In a room near the backyard, the man who came back from the backyard said: "I took a look. The box on the carriage is very heavy. It contains either heavy things like iron ingots or gold and silver."
"Four royal guards, a carriage, a driver, and a few wooden boxes, it should be them."
There were several people in the room, and one of the men spoke.
At this time, a middle-aged man said: "Go and ask the people in front of you personally, are these Jin Yiwei working as guards or staying in hotels?"
"I'll ask." The guy who came back from the backyard said.
The middle-aged man said: "It's okay, if you go, it won't be easy for people to suspect."
The guy nodded and walked out of the room.
Except for the middle-aged man, there were two people left in the room. One of them, a big man, said: "Thankfully I listened to you, captain, and didn't salvage the gold and silver that sank to the bottom with Xu Tong. Otherwise, these Jin Yiwei would also I won’t return to Beijing so soon.”
The middle-aged man picked up the tea cup, took a sip of tea, and said: "I didn't expect that the imperial court would send Jin Yiwei to investigate the case for a fallen governor. The reason why they didn't salvage the gold and silver was because many people saw those wooden boxes at that time. It fell into the river with the boat. It was not convenient for our people to show up to salvage it. We thought that after the Xu family salvaged it, we could just snatch it back from the Xu family. Unexpectedly, the Xu family only focused on grabbing other things and did not salvage the sunken ship at all. I mean, in the end, I gave it to the local government for free."
"I'm afraid the people in the Xu family don't know that the wooden boxes that sank with the ferry were all gold and silver, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to let them go," said the man in the house.
Another person in the room nodded in agreement and said, "As I thought, if the Xu family knew that those wooden boxes contained Xu Tong's ill-gotten gains over the years, they would definitely salvage them."
The middle-aged man smiled and said at this time: "I was ready to give up when the money arrived at the Yamen. No one thought that these Jin Yiwei helped us a lot and took Xu Tong's money out of the Yamen."
"If they don't take them out of the Yamen, how can we have a chance to steal this money." The man in the room laughed.
The door of the room was pushed open, and the guy who left before came back.
The middle-aged man looked over and asked, "Have you made it clear?"
"Let's ask clearly." The guy nodded and said, "These Jin Yiwei left after eating and did not stay at the mule and horse station."
The middle-aged man looked at the man opposite and said, "You ride your horse and rush ahead. Tell our people to lay in wait. As soon as the Jin Yiwei shows up, we will take action."
"Yes." The man nodded, and then said, "What should we do with those Jinyi guards? Do we want to kill them all?"
The middle-aged man thought for a moment and said, "These royal guards are all riding horses, so they are not easy to kill."
"I can drug the horse to make sure these guards can't run away," said the guy next to him.
The middle-aged man shook his head and said: "No, if anyone is suspicious, you can find mules and horses traveling here by following these horses. It is easy for people to suspect that this matter is caused by our Tiger Flag."
"Why don't we just rob the money and kill those few Jin Yiwei if we can, instead of killing them all. Even if these Jin Yiwei escape back to the capital in the future, they will only think it's the bandits, and they won't suspect our tiger character flag at all. "said the man in the room.
The middle-aged man said: "I'll do as you say, but don't use the firecracker, it's too conspicuous."
"Okay, I'll take note of it." The man nodded.
The middle-aged man added: "After you get the money back, don't go by land. Follow the plan you made before and transport it directly by ship."
"Don't worry, captain, I know what's going on." The man said, "I'm afraid those royal guards will finish their meal soon. I'm going to inform our people now."
"Go!" the middle-aged man said.
The man turned around and left the room.
The middle-aged man said to the man in the house: "Go to the backyard and keep an eye on them to see when they leave."
"Yes." The guy agreed and walked out of the room.
When there were only two people left in the room, the remaining person in the room said: "What does it mean above? Once this money is robbed, there will definitely be a lot of wrongdoing, and it will cause trouble."
The middle-aged man picked up the tea cup, took a sip of tea, and said: "Our Tiger Banner is expanding several military camps and needs a lot of money. Xu Tong left Datong and took tens of thousands of taels of gold and silver with him. , for such a large sum of money, forget it if you didn’t have the opportunity before, but now that you have the opportunity, naturally you can’t let it go easily.”
"Once the expansion of several military camps is completed, our Tiger Flag will have tens of thousands of soldiers. Thinking about when we fled all the way to Lingqiu, who could have imagined that we would be here today." The man in the room sighed. .
He was an old man from the bandit camp. Later, when the Foreign Intelligence Bureau built a mule and horse farm here, he came with him and became a shopkeeper here.
To the outside world, this is a mule and horse shop, which receives merchants traveling from north to south. It is also responsible for secretly inquiring about information and delivering news.
The middle-aged man warned: "As long as you know about the expansion of the military camp, don't tell the people below. It's still kept secret. At present, only the people in Datong know."
"Don't worry, I know the rules." The shopkeeper of the Mule and Horse Shop solemnly replied.
"There are so many boxes loaded onto the carriage, do you need some help?"
At this moment, the two people heard the man's voice coming from the yard.
The middle-aged man stood up, walked to the window on the second floor, opened a crack in the window, and looked into the backyard.
I saw two more Jinyi guards in the backyard, carrying wooden boxes in the yard to the carriage.
"No need."
Yuan Hong stood aside with his hands behind his back, watching others carry the wooden box to the carriage.
Seeing that the other party didn't need his help, the boy didn't say anything. Instead, he walked to the side door and opened the side door, leaving a wide enough path for the carriage to go out.
Three Jinyi guards and a coachman carried all the wooden boxes in the yard onto the carriage one by one.
The animals pulling the cart had already been hitched to the cart.
As soon as the wooden boxes were loaded onto the cart, the driver drove the animals from the side door to the outside of the mule and horse farm.
Several Jin Yiwei also rode their own horses and followed behind.
The clerk from the mule and horse shop stood in front of the side door and said to the royal guards who were about to leave: "Guests, please go slowly. Welcome to come again next time."
The carriage was loaded with heavy wooden boxes. It was not moving very fast and was moving slowly on the road.
Several royal guards were riding around the carriage.
One of the Jinyi guards said with a smile: "Sir, the food for the mules and horses of the Tiger Flag is not bad. The portions are sufficient, and there is enough oil and water. The food for five people plus the feed for the animals is only 500 yuan. In the capital, it is impossible to get money without a tael of silver."
"Okay, hurry up and hurry up. Before closing the city gate, you must get to the county seat ahead." Yuan Hong said.
Five people and four horses, plus a carriage, rushed along the official road to the county seat ahead.
