Hearing that Fan Wucheng had left Luxian County and returned to Beiping City, Director Liu and Shi Ran, who were present, showed joy on their faces, and their eyes were full of expectation when they looked at Zhang Yan, thinking that they hoped that the head hall master would immediately give an order to immediately launch an operation to arrest Liu Yunyan, and make a beautiful comeback for this trip to Beiping, which had been very unsmooth from the beginning.

However, unlike the excitement and eagerness of his subordinates, although Zhang Yan also hoped that Fan Wucheng could leave Luxian as soon as possible, after knowing that the other party had already left, he did not have such a rush to act as his subordinates, but calmed down and thought carefully, and finally decided not to act for the time being, until the spy who followed Fan Wucheng back to Beiping came back to report and confirmed that the other party had really entered Beiping City before making a move. At the same time, Zhang Yan also ordered Shi Ran to go to Huaishu Street immediately, personally lead the spies who were monitoring there, and be sure to grasp Liu Yunyan's every move, so as not to make any sudden moves after Fan Wucheng left Lu County.

Although he felt that the main hall master's move was too cautious, relying on the two spies he sent there alone was fully capable of keeping an eye on Liu Yunyan, and would not let the other party have a chance to get out of his own surveillance. But Shi Ran didn't dare to disobey Zhang Yan's order at all, and immediately took the order and left, and disguised himself as a beggar like those two subordinates, staring at Liu Yunyan's residence in the biting cold wind, and did not leave until Zhang Yan sent someone to recall him in the evening.

The reason why Zhang Yan wanted to recall Shi Ran was because the spy who had been sent to follow Fan Wucheng returned to Zhang's mansion when the sky was about to wipe out the darkness, and brought back definite news for Zhang Yan - Fan Wucheng and his entourage had already entered Beiping City at the end of the day. Hearing the news, Zhang Yan's heart was completely steady. On the one hand, she asked the spy who had traveled nearly 100 miles back and forth to go down to eat and rest, and on the other hand, she recalled Shi Ran, and together with Director Liu, she began to formulate a specific jihua for the arrest of Liu Yunyan.

After some discussion and analysis, according to the layout of Liu Yunyan's residence, the situation of the servants around him, and the surrounding environment, Zhang Yan finally decided to adopt a night attack, using misty incense to stun Liu Yunyan's family and then control it. According to Zhang Yan's jihua, his fourteen subordinates were divided into three groups. The first group consisted of eight people and was led by Shi Ran. During the daylight of the next day, he approached Liu Yunyan's residence in various ways and under cover. On the one hand, Liu Yunyan's movements were closely monitored in all directions, and on the other hand, preparations were made for future actions. After dark, the eight men quietly infiltrated one of the two empty houses next to Liu Yunyan's residence, and entered Liu Yunyan's residence in the middle of the night to arrest the family; The second group consists of three people, and Liu is in charge. During the daylight of the next day, I went out of the east gate of Lu County, made a circle outside the city, and went to the abandoned Taoist temple I found before. On the one hand, it ensured that it would not be disturbed by others, and on the other hand, it also made necessary preparations in advance for the safe detention of Liu Yunyan, her young son, and domestic servants. After Shi Ran and others escorted Liu Yunyan and others to the city, Director Liu and others still needed to stay outside the city and be responsible for their detention; The third group consisted of four people and was directly commanded by Zhang Yan. When it was completely dark and after getting the news that the group of men in charge of Shi Ran had been deployed, Zhang Yan would leave Zhang's mansion under the cover of the other three subordinates of the third group, secretly go to Liu Yunyan's residence, and personally direct the arrest and on-site interrogation of this traitor.

As soon as dawn dawned on the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, a spy who was previously in charge of monitoring Liu Yunyan's residence, and Shi Ran, the leader of the first team of the arrest operation, avoided the attention of others in Zhang's Mansion as usual, quietly slipped out of Zhang's Mansion through the back door, and began to turn around in Luxian County. After making sure that they were not being followed, the two quickly changed their clothes in a secluded and uninhabited place, and changed from a family in a green coat and a small hat to a ragged street beggar, and finally wandered to the intersection of Huaishu Street, where Liu Yunyan lived, and joined the spies who had been guarding there and were also dressed as beggars, pretending to beg for food and begging for money, while staring at Liu Yunyan's family attentively. …,

Unlike Shi Ran who quietly sneaked out of Zhang's Mansion, Liu, who needed to go out of the city to prepare, was unhurriedly finished breakfast, drank morning tea, and rested for a while, so he took his subordinates and drove a carriage out of Zhang's Mansion and went to the east gate of Luxian County leisurely.

In order not to attract the attention of Zhang Zhili and the rest of the Zhang Mansion, in addition to the above two parts of the people, the other "Feiyantang" spies who needed to go out of the mansion to participate in the operation did not rush to dispatch after Shi Ran and Director Liu left. Instead, he was patient, and according to the previous arrangement, from morning to evening, he went out of the house several times, for various reasons and excuses, at different times, and gradually moved closer to Huaishu Street, where Liu Yunyan was located.

In the afternoon of the same day, just as people from all walks of life gathered at Liu Yunyan's residence, the originally sunny weather suddenly changed. As the wind gusted, the sky gradually became cloudy, and a heavy snow seemed to be coming. In the face of such weather changes, Shi Ran, who was "basking in the sun" and "catching lice" at the intersection of Huaishu Street, couldn't help but have mixed feelings. Fortunately, under the cover of wind and snow, their actions are not easy to be discovered. The worry is that if the fire cannot be lit, once the help of the moonlight is lost because of the cloudy weather, it will not be conducive to them to see the situation in Liu Yunyan's house clearly, and it will affect the arrest operation. For this reason, Shi Ran continued to pretend to be a beggar, and silently prayed in his heart, hoping that after nightfall, there would be no clouds covering the moon while the wind was blowing.

I don't know if it was because the weather was like this, or if Shi Ran's prayers worked. As time passed, while the cold wind blew stronger, the originally gloomy sky gradually cleared, and the seemingly massive snowfall quickly died down without dropping a single snowflake. This situation disappointed the farmers outside the city who were looking forward to a bumper year, but Shi Ran, who was mixed with joy and sorrow, was completely relieved and expressed his heartfelt thanks to God again and again in his heart.

The bitter cold wind blew away the clouds in the sky and blew away the pedestrians on the street. It was just past dinner time, and it was difficult to see a single ordinary person on the streets of Lu County, except for the policemen who were loyal to their duties and patrolled in an orderly manner. Not only that, but even those shops that were opened on the street with thin walls and loose windows have closed their doors, including the tea shop that Shi Ran used to observe Liu Yunyan's family a few days ago. In this way, it provides convenience for those "Feiyantang" spies who are lurking and monitoring near Liu's house, so that they can smoothly approach Liu's house without worrying about being seen by the tea customers in the tea shop. However, there are pros and cons to everything. The quiet street is conducive to the spies who have already gathered near Huaishu Street to approach the Liu family, but it is not conducive to Zhang Yan, who quietly sneaked out of Zhang's Mansion with one of his subordinates under the cover of his personal maid and those subordinates who stayed in Zhang's Mansion after dark, and followed the path of exploring Haode in advance, and went straight to Zhang Yan who went straight to Huaishu Street, where Liu Yunyan lived.

The distance from Zhangfu to Huaishu Street is not far away, but it is not close. Walking around the streets on a windy night is unusual in itself, especially when it comes to navigating a very deserted street with little to no one in sight. Therefore, Zhang Yan and the others tried their best to choose relatively secluded streets and alleys away from the main roads, while carefully observing the surrounding situation and avoiding the government patrol officials who would definitely cause trouble for themselves and were called "police" by the locals.

Fortunately, there was no danger along the way, and before the second watch arrived, Zhang Yan and the others had already met with a spy who was monitoring near Liu Yunyan's house. After confirming that Liu Yunyan had stayed in her house since she took her young son to bask in the sun on the street for a while in the afternoon, Zhang Yan's heart was completely steady.

However, Zhang Yan did not rush to order action, but worked with his subordinates against the biting cold wind, patiently waiting for Shi Ran, who was monitoring at the forefront, to send a signal to everyone - after all, although the wind was strong at this time, the night was not deep, and the moonlight was bright. Whether it is Liu Yunyan's family or the surrounding residents, they have not yet fallen asleep, and it is likely that Liu Yunyan or others will find out if they do it rashly, which will cause trouble for themselves. …,

Just when Zhang Yan arrived near Liu Yunyan's residence, the three beggars who had been leaning on the intersection of Huaishu Street estimated that they couldn't bear the cold, so they shrunk and left the street, and came to the gate of an obviously uninhabited house not far from the street entrance without any lights.

Time passed little by little in the howling north wind, seeing that the third watch day was about to pass, the entire county seat of Luxian County had completely fallen silent, except for those police patrols who were still performing their duties on the streets of the county town in the cold wind, all the gentry and common people in the city, businessmen and men all fell asleep. At this moment, the three beggars, who were leaning against each other and starving at the gate of others, suddenly moved. Shi Ran, who had been paying attention to the left and right street entrances and listening to the movements around him, raised his head buried in the tattered winter coat, looked at both sides vigilantly, and after confirming that there was no one around, he patted the two companions next to him, and learned two night owl (owl) calls at the nearby street entrance, and began to take off the tattered and dirty clothes on his body, revealing the night clothes inside. A moment later, several figures appeared at the corner of the street and leaned over to Shi Ran after learning three night owl calls.

The person who came was the arrester led by Zhang Yan. After the two sides converged, Zhang Yan did not give an order, but just nodded to Shi Ran. Shi Ran, who understood it, immediately hugged his fist at Zhang Yan, and then waved his hand to his companions beside him. Two spies quickly stepped forward, one of them drew a short blade from his bosom and plunged it into the gap in the middle of the door to pull the latch, and the other took out a small oil pot from his bosom and filled the grooves of the door shafts on both sides with grease.

A moment later, the spy with the knife had pulled out the latch of the door, and then, with the cooperation of the oil-burning spy, gently lifted the heavy door panel and quietly opened a door. With a wave of Zhang Yan's hand, all the spies, including Shi Ran, entered in order. Behind them, the open door closed silently.

After entering the mansion, Zhang Yan did not immediately order action, but cautiously signaled his subordinates to search the empty mansion inside and out first-even if it was confirmed that the house was indeed uninhabited after many inquiries before. It wasn't until his subordinates returned that the house was empty that they waved their hands to Shi Ran and gave the order to act. Shi Ran received the order, and immediately led two spies forward, and stepped on the ladder built by these two companions to climb the courtyard wall between the empty house and Liu Yunyan's residence.

Shi Ran, who climbed the courtyard wall, did not jump down in a hurry, but carefully looked at the situation in the opposite courtyard, listened to the sound, and after making sure that there was nothing unusual, he sat on the wall with his arms propped up, and then exerted his light body kung fu, and his body was as light as a swallow, and he fell quietly and silently in the opposite courtyard.

After landing, Shi Ran fell on the ground and observed and listened again, then beckoned to the wall, picked up the rest of his companions, including Zhang Yan, and after getting Zhang Yan's permission, he took three spies to the main house where Liu Yunyan's mother and son and their two maidservants lived. The rest of the spies, under the command of Zhang Yan, respectively touched the side house where the handyman cook's family lived and the gate of the courtyard.

After the spies in charge of guarding the gate were in place, Shi Ran and the other two spies each wet a small piece of window paper with saliva, and made a small hole in it, peeking inside. Although the lights in the room had been turned off, with the bright moonlight through the window paper, Shi Ran and the others could barely see the general situation in the house, so as to confirm that the people in the house were still asleep and had not been woken up by themselves.

Seeing that the target did not have any abnormal reaction, Shi Ran and the others moved almost at the same time. They first took out a small bottle from their bosoms, picked out some ointment from it with their fingers and put it under their noses, then took out a bamboo tube from their bosoms, opened the seal, blew the smoldering incense in it, stuffed it into the hole in the window paper, and blew gently on the other end with their mouths - the bamboo tube contained the special effect incense made by "Feiyantang", which could make the target in the room fall into a coma in just one tea time, and there was no need to worry about waking up within two or three hours. And the spies of "Feiyan Hall" benefited from the help of the antidote under the nose, and were not affected by their own incense. …,

After nearly a cup of tea, it was estimated that the people in the room had been fainted by the incense, and the other "Feiyantang" spies were like Shi Ran and other companions who were responsible for blowing the incense, and they wiped the incense antidote under their noses, and used the same method as opening the door of the empty house just now, they opened the doors of the main room and the side room cleanly, and sneaked in cautiously and quietly under the command of Zhang Yan.

The incense of "Feiyan Hall" is indeed very effective, when Shi Ran led a group of companions into the room where Liu Yunyan lived, the other party was still asleep unconsciously, and he didn't know that his life was hanging by a thread. After receiving reports from other companions and knowing that Liu Yunyan's two personal maids and the miscellaneous cook's family had been controlled, Shi Ran motioned to his companions to light the candles, while holding Liu Yunyan's young son in his arms, and then pulled out a single knife that was pressed under the pillow and threw it aside, and then took out the incense antidote from his arms again and wiped it under Liu Yunyan's nose, which had fallen asleep.

Under the effect of the antidote, Liu Yunyan quickly recovered from her lethargy, and her keen sixth sense immediately noticed the abnormality of the surrounding environment, and quickly reacted by reaching out to the pillow and drawing the knife. It's just that this one is empty. Without waiting for Liu Yunyan, who was startled in her heart, to make other moves, a cold and murderous short blade had already reached her throat, followed by a low snort: "Biedong, otherwise your son will die immediately." ”

If the other party just threatens himself with a short blade, Liu Yunyan may try to maneuver and compete with the other party. But now that the other party is using his young son as a bargaining chip, Liu Yunyan will never dare to make a mistake. Hearing this, she quickly stopped her desire to get up and resist, and looked up at the other party.

Liu Yunyan was taken aback by the sight in front of her, under the dim candlelight, three black-clothed men in night clothes and black gauze were standing in front of her, all holding sharp blades, one of them was still holding her young son, and a dagger with cold light was against her son's chest. Seeing this situation just now, Liu Yunyan's first reaction was to encounter a robber who robbed the house. So, while cursing the incompetence of the police patrolling the city, she secretly thought of a countermeasure to retreat from the enemy. But just as she was about to deal with the other party to save her young son's life, one of the men in black took off the black veil on his face and said to her viciously: "Traitor Liu Yunyan, do you still recognize the master of this hall?" ”

Listening to this familiar and long-unheard voice, looking at the face that was charming and moving, but at this time under the cover of the flickering candlelight, it seemed uncertain and cold like frost, Liu Yunyan suddenly fell into the abyss, like an ice cave, and was so frightened that her body was cold and trembling. After a while, he came back to his senses slightly, and he didn't care about his thin clothes and exposed skin, so he immediately lifted the quilt, fell to his knees with a thud, and said in a panic: "My subordinate Liu Yunyan has seen the head hall master. ”

Now that he knows the identity of the invading enemy, he also realizes that his maidservants and servants are only afraid that they are already unlucky at this time, and they know very well about the various torture methods of "Feiyan Hall", plus their young son is under the control of the other party. Therefore, regarding Zhang Yan's reasons for the annihilation of the "Feiyan Hall" Youzhou Branch, her role in this incident, and her relationship with Fan Wucheng, Liu Yunyan knew everything and said everything, like pouring beans into a bamboo tube, and truthfully told everything she knew.

Liu Yunyan's cooperation was a little surprising to Zhang Yan, who thought that it would take a lot of effort to make the other party confess completely, and had made a lot of preparations in advance for this. However, this sense of surprise only lasted for a short time, because after listening to Liu Yunyan's confession, Zhang Yan lamented that Liu Yunyan and Fan Wucheng had a strange relationship, and at the same time, she was also overjoyed that she was about to catch a big fish, a big fish that she had never thought of before going north.

After calming down her excitement as quickly as possible, Zhang Yan said to Liu Yunyan in the calmest tone possible: "I see. It seems that this Fan Wucheng Fan Fourteenth Master is really affectionate and dedicated to his sister. Such a man is rare to see now, and the head of the hall must have a good conversation with him. ”

Although Zhang Yan looked kind and friendly when she said this, what was revealed in her eyes was sinister and ruthless. Seeing such a look in Liu Yunyan's eyes, it made her shudder and full of despair.