Chapter 2211
Yuan Tao knew very little about the specific environment inside and outside Yangzhou City. The little information he had was almost all obtained from the joint operation between the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security last year. However, they did not enter Yangzhou City to carry out operations at that time, so I don’t actually know much about the situation in the city. At this time, Jindun has to escort Dai Yingda in and out of Yangzhou City, so its action plan must rely on the intelligence information provided by the salt merchants.
"Yangzhou City has twelve gates, four water gates, and six suspension bridges. There are actually many channels in and out of the city. Even if the opponent has deployments inside and outside the city, it will be difficult to effectively monitor so many channels in and out at the same time. We only need to If you plan properly, choose a relatively safe route in and out of the city, take cover, and go in and out quickly, you can save a lot of trouble.”
At the preparatory meeting with Dai Yingda and others, Yuan Tao took the initiative to explain his plan. His idea is to cover up his whereabouts as much as possible when entering and leaving the city, so that the opponent cannot make targeted arrangements in advance. If necessary, he can even sneak into the city in disguise to avoid the opponent's eyes and ears.
Dai Yingda responded: "You can indeed do what Shopkeeper Yuan said when you enter the city, but as long as you keep an eye on the salt transport envoy Si Yamen, it will not be difficult to find traces of our actions."
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Yuan Tao nodded in agreement: "So the key is not to enter the city, but to leave the city."
The Shanshan Salt Merchants have greater influence on the north bank of the canal, but it is difficult to monitor all the passages in and out of the city in real time, so there is no doubt that they will focus their monitoring on the seven must-visit places. When the whereabouts of the people with the seven major surnames are exposed, they can make targeted arrangements and carry out attacks on their way out of the city and back to the south bank of the canal.
Although there is no detailed map of the city, Dai Yingda has made a rough schematic map overnight, marking the approximate location of the main roads in the city and the destination.
"The Yamen we are going to is in the north of the city, so if we enter and exit from the south of the city, we will basically have to pass through the entire city." Dai Yingda pointed out the location on the map and explained to Yuan Tao: "After we finish doing things at the Yamen , How to withdraw it safely depends on shopkeeper Lao Yuan! ”
Yuan Tao frowned and looked at this "map" with almost no details, and felt a little headache at the moment. He has long been accustomed to obtaining relatively detailed map information from the military before performing missions, and planning an action route based on this.
But the problem is that even a wealthy and powerful salt merchant group like the Qida family does not have a detailed map of Yangzhou City. After all, private drawing of extremely sensitive military information is strictly prohibited by the government. If the government discovers It would be a big problem, let alone provide this information to foreign armed personnel.
The map provided by Dai Yingda was too rough. If measured by the standard of the Golden Shield, it would obviously not reach the passing level. To plan a course of action based on this, the risks will be very high.
Yuan Tao decided to find another way. He raised his head and asked, "I think Boss Dai must have the kind of special talents who stay in Yangzhou City all year round and know every alley and every corner of the city, right?"
Dai Yingda did not deny it, nodded and said: "Every five years, we will arrange for some people to settle in the city. We usually support them with money, but we will not use these people unless it is absolutely necessary."
"Then it's the time of last resort." Yuan Tao was not surprised by this answer. The two groups of salt merchants have been fighting in Yangzhou for several generations. How could the Huizhou salt merchants be willing to stay on the south bank of the canal and turn Yangzhou's most popular Put the prosperous territory under the control of the other party? Yuan Tao judged that they must have some long-term arrangements secretly in Yangzhou City, and it turned out to be the case when he asked.
Yuan Tao continued: "I think that the course of action after leaving the Yamen needs to be formulated by reliable people who are familiar with the environment, and notification must be made as soon as possible. However, this matter must not be leaked, otherwise our lives may have to be accounted for. In Yangzhou City”
Dai Yingda said: "Then should we determine the route into the city first, and then send someone to notify the internal intelligence in the city so that they can meet us after entering the city?"
Yuan Tao thought for a while and nodded in agreement with Dai Yingda's suggestion. He needs to meet the people who are responding to him in the city as soon as possible after entering the city, understand the retreat route out of the city planned by the other party, and make corresponding arrangements. The sooner he can grasp this information, the more time he will have to perfect his retreat plan, and he will be more certain of escaping unscathed.
Yangzhou is the center of the salt industry in the Huaihe and Huaihe regions, and tens of thousands of local people directly or indirectly rely on the salt industry for their livelihood. Although some people are not involved in the production and sale of salt, they are still part of this ecosystem.
For example, the salesman Lin Zhong is one of these people. He has been a salesman in Yangzhou City for twenty years. If he can work in the same trade for such a long time, he usually has opened his own shop, but Lin Zhong is an exception. , I am still used to walking around the streets and selling small things such as needles, threads and brains.
But Lin Zhong's livelihood seems not to be passed on to his descendants. His wife has been dead for almost ten years, and he only has an only son who is seventeen years old. He has been studying in the best academy in the city since he was a child. Some people say that all the money Lin Zhong saved as a peddler paid for his son's tuition, so he had no capital to open a shop. If his son is admitted to the imperial examination in the future, he will be rewarded.
Lin Zhong always just smiled when he heard such remarks and did not make any excuses. However, Lin Zhong's son was suddenly sent away by him not long ago. It is said that he went to an academy in another place. However, almost all the high-end academies within a hundred miles are in Yangzhou. If he is sent to other places, it may be better to stay here.
Of course, because Lin Zhong is just a small person, not many people pay attention to his family affairs. People who know him can only ask a few questions, but no one will dig into the ground to investigate what extraordinary place he sent his son to.
Only Lin Zhong himself understands that with twenty years of hard work, he finally bought his son an opportunity to break through the class. He knows his son is not as good as his father. He knows that his son is not destined to study for fame and pursue an official career, but there is no harm in reading more books and gaining more knowledge. What's more, someone has borne all the expenses for them studying in the best academy in Yangzhou these years. , and it has not caused any financial burden.
And this time his son was sent to further study because the sponsor was grateful that he had been working in obscurity for the past twenty years, so he provided his son with such an opportunity to study on an equal footing with the children of the big salt merchants, and once again took on the responsibility for him. paid all expenses. When his son returns from his studies there in a few months, he will no longer have to suffer as a salesman in Yangzhou city. He used the savings from his twenty years of working as a salesman and the rewards from his benefactors to buy a hundred acres of fertile land and a house in Taizhou in the east some time ago. He can enjoy the blessings of a landowner in peace and contentment for the rest of his life.
Those regular customers who knew Lin Zhong in Yangzhou City probably never imagined that this ordinary-looking salesman was actually a wealthy landowner. And in addition to his identity as a landlord, Lin Zhong also has a more secret identity, that of being a thorn in the side of the Dai family among the seven surnames.
Lin Zhong didn't know how many people in Yangzhou city were silently doing the same errands as him, but he knew that he must be the one who had been lurking under the Dai family for the longest time - this was what the head of the family, Dai Yingda, told him personally when he came to the city to do business last year. He said it.
Lin Zhong actually didn't think that he had done anything extraordinary. In the past twenty years, he had not killed anyone, nor had he saved the lives of any important people. He only carried out some tasks conveyed by messengers from time to time. For example, it is not a big deal to stalk someone secretly, or to monitor the operating conditions of a certain store, or to secretly collect dirty information about an official.
Lin Zhong took over these tasks silently, and then used his identity as a salesman as a cover to try his best to complete the tasks. He has not received any special training. For many tasks, he can only figure out how to achieve his goals by himself, so sometimes the completion of tasks is not ideal. But perhaps because these tasks themselves are not too important, he rarely receives criticism from the Dai family. However, the rewards he gets through these tasks every year are often several times the amount he earns by selling goods on the streets. many.
Of course, Lin Zhong also considered opening a shop to make his life easier, but the Dai family asked him to retain his identity as a salesman so that he could move around Yangzhou City without arousing suspicion. So even though he was not particularly willing, he still insisted on playing this role. It was precisely because he had been in this business for a long time that he did not want his son to continue to be a salesman, so he decided to fight for a development path for him that was different from his own.
Lin Zhong's home was in a small single-family courtyard under the city wall in the south of the city. After his son left, he lived alone. Seeing that it was getting dark, Lin Zhong pushed his car back to the small courtyard, took an oilcloth and put it on the car. When he opened the door and entered the house, he saw a man in black sitting in the house. The man didn't make a sound or move when he came in. He had been sitting in the room for an unknown amount of time.
Lin Zhong didn't show any surprise. He walked over and pulled out another stool and sat down. He picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a glass of cold water. He drank it down, then wiped his mouth and said, "Count the time. You should be here in the next two days. What’s your mission this time?”
The man in black reached out and took out an envelope from his clothes and put it on the table. He said in a low voice: "This is the reward given to you by the master of the house. Please keep it."
He paused and then continued: "The master of the family has a special task for you this time. He wants you to plan a route. The starting point is the salt transport envoy Si Yamen in the Huaihe River and the destination is Daijiazhuang. Try to avoid it during the period. The enemy’s eyes and ears ensure that they will not be ambushed or attacked on the way.”
Lin Zhong nodded and said: "The official documents came out from the Yamen two days ago, and I expected that there would be news soon... How much time will the master give me to plan this matter?"
The man in black said: "Only one night... The master of the family will enter the city tomorrow. You go to the Thousand Miles of Carriage and Horses on the other side of Jiangmen early in the morning and wait outside. Then cooperate with the master of the family!"
Lin Zhong frowned and said: "Just one night is too hasty! The owner of the family is entering the city at this time, and the risk is not small. Do we need to recruit more people to serve as guards?"
The man in black said: "You don't have to worry about this matter. The master of the house is surrounded by expert guards. This matter is related to the life and death of the seven surnames. The news must not be leaked. If the news is leaked, not only you and I will die, but also our family will be implicated. Remember, remember!”
When Lin Zhong heard that his family would be implicated, he became even more nervous and said quickly: "I will keep my mouth shut and will never leak the news. But when the head of the house goes to that yamen, people will definitely notice him. If I go with the head of the house, my identity will be certain." If it’s exposed, I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay in the city anymore.”
"It doesn't matter. The master of the house has his destiny. When the time comes, you can retreat to Daijiazhuang together and there is no need to come back." The man in black paused and then said: "Congratulations, you can finally escape."
Lin Zhong couldn't help but trembled when he heard these words. Although he knew that it was only a matter of time before he ended this job that had lasted for twenty years, this moment came earlier than expected. After completing this task, I will no longer have to work as a salesman in Yangzhou City.
After the man in black left quietly, Lin Zhong still sat in a daze for a long time. When he came back to his senses, it was already dark. He fumbled to light the oil lamp on the table. Seeing that the envelope was still on the table, he opened it and saw that inside the envelope was a deed of betrayal. The contract he signed when he sold himself as a slave and took refuge with the Dai family more than ten years ago in order to make a living still has his fingerprints at the signature.
The Dai family handed him this deed of sale as a reward, obviously to give him his freedom. But Lin Zhong was not moved by this, but instead became more worried. He knew that this mission was not easy. The Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants were making a fuss in the city and forced the leading figures from the Seven Major Surnames to show up. Dai Yingda went to the city to go to the Yamen to resolve the matter. The Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants would definitely not stand idly by. There will inevitably be a fight. The Dai family returned the deed of betrayal to him in advance, perhaps to allow him to participate in this operation in a free state. If anything unexpected happened, at least there would be no regrets.
But no matter how risky this task was, Lin Zhong couldn't refuse. Even if he is now free, he cannot evade this mission because of the huge risks. The messenger had made it very clear just now that if something went wrong in this operation, his family would be implicated. Lin Zhong did not want his son to lose his bright future.
Lin Zhong picked up the deed of betrayal, then lit it up against the oil lamp, watching it turn into ashes bit by bit in the light of the fire. He regained his freedom before performing the last mission, but this was only the beginning. Whether the father and son can enjoy the life of a master in the future may depend on his performance tomorrow.
(End of chapter)