Chapter 46: The Net Will Close
Most of the county residents were illiterate, but there were always three or two who knew a few common words. With the explanations from Mrs. Qin and Miss Cai, who had distributed the good seeds to them in the past few days, they now understood clearly what was written on the notice posted outside.
This is equivalent to a certificate!
The county lord was really determined to ensure that even if Leping encountered a disaster, there would be room for a buffer.
In this case, if the bandits in Taihang Mountains want to get their hands on this thing, they will be going against their entire Leping County.
The people below looked at each other and saw the protection of private property in each other's eyes.
"Don't worry, Lord Qiao. If any bandits come, we will definitely capture them!"
With this attitude, it would be much easier for Qiao Yan to select some strong and healthy people from the county residents to carry out defense work.
If Qiao Yan hadn't restrained the excited citizens of Leping County, some of them might have picked up their weapons and headed into the mountains to fight.
This is really worthy of the tough folk customs of Bingzhou.
Of course, in a sense, Qiao Yan also has to thank these black mountain bandits.
If they hadn't happened to attack, she wouldn't have been able to quickly change the county residents' mindset from "the new county lord is accustomed to giving" to "there is no gain without giving".
And these bandits roaming in the Taihang Mountains...
If used well, it could be an excellent population resource.
But this presupposes that she can swallow them!
This is not an unprepared battle.
In the previous month, she was not only piling up the Leping County and the surrounding terrain bit by bit with mud, but also looking for a suitable place to suppress the bandits.
In the absence of systematic training in military tactics, she had to use some clumsy methods to fill in this gap, relying only on her own wits.
In addition to using these 30,000 shi of grain as a bait, it is also important to sharpen your tools before doing your job well.
One of the "tools" was entrusted to Lu Yuan by Qiao Yan.
Her presence was not very noticeable during this month, but she was doing something very important.
In addition to Qiao Yan's intention to entrust the position of envoy to her, on the second day after arriving in Leping County, she took some of the money given to her by Qiao Yan and found several women in Leping County who needed to supplement their family income. She collected fallen leaves in the mountains, dried them in the sun, and strung them together with ropes and other things to make pieces of leaf hangings.
The money spent on this item was not much - the fallen leaves in the mountains were just ready-made items, the string was a common thing, and the salary that needed to be paid to the woman in charge of making this item was not much, but the meticulousness of these women in their craftsmanship made the finished product that Qiao Yan got was almost the same as her expectations.
At this moment, Qiao Yan took the finished armor in his hand and waved to a county official.
The county official who went up the mountain with her put on this special coat in a daze, and was then instructed by Qiao Yan to lie down under a tree.
Because Lu Yuan specifically looked for women who had some skills in making clothes, when these leaves were draped over the body, there were few places that were not covered. At first glance, the county official fell to the ground, as if he had merged with the ground.
In modern terms, this is equivalent to an alternative camouflage uniform.
"What do you think, Mr. Zhongde?" Qiao Yan turned and looked at Cheng Li.
"It would be great if it could be used to monitor what's going on in the mountains." A hint of surprise flashed in Cheng Li's eyes.
Others might not be able to see the deeper meaning of Qiao Yan's action, but he certainly could.
Since we want to lure the enemy into a trap, we naturally have to make it look like we have set up defenses but not too many. At least we can't have any patrols on the neighboring mountain.
But in this case, when the other party arrives, the spies sent out to scout the area will inevitably fail to notice it.
Cheng Li had been thinking before, in addition to setting the location of the granary in a particularly unique way, whether Qiao Yan should also have hidden spies in the mountains, and the spies must be extremely experienced and skilled in catching prey in the mountains.
Now that this piece of clothing is out, it will undoubtedly save a lot of trouble.
All we need to do is let some of the county officials wear this clothing and lie down and hide in a suitable place.
Who said that there are only two roads leading to the granary from Taihang Mountain, if you don't pass through the county town and only take the mountain path?
This greatly reduces the scope of what they need to monitor.
In Cheng Li's opinion, only twenty people at most would be enough to cover these necessary routes, and no one would be discovered that there were people hiding there.
And twenty people——
This does not even require people to be selected from the young and strong people in Leping County that Qiao Yan selected yesterday. It will be enough to select people from the original county officials.
Qiao Yan did not want more people to know about this matter, and he did not even inform Bao Hong, the captain of the Northern Army. He only allowed these twenty county officials to follow him up the mountain.
Seeing these people putting on these special clothes one after another, she paced in front of them, made sure that the clothes were changed without any problems, and then said: "I order you to ambush in your respective positions for ten days, taking turns on duty during the day and at night, but when changing shifts, you must go north to Xueyaoling and find a way down the mountain to return to the city. Anyone who goes directly to the White Dragon Road to sneak around..."
She swept her eyes towards everyone present, with a hint of shock in her eyes, and then she said slowly: "I don't think you want to see this consequence."
Because everything this county marquis did was full of unspeakable wonder, even though she didn't mention the punishment, they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.
Seeing that his intimidation was effective, Qiao Yan softened his tone and said, "But you can rest assured. Regardless of whether the Black Mountain Bandits show up within these ten days or not, and regardless of who discovered their whereabouts, I will double your salary this month."
This sentence was enough to motivate these county officials to perform their duties faithfully in order to double their monthly salary.
While she was heartbroken over the little money left in her treasury, she placed people one by one in the positions she had decided on earlier.
The reason why they had to go north first and then go down the mountain was because the vast majority of the Black Mountain bandits were distributed in the south direction of the mountain range.
Therefore, in order to avoid being exposed when changing shifts, one should naturally avoid walking on this necessary route.
After arranging this matter, she went down the mountain with Cheng Li.
This trip up and down the mountain seemed to be just a process of setting up sentry points, but it took quite a while. When Qiao Yan stepped into Leping County again, it was already sunset.
She looked back in the direction of the Taihang Mountains, and saw that the entire mountain forest was covered in a layer of flowing golden color, and the high peaks were also shrouded in a layer of afterglow.
In this sunset, her gaze rested on the second mountain peak behind the nearby gentle slope, and she revealed a particularly meaningful smile. "Mr. Zhongde, do you know what this mountain is called?"
"I'd like to hear more about it."
Qiao Yan said, "The mountain in front is called Xihutai Mountain, and the mountain in the back is called Lianhua Mountain because it looks like a lotus and a palm. There are also Shanzhang, Nanzhang and Houzhang peaks. I intend to set up an ambush at Houzhang Peak. What do you think, Mr. Zhongde?"
As she said this, she pointed towards the back of her palm.
Cheng Li looked in the direction she pointed, and saw that the location of the palm-shaped mountain, which Qiao Yan called the Back Palm Peak, was in the direction of the road they had walked down before.
The Bailong Mountain Road, which still appeared somewhat distinct among the bushes, was cast with a distinct layer of light and shadow by the setting sun.
He thought about the terrain and retreat route he had just seen from the direction of the granary, and nodded involuntarily.
There are two good roads going down to the granary of Leping County among the mountains in the Taihang Mountains, but if one wants to evacuate quickly carrying the grain bags, there is only one road left, which is the Bailong Road that Qiao Yan strictly prohibited the ambush scouts from taking.
If you want to ambush someone, this is indeed a good place.
This was the path screened out by the location where she had set up the granary.
Cheng Li immediately saw Qiao Yan showing a look of mischief, and said, "But to be honest, Mr. Zhongde, this mountain road goes up and there will be a fork in the road only when you reach the foot of Hengling. You can set an ambush at Houzhang Peak or at Dajinggou, but I prefer the former for another reason."
"The stone wall next to the White Dragon Road on Houzhang Peak is called the King of Hell Wall. Although I don't believe in prophecies, this is my first battle here after becoming the Marquis of Leping County, so I have to pray for a good start."
Cheng Li felt that Qiao Yan's words were childish, but...
"On the side of Houzhang Peak, under the Yama Wall, it sounds like there is indeed a sense of conquest. In this case, Lord Qiao is determined to win this battle." Cheng Li said with emotion.
As soon as Cheng Li said this, Qiao Yan took advantage of the situation and said, "Of course, so the ambush will be entrusted to Mr. Zhongde and General Bao."
"..." Although he was choked for a moment by this response, Cheng Li really had no need to refuse this arrangement.
He thought about it and realized that this was not like the battle of Xiaquyang, where Qiao Yan needed to be the bargaining chip to deceive the enemy into opening the door. She would definitely not go to such a situation where there would definitely be a night melee.
In this case, in order to ensure the safety of the ambush, it would be better for him, the planner, to go up the mountain and deal with the situation as it arises.
For Qiao Yan, this was her first serious battle since arriving in Leping. For Cheng Li, it was also an opportunity to perform.
"I wonder what arrangements Lord Qiao has made for Dian Wei and Zhao Yun?" Cheng Li thought for a moment and asked again.
After pondering for a while, Qiao Yan replied: "Dian Wei has the ability to break through the enemy's formation. I will hand him over to Mr. Zhongde for assignment. If you see the most senior thief on Bailong Road, just let him capture him. As for Zhao Yun..."
Qiao Yan stretched out his hand again and pointed far away. There was another mountain on the north side of the palm-shaped mountain.
"I want to ask him to go to the foot of Phoenix Mountain and catch a swallow."
Cheng Li smiled. This sounded like a good omen.
The names of the mountains here in Leping are really interesting.
Of course, the location of the granary chosen by Qiao Yan is more interesting.
After Chu Yan received the news from the brothers who went to scout the place, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.
"Setting up the granary at the southernmost end of Leping County, not far from the mountains on the south and east sides, doesn't this seem too convenient for us?" Chu Yan didn't believe in such things as pie in the sky. In his opinion, this really looked like a trap.
"Second Master is wrong. This is indeed a suitable location for storing grain." The spy replied, "There is a small lake to the south of Leping County. The granary is located on the east side of the lake. If the granary catches fire, we need to get water locally. This is the fastest place."
"In addition, because there is a sunny slope not far from the county wall, the terrain is gradually rising, and there are no residential buildings on the edge of the county. This makes it convenient for the county lord to send people to guard the area to prevent others from taking advantage of the situation."
"This is a common problem among those high-ranking officials." Zhang Niujiao laughed, "How could they know that being too defensive would only benefit us."
Chu Yan was still a little hesitant, but if it was true as the spy said, it seemed that this possibility was not impossible.
He thought for a moment and asked again, "Then have you seen clearly whether there are any Leping county officials guarding the surrounding mountains?"
"How can they have so many people?" The spy waved his hand. "There are some on the sunny side of the south. There are two villages on this mountain. There seems to be some movement recently. The mountain road passes through the village. I dare not walk through it rashly to avoid being noticed. But the road on the east side, I walked back and forth twice and never met anyone."
Zhang Niujiao was delighted, "Very good, let's go this way then."
After hearing this explanation, Chu Yan suppressed his doubts and thought that this was probably just a coincidence.
What's more, since one party takes the lead and the other party supports, there is always some room for error.
If we take into account the difference in numbers between the two sides, I will be in an even more advantageous position.
When Zhang Niujiao ordered people to act together, he did not make any move to stop it, but took the task of covering the rear.
But how could they know that the spy's two movements back and forth actually exposed his actions under five or six pairs of eyes.
As soon as the spy disappeared from sight, one of the county officials hiding under the leaf uniforms reported to Qiao Yan.
Of course, it was Qiao Yan's intention to allow the other party to easily reach the granary.
She was planning not only to let these people reach the granary, but also to let each of them carry away a bag of grain!
Otherwise, how could these young and strong laborers lose the opportunity to respond quickly when they were ambushed?
Now that the grain storage place has been personally inspected by the Black Mountain bandits, they should arrive within two days.
Qiao Yan decided to give them another helping hand.
She walked again to the backyard of the county government office where the wine-making pottery was located.
The three people who were hired back by Yang Xiu earlier, as she had said before, are not now tasked with continuing to study the production expansion of the feed fermentation method, but with updating the wine categories and improving the quality based on this method.
Although the other two had experience working in a winery, they had little contact with the core internal projects and were somewhat lost at this time. The pea sweet wine mentioned by Qiao Yan made them quite confused.
At this time, peas have become an important component of distiller's yeast along with sorghum and mung beans, but I have never seen a distillery using peas as raw materials.
But Qiao Yan remembered that he had drunk this strong sweet wine before.
She thought that since it could be made in Vietnam, peas had been grown here since Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, so naturally it should be possible to make it here as well.
However, the drunkard was obviously very interested in this whimsical idea, and he creatively chose to stuff the peas directly into the clay jar for fermentation.
Regardless of whether it can be successful or not, his attitude of daring to do it undoubtedly made Qiao Yan admire him very much.
However, she was not here to see the results of the winemaking, but to get two jars of wine.
It was only when she left with the jar of wine that Xi Zhi looked at her back for a long time.
He was a little hesitant about whether he should reveal his identity or not, because two days ago, after Yang Xiu came back from Qiao Yan, he sat in this wine-making courtyard in a daze for a long time, muttering something like "It's really incomparable".
Xi Zhicai didn't know what had stimulated him, and after some indirect questioning he finally found out that the child had seen a special model in a room in the front yard of the county government office. But if he asked further, it would obviously be revealed that he had other intentions. With Yang Xiu's intelligence, he would undoubtedly notice something unusual.
It just so happened that no one except those allowed by Qiao Yan was allowed to enter the house.
This really aroused Xi Zhicai's curiosity.
I don’t know what Qiao Yan put in it…
And if he guessed correctly, since the tempting bait has been thrown out, Qiao Yan, as the person holding the fishing rod, is sitting firmly on the fishing platform, and the fish will probably arrive in the next two days. This is obviously closely related to her efforts to eliminate the Black Mountain bandits.
But since he didn't plan to reveal his identity for the time being, all he could do was to witness the battle between the two sides, which was initiated under Qiao Yan's control.
As if guided by some intuition, Xi Zhicai walked out of the side room in the backyard on the third night.
He looked up to see the moonlight, but saw Qiao Yan sitting on the roof of the county government office with his palms outstretched towards the distant mountains.
At this moment, the sound of the midnight gong was heard in the night of Leping County.
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