manynovel Chapter 857: Entering the General's Mansion in Disguise
Chapter 857: Entering the General's Mansion in Disguise
Chapter 857 Entering the General's Mansion in Disguise
"Let's split up tomorrow! I'll follow Constable Zhang to the government office, and you go investigate the recent movements of Prince Yuanming and General Dingyuan, as well as who they came into contact with and what happened. Spend more money and investigate thoroughly."
Anyway, only one or two people can go, so it's the same if she takes Qing Lang with her, and the rest can be left to Qin Yandong to find out the news.
"Okay!" Qin Yandong nodded.
Originally, he wanted to see whether it was Li Dongsheng. If it was Li Dongsheng, he would have to laugh at him.
Oh, Jiang Youzhen suddenly thought of something.
"Why did he say that group of people didn't have Beijing accents? That shouldn't be Li Dongsheng, right?"
"Maybe not. I'll know when I go and see it tomorrow."
In fact, Jiang Youzhen has already concluded that the group of people is not Li Dongsheng and his group. Although the young guards she trained came from all over the place, they have been trained for several years.
I also specially trained my Mandarin accent and now speak standard Mandarin so that people wouldn't easily notice where I'm from.
The reason she wanted to see it was that she always felt that this group of people must be related to the disappearance of General Dingyuan.
A group of people broke the curfew at night. This place is close to the border. What if someone broke in from outside the border?
At the end of the next day, Jiang Youzhen and Qinglang were waiting at the gate of the yamen. Constable Zhang also showed up at the gate on time, and when he saw Jiang Youzhen and his friends coming, he immediately came to greet them.
He looked very flustered and pulled Jiang Youzhen and the others to hide in an alley.
"We are a step too late. These people have already been taken away. They were still there when I left the government office yesterday. I went to check on them this morning and found that they were gone."
"I asked the jailer who was guarding the prison last night, and he said that the prefect had brought these people out last night for interrogation, but I don't know where they were taken, and they were never brought back."
In fact, this kind of thing has happened before, but it is usually for bribes. After the person who broke the curfew at night was found to be innocent, the family would pay some money to redeem him.
But there has never been a case of redeeming someone overnight. Usually the person would be detained overnight and the matter would be dealt with at the government office early the next morning.
Jiang Youzhen frowned. How could it be such a coincidence? They had been locked up in the cell for a few days. Just when they were about to go see this group of people, they were told that they had been transferred overnight. In this case, isn't it even more suspicious?
"Could it be that someone came to redeem someone?" Jiang Youzhen guessed.
Captain Zhang frowned and thought, "The prefect never personally interrogates people like this. Usually, his advisors do it for him. But last night, he acted out of character. I heard that he came in a hurry to interrogate these people. He didn't let the clerk take notes, and he didn't interrogate them in the cell. Instead, he took them out.
Soon, his advisor came back and said that these people were innocent and were released without charge, but he did not ask the clerk or the prison boss to record their backgrounds.
Jiang Youzhen also heard something unusual, but this did not rule out the possibility that the other party had given too much, so the magistrate simply released the person.
Seeing Jiang Youzhen deep in thought, Captain Zhang felt embarrassed when he thought about the fact that he had taken twenty taels of silver from Jiang Youzhen.
"Actually, I think it's strange. I've been keeping an eye on these people for the past few days, and I've discovered some anomalies."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Youzhen was puzzled.
"There were seven of them, but only one of them could speak Mandarin. No matter how much you asked the others, they wouldn't answer. Two of them looked very strange, with high noses and deep eyes, but at first glance they looked no different from the people in the interior of China."
When the Shanghai Stock Exchange was first opened, there was intermarriage between people from Anxi County and even Shazhou, so it was not uncommon to give birth to people with high noses, deep eyes, or exotic features.
It's just that the management has been strict in the past two years. But the previous appearance is naturally inherited. Therefore, this appearance is not out of place in the local area, and it cannot be judged that he is from outside the Great Wall.
"Could you please ask Constable Zhang for help? Maybe my companions have found two guides in the area. After all, they are not familiar with this place, and the number of people is probably right."
In fact, at this point, Jiang Youzhen is definitely not Li Dongsheng and others, because firstly, the number of people does not match, and secondly, Jiang Chun and others can speak Mandarin, so there is no need for them to remain silent.
Those who didn't speak must have an accent, or they couldn't speak the official language of the dynasty and were afraid of being exposed. If that was the case, it would be very suspicious.
"Okay, I'll go ask the person who handled it last night. Come to my house tomorrow night, and I'll tell you if I find out anything."
Captain Zhang was now certain that Jiang Youzhen was not here to look for companions. On the contrary, he was very interested in this group of people.
After Jiang Youzhen made an appointment with him, she planned to take Qinglang away as she had other important things to do.
But Captain Zhang hesitated to speak. Just when Jiang Youzhen was confused, he said, "Don't worry! I will keep it a secret."
Jiang Youzhen smiled at him, and then left with Qinglang in a leisurely manner.
The border area is very cold. If it were in the south of the Yangtze River, it would not be spring now, but it would be much warmer than the Chinese New Year. But at this moment, Anxi County is bitterly cold.
"Snap!" A whip came over.
"Stand still! Since we've bought you, you're all servants of the General's Mansion. Don't act like a spoiled brat when you're in the General's Mansion, or you'll suffer."
Not far away, a pair of eyes were staring at this group of people. Their gaze swept over the ragged young men and women, and they immediately had an idea.
"Wow! Mother Yan bought a lot of people this time?"
As soon as the concierge opened the door, he found that the curtain of the carriage had been lifted, revealing the old face of Yan's mother. He lifted the curtain to check and found that there were seven or eight young men and women sitting in the carriage.
"Isn't there no one in the house? Madam said to buy a few more at one time."
A pair of deep eyes quickly glanced at the doorman, and then lowered his head.
"Then please come in, Madam Yan." The gatekeeper immediately let the carriage go and it stopped only when it reached the inner courtyard.
"Wash yourself clean. The human traffickers haven't had time to discipline you yet, but once you enter the general's mansion, I, an old woman, will have to discipline you well.
The rules in our general's mansion are very strict. If anyone breaks the rules, he will be punished with 20 strokes of the cane at the lightest, or be beaten to death at the worst."
This is the border, and human life is worthless. The lives of these servants are even less important, and there are many new corpses in the mass grave every day.
All the young men and women were silent, but unexpectedly, Mother Yan suddenly shouted, "Are you all mute? Can't you even say yes?"
"Yes!" Everyone shrank back.
There were eight people in total, three men and five women, and the five women washed and bathed in the same room.
Jiang Youzhen was in a dilemma as she looked at the steaming bathtub in front of her. Although she was also a woman and had no problem being looked at by or looking at people of the same sex, she had been in disguise for so many years that she had become accustomed to bathing alone.
She was really not used to being asked to undress in front of so many people.
Yes! She was one of the servants who had sneaked in.