Chapter 304: Counterattack against the impending officialdom
What did Xu Zhenguan prepare for Zhao Duan's outing?
In addition to the authority to dispatch troops, he also has the authority to dispatch the Royal Jianghu Shadow Guards in Linfeng.
This is not a conflict.
After all, strictly speaking, just like the secret spies of the palace arranged by Prince Jing in the capital, the royal shadow guards are also affiliated with the military.
Therefore, when Zhao Duan was on the road and met the princess who joined forces, the way to pass the news back to the empress in the rear was to use the channels of the shadow guards.
Similarly, Xu Junling did not know that before Zhao entered "Taicang Fucheng", he not only mobilized the cavalry of the guard post openly.
A group of shadow guards were also secretly mobilized, and they entered Fucheng together.
And communicate through yellow paper in triplicate, which can be summoned.
It's just that the range of yellow paper communication is limited.
Therefore, when the spies left Taicang Fucheng, they needed spies along the way to serve as transfer points, and use military-trained homing pigeons to enhance the communication distance.
"Pullingleng..."
The gray homing pigeon flapped its wings and made a "coo-coo" sound, while its bright red claws kept stepping on the extra-white hand.
In this small courtyard of an ordinary residential house.
The morbid young man dressed as a scholar looked helpless and sprinkled the prepared food on the ground. The pigeons immediately flew over and started pecking at it.
The scholar, who looked a little frail and had exceptionally fair hands, sat on the stone bench and unfolded the note and read it.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves was heard outside the courtyard, slowly slowing down.
The scholar who was the royal shadow guard raised his head, filled the paper roll in his hand into his mouth with familiarity, and moistened it with saliva.
Footsteps approach.
Then, the dilapidated courtyard door was pushed open with one hand.
With a squeaking sound, a woman dressed in a travel-worn manner and dressed as a charlatan appeared at the door of the courtyard.
He was holding the reins with one hand, wearing a bamboo hat, and a sword tied to his back. Most of his face was covered by a bronze mask, with two sharp eyes showing through the holes in the mask.
"It's you."
The poor-looking, somewhat sickly scholar covered his mouth and coughed twice, as if he wanted to spit out the paper ball.
The armored woman stepped into the dilapidated courtyard, walked to the table, and threw the water bag around her waist to him:
"If you can't swallow it, drink some water."
The frail scholar said helplessly: "If you don't know how to take care of people, you don't have to take care of them... Hey, why did you come back suddenly? Did you notice anything?"
"kindness."
The armor-clad woman sat carelessly at the stone table, reached into her arms, and took out a palm-sized small jade mirror, with the four ancient Chinese characters "Feng Yue Bao Jian" engraved on the back.
It was the loot that Zhao Duan had seized from Kuang Fu She who rebelled against the party.
She took out another crumpled piece of paper, spread it out, and pressed it on the table. It was a portrait of the missing county magistrate Wang Chusheng.
"We found this person. As for the other Song Tiju, we haven't found him yet."
As one of the gold medal shadow guards in Linfeng, the "scholar" who is very good at intelligence work perked up and asked:
"Where is he?"
"The mirror shows that there is a white archway hidden in a Taoist temple in the mountain."
The scholar's eyes lit up, he put his hands on his hands and said with a smile:
"Baiyun Temple must be here. If this thief is as Zhao Gongfeng guessed, he is either dead. If not, he will not escape too far, but he is much closer than I expected.
Haha, Zhao Chongfeng's mirror is good, but even if he uses magic power to instill it, he can't open it all the time.
There is none in the prefectural city or county town, and I don’t know which direction the person went, so I can only half-guess, and use stupid methods to check areas one by one, using mirrors to look for them.
The news you brought was really timely. Zhao Gongfeng had just received the news and was asking about it. "
The armored woman didn't have much movement and asked calmly: "When will we do it?"
The scholar pondered for a moment:
"It's better to do it sooner rather than later. But to be absolutely sure, you have to call the rest of the people over."
The armored woman shook her head and said:
"When they come, it will be too late. I am enough."
After saying that, she stood up and walked out of the courtyard without being stopped by the scholar.
The armored woman stepped onto her horse, left the town, and continued running southeast.
Because the road was difficult, it was not until dusk that she finally arrived at the foot of a secluded and deserted mountain.
He left the horse behind and tied it to the foot of the mountain.
The shadow guard wearing a bamboo hat and carrying a long sword walked up the winding stone steps and passed through the white archway. A small Taoist temple appeared on the mountainside.
On the plaque, the three characters "Baiyun Temple" are extremely eye-catching under the setting sun.
The armored woman knocked on the Taoist temple door.
The person who opened the door was a young Taoist priest who was shocked when he saw her appearance:
"This heroine, who are you looking for?" The armor-clad woman said: "Wang Chusheng."
The young Taoist priest's eyes were blank:
"There is no such monk in the temple. Hey, hey...how did you force your way in?!"
The armor-clad woman left the Taoist priest aside and walked straight into the Taoist temple. She saw a cold light like a poisonous snake emerging from the cold place!
However, she seemed to have noticed it a long time ago, sneered and dodged sideways.
Let the thin cold light pass in front of him, and the sword edge is stained with dark green.
"Qiang——"
The armor-clad woman bent her knees and pulled out the long sword from her back. The sword light flashed, and Pei Ran's energy exploded like thunder.
After a while, a warrior's body fell on the ground.
She turned her wrist, and blood spurted from the tip of the sword onto the ground, leaving a streak of red.
The sharp shouts of the Taoist priests came from behind, and the royal shadow guard boldly stepped into the wing behind the Taoist temple.
I saw a rich middle-aged man dressed as a Taoist priest and wearing a hat, whose appearance matched the portrait. He looked panicked and was about to run away from the back door.
The armored woman threw the sword, and with a whimper, she nailed it to the back door, and the sword hilt trembled!
The missing Taicang County Magistrate Wang Chusheng looked pale and collapsed.
After a while, the armored woman carried the bound Wang Chusheng with one hand and walked out of Baiyun Temple.
Just as the crow flew by, the sky dimmed.
"Who are you?!"
Wang Chusheng suppressed his fear and asked in a trembling voice.
The armored woman ignored him. When she reached the foot of the mountain, she saw the scholar already waiting here.
"Ahem," the scholar smiled and glanced at the county magistrate: "It is verified that it is correct and will be interrogated first. However, according to Master Zhao's latest instructions, I'm afraid it will have to wait a while before sending it to the imperial envoy."
"What are you waiting for?" The armored woman wondered.
The scholar folded his sleeves and looked at the dusk on the Western Mountain:
"Who knows the thoughts of the important people in the court? Maybe we should wait for an opportunity."
…
…
Taicang Fucheng.
After the three ministers were suspended, the restlessness in the city was not obvious that night.
However, in the next few days, the atmosphere in the city became increasingly uneasy, as if a violent storm was brewing.
Zhao Duan returned to the inn and began to pretend, conducting an investigation based on some clues left by Wang Chusheng and some of the evidence provided by Song Tiju.
It seems to be in working mode.
On the other side, a piece of news began to be spread quietly in the city. The main idea was:
The imperial envoy could not find Wang Chusheng. In order to gain merit, he sent a message to His Majesty and planned to pull down all the officials who had interests in Wang Chusheng. For the same party.
Engage in "involvement".
The news spread like wildfire and spread like wildfire almost instantly, causing the hearts of officials at all levels in Taicang Mansion to sink.
As Sun Xiaozhun said, it is an unspoken rule that officialdom is as light as dust.
Wang Chusheng is a respected person in the county, and his status in the local area is indeed not low.
What's more, as a mine supervisor, the power in his hands is even more extraordinary than that of a county magistrate.
When I was in office, I had countless colleagues with whom I had dealings.
Welcome and send-off, some semi-black and white transactions are inevitable.
It would be fine if we only looked at "mineral silver". Officials at all levels are indeed rarely involved.
But if the imperial envoy intends to get involved, no one will be afraid.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Duan had a criminal record in the capital, and some interested people began to publicize his glorious deeds of arresting more than 50 capital officials in one round, which had earned him credit.
For a time, under the blessing of the reputation of "Zhao King of Hell", everyone was in danger.
Not only officials, but also many gentry, wealthy households, merchants... in the city.
In just two or three days, the entire city fell into great unrest.
On the third day, the phenomenon of people going to government offices and posthouses in an organized manner to plead grievances for Magistrate Sun and others appeared, and it became more and more intense.
Inside the post house.
"Master Zhao, can you still sit still?"
Xu Junling's skirt fluttered as he walked into the inner courtyard of the post house. He couldn't help but said: "Listen, there are so many people outside making noise and begging for orders. Tsk, tsk, those soldiers in your hand are useless, don't send them. Go out and suppress it?”
Zhao Duan was dressed in regular clothes, holding a book in his hand, reading leisurely. When he heard this, he raised his head and smiled: "I feel refreshed when I come to the west mountain, and I don't envy the beautiful sun and sunset."
(End of chapter)