In my dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty, I snatched Wu Zetian from my lap.

"King Han!"

"The King of Han's men have arrived!"

"Come out quickly!"

The officials, who had been lying in ambush in the gullies and bushes, spoke up one after another, and then quickly swarmed out, lighting torches.

The firelight quickly illuminated their group.

"We pay our respects to Your Highness, the King of Han. We are Zhou Yao, the County Commandant of Wei County!"

"We pay our respects to His Highness the Prince of Han!"

The sounds rose and fell, and there were about forty or fifty people bowing. Each person had a weapon, but their baggage and equipment were extremely shabby. More than half of them had no armor or their armor was rusty and in disrepair.

However, it is understandable. Without Li Yuanchang, even the officers and soldiers of Liangzhou Military Affairs would be in poor armor, let alone in a small county like this.

"Zhou Yao!" Li Yuanchang immediately remembered this person. He had met him when he followed Yang Zhuo to the Prince of Han's residence.

"Your Highness, it is this humble servant." Zhou Yao looked up excitedly, not expecting that the King of Han would still remember him.

"Where is Yang Zhuo?" Li Yuanchang jumped off his horse.

The five hundred guards dismounted, sheathed their swords, and breathed a sigh of relief. They had almost lost track of time in the darkness and immediately began to fight!

"Your Highness, the county town also needs to be defended. The magistrate is afraid that the bandits will attack the town, so he went back to take charge of the overall situation."

"I was sent here to be in charge, awaiting His Highness's instructions. I have been lying in ambush with my men, but I did not expect His Highness to arrive so quickly," Zhou Yao said in detail.

Li Yuanchang nodded, Yang Zhuo was quite reliable.

"How is he?"

"Your Highness, the magistrate is grieving the loss of his son..." Zhou Yao's face was grim.

Li Yuanchang frowned. No matter what, Yang Zhuo was working for him. His son had died, and he had to make the decision. He couldn't let his subordinates lose heart.

"Get up, everyone."

"I rushed here overnight for one thing only: to send those bastards to hell!"

He made it clear from the bottom of his heart that he would not give up until the matter was resolved.

The officials, who had been terrified for almost a day and two nights, were overjoyed, as if they had found someone to rely on.

"yes!"

"Thank you, King Han, for making the decision!!"

Immediately following, at Li Yuanchang's signal, the clanging of armored vehicles rang out, more and more braziers were lit, and a large number of guards began to be stationed, scouting in all directions and keeping watch on the mountain bandits.

The other side dared to kill even government officials, which means they were desperate criminals. These people would do anything; in later generations, they would be at least notorious bandits and at the top of terrorists.

The entire Yinfeng Slope was brought under the control of the Tent Palace in a short period of time, and torches illuminated it as if it were daytime.

"Your Highness, look, this is it."

"Fearing that the corpse would attract wild animals, it was transported back ahead of schedule. Before leaving, Magistrate Yang had someone draw the approximate location with flour," Zhou Yao pointed out.

This is a flat area, with mountains and forests on the left, a slope on the right, and a dry riverbed below.

The county seat is to the east, and Fengzhou is to the west. There are many mountains along the way, which is also the main terrain of Liangzhou.

Li Yuanchang observed silently. The white circles were scattered haphazardly, and the blood was still wet, making them very glaring.

The bodies were mainly found in two areas: one on the road and the other on the slope below, and even in the dried-up riverbed.

"These are the bodies of the officials from Yangping County."

"Were the people who escaped to the slope and rolled down into the riverbed members of the Qin family?"

Zhou Yao's eyes widened, and he nodded vigorously.

"Your Highness is wise; that was indeed the case when we came to collect the body!"

Li Yuanchang looked at the mountains and forests to his left, and he could almost picture the general situation in his mind: the bandits had ambushed him from the mountains and forests.

The officials resisted, and the Qin family's workers fled in terror, which is why the corpses were arranged in such a polarized manner.

"Are there any survivors?" Li Yuanchang asked again.

Zhou Yao shook his head with a grim expression: "Thirty-two people, none survived, and many of the corpses had multiple stab wounds, their faces were unrecognizable."

"We only found out when a tenant farmer happened to be passing by and reported it to the county government."

Li Yuanchang frowned: "What about the carriage?"

"The carriage was left behind, but all the copper coins inside were looted," Zhou Yao said.

Li Yuanchang sneered: "It seems these bandits are not only vicious, but also quite clever. They even know to abandon the carriage, as it's easy to track them down."

He looked around and could only say.

"Search first, see if there's anything left behind by bandits."

"yes!"

At a command, two to three hundred people carrying torches began searching the scene of the incident.

The search was carried out in a massive, almost hand-in-hand manner, leaving no inch of land unchecked.

Li Yuanchang himself also joined in.

But the clues were too limited. The ground wasn't soft loess, but sand and gravel, and it hadn't rained for the past five or six days, so there wasn't even a single footprint left.

The murder weapon, as well as any other lost items, were not found.

Only the bushes in the mountains showed signs of being trampled by humans.

Time passed by, second by second.

For a full half hour.

"Your Highness, we don't have any here."

"There's none underneath the riverbed either."

"Your Highness, there were no traces of footsteps in the woods, only some marks left by human feet."

Upon hearing this, everyone was disappointed and in a dilemma.

If we really can't determine the exact number, then we'll have no choice but to wipe out all the bandits.

Although this was also a plan that Li Yuanchang, as the governor, had to make, this would indefinitely prolong the process and make it unlikely that the money would be fully recovered.

Moreover, if they robbed someone and then moved on to another place, or even became wealthy and stopped being outlaws, then in ancient times there would be no way to track them down.

The Tang Dynasty has no DNA, no surveillance, and no bank statements.

Li Yuanchang scratched his head and paced back and forth, at a loss for what to do.

The surroundings were extremely quiet, with only the sound of torches rising; no one dared to speak.

a long time.

As Li Yuanchang was pacing, he suddenly noticed the carriage wheel tracks on the ground, as if he had been reminded of something.

He turned around abruptly.

"That sum of money was close to three thousand strings of cash. According to the regulations of Kaiyuan Tongbao, three thousand strings of cash is twenty-four thousand taels, which is about eighteen hundred catties."

"They can't possibly carry something this heavy by hand. The transfer will be very slow. They can only move it a short distance at most. They will definitely need to use a carriage or horses."

"Quickly, expand the search area to other paths and post roads, and look for wheel tracks and hoofprints!"

Guo Chao and the others' eyes lit up suddenly. That makes sense!

"yes!!"

Another search lasting half an hour was conducted by hundreds of people, with the target no longer limited to the scene of the death, but to the more distant outskirts.

But this time, we actually made a discovery!