Chapter 10
“The people of Songyang County were attacked by bandits?”
In the back hall of the county office, Yu Baisu stroked his half-white beard, his brows tightly furrowed. Xu Qingzhu and I stood on either side.
A constable from Songyang County knelt on the ground to report, his face covered in dust, his arm wrapped in white cloth that was still faintly seeping blood: “Yes, Lord Zhou was struck by an arrow and is still unconscious. The Coroner died on the spot. We risked our lives to escort Lord Zhou back to the county town.”
I frowned slightly. I hadn’t expected that just as we found a clue in Anyang, something would happen in Songyang. The timing was simply too coincidental.
Xu Qingzhu sighed helplessly, “Songyang is close to Taiwu Mountain. Six peaks are all occupied by bandits who frequently descend to rob and plunder. Lord Wei, the County Magistrate, suffers greatly. I never thought the bandits would be so bold as to even dare shoot the County Sheriff. Truly lawless!”
I had heard that there were six major bandit strongholds on Taiwu Mountain, each led by sworn brothers. I’d also heard of them raiding the county town for loot. But just two days ago, the bandits had already struck. For them to come again today seemed far too frequent.
Yu Baisu and Xu Qingzhu assumed I was new to Anyang and knew nothing, but in truth, I had already learned about this place before coming-not just Anyang County, but also the neighboring counties. Today, they were clearly trying to fool me by playing on my supposed ignorance, but they had miscalculated.
Still, I wanted to see what they were really up to, and whether it was connected to the Skeleton Case at Dong Manor. So I decided to play along, pretending to know nothing, and waited to see what they would do.
“I never imagined the bandit problem in Songyang was so severe!” I said angrily. “Even though it’s a lower county, by regulation it should still have 500 county soldiers. Can’t they deal with the bandits?”
Yu Baisu shook his head. “You said it yourself, it’s a lower county. Not just Songyang-even our Anyang has only 500 households, with a population under 2,000. Where could we find 500 county soldiers? Songyang and Jingyang are even worse, right next to Taiwu, plagued by robbery and murder. There are at most a thousand people in the county, not even 300 soldiers. How could they resist such fierce bandits?”
I protested indignantly, “Doesn’t the Governor care?”
Judicial Officer Du Zhong said, “The Governor’s reach is limited. If he focuses here today, he neglects there. If he focuses there tomorrow, he misses here. The bandits are adept at guerrilla tactics, constantly moving and impossible to pin down.”
Military Officer Xin Yi chimed in, shifting all the blame onto the ferocity of the bandits, without mentioning any fault of their own.
I sneered inwardly. It seemed that whether or not the County Sheriff of Songyang was actually injured by bandits today, they were determined to pin the blame on the mountain bandits. But what was their real purpose? Was it simply to prevent the neighboring county from re-examining the skeleton?
Songyang is the closest to Anyang. If they can’t send people, we could ask another neighboring county. Surely not every county’s envoy would be injured and forced to return?
Since I couldn’t figure it out yet, I decided not to show my hand. I feigned anger, flung my sleeves, and left. Of course, before leaving, I made a harsh statement that I would definitely find Huai Xi’s real body.
As I stormed out, Xu Qingzhu took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his brow, glancing cautiously at Yu Baisu. “My lord, do you think he believed it?”
Yu Baisu snorted coldly. “What if he did, what if he didn’t? I’ve already sent people to Xingyang to investigate. Zheng Xuanming is nothing but a discarded son of the Zheng Clan. The Zheng family sent him here to fend for himself. There’s no need to worry about him.”
“I see,” Xu Qingzhu breathed a sigh of relief. “Then we can rest easy on that front.”