Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

After daybreak, when the soldiers of Chuancheng County were counting prisoners and corpses outside the city gate, they found a map of the defense of Nanping County's city gate in the arms of a bandit.

The map was drawn with charcoal on a rag. It was rough, but the troop deployment, shift change times, and weak points of the four city gates were clearly marked.

The person who could draw this picture either worked in the Nanping County government office or stood guard on the city wall.

Zhao Xingjian looked at the tattered cloth, his expression so cold it could freeze. He handed the cloth to Yi Jiaxu, the magistrate of Chuancheng County, and said, "There's a traitor inside. These people aren't just bandits."

After looking at the picture, Magistrate Yi remained silent for a long time, and then instructed Zhao Xingjian to interrogate the captured prisoners separately.

The results of the investigation surprised everyone; the bandits had not originally intended to rob the refugees.

Their original plan was to launch a fierce attack from all four city gates simultaneously two days later, when the food supplies in Nanping County were exhausted and the soldiers were at their weakest, and take the county in one fell swoop.

Leading the charge were the men from Black Wind Stronghold, while a mix of defeated soldiers and local ruffians disguised as refugees were responsible for providing support from the outside and cutting off their retreat.

After capturing the county town, Black Wind Stronghold would occupy the county government office, loot all the granaries and warehouses in the town, and then retreat back to their stronghold with the spoils of war.

The remaining defeated soldiers and thugs divided up the remaining spoils: grain, cloth, money, and the women they had stolen.

Last night's attack on the refugee group was not part of their plan at all; it was an impromptu act.

The incident began when spies from Black Wind Stronghold mingled among the fake refugees and observed the situation at the city gate.

Upon seeing the Qian family's carriage, I noticed the depth of the ruts. Ordinary carriages carry a few people and leave shallow ruts; but the ruts of this carriage were so deep that they reached above the ankles, indicating that it was carrying something extremely heavy, either silver or grain.

When the scout returned and told the people in the stronghold, the second-in-command of Black Wind Stronghold immediately changed his mind: "Let's take this piece of fat meat first, and it won't be too late to attack the city later."

As a result, this action snowballed, becoming increasingly brutal and eventually escalating into the looting of the entire refugee group.

As for why the leader of Black Wind Stronghold didn't stop the second-in-command from acting recklessly, it's because the leader didn't care whether or not he robbed refugees.

His only goal has always been to become the magistrate of Nanping County. Robbing refugees is just a side effect; whether he robs them or not won't hinder his attack on the city.

The identity of this leader of Black Wind Stronghold surprised the interrogating officers for a moment. His surname was Zou, his given name was Shikang, and he used to work for the Nanping County government as the prison warden.

How could a prison warden end up becoming a bandit leader?

The interrogation continued, uncovering another, even older, cold case.

When Zou Shikang was serving as the prison director in Nanping County, he became engaged to his childhood sweetheart.

The girl's surname was Zhou. She was the daughter of a small family in Nanping County. She was pretty and gentle. When Zou Shikang was on official business escorting a prisoner to a neighboring county, Cheng Yingkui, the son of the county magistrate Cheng Yuanzhi, happened to bump into Zhou Ling'er on the street. He immediately became lustful and wanted to abduct the girl.

The next day, a sedan chair carrying betrothal gifts stopped in front of the Zhou family's gate, saying that they wanted to take Zhou Ling'er as a concubine, but the Zhou family politely declined.

That night, Cheng Yingkui led several servants over the Zhou family's courtyard wall and entered Zhou Ling'er's boudoir.

Unable to bear the humiliation, Zhou Ling'er soon hanged herself.

After returning home, Zou Shikang was heartbroken and filed complaints everywhere, from the county government to the prefectural government, and then back to the county government.

Every complaint was returned to Cheng Yuanzhi untouched. Instead of punishing his son, Cheng Yuanzhi retaliated by fabricating evidence that Zou Shikang had "embezzled treasury funds and colluded with bandits," and imprisoned him.

Zou Shikang's parents went to the county government office to appeal their case, but were beaten out by the yamen runners. His mother succumbed to her injuries and died on the way home.

The father was forced to move the whole family to another place to avoid disaster, taking Zou Shikang's elderly grandmother and young brother with him, and heading towards a neighboring county.

While traveling through a mountain forest, we encountered a rainstorm and took shelter in a dilapidated temple halfway up the mountain. The temple had been in disrepair for many years. That night, a small landslide occurred, and a loose boulder rolled down the hillside, hitting the back wall of the dilapidated temple.

The moment the wall collapsed, it broke the main pillar supporting the roof beams, and half of the roof, along with the tiles, collapsed with a roar, landing right in the corner where the three people were hiding.

What Zou Shikang received in prison was the news that none of his family members had survived.

He was originally going to die in prison, but Cheng Yuanzhi, in order to eliminate any future trouble, instructed the prison guards to poison his food.

However, Zou Shikang had been in prison for many years and had a good reputation. One of his closest friends, Lao Fang, who was also a former prison guard, secretly opened the cell door on the night he received the order, stuffed a prison guard's uniform into his hands, and then turned his back to him, using his body to block the pursuers' view so that he could climb over the back wall.

Zou Shikang escaped, and the truth came out. Lao Fang was beaten to death on charges of "releasing a serious criminal," and his body was left in a mass grave, with no one even setting up a grave for him.

Zou Shikang found Lao Fang's body in the mass grave, dug a hole with his hands, buried the body, and then went up to Black Wind Village.

He spent five whole years working his way up from the lowest rung of Black Wind Stronghold, relying on the ruthlessness and meticulousness honed by his experience as a prison warden, to climb step by step to the position of stronghold leader.

He was waiting for the right moment, for Nanping County to expose its weakest point, and then he would strike it.

On the seventh night of the siege, his opportunity arrived.

The reinforcements from Chuancheng County interrupted everything. Zou Shikang's target that night was the county magistrate's mansion. After breaking through the city's defenses, he should have personally put a knife to Cheng Yuanzhi's neck.

Before killing him, Cheng Yuanzhi must know who he is, who he came for, and how his comrades, childhood sweethearts, and relatives shed their blood.

He wanted Cheng Yuanzhi to recognize his enemy's face in terror, and then die in resentment.

However, the second-in-command of Black Wind Stronghold was insatiable and ambushed the refugee caravan on the way, prematurely exposing the stronghold's armed disguise outside the city gate.

The raiding party was stopped and wiped out by reinforcements from Chuancheng County who appeared out of nowhere.

Without support and cover, the chieftain was essentially crippled.

The pain of losing his wife, the lives of his comrades, and the bloodshed of his relatives weighed on him for five whole years. Things had come to this point, and even if it meant certain death, he would crawl to Cheng Yuanzhi's side.

That night, the county magistrate's mansion was massacred.

When Zhao Xingjian led his men into the city, the county magistrate's mansion was already engulfed in flames.

After the fire was extinguished, the soldiers carried out one charred corpse after another from the ruins.

Among those that could be identified were maids, servants, and Cheng Yuanzhi himself. Their bodies were separated from their heads, with their heads stuck on top of the flagpole outside the county magistrate's mansion. Their eyes had been gouged out, and their mouths were stuffed with a crumpled petition filled with the names of Zou Shikang's entire family.

None of Cheng Yuanzhi's family members survived. Cheng Yingkui's body was thrown into a dry well in the backyard. His body was covered with marks from repeated blows by a blunt object, and his face was unrecognizable. He died the most tragically.

Zhao Xingjian searched the ruins of the county magistrate's mansion thoroughly, but couldn't find any trace of the Black Wind Stronghold's leader.

He either escaped from the fire or was taken away by his men; in short, he was nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead.

When Zhao Xingjian reported the results to Magistrate Yi, his tone was calm, but his eyes held a complex expression.

After listening, Magistrate Yi looked at the ruins of the Nanping County government office, which were still emitting wisps of smoke, and remained silent for a long time.

The registrar, Shao Yuanyin, paused while taking notes, and muttered, "There's always a reason why someone is pitiful."

Yi Jiaxu did not answer.

After a long pause, he stood up and said to Zhao Xingjian, "Continue searching within a hundred li radius. Make sure you find Zou Shikang. Also..." He glanced at the flagpole at the city gate. The petition at the top of the flagpole was half charred by fire, but you could still see the dark red fingerprints that had been pressed hard on it. "Properly collect the bodies of Cheng Yuanzhi and his family. No matter what they did in life, when people die, they deserve a place to be buried."

Zhao Xingjian responded and turned to leave.

Yi Jiaxu stood in front of the ruins, his hands behind his back, for a long time. The morning breeze blew by, causing the hem of his official robe to sway gently.

Shao Yuanyin walked up behind him and asked softly, "What are you thinking about, sir?"

Yi Jiaxu didn't turn around, his voice very soft: "If Cheng Yuanzhi had handled things impartially back then, Nanping County wouldn't be in this state today."

Shao Yuanyin remained silent for a moment without replying.

Some things are not for officials of their rank to discuss.