Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 753 Tracking
With Ye Chen establishing the country and proclaiming himself emperor, Xiazhou has also become the capital of Xiangfu Kingdom. Not only is it the core of Xiangfu Kingdom's politics, economy, culture, religion, and power, but Xiazhou City is the safest city in the northwest. In this place, there are aristocratic families, big businessmen and some common people from all over Xiangfu Kingdom who have been relocated to Xiazhou city. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Households, Xiazhou has grown from 21 people at the beginning of the founding of the country to just five years. In just over a month, the number increased to 32, an increase of more than [-].

The influx of a large number of people has caused the price of land and houses in Xiazhou City to increase sharply in a short period of time. Some poor people sold their houses and suddenly became a small rich family. Find a house to live in or open a shop to do business.The rich people who bought poor houses naturally had to demolish the dilapidated houses and rebuild them. As a result, in just a few months, the appearance of Xiazhou city was greatly changed. Many businessmen from all over the world saw the business opportunities here and bought houses in Xiazhou. At the same time, you have to buy a property.As a result, all kinds of shops lined up one after another, new streets were formed in Xiazhou City, and there were more prosperous settlements.

One of the most prosperous streets is Baiguan Avenue, where the residences of hundreds of officials of the Xiangfu Kingdom gather.Because the government did not prohibit merchants and hawkers from opening shops and setting up stalls on this street, Baiguan Avenue is particularly prosperous.

At this time, on the west side of Baiguan Avenue, there were a few peddlers chatting with each other while looking at the opposite gate and the side alley from the corner of their eyes. On the opposite gate was written "Zhang's Mansion" big characters.

A beggar came slowly from a distance, begging all the way, and finally arrived at the door of the opposite house. The beggar stood in front of the porter for a while, begging for food from the porter with a broken porcelain bowl full of cracks. The porter scolded him twice. But the beggar didn't go away, put down the bowl and beat the bamboo board, and sang about the falling of the lotus.

The concierge rummaged inside for a while with a look of disgust, and threw out half a pancake.The beggar quickly picked it up, thanked him with a nod and bow, and limped forward.

A peddler on the opposite side quickly glanced at the beggar, and then turned back to chat with other peddlers. While talking and laughing, his eyes moved among the crowd, but nothing unusual was found.

The beggar was slowly going away, the peddler pretended to be joking, and whispered to the person next to him: "How many beggars came here yesterday?"

"The three of them were not given food, but no accomplices were found around. Do you want to go and see?"

The peddler took the opportunity to observe the beggar for a while while turning around, snorted coldly, and turned to the person next to him and said, "I think back when His Majesty led us to Huaxia Weifu in the Song Dynasty, we discovered the convenience of beggars in the Song Dynasty to inquire about information. Until we left, most of the beggars in the Song Dynasty were our peripheral forces from the capital to other places. Now the Song Wei Mansion has followed suit, pretending to be beggars and throwing axes in front of us. Just this beggar can tell there is a problem at a glance, although His back is hunched, but his legs and feet are strong when he walks, and his lower body is firm, and he doesn't look like he is short of food and drink, so he sent a signal to let the second group follow that beggar."

The peddler next to him nodded, and while pretending to organize and pick up the goods, he made a few brief gestures. Twenty steps away diagonally, a farmer who bought herbs immediately got up and followed the beggar.The peddler who sent the order observed other people passing by on the road, especially if there were any nearby farmers who got up and followed the farmer, and did not notice anything unusual. It was not until the farmer was about to disappear in the crowd that the person who sent the order made a gesture again, and another farmer who sold dried fruits stood up, Carrying a burden, he hurried forward.

The two followed behind unhurriedly.Both of them are dark-skinned, wearing ordinary coarse clothes, carrying a load and walking steadily, their shoulders are a little hunched, just like those skilled farmers, their appearance has no distinctive features, and they are unrecognizable when thrown into the crowd come out.

That's right, these two are senior gold-medal spies from the Security Department of Xiangfu Country. As their most basic skill, their dressing skills are naturally proficient. When they act in movies and TV dramas in future generations, they will definitely be at the level of movie kings.

Relatively speaking, the beggar in front performed at the level of a second-rate actor. I saw him begging all the way, walking very slowly. Whenever he was begging at the door, he would take the opportunity to turn around and look around. In the eyes of the gold medal spy from the Ministry of Security, it was even more unusual.

The more the two spies followed, the more energetic they became. They felt that they would gain something today, so they cheered up. At this time, they would not stop or slow down as the beggar slowed down. The gold-medal spy who was a herbal medicine farmer continued to move forward, waiting in the estimated street ahead, and when the beggar passed by, he alternated positions between the two with the farmer who pretended to be a dried fruit seller behind.

Half way away from the Xiangyang Gate, the beggar suddenly turned around, his face was black, and he didn't know where the dirt was smeared. He looked at the face of the passerby stupidly, and followed him for ten minutes. The dried fruit seller didn't panic. Instead, he made a look of disgust and took a few steps to the side. His reaction was very appropriate, and the pedestrians around him also reacted in the same way. The beggar didn't get suspicious, and immediately pretended to be Throwing an object in his arms on the ground, he pretended to look around on the ground, took the opportunity to observe the crowd for a while, and then pretended to be happy to find the object, and continued to walk in the original direction cursing.

The moment the beggar turned around, the spies pretending to be selling herbal medicine who were already at the back didn't pay attention to the beggar at all, but quickly observed the surrounding crowd.According to Article 17 of Section No. [-] of the Ministry of Security's Tracking Regulations, the tracked person suddenly turns around to observe the passers-by behind him. This method often has people covering him.When the beggar suddenly stops and turns around, the cover person will observe whether there is any abnormality in the passers-by behind the beggar. Of course, they may also expose themselves when observing, so the following spies can also take the opportunity to try to find the cover beggar. people.

A drinker in a restaurant on the west side of the street aroused the idea of ​​pretending to be a spy selling herbs. He noticed that the drinker was focusing on the area between ten and twenty steps behind the beggar. Every passerby.A cold gleam flashed in the eyes of the herbal medicine vendor's spy, and he quickly withdrew his gaze, and quickly returned to his dull expression, carrying the burden and walking past very naturally.

This discovery made the herbal medicine peddler spies a little excited, because someone with a cover means that the beggar has a problem, and thus further infers that there is a problem with Zhang Bo, the minister of the Ministry of Agriculture in that house, and maybe it is what their security department is looking for these days people.

This mission was personally deployed and arranged by Hu Sanguang, the top official of the Ministry of Security. Everyone was tense up and down, and even all the gold medal spies in the Xiazhou area were mobilized. I only know the specific tasks I am responsible for, but the order above is very clear, keep an eye on the target, and if there is a mistake or omission, it will be executed according to the most serious intelligence punishment regulations.On the contrary, if you can catch a big fish, as Minister Hu Sanguang said personally, it is a great achievement. If it is an ordinary spy, you can be promoted to a gold medal spy based on this fact alone, and a senior gold medal spy may rely on this great achievement was awarded an official position.

In addition, the annual budget of the Ministry of Security is 30 taels, which is enough to support three brigades, and far exceeds the annual budget of each of the six ministries of the Ministry of Education.Recently, the imperial court's finances are tight, and the Military Shuttle Department and the Ministry of Zhongshu have criticized the Ministry of Security. There are already officials from the Ministry of Finance and Ye Chen, the censor of the Overwatch Council, wanting to cut their funds.

Although the Ministry of Security has made a lot of contributions to Ye Chen, and also made some contributions during the war in the early stage, but because they did not detect the conspiracy of the Yang family in Linzhou in advance, the Xuanwu Army suffered heavy losses and was directly disabled. The two thousand basalt heavy cavalry formed with a lot of money were almost wiped out, and this matter was used as an excuse to cut funds.

Hu Sanguang was one of the earliest confidantes who followed His Majesty the Emperor. He had a strong personality. If the funds were really cut, money was a trivial matter, and he would definitely not accept it in terms of face.At this time, a senior official from the Song Dynasty's Weifu government sneaked into Xiazhou and successfully dragged a court minister into the water. This can be regarded as an oversight by the Ministry of Security.Therefore, this time, the Ministry of Security was pressing hard, and Hu Sanguang offered a higher reward than usual.

Because there are internal thieves among the people dealt with in this operation, and the target is not clear.That's why Hu Sanguang asked the Ministry of Security to send out all the best in the vicinity of Xiazhou, and personally deployed this spies-catching operation.

Today is already the ninth day since Hu Sanguang asked Ye Chen to monitor some suspected ministers of the DPRK and China.During these nine days, the Ministry of Security dispatched thousands of spies every day, scattered inside and outside the city of Xiazhou, collected a lot of information, and tracked countless people, but so far there is no useful news.However, the discovery at this time is enough to confirm Zhang Bo's suspicion. In this way, casting a wide net can become a key spot, which can save a lot of manpower, and it is bound to be easier to achieve a major breakthrough.

The beggar kept walking and stopping, begging from house to house like a normal beggar, and took the opportunity of begging to stop and observe the surroundings.

At this time, he stopped again in front of a house, begging with his head bowed, and a spy pretending to be a dried fruit peddler was following him. The beggar had obviously noticed him, because the beggar had seen him at least twice , so the dried fruit peddler passed by directly.

And when the dried fruit vendor passed behind the beggar, he faintly felt that the beggar turned his head slightly, paying attention to his every move.

Seeing this, the dried fruit vendor went straight west into an alley, and the beggar heaved a sigh of relief. This time he did not insist on begging for something, and continued walking amidst the shouting and cursing from the door of that family.

(End of this chapter)