Li Ling took a deep breath, quickly swept his eyes from the officials and subordinate generals in front of him, and said calmly: "They did take action."

Although his attack this time was completely unexpected to everyone in the Luotian Cult, he captured all the important people in the inn and cut off their contact with other subordinates hiding in the ambush in the city. But it was obvious that these Luotian Cult subordinates were also very awake. Once they noticed that there was something in the city, they did not dare to delay and wait any longer, and they directly launched an accident!

These words made many officials who were already worried about the fires everywhere in the city even more nervous, especially Wang He and others, who looked at Li Ling in a stuttering manner: "Sir..."

"Tell me my order, let the official army guard the gates to the death, and do not relax their guards because of chaos in the city. The defenders in the city obey my orders, first ensure the safety of the people, and then regularly follow the traces of the thieves to find the thieves, but those who dare to resist do not have to show mercy, and kill them without any mercy!" Li Ling immediately issued an order, his face was solemn and murderous, which was as expected.

"Abide by the order!" The city guards around him immediately responded in unison, and then rushed to take people to work hard. The Luotian Sect's rebels were in chaos in the city, and they were the ones who were responsible for the greatest responsibility, so naturally they did not dare to neglect at all.

After watching them, Li Ling quickly turned his gaze to the northwest, which was the granary and the arsenal. Maybe there were people from the Luotian Sect who took advantage of the chaos elsewhere to touch them. But soon, he retracted his gaze and continued to say in a deep voice: "What are you doing when you are standing in a hurry? Go in and search, and you must find Zhao Chenghuang for me, and see people and corpses when you die!"

"Yes!" After Li Ling glanced at the generals of the army, his heart was terrified. He did not dare to drag him any longer. He lit torches and rushed into the door. He searched carefully among the courtyards of the inn, and did not dare to let go of one corner or another.

"Magistrate Wang." Li Ling turned to Wang He at this time and said, "You still need to rush to the government office to take charge. I also left three hundred subordinates there, enough to protect you."

"Sir, please obey the order." Wang He hurriedly agreed, called several yamen servants and rushed there. As for the others, they each had their own chores that they needed to deal with, and they didn't need Li Ling to make any arrangements. They all dispersed, either returning to the yamen to preside over the overall situation, or escorting the newly rescued inn residents to settle elsewhere - of course, they could not leave freely before they were confirmed to be accomplices of the Luotian Sect.

Until everything was arranged and his subordinates were busy searching for the whereabouts of Zhao Chenghuang and others in the public hall, Li Ling finally came to the shocked sister, who looked suspicious and looked at her: "Sister, I will ask someone to take you and Tangtang to the government office later, so it should be safer there."

Looking at his brother's murderous aura and giving orders just now, seeing him discussing with him gently, Li Le'er felt unreal. He was stunned for a while before nodding: "Okay, I...we will follow you. Brother Ling, you must take good care of yourself, don't be hurt."

"Don't worry, with so many people protecting me, no one in the world can hurt me." Li Ling smiled and asked the Yang brothers to protect their mother and daughter to go to the government office. Logically speaking, he could also go to the government office to take charge and coordinate everything at this time, but because he was always worried about Zhao Chenghuang, he decided to stay here and wait for the result until he dug out the person before talking.

At this time, the entire inn had been occupied by hundreds of imperial guards and officials of the government office. Hundreds of torches were shining, and this place was brighter than during the day. It could illuminate every corner. Not to mention people, as long as you want to find it, you don’t even want to avoid it.

These soldiers and generals were even more strict with Li Ling's order and did not dare to slack off at all. They searched in an instant, and even the ground was carefully knocked over with weapons and sticks to prevent secret passages from happening in secret rooms.

In this way, as soon as we entered the courtyard, we searched the houses one by one. When the sky turned bright, we had searched all the places here. But in the end, we found nothing. Not to mention Zhao Chenghuang and others, even their traces could not be found, which confirmed that they had previously hidden in the yard next to the kitchen, but that was all information that had been known before.

Li Ling had already moved into the inn at this time, waiting for news in the main hall. After hearing the endless reports of nothing coming, his expression gradually became gloomy. This is not right. His reaction was fast enough. No matter how cunning Zhao Chenghuang was, he could not escape without a trace in such a short time. He did not have the ability to fly to the sky and escape...

After thinking for a while, Li Ling asked someone to call the postmaster over. This man who fought with him had surrounded the entire inn since midnight and wanted to send all the residents away safely, he was already in control.

After a while, Feng Yicheng, a little fat, came to Li Ling tremblingly. Before he could finish his salute, Li Ling asked: "Is there any authenticity in this inn that ordinary people don't know? You have to think about the answer, but if there is something wrong, I will determine that you are a conspirator of the Luotian Sect."

Feng Yicheng shivered, letting those traitors hide here have enough to drink a pot. If Lord Li's determination is added, his whole family may be dead. So he didn't hold back the words he said, and then he thought hard, but he didn't get any results: "Sir, there is really no authentic dark room in our inn... This is an inn opened by the government office, which is enough to ensure the safety of everyone, so why bother to do this?"

Li Ling nodded and agreed with his statement. But the question is, if there were no such things, where did Zhao Chenghuang and the others hide? Even if they ran away in the chaos, it would be impossible to escape silently. You must know that there are still people guarding the outside world now.

Seeing that there was still doubt in Li Ling's eyes, Feng Yicheng felt even more panic and racked his brains to think about the possibility. Suddenly, he paused and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he was hesitant.

However, Li Ling saw his reaction and immediately said, "If you have anything, say it, no matter whether it is reasonable or not!"

"Yes... as far as the officials know, this inn was renovated a few years ago, and it was not the yamen that paid for it, but the Cai family. Then because of the renovation here, it also affected the business of the nearby shops. The Cai family's master was also very generous at that time, so they bought the yard there for twice the price..."

When Li Ling heard this, he suddenly stared at the other party and said, "Where is the yard? Where is the connection with the inn?" "Just... it's on the west side, I'll be in the back kitchen and enter the courtyard two times..." Feng Yicheng also felt that the situation was a little bad, so he quickly replied. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ling strode out and came to the yard on the far right after a moment. This was originally a living yard, but because it was too remote, he had never lived in any guests on weekdays, which seemed a bit desolate.

Someone had searched here carefully before, and now there are still people who are guarding here. When they saw Lord Li bringing people over, they immediately saluted and said, "Sir, there is no secret passage here..."

"Look at the wall." Li Ling pointed to the west courtyard wall. It was no longer within the scope of the inn, which was the courtyard next to the Cai family, which Feng Yicheng said.

This was really ignored by everyone. After all, everyone was busy looking for people, secret passages, etc. With Li Ling's guidance, several people quickly went to the edge of the courtyard wall that was more than one person high and carefully checked, and then exclaimed: "Here... there are new friction marks here, which were left by people after climbing here!"

A sharp light flashed in Li Ling's eyes. Who would have thought that the other party would use such a move, which was the easiest way to leave, rather than the secret passage in the secret room they had judged before...

At that moment, someone quickly climbed over the wall and headed into the yard there, while others surrounded him and headed straight to the gate of the next courtyard.

But it is obvious that after about an hour of delay, Zhao Chenghuang and others who climbed over the wall to the other side had already escaped and fled. Especially after some searches, they found a secret passage leading directly to the outside room in a side hall. I thought that after the other party flipped into this place, they did not stop at all, so they left the secret passage again.

When his subordinate reported all this to Li Ling, his face became more and more gloomy. Who would have thought that it would be like this. Zhao Chenghuang could escape from his hands. This was no different from a cooked duck suddenly flying away.

Seeing him like this, his subordinates and others were even more worried and knelt down and admitted their mistakes: "Sir, it's because we are not doing our jobs well, so we have the opportunity to take advantage of the thief. Please punish me!"

Feng Yicheng was even more panicked, but he didn't dare to speak, so he could only stay by his side and look at Li Ling's reaction.

Li Ling was silent for a long time and looked around at these subordinates. He did not expose his anger on them. After all, they just obeyed the orders and were the ones who really made the judgment. Moreover, they had already done everything they should do, and even the defense lines on the streets outside had not been removed...

wrong!

Li Ling suddenly felt aroused and realized that there was something unreasonable about this matter.

Although the defense line he laid out was indeed out from the last exit of the secret passage, in the current situation, does Zhao Chenghuang really have the courage to take such a risk?

Moreover, the city is now in chaos, and the people are staying at home and dare not go out. Outside, they are all officers and soldiers patrolling everywhere. Even if they can really sneak out of the outside, are they not afraid of being exposed to the officers and soldiers at any time and eventually being arrested?

During this period, except for the constant sound of killing, no one came to report any suspicious people running around in the city.
Chapter completed!