A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 874 Zhen Yinglian

That night, while the Lin family was fast asleep, Lu Cheng quietly left the room, walked out of the Lin Mansion, easily climbed over the city wall of Yangzhou, and arrived outside the city.

In just half an hour, Lu Cheng arrived at a forest nearly a hundred miles away and found the group of bandits who had robbed the Flying Eagle Gang's caravan.

There were more than 30 bandits in this group, all of them were young and strong men, and the weapons in the camp were indeed standard equipment of the border army.

Lu Cheng naturally would not show any mercy to those guys who dared to rob his men. It only took him a few minutes to kill all the more than 30 bandits, leaving only their heads and necks.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng interrogated the leader carefully and learned some information about Liaodong and the Jiannu from him.

More than a hundred years ago, due to a change in history, the Ming Dynasty took a different path, and the new four kings and eight dukes emerged, including the Ning and Rong mansions of the Jia family, and the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue in Jinling City.

However, in Liaodong, although many historical figures have changed, the overall situation remains similar to that of the late Ming Dynasty.

Today, the border towns of the Ming Dynasty are in disrepair, and many thousand-household units in Liaodong can no longer be maintained. The military households see no hope of success, and coupled with the frequent looting by the rising Jian Nu, many deserters have appeared.

This deserter leader was originally a general flag officer. During a raid by the Jiannu, he fled without fighting. Fearing military law, he fled south with his men. During his escape, he recruited some other deserters, abandoned some old and weak soldiers, and finally came to the prosperous Jiangnan with about 30 people, wanting to occupy the mountain and become the king.

It’s a pity that he offended the wrong person.

From some of the information this guy had provided, Lu Cheng had deduced that Nurhaci had now conquered the five tribes of Jianzhou, unified Jianzhou, and had moved the capital to Hetuala.

According to Nurhaci's speed of advancement, if the Ming Dynasty did not intervene, it would take Nurhaci five or six years at most to establish a country and proclaim himself Khan.

I just don’t know whether the original Battle of Sarhu would have happened, and what the outcome would have been?

After gaining a better understanding of the situation on the border, Lu Cheng killed the bandit leader, cleaned up the battlefield, and put all the usable items and the goods they looted into the storage space.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng returned to Yangzhou City and delivered the goods to a yard in the south of the city.

In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

That afternoon, Lu Cheng received news from Jinling City that the Flying Eagle Gang had found the little girl with a cinnabar mole on her forehead that Lu Cheng mentioned, and was currently keeping an eye on her.

After receiving the news, Lu Cheng immediately found Lin Ruhai and explained that he wanted to return to Jinling City to pay homage to his parents.

Filial piety is more important than Mount Tai, so Lin Ruhai would naturally not refuse. He immediately prepared to arrange some servants to accompany Lu Cheng back to Jinling.

There are many rivers in the Jianghuai area. It is less than 200 miles from Yangzhou Prefecture to Jinling, but one has to cross the Yangtze River.

Lu Cheng took a few servants and traveled by boat. They set out the day before and arrived in Jinling City in the evening of the next day.

After entering the city, Lu Cheng first returned to the old house of this identity, a small courtyard located in the south of the city.

After Lu Cheng was abducted, this small courtyard has been uninhabited.

After Lu Cheng became Lin Ruhai's apprentice, Lin Ruhai thought that Lu Cheng might return to his hometown in the future, so he sent people to give some money to Lu Cheng's neighbors and asked them to help look after the yard and clean it.

Today, although this small courtyard has not been inhabited for nearly a year, it is not completely abandoned, and some vegetables are planted in the corners of the courtyard.

Seeing Lu Cheng dressed in brocade clothes and followed by several servants, the neighbors guessed that Lu Cheng must have gotten lucky after being abducted.

Lu Cheng simply greeted his neighbors and asked a servant to prepare incense, candles and paper money. The next day, Lu Cheng went to two graves outside the city to pay homage.

The identity backgrounds arranged by the system are all authentic and traceable.

After paying tribute to his parents, Lu Cheng led his men back to Jinling City. When passing through an alley, Lu Cheng suddenly said, "Laiwang, Laishun, you guys go back first. I haven't been back to Jinling for a long time, and I want to walk around the city by myself."

"Yes, sir. Please be careful."

After the two servants left, Lu Cheng quickly crossed two streets, turned two corners, and came to the entrance of an alley. He sat down at a snack stand nearby, ordered a bowl of plain noodles, and started eating.

While eating noodles, Lu Cheng would occasionally pay attention to a courtyard somewhere in the alley not far away.

About a quarter of an hour later, two figures, one tall and one short, came from the other end of the alley. The taller one was a man in his thirties, with a rat-like appearance that was unpleasant.

The shorter one was a little girl about ten years old, with delicate features, fair skin, and a cinnabar mole the size of a grain of rice between her eyebrows.

Lu Cheng immediately used his identification skills to check it out:

Zhen Yinglian: She is eleven years old now. She was originally the daughter of Zhen Shiyin from Suzhou. She was abducted and sold during the Lantern Festival when she was four years old...

After confirming that the little girl was the Zhen Yinglian he was looking for, Lu Cheng did not hesitate. He immediately stood up, left money for the noodles, and walked towards the two people in the alley.

The man with a rat-like face immediately became alert when he saw someone coming towards him. After seeing that it was a teenager, he breathed a sigh of relief.

After taking a closer look, he found that the young man in front of him was very extraordinary, with outstanding looks and extraordinary temperament, like a son of a royal or noble family.

For a moment, the man had an idea. He might as well kidnap the boy as well. Maybe he could sell him for a higher price.

Thinking of this, the man put on an ugly smile: "Young man, do you also live on this street? We just moved here, how come we don't know you?"

Lu Cheng also smiled slightly: "Are you a kidnapper who specializes in trafficking children?"

The man was startled when he heard that, then he looked around hurriedly to make sure there was no one else. Then he asked sternly: "Whose kid are you? What nonsense are you talking about? If you dare to talk nonsense again, be careful of me..."

Before he could finish his words, the young man in front of him suddenly kicked him. He was caught off guard and was hit hard between his legs. He felt a piercing pain in his lower body and fell to the ground, sweating profusely in pain.

Lu Cheng kicked out, then immediately turned around and grabbed the still dazed Zhen Yinglian, protecting her behind him: "Little sister, don't be afraid. I was kidnapped by these kidnappers before, and I knew at a glance that he was not a good person. You must have been kidnapped by them as well. Come on, I'll take you away from here first, and then find the officials to catch this guy."

Zhen Yinglian was abducted at the age of 4, and it has been 7 years now. Over the years, she has been taken around by this kidnapper and has been abused, beaten and scolded. She has tried to escape, but never succeeded.

When Lu Cheng pulled her, she was still a little afraid and hesitant. But after hearing Lu Cheng's voice and taking a look at the crutches who had fallen to the ground, she followed Lu Cheng and left.

Lu Cheng first took Zhen Yinglian back to the old house, and then asked Lai Wang to take Lin Ruhai's business card to the Jinling government office and inform the Jinling prefect of the matter.

The current Jinling prefect has reached the end of his term and is about to retire, waiting for the new prefect to take over. When he heard that a disciple of the Yangzhou Salt Inspector had come to sue the kidnapper, he had to take it seriously and immediately sent a yamen runner to take the kidnapper back.

Lu Cheng's kick basically crippled the cripple. Without help from others, he definitely couldn't stand up. Moreover, Lu Cheng deliberately left some tricks on the cripple, just in case.

Not long after, the kidnapper was escorted to the court. The prefect also looked at Lu Cheng curiously: "Lu Cheng, how did you know that this man was a kidnapper?"

"Sir, last year, I was also kidnapped by these kidnappers. Fortunately, I was helped by my mentor. Since then, I have hated these kidnappers. When I saw this man today, I felt that he was somewhat similar to those kidnappers. This man has a rat-like face and looks around when he walks. The little sister he brought with him doesn't look like him at all.

Therefore, I guessed that he was most likely a kidnapper. But I was not sure about this, so I deliberately walked over and tricked him by saying that he was a kidnapper. This man was really panicked, looking around, with a fierce look in his eyes towards me, not like a good person, so I kicked him and took the opportunity to leave with this little sister..."

The prefect glanced at the beggar who was still in great pain and nodded: "Appearance reflects the heart. This person is indeed not a good person."

Afterwards, after being severely tortured, the kidnapper confessed directly.

The prefect also wanted to save trouble and sentenced him to death on the spot.

Also, because Zhen Yinglian was still very young when she was abducted, and had been taken around by the kidnapper, she had long forgotten her parents and hometown, and there was no way to send her back home.

Lu Cheng certainly knew Zhen Yinglian's parents, but her mother had long passed away, and her father had become a monk following a Taoist priest and no one knew where he had gone.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng proposed to take Zhen Yinglian away. The prefect naturally had no questions, and even Zhen Yinglian herself agreed.

Of course, Zhen Yinglian no longer remembers her own name.