Chapter 282 Night attack on the manor
Chapter 282 Night attack on the manor
For three consecutive days, Xiao Xia stayed in the inn and did not go out. He was patiently waiting for news.
In fact, he had no idea where to start the investigation. It was easy to arrest one of the enemy's people, but it was meaningless. The enemy could only explain the situation at one point, while he wanted a whole picture.
In order to obtain the overall intelligence of the rebellion, it is necessary to capture the other side's top leaders, but this is easier said than done.
Xiao Xia currently has only one chance, that is if Li Xingjian gets the other party's information again. Xiao Xia believes that he has already appeared, so the other party will definitely not remain indifferent, otherwise his previous reminder to Li Xingjian would be meaningless.
At night, Xiao Xia sat at the table piecing together a map. The so-called piecing together a map means finding and marking the locations where various scattered intelligence occurred on the map to see if any patterns can be found.
This intelligence is actually all kinds of recruitment information they collected, which is relatively complete. Li Xingjian did a very good job in this regard.
The recruitment information is basically in Wei County. There is also some in Wuyang County, but very little. Of course, the main reason is that they did not get the recruitment information of Wuyang County.
At this time, Sun Lei said at the door: "Sir, Li the governor is here and he has something urgent to tell you!"
Xiao Xia hurriedly said: "Please invite him in!"
Soon, the governor Li Xingjian walked into the courtyard. Xiao Xia came out to greet him, clasped his fists, and asked, "Governor Li, do you have any good news?"
Li Xingjian nodded. "In fact, it happened in the afternoon. I felt unsafe, so I kept it to myself until the evening. But something strange happened just now. I thought someone wanted me to deliver a letter to the general, so I came here."
"Please come to the guest hall to talk!"
Xiao Xia invited Li Xingjian to sit in the guest hall. Li Xingjian took out two envelopes, one of which was bulging. When he turned it out, it turned out to be a flying knife with a letter stuck in it.
"This is a strange thing that happened just now. A beam of light came in from outside my study, and there were three words on it: 'Forwarded to Envoy Xiao'. I knew it was a letter for you."
"And the other letter?"
Li Xingjian handed another letter to Xiao Xia and said, "This is what the general is waiting for. This afternoon, when I went to the toilet, it appeared on my desk."
Xiao Xia was overjoyed; what he had been waiting for finally arrived.
He didn't rush to read the letter, but opened the letter brought by Fei Dao. There was a map in the letter with a red triangle marked on it and a line of words written on it: Weijun Headquarters of the Baohui Association.
Xiao Xia handed the map to Li Xingjian, "Where is this?"
Li Xingjian took the map and looked at it carefully, then said to Xiao Xia, "This is between Anyang County and Ye County, called Xiaomeng Village. There is an official road next to it. I remember it is about 30 miles away from Anyang County and 20 miles away from Ye County."
Xiaoxian opened another letter, which also contained a map with the words "Weijun Headquarters of the National Protection Association" written on it.
"What about here?"
Li Xingjian looked carefully and said, "This is Xiaowen Manor in the east of Ye County. The river inside is called Xiaowen River, which leads directly to Zhangshui River."
"Which one do you think is correct?"
Li Xingjian shook his head. "I don't know either, but I personally prefer the latter. After all, he sent me intelligence twice before."
Li Xingjian left, and Xiao Xia marked the newly obtained information on the map. Sun Lei asked, "Sir, which one do you think is true?"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "I found that almost every township in Ye County has a recruitment point, except Xiaowenhe Township. I think Xiaowenhe Township is a little special, why doesn't it have a recruitment point?
Now we have information that Xiaowenhe Manor is the secret base of the National Protection Association. This is consistent with my guess. Rabbits don't eat grass near their nests. They are afraid of being exposed, so they didn't recruit in Xiaowenhe Township. "
"What about the other location? The Xiaomeng Village."
Xiao Xia sneered and said, "I guess that's where they plan to bury us. I've asked Governor Li to notify the palace soldiers to go to Xiaomeng Village for me at noon tomorrow."
Sun Lei understood immediately, "Sir, you want to leave overnight?" Xiao Xia nodded, "Tell everyone to pack up and rush to Ye County overnight. Don't ride horses, climb over the city wall to get out, and don't alert the enemy."
The next day, at dawn, Xiao Xia had already sneaked into Xiaowenhe Manor with fifteen of his men. They arrived at five o'clock in the morning and had been waiting for an opportunity.
The thousands of soldiers stationed in the manor finally left, and the manor finally became quiet.
Xiao Xia waved his hand and everyone started to move. They climbed into the house from all directions, leaving only Li Luming and three other female warriors outside. They were watching the dock and the side door.
Just as Xiao Xia climbed over the wall, two mastiffs suddenly started barking wildly. He cried out "Oh no!" and shot out two flying knives, and the two mastiffs immediately fell to the ground.
But the barking of the dogs had already alarmed the mansion. Xiao Xia decided to go all out and rushed in wielding a long-handled straight knife. He encountered two warriors head-on, who were knocked down by him and their throats were cut at the same time.
Xiao Xia's other warriors also rushed into the house. Since they were not many in number, they did not have any scruples and killed people directly without leaving any alive. In just a moment, screams could be heard everywhere in the house.
Xiao Xia rushed into the inner house in one breath. There were four warriors standing in front of a big door. Xiao Xia rushed forward, his straight knife as fast as lightning, and killed the four warriors in a moment.
He kicked the door open and rushed in. Suddenly, a dark and thin middle-aged man rushed out from behind the door and stabbed Xiao Xia's back with a sword. However, before the sword hit him, a cold light flashed in front of his eyes, and the middle-aged man's head fell to the ground.
Xiao Xia carefully looked at the layout of the room in front of him. There were maps and documents everywhere. This should be their central location. Then the dark and thin middle-aged man he killed should be their leader.
Xiao Xia quickly looked through the documents and soon discovered the identity of the man who was killed. His name was Gao Shukang and he was one of the Five Worshipers of the Baohui Association. Worshiper means elder, a bit like the twelve generals of the imperial court. They would stay in the capital when nothing happened and send troops out to fight when something happened.
Xiao Xia quickly found what he wanted, a military register of 35,000 men, a total of five volumes, with the detailed address of each soldier and the equipment of the recruited soldiers.
In addition to the military books, there should also be generals' books. Xiao Xia searched for a while and found a copper basin with a lot of burnt letters and a half-burned book, which was the generals' book. It turned out that the middle-aged man just now hid here to burn important documents.
There were only a few names left in the booklet. Xiao Xia's heart skipped a beat. He saw some familiar names: Dou Jiande, Sun Anzu, Gao Shida, Hao Xiaode, Zhai Rang, and Shan Xiongxin. Shan Xiongxin actually became a general of the National Protection Association?
But it's normal to think about it. Shan Xiongxin should have been recruited by the National Security Council when he was selling Gao Huan's jade seal.
But their detailed information had been burned, leaving only half a list, with neither address nor place of origin, which was basically meaningless.
Xiao Xia carefully put away the list, hoping it might be useful to him in the future.
There was another letter that had not been burned yet. Xiao Xia opened it and read it. It was a letter from Gao Zhu to Gao Shukang, written ten days ago. The letter mentioned a sentence, "We have reached an agreement with the king in the capital to start the uprising this autumn."
The letter was very vague and did not mention who the king was. Apparently they had learned some lessons and no longer stated it explicitly.
At this time, Sun Lei walked in quickly and reported: "Sir, we have dealt with all of them. There are seven people and twenty-six warriors in total. There are no servants here."
After a moment's hesitation, Sun Lei continued, "But we didn't find the messenger. I suspect we killed him by mistake."
Xiao Xia shook his head and smiled, "That man knew we were coming, so he must have followed the army this morning. He won't stay here and wait to die."
Sun Leisong said, "Forty boxes of silver were found in the cellar, estimated to be 80,000 taels."
Xiao Xia pointed at the head on the ground and said, "That is the head of their leader. Take it back to Chang'an. Put the silver on the boat and take it away. Burn this place with fire."
"Follow the order!"
Sun Lei picked up the head and hurried away.
An hour later, a raging fire broke out in Xiaowenhe Villa. When the surrounding farmers rushed to put out the fire, the house had already been completely engulfed by the flames.
Five volumes of military books, a letter, and a head completely solved Xiao Xia's mission in Hebei. At least forty boxes of silver should be the reward for the rebel army. Now they have become the spoils of Xiao Xia's trip to Weijun, which can also be called labor fees. Each of his subordinates will be rewarded with 300 taels of silver, and the rest will belong to him.
(End of this chapter)