Chapter 109: Xiurong is assassinated

After listening to Fan Chengkun and Li Zhi's report, although Chen Yufeng said lightly so that they don't have to worry, he didn't dare to be careless in his heart. Immediately summoned Li Jing and others to discuss this matter.

Now Li Jing wants twenty masters from Niutou Mountain Yanxing. Because when the last grain robbery operation finally solved the outer guards, it was mainly completed by the people of Niutou Mountain. That time, these people from Niutoushan also gave a very wonderful performance to these people in Yaogang. The members of the Zhangjiakou Guard are also recruited to be good at the rivers and lakes, but Li Kui and his people quietly tied up the bright and dark sentinels around them one by one. These people involved in the action made Li Jing like it very much, so he pestered Yan Xing and asked people. There was no way, Yan Xing had no choice but to let Li Jing pick someone by himself. When these people from Niutoushan heard that Yaogang was going to pick people, they tried their best to join Li Jing's team. As a result, Li Jing picked twenty people as she wished. They were training together, and Chen Yufeng came to find Li Jing.

After hearing this, Li Jing said: "Let's go to Lingshui Wharf and bring this group of people together." Let's take a look at what kind of masters they have, and see what they can do if they get a shotgun at close range. The brothers behind Li Jing all laughed. These people are becoming more and more confident, and Chen Yufeng is very happy. He knew that these people would be of great use in the future.

Chen Yufeng deliberately said with a calm face, "You kid doesn't use his brain. If things were so simple and you still need to do it, wouldn't Fan Chengkun do this? Now it's the point where you can't move the Lingshui Pier. If Li Zicheng's people come in again, we won't have any information at all. We must not only protect Mr. Zhang's safety, but also not destroy their point. It's best if we get rid of them before we go north. From now on, Li Jing will not leave Mr. Zhang at any time. Outside of other sentries at night, your people must set up a secret sentry outside Mr. Zhang's house. Secret sentries should also be quietly arranged around this kiln post to prevent accidents. ”

Li Jing knew the severity of this matter, and did not dare to slack off, and said: "From today on, I will follow Mr. Zhang wherever he goes." The matter of the dark whistle must have been arranged. You can rest assured. ”

Now the focus is on the kiln gang, and there is another force that gathers Zhang Zhimu, that is, the businessmen in Zhangjiakou led by Fan Yongdou.

On this day, in Fan Yongdou's study in the Fan family's compound, Fan Yongdou was admiring and playing with a jade cup that he had just gotten his hands on, which was a jade carved dragon pattern dragon ear horn-shaped cup. This jade cup was clumsy at first glance, but it was very memorable when I looked at it again. Although this jade cup is nothing in Fan Yongdou's collection, this cup really still makes him love it. Maybe it's because I just got it. Maybe after a while, the cup will be locked in the underground vault by him. Just like those women he is tired of playing, he will never let them out again. I'd rather keep them in the backyard than let them be played by others anymore. Anyway, the Fan family's food can't be eaten.

Fan Yongdou was carefully examining this jade cup. The butler came in and whispered in his ear, "There's someone over there." I'm in the back room. ”

This Fan Yongdou put down the jade cup and said, "I guess they're coming." I didn't expect them to come back so quickly. ”

The butler said, "I guess they can't hold it anymore." What do we do? ”

"What to do? What the fuck do I know? I don't have food in my hands, what can I do? This sentence choked Fan Yongdou, and he immediately became angry. But soon he calmed down. Years of experience in the shopping mall have allowed him to develop the ability to regulate his emotions. He knows that it is easiest to delay things when he is angry, because when people are angry, they will not be clear-headed, and if they are not clear-minded, they will make mistakes. So he had to adjust his emotions, even though he was really anxious about the food.

Fan Yongdou tidied up his clothes and followed the butler to the secret room. The entourage who followed the visitors sat on a chair in front of the door of the secret room, and when they saw Fan Yongdou coming, they all got up and saluted.

Fan Yongdou nodded and pushed the door into the secret room. The person who was sitting drinking tea in this secret room was dressed as a Han person, and when he saw Fan Yongdou coming in, he also got up and saluted, saying, "Fan Dongjia, it has always been good." King Khan asked me to say hello to you. I also brought you a few old ginseng for you to replenish your body. ”

"King Xie Khan is worried, King Khan is good. It's been a long time since I've seen him, and I miss him so much. Fan Yongdou said.

"King Khan's body is very strong, but he has always been worried about the things on the front line. Now the front-line food is running out again. His old man asked me to come over and ask if Fan Dong's family was in trouble. Otherwise, the grain would have arrived long ago. Fan Dongjia has always regarded credibility as more important than life, and this time he failed to deliver grain on time twice, so he must have encountered difficulties. But our soldiers in front of Shanhaiguan are running out of food. It won't be long before it's going to get cold. It is not good luck to have food by then. "The person who came was not polite, and went straight to the point.

The person who came was the envoy of the Khan King, and his Han name was Yan Jinghua. Most of the grain that Fan Yongdou sold to the Manchus was made by him. This time, because they had made an appointment to deliver the grain twice in a row, they didn't wait for Fan Yongdou's grain delivery team, and they knew that something must be wrong. Because Fan Yongdou has always been known for his business and credibility. So he came over personally to find out the situation.

Fan Yongdou is really in trouble. This time, they divided into two routes to deliver grain to Zhangjiakou. One way is along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Beijing and then transferred to Zhangjiakou; The other way is from the Yellow River to Fenshui in Shanxi, and then transported to Zhangjiakou after going ashore. Now there are problems with both roads, and they haven't been shipped all the way.

Walking along the canal, I encountered that the canal was impassable, so the grain was not transported.

After years of war, the Ming Dynasty's finances were tight, and it was unable to take out much silver to maintain the canal, resulting in silting up in many parts of the canal, and some locks were also in disrepair. Canals are often open and intermittent. This time, the canal was not navigable. Finally, the canal was opened, but the traffic capacity was also limited, and it was necessary to give priority to the imperial court's boats. Therefore, Fan Yongdou's food may not arrive at any time.

However, although the grain transported by the canal has not arrived, the grain is still there after all. But along the way to Shanxi, half of the grain was lost. Because they didn't understand who had stolen the grain, the remaining half didn't dare to take it off.

In this way, the grain transportation agreement with the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not be implemented.

Yan Jinghua listened to Fan Yongdou's explanation and asked, "Then who does Fan Dongjia think has the courage and ability to rob the grain?" ”

"We discussed it, and it didn't seem like it was any ordinary robber. Ordinary robbers, who don't have such great ability, can transport more than 10,000 stones of grain in one night; And the people who robbed the grain did not go on a killing spree. It's not like your average robber at all. Because killing people is the easiest way, but the people who rob the grain are obviously very restrained and take the method of killing as little as possible. What is even more puzzling is that these people did not even ask for horses and camel vehicles to transport goods, as if they were there for our food. Fan Yongdou said.

"So although Shanxi has such a great ability, can it do this?" Yan Jinghua also felt that this matter was a little strange.

"We analyzed, if the people in the green forest did it, the people who could rob us of our grain would be the biggest group of thieves in that area, the people of Niutou Mountain. But Niutoushan and we have been friends for many years, and they are not capable of doing things so beautifully. That's not their style either. Fan Yongdou said, shaking his head.

"Didn't the people in the green forest do it, then who else has such great ability?" Yan Jinghua asked.

"There is a person in Shanxi who can have such great ability, and that is Zhang Zhimu of Yaogang. He once led the people of the Huwei Dart Bureau to relieve the siege of King Zhou in Kaifeng. We don't know exactly how much energy this person has. But as far as we know, it doesn't look like this person did it. Because this man is not short of this grain, he has transported much more grain from the south than we do. He couldn't afford to take such a risk for this little food. In addition, as far as we know, when our caravan passed by Yaogang, their caravan happened to be rushing to Lingshui Wharf, and Zhang Zhimu was waiting for them at Lingshui Wharf, which we have also implemented. Fan Yongdou said.

"That's not that, it's not that, is it the gods who did it?" Yan Jinghua asked puzzled.

"We also asked the people in the green forest. The big boss of Niutou Mountain said that a while ago, they were attacked by a group of bandits from Shaanxi, killing and wounding more than 1,000 people, before they were repulsed. They said that it was possible that this gang of bandits did it, and they were all Li Zicheng's subordinates, but now they have run out as bandits. These people are very well organized and very combative. We suspect they did it. But how can a group of rogues have the ability to transport 10,000 stone of grain in one night. Just take them away, where are they hiding? However, the person we came back also said that the person who negotiated with them spoke Shaanxi dialect. Fan Yongdou said that he was a little confused.

"The affairs of you Han people are so complicated, I can't figure it out. When do you say you'll be able to bring the food back? Yan Jinghua was a little impatient.

"We won't ship food until we figure things out. It's not safe. Fan Yongdou said.

"Last time you were attacked, there was an accident because of your carelessness. This time, as long as you send more people, don't be careless, and you'll be fine. You Han people are afraid of wolves and tigers in the future. Yan Jinghua began to count.

Fan Yongdou listened to him, one of you Han people on the left and one of you Han people on the right, and he was already impatient. Therefore, he was not angry and said, "If the grain is transported now, who will be responsible if something goes wrong?" ”

Yan Jinghua really didn't dare to pat his chest, "If something goes wrong, I'm responsible." "He's an envoy who runs errands. He quickly staggered the topic and said, "In my opinion, this matter is the most likely to be done by Zhang Zhimu, and they are not far from the place where the accident happened." As for Zhang Zhimu not being at the scene of the accident, it may not be necessary for him to come forward in person, and his subordinates will do it. ”

Now the attention of several parties is on Zhang Zhimu, Zhang Zhimu and Yang Yulin joked: "We are now more famous than powerful." ”

It's almost time to go north, and I'm almost ready. Zhang Zhimu still has a few things to do before leaving, and he needs to come forward to do it in person. This time it was a matter of going to Xiurong to meet Xiurong Zhi County, so he had to go in person.

Zhang Zhimu is going to donate some food to the victims of Xiurong disaster this time, and is going to let some people from the county open a porridge shed. For this Xiurong Zhi County, Zhang Zhimu has to be very respectful, because his daughter is now the wife of the third master of Niutou Mountain. Although this lady was robbed up the mountain, the raw rice was ripe, and there were already two grandsons in this county on Niutou Mountain.

As soon as he heard Zhang Zhimu say that he wanted to donate food to the victims, this Xiurong Zhixian got up and gave Zhang Zhimu a salute and said, "I thank you for the victims." It hurts me to see that the victims are dying of starvation every day. But I don't have food in my hands in a Qipinzhi county, and this time Zhang Yishi can donate food. We should do something to build a porridge shed. Zhang Yishi, don't worry, I will definitely let every grain be used on the porridge shed. ”

"This county magistrate is not bad." Zhang Zhimu secretly praised in his heart.

After making an appointment to send food, Zhang Zhimu left Xiurong.

This time, Li Jing brought a total of ten people to follow Zhang Zhimu. Yang Yulin was very angry when she saw it, and asked Li Jing: "You brought so many people, do you think I can't protect Brother Zhang?" ”

Li Jing was not angry, and said: "Anyway, a few more people are better than a few less." In fact, Zhang Zhimu himself still thinks that Li Jing has made so many people, which is a bit of a stirring up of the public.

Soon Zhang Zhimu didn't think so.

When the car left Xiurong City, I walked more than four miles, passing by a place where there were trees on both sides of the road. All the while, crossbow arrows suddenly entered from the left window and came out of the window. The crossbow arrow passed right in front of Zhang Zhimu and Yang Yulin's noses with a whistling. The scared two are smart. Yang Yulin threw Zhang Zhimu on the seat at once, Zhang Zhimu obviously felt it, and the ** on Yang Yulin's chest was attached to his body. Two arrows then came in from the left and right sides of the window.

This time, it was Zhang Zhimu's luck, he was leaning on the seat when the arrow was fired, and the arrow passed in front of him. Then Yang Yulin pressed him down on the seat, and the other two arrows that shot did not hurt him.

The attackers outside, seeing that the crossbow arrows of the secret cast had not succeeded, these men drew their blades and rushed forward. Li Jing, who was outside the car, was shocked when she saw several crossbow arrows shot into the carriage. Then many people rushed out from both sides of the road. Li Jing and the others had no choice but to fight with the comers.

Hearing the impact of weapons outside, Yang Yulin and Zhang Zhimu both got up. Zhang Zhimu took off a musket from the top of the trunk, lit the fire rope with a fire sickle, and loaded two solid bullets, because it was too close for everyone to fight together, and the shotgun was easy to hurt his own people.

Zhang Zhimu looked out of the window of the carriage, and there were still two people on the left side of the road who did not rush down to fight, Zhang Zhimu judged that this must be the head of the attacker, and he was directing the operation. Because it was too close, Zhang Zhimu passed the musket, basically did not aim, and the "bang" on this guy's head was a shot. The shot hit the door of the head, and because the caliber of the musket was too large, the upper part of the guy's head flew straight out. The guy next to him, when he looked back and saw that the accomplice's head was knocked off, he was horrified, but when he was stunned, Zhang Zhimu shot him at him. The shot hit him right in the chest, and the bullet entered from the front and came out from behind, taking a large chunk with him, leaving him with a large hole in his back.

Li Jing and the others outside heard two shots shot from the car, and knew that Zhang Zhimu was fine, and they were in good spirits for a while. The more you fight, the more courageous you become.

After Zhang Zhimu loaded two more bullets, he insisted on getting out of the car despite Yang Yulin's dissuasion. Zhang Zhimu, who got out of the car, fired two more shots in succession, hitting the two attackers. When Zhang Zhimu had just loaded two more shotguns, one of the attackers found that Zhang Zhimu was now the biggest threat, so he made a false move, threw away his opponent, and returned to Zhang Zhimu.

Since Li Jing had already cut three people, the others had also cut four people, and Yang Yulin had whipped and hit two more, although the Yaogang side was also cut to three people. But the number of people is no longer at a disadvantage, not to mention that now the morale of the army is greatly boosted, and the opponent's sneak attack has not succeeded, and it has lost a game. The leader of the team around him was killed in a bad way, so the morale of the army was already in chaos, and Li Jing also took the opportunity to light the musket when Zhang Zhimu shot another person, loaded the bullets, and covered the other two brothers to load the bullets. By the time the muskets are ready, the situation will be settled. With the musket firing at close range, there were not many attackers who could fight the people of the kiln. In the end, Li Jing led the people to surround the remaining three people and ordered them to surrender, the three of them smiled, and one of them said, "We didn't plan to go back alive when we came." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You don't want to think about the parents who gave birth to you and raised you. They know how sad it will be for you to die like this. ”

One of them said, "Don't listen to him, King Chuang is our parents." He regretted it. Because they were operating secretly this time, they were not allowed to reveal their identities. This is a radical situation, and this question should not be said, so I blurted out.

Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "If you don't say it, I know who you are." As soon as you come ashore from the Lingshui Wharf, your whereabouts are under our grasp. As soldiers, you have done your duty, and your mission is over. It's time to think about it for yourself. Your relatives are waiting for you. If you die now, buried here, you won't know anything. I'm giving you a chance to think about it for a moment. After a while, you won't have a chance. ”

Zhang Zhimu knows that people are afraid of death. As long as they are given the opportunity to think about this issue, most will choose to give birth.

Sure enough, two of the three attackers lowered their knives. But one suddenly wiped his own neck with a knife.

In fact, Zhang Zhimu is really dangerous this time. These killers left the Lingshui Wharf, and the surveillance personnel sent by Fan Chengkun did not notice it at all, because there was a secret passage in the house of their intelligence point, which led directly to the other courtyards. These people left the Lingshui Wharf from other courtyards. They first sent a spy disguised as a beggar to wander around the kiln, and when the spy spotted someone leaving the kiln in a very beautiful carriage. The beggar in makeup asked a man from the kiln who had such a good carriage. The kiln man proudly told him that it was Mr. Zhang's carriage, and today Mr. Zhang was going to Xiurong to donate food to you who asked for food.

The killer, disguised as a beggar, understands that a rare opportunity has come. He hurriedly returned to the place where those accomplices were hiding and told Zhang Zhimu about going to Xiurong. These people could miss such a good opportunity, so they chose to ambush in the place where there were trees on both sides of the road.

It's just that they didn't expect that the martial arts of these people accompanying Zhang Zhimu were so high.

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By the way, I recommend another good book "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty". This book tells the story of how after Yashan in the Southern Song Dynasty, he used the knowledge of later generations to establish a complete scientific and technological system in the Great Song Dynasty, completely drove the Yuan army out of China, and eventually caused a world war centered on Europe.