Fenghou

Chapter 896 Search City
The governing office of Datong Prefecture is called Yunzhong County, which looks no different from the city in the Song Dynasty. The tributary of the Sanggan River, Yunzhongshui, flows around the city, bringing water sources for the people of Datong Prefecture and Datong City. Come to a moat.

There is a well-decorated shop next to the east gate, which looks like a Sogdian shop, specializing in the sale of Western precious items, gems, silverware and blankets.

The owner of the shop is called Kang Mode, who can speak fluent Sogdian, Chinese, Khitan, Turkic and Jurchen, and of course Xixia. He often brags about the far west, for fear that others will not know that he is from far away Samarkand.

But in fact, Commode is from Zhangye. This is his biggest secret, and the only people who know this secret are a few of his confidants, and these confidants are all intelligence spies of the Western Army.

Commode is not an intelligence agent, but a businessman to the letter, but his family is in Zhangye, and he will also retire in Zhangye in the future. The Western Army hopes that he can provide assistance, and he naturally cannot refuse.

All his real men stayed in Zhangye to work, and the five men brought here were all members of the Intelligence Department, four of them were Qiang people, and one was Han. The Han man was Yu Shouzhong, the leader of the five.

The situation in Datong Mansion is different from other places. They can’t take the initiative to collect information, they can only collect it through the shop owner, Kang Mode. The tea lovers are full of guests every day, come here to chat and drink a cup of good tea.

A lot of useful information is collected bit by bit in this way, and they can be verified with each other to confirm the authenticity of the information, and then send it to Taiyuan Mansion with Eagle Letter.

This morning, when the door curtain rang, a man wearing a fur cap and a cloth robe came in and asked loudly, "Is Master Kang here?"

This person is Yelu Qiyan, a Khitan native, and a member of the army from Datong Prefecture. After Datong Prefecture surrendered to the Kingdom of Jin, except for the prefect who was replaced by a Jurchen, other mid-level and low-level officials remained the same. Jin Kingdom could not send so many officials. , This situation is the same in other places. The middle and low-level civil servants are basically former Khitans or Liao Han people.

Commode came out and laughed loudly: "My old friend, why are you here today, do you miss my good tea?"

"Come! Come! Come in and sit."

Yelu Qiyan waved his hand, "I don't have time to sit down today, I came here to inform you that the city will be closed and searched in the afternoon, and all Mughals and Han people will be arrested. I know there are no Mughals here, but you Yu Shouzhong is a Han Chinese, and if you don’t want him to be arrested, you have to leave the city quickly or find a guarantee.”

"Ah! What guarantee do you need?"

"Find three shopkeepers in this city as guarantees. You are from Sogdia, you can count as one, and find two more shopkeepers. The three of you will take the shop deeds and go to the county government with Yu Shouzhong to give him guarantees. You have to pay ten guarantees. .”

"To be so troublesome?"

"It's not troublesome to guarantee now, but it will be troublesome if you are arrested and go to guarantee. Hurry up! The arrest will start in the afternoon, hey! Damn war."

Commodus hurriedly stepped forward to hold him back and asked, "I know that we are going to fight the Mughals, but what does it have to do with the Han people?"

Yelu Qiyan looked at both sides, lowered his voice and said: "I received an order from Marshal Du yesterday to suspend the northern attack on the Mughals."

"why?"

"It is said that the spies in Taiyuan discovered that the Song army was increasing its troops on a large scale. It is estimated that they are going to take advantage of the opportunity of our war with the Mughals to attack the north. I don't know the details. This is a military secret. You can pass it on."

"You know I never talk nonsense."

"Hurry up and vouch for it! Fortunately, you only have one Han here, and it's useless to vouch for a few more people."

"I see, I'll go right away!"

Yelu Qiyan took a bag of tea and left in a hurry. Kang Mode was a little disturbed, and hurried to the backyard, and found Yu Shouzhong who was sorting the goods in the warehouse.

"Yelu Qiyan found me just now, and the situation has changed. He said that he had received an order from Marshal Du to stop attacking the Mughals. Their spies discovered that the Song army was increasing its troops to Taiyuan."

Yu Shouzhong is about [-] or [-] years old. He is tall, strong and powerful, with exceptionally sharp eyes. He is a powerful character at first glance and will leave a deep impression on people. No wonder Yelu Qiyan got the news and hurriedly informed Kang Mode Guaranteed, if someone is arrested, a strong man like Yu Shouzhong will definitely bear the brunt.

Yu Shouzhong frowned and said, "If the news is true, we must notify Taiyuan immediately."

"Let's confirm the news later! I want to give you a guarantee first. Qiyan is here to tell me that the city will be shut down and arrested in the afternoon. If you don't want to be arrested, you can go to the county government to guarantee. The three shopkeepers can Guarantee one person, you hurry and follow me."

Yu Shouzhong knew that Yelu Qiyan was the highest official they could get in touch with. Although he was a Khitan, he was very righteous. His news was generally correct. What's more, once the martial law started, they couldn't even send the eagle letter. out.

"Okay! Let me make arrangements, and I will go to the county government with you."

He arranged for several of his subordinates to send the information immediately, and then followed Commod and two other Khitan shopkeepers to the county government.

Sure enough, Yelu Qiyan was right. The city gate was closed, and a large group of Jurchen soldiers appeared on the street. Teams began to search from house to house, arresting Mughal spies and Han spies. Of course, they couldn’t tell if they were spies, so they arrested first. Then screen and distinguish one by one.

Except for those who have a guarantee certificate from the county government and do not need to be arrested, all other Han and Mughals will be arrested.

The city was full of chaos and panic. People were constantly being pushed out of the house and arrested in groups. Many Han people tried their best to explain that they had lived in Datong Mansion for decades, and they were not spies from the Song Army. Tired of it, he slapped her face a few times, and then dared not say a word.

It is more difficult to distinguish the Mughal people in the grassland. There are thousands of nomadic merchants from the grassland living in the city. many.

The Jurchens couldn't tell the Mughals from the Krets, so they simply arrested them all, which immediately triggered a strong resistance. The grassland nomads were tougher, and they swung their knives and fought the Jurchen soldiers desperately, but how could they be the opponents of the Jurchen soldiers? After dozens of people were killed, other grassland people had no choice but to accept their fate and be taken away, including women, children and the elderly.

A group of Jurchen soldiers rushed into Commode's shop. Commode was extremely shrewd and hid the expensive goods at noon. There are more than one hundred sheepskins, worth more than two hundred pieces. If you really search the soldiers, you won't get any benefits at all, and they will definitely make trouble.

The headed Jurchen centurion looked at the store. He was not very interested in the goods in the store, so he asked sharply, "There is a Han in your store, where is it now?"

Commodus quickly took out the letter of guarantee issued by the county government in the morning, and said with a smile: "The Han people under me are locals from Datong, not Han people from the Song Dynasty. This is the guarantee certificate from the county government."

The reason why the county government was willing to issue a guarantee certificate was because many officials in Datong Prefecture were Han Chinese from the Liao Kingdom, and they wanted to ensure that they and their families would not be caught, so they left this hole.

The centurion looked at the certificate and said in a more relaxed tone, "Is he the only Han Chinese?"

Commodore, who can speak fluent Jurchen, explained: "Including me, there are six people in the small shop. Four of the five clerks are from Dangxiang Qiang, and one is Han. They are all clerks I hired locally. .”

The centurion winked at his subordinates, "Go and see!"

A group of Jurchen soldiers went into the backyard to search, saying they were looking for people, but in fact they were looking for valuables. After a while, a group of soldiers came out and shook their heads. This meant two things, indicating that no extra Han people were found, nor was there any valuables thing.

The centurion was really disappointed. His eyes fell on the thick sheepskin, and he pointed at the sheepskin and said, "For military use!"

A dozen Jurchen soldiers stepped forward carrying the sheepskins and left.

"It's really a group of robbers!"

Commode cursed in a low voice, and he was really relieved to think that Yu Shouzhong had not been arrested.

(End of this chapter)