Zhang Yan followed the horseshoe prints and rut marks left by the horse thief, followed all the way, chased for nearly an hour, the sky gradually darkened, and it happened that there was an abandoned village not far ahead, so he decided where to go to rest for a while.

The village is small, with only a dozen or so families, and the houses are dilapidated, some of which have long since collapsed.

Zhang Yan found a relatively well-preserved house, and as soon as he opened the door, a smell of dust that had been sealed for a long time came to his nose.

He found some dry wood, took the fire fold out of his bosom, and lit a bonfire.

The firelight lit up the room, and he looked around to see that there was a thick web all around, and it was obvious that no one had lived in it for a long time.

"Gollum ......"

There was a buzzing sound in Zhang Yan's abdomen, he was already tired and hungry after walking such a long way. Unfortunately, it's sparsely populated, and it's hard to find something to eat.

The cold wind howled outside, and although a bonfire was raised in the house, the house was leaking everywhere, and the cold wind kept blowing in, making Zhang Yan feel a little chilly.

He was wrapped in clothes, lying by the campfire, enduring hunger and cold, and he gradually fell asleep.

I don't know when I slept, Zhang Yan suddenly felt the ground tremble, and when he opened his eyes, he saw thousands of horsemen galloping towards him, and before he could react, he was already trampled by the messy horses' hooves......

"Ahh

In the dark night, in the uninhabited village, a strange cry suddenly came out, which made people extremely creepy.

In the dilapidated house, Zhang Yan suddenly woke up and circled, only to know that he was dreaming just now.

At this time, the bonfire lit beside him had already been extinguished, and the cold north wind was blowing, making Zhang Yan, who was sweating all over, chill all over, and inadvertently sneezed.

Everything that happened during the day was like a dream. Thinking about it carefully, the purpose of this gang of horse thieves seems to be very clear, that is, to snatch Mi Zhen from his hands.

However, he did not know where the horse thieves came from. The only thing he knew was that he had been running behind the butts of the horse thieves, all the way southwest.

To the southwest of Pengcheng is Xiapi. Could it be that this gang of horse thieves is in the same group as Que Xuan, who was killed by him before?

Zhang Yan didn't dare to think about it anymore, for fear that he would think about things too complicated.

After sitting for a while, Zhang Yan suddenly heard a slight sound of horses' hooves coming from outside the village, and the sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and even the ground began to tremble slightly.

Zhang Yan frowned, jumped to the wall with an arrow step, looked out through the gap in the window, but saw several people on war horses walking in from outside the village, reflecting the faint snow light, and their faces could be faintly seen.

"It's really hard to find a place to step on iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get there. I was worried that I had nowhere to look for you, but I didn't expect you to be so good that you took the initiative to send it to the door. ”

Zhang Yan saw very clearly that these five people were the horse thieves who robbed Mi Zhen during the day. However, Mi Zhen disappeared. When he saw the gang of horse thieves approaching the house, he jumped and climbed up to the beams of the house, condescendingly, eavesdropping on their conversation, and preparing to strike them by surprise.

The five men jumped off their horses and walked straight into the well-kept house, and one of them complained, "It's really his grandmother's bad luck, she said that she would give us two hundred gold, but in the end, when she handed over the handover, it was only one hundred gold." I haven't asked him to theorize, but he drew his sword and put it on my neck, you are one or two, you usually look quite fierce, why did you wilt at that time? ”

The other four all kept their heads low and said nothing.

This person was the leader of the four of them, and when he saw that the four of them were silent, he suddenly became angry, raised his hand and hit one of the four of them on the head, and said angrily: "Let you not speak, I will let you pretend to be dumb for me!" ”

The four people seemed to be very afraid of this person, and they couldn't fight back, scolded and scolded, and worked hard and complained.

When the thief saw this, he did not know as much as they did, and took two steps into the house, and took out the fire from his bosom, and the faint light illuminated the house, and he saw a burning bonfire on the ground, and the smoke was still rising from the bonfire.

He was taken aback, instantly pulled out his saber from his waist, became nervous, and shouted at the four people beside him: "Someone! ”

As soon as the words fell, a black shadow fell from the sky, but when the cold light flashed, the thief's head was cut through his throat, and he couldn't shout anymore, and blood kept gushing out of the cavity, and he fell to the ground and kept struggling to die.

The sudden scene surprised the other four people, but before they could react, the black shadow quickly shuttled around them, three cold lights flashed one after another, and three more people had their throats cut.

The remaining thief was so frightened that his trembling hand pressed on the scabbard, but he never dared to pull it out, because there was a bloody sword around his neck.

"O strong man spare his life, I have an eighty-year-old mother above, and a ...... below" Seeing that all his companions had been killed in the blink of an eye, and that his own life was on the line, the thief threw down his sword and hurriedly begged for mercy.

Without waiting for the thief to finish speaking, Zhang Yan interrupted the thief's words and asked sharply: "As long as you answer my question truthfully, I won't embarrass you!" ”

"I said, I said, as long as I know, I will say, just ask the strong man not to kill me." The thief's legs trembled, and a torrent flowed out of his crotch, and the whole person was so frightened that his face was like earth.

"What about the carriage you hijacked during the day?" Zhang Yan asked directly.

"The carriage was too slow, and it was easy to leave rut marks, so we drove it in other directions."

"What about the man in the carriage?" Zhang Yan asked again.

"We gave her to a man and was taken away by that man."

"Who? What does it look like? ”

"The man was wearing a mask, and we didn't know what he looked like. He was the one who took the initiative to find us and told us that if we could help him catch someone, we would get a big bounty...... We are also entrusted by men, and we do not know who he is. ”

"If you see that person again, will you recognize it?" Zhang Yan asked.

"I'll recognize him, even if he turns to ashes. This man, who received a thousand cuts, said that he would give us 200 gold as a thank you, but he said that we were delayed, and he deducted half of our money......"

Zhang Yan was trembling and frightened when he saw this thief, but he didn't dare to tell a lie, so he tied him up, and found some money from several other dead people, and put it directly into his pocket.

"Where did you hand over the man, take me there!" Zhang Yan urged.

Zhang Yan jumped on the back of a war horse, tied the thief with the reins, and let him ride a war horse, and went straight to the place where these thieves handed Mi Zhen to another person.

It was late at night, and the road was difficult, but Zhang Yan didn't care, let the thief lead the way in front, he followed behind, in order to prevent the thief from cheating, he deliberately tied the thief to the horse, so that he couldn't move.

Soon, the two of them came to the place of handing over the people one after the other, and the building was already empty, let alone looking for someone, and they couldn't even find a fly.

Zhang Yan stared at a pair of tiger eyes, looked around viciously, and there was not even a single figure, at this time, I am afraid that people have already gone away.

Zhang Yan suddenly jumped off the horse, squatted on the snow, and took a closer look, hoping to find some more clues on the snow.

It's a pity that Zhang Yan almost rummaged through the surrounding snowdrifts, and he didn't even find a piece of jewelry. Only then did he remember, this time, Mi Zhen was dressed as a man, how could he bring so much jewelry?

In desperation, Zhang Yan had no choice but to chase all the way along the rut marks left by the carriage.

This time, Zhang Yan rode a war horse, the speed was much faster, and he still took the thief with him, in case of any danger, he could let this thief be his shield.

In addition, Zhang Yan is not very familiar with the terrain here, and it would be bad if he got lost.

After chasing all the way, Mo ran for more than ten miles, and was close to the junction of Pengcheng and Xiapi, but at this time, in front of Zhang Yan, it was a three-way intersection.

He reined in his horse and shouted to the thief beside him, "Where are these two paths going?" ”

"The one on the left is one that leads to Xiangxia Pi, and the one on the right is one that faces the East China Sea."

Zhang Yan's location is the boundary of Wuyuan County, which is located at the intersection of Pengcheng, Xiapi, and Donghai.

He looked at the rut marks on the ground, and saw that the road was stretching in the direction of the East China Sea, and a trace of doubt faintly arose in his heart.

Turning around, he said to the thief, "Have you ever heard that man speak?" ”

"Yes."

"Did you hear his accent against?"

"It's our Xuzhou dialect, which seems to be biased towards the Xiangxia Pi area."

Wuyuan County is located at the intersection of the three places, although the public security is poor, but it is a watershed, although the East China Sea, Pengcheng, Xiapi belong to Xuzhou, but subdivided, there are some differences in the dialects of the three places, only the locals of Xuzhou can hear.

In this era, there is no Mandarin, and when I go out, I speak a local accent, even if I speak the official dialect at that time, but the native accent is difficult to change, and a rural accent will pop up from time to time. As the so-called vernacular is difficult to change, Zhang Yan just relied on this detail to make a judgment.

"Come with me, go to Xiapi!"

"Go to Xiapi, but isn't the rut mark always heading in the direction of the East China Sea?"

"Less nonsense!"

Zhang Yan pulled the reins of the horse suddenly, and the war horse under the thief's seat followed, almost causing the thief on the horse's back to fall off the horse.

The two fast horses chased along the official road all the way in the direction of Xiapi. However, in Zhang Yan's heart, there was a faint trace of unease.

Xiapi is the territory of Zhenrong, first Que Xuan looted the gold transported to Pengcheng, and now Mi Zhen has been robbed again, and the robbers are retreating in the direction of Xiapi, is all this the mastermind of Zhenrong behind the scenes?