After Nanzheng County was captured several times by the Jin soldiers, it was no longer as prosperous as before. A large number of people fled to Bashu. Except for the farmers who stayed behind, most of the other people engaged in commerce and handicrafts were lost.
The whole Nanzheng County seems to be relatively depressed. Even if it is occasionally lively, it is brought by the traveling merchants passing by.
There is a tea shop covering an area of about two acres in the west of the city. It sells various tea cakes, especially Fujian tea.
This tea shop is the intelligence transmission point set up by the supervisor Wang Mian. The tea shop is not for cover. This is indeed Wang Mian's personal property. It exists in Fujian. It sells tea cakes. The shopkeeper's surname is Tao, who is about forty years old.
At the age of 18, he has been with the Queen for more than ten years. He is kind and loyal, and has won the trust of the Queen.
There are five other men below, one is the eagle slave responsible for collecting and releasing the letter eagles, and four are the long-distance messengers responsible for delivering letters.
In addition, Shopkeeper Tao’s wife and children also live with them. Shopkeeper Tao had a son in middle age. He had his only son when he was thirty-seven years old. He is now five years old and is his darling. Although there are also properties and houses in his hometown.
, but he refused to leave his son in his hometown, but took him with him wherever he went.
The business of the tea shop is very light. The wealthy families who can afford good tea have already moved to Bashu. The remaining people belong to the middle and lower classes and cannot afford high-end Fujian tea cakes. If they can't get it, they can't get it, so the business of the tea shop will naturally decline.
desolate.
At noon that day, Shopkeeper Tao was sitting in the shop bored and dozing off. Although his main business was not selling tea, the business was so light that he still lacked confidence. The princes also wanted to make money selling tea.
At this time, a young man came in. Shopkeeper Tao quickly stood up and said with a smile: "What kind of tea does the guest need to buy? The shop specializes in Jian'an Qingtuan cake tea. It also sells Jingqing and Shiru that cannot be bought in other shops."
Yes, the price can be discounted. Sir, why don’t you try it first?”
Seeing that there was only one middle-aged man at the counter, the young man asked: "I'm looking for your shopkeeper Tao?"
Shopkeeper Tao was stunned and said, "I am, guest sir, do you want to see me for something?"
The young man took out a letter and put it on the table, "I was asked to deliver a letter. Shopkeeper Tao had better go inside and read it without making any noise."
After saying that, the young man cupped his hands and turned around and left.
Shopkeeper Tao was really surprised. He picked up the letter and walked slowly to the inner room. When he reached the door, he stopped and his face became nervous. He only read a few lines and suddenly shouted, turned around and ran towards the back house.
There was a small courtyard in the back house where he, his wife and children lived, and there were two maids. He rushed into the courtyard and saw only a maid washing clothes, but not his wife and children.
"Where are the madam and the young master?" Shopkeeper Tao asked anxiously.
"Madam wanted to make new clothes for the young master, so she took him to the cloth store. Chuntao also went with her."
"How long have you been there?" Shopkeeper Tao asked with a trembling voice.
"I've been there for a long time, almost an hour."
At this moment, the maid Chuntao ran back in a panic, "Master, the lady and the young master are missing!"
Shopkeeper Tao sat down on the ground as if struck by thunder, his eyes wide open.
"Master, get up quickly, let's go report to the official!"
When the reporter mentioned it, Shopkeeper Tao quickly stopped him and said, "Don't mess around!"
He stood up, took out the letter and walked to the study. After a moment, shopkeeper Tao walked out of the study in despair, waved his hands to the two maids and said: "Young master's affairs should be kept secret from me. Don't tell anyone. Do you hear me?"
"we know!"
Shopkeeper Tao asked a waiter to look after the store, and he rented an ox cart and went out.
Not long after, Shopkeeper Tao came to a large inn outside the city, called Shunfeng Inn. He found a private room. Shopkeeper Tao took a deep breath, stepped forward and patted the door knocker. The door creaked open, revealing a picture.
The face is that of the young man who sent the letter before.
"I'm Tao Zhen, I'm here as you agreed." Shopkeeper Tao's voice couldn't help but tremble.
"Shopkeeper Tao, please come in!"
Shopkeeper Tao followed the young man into a room. There were five or six big men in the room, all of them tall and tall. Sitting in the middle was a young man with sharp eyes.
"Sima Qing, please take a seat, Shopkeeper Tao!"
Shopkeeper Tao couldn't sit still, so he quickly took out a bag and put it on the table, "This is one hundred taels of silver. All my savings over the years are here."
Sima Qing narrowed his eyes and laughed, "It took me so many years to save a hundred taels of silver, but Mr. Wang is really stingy."
Shopkeeper Tao's expression changed, and he immediately understood that the other party was here for the queen, not for kidnapping for money.
"Every wrong has its owner, and every debt has its owner. The incident involving Mr. Wang has nothing to do with me. He is in Qinzhou now. You can go to Chengji County to find him. Please let my son go."
Sima Qing said calmly: "We are not evil people, and we will not hurt your son for no reason. We are just performing tasks. If you cooperate well, we will not harm your son. If you do not cooperate, then you will find that we are worse than evil people."
Cruel and ruthless, if you don’t believe it, I will send you one of your son’s ears right now!”
"don't want!"
Shopkeeper Tao shouted in fear and begged with tears on his face: "Don't hurt my son. I agree to whatever you say!"
Sima Qing sighed secretly. The commander was indeed right. Shopkeeper Tao's biggest weakness was his son. As long as he held his son in his arms, he would be obedient.
"I'll tell you the truth! We are the internal guards of the Xihe Army and have been ordered to perform a mission. We know that the report Wang Ming gave to the court will be handed over to you, and then you will send someone to the court. But from today on, the report will be sent to the court first.
Let us take a look at it, and then you can send someone to Lin'an."
"But...if the report is modified, it will be seen."
"Don't worry about this, we will take care of it."
Shopkeeper Tao already understood the other party's intention. They took the last step to control the content of the report sent by Wang Mian to Lin'an. This move was indeed very clever. It could be said to be a drain on the bottom of the pot. The intelligence that Wang Mian had worked so hard to collect was completely changed in the hands of the emperor and the queen mother.
, but Mr. Wang has no way of knowing.
At this time, shopkeeper Tao suddenly thought of a fatal thing. What should he do with his son?
"My son, you can't keep him in prison, you have to return him to me!"
"Shopkeeper Tao, please rest assured that we will return your son to you, but I want to warn you that your son can only live and study in Nanzheng County. There is no problem with this. But if you want to hide him or send him away, I
Promise you, you'll never see him again."
Shopkeeper Tao nodded silently, he was really a little scared at this moment.
Sima Qing took out a letter of allegiance and placed it in front of Shopkeeper Tao, "Sign and fingerprint, and you can see your son."
Shopkeeper Tao knew that after signing and pressing his thumbprint, Mr. Wang would no longer trust him, but now he could no longer think about the consequences. He signed his name with trembling hands, then applied vermilion mud and pressed his thumbprint.
Sima Qing put away the letter of allegiance and said: "Probably tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, Mister Wang's first report will be delivered. You come here and give it to us, and it will be returned to you the next day."
"Where is my son?"
"Go back! Your son and wife are already home."
.........
Shopkeeper Tao hurried home, and as soon as he entered the courtyard, his five-year-old son Tao Zan rushed towards him with open arms, full of joy, "Daddy!"
Shopkeeper Tao knelt down and hugged his son's young body, tears welling up in his eyes.
His wife Ma stepped forward and whispered: "A carriage took me and Zan'er for a tour of the county scenery, and nothing else happened."
Shopkeeper Tao nodded, "I understand. Actually, there's nothing to do. Let's go have lunch!"
.........
The next morning, Wang Mian indeed sent someone to deliver the first military supervisory report and asked Shopkeeper Tao to send someone to Lin'an immediately.
After sending the messenger back, shopkeeper Tao went to the Shunfeng Inn outside the city, found Sima Qing, and handed the report to him.
Sima Qing looked at the report and asked, "Why is the report not sealed?"
"I have to do two things. The first is to write a short pigeon letter and send it to Lin'an first. Second, I also need to copy an attachment. The formal report will be sent to the official and the attachment will be sent to the Queen Mother, so the supervisory army report
I won’t seal it for now. Once these two things are done, I will seal it together.”
Sima Qing nodded, "Go back! I will return the report to you tomorrow morning."
Shopkeeper Tao knew what they wanted to do. He hesitated and said, "I know a master who imitates handwriting. I can introduce him to the general!"
Sima Qing smiled slightly and said, "No, we have experts and a complete set of seals. Don't worry, we guarantee that even the paper will be exactly the same."
Shopkeeper Tao bowed, turned around and left with uneasiness in his heart.
