In the living room of the Chao family, Jiao Ting led people to guard outside, and Chao Gai and Li Han talked secretly inside.

"Owner, the property of the Ren Batian family has been found, except for the money buried in the ground, we don't know, everything else knows." Li Han said.

"Where are they, where are they?" Chao Gai asked.

Li Han took out a hand-drawn map and said: "The first lifeline of the Ren family is here, seventy miles away from us, there is a port called Batian Port, Ren Batian has built a huge granary again, this year's hoarding of wheat, soybeans and good rice from the south is a million catties. Ren Batian's grain store seems to be planning to wait and sell again, and there are locust plagues in Qingzhou and Dongping this year, and the price increase of grain has become a foregone conclusion. The second location is a gambling hall in the county seat of Ren County, where gold and silver are hidden in the basement, and I don't know how much, but the Ren family's income for so many years is in it. The number of defenders is about fifty or so, and they are all elite men. ”

Chao Gai took the map, although it was not detailed enough, but it was almost there, the first battle as an intelligence department was already very successful, Chao Gai praised Li Han and asked him to continue to monitor.

Two days later, Wu Yong came back, and with a happy face, he said goodbye to Chao Gai, it turned out that things were in sight

"Brother, Hu Cheng agrees with this marriage, and Hu Sanniang doesn't seem to object. As for the big black girl who has now been upgraded to the young lady of Hujiazhuang, I am afraid that the bride price of the Li Kui brothers will have to rise, haha. Wu laughed gloatingly.

Chao Gai asked, "What's the situation?" ”

"Of course it's a good situation, what kind of person is Hu Cheng, a shrewd businessman, he can naturally see that Li Kui likes that black girl, and Li Kui is our heavyweight. So after going back, Daddy Hu recognized the black girl as his goddaughter, and Hu Cheng and Hu Sanniang were naturally the black girl's brother and sister. Hu Cheng agreed to the family affair, but I am afraid that the official marriage will have to wait. There is another thing, Hu Cheng heard that we are buying timber, and intends to provide 10,000 or 20,000 big trees as a timber reserve for the construction of sea ships. Wu Yong said.

Chao Gai is very happy, it is a good thing to agree, and it is of course better to provide wood for Hucheng, you must know that it takes hundreds or even hundreds of big trees to build a big ship, after all, it takes a lot of time to process wood from trees.

After discussing the matter of family affairs, Chao Gai talked about the two big industries of Ren Batian's family, and Wu Yong's eyes straightened when he heard it.

Wu said with a clattering mouth: "A piece of grain, a silver warehouse, if you take it, it will be of great benefit to our development, but this time it will be too difficult to sneak around without showing your tail, especially the two million catties of grain, you can't do it quietly." ”

"You have a lot of ideas, think about it." Chao Gai said.

Wu Yong touched his mustache and thought for a quarter of an hour, and suddenly said: "Yes, we have a victim of Ren Batian in Yuncheng County, find out one or two, it is best to kill someone, and then sue Shi Wenbin, and Shi Wenbin will transfer it to the Prime Minister of Xu's Mansion, and then I will go over and lobby it, and the matter will be done, but we are taking a small head, which is nothing more than making a wedding dress for others." ”

"That's the reason, we can get up to two million catties of grain and money in the treasury, and as for the Ren family's real estate and real estate, we can't get it at all." Chao Gai said, "But Governor Xu is a person who has no courage, and it is difficult to guarantee that the news will leak, when you go to Jeju, I will lead people to start the action, first take the granary and the silver warehouse, and then Governor Xu will come out and beat the water dogs." ”

"Good idea, just do it." Wu Yong proposed.

"There is another problem, two million catties of grain must be transported as soon as possible, otherwise there will be many long nights and dreams, and our ship will be insufficient. There are only ten centipede boats, with a maximum capacity of 300,000 catties. He has 20 awning boats, plus more than 60 canopy boats and small fishing boats that have recently seized water bandits, adding up to 1 million catties. Chao Gai worried.

Wu Yong said with a smile: "Brother, don't disturb, since their family stores so much grain in the port, there must be a lot of cargo ships, and the cargo ships of the people who do the grain business are all larger, and they have a deeper draft than our canopy ships and centipede ships, so they naturally have more loads." ”

Chao Gai said: "Then it's decided, you go to find the victim of Ren Batian in our Yuncheng County, write a complaint, and I will continue to investigate." ”

The two acted separately, and it only took a day to have their own gains, Chao Gai arranged for the intelligence department to investigate the cargo ship under the name of Ren Batian, and sure enough, this kid was very forked, there were a total of six large cargo ships, all of which were flat-bottomed transport ships. It is 20 meters long, 5 meters wide, and has a draft of 1 meter, and a boat can hold 150,000 catties. This is a grain ship on the canal, very heavy, slow, deep draft, in the face of headwinds and headwaters have to hire a large number of slender men, not as light and fast as centipede ships, even reeds can be broken without pulling goods as a war ship.

With these six grain ships, the big problem of transporting grain was solved at once.

Wu Yongna also gained something, and soon found a merchant from the county town who had business dealings with Ren Batian, because this merchant had a business dispute with Ren Batian, Ren Batian was unreasonable, sent someone to beat this merchant, and killed two entourage. I also sued Ren County back then, but Ren County ordered that he and Ren Batian wear the same pants, and they will not accept it at all. Wu wrote a letter and rushed to the county government with the victim.

Shi Wenbin was very knowledgeable, and knew that Chao Gai was also looking for trouble with Ren Batian, so he immediately went to the prefect Xu Xianggong with Wu Yong.

The summer of June is unusually hot, and there has been a lot of rain recently, the Yellow River has risen, and the water in Shuibo Liangshan has also risen by more than half a meter. Chao Gai stood on the pier of the naval camp, looking at the mighty lake and the boundless lotus. Chao Gai said casually: "After all, in the middle of June, the scenery is not the same as the four seasons. The lotus leaves are infinitely green, and the lotus flowers are different red. ”

"Good poetry, good poetry. I didn't expect my brother to have such Yaxing, this poem was made by my brother. Kong Yang suddenly asked.

"yes, I wrote it." Chao Gai's face was not red, anyway, Yang Wanli was not born at this time.

Kong Yang said: "When today's emphasis is on literature and light on martial arts, if a military general can write poetry, he can be called a Confucian general, so it is necessary to compile this poem into a book and spread it widely, which is conducive to improving popularity and allowing many talents in the world to come to my brother." ”

"Is that okay?" Chao Gaizhen hadn't thought about it yet.

"Absolutely, definitely." Kong Yang Road.

"Okay, I'll go back and arrange. Let's go, let's go to the business. ”

This was the largest military operation, and it had been discussed for half an hour. This time, it was justified that Chao Gai emphasized that he was ordered to raid Ren Batian's house. Ruan Xiaowu led a hundred soldiers to stay in the camp and guard against death. The navy was led by Ruan Xiaoqi, Ruan Xiaoer, Kong Yang, and Chao Xiong, a total of four generals, 200 soldiers, driving 10 centipede boats, and another 300 fishermen who were requisitioned and anchored by the fishing company to drive more than 60 canopy boats and small fishing boats.

The infantry cavalry battalion arranged for Chao Ran and Hua Lei to take 50 people each to stay in Yuncheng County. Chao Zhang, Shi Jin, and Wang Jin stayed in the barracks, and Du Qian and Song Wan did not belong to the battle sequence, and they were ready to receive supplies. Chao Gai led Liu Tang, Niu Gao, Li Kui, Jiao Ting, a group of fifty light cavalry, and fifty cavalry archers to go straight to Rencheng County, Renbatian's silver treasury.

The cavalry and the navy set off almost at the same time, but the waterway was closer, more than sixty miles. It takes a hundred miles to reach Rencheng County by land, so the time to reach their respective destinations is about the same.

Let's say that the team led by Chao Gai set off just after the morning, and the sun was still hot, so they walked all the way in order to save horsepower. After walking for three hours, I arrived at the west gate of Rencheng County at about nine o'clock in the evening. Rencheng is the same as Yuncheng, there is no garrison, the so-called horse army head, infantry army head each led fifty people is just a quick catch, the summer county town closed the city gate at ten o'clock in the evening, only four lazy infantry with spears against the city wall chatting.

Niu Gao whistled, twenty horsemen rushed forward, the city gate defenders were disarmed before they understood what was going on, together with the soldiers in the city gate gatehouse, there were only ten people in total, let Niu Gao grab them one by one and tie them with ropes.

"Who are you?" One of the leading soldiers asked.

Niu Gao smiled: "Look at what kind of person you look like." ”

The leading soldier said: "Could it be that he is a good man in the mountains, and he wants to come to receive food." ”

"Borrow you big-headed ghost, you are blind, you can't see us wearing the clothes of the officers and soldiers. We were ordered to raid Ren Batian's family, and it has nothing to do with you, don't move one by one, and when the matter is over, each person will be rewarded with 200 yuan. Niu Gao said.

Listening to Niu Gao say this, these people are honest one by one, who wants to wade into this troubled water.

Chao Gai, Jiao Ting, and Niu Gao led twenty horsemen to stay behind to control the city gate, and Liu Tang led Li Kui to lead eighty horsemen straight to Renjia Gambling House, and their own intelligence officers led the way, and soon arrived. The gambling house was at its busiest, and the hall was full of people, shouting around the table.

I heard a bang, and the door slammed open. As soon as the shopkeeper wanted to curse, he saw that the two strong men on duty at the door kicked in one by one, and fell to the ground screaming, obviously with broken ribs.

I saw a big black man, standing at the door with a plate axe in his hand, fierce and vicious, like Zhong Kui.

The crowd quickly gathered more than a dozen people with a single knife one by one, and the shopkeeper's courage was also strong, and he shouted: "Who dares to come to Ren's gambling house to make trouble, do you want to find death?" ”

"Hehe, I don't want to die, look at what's on the window." The big black man laughed.

At this time, the window suddenly opened, and dozens of feather arrows whizzed in front of the group. Liu Tang walked in with a steel knife and shouted: "On the orders of the prefect, the gambling house will be sealed, and those who dare to resist will be killed." Liu Tang also shook the official document in his hand.

The shopkeeper said: "Fart, the prefect is very familiar with our host, they are bandits pretending to be killed." ”

As soon as the word killing came out, he suddenly screamed like a pig killed by a knife, and it turned out that this guy had a feather arrow nailed to his thigh.