It was already half way through the night, but the lights in the hall were still bright. Although Sun Tu and his subordinates were drunk, no one was sleepy at this time. Instead, they were all excited, just because the good news came from Qingzhou. As expected, Lin Chong and the others lived up to Sun Tu's trust. Not only did they defend the city, they also severely damaged the Liangshan bandits who tried to take advantage of the situation.
After reading the urgently delivered victory report, the smile on Sun Tu's face became even stronger. While handing the battle report to the people around him, he smiled and said: "The thoughts of the Liangshan bandits did not exceed our expectations. Not only did they They sent troops to attack the city and repeated their old tricks, planning to use the method of attacking Daming Mansion and Jiangzhou City to coordinate internally and externally. However, they made the wrong idea this time, and they stole the chicken but lost the rice."
Everyone quickly circulated the battle report, and cheerful laughter continued to ring out in the hall: "These thieves are at their wits end. They always think of sneaking into the city to wreak havoc, and they don't think about our Qingzhou." Are other cities comparable? Not to mention that they put in more than a hundred people at once, even if only a dozen guys with unknown origins suddenly appeared, it was enough to make the brothers alert. "
"Yes, this time it was thanks to Shi Qian and the others who were alert enough, so to be honest, half of the credit should go to the brothers in the scout camp led by Shi Qian." Sun Tu said, with the scene in his mind. After all the battles and calculations inside and outside Qingzhou in the past few days -
Since Sun Tu led his army to leave on September 13th, Lin Chong and others who were ordered to stay in the city did not dare to slack off at all. The patrols in the city were much stricter than before, and spies were placed at each city gate to only keep an eye on outsiders. The whereabouts are suspicious, and the person in charge of this stall is Shi Qian and his subordinates from the scout camp.
As an old gangster who has been around the world for many years, always doing some thief and petty things, Shi Qian knows these guys' habits and behavior very well, so a few days later he heard that a team of merchants selling dates moved into the Lijiajiao shop in the south of the city. At that time, it was almost certain that their origin was not right.
"Do you have any evidence for Brother Shi's assertion that they have a problem?" When Qian then asked Lin Chong to lead troops to round up these thieves, the latter asked for the sake of safety.
"It's very simple. We also produce dates locally in Qingzhou. How can there be any reason for foreign merchants to sell dates to us? Can we still lose money to them? So they are just pretending to sell dates. They sneak into our Qingzhou city for real." Shi Qian laughed. He said: "Besides, the Li's foot shop is not cheap. It costs hundreds of dollars to stay there for one night. For businessmen who are away from home, this expense is too much. The only explanation is that there It's quieter and less likely to be spotted than other foot shop inns." Shi Qian immediately pointed out several of the other party's flaws. A choice that seemed ordinary to others fell into the eyes of a veteran like him. It's completely full of flaws.
These words were immediately recognized by everyone present, and even Huang Wenbing nodded in praise: "General Shi is really very careful, no wonder he was entrusted with such an important task by the Superintendent. Then we will do what you want, tonight we will Send someone to arrest these thieves."
"Wait a minute." Wu Song said at this moment: "I always feel that things are a bit too simple. This is related to the victory or defeat of a battle. Will they be so casual? And they also made such a big mistake."
"What does Brother Wu mean?" Lin Chong also attached great importance to the statement of Wu Song, who was also experienced in martial arts, and immediately asked solemnly.
"Do you think they deliberately exposed the loopholes to cover up the group of people who really want to cause trouble in our Qingzhou? Otherwise, just relying on those dozen guys, I'm afraid it is impossible to mess up the hearts of our Qingzhou." Wu Song obviously He looked deeper and expressed his concerns.
Shi Qian was not unhappy because the other party opposed his opinion. Hearing this, he frowned and said, "Brother Wu's words really make me feel a little uneasy. The Liangshan thieves used to act very carefully. , such a big flaw was exposed this time, it really doesn’t look like what they did. They should know very well what the situation is in Qingzhou, and they would never be so rash."
"So these jujube sellers are just a cover to make us feel at ease. Maybe after we take them down, the elite Liangshan bandits will enter the city, or maybe their people are already hiding in the city, just waiting for us to be fooled. ." Wu Song expressed his speculation, "So we must find other spies who may be hiding in the city to ensure the safety of the city."
"If there are really such people, where would they be hiding? Although there are some guests in those foot shop inns now, they are all scattered, but there is no problem." Huang Wenbing looked at the official document in hand and said. These days, the city has become monolithic. Anyone who temporarily enters Qingzhou will be recorded and a report will be sent to him in time. Even though it was indeed a bit troublesome to do so, the innkeepers did not dare to relax. After all, the safety of the entire Qingzhou City was at stake.
Shi Qian frowned deeply at this time: "The Liangshan bandits will definitely be extra careful this time. After all, they can gain a lot as long as they break our Qingzhou City, not only the money and food in the city, but also the psychological impact on the governor." Advantage. What would I do if I wanted to hide it from everyone in the city, especially those in the government... "
Seeing him deep in thought, others did not dare to disturb him, and could only think about other possibilities. After a long while, Shi Qian slapped his thigh and said, "I thought about it. Rather than living in a hotel, buying a house in the city would be more convenient for hiding people and less noticeable! And buying a house in my Qingzhou The cost of a house is nothing to the Liangshan bandits."
This statement caused everyone to be stunned, and then they all nodded in agreement: "Yes, this is indeed a safer method. We have never paid attention to this before."
"Then check, go to various dental shops to find out the recent records of buying and selling houses. This should not be hidden." Huang Wenbing said, and immediately called in the people from the yamen and asked them to immediately go to several dental shops in the city. The relevant persons were called to the Yamen.
After this busy work, until dusk, everyone finally locked on two suspicious targets. Both houses were resold within the past month and a half. Although they belong to two dental shops respectively, the houses are located in the south of the city, and they are only half a street away from Li's store. There is some movement there. There will be news in the house.
With so many coincidences put together, no one would believe it if there was nothing wrong with the people in these two houses. After Wu Song confirmed the intelligence, he advocated sending people immediately to kill all these guys and eliminate the hidden dangers in the city.
.
But at this time, Huang Wenbing came up with a new idea: "Generals, please be patient. Taking people now can avoid future troubles, but it may not be the most beneficial to us. What we have to do here is not The purpose is just to find these spies who have sneaked into the city, but to help the governor guard Qingzhou and defeat the invading Liangshan bandits. Now we are in a hurry to take action. If the news leaks out, it will be difficult to tell what happens next. "
"What does Huang Zhifu mean by taking a long-term approach to catch big fish? Isn't this too risky?" Lin Chong, who is stable and conservative by nature, said with some concern: "After all, they are murderers who have killed countless people. If one of them is not good, they will be killed." It will cause trouble in the city."
"There's no need to worry about Coach Lin. As long as they know their identities, my brothers will definitely be able to target them to death. Unless these thieves can fly into the sky and escape, they won't be able to cause any trouble in the city!" Qian laughed and said: "And I think Magistrate Huang's idea is very good. Just arresting them like this won't show our ability. We should take this opportunity to turn around and plot against the Liangshan bandits so that they will never do it again in the future." If you dare to offend me, Qingzhou, you can avenge last year’s grudge!”
Hearing him mention what happened last year, everyone's faces showed resentment. In the beginning, due to He Mo's blind command and the Liangshan Army's convenient location, the Qingzhou Army suffered heavy casualties. This feeling is still in their hearts today.
Wu Song even said bluntly: "You're right, Sun Dujian didn't leave us here to be cowardly turtles and can only defend the city. If we want to do this, we must make the Liangshan bandits pay a huge price and completely defeat them." I'm afraid of them. Now that we have such an opportunity, we must not let it go."
Several people at the scene almost unanimously agreed with Huang Wenbing's proposal. Naturally, Lin Chong would not insist anymore, so he nodded and said: "Then we will do it as Magistrate Huang wants. However, this matter is very important and there must be no negligence." The words were naturally spoken to Shi Qian.
Shi Qian smiled knowingly: "Don't worry, we have found them now. These people can't escape from our hands."
While everything was settled by the government, a man in ordinary clothes quietly entered a house in the south of the city through a side door that was being targeted. He thought he was unaware of the ghosts, but he didn't know that all his actions had fallen into the eyes of Shi Qian's outside spies.
After entering the house, he met a fat man with a kind smile: "Chief Zhu, is everything in the city still normal?"
"Of course, not only us here, but also the brothers in the foot shop over there are very safe now. It seems that Qingzhou's defense is not very strict now. This should be related to the fact that Sun Tu has led the main force to Dongping."
"That's good. Lu Yuanwai has led his army from the mountain stronghold. In less than five days, the army will appear outside the city. By then we will cooperate internally and externally and we will be able to capture Qingzhou." As he said this, he talked with Zhu in front of him. The leaders laughed together.
But what they didn't know was that at the same time, there was a group of people who were also laughing, but they were Huang Wenbing and Lin Chong who had already decided on the overall strategy and were just waiting for the Liangshan bandits to fall into their trap.
An open and covert fight took place in Qingzhou.