"Has the general left the city?" The city gate is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Looking at the corpses piled up under the city wall, Ji Chang was worried that if the stalemate continued, they would lose more men. They had to capture Kyoto quickly this time, otherwise once the news spread and alerted other garrison guards, someone would bring troops to help Kyoto. They still needed to think of a way to attack the city as soon as possible.
The spy replied, "There is no news from the general or Lieutenant General Li yet."
When Ji Chang heard this, his face turned a little ugly. If something went wrong with his uncle in the city, what would happen to this huge mess?
Lu Jin and his men tracked Ji Wudao all the way to Zhixiang Street in the south city, and found an entrance to a cellar in a brothel.
After all, he was one step too late. Ji Wudao had been prepared, and somehow he had concealed the truth from the people who were following him, and he managed to escape. When Lu Jin and his men arrived at the inn, it was empty. After severe torture, he learned from the bribed waiter of the inn that Ji Wudao and his group had gone to Zhixiang Street in the south city.
Zhixiang Street is a place where all kinds of people mix together and where corruption is rampant. The Jinyiwei often deal with this place, and many of them are familiar with Lu Jin. As the saying goes, "A visit leaves a trace", Lu Jin soon learns the whereabouts of Ji Wudao and his party in Zhixiang Street.
The brothel was deserted, and Lu Jin jumped into the cellar first. He took out the tinder from his waist and lit a torch. As the fire lit up, he noticed messy footprints on the ground, and there was another world in the cellar, extending southward to an unknown place. It seemed that this place was a secret passage.
"Co-director Lu, should we follow them?" Shen Ping, who had a very good relationship with Lu Jin, asked.
Lu Jin took a look at the dark secret passage and said to Chen Ping: "I will lead people to chase along the secret passage, and you go find Lord Yu and tell him about the secret passage. I suspect that this secret passage leads to the outside of the city." If it is really possible to leave the city, if Ji Wudao allows the rebels outside the city to escape into the city from here, I am afraid that bad things will happen.
After hearing what he said, Shen Ping realized the seriousness of the matter and left quickly.
Lu Jin led his other men, holding torches, and walked deeper into the secret passage.
The secret passage became narrower and narrower, sometimes only enough for one person to pass through. About an incense stick later, at a corner, Lu Jin suddenly stopped and made a gesture to the others. They understood what he meant and held their breath, hiding themselves in the shadows.
Ji Wudao's angry voice came from afar: "Didn't you say this place leads to the outside of the city? How could it be the king's mausoleum? How do you do things?"
"I...I don't know what happened. It was Madam Zhang who deceived me. She told me that this secret passage leads to the outside of the city..."
The man who was scolded was called Shi Yun. He had followed Ji Wudao for many years. He was a minion under Ji Wudao when he was in the capital. He often slept with prostitutes and hung out in Zhixiang Street. Madam Zhang was the prostitute in the cellar and had been Shi Yun's lover for many years.
Shi Yun would go to see Madam Zhang every time he returned to Kyoto. One time, he accidentally discovered this cellar. Madam Zhang tried to cover it up in a panic. Shi Yun felt something was wrong and tried several times. He wanted to go down to the cellar to find out what was going on. Madam Zhang was forced into no choice but to tell Shi Yun that the cellar was actually a secret passage leading out of the city.
The secret tunnel was not dug by her. It was there when she rented the yard. She didn't pay much attention to it at first. But one time, a tigress from a patron's family found her yard, so she had to let the person hide in the cellar. After the tigress failed to find the person and left, Madam Zhang opened the cellar door and shouted left and right, but no one came up. As a woman, she didn't dare to go down into the dark cellar, so she could only wait and see.
After a night, when Madam Zhang was about to report to the police, the patron suddenly emerged from the cellar and told her that there was a secret passage underneath that led directly to a woods outside the city.
Madam Zhang was shocked and wanted to report to the police. You have to know that this is Shengjing, not the barren countryside. Digging a secret passage out of the city in front of the imperial city at the feet of the emperor is a capital crime punishable by death!
Madam Zhang wanted to report to the police, but was stopped by her patron, who persuaded her that it was a great hiding place for a prostitute like her. When the adulterer could not show up, he could use the secret passage to meet secretly. If she reported to the police, the government would investigate and Madam Zhang might be implicated. The most feared thing for a prostitute was dealing with the government.
After a few visits, Madam Zhang gave up the idea of reporting to the police and hid the entrance to the cellar tightly until it was accidentally discovered by Shi Yun. Madam Zhang could no longer hide it and told Shi Yun that the cellar led to the dense forest outside the city.
"That day, Madam Zhang told me that there was a path leading to the outside of the city, and I believed her. I have never been down to the cellar myself, and I have caused such a disaster. I will leave it to you, General, to deal with me." Shi Yun was ashamed, "Either Madam Zhang deceived me, or the prostitute deceived Madam Zhang."
Someone said, "Look, there are signs that the royal tomb has been rummaged through. There is only a corpse left in the coffin, and no burial objects at all. It must be the latter. The prostitute is probably a tomb robber."
Ji Wudao's face was grim. He had no intention of pursuing Shi Yun's fault at this moment. He said decisively, "Go back to the city. We can't get out of Lu Wang's Mausoleum. We can only return the same way."
Upon hearing this, Lu Jin gestured to his men, and they held their breath and slowly retreated.
Ji Wudao put his ear against the stone wall and his expression improved a little when he heard the faint sound of footsteps fading away.
"Hurry up, we don't have much time left." Ji Wudao said to Shi Yun.
Shi Yun's face changed, and he took out his equipment for digging a hole from the package on his back. He found a good position, and skillfully dug a hole above his head.
It turns out that Shi Yun was the Fa Qiu Zhonglang Jiang he mentioned himself. Before he followed Ji Wudao, he was a tomb robber. This secret passage in the cellar was originally dug by Shi Yun, and the Mausoleum of Prince Lu was also robbed by Shi Yun many years ago.
The conversation just now was nothing more than Ji Wudao discovering that someone was chasing him, so he thought quickly and staged a good show with Shi Yun, so that the pursuers would think that they could only return the same way. Those people would take the bait and retreat to the entrance of the cellar to catch them in the jar.
This would buy Shi Yun time to dig a tunnel leading to the ground in Lu Wang's Mausoleum, so that they could escape.
Lu Jin led his men back to Madam Zhang's courtyard, made preparations, and waited for Ji Wudao and his men to show up, so that they could catch them in the trap and defeat them one by one.
Two quarters of an hour later, Lu Jin squatted at the entrance of the cellar. No one came up. He pondered for a while and suddenly came to his senses. Ji Wudao was cunning and he was afraid that the words he heard were deliberate. He ordered his men: "Follow me to the cellar, leave two people to guard it upstairs."
The secret passage was silent and it was obvious that Ji Wudao and his group were not going back at all. Lu Jin led his men and ran quickly into the depths of the secret passage. They reached the corner again and suddenly there was a loud rumbling sound in front of them. The secret passage was shaken and the ground collapsed and cracked, raising a lot of dust and rubble.
Seeing that the secret passage was about to collapse, Lu Jin led his men to quickly escape to the rear.
By the time the collapse stopped, Lu Jin and his group were already covered in dust.
Lu Jin asked everyone else to return to the ground, and he turned back to search for Ji Wudao and others.
The secret passage collapsed, and the Lu Wang Mausoleum collapsed into ruins. Bricks, stones and soil piled up into a mountain. Lu Jin searched in vain and had to return to the ground. He speculated that Ji Wudao must have thought of some way to escape from the Lu Wang Mausoleum, otherwise he would have no way to survive and would be smashed into a pile of meat paste by the collapsed Lu Wang Mausoleum.
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