Whether Beitang Qing is alive or dead is of course a matter of concern to many people, and Qi Ning is naturally one of them. He asked: "Does the fifth senior brother know the whereabouts of Beitang Qing?"
"I don't know." Hong Mendao shook his head: "But the person who wants to see Sir Alex this time knows Beitang Qing's information."
"Who is he?"
"One of Beitang Qing's generals." Hong Mendao said softly: "Beitang Qing was recalled to Luoyang by Beitang Huan in an urgent order. Many of his generals knew that something was not going well and persuaded him not to return to Beijing. But Beitangqing thought that he had no objections, and perhaps felt that the Northern Han Dynasty could not do without him, so he returned to Luoyang arbitrarily. When he left, two of his confidants guessed that something was not going well and actually fled from the army. In fact Just as they expected, there was no news about Beitang Qing when he returned to Luoyang."
"Is this person in the northwest now?"
"Exactly." Hong Mendao nodded and said: "After Beitang Qing disappeared, he and another general have been secretly searching for Beitang Qing's whereabouts. He appeared in the northwest half a year ago, and I found his trace."
"Captured him?"
Hong Mendao shook his head and said: "After Beitang Qing disappeared, Zhong Li'ao was transferred to the chief general of the Southern Army. More than ten of Beitang Qing's confidants were dealt with quietly. This person left early and escaped, but But the people in Jiutianlou have been looking for them. This person came to the northwest a year ago and joined an underground gang in Xianyang. I also started searching for this person’s whereabouts a few years ago, but no trace was found. Half a year ago But we found this person in the northwest. This person's whereabouts are already under our control, but we have not alerted him. We want to put a long line to catch big fish and see if we can find Beitang Qing through this person."
Qi Ning nodded and said: "I see, Fifth Senior Brother, do you think Beitang Qing is still alive?"
"I'm not sure." Hong Mendao said seriously: "It's just that my intuition tells me that Beitang Qing will not die that easily."
Qi Ning smiled slightly and then said: "Then if he wants to see me this time, he already knows that you have been monitoring him?"
"For half a year, we have been keeping them under surveillance." Hong Mendao said softly: "But this person is also really smart. Not long ago, one of the people I sent to monitor him suddenly lost contact. A few days later, I came back with a letter. It turns out that this person had already discovered that he was being targeted but kept silent. He suddenly arrested my man and asked him to come back with a letter. He wanted to see me for something."
"Have you met him?"
Hong Mendao nodded and said: "I met him twice and asked him about Beitang Qing's whereabouts, but he didn't say anything. He only said that when the time comes, he will give me an answer." He smiled bitterly: "Sir, actually this time I almost missed something big. After this person joined the underground gang, he has been trying to find out who is spying on him, and he has already been found on me, which is really powerful."
Qi Ning said "Oh", thinking that since the other party knew the details of Hongmen Dao, if he reported it to the Qu family, the consequences would be disastrous.
"He and I both have our own fears, so we didn't act rashly." Hong Mendao looked serious: "I met him once three days ago, and he said that he could reveal clues about Bei Tangqing, but he had to meet the Duke alone. I told him that I was afraid there was fraud, but he agreed to let us arrange the meeting place. However, the condition was that the meeting place must be secret, and he could only meet with Sir Alex alone. If anyone else came, he would not Can say a word."
Qi Ning asked curiously: "Why does he want to see me?"
"I was also very curious, but he didn't say much. He only said that he had no intention of harming Sir Alex." Hongmendao smiled faintly: "He also said that I was not qualified to negotiate what he wanted to say, and Sir Sir Alex must come forward. , if Sir Alex agrees, we will meet tonight, otherwise the matter will be dropped, and he will never meet Sir Alex again in the future."
Qi Ning pondered for a moment and then said: "Beitang Qing's life and death is indeed what we want to know. Does this person really know Beitang Qing's whereabouts?"
"I am also suspicious." Hong Mendao frowned and said: "Otherwise, why haven't we found any contact between him and Beitang Qing in the past six months? But if he had discovered that we were spying on him, he would have acted cautiously, even if there was contact I will also cover it up well.”
Qi Ning said: "That's true." After thinking for a moment, he said: "Fifth senior brother, since the other party wants to meet, you can make arrangements, and I want to see what he wants."
"Sir, there is a Taoist temple in the west of Xianyang City. It is not big. A few years ago, Qu Yuangu's wife fell ill and the doctors couldn't cure it, so he issued a notice to seek medical treatment from the people." Hong Mendao explained: "There is Several Taoist priests claimed that they could make elixirs to cure his wife, so Qu Yuangu built the Taoist temple as a place for elixir refining. Although Mrs. Qu recovered some of her complexion at first, it still didn't last half a year. Qu Yuangu ordered After killing all those Taoist priests, the Taoist temple became empty and no one dared to approach it, and it remained abandoned for several years."
"Does the other party know which Taoist temple you want to meet at?"
"That Taoist temple is called the Temple of Rejuvenation. We haven't informed the other party yet. The other party is still waiting for our news. If the lord feels it is appropriate, we can arrange to meet there tonight." Hongmendao said in a low voice: "I have arranged for someone to be at the Taoist temple in advance. If there is an ambush nearby, you can also hide people in the Taoist temple, and you can also ambush some people inside."
Qi Ning shook his head and said with a smile: "Either we just don't see you. Since we want to see you, there is no need to do this. If the other party sincerely wants to see me for something, it would be bad if we find that we are facing a formidable enemy."
Hong Mendao frowned and said, "This...!"
"How is that man's martial arts?"
"He is just a warrior who came from the army and is quite brave, but his martial arts is not very high." Hong Mendao explained.
Qi Ning nodded slightly: "Then I will arrange it with Senior Brother Lao Wu, and I will meet him tonight." He thought that since this person asked to see him, he must have something going on. His current martial arts is considered a first-class master, really If something happens, it is not difficult for you to retreat unscathed. What's more, the meeting place is arranged by yourself. Hong Mendao is cautious in doing things. Since the location is arranged at Huichun Temple, he has naturally done a special investigation beforehand. This time, even if there is no ambush around the Taoist temple, Hongmen Dao will definitely make careful arrangements.
Hongmendao is from the Shenhou Mansion. If he really loses a hair, Hongmendao will not be able to escape his involvement.
In his heart, he really hoped to know the whereabouts of Beitang Qing from that general. He couldn't help thinking that if that person said that even Hongmendao was not qualified to negotiate, then what he was going to say would definitely not be simple. I'm afraid it would be really difficult. He is related to Beitang Qing, and even if this person wants to see him, it is very likely that Beitang Qing is behind it.
Beitang Qing's life and death has always been an unsolved mystery. Da Chu's first intelligence office, Shenhou Mansion, did not have any information about Beitang Qing. However, Hongmen Dao said he did not believe Beitang Qing was dead. Qining told Hongmen Dao However, he also strongly agreed with his guess. Deep in Qi Ning's heart, he vaguely felt that Beitang Qing would never be eliminated that easily.
As night fell, and during garrison time, Xianyang City was already completely quiet.
Although Qining has lifted the ban, a curfew was still implemented for a short period of time. As long as entering the garrison period, the whole city is under martial law. No one is allowed to walk easily on the streets, and shops must be closed before the garrison period, including restaurants. Square, so when it was garrison time, almost every household in Xianyang City closed its doors, and Duan Canghai naturally arranged patrol teams to patrol at night to ensure the safety of the city.
It was during the garrison hour that Hongmendao came to see Qining and said: "Sir, everything has been arranged over there. When Haishi comes, the man will attend the appointment at Huichun Temple. He also promised that in addition to the Lord, I can accompany Sir Alex."
Qi Ning nodded slightly, thinking that Hong Mendao was good at intelligence affairs and was smart, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to follow him. He asked, "How far is the Temple of Rejuvenation from the General's Mansion?"
"It only takes more than half an hour by carriage." Hong Mendao said in a low voice: "It's too late to leave now, and even if the lord is delayed for a moment, there won't be anything said over there."
Qi Ning did not delay, and immediately ordered someone to prepare a carriage and left directly from the side door of the General's Mansion. Hong Mendao rode in the carriage with him. Seeing the slight fatigue on Hong Mendao's face, Qi Ning smiled and said: "Fifth Senior Brother, recently I’m so busy with work that I haven’t had a good rest, so it’s better to rest for two more days before setting off.”
"It's not a problem." Hong Mendao said with a smile: "It's normal for me to stay awake for three to five days. If everything goes well tonight, I can set off tomorrow morning and just sleep on the carriage."
After more than half an hour, the carriage arrived at a quite secluded street and stopped in front of a deserted Taoist temple. The two got out of the carriage. Qining saw that the Taoist temple was indeed not that big. Not to mention very grand, the gray-brown door was tightly closed. Hong Mendao stepped forward, opened the door, turned around and waved to the coachman, who then drove away.
The two entered the courtyard. Although it had been abandoned for many years, Qining still smelled a trace of the residual smell of medicinal materials. There were firewood piled in the corner of the Taoist temple, which turned out to be the place where elixirs were originally made.
Hongmendao whispered: "We have checked here, there will be no problem." He led Qining to the living room in the middle, pushed the door and entered. There were tables and chairs in the room, which was obviously a place for entertaining guests, but the table The chairs were all covered with thick dust. Hong Mendao took a candle from his body, lit it and found an incense burner to plug it in. He then took out a piece of coarse cloth from his body, went over and wiped the two chairs clean, and then said: "Hai Shi will put them in , Sir, wait a moment."
Qi Ning nodded slightly and glanced around with his hands behind his back. Suddenly he heard a slight cough from behind him. Qi Ning frowned and thought that he had deep inner strength. If there were other people in this Taoist temple, he would be able to detect it easily. , how come there is a person coming behind me, and I don’t even notice it at all? Knowing that the other party was by no means an ordinary person, otherwise he would never have noticed it at all. He turned around and saw someone slowly walking in from outside the door.