The county office of Yangcheng was bogged down with the Fang Family inheritance lawsuit, and the official of Yangwu County in Henan Province was also a bit troubled.
"This is a big deal! A very big deal! Quickly muster the troops to apprehend them!"
This kind of shouting had been going on in the county office for half a day, causing headaches.
The deputy magistrate of Yangwu County pressed his forehead with his hand and raised his eyelids to look at the five men in front of him, who seemed neither like merchants nor wealthy lords.
A big deal, a very big deal—Yangwu had only ever had one such big incident.
"Is that so?" he said, drawing out his words, "Has another strongman thrown a stone? Should I command a nationwide search for ten days?"
It is said that Zhang Liang once recruited a strongman at Bolang Sand in Yangwu to assassinate Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but mistakenly hit a secondary carriage. Failing to catch his target, he ordered a nationwide search for ten days.
At first hearing these words, the five people in the room did not react.
"Whether it's ten days or five, we must capture this thief." One among them spoke again.
What a bunch of bumpkins, the deputy magistrate of Yangwu chuckled.
"I didn't realize the Emperor Himself had arrived," he said.
The five men were taken aback, then suddenly realized and became instantly ashamed and angry.
"You son of a ...," one of them, unable to contain his temper, lunged forward to grab the deputy magistrate.
"What are you trying to do?" The deputy magistrate, used to dealing with hooligans, immediately retreated and shouted sharply.
The constables standing on either side also raised their batons and surrounded them.
These constables, who could only intimidate ordinary people in their daily work, were never taken seriously by them, but a scene couldn't be created now.
The leader stopped his companion, his expression gloomy.
"Sir, our belongings were stolen at the inn." he said gravely, "Because the stolen items are valuable, we request that you apprehend the thief."
The deputy magistrate was not unreasonable; upon hearing this, he smiled slightly.
"If it was stolen, it was stolen. No need to make it sound like murder," he said, while calling for the staff to come over, "So, what was lost?"
"Ten thousand taels of silver," the man said.
The deputy magistrate's eyes widened.
"Ten thousand taels of silver?" he asked in surprise, then squinted his eyes, "What do you do?"
"Mind your own business..." someone among them couldn't help but shout.
The deputy magistrate smiled and looked at them suspiciously.
"I have to verify if it's true; what's the origin of the ten thousand taels of silver?" he asked.
"We're the ones who had our belongings stolen, yet you're not going after the thief but examining us?" that person couldn't hold back his temper any longer and punched the deputy magistrate.
The deputy magistrate screamed, holding his nose, and the county office plunged into chaos.
.....
....
"Useless!"
In the dark room, Yuan Bao said with a cold expression, looking at the five men kneeling in front of him, while behind them stood more than a dozen others.
"I told you to pretend to file a report, not to get into a fight."
The five men kneeling on the ground shivered.
"Sir, that official was too infuriating." one of them said hoarsely.
"Infuriating?" Yuan Bao's voice suddenly became sharp, "You know what's infuriating? Is there anything more infuriating than you fools?"
He paced back and forth in the room, waving his arms in anger.
"Three carts were stolen right under your noses, are you all dead?"
Everyone in the room lowered their heads, but at the time they were drugged with a sedative, as good as dead, though they didn't dare voice it.
"Sir, being able to silently steal three carts wasn't done by one person; it must be a gang of seasoned thieves. It seems we've been targeted for a while." The middle-aged businessman stepped forward and said, "Since our identities are already exposed..."
He looked at the five people kneeling on the ground, having had to reveal his identity to rescue them from the Yangwu county office.
"We might as well mobilize the local feudal authority and army to capture them." he continued, "Otherwise, conducting a private search is really inconvenient."
"Making a big fuss makes it convenient?" Yuan Bao snapped furiously with raised eyebrows.
"Sir, there's nothing inconvenient about it." The businessman gritted his teeth, made a gesture of beheading, "At worst, kill them all afterward."
Whether it's the thief or the government soldiers helping in the pursuit, anyone who came into contact with this silver, whether they saw the inscriptions on the silver or not, and whether they understood the meaning of these inscriptions or not, must die.
Only the dead are the safest.
Yuan Bao's expression grew colder.
Whether others live or die, he didn't know; he just knew they were about to die.
What was going on? Who did it? He wasn't so dumb to be completely unprepared. As soon as they left Yangcheng, they disguised with more than a dozen identities, sending out over twenty decoy carts of silver, mixing the real with the fake so well that even he could hardly tell them apart.
As they traveled, they changed routes and identities constantly, yet somehow the silver carts were quietly tracked and taken.
Was it premeditated, or a chance encounter?
"The Fang Family, there's really no movement from them?" he asked.
Someone stood up and answered affirmatively.
"Our people have been watching closely, there's not a slightest move from the Fang side," he said, "Miss Jun and the Princely Heir are still at the Yangcheng Fang Family, and the lawsuit is getting fiercer, currently, Third Miss Fang has the upper hand...."
"I don't care who has the upper hand," Yuan Bao interrupted sharply, filled with shame and anger, "I just want to know who stole my silver!"
"Sir, this kind of skill and speed can only be achieved by very experienced old thieves," the businessman said, making another request, "Sir, please investigate the thieves and destroy the bandits."
......
........
"Speaking of which, we really should thank them for being so cautious." Zhu Zan said, as he poured the oil barrel onto the carriage, "We got even more money than expected."
With the last drop of oil emptied, Miss Jun tossed the lit torch forward. With a boom, the three carriages were instantly engulfed in flames.
The heat from the fire and the acrid smoke forced Miss Jun to step back. She then saw a dozen people behind her packing the silver they unloaded from the carriages into bags, bookcases, straw baskets, wheelbarrows, and even pig cages.
Their builds varied from stout to thin, their faces simple and honest, the kind that would go unnoticed in a crowd. They were dressed in all sorts of attire.
Were these the legendary woodcutters?
"I'd rather say they're bandits," Zhu Zan said, touching his nose with a hint of pride, "long-standing bandits, killing Jin thieves, but also after money."
"Weren't these people in the northern lands?" Miss Jun said, looking at him, "I didn't know you brought them here."
Zhu Zan smiled, the firelight flickering across his face.
"I told you, I'm very wary of emperors," he said, "especially this one who clearly doesn't like us."
Miss Jun smiled.
"Big brother."
Someone walked over and said.
"We're all set."
Zhu Zan nodded at them and waved his hand.
"Go on." He said simply and efficiently.
The dozen or so people promptly turned, either riding off on horseback or pushing carts and carrying loads as they scattered into the surroundings, vanishing from sight in an instant.
Miss Jun watched in a bit of a daze until she suddenly thought of a question.
"Where are you having them hide all this silver?" she asked.
Zhu Zan made a sound of surprise.
"Not hiding it, melt it, spend it," he said, blinking as if her question was strange, "isn't money meant to be spent?"
Miss Jun made a sound of disbelief, also surprised by his answer.
"Really, robbing it?" she said.
Originally, she was going to follow the convoy carrying the money. To be frank, it was rather frustrating, she even had to ensure nothing happened to the money, but Zhu Zan had suggested they do something else together.
"We're going to rob it," he said, "let him taste what it's like to be schemed against."
The 'him' was, of course, referring to the emperor.
Indeed, she couldn't allow the money to be exposed to the public, but that didn't mean the emperor had to take it all.
Instead, she absolutely couldn't let him take it.
Couldn't let him rest easy, behaving recklessly, cutting ties and burning bridges when it suited him.
So she and Zhu Zan had followed all the way, and Zhu had brought his team, patiently waiting, maneuvering cautiously, finally finding the chance to strike.
However, she really hadn't thought about what to do after taking it, only thinking about hiding it.
"The best way to hide it is to use it up, make it disappear," Zhu Zan said, "besides, keeping it isn't useful, can you use it to threaten him?"
Using this to threaten the emperor wouldn't benefit her, either. Miss Jun smiled slightly, but...
"It's a good deal for you," she said, looking at Zhu Zan, whose face couldn't hide his smile,
this guy had always been fond of money, their first run-in had been when he robbed her lantern festival money. Thinking of the past, a smile appeared on Miss Jun's face as well.
"Getting so much money all at once, happy?" she said with a teasing smile.
Zhu Zan laughed heartily, then suppressed his smile.
"What makes me happy is seeing things used to their fullest. It's heaven's justice for a good person like me to use this money," he said with a serious expression.
Miss Jun chuckled, glancing back at the burning vehicles. Indeed, justice meant good people rewarded and bad people frustrated.
She waved her hand and stepped forward.
Zhu Zan hurried after her.
"Um," he suddenly coughed lightly, pinching his fingers, "did you forget something?"
Forget what? Miss Jun thought carefully, there shouldn't be anything missed in their plans, leaving too big a trace perhaps? Because Yuan Bao and his people did things sneakily, which had made it easier for their own actions.
"I helped you out, didn't I?" Zhu Zan said, "You're always polite and like to express gratitude."
Looking for money, huh? Miss Jun glanced at him sideways, truly a money-grubber. He had toned down a lot after suddenly learning he was the heir to Princess Jiuli, but it seemed he had gotten used to it now and had returned to his old ways.
"You got it wrong," she looked at him, "I should have been the one helping you. Although you had more people, it was my trap, I made the sedative, and most importantly, you ended up with the money, so you should thank me."
Zhu Zan made a sound of realization, looking at her as if suddenly understanding.
"Ah, that's true," he nodded seriously, "then I should thank you."
"How will you..." Miss Jun smiled.
Before she finished speaking, Zhu Zan suddenly reached out and hugged her. His movements were a bit hasty, a little stiff, and quite clumsy.
But luckily, this time he didn't bump her nose as he pretended to be a couple in Dingzhou.
However, the issue wasn't this, the issue was that he was...
Miss Jun came to her senses, just about to speak when Zhu Zan already let go.
"Thank you," he said, lowering his head and twisting his toe into the ground before walking past her.
Miss Jun was stunned, watching the man in front trot away, three steps into two, two steps into three.
What was that?