Han Bao and their espionage and observation during this period of time, they have locked down Guanjiang Tower, which is quite similar to the Late Red Mansion that operated a brothel and a warehouse in the early years, and is actually the core organization operated and established by Wang Jingrong, the envoy of the Chengde Army, and the remnants of the Shenling Division in Heshuo and Hedong.

In his early years, with the support of Shi Chengzu, the prince of the Jin Dynasty, Guanjianglou shared the right to sell salt and wine with more than a dozen family lords of the Jin State, and became a big salt merchant and wine merchant in the Jin State, and secretly cultivated cronies and henchmen throughout the major states and counties of the Jin State.

It is not too difficult to guess that Guan Jianglou has something to do with Wang Jingrong.

Guanjianglou only started selling to the outside world four or five years ago, and it is particularly popular in the Northland, and the taste is similar to that of the early Yandangchun, so it is not difficult for Han Bao to speculate that Guanjianglou actually obtained the method of steaming wine from the late Red Mansion.

And once you focus on Guanjiang Tower, there are more clues found in the past month or so, either openly or secretly.

The four-storey building opposite the tea shop is the main building of Guanjiang Building in Dingzhou.

In addition to the large and small restaurants, wine shops and officials and people in Dingzhou City must come here to buy alcohol and strictly prohibit private brewing, it is also the most magnificent inn and restaurant in Dingzhou City.

Not to mention the ordinary magnates in Dingzhou City, even Wang Yuankui, the envoy of the Chengde Army, and his son Wang Mao, the commander of the Sima and Yajun of the Chengde Army, often feasted generals and guests here.

Han Bao's time to enter Dingzhou was still short, and there were not many people available, so he could only spy on the remnants of the Shenling Division in the Heshuo area and the collusion between inside and outside around the Guanjiang River in the early stage.

However, the tea shop is not a place to talk, and now that he has contacted Huo Li and Wang Zhe, Han Bao did not greet them much in the tea shop in order to avoid attracting attention, and directly told them where they are now, so he left the tea shop first, walked through the streets and alleys, and walked back to a dilapidated courtyard behind Guanjiang Building.

After a long while, Huo Li, Wang Zhe and others scattered and rushed over to meet, and Han Bao led them through two secret doors and entered a collapsed and abandoned courtyard next door, and then officially sat down in a dark room to introduce each other to the recent progress of the situation in Dingzhou and Tangyi.

Han Bao secretly monitored Guanjianglou for half a month, and three days ago, he had just successfully sent two subordinates who had just obtained their identities in Dingzhou to work in Guanjianglou.

It can be confirmed that in its early years, Guan Jianglou established commercial ties with the areas controlled by the Mughals through the trade of wine, furs, iron tools and other commercial goods. And it was also with the secret support of Wang Jingrong that the caravans of the Mughal people were able to trade from Youzhou and Danzhou in recent years, directly entering Hengzhou, Dingzhou, Cangzhou and other places controlled by the Chengde army.

The caravans of the Mughurs entering Dingzhou, although they mainly hired Han people from You, Tan and other places, but the forces behind the caravan were not from the indigenous clans of Youtan and other prefectures occupied by the Mughurs more than ten years ago, but more of the well-dressed warriors who went north from Guanzhong to join the Mengwu people in order to escape the pursuit of the Liang army during the fall of the previous dynasty.

It can be speculated that the remnants of the Shenling Division in Heshuo have long established close ties with the former dynasty warriors who fled north more than 20 years ago.

Although Han Bao did not have enough manpower for the time being, he was sent to Danzhou, Youzhou and other places to spy on intelligence, but through the observation of the Mengwu caravan and the rumors of the people in Dingzhou about the Mengwu caravan, he speculated that part of the content of the "Heavenly Craftsman's Book" had already been introduced to Youtan and other places in Guanjianglou.

Because the caravans of the Mughal people have been entering Dingzhou regularly for seven or eight years, many things are not a secret in Dingzhou - Han Bao has a deeper level of information, and it is not difficult to connect many flashes of fragmented information.

The forces behind the control of these Mughal caravans were dominated by the Xiao clan, a former northward fugitive clan.

Xiao Wending and Xiao Jun, the ancestors of the Xiao family, served as two prime ministers in the previous dynasty, and they can be said to be the first-class well-dressed warriors in the middle and late stages of the previous dynasty.

After the Xiao family fled north to join the Mongwu people, he was highly valued and trusted by the prince Wusu Dashi, who was still the Mugyu Metropolitan Governor's Mansion at that time.

After the founding of the country, Xiao Yiqing first served as a free rider and a scholar, and helped Wusu Dashi to imitate the Central Plains Dynasty and set up Yingzhou and Shizhou in the depths of the prairie to settle the Han people who had repeatedly invaded and plundered the Han people in the south by the northern fugitive clan and the Mengwu iron cavalry, and developed cast iron, farming, and mining pond salt in Yingzhou and Shizhou.

After the Mengwu people won more than a dozen prefectures such as Yunyan Youtan in the north and south of Yanshan from the Jin State, Xiao Yiqing strongly advised Wusu Dashi to rule according to customs, and set up two courts in the north and south of the Mengwu to govern the Han people in the southern counties and the Mengwu people in the northern grasslands.

In just 12 or 3 years, Xiao Yiqing helped Wusu Dashi to recruit Han officials on a large scale, promoted the development of the Mengwu Kingdom from a tribal system to a centralized power, and moved the political, cultural and economic center of the Mengwu to Youzhou in the south.

Xiao Yiqing, as the prince of the Southern Court of the Mengwu Kingdom and the secretary of the military department, can already be said to be among the princes and ministers of the Mengwu Kingdom, and his daughter Xiao Yan married the prince Wu Sulu as a concubine.

Huo Li and Wang Zhe were ordered to come over this time, mainly to remind Han Bao to pay attention to the remnants of the Shenling Division in the Heshuo area, and the liaison and collusion with the former northern fugitive clan, they didn't expect that Han Bao had already figured out a rough idea of the context in less than two months in Dingzhou, it was really hard to imagine that he was just an illiterate low-level slave under the Shang family of the Lishui family four or five years ago, and secretly thought to himself, they think very highly of themselves, but if they really want to change to Han Bao's position, can they do this?

"There is a Mengwu caravan of more than 100 people, who lived in Guanjianglou two months ago, but in the past two months, I haven't seen how they have entered and exited, and there is no bulk commercial goods to be transferred to other states and counties, they should be the envoys who negotiated with Wang Yuankui on behalf of the Mengwu lord, but unfortunately our people can't penetrate the core area of Guanjianglou, and we don't know who the Mugwu envoys are, and we don't know what step they talked about." Han Bao said with regret.

"Can Liang Guo pay close attention to the movements in Dingzhou?" Huo Li asked.

"We are in the peaks and mountains near Jingcheng, we noticed traces of people passing by, it should be that there are Liang State secret agents to and from Lu and Dingzhou, but for the time being, we have not found any traces ......of Liang Jian's activities in Dingzhou, presumably they came earlier and lurked deeper, and we dare not startle the snake and alarm them," Han Bao said.

Huo Li nodded, in the final analysis, their main task is to pay attention to the movements of the Cheng German army and the Mughal people, and ensure that when the Mughal Iron Cavalry goes south, they can report to Tangyi as soon as possible, and there is no need to deliberately find out what kind of conditions the Cheng German army and the Mugyu people have reached.

In that case, once they are caught by surprise, it will be even more detrimental to their ability to ensure the completion of their basic tasks.

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In order to ensure this, they also have a task, that is, to set up hidden pile strongholds in Dingzhou, Hengzhou, Qizhou, Xingzhou, Weizhou, Caozhou, Songzhou and other places, all the way to the south, so as to ensure that information can be transmitted in rotation at the fastest speed.

From Dingzhou to Chaozhou, the straight-line distance is more than 2,000 miles, if only a group of people transmit information, along the way to hide their identity, avoid many checks, not to mention it takes a month to deliver the news, there is a great risk of being intercepted along the way.

And there are strongholds along the way, and the time for transmitting messages in rotation can be shortened by at least half.

Whether the news of Heshuo's shocking changes was delivered to Tangyi after a month, or shortened to half a month, the meaning is completely different.

Of course, Huo Li and Wang Zhe came over this time and also carried a few carrier pigeons.

However, from Dingzhou to Tangyi, the journey is more than 2,000 miles, and there is really no guarantee whether a few carrier pigeons can successfully cross such a long journey to pass the book back to Tangyi.

They need to establish multiple channels for the transmission of information.

Han Bao was in the secret room, first introduced the current situation in Dingzhou to Huo Li and Wang Zhe, and then according to the more specific information that Huo Li brought about the remnants of the Shenling Division in the Heshuo area and the northern fugitive clan, he combed through the fragments collected in the past two months.

At this time, the knock on the door sounded softly, Han Bao opened the door, and saw Zhang Shigui, who was on duty in the courtyard, walking in with a bronze telescope in his hand, and said: "There are more than a dozen people pretending to be merchants, entering the city from the south gate, just entering the backyard of Guanjiang Building, and just ......meeting the leader of the Mughal caravan."

Han Bao chose this remnant courtyard as a secret base, mainly because there are several ancient cypress trees in the courtyard that are three or four hundred years old, and even in the cold winter, the crown leaves are still thick.

They could hide the canopy of trees more than five or six stories high, and borrow a telescope to see the situation in the backyard of the Guanjiang Tower, seven or eight hundred paces away.

Han Bao could basically confirm that the Mengwu caravan that stayed in the backyard of Guanjianglou during this time was the envoy sent by the Mengwu State to negotiate with Wang Yuankui.

At this time, Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao entered and exited the Guanjiang Tower, and had a secret conversation with the Mengwu envoys, and they would not make a fuss, but more than a dozen people dressed up in disguise, and after entering Dingzhou City from the south, they met with the Mengwu envoys in the Guanjiang Tower, and Han Bao, Huo Li, and Wang Zhe were all terrified.

"Is it the Jin general stationed in Qizhou or Zhaozhou, who also wants to vote for the Mughu, so he sent someone over to meet the Mengwu envoy secretly?" Huo Li asked in surprise.

Han Bao was also a little dizzy, and couldn't guess what the new discovery represented for a while, so he walked towards the courtyard with Huo Li and Wang Zhe.

At this time, there was still a person who stood in the canopy, keeping an eye on the movement in the backyard of Guanjiang Tower, but the people who met with the Mughal envoy all entered the room at this time, and there were no other new discoveries for the time being.

Wang Zhe, who was quite silent and inconspicuous after the rendezvous, frowned at this time, shook his head and said: "Qizhou and Zhaozhou are located in the hinterland of Heshuo, although they are located in the passage of the Mengwu cavalry to the south, but the garrison in these places is only three or five thousand people, even if they are willing to throw themselves into the Mugwu together, Wang Yuankui and Wang Jingrong don't want to startle the snake and leak the news, and they will not directly invite them to participate in such a confidential negotiation at this time!" ”

"That's true, Zhao Qi and other states have very few garrisons, and their combat effectiveness is not strong, and the guards in these places are not strong-willed. Han Bao said.

He felt that what Wang Zhe said was very reasonable, and he couldn't help but look at Wang Zhe twice.

Wang Zhe is much weaker than Huo Liwen, who has practiced foot boxing since he was a child and led his family soldiers when he grew up.

After a long journey in the past month, Wang Zhe was much more haggard and tired than Huo Li, Han Bao had heard that he was more fond of literature and ink and was more good at political affairs, and secretly felt that at such a moment, the Lord and Mrs. sent such a character to go north with Huo Li without hesitation, obviously they valued him more for his resourcefulness.

Thinking of this, Han Bao humbly asked, "Lord Wang Zhe, do you think that these dozen people, which force may have sent them to secretly meet the envoy of the Mugwu?" ”

"I'm afraid, I'm afraid they're coming from Weibo." Wang Zhe frowned and said.

"Liang Hewang Zhu Rang's people?" Huo Li was determined, and he couldn't help but ask in fear at this time.

Wang Zhe glanced up at the canopy of the tree and asked, "At this time, how clear can you look at the back house of Guanjiang Tower from here through a lookout glass?" ”

"The back house of Guanjiang Building is brightly lit at this time, and with the help of a mirror, you can vaguely see a person's face." Han Bao said.

"I traveled to Liang when I was young, but I also saw many Liang generals and ministers, and I don't know if I can see one or two familiar faces when I climb the tree." Wang Zhe said that if Liang He Wang Zhu Rang was really anti-lective and determined to collude with the Mugwu people to end the back road of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, he would definitely send the core descendants to dress up in disguise, and would not send the little-known miscellaneous fish and shrimp to negotiate.

"Good. If it doesn't work, I will immediately arrange a noodle stall to guard the back door of Guanjiang Building to see if anything is found; In addition, on the official road from Dingzhou to Weizhou, I will also arrange eyeliner in advance......" Han Bao said.

Wang Zhe had never practiced foot boxing kung fu, and his hands and feet were clumsy and he was just about to climb the tree by a rope ladder, when Shi Ruhai, who was hiding in the canopy of the tree, shouted: "Someone escaped from the backyard of Guanjiang Building over the wall and was found by the guards......

At this time, Han Bao and Huo Li couldn't care about Wang Zhe's slow speed, and directly climbed the tree, looked at the streets and alleys in the distance, and saw a black shadow running wildly in the alley behind Guanjiang Tower, and dozens of sturdy figures were jumping out of the courtyard wall of Guanjiang Tower.

Han Bao and Huo Li looked at each other.

This ancient cypress is three or four hundred years old, Wang Zhe borrowed the rope ladder to climb up without crowding at all, borrowed the lookout to look into the alley behind the Guanjiang Building, and asked: "Is it that the secret spies of Liang Jun who infiltrated the Guanjiang Building found something, and had to risk leaving the Guanjiang Building to ventilate the news, and then were discovered by the guards in the Guanjiang Building?" ”

Han Bao can think of this.

Although he also successfully sent people into Guanjiang Building two or three days ago, the two eyeliners they entered were only low-level guys, and they had no chance to touch the core area of Guanjiang Building's backyard, and even if they found anything, they would not recklessly startle the snake, it should not be their people.

Besides, their point of contact with Guan Jianglou's eyeliner was on the other side, instead of fleeing to the alley on this side in a panic.

Of course, Liang Guo's secret room is not reckless, as Wang Zhe said, it must be a secret that must be passed on as soon as possible, so he had to take the risk of sneaking out to report the news, so that his feet were exposed.

Liang Guo's secret room has successfully entered the Guanjiang Tower, if the Mughung envoys can't make them make a fuss, how can anything make them panic suddenly?

(This chapter is not finished, please turn the page)

Han Bao and Huo Li glanced at each other, thinking of Wang Zhe's guess just now.

Emperor Liang expected Wang Yuankui to defect to the Mughurs, so he would not make a fuss about the secret room of the Liang army lurking in Dingzhou, but the collusion between Zhu Rang, the king of Liang He, who replaced Liang Shixiong as Wei Bojiedu's envoy, and the Mengwu people was enough to make Liang Jian suddenly panic after realizing it!

They were so shocked when they thought of this just now, not to mention the secret room of the Liang Kingdom?

"Someone set fire to the Guanjiang Building," Shi Ruhai......, who was standing at the top, said again.

Han Bao and Huo Li turned their heads to look and saw a flame coming out of a window on the third floor of the main building of Guanjiang Building.

At this time, some people fled to the long street south of the main building one after another, and it can be seen that the fire in the building must be not small, but it has not yet burned through the windows.

Han Bao and the others mainly observed the movements of Guanjianglou and the Chengde Army's Jiedu Embassy on the periphery during this time, and they did not penetrate too deeply, let alone easily risk sneaking in, nor did they know how deep the Liang Army's secret room penetrated into Guanjianglou and Chengdejun's Jiedu Embassy.

However, looking at the movement in Guanjiang Tower, Han Bao and the others also understood that it was by no means only one or two Liang Jian who successfully infiltrated Guanjiang Tower, and it was likely that the people who escaped over the wall before and the people who set fire to it later were only intended to create chaos or divert the attention of the guards of Guanjiang Tower.

In order to prevent the spies from escaping in the crowd of people hiding from the fire, the guards of Guanjiang Tower were divided into two teams and came out of the side doors through the side alleys to block both sides of the long street.

These guards are all dressed in strong and stubborn weapons, armed with bows and crossbows, and at this time, they can also see how strong the hidden armament of Guanjiang Tower is.

"Wang Yuankui may have already secretly negotiated the terms with the Mughu, and he is really waiting for Zhu Rang to send someone over if he hasn't moved for a long time?" Seeing that the guards in the Guanjiang Tower were openly equipped with armor and holding bows and crossbows to block the long street, Wang Zhe frowned and said.

Han Bao and Huo Li also nodded yes.

It is true that Guanjianglou is a major merchant force in the Jin State, and it has set up contact points and footholds in various states and counties of the Jin State, so that its minions are all over the Jin State, and there is no problem, but in such an important city as Dingzhou, there is a system of armor and armed forces, and the nature has changed, and it is a "secret private soldier" with ill intentions.

Not to mention the blatant use of force on the long streets, in a blatant bypass of official institutions.

Even if the armed merchant ships under the Akayama Society are licensed to have armor to guard the goods to prevent robbers, they will report in advance when they pass through the local prefectures and counties.

And if someone wants to go ashore and enter the county and county seats, they can only carry short-bladed defense, and weapons such as longbows and crossbows cannot be brought into the city at will.

Guan Jianglou's status in the Jin Kingdom, at least on the bright side, will not be higher than that of the Chishan Society, which has the support of the Tangyi army and the Han family behind the Great Chu. The Chishan Society was more restricted in Huaidong, Xiangbei and other places, and Yang Yuanyan and Li Zhihe were eager to send people to keep an eye on every boat and every camel team that the Chishan Society entered.

Even if Wang Yuankui does not belong to the Shenling Division, but he has been helped by Wang Jingrong openly and secretly over the years to sit in the position of the envoy of the Chengde Army, he should have long understood the relationship between Guanjianglou and the relics of Shenling Si Heshuo, and should also understand the relationship between Guanjianglou and the Northern Fugitive Clan and the Mughal people.

Previously, the Mengwu envoys pretended to be caravans and lived in Guanjiang Tower after entering Dingzhou, and it can also be said that Guanjianglou was suitable for acting as an intermediary between the Mengwu and the Chengde army because of its contact with both sides.

However, at this time, it was clear that Guan Jianglou had an established armor in Dingzhou, and he could even openly use these forces without scruples, which shows that Guan Jianglou and Wang Jingrong actually had a higher status and power in Dingzhou than the outside world imagined.

It's much more than just a leader.

"Is it possible that Wang Jingrong and Guan Jianglou have already secretly taken refuge in Xiao Yiqing and the Mughus?" Seeing the situation in front of him, Han Bao thought of a possibility, and asked in shock.

Wang Zhe nodded and said, "My lord and my wife are a little worried about this, so I came over to see if I could find more obvious signs, but I didn't think that such a thing would happen just after I arrived in Dingzhou." ”

Before, they were only a little worried, but what happened in front of them showed that this speculation was closer to the truth, otherwise many of the doubts they saw could not be explained clearly.

Han Bao was a young man, and he couldn't help but be shocked at this time.

Guanjianglou was attached to the Jin State, secretly supporting Wang Yuankui and other forces, or secretly colluding with the Mughurs to seek the opportunity to restore the country and take revenge, which was their initial speculation, which is completely two concepts from their current speculation that Guanjianglou had already taken refuge and vassalized the Mughurs, and the follow-up situation in Heshuo is also completely two concepts.

If it is the former, even if Wang Yuankui and the Mughurs negotiate the conditions for refuge, it is impossible for the Mughurs to have complete trust in Wang Yuankui immediately, and it may even take Wang Yuankui to send his small relatives to Youzhou as a proton before the Mugwu cavalry dares to assemble on a large scale and go south.

If it is the latter, as long as Wang Yuankui makes up his mind to take refuge, the Mughurs will be able to control the military and political system of the German army and the families of the main generals through Guanjianglou for the first time, and the Mengwu cavalry, which is very likely to have completed the assembly in the north of Dingzhou at this time, only need to wait for further negotiations with the envoys sent by Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe, and they can drive straight in without hesitation, and they don't even need to consider the grain and grass along the way.

In the former, the Mughal cavalry also needed to spend more than a month or even longer to complete a lot of precautionary work at the earliest, and then dared to unite with the German army to advance to the territory of Qizhou and Zhaozhou in the south, and then advance further south to the territory of Weizhou, and join forces with Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe, which would take even longer.

In the latter, the Mengwu cavalry could gallop day and night, and enter the territory of Qizhou and Zhaozhou through the control area of the Chengde army in two or three days; It is very likely that the German army has secretly completed military mobilization and will cooperate with the dispatch of troops to the south at any time.

At this time, Zhu Rang, the king of Liang He, decided to collude with the Mugwu people to rebel, and it can be said that it would take only four or five days at the shortest to join forces to cut off the contact between the main force of the Liang army, which was besieging Luzhou in Zezhou at this time, and Bianjing.

Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang has the ability to penetrate the heavens and the earth, and 100,000 elites are trapped in the mountains in the southern part of the ancient county of Hedong, and they will also become isolated and helpless and lone troops - they will not give him time to deploy troops and adjust their deployments at all.

Even if Zhu Yu could escape from the pursuit of the Mengwu cavalry in the southwest of Hedong Gujun and flee to the Guanzhong region, how long would it take for Zhu Yu to return to Bianjing by way from Guanzhong?

However, after the official rebellion of Zhu Rang, the king of Lianghe, waited for the Mengwu cavalry to seal the passage for the main force of the Liang army to return to Bianjing from Weizhou, he directly sent troops from Weizhou, and it only took four or five days to attack Bianjing......

(End of chapter)