Chapter 38 Interception

Liangzhou City, inside the tavern.

Zhao had already heard clearly the sound of horse hooves at the South City Gate. The tavern is in the southeast corner of Liangzhou, not far from the South City Gate. Third-grade Zhenqi can be released outward. Although it cannot be pressed hundreds of miles like Eunuch Chen, it is not that difficult to sense it for ten or twenty miles.

In the past two days, Zhao went out early and came back late. He bought more than 200 kilograms of rice from different grain stores intermittently. If he ate it by himself, there would be no big problem for a month or two. It was just that he couldn't buy vegetables and meat, so Zhao had to buy more. A little annoyed.

Thinking about it, the New Year is approaching, and if there is any meaty meat at home, I have to keep it for the New Year, so I won’t be willing to sell it. Moreover, the heavy snow keeps coming, and there is not much green in the whole city, let alone green vegetables.

Knowing that you can't do anything and being at peace with it is also a kind of practice. Forget it if you can't buy it. Although martial arts practitioners have a great need for meat, they won't die if they don't eat it for ten days and a half.

In the distance, the rumble of the south city gate lock and pillar breaking came. Zhao frowned and his heart sank, secretly surprised, could this ragtag group of people break into the city?

Before Zhao could think about it, he heard a few sounds of horse hooves trampling the ground on the street, followed by the sound of carriages running by and the trampling of many people walking by. Although it was messy, the direction was certain. In his perception, the bandits entering the city were divided into three parts, and they were speeding in three different directions.

After thinking for a while, Zhao felt that he had caught something somewhere, but he was confused. Until I looked up, the light of the lantern swayed and flickered in the wind.

"So that's it." Zhao suddenly realized that the fire in the city a few days ago was probably started by spies in the city. The purpose is still unclear. It is most likely to cause chaos in Liangzhou. Otherwise, Liangzhou would not be so easy. The city gate is wide open.

If the guards on the city wall could hear what Zhao Jiu was thinking, they would have shouted: "You are a real person!"

In Yunxiang, North Street, Liangzhou Tongpan and Tongzhi both live in this street. Tongpan is in charge of military affairs and has supervisory powers, while Tongzhi is mainly responsible for salt and grain. It can be said that almost everything that happened tonight is related to the two of them. .

A side room in the Lu Mansion.

Liangzhou Lu Tongpan and Xu Tongzhi sat opposite each other. There was only one candle lit in the large room, and the weak firelight reflected on their faces.

Judge Lu Tongzhi looked anxious and looked out the window from time to time, while Xu Tongzhi opposite was calm and calm, drinking tea and eating snacks, as if everything outside had nothing to do with him.

"Old Xu, you are in charge of the salt and grain, and I am in charge of the men and horses. If the city of Liangzhou is destroyed and the grain is lost, you and I can't afford to have anything to do with it!" Lu Tongpan was sweating like rain, and he kept wiping his sweat. A cup of tea turns into sweat before it enters the stomach.

Xu Tongzhi calmly scraped the tea foam with the lid of the cup, blew twice before taking a slow sip, "Tsk, good tea."

After speaking, he picked up the copper stove and gave Lu Tongpan some water. "Old Lu, please check it out. This Ming Dynasty silver wire cost me a lot of money."

"Ouch, Old Xu!" Lu Tongzhi was anxious when he drank the tea. He stood up and took two hurried steps. Just as he was about to open the door and go out, he was stopped by Xu Tongzhi.

"Lao Lu, when did we start working together?" Xu Tongzhi put down his teacup and asked suddenly, not knowing what he thought of.

"Old Xu, what's wrong with you? We went to Beijing together to take the exam in the second year of Jingde. You were ranked twenty-eight in the second class, and I was forty-one in the second class. We entered the Hanlin Academy together. You have done all these things. Have you forgotten? In the fourth year of Jingde, you are the classics and I am the official secretary. It has been twenty years! "Although Lu Tongpan was puzzled, after thinking about it, he still answered sincerely, with a hint of respect for this person in his tone. An old friend’s concern.

Xu Tongzhi stood up, holding Lu Tongpan's hand with both hands. The leisurely contentment while tasting tea had disappeared. "Tongsu, do you believe me?"

Lu Tong was named Lu Jian and had the courtesy name Tongsu. Hearing the word his old friend called him, all the past events between the two of them flashed through his mind. After a moment of silence, he said, "Old Xu, we have been in the same boat through thick and thin for forty years, how can I not believe you!"

"Okay, just trust me. Tongsu, we can't go out, not even one of us! Wait until you send the tiger talisman to the battalion headquarters and let them gather troops and horses until the situation becomes clear. If the thieves are just robbing food, let's intercept a few The car will be safe. If the thieves want to rob it for three days, we will lead the troops to encircle and suppress it. Regardless of success or failure, we have sent people to keep an eye on it. I will report back if I have the letter. If we go out now, no matter what the situation is, we can't avoid not reporting what we know and neglecting our duties. If we don't find someone who is an outsider, we will be blamed for the past few years! Even a fifth-grade man's head can't offset such a huge crime!" Xu Tongzhi rambled on, but his words were sincere and urgent, and he gently comforted his old friend in front of him. His hands became tighter and tighter, with a worried look on his face. I'm really afraid that this old friend's impetuous temper will cause trouble.

Lu Jian widened his eyes and looked at this old friend, wishing he could knock his head off. He could only hold Xu Tongzhi's hand and sniffed, "Ziqing, your life-saving grace will be unforgettable."

Xu Tongzhi said no more, just nodded, helped Lu Wen sit on the Taishi chair, poured a cup of hot tea, and pushed it in front of him.

In the northwest of Liangzhou, a dark shadow drifted across the eaves of the house, like a gust of wind, leaving no trace on the snow. It was Zhao Jiu.

Zhao didn't know the purpose of the bandits, so he could only adopt a stupid method and follow the largest group of people from a distance. The goals of the rest of the people should be very different from those of the large army, so there is nothing wrong with following the large army.

This group of people seemed to have a certain target. They were moving very fast and going further and further off the road. Although Zhao was puzzled, he still followed closely.

For half a quarter of an hour, Fei Ming reined up his horse in front of the ruined temple in the northwest of the city. He looked at each other with the person behind him. After the other person nodded in affirmation, he raised his hand to signal the people behind him to stop, "Right here, brothers, go in and move the food. Quick, Quick, quick!"

A group of people behind them hurriedly rushed into the ruined temple without having time to rest. After a while, bags of grain were loaded onto the carriages, one after another. Soon, more than a dozen carriages were filled.

"How many more are there?" Fei Ming asked anxiously.

"Brother, we need at least thirty more. We don't have enough cars to move them all!" A man who had just finished moving a bag gasped.

Fei Wu frowned. He didn't expect that this small ruined temple actually hid so much food. "Give you a horse and go to Fei Shu and Xiong Wu to transfer it. Go quickly! It's hard to leave after the officers and soldiers arrive." ”

The man didn't stop, took the horse that the person next to him had brought over, hurriedly got on the horse, and ran towards the way he came from with a whip.

Zhao, who was hiding on the roof in the distance, was shocked when he saw this scene. He could imagine that there was food in this place, but he didn't expect there to be so much. He had just transported it away, and he didn't expect there to be so much. It seems that we have to take action. If all these bandits are allowed to escape, Liangzhou will be in chaos!

If Liangzhou is in chaos, your identity will definitely be exposed. Don't forget, you are also carrying a major imperial envoy case!

While he was still thinking about how to stop them, the trucks carrying grain had already arrived, a total of twenty of them, and Zhao secretly said, "This is not good." His mind was in a state of confusion. This group of people moved too fast, and Zhao had not yet come up with a perfect solution. You can't just rush out and kill all these people, right? If I had this ability, why would I just sit here and be a tortoise?

In the Lu Mansion, a man who looked like a housekeeper hurriedly opened the door of the side room, "Two adults, the southwest warehouse and the middle warehouse have been evacuated, leaving only the northwest warehouse."

Lu Jian almost lost his teacup and glanced at Xu Jian, "Old Xu?"

"Hurry up and order the troops, at least stop half of them! If the northwest warehouse is empty, we will be exiled at the very least!" Xu Tongzhi's face was no longer calm, he put down his teacup and shouted, "I will die if I go with you. It is better for both of us to die in Liangzhou than in Zhaojing."

The two of them didn't have time to change into their official uniforms, so they told the steward to "lead the horse" and hurried outside.

Zhao secretly sighed, "Unlucky", and could only hope that the officers and soldiers were already on the way. It would be difficult to stop so many people!

Everyone had already loaded the carriage, and Fei Ming decisively gave up some of the remaining food, "Ignore the rest, drive the carriage, and leave!"

The word "Zou" fell, and the flying snow wrapped in a few flying knives arrived in the blink of an eye.

The carriages in front neighed loudly, and the heads of the horses pulling them exploded. Several carriages without horses slid forward a few steps and stopped in the snow.

Fei Ming reacted quickly and quickly ordered his men to pull away the carriage and let the carriage behind pass first. The carriage with the dead horse was replaced with another horse. The rest of the men bent their bows and nocked arrows, alert to the surroundings.

Zhao didn't care about anything else. He bent his legs slightly and used his true energy to jump up. The tiles under his feet shattered.

In mid-air, Zhao held the Tang Dao in his hand, roared angrily, shook the snowflakes away, stirred up his true energy, and merged into the sword style, draining 40% of his true energy. The second form of Tianyuan Sword Technique, open the sky!

A long and narrow blade was swung towards Fei Ming. It would be wise to capture Wang Zhao first if he captured the thief.

Fei Ming was still far away from Zhao, but the oppression in the air and the dazzling sword light gave him a feeling of suffocation. He quickly clamped the horse's belly, tightened the reins, and rolled down from the horse. The people behind them were not so lucky. Their true energy brought flying snow. From a distance, they only felt like a vast expanse of white. Up close, they looked like arc-shaped water waves. The sword energy flashed, and more than a dozen people were affected. In an instant, they were all torn apart. The few people behind Fei Ming didn't even make a sound. The moment the sword energy flashed, they were cut into two pieces. The cut was smooth, but a piece of it was sprayed out. Blood mist.

"Third-grade" Fei Ma and the others were dumbfounded. This method was definitely a top-grade master. He raised his head to look for Zhao Jiu's figure, but Zhao Jiu's figure was nowhere to be seen. The moment Fei Ming rolled off his horse, Zhao Jiu had already used his energy out of thin air and ran several miles away.

Fei Ming knew that the most important thing at this time was food, so he suppressed his fear, stood in the snow, and shouted loudly, "Transport food, quickly!"

Only then did his men realize that they were pushing carts and driving horses, and before long, several carriages were already running away from their horses' hooves.

"Put down the grain, spare your life." Lu Jian, who wanted to beat the horse to death, vaguely saw someone moving the grain, and shouted loudly without caring about anything else.

In a hurry, he didn't order all the troops, but as many as there were, life was important!

Fei Ming didn't care where these Zhaos were. He picked up his gun and mounted his horse. He shouted "transport food" and then rode towards the officers and soldiers. The two parties collided with each other, with swords and swords flashing and flesh and blood flying.

Lu Jian had not many men and horses, only a thousand. Fortunately, Xu Tongzhi arrived in time and led his troops to insert from the side and intercept most of the grain carriages. Fei Ming also knew that a long battle would lead to death, so he charged forward with one man, one gun and one horse. He abandoned the carriage that had not left, and led a group of people to charge through a bloody road and escape.

The two sides fought for less than two or three quarters of an hour. After Feimatu fled, Lu Wen stopped pursuing him and ordered some people to transport grain back to the warehouse, while the other group guarded the city gate to avoid being killed.

After being busy for nearly an hour, Liangzhou finally returned to calm, but the smell of blood lingered in the air.

It was not until this moment that the panic in Liangzhou people's hearts gradually calmed down. However, the growing snow in the sky seemed to indicate that Liangzhou City would not have an easy year this year.