Chapter 204: Clues to the Horse Bandits
Chapter 204: Clues to the Horse Bandits
At this time, a soldier reported, "Your Excellency, General Xu is here!"
Xiao Xia was waiting for Xu Min's latest news, so he quickly said, "Let him in!"
Soon, Xu Min hurried in, and said excitedly, "Sir, I have found the intelligence point of Tuyuhun."
Xiao Xia laughed and said, "You told me that it was horse bandits that entered the city, how come it is related to the intelligence point of Tuyuhun? It should be the intelligence point of the horse bandits!"
"No! I think the horse bandits are actually the Tuyuhun army. There are some things that the Tuyuhun army cannot do, so they pretend to be horse bandits."
"But the locals think that the bandits are from Qilian Mountain. Do you mean that they have joined the Tuyuhun army?"
Xu Min nodded and said, "If it weren't for the special training of the Tuyuhun army, these horse bandits would have been wiped out by the Hexi army long ago."
"Whether they are Tuyuhun or horse bandits, the difference is not important. They are all enemies to us. Where is the intelligence point you found?"
"Qilian Inn! When this group of horse bandits entered the inn, the inn immediately put up a sign saying it was fully booked. But according to our understanding, we had no guests before. The inn can accommodate a hundred people, but the caravan only had about twenty people. Why did the inn put up a sign saying it was fully booked?"
Xiao Xia shook his head. "Perhaps the caravan has reserved the inn. General Xu, this is not evidence. I hope you can find solid evidence instead of arresting them hastily. If something is wrong, it will alert the enemy."
Xu Min nodded silently, "I will find solid evidence as soon as possible!"
After Xu Min left, Xiao Xia sent someone to fetch the deputy general Yin Shishi. Soon, Yin Shishi walked into the room quickly, clasped his fists and saluted, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"
Xiao Xia asked, "How are the brothers?"
Yin Shishi smiled bitterly and said, "We haven't trained like this for a long time. Many brothers can't stand it physically. Most of them slept after eating."
"What about the rewards? Have they been distributed?"
"Reporting to the envoy, according to the envoy's order, the first batch of soldiers to arrive at the city gate will be rewarded with 300 coins each, a total of 260 people, and then the first person to arrive at the city gate will be rewarded with 10 strings of coins. The soldiers are very surprised and envious of the first place. I guess the competition for the first place will be fierce next time."
After a pause, Master Yin Shi continued, "But I think the difference between the first place's 10 strings of cash and the second and third place's 300 coins is too big, isn't it?"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "Don't think of it as training, think of it as a war. The first one to land is the first one to land. Do you understand?"
Yin Shishi suddenly understood, and immediately clasped his fists and said, "I understand!"
Xiao Xia nodded, "Maybe we'll give them some rest in the next few days."
Yin Shishi was stunned for a moment, then said cautiously, "Your Excellency, I think since they have already started running, why not let them persist? The pain will gradually heal after a while."
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "It's not that reason, but our scouts found clues about the horse bandits, and I'm afraid there will be follow-up soon!"
Yin Shishi was invigorated and asked quickly, "Have you spotted the bandits?"
"A caravan entered the city this afternoon. They are very suspicious. The scouts suspect that they are horse bandits in disguise. They are currently staying at the Qilian Inn. General Xu is investigating the bottom line of the Qilian Inn. If the innkeepers are also undercover spies from Tuyuhun, they will be arrested directly!"
Qilian Inn is located in the east of the city, covering an area of about five acres. It is an inn opened by a Qiang merchant. It is only a medium-sized inn in Zhangye. It is located in a small alley facing the street, and the main door is not on the street. Due to the poor location, the business is usually average. Xu Min and his men have been monitoring this inn across the street since yesterday. From what he heard from the surroundings, Xu Min became more and more suspicious of this inn. This inn is full of weirdness and abnormality.
For example, it is common sense that a shop should face the street. This inn originally had its door facing the street and business was pretty good. Later, they sealed the door facing the street and opened the door in the alley. Naturally, business plummeted, but the inn had no intention of changing it.
Secondly, even if the shop is in the alley, there should be two inn lanterns hung at the entrance of the alley to let the merchants coming and going know that there is an inn in the alley, but they still didn't hang them, so business has been very poor over the years, and the occupancy rate has remained at around 30%.
There was a heavy snowstorm some time ago, and most of the merchants in the city left before the snow came. There were basically no merchants, and every inn was empty. A caravan finally came, but they didn't go to better and bigger inns, but chose to come to this unknown inn. Generally, there is only one explanation: they are old customers of this inn.
However, this caravan behaved in an unfamiliar manner when entering the city. They themselves said that it was their first time in Zhangye. It was their first time in Zhangye, and they were able to find such a remote inn. Both the caravan and the inn seemed particularly suspicious.
In the morning, a young man who looked like a waiter walked out of the alley, leading a donkey. He looked to both sides and hurried north.
There is only one gate of the inn in the alley, and the man who looks like a waiter must be a waiter of the inn.
Xu Min immediately ordered several soldiers to follow and look for an opportunity to capture the guy.
The clerk went into a drugstore and bought up almost all the medicine for treating injuries. Then he went to another drugstore. As soon as he entered the drugstore, he was captured by scouts of the Sui army.
Without wasting time, Xu Min immediately interrogated the waiter. After losing an ear, the waiter finally confessed that Qilian Inn was an undercover agent planted by Tuyuhun in Zhangye City.
As for the twenty or so businessmen, they were indeed horse bandits.
Xu Min immediately reported the information to Xiao Xia. Although Xiao Xia felt a little strange, why did they buy medicine in such a big way? Aren't they afraid of being discovered? However, Xiao Xia did not hesitate and immediately ordered Xu Min to lead 300 soldiers to capture the bandits and the innkeeper.
Three hundred soldiers surrounded the Qilian Inn. They placed dozens of ladders on the wall and aimed crossbows at the backyard. A dozen soldiers used large logs to break open the door, and more than a hundred soldiers rushed in with shields and swords.
There was a great commotion in the inn, with shouting, roaring, and screaming one after another. After a while, the inn gradually quieted down. Dozens of captured bandits, as well as the innkeeper and waiters were kneeling in the yard. All of them were tied up, with twisted and hideous faces.
The soldiers hooded their heads, put them directly on ox carts, and sent them to the military camp for interrogation.
At dusk, Xiao Xia summoned An Xinggui, Cao Zhen, Yin Shishi, Guan Jin and others to discuss countermeasures.
Xiao Xia said to everyone, "The captured horse bandits have just been interrogated. They revealed a major alarm. A group of about 600 horse bandits are planning to attack Shandan Ranch."
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Shandan Ranch was the largest ranch in the Sui Dynasty, covering hundreds of thousands of hectares. Because of the winter, all the war horses were concentrated in the Shandan wintering grounds. There were hundreds of thousands of war horses there. If a sneak attack was successful, the consequences would be disastrous.
"Envoy, we must send troops to support the ranch immediately!" Guan Jin stood up and said.
An Xinggui also said: "The Shandan Winter Horse Farm is 150 miles away from Zhangye City. Even if we set out now, we won't arrive until tomorrow afternoon. The situation is quite tense!"
Xiao Xia then asked Master Yin Shishi, who had remained silent, "What does General Yin think?"
Yin Shishi hesitated for a moment and said, "I feel something is a little strange!"
(End of this chapter)