Chapter 2211
Chapter 2211
Chapter 2211
Yuan Tao knew very little about the specific environment inside and outside Yangzhou City. The few intelligences he got were almost all obtained from the joint operation between the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security last year, but they did not enter Yangzhou City to carry out operations at that time, so I don't really know much about the situation in the city.Jin Dun wanted to escort Dai Yingda in and out of Yangzhou City at this moment, so he had to rely on the intelligence and information provided by the salt merchants to formulate an action plan.
"Yangzhou City has twelve city gates, four water gates, and six suspension bridges. There are actually many passages in and out of the city. Even if the opponent has agencies inside and outside the city, it is difficult to effectively monitor so many passages 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 get 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 first.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 deployments in advance. If necessary, he can even sneak into the city in disguise to avoid the eyes and ears of the opponent.
Dai Yingda replied: "When entering the city, it is indeed possible to operate as the treasurer Yuan said, but the other party only needs to keep an eye on the Si Yamen, the transfer envoy of salt transportation, and it is not difficult to find our actions."
Yuan Tao nodded in agreement: "So the key point is not entering the city, but leaving the city."
The Shanshan salt merchants have greater influence on the north bank of the canal, but it is also difficult to monitor all the passages in and out of the city in real time, so there is no doubt that they will focus on the places where the seven surnames must go.When the whereabouts of the seven major surnames are exposed, they can make targeted deployments and carry out attacks on the 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 already made a rough map overnight, marking the main roads in the city and the approximate location of the destination.
"The yamen we are going to is in the north of the city, so if we go in and out from the south of the city, we basically have to go through the entire city." Dai Yingda pointed out the location on the map while explaining to Yuan Tao: "After we finish our work in the yamen , how to withdraw safely, this requires the shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"
Yuan Tao frowned and looked at this "map" with almost no details at all, and felt a little headache at the moment.He has long been used to being able to obtain more detailed map information from the military before performing missions, and based on this, he plans a course of action.
But the problem is that even a rich and powerful salt merchant group like Qida surnames does not have a detailed map of Yangzhou City. After all, privately drawing such extremely sensitive military information is strictly prohibited by the government. If the government finds out It would be a big trouble if it was not obtained, let alone providing such information to foreign armed personnel.
However, the map provided by Dai Yingda is too rough, if measured by the standard of the Golden Shield, it is obviously not up to the passing level.To use this to plan a course of action, the risk will be very high.
Yuan Tao decided to find another way. He raised his head and asked, "Surely Boss Dai must have the kind of special talent who stays in Yangzhou City all the year round and knows every corner of the city like the back of his hand, right?"
Dai Yingda did not deny it, nodded and said: "Every five years, we will arrange some people to settle in the city. We usually use money to support them, and we will not use these people unless it is a last resort."
"Then now is the time of last resort." Yuan Tao was not surprised by this answer. These two groups of salt merchants have been fighting in Yangzhou for several generations. The prosperous site is under the control of the other party?Yuan Tao judged that they must have some long-term deployments in Yangzhou City secretly, and it was true when he asked.
Yuan Tao continued: "I think the course of action after leaving the Yamen needs to be formulated by someone who is familiar with the environment and reliable, and it must be notified as soon as possible, but this matter must not be leaked, otherwise I may have to confess my life In Yangzhou City."
Dai Yingda said: "Then should we first determine the route to enter the city, and then send someone to notify the city's internal response, so that they can connect with 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 in the city as soon as possible after entering the city, understand the retreat route out of the city formulated by the other party, and make corresponding arrangements.The sooner he grasps this information, the more time he will have to perfect his retreat plan, and the greater his confidence in getting out.
Yangzhou is the center of the salt industry in the Lianghuai area, and tens of thousands of local people directly or indirectly depend on the salt industry for their livelihoods.Although some people are not involved in the manufacture and sale of salt, they are still part of this ecosystem.
For example, the shopkeeper Lin Zhong is one of these people.He has been a shopkeeper in Yangzhou City for 20 years. He has been in a business for such a long time and usually has opened his own shop, but Lin Zhong is an exception. The clothes are just changed from picks to carts. I am still used to walking the streets and alleys, selling some small things with needles and threads.
However, it seems that Lin Zhong's livelihood is not intended to be passed on to his descendants.His wife has passed away for almost ten years, and he has only one seventeen-year-old only son who has been studying in the best academy in the city since he was a child.Some people say that Lin Zhong paid his son's tuition for all the money he accumulated as a shopkeeper, so he didn't have the capital to open a shop.In the future, if his son is admitted to fame, he will naturally be rewarded.
When Lin Zhong heard such a statement, he always just smiled and did not make any excuses.But not long ago, Lin Zhong's son was suddenly sent away by him. It is said that he went to a foreign academy, but almost all the high-level academies within a radius of a hundred miles are in Yangzhou, and it might be better to stay in the local area if he sends him to other places.
Of course, because Lin Zhong is just a small person, not many people will pay attention to his family affairs.People who knew him could at most ask a few questions, and no one would dig into the corner to investigate what extraordinary place he sent his son to.
Only Lin Zhong himself understands that after 20 years of hard work, he finally got a chance for his son to break through the class.Knowing the son is more like father, he knows that his son is not a material for studying, getting fame, and becoming an official, but there is no harm in reading more books and learning more, not to mention studying in the best academy in Yangzhou these years, someone has borne all the expenses for them , without causing an economic burden.
And this time his son was sent to further study, because the sponsor was grateful for his 20 years of doing things in obscurity, 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 assumed the responsibility for him. all expenses.
In a few months, when his son returns from studying there, he will no longer have to suffer as a peddler in Yangzhou City.He used the savings of the 20 years of being a shopkeeper and the reward from the benefactor, and bought a hundred acres of fertile land and a house in Taizhou in the east some time ago, and he can enjoy the blessings of being the owner with peace of mind for the rest of his life.
And those old customers who knew Lin Zhong in Yangzhou City probably never imagined that this unattractive salesman was actually a landowner with a lot of money.Besides the identity of the landlord, Lin Zhong also has a more secret identity, which is a nail for 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 himself, but he knew that he must be the one who had been lurking the longest under the Dai family's command-this was the owner Dai Yingda who came to the city to do business last year. he said.
In fact, Lin Zhong didn't think that he had done any great things. In the past 20 years, he had not killed anyone, nor saved the lives of any important people. He just performed some tasks conveyed by messengers from time to time.For example, it is not a big deal to follow someone secretly, or monitor the business status of a certain store, or secretly collect black information about an official.
Lin Zhong took 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, and he can only figure out how to achieve many tasks by himself, so sometimes the completion of tasks is not ideal.However, perhaps because these tasks themselves are not too important, he is rarely questioned by the Dai family, but the rewards he gets through these tasks every year are often several times that of the goods he sells in the streets. many.
Of course, Lin Zhong also considered opening a shop to make his life easier, but the Dai family asked him to keep his identity as a shopkeeper so that he could move around in Yangzhou without arousing suspicion.So even though he was not particularly willing, he still insisted on playing this role.It is precisely because he has been in this business for a long time that he does not want his son to continue to be a shopkeeper, so he decided to fight for a development path different from his own.
Lin Zhong's home is in a single-family courtyard at the foot of the city wall in the south of the city. After his son left, he lived alone.Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Lin Zhong pushed his small car back to the small courtyard, put an oilcloth on the car, opened the door and entered the house, but saw a man in black sitting in the house.When the man saw him coming in, he didn't make a sound or move. He didn't know how long he had been sitting in the room.
Lin Zhong didn't show any surprise. He walked over and pulled out another stool to sit down. He picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a cup of cold water. You should have come these two days too. How about it, is there any mission this time?"
The man in black reached out his hand and took out an envelope from the skirt of his shirt, put it on the table, and said in a low voice, "This is a gift from the owner of the house, please keep it away."
He paused, and then continued: "The owner has a special task for you this time. You are asked to plan a route. The starting point is the transfer of the salt transportation envoy Si Yamen in the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River, and the destination is Daijiazhuang. During the period, try to avoid it. The eyes and ears of the opponent’s family, to ensure that there will be no ambush and siege by the opponent’s family on the way.”
Lin Zhong nodded and said: "Two days ago, the yamen issued an official document, and I expected that there would be some movement soon... How much time will the Patriarch give me to plan this matter?"
The man in black said: "Only one night... The Patriarch will enter the city tomorrow, you go to the Qianli Chariots and Horses on the Yijiang Gate early in the morning and wait outside, and cooperate with the Patriarch when the time comes!"
Lin Zhong frowned and said: "Just one night, it's too hasty! The Patriarch enters the city at this time, the risk is not small, do you need to call more people to act as guards?"
The man in black said: "You don't have to worry about this matter, the Patriarch has expert guards by his side. This matter is related to the life and death of the seven surnames, and the news must not be leaked. If the news leaks, not only you and I will die, but even your family will be implicated. Remember, remember!"
Lin Zhong was even more nervous when he heard that his family was going to be implicated, and he quickly said: "I will keep my mouth shut and will never leak the news. It's just that the Patriarch will definitely be noticed when he goes to the Yamen. If I act with the Patriarch at that time, my identity must be I'm afraid I won't be able to stay in the city any longer in the future!"
"It doesn't matter, the Patriarch has an order. When the time comes, you will retreat to Dai's Village together, and you don't have to come back." The man in black paused, and then said: "Congratulations, you can finally escape."
Lin Zhong couldn't help being shocked when he heard these words. Although he knew that it was only a matter of time before he ended his 20-year job, this moment came earlier than expected.After completing this task, I no longer need to be a shopkeeper in Yangzhou City.
After the man in black quietly left, Lin Zhong still sat there in a daze for a long time.When he came back to his senses, it was already dark. He groped to light the oil lamp on the table, and saw that the envelope was still on the table, so he opened it and found that inside the envelope was a contract of sale, which was 20 yuan. The contract he signed many years ago when he sold himself as a slave to seek refuge with Dai's family in order to earn a living is still signed by his handprint.
The Dai family handed over this deed of sale to him as a reward, obviously to give him back his freedom.But Lin Zhong was not moved by this, on the contrary he was even more worried.He knew that this task was not easy. The Shanxian salt merchants were making a fuss in the city, forcing the top figures of the seven major surnames to show up. Dai Yingda went to the city to resolve the matter. Inevitably, there will be a fierce fight.And the Dai family returned the contract of sale to him in advance, perhaps to allow him to participate in this operation in a free state, so that if anything happens, at least there will be no regrets.
But no matter how risky the task was, Lin Zhong couldn't refuse it.Even if he has recovered his freedom now, it is impossible for him to avoid this mission because of the huge risk.Just now the messenger has made it very clear that if something goes wrong with this operation, it will implicate his family. Lin Zhong doesn't want his son to lose his bright future.
Lin Zhong picked up the deed of sale, and lit it on the oil lamp, watching it turn to ashes little by little in the firelight.He regained his freedom before performing the last mission, but this is 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 this chapter)
Yuan Tao knew very little about the specific environment inside and outside Yangzhou City. The few intelligences he got were almost all obtained from the joint operation between the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security last year, but they did not enter Yangzhou City to carry out operations at that time, so I don't really know much about the situation in the city.Jin Dun wanted to escort Dai Yingda in and out of Yangzhou City at this moment, so he had to rely on the intelligence and information provided by the salt merchants to formulate an action plan.
"Yangzhou City has twelve city gates, four water gates, and six suspension bridges. There are actually many passages in and out of the city. Even if the opponent has agencies inside and outside the city, it is difficult to effectively monitor so many passages 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 get 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 first.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 deployments in advance. If necessary, he can even sneak into the city in disguise to avoid the eyes and ears of the opponent.
Dai Yingda replied: "When entering the city, it is indeed possible to operate as the treasurer Yuan said, but the other party only needs to keep an eye on the Si Yamen, the transfer envoy of salt transportation, and it is not difficult to find our actions."
Yuan Tao nodded in agreement: "So the key point is not entering the city, but leaving the city."
The Shanshan salt merchants have greater influence on the north bank of the canal, but it is also difficult to monitor all the passages in and out of the city in real time, so there is no doubt that they will focus on the places where the seven surnames must go.When the whereabouts of the seven major surnames are exposed, they can make targeted deployments and carry out attacks on the 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 already made a rough map overnight, marking the main roads in the city and the approximate location of the destination.
"The yamen we are going to is in the north of the city, so if we go in and out from the south of the city, we basically have to go through the entire city." Dai Yingda pointed out the location on the map while explaining to Yuan Tao: "After we finish our work in the yamen , how to withdraw safely, this requires the shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"
Yuan Tao frowned and looked at this "map" with almost no details at all, and felt a little headache at the moment.He has long been used to being able to obtain more detailed map information from the military before performing missions, and based on this, he plans a course of action.
But the problem is that even a rich and powerful salt merchant group like Qida surnames does not have a detailed map of Yangzhou City. After all, privately drawing such extremely sensitive military information is strictly prohibited by the government. If the government finds out It would be a big trouble if it was not obtained, let alone providing such information to foreign armed personnel.
However, the map provided by Dai Yingda is too rough, if measured by the standard of the Golden Shield, it is obviously not up to the passing level.To use this to plan a course of action, the risk will be very high.
Yuan Tao decided to find another way. He raised his head and asked, "Surely Boss Dai must have the kind of special talent who stays in Yangzhou City all the year round and knows every corner of the city like the back of his hand, right?"
Dai Yingda did not deny it, nodded and said: "Every five years, we will arrange some people to settle in the city. We usually use money to support them, and we will not use these people unless it is a last resort."
"Then now is the time of last resort." Yuan Tao was not surprised by this answer. These two groups of salt merchants have been fighting in Yangzhou for several generations. The prosperous site is under the control of the other party?Yuan Tao judged that they must have some long-term deployments in Yangzhou City secretly, and it was true when he asked.
Yuan Tao continued: "I think the course of action after leaving the Yamen needs to be formulated by someone who is familiar with the environment and reliable, and it must be notified as soon as possible, but this matter must not be leaked, otherwise I may have to confess my life In Yangzhou City."
Dai Yingda said: "Then should we first determine the route to enter the city, and then send someone to notify the city's internal response, so that they can connect with 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 in the city as soon as possible after entering the city, understand the retreat route out of the city formulated by the other party, and make corresponding arrangements.The sooner he grasps this information, the more time he will have to perfect his retreat plan, and the greater his confidence in getting out.
Yangzhou is the center of the salt industry in the Lianghuai area, and tens of thousands of local people directly or indirectly depend on the salt industry for their livelihoods.Although some people are not involved in the manufacture and sale of salt, they are still part of this ecosystem.
For example, the shopkeeper Lin Zhong is one of these people.He has been a shopkeeper in Yangzhou City for 20 years. He has been in a business for such a long time and usually has opened his own shop, but Lin Zhong is an exception. The clothes are just changed from picks to carts. I am still used to walking the streets and alleys, selling some small things with needles and threads.
However, it seems that Lin Zhong's livelihood is not intended to be passed on to his descendants.His wife has passed away for almost ten years, and he has only one seventeen-year-old only son who has been studying in the best academy in the city since he was a child.Some people say that Lin Zhong paid his son's tuition for all the money he accumulated as a shopkeeper, so he didn't have the capital to open a shop.In the future, if his son is admitted to fame, he will naturally be rewarded.
When Lin Zhong heard such a statement, he always just smiled and did not make any excuses.But not long ago, Lin Zhong's son was suddenly sent away by him. It is said that he went to a foreign academy, but almost all the high-level academies within a radius of a hundred miles are in Yangzhou, and it might be better to stay in the local area if he sends him to other places.
Of course, because Lin Zhong is just a small person, not many people will pay attention to his family affairs.People who knew him could at most ask a few questions, and no one would dig into the corner to investigate what extraordinary place he sent his son to.
Only Lin Zhong himself understands that after 20 years of hard work, he finally got a chance for his son to break through the class.Knowing the son is more like father, he knows that his son is not a material for studying, getting fame, and becoming an official, but there is no harm in reading more books and learning more, not to mention studying in the best academy in Yangzhou these years, someone has borne all the expenses for them , without causing an economic burden.
And this time his son was sent to further study, because the sponsor was grateful for his 20 years of doing things in obscurity, 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 assumed the responsibility for him. all expenses.
In a few months, when his son returns from studying there, he will no longer have to suffer as a peddler in Yangzhou City.He used the savings of the 20 years of being a shopkeeper and the reward from the benefactor, and bought a hundred acres of fertile land and a house in Taizhou in the east some time ago, and he can enjoy the blessings of being the owner with peace of mind for the rest of his life.
And those old customers who knew Lin Zhong in Yangzhou City probably never imagined that this unattractive salesman was actually a landowner with a lot of money.Besides the identity of the landlord, Lin Zhong also has a more secret identity, which is a nail for 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 himself, but he knew that he must be the one who had been lurking the longest under the Dai family's command-this was the owner Dai Yingda who came to the city to do business last year. he said.
In fact, Lin Zhong didn't think that he had done any great things. In the past 20 years, he had not killed anyone, nor saved the lives of any important people. He just performed some tasks conveyed by messengers from time to time.For example, it is not a big deal to follow someone secretly, or monitor the business status of a certain store, or secretly collect black information about an official.
Lin Zhong took 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, and he can only figure out how to achieve many tasks by himself, so sometimes the completion of tasks is not ideal.However, perhaps because these tasks themselves are not too important, he is rarely questioned by the Dai family, but the rewards he gets through these tasks every year are often several times that of the goods he sells in the streets. many.
Of course, Lin Zhong also considered opening a shop to make his life easier, but the Dai family asked him to keep his identity as a shopkeeper so that he could move around in Yangzhou without arousing suspicion.So even though he was not particularly willing, he still insisted on playing this role.It is precisely because he has been in this business for a long time that he does not want his son to continue to be a shopkeeper, so he decided to fight for a development path different from his own.
Lin Zhong's home is in a single-family courtyard at the foot of the city wall in the south of the city. After his son left, he lived alone.Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Lin Zhong pushed his small car back to the small courtyard, put an oilcloth on the car, opened the door and entered the house, but saw a man in black sitting in the house.When the man saw him coming in, he didn't make a sound or move. He didn't know how long he had been sitting in the room.
Lin Zhong didn't show any surprise. He walked over and pulled out another stool to sit down. He picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a cup of cold water. You should have come these two days too. How about it, is there any mission this time?"
The man in black reached out his hand and took out an envelope from the skirt of his shirt, put it on the table, and said in a low voice, "This is a gift from the owner of the house, please keep it away."
He paused, and then continued: "The owner has a special task for you this time. You are asked to plan a route. The starting point is the transfer of the salt transportation envoy Si Yamen in the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River, and the destination is Daijiazhuang. During the period, try to avoid it. The eyes and ears of the opponent’s family, to ensure that there will be no ambush and siege by the opponent’s family on the way.”
Lin Zhong nodded and said: "Two days ago, the yamen issued an official document, and I expected that there would be some movement soon... How much time will the Patriarch give me to plan this matter?"
The man in black said: "Only one night... The Patriarch will enter the city tomorrow, you go to the Qianli Chariots and Horses on the Yijiang Gate early in the morning and wait outside, and cooperate with the Patriarch when the time comes!"
Lin Zhong frowned and said: "Just one night, it's too hasty! The Patriarch enters the city at this time, the risk is not small, do you need to call more people to act as guards?"
The man in black said: "You don't have to worry about this matter, the Patriarch has expert guards by his side. This matter is related to the life and death of the seven surnames, and the news must not be leaked. If the news leaks, not only you and I will die, but even your family will be implicated. Remember, remember!"
Lin Zhong was even more nervous when he heard that his family was going to be implicated, and he quickly said: "I will keep my mouth shut and will never leak the news. It's just that the Patriarch will definitely be noticed when he goes to the Yamen. If I act with the Patriarch at that time, my identity must be I'm afraid I won't be able to stay in the city any longer in the future!"
"It doesn't matter, the Patriarch has an order. When the time comes, you will retreat to Dai's Village together, and you don't have to come back." The man in black paused, and then said: "Congratulations, you can finally escape."
Lin Zhong couldn't help being shocked when he heard these words. Although he knew that it was only a matter of time before he ended his 20-year job, this moment came earlier than expected.After completing this task, I no longer need to be a shopkeeper in Yangzhou City.
After the man in black quietly left, Lin Zhong still sat there in a daze for a long time.When he came back to his senses, it was already dark. He groped to light the oil lamp on the table, and saw that the envelope was still on the table, so he opened it and found that inside the envelope was a contract of sale, which was 20 yuan. The contract he signed many years ago when he sold himself as a slave to seek refuge with Dai's family in order to earn a living is still signed by his handprint.
The Dai family handed over this deed of sale to him as a reward, obviously to give him back his freedom.But Lin Zhong was not moved by this, on the contrary he was even more worried.He knew that this task was not easy. The Shanxian salt merchants were making a fuss in the city, forcing the top figures of the seven major surnames to show up. Dai Yingda went to the city to resolve the matter. Inevitably, there will be a fierce fight.And the Dai family returned the contract of sale to him in advance, perhaps to allow him to participate in this operation in a free state, so that if anything happens, at least there will be no regrets.
But no matter how risky the task was, Lin Zhong couldn't refuse it.Even if he has recovered his freedom now, it is impossible for him to avoid this mission because of the huge risk.Just now the messenger has made it very clear that if something goes wrong with this operation, it will implicate his family. Lin Zhong doesn't want his son to lose his bright future.
Lin Zhong picked up the deed of sale, and lit it on the oil lamp, watching it turn to ashes little by little in the firelight.He regained his freedom before performing the last mission, but this is 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 this chapter)