August 14, cloudy.

Tang Minjie led Xu Xiaolin, passed the inspection at the city gate as a Xi person, and walked in the direction of the post station outside the city. The road outside the city in the clouds is lined with gray land, and there is not even thatch left.

In the distance, there are manors, workshops, and simple slums, and in the field of vision, you can see the walking corpse-like Han slaves moving on that side, and an old man in the field of vision walks slowly with small bundles of firewood, leaning over his body - in terms of the environment here, it is difficult to say whether it is an "old man" or not.

There are mountains and trees farther away, but Xu Xiaolin remembered what Tang Minjie said, because of his hatred for the Han people, even the trees in the mountains are now not allowed to be picked up by the Han people. The houses in the field of vision are simple, and even if they can be heated, many people will die in the winter, and now there is such a limitation, and when the snow falls, this side will indeed become a hell on earth.

When he came up with the caravan, he also saw the houses of these slums, and he did not feel the same mood at that time.

Tang Minjie walked beside him with his head down, and said in his mouth: "...... I don't write much about the affairs of the grassland people, and after I go back, please be sure to ask Mr. Ning clearly. Although the Wu Dynasty did something stupid to fight against Liao, it was because the Wu Dynasty itself was weak, and now that the Southwest War is over, it will take some time to fight in the north. This year, the steppe people came over, not to seize the city, but to rob the Jurchens' ordnance, and I think what they are trying to do is not small......"

"I will convey this in detail." The issue of the grassland people may become a major policy for the work in the north in the future, and Xu Xiaolin also understands the key to this, but then he has some doubts, "But the work here, this side has the power to make temporary decisions, why don't you make a judgment first, and then convey it to the south?" ”

"Mr. Ning's attitude towards the grassland people is a little strange, I didn't make it clear at the beginning, I'm afraid that I will be wrong, or there are some tricks I don't know."

Tang Minjie said, and mentioned it to Xu Xiaolin roughly. At the beginning, Mr. Ning had been to Xixia once, and after he came back, he only said that he was an enemy on the grassland. It's just that at that time, these grassland people had never set foot in the Central Plains, and there was no incident of besieging Yunzhong in the first half of the year, and Ning Yi's judgment may have been simpler, but now that there is a more specific situation, there can naturally be a new way to deal with it.

“…… Yunzhong was originally considered a big city, but with Zong Han placing the 'Western Imperial Court' here, and adding 100,000 captured Han people, it was impossible to live in the city in the early years, and these villages and workshops outside were added. In the first half of the year, when the grassland people came, a small part of the Han slaves outside the city ran into the city, and most of the rest were captured and surrounded outside the city, and most of the surrounding Zhuangzi were burned......"

Seeing Xu Xiaolin's eyes looking at this scene, Tang Minjie then introduced the surroundings.

“…… The purpose of the grassland people was the ordnance stored in Toyosu, so they did not do a massacre here, and after leaving, many people still survived. But so what, the surrounding area was not a good house in the first place, and after it was burned, these rebuilt ones were even more difficult to live, and now the firewood is not allowed to be cut. Rather than this, it is better to let the steppe people come and go more often, their horse teams come and go like the wind, although they cannot siege cities, but they are good at field battles, and they like to throw the corpses of dead days into the city......"

“…… At that time, the clouds sometimes stood in love, and the plague did not start, and most of the other cities could not be prevented, and when people died a lot, the Han people who survived might be better off......"

Tang Minjie chattered, and his words were as calm as a southwestern woman walking on the road. In the past, Xu Xiaolin would have had a lot of thoughts about the consequences of attracting grassland people, but at the moment when he saw those rickety figures, he suddenly understood the other party's state of mind.

After that, they chatted all the way, and when they arrived not far from the post station, they met with the Xiren caravan that had been arranged before, Tang Minjie communicated with the caravan boss, and came back to tell a few words of precautions on the way. The two separated under the gray canopy, and when Xu Xiaolin finally looked back, the seemingly inconspicuous figure had merged into the many pedestrians who were going to the clouds, and it was no longer visible in a blink of an eye.

……

After passing through the city gates, you will go back through the streets and alleys to your place of residence. It looked like it was about to rain, and the pedestrians on the road were in a hurry, but the smell of the mud on the road was a little less due to the blowing of the north wind.

Approaching the dilapidated street where he was temporarily staying, Tang slowed down as usual, and then made a small detour to check for signs of a stalker.

The weather was cloudy and rainy, and there were not many people on the road, so it was easier to judge, but when approaching the dilapidated courtyard where he lived, Tang Minjie's footsteps slowed slightly. A ragged black figure staggered forward against the wall, slumped under the eaves outside the courtyard gate, as if trying to shelter from the rain, and curled up in a ball.

Doubts flashed in Tang Minjie's mind, walked slowly, and observed for a while, only to see the figure struggling to get up again, staggering forward. He breathed a sigh of relief, walked to the courtyard gate, and on one side of his vision, the figure hesitated on the side of the road, and then walked back, probably seeing that he was about to open the door, and he was about to reach out and grab him by taking two quick steps.

"Help......

Tang Minjie leaned away from the other party's hand, it was a haggard and thin Han woman with a pale face and a wound on her forehead, asking him for help.

"Help, good people, help...... Please take me in for a while......"

Over the past ten years, the Jin Kingdom has successively arrested millions of Han slaves, and very few have a free identity, and at the beginning they were coolie prostitutes like pigs and dogs, and there are not many who can still survive today. In the following years, Wu Qimai forbade the slaughter of Han slaves at will, and some large families also began to use them as maids and family members, and the environment was slightly better, but in any case, there were too few free identities for Han Nu. Combined with the current environment of Yunzhong Mansion, it can be inferred according to common sense that this woman should be a slave who can't survive in someone's house and escapes secretly.

Someone on the other side of the alley came to this side, and for a while it seemed that she had not yet noticed the situation here, the woman's expression became more and more anxious, her thin face was full of tears, she reached out to pull open her clothes, only to see that the right shoulder to the chest were scars, and a large area of flesh and blood had begun to fester, emitting a seeping stench.

She cried and said, "If they take me back, I'm going to die...... Kind-hearted people take ......"

Tang Minjie looked at her, he couldn't tell if this was a trap set by others.

On the other side of the road, the family members of the unknown family ran towards this side, someone pushed Tang Minjie away, and then kicked the woman to the ground, began to punch and kick, the woman's body curled up in a ball on the ground, screamed a few times, and then was tied to a chain and dragged back like a pig and dog.

Not a trap...... This can be determined.

Tang Minjie looked at all this blankly, and when those family members came to question him, he took out the household registration deed from his arms and whispered, "I'm not Han." The other party just left.

It was raining coldly.

Open the door and go home, close the door. Tang Minjie hurriedly went to the room, found two books that contained some key information, wrapped them in cloth and put them in his arms, and then put on his coat and hat to go out. When the courtyard door was closed, the traces left by the beating of the woman could still be seen in the corner of the field of vision, and there were blood stains on the ground, which slowly mixed into the black mud on the road in the rain.

He glanced at it, and then did not stop, and passed through two streets and alleys in the rain, knocking on the back door of a house in the agreed way, and then someone opened the door, which was a deputy who had been working with him for a long time in Yunzhong Mansion.

The order that the espionage work had entered the dormant stage had been passed down layer by layer at this time, and this was the meeting that Tang Minjie had made an appointment with him. After entering the room and checking it for a while, Tang Minjie said his intentions straight to the point.

"From today onwards, you will temporarily take over all my work in Yunzhong Mansion, there are a few key pieces of information, let's do a handover......

Tang Minjie said, took out the two books from his arms, the other party looked puzzled, but first nodded and began to carefully write down what Tang Minjie said.

The whole process lasted for a while, and then Tang Minjie solemnly handed the book to the other party, and when the matter was done, the deputy asked, "What are you going to do?" ”

"I'm going to go to Beijing." Tang Minjie said.

The deputy frowned: "Didn't I say it before, even if I go to Beijing at this time, it will be difficult to meddle in the overall situation." You let everyone save their lives, what did you go to make a fuss about? ”

"If you look at the first-hand information carefully, although you can't intervene at the time, it's easier to think of a way later. The Jurchens and the East and West may want to fight, but the meaning of the possible fight is that it is also possible that it will not be able to fight. ”

The deputy frowned: "...... Don't be reckless, Shopkeeper Lu's style is different from yours, he focuses on intelligence gathering and is weak in action. When you arrive in Shangjing, if the situation is not ideal, if you want to be tough, you will kill them. ”

"I won't force it, don't worry."

The other party looked over, Tang Minjie also looked back, and after a while, the gaze retracted helplessly. Tang Minjie stood up.

"That's it, take care."

"Two thousand miles north, you have to take care."

The deputy said.

In the process of sending him out, he couldn't help but admonish: "In this situation, they will definitely fight, just look at it, don't do anything." ”

"Got it, don't mother-in-law."

……

All the way back to the courtyard where I lived, the rain seeped into my clothes, and the weather in August was surprisingly cold. Think about it, tomorrow is August 15th, the Mid-Autumn Festival is full, but how much the moon will be really round?

Tang Minjie stood outside the courtyard for a moment, at his feet was the place where the woman had been beaten and bled before, at this moment all traces had been mixed into the black mud, and he could no longer see it, he knew that this was the color of the Han people in the land of Jin, and some of them, including himself, could still shed red blood when they were beaten, but sooner or later, they would all become this color.

The next day, August 15, Tang Minjie set off for the north.

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