Jinghong Tower

Chapter 356 Zhou Cangyue's Secret
In Jinling City, besides Duke Dingguo, there are two other groups of people who are looking for Jing Lao San.

Young Master Liu and his men.

Young Master Liu is the eldest son of Liu Shanhe.

As soon as Liu Shanhe died, Duke Dingguo immediately sent people to surround the Liu family. All this happened too quickly. The Liu family's troops were all outside the city. Before the news of Liu Shanhe's death spread from the palace, the people sent by Duke Dingguo surrounded the Liu family.

All 321 members of the Liu family were thrown into jail.

Young Master Liu is currently serving as the Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple, and at a young age he is already a fourth-rank official.

When the incident happened, he was investigating a corruption case in Yuhang. When he learned that something happened at home, he disappeared.

When the people sent by Duke Dingguo arrived in Yuhang, they were still a step too late and did not even see the shadow of Young Master Liu.

At this time, the eldest son Liu had secretly returned to Jinling and learned that some of his father's followers were killed or captured, and those who had been attached to the Liu family in the past had either defected and joined the Duke Dingguo, or found other support in the court, or closed their doors and became turtles.

Young Master Liu knew that the situation was hopeless. What he could do now was not to avenge his father, but to rescue as many people from the Liu family as he could.

The first people to be saved, of course, are his two sons and his youngest brother.

Like all wealthy families, as each of them married and had children, Young Master Liu gradually became estranged from his younger brothers. The only one with whom he still had some affection was his youngest brother, Liu Qi, who was only fourteen years old and had not yet married.

Young Master Liu decided to exchange Duke Dingguo's children for his younger brother and two sons.

But before he could do anything, he received news that Jing Laosan was missing and the Duke Dingguo's Mansion was digging deep underground to look for Jing Laosan.

At first, it was people from Duke Dingguo’s Mansion who were looking for him, but now Duke Dingguo is looking for him himself.

Young Master Liu suddenly realized that he had made a mistake. He actually ignored Old Master Jing.

Although the Liu family and the Duke of Dingguo were not in the same circle, Young Master Liu knew something about the affairs of the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion.

Although Jing Lao San was registered as the wife of the Duke, he was actually a bastard's son.

Therefore, from beginning to end, Young Master Liu never thought of taking action against Old Master Jing.

But now it seems that Jing Lao San is definitely Duke Dingguo's most beloved son.

So Young Master Liu immediately withdrew his men, hoping to find Old Third Jing before Duke Dingguo.

At least Jing Lao San can exchange for one of his sons.

At the same time, there was another group of people looking for Jing Lao San, namely Xiu Gu and her men.

Although He Ran was not in Jinling, she had been paying close attention to the situation in Jinling since those three bowls of dog blood.

Right now the court is in turmoil, He Ran has secretly ordered Xiu Gu to make preparations. Just as Duke Dingguo is conducting a large-scale search and arrest of the Liu family and their cronies, all the killers Xiu Gu has trained over the years have gathered in Jinling, waiting for the order.

Now all attention is focused on Duke Dingguo. Of course, the fact that Duke Dingguo put aside state affairs to look for his son could not escape the eyes and ears of Jinghong Tower.

Xiu Gu delivered the news to He Ran as soon as possible.

At this time, He Ran had already arrived in Xuzhou and met up with Feng Zan.

Xuzhou is seven or eight hundred miles away from Jinling, much closer than the capital, and it is also more convenient to transmit information.

He Ran was stunned.

Judging from Duke Dingguo's previous actions, this man is decisive and murderous, secretive, and possesses the basic qualities of a power-seeking and usurping throne.

Although she was not in Jinling, she could guess that Jinling must be in chaos now.

At this critical moment, Duke Dingguo dropped a bunch of government affairs and went to look for his son in person. This was completely different from He Ran's previous impression of Duke Dingguo.

As for the reason, He Ran could only think of two. One was that Duke Dingguo was very fond of this illegitimate son.

Second, this bastard still has a secret, and it is of great importance.

Ever since Duke Dingguo forced the emperor to abdicate, He Ran asked Xiu Gu to investigate the feud between Duke Dingguo and Liu Shanhe.

However, they were on the march at that time, and He Ran ordered Xiu Gu to send all the news to Xuzhou. Therefore, He Ran did not see the previous news until he arrived in Xuzhou.

Xiu Gu found out that Duke Ding had had a woman before he married the Duke's wife.

The identity of the woman is unknown, but according to the recollections of the old people in the Duke's Mansion, when the old Duke Dingguo learned about this, he hung Duke Dingguo on a tree and whipped him to death.

Duke Dingguo stayed in bed for a whole month. After his injury healed, the Duke's Mansion moved up the wedding date on the pretext of letting him go to the army for training. They allowed Duke Dingguo to marry his wife, and after the wedding, they sent the couple to the border, and did not allow them to return to the capital until three years later.

At that time, Liu Shanhe had just been transferred to Qingzhou, and Duke Dingguo didn't know him at all.

The two men officially came into contact after arriving in Jinling. Liu Shanhe was powerful in the court, and Duke Dingguo was an old nobleman. Although he was famous, he had no say in the court.

After reading this, He Ran frowned and said to Xiao Li, "Tell Xiu Gu to send someone to look for Jing Lao San. Once they find him, arrest him."

Just after sending the secret letter to Xiu Gu, I received a letter from Zhang Shigong.

Zhang Shigong and his five-member team have been loaned to Zhou Cangyue for two years.

Zhang Shigong told He Ran in the letter that Zhou Cangyue was not in the army. This matter was very secretive and even several generals were unaware of it.

After he noticed this, he thought Zhou Cangyue was personally leading his troops on a secret operation, but Zhou Cangyue had not returned for ten days in a row. This had never happened before, so he felt that he should report it to He Ran.

He Ran stared at the letter for a long time. She knew about the changes in Jinling City, and of course Zhou Cangyue knew about it too.

No matter who it is, everyone knows that this is a critical moment, but Zhou Cangyue disappeared at this critical juncture. No matter how you look at it, it seems that he has other intentions.

He Ran's heart moved, and she said to Xiaoli, "Send another letter to Xiu Gu, asking her to pay attention to the actions of the Beggars' Sect."

After arranging these things, He Ran walked into the big tent and discussed military intelligence with Feng Zan.

The next morning, He Ran was stationed in Xuzhou, Feng Zan's army launched a fierce attack on Huai'an Prefecture, and He Xiulong's army advanced towards Yangzhou. At the same time, after Lu Zhen and Jiang Tao's army captured Bozhou, they split into two groups to sweep the prefectures and counties under Fengyang Prefecture and Yingzhou Prefecture.

Although it was called a mopping-up operation, the Ran army had strict discipline. After capturing a city, they could not burn, kill or loot the civilians. In order to prevent the civilians from panicking and fleeing everywhere, causing unnecessary trouble, as early as when He Ran decided to compile and print the comic strip, he asked He Yamin to add more or less plots about the Ran army treating the civilians well after entering the city in every comic strip.

In recent years, comic strips have already penetrated into various parts of Jiangnan. Compared with the morning and evening newspapers favored by scholars, comic strips are more popular and suitable for both young and old.

In addition, the price is cheap, so it has been banned repeatedly in recent years. Because it is mostly circulated among children, the government simply turns a blind eye. It is impossible to arrest a bunch of children. The people are familiar with the stories in the comic strips, and they know the generals of the Ran Army. They also know that the Ran Army loves the people like their own children and does not burn, kill or plunder the people.

Of course, if the people take the initiative to donate, Ran Jun will welcome it with open arms.

Therefore, when they learned that the Ran army was approaching, except for some wealthy people who held official positions or had great wealth, ordinary people did not flee with their families. During the war, they closed their doors and hid in their homes. Some families even asked their children to bring the comic books over.

Ah, it turns out that there will be victory drums after a battle. After beating the victory drums, there will be special people going to the streets to beat gongs and shout: "The Ran army has entered the city and is living and working in peace and contentment."

Now I don’t hear any drums or gongs, which means the war is not over yet. You’d better wait at home.

This wait would last for two or three days. If there was enough food at home, the family would get together, chat, do some needlework, and play with the children.

If the family does not have surplus food, they will curse at home: "When will this war end? Will we be allowed to go out? If we don't go out, how can we make money? How can we buy food?"

Or, "Didn't they say the Ran army was very powerful? I think they were just bragging. It's been a few days, and they haven't broken in yet. If they stay at home any longer, they'll get moldy and hairy."

Fortunately, Ran Jun did not disappoint them. After waiting for another two or three days, they finally heard the cheerful drumbeats.

"This must be the victory drum, it sounds pretty nice."

The children were eager to try. Child A said: "Who won? Was it the White Horse and Silver Spear? Ah, I like General Lu the White Horse and Silver Spear the most."

Child B: "I like General Zhaoyong. My General Zhaoyong can definitely beat your General Zhaowu."

Child A: “I don’t believe it.”

Child B: "If you don't believe me, let's have a competition."

Child A: "Let's compare."

So the two of them took out their crickets and started comparing them.

The adults in the family didn't have the leisure time. They put their ears to the door and listened quietly to the noise outside.

I don't know how long it took, but finally there was the sound of gongs outside, and someone stretched his neck and shouted in a poor local accent: "The Ran army has entered the city, the people have no worries, they live and work in peace, and business is booming."

"Hey, it's different from what's written in the comic book. There are eight more words."

"Why do you care so much? I just want to ask you, can I go out now?"

"Wait a little longer. No one has left the alley yet. Let's wait until someone leaves before we go out."

Other families had the same idea, but it only lasted half an hour at most. After half an hour, the people all left their homes.

They first looked around nervously, then bravely walked onto the street. When they saw the patrolling Ran Jun, they quickly hid behind a big tree. However, the patrolling Ran Jun still saw them, nodded at them, and walked past them without shouting or killing, nor did he ask them to go home to get money and rice.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, as if they suddenly realized there were people around them. Whether they knew them or not, they all started to greet them.

"Come out for a walk?"

"There's no rice at home. Let's go to the rice shop."

"Is the rice spread out?"

"It should be open. I just saw the guy from Wang's Rice Shop go to work."

"Ah, then I'll go buy some rice too. I don't have much rice at home. You don't know how much the little boys in my family eat."

The same situation also occurred in the counties under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture. Even the battle-hardened Feng Zan couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "Does anyone know the painter Feng Yamin? Next time you go to the capital, quietly point her out to me. She is so amazing. With just a move of her brush, she can calm the hearts of the people."

If the people did not flee in all directions, it would save the generals who were leading the troops to fight a lot of energy. Just now, as soon as the notice for hiring laborers was posted, it immediately attracted a bunch of people, all of whom patted their chests and said that they were in good health, strong and able to work.

Feng Zan recalled that when he was in Hejian Prefecture, if he wanted to find laborers to do work, he had to grab them with a knife, otherwise people would have been scared away when they saw the soldiers.

Battle reports were sent to Xuzhou one after another. He Ran sat in the temporary office converted from the provincial government office and read through the reports one by one.

Suddenly, her attention was drawn to one of them.

This is not a battle report, but a letter from Zhang Shigong.

Just seven days after Zhang Shigong's last letter, he wrote again.

Zhang Shigong used to only send one letter every month.

He Ran quickly picked out Zhang Shigong's letter.

In the letter, Zhang Shigong told He Ran that Zhou Cangyue had returned, bringing with him a young man, who was about eighteen or nineteen years old, with average looks and a quiet temperament, and he looked like a scholar.

Although he was sent by He Ran, Zhou Cangyue had never been on guard against him before and often invited him to discuss military affairs. But this time, after Zhou Cangyue came back, he did not invite him over as usual. He went there on his own initiative, but Zhou Cangyue sent him away with just a few words.

As for the young man Zhou Cangyue brought back, Zhang Shigong asked Bai Gou indirectly about him but he could not find out anything. Apparently, Zhou Cangyue had given instructions not to let Bai Gou reveal the information.

He Ran was stunned again. Zhou Cangyue had been missing for many days, and when he came back he brought back a young man?
Is that boy still a scholar?
Who is it?

Could it be Jing Laosan?

Zhou Cangyue went to Jinling and kidnapped Jing Laosan?

However, according to the information sent by Xiu Gu, Duke Dingguo has been looking for Jing Lao San, but so far, there is no news about Jing Lao San's whereabouts, and no one has used this to propose conditions to Duke Dingguo.

He Ran closed her eyes. If she were Zhou Cangyue and she kidnapped Jing Laosan, what would she do?
What else could it be? Of course he was taking the opportunity to ask for something, either the head of Duke Dingguo or the head of the emperor. In short, he must exchange heads.

The so-called head-changing was, of course, not a real head-changing, but rather a trap set by using Jing Lao San to force Duke Dingguo to submit, thereby achieving the purpose of head-changing.

No, one Jing Lao San is not enough. It would be very difficult to exchange for the head of Duke Dingguo or the emperor, but it would be enough to muddy the waters of the entire Jinling.

He Ran slapped the table, startling Xiao Ba who was taking a nap. He flapped his wings and flew up: "Earthquake, earthquake!"

He Ran
He Ran breathed a sigh of relief. If she had Jing Lao San in her hands now, she would definitely not act rashly. After all, she had only conquered Fengyang Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture, and the vast Jiangnan was not hers yet.

A mere Third Brother of Jing was not enough for her to challenge Duke Dingguo.

Therefore, it makes sense that Zhou Cangyue hid Jing Lao San quietly.