Episode 106 A Black Man on the Run

At half past four o'clock in the afternoon, the sun gradually set in the west, and once it was night, it would be even more difficult to search and arrest, and most importantly, there would be no way to search in the air.

The scope of the search is centered on Nanjing, radiating 200 kilometers to the southeast, south, and southwest. It is almost the range of southeast to Wuxi, due south to Tianmu Mountain, and southwest to Wuhu. The reason why the range of 200 kilometers is specified is that at this time, even the fastest speed, the car will not be able to run 200 kilometers in two hours.

Xiang Xiaoqiang sent Xiuxiu to visit Jiang Meilu in the hospital with gifts, and then sat in command at the headquarters with Fourteen Gege, Stomach Pain, Snail and several others, while speculating on the most likely escape direction for Prince Ananta. Both the stomach ache and the snail both advocated that Prince Ananta would run to the Northern Qing. But Fourteen Gege and Xiang Xiaoqiang both felt that it was not necessarily. They unanimously believed that there was a high chance that the prince would manage to escape back to Siam and take the throne. Then as the king of Siam, he came to bargain with the Ming Dynasty.

A stomachache is unlikely. The first is that it is a long way to escape from here to Siam, which will take a long time and be risky on the way. The second is that even if you go to Siam and inherit the throne, so what? Siam has been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty since ancient times, and which king is not pleasing to the eyes of the Ming Dynasty and can still sit firmly on the throne? He said that if this was the case, the Ming would not even need to go into battle shirtless, just swing the army to the border, and then directly support another prince to stage a coup d'état and seize the throne.

Da Ming had done this a few times before to make sure Siam was 100 percent obedient. In this way, the coup d'état was successful every time, because usually at this time, Siam's own army did not dare to suppress the putschists.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's statement that he felt a stomachache also made sense, but he always felt that something was missing. Then he asked the Fourteenth Gedao:

"What do you think?"

Fourteen Gege says:

"My lord, let me ask you, if you are the prince of Siam, how do you choose at this time?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and said:

“…… Finding a place to cross the river is much less difficult than diving back to Siam for thousands of miles...... And when you arrive in Beiqing, it is equivalent to entering a safe...... But...... I love adventure, and if it were me, I would find a way back to Siam. ”

"Why?" Fourteen Gege laughed, "What's the benefit? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang continued to close his eyes, trying to understand Prince Ananta's current mood, and said slowly:

"Because...... Beiqing is a safe, but you can't get out if you go in...... There is no future for the future...... For the rest of his life, he had to be a puppet for the propaganda organs of the Northern Qing Dynasty, and every sentence must conform to the wishes of the Northern Qing authorities...... No, I don't want to live like this for the rest of my life...... Prince Ananta is also a free-spirited and adventurous person, and I don't think he wants to ......."

Fourteen Gege nodded, but did not speak. She knew that the Northern Qing Dynasty was indeed not a good place to go into exile. So far, no royal family has been exiled in the Northern Qing Dynasty. At the time of the Russian Revolution, many Tsarist aristocrats, White Russian intellectuals, artists, and merchants happened to be in the Far East, and they would rather take great risks and wait for ships bound for the Southern Ming Dynasty and Japan than take a few steps closer to enter the territory of the Northern Qing Dynasty. Even many fugitives in Nanming chose to flee from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Indochina, and Japan. Unless he has committed a capital crime, or a particularly serious crime, he will flee to the Northern Qing Dynasty when he really has no choice.

Fourteen Gege gave Xiang Xiaoqiang "hypnotization" again:

“…… Then since you want to go back to Siam, aren't you afraid that Daming will support your brother's coup d'état and capture you back to Daming? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang closed his eyes and said while thinking:

“…… Is it possible...... However, I am a man of means, and I have been in charge of the state for a long time before I succeeded to the throne, and both the courtiers and the army supported me...... Besides, it's a turnaround after all...... Whether it is to negotiate terms with the Ming Dynasty, or to take refuge in Britain and France, or to go into exile, there are many possibilities...... If it really doesn't work, 200 kilometers to the east of Bangkok is the French territory, and 100 kilometers to the west is the British territory...... One day, I found that I couldn't control the country, and I could leave the country in just a few hours...... Whether it's England or France, they'll be happy to protect me......

"I can go anywhere in the world from their territory...... Anywhere I want to go...... I can form a government in exile, speak everywhere, and rally support from abroad...... Or just stay in the South Seas and wait for the right time...... As soon as the tide turns in my favor, I can return home and take the throne...... No matter what, it's better than being imprisoned for life in the Northern Qing Dynasty......"

Hearing this, he patted his head and immediately said:

"Princesses and adults are geniuses. Ziteng Ma sent the order, focusing on the southeast direction. ”

Fourteen Gege laughed:

"It's the herald...... But that's not all, there's another reason...... The southeastern-eastern road network is the most dense, so it should also be the focus of the search. ”

……

On the vast plains of the Yangtze River Delta, two-seater light reconnaissance planes were "buzzing" and flying all over the sky. Below, whether in towns or villages, people emerge from their houses and look up. Everyone asked each other and guessed what was going on. It doesn't look like a war, it doesn't look like a drill. Because although there were many planes, I didn't see two of them together, I saw one every once in a while, and they were circling in circles. In particular, they fly very low, and from time to time they swoop down, so low that people can't see them, and then they fly for a while and pull up again.

Over the cobweb-like road, there are the most planes. When the pilots saw a car on the road, especially the black one, they would immediately press the nose of the plane and fly slowly against the side of the road, and the belly of the plane would almost rub against the ridge of the field. In the thirties, there were not many cars on the road, and there were even fewer black cars, and every black car that appeared usually attracted two or three planes to fly low and observe at the same time. The owners of the black cars running on the land of Jiangnan were still fresh at first, but they were harassed after a while. There were also a few drivers who patronized the plane, and they almost hit the road post.

Moreover, every time they traveled, they were inspected by the police, the gendarmerie, or the People's Guard. The owners of those small cars came down and cursed, and threw their anger at the military and police, threatening to prosecute and find reporters. But even so, how to check and how to check is indispensable.

On the lake and river, the boat bosses who were holding the canopy boats also found that in some key junctions of the river, several small boats also appeared, and soldiers with guns stood on them, stopping the boats and entering the warehouse for inspection.

When everyone was being checked, the policemen or soldiers would show them a picture from a newspaper and ask them if they had seen the man. The vast majority of people recognized it at a glance, isn't this the Siamese prince!

Then the military police would tell them that His Royal Highness the Prince of Siam had suddenly disappeared and had probably been kidnapped by his retinue, Pachai...... In order to ensure the safety of His Royal Highness the Prince, and for the sake of the friendship between the two countries of Daming and Siam for generations, it is necessary to find His Royal Highness the Prince and ask the citizens to actively assist......

……

It's six o'clock. The search has been going on for two hours, and the sun is setting.

In the headquarters, Xiang Xiaoqiang was anxious and angry, and turned around with his hands behind his back. Stomach ache, Fourteen Gege, and Snail are each responsible for a telephone, and Qiuyu and Xiuxiu are each responsible for a telegraph, constantly coordinating the search forces of all parties and trying their best to operate this search network.

"My lord," he hung up the phone with a stomachache and said carefully to Xiaoqiang, "It will be dark in half an hour at most, and Commander Li will ask for instructions on what to do with the plane...... I just begged him to let the plane fly a little longer, another twenty minutes to half an hour. ”

"Well, okay," Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, looking at the large map on the slide rack, "Very good, it should be like this!" Those planes did not stay away from their respective airports, saying that they would land when they landed, and they searched for a while to be afraid of something. ”

To everyone's hard time, there is no search yet.

Forty reconnaissance planes crammed over the palm-sized search area, which was an endless plain, with no mountains and countless checkpoints...... You can't find this?!

Qiu Yu suggested a possibility: Could it be that the prince threw away the car and ran away with another means of transportation?

There is a possibility, but now, first, no abandoned black cars have been found, and second, it was originally said that the black cars were inspected, but now all the cars have been stopped and inspected. Not just cars, but also horse-drawn carts and ox carts on country roads, cargo ships on small rivers...... Basically, it is a means of transportation that can hide people, and all of them are opened and checked. But he just couldn't find the prince and the retinue.

This result, no one expected. It was a miracle.

The snail put forward another possibility: could it be that the prince and the entourage watched closely and did not continue to flee, but found a place to hide? For example, hiding in a remote farmhouse, bribing the farmer with the huge amount of money you carry, and waiting until a period of time and a big raid has passed before you want to escape?

As soon as he said it, several people thought that this possibility was still relatively large. Because according to the results of the inspection of the Siamese mission just now, the prince took all the cash of the mission, the fourteen thousand Ming Yang. Fourteen thousand Ming Yang is a huge amount of money, even if one or two thousand are taken out casually, it is a huge temptation for a Ming farmer.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart was also tight. If that's the case, that's a real problem. You can't go door-to-door to search people's homes, right? Although the prince was in a hurry to return to Siam to succeed to the throne and did not dare to delay any longer, the search was now too strict and it was entirely possible that he would be scared into hibernation. He would rather miss the opportunity to succeed to the throne and escape from the Ming Dynasty in the future and go into exile directly overseas, rather than risk moving forward and be caught on the same day.

Fourteen Gege said with relief:

"Don't worry, my lord, let's do a good job of the search and arrest now. It's best if we can catch him today, and if we can't, tomorrow we will offer a reward for the capture of the Prince of Siam. The prince only has 14,000 Mingyang, and our bounty only needs to be 20,000 Mingyang. That way, no one will harbor him for money. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that what she said was really reasonable, and his heart was a little relieved, and he nodded:

"That's all there is to it."

……

At this time, the phone rang again. With a stomachache, he picked up the microphone and listened for a while, and immediately said to Xiaoqiang excitedly:

"My lord, in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, I found a black car! Looks like it's been pushed in! ”

"Huh?!"

Everyone came to their senses, watching their stomachs ache. Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately stared at the map and asked:

"In which section?"

My stomach hurt and I asked the phone for a while, while taking notes, and after a while, I said excitedly to Xiang Xiaoqiang:

"My lord, it's the section between Danyang and Lingkou, six kilometers east of Danyang City! My lord, they said that the captain of a canopy boat reported to them, and the acanopy boat was full of rice, and the draft was very deep, and suddenly the bow of the boat hit something, and the whole boat was sideways at once, and there was a lot of water in the cabin, which frightened the boat boss, and hurried to the shore to see if the rice was wet.

At this time, our People's Guard soldiers in the distance saw that he suddenly and hurriedly landed on the shore, and immediately set up a small boat to come over to check. Then the boat boss told the story. They suspected that it was the car, and a soldier went down to the river to touch it, and sure enough, it was a car. I've got a truck and hauled it up. It's the black Ford sedan we're looking for. My lord! ”

There is no doubt that Prince Ananta and they are already planning to replace this iconic vehicle. Do they find a new means of transportation next, or do they really lie dormant as the snail says?

Xiang Xiaoqiang let his stomach ache and found the place he said on the map and marked it. Then he pinched his chin and pondered the situation in that area.

It's a great place to push a cart down the river. There is a country road just north of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and it is on the riverbank. It can be said that the front wheel of the car is turned around, and then two people push it, and the car can be planted in the river.

And then what? And then what to do?

looked at Xiaoqiang, the surrounding area is dozens of kilometers, densely packed with villages and towns. It's not a good place to hide in a farmhouse. The ideal place is in the middle of nowhere, and it is best to have a lonely farmhouse, so that it is easy to buy and hide. There are so many villages here, and the population density is so high, it is easy for other families to find out and be reported. If the prince really wants to find someone to hide here, it will not be a problem to catch him within three days as soon as the reward is out.

His gaze shifted upwards again. A few hundred meters north of the highway is a railway.

Well? Railway?

……

"Ziteng!" Xiang Xiaoqiang turned around and yelled, "Ask me immediately if they have checked the train!" ”

"Huh? Be! ”

After a phone call with a stomachache, he replied that at present, the search forces of various departments are only at various stations of the railway, checking passengers entering and leaving the station, and getting on the carriage to check when the train is stopped.

"Just kidding, not enough!" Xiang Xiaoqiang yelled, "Order to go down and search that railway for me!" And its branches! And the roads along the route! Immediately send someone to board each train on that line and check it one by one while the train is running! Don't let the locomotive go! Truck beds should also be checked! Stations of all sizes along the line, waiting rooms, warehouses, coal bunkers, canteens, toilets, dog kennels, ...... Damn, I've found all the places where people might be hidden! Do you understand? ”

"Yes!" The stomach ache also cheered up, and he replied loudly, "Understood! ”

……

A long train of wagons, belching black smoke, runs from east to west, on the railway line. It's a train that transports coal. Twenty-six open cars were pulled behind the locomotive, and on each open car, the coal pile was full.

On the top of one of the sections, there are two "coal men" covered in coal black. Their clothes were black, their skin was black, and their faces and hair were black. Only the white eyes that roll, and the teeth that occasionally show when speaking, are white.

They lay their lower bodies in the coals, with only their upper bodies exposed, and weary leaned against the side of the wagon, listening to the wind blowing in their ears.

One of the "negroes" turned to look ahead, and then shouted to the other:

"Pachai - we're almost there—we've got to hide—"

The other "black man" nodded, and then the two of them moved their bodies together, slowly lying down into the coal pile, carefully pulling the coal to cover their upper body. Finally, each person took out a small tube and put it in their mouths, and then pulled some coals to cover their faces, leaving only a small inconspicuous tube to breathe.