Chapter 648: Finding Survivors
Chapter 648: Finding Survivors
In the room, Zhao Juan'er asked with a smile while holding a teacup, "If the people from the Ministry of Justice were really harmed by thieves, then do you think they will come to the refugee camp to kill the Chen family?"
Shi Xiaozhen was organizing the content of his conversation with the Chen family today. He stopped writing and thought for a while, "I think the Chen family's case is very simple. The Chen family knows almost nothing about it. There is no need to kill them, and it will also alert the enemy. I don't think they will be killed. Besides, if they were going to kill them, they would have done it a long time ago, and would not have waited until now!"
"My husband, what you said makes sense. Is there anything new in our conversation with the Chen family today?"
Shi Xiaozhen nodded. "The Wang family said that the youngest son of the Chen family was killed by a dog. The Chen family did not see it with their own eyes. In addition, the body they gave to the Chen family's son was a headless body. This is why the Chen family cannot accept it."
Zhao Juan'er's eyes lit up, "Could it be that the third son of the Chen family is not actually dead, and the body given was that of another person?"
"I have the same suspicion. I feel that the Wang family does not want the 120 acres of wasteland. The 20 refugee families resettled in their village have all reclaimed the wasteland, but only the Chen family encountered this kind of thing. The conditions of the land are not very good. It is in the mountains."
"My husband, what you mean is that their goal is to get the daughter-in-law of the Chen family?"
Shi Xiaozhen nodded, "It's just a hunch. His daughter-in-law is a northern peasant woman with a big frame. She has been working in the fields for a long time. Her skin is rough and dark. She doesn't look good at all. She is actually taken over by the other party. There is always a kind of weirdness in this. We have to go to the scene to investigate."
"Do you think I'm pretty, my husband?"
Shi Xiaozhen laughed dryly and said, "We will set off tomorrow. The Ministry of War will allocate two 5,000-stone warships to us. I will take 300 people to Jing County to investigate the case. However, the most urgent task is to find the missing captain. I want to know what happened to the Wuhu Town shipwreck?"
Shi Xiaozhen and his men first arrived at Dangtu County. The bodies of six investigators from the Ministry of Justice and two boatmen were placed in the county government office. Due to the hot weather, the bodies were a bit smelly and had to be buried as soon as possible.
Shi Xiaozhen had never seen any of the six investigators before, so he could not identify them and could only identify them based on their badges.
Shi Xiaozhen checked the bodies of the eight people and found no external injuries. It was obvious that they had drowned. However, the two boatmen were both experienced boatmen. How could they have drowned?
At this time, Zhao Juaner carefully examined the bodies and found something unusual. One of the boatmen had a serious injury on his head. It is very likely that he was knocked unconscious and then fell into the water and drowned.
It is impossible to know who knocked the boatman unconscious or how the other boatman drowned. The only eyewitness at the scene was the boat captain, who has neither been seen alive nor found dead, and his whereabouts are unknown.
Two days later, two 5,000-stone warships arrived at Wuhu Town, and three hundred internal security soldiers rested in Wuhu Town for a day.
Shi Xiaozhen brought his wife to a restaurant for dinner. They had just eaten for a while when suddenly a ball of paper was thrown in front of Shi Xiaozhen. Shi Xiaozhen looked up in surprise, only to see a person quickly going downstairs.
Shi Xiaozhen opened the paper ball and there was only one sentence on it: "See you at the back door of the restaurant!"
"Husband, what is it?"
Shi Xiaozhen handed the note to his wife, and Zhao Juaner asked curiously, "Who wants to see my husband?"
"I don't know, let's go check it out!"
Shi Xiaozhen picked up the knife in his hand. Zhao Juaner quickly paid the money, took the sword and followed her husband downstairs.
The couple went around to the back door of the restaurant, but didn't see anyone. Just as they were wondering, someone behind them suddenly asked, "Are you the inner guards?"
When they turned around, they found that the door behind them was ajar. Half of the face revealed through the crack was the owner of the restaurant.
"How does the shopkeeper know that I'm an internal guard?" Shi Xiaozhen asked.
"I saw your badge looks a bit like it."
Shi Xiaozhen nodded, "We are internal guards, what do you want me for?"
The shopkeeper looked to both sides and whispered, "If you want to see the surviving captain, follow me!" Shi Xiaozhen was cheered up. This captain was the key figure in the death of the six investigators from the Ministry of Justice. He hurriedly took his wife and followed the shopkeeper into a small alley.
At the end of the door, there was a wooden door. The shopkeeper said, "This is my home. The captain is a distant relative of mine. He was seriously injured, and I saved him. Recently, people have been asking about him, so I dare not reveal it."
"Who's going to ask about him?"
"I don't know them. Two groups of people came here one after another, but I haven't seen them in the past two days."
Shi Xiaozhen and his wife entered the yard and walked into a small room, where they saw a man lying on the bed. He saw Shi Xiaozhen's badge and struggled to sit up. Shi Xiaozhen then discovered that he seemed to have an abdominal injury, and he had applied medicine and was wrapped in cloth.
"Are you the captain of the ship?"
The person on the bed nodded, "I am Zhang Shan!"
That makes sense, the missing captain was called Zhang Shan.
"Tell me, what happened? How did the six people in the investigation team die?"
Zhang Shan sighed and said, "This incident is thrilling and unbelievable. I still don't know what happened."
"You just state the facts, and I will judge the rest."
Zhang Shan nodded, "My boat is a passenger ship with a capacity of 1,000 dan. I have two boatmen under my command. They have been with me for many years and are as close as brothers. One is called Jin Ming and the other is called Song Xiaoyi. When the boat arrived at Wuhu Town that day, Ma Gong brought his men ashore to drink and eat. I was in charge of supplies, and Jin Ming and Song Xiaoyi also went ashore to play.
Soon Song Xiaoyi came back and brought someone with him. Song Xiaoyi said that his mother was seriously ill and he had to go back immediately. The person he brought was his relative, who was also a boatman. He didn't ask me for a penny and helped me row the boat to Jingxian. I agreed because I wanted to save money.
Later, Ma Gong and his men came back and the ship set sail. The newcomer went to make tea. As soon as he entered the Qingge water, I found that Ma Gong and his six men had fainted after drinking the tea. I hurried to find that man and happened to see him knock Jin Ming unconscious with a stick. I pounced on him and fought with him desperately.
Just then a big ship rushed over and overturned my boat. We all fell into the water. I struggled with the man in the water and he stabbed me twice, but I still strangled him by the neck and drowned him.
I got into the overturned boat again and found that everyone was missing. I had no choice but to swim to shore and found my relative, Shopkeeper Mao.
Shi Xiaozhen and his wife looked at each other, and they were indeed shocked. Shi Xiaozhen asked again: "Why didn't you report it to the police?"
Zhang Shan sighed and said, "I had to go to Dangtu County to report to the authorities. I was injured and couldn't move, so I asked Shopkeeper Mao to report to the authorities for me. Shopkeeper Mao told me that a group of people of unknown origin were looking for me. I thought they were Jiang bandits. Later, I heard that all eight of them were dead. I became even more scared and had to hide here to heal my wounds."
At this time, Zhao Juaner suddenly asked: "What is the background of the other boatman Song Xiaoyi?"
The boatman Song Xiaoyi did not die. It was the people who got on the boat halfway who died. This Song Xiaoyi was the key person.
Zhang Shan shook his head. "He and I have been sailing together for seven or eight years. He was a Jiang bandit for a few years, but later he changed his ways and has been following me ever since. This time, it was Song Xiaoyi who sent six people from the Ministry of Justice to Jing County to investigate a case. I feel like he still has connections with the Jiang bandits."
"Do you think it was Jiang the thief who did it this time?"
Zhang Shan smiled bitterly and said, "A large ship would not capsize us for no reason, especially since the ship was flying the double-dragon flag of the river thief Fu Guangming."
Zhao Juan'er looked around the room. When she saw a place, her expression suddenly changed slightly. She looked at the captain's injury again. A strange color flashed in her eyes. She quickly pulled her husband and said, "My husband, I feel a little unwell. Let's go back first!"
(End of this chapter)