Yun Shu paused for a moment: "It's like the grain grown in our Nanlin County."
Lili was taken aback. Although this was Xixiang County, it didn't mean that people from Xixiang County were not allowed to trade grain with people from Nanlin County.
Since Xixiang County has not yet recovered, it is not surprising that it needs to buy grain from elsewhere.
What's strange is that this place is a bandit stronghold, and a very low-profile one at that.
If they didn't steal this grain, did they buy it?
But if they had the money to buy it, why would they become bandits?
Why can't a man live a life of luxury in his mansion? Why does he have to live in a remote village deep in the mountains?
"The warehouse is huge, filled with grain, in huge quantities. Starting five years ago, all grain sold in Nanlin County had to be registered and inspected by the military before being sold. The military had to investigate the backgrounds of both the buyer and seller."
But there were no records of such a large amount of grain in the military.
This indicates that the grain was not purchased through legitimate channels.
Strange, strange, everything is strange, up and down, left and right.
After a moment of silence, the group all thought of the same place.
Shen Ye felt very conflicted. These giant Jin people were here perhaps on the orders of some powerful figures.
Could this powerful figure be his elder brother?
He didn't want this person to be his eldest brother, even though he knew that his eldest brother and third brother were at odds and their every move affected the entire situation.
However, these Jurchens, lurking here and secretly hoarding so much grain, are treacherous and unjust.
He had been following Lili in Nanlin County for so long. Although he wasn't from Nanlin County, he had developed some affection for that lush and verdant place.
Lili often told him that the water towns of Jiangnan were as gentle as water, but he had never been there to see them.
And then there's the capital city... There's a girl there, a true beauty, and he wants to go to the capital to see her.
What should he do if these people were sent by his elder brother's side?
In a power struggle between two factions, any number of tactics would seem reasonable, but he couldn't get past his own conscience.
Seeing his dejected expression, Lili instructed several guards to search other parts of the basement to see if there was anything else of value.
Once only the three of them remained, Lili spoke up: "By the way, I just met their leader. Those people were talking about the Crown Prince... These people must have been sent by His Highness the Crown Prince of the Great Jin, right? Moreover, they seem to have been here for quite a while. They must have been in Nanlin County for many years, at least five or six years. Huang Ying said she saw them once when she fled from Xixiang County to Nanlin County."
Shen Ye didn't speak, but her eyes definitely lit up.
Lili smiled at Chen Ye, a silent understanding between them.
Shen Ye felt a little warmer in her heart, and her panic gradually subsided. She asked Yun Shu, "Five or six years is not a short time. Haven't you noticed anything strange?"
Yun Shu frowned and thought for a moment: "I've been on missions ever since I left the Dark Guard Camp, which is only about two years. Before that, I stayed in the Dark Guard Camp, oblivious to the world, and later I was always wandering around, so I know very little about Xixiang County. That amount of grain is indeed not a small sum, especially if it's accumulated over several years..."
"Could they be stealing military rations?" Lili guessed. "Since the transactions are checked by the military, if the rations originally came from the military, this wouldn't have happened, right? But military rations should be guarded even more closely, so how could they...?"
“No, there’s still one more link we can exploit.” Yun Shu shook her head and said, “The Red Eagle Army is stationed in several border cities, with Anding City being the most important and having the largest number of Red Eagle troops stationed there. But in Xixiang County, there are also two border cities where the Red Eagle Army is stationed: Suyab City and Tailing City. Xixiang County suffered a severe drought a few years ago, and the military granaries were empty. In recent years, the grain for the military camps in these two places has been transported from Anding City.”
"Does Yun Shu mean that there might be an inside agent helping them in the military here?"
Otherwise, how could so much military rations have been transferred?
"But why are they stealing military rations? Don't they have any at home?"
Lili felt it was very impolite. She had worked hard to get these grains, and they were practically her children. The thought of these big golden men going to such lengths to steal her children made her angry.
Shen Ye frowned slightly, but quickly relaxed.
"Miss, there's a secret passage here!"
The guards walked around the basement, which was actually a small, enclosed space with only a few torches burning. Even in the dim light, the place was clearly empty.
Upon hearing this, the three of them immediately ran to where the guards were.
The guard's hand groped along the wall, and when he touched an unusual indentation, he pressed it hard. With a creak, a hidden door slowly opened, and an old, musty smell wafted out.
It was pitch black inside, with a faint chill in the air.
Yun Shu took off her hairband and reached inside to feel the wind direction. The hairband moved slightly: "There's an entrance, but it's far away."
Lili understood that this secret passage must be the one used to transport grain between this village and the outside world, but she didn't know where it led.
Shen Ye asked her, "Should I go and investigate?"
“No, Huang Ying is still in the village. We have to save her quickly. We need to take down this village right now.” Li Li turned to the guards and instructed them, “Go and explore along this secret passage. Be careful. If things don’t look right, run back.”
"yes!"
Several guards carrying torches walked into the secret passage, and the firelight could still be seen after a long time.
Lili and the others watched quietly for a while until the firelight disappeared, indicating that they had entered a side road or turned a corner.
Yun Shu and Shen Ye were not surprised when Li Li said she would wipe out the whole village right now; they naturally did not think she was being arrogant.
After all, Lili is quite famous for her "fiery" personality.
Lili clenched her fists and clenched her fists, "These bastards dared to steal my grain and even dared to try to offer me up to that prince of the Great Jin Dynasty. I'll make them pay!"
Both of them changed their expressions.
"What?! These scoundrels dare to insult people like this!"
Yun Shu drew the soft sword from her waist and charged forward, her face frighteningly dark.
Shen Ye's expression was also bad; this was as if he had stepped on two landmines at the same time.
"Alright, alright, Yunshu, don't get excited." Lili took Yunshu's arm and touched the soft sword with some curiosity. "We still need to have a general plan, right? Yunshu, Brother Chenye, what was your original plan?"
Yun Shu suppressed her murderous intent and said, "These people are tall and strong, but perhaps they have become lax in the mountains over the years, so their strength is average and they are not difficult to deal with. However, we originally only planned to find out the situation here and then find a chance to sneak out."
Shen Ye nodded in agreement.
Lili doesn't have any specific solutions right now, but she's good at fighting, so this situation is probably no different from a fight, right?
Since Yun Shu said that these people were not very strong, then she had nothing to be afraid of.
Even if you have the ability, it doesn't matter; you're just a worthless person, so just do it.
"I'm relieved to hear that. So, let's..."
"Big dog! Big dog!"
Two unfamiliar voices suddenly came through the water tank lid that Lili had hastily covered the entrance to, and footsteps grew closer and closer.
"Damn it, the big dog is dead. There's trouble down there. Hurry back to find the boss!"
The three exchanged glances, and Yun Shu and Shen Ye rushed forward, delivering a fatal blow to the throat with a single sword strike.
The two suddenly closed their eyes and stopped breathing.
Since they were about to pull off something big, the two of them didn't care about anything else. They turned around, pulled Lili aside, made sure she was always within their sight, and then took her directly to the warehouse.
The fact that Tiger Laopao sent those two people means that they've already started to suspect something; they need to hurry.
The best way to dispel someone's doubts is to solve that person's problem.
Yun Shu had been wandering around the warehouse for a long time and had figured out the way. From the stairs behind the warehouse, you could go up to the annex, and from the annex, you could jump to the high village where Tiger Laopao was.
Yes, the moment you open your eyes, you get to work!
Shen Ye and Yun Shu, one in front and one behind, protected Li Li in the middle and went up to the annex building without any hindrance. There were not many people in the annex building, and before they could even call for help, they were all dead.
It seemed that the people Tiger Laopao sent to check on the situation hadn't returned for too long, so Tiger Laopao sent out two more people to check.
The two men ran right into the two who had just leaped into the high village from the annex, and immediately shouted, "Boss!"
The two words had barely left his lips when a silver embroidery needle appeared between his forehead, his eyes stared blankly, lifeless, and he fell straight to the ground.
The shouts attracted the attention of bystanders. The door was opened, and Tiger Laopao rushed out with his men. Upon seeing the people who were supposed to be tied up in the basement, Tiger Laopao immediately realized that those people must have been killed.
"Damn it, what's going on!"
Tiger Laopao saw Lili peeking through the crack in the opposite door, grinning as she observed.
Tiger Laopao felt a surge of anger rising from the top of his head, as if he had been tricked.
Damn it, what did that kid do!
He couldn't understand how things had suddenly turned out this way, and he didn't have time to think about it any further, because Chen Ye and Yun Shu had already started to unilaterally beat his brothers one by one with their swords, as if they were cutting vegetables, and were about to kill him.
"Damn it, a bunch of useless trash! How are we going to explain this to His Highness the Crown Prince?!"
Tiger Laopao took two steps back and quickly left through the back door.
Lili chuckled and, taking advantage of the chaos, spotted Huang Ying huddled in a corner, trembling with fear. She quickly lifted her skirt and went downstairs, then climbed up the hill to find Huang Ying.
After killing the last one, Shen Ye realized that Hu Laopao had escaped. He immediately went out through the back door to check, but Hu Laopao was no longer there.
Lili carefully navigated around pools of blood, but the hem of her skirt was still stained with blood. Fortunately, her cloak was in her arms and didn't get stained.
"Oriole!"
Huang Ying cried and threw herself into Li Li's arms: "Miss!"
"Huang Ying, are you alright? They didn't do anything to you, did they?"
“No.” Huang Ying shook her head. “It was that person who asked me to massage his shoulders. I massaged them for almost half an hour, and that was it.”
The oriole cried only because she had just witnessed the bloody scene and was momentarily frightened.
Lili hugged her tightly, feeling sorry for her: "It's okay, it's okay, Huang Ying, don't be afraid."
Huang Ying gradually calmed her fluctuating emotions. Seeing that her young mistress did not seem afraid, she secretly encouraged herself and told herself not to be afraid.
Shen Ye returned with a frown: "One got away, should we chase after it?"
Lili paused for a moment. Now they knew that Tiger Laopao was one of the prince's men, but Tiger Laopao didn't know who they were.
He's the only one left in the village, so Tiger Laopao will definitely go looking for someone to take shelter.
Before Tiger Laopao ran back to Dajin, he would definitely go looking for...
“Of course we should go after them,” Lili said.
"I'll go right now." Shen Ye was about to chase after him.
“Wait, we do chase him, but not the two of you.” Lili stopped him. “Chasing him isn’t about killing him, but about finding his contact.”
The three left the village, and the thick smell of blood gradually dissipated.
Tiger Laopao's men are all dead. If their previous speculation is correct, the only people Tiger Laopao can look for now are the spies he planted in the Red Eagle Army.
"Miss!"
Two guards climbed out of the basement; they were two of the men who had gone down the secret passage earlier.
"how's it going?"
“Miss, the secret passage leads to a room in a courtyard. There are several people guarding the courtyard, so we dared not make any rash moves and didn’t dare to go out of the room to investigate. Judging by the distance, it’s not far; it should still be in the suburbs. There are two more brothers guarding over there.”
"Um."
Lili composed herself and said, "You two hurry down the mountain, find our caravan, find a horse, and ride as fast as you can to Anding City to tell His Highness the Crown Prince about this."
"yes!"
After the two men left, Lili remembered Tiger Laopao who had run away.
An Qi hasn't made a move yet; it was Li Li who gave the order.
Thinking of this, Lili summoned Anqi, who had been hiding in the shadows: "Xiaoqi, go and follow him. See where he ends up. Keep an eye on him."
"yes."
Dark Seven flashed and followed in the direction Tiger Cannon had gone.
After arranging these two matters, Lili then looked at the large warehouses with worry.
Yun Shu suggested, "Why don't I stay here and wait for His Highness to send someone to investigate this matter?"
"Forget it, it's freezing cold, you can't stay here alone," Lili said. "Let's just leave the grain here. Anyway, Old Tiger doesn't dare to come back. Maybe we'll need it soon..."
Lili spoke the last sentence very softly. If she could, she would prefer that the food never be used.
Yun Shu and Shen Ye naturally listened to her. The snow covered the blood-red ground again, and even the corpses were covered in snow. After a while, the corpses would be buried in the snow.
Shen Ye casually picked up two corpses and hung them at the entrance of the village to prevent passersby from entering.
The sight of two corpses hanging at the gate would deter ordinary people from wanting to go inside.
The four took one last look, then turned and descended the mountain without looking back.
It was quite a coincidence that when they arrived at the foot of the mountain, they happened to meet Shi Wuque leading his convoy there.
Shi Wuque was extremely surprised to see that the group had come down from the mountain: "Miss, I thought you had already made it ahead, so I rushed here in a great hurry..."
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