The person who came out of the carriage was Lao Jianhua.
Shen Lie carefully hid his body behind the dense bushes, not daring to look directly at Lao Jianhua, for fear that if he was not careful, even his gaze might trigger the other person's reaction.
Fortunately, Lao Jianhua didn't look in his direction at all, but focused all his attention in the direction of the courtyard entrance.
A short middle-aged man stepped across the courtyard gate, cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Master Lao, you've missed me from afar."
"Bao Shuai is so polite." Lao Jianhua quickly returned the courtesy: "I'm here late at night. Please forgive me for the inconvenience."
Bao Yuchun laughed and said: "Time waits for no one, business matters! Come on, come on, sit down inside and chat slowly."
Lao Jianhua made an invitation gesture, and then followed Bao Yuchun into the yard.
Shen Lie suddenly fell into entanglement.
Lao Jianhua and Bao Yuchun have strong martial arts skills and extremely sensitive senses. It would be very dangerous to sneak up on them and eavesdrop. There is a danger of being discovered and surrounded at any time.
However, a meeting like theirs in the middle of the night must involve high confidentiality, and it would be a pity to miss it.
Shen Lie only hesitated for a few seconds before he suddenly decided to take the risk and sneak in.
What are you afraid of? !
He used Qing Kung Fu, staring at the two figures from a distance, and followed them to the teahouse in the backyard. Then, before the guards had finished setting up their defenses, he jumped high and flew silently onto the tile roof.
After hiding his whereabouts behind the roof, Shen Lie immediately began to use his skills, changing from external breath to internal breath, completely cutting off breathing through the mouth and nose, and even slowed down his heartbeat.
Doing this will greatly consume your internal energy and may even cause injury over time, but in this way, you can avoid exposure as much as possible.
At this time, Bao Yuchun's voice came from the room.
"Lord Lao, there is no need to say more about the principles of justice. When Bao was young, he owed His Royal Highness the King of Jin his life. Now he avenges him to repay his kindness. I don't have anything else, but I feel that the battle plan you proposed before is really worthy of discussion. place."
Lao Jianhua laughed loudly: "To be honest, I am really an amateur at fighting, so I would like to ask Commander Bao for advice."
"Don't take it seriously." Bao Yuchun said: "You said before that you wanted all my fleet to go north and blockade the entire river. This idea is certainly correct, and we do have the ability to do it. But in this case, the force will be too dispersed , it is easy to become passive over time, which is not in line with the art of war."
"So what does Bao Shuai mean?"
Bao Yuchun replied: "If you just want to block the river and prevent Li Bing's army from coming to the south to cause trouble, that's easy. I have thought carefully about it when I came back, and there are generally two methods that can be adopted. First, we can seize two or three The key cities along the river concentrated the fleet and troops; both of them burned all the ships in the north of the Yangtze River, regardless of size. If Li Bing's army wanted to cross the river, they had to build new ships, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also allowed us to have Plenty of time to prepare."
"Wonderful." Lao Jianhua praised: "Shuai Bao's strategy is indeed brilliant. With two simple moves, Li Bing's path to the south was stopped."
Bao Yuchun said: "It's a small skill, not worth mentioning. There is one more thing that I need your help, Mr. Lao."
"Bao Shuai refers to the matter of replenishing soldiers?"
"That's right, in addition to replenishing soldiers, there are also weapons and equipment." Bao Yuchun said in a calm tone: "The navy has been fighting aliens on the vast sea all year round, and it also has to fight pirates, which consumes a lot of money. When we come back this time, we plan to China needs to do some replenishment and restoration to restore combat effectiveness. In addition, our warships still need repairs, and the number of arrows cannot meet the needs of combat."
After listening to his ramblings for a long time, Lao Jianhua smiled casually: "There is no need to say it, Commander Bao. Last time you proposed that you wanted 10,000 new soldiers, right? I have discussed with the crown prince and will give you an additional 20,000 people. In terms of arrows, , a batch of goods ordered by the Xuanjia Legion has just been delivered. There are a total of 250,000, and they will be allocated to you first. As for other weapons and repairing warships, I can't help much, so I can only give them to the Navy. Twenty million dollars in military expenses, you can take the money and use it however you want."
Bao Yuchun laughed loudly when he heard this: "Master Lao, you are a man who does great things! So I would like to express my gratitude to the navy soldiers first. When do you want us to set off?"
"Of course, the sooner the better." Lao Jianhua said solemnly: "The Jingxiang army has completely surrendered to Li Bing. I am worried that the idiot King Li Kuang of Huaiyang will not be able to stop the attack of the prince's troops. The war will be fierce. It will soon reach Jiangnan. But we are not completely ready yet and need more time."
"I understand," Bao Yuchun responded: "Blocking the river as soon as possible can ensure that the enemy will not invade the south of the Yangtze River. Don't worry, I will take care of this matter, and it will be foolproof. In addition to strengthening your troops and preparing for war, what other strategic plans do you have? Especially against the Jingxiang Army. After all, they have a large number of people, so we have to give it more consideration."
Lao Jianhua smiled: "The Jingxiang army looks strong, but in fact it is still a mess. The Turks will take care of them. The real worries are the Northern Army in Li Bing's hands and Li Jiangyao in Western Xinjiang."
When Bao Yuchun saw that the other party was unwilling to disclose the countermeasures to him easily, he had to respond: "You are right. No matter which enemy you are, you need to treat it with caution. However, Mr. Lao has always been resourceful and wanted to find his own way to deal with it. Bao Don’t worry about it.”
Lao Jianhua smiled calmly and said: "Commander Bao, early tomorrow morning, I will send someone to escort 250,000 arrows and the corresponding military expenses to Mingzhou. 20,000 new troops will be added one after another. Your fleet, at the latest No later than the end of this month, enter the river by sea, then go upstream and deploy a defense line along the south bank."
-
Bao Yuchun sent Lao Jianhua away, and Shen Lie quickly switched from inner breath to outer breath. He was so uncomfortable that he almost vomited blood on the spot. He didn't dare to delay, so he took advantage of the guard's unpreparedness, jumped out from the backyard wall, and headed towards Lin'an.
In that small county town, there was a secret contact point of Nilin Division, with two or three couriers stationed there, responsible for delivering intelligence messages to Luoyi.
Shen Lie ran all the way and finally arrived in Lin'an at dawn. He went straight to the contact point person and wrote a secret letter about what he heard last night and gave it to the person to rush to the east capital.
After finishing this matter, Shen Lie turned around to leave, but unexpectedly the head of the contact point stopped him.
"Lord Chang Shi, I have a secret letter here from the flag envoy of Zhou Dynasty. You must read it personally."
Shen Lie took the letter and opened it. Sure enough, it was written by Zhou Xing in secret language.
The general meaning of the letter was: Please go to the Golden Dragon Inn on Huajing Street in Qiantang Prefecture to find a Hu businessman named Puma. He has something important to do.
Shen Lie's mind changed and he immediately guessed: Hu businessman? Could it be related to Li Jiangyao?
"What else did Zhou Xing say? Do you have a message?"
"Reply to your lord, there is no message. The brother who sent the message only said that after reading the secret message, you must go there, otherwise the family will be very worried."
Shen Lie nodded and asked again: "Can you find a car and take me there. There are too many informants on the street right now."
The leader readily agreed and quickly ordered his men to drive out the carriage hidden in the backyard and send Lord Chang Shi to Qiantang Mansion.
The distance from Lin'an to Qiantang was not too far. The carriage was swaying and it took more than half a day to walk. Shen Lie easily found the Golden Dragon Inn on Huajing Street according to the address provided by the secret letter.
After entering the inn, Shen Lie looked around first, and then asked the shopkeeper at the front desk if there was a Hu merchant named Puma here.
The shopkeeper nodded, pointed to the back, and said that those Hu businessmen had hired the little dean named C, and people came to them all day long to discuss business.
Obviously, the other party regarded Shen Lie as a businessman.
Shen Lie thanked him, strode into the back hall of the inn, and followed the door number to find the C-shaped courtyard. The yard is not big, with buildings on three sides: east, west, and north. There are also many goods piled in the yard.
"Sir, who are you looking for? Are you talking about business?"
Shen Lie followed the code in the secret message and said, "I want to buy some Nanjin flowers."
The waiter smiled and said: "Sir, Nanjinhua is the sacred flower of Western Xinjiang and is never sold."
"I am a friend of Metasequoia, why don't you sell it?" Shen Lie said with a smile.
The clerk's eyes lit up: "Then you can have as much as you want! Please come in and talk to our boss."
Shen Lie followed the waiter into the main room. A tall young man in his twenties with a curly beard immediately stood up from his seat, stepped forward and saluted: "I'm a humble Puma, please see Mr. Chang Shi."
Shen Lie returned the salute slightly and said with a smile: "Are you from the Great Protector?"
"Replying to your lord, we are all." Puma signaled the man to go out and watch, and then asked Shen Lie to sit down and introduced enthusiastically: "Since I received the notice from Lord Zhou, I have been looking forward to your arrival. Here in Qiantang Mansion , there are a total of six brothers including me, and their martial arts skills can only be regarded as so-so. There are also twelve masters who are rushing here from other places and will arrive within a day or two. "
Shen Lie asked curiously: "Are you taking any action?"
Puma chuckled: "The order we received is to follow your orders."
After hearing this, Shen Lie suddenly realized that Zhou Xingqian's instructions to find Puma were not due to any special actions by the Suppressing Army, but because the Intelligence Department wanted to assist him.
Thinking that his brothers were so attentive to him, Shen Lie couldn't help but feel warm in his heart, and immediately asked: "Is this okay without the military order from your Grand Protector?"
"Sir, why do you still speak the same language as one family?" Puma said: "The Intelligence Department and the Nilin Department are just like brothers. If we don't reach out, we are disobeying the military order. At that time, there is no need to do anything. When it comes to hair care, Lord Yudala will never be able to bypass us."
Shen Lie smiled casually: "Okay, if you put it like that, if I were the mother-in-law again, I would really look out of touch. Anyway, at the beginning, your Grand Protector also commanded the Nilin Division, but now that I am in charge of his Intelligence Division, it is all It’s even.”
Puma happily agreed and quickly called all his subordinates in and introduced them to Shen Lie one by one.
