Chapter 298 Revenge Plan
Chapter 298 Revenge Plan
Soon, Sun Lei and Li Luming arrived.
Xiao Xia did not hide anything and told the two about the grudge between the Zhang family and Yuwen Shu, as well as the relationship between Zhang Qiao and himself.
"Yuwen Shu has always been cruel. There must be at least a thousand people who want to kill him. He must be on guard against assassins. Let alone the three of them, even if I go, I may not be able to assassinate them. I hope to find the three of them and stop them from assassinating, but I don't want to alarm Yuwen Shu, otherwise he will be on guard and set a trap."
Li Luming was very careful. She thought for a moment and said, "We can split up. I will take a few female warriors and pretend to be civilians. We will rent a house in Anrenfang and stay as far away from Yuwen Shu's mansion as possible to monitor the movements in Anrenfang. Sun Lei will go to the periphery to look for the three of them. Once we find them, we will notify you immediately."
Xiao Xia nodded, "I thought so too. There is no time to lose. Act now!"
The two men bowed and left in a hurry.
Xiao Xia was really a little restless, and she kept blaming Zhang Jue in her heart. If you want to assassinate the two of you, just do it. Why do you have to bring the little one with you? She is only sixteen years old! It's still her age in lunar calendar. At most, she is a first-year high school girl. Her life has just begun.
But what Xiao Xia could not have imagined was that Zhang Jue had come to Chang'an two months ago and had explored Yuwen Shu's mansion during the New Year, but found that there was no chance as Yuwen Shu's mansion was heavily guarded and impeccable.
After he reunited with his cousin Zhang Lian and niece Zhang Qiao, he took them to his residence, where he rented a small courtyard in Yongxingfang.
He spent two months observing Yuwen Shu's movements and collecting all kinds of information about him, and finally found an opportunity. However, he could not assassinate him alone, so he wrote a letter to Zhang Lian, asking her to come as well. Unexpectedly, Zhang Qiao found out about it, and she insisted on following her aunt to avenge Yuwen Shu for killing her parents.
Zhang Lian went north without telling Zhang Qiao, but Zhang Qiao still took the opportunity to deliver medicine to chase her to Chang'an and found his aunt Zhang Lian.
There was no other choice, the brother and sister had to take their niece with them.
In the room, Zhang Jue pointed at the map and said, "Qinglong Temple in Xinchangfang is the temple dedicated to Yuwen Shu's family. Every New Year, Yuwen Shu would come to Qinglong Temple to burn incense. I went to Qinglong Temple to check the records. Yuwen Shu would go to Qinglong Temple to burn incense on the tenth day of the first lunar month every year. On the morning of the tenth day, Qinglong Temple was closed for half a day, which was reserved for Yuwen Shu to burn incense. This is our chance to assassinate Yuwen Shu in Qinglong Temple."
At this point, Zhang Jue looked at his niece and said to her in a deep voice, "It is very risky to assassinate Yuwen Shu. You stay in the Maitreya Hall in the northwest corner of Qinglong Temple. There is a small door here. It is our retreat. You are responsible for the support. Your aunt and I will ambush in the Great Hall and assassinate Yuwen Shu when he burns incense."
Zhang Qiao hesitated for a moment and said, "Second Uncle, if we have three people, we will have a better chance of assassination."
"no!"
Zhang Jue rejected it outright, "We don't want to die in Qinglong Temple, we must have support, and three people are easy to be exposed, you stay in Maitreya Hall, whether we can escape successfully depends on you."
Helpless, Zhang Qiao could only nod slightly.
At this time, Zhang Lian whispered: "Aqiao, if Xiao Xia is willing to help us, the assassination will be more likely."
Zhang Qiao shook her head gently, "Aunt, I don't want to implicate him. Let's solve the Zhang family's hatred ourselves!"
Zhang Jue said in a deep voice: "There is no time. We have to ambush at Qinglong Temple tonight. Yuwen Shu will come to Qinglong Temple early tomorrow morning."
In Anrenfang, inside Yuwen Shu's residence, several servants fished out a mastiff tied with several large stones from the bottom of a pond covered with thick ice.
Yuwen Shu's face was so gloomy that water seemed to be squeezed out of it.
On the evening of the fifth day of the first lunar month, a mastiff was missing from their house. No one took it seriously at first, thinking it had hidden somewhere. But by the sixth day, when it hadn't been seen again, everyone knew something had happened and it was most likely someone had sneaked into the house.
Speculations are speculations, but the dog's body must be found. If even the dog's body cannot be found, wouldn't it be easier for the assassin to break into the house next time?
We started looking for it on the evening of the sixth day and continued searching until the afternoon of the ninth day, when we finally found it at the bottom of the pond.
Because the bottom of the pond was muddy, it was easy to bury the dog's body. More importantly, they punched a hole in the ice cover of the pond and threw the dog in. After one night, the hole would freeze over again.
The dog corpse was found, and the assassin was confirmed. What a joke! The large mastiffs raised by the Yuwen Mansion are definitely not something that ordinary people can deal with. Moreover, with the strict security of the Yuwen Mansion, even ordinary warriors would be discovered and it is impossible for them to come and go freely like this. "Bury it!"
Yuwen Shu gave an order and walked towards the study room.
He knew very well that there were assassins trying to kill him. He had been assassinated more than a dozen times over the years, and most of them were by his enemies. This was also related to the fact that Yuwen Shu's methods were too cruel. He liked to wipe out families, of course for a purpose, which was to take money. In this way, there would be no witnesses to how much money he had made.
"Master, Mr. Wang wants to see you!"
Mr. Wang's name is Wang Qi. He is also one of Yuwen Shu's aides. His schemes are quite vicious and he is known as the Poison King internally.
"Let him in!"
Soon, Wang Qi came in and saluted, saying, "Greetings, General!"
"What's the matter? Just tell me!"
"I just heard that the dog's body was found."
"So what?"
"General, the other party killed the dog but did not hurt anyone, which means he was just here to explore the way. I think it is unlikely that he will come to Yuwen Mansion for the second time. He will most likely take action tomorrow morning when you go to Qinglong Temple to burn incense."
Yuwen Shu nodded, "I think so too. I plan to find Chengdu to protect me, and Wei Wentong's 1,000 left Wuhou guards, then it will be safe."
Wang Qi laughed softly and said, "I have another plan. It will not only protect the general, but also make it difficult for the assassin to escape."
Yuwen Shu is very famous, and has strong qualifications, connections and financial resources, but he has no military power now. He is the General of the Left Guard, and has no people or soldiers. Only when it is his turn to go to the battlefield will he get the military power, go out to fight, and hand over the power at the end of the battle.
The military power was in the hands of the generals and the lieutenant generals, but the generals and the lieutenant generals had no qualifications, reputation, connections, or much financial resources, so they did not dare to rebel.
This is the original intention of the Twelve Guards system: those who are capable of rebelling do not have military power, and those who have military power do not have the ability to rebel.
In addition, Yuwen Shu was well-known in the court for his love of adopting sons.
But adopted sons are also divided into different levels. The highest level is the adopted son, who is the kind who has no son and adopts one to inherit the family line, so he is also called a step-son. These are generally nephews and nieces of the same clan, who are related by blood. The most common are nephews, who are no different from biological sons.
Yang Lihua wanted to adopt Xiao Xia as her stepson, but Yang Guang did not agree. He had few sons and did not want to give him up.
The second category is the fake son, but he is obviously different from the step-son. This is more of a combination of interests. If there is interest, they are father and son, but if there is no interest, they are just strangers.
Currently, Yuwen Shu has two adopted sons, Yuwen Chengdu and Wei Wentong. Yuwen Chengdu was born in a humble family and was forced to change his name. Wei Wentong was born in a general's family and he worshipped Yuwen Shu as his adopted father just to climb up.
The third tier is the adopted son, whose status is lower than that of a fake son. A fake son is a combination of interests, while an adopted son is a pure thug. Yuwen Shu’s Thirteen Guardians are all adopted sons.
There is another kind of adopted grandson, like Jiang Ping who was killed by Xiao Xia at the door of the cloth shop, he was one of the twenty-four adopted grandsons of Yuwen Shu. This kind of person is not even as good as an adopted son, in fact, he is a dog.
In fact, in history, those who liked to adopt adopted sons and foster sons were mainly eunuchs. Those famous eunuchs in history all had dozens of adopted sons and hundreds of adopted grandsons.
Yuwen Shu immediately wrote two letters and sent them to Yuwen Chengdu and Wei Wentong respectively, asking them to escort him to Qinglong Temple to burn incense the next day.
(End of this chapter)