Chapter 554 Intelligence First
Chapter 554 Intelligence First
The assassination of Yuwen Shu made Emperor Yang Guang furious. He immediately issued an order to dismiss Dou Kang, the general of Wuhou Guard, and transferred Yuwen Chengdu back to serve as the general of Wuhou Guard, responsible for the public security of the entire city of Luoyang.
He also ordered Pei Yun to be the chief person in charge and lead the Ministry of Justice, Dali Temple, and Luoyang Prefecture to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the cause of Yuwen Shu's death. They must find out who assassinated Yuwen Shu.
A few days later, Pei Yun reported the initial investigation results to Emperor Yang Guang.
"Your Highness, this assassination is very strange. It can be said to be a serial assassination."
"What is serial assassination?" Yang Guang asked with his eyes wide open.
"The first person to be assassinated was Li Min's son Li Hua. The assassin was supposed to assassinate Li Min, but accidentally killed Li Min's six-year-old son."
Yang Guang frowned, "What's going on?"
"Your Majesty, it was Li Hun who wanted to assassinate Li Min and seize his wealth. He went to ask Yuwen Shu for help, but he didn't find Yuwen Shu. Instead, he found Yuwen Zhiji, who immediately agreed to assassinate Li Min for Li Hun."
"What? Li Min's son was assassinated by Yuwen Zhiji?" Yang Guang was completely stunned. How could he explain this to his elder sister?
"And then?" Yang Guang asked again: "Keep talking!"
"The assassin then returned to the restaurant to report to Yuwen Zhiji. As he was reporting, Yuwen Zhiji was stabbed with a flying knife from the window behind him. The assassin escaped from the rooftop.
But the purpose of assassinating Yuwen Zhiji was to lure out Yuwen Shu. It is estimated that because Yuwen Shu had three doubles, the assassin could not tell them apart. So he assassinated his son. At this time, he must have cried for his son. So right in front of the Yuwen Mansion, Yuwen Shu was ambushed by the assassin with a poisoned crossbow arrow. "
"I want to know who the murderer is?"
"Yuwen Shu's guards recognized one of them as Zhang Jue, a general of the Chen Dynasty. He had assassinated Yuwen Shu in Qinglong Temple five years ago. He was also the martial arts teacher of the King of Jin."
"Could the assassination of Yuwen Shu be related to Prince of Jin?" Yang Guang asked doubtfully.
Pei Yunyao shook his head. "It should have nothing to do with the Prince of Jin. Zhang Jue disappeared after his failed assassination attempt on Yuwen Shu five years ago. Later, he actually became the chief of the guards of His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi."
Yang Guang was speechless. How come this person was related to his two sons?
"and after?"
"After Anyang City was captured, he escaped. He must have joined a gang of bandits, either Gaojipo, Douzigang, or Wagangzhai. So my preliminary conclusion from my investigation is that Prime Minister Yuwen was assassinated by bandits."
Yang Guang nodded slowly, and he gritted his teeth and said, "If I don't put down these rebels, they will definitely assassinate other court officials. Pass on my order, order Yang Yichen to lead 30,000 troops to attack the rebels in Gaojipo, order Xun Wang Yang Qing to lead 30,000 troops to attack Wagangzhai, order Tu Wanxu to lead 30,000 troops to attack Douzigang, and order Wei Wentong to lead 20,000 troops to completely wipe out the rebels in Shandong counties."
After a pause, Yang Guang said coldly: "Pass on my decree again, dismiss Li Hun from all his posts and titles, and hand him over to the Dali Temple for strict investigation. If he was the mastermind behind the assassination of Li Min's son, I will definitely punish him severely!"
Baling County is Yueyang this year, the seat of Baling County. In early November, Baling County had already entered the New Year state, and many shops began selling New Year goods.
Near the south gate of the county town, there is a pharmacy called Ji'an Pharmacy. It has been in existence for many years and has good business.
These days, several businessmen have moved into the Gaosheng Inn diagonally opposite the medicine shop. The Coptis chinensis in Baling County is very famous, and a large amount of it is sold all over the world every year. They are the businessmen who purchase the Coptis chinensis.
But in fact, these businessmen were spies from the Intelligence Bureau of the Jiangnan Dao General Administration Office. According to the information from the Baling County Government, this Ji'an Pharmacy was most likely the spy of the bandit Liu Yuanjin in Baling County.
Liu Yuanjin was a Shanyue who escaped the Sui army's attack on the rebellious Shanyue tyrants in Dongyang County and fled to Dongting Lake with a group of his men.
In the past two months, Liu Yuanjin suddenly became rampant, which attracted Xiao Xia's great attention. He decided to annihilate this group of bandits in Dongting Lake.
According to past experience, the biggest characteristic of bandits is that they run fast. Once danger comes, they will flee immediately. Therefore, before attacking the bandits, it is necessary to eliminate their eyes and ears. This way, they can be caught off guard and have no time to escape.
Before the army arrived, intelligence had already arrived, and the Intelligence Agency entered Baling County half a month in advance.
The chief of Jiangnan intelligence is called Wang Guangya, a captain. This time he brought fifty men with him. These men entered the city separately and were distributed all over the city. They would only gather when it was necessary to strike at the bandits' spies.
Wang Guangya said to the seven men with him, "The county magistrate told me that the Anji Pharmacy across the street was originally a spy for another bandit named Cao Shiqi, but Cao Shiqi surrendered to Liu Yuanjin. The shopkeeper, assistants and owner of this shop have not changed, which means that this shop has been taken over by Liu Yuanjin. Now our task is to find out how many people there are on the other side, and then arrest them as soon as possible. No one can escape the net." In the afternoon, Wang Guangya walked into the shop with one of his men. The shopkeeper came up to them and said, "Are you two here to see a doctor?"
Wang Guangya clasped his fists and smiled, "I am a Guanzhong medicinal material merchant, my surname is Wang, and I came to Baling to purchase Coptis chinensis."
Wang Guangya is from Chang'an and speaks with a Guanzhong accent.
The shopkeeper laughed and said, "Huang Lian starts selling in early October. Mr. Wang is a whole month late!"
"Hey! Something has delayed me. There is a shortage of goods everywhere. I wonder if the shopkeeper has any supply?"
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "I can get the Coptis chinensis, but according to the rules, I have to add 10% to the price. Can Mr. Wang accept it?"
"I want 2,000 kilograms of dried Coptis chinensis. Does the shopkeeper have any?"
"Two thousand kilograms is nothing. We'll have the goods tomorrow. Mr. Wang, please come over to discuss it tomorrow!"
Wang Guangya nodded, "Then I'll come over tomorrow morning!"
The reason why Wang Guangya wanted to buy goods was to find out whether the pharmacy had a warehouse in the city. Now it seems that there is indeed a warehouse.
Soon, a clerk went to pick up the goods, but he didn't know that he had been followed. The warehouse was just two hundred steps away, in an inconspicuous yard. As expected, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Wang Guangya was secretly glad that if he didn't know that the other party had a warehouse, then some fish would slip through the net.
At night, another spy came to report that there was a large pigeon cage in the backyard of the warehouse where the medicinal materials were stored, with five or six pigeons in it.
The next morning, Wang Guangya made a deal with the other shopkeeper and took away two thousand kilograms of Coptis chinensis. The business was good, and the shopkeeper invited Wang Guangya to drink at the restaurant at noon. He needed such long-term customers.
Soon, Wang Guangya found out a lot of information. The owner of the medicine shop was from Liyang County, and the medicinal materials were also grown in Liyang County. Currently, the owner only has this medicine shop in Baling County, but he also has a medicine shop in Changsha County and Jiangling County.
This is consistent with the intelligence they currently have. Cao Shiqi has intelligence points in Changsha County and Jiangling County, and now these intelligence points belong to Liu Yuanjin.
Although they have a grasp of the situation, they cannot arrest the spy immediately. They must arrest the spy on the eve of the arrival of the army so that the other side will have no buffer time.
If the arrest was made too early, Changsha would get the news and urgently notify Liu Yuanjin, who would then escape.
Three days later, Wang Guangya received news that His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin would lead a large army to arrive in Baling County tomorrow.
At night, fifty men gathered at the inn. Wang Guangya assigned tasks to them. They split into two groups. One group, consisting of ten spies, was to capture the spies in the warehouse, and the other group, led by Wang Guangya himself, was to capture the five spies in the pharmacy.
Forty spies from the Intelligence Agency surrounded the drugstore. Wang Guangya led thirty of them to break in, while the remaining ten stayed outside to prevent any fish from escaping the net.
The drugstore was not prepared at all. In just a moment, the owner and four shop assistants were tied up.
The shopkeeper was pushed into the yard, and when he saw Zhang Guangya, his eyes widened.
Zhang Guangya smiled and said, "Since we have some friendship, as long as the owner tells the truth, I can spare your life!"
"I don't understand what you are talking about. What should I confess?" the drugstore owner pretended to be confused.
At this time, the soldiers searched out all kinds of intelligence and the letters written by Liu Yuanjin, placed them in front of the owner of the drug store, and also found dozens of weapons.
The owner of the drugstore was completely dejected all of a sudden.
(End of this chapter)