Tibet

Chapter 684 Repairing Vulnerabilities

Li Xiyue was also from the Li family in Longxi, but he belonged to a side branch. Ganzhou Hall, where his family was located, belonged to the side sect of the Li family in Longxi. He himself was a bastard in the family, so he had no status in the family and was bullied.

Out of anger, he joined the army at the age of 16. He was appreciated by Pei Fang and he was included in the Pei family. Five years ago, he followed Li Ye to the Western Regions. He made many military exploits and was promoted step by step.

Li Xiyue was both civil and military, brave and careful. He once proposed to be the deputy general of the guard in Juzhan. Last year, he began to serve as the deputy commander of Li Ye's personal guard. After Guan Pei was transferred, he became the commander of the personal guard and was promoted to General Ying Yanglang.

Li Xiyue is only 23 years old. His only disadvantage is that he is not tall enough. In today's terms, he is only 1.7 meters tall. He is short among the tall and powerful generals of the Western Regions. His martial arts skills are not as strong as those of the generals who have trained hard since childhood. .

However, his ability in both civil and military affairs is rare among generals. Li Ye also took a fancy to this and appointed him to be the commander of his own bodyguards.

Li Ye's personal guards currently number 3000, all of them are cavalry, and are called the Tianlang Camp. Li Xiyue is the commander of the Tianlang Camp.

In the past two days, Li Xiyue accepted a task. Li Ye asked him to seek Zhang Ping's assistance to find Yan Jun's spies and ambushes in the city.

People from various counties in Jingzhao Prefecture entered Chang'an in large numbers. It would be strange if An Lushan's spies didn't take the opportunity to sneak into the city. Especially Gao Shang is the best at creating civil strife. He captured Luoyang with a large number of spies ambushed in advance.

It just so happens that Chang'an is recruiting a large number of troops. Will An Lushan's spies mix into the army in large numbers?
The answer is undoubtedly that they will definitely take the opportunity to sneak into the army.

When he was in Jiangxia, hundreds of Ji Guangchen's spies had infiltrated into the army. Li Ye remembered this experience and lesson.

Arriving at the big tent, Li Ye sat down and asked, "Tell me! What clues did you find?"

Li Xiyue bowed and said: "The humble subordinates discovered the carrier pigeon."

Li Ye nodded. This is a good starting point. The spies must contact the outside world. After the city gate is closed, they cannot make contact, so they can only rely on homing pigeons or homing eagles. Finding homing pigeons is a good clue. Otherwise, you will not be able to find a needle in a haystack. to the enemy spies.

"Did the men sent by Zhang Ping discover it?"

"Exactly! Zhang Ping's men are all local snakes and are very familiar with Chang'an. These people all play pigeons and know the difference between homing pigeons and turtle doves. There are so many wild turtle doves in Chang'an City, but they actually discovered homing pigeons."

"And then? Keep talking!"

"The place where the carrier pigeon was discovered was Chongrenfang. The original Xiangzhou Jinzouyuan was rented by a big businessman in Yunyang County, including him, his wife and more than a dozen clerks."

"Are you sure it's a homing pigeon?" Li Ye asked again.

Li Xiyue nodded, "It is definitely a homing pigeon. Several soldiers tracking it also found a black message tube on its leg."

Li Ye walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "Closely monitor this big businessman and secretly arrest him while he is alone outside. We don't have much time and we must eliminate internal troubles as soon as possible."

"Understandable!"

Li Xiyue bowed and left in a hurry.

Li Ye sat on the wide couch, closing his eyes and thinking about what loopholes he had left to fill. Unknowingly, he fell asleep. He had not closed his eyes for two days and two nights in a row. He was extremely sleepy. Once he closed his eyes, he could no longer hold on. Can't live.

Because there are relatively abundant houses in Chang'an, after all the refugees have been resettled, there are still some vacant official houses, such as government offices, Jinzouyuan, etc. So if you want to live in a more comfortable place, you can also rent a house, but the rent is very expensive. To enter the memorial hall, the daily rent costs [-] guan, or [-] guan a month. Of course, there are wealthy families who are willing to pay to let the whole family live together.

There are many Jinzouyuan in Chongrenfang, and basically every Jinzouyuan has been rented out.

Xiangzhou Jinzouyuan covers an area of ​​about one acre. Its courtyard is in the middle, surrounded by two floors and has many rooms, which is also in line with the characteristics of Jinzouyuan.

The Jinzouyuan is the office in Beijing. It not only delivers local documents to the court, but also serves as a guest house. Officials from Xiangzhou who come to the capital to do business, scholars from Xiangzhou who come to the capital to take the imperial examination, etc., will give priority to the Jinzouyuan.

At present, all the officials in Xiangzhou Jinzou Courtyard have left. The courtyard is rented out at a price of ten guan per day and is rented by a big businessman who sells fur goods.

The businessman's surname is Cao. He is about 40 years old. Everyone calls him Dongzhu Cao. He claims to be a big businessman in Yunyang County and has brought a lot of furs, so he wants to rent a yard to store his goods.At noon, shopkeeper Cao went out alone, riding a donkey. When he went out, he looked around and was very vigilant. There was only a woman riding a donkey coming from a distance, and there was no one else.

Shopkeeper Cao urged his donkey and walked towards the gate of Chongrenfang.

After leaving the square gate, the person following and monitoring him turned into an old man again, and there was also a delivery bullock cart.

Shopkeeper Cao came to Wenfeng Tavern in Dongshi. Most of the shops in Dongshi were not open for business, and only a few restaurants were open. Shopkeeper Cao handed the donkey to the waiter and went directly into the building.

Not long after, a low-level general with a bronze medal hanging around his waist also came to the restaurant and went directly to the second floor.

Li Xiyue also got the news. He quickly rushed to Wenfeng Restaurant with a hundred soldiers. The soldier responsible for surveillance reported: "They are in a private room on the second floor, just two of them!"

Li Xiyue pondered for a moment and said, "Have they ordered drinks?"

"No! It seems they only ordered a few dishes and didn't ask for wine."

Li Xiyue thought for a while and decided to take action when they were separated.

Li Xiyue immediately occupied the two elegant rooms next door and ambushed thirty soldiers.

Not long after, the low-level general got up and left. He was halfway downstairs when a large net suddenly flew from behind and covered his head. The low-level general felt it immediately. He reacted very quickly and rolled over the railing. He rolled out and dodged the big net above his head, but before he landed, two more nets were thrown at him, and now he couldn't escape.

The large net tightly covered the low-level general. As soon as he landed, more than a dozen soldiers swarmed him, held him down and tied him up.

At the same time, in the elegant room on the second floor, shopkeeper Cao was also pushed down by seven or eight soldiers and tied up tightly with ropes.

The soldiers covered their heads with cloth bags and took them into two carriages respectively. The two carriages quickly left Dongshi and headed for the military camp.

In the afternoon, Li Xiyue began to take action. The soldiers rushed into Xiangzhou Jinzouyuan and arrested all the people in the Jinzouyuan, including shopkeeper Cao's wife and more than a dozen clerks. Several clerks drew their swords to resist and were killed by the soldiers. Killed by random arrows.

Shopkeeper Cao’s wife rushed to the yard and was about to release the carrier pigeons, but she was shot with a crossbow by soldiers. All three carrier pigeons were shot dead. Shopkeeper Cao’s wife was also tied up by the soldiers. She was the real leader of the intelligence spies. , Shopkeeper Cao is just her deputy.

Li Xiyue rushed into the woman's room and found a box under the bed. Inside was a booklet, which was the list of spies in the army.

After getting the most critical information, Li Xiyue immediately rushed to report to Li Ye.

Li Ye flipped through the roster and asked, "Isn't the captured general their leader?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, the other party sent a total of 350 people, divided into ten teams, with 35 people in each team. The captured low-level general was the captain of the second team. He only knew the people in his own team, and he knew nothing about the others.

The woman surnamed Liu in Jinzouyuan is the real leader, and the list of everyone is in her hands, which is the list in the hands of His Highness. Dongzhu Cao does not know the situation of the military spies, but he knows that this list is hidden under the woman's bed. "

"Then what are they going to do?"

"They are waiting to attack the city. Once the siege begins, they will gather in the northern palace city in the middle of the night, look for a weak defensive point to attack, and control a city gate or a section of the city wall to create opportunities for the enemy outside."

Li Ye nodded. This was the same routine as his own attack on the city. Although it was old-fashioned, it was very practical.

He returned the roster to Li Xiyue and said coldly: "Start arresting people!"

"Follow the order!"

Li Xiyue took the list and left in a hurry, and then began to arrest people according to the list. In just one hour, all 350 spies hidden in the army were arrested, eliminating a major hidden danger in the city.

(End of this chapter)