The north wind in Hangzhou in November is tighter, and the low and dense clouds seem to indicate that the first snow of this winter is coming, and after several days of fighting, or the fire burned itself, the fire that swept through half of Hangzhou City was finally completely extinguished, but it also destroyed half of the famous city in the south of the Yangtze River, and also destroyed the homes of hundreds of people.

As early as in the process of sending people to continuously fight fires and calm the people, Sun Tu had already learned the causes and consequences of this sudden fire from the mouths of his soldiers. It all started in the palace, but it didn't stop there.

When Sun Tu was still outside the city and was about to fight Pang Wanchun alone, the subordinates who received his order immediately moved and rushed into the palace of Wu Guo, which looked completely undefended. Originally, everything seemed so normal, the soldiers searched around, looking for valuable things, and began to block those palaces, but when they drove straight into a certain palace in the harem, they unexpectedly found that there were more than ten or twenty people standing there, and the man at the head looked at them with strange eyes, and said softly: "I didn't expect Sun Tu to be so careful that he didn't enter the palace by himself." If so, then you are unlucky! ”

With a wave of his hand, the torch-wielding men threw them all in front of a jar, which cracked and flames spread. It was only at this time that everyone was horrified to find that the temple was already full of fire-causing things, and the fire was out of control.

Not only this temple, but even the rows of palaces and palaces outside have actually made arrangements in this regard for a long time, and once the fire spreads, the entire palace will be set on fire, and then it will jump out along the line that has already been laid out.

And outside the palace gate, along with the fire in the palace, some people actually began to set fire everywhere. At that time, there was some chaos in the city, and the Song soldiers were far from being able to control the situation, when someone set fire to the houses desperately, and those houses were actually placed in the interior and top of the house early in the morning after the flammable materials such as fire oil and hay were placed, it could be blown around under the blowing of the north wind, and finally ignited the entire northern city of Hangzhou.

It is also thanks to the fact that these Song soldiers who entered the palace are the elite of the army, and they hurriedly retreated when they saw that something was wrong, otherwise they would really have to be all there. But even so, there were still many casualties due to this fire, and this kind of damage was really unexpected by everyone.

What made Sun Tu especially concerned was the point deliberately mentioned by the escaped soldiers, that the culprit who caused this fire was actually a plan set up for himself, and he did it so desperately that he buried himself in this fire. This is obviously very different from an opponent on the battlefield like Pang Wanchun, giving Sun Tu the feeling that this is not a public enmity, but a private anger. But for the time being, Sun Tu really couldn't think of what kind of grievance it would be, and he could make such an important official of the Wu State do such a thing at all costs.

You must know that this is not just a matter of how many people were burned to death and half of the city was burned, once the cause and effect of this matter were all spread, it would definitely be a great blow to Fang La and his puppet regime who had fled to the west. This Hangzhou is their original capital, and the people here are their subjects, and now they are in a big defeat and ignore the lives of their subjects, and always burn the city, how can they still make other people loyal to them?

So Sun Tu quickly came to the conclusion that this could not be a decision made by Fang La at all, it must be everything that someone with whom he had a deep personal vendetta was secretly plotting. It's a pity that the fire that turned the entire palace into ruins has also burned this person to ashes, along with his hatred and secrets, and it is really difficult to find out the reason.

And just when he thought that everything could no longer have an answer, a discovery made him change his mind. Just this morning, the soldiers who went to the palace to search for relevant clues actually found a secret passage there, and the starting point of the secret passage was actually in the back palace that set fire that day.

This made Sun Tu very interested, and immediately rushed over to see what was going on, and this was the first time he really set foot in this palace built by the Qiantang Kingdom decades ago, but it was burned down a few days ago. Originally, if it were to follow the trend of history, this place might become the imperial palace after the Song Dynasty built the capital here, but now it seems that there is no way back, because the original pavilions and pavilions here, the deep palace hall have become scorched earth ruins, and there is a scorched smell everywhere, and it has long since lost its original luxury.

"General, right here, I'll confront that guy here, and then with his order, the torch will hit the ground, and the surrounding fire will be ablaze." A soldier with a wound on his body pointed to the ruins of the palace in front of him, which had only a few blackened walls, and said loudly.

Sun Tu nodded, and then strolled forward, his eyes quickly flashed, and then settled on a corner that had been pried up from the stone slab. Judging from the traces left in this vicinity, the setting of this secret passage is indeed very ingenious, if there are those luxurious furniture and mechanisms, this secret passage is impossible to find even if people who always come here are afraid.

However, this fire burned everything in the temple, and also burned up the floor tiles that should have hidden the secret passage, showing a different place from other places, and it was found by the soldiers who came in again to search for it.

After leaning over and taking a closer look, he nodded again and said, "Open it and go down and have a look." ”

In fact, this place has been carefully searched by the soldiers once, so no one persuaded them, and soon opened the entrance for Sun Tu that could only allow one person to enter and exit, and two personal soldiers entered first, and Sun Tu went down. After descending a little narrow ladder for more than a kilometer, they finally landed in a fairly wide tunnel below.

The tunnel is made of white marble masonry on three sides, and it is very well sealed, and after looking up and estimating the distance from above and the thickness of the wall, Sun Tu is even more sure - even if there is a fire burning above, as long as he can retreat into this secret passage in time, he can be safe.

And when they walked along the secret passage, for miles, they came to a place in an inconspicuous courtyard in the northwest of the city, which happened to avoid the threat of fire, and there was hardly a trace of fire in the courtyard. Later, someone reported that when they entered the secret passage earlier, they found that there were traces of freshly used use at this exit.

In this way, the answer to the truth is very clear, the person who ordered the arson did not die in the fire, he actually prepared the back road early in the morning, and when the soldiers fled in a hurry, he led the people to escape here along this safe passage, and then took advantage of the chaos in the city to blend in with the fleeing people!

"This guy is so thoughtful that he even thinks of this. What's even more terrifying is that in order to come here, he actually dug up such a tunnel in their emperor's palace, did Fang La actually trust him to such a situation? Yang Zhi, who walked through the authentic with Sun Tutong, couldn't help but sigh.

But Sun Tu shook his head and said, "No, this tunnel should not have been dug by him temporarily, but it has been around for a long time, and he discovered and used it before." Don't you see, those white marble and everything are already old things, and they are just an escape route, how can he make it so rich under the urgency of time? ”

"That's right, that'...... How did this passage come about? ”

"It was the lord of Wu Yue, who destroyed the country decades ago, to set up just in case." Zhu Wu then spoke: "As far as I know, in fact, when the world was in turmoil, many local forces would leave secret passages and secret rooms in their nests in case of emergency, but later Wu Yueguo surrendered to my Great Song Dynasty, and finally failed to use this secret passage, but was used by the thieves this time." ”

Sun Tushen nodded approvingly: "Yes, it's much more reasonable to say this." After a pause, he narrowed his eyes again: "But what I'm more curious about is where this person is now, and what will he do next?" ”

"Since that guy has escaped, he has naturally escaped from Hangzhou and gone to Wuzhou, right?" Yang Zhi replied casually.

Sun Tu shook his head: "This is maybe, since this person did not hesitate to do things that damaged his reputation in order to kill me, he obviously hated me to the core." If you can't kill me now, how can you be willing to leave? ”

"What does the general mean...... Is he going to be bad for you? Tang Feng said, immediately became vigilant, pressed the knife in one hand, and looked around vigilantly, beware of the danger that might appear at any time.

"Maybe it's just that I'm overthinking, but it's always okay to be careful." Sun Tu smiled: "Now that the overall situation in Jiangnan is decided, we can't be the slightest bit lax, otherwise we are afraid that we will fall short." So in the future, whether it is to appease the people or help them rebuild their homes, it is not a sloppy thing. We must win the hearts and minds of the people and convince the people of Jiangnan that we are different from those officials in the past, and the real way to win is to win. ”

"I'll get it." The people around him hurriedly answered.

In fact, after following Sun Tu for many years, they have also become familiar with and recognized him and his various ideas and practices that always work for the benefit of the people. This is not only a matter of habit, but also allows the soldiers to obtain a lot of practical benefits, at least now everywhere the Shandong army goes, the people are warmly entertained, compared to the treatment of other soldiers and horses is much worse.

At this time, a soldier hurried over: "General, there are many representatives of the people in the barracks who want to thank you for saving the people and putting out the fire and rebuilding their homes before, I wonder if the general has seen them?" ”

Sun Tu smiled when he heard [5200] it: "This is everyone's heart, and I naturally want to meet the villagers." ”