Although he can't be said to be extremely smart, he still has some counter-reconnaissance qualities that he should have after working as a spy for so many years.
After being kicked out of Zhang Rang's house, the first thing Hou Xu did was of course go find Zhang Jiao.
So he contacted a group of people and prepared to go to Jizhou together.
But before they left Sili, they heard that Zhang Jiao had been defeated in consecutive battles and was completely defeated. Lu Zhi had already recovered half of Jizhou.
Under such circumstances, it was impossible to go to Zhang Jiao. Hou Xu could only go to Wei County to pick up his family, and then prepare to go south to Yuzhou.
Because the Yellow Turbans in Yuzhou were in full swing at that time, Huangfu Song was besieged in Changshe, and he was so fierce that he had the momentum to attack Sili and sweep Luoyang.
As a result, they had just arrived in Yangcheng when they heard about the defeat of Changshe. As a result, this group of Yellow Turbans, including Hou Xu, were extremely frightened. They felt that the future was bleak and they didn't know what to do next.
The house leaked and it rained all night. He traveled around Sili, Jizhou, and Yuzhou, and almost all the money he had had was spent. Hou Xu had no choice but to return to Luoyang.
Why return to Luoyang?
Because Luoyang is the most familiar to him.
In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient. For most people, the land they stayed in for their entire lives was their hometown and the place they were most familiar with.
During Hou Xu's short career of more than 40 years, he spent the first 20 years in his hometown of Anyang and the next 10 years in Sili.
Now that he has no money and nowhere to go, and is in constant panic, Hou Xu will naturally subconsciously stay in the place he is most familiar with. Moreover, he already has an idea, and he needs a lot of money to take people to escape further.
.
Hou Xu's plan is divided into three steps. The first step is to find a buyer who needs these things, negotiate a suitable price, and then make the sale. The second step is to leave Luoyang with the money. The third step is to have the money.
, they fled far away and went to Jiaozhou or Yizhou to avoid disaster.
Now he is ready to take the first step.
How to find a buyer is also very simple. Hou Xu has stayed in Zhang Rang's mansion for so many years. He will go to find anyone who is an enemy of the eunuch group. Even if some people dare not accept this gift, as long as the news spreads, there will always be someone.
Come to your door.
Anyway, he has been operating in Luoyang for so many years, and there are countless ordinary Taiping Tao believers who can be sacrificed. He only needs these believers to deliver the message.
If there is a reply, it should be written in certain designated places in the secret language of Taiping Dao as agreed. Even if these people are arrested, it does not matter, just cut off contact immediately and they will not be traced.
So when the first step was taken, it went very smoothly. The two parties had negotiated the details and confirmed the deal.
Ma Fen led a few people to bring out the needed horses from the horse market. Hou Xu sat at the tea stall in the distance, quietly watching his every move.
He ordered the matter to go down, but he adopted a single line of communication. After putting on a slight disguise, he instead investigated the situation of his men. It was not that he suspected Ma Fen, but that he was afraid that Ma Fen would be exposed. After all, he wanted to take his family to escape.
In Luoyang, horses are essential.
After Ma Fen had transported the horses all the way out of the horse market and made sure there were no problems on his side, Hou Xu said to his younger brother: "Go to He Anli and take those things with you."
These days, apart from your own family, there is no one you can trust.
……．
……．
At this time, Chen Mu was practicing painting at home.
It’s been a few days since I came to Luoyang. I haven’t made much progress in anything else. I’ve made a lot of progress in calligraphy and painting.
There is no way, there are relatively few Hongdumen who teach the Seven Classics, because Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty liked calligraphy and painting, so there are more art courses.
As for the investigation, it is now left to Zhang He and the others.
There is no shortage of smart people in this era, but the means of information transmission are underdeveloped. There are no telephones, no radios, and no computers. If people want to transmit information, they can only rely on person-to-person contact.
So as long as you can find a clue, it is easy to follow this clue and continue to investigate.
After finding the clue about Wu and his wife, we went to check on several of his friends who he often met at Baima Temple. We arrested them one by one according to the list of party members collected by Zhang Feng.
Anyway, he has already found out the person by following the clues, and the matter of torture can be left to Zhang He and the others.
These party members do have strong bones, and several of them gritted their teeth and said nothing. Unfortunately, their family members were always their weak point. With the slightest threat, they would tell everything they knew and what they needed to explain.
This method is a bit despicable, but it is indeed effective, and Chen Mu does not feel any shame. After all, he positions himself as Li Ru and Jia Xu.
"Found it."
Zhang He hurried back and said when he entered the door: "Xun Yu's son Xun He, and Zhao Yan's son Zhao Gong. Zhao Yan was not in the list of party members originally, but he asked to die with Li Ying, so he was included in the list
Zhao Gong could not be found, so he is now serving as the Northern Wei of Luoyang, commanding the North City thief Cao Yu."
Luoyang Northern Lieutenant?
Chen Mu finally knew how the party members got in touch with Hou Xu.
The Liubu Lieutenant belonged to the Luoyang Order and was equivalent to the director of the six branches of Luoyang City. His powers were similar to Liu Bei's Anxi County Lieutenant. He commanded the thieves Cao Cao and belonged to the grassroots official type. This class was able to contact many people at the bottom.
It just so happens that most of the people who believe in the Yellow Turban Dao are also low-level people. Inquiring about this kind of information is what grassroots officials like them are best at. Naturally, the two parties can easily contact each other.
"That's all you found?"
Chen Mu stopped the brush in his hand and frowned.
If the party members at the back only have this little strength, it would be a bit bad.
Zhang He added: "These two, including Xu Han, Li Zhao and others we captured, there are a total of more than ten people who are the core organizers. The other court officials involved include Taizhong doctor He Shao, Taipucheng
Yang Dan, the general minister Xu Mi, the doctor Yan Biao offering wine, the Zhongsan doctor Zhou Zhong, the admonishment doctor Yu Kui, the Yilang Wei Lin and so on."
"They are all people closely related to the party members."
Chen Mu nodded.
He Shao was born in the He family of Chen County, and his cousin He Heng was a party member who was framed by the eunuchs. Among the descendants, He Kui, He Zeng and others, especially He Kui, can be regarded as the founders of the He family of Chen County.
There are also people like Yang Dan, Xu Mi and Yan Biao. Either their brothers were once classified as cronies by the court, or their parents were framed by eunuchs. No wonder these people want to unite together.
However, the positions of these officials were not high. Only He Shao's Taizhong doctor, who was Guang Luxun's deputy, was barely a central official. The rest were hovering between a thousand stones and six hundred stones, and were not considered core figures in the imperial court.
Chen Mu didn't believe that there wasn't a big official directing all this, but it was good to find these.
He found this out through Mr. and Mrs. Wu. If ordinary people didn't have such rigorous thinking logic and insight, they wouldn't even be able to find out these people.
Zhang He continued: "In addition, we also got a piece of news from the captured scholars. Xun He raised a large amount of gold, silver, cloth and silk coins from many scholars through Yang Dan, totaling about 3 million yuan. Among them
The Yang family of Hongnong paid 2 million, could this money be used to trade for the gift list?"
"The Yang family is really willing to spend money, and it seems that it has added fuel to the flames."
Chen Mu thought of Yang Qi, the governor of Runan. The Yang family of Hongnong was now a top family comparable to the Yuan family of Runan, and the family's wealth was immeasurable.
Cao Cao was just a second-rate family in the central court of the Han Dynasty. His father, Cao Song, spent 100 million to buy an official position. Later, he spent an unknown amount of money to finance his army. The Yang family was several times richer than the Cao family, so 2 million dollars was nothing more than trivial matters.
"What do we do now?"
Zhang He has already admired Chen Mu. He first analyzed the enemy's motives to find out that there was a mole in the palace, and then used the mole to follow the clues to find out the identity of the person behind the scenes. This skill is not something ordinary people can do.
"Of course we are looking for Xun and Zhao Gong."
After hearing Zhang He's words, Chen Mu said without hesitation: "This task will be left to you and Zhang Feng."
"give it to me?"
Zhang He said in surprise: "Then where are you going?"
"I'm going to the horse market."
Chen Mu stood up, cleared the table and prepared to go out.
"What are you going to do at the horse market?"
Wang Jun, who had been watching him draw, didn't quite understand what he meant.
Chen Mu smiled mysteriously: "Of course I'm going to arrest people."
Arrests?
Who should be arrested in Shangma City?
Everyone was confused.
However, Chen Mu was recommended by Wang Jun, and Zhang Rang also handed over full power to him. Naturally, everyone had to obey his orders.
So the two sides acted separately. Zhang He and Zhang Feng took Zhang Rang's palace cards and prepared to go to Chengmen Wei and Luoyang Ling to ask them to mobilize their manpower to find Xun He and Zhao Gong.
Chen Mu and Wang Jun rode all the way to the horse market.