Inside the council tent at the West Gate.
Song Yanqing tossed the sword in his hand to An Yi and unfastened his black cloak as he walked away.
After he sat down on the large chair, An Yi said, "As the prince predicted, the Tatars pretended to launch a surprise attack on the camp, but their real target was Ximen."
General Qin just reported that all the Tatars who disguised themselves as wounded soldiers and infiltrated the camp are under the surveillance of the Shadow Guards.
Now all that's needed is someone to help them, so they can follow the trail and find out how they managed to cover their tracks and turn it into a criminal case.
The matter reported by An Yi was all within Song Yanqing's expectations; they had been led by the nose by the Tartars for far too long.
Last night's battle made it clear to the Tatars that as long as Song Yanqing was there to defend the city, they would not get what they wanted.
The border town was not a place they could come and go as they pleased.
However, now is not the time to make arrests. He needs to play the long game and catch the big fish. He wants to use this incident to find out every single traitor in the military camp!
Song Yanqing said coldly, "Now is not the time to wipe them out in one fell swoop. The Tatars must have relied on someone to help them come up with this plan, and that person must be someone in the army."
At this point, a flash of murderous intent crossed Song Yanqing's eyes.
While comrades-in-arms were fighting abroad, someone appeared in the military camp who helped the enemy commit adultery.
If he doesn't use the head of the adulterer to appease the heroic souls who died on the battlefield, he will have failed the soldiers who followed him!
"Pass down the order to General Qin to keep a close watch on the man and not to let his guard down!"
"yes!"
After An Yi withdrew, An Jiu soon lifted the curtain of the main tent.
"Greetings, Crown Prince."
At this moment, Song Yanqing washed his hands and sat down at the dining table. He put down the hard, dry pancake in his hand, looked up at him, and asked, "How is it?"
An Jiu bowed and reported, "Your Highness, An Shi has discovered a hidden room in Wu Jianshou's study, where a large amount of gold and silver treasures are stored."
The total amount of silver, gold, and banknotes was one million taels of silver.
While we were counting the items, we found an account book.
As he spoke, An Jiu presented the ledger to Song Yanqing for review.
He took the ledger, placed it on the table, and opened it.
After half an incense stick's time, Song Yanqing didn't even lift her eyelids; her gaze was already fixed on the ledger. She said calmly, "What do you think?"
An Jiu stood still. "This ledger records the salt merchants' mining and trading of white salt over the past six months. In addition, a map was found on the last page of the ledger."
Speaking of maps, Song Yanqing happened to turn to the last page.
This page is thicker than the paper used to record the accounts of Baiyan, as if two sheets of paper were glued together.
The lines drawn on the map are clear, and many places are marked with red ink.
Suddenly, Song Yanqing discovered that the map depicted a mountain road leading directly from the West Gate to the new capital!
A year ago, General Feng lost the city gate. By the time reinforcements arrived, he had already disappeared. How did this map of the West Gate end up in the hands of a small salt merchant?
Thinking about it this way, he recalled a group of Tartars he had encountered in the old forest a year ago. Presumably, this mountain path was where they checked whether the map was genuine.
When the two are connected, everything becomes traceable.
Song Yanqing brought his right index finger and thumb together and stroked the edge of the page with the map drawn on it.
One million taels is no small sum. In times of national turmoil and rising food prices, a meat bun costs three coins, and one tael of silver is equivalent to one thousand coins, which can buy three hundred and thirty-three meat buns.
One million taels of silver was enough to allow people who suffered from floods in the south and droughts in the north a year ago to live a comfortable life.
Moreover, there are several pieces of jade and porcelain that have not yet been valued.
After a moment of contemplation, he said, "You should send someone to imprison the entire salt merchant's household and personally go to the Salt Transport Office to investigate the draft. Such a large sum of money cannot be accomplished by a small salt merchant like him."
By investigating the draft bill, we can at least find out who the powerful figures were who were protecting the salt merchants and accumulating wealth!
An Jiu accepted the order, then said, "There's one more thing..."
A stammering voice rang out, and Song Yanqing calmly raised her eyes to look at him, "Speak!"
"Your Highness, it was my dereliction of duty. The entire household of that salt merchant was slaughtered last night."
Song Yan counted the ledgers on the table and asked, "How many people know about this?"
An Jiu immediately understood, "Besides me, there are three Shadow Guards. I have already assigned them to guard the place where the silver is stored, and have others guard outside as well."
The implication was that only he and the crown prince knew about the ledger and had the freedom to act as they pleased.
Song Yanqing closed the ledger and handed it to An Jiu, saying, "Take it. You can handle this matter alone."
It wasn't that he didn't trust the Shadow Guards' loyalty, but rather that this matter had to be handled discreetly. After all, the fact that they dared to kill over eighty people around the border army meant that this ledger must be extremely important, perhaps a major breakthrough.
Therefore, one must be extremely careful in dealing with this situation.
After An Jiu accepted the order and left, Song Yanqing continued to pick up the flatbread that could crack walnuts, tear it into pieces and mix it into the cooled white porridge, not caring about the taste at all, and finished all the food in the bowl.
......
Just as Lu Qiqi was about to faint from hunger, Nineteen brought her a bowl of flatbread and steaming hot porridge.
Lu Qiqi sat under the city gate with a medicine box under her buttocks, looking up at the bright sun.
The sunlight was so bright that it almost made her cry.
Nineteen came over with a tray of food and saw that her eyes were slightly red and there were tears in the corners of her eyes. She subconsciously thought that she was late and had made her cry from hunger.
He quickly squatted down to be at eye level with Lu Qiqi, hurriedly pushed the food forward, and explained in a low voice, "Last night the Tartars launched a surprise attack, and the kitchen staff didn't have time to prepare food, so it was delayed."
This was just made, please eat it quickly, I'll get you another serving if it's not enough.
When Lu Qiqi saw that the food had arrived, her nostrils twitched slightly, and after taking a breath, she smiled brightly and said, "Finally! I've been waiting for you to find food like I've been waiting for the stars and the moon."
"I'm so hungry! I feel like I could eat a whole pig right now!"
Lu Qiqi picked up the white porridge and started drinking it. The porridge was thick and soft, but the only drawback was that it wasn't sweet enough. However, there was nothing that could be done about it.
Most of the military rations were reserves, not harvested in season. It was a miracle that there were no insects. A few mouthfuls of plain porridge made my stomach feel much better.
At nineteen, she was still young. Seeing Lu Qiqi smile, she assumed that Lu Qiqi had put her earlier unhappiness behind her. She patted her chest and said, "If you want to eat pork, leave it to me. The young master has ordered his share of braised pork. You can go to the kitchen camp to get it anytime."
She never imagined that Song Yanqing would be so thoughtful as to think of giving her his share of braised pork.
It seems that the companionship on the journey of fleeing famine was not in vain, and the spiritual spring water that healed his wounds was not wasted either.
But what's with this plain white porridge?
Why did she find it sweeter and sweeter the more she drank it?
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