While Ma Yuanyi was swearing an oath with the leaders of the canals in Qingzhou, a believer hurriedly came in from the front of the hall. As soon as he came in, he saw the leaders of the canals there, but he did not dare to enter. He just wandered around outside the hall in hesitation.
Zhang Chong, who was closest to the outside of the hall, saw him. He called this person:
"What's the matter?"
The believer glanced at Tang Zhou in the back hesitantly, and seeing that he didn't refuse, he murmured:
"Back in the ditch, a group of county soldiers came outside the house and were calling the door. They said there was a wanted criminal inside the house and they were about to knock on the door."
As soon as these words came out, the whole hall was in an uproar.
Tang Zhou immediately stood up and reprimanded the believers:
"How can you patrol outside the hall for such a serious matter? How long have you been calling the door?"
The believer's face turned pale, and he knelt on the ground in fear, muttering to the point of being speechless.
Zhang Chong sighed, stood up and helped him up, then turned back and said to everyone:
"Old Tang, why don't we let everyone hide for a while? You and Big Beard are the hosts and are familiar with these tigers and wolves, so why don't you two go and deal with them."
Everyone nodded.
Tang Zhou's eyes flickered, then nodded, and went to the wall of the house with Ji Sun to deal with it.
Over there, Zhang Chong and others protected Ma Yuanyi and went around to the left wing. Since they could observe the situation on the front wall, they could climb over the wall of the house and enter the next door house. It was also the Taiping Road stronghold, which was designed to deal with this situation.
Outside the house wall over there, a dozen city gatekeepers, led by a capable team leader, stood in front of the door with their swords and halberds drawn. Several more city gatekeepers were knocking hard on the door, but no one answered for a long time.
One of them ran to the head of the elite team and said:
"Chief, the people inside didn't open the door at all, why should we rush in?"
The elite team's face turned dark and they cursed:
"Bump? How did you hit it? Can you find the bumping wood here? Why don't you go find a ladder? Let's climb in."
The doorman was scolded, so he smiled and hurriedly ordered several colleagues to go find the ladder together.
The team leader cursed again:
"It really makes Nai Gong worry so much."
Then the person turned to the person next to him and said:
"Xiao Xue, this wave of brothers has listened to your instructions and has brought all the troops here, but please don't shake me too much, otherwise rough guys like me will be really angry."
The man next to him was Xue Zhou, the gatekeeper who used to guard the city tower. It was he who led a group of capable men to block this place.
Today, he saw Zhang Chong's bullock carts with apricot-yellow flags swaggering through the city, and he felt unhappy. But later he saw a continuous stream of bullock carts with apricot-yellow flags flowing into the city. He felt strange and took leave to go home.
On the way, he followed one of the bullock carts to the mansion, and then saw a dozen people chatting outside the house. He knew one of them. There was a picture of this person in the county. The large sarcoma on his neck was too eye-catching.
This person is Donglai Guancheng, the pirate wanted in Qingzhou.
This monarch has more than 3,000 disciples and dozens of ships. He invades the coast of the sea and the counties cannot govern.
Xuezhou endured his excitement and carefully observed the mansion. Seeing that there was no back door, he slowly exited and went straight to Gao Jin, the chief of the south gate of Dongpingling.
As for why Xuezhou didn't go to the county thief Cao, but went to the city gate chief who was not responsible for the thief, it was naturally for greater credit.
If you ask the county thief Cao, he can at most report the thief, but if you ask his chief to capture the thief together, then he, Xuezhou Shao, can say that he is good at catching the thief.
In this way, Xue Zhou found Gao Jin and told him that Guan Cheng, the Donglai pirate, was in the city and he didn't have many followers, so he would be rewarded today.
Gao Jin was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered twenty city gate soldiers under his command, then ran all the way with Xue Zhou and blocked Zhang Chong and others here.
Xuezhou is progressive, and Gao Jin is even more progressive than Xuezhou. He is a member of the local Gao clan.
The Gao family and the Guo family have been major families in Qi since the Western Zhou Dynasty. These two families were originally envoys sent by the King of Zhou to Qi. Later, they were granted land in Qi and gradually spread their branches in Qi.
But the Xuanhe within the clan could not help Gao Jin much. He shot the city gate chief himself with one blow, because he was already at the bottom of the clan.
At this moment, Gao Jin's men rushed over carrying three ladders, and then surrounded Gao Jin and listened to his orders.
Gao Jin motioned to the strong man next to him. This man was thick and majestic. He lined up in a row and sounded like a bell:
"Listen up, rats in the wall, there is a department to arrest the thieves, so quickly break out of the wall. Those who abandon their weapons and surrender will live, and those who resist stubbornly will die!"
This person is Gao Jin's younger brother Gao Yu. The two brothers have helped each other since they were young and have come to this day.
There was no sound in the wall at this time.
Gao Jin looked solemn, waved his hand and asked his subordinates to get down the ladder, then climbed up first with a knife, stepped on the ladder, and stepped on the wall of the house in a few steps. Over there, Gao Yu and Xue Zhou followed.
But as soon as they crossed the wall, the three of them looked at each other in shock. They saw a row of archers below aiming at them, and the three of them did not dare to move.
Tang Zhou smiled and said to the three Wu Bian who were straddling the wall of his house:
"Three of you came in uninvited, are you going to be a gangster?"
Gao Yu over there has a fierce temper and curses:
"The thief is your mother. She is a male and an official. Why don't you kneel down and surrender?"
Over there, Gao Jin stopped talking, simply because he recognized the following two people as none other than the local Taiping Dao leader Tang Zhou and Ji Sun. In the past, when Feng Chang was still the Prime Minister of Jinan, these two people were guests of the temple.
Gao Jin secretly cursed Xue Zhou for not telling him that the pirate was actually hiding in their Taiping Taoist house. But now that they had arrived, he had no choice but to cheer up. He spoke loudly to Tang Zhou and Ji Sun below.
explain:
"Tang Daokui, Tang Dao envoy, a certain family needs information. Donglai pirate Guan Cheng is here. You two send him to me. I will treat him as a captured person elsewhere and will never involve you."
After hearing this, Jisun smiled and replied:
"Chief Gao, why don't you come down first and go to the house to talk? You can also see if Guan Cheng is here."
After hearing this, the expressions of the three people on the wall changed. If they jumped down and were left alone, wouldn't it be a dead ball?
After all, it was Gao Jin who gritted his teeth and jumped into the house first, followed by the other two.
Gao Jin bowed:
"Can you open the wall and let my subordinates come in together?"
Over there, Tang Zhou sneered:
"Are you dreaming? Just the three of you will search. If you find anything, you will take it away. But don't blame me, little man. If you don't find anything, huh, then I will go to Gao Gongcao's place."
After hearing this, Gao Jin's expression changed, and he knew that things were bad.
Because even if the Guan Cheng was inside the wall, he couldn't take it away. Once he searched inside and found it, with the attitude of the two people opposite, the lives of his two brothers would definitely be in danger.
And if he goes in to search and fails to find Guan Cheng, then these two men will accuse him, and then the future of his two brothers will be unsafe.
But he was not willing to go in and search. He still knew Xue Zhou as a person and knew that he would not make a show of it. Guan Cheng must have appeared here before.
But then again, since they came all the way, it is possible that Guan Cheng would have left long ago. So Gao Jin was at a loss at this moment and really didn't know what to do.
Jisun still gave him a sentence, Jisun said:
"Chief Gao, you'd better take your brothers back. Guan Cheng is not here, so don't let yourself go."
Finally, Ji Sun opened the door to the Gao brothers and Xue Zhou, but they did not have the courage to search.
Over there, Zhang Chong and other commanders also escorted Ma Yuanyi out of the city.
When Zhang Chong and others heard the momentum from the other side calling the door, they knew that these people would definitely come in, so they did not hesitate to help Ma Yuanyi climb over the wall and escort him all the way out of the city.
When Ma Yuanyi sat on the bullock cart and said goodbye to the leaders of various channels in Qingzhou, Zhang Chong felt complicated in his heart.