Chapter 97
Wang Lang had barely fallen asleep when his confidant banged on his door, waking him. He'd already arrived at his bridal chamber rather late due to other delays, and eating, washing, and dealing with some urgent official documents took him quite a while, so by the time he finally got to bed, it was already quite late. He'd used his wedding night to vent all the frustrations and stress of the previous few days, calling for water twice before finally falling asleep. It felt like he'd barely slept when he was startled awake.
When he was woken, he had a stern face and let his new wife prepare his clothes, his heart heavy. His previous premonition was indeed correct; his wedding night was destined to be restless.
Before going out, he glanced at the time, it was 2:15 am.
When his confidant saw him, he quickly explained, "Sir, something has happened. The governor's secret vault on the outskirts of the city has been robbed. There are nearly two thousand people on the other side."
Really? Hearing this, it was like another shoe dropping to the ground. Wang Lang's heart instantly calmed down. "When did it happen?"
"Zi Shi."
Wang Lang paused. Something happened at midnight, and now someone has only reported it at 2:30 am? He hadn't known his father-in-law had set up the secret vault on the outskirts of the city, but would it take two hours to get from the outskirts to the main city to report the news? Even if he had to crawl, he would still be able to reach it, right?
"The governor has just learned the news and is furious."
Wang Lang remained silent. What was the point of getting angry now? He had been reminding his father-in-law over and over again, but he didn't seem to take it to heart.
Wang Lang asked, "Did any troops come out from the Yichun military camp in the second half of the night?" It was impossible for his men to fail to notice the deployment of two thousand soldiers.
"No."
That was strange. Wang Lang was puzzled.
When Wang Lang arrived at the front hall, Prefect Lei saw him and said, "My dear son-in-law, I regret not listening to you."
How can I describe the mood of Prefect Lei at this moment? Don’t ask, because if you do, he will say he regrets it.
Wang Lang ignored the mess on the ground and walked in.
As soon as he sat down, Governor Lei immediately asked for advice, "What should we do now? I've already ordered some people to follow the existing clues. Should we gather the troops and directly blockade the Yichun military settlement to search for the stolen goods?"
Now, Lei Taishou was completely convinced that it was Yao Chunnuan of the Yao family who was responsible, and that the military settlement was aiding and abetting the evil. Because of all this, his son-in-law had already warned him, and it happened just as expected. Who else could it be but her?
Wang Lang remained calm. "I wonder how much was lost from your private vault, father-in-law? What kind of valuables were there?"
Lei Taishou's face twitched. "There are gold, silver, jewelry, grain, and some antiques inside. The total value is 280,000 taels of silver."
Wang Lang didn't know that his father-in-law was actually quite rich.
"My dear son-in-law, you must help me catch the thief and recover the property. You don't know how long I've been saving that silver." That was his only reserve warehouse. Saving 700,000 or 800,000 taels in seven years, how could it be easy for him? Yao took away his 200,000 or 300,000 taels of supplies in one go. It was like cutting out his heart!
"Father-in-law, don't be anxious. Let me figure out the situation first."
Wang Lang questioned the person who had brought the news. He felt something was fishy. He had to figure out what went wrong. If he couldn't figure it out, it would be a shame to rashly attack the Yichun military settlement. After all, everything he had done before was just speculation.
"You confronted the thieves head-on. Did you see their characteristics clearly?"
"They are just a group of bandits!" The person who reported the news was right on this point.
Wang Lang frowned, "Is it really the work of bandits?"
"It is absolutely true. I dare not deceive you, sir."
Wang Lang pursed his lips and asked, "Is it possible that someone is impersonating him?"
If Yao Chunnuan were here, he would definitely tell him that professional matters should be left to professionals, and there is no such thing as counterfeiting.
"Impossible." He had said it long ago that it was done by bandits. One of them seemed to be the second in command of the Black Dragon Village, but the prefect refused to listen and insisted on concluding that it was done by the Yao family. He was also puzzled.
Upon hearing the messenger identify one of them as the second-in-command of Black Dragon Village, Wang Lang couldn't help but doubt himself. Could he have really guessed wrong? But in his heart, he still leaned towards Yao Chunnuan's doing. It was just that she had used some method to drag Black Dragon Village into the water.
"What should we do now?" Prefect Lei was anxious. He knew that the later the action was, the lower the possibility of recovering the property.
Wang Lang said, "Let's check the Black Dragon Village first."
Prefect Lei hurriedly asked, "What about the Yao family? What about the Yichun military settlement? Should we investigate?"
"Let's send someone to monitor first." Seeing that he was dissatisfied, Wang Lang reminded him, "Father-in-law, we don't have that many troops." It would be difficult to even deal with the Black Dragon Village.
Governor Lei was speechless for a moment. He indeed did not have the troops to start two wars at the same time.
They sat in the living room and waited until dawn, when they finally received confirmation that the thieves from last night were indeed from Black Dragon Village. Infuriated, Governor Lei immediately sent all the troops from the Yichun Governor's Office towards Black Dragon Village.
It was only then that the Black Dragon Village realized that what they had robbed last night was actually the private vault of the Lei Taishou. They were speechless as they had robbed their own father and mother. But at this point, it was impossible for them to spit out the stolen goods. The Black Dragon Village was originally quite stubborn. If they were really afraid of the government and the Lei Taishou, they would not have become bandits in the mountains of Yichun. Moreover, their mountain stronghold was easy to defend but difficult to attack. At worst, they would not come down the mountain. In the scam last night, those people took away the light property, and the remaining heavy items, some of which were food, or high-quality new food, enough for their entire village to eat for several months.
By this time, however, Cao, the Great Village Chief, had already vaguely suspected that he had been tricked. He thought about how the other party had easily taken half of the treasure, without having to face the frantic pursuit of the Lei Taishou. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was. He snorted coldly, intending to spread the news that half of his village's treasure had been robbed. It was a disgrace, so be it. Don't even think that the Black Dragon Village would take the blame for them!
He expressed his thoughts. The entire village's military advisors and others discussed it together, and the final conclusion they came to was the same as he had guessed. Even if it was different, it had to be the same!
After the news was released, Governor Lei was skeptical.
Wang Lang believed it instantly. The news suddenly made sense to him: the Yichun military settlement, the Black Dragon Village, and Pan Buyi's three thousand soldiers! Everything connected! He immediately dispatched a massive search throughout Yichun for Pan Buyi and his men. But just as the ominous premonition had lingered in his mind, there was no trace of them. It was difficult to conceal the whereabouts of three thousand soldiers; if they couldn't be found, they were likely not in Yichun.
The Yichun military settlement had also heard the news released by Chief Cao. Yao Chunnuan could only sigh. There were so many clever people in this world. Even a small stronghold shouldn't be underestimated. Fortunately, she had sent General Pan and the others away as soon as she succeeded. Even if they all guessed they were behind the plot, what would it matter? Without proof, everything was just speculation, and there was nothing she could do.
Wang Lang told his guess to the prefect Lei, who was furious. He went straight to Marshal Zhu to seek cooperation and join forces to deal with the Yichun military settlement. The most important thing was to force them to deal with Yao Chunnuan!
Governor Lei went to see Marshal Zhu in person.
Wang Lang did not accompany him. Recently, he had vaguely realized that he was not favored by Marshal Zhu.
The secret vault of Governor Lei was robbed, and he was furious and suppressed the bandits. The people were unaware of the situation, but Marshal Zhu knew. When he learned that Governor Lei was coming to see him, he hurriedly asked someone to invite him in.
"Hey, Prefect Lei, what a rare guest!" Marshal Zhu, his face flushed, rose to greet Prefect Lei when he arrived in the hall. He wasn't wrong. The two had lived together in Yichun for many years, yet they hadn't really had much in common. Each of them was in charge of their own affairs, and neither could cross the line.
After the servants had served tea, Marshal Zhu said enthusiastically, "No one comes to my temple for no reason. Governor Lei, if you have anything to say, please speak directly."
"I'm sure you've heard about the robbery of my secret vault on the outskirts of the city."
"Ah, something happened to your secret vault too?" Marshal Zhu: Why is there this inexplicable gloating feeling in his heart?
Last night, he wanted to see a play. He hadn't been to a play since the last time he expelled the Yuxiang Troupe. The servants noticed his desire and were about to find him a popular opera troupe. He was tempted to go, but he still reluctantly refused. The main reason was that he remembered that the two times the secret vault incidents happened, they were both when he was watching a play, which left a shadow in his heart. When he refused, he told himself, Marshal Zhu, you have to hold back.
Seeing the dusty appearance of Governor Lei, Marshal Zhu was extremely grateful that he had restrained himself last night, otherwise, it might have been his treasure house that was in trouble.
He was such a superstitious person. When he was a child, his family was so poor that they could barely afford to eat. One day, a fortune teller passed by his house. His parents gave him a bowl of porridge and asked him to tell their fortune. The fortune teller drank the porridge, which was so thin that it couldn't be any thinner, while observing his face. Then he drank the porridge in one gulp and told his parents to let him join the army, saying that he would be a general in charge of an army in the future. Isn't that what happened? So, he thought that going to the theater would cause trouble, so he stopped going. Sure enough, it was someone else's family that got into trouble.
"Yes, something went wrong, and half of my seven years of hard work was gone." This was an exaggeration, but he had to say it. He wanted to win Marshal Zhu's sympathy!
Zhu Dashuai sighed, "Old Lei, think more positively. Try to chase after what's lost and see if you can get it back. If you can't, forget it. What's more important is to keep what's still in your hands."
"This must have been done by Yao Chunnuan of the Yao family! My secret vault is very secretive, and only a handful of people know about it! No one else can find my secret vault except her. Now you want me to be more open-minded, I can't swallow this!"
"Have you offended her?" Marshal Zhu had a certain understanding of Yao's attitude towards the Yichun military settlement.
"It's not a matter of offense. I was just following the rules." Prefect Lei told the story of his order to restrict the population and land of military settlements.
Marshal Zhu thought: You restrict other people's land and population, and you say you are doing things according to the rules. Others can't do anything to you about this, but they can turn around and take your life.
"How about we join forces? We can't let her be so arrogant. If she wants to touch our lives, let her do it. I don't believe that we can't deal with a little liar if we join forces!" asked the prefect Lei.
"Do you have any evidence?" Marshal Zhu asked coldly.
Lei Taishou was stunned. "No, Marshal Zhu, what's wrong with you? Isn't this obvious? Do you need any evidence to do it?"
Do it? You have to be able to do it. If you can't do it, but still insist on doing it, isn't that just courting death? It's better to just lie down and wait. Marshal Zhu's current mentality is, as long as my treasure trove is safe, I don't care about the flood around me. Besides, having one more person to share the firepower will also save that woman from always staring at his treasure trove.
Marshal Zhu saw that he looked like he hadn't slept all night, and being rejected so coldly by him, he felt quite pitiful. So he said, "Calm down first and listen to me. I believe in fate. Some people have good fortunes, while others have bad fortunes. People with good fortunes bring good luck to those around them. People with bad fortunes are, to put it bluntly, disaster stars, and they bring misfortune to those around them. The closer the person is, the greater the impact. Think about it, you've been fine in Yichun for seven years, and your official career has been smooth. How could such a big thing suddenly happen? Then think about whether there were any major changes around you before the accident? For example, who added new people, who moved any graves, or whether the house you lived in was significantly changed?"
As Prefect Lei listened, he became less excited and instead looked thoughtful.
Marshal Zhu stopped there.
Marshal Zhu had long been annoyed with Wang Lang. Couldn't he see the harm the Yichun military settlement was doing? As he said, since they couldn't defeat him, couldn't stop their rise, it would be better to make peace. If that didn't work, they could just avoid him and avoid further offense. Of course, if he had the chance to take advantage of the Yichun military settlement, he would take it.
But Wang Lang didn't think so, so he was annoyed with him. But he was the prince's man, so it was difficult to take action, so he was now determined to get rid of him.
When Governor Lei said goodbye, he told Marshal Zhu that he still couldn't get over it.
I can't swallow this humiliation. The beating I received was not enough.
Marshal Zhu understood what he meant and could only sigh, "What bad luck!" Well, even without a troupe to perform, it would still be nice to listen to and watch this real-life drama.
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