Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 281: No Leakage in the Skynet

Liaodong Town, Yafu Pass.

This is one of the three major passes in Liaodong Town. It was originally the only way for the Jurchens, Hezhe people and Oroqen people outside the Great Wall to enter and exit the Great Wall.

They brought furs, medicinal herbs, wild delicacies, timber, horses, etc. from outside the Great Wall in exchange for rice, salt, tea and ironware from inside the Great Wall.

This was once the most prosperous town on the Liaodong border, but since the war between the Great Zhou and the Jurchens, Yafu Pass has been completely closed to the outside world.

The town of Yafu Pass became quite depressed as a result, but this depression was only to a certain extent and did not cause it to completely fall apart due to the war.

Although special products from outside the Great Wall cannot enter the country, there are many other channels to take a detour into the towns. Many merchants from the south still gather here to buy all kinds of rare treasures from outside the Great Wall.

Not to mention foreign goods such as wild ginseng from Goryeo, swords from Japan, and coal from Russia.

There is a Hongbei Restaurant in the center of the town, which is a gathering place for merchants from all over the country.

Due to the special nature of the border town, the restaurant owner, in addition to doing the basic food and wine business, also does miscellaneous tasks such as gathering information, reselling goods, and acting as a broker for merchants.

This also made the restaurant's traffic more prosperous, and the restaurant's business was at least three levels better than other restaurants in the town.

That afternoon, a very handsome young man entered the restaurant with two men.

"Boss, do you have the rope I want?"

"It's Jia Jianzheng. The rope you requested was delivered yesterday. It's the size you ordered, a total of one hundred steps long. It's made of the finest silk and linen, so it's guaranteed to be strong."

When the shop owner saw Jia Cong coming, he immediately greeted him warmly and took out a ball of hemp rope as thick as a thumb.

The shop owner knew that this young man was an important figure in the Liaodong army.

Half a month ago, he saw with his own eyes that this young man followed the Liaodong General Liang and led his troops into Yafu Pass, with hundreds of musketeers guarding him.

The shop owner would naturally not neglect such a person.

Ever since that day Jia Cong proposed the strategy of withdrawing the garrison troops, clearing the countryside and leaving the Jurchens with no food to rob.

Liang Chengzong discussed the relevant details with his generals and witnessed with his own eyes the tremendous power of the three-round rapid fire of the Portuguese cannon outside the city of Ningyuan.

A military order was issued early the next morning to withdraw all troops stationed in the five major military forts in Liaodong Town.

All the remaining military rations in the military fort were burned on the spot to avoid the possibility of being looted by the Jurchen cavalry on the way back. Anyway, Liaodong Town now has plenty of food and supplies and is not short of this.

After abandoning the five major military forts, Liang Chengzong also issued strict orders for all the passes in the border towns to be guarded strictly.

All the gaps within the 400 miles from east to west of the border were either fortified or heavily guarded, leaving the Jurchen tribes no chance to exploit.

The effect of this series of practices is obvious.

According to the investigation conducted by scouts of Liaodong Town who went more than 200 miles deep into the border of the Great Wall, the Jurchen tribes have been cut off from their retreat routes due to the extremely cold weather over the past half month, and are in an increasingly desperate situation. The tribes are uniting with each other and are likely to take action.

Various signs indicate that the Jurchen tribes, who are trapped in a desperate situation, may make a desperate attempt and a major war is likely to break out in the near future.

All the checkpoints in the border towns were on high alert, and Jia Cong customized this 100-meter hemp rope for the purpose of calculating firearms attacks.

……

The boss greeted him warmly, "Jia Jianzheng, today is New Year's Eve, and all the dishes in our store are 20% off. Do you want to try it?"

Jia Cong smiled and said, "That's fine. Boss, you have some fresh dishes. Feel free to bring some over. My two brothers and I will celebrate the New Year in your store."

Jia Cong smiled at the two Zhou soldiers beside him and said, "It's also my first time to celebrate the New Year outside, Zhigui, Xiaosi, you are probably the same as me."

On that day, Guo Zhigui and Jiang Xiaosi burned the grain carts, evaded the pursuit of the Jurchen cavalry, and successfully escaped back to Yafu Pass.

When Gu Yankui went west to inspect the towns of Jizhou and Xuanfu, Liang Chengzong asked Gu Yankui to keep Jia Cong temporarily as his firearms staff in Liaodong because Jia Cong was familiar with firearms.

Responsible for the daily training of the Firearms Battalion and the formation and drills of the Liaodong Artillery Battalion.

There are three major passes in Liaodong Town. The other two passes are strategically located and easy to defend but difficult to attack. Only Yafu Pass has the flattest terrain, making it convenient for most cavalry to deploy.

Therefore, it is the place most likely to be invaded by the Jurchens. In the past, several major wars between the Great Zhou and the Jurchens were all fought near Yafu Pass.

Therefore, this time Liang Chengzong deployed all eight Portuguese cannons at Yafu Pass, and most of the porcelain mines and musketeers were also deployed here.

As soon as Jia Cong arrived at Yafu Pass, Guo Zhigui got the information and took Jiang Xiaosi to find him. It was naturally a pleasant thing to meet someone familiar in a foreign land thousands of miles away.

……

The three of them were sitting down to eat when three people came in from outside.

The leader was in his thirties, wearing a black fur cloak. He had an ordinary appearance, a conspicuous black mole under his forehead, and a conspicuous jewel ring on his hand.

Jia Cong had been at Yafu Pass these days and had seen many people dressed like this. They were generally merchants from the south who came to purchase goods from the north.

But as soon as he saw this man's appearance, it immediately caught Jia Cong's attention.

There were two people following the man, one of whom was a servant boy, holding something wrapped in linen in his hand.

The other one was a woman, tall, with fair and translucent skin, delicate features, and a pair of eyes that looked like the sea. She did not look like someone from the Central Plains.

There were layers of turban wrapped around his head, but the hair exposed at his temples was brown, shining an eerie dark gold color in the sunlight.

There was also a strangely designed long knife hanging on her waist. The blade was slender and curved, and the handle had no guard. The pure copper blade head was curved and carved into the shape of an eagle's head.

Jia Cong himself was also a skilled swordsman. As soon as he saw the way the woman held the handle of the sword, he knew that the sword was definitely not a decoration.

The strangest thing was that the woman was wearing a leather vest with strange lines carved on it, and a strange bird that was snow-white with black spots was perched on it.

As the woman walked, the strange bird stayed on her shoulder motionless, with an arrogant look, and its pair of light golden eyes seemed to be sizing up the people in the store.

The people in the store seemed accustomed to the woman's strange appearance, probably because it was not her first time here.

However, Jia Cong recognized that the strange bird was a Saker Falcon, which was unique to Liaodong. The fact that it could be tamed so miraculously showed that the woman was an expert in falconry.

But Jia Cong's attention was more focused on the man in the black fur cloak.

He walked to a table and sat down. There were already two people sitting at the table. It seemed that they had made an appointment with the man in advance.

"Boss Chen, have you brought the goods I wanted?"

The man in the black fur cloak smiled and asked the servant beside him to put the things in his hand on the table.

Then he unwrapped the linen, revealing a roll of brilliant embroidered cloth that seemed to be shining with a layer of light, and many people in the store exclaimed in amazement.

Such rich and gorgeous cloth is indeed rare in the rough and simple land of Liaodong.

The buyer showed a satisfied look in his eyes: "I wonder how much Mr. Chen wants?"

"Twelve!"

"Okay, Boss Chen is straightforward. Ten taels is ten taels. I'll take as many as you have!"

"Wait a minute, Mr. Zhao. I said one foot is ten taels. This roll of cloth is ten feet long, which is one hundred taels!"

Jia Cong recognized the cloth as soon as he saw it. He had seen it in Jinling before. The headband on Yinglian's head was made of this cloth, Japanese satin!

This kind of rare cloth is rare even in a big port like Nanjing, but it appears in this remote and rough border town.

According to Yinglian, Zhou Suqing, who had disappeared, had hoarded a lot of these precious fabrics at home.

Jia Cong had seen Zhou Suqing's portrait when he was in Yingtian Prefecture in Jinling.

So even though he had never seen Zhou Suqing in person, he knew what he looked like.

So as soon as this man entered the store, Jia Cong discovered that his appearance was very similar to Zhou Suqing's portrait, especially the position of the black mole, which was exactly the same as in the portrait.

He began to pay attention to this man's every move.

Liu Hai searched for this person everywhere along the way to the north, but found no clues.

At first, Jia Cong didn't quite believe that such a coincidence could happen.

But when this man took out the rare Japanese satin, Jia Cong was 80% sure of his guess!

(End of this chapter)