Pang Yu said softly, "The most urgent thing at the moment is the Chizhou soldiers. But when the Chizhou soldiers come here, at most we can leave early and take less money without risking our lives."
"The most dangerous one is Fang Zhongjia." He Xianya gasped, "Chizhou soldiers have arrived, and we have no time to slowly search for Fang Zhongjia. As long as he returns to Tongcheng, our presence here will be leaked. The squire's side is powerful,
You can kill me at any time."
Jiao Guozhao said with a mournful face, "But we did not kill the man named Fang. The one who injured him was Wang Guohua, and at most his second brother. It has nothing to do with me. He shouldn't be in trouble with me."
Pang Yu said coldly, "I think Fang Zhongjia must have known about it when the elder brother went to make up for the damage. He would naturally have thought, if he hadn't run away, you would have given him a few stabs, wouldn't he?"
It’s hard for you.”
Jiao Guozhao was stunned and speechless for a moment. What Pang Yu knew more clearly was that even if Fang Zhongjia did not recognize Pang Yu at the time, he should have known that the person who knocked down the torch was Pang Yu.
This move ruined his entire operation, and it was almost impossible to expect Fang Zhongjia not to retaliate.
Pang Yu continued, "Have you ever thought about why they attacked Yunji Temple at night? Fang Zhongjia and his group were masked when they came. Whether they came to kill Wang Guohua or rob money, he didn't want anyone to know that he had been there.
Here? Now that we know about this, and Fang Zhongjia still has dozens of banks, guess what he will do."
"Of course they will kill us quietly," He Xianya said, "and they will also take away the silver we captured, no matter how much it is."
Pang Yu stared at the torch light, "He should not only come here for the money. I heard the two of them talking in the palace. He wanted to kill Wang Guohua. Why he wanted to kill Wang Guohua seemed to be because his brother had taken care of him.
Wang Guohua did not want this man to fall into the hands of the Yamen or Chizhou soldiers, let alone escape, so he took the risk of attacking Yunji Temple late at night."
"That is to say, what he wants most is Wang Guohua's head, and then the money." He Xianya paused and continued, "The difficulty in this matter is that no matter how much money we take back to Tongcheng, we dare not publicize our visit to Yunji.
The same is true for the temple and Fang Zhongjia. If both sides keep quiet, then Fang Zhongjia can suppress the civil unrest and then mobilize an attack force to retaliate against us."
Pang Yu added, "Even with the excuse that we are robbing the people, we just cut them down with a knife. We are just a few of the government servants, and the prefects and magistrates will not stand up for us."
He Xianya sighed and said, "Then let's run."
"What we said just now is that we don't dare to speak out. If I want to speak out, all the rebels in Yunji Temple will be wiped out tonight. This will be the first step in quelling the chaos. Will he dare to deal with us then?"
The three of them looked at Pang Yu in surprise. What they had always agreed on was to steal the money quietly. Otherwise, if the news was leaked, the gentry would definitely ask them to return the dirty money, and it might also lead to revenge from relatives and friends of the mob, so they never considered it.
Spread the news.
Pang Yu squinted his eyes, as if to see the torch in the distance more clearly, "I am Tongcheng Zaoli, and I am sacrificing my life for Tongcheng Township to quell the chaos. At this time, I have in my hand the heads of thirty rebels, and 40,000 taels."
Dirty silver, and the leader of the thieves Wang Guohua. I am righteous and confident, so there is nothing I can say about it. Fang Zhongjia, a general of Diggang and a military attache of the imperial court, left his post without authorization without receiving orders from the superior general. His brother, a rural official, was responsible for the military power of the imperial court.
, he is the only one who dares not speak out."
Jiao Guozhao came back to his senses and said hesitantly, "Can you also say this to the Chizhou soldiers? Just say that we have put down the chaos and ask them to retreat."
He Xianya shook his head decisively and said, "Of course you can't. There is no one around at this time. How can the Chizhou soldiers reason with you? They will definitely kill a few of us and swallow up the money. Therefore, Yunji Temple must not stay. What the second brother said is to spread the word."
We want to take the great credit of quelling the chaos so that the Fang family does not dare to attack us rashly. But what if those gentry decide that we have swallowed up the money and ask us to withdraw from the dirty money?"
Pang Yu raised his chin towards the foot of the mountain, and Jiao Guozha suddenly understood and pointed at the fire at the foot of the mountain, "Of course they were all snatched away by the Chizhou soldiers. There will be countless witnesses from the trailer river market at dawn tomorrow. Haha, we can at least keep them."
Some silver."
Pang Yu breathed a long sigh of relief, turned to look at the three companions behind him, and said with firmness in his voice, "The fire looks close, but in fact there should be some time left. We can do a lot of things with this time. As long as we do well.
, Chizhou soldiers may not be able to seize the silver, wealth is in danger, we simply risk it..."
...
"How far is Yunji Temple?"
"Sir, in front of you is the trailer river market town, and a little further after that is the Yunji Temple."
Pan Ke, who was on horseback, had a lot of money on his head. Behind and behind him were servants with torches, illuminating the surrounding road very brightly, but compared with the endless night, it was still only a small area.
After discussing the strategy with Wang Gongbi, he pretended to withdraw his troops, but hid a hundred elite troops south of Liantan. At the same time, he arranged for the rebels in Liantan to serve as spies.
Yesterday, after the spy got the news that Huang Wending was going to Tongcheng, he immediately rushed to report back. Pan Keda only brought this elite group of nearly a hundred people with him. He moved very quickly and had covered less than half of the distance before dark.
Although his small army was already a selected elite, it was actually just a few brave servants who dared to fight. As a whole, they had never received strict training, let alone the ability to conduct military operations at night.
After dark, the marching speed slowed down greatly. Because there was no starry and moonlight tonight, even the cavalry could only dismount and walk with torches. The entire marching line became longer and longer, and there were about ten people left behind, forcing Pan Keda to stop for a few days.
Second-rate.
The torch is too conspicuous at night and can only illuminate a small area around it, but others can notice it far away. The closer you are to Yunji Temple, the greater the chance of being discovered by the thief. It doesn't matter if the thief runs away.
It would be bad if the money is lost.
At this time, we were finally about to arrive at Yunji Temple. According to what the spy said, all the dirty silver was in the temple, amounting to tens of thousands of taels. Whenever he thought of that scene, Pan Keda felt a little anxious.
"Go faster."
As long as they passed through the town of Hechehe, he cut off the official road to Tongcheng, and the thieves had nowhere to escape.
Pan Keda kept urging, not caring about those who were left behind, no longer stopped to gather the team, and hurriedly hurried along. When the Chizhou soldiers finally arrived at the foot of Yunji Temple, Pan Keda had less than fifty people left, and
If you mess up your organization in the dark, if you really encounter a strong enemy, you will be vulnerable.
Pan Keda knew that there was only one mountain road in Yunji Temple. After following the spy to find the intersection, he felt a little relieved.
As the servants of the vanguard came up the mountain road, Pan Keda suddenly pulled over the spy and asked, "You said there were sentries at the bottom of the mountain all night long. Where are the people?"
The spy said in panic, "I don't know, but it has been there in the past. Wang Guohua sometimes still checks it, and it does happen all night long."
Pan Ke looked at the spy in front of him with suspicion. He had come all the way, and he was short of people and horses. If it was a trap by thieves, he would have stolen the chicken but lost the rice.
When he was hesitating, the servant in front loudly said, "Sir, there is something here."
Pan Keda led the soldiers to the mountain road and took a closer look. There were a lot of blood stains on the steps of the mountain road, but what attracted them more was the scattered silver nuggets on the road.
A group of Qiu Ba picked it up on the ground one after another, and then found that there were still some in the grass, and the team immediately dispersed.
In the late Ming Dynasty, servants were the elite of the army, but they were actually fully paid soldiers. It was only because of the corrupt system that the generals were unable to support a sufficient number of soldiers, so resources were concentrated to support a small number of loyal and brave warriors.
In the Guan Ning Army, which has the highest military pay in the country, the servants receive two taels of silver. The Chizhou soldiers in the safe Nanzhili only have one tael of silver a month. At this time, the silver ingots all over the ground can be worth several months.
How can I bear the income?
The soldiers were suddenly so excited that they completely forgot about the fatigue of the march. They searched frantically around the mountain road and scrambled for large silver ingots when they encountered them.
Pan Ke was not careful, and the Chizhou soldiers lost their military discipline. The soldiers who arrived from behind also joined in the fight. Fighting broke out in several places, and the mountain road was noisy.
Pan Ke shouted loudly and sent out his trusted servants to beat them up, finally calming down the fighting. Pan Keda was afraid of causing trouble and did not dare to let the team stay on the mountain road, so he led his servants to the top of the mountain.
Some more silver was found on the road, and then several corpses appeared. Chizhou soldiers began to become nervous. They carefully went up to the gate of Yunji Temple, and there were several more corpses on the platform in front of the door.
The soldiers were hesitant. When Pan Keda saw the temple gate of Yunji Temple in front of him, with tens of thousands of taels of silver inside, he pulled out his sword and shouted loudly, "Kill all the rebels here, and you will be rewarded with ten taels for each person killed."
Silver! Whoever enters the hall first will be rewarded with another twenty taels!"
The servants, stimulated by the reward, immediately rushed into the hall.
Pan Ke followed the team, but the bloody battle that everyone expected did not happen. The floor of the hall was filled with corpses, many of which only had a section of their neck left. The heads were missing, and there were some silver ingots scattered among the corpses.
Although the soldiers were frightened, they dispersed cautiously and searched the temple. When Pan Ke entered the side hall, he found piles of silver boxes.
"Sir, the boxes are all empty."
Pan Keda was furious and grabbed the spy by the hand, "You said there are tens of thousands of taels of silver here, where is the silver?"
The spy was so frightened that he stammered, "How could you know, little man, that there were so many people dead here even in the afternoon? They must have killed each other, and the winner took the money and ran away."
Pan Ke choked and drew his sword and pointed it at the spy, "Where did you run to? If you don't tell me, I will take your life!"
The spy was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground. He couldn't say anything at the moment.
At this time, the head servant came over panting and said, "I looked everywhere in the temple, but there is no money, but I found some at the bottom of the mountain."
"What did you find?"
"The road toward Tongcheng is very clean, but the official road toward Huaining is littered with silver. Those thieves must have gone to Huaining. They can't move quickly with tens of thousands of taels of silver. We can't catch up with them."
"They must have gotten the news. They knew that they could no longer go to Tongcheng and wanted to flee from Huaining to other places." Pan Keda said harshly, "I will stay at Yunji Temple to prevent it from being occupied by thieves again. I will search carefully by the way.
In the temple, you lead thirty men on horseback to chase him. How can they run fast with four to fifty thousand taels of silver? They will definitely not be able to escape after daybreak."
"As you command!"
...
The sky is twilight, and a new day has arrived. The shops in the streets and alleys of Tongcheng have opened one after another. Since Huang Wending and his group went to Yunji Temple and left the county seat, the residents are taking care of their livelihoods, and life in the city is returning to normal.
A carriage slowly entered the county town from Dongzuo Gate. There was a person sitting in the driving seat of the carriage, and the carriage board behind was uncovered. With the sound of horse hooves "kick-kick-kick", the carriage slowly passed along the street.
.
At first, the people on the roadside didn't pay much attention, but when a few people accidentally saw the items being pulled on the car, they suddenly screamed and backed away.
After other people noticed these abnormalities, they came over to check. The streets were full of screams, but people did not leave. They followed the carriage from a distance. The news spread quickly, and people from all over the place gathered around.
Pang Yu, who was covered in blood, was sitting in the driving seat, with a knife hanging on his waist, driving the carriage slowly down the county street.
When he finally arrived at the Eight-character Wall, Pang Yu jumped out of the carriage and faced the dense crowd of onlookers with an indifferent expression. No one dared to make a noise, and the people just subconsciously moved away.
Pang Yu turned around and faced Yimen. Yang Fangqian, who had received the news, hurried over with the support of his friends.
When Yang Fangqian walked out of the gate, she saw neatly placed human heads on the carriage floor!
Pang Yu held his head high, bowed his hands to Yang Zhixian, and said in a loud voice, "Pang Yu, the Zao Ban, was ordered by the Lord to quell the chaos. After a bloody battle last night, he had wiped out the rebels who formed a stronghold in Yunji Temple and beheaded more than twenty people.
I’m here to revive you!”
Yang Fangqian looked at Pang Yu who was standing in front of a pile of heads in stunned silence. Her feet softened and she almost fell to the ground.