Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 157 Duke

Zhao Fei asked himself that he had countless enemies in the capital, but no matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not figure out who among those people was so powerful that he could steal things right under the nose of the patrol battalion.

The others seemed to have thought of this as well, and they all thought of their enemies. However, after much thought, they still could not find an enemy who met the requirements.

The head of the Li family became angrier and angrier as he thought about it. He scolded the prefect of Jingzhao. The prefect just kept nodding his head and did not dare to defend himself. In fact, he felt very disappointed. Now they had no clue about the theft. The officers went to the shops one by one to investigate but found no clues. The thieves did not even leave a hair behind. The scene was as clean as if it had been washed with water. Under such conditions, where could he catch the thieves?

If you fail to catch a thief, you will be scolded. The prefect of Jingzhao was scolded by several family heads and in the end he had to send them away with a smile.

After seeing off those giant Buddhas, he stopped smiling, and his face became stern and gloomy. The people below didn't dare to breathe, for fear of bringing bad luck upon them.

The instigator of all this chaos was happily drinking milk tea, slurping snail noodles, and gnawing on duck feet, and his life was so comfortable.

Gu Fengyue stared at his chin for a long time, and finally couldn't help but reached out and pinched it.

"Chunlin, you've gained weight."

Song Chunlin was not impressed when he was told he was fat: "I am growing, I am not fat."

Well, Gu Fengyue pinched her fingers again, and only withdrew her hand after Song Chunlin glared at her. However, the soft touch could not deceive anyone. Song Chunlin had indeed gained weight and even had a double chin.

Song Chunlin, who was blessed with a double chin, finished eating the last duck foot, looked at the time, and decided it was time to get to work.

Several family owners who had just returned to their homes quickly sent more people to guard the store in the middle of the night.

These people had already heard about this from their familiar companions, and they privately speculated that the thief was probably not an ordinary person, but a mountain spirit or ghost. So, if they went to keep watch at night, could they come back alive?

"You'd better go to the gym and ask for a talisman to keep you safe."

The guy who heard this immediately ran out with a pale face, thinking that he would feel more at ease if he asked for a few more favors.

There were many people who had the same idea as him. They were all the guys who were sent to guard the night tonight, and not just one shop. All the owners of the shops that were robbed had sent people to guard their shops at night. They just didn't believe that there were people from the patrol camp guarding outside, and their own family members guarding inside. There were also more people patrolling the streets, setting up a dragnet. They didn't believe that those people were really so powerful that they could steal the food under their layers of defense.

Song Chunlin didn't know that there were so many people waiting for him ahead. His strong mental power allowed him to come and go freely in the middle of the night and was not affected by the patrolling soldiers at all. He perfectly avoided all the patrolling soldiers and dodged every soldier he could. As a result, his mental power discovered that there were several shop assistants hiding in those shops, and none of them were asleep. They huddled together in fear with their eyes wide open.

Song Chunlin hissed and scratched his head, thinking that with so many people around, he wouldn't be able to hide away all at once.

After thinking it over, he decided to give those people a mental hint and even asked them to open the door for him. The waiter opened the door for Song Chunlin in a daze. Song Chunlin walked into the shop with a swagger, waved his hand, put all the food in his pocket, and did not forget to say thank you to the waiter before leaving.

The work tonight was relatively easy. Song Chunlin guessed that these family heads were probably frightened by what happened in the past two days, or they were too busy to buy food from him. Therefore, there were not many grain shops with space rice and flour, and he came back in the middle of the night.

The next day, the guys guarding the shops made sharp explosions one after another.

"Ahhhhh, where's the food!"

"I don't know. There's no more rice, no more noodles, and no more whole grains. Oh my God, when did all this happen?"

The guys were so scared that they trembled and ran away screaming and howling. They ran all the way back to the master's house. The head of the Li family had just finished washing up when he heard a noisy sound outside. Hearing this familiar movement, he couldn't help but exclaimed in his heart: "It's bad!"

"What happened in the shop?" At this moment, he didn't care about blaming the shop assistants for the noise, and hurriedly asked them what happened in the shop.

The guy was so scared that he was incoherent. He kept repeating several things over and over again before the head of the Li family pieced together what had happened.

"You said that all the grain is gone again?" The voice of the head of the Li family was weak. After what happened in the past three days, he felt that what was happening now was beyond his understanding. At first he did not believe what the waiter said, but seeing that the waiter looked scared and about to cry, it did not seem to be false, so he asked the waiter to go back and waited for a while. Sure enough, not long after, someone came to report that the grain store was robbed last night and all the new grain that had been moved in was gone.

Those guys were all carefully selected by the manager and were very brave. But after just one night, they all looked terrified. The head of the Li family knew that this was most likely true.

When the head of the Li family thought that the person who stole the food was another person, he was so scared that his legs went limp. He could only stand up with the help of his servants.

Now he urgently needed an answer, so he didn't even bother to have breakfast. He immediately had someone harness the carriage and went to other people's homes to inquire. When he arrived at Zhao's house, Zhao Fei also had an expression as if he had seen a ghost. He and Zhao Fei looked at each other and tacitly guessed what the other had encountered.

"Brother Li, you too..."

"That's right. Brother Zhao, is it the same with you?"

Zhao Fei sighed, "Don't mention it. Didn't my house catch fire before? Later, the arsonist was never found. The way he committed the crime was the same as the grain store thief. The thief didn't leave any footprints, not even a strand of hair."

The head of the Li family had heard about the fire in the Zhao Mansion. At that time, he treated it as a joke. Who would have thought that one day he would actually experience the same thing as Zhao Fei?

The head of the Li family looked at Zhao Fei as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw. He pulled his sleeve and asked anxiously, "Did you really not catch the thief? Then why didn't the fire break out again? Brother Zhao, do you have anyone you suspect?"

Faced with his three questions, Zhao Fei could only shake his head and say he didn't know.

"I wish I knew. That person is so elusive that I still don't know whether he is a man or a woman, or how tall, short, fat or thin he is. I have arrested a few suspicious people, but they still caught fire afterwards. I don't know what happened afterwards. Maybe he let me go because he had enough revenge."

The head of the Li family felt disappointed when he heard this. After a while, he realized something was wrong: "But we haven't offended anyone we shouldn't have, right?"

Zhao Fei was a little depressed: "Who knows? I have decided not to put food in the grain store anymore. It will be lost anyway. I don't have to worry if I don't put it in."

This seems to be a solution, but the head of the Li family is reluctant to close the shop. After all, their family's main business is the grain shop, and they are the largest grain merchant in the capital. If you ask the grain merchant not to sell grain, what will he sell?

Zhao Fei ignored the other party's entanglement. Anyway, their family did not have as many grain shops as the Li family. Moreover, since the opening of that low-price grain shop, their grain shop had not been able to sell a single grain of rice. There was no business whether it was open or not.

Song Chunlin woke up early today, which was rare for him. He woke up just in time for lunch. He and Gu Fengyue were sitting at the table waiting for their meal.

Gu Fengyun came in in a hurry, and as soon as he entered the door, he threw a note to Gu Fengyue.

Song Chunlin also leaned over to take a look out of curiosity. There were not many words on the note. After reading it, he and Gu Fengyue looked at each other silently.

Gu Fengyun drank a cup of tea, which calmed his angry head.

"That idiot, the Grand Marshal, has a temper more stubborn than a donkey, and his brain is not very smart. The emperor specially sent General Qi and others to watch him, but what happened? Several people couldn't stop this idiot. He is a Grand Marshal, but he didn't go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, and even wanted to negotiate with the Turks? What kind of negotiation is he? A Grand Marshal of the current dynasty went to the enemy camp to negotiate. If others didn't shoot him, he would be a fool!"

Gu Fengyun was so angry when he thought of this that he immediately drank another cup of cold tea. After the cold tea went down his throat, he regained some of his rationality.

Gu Fengyue asked carefully: "What are the conditions he proposed?"

Gu Fengyun simply said, "I don't know. Who knows what conditions he wants to propose? No matter what conditions he proposes, the court will not be able to meet them. He is a person with a mental illness. It's a pity that all the glorious military achievements and reputations of his father and grandfather were destroyed by his own efforts. It's really ridiculous."

Song Chunlin was not a local, so he quietly approached and Gu Fengyue gave him some scientific information.

"Zhu Chengyu's grandfather Zhu Zhao was also a Grand Marshal. He and his son, Zhu Chengyu's father, beat the Turks all the way back to the Altai Mountains, and they didn't dare to invade again for decades. At that time, the late emperor was still just a prince. The title of the Duke of Zhenguo was a terrifying one for the Turks. Even my father couldn't compare to him."

Song Chunlin's eyes widened in surprise. It sounded like Zhu Zhao was a very powerful figure. Just the title was scary. Duke Zhenguo, it sounded higher than Marquis Yongyi. How come his descendant was a coward? How could a Grand Marshal not think about fighting when he arrived at the front line but instead wanted to negotiate?

Gu Fengyue also thought of this. He snorted coldly, "Maybe he was spoiled by his family. My brother said that Zhu Chengyu wanted to suppress my father in every way after entering the military camp, but he was not as capable as my father. Not only did he fail to gain attention every time, but he also lost face. Later, my father became the Marquis of Yongyi, and Zhu Chengyu was only able to become a General of the Central Army. The year my father got into trouble, the late emperor made him the Grand Marshal for the sake of his grandfather and father. Maybe the late emperor never thought that Zhu Chengyu was a fool."

Gu Fengyun also laughed: "Don't say that the late emperor didn't know. Even the emperor probably just realized how useless Zhu Chengyu is. He must be thankful that he didn't send the Grand Marshal to the front line for so many years, otherwise those barbarians would have already reached the capital."

When Gu Fengyun got angry, his mouth was as effective as if it was poisoned. The emperor was also very angry at the moment, and he cursed Zhu Chengyu madly, calling him a bastard and a fool. If Zhu Chengyu stood in front of him, the emperor would strangle him to death with his own hands without the need for any Turks.

"Duke Zhu is such a brave and skilled fighter, and Zhu Xianque is also resourceful, but their good grandson and son came to negotiate peace with me? I am going to negotiate peace with him, did I ask him to go to the front line for the sake of peace? He is just surnamed Zhu, not a real pig, how could he have such a pig brain, a good opportunity to make meritorious service was wasted by him, and he still has the nerve to ask if he can come back, haha, wasn't it this idiot who was the happiest at the beginning, saying that the old Marquis Gu deserted the battlefield, and now it's retribution!"

Several cabinet ministers who were standing saw that the emperor was so angry that he even said "mother" - it was obvious that he was really angry.

Those who advocated peace talks at the beginning also felt embarrassed. This bastard Zhu Chengyu, who would go straight to peace talks without fighting? The order is wrong. Look, you have arrived at the front line, you should at least fight a battle. They, the Great Jing Dynasty, are not so poor that they cannot afford to fight a war. You don't even want to fight, and you want to negotiate when you get to the front line. You are so beautiful.

The pro-war faction was also filled with anger. Zhu Chengyu's act of asking for peace in front of the enemy camp was no different from surrendering. He was shot in the abdomen by an arrow and was in critical condition. It was a good thing that he was in critical condition. They wished that this disgraceful guy would die immediately and be replaced by someone who could fight.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. We are not without people. I think General Qi is pretty good. Although he is not as powerful as the old Duke and the old Marquis, he is more than capable of taking the city."

As soon as the left prime minister said this, the others followed suit.

"I second your opinion. General Qi is capable of taking on this important task."

After scolding, the emperor calmed down. This time he was too lazy to listen to the ministers' arguments and directly appointed General Qi to replace Zhu Chengyu as the commander in chief. As for Zhu Chengyu, who cares about him? He can die wherever he wants. It's better if he doesn't come back. It makes him angry just by looking at him.

The events on the border did not have any impact on the capital. After all, the emperor was far away and the people were talking about the embarrassing incident of the Grand Marshal retreating in front of the battlefield.

They say good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. Song Chunlin's workload has dropped sharply at night recently. The reason is that after those wealthy families suffered two thefts in a row, they dare not leave food in the shops. The shops are empty, and Song Chunlin has nothing to do. He is idle every day. Recently, he has developed a new habit, which is to listen to gossip from passers-by in the teahouse.