Chapter 256: Sword Pointing to Luoyang
Chapter 256: Sword Pointing to Luoyang
Xiao Xia quickly put down the information and got up to go out. It was indeed his eldest brother Yang Zhao.
"Is everyone back?" Xiao Xia asked in surprise.
"No, they are still in Liquan County. I will come to see you and then rush back overnight."
Xiao Xia asked Yang Zhao to sit in the living room. Seeing that his elder brother was sweating profusely, Xiao Xia quickly asked A Chu to bring warm water and no longer needed hot tea.
Yang Zhao gulped down a large glass of water and felt much better.
"My father called me back last night. He actually asked me to come find you."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Go ahead!"
Yang Zhao asked, "Are you going to Luoyang to investigate the cult?"
Xiao Xia frowned, "Father told you, how could he know?"
This is a secret mission of Lingyan Pavilion, how could my father know about it?
Xiao Xia's mind flashed, and he guessed that it must be his father who reported the cult to the royal grandfather, and the royal grandfather asked his father to come to him.
Yang Zhao shook his head. "Don't worry about how father knew it. I don't know either. It's not important. What's important is that father wants to tell you that the cult may be related to the King of Han."
Xiao Xia was stunned. The cult was actually related to the King of Han. This news was too explosive.
"Brother, tell me in detail!"
Yang Zhao still shook his head, "I can't tell you in detail. The person who delivered the message was an official from the Dali Temple. They went to investigate the cult, but their identities were exposed and nearly twenty people were killed. Before his death, the supervisor passed on a piece of information, just one sentence, 'The King of Han is involved in a cult'.
My father didn’t report this to the emperor, and I couldn’t find anyone else to tell you, so I brought me back to tell you this so that you would know what was going on.”
"Who in the Dali Temple went to investigate Mahayana Buddhism?"
"It was Zhang Wenxian, the judge, who led 20 brothers to Henan County to investigate the case, but they were completely defeated. The Ministry of Justice did not send anyone there, and now there are no officials from the Dali Temple or the Ministry of Justice. This evil cult is extremely vicious and has killed people like crazy. It also involves the King of Han. You must be careful not to be assassinated by them. They are very fond of assassination."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Don't worry! Handling cases like this is my forte."
Yang Zhao left, he had to rush back to Liquan County. Xiao Xia paced back and forth in the study with his hands behind his back. The evil cult actually involved the King of Han. This could not be groundless. There must be some evidence.
During this period, King of Han Yang Liang was relatively low-key, and he was most likely doing this.
There are only two possibilities for the cult for Yang Liang: either they recruit and train troops for him, or they make money for him, or both.
The next day, Xiao Xia came to the military camp and began to make deployments. He selected a thousand elite soldiers, led by General Zhong Hui and Dou Dexuan, to go to the Xin'an County Horse Farm in Luoyang to train cavalry for two months.
In his sheepskin bag was a cross-regional training approval letter signed by the Ministry of War, requiring them to send a thousand soldiers to the Xin'an County horse farm to train cavalry.
Including Zhong Hui and Dou Dexuan, the thousand soldiers actually thought they were going to Luoyang to train cavalry. This was of course a routine practice. Every year, each guard army would take turns to go to different horse farms to train cavalry, and Luoyang Horse Farm was one of the training points.
Xiao Xia's Tianzhen Martial Arts School also received a business deal at the same time. A large Sogdian caravan hired the martial arts school to escort the caravan to Luoyang.
Xiao Xia transformed himself into a warrior and set off with the caravan the next morning.
The Sogdian caravans in the Sui and Tang dynasties were generally very large. The large caravans had tens of thousands of camels, and the small caravans had several thousand camels. This caravan to Luoyang consisted of 4,000 camels and more than 500 Sogdian merchants. There were also thieves on the ancient road to Luoyang, so the caravans would hire martial arts schools for guarding. Of course, such a large caravan was guarded by more than 100 warriors from seven martial arts schools.
Xiao Xia and his twenty men were just one of the martial arts schools. Holding the flag of Tianzhen Martial Arts School, the Sogdian merchants rode on camels, and the warriors rode on Zhang horses. The huge caravan left Chang'an and headed eastward.
Xiao Xia wore a blue warrior uniform, with a bow and arrow on his back, a long sword on his waist, and a long-handled straight knife in his hand. His long spear was too conspicuous, so he didn't bring it this time. The long-handled straight knife was seven feet long, but it was not a prohibited weapon. It was a type of straight knife among short weapons. It was a kind of edge ball of the ban, and it was deeply loved by warriors. Many warriors used long-handled straight knives as weapons, so on the surface, Xiao Xia was just an ordinary warrior.
Three days later, the caravan arrived at Tongguan. It was already late, and several caravan leaders decided to rest there and cross Tongguan early the next morning.
As night fell, Xiao Xia leaned on a camel, covered with a blanket. He held a wine jug and drank while eating dry food. The warhorse was tied to a wooden stake not far away. They were in the middle of the team, surrounded by warriors from several other martial arts schools.
At this time, a big man with a whisker walked up to Xiao Xia carrying a wine pot, gave him a thumbs up and praised him, "Not bad, little brother! You are actually their leader. What special skills do you have? Let me open my eyes!"
Xiao Xia looked up at him. This big man was the owner of Baofeng Martial Arts School, named Chen Baofeng. The chief steward Ma Yue wanted to buy his school, but the deal was unsuccessful.
Chen Baofeng is not a bad person, he just likes to drink and tends to lose his composure when he drinks too much.
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "I don't have any special skills. I just pay them wages."
Chen Baofeng laughed, "It's a unique skill to be able to catch money!"
He sat down next to Xiao Xia, raised his head and took two sips of wine, wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and said: "Do you know what these Sogdians are afraid of?"
"Thief?"
"No way! There are no thieves on the Qiaohan Road. There has never been one."
"Then what are they afraid of?"
"They are afraid of the white-clad people. Do you know who I'm talking about?"
Xiao Xia shook his head. "This is my first time traveling far away. Please give me some advice, Director Chen!"
Chen Baofeng was a good teacher. He lowered his voice and said, "They are the Maitreya sect members. They all wear long white robes and pointed hats. They act like ghosts all day long and say they are possessed by ghosts."
"I've heard of that, but these people are just trying to defraud ordinary fools of their money. Will they also rob people on the road?"
"Of course not. Many of the important leaders are extremely vicious wanted criminals. Many of them make a living by robbery. It is difficult for them to change their nature. They often lead their gangs to rob. Last month, my martial arts hall was escorting a merchant caravan to Luoyang and encountered this group of white-clothed thieves. It was terrible. There were so many of them. My men and the merchants had to fight hard to escape, but all the goods were stolen."
Xiao Xia nodded and asked, "I heard that this Maitreya sect has an army?"
Chen Baofeng sneered, "They are called the Guardians of the Divine. There are about 2,000 of them. They wear the same armor as the Sui army soldiers. From a distance, you might think they are the Sui army, but they are actually the enemy army."
"I heard that this army is in Xin'an County?" Xiao Xia asked tentatively.
"Nonsense! Who told you that?"
"rumor!"
Chen Baofeng snorted, "Rumors are not reliable at all. The base of this Guardian of the Gods is in Yingyang County. How would I know? Because I am from Yingyang County. I have a cousin who joined the Guardian of the Gods for money. He earns three strings of cash a month, which is already pretty good."
Chen Baofeng took a sip of wine and sighed, "Even the government has fallen. The Luoyang County Government collects their money every month and then turns a blind eye to their various demonic activities. There is also the army. I heard that some high-ranking military officials are their people. As soon as the army came out, these people got the news and immediately ran to Ruzhou. As soon as the army left, they came back."
Xiao Xia had a rough idea. If he wanted to wipe out the Mahayana Sect, he must first wipe out their guardian guards.
(End of this chapter)