Chapter 131
"Master Yao, General He, and the others have already moved the items out of the warehouse. Here are the keys."
Yao Chunnuan nodded and took the key.
In reality, the warehouse only held two items: gunpowder and oil. These two items were kept as emergency strategic supplies. She had given Han Chaosheng a rough formula for the gunpowder, and then had him find a secret location to experiment with it. Once the finished product was ready, he would bring it back. Xiao Jieming had brought back the oil. It was difficult to transport, so he only managed to get back around five or six thousand kilograms. This time, to deal with Prefect Lei, He Qing and the others who had gone to work had already taken away half of it.
Initially, she considered using explosives, ambushing the 20,000 soldiers on their way back and sending them straight back home. However, after careful consideration, she decided against it. Firstly, she still wanted to use the explosives as a trump card, so it wouldn't be wise to reveal them too soon. Secondly, these 20,000 soldiers were still part of Daliang.
The Central Plains is about to erupt in flames of war. The Western Rong have already launched their war. The Northern Di are likely to follow soon, as the old Northern Di king's death and the struggle for the throne between Wei Zhexi and his allies are nearing their end. The Southern Barbarians, known for their treacherous ways, are likely to exploit the situation. Furthermore, in the heart of the Central Plains, due to their counter-plotting, the King of Ruyin is likely to make a move soon.
Therefore, retaining these 20,000 active forces could be used to defend against foreign invaders. Furthermore, this was also a way to prevent the Yichun military settlement from becoming the primary culprit. If they killed the Crown Prince's 20,000 soldiers, the Crown Prince would probably be furious.
Governor Lei made such a big move that Marshal Zhu received the news immediately.
Marshal Zhu was having a meal when he heard about Governor Lei's heroic act. He was so shocked that he dropped his chopsticks.
Upon hearing that Prefect Lei had actually hired an old Taoist priest and brought 20,000 soldiers to seize the Yichun Military Settlement, he had only one thought: Lei Peng was crazy. What else could he be? The Yichun Military Settlement was flourishing, who wouldn't want it? Who wouldn't be jealous? But who would dare to take action? He wouldn't dare, not even with 70,000 soldiers.
But Marshal Zhu hadn't anticipated that Ray Ban would dare to do what he hadn't dared to think. He was too bold. Was he planning to extort the other party's military settlement? How audacious! Didn't he realize he was stirring up a hornet's nest? Wasn't he afraid of being stung to death?
This time he must open his eyes wide to see if Ray-Ban, who dares to reach out, will have his bones broken!
Marshal Zhu quickly sent people to inquire about the scene. Sure enough, the people in Yichun Military Village never let him down, especially the woman Yao Chunnuan.
Hearing her order the bulky female guard beside her to kill the old Taoist priest as soon as they met, and then scolding Ray-Ban to the point of bloodshed. Those insults were really sharp, stabbing Ray-Ban in the heart. Those words were like slaps in the face, slapping Ray-Ban in the face. Tsk tsk, even if he wasn't there, he could feel the pain of Ray-Ban's face being peeled off and stepped on.
Finally, Yao Chunnuan threatened, as she had promised! Slandering a good and loyal person will bring disaster upon himself! So arrogant! Yao Chunnuan practically told him, "I'm going to get you, so get ready." Don't say I didn't warn you.
Lei Peng is in big trouble, Marshal Zhu thought sympathetically. Finally, he kindly sent a letter to the Lei family, asking them to be careful with his secret vault.
After sending the letter, Marshal Zhu did not forget to instruct his subordinates, "Also, we must strengthen the security of our two treasure houses recently, to prevent Yao Chunnuan from taking advantage of the situation and stealing things, which would cause us to suffer." After giving the instructions, he left humming a tune. When watching a show, it would be more exciting if the difficulty was increased.
At this time, the people in the prefectural government were indeed in a state of panic.
When receiving the letter from Marshal Zhu, Governor Lei once thought that this was not a reminder, but a show!
"Sir, Marshal Zhu is right. Yao Chunnuan always likes to attack the enemy's secret vaults and treasures. Sir, do you want to prepare?"
"Don't worry. The walls of my treasure house are made of black iron. As long as the key is not lost, they can't open the door of the treasure house or get in." Not to mention moving the treasures inside.
Ever since the last burglary of the secret vault on the outskirts of the city, he had learned his lesson and even had the ground drenched with molten iron. Without the key, no matter what the thieves did, they would not be able to open the secret vault and steal the gold, silver and treasures inside.
The walls are made of black iron, and the ground is also poured with molten iron? What a generous move. The treasure house is safe.
Lei Taishou thought that he only had one treasure house left, and to ensure its safety, he had made such thorough preparations. Yao Chunnuan wanted to touch it? Impossible!
Someone in the prefectural governor's mansion suggested, "Yao Chunnuan might not necessarily take action, right? Maybe he's just making some threats?"
A guest official from the prefectural governor's residence denied this claim. "Under the circumstances, Yao Chunnuan wouldn't just be threatening. She'll definitely seek revenge, but we don't know how. Right now, the most important thing is for the prefect to be careful about his own safety. Those words sound like she's planning to attack the prefect."
Governor Lei snorted coldly, "No matter what, everyone should be more vigilant during this period. Thank you for your hard work."
After returning to his room, Prefect Lei was visibly worried. His face was thick with worry. He now worried not only about his own safety but also about the Crown Prince. He wasn't worried about the treasury. The Crown Prince's situation was paramount. The Inspector had been away for the past few days, and upon his return, he'd learned of his recent deed. His face sank, and he left with only the words, "Take care of yourself," before departing. Prefect Lei knew, however, that the Inspector had gone off to deliver a message to the Crown Prince.
The Yichun Supervisor used carrier pigeons to convey messages to the prince. When his message arrived, the prince was reading the information about the Yichun military settlement, and he was reading it very carefully.
The Yichun Military Settlement was now flourishing, capturing the attention of the entire Yichun population, and indeed the world. Its development was unlike anything else in Daliang. He felt that once Daliang stabilized, other areas could emulate the Yichun Military Settlement's development model. In the eyes of the Crown Prince, the Yichun Military Settlement was like a thriving pig; he was in no rush to touch it.
At this moment, he received a message from the Supervisor via carrier pigeon, and he became extremely angry.
The Crown Prince first saw the Inspector say that Governor Lei was planning to seize the military settlement, and he immediately cursed, "Is Lei Peng's head filled with straw? He's being used without even realizing it! What a fool!"
When he saw the origin of the 20,000 soldiers and horses that Ray Ban borrowed, he became even more furious, "Ray Ban, you deserve to die!"
Seeing Yao Chunnuan's harsh words and the worries of the supervisors, the prince could no longer sit still. "Come here, gather the men. I want to leave the capital!"
At midnight, the prefectural governor's mansion
A group of nimble men in black climbed over the wall and then dispersed in an orderly manner, beginning to search for their targets. They had already figured out the patrol routes of the prefectural guards and were then taking down the patrolmen one by one.
After checking that no one had escaped, someone would climb over the wall to notify the main force to take action.
"Get to work, everyone, be quick!" He Xing's small eyes were fixed on the prefectural government, with excitement yet calmness flashing in them.
"yes!"
With a wave of his hand, several teams began to act according to their assigned tasks.
First, a ladder was set up on the prefectural governor's house, and then several soldiers in black clothes went up one after another. Then, barrels of oil were pulled up through a simple movable pulley, and then the soldiers swept the oil onto the roof with special brooms, and various key places were also painted with oil!
More soldiers went to the treasury of Lei Taishou. The outer wall of the treasury was made of black iron and was very solid. At this time, a large lock was hanging on the door, as if mocking their presumptuousness.
"Get to work. Trenchers, hurry up. Painters, paint wherever you can!"
In less than half an hour, all team leaders came to report on their progress.
"What general—"
Bang!
Before the new team leader, General He, could even utter the word "jun" (military), he was lectured. "We're doing covert work, why are you calling us general? Are you afraid others won't know who we are? Just call us boss!"
The soldier covered the back of his head and changed his tone, "Boss, the trench is already full of oil."
"Okay, are you done with the work?" He Qing asked with his eyes narrowed.
"Yes!"
"Okay, then retreat and wait and see the show!"
Then, these nimble and elite soldiers evacuated the prefectural government office one by one, removing all traces of their presence. The entire prefectural government office looked as if no one had visited it that night.
After they evacuated, they lay in ambush at a planned location, waiting for a certain moment to come.
"It's dry, be careful with fire!"
When the night watchman passed two streets outside the prefectural government, he suddenly smelled a strange smell and couldn't help but say, "What's that smell? It smells so bad." But he only smelled it for a moment, probably because it was brought by the night wind, and it was gone when he smelled it again.
When he arrived at the main street, he suddenly heard a whooshing sound in the quiet night of Wanlai.
The night watchman instinctively looked up and saw that the roof of the prefectural government building was on fire. The fire was strange. It didn't start from the bottom, but from the leftmost corner of the house. Then it jumped like a fire snake, and the roof of the roof was on fire. This was not a big deal. When the fire snake rushed to a certain place, the flames suddenly lit up, illuminating the whole area of the prefectural government building as bright as day.
This bizarre sight of a flood frightened the night watchman, who immediately started yelling, "Flood! Water! Water!"
At the hour of Yin, deep in the night, when everyone was sound asleep, they were all woken up by the night watchman. Hearing the news of a fire, they looked outside and saw flames blazing to the sky. Everyone quickly put on their clothes and rushed out with buckets to put out the fire.
The soldiers hid in a high place, looking at the fruits of their labor excitedly.
"Oh, this should be the fire in the treasury of the prefectural government?"
"That's right. The treasury is where we focus our attention. We use up more than half of our oil there."
Lei Taishou was awakened and came out of his room to see the whole mansion ablaze. It was so terrifying that it made one's legs weaken. The fire was especially intense where his treasure house was. He immediately ignored everything else and hurriedly called for help to put out the fire first.
But people poured buckets of water over it, but it was like a drop in the bucket, and the fire only grew stronger.
Suddenly, the treasure house exploded with a bang!
For a moment, the fire wave devoured people, and those who were close to it were injured. Most of Lei Taishou's hair was burned by the flames. If his subordinates had not reacted quickly and poured a bucket of cold water on him, the other half would probably have been lost.
"It's over, this fire can't be put out!"
"Heavenly fire! The only thing that can't be put out is the heavenly fire!"
"God is punishing Governor Lei!"
"Master Yao said that those who slander loyal and good people will suffer disaster! This is all caused by the evil of Prefect Lei."
"It seems so. Look at the raging fire burning the treasure house of Governor Lei. The treasure house of Governor Lei is the focus of the fire. Other places are fine and the fire is not that serious."
When the fire was discovered to be unextinguishable and still dangerous, the people who came to put it out stopped their efforts. Why bother putting it out? This was all God's punishment. Once the punishment was over, everything would be fine.
The soldiers hiding on the high ground were also shocked by the powerful explosive force of the oil.
"Is this thing so powerful? If it keeps burning like this, not only will it burn the black iron, but it will also burn all the gold and silver treasures in the treasury."
"When Chief Secretary Yao first said that, I was skeptical, but now it's really eye-opening."
"I heard Chief Secretary Yao call this thing petroleum? Oil that comes out of rocks? I really don't know where Chief Secretary Yao got this stuff from."
"This is our military's secret weapon, right? After some processing, it would be perfect for defending the city."
"Attacking a city is also possible."
"I wonder how much is left in the warehouse?"
Taking one last look at the governor's mansion surrounded by flames, He Xing said, "Well, the show is over, we should leave. Don't wait for Governor Lei to react, or it will be difficult for us to leave."
“Let’s go!”
The fire burned all night long, and the prefectural government's mansion was almost reduced to ruins. Other places were fine, but Prefect Lei's treasure house was burned down, leaving only a pile of ashes.
As the saying goes, true gold fears no fire. In the treasury of Governor Lei, countless gold, silver, jewelry, porcelain, cloth, and grain were burned to ashes by the heavenly fire! When the common people learned of this, they secretly shook their heads. This result once again proved that it was a heavenly fire, a punishment for Governor Lei.
Lei Taishou was completely numb, with only one thought in his mind: it was over. His treasure house contained not only the blood and sweat of the people he had plundered in Yichun for seven years, but also the wealth of half his life. Now everything was gone, all turned to dust!
Upon hearing this news, Marshal Zhu felt a pang of sympathy. He had long advised him not to provoke those guys from the Yichun military settlement, but he just wouldn't listen. Now he's learned his lesson, right? His pension money is gone, right? What's he going to do in the future?
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