At two o'clock in the night, Ying Caihe set out with his apprentice Jingyue, and the two of them rushed eastward to Tongzhou.
Ying Caihe had seen the actual iron fire mine and the explosion scene with her own eyes in the Yangtze River. It was still a small iron fire mine. She knew very well the consequences of this kind of firearm falling into the hands of Li Wujun. Basically, the Hebei Battle would be dangerous.
She could imagine that the master was extremely annoyed by this matter. At the critical moment, he thought of herself, which was an affirmation and trust in herself. Thinking of this, Ying Cai and her spirits were lifted, and she was determined to use all her strength to find Tie Huolei's.
whereabouts.
Ying Caihe's tracking ability is quite strong. She likes to be alone and is not willing to cooperate with others. On the one hand, she is very conceited and looks down on other people. On the other hand, her style of doing things is different from that of most people. She is not willing to cooperate with others.
He likes to argue with others, and there is only one way to shut them up, which is to cut the other person's throat with a sword.
But in any case, Ying Caihe is a former assassin, and her tracking ability is very powerful.
The other party is transporting twenty large iron fire mines. It is too inconvenient to go by land. To go to Jizhou, you have to pass through Feihuxing and Jingxing. I believe that the Jin army has sent a message via flying pigeons and has tightly blocked Feihuxing, Jingxing and Fukou from the east end of the river.
Xingxing and Baixing and Taihangxing in the south.
Even if they can luckily pass through King Jin's territory, can they still pass through Zhu Tao's territory? The possibility is very slim.
Therefore, it should be judged that the other party is most likely to take the water route, take the Yellow River waterway, and then take the Yongji Canal to the north, which will pass through the territories of King Jin, Zhu Si and Tian Yue. The territory of Zhu Si and Tian Yue is not a big problem.
As long as you give enough bribes, you can basically get through.
So can they cross the Yellow River waterway of King Jin?
It's hard to say.
Ying Caihe decided to go to Hukou first. Judging from the time, when he arrived at Hukou, they were almost there.
In the dark night, Ying Caihe and his apprentice Jingyue galloped along the official road...
At dawn, Guo Song rushed back to Chang'an City with a thousand cavalry and escorts. He had no time to return to his home, so he directly ordered the leader of the internal affairs and Jin Wei Mansion to come to see him.
Wang Yue, the leader of the inner guard, and Li Anchen, the deputy leader, arrived first, and Guan Wuyang, the other deputy leader, had already led his people to Lanzhou.
Also in the room were Guo Yuniang, the leader of Jinwei Mansion, and Song Tian, the deputy leader.
The four of them lowered their heads and silently endured the lord's thunderous wrath.
"What on earth have you been doing these past few years? You actually let others dig out your lair. Where were you when they deployed calmly? When they bribed our people, where were you? When they stole the iron fire thunder easily,
Where are you? Are you all sleeping? Raising troops for a thousand days and using them for a while, but you are unreliable at the critical moment. Even if I raise a bunch of pigs, I am still better than you!"
Wang Yue knelt down and cried: "I am willing to take all responsibilities and die to apologize!"
"fart!"
Guo Song cursed: "If you die, will Tie Huolei be able to chase you back? Now when I want you to show off, you have to die. If you don't want to be the commander of the inner guard, then I will be!"
The other three people also knelt down, and Guo Yuniang said with tears in her eyes: "Your Highness, please calm down. This incident happened too suddenly. Commander Wang has not slept a wink all day and night. He is trying all possible ways to find the whereabouts of Tie Huolei."
"I haven't slept a wink all day and night either." Guo Song let out a long sigh.
He said to Wang Yue: "I won't scold you for now. Please tell me the cause and effect first, and then tell me how you tracked it?"
Wang Yue wiped away his tears and started talking about the news he got from the Jin Wei Mansion. They told them until they almost chopped the owner of Dingkun Restaurant alive. Only then did a waiter couldn't bear the pressure and confessed to Li Chao, the Prime Minister of the Ordnance Department.
Li Chao took a thousand expired iron fire mines to Zhangye, but at this time they were still a step too late. News came from Lanzhou that the ship transporting iron fire mines had been replaced by another one, and twenty iron fire mines were missing.
Judging from the time, the fire and thunder should have occurred three days ago.
"Where is Li Chao, the director of the Ordnance Department?" Guo Song asked.
"He is missing. Beizhi has sent people to his ancestral home and ambushed him near his home. Beizhi believes that he will sneak back secretly."
"Okay! Let's ignore the matter of the director for now and talk about your deployment."
Wang Yue said: "I first informed Taiyuan's internal guards to mobilize, blockade all entrances to Feihuxing, Jingxing, Fukouxing, Baixing and Taihangxing, and conduct strict inspections.
In addition, he sent 20 search teams to patrol along the Yellow River and official roads in Guanzhong, Longyou, Shuofang, Guannei, Hedong and other places. Deputy Commander Guan Wuyang led 300 inner guard cavalry to Lanzhou to see if Lanzhou could investigate.
Got any clues?"
Guo Song nodded and asked Guo Yuniang: "Where is Jin Wei Mansion? Is there any action?"
"have!"
Guo Yuniang said: "We also took a two-pronged approach. We sent seven groups of assassins to search for the opponent's whereabouts and whereabouts. At the same time, we sent messages to the intelligence points in the four major cities of Youzhou, Xindu, Luoyang, and Yuancheng, asking them to pay attention to this matter. But
The humble official did not mention Iron Fire Thunder, only important military supplies."
Their movements were fast and impeccable. Guo Song took a few steps with his hands behind his back and asked again: "Who are these spies who stole the iron fire thunder? Have you found out?"
"Here comes the humiliation interrogation."
Wang Yue reported: "It was done by the samurai of Jiuchonglou under Li Wujun."
Jiuchonglou is a samurai institution supported by Li Wujun. There are about a hundred people, all of whom are highly skilled in martial arts. Most of them are desperadoes from all over the Tang Dynasty. They are brave and dare to do things. They are similar to Zhu Tao's Youzhou Hall and Tian Yue's.
The Tongque Terrace, Li Na's Qingfeng Tower and other samurai institutions are equally famous.
"I would also like to remind you of a possibility, that is, the other party knows that you will block the passage, and then they find a small county to hide it first, and then transport it back after the storm has passed."
Wang Yue said quickly: "I have thought of this possibility. Deputy Commander Guan went to Lanzhou to look for clues just to find their possible destination."
Guo Song shook his head. This was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He didn't know the other party's plan at all. At this time, Guo Song suddenly discovered that the Ordnance Department Chief Li Chao was the top priority. He must have carefully planned with the other party. Then
He knows many details about the other party.
"We must catch Li Chao as soon as possible!"
.........
It only took Ying Caihe two days to arrive at Huguan. Huguan is a very special place. It is an important node on the Yellow River because there is Hukou Waterfall here, and all ships must use dry land boating.
After passing here, dryland rowers must unload the cargo, then use animal power to transport it a mile away and then reboard the boat.
Ying Caihe believed that if the other party wanted to take the waterway back to Hebei, he would definitely come to Huguan. If he did not take the waterway after coming to Huguan, it would be meaningless to confuse the other party, because the other party would use a multi-pronged approach and a multi-faceted response.
will be confused.
Therefore, Ying Caihe can be sure that as long as the other party reaches Huguan, he must have decided to return to Hebei by water.
Moreover, the other party's way of using the pot mouth will be different, and it is very likely that they will not unload the goods, which will make it easy to check.
There were a lot of people on the Hukou Pier, and it was noisy and lively. There were at least several thousand people crowded together. In the past two years, the Yellow River has been busy with transportation, attracting a large number of workers to work hard in Hukou to make money. Pulling a boat or transporting goods can make a lot of money.
If you earn ten cents, you can earn two hundred cents a day, which is six cents a month. This is much better than farming at home.
Because they can earn money, more and more people come here to work, causing Hukou to be overcrowded and saturated with labor.
Ying Caihe saw that the Hukou Road was full of shirtless men, and they all smelled of sweat. She didn't want to participate, so she found a middle-aged man who introduced business.
When the middle-aged man saw that Ying Caihe was good-looking, but her face was sinister, her eyes showed murderous intent, and the long sword scabbard on her back was stained with blood, he knew that this was a female ranger who was not easy to mess with. He asked respectfully
: "What does the girl need the villain to ask about?"
"I want to inquire about a cargo ship that has passed through Hukou in the past two days. It costs about 500 shi. There are at least a dozen people inside. They all look like men who are good at martial arts. They wear long swords or knives and have Hebei accents. Their cargo is
There are large wooden boxes one by one, about four feet high and four feet wide. There are twenty large wooden boxes in total. If you find out, I will give you five taels of silver."
The middle-aged man's eyes lit up, and he quickly bowed and said, "I'll go find out right away, and I'll make sure I can ask you questions clearly."
The middle-aged man turned to leave, but Ying Caihe stopped him again, "Wait a minute!"
"Girl, do you have any other instructions?"
Ying Caihe hesitated and said, "There is another possibility. This ship refuses to unload its cargo."
"Impossible?"
The middle-aged man shook his head and said: "It usually has to be unloaded, otherwise it will be difficult to pull the ship. Unless the other party is willing to pay several times the price and hire more people to pull the ship, but there are no such stupid shipowners, so they will definitely unload the ship."
"Just ask around."
"I understand, wait a moment, girl."
The middle-aged man walked away from the crowd in a hurry.
Jingyue asked a little worriedly: "Master, will it be impossible to find out?"
Ying Caihe said calmly: "Unless they haven't come yet, they will definitely leave clues if the geese pass by."