A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

With several eyes watching from the Zhao family, Yang Hu wasn't afraid, but he didn't dare to relax at all.

He simply runs his clinic and sees patients.

In the shadows, Scarface's eyes, those of Liu Ye, never stopped shining, even for a moment!

The Zhao residence was watching Yang Ji's place. But Yang Hu himself was watching something else entirely—the rocky hill.

Later that day, Liu Ye returned from the herb garden on the outskirts of the city, walking a little faster.

"There's movement at the rocky hill!" She sat down, drank some water, and her eyes shone brightly. "These past few days, there have been more people coming and going in the hill. This morning, I saw them pulling more than a dozen horses out of the hill from the slope behind the herb garden. They were tied up tightly and covered with tarpaulins."

She paused for a moment.

"The way they tied the goods and the weight of the load were much heavier than the goods they usually delivered. I followed them for a long distance along the road that led to the area beyond the Great Wall."

Yang Hu stopped drinking tea.

Goods sent to the area beyond the Great Wall.

These past few days, he'd painstakingly broken off thread by thread. One end connected to Zhou's Grain Shop in the city, the other to the guards in the Luan Shi Gang stronghold, and beyond that, to the barbarians beyond the Great Wall. Zhou's provided the grain, Luan Shi Gang protected the transport, and the barbarians waited to eat. Beyond Zhou's and Luan Shi Gang, just one layer, was the large knife stuck in Da Cheng's neck. Ordinary grain, Luan Shi Gang had sent out time and again; he couldn't touch it. But this time, this weight, this tight binding?

"It's not grain!" Qin Ying, who was standing nearby, stopped sharpening her knife.

She looked up.

"They were tied very tightly, so tightly that the mules and horses were shaking violently. These are weapons, military equipment!"

She commands troops; her judgment is never wrong!

The smuggling of weapons out of the pass provided the barbarians with a weapon. The barbarians' weapons would be sharper, making things even more difficult for the soldiers guarding the city walls.

Yang Hu put down his teacup.

"This shipment of military equipment cannot be safely delivered across the border!"

As soon as he said that, the room fell silent.

"There are several hundred people in Luanshigang," Qin Ying stared at him. "If you try to stop their truckload of goods, you'll be fighting them head-on."

"Don't force it." Yang Hu shook his head. "Forced action is a inferior strategy. There are hundreds of desperate criminals, and behind them is another person. If we, with our small force, force our way into their lair, we'll just be adding to their numbers."

What he wants is not to take down that den, that's just a matter of time, but now is not the time!

What he wanted was a truckload of goods.

The shipment of military equipment out of the pass is undeniable evidence. Stopping it would not only cut off a batch of weapons for the barbarians, but also seize a real piece of their flesh! Following this shipment of military equipment upstream, past Zhouji, Luanshigang, and further on, to the support outside the pass, the net could be widened again.

The next morning, Yang Hu went to the city defense camp.

Upon hearing that it was about Luanshigang, Chief Wang welcomed him into the tent. Ever since the ambush at Luanshigang that resulted in the capture of that bandit group, no one in the city defense battalion had treated Doctor Yang as just an ordinary, mediocre doctor anymore. When it came to matters concerning the northern route, Chief Wang was the first person he wanted to hear his thoughts on.

"There's a shipment of military equipment being sent from Luanshigang to the area beyond the Great Wall," Yang Hu said bluntly. "We can stop them from delivering that shipment."

Chief Wang's eyebrows twitched: "Smuggling weapons out of the pass is a capital offense of treason! But there are hundreds of men in the stronghold, a direct assault..."

"Don't attack the ridgeline!" Yang Hu said. "Attack the section where it emerges from the ridgeline!"

He drew a line on the table:

"After the packhorse caravan leaves the hill, it has to walk along a narrow path to reach the road outside the pass. There's a ditch between two slopes, making it impossible to turn around. The city defense battalion is positioned behind the slopes on both sides. Once the packhorse caravan enters the ditch, they'll surround it from all sides, trapping it like a turtle in a jar. There are only a dozen or so people escorting the goods, making them much easier to defeat than the hundreds of people in the hill!"

Wang Dutou's eyes gradually brightened as he looked at the watermarks.

"Brilliant idea!" He slammed his fist on the table. "Let's do it!"

However, it is still unclear which route they will take on their departure day.

This matter then fell to Liu Ye again.

She waited in the herb garden outside the city for two days, and returned home soaking wet on the third night.

"Start your shift at midnight tonight!" she said. "Take that route!"

Wang Dutou led a team of strong, valiant men from the city defense battalion, who sneaked to the hillside behind the narrow road and laid an ambush. Yang Hu followed, taking Liu Ye with him. Qin Ying smeared some ash on her clothes and pretended to be an old woman pulling a cart, hiding behind them. She couldn't show herself, but even in the city, no one had such a keen eye for judging terrain and timing.

"The wind blows through the ditch on the slope!" she told Yang Hu. "They went in halfway, then they took action, blocking the front and sealing off the back, so they couldn't even pull out their bows."

Yang Hu relayed the message to Chief Wang, word by word.

After midnight, the sound of chaotic hoofbeats could be heard in the ditch.

A dozen or so packhorses, led silently by a dozen men dressed in black and covered with tarpaulins, headed towards the ditch.

We've gone halfway.

Wang Dutou shouted.

The city defense battalion, lying in ambush behind the slope, charged out, blocking the front and sealing off the rear. Their torches illuminated the entire narrow ditch. The men escorting the goods were startled. Just as they reached for their knives, Yang Hu flicked his wrist, scattering powder in the wind. Several of them immediately clutched their eyes and collapsed to the ground. Liu Ye slipped a short dagger close to their bodies, the back of the blade striking several wrists and knees.

In less than an hour, more than a dozen people who were escorting the goods collapsed and fell to the ground.

Only one person struggled desperately, slashing a city defense soldier to death with his knife. He then turned and ran up the mountain. Liu Ye struck him with her stick, causing him to fall to the ground. A group of city defense soldiers rushed over and pressed him down to the ground.

The soldier who had been stabbed lay there with his arms wrapped around his shoulders, bleeding profusely.

Yang Hu ran over, tore open his clothes, and saw that the knife had cut into the skin and tendons but not the bone. He said, "The bleeding has stopped, he's dead."

The man gritted his teeth and nodded, his face regaining some color.

Wang Dutou lifted the tarpaulin behind a packhorse.

Below are pieces of knife blanks and arrowheads.

Bundles of military equipment, their dark surfaces gleaming with a cold light.

"Good heavens!" Chief Wang gasped. "If this went out, it would be enough to lead a whole squad of barbarian cavalry."

Yang Hu lay down and asked the man, gently touching his neck with two fingers.

The man, in pain, loosened his grip.

This pile of stuff leaked from the West Camp's supply depot. It had been accumulating for many days and was sent out at night by moonlight. After leaving the outpost and crossing that narrow path, there was a pit-like place forty miles outside the pass where the barbarians would come to collect it.

From the military supply depot to Luanshigang, the intermediate link was still the grain store in the city, which was Zhou Ji's place.

The clues that Yang Hu had gathered were completely unharmed.

Military supply depot, weekly journal, rocky hill, outside the pass.

A continuous thread, from beginning to end.

But this man was just a roadside laborer. He couldn't name the person above him who could carry out the Western Camp's supplies warehouse by warehouse and still have absolute power in the city.

And then there's this "Weekly Journal". Old Master Zhou was his savior, but whether the old man knew about the things under the grain was clean or not, he couldn't be sure, and using it to investigate was another matter.

"What happens above is beyond my knowledge," he said weakly. "I can only obey orders."

Yang Hu stood up.

I still want that very top section.

However, this time they still won't lose money. A large amount of military equipment, more than a dozen people alive, and with his words, Zhou Ji's net is about to be torn open again.

Before dawn, the city defense camp had already returned the goods and the people.

This matter could not be covered up, and the news spread throughout the city the very next day.

Doctor Yang from the east of the city came up with another idea to help the city defense battalion block the north side, and seized a whole batch of military equipment that was being sent to the outside of the pass and sent it back together.

"It's not just that he's good at treating illnesses," someone in the teahouse exclaimed in astonishment. "This Doctor Yang is better at giving advice and getting things done than those soldiers in the army!"

"Isn't that right? Even the government is afraid of those evil stars in Luanshigang. They've all suffered great misfortune time and time again since they fell into his hands!"

Commander Wang from the city defense battalion came in person to express his gratitude, implying that from now on, everyone on the northern road should listen to Doctor Yang's advice, as this strategist's reputation was even higher than that of any miracle doctor.

It was already quite late when I got home.

Lu Yan poured him tea, and Qin Ying, who was at the window, stopped drawing the old mark on the knife.

"A batch of weapons, and a dozen or so alive," she said in a low voice, "This is the biggest piece of irrefutable evidence you've gathered so far in this case."

"We'll keep digging into this," Yang Hu said, taking a sip of tea. "We'll always end up getting to the heart of that online network!"

Looking at the night outside the window

This time, it was its outstretched claws that were cut off. The person sitting at the very top, using the West Camp military supply depot as his private warehouse, is still safe. However, sooner or later, he will pull those hands out of the layers of large cloth bags to sunbathe.