usatvline Chapter 184 Northern Countries
Chapter 184 Northern Countries
"General, you've returned just in time." Before Zong Yanli could report, Gao Jiayue had already invited Zong Yanli into the hall.
When Zong Yanli arrived in the palace, he saw that several ministers from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of War were all there. Wei Songhe was standing slightly to the side and behind him, bowing slightly to Zong Yanli.
The expressions of several adults in the hall were a little heavy, and they all bowed to greet Zong Yanli when they saw him.
Gao Jiayue sat up straight, and when he saw Zong Yanli, he seemed to have found his backbone, and said quickly: "Lord Liao presented something today, General, have you seen it?"
Zong Yanli followed Gao Jiayue's gaze and saw the young eunuch next to him kneeling in front of Zong Yanli with a wooden box in his hands. In the wooden box was a strange scimitar and something that looked like a crossbow and sleeve arrows that he had never seen before.
Zong Yanli's eyes were stern. He immediately reached out and picked up the sleeve arrow. He squinted his eyes and got close to the tip of the arrow. He saw the extremely familiar symbol on the arrowhead at a glance.
That is the symbol of the sun.
"Wuhuan, the northern countries." Zong Yanli frowned slightly, holding the sleeve arrow, turned to look at the Minister of War Liao Weiming and asked, "Where did you get this thing?"
"General, do you recognize this thing?" Liao Weiming was terrified and leaned forward and said, "Since the general was fighting against the bandits, the bandits have fled. Other local governments have also taken action to eliminate the bandits."
"We caught a group of mountain bandits near Yiyong Township, and found these things in their lair." Liao Weiming said in a deep voice: "I think these weapons are unusual, and they are not something that can be made by the surrounding countries. We can't get anything out of the bandits even if we interrogate them."
Liao Weiming knew that this was no small matter, so he brought the thing back to the capital overnight.
Zong Yanli frowned slightly: "Where is Yiyong Township located?"
"Qizhou is adjacent to the former Qing Kingdom." Liao Weiming said quickly.
"It is indeed the territory of Qing Kingdom..." Zong Yanli lowered his eyes, his mind in a mess. After a long time, he spoke: "If my guess is correct, this thing originated from Wuhuan among the northern countries."
The flag of Wuhuan was a golden crow on a black background, which was shaped like a blazing sun.
The forged weapons will have marks on them, which means that they are military sleeve arrows. Now that the weapons of the Wuhuan Kingdom have fallen into the hands of our country's bandits, this is naturally thought-provoking.
The northern countries have not had any dealings with us for a long time, and naturally there has been no war between us.
There has only been peace for a few decades now, and I believe that the northern countries have grown up like young tigers, and can't wait to go out of the mountains to hunt.
Zong Yanli still has no idea how the Kingdom of Qing managed to bring in the Northern Kingdom's troops in the previous life. However, in this life, under Zong Yanli's strong pressure and conquest, the Kingdom of Qing did not ask for any assistance, and the Northern Kingdom's troops never appeared. Zong Yanli thought that the matter was over.
did not expect……
Judging from the sudden appearance of this weapon, it can be inferred that the northern troops may have already infiltrated the Qing Kingdom.
However, at that time, the Kingdom of Qing no longer had the strength to fight, and the Kingdom of the North probably did not want to take the risk of showing up, so it hid in the dark. It is unknown how it flowed into the Kingdom of Wu after the demise of the Kingdom of Qing.
"Lord Liao, where are the people in the bandits' den who found this thing being held?" Zong Yanli was obviously worried and planned to go and interrogate them in person.
"I have not yet made a ruling. They are all detained in the prison." Liao Weiming said quickly with his head lowered.
"This matter is of no trivial importance. General, please make sure to examine it carefully." Gao Jiayue spoke immediately, giving Zong Yanli the authority to continue the investigation.
"Yes." Zong Yanli bowed in response.
Zong Yanli and several ministers went to the prison of the Ministry of Justice and interrogated many bandits in succession before they got some clues. The origin of the sleeve arrows and other items was that they intercepted them from the guards of a caravan. When they asked in detail where the caravan came from, they were clueless.
They didn't care about the caravan's origins; they were there for the goods.
Zong Yanli changed his approach and asked about the goods escorted by the caravans and the martial arts skills of the caravan guards.
"Just some ordinary cloth and clothing materials..." It has been a long time since then, and the amount of goods robbed by those bandits is so countless that I can't remember it at all.
"My martial arts skills are just average..." If they were good at martial arts, they would definitely remember the suffering they suffered. If they can't remember, it means they didn't put in much effort.
The only clue given is that they robbed the goods and beat people, and after seizing their weapons, they beat the people up and let them go.
These ordinary bandits didn't want to get involved in murder cases easily, so they just committed intimidation and robbery.
After Zong Yanli came out of prison, he felt the seriousness of the matter and decided to go to Yiyong Township in person.
This time they were not going to suppress bandits, but to find out the origins of those people. Naturally, it was not advisable to bring too many people. After much discussion, Zong Yanli finally decided to take Wen Nian and Zhan Haoyue with him, and the others would stay in the army.
"Brother, you just came back, and you're going on a long journey again tomorrow?" After returning home, Zong Yanli had something to discuss with Wei Songhe, so he simply called Zong Yanyin to his house for dinner.
"I have something important to do." Zong Yanli looked at Zong Yanyin apologetically and said, "Sister, is there something wrong?"
"Yan'er's birthday is in two days." Zong Yanyin pursed her lips and looked at Zong Yanli. After a long while, she sighed helplessly, "Forget it, forget it. Go ahead, brother."
"..."
Zong Yanli felt embarrassed and helpless. In the end, he could only apologize to Zong Yanyin. He then went to find Gongsun Pu overnight and asked him to help him buy a birthday gift. He delivered it to the Wei family before leaving Beijing, expressing his apology for not being able to celebrate Wei Shiyan's birthday.
If it was an ordinary matter, she would not have to go there in person, but the Wuhuan's military equipment actually appeared in the territory of Wu State, so Zong Yanli could not help but pay attention.
Compared with the northern countries, Wuhuan had a vast territory but scarce resources, and a relatively small population.
Zong Yanli didn't have a deep impression of the Wuhuan, as she had fought against them only a few times. What worried her more was the Northern Kingdom...
"Sir, have you ever traveled to Wuhuan?" The main reason why Zong Yanli chose to bring Zhan Haoyue with him on this trip to Yiyong Township was that among many advisers, Zhan Haoyue was the only one who had traveled to the northern countries.
"Yes." Zhan Haoyue nodded and said, "If it was the former Wu State, they might have to be a little bit respectful of Wuhuan, but now that Wu State has swallowed up two countries in succession, it has no worries at all. Dealing with a small Wuhuan is no problem at all."
"But..." Zhan Haoyue paused and said to Zong Yanli, "General, you attach so much importance to this. I'm afraid you are worried that the northern countries will join forces?"
Zong Yanli had to admire Zhan Haoyue's sharpness. She nodded and smiled, saying, "I only mentioned the sleeve arrows, but I didn't tell you the origin of the scimitar."
Zong Yanli clearly remembered that the blade used by the Wuhuan was much narrower than this one, so this knife was probably not made by a Wuhuan soldier.
Zhan Haoyue whispered, "General, don't worry too much. With Wu's current strength, even the northern countries should stay out of the spotlight. The enemy's traces found in Wu's territory are most likely spies from the northern countries."
“What I am more worried about is whether these people will make secret moves and interfere in the war between Gao and Jin.” Zhan Haoyue said with a slightly frown, seeming a little distressed.
"I am worried about this, too." Zong Yanli's eyebrows sank. It would be terrible if the northern countries intervened, disrupted the war situation and put the blame on Wu State, provoked a fight among the three countries, causing internal strife between Wu State and Gao State, and then took advantage of the situation to attack.
Zhan Haoyue dutifully told Zong Yanli about the northern countries, but he had not been to all of them.
Among them, Zhan Haoyue talked the most about the Northern Kingdom and Liaodong. In the northern region, the combat power of these two countries is comparable, and they are also strong military countries, worthy of the name of a tiger and wolf army.
The only advantage is that the two countries have a feud and it is impossible for them to join forces no matter what. The reason why the North and the South fought and called a truce was because of civil strife in the two countries and both wanted to unify the North. In the end, the two countries suffered heavy losses and ended up fighting.
Along the way, Zong Yanli spent most of his time analyzing the situation with Zhan Haoyue. The more he analyzed, the more frightened Zhan Haoyue became. He himself could be said to have traveled to various countries personally, but why could Zong Yanli calculate the military strength of various countries so accurately just from his own words?
Zhan Haoyue was secretly shocked. Looking at Zong Yanli in front of him, he had some weird thoughts for no reason. Could it be that there really was such a wonderful thing as the 'chosen one' in this world?
"No matter what the northern countries are planning, we don't have much time left." Zong Yanli felt heavy-hearted. While rushing to Yiyong Township, he wrote a letter to his father, asking him to pay attention to the army and not let any suspicious people sneak into the army.
"Send a letter to Kuang Xingquan, telling him to be careful." Zong Yanli didn't know what those people hiding in the dark wanted to do, so he could only make everyone around him more alert.
"Yeah." Wen Nian nodded in agreement.
When Zong Yanli and others arrived at Yiyong Township, it was a thunderstorm.
The three of them hurriedly found an ordinary inn to stay temporarily. Yiyong Township was not a big place, but with the opening of trade routes, there were many more businessmen and travelers in a hurry. The innkeeper was no longer surprised to see outsiders like Zong Yanli.
"I heard that there were bandits here some time ago?" Zong Yanli shook off the water drops on his body, ordered a pot of hot tea, and then asked the waiter about the affairs of Yiyong Township.
"Yes! But don't worry, sir. The bandits have been eliminated by the soldiers. We are safe now!" The waiter thought that Zong Yanli and the others were worried about bandits robbing the road, so he said quickly, "I saw several caravans passing by today."
"Destroyed? That's great." Zong Yanli paused and said with a smile, "I see a lot of caravans passing through Yiyong Township. What do the caravans usually transport?"
"That's a lot." The waiter threw the rag over his shoulder and casually counted them out to Zong Yanli, including silk, cloth, herbs, charcoal and everything else.
Zong Yanli listened in silence. How could she find out about so many caravans?
Zhan Haoyue asked about which caravans had been robbed, what goods had been lost and so on. The waiter looked at Zhan Haoyue and his companions, unsure as to why they were asking these questions. Finally, he said a few vague words and went downstairs to greet the customers.
Even though they were in plain clothes, Zong Yanli and Wen Nian had been generals for many years and had killed countless enemies, so their aura was not to be provoked. Both of them were carrying swords. The waiter might have been worried about getting into trouble, so he left and never came back again.
"I'll go to the county government office tomorrow." Zong Yanli felt that it was not appropriate for him to inquire about these things in front of the common people, and finally he happily let Zhan Haoyue go to inquire.
As soon as it was daybreak, he took Wen Nian to the county government office and found the county magistrate of Yiyong Township to inquire about the whole matter.
The county magistrate of Yiyong Township was greatly frightened, and became even more terrified after learning Zong Yanli's identity. When he learned that he was here to investigate a case of mountain bandits, he immediately pulled out the files. All merchant caravans that were robbed would be reported to the government.
Zong Yanli only needs to compare the approximate time with the number of goods the caravan encountered in distress and lost to roughly find it out.
"According to what the general said, these three caravans are the most likely match." County Magistrate Cao also fully cooperated and turned the case file upside down.
"The person who reported the case is Guang Jianyuan. The lost goods are silk cloth..." County Magistrate Cao said seriously, "When he came to report the case, his face was bruised and swollen. He said that he refused to obey the bandit and was beaten. In the end, he was still robbed."
"This one is an old man, and the goods he transports are all medicinal herbs..."
"The last one seems to be a tall and strong young man." Magistrate Cao thought seriously for a moment, and said quickly as if he had thought of something: "General, I remember now. When this person came to report the case, he was followed by a group of guards."
"Hey! I saw that he, who looked strong and mighty, was so cowardly that he threw away his weapons and armor and let the goods be snatched away by the bandits. He didn't even resist even with his guards!" Magistrate Cao said excitedly.
At that time, he thought these people were really cowardly. With so many guards, he might be able to fight against those bandits.
When he came to report to the police, he had an indifferent attitude. After reporting, he turned around and left, as if he didn't care at all whether his goods could be recovered.
The more Magistrate Cao spoke, the more he found these people strange. How could a traveling merchant not care about his own goods?
Anyone who has been robbed and comes to report to the police will have a sad face and cry out to the sky.
"What's this person's name?" Zong Yanli asked in a cold voice with his eyes narrowed.
"Master Wang," Magistrate Cao pointed to the record on the case file and replied. Zong Yanli asked again with a stern look in his eyes, "Where did these people go after they reported the case?"
"This..." County Magistrate Cao lowered his head in embarrassment: "I don't know about this."
“General, you can go to the inns in Yiyong Township and ask around.” Since they are merchants passing by, they must be staying in an inn. Maybe there will be clues there.
Zong Yanli nodded slightly, and without any hesitation asked Magistrate Cao for people, dressed in plain clothes and went to the restaurants and inns around the city to inquire about the news. This way they would not alert the enemy, as Zong Yanli and Wen Nian were too conspicuous.
Magistrate Cao did not dare to disobey, and after agreeing, he began to prepare.
On the other side, Zhan Haoyue was mingling in the market, and it seemed that Zong Yanli was really leisurely.