Chapter 476 Piling Assassination
Chapter 476 Piling Assassination
Caishi Town is located on the bank of the Yangtze River, between Jiangning County and Dangtu County. Although it is closer to Dangtu County, it is under the jurisdiction of Jiangning County. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the famous minister Yu Yunwen led the army and civilians here to fight against the Jin soldiers crossing the river and won the famous Caishi Battle.
Cai Shi Town in the Sui Dynasty was also a big town. As the name suggests, it was a place where stone was mined and the flattened boulders were transported to various places in the south of the Yangtze River.
There are dozens of quarries of various sizes in the quarry town, where nearly a thousand stonemasons and their families live.
In the morning, Zhang Wentao, director of the Mining and Metallurgy Bureau, and Wu Jinping, the Jiangning County Magistrate, arrived at the quarry. They first went to a restaurant in the town to rest.
Not long after, the village head came hurriedly asking questions. His surname was Jiang, he was about fifty years old, a skinny old man.
"What instructions does County Magistrate Wu have for coming to this small town?"
Wu Jinping pointed at Zhang Wentao next to him and said, "This is Zhang Shuling from Jiangdu. He came here to look for iron ore. Rumor has it that in the eighth year of Kaihuang, someone mined iron ore here. You are a local, so you should know about it!"
Li Zheng Jiang pondered for a moment and said, "Now that the county lieutenant mentioned that, I have some impression of it. It was many years ago. Someone did mine iron ore, which caused a sensation in the town!"
Zhang Wentao perked up and asked quickly, "Is this person still here?"
"This man's surname is Zhao, and he is also a quarry owner. His quarry has been taken over by his son. I don't know if he is still in town. I'll go ask around!"
"Thank you for your hard work, Jiang Lizheng!"
"Sit down and take a rest, County Lieutenant. I'll be back soon."
Jiang Lizheng left in a hurry. Zhang Wentao walked to the second-floor window with a teacup in his hand. Outside was a stone processing plant with hundreds of huge stones piled up. More than a dozen stonemasons were sitting beside the big stones and chiseling them.
County lieutenant Wu Jinping stepped forward and said with a smile: "This place was a quarry as early as the Han Dynasty, and it is also a good place to cross the river. The other side is Liyang County. The Sui army was the first to cross the Yangtze River from here."
Zhang Wentao nodded, and suddenly he stared at a large rock. After a while, he put down his teacup, turned around and ran downstairs, and a dozen of his men hurriedly followed him.
Zhang Wentao ran into the quarry and squatted in front of a large black stone to take a closer look. The county lieutenant also came over and asked with a smile, "Did the officer find anything?"
Zhang Wentao pointed at the black plate-like stone with a look of surprise and said, "This is red copper ore! Look at the red dots on it, that's copper ore!"
"Is there any iron?"
Zhang Wentao nodded, "Of course there is. If there is copper, there must be iron!"
The owner of the quarry walked up and said with a smile: "I bought this from Xiao Zhao's quarry. It's very cheap. I'm studying it for fun."
"Did his father once discover an iron ore vein in Xiao Zhao's quarry?"
"It seems so! That was many years ago."
At this time, the village head brought a middle-aged man, who knelt down and kowtowed, "I, Zhao Shen, kowtow to the county lieutenant, kowtow to the governor!"
"Mr. Zhao, please stand up. We are officials from Jiangdu who are looking for minerals. I heard that you discovered an iron ore vein in the eighth year of Kaihuang. Is that true?"
The middle-aged man nodded. "It is true. I also want to mine, but if I mine without government approval, I will go to jail. I don't want to take the risk. After so many years, I am old and my son is not interested in iron ore, so I have to give up the idea."
"Do you have any samples of the ore?"
It is easy to find iron ore, but the key is the quality. If the iron content is too low, it is meaningless to smelt good iron.
"Yes! I hid some under my bed."
The middle-aged man turned around and told his son something, and his son ran away.
Zhang Wentao asked again: "How far is the discovered mineral vein? Is it easy to mine?" The middle-aged man nodded and pointed to the south, "Go southeast for about 20 miles. The mineral vein is between two mountains. There is a river leading to the Yangtze River. Transportation is quite convenient, but I didn't go for large-scale mining. The investment was huge and there was no return, so I didn't continue."
Soon, Xiao Zhao came running over carrying a small wooden box. He opened the box and found seven or eight pieces of ore inside.
Zhang Wentao squatted down and took a closer look at the ore. His eyes suddenly lit up. This ore was of very high quality!
He immediately decided to ask Lao Zhao to lead the way to check the mine.
At night, Xiao Xia's fleet anchored at a canal in Piling County. The weather was gloomy tonight, there was no moonlight, and the night was shrouded in deep darkness. It was easy to have a collision when sailing on such a night, so they usually stayed overnight at the shore.
More than a hundred soldiers set up a guard around the ship. At this time, a dozen dark shadows appeared on the opposite bank. They lay on the shore, staring fiercely at the large ship opposite.
The leading man in the iron helmet said in a deep voice: "We only have one chance. No matter whether we succeed or fail, we must die. Sanlang and Silang will go up, and the rest of you will prepare crossbows and arrows. Once someone shows up, you must shoot arrows. Even if it's us, you are not allowed to stop!"
More than a dozen people nodded slightly and took out their crossbows.
The man in the iron helmet waved his hand and went out with two thin men. They crawled to the shore like snakes, sank into the water silently, and dived towards the big ship on the opposite bank. There were three reed pipes moving rapidly on the water.
Soon, the three of them dived under the main ship, which was the Tielimu Wanshi sea ship. The three of them each launched a long iron hook and hooked the side of the ship. They twisted the three ropes into one and began to climb up with all their might.
The man in the iron helmet was the first to climb onto the ship. He looked to both sides and saw a soldier standing at the bow and stern. He turned over and climbed onto the side of the ship, then lay on the deck like a fish. Seeing that there was no one around, he rolled closer to the cabin and got into a small unlocked storage compartment. Soon, his two men also got into the small cabin one after another.
Soon, a team of patrol soldiers came over in a line.
"Wait a minute!" The leading captain raised his hand and everyone stopped.
The lieutenant squatted down and touched the deck. The deck was wet and full of water stains. How could there be water stains here? The lieutenant slowly turned his head along the water stains, and finally, he stared sharply at the small storage cabin about ten feet away.
There are four floors in the ship. Xiao Xia lives in a cabin on the third floor, which makes it easy to find him. There are two sentries standing at the door of his cabin.
Xiao Xia was concentrating on reviewing several important documents sent by Gao Jiong. At this moment, there was a sudden shouting and killing outside. Someone shouted, "There is an assassin!"
Xiao Xia was startled, put down the document in his hand, stood up, pulled out the sword on the wall, and walked out of the cabin. The door of his cabin was already full of personal soldiers, holding shields and swords, all with nervous expressions.
"Where is the assassin?" Xiao Xia asked.
Wang Zhen bowed and said, "Your Highness, on the first deck, all the stairs are controlled and they can't come up."
"Don't be so nervous. A little assassin can't hurt me."
Xiao Xia immediately led a large group of personal soldiers to the deck. At this moment, the sound of an arrow breaking through the air was heard. A personal soldier was caught off guard and was hit by an arrow. He fell down with a scream.
Wang Zhen shouted, "Someone is shooting arrows from the other side!"
The two large ships in front and behind immediately lowered small boats, and dozens of soldiers rowed to the other side. The remaining two hundred soldiers also raised their crossbows and shot at the other side. Arrows rained down. The people in ambush on the other side wanted to turn around and escape, but they could not avoid the arrows and were shot down by the crossbows of the personal soldiers.
Soon, the entire river and the boat became quiet. Xiao Xia went down to the deck and saw three bodies lying on the deck.
The leading captain clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, we also wanted to keep one alive, but he ended up taking poison and committing suicide. They hid the poison pill in his mouth, and he bit it and swallowed it."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Did any of our brothers suffer casualties?"
"Your Highness, no one was killed in the battle. Three people were injured by the enemy's poisonous crossbow. They all took the scale-avoiding pills in time and should be fine!"
Soon, the boats on the other side came back, and the leading captain shouted, "Your Highness, there were eleven people ambushed on the other side. We shot and killed nine of them, and captured two alive."
(End of this chapter)