Wutong Mountain is the highest mountain group in Bao'an County. It has three main peaks, namely Small Wutong, Tofutou, and Big Wutong. Among them, Big Wutong has the highest altitude, close to dry meters.

Because there are large animals such as wild boars in the mountains, ordinary people generally do not go near here, and only a small number of hunters go into the mountains to hunt.

But even if a hunter encounters a wild boar, it is quite dangerous.

As the saying goes, one pig, two bears, three tigers means that encountering a wild boar is more dangerous than encountering a bear or tiger.

Hou Yao personally led a large group of people from the yamen into the Wutong Mountain area.

With the two masters Wei Daxing and Chen Junguo here, they are naturally not afraid of encountering wild boars. If they do encounter one, they will be killed and taken back to have their teeth cut as a sacrifice.

The large group of people formed a fan shape and headed into the mountains. They originally thought they would catch some game, but they didn't expect that the actual situation here was very different from the rumors.

Not only are there no large wild animals in this mountain, there are even very few small animals.

Hou Yao couldn't help but become more and more confused as he walked, and his doubts only deepened when he reached the foot of the big sycamore tree.

At this moment, Zhou Tiesheng, who was leading the expedition ahead, came over personally to report:

"Sir, we found a village at the foot of the mountain over there with more than two hundred people, most of them young and strong.

We wanted to go in to search the village, but they blocked us and forced us to go in, fearing that there would be a conflict.

There are so many of them, we're afraid we won't be able to get any advantage."

Hou Yao's heart was pounding. It was supposed to be a deserted mountain with no people, but a village suddenly appeared. It was already weird, and it was even weirder because most of them were young and strong.

"Tell the brothers to withdraw. We will set up defenses at the mountain pass. You can ask someone with fast feet to go to Pengcheng to find Li Qianhu and ask him to bring troops to help suppress the bandits."

"Yes, sir."

Zhou Tiesheng personally led people to Pengcheng to move reinforcements.

Hou Yao and his people were stationed around Wutong Mountain here, wondering who these people were.

If these people hide in the mountains without any purpose, no one will believe them even if they are killed.

They are basically young and strong, they are already a considerable force, and they will definitely become a major threat to the security of the county.

It's okay if they are not discovered. Now that they are discovered, they must be eliminated.

This place is so close to the Guanfu Salt Field, could it be the escaped saltmen?

Probably not. There are quite a few of these people and they have formed villages, which shows that they have been living here for a long time.

The size of the village of more than 200 people is already relatively large, and it has been around for a long time, so it is impossible for people in the salt field not to know that they exist.

It's strange that you know it but why you don't take care of it.

The saltworks are not kind people, how could they let so many strong laborers go free?

Thinking of this, Hou Yao felt extremely headache.

The head of the Guanfu Salt Farm is the Chen family from Guangzhou Prefecture, and the Hong Gang is a gang that is secretly controlled by the Chen family.

It is also the largest and most powerful underworld gang in Bao'an County, and its leader is Li Jingshan's younger brother Li Jingfeng.

If you think about it this way, the reason why this village does not appear in the county annals must have something to do with Li Jingshan.

In fact, except for him, no one else had the guts to touch the county magistrate.

This is intriguing. Why would Li Jingshan hide such a village?

In short, there were too many questions, and Hou Yao couldn't think of any clues.

Pengcheng Ganhusuo City is nearly 50 kilometers away from Wutong Mountain, so it takes one or two days to arrive with the troops.

Li Jingshan would definitely be suspicious if he was absent from the county government for such a long time.

Therefore, we must rush back to the Yamen first. Regardless of whether this matter has anything to do with Li Jingshan, we must first stabilize him.

Otherwise, if he was tipped off like this, these people would probably run away.

Once they run away, it will be difficult to catch them.

Hou Yao only took Chen Junnan back to the yamen, and bumped into Li Jingshan at the yamen gate.

Li Jingshan knew that he personally led people to investigate the case today, so he asked casually:

"How is the progress of the investigation, sir?"

Hou Yao shook his head slightly, then raised his eyes to look at him and said:

"This disappearance case has no beginning or end, and the workload of investigation is too great. What clues does Mr. Li know?"

Li Jingshan pretended to be silent and said:

"Didn't we find many missing women when we raided Wanxiang House? Are there missing women in other brothels?"

Hou Yao nodded pretending to be thoughtful:

"It's possible that you mentioned it, but brothels are not as good as gambling houses and opium dens. The people behind them are more troublesome. This matter still needs to be considered in the long term."

Then he bowed his hands to Li Jingshan and saluted:

"Thank you, Mr. Li, for your advice."

Li Jingshan hurriedly returned the gift:

"Don't dare, I'm just making random guesses."

Hou Yao laughed:

"After running around all day, I will go back to my room to take a shower and say goodbye."

After saying that, he walked straight to the back office.

Li Jingshan looked at Hou Yao's leaving figure and raised his eyes slightly.

Hou Yao returned to the official residence and looked at Chen Junnan:

"What do you think, senior brother? You want me to focus on the brothel."

Chen Junnan shook his head and said:

"Confucius said: This person is not the mastermind but he knows the truth. He deliberately waited for us at the yamen gate. It can be seen that he is very anxious."

Hou Yao thought for a while and said:

"He probably didn't expect me to be so obsessed with an ordinary disappearance case.

It shows that he must know something, but he just doesn’t know what kind of character he is.”

As soon as he walked into the hall, he saw Zhou De was also at home, holding a box of watercolors and teaching Yu Xiuer how to do makeup.

Hou Yao raised his eyebrows, and Chen Junnan shuddered and ran away first.

Yu Xiuer stood up in a hurry:

"Ms. sir, you're back. I'm going to give you some water to wash away the dust."

After saying that, he turned around and went into the inner room to put out the water.

When Zhou De saw Hou Yao coming back, he pounced on him like a vicious dog:

"Cousin, the Lun family wrote a new poem today, and I want to show it to you. How about you come and help the Lun family comment on it?"

Hou Yao's head suddenly became three times bigger. He really regretted that he didn't practice Qing Gong or something, otherwise he would have come back without anyone noticing.

"Cousin, whether poetry is good or not cannot be decided by one person. You should give it to more people to appreciate."

Zhou De lifted his temples:

"Where can the Lun family take it? I don't know anyone here.

Besides, being alone outside is also dangerous, and a girl just disappeared. What will happen if the gangsters set their sights on the Lun family?"

Hou Yao had a mouthful of old blood in his chest and couldn't spit it out. After a while, he could barely squeeze out a sentence:

"You can go to the Sihai Class. The girls there are very fond of poetry, and most of their customers are literati and sluts.

If you take it there, more people will definitely see it, and then won't there be a lot of people who like your poetry?"

Zhou De suddenly screamed:

"Ah, cousin, you are still smart. Why didn't the Lun family think of this? Thank you, cousin."

After saying that, he rushed up to hug Hou Yao, but Hou Yao quickly ducked away and shouted in a hurry:

"If...you have something to say, don't do anything."

Zhou De failed to hold Hou Yao and was so angry that he stamped his feet:

"Oh, cousin, your idea is good, but the Lun family doesn't have a small amount of money. How can they go to a brothel? Cousin..."

As he said this, he wanted to rush up and act like a spoiled brat.

Hou Yao hurriedly backed away and threw out a stack of banknotes:

"I'll give you money——, don't come over. Calm down, calm down."

Zhou De happily picked up the banknote:

"Thank you, cousin. I know that my cousin is the best to the Lun family."
To be continued...