At this time, the cold winter was approaching, and in the deep night, the roads and fields had already frosted over. The sky was bright with a moon like jade, illuminating the frosty ground which shone brightly. Second Master Lin Xuzong lay on the soft couch inside the horse carriage, having someone roll up the curtains. He gazed at the frosty ground on both sides of the road, in the distance was his private gardens Wandering Village Pavilion on the south bank of Shanglin Creek. The Wandering Village Pavilion stood tall on the west bank of Shiliang River, and from the northeast corner of the eaves hung a lantern made of tallow paper, shining like a dark red star under the night sky.

  If todays humiliation can be endured, the prestige built up over the years through hard work among our people will all turn to ashes. How can one bear to face it?

  Lin Xuzong was pinned to the velvet couch, unable to move. Although the executioner had shown mercy and not stripped him bare, Lin Xuzong still received ten lashes from the iron whip with thorns, each lash drawing blood. After applying medicine, the coolness gave way to a burning pain. The iron whip was originally a weapon used by Lins ancestors in battle, but Lin Xuzong didnt know how it had ended up being used as a punishment tool for clan members who broke the rules. Perhaps it was because it had absorbed enough blood, these two iron whips were black and shiny, even after not being touched for a long time, they wouldnt rust.

  The faint sound of wind chimes is heard in the cold wind, ringing out clearly, and the horseshoes crisp sound on the stone street echoes through the night from afar.

  Listening to the sound of horseshoes, Lin Xuzong propped himself up and looked into the distance. At the entrance of the garden, he had someone stop the horse carriage. After a moment, more than ten dark shadows on horseback appeared in his line of sight.

  The sudden appearance of the riders made the servants by the carriage very nervous, Lin Xuzongs mouth curled up, revealing a cold smile. As he looked at the faces of the dozen or so horsemen gradually becoming clear in front of him, he sneered to himself: Everyone knows that I, Lin Xuzong, love horses and generously buy them, but the village militia are all infantry, yet no one asks me where these warhorses have been kept all these years?

  There is a small grove at the northeast corner of the Wangxiang Building, and several figures are hiding in the shade.

  "This damned thing, its really secretly harboring thieves!" Zhao Hu clenched his fist and looked at Lin Xuzong meeting with over a dozen cavalrymen in the northern gate of Wangxiang Tower Garden. "During our time in the countryside, there were some rumors, but they were hard to believe."

  "To make all the grass markets in Shiliang County gather at Shanglintou, and to let the benefits of the grass market at Shanglintou all go to the Lin family, its not hard to imagine that secretly raising bandits is a matter of course," Lin Xie thought that the Lin family secretly raising bandits was also consistent with his previous speculation. Seeing is believing, and there was nothing surprising in his heart. He thought that he would develop in Jiangning in the future, and collude with Qin Chengzu and others privately, which was equally unforgivable in the eyes of the government. Even if it was unforgivable, whats the harm? However, he also said with a hint of disdain, "The second young masters desire for revenge is urgent, but unfortunately, he cant fulfill his wish. Its really sorry for him."

  "In the past two years, whenever there were matters in Shanglinli, the master of the house rarely showed up, and it was always Seventh Madame and Second Master who handled them separately. Today, Second Master was like a dog, holding a knife to your throat, kneeling silently on the muddy ground of the mule market, he didnt even try to save face, how could he convince others in the future, let alone suppress Seventh Madame?" Zhao Hu said with a hint of schadenfreude."

  They lurked in the woods for a moment, and saw that more than a dozen riders had slipped away after whispering something to Lin Xuzongs ear. Lin Xuzong also got into his carriage and entered the garden under the escort of his attendants. Lin Xie stood up, shook off the thin frost on his clothes, and said: "Even if Lin Xuzong has hidden troops in secret, there cant be many...". They stood in the woods, waiting for Wu Qi to return from lurking closer to spy.

  Even when Lin Xuzong and the servants entered the garden, Lin Xuzongs privately raised soldiers all rode away. Wu Qi returned with great caution. Zhao Hu only noticed something was off when Wu Qi had crept back to within ten meters of him, and he saw that the waist-high grass under the moonlight had been blown by the wind in an unusual way. He exclaimed: "Uncle Crow is truly skilled!"

  "The skill of catching cats and stealing dogs is not worth mentioning." Wu Qi, the crow, chuckled with a smile, revealing his dazzling white teeth on his dark and thin face.

  "Youre just good at catching cats and stealing dogs, how can a country bumpkin like you have such a good sword?" Zhou Pu said. He was angry that Wu Qi wouldnt return his saber or bow even though he hadnt gone out to sea. Wu Qi made the excuse that Zhou Pu would be going to Jiangning with Lin Xie later and it would be inconvenient to carry the weapons openly, as they were already quite conspicuous with the ring-handled waist knife he normally carried on him, not to mention his usual habit of hiding in the shadows.

  "What did you hear?" Lin Xie asked Wu Qi.

  "There were about seventy or eighty of them in total, all with good horses. They didnt know which direction we were heading, they just scattered to search. A net cast by seventy or eighty people, even if a hundred people passed through, wouldnt be afraid of being discovered, only afraid that someone would inform on us during the day and reveal our tracks. Lets go to Lake Dam now, then we wont have to worry about being seen during the day."

  Lin tied nodded, he was in Hu Yan to identify the traces of their escape, they could only gallop far away, but if the news got out, it would likely be used by Lin Xuzong to stir up trouble and harm Madame Qi. At this point, without further hesitation, under the cover of moonlight, they walked through the forest, one foot deep and one shallow, looking at the dark silhouette of Iron Curtain Mountain passing by, their horses were hidden in a hunting hut at the foot of the mountain, Chen Enze had also arranged for someone to pick them up and wait.

  ***********

  In the thatched cottage they led the horses and then headed up the mountain, it was only in a secluded valley deep in the woods on the mountain waist where Wu Qi and his men truly hid in Dongyang.

  This time, Wu Qi followed the black crow to Dongyangs Liu Ma Kou, a total of six people, all hiding in secret to await Lin Shu and Zhou Pus orders. At the mule market, Wu Qi only brought two people to show up, waiting for Lin Shu and Zhou Pu to pass by and meet with them, but unexpectedly stirred up these troubles.

  Lin tied up outside the ancestral temple to meet with the seven ladies, and later learned that the person he saved in Shiliang County today was Jiangdongs Vice Censor-in-Chief Gu Wu Chen. He decided not to rush to leave Linli to go to Jiangning. If he could borrow Gu Wu Chens east wind to go to Jiangning, it would be much stronger than a scholar who offended his family and was forced to flee to Jiangning.

  Lin Xuan was also worried that Zhou Pu and Chen Sizhes household registration would be problematic. In Shiliang County, there were people who had a good relationship with the Lin family, but there were also those who did not get along with them. The reason why Lin Xuan suddenly confronted Lin Xu in Ma Shi Market was to create the illusion that "those who offended the powerful Lin family could only escape to Jiangning". This way, even if someone in Shiliang County wanted to find fault with Zhou Pu and Chen Sizhes household registration, they would not be able to find them to testify. Moreover, as a juren leaving his hometown of Dongyang Prefecture and specifically going to Jiangning Prefecture for development, he needed a suitable excuse, and could no longer tell others that he was going for Su Mei.

  On the other hand, Lin Xie was also aware that Seventh Madame hoped he could assist her in Upper Lin Crossing, even if he wasnt his former self. Since he had occupied this body, he couldnt shirk the responsibilities that came with it. To say the least, Gu Yingshou was just a pawn pushed out by Lin Tingyun to suppress Second Young Master Lin Xuzongs premature struggle for clan power. Once Lin Xuzongs ambition couldnt be contained, Gu Yingshous situation would become quite dangerous. Todays commotion had struck down Lin Xuzongs arrogance, which would naturally also suppress his ambition.

  Zhao Hu saw Wu Qi and they were so cautious even when looking for a temporary place to stay, he was very impressed in his heart. When he walked into the mountain valley, he saw that there were no less than sixty fine horses hidden in the forest, all of which had horse bits on their mouths. Occasionally, a horse would snort loudly, but in the forest, it didnt seem unusual at all. Zhao Hu was shocked: "How did you manage to bring so many horses into Dongyang?"

  "Lin Ye and Zhou Pu went to Jiangning and then to Chongzhou, circling around in circles. We directly left Tinghu and arrived at Dongyang, finding a hiding place like this one. For more than half a month, we dispersed and regrouped, bringing all these horses from Huai Shang." Wu Qi said proudly, dispersing and concealing was his specialty, otherwise Qin Chengzu wouldnt have let him be in charge of this matter.

  Qin Chengzu and others, although they had been roaming the north of the Huai River for many years, were mostly living a self-sufficient life in their mountain stronghold, eking out a simple and impoverished existence. They were not as wealthy as those genuine horse thieves who robbed and plundered, and they had no savings to speak of. Their greatest asset was probably the few hundred horses that remained.

  Its hard for people to make a living on the island, so its impossible to bring war horses that eat more than ten times as much as adults onto the island. Although its reluctant in heart, these war horses have to be sold on the shore and exchanged for silver to buy supplies and transport them to Changshan Island, so that people can barely survive and stand firm on Changshan Island.

  After Lin Xie and Zhou Pu left, Qin Chengzu and others had already sold more than 40 fine war horses in Xinpu County, Huaian Prefecture, exchanging them for a shipload of supplies to go to Changshan Island first, but they still raised a batch of good horses on the Huai River.

  Sixty horses that can be used as warhorses are a considerable fortune in this world, and Lin Xuzong is even willing to pay three thousand taels of silver for ten of these fine horses at the mule market.

  Wu Qi led six people back to Huai Shang to dispose of the horses. Wu Qi knew that if he privately contacted those mountain strongholds or rural tyrants who urgently needed warhorses to sell the horses, the most likely outcome would be that these horses would be seized by those ruthless and cunning people, putting even the horse sellers in danger. Private transactions were not feasible, and they dared not openly go to the official market to sell the horses.

  The original plan was to smuggle these fine horses to Shanglin Ferry and sell them in batches, but things never go as planned. The Lin familys greed is one reason; neither Lin Xie nor Zhou Pu were naive enough to think that Lin Xuzong would pay a high price for these horses. Lin Xuzong privately raised bandits, and it was not uncommon for outsiders with unknown identities to be robbed after selling their goods in Shanglin Ferry. Lin Xies status and position in Shanglin Ferry were not sufficient to suppress the Lin familys greed for the sixty horses, leading to a private transaction that was not fair.

  "Go pick one." Wu Qi pointed at the horses among the trees and said to Zhao Hu.

  "Really!" Zhao Hu was incredulous. A head of cattle in Dongyang Prefecture would cost six or seven thousand coins, and an ordinary horse for a carriage would be twice the price of cattle. Although Zhao Hu had always admired riding on horseback with the wind in his hair, the price of riding horses made him shrink back, let alone these warhorses galloping across the plains.

  Zhao Hu entered the forest with a happy heart to pick out the most suitable horse. Lin Xuan, Zhou Pu and Wu Qi found a tree root to sit on, looking worried as they watched these war horses. He couldnt take sixty fine horses to the government market for sale just because he was a jinshi himself. Lin Xuan thought that tomorrow he would still have to discuss this matter with Madame Qi, at least to dispose of some in Shanglin Du, otherwise it would be too conspicuous if they all went to Jiangning.