Chapter 58: The Ransom
When King An brought Sun Jingwen here, He Jin had already woken up and saw King An coming in, He Jin struggled to get up from the couch and prepared to salute King An. King An immediately took two quick steps, grabbed He Jin, and said, "Commander He doesn't need to be like this, you are seriously injured, let's take care of it first!"
He Jin was helped back to the couch by the prince, and was moved to tears at the moment, and said: "Prince, I'm sorry for you, I lost the little prince in the hands of the Black Wind Bandit!"
King An did not move, and said, "Don't worry, you say slowly, how is the battle going?"
Seeing that King An was so calm, He Jin calmed down at the moment, and slowly told everything he knew about the battle situation.
After hearing this, King An frowned tightly and said: "The rebel son made a mistake, and he actually needed 10,000 taels of silver, but where can I go to make it! If you don't save it, pass on my order, and you can attack the mountain and uproot the black wind bandits!"
"Lord Wang!" Sun Jingwen was shocked when he heard this, and said, "Lord Wang, you are such a son, if he is killed by bandits, then who will inherit the great cause after a hundred years?"
"Such a rebel, what a pity to die!" King An was really angry at Zhu Zhi's rash advance and ambush, and said hatefully at the moment.
"Lord Wang!" Zilong said loudly, "Now that the little prince is in the hands of the bandits, our army will be tied up when attacking the mountain, it is better to find a way to rescue the little prince, so that we can successfully attack the mountain and exterminate the bandits!"
"Huh?" King An glanced at Zilong in surprise, nodded slowly and said, "What Zilong said is also reasonable!"
In fact, Zhu Zhi is the only son of King An, and King An is naturally reluctant to really let Zhu Zhi die. It's just that Zhu Zhi is too embarrassed this time, if King An doesn't attack, I'm afraid it will chill the hearts of the soldiers.
He was just waiting for an excuse, so he took the opportunity to save Zhu Zhi, not wanting this excuse to be told by Zilong.
At that moment, King An shook his head again and said, "But 10,000 taels of silver, where can I make up this silver!"
After speaking, King An spread his hands, looking extremely helpless. Sun Jingwen said at the moment: "Maybe we can find a rich merchant in the city and get together this ten thousand taels, it's okay!"
"How can this be done?" King An shook his head and said, "If you look for these rich merchants, won't you spread the news of our army's defeat?
"And you can't really hand over the silver taels to these bandits!" At this time, He Jin also said loudly, "If these bandits don't keep their word, our 10,000 taels of silver are only afraid that they will be the enemy!"
"That's good!" King An nodded, sighed softly, and said, "Then what should we do now, we don't pay a ransom to save people, and we don't save them!"
"The key this time is to save people!" Hearing King An's words, Zilong suddenly said loudly.
"That's good!" King An heard Zilong's voice, and with Zilong's performance in the last few times, he also knew that Zilong was a person who didn't say anything, and he was sure to hit when he said it, so he immediately asked, "What did Zilong think of?"
"Hmm!" Zilong nodded and said, "I want to ask Commander He a few questions first!"
When He Jin heard this, he immediately asked directly: "Zilong has a question, I know everything, and I have no end to it!"
"Okay!" Zilong asked directly, "You said that the failure of this mountaineering is mainly because the bandit leader is too fierce?"
"That's good!" He Jin's face darkened, and he said, "The bandit leader's 'Death Knife', at least a hundred steps away from us, threw a big knife, I went all my way to pick it up, and retreated with serious injuries, and then the big knife also pierced a master, and then fell off the cliff with that brother!"
Speaking of this, He Jin's face was sad, obviously extremely depressed.
"Are you okay? Commander He!" Zilong saw He Jin's face and asked immediately.
"It's out of the way!" He Jin looked relieved, shook his head, and said, "Zilong has anything else, continue to ask!"
"Okay, second, if we can get rid of the 'Mourning Knife' and rescue the little prince, how long will it take for our people to go up the mountain to pick it up?" Zilong asked directly.
"Huh?" King An and the others were all shocked, looked at Zilong, and said, "Zilong, the bandit leader is strong in martial arts, you can't be reckless!" He was indeed afraid that something would happen to Zilong, so he said out loud at the moment.
"Lord Wang, I know!" Zilong heard the concern in King An's tone, and said immediately, "Please also ask Commander He to answer my question!"
Hearing Zilong's direct statement to get rid of the "Mourning Knife", He Jin immediately said excitedly: "If there is no 'Mourning Knife' to hinder it, those bandits will definitely not be able to defeat the three thousand guards of our palace, and we will be able to rush up with half a pillar of incense at most!"
"Okay!" Zilong heard He Jin's promise, and immediately said to King An, "Lord, I have a plan, I can say it, and the prince will take a closer look!"
King An stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Okay, you can say it!"
"I think that since the bandits want 10,000 taels of silver, then 10,000 taels of silver can fill several large boxes! We can fill the top of the boxes with silver taels, and then hide people at the bottom, so that the bandit leader will definitely come to check the silver taels, and our ambush people will take the opportunity to kill them, so that they are unprepared and taken by surprise, and they can take down the bandit leaders! When the time comes, we can hold the bandit leaders hostage and save the world, and in this way, we will be able to achieve great success!" Zilong said everything he thought in his heart in one breath.
After hearing this, An Wang and the others were shocked, Zilong's plan was very risky, but the probability of success was very high, after all, those bandits would never check the silver taels box by box.
He Jin said out loud at this time: "Zilong's plan is really good, but the bandit leader is strong in martial arts, and among our palaces, I am afraid that only Zilong can beat him!"
"Then I'll go!" Zilong replied directly.
"Ah?" King An heard that Zilong was willing to take this risk to rescue Zhu Zhi, and then compared Zhu Zhi to fight with Zilong everywhere, only to feel a hot face, and said suddenly, "Zilong, this, how can this work! Sneaking into the bandits alone, and there is a master like the 'Death Knife', if there is a good one, how can I, how can I ......?"
King An didn't say anything about it for a long time. Although Zilong was puzzled, he said straightforwardly: "Don't worry, Lord Wang, I am not a brave man with courage, although the 'Mourning Knife' is powerful, but my Wuji Sword Technique is the world's first-class sword technique, and if it is suddenly used, it is attacked unprepared, even a great master like Gu Xiaotian of the Tianyin Sect, it is also difficult to guard against!"
Hearing this, King An also remembered Zilong's deeds in Shaolin to fight Gu Xiaotian, and he was slightly relieved at the moment. Gu Xiaotian is the right protector of the Tianyin Sect, and his martial arts are so high that he can at least rank on the rivers and lakes. And the "funeral knife", although it is plugged in Yinchuan and has a loud name, it is also on this piece of land. When he arrived in the Central Plains, he was such a master, not to mention that it was everywhere, and it was not a rare commodity.
And if Zilong raids the "Mourning Knife", it is indeed a great chance to subdue him, and when the "Funeral Knife" is in hand, the bandits will be under the trap, I am afraid that they will be combined with the inside and outside, and all of them will collapse, so that not only can save Zhu Zhi, but also relieve the bandits, I have to say that although Zilong's plan is dangerous, it is indeed a feasible plan.
At that moment, King An pondered for a moment, and finally glanced at Sun Jingwen, and saw Sun Jingwen nodding, he immediately made up his mind and said: "Okay, just act according to your plan, but you must take the preservation of yourself as the first priority, if you can't do anything, you will kill to the side of the mountain, and General Qiu will answer you." As for the rebel, there is a day of life and death!" When he said the last half of the sentence, King An couldn't help but be stunned.
At that moment, King An ordered the craftsman to quickly make several wooden boxes containing silver taels, deliberately made them larger, and after making a dark grid below that could accommodate Zilong, they were full of silver taels, and if they counted carefully, they only used two thousand taels. King An made up his mind, and He Jin quickly joined Zilong, and then handed over all the remaining guards to Zilong, escorting these silver boxes to Black Wind Village.
When He Jin returned to Ningxia City, it was already past noon, and when the silver box was ready, the silver taels were loaded, and when he set off again, it was already afternoon. When the group hurried to the vicinity of the canyon, it was already dusk.
Zhu Zhi was on it at this time, not a drop of water entered, and his lips were blistered by the scorching sun.
The two thieves next to him saw a team of people coming from a distance, and immediately lifted their spirits, leaving one person to guard Zhu Zhi, and the remaining one person reported the news to the shade of the tree behind.
Not long after, a burly bandit led hundreds of bandits to the edge of the cliff, ready to hand over silver taels with the officials and soldiers.
Zilong had already hid in one of the silver boxes at this time, and He Jin had already issued a gag order, and when he arrived in front of the army later, the palace guards were not allowed to talk nonsense, so as not to leak the news.
At that moment, He Jin held the silver box with a heavy face, met Qiu Yue who came forward, pointed to the silver box and said: "This is the silver taels made up by the prince, General Qiu, how to exchange, please decide the general!"
Before coming this time, for fear of leaking the news, Zilong had already told He Jin not to tell anyone this secret, and only by hiding it from his own people could he hide it from the bandits. He Jin thought so, and told a lie to Qiu Yue at the moment.
Qiu Yue came over and poked the heavy silver box, nodded slowly, and said: "Each silver box is extremely heavy, 10,000 taels is a thousand catties, I am curious about how these bandits are transported up the mountain!"
He Jin also smiled contemptuously, obviously thinking that after the Black Wind bandits worked hard to transport this heavy silver box up the mountain, it turned out that this silver box was life-threatening, but I was afraid that their faces would be extremely exciting, and at the moment He Jin just smiled and said nothing, signaling that Qiu Yue would preside over the exchange.
Qiu Yue did not shirk, and ordered his soldiers to come and push these silver boxes, come to the bottom of the cliff, and shouted to the cliff: "Listen, the people of Heifeng Village, our prince has collected 10,000 taels of silver here, and call your big boss to come and answer quickly!"
Seeing the two half-human-high boxes, the bandits on the mountain secretly swallowed their spit greedily, and the burly bandit led shouted: "Wait, I'll go and call our king!" After speaking, he instructed his subordinates to watch Zhu Zhi tightly, and then turned away. Not long after, Wu Sanxing, who had a white belt on his head, appeared on the hill.
Wu Sanxing saw the special silver box at a glance, and his heart was happy, one was to complete the task assigned by Liu Jin, and the other was to get this ten thousand taels of silver, but he was afraid that he would be able to get away with it for a long time. At that moment, luck shouted to the below: "You push the silver two to the bottom of the valley, and we will release the little prince!"
"No!" Qiu Yue didn't know that Zilong was in the silver box, but now he was full of thoughts about exchanging silver taels for the little prince, and immediately refused and said, "The little prince is in your hands, we will give you silver taels, what if you regret it?"
"Then what do you want?" Wu Sanxing's eyes froze, and he said coldly.
He actually wanted this 10,000 taels of silver very much, and as for whether Zhu Zhi was killed or kept, even Liu Jin didn't care. After all, Liu Jin's goal is to bring down King An, not to make King An dead.
Qiu Yue saw that Wu Sanxing was not tough, and immediately secretly rejoiced, and said: "Pay the money with one hand, and hand over the people with the other!" Let's dig up this canyon boulder together, let go of this passage, and then you take the little prince down, and you find someone to push the silver cart back to your own formation, and at the same time you release the little prince and walk back! Don't cast cold arrows on the way!"
"Huh?" Wu Sanxing pondered for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay, let's do it!" At that moment, he ordered the bandits to dig the boulder together with the official army.
It's just that on the hill, there are always hundreds of elite bandits, and if the official army wants to take the opportunity to attack the mountain, I am afraid that they can only return with a feather.
The people on both sides worked together because of the silver two and the little prince, and after sunset, they finally cleared the passage.
Wu Sanxing led three hundred horseback bandits and escorted the little prince to the valley.
Qiu Yue also led 300 infantry troops to stand 300 steps away from the bandits, and then Qiu Yue said: "You can start, the owner of the village!"
"Hmm!" Wu Sanxing nodded, and with a wave of his big hand, the burly bandit standing on the hill just now rode his horse and galloped to the official and military positions opposite.
At a distance of three hundred paces, the horses galloped wildly, and it didn't take long for the bandits to come to the main formation of the officers and soldiers, rushed to the silver cart with pride, and then slapped the soldiers on the cart away.
The soldier was about to get angry, Qiu Yue's eyes froze, and the soldier saw it, so he had to give up.
The bandit laughed strangely, kicked open the huge silver box, and saw that by the moonlight, a piece of silver light was shining, and the bandits who were three hundred paces away were dazzled, and they couldn't help but be in an uproar, and their eyes were full of greedy eyes.
The bandit was not dazzled, and slowly checked the box, but each box was filled with nearly a thousand taels of silver, and the bandit looked through the three layers, all of which were silver ingots, and immediately put his mind at ease and gestured to the opposite side.
Wu Sanxing received this gesture and nodded. The bandit immediately waved his whip and prepared to strike at the pack horse of the silver cart.
Qiu Yue took an arrow step, grabbed the horsewhip, stared at the opposite position, and said: "The owner of the village, you should let people go!" Wu Sanxing snorted coldly, waved his big hand, and saw that the little prince was bound all over, sitting on the horse, and a bandit behind him slapped heavily on the horse, and the horse ran out and went straight to the opposite side.
The bandit in the silver cart snatched the whip from the horse, smiled disdainfully at Qiu Yue, and hit the pack horse heavily, and the pack horse was in pain, took a step, and ran to the opposite side.
Qiu Yue saw that the little prince was wrapped like a zongzi, and he was running wildly to this side, and he was excited, but at this time, he could only restrain himself, if he moved at will, it would lead to the misunderstanding of those black wind bandits and hurt the little prince, and it would be more than worth the loss.
At the moment, he can only stand in front of this formation anxiously and happily, waiting for the return of the little prince.
The silver cart over there also rushed through the field, intersecting with the little prince, and the bandits on the silver cart looked at the little prince who was tied into zongzi, smiled disdainfully, and then drove the carriage directly and returned to the main formation.