How could everyone have the heart to drink tea, and kept asking.

Su Jin smiled: "That's what I'm speculating, you can listen and see if it makes sense; The whole thing Feng Jingyao arranged without leakage, and as soon as the messenger arrived on the 26th, Feng Jingyao knew it for the first time, which is beyond doubt; After careful consideration, he decided to transport the grain out of the city to hide, but he couldn't use the city's men, which would leak the news, so he made up a reason to ask Guo Pinchao to help him open the door at night. ”

Guo Pinchao naturally didn't know what Feng Jingyao was going to transport out of the city, but it was estimated that he wouldn't ask, and Feng Jingyao wouldn't tell him; And Feng Jingyao began to arrange manpower outside the city to find a hiding place, these things wasted time, which is why the grain was transported out of the city on the night of the 29th after getting the news on the 26th, more than one million stone of grain, just hiring manpower and vehicles required a large number of vehicles and carrying people, fortunately, only need to transport the grain out of the city for temporary hoarding, and the rest can be carried out slowly, so I estimate that there are three or four hundred people and two or three hundred carts that night. ”

Pan Jiang nodded and said: "What the Lord said is reasonable, the date of the triumphant return of the Lord is the second day of the lunar month, and he has time to properly hide the grain that was transported out of the city; However, what I want to ask is that the officials and catchers on duty that night will witness it, is Feng Jingyao not afraid of leaking the news? ”

Su Jin said: "Remember what the ministry officer said? In the early morning of the second day, there was no trace of the people on duty at the city gate, and you think, who dared to leave the city gate without waiting for the handover to be completed? There was only one reason, and that was that they were ordered to evacuate, and they were ordered to stay at night, and then they were ordered to evacuate. ”

"The reason is very simple, either transfer them to other city gates to be on duty, or simply say that the order is canceled, and they are still on duty, who will doubt the order of the Shangguan why? The final result was naturally not to ask why, just accept the order, so the north city gate would be empty that night, there were no soldiers, no government officials and fast catchers, the city gate was open, Feng Jingyao's grain convoy was naturally free to come and go, and no one knew about it. ”

Everyone suddenly realized, as Su Jin said, I am afraid that the matter of transporting grain that night is unaware, and the order to evacuate is naturally issued by Guo Pinchao, and it is said that Guo Pinchao does not know that it is to transport grain out of the city, even if he knows that he will do it.

Su Jindao: "Now if we want to prove whether this guess is correct, we have to go to investigate and confirm it in three ways; I'll assign it, Wang Dynasty Mahan, the two of you will go out of the north city gate to the direction of Tianchang, and inquire along the way, to see if anyone has witnessed a large number of convoys of people transporting goods after November 29, Feng Jingyao will definitely relax his vigilance after the grain leaves the city, and he will quickly and properly hide the grain, it is very likely that he will not wait for the night, if it is carried out during the day, it will inevitably be seen by others, and it is these clues that you want to check. ”

Wang Dynasty Mahan arched his hand and said: "Don't worry, master, as long as he does transport grain out of the north gate, we will definitely be able to find clues no matter day or night." ”

Su Jin nodded and said: "If you really find the traces, follow them all the way, but remember not to make a big fuss, so as not to startle the snake; I judged that there must be someone else outside the city to arrange for him, and that there must be someone else who hired the vehicle, and that this person must not be aware of it, and if he destroys the evidence or moves the food, then we will be passive. ”

Dynasty Mahan agreed.

Su Jin turned to Pan Jiang and Pan Shiyi and said, "The two commanders, as the second way, secretly investigated among the guards and officials on duty at the North City Gate that night to see if the situation that night was as we speculated, and they received two opposite orders. ”

Pan Jiang Pan Shiyi arched his hand and said: "Obey orders." ”

Su Jin clapped his hands and stood up and said: "As for the third way, the envoy will personally go out to meet that Guo Tongju, it is estimated that Lord Fuzun will not ask about this matter, and he will not take the initiative to confess this matter; As long as the facts we get from the three places are summarized, everything will be fine. ”

The people immediately got up and went their separate ways.

……

Dynasty Ma Han brought enough dry food and water, rode two fast horses out of the north city gate and went along the official road, the two went out of the city gate, all the way to the north, walked for several miles, in front of the Shugang Mountain stretched peaks around, the official road winds straight into the mountain; It is just as Pan Shiyi said, this official road is very remote, there are almost no cars, horses and pedestrians along the way, and the road is also rugged and potholes, and after walking for so long, there are almost no people.

Mahan grabbed his horse's head and asked, "Shall we go into the mountains?" It's getting late, and if there is no village in the mountains, our brothers will have to go at night. ”

Wang Chao glanced at him and said, "You still plan to sleep at night?" I didn't see that Ye was in a hurry or anything, could it be that you want to be lazy at this time? ”

Ma Han muttered: "You're lazy, are you in a hurry?" Why didn't I see that? ”

Wang Chao scolded: "Ten miles away, a sauce elbow can be smelled, the lord's anxiety is in his heart, today is the tenth day of the lunar month, and he has been in this Yangzhou bird place for almost two months, things are endless, do you really want to celebrate the New Year here?" The old lady hasn't seen her son for half a year, and the son doesn't say it, but she has often sighed recently. ”

Ma Han scratched his head and said: "Yes, and Xiao Sui'er and Zhao Hu brothers are still in the capital, we have to go to the capital to pick them up, speaking of which, when it comes to the New Year, I don't have any thoughts about doing things, and it is not easy for the son." ”

Wang Chao said: "Let's go, this time the two of us have the heaviest task, don't just think about eating, as long as the two of us can find a place to hide the food, even if there is no progress on their side, it can be regarded as a great success, the master said, our brothers are going to follow him to do great things in the future, so in the future, we must have more brains and more experience, but we can't teach him to be disappointed." ”

Mahan said: "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go, it's a big deal to spend the night in the mountains, build a fire and go to the grass and deal with it. ”

The two rode forward and entered the mountains along the official road; This official road is built according to the topography, and the use of the road between the two hills is to be used with a little widening, but in such a steep and remote place, pedestrians and merchants dare not go, and there are bandits blocking the road and robbing in the mountains; Although it is only a small mountain peak on the west side of Shugang Mountain, it is still deep grass and dense forest, and the pine waves on the slopes on both sides of the wind blow like a storm crashing on the shore.

The mountain peaks block the daylight, under the shade of the lush trees, the sky seems to get dark quickly, the official road is in disrepair, and many places have collapsed, but the dynasty soon found that something was wrong, and walked through several landslides, there were no large stones on the official road, the largest was only a fist-sized gravel, and there seemed to be traces of human leveling in some places.

When the dynasty told Mahan about this, Mahan also felt strange.

"Could it be that the mountains on both sides are mud and stone mountains? And there are no big stones? Mahan said.

Wang Dynasty squinted his eyes and pointed to the crumbling huge stones on the mountain wall and said: "Look over there, that big stone is not about to fall, and most of the places where the collapse is bare are these stones. ”

Ma Han raised his big finger and said: "When did you become Wang Qingtian, you actually know so much and can think so meticulously." ”

Wang Chao said: "Follow the prince's side, as long as you work hard, you can always learn some skills that are different from ordinary people, you only say that what I said is right." ”

Ma Han said: "Just try it." With that, he dismounted in stirrups, tied his belt, and climbed up the hill like a monkey.

Wang Chao said, "What have you done? ”

Mahan said: "You stay away, I'll go to the hillside to see if the soil is compact, and then go to the rock." ”

Wang Chao hurriedly pulled the horse to the side of the road, looked up and watched Mahan's figure disappear into the dim forest, and after a while Mahan appeared on the bare and protruding rock, and shouted down: "You are right, the soil on the hillside is compact, and the roots of the trees and grass are grasped, and it is true that it will not collapse, but this stone is loose and tight in the wind and rain." ”

Wang Chao said: "That's it, you try to see if you can kick the stone down, let's see if there will be a big stone on the road after the collapse." ”

Ma Han said in a loud voice: "Go farther, I'll stomp a few feet." ”

Wang Dynasty walked further, and saw Mahan exhaling and making a sound, he

The situation was completely different from the previous collapses, and the official road was immediately covered with large and small stones, the large ones were the size of millstones, and the small ones were broken into powder.

Needless to say, the big stone at the collapse must have been cleaned up by people, otherwise in this situation, it is not easy to talk about the carriages and horses, even if people crawl over.

Ma Han said excitedly: "Does this mean that those convoys carrying grain have passed by since then?" Otherwise, who will clean it up? ”

Wang Chao said thoughtfully: "Not necessarily, these official roads and courts recruit people to renovate every winter, and we don't know if it is the government's doing, but it's a pity that these sand and gravel are dry and hard, and we can't see the rutted hoofs and horses' marks, but at least we know that someone has cleaned up this road in recent times, and it can be regarded as a clue." ”

Ma Han said: "Hey, the two of us are really like a pair of catchers, and I found that our brothers really have the ability to catch and detective." ”

Wang Chao laughed and said, "Let's go, Ma Da catches the head, there may be a bigger clue ahead." ”