Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 140 Your Majesty, spare your life
Pei Yuan’s attitude was clear, so Cheng Leixiang and Song Chunniang had no choice but to work honestly.

At first, Pei Qianhu wanted to operate it manually and get some guidance.

When Pei Yuan saw the two of them discussing with gestures where the moon would appear at what time, and where under the eaves there would be enough shadow to hide, he suddenly understood.

Why would a fifth-rank captain like me, who is such a respectable officer, get involved in such petty thefts?

No participation, no participation.

Cheng Leixiang didn't pay much attention to what Song Chunniang said at first, but as time went on, he admired her more and more.

Finally, he couldn't help but praise, "If General Song was still out there, I'm afraid his worth in the martial arts world would be no less than five hundred taels of silver."

Pei Yuan looked at Song Chunniang and silently corrected himself that the total amount of money in the two capitals was already 550 taels.

If Captain Han had not brought her into the Zhenxie Thousand Household Office, with Song Chunniang's concealment and strong aggressiveness, she would have quickly increased her own value.

By then, it would not be an exaggeration to call her a walking silver.

It’s just that Han Qianhu was really careless in this matter!
Tsk tsk.

While Pei Yuan was daydreaming, the two of them had already finished visiting the spots here and were heading towards the next intersection.

After looking around the government office and choosing a suitable route, they both felt that it was quite difficult.

Cheng Leixiang took the initiative to report in embarrassment, "Captain, even if we follow the minimum patrol frequency, it is difficult for us to send those sacks in without being noticed. If we use fewer people, it will take longer. If we use more people, we will be easily discovered."

Pei Yuan looked around. The area around the government office was relatively open and the view was good. No wonder the two were in such a dilemma.

His eyes followed the open space forward and saw rows of shops, teahouses, and buildings.

So Captain Pei gave his own suggestion, "It's easy. When the time comes, find an empty house and light it up to attract the attention of the officers."

Cheng Leixiang was startled and said quickly, "This is inappropriate."

Pei Yuan glanced at Cheng Leixiang and said, "Then go pick a suitable one?"

Cheng Leixiang wanted to say "this is suitable" rather than "that is suitable".

But Pei Yuan's expression was very serious, without any sign of joking, so he didn't dare to say anything.

Pei Yuan said to Cheng Leixiang calmly, "No one standing in my way of survival is innocent."

The two generals heard this and said nothing.

Pei Yuan couldn't help at the moment, so he said to the two, "You guys watch first, I'll go around. If anyone causes trouble, just say they're from the Imperial Guards."

Even if Pei Yuan can’t keep secret what he did today, it doesn’t matter.

Threatening people's lives is a common method used by local governments to control corrupt officials.

For the imperial court, this operation was nothing big.

Han Qianhu once mentioned that the emperor liked to use the Jinyiwei because they did not follow the rules.

There were many people on the street at this moment, and Pei Yuan was strolling leisurely.

Glancing into a porcelain shop, I saw several door panels placed on the ground against the wall.

Pei Yuan nodded, feeling very reassuring.

Looking towards the silk shop in front, I saw that because there were many pieces of satin stored inside, the remaining space was very small, so the door panel was folded down and placed directly under the window sill outside.

Pei Yuan nodded again, very good.

Pei Yuan felt at this moment as if Jackie Chan appeared in the furniture store.

That kind of confidence is invincible.

As he walked along, Pei Yuan didn't see much of the bustling Suzhou street scene, and his attention was only focused on the door panels of various shops.

As he was walking, Pei Yuan's unconscious gaze was pulled back. Taking a closer look, he saw a teahouse on the right with a carved wooden lattice facade and two exquisite wooden doors.

Pei Yuan stared at the flashy hollow texture, then looked up at the bustling crowd upstairs and downstairs.

That's it.

There are no door panels, instructions, instructions.

This means that nothing valuable will be left inside at night, so the damage caused by burning will be minimal.

Very reasonable.

Pei Yuan determined the target and walked back slowly.

Perhaps because I had explored the map, I felt much more at ease this time and also took a look at the scenery along the way.

After meeting up with Cheng Leixiang and Song Chunniang, the two of them went forward and told Pei Yuan the results of their reconnaissance.

"Captain, if we want to make sure this is done carefully, it's best to go out at midnight, with twelve people in a group of three, two carrying sacks and one on guard, following the route we set, and moving in turns. With just three trips back and forth, we can bring all the heads over, and we'll keep them here first..."

"When the fire starts, you can choose these places to get into the back hall. General Song and I have just tried it out, and there are no dogs inside."

"The situation in the government office is still unclear, but now that it has come to that point, it is actually the simplest. After we go in, we can directly kidnap someone and ask about the situation. After that, whether we kill him or deal with him in another way, it won't be a big problem."

Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the two of them, "Anything else you want to add?"

They both shook their heads, "We were scheming without any intention, and ordinary people can't defend against it at all."

Pei Yuan felt relieved. "That's settled. I'll go back and pick the people later and come here in advance to review the route. Be careful to hide your tracks and don't arouse suspicion."

Cheng Leixiang and Song Chunniang both responded.

The three of them returned to the inn, where food had already been prepared.

After the meal, Cheng Leixiang and Song Chunniang took turns taking people out to find the way.

The distance was close, and the Jinyiwei of the Zhenxie Qianhu Office were specialized in dealing with people from the martial arts world. They were all experienced, and after two trips back and forth, they had already learned the whole place by heart.

Pei Yuan also picked out a Jinyiwei who was responsible for arson and took him to identify the place.

When everything was ready, the personnel responsible for the night operations all went to bed and rest early.

The monks followed Pei Yuan's orders and chanted scriptures tremblingly while guarding the pile of sacks.

The remaining few Jinyiwei were responsible for vigilance and prepared dry food in advance in preparation for the action at night.

Pei Yuan didn't sleep well last night, so he fell asleep quickly this time.

When I was woken up, it was already late at night.

No one said much. After everything was ready, Cheng Leixiang went out first to keep watch, and the rest of the people followed the day's drill and carried sacks and walked out.

Pei Yuan and Song Chunniang followed him out later.

If anything goes wrong this time, he will have to find a way to cover it.

Pei Yuan followed the actual operation this time and discovered the ingenuity of the two people's design. The movement of almost every group of people was based on the perspective from the main road.

Even if there are some unavoidable sections of the road, the entire journey is still in heavy shadows.

The area around the government office was the place that the officers paid the most attention to, and there was even one more group of night watchmen than in other places.

Everyone dodged carefully, and fortunately everything turned out to be safe.

The Jinyiwei ran back and forth three times and transported all the heads.

Song Chunniang took out a small bronze mirror that was polished to a very bright shine and waved it towards the distance.

Soon, the teahouse chosen by Pei Yuan began to catch fire.

As the firelight gradually grew brighter, many patrolling officers were attracted over there, and some shops that had people guarding them were also alarmed.

The neighbors were afraid that the fire would spread, so they all came out to help put out the fire. There was a commotion on the street.

Pei Yuan waved his hand to signal, and several Jinyiwei quickly climbed over the wall, then threw down a hemp rope to pull the sack up, and used the same method to quietly send the sack into the back courtyard.

Cheng Leixiang and Song Chunniang went in to look for Zhai De'an's whereabouts.

After the Jinyiwei had moved all the things in, Pei Yuan also climbed up the wall and flipped over into the backyard.

Soon, Cheng Leixiang brought a servant over.

The servant seemed to be on night duty. Cheng Leixiang held him with one hand and covered his mouth tightly with the other.

The servant was struggling violently at first, but when he saw so many people sneaking into the magistrate's back court, he was so scared that he dared not move.

Cheng Lei shouted, "If you dare to scream, I will break your neck."

After saying this, he slowly released the hand that was covering the servant.

Cheng Leixiang used a lot of force just now. In the moonlight, he could see dark blue fingerprints on the servant's face.

He was so frightened that his voice trembled as he said, "My Lords, spare my life."

Pei Yuan gestured, and Cheng Leixiang took out his badge and showed it to the servant, whispering threateningly, "The Jinyiwei are investigating the case and want to ask you, the prefect, where is he? Why don't you tell the truth?"

The servant was terrified when he heard this.

Who hasn’t heard of the Jinyiwei’s reputation for being treacherous?

Especially for those officials and families like them, the shadow of death hovers in their hearts.

The servant trembled and cried, "I say, I say, it's none of my business!"

After the servant finished explaining in detail, Cheng Leixiang recalled the situation when he had just explored the way in, and replied, "Sir, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"Okay." Pei Yuan nodded, looked at the sacks of heads on the ground, and then glanced at Song Chunniang.

I thought to myself, it would be a shame to dirty such knowledgeable and interesting hands.

So he looked at Song Chunniang and said, "You stay here to guard the rear and keep an eye on him. If anything goes wrong later, you kill him."

After hearing this, Song Chunniang looked at Pei Yuan who was pretending to be serious, and then at Cheng Leixiang who had a look of ignorance, and had some guesses in her mind.

She responded calmly.

When she and Pei Yuan's eyes met, she gave him a meaningful look to show her appreciation.

Pei Yuan pretended to be confused and led a group of people to quietly move towards Zhai Dean's residence in the back hall.

Officials nowadays believe that an official should not maintain his office.

The reason is very simple. Building a government office is not a small amount of money. If public funds are used to build a government office, it will easily give people the impression that the government is hedonistic.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty were all itinerant officials. They might be here today and somewhere else tomorrow.

If things go wrong, the next official might end up living comfortably in the yamen built by his predecessor, while at the same time cursing his predecessor for being greedy for comfort and being unkind in his official duties.

Under the premise that no one does this, naturally no one is willing to sacrifice their own reputation for others.

If I really have this spare money, wouldn't it be better for me to put it in my own pocket?

So although Zhai De'an was the prefect of Suzhou, his back office was actually just like that.

After entering the courtyard where Zhai Dean was, several Jinyiwei came forward swiftly and blew smoke into each room.

Pei Yuan couldn't help but sigh.

As expected of the Suppressing Evil Thousand Households Office that often deals with underworld figures, they are really professional in their work.

While waiting, all the Jinyiwei kept their swords in silence. Pei Yuan sat on a stone bench in the yard, looking towards the door.

This made Pei Yuan feel very powerful and evil.

If Ming Dynasty was an epic online game, he felt that he was at least a legitimate dungeon boss.

After a while, someone came forward, opened Zhai Dean's door, and began to disperse the smoke.

After waiting for a while, the Jinyiwei, under the command of Cheng Leixiang, untied the sacks, poured out the smelly heads, and began to place them in Zhai De'an's house.

The Jinyiwei's movements were very quick and their soft-soled boots made almost no noise.

Cheng Leixiang went in to take a few looks, then came out to guard Pei Yuan.

After all the heads were placed and candles were lit inside, Pei Yuan did not waste time and strode into the room.

After entering the door is the main room, which is equipped with tables, chairs, desks, hanging paintings, and incense. It is the place where the host talks and eats. There are curtains on both sides. One is the room where Zhai De'an and his concubine sleep, and the other is the room where maids and servants live.

Cheng Lei pointed to one side, "Sir, Magistrate Zhai sleeps over here."

Pei Yuan drew aside the curtain and saw that Zhai Dean was hugging a beautiful concubine and sleeping soundly wrapped in a thick quilt.

There were four or five heads clustered around his pillow, and there was another one in his arms.

Pei Yuan looked around again and saw a human head strung on every table, desk, cabinet, stool, and even on the hook hanging the curtain.

Each of those heads was purple and covered with blood, many of them still had their eyes open, and a foul stench continued to emanate from them.

This is probably the immersive experience of Yama Palace.

Pei Yuan asked Cheng Leixiang, "Where is my official uniform?"

Cheng Leixiang shook the bag behind him and said, "I have it with me."

Pei Yuan went out and changed into the official uniform of the Jinyiwei.

Unfortunately, the original centurion official uniform cannot correctly reflect Pei Yuan’s strength.

Pei Yuan sat on a chair in the main room and ordered Cheng Leixiang, "Go wake him up."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Leixiang looked around and said to Pei Yuan, "Captain, we'll be talking to Prefect Zhai here later, do you want to make some arrangements as well?"

Pei Yuan didn't want to face a bunch of heads, so he said, "Forget it, it's not necessary."

Cheng Leixiang said, "Then we can remove a few candles."

Pei Yuan didn't expect that Cheng Leixiang was so thoughtful.

Then he remembered that Cheng Leixiang had done a lot of exorcism work to cheat people out of money, so he said, "You decide."

Cheng Leixiang blew out the candles around him, leaving only a white candle in front of Pei Yuan, illuminating his face.

Several Jinyiwei were standing around, and their figures looked particularly dark and heavy under the dim candlelight.

Cheng Leixiang entered the room where Zhai Dean slept again and blew out most of the candles, leaving only the shortest one burning dimly.

Then, Cheng Leixiang pushed Zhai De'an hard and then dodged away.

Zhai Dean startled in his deep sleep, and then his sense of smell suddenly became sensitive and he smelled a bad stench.

He vaguely noticed the candlelight and quickly opened his eyes to look.

At a glance, he saw several heads that had begun to rot placed beside the pillow and body. Even on the iron hook hanging the curtain, there was a purple head, looking at him.

Zhai Dean wanted to shout in fear, but the air was stuck in his throat and he couldn't open his mouth at all.

He struggled to get out of bed, suppressing his fear, but everywhere he looked were all kinds of horrible and hideous heads.

All those heads were facing Zhai Dean, and their hideous and decayed faces seemed to carry endless malice.

(End of this chapter)