn't see it for the time being, not everyone's face could be seen clearly, and he couldn't tell whether they had red moles on their foreheads.

"Okay, stop crying, you children." Daliang Tou came out from the side at this moment, holding a big lantern in his hand, and putting the lantern beside him, he felt a little headache looking at the children who were still sobbing.

At this time, a man next to Lin Cheng who looked relatively not so strong said to Lin Cheng: "Chengzi, you go to the master spoon and ask for a jar of caramel. It should be better to give these children some candy."

"Okay." Lin Cheng nodded, got up and left quickly.

Li Mingjin, who was sitting a little in front of them, heard the conversation between the two, and looked back at the person who suggested bringing candies to coax the children.

The man smiled kindly at Li Mingjin, his name was Zhou Xiang, he was the second in command among them, and he was in charge of various logistics affairs.

After coming here to investigate the officials of the Changping County Government, Zhou Xiang combined all the information they collected, and learned that when the drought happened last year, it was the father of this little brother, Li Chengshi, who discovered that taro was edible.

With one more food, there would be many more people who survived the natural disaster, so Zhou Xiang had an extra layer of natural love for Li Mingjin.

In addition, Daliangtou told him just now that the little brother of Li Chengshi's family was very calm this afternoon, and found that he didn't panic after being arrested, and he didn't cry or make trouble along the way, which made Zhou Xiang treat this special little brother like Li Mingjin Brother is a little interested.

But because Liangtou was about to speak, Zhou Xiang only smiled at Li Mingjin.

After the candy was distributed, regardless of the children who were still shrinking and crying, the head of Liang raised his voice and said loudly: "We are the bodyguards of the Dragon and Tiger Bodyguard Bureau of Hui'an Province. This time, we brought you children here. I have something to ask you, the magistrate of Changping County."

Huian Province is located in the north of the former Han Province. There is only one big river passing through the former Han Province. When there was a drought last year, the disaster in Huian Province was much more severe than that of the former Han Province.

Natural disasters are enough to make the common people feel sad, but the governor of Hui'an Province is still a corrupt official who exploits the common people, and the governor secretly withholds a lot of relief money and food from the imperial court.

Mr. Zhang, the deputy envoy of the Procuratorate of Hui'an Province, discovered the governor's little tricks in private. At other times, he was greedy for some money, and everyone turned a blind eye to it and it passed. When the water is clear, there will be no fish.

However, the people are living in dire straits due to the drought, and the governor is undoubtedly forcing these innocent people to death. Mr. Zhang suppressed his anger and quietly searched many areas. Then he returned to Shengrong Mansion to share his findings and collected evidence. He wrote a note and handed it to the Governor of Hui'an Province.

The governor dared to deduct money and food so boldly. He had already arranged for the governor and other officials in the capital who were related to this matter. Mr. Zhang's booklet was sent to the governor's mansion without causing a splash at all. The immediate superior was severely scolded by the inspector.

Mr. Zhang was not reconciled, so he asked his confidant to visit the folks again, collected more detailed evidence, and planned to find someone to send the zhezi to the capital directly.

To be able to be the Deputy Envoy of the Procuratorate of a province, from the position of the third grade, Mr. Zhang also has connections in the capital. He believes that as long as his papers are delivered to the capital, people from the Hui'an province will not be able to continue to cover the sky with one hand.

The governor and the governor began to pay attention to Mr. Zhang when he delivered the paperwork for the first time. He was stopped by the governor's people just after he sent the second paperwork out of the mansion. .

At the same time, Mr. Zhang, who was anxiously waiting at home, also welcomed the masked assassin. Under the desperate protection of his personal guards, he escaped from his mansion.

Master Zhang once helped the Dragon and Tiger Escort Bureau in Fucheng. After leaving the mansion, the guards disguised themselves as Master Zhang and continued to flee. They deliberately fell into the moat to attract the attention of the assassins. Master Zhang dragged his injured body to find Liangtou.

All the officials in Hui'an province are under the control of the governor and the governor. If Mr. Zhang wants to expose this matter, he has to leave Hui'an province and find officials from other places.

The governor of a province is a high-ranking official with real power in his hands. He is almost the presence of the local emperor in the local area. If he is not the emperor's confidant, he will not be sent out.

Against the governor, a small official without a backer would never even think about it, and a powerful family would not allow the family's children to serve as local officials outside for a long time.

Master Zhang, who was lying on the bed recovering from his injuries, thought about it, and thought of Zhao Chengze, the magistrate of Changping County, which was originally in Han Province next door and not far from Hui'an Province.

Mr. Zhang has an impression of a small magistrate in the neighboring province because when he heard about the drought before, it was Zhao Chengze, the magistrate of Changping County, who said that taro was edible.

As far as Mr. Zhang knew, the Zhao family Zhao Chengze belonged to was not a particularly powerful official, but the Zhao family was a staunch royalist faction who could speak out with the Holy Majesty, and the Zhao family's official reputation had always been good. Choose Zhao Chengze to help.

Now the most powerful person in the Zhao family is Zhao Chengze's father, the second-rank official minister right servant, who is not as good as the governor. Mr. Zhang is not sure whether Zhao Chengze will help him.

Therefore, he thought of a more harmful method, kidnapping the child of the Changping county government officer and forcing Zhao Chengze to help him.As the county magistrate, it is his responsibility to protect the people under his rule. Not to mention the kidnapping of his family members, even if the children of ordinary families are kidnapped, he cannot just sit idly by.

In fact, Master Zhang's request was not complicated, he would not drag the Zhao family into trouble, he only needed Zhao Chengze's help to send the zhezi to the capital, and he had his own arrangements for the rest.

Mr. Zhang discovered the governor's problem when the drought ended in September last year. He wrote a note to the governor at the end of October last year. He wrote a note and sent it to the capital in mid-December. At the same time, he was stabbed by an assassin.

The bodyguards of the Dragon and Tiger Bodyguard Agency quietly came to the mountains outside Changping County after the spring of this year to find a place suitable for building a cottage. Which servants, where do these servants live, and how many people are there in the family, and target them.

Because of their martial arts practice, each of the bodyguards looks fierce with muscles all over their bodies. Even if they just stand aside without doing anything, just looking at their appearance, they are a model for the adults in the family to scare the children - building a house in the mountains A person in this world is a bandit, and a bandit is equivalent to a bad guy full of evil.

So when Daliangtou raised his voice and explained that they were bound to let the county magistrate do things for them, the older children became even more worried, worried that the magistrate would not agree to the demands of these thieves for their children.

The younger children still couldn't listen to it. They only knew that they had left home and had no familiar elders around them, so they continued to cry even with sugar in their mouths.

It was impossible to tell such a group of children exactly what happened. Zhou Xiang waited for Daliangtou to finish saying that and stood over: "You can rest assured that you will live in the cottage, we will not hurt you, and you can go home in a few days , It's too late today, if you have any questions, you can ask me tomorrow."

Looking at this group of children, Zhou Xiang tried his best to make himself look gentle: "Older children, take care of your younger siblings. Later, the aunts will take you to the house where you sleep."

Zhou Xiang rubbed the bridge of his nose. Fortunately, when he came over, he asked several bodyguards to bring their family members. At that time, he thought that it might be better for women to take care of these children.

Sure enough, when the vicious big man was replaced by the kind and amiable aunt, the crying children got better a lot, at least they didn't cry and fail to cooperate when they walked along.

Among the twenty or so children, apart from Li Mingjin and Li Qiusheng, there is also a younger brother, because there are only three of them, so the three of them live in a small room together, Li Mingjin and Li Qiusheng sleep on one side, and the other The little brother sleeps on the other side.

When these children followed one after another, Daliang Tou and Zhou Xiang's expressions did not relax. The two of them will go to the county seat to find Zhao Chengze, the county magistrate, early tomorrow morning. They don't know if it will go well, so they decided to discuss what to say tomorrow.

As for Li Mingjin and his group of children, all of them were exhausted. Whether they wanted it or not, they lay down on the bed and slept obediently, and the cottage temporarily returned to silence.

At this time, the county government in Changping County and the homes of the various guards were not peaceful at all.

At noon, only the guards who lived in the county came to the county government to say that the children had been taken away. In the afternoon, some guards who lived in towns and villages also learned that the children had disappeared.

The guards whose children had accidents have one thing in common. They all work in the classroom, but not every guard in the classroom has a child taken away.

Among the missing children, the oldest is 11 years old and the youngest is six years old. If the guard's children are too old or too young, nothing will happen.

This incident is too strange, what kind of thieves are so courageous, dare to kidnap so many children at once!

Author's Gossip: Thank you for your support)