There were no pedestrians on the streets late at night, and it was already curfew time. Except for the patrolling barbarian soldiers in Qiongdu City, ordinary people did not dare to walk on the streets.
Especially now that the city of Qiongdu is under the rule of the old people, and the Han people have no way to protect themselves, how can they dare to disobey the barbarian military orders and not take the curfew seriously?
However, there are always some special people in the city who do not take the curfew order seriously. Even if these people are not all close relatives, as long as they have special tokens, they can travel unimpeded late at night.
On a narrow and dark street, a young man dressed as a barbarian soldier was walking quickly. Although he did not walk lightly, other people could hardly notice him unless they looked carefully.
It turned out that every step he took was always under various shadows. If you didn't look carefully, you would hardly know that there were people walking quietly.
However, Qiongdu is the hometown of the old people after all. Even if Gaoding takes away the main force, there are still thousands of soldiers and horses in the city, including the old, weak, sick and disabled, and there are more than a dozen troops patrolling back and forth after the curfew.
However, even if this young man is discovered by the patrolling barbarian soldiers, as long as he shows a token, the patrolling barbarian soldiers will respectfully let him go.
The man turned around two or three streets and came to a house deep in an alley. He knocked on the door three times, slightly heavily, and then four times.
There was just a creaking sound, and the back door of the house seemed to open by itself. The young man looked around and saw that no one was watching and walked straight into the door.
"You're here, don't you have a tail behind you?" In an old and simple house, a stooped old man asked the young man who had closed the door.
"Don't worry, brother, I'm always cautious in my work. If I don't even know if there's anyone following me, I'm not qualified to be sent to Qiongdu."
The old man nodded and said, "Well, I'm not just verbose, but what I'm doing is really messing up my head, so I can't help but be more careful."
The young man walked to the couch and sat down. He stretched out his hand and said, "Okay, I'd better get down to business. The team leader and Governor Yang are still waiting for my return."
It turns out that this young man is Wu Que's capable man, and his surname is Yu Mingcheng. He was originally from Qiongdu who fled to Anshang to escape the chaos. After joining Wu Que's espionage team, he was sent back to Qiongdu City to lurk.
With Wu Que's financial support and his identity as a local, Yu Cheng was an eloquent and observant person. After getting through everything, he quickly found an official position in the rebel army.
With such an important position and such a successful lurking, Yu Cheng quickly became the person in charge of the entire Qiongdu City and reported the news directly to Wu Que.
Since Gaoding rebelled and occupied most of Yueqi County, the original government was taken over by the barbarians. However, in order to maintain order, Gaoding still selected a group of people from the surrendered Han people to assist him in ruling.
This was the case for this old man. His daughter married a Yi general as a concubine, so she became a civil servant in the prefecture. Although her position was not high, she still had access to certain confidential information.
So Yu Chenggong focused on this old man and decided to develop him into his informant. After several contacts and tests, Yu Cheng found out that this man seemed to be a Han scum who sincerely worked for the barbarians. In fact, this old man I hate the barbarians very much.
In addition to the fact that the old man had the imperial court in mind, the reason why his daughter married the Yi general as his concubine was because he was kidnapped by the Yi general. The old man deeply hated this and had long been looking forward to the defeat of the Yi people.
So when Yu Cheng revealed his identity, the old man agreed without much thought and started working for the government.
The old man said nothing more after hearing this, and sat down on the straw mat opposite, waiting for Yu Cheng to ask questions.
"How's it going? How's your inquiry going?" the young man asked.
Upon hearing this question, the old man's somewhat bitter expression suddenly changed, and he said happily: "There is a result."
"Oh, how about it?" Yu Cheng was also delighted.
"I'm 80% sure that E Huan is not in the city."
"Why are you so sure?"
The old man said with a sarcastic look on his face: "Humph, it's all thanks to my cheap son-in-law. If it weren't for him, I really don't know how to find out about the resurrection?"
"Last night, my thief son-in-law held a banquet and invited me to come over to the house. Later, everyone dispersed and I was the only one left. The thief likes to drink but has a bad drinking capacity. Usually, in order to please this guy, I pretend to be friendly. He is a normal drinker, but in fact I was just slightly drunk at the moment, and kept chatting along with him."
"Suddenly, my heart moved, and I suddenly thought that this would not be a good opportunity to make some lies. This thief is a middle-level general of the Yi soldiers in the city. He is on an errand for the city defense. He is the direct subordinate of E Huan. It is very possible to find out about E Huan from him. Huan's news. Therefore, under my inadvertent side attack, this thief actually revealed the news."
When Yu Cheng heard this, he couldn't help but ask: "What's the news?"
The old man chuckled and said: "It turns out that after Gaoding sent troops to Anshang and left, E Huan, the left-behind general, was still making public appearances at first. However, within a few days, E Huan suddenly claimed that he had a serious illness and returned to the public. My family started to complain that I was sick.”
"He also ordered that all affairs in the city be handled by his lieutenants, and that none of the non-urgent matters should disturb his recovery. My cheap son-in-law visited E Huan several times with gifts for the sake of running away, but unexpectedly he was blocked from the door. But not only It's him, and so are many barbarian dignitaries."
"There are rumors in E Huan's house that he is seriously ill and may infect others, so it is difficult to see guests. But my thief son-in-law really tried his best to please Shangguan."
At this point, the old man sneered a few times and continued: "There is a cook in E Huan's house who is from the same tribe as him. The two have known each other since childhood and have a very good relationship. He found this cook to find out some information so that he could photograph E Huan. Flattery, I didn’t expect to find out from the cook’s mouth that the person recuperating in the mansion was not E Huan.”
"Not E Huan?" Yu Cheng said in surprise.
The old man nodded and replied, "Well, that's what my thief son-in-law said."
Yu Cheng lowered his head and pondered, then asked after a moment: "How did the cook know? Do you have proof? Did your cheap son-in-law ask?"
"He has asked about it. It turns out that the cook is responsible for delivering meals to E Huan every day. Every time, he puts the meals outside the door and the people in the house take it. At first, everything was as usual. He always thought that E Huan He was recuperating in the house, but just three days ago, he discovered something unusual."
The old man used a bamboo spoon to take out a bowl of tea from the pot on the side, drank it in one gulp, paused, and continued: "That day he brought food to E Huan again as usual, but this time he forgot to bring chopsticks, so he hurriedly He ran to the kitchen to get the chopsticks and sent them back, and happened to meet the waiter inside who opened the door to take the food. Just as he stepped forward to send the chopsticks, he inadvertently saw through the half-open door that the person on the bed was not E Huan, but with him. They are all servants of E Huan Mansion."
"Servant?" Yu Cheng shouted in shock.
"Well, he is familiar with this person, but this person should have taken leave and returned to the tribe half a month ago due to family matters. How could he be sitting on the master's bed now? He suddenly realized that this person was pretending to be the master. This is why my master is no longer in the city."
"After discovering such a big secret, the cook was naturally horrified and hurriedly hid his expression and left. When he returned to his room, the cook was frightened and uneasy. At this time, he happened to meet my thief son-in-law who came to inquire about the news. , they have been friends since childhood, so for the sake of peace of mind, the cook told this matter to my thief son-in-law."
After explaining the reason in one breath, the old man felt his mouth was dry and he quickly drank some water to moisten it.
Seeing him finish speaking, Yu Cheng touched his chin and said, "So that's it. So E Huan is really not in the city, but why would the Yi people do this?"
"I don't know this."
"Well, we have to explore this point further." Yu Cheng nodded and smiled: "But finding out that E Huan is not in the city is already a great achievement. Brother, you have done a good job. I will report your contribution to you." For the ones above.”
The old man cupped his fists and said, "That's it, thank you very much."
