Chapter 304: The Counterattack of Linfeng Officialdom
Chapter 304: The Counterattack of Linfeng Officialdom
What did Xu Zhenguan prepare for Zhao Duan’s outing?
In addition to the authority to mobilize troops, he also has the authority to dispatch the royal martial arts shadow guards in Linfeng.
This is not a conflict.
After all, strictly speaking, like the secret spies in the palace arranged by Prince Jing in the capital, the royal shadow guards also belong to the military.
Therefore, when Zhao Duan encountered the princess's strong joining on the road, the way he passed the news back to the empress in the rear was to use the shadow guard's channel.
Similarly, Xu Junling did not know that before entering the "Taicang Prefecture City", Zhao not only mobilized the cavalry of the garrison openly.
He also secretly assembled a team of shadow guards and entered the city together.
And communication is carried out through three copies of yellow paper that can be used as a message.
But the range of communication that yellow paper can provide is limited.
Therefore, when the spies are far away from Taicang City, they need spies along the way to serve as transit stations, and use the carrier pigeons trained in the army to increase the communication distance.
"Pullingleng..."
The gray carrier pigeon flapped its wings, making a "cooing" sound, and its bright red claws kept stepping on the exceptionally white hand.
This is an ordinary residential courtyard.
The sickly young man dressed as a scholar had a helpless expression on his face. He scattered the prepared food on the ground. The pigeons immediately flew over and started pecking at the food.
The scholar, who looked a little frail and had exceptionally white hands, sat on a stone bench and unfolded the note to take a look.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves was heard outside the yard, and the horse slowly slowed down.
The scholar who was the royal shadow guard raised his head, skillfully put the paper roll in his hand into his mouth, and moistened it with saliva.
Footsteps approach.
Then, the dilapidated courtyard gate was pushed open by one hand.
With a creaking sound, a dusty woman dressed like a gangster appeared at the gate of the courtyard.
He held the reins in one hand, wore a bamboo hat, had a sword tied to his back, and his face was covered with most of a bronze visor. Two sharp eyes could be seen through the holes in the visor.
"It is you."
The scholar, who looked unwell and somewhat sick, covered his mouth and coughed twice, as if he wanted to spit out the paper ball.
The armored woman stepped into the dilapidated courtyard, walked to the table, and threw the water bag at her waist to him:
"I can't swallow it. Drink some water to smooth it out."
The weak scholar said helplessly:
"If you can't take care of people, you don't have to... Hey, why did you come back suddenly? Did you find something?"
"kindness."
The armor-covered woman sat carefree beside the stone table, reached into her bosom, and took out a palm-sized jade mirror, with four ancient Chinese characters "Feng Yue Bao Jian" engraved on the back.
These were the spoils that Zhao Duan had seized from the rebels of Kuangfu Society.
She took out another crumpled piece of paper, spread it out and placed it on the table. It was a portrait of the missing county magistrate Wang Chusheng.
"We found this person. As for the other Song Tiju, we haven't found him yet."
As one of the top shadow guards in Linfeng and a master of intelligence work, the "scholar" was in high spirits and asked:
"Where is the man?"
"The mirror showed a Taoist temple hidden in a mountain, with a white archway."
The scholar's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands and smiled:
"Baiyun Temple must be this place. If this thief is as Zhao Gongfeng guessed, he is either dead or he will not have escaped too far. But he is much closer than I expected.
Haha, this mirror of Mr. Zhao is good, but even if you infuse it with magic power, it cannot be opened all the time.
There was no one in the provincial capital, nor in the county town, and I didn't know which direction the person had gone. I could only half-guess and use the clumsy method of searching area by area with a mirror.
The news you brought was really timely. As soon as Zhao Gongfeng received the news, he asked about this matter."
The armored woman did not show much emotion and asked calmly:
"When will we do it?"
The scholar paused for a moment:
"The sooner the better. But to be absolutely sure, we have to gather the rest of the people together."
The armored woman shook her head and said:
"When they come, it will be too late. I am enough on my own."
Having said that, she stood up and walked out of the yard. The scholar did not stop her.
The armored woman mounted her horse, walked out of the town, and continued running southeast.
Because the road was difficult to travel on, she finally arrived at the foot of a secluded and deserted mountain at dusk.
Abandon the horse and tie it at the foot of the mountain.
The shadow guard, wearing a conical hat and carrying a long sword, walked up the winding stone steps, passed through the white archway, and a small Taoist temple appeared on the mountainside.
On the plaque, the three characters "Baiyun Temple" are extremely eye-catching in the afterglow of the setting sun.
The armored woman knocked on the door of the Taoist temple.
The person who opened the door was a young Taoist priest, who was startled when he saw her appearance:
"Lady, who are you looking for?" The armored woman said, "Wang Chusheng."
The young Taoist looked confused:
"There is no such monk in the temple. Hey, hey hey...how did you force your way in?!"
The armored woman ignored the Taoist priest and went straight into the Taoist temple. She saw a cold light like a poisonous snake rushing out from the cold place!
However, she seemed to have noticed it already, sneered, and dodged to the side.
He let the thin cold light pass in front of him, and the edge of the sword was still stained with a dark green color.
"Chong-"
The armored woman bent her knees and drew the long sword from behind her. The sword flashed and a powerful aura exploded like thunder.
A moment later, a warrior's body fell to the ground.
She turned her wrist, and blood from the tip of the sword spurted onto the ground, leaving a streak of red.
Hearing the Taoist priest's sharp shouts behind him, the royal shadow guard brazenly stepped into the wing room behind the Taoist temple.
I saw a wealthy middle-aged man dressed as a Taoist priest, wearing a small hat, whose appearance matched the portrait. He looked frightened and was about to escape through the back door.
The armored woman threw a sword, and as she whimpered, it hit the back door, with the hilt still trembling!
The missing Taicang County Magistrate Wang Chusheng looked pale and collapsed dejectedly.
After a while, the armored woman walked out of Baiyun Temple carrying the tied up Wang Chusheng in one hand.
Just then a crow flew by and the sky darkened.
"who are you?!"
Wang Chusheng suppressed his fear and asked in a trembling voice.
The armored woman ignored him and when she reached the foot of the mountain, she saw the scholar who had been waiting there.
"Ahem," the scholar smiled and glanced at the county magistrate:
"It has been verified to be correct. We will conduct the interrogation first. However, according to Lord Zhao's latest instructions, I'm afraid we have to wait a while before sending it to the Imperial Envoy."
"What are you waiting for?" the armored woman asked in confusion.
The scholar rolled up his sleeves and looked at the dusk on the western hills:
"Who knows what the important people in the court are thinking? Maybe they are waiting for an opportunity."
……
……
Taicang Prefecture City.
After the three ministers were suspended, the unrest in the city was not obvious that night.
However, over the next few days, the atmosphere in the city became increasingly uneasy, as if a violent storm was brewing.
Zhao Duan returned to the post station and began to pretend to conduct an investigation based on some clues left by Wang Chusheng and some clues from the evidence provided by Song Tiju.
It seems like I have entered working mode.
Meanwhile, a piece of news began to spread quietly in the city, which roughly meant:
The imperial envoy couldn't find Wang Chusheng, so in order to gain credit and report to the emperor, he prepared to bring down all the officials who had business dealings with Wang Chusheng and label them as accomplices.
Carry out "collective punishment" on a large scale.
The news spread like wildfire and almost instantly, causing officials at all levels in Taicang Prefecture to feel depressed.
Just as Sun Xiaozhun said, blending in with the crowd is an unspoken rule in official circles.
As the head of a county, Wang Chusheng has a very high status in the local area.
What's more, he also serves as the mine supervisor, and the power he holds is incomparable to that of an ordinary county magistrate.
While in office, he had dealings with countless colleagues.
With the coming and going of people, some shady transactions are inevitable.
If we only investigate "mine silver", it would be fine, as officials at all levels rarely participate in it.
But if the imperial envoy intends to implicate others, everyone will be terrified.
As luck would have it, Zhao Duan already had a criminal record in the capital, and some people with ulterior motives began to spread the news that he had captured more than 50 officials in the capital and earned himself some credit.
For a time, everyone felt insecure due to the reputation of "Zhao Yanwang".
Not only officials, but also many gentry, wealthy families, merchants in the city... are like this.
In just two or three days, the entire city fell into great unrest.
On the third day, the people actually began to go to the government office and the post station in an organized manner to plead for the justice of Prefect Sun and others, and the situation became increasingly serious.
Inside the post house.
"Master Zhao, you can still sit still."
Xu Junling walked into the inner courtyard of the posthouse with her skirt fluttering, and couldn't help but say:
"Listen, there are so many people outside making a fuss, begging for orders. Tsk tsk, the soldiers you have are useless. Why don't you send them out to suppress them?"
Zhao Duan was dressed in casual clothes, holding a book in his hand, reading leisurely. Hearing this, he raised his head and smiled:
"The morning breeze from the west mountain brings a refreshing breeze, and I do not envy the beauty of the day and the evening."
(End of this chapter)