Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

After leaving Lüsi, the Pingjia and Pingyi ships sailed eastward for a while before turning north and heading towards the waters off Taizhou.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but the result of careful consideration.

As the saying goes, if you're going to put on a show, you should go all the way. Since you've already inscribed "Yidu Wu Dalang was here" in Lüsi, shouldn't you at least head north by boat? You should at least let some of the fishermen see it.

The two ships were indeed loaded with nearly 100,000 catties of salt and more than 20,000 catties of dried salted fish, costing a total of 189 ingots of cash. Including the small amount of money looted from Lüsi Market, they now only had 30 ingots left in their pockets, while the ships still had tens of thousands of catties of cargo space.

It could be said that Shao Shuyi set sail with two boats, carrying a total cargo of over 193,400 catties, but only 200 ingots of cash. He was never planning anything good from the start.

The money is almost gone, but there's still space on the ship. After heading north, it's obvious what they'll do next.

Of course, the scale and intensity will not be as large as before. This time, it is purely to make a commotion—such as going ashore to buy smuggled salt—to let people know that they are sailing north, or more accurately, returning to their old lair.

Fishermen in Lüsichang saw them heading north, and people in Huai'an Road and even the Shandong East-West Circuit Xuanwei Division reported that the group had come over. That evidence was very convincing.

Of course, some people might mention that their accents don't sound like those from Shandong, but it doesn't matter. Let the authorities worry about the evidence of them fighting each other.

With Shao Shuyi and his group gone, the Lüsi Patrol Inspectorate, which had always maintained a close relationship with them, naturally couldn't remain inactive.

On April 27, after repeatedly confirming that the thieves had left, Zhang Quan waited cautiously for another half a day before deciding to lead more than twenty archers and dozens of newly arrived ruffians and nameless archers to attack Xiajiaba.

When they left, more than ten more heads appeared in the Lüsi Saltworks, mostly from the Wang and Chen families in the First Saltworks District. The reason was that each of them had lent two or three carts to the thieves to transport salt onto the ships, which was undoubtedly an act of collusion with the thieves.

In fact, they were actually accomplices of the thieves—Zhang Quan was the most ruthless, directly turning them into thieves.

Some might ask, the thieves used more than a dozen carts in total. But if we exclude the four oxcarts owned by the saltworks itself and the five carts lent out by the Wang and Chen families, the number doesn't make sense.

Then don't ask any more questions. Some wealthy families were willing to pay to avoid trouble and remained safe, while others were unwilling to pay and were thus treated as bandits and exterminated. And you know what? The patrol officers in Jiangbei were indeed more capable than their counterparts in Jiangnan. More than twenty archers broke into the Wang family compound in one charge. They had a little more trouble attacking the Chen family, losing three men, but ultimately succeeded.

After Zhang Quan and his men left, the kitchen workers in Lüsi breathed a sigh of relief, finally getting rid of this unruly plague god.

As evening approached, the large group finally spotted the thatched hut in the distance.

After a moment's hesitation, Zhang Quan ordered, "There may be bandits hiding in people's homes. Search them!"

The archers responded with a roar, scattering into groups of three to five, and stormed into the houses like fierce demons, searching everywhere and creating chaos in an instant.

Zhang Quan personally led a few men into the thatched hut, but found nothing. They then went to the back of the hut and found several fishermen surrounded. "Who goes there?" Zhang Quan asked, sword in hand.

"My lord, they said they couldn't bear to see the body left to rot in the wilderness, so they dug a hole to bury it. When we arrived, they took off running and it took us a while to catch up with them," someone replied.

"Whose body is this?"

"Wang Xiaoer's."

Zhang Quan then realized that it was Wang Xiaoer, who had been missing for several days, who had actually been killed.

He arrived at the half-dug pit and saw a corpse that had been dead for no more than a day; it was none other than the archer Wang Xiaoer.

His hands were tied behind his back, he was face down, and there was a huge wound on his neck; this was the cause of death.

Those thieves are truly ruthless; those who fall into their hands will likely meet a bad end.

Zhang Quan looked up at the fishermen.

The fishermen looked at him ingratiatingly, and some of the bolder ones even wondered if they would receive a reward.

"What are you all standing there for?" Zhang Quan looked at the archers and thugs around him and shouted, "These men are clearly thieves and their gang. They killed archer Wang Xiao'er; their crime is unforgivable! Kill them!"

Having said that, he thrust out his sword, striking the fisherman closest to him squarely in the chest.

The man's face was filled with disbelief. He tried to say something, but what came out of his mouth was only blood and foam.

The other two fishermen were terrified and were about to turn and flee when they were surrounded by archers who had reacted quickly. They were hacked down indiscriminately, screaming in agony. Zhang Quan wiped the blood from his face, snorted coldly, and said, "Cut off their heads, preserve them with quicklime, and await inspection by our superiors."

"Yes," the archers replied with mixed expressions.

They usually eat at restaurants without paying, occasionally extorting money from merchants or arresting villagers selling smuggled salt and demanding ransom from their families. They've done all sorts of dirty work, but killing innocent people and claiming credit for it is a bit much. They feel uneasy about it, but what can they do when orders have been given? Besides, they didn't even think before they drew their knives and started slashing people. What more can be said?

Therefore, they quickly disposed of the body.

Across from the thatched hut, archers moved in and out of the rows of houses like wolves and tigers.

A man came out of a butcher shop, stuffing banknotes into his pocket as he walked.

Someone rushed into the teahouse and brought out two cans of tea.

Someone kicked open the door of a shop that sold dried seafood, stuffed a bloodstained ring knife under the counter, and then, without saying a word, pinned the shopkeeper down and kidnapped him like a hostage.

As for ordinary households, many had their meager savings stolen, and quite a few young women and wives were sexually harassed.

In short, it was a complete mess. The real purpose of suppressing the bandits was to disturb the people; it was standard procedure for the officers and soldiers.

Three days later, Lu Ya, the judge of Tongzhou, arrived at Lüsi Field with dozens of yamen runners, a hundred patrol archers, and five hundred ruffians and nameless archers.

After a hurried journey, upon arriving at the destination, the stout yamen runner nearly collapsed to the ground, panting heavily with his tongue lolling out like a dog. The archers were also a little out of breath, but were in much better shape than the runner.

On the contrary, the nameless rogue archer seemed to be in the best condition. Perhaps he had done too much farm work, so traveling was no problem for him.

"Judge Lu." Zhang Quan waited in the distance, and as soon as he saw Lu Ya's horse, he immediately went forward and eagerly took its reins.

Lu Ya gave him a disgusted look, dismounted, and gazed at the still-standing thatched hut in the distance. She asked, "How is it?" Zhang Quan looked around, then whispered in her ear, "Judge Lu..."

Lu Ya listened silently as Zhang Quan finished recounting the events of the past few days. Her expression softened slightly, and she said, "It's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost. At least you weren't completely stupid." However, she sighed with a worried look and asked, "Didn't you find out any of the truth?"

"Not entirely." Zhang Quan chuckled awkwardly and said, "Some fishermen along the coast saw that the thieves had two large ships, which should be shallow boats for covering the ocean. They headed towards Taizhou and Huai'an on the 26th."

"A shallow boat covering the ocean?" Lu Ya frowned.

These boats are ubiquitous, used not only by grain transport boat owners, but also by government officials, merchants, and even larger fishermen. They can be found in both the north and south, so you won't find anything by investigating this aspect.

As for heading north after looting the salt, that does correspond to Yidu Road mentioned in the inscription, but Lu Ya doesn't entirely believe it.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Some villagers mentioned that the bandits mostly spoke with a Wu accent," Zhang Quan added.

"Wu region? Songjiang Prefecture? Pingjiang Circuit? Jiangyin Prefecture? Or Changzhou or Jiaxing?"

"Lord Lu, the people of Ting have never left their hometown in their entire lives. It's already quite an achievement that they can recognize the Wu accent," Zhang Quan said with a wry smile. "It would be difficult for them to specify which prefecture, state, or county it is."

"You were reckless this time." Lu Ya glared at him and said, "You haven't even gotten any information yet, and you're already eager to redeem yourself. Even if someone knew about this behavior, they might not be willing to tell you."

Zhang Quan accepted the instruction and bowed repeatedly.

"The Wu accent might not be genuine..." Lu Ya shook her head and said, "Has this bandit leader named Wu Dalang ever been here before? Don't try to fool me. I know there are some 'minor matters' you might not report. Tell me the truth, has he ever been here before?"

"Really not," Zhang Quan shook his head.

"truth?"

"truth."

Lu Ya nodded slightly, indicating she believed him, and then asked, "Didn't everyone at the saltworks die that day? Did you ask how Lü Si Saltworks fell? Was it a sneak attack or something else?"

"A full-scale attack." Zhang Quan said with a wry smile, "Thirty or forty desperate men are swaggering in, drums and horns are beating, they are full of momentum, and their weapons include rattan shields, large shields, round shields, muskets, long spears, ring swords, bows, wooden clubs, javelins, heavy swords, and long axes."

With each sentence Lu Ya heard, her expression grew more unpleasant.

You're telling me this is illegal salt trafficking?

Tell me, which salt smuggler would be willing to acquire so much equipment? Does he want to rebel?

"Did you see what the thief looked like?" Lu Ya asked after a moment's hesitation.

"Yes," Zhang Quan said. "I've had it all written down. We can go to the city later and have an artist paint it, then offer a reward for its capture." Lu Ya hummed in agreement, not very excited, because he knew that a portrait was better than nothing.

To put it bluntly, if you gather unreliable information about a bandit's appearance, then hire an artist to draw it, and finally post it out, you might not even be able to recognize the person standing next to the portrait.

Some thieves wear masks simply to avoid being recognized in person.

"Your previous strategy," Lu Ya paused, then said, "had some merit. But be careful not to go too far; know when to stop. I'll handle things with the prefect."

"Thank you very much, Lord Lu." Zhang Quan was overjoyed.

"Don't thank me yet." Lu Ya waved her hand and said, "The prefect and the Darughachi have both gone to Yangzhou to meet with the general. Before they left, they specifically instructed me to recover the lost territory as soon as possible and to be on high alert. If anything happens again, neither of us will be able to protect ourselves."

"Yes," Zhang Quan replied, his expression hardening.

"First, thoroughly investigate any clues left by the thieves," Lu Ya said. "Investigate carefully, don't be careless."

After receiving the order and leaving, Zhang Quan thought about it carefully and decided to start investigating based on the characteristics of the thieves that had already been exposed.

Last year, Chen Xuan (who has since resigned), a clerk at the Yuxi Patrol Office, mentioned that the bandits who attacked and killed Batu had once formed a military formation. Zhang Quan vaguely felt that these two cases were likely committed by the same group of people…