There were no stars or moon, and the sky and earth were pitch black.
Standing on the top of a tree about two to three feet above the ground, Ye Qian looked at Nanhe Village. When the last light went out, Ye Qian finally showed a smile.
His shoulders sank, and a thin iron chain protruded from Ye Qian's sleeve.
Ye Qian twisted the chain head with his fingers, his wrists trembled, his fingers popped out, and the thin iron chain shot as straight as a stick towards the tree trunk at Ye Qian's feet.
After a while, the thin iron chain brushed against the tree trunk quite a lot. Ye Qian quickly tapped the chain with his index finger, and strands of thin iron chain were transmitted from the place Ye Qian tapped to the chain head. The chain head unexpectedly rose up, and then wrapped around the tree trunk.
On the tree trunk.
After the thin iron chain was wrapped around the tree trunk three times, Ye Qian's thumb and middle finger cooperated with his index finger to hit the rope in a specific pattern.
A strange link appeared, firmly fixing a section of the thin iron chain to the tree trunk.
As the knot appeared, Ye Qian's fingers tapping the rope stopped.
With a satisfied smile on his face, Ye Qian jumped directly from the top of the tree that was two to three meters tall.
When he was about to land, Ye Qian's thumb, index and middle fingers tapped the thin iron chain again in a special pattern.
The chain head was untied, Ye Qian landed on the ground, and wrapped the thin iron chain around his little finger.
After a strange trembling of his little finger, the thin iron chain slid all the way back into Ye Qian's sleeve along his little finger.
It is true that he has not entered martial arts, but fortunately Rentu Huo Tianzhang taught him some life-saving gadgets and tricks.
With a slight smile, Ye Qian returned to the tent made of leather blankets and said to his elder brother Zhao Gao: "The last light in Nanhe Village has been extinguished. That person will be here soon. Brother, please go and tell the people on guard outside.
What misunderstanding occurred?"
With that said, Ye Qian said to Liu Mingshan: "The time is coming, Brother Liu, go wake up everyone, it's time to do something."
Liu Mingshan nodded and asked Ye Qian before leaving the tent: "Can we really win?"
Ye Qian said categorically: "Of course."
Liu Mingshan and Zhao Gao laughed at the same time.
When the two of them came out of the tent, Wei Junzi, who had been reading under the dim candlelight, suddenly asked without raising his head: "Can you really win?"
At this time, there were only three people left in the tent: Ye Qian, Wei Junzi, and Wang Chengcai. Ye Qian glanced at Wang Chengcai, who had not spoken since leaving Nanhe Village. He had been a bystander and said with a hint: "Winning or losing is not important.
, as long as the purpose is achieved.”
Indeed, in Ye Qian's view, this time the layout is completed, the second assessment standard, the means and the pattern are all in place. As for victory or defeat, it depends on God's will. Winning is good, losing... it is best not to lose.
After a while, Liu Mingshan came back, and except for those who were on guard, everyone else lined up.
A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Gao led a young man in with a dirty face and ragged clothes.
Staring into the young man's light green eyes, Liu Mingshan's pupils shrank suddenly and he said in surprise:
"You are the craftsman from Nanhe Village two days ago..."
"Her name is Tong Xuenu!" Ye Qian said simply.
Wang Chengcai on the side stared at the young man with shock in his eyes.
As if he thought of something, Liu Mingshan looked at Ye Qian suddenly, glanced at Wang Chengcai who had a strange expression next to him, and said: "It turns out that you returned him to Wang Chengcai not just to allow Nanhe Village to fix the military formation for the head-on confrontation.
…”
After a pause, with some doubts, Liu Mingshan asked: "But how did you do it? I tortured him hard and he didn't even say a word to me. How can he be willing to do things for you?"
When he first caught the beggar boy, Liu Mingshan led his men to beat him and force him to question the purpose of Nanhe Village. Unfortunately, he failed.
"Just give her what she wants."
A vague sentence caused Liu Mingshan to fall into deep thought. Ye Qian didn't care what Liu Mingshan was thinking. The child with light green pupils in front of him was Tong Xuenu, the spy who was bribed by Wang Chengcai with three nests and sent to Donghe Village.
"How did you do what you were asked to do?" Ye Qian asked.
Tong Xuenu came to Ye Qian and whispered: "It's all done, I don't know if you are satisfied or not."
The voice was just like that night, hoarse and old. It really startled several other people in the tent. Even Liu Mingshan, who was deep in thought, was awakened by Tong Xuenu's voice.
"Your throat..." Wei Junzi looked a little hesitant, but he still asked.
Tong Xuenu didn't speak, and didn't even turn her eyes, as if she didn't hear what Mr. Wei said.
When Junzi Wei saw this, he felt guilty and said, "I'm sorry, I was rude."
Tong Xuenu raised her eyelids and looked at Mr. Wei. Her eyelids drooped again and she still said nothing.
Ye Qian kept these in his eyes, but said nothing. He said to Liu Mingshan beside him: "Brother Liu, the map of Nanhe Village."
"Yes." Liu Mingshan took out a piece of bamboo paper from his arms and spread it out on the small table in the tent that was protected from candles. On it, the locations of all the houses in Nanhe Village were densely marked with the heavenly stems and earthly branches.
Handing Tong Xuenu an ink slate pen, Ye Qian said: "Look at the map and mark the homes of all the children in Nanhe Village who are participating in the fruit-winning competition this time."
"Don't..." Hearing this, Liu Mingshan saw Tong Xuenu actually taking the ink pen to mark on the map, and quickly stopped him, "I finally drew this..."
After saying that, he took out another piece of white paper from his arms, handed it to Tong Xuenu and said, "Just write the location of the heavenly stems and earthly branches on the paper."
Tong Xuenu didn't even look at Liu Mingshan, she just looked at Ye Qian inquiringly. Seeing Ye Qian nodded insignificantly, Tong Xuenu lowered her head and took the white paper, and wrote down the heavens one by one according to the marks on the map.
Earthly Branches.
Picking up the white paper, Ye Qian scanned the marks written on the paper and said, "There are thirty-eight households in total. How many people are there? Where is Chief Bao Buping's house?"
Tong Xuenu replied: "Including Bao Buping, there are a total of forty-two people. There are several families with multiple people participating in this fruit-grabbing battle. Bao Buping's family is in the position of 'A, B, Chou, Wu'."
Ye Qian returned the paper to Tong Xuenu and said: "Mark all the weakest among the thirty-eight households participating in the fruit competition, and also mark their household registrations such as whether they are farmers, military households, medical households, etc., and draw
A dense circle of children.
The most important thing is to mark the families where many people participate in the fruit-grabbing competition and the families where the children with poor popularity and withdrawn personality live. It would be better if you also know the fighting ability of those children."
After saying these words, except for Tong Xuenu, Liu Mingshan and Zhao Gao looked at Ye Qian with brilliant eyes. Wang Chengcai's eyes became more solemn. Wei Junzi couldn't bear it and said: "Ye Qian, are your demands too high?"
Tong Xuenu seemed to completely ignore the other people. She stared at the map and thought for a while, shook her lips, and marked the location of the children's home that was originally written to participate in the fruit-winning battle as Ye Qian said.
After a while, Tong Xuenu filled in a piece of white paper with delicate and delicate characters.
Taking the paper handed over by Tong Xuenu, Ye Qian's eyes flashed with an inexplicable light. He read it carefully twice, compared it with the map of Nanhe Village, Ye Qian circled ten households, and then handed it to Liu Mingshan.
With their manpower, ten households is already the limit, and no more can be possible.
Ye Qian did not explain why he chose these ten families. He believed that with Liu Mingshan's ability, he could fully understand what he meant with such detailed explanations.
Looking at Tong Xuenu with some surprise, Ye Qian's mind changed rapidly.
To be honest, Ye Qian never expected that Tong Xuenu could do so well. After all, she was caught by Liu Mingshan once, and she could find out the details of the fruit-grabbing battle so clearly under the eyes of everyone in Nanhe Village. Ye Qian
One has to wonder if Tong Xuenu turned around and sold him to Wang Chengcai.
However, almost all the people in Donghe Village who participated in the fruit-grabbing battle this time were here. They were like arrows on the string, so he couldn't help but not believe in Tong Xuenu.
Suddenly, he remembered what Tong Xuenu showed him that night. Ye Qian stared at Tong Xuenu's dirty face and light green pupils, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
I hope you won’t let me down. After all, it’s not easy for me to trust someone.
…
"What did you say? Burn the granary in Nanhe Village? Are you crazy?"
In the leather tent, Liu Mingshan stood up and shouted excitedly.
Ye Qian rested his arm on the small table, intertwined his fingers, and put his thumb on his lips.
Ye Qian said nothing and looked at Liu Mingshan expressionlessly, his eyes cold and firm.
After looking at Ye Qian for a long time, Liu Mingshan finally couldn't help it and said: "The consequences will be serious."
Hearing this, Ye Qian's eldest brother Zhao Gao couldn't help but retorted: "How serious can it be? There are no people around the granary. If the warehouse keeper is knocked unconscious and sent out of the granary, no one will die. How much can a granary be worth, and what's more, it's
In midsummer, how much grain can be piled in that granary?"
Liu Mingshan snorted coldly and said: "In the future, if you burn down someone else's granary, even if no one is killed, you won't be so naive as to think that you can just pay some money to Nanhe Village to get it over with? And why should we burn down the granary?"
"Otherwise, you think we only have so many people, why would we go to Nanhe Village to kidnap people?" Ye Qian explained calmly: "The ten families selected are basically close to the granary. When the granary caught fire, the adults were burned.
After attracting people to rescue them, our people will take advantage of the chaos to capture as many of their family members as possible who participated in the battle to seize the fruit, and then send them to Panyun Valley as hostages, so that Nanhe Village had to go to Panyun Valley.
war."
Ye Qian spoke in a calm and gentle voice, as if he was talking about something insignificant.
Seeing Liu Mingshan's dumbfounded look and the weird expressions of everyone in the tent, Ye Qian finally added, "It's natural to set fire to someone's granary. After all, murder and arson have been done together since ancient times. We can't kill people and take people captive."
It’s still okay to leave.”
The words entered his brain like ice, and Liu Mingshan calmed down completely. After thinking for a while, he said coldly: "Is it really worth it? If it is to win the fruit battle, or to pass the second trial of the deception, do this
It’s not worth it. Once you do it, you will be sued.”
Ye Qian smiled, stood up and said, "The moonlight is pretty outside. Brother Liu and Mr. Wei, please accompany me for a walk."
Liu Mingshan and Wei Junzi were both stunned when they heard this. There was no moon tonight, not even stars.
But in a flash, Liu Mingshan and Wei Junzi seemed to understand something, nodded, and left the tent with Ye Qian...