“I fear they harmed my father on the road!” On October 20, 1742, An Rong pleaded with the prefect of Shanzhou prefecture, Henan, for an official inquiry into an imprisoned laoguazei. Two years earlier, while at home to the north in Jiangzhou prefecture, Shanxi, An Rong had received a letter from the clerk working in his father’s flower shop far to the northeast in Xinle county, Zhili, asking for his father to come as soon as possible. But his father had left home a month earlier and should have arrived by then. What had happened on the way? Was he stranded in some place, sick from eating the wrong food or incapacitated with a broken leg from falling off the mule? Had he been bitten by a snake, robbed by gangsters, or taken by bandits? With all kinds of dreadful possibilities rushing through his mind, An Rong had left home to look for his father. But two years of futile searching slowly drained his hope. Finally, upon learning of a recently captured gang who had murdered many travelers over the years across Henan, Shandong, and Zhili, An Rong rushed to

中文翻译：

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路上的危险：十八世纪华北的旅人、老瓜贼与国家

“我怕他们在路上伤害了我父亲！” 1742 年 10 月 20 日，安荣请求河南陕州知府对被囚禁的老瓜贼进行正式调查。两年前，在山西江州北部的家中，安荣收到了父亲在遥远的东北直隶新乐县花店工作的店员的来信，要求父亲尽快来。可能的。但是他的父亲一个月前就离开了家，应该在那个时候到达。路上发生了什么？他是否被困在某个地方，因为吃错了食物而生病，或者因为从骡子上掉下来断了腿而无法行动？是被蛇咬，被歹徒抢劫，还是被土匪抓走？各种可怕的可能性涌上心头，安荣离家出走了去找父亲。但两年徒劳的寻找慢慢耗尽了他的希望。最后，安荣得知一个新近抓获的团伙，多年来在河南、山东、直隶等地杀害了许多旅客，于是赶忙赶到。