Li Xia was sitting in the post house, reading a book with a book in his hand, while listening to the spies from the Public Opinion Department reporting on the situation.
"On that day, after exploring around Jiangyuan, we returned to Qujiang Alley and gathered at our stronghold to discuss matters. We were surrounded by people from Jiangling Prefecture. All nearby foreigners were captured. After more than sixty foreigners were interrogated, among them,
All twenty-seven people from the Public Opinion Department were captured..."
Li Xia closed the book in his hand, his eyes were serious, and he said: "Where is Jiang Fan?"
"Jiang Sishi, I and my two brothers took refuge in the home of Xuezheng Wang Yisun in Jiangling Prefecture. They lied to Wang Yisun that he was a merchant from out of town and was being persecuted by Qin Jiushao, so we asked him to protect him. Wang Yisun believed it and hid Jiang Sishi in his home.
.”
"Why don't you withdraw the ginger rice first?"
"The envoy said that Qin Jiushao has only been in Jiangling for two months. The officials and the people hate him for being corrupt and violent. They want to stay and see if they can use this to deal with him. I beg the prince to give him another chance."
Li Xia said: "I understand. You go and rest first. I will send someone to follow you to Jiangling tomorrow."
What he is holding is a book called "Nine Chapters of the Book of Numbers", which looks like a mathematics book.
But mathematics is only one chapter. Dayan, weather, fields, surveying, taxation, money and grain, construction, military, and market things. Qin Jiushao also prefaced his ten years of military career.
This guy seems to be just a great mathematician, but in fact, when he was a general, he was better than most generals in the world, and when he was a counselor, he was better than most counselors in the world.
Only sending Jiang Fan there was really underestimating him...
After the spy left, Li Xia thought for a while and invited the shogunate officials to come and discuss the matter.
He did not shy away from this failure, saying: "The man I sent to Jiangling to destroy the counterfeit notes was backhanded by Qin Jiushao..."
Li Ye was not surprised and snorted heavily.
"I have long said that this is a temporary solution, that is, the Song State is not allowed to forge the certificates in Jiangling Prefecture. The Song State can still forge the certificates in Jiangning, Lin'an and other places and transport them, and can also send people to find them one by one.
In the past?! Anti-counterfeiting is fundamental!”
"What Mr. Jingzhai said is true."
"But the prince doesn't listen!" Li Ye said: "If there are illegal forgers in the areas under his rule, they should be swept away with thunder. However, in the land of Jinghu, the prince has no foundation and rashly sends people there. How can he not
fall?"
"Yes, if you don't listen to the old man's words, you will suffer the consequences in front of you."
Li Ye just calmed down, stroking his beard and thinking for a moment before making suggestions.
"Send the merchant traveler to Jiangling Mansion to redeem the person."
"Redeem it?" Yan Yunyun was very surprised.
Li Xia understood what Li Ye meant.
This time, it is impossible to continue to reach out to Jiangling like when we took Chongqing.
Chongqing was originally under the rule of Li Xia, who had a reputation for dealing with Ma Qian at that time. Jiangling was different. If Li Xia took charge of Jiangling's affairs and did not use force, Jinghu officials would ignore him.
Using force would be equivalent to starting a war with the Song Dynasty. He sent a small group of people over, but Qin Jiushao had already taken them away.
And if we send a large force... we can't fight without the navy.
In western Sichuan, Li Xia was able to defeat Ma Qian's infantry with a small number of cavalry, one to five. On the other hand, in the terrain of Jiangling, the Song Dynasty's navy was able to defeat Li Xia until he could not find the north.
There was no plan to start a war.
On the surface, Jiangling Prefecture cannot be ordered to release people in the name of the prince. The people sent secretly have been captured again, and there is no intention to use troops. Redeeming the people is indeed the safest way.
"Follow what Duke Jingzhai said." Li Xia said to Yan Yunyun, "Go and redeem our people first."
"But, can Jiangling Mansion agree?"
"Hahaha! Okay, I promise you!"
In Jiangyuan, Qin Jiushao casually picked up a bunch of copper coins, looked at them, threw them back into the box, and said: "Go back and tell the person behind you. If you dare to send people to steal chickens and dogs again, I'm afraid you will lose everything. By the way, you are hiding in
I also accept the firearms and ordnance outside the city, haha..."
He waved his hand and ordered his men to release the prisoners, escort them to the ship, and return to Chongqing with the merchants who came to redeem them.
After doing this, Qin Jiushao lay down on the couch and put on a fox fur coat, which was quite comfortable.
Unfortunately, not long after, Yu Desheng came to make noise again.
"How could you let go of those meticulous works?!"
"Mr. Yu is also an aide to Lord Pingzhang's office. He should be able to figure it out."
"I can't understand!"
Qin Jiushao patiently explained: "Ping Zhanggong doesn't intend to force Li Ni to rebel now, so what's the point of killing a few of his people? We were ordered to come here because Li Ni is raising money privately."
"What if Li Ni sends someone again?!"
"This is Jiangling Mansion. We are hiding in the high walls of the fortified city and are heavily guarded. What if we send people here again? Unless Li Ni personally leads 30,000 naval troops southward, what can be done to me? Come here and I will capture each one."
"Then there's no point in catching and releasing!"
"Why is it 'released'? It's 'redeemed', my Mr. Yu..."
Yu Desheng was furious and scolded: "You are so blinded by money!"
"Hey, why don't Mr. Yu understand?"
Qin Jiushao casually picked up the paper beside him, shook it, and said: "Did you see it? If I can figure out the anti-counterfeiting numbers behind it, I can run on the Sichuan-Shaanxi Bonds. That's enough. So Li Ni jumped over the wall and sent someone to kill me.
.You can’t kill me, ha, that’s it.”
"Can you solve it?"
"It's almost, it's almost." Qin Jiushao said: "Li Ni has people who are very good at arithmetic, but they are not as good as me; Li Ni has people who are shrewd in the market, and they have some means, but they are not as good as me; Li Ni has some people
Even the most detailed espionage is not as good as mine."
As far as Qin Jiushao is concerned, when he comes to Jiangling, with Jiangnan's financial and material resources and his own talents, he can slowly destroy the Sichuan and Shaanxi currencies. It's that simple.
He is better than Jia Sidao, but the only difference is that he does not have a good sister.
Jiang Fan no longer dared to explore Jiangyuan. After being protected by Wang Yisun, he only dared to hide in a private house in Jiangling Prefecture...
"Secretary, the prince asks you, are you really confident in dealing with Qin Jiushao? If you are not sure, you can withdraw first and he will make arrangements personally."
"You're sure, can you promise to give me another chance?"
"In that case, this is a letter from Commander Yan, and there are a few boxes of goods you can take a look at..."
Jiang Fan first read the letter, then opened the big box and saw that it was full of Huizi and Guanzi.
Lin'an, a house near Zhongwazi.
Lu Xiaoyou and Wang Cui sat in the secret room for a long time before they saw Mr. Lu Shu come back.
"The show ring is missing."
After the book recorder came in, he started talking directly.
"At that time, Jia Sidao was the first to arrive at the Princess's Mansion. Later, some maids from the Princess's Mansion were seen being brought back to Jia's Mansion. The rest of the servants received grace and were all sent back to their hometowns..."
Wang Cui became excited and asked: "Then Xiuhuan is in Jia's house?!"
"No, the person I asked about is a senior official of the Song Dynasty, and he also has contacts with Jia Sidao. He went to Jia's house to inquire about it, but no one has seen Xiuhuan."
"Where has she gone?"
"I don't know, let me check again."
Lu Xiaoyou was ordered to come here mainly to be responsible for killing people. How to investigate the matter is still the responsibility of Shu Lu. But he remembered Li Xia's instructions and asked: "Where is the other clue? Can the medicine used by the princess be investigated?"
"Yes!" Wang Cui said anxiously: "There must be something wrong with the medicine. Xiuhuan won't talk nonsense..."
"You girl, you are very noisy." Mr. Lu Shu shook his head and said slowly: "You said that the person who gave the medicine to the princess was the imperial doctor Xiao Shiyan, right? This person fell to death a while ago."
"Fell to death?!"
"When I went out, my foot slipped, and I rolled down the steps and fell to my death."
"this……"
"Right now, no one in Lin'an says that the princess was killed. They all say that she died of illness. All the clues are gone." The old man who recorded the book said: "I speculated with the senior official. In Lin'an, someone with such a vision can do it.
only……"
"Jia Sidao? Ren Mei was also harmed by him. It was indeed him!"
Wang Cui shouted and rushed out of the house.
Lu Xiaoyou grabbed her and said, "Don't worry, we haven't found out yet. By the way, has Jia Sidao replied to the prince?"
"No." Lu Shu said: "He has not been in Lin'an recently and has returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors."
"Returning to your hometown to worship your ancestors?" Lu Xiaoyou was quite surprised, "When did you leave?"
"It was probably two days before the death of Imperial Physician Xiao Shiyan."
"We are also going to Taizhou." Wang Cui said, "Jia Sidao must be the real murderer. He happens to be not in Lin'an. Let's go to Taizhou and kill him!"
Lu Xiaoyou was a little embarrassed and said, "Don't worry, let me think about it."
Li Xia never suspected that Jia Sidao was the murderer. Lu Xiaoyou could feel this, because Yan Yunyun tried to get rid of Jia Sidao at that time and failed, but he did not make such preparations this time.
Lu Xiaoyou even felt that he wanted Jia Sidao to help seek justice for Princess Rui.
But things in Lin'an are obviously uncertain, and the mission this time is to kill the murderer.
"Are you sure it's Jia Sidao?"
Lu Laoshu pointed at Wang Cui with his chin and said: "Nvwa already said that Ren Mei was killed by Jia Sidao. This must be true. Don't all the clues point to him?"
"But... Jia Sidao is not easy to kill."
The book recorder sneered slightly and said: "Didn't he go to Tiantai County? This is a rare opportunity. It can't be that Jia Sidao knew that you, a little boy, wanted to kill him, and specially arranged it to lure you out."
"That's impossible." Lu Xiaoyou scratched his head, "He definitely didn't go to Taizhou for me."
Anyway, Mr. Lushu came to work for Prince Pingling at the behest of Zhang Wulang.
Ask him to check, and he will check. He has tried his best to find out these things.
Wang Cui is considered a half-bitter master, he doesn't bother to kill whoever he likes.
"Anyway, you two kids can figure it out."
"It must be Jia Sidao, I want to kill him." Wang Cui said.
Lu Xiaoyou had no choice but to say: "Okay, but you have to follow my arrangements and retreat immediately if the attack fails."
November 7th.
Taizhou, Tiantai County.
Tiantai Mountain, Tongbai Palace.
Jia Sidao was sitting by the Jinting Lake, breathing in and recuperating.
He has returned to his hometown to recuperate for more than ten days, and his complexion has improved a lot.
Although he is no longer in the center, his control over the court remains undiminished.
Living in the countryside, I calmed down and thought about it, and I became more clear about the national affairs in recent years.
A character that can't be forgotten in my mind is Li Xia.
In the past, Li Xia competed with military exploits and power.
In terms of military achievements, they have never fought against each other. They have always used their own abilities. One seeks the power of the center, and the other seeks the power of the vassal town.
In terms of political intrigue, he lost to Li Xia twice. He lost because he was not bold enough and because he could not work together with the courtiers.
At present, what matters is the ability to govern the local area. He Pingzhang was responsible for the military affairs and was in charge of the entire southeastern region of the Song Dynasty; Li Xia separated Sichuan and Shaanxi and established self-governance.
If they are governed separately, there will of course not be much overlap.
He sent Li Zengbo to Longxi and sent Wang Cui to Shu, but they failed to get rid of Li Xia, so there were even fewer methods available.
Today the only intersection is currency trade.
This is the only way left to control Sichuan and Shaanxi.
Can't lose anymore.
Losing again would really mean letting Li Xia go, while the political situation in Sichuan and Shaanxi is clear and the official conduct is clean and honest...
Then they should govern themselves separately?
It must be controlled!
Therefore, Jia Sidao even endured his hatred for Qin Jiushao and promoted him again.
Compared with him, Qin Jiushao only lacked understanding of how to advance in the officialdom.
Such a figure presided over the suppression of currency and commerce in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and restricted...
"who?!"
Suddenly hearing a guard yelling, Jia Sidao turned around and saw a dozen men dressed as mountain folk rushing towards him, holding something in their hands that was smoking...
"Protect Mr. Ping Zhang!"
"Walk!"
There were only eight guards nearby, so they quickly protected Jia Sidao and rushed towards Tongbai Palace.
Only Tongbai Palace has a large number of guards.
"boom!"
The stone railing in front of him was shattered, and rubble and smoke flew into the air.
"boom!"
"Go this way!"
The guard did not dare to run forward anymore, turned around quickly, hugged Jia Sidao and ran towards Jinting Lake again, and got into the boat in a panic.
With a strong push, the boat left the lake shore and quickly rowed towards the center of the lake.
"boom!"
Rocks flew up from the shore, and a killer threw a thunderbolt at this side, but it was silenced when it hit the water.
"Fire the crossbow!"
The arrow missed and Jia Sidao hurriedly got down.
The killer's cry was also heard from the shore.
"Keep the cannon and fire the crossbow!"
"Don't jump!"
"kill him!"
Just a "pop" sound was heard, and a killer jumped into the winter lake and swam over with all his strength.
"Listen to my arrangements! There is a boat over there, chase after it..."
"..."
It's a mess.
"Damn it, where did you go up the mountain from?"
Jia Sidao finally recovered from the chaos of the attack and looked to the north.
Those killers were obviously good at commanding, and they calmly grabbed all the boats on the lakeside and rowed them this way.
Jinting Lake is very large, larger than Tiantai County. At this time, a large number of Jia Sidao's guards are still in Tongbai Palace in the north, but he has only one small boat rowing south.
There were only two guards left on the boat.
The situation is already very bad.
Jia Sidao seemed to have encountered something very interesting and burst into laughter.
"Ha? What is this? A thunderbolt? Li Xia sent people to kill me? Kill me? I'm so anxious. Did you see it?! Li Ni sent people to kill me, and that's all he can do! Ha..."
"Mr. Ping Zhang, the assassin is coming, what should I do?"
"What should I do? Escape to the other side of the lake first... Hehe, I'm so anxious to jump over the wall. Incompetent people only know these little sneaky tricks..."
On this day, the seventeen spies redeemed from Jiangling returned to Wanzhou in disgrace.
They are all the most elite people in the Public Opinion Department, and this is the first time in their lives that they have suffered such a setback.
The merchant who was responsible for redeeming them walked into the hall and reported with a grimace: "Prince, the judge Qin Tong asked me to bring a few words."
"explain."
"He said... he always resorted to dirty tricks without any sense of fun. Could it be that he didn't dare to fight him openly..."
Li Xia only sneered slightly when he heard this.
In the hall, Li Ye had already opened his mouth and shouted: "It's an open and honest contest, why should I be afraid of him?!"
"What does he do to respect Zhai Zhengyi?"
Li Xia said: "We have been waiting for the Song Dynasty to raise troops to attack the Han River and attack the Yangtze River for more than half a year. We have issued bonds on our own to govern Sichuan and Shu, and how have we ever forged the Eighteen Realms Huizi and the Gold and Silver Pass? Do we? Aren't we waiting for them to trade with us openly to see whose coins are more trustworthy and reliable?
Who has sent people to assassinate him repeatedly? Who has forged coupons to disrupt prices in Sichuan and Sichuan? They have done all the stealing, but they tell us not to use any more dirty tricks?
I think the Song Dynasty was used to internal fighting and other abuses, and it was just a habit. They bought food from the people, distributed banknotes indiscriminately, and occupied people's fields; they framed, framed, and spread rumors in the court, and poisoned nearly seven-year-old An old man who was ten years old poisoned a little girl who was inexperienced in the world. Then he turned around and thought he was noble and upright? He raised his hand and accused others of being dirty..."