You rascal, stop right there!

Chapter 240 If you don't agree, you can only collect the body

The investigation in Dingzhou City began all day long from dawn.

All the officials were busy until the hour of Xu, and they arrested some suspicious people one after another, but they still couldn't find any evidence.

Bai Wan sat in the corner of the government office, watching them lead people back and forth into the prison, and vaguely saw that they were not locals.

He knew that there had been a theft in an official's home, so he asked a few questions out of suspicion.

He lived with Ling Shumo, so he didn't find any valuables in the poor Zichen family, only a few books were lost.

What were lost were the common enlightenment books which were not very valuable, such as "Tongjian" and "Poetry".

Bai Wan turned his head thoughtfully and glanced at the person beside him while writing: "Fatty Wang, why didn't you work in the military camp as a fortification worker? Why did you come to the government office and wait until now?"

Wang Sen sighed, "That's right. These thieves have offended all the government officials, and they are just defending against the enemy."

Bai Wan put down his pen and said, "The purpose is so clear. It can't be for gold, silver or jewelry. It must be to steal something else."

At that moment, he put down the things in his hand and slowly rolled them up.

He seemed to have thought of something, and quickly spread out countless scrolls, concentrating and holding his breath, then knocked on the table.

Haqiu——

Still feeling cold, he pulled his cloak tighter.

Wang Sen was about to add more charcoal, but when he opened the hand warmer, he found that it was already cold.

"Boss, did you forget to change the hand warmer again?" He shook his head helplessly.

This person's memory has indeed improved recently, but he still forgets a lot of trivial things. Once you spend some time with him, you will find that he is different from ordinary people.

Not many people would keep a clay tablet album to record their thoughts and words at all times.

If you only focus on the key points, you will always forget something.

Bai Wan looked at him and whispered quietly, "The hand warmer is just an unimportant matter."

"But boss, you even forgot to eat!" Wang Sen reminded.

He looked at the bowl of soup at his feet without even taking a sip, and even forgot about the broken pieces that he had knocked over. He felt really embarrassed.

Bai Wan's complexion turned bad and he directly hit the person on the head like a walnut as a warning.

"Don't tell Lord Ling about this. Just remind me carefully. Otherwise, I'll smash your head!"

Hand warmers are not important, but it is extremely bad to always forget about eating and daily life.

Wang Sen’s eyes widened, he held his forehead in pain and nodded repeatedly.

At this time, Bai Wan sighed, put down the pen in his hand, pretended to be helpless, and wanted to put away all the books and painting albums.

However, I didn't expect that when I carefully scanned the shelf, I found a little dust flying and some signs that it had been moved.

Bai Wan frowned and quickly looked through the box to check the situation.

Sure enough, the Dingzhou City defense map in the box had disappeared.

The person who handled it was very careful, and apart from dust, there was no sign of disturbance. This was completely different from the mess in the homes of those people I had heard about earlier.

The house was so tidy and everything was there, but the precious battle map was missing.

Wang Sen followed and his eyes widened when he saw this scene: "Boss, did you lose something?!"

Bai Wan's face changed and he immediately wrote down the matter. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

"Nothing was lost, don't tell anyone!"

Wang Sen nodded quickly.

Bai Wan began to carefully check the traces in the house, and suddenly found an extremely small footprint in the corner, hidden very secretly.

Wang Sen looked closer, gestured with his hands, and exclaimed, "Boss, this looks like a footprint left by a 5-foot-3-inch man.

"Oh?" Bai Wan glanced sideways.

"I remember that you used to be the turtle man of Baihua Pavilion. You were the best at observing people's words and expressions to identify their karma. You could also tell everyone's body shape and height and had a photographic memory."

"What year's almanac are you talking about? Being a toady is not as promising as being a centurion."

Wang Sen scratched his head and pouted embarrassedly.

Bai Wan patted his shoulder calmly: "There are not many men of this height. Only a fat guy like you can see it so well."

Just at this moment, there was a sudden noisy sound outside.

The two of them hurried out to check, only to see several soldiers whispering, looking panicked and embarrassed.

Bai Wan couldn't help but step forward to ask and found out that someone had just delivered an urgent letter to Ling Shumo. After receiving the letter, he walked into the house with a pale face.

"What letter? It can make Zichen cautious and solemn."

The soldier was flustered and scratched his head: "I don't know."

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment; they had rarely seen this man so solemn.

Bai Wan hurriedly followed to the depths of the mansion, tiptoed to the gate hall, and saw the man sitting in a seat with a frown on his face.

The man was holding the letter with a distracted look on his face, not saying a word.

A Yan and several soldiers and subordinates were sitting around, all with unhappy expressions.

Bai Wan was now a city engineer in Dingzhou and a member of the military, so he quietly asked to enter the room.

"It sounded so noisy and I thought something big might have happened, so I came to take a look!"

The tone was casual, but there was no hint of joking.

The person sitting on the table looked at him, his thin lips slightly parted, as if there were words hidden in his mouth that he couldn't say. He just handed the letter out tacitly.

When Bai Wan took the letter and read it, her face instantly turned very ugly.

It turned out that the Xuanli Army, which was originally stationed ten miles away, had already stationed five miles outside the city and sent a letter.

It said that Ling Shumo's only brother Ling Han was now in the hands of the enemy.

They threatened Ling Shumo to hand over the city and submit a letter of surrender, otherwise they would kill Ling Shumo's younger brother, sister-in-law and unborn child.

Bai Wan frowned and looked at Ling Shumo beside him.

His originally handsome face now turned chaotic and pale, with the color blue and white repeatedly seeping in and out.

At this time, Ling Shumo learned the news, his eyes turned red and he clenched his fists.

"Zihuan and my sister-in-law were originally in Caizhou, but were captured and threatened by Xuanli. They became a bargaining chip to threaten Dingzhou City. They asked me to hand in the surrender letter in three days."

"If you don't agree, you can only collect the body."

"This is a tricky matter!" Bai Wan pondered for a moment and spoke slowly.

Ling Han fled to Caizhou with his family long before the fall of Daying's capital, and now the Daying royal family has moved its capital to Caizhou.

It's easy to guess that the Nanying royal family must have captured Ling Han's family and threatened Ling Shumo in order to please Xuan Li.

"Keep them calm first, then send someone to investigate whether the news is true. If necessary, you can quietly send someone to rescue them." Bai Wan comforted.

Ling Shumo looked at Bai Wan intently, feeling extremely conflicted.

He knew in his heart that he could not compromise. Once he opened the city and surrendered, the people in the city would inevitably suffer a devastating disaster.

I don't know what he thought of, but he suddenly grabbed the other person's arm:

"Abai, have the map and city defense map of Dingzhou City been lost?"