Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 37 Distress
Han Zhen was so angry. He just asked casually and had agreed to it. Why did he let Li Shun do him this favor?

"Since the deputy commander said so, he must be very confident. How can I not respond? Come here..."

"No, no!" Jia Chuan waved his hand quickly. "I'll ask the county constable to follow. Once we find them, we'll send someone back to report to the general, and the general will send someone else. We'll all rely on the soldiers' hard work later, so let them rest for now."

After saying this, Jia Chuan strode out of the house without waiting for Han Zhen to answer.

……

Gao Yuntian was very happy because Jia Chuan asked him to help find the secret passage leading to Xiaodong Mountain. If this task was accomplished, it would be a great achievement.

So he called two constables and happily went to the armory door to meet Jia Chuan.

Jia Chuan squatted there and looked at the footprints carefully. The armory was behind the first row of houses. That night, he only focused on the front. Now thinking about it, he was really panicked. He forgot a lot of things that he should have checked and looked at that night.

But he also comforted himself that there really was a shortage of manpower. If those colleagues from the previous life were still there, especially if the captain was still there...

Jia Chuan collected his thoughts, examined the area carefully, and asked Gao Yuntian, "When you were searching for the burial site that day, you almost circled the building. Besides the spot where the fight was found, is there anywhere else you think has been trampled on by multiple people?"

Just as Gao Yuntian was about to reply, Li Shun came. When Gao Yuntian saw Li Shun, it was as if his face had changed. Not only did his smile disappear, but Jia Chuan also caught a hint of disgust in his face.

"I helped you get this opportunity, so please don't let me down." Li Shun said with a smile, not noticing Gao Yuntian's expression at all.

Jia Chuan had originally thought it through last night. It would be of no benefit to him to argue with such a person, but Li Shun was like a fly, always buzzing in front of him. Jia Chuan endured it again and again, and finally said, "Commander Han has a meeting soon. You'd better stay there. Otherwise, you will miss what is going on..."

"No, I will find the secret passage with you." Li Shun said firmly.

Jia Chuan took a deep breath, took two steps forward, and pulled Li Shun to the side a few steps. He whispered, "I made it very clear last night. You do your job, and I do mine. We don't interfere with each other. There's no need for you to always be in front of me."

"If it weren't for me..."

"It has nothing to do with you! You're not the only one who knows that I'm the prince's man. They all know. If you hadn't said anything just now, Han Zhen would have agreed. There's no need for me to waste my breath. Just go about your business. It's so hot out here, and there are lots of mosquitoes in the woods."

"Why are you afraid that I will follow you?" Li Shun asked with narrowed eyes, as if he had found some key point.

Jia Chuan wanted to say: Because I don’t want to see you!
He endured it for a moment, then simply waved his hand and said, "Whatever you want, but there's one thing you'd better shut up."

Jia Chuan said the last sentence very forcefully. Gao Yuntian, who was standing beside him, heard it. He immediately cast an admiring look at Jia Chuan, but Jia Chuan did not see it.

In fact, Li Shun wanted to get closer to Jia Chuan. Since killing this man would be very troublesome, he would win him over first. He could capture Jia Chuan just by giving him a smile.

Li Shun didn't know that if someone already disliked you, how could a smile be enough to turn the situation around? If there was, it would be just a perfunctory gesture for the sake of mutual respect.

It was obvious that Jia Chuan was too lazy to even be perfunctory. This attitude made Li Shun very unhappy, but he was also trying to control his emotions. Even though Jia Chuan gritted his teeth and said such disrespectful words, he just took a deep breath and endured it.

Jia Chuan walked to Gao Yuntian, scratched his nose, and told himself to concentrate on his work. He didn't want to admit that he was compromising because he was timid and afraid of getting into trouble. He just thought that he was... considering the overall situation and that investigating the case was the most important thing.

"They need to take a lot of things with them. I feel like there should be wheel tracks not far away, like those of a cart... Think about it carefully, have you seen any wheel tracks?"

Gao Yuntian frowned and thought for a moment, then asked, "Where did they get the car?"

"I've always been confused. After avenging their brother, why didn't these people leave quickly? Why did they eat at the Inspection Office?"

"If they are not full, how can they carry such heavy things?" Gao Yuntian asked.

Jia Chuan shook his head and said, "You forgot there's a traitor. This person, in order to save his own life..."

"I understand. They originally wanted to kill people, take revenge and leave, but your traitor said he knew where the weapons and banknotes were. So, these people spared his life and asked him to take them back to the armory of the Inspection Office. They saw a room full of good things, and the leader ordered people to go back and get a car to move them. While waiting, they ate!" Gao Yuntian said excitedly.

Jia Chuan raised his eyebrows and said, "It seems that your mind is at home right now. So tell me, if that's the case, what does it mean?"

Gao Yuntian frowned.

"Are you losing your mind again?" Jia Chuan reminded him, "They don't know what happened at the Inspection Office. They only heard the general situation from the traitor. They must know we are on our way back. They can easily calculate the time and know we are almost there. If they didn't have some support, how could they dare to leave after dinner?"

"How do you know they must have eaten here?" Li Shun couldn't help but interrupt and ask.

Jia Chuan glanced at Li Shun coldly, and Li Shun felt an inexplicable tightness in his heart.

Gao Yuntian seemed to have not heard what Li Shun said at all. He said very seriously: "You are right. They are not afraid of you coming back. If you come back while they are still here, I am afraid..."

Jia Chuan nodded and said:

"We can't survive! That means they knew which way we'd come back... They must have turned back when they were moving their belongings. By the time they found this place and committed the crime, it had been a day since the heavy rain, so the ground wasn't as soft anymore. And they were mostly stepping on weeds. It's hard to tell how many people were coming based on the footprints, but it shouldn't be too many. They were looking for someone, not coming with a specific purpose... to kill."

Gao Yuntian understood, squatted down and looked at the ground carefully, then looked around and said, "This place has been trampled many times, and the surroundings also look like..."

Gao Yuntian paused, looked up at Jia Chuan, and said:

"You just asked me if I saw any wheel tracks. I didn't see any, but I did see some trampled weeds. I thought it was from when you came here last time. Didn't you ask someone to look for your badge? Now that I think about it, only the county yamen runners couldn't have trampled on the grass like that, so why would your people go there for no reason?"

"Let's go to the place you mentioned." "I don't quite remember where I saw it, but I definitely didn't see any wheel tracks."

"Then we should search the nearest area first. Several groups of people have been here in the past few days, and there's too much weeds trampled on. It won't be easy to find it nearby. The mountain road is difficult to walk on, and even with a cart, it's hard to get close. As long as we find a place with wheel tracks, we'll have found the way to Xiaodong Mountain. A cart, especially one loaded with stuff and heavy, will definitely not be able to cross the mountain stream or this dense forest. Unless we cut down the trees, that would be a huge undertaking."

"Logically, we should be able to see a path from here. How come there is no path they have walked on?"

"It shows that they are also careful."

“Is this the correct direction?”

"If they hadn't taken a detour, they should have been heading in this direction, but..."

The two of them, accompanied by two constables, walked towards the dense forest in the northeast direction, talking to each other. Li Shun stood there, squinting his eyes and watching their backs. After calculating for a moment, he chased after them.

……

Gao Yuntian walked in front with two constables, using the iron ruler in his hand to pull away the weeds and thorns on the road, on the one hand to see if there was a road, and on the other hand to scare away some reptiles.

Jia Chuan followed behind and turned his head from time to time to look at the roads on both sides. It didn't look like there was anyone walking around. Could it be that they could fly?
What's wrong?

Jia Chuan stopped and shouted, "Wait a minute!"

He thought back to the night at the Earth God Temple. When the second group arrived, the patrol officers didn't notice them at first, but only discovered them after they had dispersed. Did they come separately from the beginning? Or did they arrive together and then separate?
Jia Chuan thought again about how much rice and flour had been spilled in the kitchen when they were moving weapons and weapons. Li Shun had just asked him why he was so sure the bandits had dined there before leaving. It was precisely because of that scene in the kitchen—the leftovers, the scattered bowls and chopsticks, the overturned pickle jar—that made Jia Chuan suspicious. These weren't things the previous group would do.

This means that these bandits are very familiar with the dense forest of Huangluling. It is not as he thought before, "they are unfamiliar with this place and they are in the open, so it is not difficult for us to keep them all here."

These words echoed in Jia Chuan's ears, making him feel a little ironic. These people probably knew much more about this dense forest than the garrison. The reason they were successful that night was simply because there was no moonlight that night. They had more people, armed with bows and arrows, and hid in the dark, avoiding close combat with them. Most importantly, these ten people relied on their knowledge of the terrain to disperse and search, giving them the opportunity to attack them separately. In addition, they were unaware that they had alerted the Inspection Office...

Since he is more familiar with this dense forest than them... Jia Chuan turned around and looked in the direction of the house. There was no trace of trampling on the road they had walked. When they were carrying the illegal gains, there must have been someone guarding the road leading into the mountains. If they came back at that time, they would have died under the sword of the guard.

"Let's go and have a look over there."

Jia Chuan waved his hand, and several people walked towards the road leading into the mountains with difficulty.

……

Han Zhen watched them from afar, snorted, and said to the commanding officer beside him, "We've been busy for almost an hour, and they haven't gotten very far. I thought this young man was capable of something, but he's all talk. Find out his family background as soon as possible."

If Jia Chuan heard this, he would have to thank him. He himself didn't know what his background was in this life. It was his colleagues in the Inspection Office who told him about his parents' early death. At that time, everyone around him thought that Jia Chuan had gone crazy after having a fever.

Li Shun really wanted to ask why they had to look in a different direction, but he didn't dare to ask. He just followed Jia Chuan and the others silently, watching Jia Chuan hunching over and looking at the road under his feet, sometimes falling because of his unstable position, and then quickly getting up and continuing to walk forward hunched over. Li Shun couldn't help but sneer in his heart. In Li Shun's opinion, Jia Chuan was doing this for him to see, waiting for him to tell the prince that Jia Chuan was doing his job with all his heart. In fact, Jia Chuan didn't know which direction to look at all, and was just wasting time.

Just as Li Shun was pondering, Jia Chuan suddenly stopped, pointed to the right and said, "Here!"

Li Shun stepped forward and took a look. Sure enough, there was a shallow mountain stream on the side of the road. The stream was long and narrow. A road trampled by people could be vaguely seen in the dense forest across the stream. He couldn't help but frown.

"If I hadn't been watching, who would have thought that there would be a road across the mountain stream." Gao Yuntian said, and he was the first to go down the mountain stream, and then climbed up nimbly. The two constables stood on the road in the mountains and forests almost at the same time as Gao Yuntian. Li Shun was not slow either. It was just a pity for Jia Chuan. He comforted himself that he just looked a little clumsy.

Several people walked forward along the trampled road under their feet, heading diagonally to the northeast through the dense forest.

"Their trip isn't close. If everyone has to go back and forth..."

Gao Yuntian didn't finish his words, but Jia Chuan knew what he meant. Judging from the time, perhaps when they had just entered the forest with their horses that day, these people had just finished moving the last batch and were walking on this road.

At that time, Jia Chuan was only busy checking the footprints next to the corpse, and Xiaoluobo, who ran the farthest, only ran a short distance on this road, so Jia Chuan did not see any footprints covering those mud prints.

What made Jia Chuan think that there might be a road leading to Xiaodongshan near this road was because he remembered the place where the two groups fought, which was right next to this road.

Under what circumstances would the bandits dare to attack if they did not have a strong numerical advantage and did not know the enemy's strength?
Ambush, surprise attack!

They were most likely lying in ambush around here. The reason they were lying in ambush here was probably because they overheard something at night. They did not act near the house because they were more familiar with this place.

These bandits don't seem to be reckless people.

Jia Chuan thought about the fight, and someone suddenly jumped out from the tree or the ground... It seemed a bit fantasy.

Jia Chuan smiled and shook his head. Just as he was about to share his imagination with Gao Yuntian, the scene that had just flashed through his mind suddenly came true before his eyes!
He stared with his mouth open in surprise at the man who jumped down from the tree with a knife in his hand. His legs stood firmly in place, and he even forgot to collapse.

Just as the tip of the knife was about to reach Jia Chuan's eyebrows, an iron ruler came forward to meet it. With a "bang", Jia Chuan was awakened by the strong wind in front of him and rolled on the ground. When he looked up again, eight masked strangers appeared in the forest and surrounded the five of them.

Gao Yuntian stood in front of Jia Chuan holding an iron ruler. Li Shun had unsheathed the knife at his waist and held it tightly in his hand with his back to Jia Chuan. The two constables were also stronger than Jia Chuan. At least they were each responsible for one side and were still standing.

　It has been a while since I expressed my sincere gratitude. In fact, every time I see the monthly reward tickets and recommendation tickets displayed by the Writer Assistant, my heart feels warm in February. It’s just that I have been busy with the New Year and tired during this period, so I haven’t made a list. Today I want to express my gratitude.

　　Thanks to the countless purple incense flying, the time when there is no night, if that day, what kind of sunshine, Ji Dalu, kscy, 20240624195117135, there is no such person, the only autumn, Edison 99, ore ks, Wolf Lord, ten minutes of waiting, twelve thousand thanks, thank you for your reward!

　　Thanks to countless ore ks, Bogda Eagle, Ji Dalu, cherrylk, Dongting Baitiao, what kind of sunshine, pineapple Xiaofan, 20210826175052881, there is no such person, Tian Wushuang1234, reasoning and people, so empty and lonely, so cold, 20201210191152605, immediately closed, 20221101223310368, Uncle Qiaosheng, reincarnation passerby, Ji Kefeng, nobody1234 202200802054657001. The setting sun - the heartbroken person is far away, making the sadness less, purple incense flying, 20240624195117135, chlirose, kscy33021208264859, huge huge huge shark, 202111119035518004, seeing the phoenix on the platform, far clear, , incomparable thanks for your monthly tickets, recommendation tickets and follow-up reading, I bow to you all in February!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)