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

Chapter 155 Target Tiger Guard Left Guard
After a long while, Pei Yuan looked at Taoist Zhiwei and said in shock, "The Taoist priest is really powerful!"

Taoist Zhiwei laughed when he heard this and said while stroking his beard.

"It just so happened that when those thieves came just now, I saw a black cloud floating over. So I cut some paper and applied some ink to create a sleight of hand. It's not surprising, not surprising."

If Pei Yuan believed this, he would be truly naive.

How could it be such a coincidence that as soon as the assassin arrived, a black cloud floated over?
Pei Yuan recalled the experience when Lu Ting used a Taoist to surround him with wind and sand, and he had some guesses in his mind.

But knowing that the Taoist only wanted to show off and feel secretly happy, it would be very ignorant of me to expose his mistake at this time.

Taoist Zhiwei said in a humble tone, "Fortunately, you have someone who is proficient in earth movement to shake up the house, otherwise I would be helpless."

Pei Yuan continued to look at the Taoist priest who moved the clouds and turned it into a scene of a heavenly dog ​​swallowing the moon with a look that said, "Although I don't understand, I think you are very powerful."

He said, "Master, you are too modest. I understand. I understand."

Taoist Zhiwei's face was calm and peaceful, and he couldn't suppress his smile. He stretched out his hand and pressed, "Keep a low profile, keep a low profile."

After saying that, he jumped down from the wall in a very cool manner and returned to his room.

Pei Yuan looked at Taoist Zhiwei with reverence as he left.

When he turned around to look at Chen Toutie, the expression on his face had disappeared, "Why haven't you called Tan Tai Bai Hu and the others in yet?"

Chen Toutie also came back to his senses, "Oh, I'll go right away."

Not long after, Chen Toutie brought in Tan Tai Fangtu, Si Kong Sui, Cui Bohou, Ji Xin and others.

By the way, he added, "Cheng Leixiang is leading people to guard the tax silver."

Pei Yuan nodded with satisfaction.

After everyone finished greeting each other, Pei Yuan asked, "Tell me what's going on over there now."

Sikong Sui took the initiative to answer, "I just counted the bodies and killed more than seventy in total. We here..."

Pei Yuan didn't think something was right and interrupted, "No one is alive?"

Sikong Sui replied, "Originally there were two, but somehow they suddenly died."

Pei Yuan thought about it and suspected that it was Mei Qinniang's evil trick, so he didn't care about it anymore and said, "Go on."

Sikong Sui replied, "We have six wounded on our side. They were all shot by stray arrows when we were suppressed by the bows and arrows at the beginning. The assassins behind us fled in a panic and barely organized a counterattack."

"But they scattered all at once, and we didn't dare to split our forces, nor did we dare to chase them too far, so we had to give up."

Pei Yuan confirmed his guess again.

These local forces were able to be organized either by gangsters who were supported under various pretexts, or by small groups of people who came out of various garrisons to do the dirty work.

These people gathered from all over the place and have no organization.

They may be useful when the battle is going well, but will flee if they suffer a loss.

By now he has probably been broken up into small pieces and turned into peddlers.

Sikong Sui continued, "In total, we seized more than a hundred crossbows and three hundred quivers. In addition, there were two lightweight crossbows and twelve large arrows. There were also dozens of swords and spears."

Pei Yuan nodded, looked at everyone and said, "There are some things I don't need to say more about, I'm sure you all know what they are."

"These people have complicated backgrounds, so it's hard to find them right away. But the monk can escape, but the temple cannot. The Tiger Guards dared to betray us, so we must not let them off easily."

Pei Yuan focused on Tan Tai Fang Tu. "When you were chasing the bandits just now, I had already discussed it with Captain Sikong and Captain Cui. I plan to take revenge on Huben Zuowei. What do you think, Captain Tan Tai?"

Tan Tai Fang Tu had obviously discussed this with Si Kong Sui and Cui Bo Hou, and said with some embarrassment, "I don't have any objections, but we don't even have enough manpower to protect the tax silver, so how can we afford to offend the people of the Tiger Guard Left Guard?"

Pei Yuan listened and subconsciously tapped the scabbard. After a while, he said, "What if I can afford it?"

Tan Tai Fang Tu was shocked when he heard this, "What does your Excellency mean?"

Pei Yuan said, "You have been in Jiangnan for a long time, so you must know that the combat effectiveness of each guard has been weakened to an unimaginable degree. The Tiger Guard Left Guard nominally has more than 5,000 people, but the actual number will never exceed 500. It is more likely to be between 200 and 300."

Sikong Sui and Cui Bohou had just expressed their support for Pei Qianhu, so they naturally could not play two-faced at this time.

The two could only stare at Tan Tai Fang Tu.

Tan Tai Fang Tu had no choice but to bite the bullet and said, "Even if there are only two or three hundred people, I'm afraid we will have to pay a heavy price. I'm not worried about anything else, but I'm mainly afraid of delaying your important work."

Pei Yuan had considered the matter carefully, so he said directly, "Don't worry, I have a comprehensive plan, and there won't be much loss. On the contrary, as long as we do this well, no one will come to cause trouble again! We can solve this problem once and for all."

Even Sikong Sui and Cui Bohou couldn't help but ask, "Really?"

At this time, the tone of Taoist Zhiwei just now was quite appropriate, so Pei Yuan snorted coldly, "It's just a guard post, Pei only needs to use a little trick, it's not surprising, not surprising."

Tan Tai Fang Tu had a bad temper and was very angry about Huben Zuowei's betrayal.

Just now he was afraid that Pei Yuan might act on impulse, so he tried to persuade him in a cautious manner. But when he heard that Pei Yuan was confident enough, he became more motivated.

"Then tell me, is there anything I can do?"

Pei Yuan looked at everyone and said slowly, "This is exactly why I want to communicate with you."

"If we want to take revenge on Huben Zuowei, we can't leave any trouble behind. We can only suppress today's incident as much as possible and treat it as an ordinary attack to let Huben Zuowei relax their guard."

"We will take action when they think the incident is over."

Sikong Sui frowned and asked, "Tonight's incident was such a big deal. Even if ordinary people don't know about it, those people on the other side will probably spread the news. This matter is not easy to suppress."

Pei Yuan said, "It doesn't matter, we just need to keep our stance to ourselves."

"We were attacked on Huben Zuowei's territory. If those people succeeded, it would be fine. But now that they failed, don't Huben Zuowei feel guilty?"

"As long as we don't express our views, the Tiger Guards will have to restrain themselves and not dare to speak nonsense."

"Having this little time buffer is enough."

Pei Yuan hesitated for a moment and felt that he still had to be reserved with these guys until the matter was done.

As for after things are done...

Haha, they were so credible back then.

Pei Yuan then said, "As for the rest, I will also arrange things."

Sikong Sui breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he didn't have to retaliate against Huben Zuowei immediately.

He even secretly wondered if Pei Gou had calmed down from his rage and was using this excuse to save face.

If things drag on for a while, who will take it seriously?
Anyway, once we get to Huai'an, Master Sikong won't serve us anymore.

Pei Yuan looked at the sky and felt that it was still early for dawn.

He instructed everyone, "Leave those on duty, and the rest go back to rest. I see the moon has come out, so the snow shouldn't fall. Let's leave here for the time being tomorrow and head towards Huai'an." "Pack up the crossbows we just seized, I'll make other arrangements later."

After hearing this, everyone said nothing and bowed and left.

Pei Yuan said to Chen Toutie again, "Please stay for a while. I have something for you to do."

After everyone left, Pei Yuan whispered to Chen Toutie, "Go find Sun Keding later. Ask him to get a few carriages to me before sunrise tomorrow, no matter what."

Sun Keding has been very close to those businessmen recently, so it’s not a big problem.

If Sun Keding doesn't know what's good for him, this will be the end of it.

Chen Toutie responded, turned around and was about to leave, then turned back and asked, "Sir, are you pretending to be a corpse?"

Pei Yuan said unhappily, "Why are you pretending to be a corpse? Take these crossbows with you."

Chen Toutie hurriedly took a few of his men and went to find Sun Keding late at night.

Pei Yuan's room was completely unsleepable.

He wanted to stay in Song Chunniang's room for one night, but he had just experienced an assassination attempt, and a dozen Jinyiwei were on guard near and far. Pei Yuan felt embarrassed to do so in front of so many people.

Fortunately, Chen Toutie went out to do some work, so Pei Yuan went to his room to take a nap.

Perhaps because he had something on his mind, Pei Yuan woke up before dawn.

He couldn't sleep, thinking of the fact that he hadn't practiced his physical skills for a long time, and he secretly regretted it. If he had persisted since then, maybe he would have been able to dodge more calmly when he encountered these assassinations today.

So I got up and practiced a few laps in the house.

Perhaps hearing some noise in the room, a Jinyiwei came up quickly and whispered through the door, "Captain?"

Pei Yuan hummed and ordered, "I won't sleep anymore, you don't have to watch over me. Go and get some rest."

The Jinyiwei asked, "Would you like to eat something to fill your stomach?"

Pei Yuan wasn't hungry yet, but he remembered something else, "By the way, is Chen Toutie back?"

The Jinyiwei replied, "They are back. General Chen has brought back several carriages, and he is now leading people outside to load things onto the carriages."

Pei Yuan thought to himself, no wonder Chen Toutie asked him what he wanted the carriage for.

Why is this guy so active recently? Could it be that he wants to be sent out because he can't be trained well?

Pei Yuan practiced the footwork twice before he finished his training with satisfaction.

After experiencing the great battle last night, the Jinyiwei not only did not sleep in this morning, but instead got up very early.

Perhaps subconsciously, everyone thinks this is an unsafe place.

After Pei Yuan had breakfast, he briefly met with the three centurions and made arrangements for the evacuation.

All the bodies of the assassins were left where they were, and the destroyed houses and the like were left alone.

The purpose is to make Huben Zuowei feel guilty and control the spread of the situation.

When everything was ready, the convoy left Jiangdu County and headed north.

To travel northwards by canal from Yangzhou, one must first write to the Canal Transport Office in Huai'an, and then allocate some canal boats from Hongze Lake, where the canal boats are stored, to travel southwards.

Pei Yuan's departure from the city this time was just a feint, so of course he wouldn't make it that troublesome.

Pei Yuan's team transporting silver was marching northward in a mighty manner. Less than three miles out of the city, someone on horseback came after them.

Pei Yuan asked Hou Qing to go and see.

The person who came turned out to be Sun Keding.

Sun Keding was woken up by Chen Toutie in the middle of the night yesterday and asked to buy a carriage.

He had just fallen asleep drunk and was full of complaints, but after thinking for a moment, he immediately got up and took Chen Toutie to the home of a familiar merchant to knock on the door.

When the merchant heard that the captain of the Jinyiwei needed a car and saw him rushing over in the middle of the night, he knew that something must have happened.

He was also very capable and directly unloaded the bundled goods from the truck and lent them to Chen Toutie first.

Sun Keding was thinking about this matter, and as soon as he woke up in the morning, he immediately sent someone to the Hundred Households Office to inquire about it.

As a result, the servant hurriedly reported back and said that the gate of the hundred-household residence was closed.

The servant then went to ask the neighbors, who said that there had been a thief there at night, and as soon as daybreak those people took many large carts and left the north city.

This made Sun Keding unable to sit still.

He had been traveling to Yangzhou for so many days and had spent so much effort before he finally found some merchants who were willing to follow Pei Yuan north.

Unexpectedly, Pei Yuan actually stood him up.

When Pei Yuan saw Sun Keding, he smiled and comforted him, "I know why you're here, don't panic."

Sun Keding had no idea what Pei Yuan was up to, so he could only nervously emphasize, "Brother, I've received all the deposits!"

Pei Yuan said, "Don't worry, nothing will go wrong."

After thinking for a while, he said to Sun Keding, "Wait a minute, I'll give you a few people, and you take these trucks of things back."

Sun Keding looked at the carriages Pei Yuan pointed out and felt that they looked familiar. He asked, "Aren't these the carriages I borrowed?"

Pei Yuan said, "Yes. When we left the Hundred Households Office, there must have been spies who noticed us, so it's not easy to do anything directly."

"You should transport these truckloads of goods back to the city later. Spend money when entering the city and don't expose yourself."

Pei Yuan and his men had official documents from the court and were all members of the Imperial Guard, so naturally no one dared to question them about what they were bringing in and out of Jiangdu.

It would be a bit troublesome for Sun Keding to take these carts of crossbows back.

Fortunately, after seeing Wang Chang's attitude towards Pei Yuan yesterday, Sun Keding seemed to have his Ren and Du meridians opened up, and he suddenly understood something.

After Pei Yuan finished speaking, he answered very quickly, "I was an official before, and no one checked how much stuff I brought into the city. Only those merchants who can extort money will have their stuff checked."

So Pei Yuan asked Hou Qing to take a few people and accompany Sun Keding to escort the vehicles back to Jiangdu City.

After Sun Keding left, Pei Yuan said to Tan Tai Fang Tu and the others, "Take your things and continue on your way. Find a post station to stay before nightfall. Then send someone to contact me at Sun Keding's residence. Ask Chen Toutie for the specific location. I need to go back to the city."

Tan Tai Fang Tu was shocked. "Captain, they are trying to kill you now. If you go back to Jiangdu again, won't you be walking into a trap?"

Pei Yuan said with a firm look, "If we don't take down Huben Zuowei, we will be trapped wherever we go. As long as we kill Huben Zuowei quickly and easily, there will be no place in the world that we cannot go. This is called 'strike the first blow to prevent a hundred blows'."

(End of this chapter)