Chapter 33, On the Return Journey

  Suddenly, the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder.

  At this critical moment, two figures suddenly rushed out from the small road behind the woodcutter. They were Ah Zhong and others who had taken a detour earlier. Seeing seven or eight villagers surrounding Zu Zhao, Ah Zhong drew his sword without saying a word and hurried over in three strides.

  "Master, something's going on over here! These villagers are suspicious!" Ah Zhong shouted loudly as he walked quickly.

  Upon hearing these words, the crowd of young men surrounding Zu Zhao immediately tensed up and drew their swords.

  The villagers around were frightened by this sight, and many of them hastily retreated several steps back, with some timid ones even dropping their tools and fleeing back home.

  Even the woodcutter was frightened out of his wits, standing there in a daze, at a loss for what to do.

  Zu Zhao swept the villagers with an icy gaze, his voice cold and stern: "You're harboring murderous robbers, aren't you afraid of being implicated?" By the last half sentence, he was almost bellowing.

  The remaining villagers were frightened, after all, they didn't know what identity these outsiders had. Hearing the words of the leading youth, they instinctively thought that these people should be official scouts. Immediately, several more people turned and ran away, leaving only three or five people looking around in a flustered and worried state.

  A frail villager exclaimed impatiently: "I knew Deng Lao San would definitely cause trouble, right? Now he's really gotten himself into trouble. What...what is this all about?"

  Another villager also followed and said: "Yes, yes, this matter has nothing to do with us, it's all caused by Deng Lao San."

  The woodcutter's face turned gloomy and he didn't say anything more.

  Zu Zhao didn't bother with these villagers and went straight forward to meet up with Ah Zhong and the others.

  "Right ahead, Zhao Qian and A Bao are guarding there."

  A group of people followed Ah Zhong quickly through a small alley and arrived in front of a courtyard with only three rooms. The wall on the top of the courtyard grew many weeds, the gate was dilapidated, and the whole house had not been repaired for a long time. A young man from the ancestral family stood outside the door, and when he saw Zu Zhao and others arrive, he immediately called out to someone inside.

  Zu Zhao arrived in front of him, without asking in a hurry. He glanced inside the door and saw that the yard was messy and disordered. In the corner of the wall, there was a pile of straw stacked haphazardly. The entire pile of straw was stained with obvious bloodstains. Ah Bao stood beside it, having already lifted one side of the straw pile, revealing the buried body of a horse underneath.

  He said: "When we passed by here, we found that the door was not closed, and there were some bloodstains on the threshold, and a foul smell came out. So we went in to take a look."

  Zu Zhao asked: "Is there any clue about the horse's corpse?"

  Abao, standing beside the haystack, said: "The horse is not wearing a halter, so it's unclear if it's our horse. However, the corpse is still fresh and should have died less than a day ago. Perhaps this horse was the stud horse purchased by Uncle Hong and others, which is why there are no hoof prints."

  Zu Zhaoming thought for a moment, then asked again: "Whose house is this? Where are they?"

  Ah Zhong shook his head and said, "When we came, there was no one here. Although the house had signs of being lived in before, it's all broken and tattered, and there's nothing valuable at all."

  Zu Zhao turned around and ordered: "Find the village chief and bring him over."

  His words had just fallen when the woodcutter they met outside appeared at the gate. Several of the Zu family's young men, who were close to the gate, were watching him warily.

  The woodcutter looked worried and sighed before saying, "What village chief? The person you're looking for is named Deng Mao, styled San. His family has been gone for a long time, he's the only one left."

  Zu Zhaoyang slightly raised his eyebrows, and a guess flashed in his mind: Deng Mao? Could he be one of the future leaders of the Yellow Turbans?

  Historically, there are not many records of the Yellow Turban Army generals. Those who have detailed records and have fought hard battles with the imperial court's army are mostly from the same region. He remembered that the unofficial history recorded Deng Mao as the deputy general of Huang Zu's leader Cheng Yuanzhi, while the unofficial history also rumored that Cheng Yuanzhi and Liu Bei were from the same hometown, namely Youzhou Zhuo County. Zhuo County is not too far away, so it's possible that Deng Mao was from Lingzhi County. Of course, there are no records of Cheng Yuanzhi in official history, so who Deng Mao actually was cannot be determined at present.

  He didn't show his emotions on his face, and then asked: "Who is he, and where is he now?"

  The woodcutter shook his head helplessly and said with unconcealed resentment, "Hmph, this scoundrel is not a good person. He's always idle, and the little property he had at home was squandered away years ago. Every day, he would wander around the village and town, doing nothing but thieving and cheating. Where is he now? For months, he hasn't been living a stable life. Sometimes he'd be out for several days, sometimes he'd shut himself indoors. Nobody in the village knows where he is, nor does anyone care."

  Zu Zhao pointed at the horse by the haystack and asked in a cold tone, "This horse obviously died yesterday."

  The woodcutter shook his head and said: "I did see some commotion at their house early this morning, but as for where he is now, I really don't know."

  Zu Zhaoyi believed the woodcutter's words, and now he had grasped a crucial clue. After some thought, he first thanked the woodcutter and instructed him that if Deng Mao's whereabouts were discovered, someone should be sent to Xu Wuxian North Guanting Station to inform him, and there would definitely be a heavy reward at that time. After sending away the woodcutter, he ordered Ah Zhong, Ah Bao and others to stay in the town, disguising themselves every day to monitor this place, and report back immediately if there was any movement.

  In this matter, he had to leave a hand, the woodcutter and Deng Mao were from the same village, even if they looked down on Deng Mao as a prodigal son, they would still have some feelings for him. If they showed mercy and let Deng Mao go or gave false information, it would be a loss. After giving instructions, he led his men to search and inquire around the village and town.

  When they arrived at the town, they happened to meet with Zu Qi and others. Zu Qi didn't get any useful information from the horse farm, after all, horse traders would never care about people coming to see horses, and instead hoped that more and more people could pay attention to their own horses.

  After another long time of searching, apart from finding out that Deng Maoping was on good terms with several wandering knights in Xili Village and occasionally went to the abandoned Land Temple in the west to meet two Taoist monks, he still couldn't determine his whereabouts. As for those wandering knights, they were not easy to find, often roaming around the entire county; the Land Temple had also been visited, but no so-called wandering Taoist monks were seen.

  Finally returned to the central tavern of the town, had a simple tea break, and specially made detailed arrangements for Ah Zhong, Ah Bao and other four young men to stay overnight in this place. The sky was already late, Zu Zhao still had to hurry back to Xu Wuxian County.

  After finishing their drinks, Zu Zhao led the remaining young men of the Zu family out of the wine shop's gate and to the horse stable outside.

  Just then, a sudden commotion was heard in the distance, and it was getting closer.

  Zu Zhao raised his eyes to look towards the noisy place, and saw that on the main street of the town, more than a dozen robust men holding bound equipment appeared, holding several disheveled and blood-stained people walking towards the entrance, shouting loudly as they walked, as if they were victorious warriors returning home. This scene attracted many onlookers from the side, some followed and jeered, some commented and discussed, and several young dandies participated in it, throwing stones or punching and kicking those who were being held.

  "What's going on here?!"

  "Hasn't he caught the thief?"

  Two young men from the Zhu family curiously guessed.

  Zu Zhao was not a person who liked to be in the midst of noise and commotion. After glancing around casually, he continued to adjust the saddle straps on his horse, preparing to mount it. However, as the noisy crowd drew closer, voices shouting "Horse thief" and "Beat the barbarian to death" could be faintly heard from within the crowd. He was now very sensitive to the term "horse thief", and immediately turned his head to take another look.

  Only to see that the people being held by the crowd were a few Hu people, and upon closer inspection, they seemed quite familiar.

  "Big brother, aren't those the barbarians from the fruit forest just now?" A sharp-eyed young man pointed and exclaimed.

  "It's really them. How could they cause such a commotion?" Another young man said in puzzlement.

  Zu Chao also felt a bit strange, it was fine at noon, but just after a few hours, he was caught. He subconsciously searched for someone in the crowd, but did not find the beautiful Hu woman's figure, and the women and children who were previously in the fruit tree forest tent were also nowhere to be seen.

  "Da Zhuang, go and find out what's going on," he instructed a young apprentice who was closely following him.

  "Yes."

  The young man responded with a sound, ran quickly to the intersection, and inquired of some onlookers.

  After a while, the young man returned and told Zu Zhao what he had found out. It turned out that just as the waiter at the wine shop had said, these uninvited barbarians had offended a local hoodlum a few days ago, and now the hoodlum had gathered the local hooligans, colluding with the village head, the pavilion owner, and other officials to cause trouble for these barbarians. Coincidentally, they found a horse in the forest where these barbarians lived, so they were naturally "framed" as horse thieves.

  "The men were all taken away to the county to be questioned, and the women and children heard that they had been sentenced to be sold as officials," said Da Zhuang.

  "Thief? Didn't the young master say he gave that horse to them?" Zu Qi furrowed his brow, having heard about what happened in the orchard earlier.

  "How can one be blamed for adding to the crime? Can people of a different kind ever have anything fair to say?" Zu Zhao said coldly. He had no psychological burden on this point, but only felt a little uncomfortable in his moral view.

  "What's going on now? Is the horse...?" Zu Ji asked.

  "Don't make a fuss over nothing. Since the horse has already been given to someone else, it's their business now." Zu Zhao didn't hesitate much, he really didn't want to bother with such trivial matters at this moment. After speaking, he leaped onto the horse's back.

  The crowd of relatives and children did not discuss it further, and they all mounted their horses.

  I highly recommend Jia Zhangke's "Unknown Pleasures" and Lu Chuan's "Missing Gun", two truly great films!