At midnight, Liu Xianghe finally breathed his last, and died unwillingly. The servants immediately moved the body away, cleaned the cell, and disinfected it to remove the bad luck. Wu Bantou felt that Liu Xianghe must have had a lot of resentment when he died, and worried that the resentment would remain, so he decided to leave the cell vacant for half a month or a month before arranging for the prisoner to move in. Chen Guanlou had no objection to this. During this whole process, Wu Bantou kept scolding the Six Gates for being unhuman and too vicious. Chen Guanlou rested in the office and had a good sleep. At dawn, he took a dozen jailers out and went to Suizhou for official business. With the care of the Hou Mansion, they either rode horses or took boats all the way, and arrived in Suizhou in five or six days. It was the first time for the jailers to leave the capital, the first time to go so far, and the first time to spend public money. Everything they saw was strange. Chen Guanlou first went to the government office to make a deal, and then contacted the steward of the Hou Mansion who stayed in Suizhou. The steward took him into a warehouse, "These are the goods that need to be escorted."
The goods were all neatly packed in wooden boxes covered with oilcloth. Chen Guanlou asked the steward, "What goods are in it?" "I don't know." The steward answered crisply, and it seemed that he really didn't know. "You haven't opened it to see?" The steward seemed very strange when he heard this, and whispered, "When working in the Marquis' Mansion, you must first learn not to be curious. You are a member of the Chen family, so you should know better." "I don't understand." Chen Guanlou grinned at the steward, "Can I open it to see what goods are in it?" "No!" The steward was very anxious by him, "Chen the jailer, do your job well and don't make trouble, okay?" Chen Guanlou's hand passed over the cargo boxes and smiled, "Don't worry, I know the rules. Where are the people? Didn't you say that you have to send someone to Beijing?" "Who?" "You don't know?" This time it was Chen Guanlou's turn to be surprised that the other party didn't know. The steward said: "My task is to handle the handover of goods with Chen the jailer and ensure that Chen the jailer can smoothly transport the goods out of the city. I really don't know the person you are talking about." Chen Guanlou:... "Are there other people in Suizhou from the Marquis' Mansion?" "There were before, but then there were several accidents and everyone withdrew." "What accidents?" "We were attacked, robbed, poisoned, in short, all kinds of accidents. The higher-ups were worried that everyone would get into trouble, so they withdrew everyone. Only I and a few guards stayed." "Do you know what the reason is?" "At first I thought this batch of goods was being targeted. Later I found out that the reason was not this batch of goods. I don't know the details." The steward looked bitter and resentful. It was obvious that he had been tossed around a lot during this period. He didn't eat well or sleep well. He was highly nervous and anxious. He was clearly middle-aged, but he had acne on his face, which was evident from this. Chen Guanlou said.
That night, he rested in the inn, arranged by the steward. He thought there would be trouble in the middle of the night, but it was quiet all night. The next day, he went through the handover formalities with the local government and completed the necessary procedures. He went to the cell to look at the people to be escorted. The list given to him was all middle-level generals in the Chu King's army. But when he took the list to the prison, he looked at the people in the cell and laughed. He pointed to a few crooked melons and cracked dates in the cell, "You tell me, are these generals in the Chu King's army?" They were not even as good as street thugs, all of them were old, weak and disabled. The official in charge of the local government rolled his eyes secretly, "We are all doing things according to the procedures. These are the people sent from the front, and there has been no mistake from beginning to end. If you suspect that someone has been swapped, then go to the front to investigate, don't look for us. I heard that you and the deputy general of the imperial army are brothers, go ask him!" So arrogant. Chen Guanlou sneered and shouted at the prison door, "Who is General Ningyu?" A middle-aged man raised his hand, "I am Ningyu." "You are Ningyu? How old are you this year?" "Thirty!" You are thirty, I am only thirteen. Damn! Before Chen Guanlou came, he knew that this mission would definitely cause trouble, but he didn't expect it to be so chaotic. He started messing around from the source. Even if he wanted to find someone to pretend to be the general of the King of Chu's army, he should at least find a few decent ones. Such a perfunctory approach undoubtedly shows his unscrupulous style of doing things. Is this the intention of Chen Guanfu, the son of the Marquis's Mansion, or the intention of the butler, or the intention of the master? He suppressed his dissatisfaction and said to the official in charge, "I'll pick him up tomorrow." "Leaving tomorrow?" The official in charge smiled and said, "Why don't you stay for two more days. There are several beautiful places outside Suizhou City where you can go for fun." "No! The higher-ups are urging me to do this job, so I have to hurry back to the capital." The official in charge was just saying it casually and didn't really intend to keep him. Seeing that Chen Guanlou was understanding, he said, "Okay. I'll wait for you here tomorrow morning, and you can pick him up after you've completed the formalities." "If anyone here is sick, I'll make preparations early to avoid any accidents on the way. If someone dies, I'll have to take the blame." "Don't worry, even though they're all ugly, they're all in good health. I guarantee that they'll make it to the capital in one piece." "Then I'll be relieved." Chen Guanlou returned to the inn and asked the boss to prepare a banquet. He asked the steward to drink with him. We are leaving tomorrow, let's drink, chat, and get close. This errand is very strange. It always feels like there is a lot of mystery. He suspected that the chief steward was using him as a cover-up to confuse foreign enemies. It's just that this deception method is not very clever. Anyone with eyes can see that those crooked prisoners are extremely perfunctory and careless. But I'm in charge here, and I don't know anything about it. On the other side of the Yamen, things were done according to the rules and they were equally clueless. The steward saw that he was upset and comforted him kindly: "Prisoner Chen, don't think too much. This errand should not be difficult. I hired a well-known local gangster, and with the name of Tianlao, the road should be safe."
Chen Guanlou smiled and said, "Were you safe before? Those prisoners were really escorted from the front?" "I really don't know about people's affairs. I'm only responsible for the goods. I work in a trading firm under the Hou Mansion. When the big shopkeeper asked me to come and look at this batch of goods, I came. I really don't know about the rest." "I believe you!" "Thank you, Prisoner Chen. You will leave tomorrow. I will toast you first." Chen Guanlou drank and asked the other party, "After the errand here is over, are you going back to the capital or to the trading house?" "Of course I'll go back to the trading house. The trading house is short of manpower, and I've been away for too long. After that, I may have to go to the front to deliver some goods to the prince." "What does the prince need? Why don't you go to the Yamen or the Ministry of War? This is the world of the Song family. There is no reason for the prince to use the property of the Marquis Mansion to fight for the Song family." "The prince always has some personal needs. Of course, he cannot go through the channels of the Yamen and the Military Department." Chen Guanfu is the heir apparent of the Hou Mansion, and Chen Guanlou has never seen him before. The last time he saw the other person was more than ten years ago, when he was studying in the clan's private school, and he glanced at her quickly. I no longer remember what the other party looked like, only a vague impression remains.