Chapter 123 Mist
Page after page of the book records in detail Zhou Ren's background, experience, family situation, etc.

Although some parts are not very detailed and there are errors in some places, this does not hinder Yang Zhengshan's understanding of him.

Because the mistakes are all insignificant.

By the time he finished reading the document, his forehead was covered in sweat.

What does it mean?
The garrison commander actually investigated him!
And he was thoroughly investigated.

"grown ups!"

With a thud, Zhou Ren fell to his knees.

Only then did Yang Zhengshan put down the pen in his hand, raised his head, and looked at him with a cold expression.

"Want to die or live?"

His voice was plain, but it was deafening to Zhou Ren's ears.

Zhou Ren touched the ground with his forehead, and his body trembled like a sieve.

"Little one, little one, want to live!"

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, then stood up, walked out from behind the desk, and reached out to pull him up from the ground.

"If you want to live, it's easy!"

"I don't know if you've ever heard a saying!"

He did not wait for Zhou Ren to answer, and said to himself: "The prefect who wiped out the family, the county magistrate who ruined the family."

"I am neither a prefect nor a county magistrate, but I can destroy a family and wipe out a clan!"

This is a feudal society, and the power is far stronger and more terrifying than it is in modern times.

Moreover, this is a world of martial arts, where powerful personal force sometimes overrides laws and morals.

In front of other people, Yang Zhengshan didn't dare to say that he held power, but in front of Zhou Ren, he had the ability to control Zhou Ren's life and death.

After hearing this, Zhou Ren collapsed completely. Even though Yang Zhengshan was pulling him, he still knelt on the ground with his legs limp.

"Sir, please spare my life!" he said tremblingly.

Yang Zhengshan drooped his eyelids, his expression still indifferent.

He can't control Xu Wanfu for the time being, but if he wants to control Zhou Ren, it would be a piece of cake.

Just a clerk without rank.

"It's not difficult for you to live. You just need to tell me everything you know!"

Yang Zhengshan naturally would not take Zhou Ren's life, as Zhou Ren's life was not worth anything.

What he wanted was Zhou Ren's understanding of Anyuan Prefecture.

When he first arrived, Yang Zhengshan had no idea of ​​the situation in Anyuan Prefecture. Not to mention Anyuan Prefecture, he couldn't even figure out the officials under the garrison office.

Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy can help you win a hundred battles.

He is now completely in the dark, knows nothing, and can't see through anything. What can he do?
So he needed someone who was familiar with the garrison office and the city of Anyuan, and Zhou Ren was undoubtedly the person who could best meet his needs at the moment.

At this time, Zhou Ren also came to his senses a little, and he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with trembling hands.

"If you ask me anything, I will tell you everything I know."

"Very good!" Yang Zhengshan showed a faint smile on his face and walked back behind the desk.

"Let's talk about Cao Han first. Is he really only convicted for corruption?"

Zhou Ren didn't dare to hide anything at this time, and said directly: "My Lord, Cao Han was indeed punished for corruption. Three months ago, a lot of officers and soldiers suddenly came to the Chongshan Pass Military Office. They arrested Cao Han on the grounds that he had embezzled military rations and withheld food and wages when he conquered the Hu tribe in Donghai last year."

Yang Zhengshan nodded. He knew this. "Besides embezzling military rations and withholding food and wages, what else did Cao Han do?"

Zhou Ren looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean, sir?"

"I want to know something that others don't know." Yang Zhengshan said.

Zhou Ren's heart tightened and he quickly lowered his head, not daring to look at Yang Zhengshan again.

"Why don't you want to say it?" Yang Zhengshan's voice became cold.

"No, no!" Zhou Ren quickly denied it, but he still didn't say it.

Yang Zhengshan was not in a hurry either, he just looked at him coldly.

Feeling his gaze as sharp as a knife, Zhou Ren's heart seemed to be grasped by a hand.

He was hesitating and struggling.

After a long while, he finally said, "My Lord, these are just my guesses. I was not involved in them and I don't know the specifics!"

"Speak!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Zhou Ren swallowed and said bitterly, "I suspect Cao Han had colluded with the Hu tribe of the East China Sea!"

"what!"

Yang Zhengshan stood up suddenly and looked at him in astonishment.

Collaboration and betrayal!

Hey!
This is a big deal!

"Do you have any evidence?" Yang Zhengshan asked in a deep voice.

"No small ones!"

Zhou Ren shook his head like a rattle and said, "But I have seen several people who are suspected to be from the Hu tribe come to see Cao Han, and Cao Han often requisitions food."

"What's wrong with requisitioning grain?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

The money and food of the garrison office is divided into three parts. One part comes from the military preparation office, which is responsible for the money and food of the soldiers in the camp, and the other part comes from the shogunate or the guard office. If the soldiers under the garrison are to be used, the shogunate and the guard office need to allocate part of the food and wages first. This involves the changes in the food and wages of the soldiers. For example, the soldiers who are farming have no food and wages, they only have the harvest from the fields, and the garrison will also take part of their harvest for the daily consumption of the yamen at all levels.

The soldiers responsible for defending the city will have food and wages provided by the military preparation office. If they go out to fight, the soldiers will receive more food and wages.

The garrison office would often requisition food and fodder, either from the military garrisons or from the military preparation department or the Weisi Yamen. This should be a common occurrence.

"Sir, Cao Han did not transport food and grass into the city, but transported them outside the city. Moreover, he never used the soldiers in the yamen. The soldiers he used were people I had never seen before!" Zhou Ren said.

Yang Zhengshan felt his head was a little swollen.

Transporting food and fodder outward.

Where does this food come from?

It definitely didn't come from the garrison office. He had looked at the accounts of the garrison office before. Although there were many problems, there were traces of the expenditure of large amounts of food and fodder.

There were also soldiers that Zhou Ren had never seen before, which meant that those soldiers most likely did not belong to the garrison office.

In Anyuanzhou City, apart from the garrison office, are there any other large numbers of soldiers?
Other government offices might have some runners and able-bodied men, but they definitely couldn't find hundreds of soldiers.

What does this mean?
This means that there is an unknown army hidden in the city.

Combined with the cellar in the backyard of the government office, Yang Zhengshan had a rough idea in his mind.

There are people in Anyuanzhou City who are providing food to the Donghai Hu people. Or perhaps it is not providing, but selling.

Purpose?
It's all about making money.

Cao Han would definitely not surrender to the East China Sea Hu tribe. Compared with Dayong, the East China Sea Hu tribe are barbarians. Cao Han was born into a noble family. As long as he is not stupid, he will not rely on the East China Sea Hu tribe.

So he was just doing it to make money.

If the grain is sold outside the Great Wall, the profit is estimated to increase several times, which is enough to make people take the risk.

And Cao Han is definitely not the only one involved in this matter.

Cao Han couldn't handle such a big thing.

"It's really a big pit! I just don't know who brought me here and what they want me to do?"

"Marquis of Changping Liang Chu? Governor Lu Chongde?"

"They all seem possible!"

Yang Zhengshan thought secretly in his heart.

"Zhou Lan must know something, but she didn't tell me anything!"

Suddenly, a person appeared in his mind.

Lu Hua!

He had only met Lu Hua once, which was when he met him in the General's Mansion.

Yang Zhengshan's first impression of Lu Hua was that this guy was too handsome.

The second impression is that this guy is difficult to deal with.

However, this second impression was formed after he heard a lot about the Secret Guards.

In addition, Zhou Lan had told him about the Blood Blade before, so Yang Zhengshan kept his distance from the Secret Guards.

But thinking back now, Yang Zhengshan suddenly felt that he was sent to Anyuanzhou City for no apparent reason, and it was very likely that Lu Hua was behind this.

"He wants me to investigate Cao Han's treason?"

"That's not right. I don't know anything about Anyuanzhou City. Even if they want to find someone to investigate, they shouldn't look for me."

"Besides, they haven't contacted me yet, they can't just leave me alone to do whatever I want!"

Yang Zhengshan never imagined that Lu Hua's goal was to make him a troublemaker.

Lu Hua's purpose in capturing Cao Han was to alert the enemy, and his purpose in transferring Yang Zhengshan to Anyuanzhou City was to muddy the waters completely.

At this time, the city of Anyuan was still peaceful, but beneath this peace there was a very powerful force hidden. Over the past twenty years, this force had been selling all kinds of supplies to the Hu people in the East China Sea, including food, salt, iron, cloth, and even military intelligence.

This force played an indispensable role in the recovery of the Hu tribe in the East China Sea within twenty years.

The most crucial thing is that this force is very well hidden. For twenty years, even the Secret Guards did not find anything unusual. It was not until the East China Sea Hu tribe invaded the border that the Secret Guards caught some clues.

However, nearly two years have passed now, and the Secret Guards still have not fully understood this force.

Lu Hua is a very patient person. He knows that facing such a force that has been hidden for more than 20 years, he must not be careless.

They cannot conduct a large-scale investigation before identifying the key figures and key evidence of this force.

Therefore, he needed to create chaos in the situation in Anyuanzhou City, so that this hidden force would lose its composure and reveal its true colors.

Yang Zhengshan naturally couldn’t figure all this out. He just felt overwhelmed.

It was as if there was a fog in front of his eyes, making everything he saw blurry.

"What about Xu Wanfu?"

Yang Zhengshan couldn't figure it out, so he could only withdraw his thoughts and continue questioning Zhou Ren.

"Master Xu!" Zhou Ren paused and said, "Master Xu has been the commander for ten years!"

This statement sounded somewhat incoherent, but Yang Zhengshan knew that it revealed a very important message.

Xu Wanfu had been the captain of a thousand-man army for ten years, and Cao Han had only been the garrison commander of Anyuan Prefecture for five years.

So the question is, does Xu Wanfu know what Cao Han did?

Xu Wanfu is a captain, and his mission is to defend the city. If there is an army hiding in the city, wouldn't he be unaware of it?
Or maybe this army is hidden in the garrison.

(End of this chapter)