Subsequently, He Zhiyuan and Zhou Fulai discussed the specific action plan, agreed on the time of simultaneous action, and then launched actions at the same time.

After two days of rest in Taizhou, He Zhiyuan and Xu Tangyi took ten big ships and 700 soldiers along the Yangtze River and went straight to Nantousha in Chongming County.

The fifth day of April in the fourteenth year of Hongzhi is the most beautiful time of the year in the south of the Yangtze River, it is spring at this time, flowers are everywhere, birds are singing and flowers are fragrant, and Yangzhou City is a prosperous scene. But Lu Jie, a wealthy merchant in Yangzhou, stayed at home and had no intention of appreciating the beauty of spring, although there was a huge garden in the house, and several concubines and maids in the garden were still laughing, completely unaware of his master's fear and uneasiness.

At this time, more than a month has passed since Zhou Fulai's assassination, and now he has received the news that he is unconscious. This made him suspicious, no matter how many injuries he had, how could he have a result after such a long time, either he died of serious injuries or woke up. According to his son, the sword was stabbed in the body and did not hurt his head, how could he be unconscious all the time?

Yue Bingqian of Huai'an and he had brought supplements to visit, but they didn't enter the gate of the Bianyan Courtyard, so they were rejected by his elders. In other words, since the encounter, none of them have seen Zhou Fulai. This made Lu Jie even more restless, he felt that the invisible net was approaching him again, and an inexplicable fear rose from his heart.

After a while, the housekeeper Liu Cai knocked on the door and came in, and when he saw the old man sitting on the ground and fidgeting in the study, the fear in his heart deepened. After saluting, he said carefully: "Master, there is news from Taizhou that a team of people from outside Taizhou City came a few days ago......"

When Lu Jie heard this, he exclaimed, "How many people? What do these centaurs do? ”

Liu Cai said helplessly: "I didn't inquire, Liu Zhizhou over there in Taizhou is not our online person......"

"Was it transferred by Zhou Fulai?" Lu Jie asked in shock, the last transfer of troops still made his heart tremble.

"Master, Lord Zhou is still in a coma." Liu Cai reminded.

Lu Jie shook his head and said, "No, I suspect that Zhou Fulai has woken up now." ”

"Does the master mean he's showing weakness and paralyzing us?"

"There is such a possibility, and I have to guard against it in extraordinary times." Lu Jie muttered.

After Lu Jie said this, Liu Cai also had this suspicion. However, he still comforted the master: "If this is the case, Xiangmei should have a message to be sent, no, you are suspicious, master." ”

"What if Xiangmei doesn't know, or if any of Xiangmei and Miao Fu sent false news?" Lu Jie retorted, and then said: "At this time, I have to guard against it." Zhou Fulai's scheming was too deep, did he find that a Duan Xiushan couldn't send Miao Fu and Xiangmei? ”

"Master, how should we deal with it next?" Liu Cai asked again: "There are no people from us in the Taizhou Yamen, so it's not easy to inquire about the news." ”

"If you make more money, I don't believe there is anyone who doesn't like silver!" Lu Jie suddenly started a nameless fire, said loudly, looked at Liu Cai standing there and didn't move, and continued: "Go quickly!" ”

Liu Cai saw that the old man was angry, and quickly got up and left.

Two days later, Liu Cai came to report again: "Master, I heard a little news, according to a scribe in the yamen, a total of 1,000 soldiers came this time, but when I went to check again, I found that the camp tent was less than half, and those soldiers did not know where they went. ”

"Have you ever heard where these soldiers came from and where the army is?" When Lu Jie heard that most of the soldiers were missing, he was shocked again.

"I didn't inquire, that scribe is low-minded, and he is not a scribe in the barracks, so it costs twenty taels of silver for just such a little news." Liu Cai replied cautiously. While answering, he secretly glanced at Lu Jie's reaction with his eyes, in fact, he used five taels of silver, and the fifteen taels of silver had already entered his pocket.

Lu Jie heard that it cost twenty taels of silver, and his face twitched, and his heart hurt terribly, but he didn't have time to take care of these anymore.

In the afternoon, Lu Shaowen came to his father again and told him a news that made him even more uneasy: "Father, today I heard from a boat running on the Yangtze River that yesterday ten big boats entered the Yangtze River waterway from the tributaries of the Yangtze River in Taizhou and went down the Yangtze River. There were sixty or seventy men on each ship, like some soldiers. ”

"Towards Taizhou?" Lu Jie remembered the news that Steward Liu told him in the morning, and he was shocked again.

"It's in the direction of Taizhou, and according to the boatmen, there are still some things on each ship covered with cloth, which look like cannons, and the boatmen are asking me if there is another war?" Lu Shaowen continued.

Lu Jie shouted in his heart: "It's not good, it's going to Nantousha!" ”

"Father, don't be suspicious anymore, okay? Now that Zhou Fulai is unconscious, and everything in Jiangnan is safe and sound, why do you always scare yourself? Lu Shaowen said dissatisfied.

"You know!" Lu Jie said angrily, and then continued: "You don't know the situation at home in the past two days. Two days ago, thousands of soldiers came to the north of Taizhou, but two days later, more than half of them were missing, and their whereabouts were unknown. Now it is found that ten large ships have entered the Yangtze River waterway from the direction of Taizhou and are heading eastward, and these people must be those people from the north of Taizhou. ”

"So what?"

"I always suspected that Zhou Fulai had woken up, this was the soldiers and horses he transferred, it must be that Nantousha's secret was discovered by them, and this was going to Nantousha." Lu Jie said loudly to Lu Shaowen.

Then he asked: "We have been moving frequently recently, and we must have been followed by people from Zhou Fu." ”

When Lu Jie said this, he immediately reminded Lu Shaowen: "I remember, the samurai sent by Takeda to assassinate had stayed in Nantousha for one night, did the captured wounded tell this secret?" ”

Lu Jie slapped his thigh and said regretfully: "It must be so." Quick, you hurry up and ride a horse with a team of family members, each with two horses and two horses to Qidong day and night to pick up the two of them, and then take a boat to Nantousha to take a boat to meet Takeda. ”

"Okay, I'll leave right away!" Lu Shaowen realized that the matter was urgent, and he was about to get up and leave, but after thinking about it, he said to his father: "Father, there are more than 2,000 people on the island, and there are only six or seven hundred of them, are we still afraid of these people?" ”

"That's what you saw, how do you know if there won't be any other armies going with you?" Lu Jie replied.

Lu Shaowen felt that it made sense, and then asked, "Then what should you do?" ”

"You don't have to worry about me, the big ship is moving slowly, it is estimated that it will take three days to arrive, and they will definitely attack at the same time. I had plenty of time to get ready to leave. Lu Jie pretended to be confident and said: "As long as you go to the open sea by boat, even if I am caught, I will not worry about my life." ”

In fact, even he didn't know what he said, it was just a comforting word to his son. He is now sitting at home, just buying time for his family to escape. Lu Jie's calculation was right, they were indeed preparing to act at the same time. He did have three days to prepare, but that was when Lu Jie was not ready to escape, and if Zhou Fu found out that he was going to escape, he would definitely act in advance.

Hearing his father say this, Lu Shaowen relieved his heart, and then said to his father affectionately: "Then I'm leaving, take care!" ”

"Remember to change your clothes, you will scatter out of the city and meet in the city to prevent anyone from following you." Lu Jie admonished.

After Lu Shaowen left, Lu Jie immediately took action. He told his family to pack up and be ready to run away at any time, but in fact, the gold, silver and jewelry at home at home in Nantousha and Taitung had been transferred to his home in Nantousha and Taitung a long time ago, which was close to the sea and could be taken by boat at any time if there was an accident. There are only hundreds of thousands of taels of silver taels at home in Yangzhou at any time, which is a drop in the bucket for Lu Jie.

He calculated in his heart the time when Lu Shaowen arrived in Qidong, the time when he arrived at Nantousha and left by boat, if everything went well, two days would be enough, so that he could escape a day earlier. As for the route and way of escape, he had already planned it. There is a sea boat parked on the beach in Rudong County all the year round, and this secret is not even known to his son, only Liu Cai, the housekeeper who has followed him for forty years. He prepared to take the gold and silver late the next night, take the butler's carriage, and secretly go out of the city with Liu Cai. As for the city gate for so many years, he had already bought off the guards at the gate, and then went all the way east to the sea, and then went out to sea by boat, and then joined Takeda Hisasa, with the wealth he had accumulated, he could still live a comfortable life.

As for the concubines in the house, they were not within his consideration at all. Women are like clothes, the clothes are dirty and old, why don't you throw them away and keep them? I heard that Japanese women are also very gentle, as long as there are rich women, don't you want as many as you want?

The next night, he changed into a subordinate clothes, brought the two boxes that had been packed a long time ago, and rode Liu Cai's horse with Liu Cai and quietly went to the inner gate of the East City.

On the way, Lu Jie asked Liu Cai uneasily: "Steward Liu, are you ready over there?" ”

"It's all ready, as soon as we get there, we can go to sea immediately." Liu Cai said calmly as usual.

"This secret is only known to you and me, not even my son." Lu Jie said that on this way of escaping, Lu Jie remembered a lot of things when he was young, and couldn't help but say: "We have been with me since we were children, you have been with me for forty years, and you are the person I trust the most." When you get to Japan, you can find another one. It's not easy to have too many people after so many years. ”

"Master, let's not talk about that." Liu Cai whispered with some guilt in his heart.

While he was talking, the carriage came to the entrance of the city. At this moment, I heard a loud shout from outside the carriage: "Stop! Who? ”

After the carriage stopped, Liu Cai, who was driving in front, said, "Master, it's here." Get out of the car. ”

Lu Jie wondered: "This is the ...... at the gate of the city."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a voice from outside the carriage: "Boss Lu, it's been a long time." ”

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