Chapter 3 The Deceased (1)

  ument.write(

  "Your Highness, it's Longjing Pass up ahead!" Xiong Tingyi pointed to the faintly visible city wall in front of them.

  Longjing Pass has two mountains on the left and right sides, like a gate. To the southwest are three majestic peaks, with the pass situated among them. The Chenghe River flows east-southeast through the pass below, and the city wall is built on the river's right bank. The pass was first constructed in the early years of the Ming dynasty. The city wall is made of stone, 1 zhang 5 chi high and 4 chi thick, with a perimeter of 297 zhang 8 chi. There are gates to the east and north.

  The garrison of Longjing Pass had over 2,000 soldiers, and there were also many merchants inside the pass, as well as a horse market, open to mutual trade, belonging to the Han-Mong mixed residence area.

  Like salt and tea bricks, which are scarce goods outside the pass, they can be sold for a good price here. The soldiers guarding the pass work hard, but are exploited by their superiors, and even have their wages withheld, so it's no wonder that their combat effectiveness is poor. This is not just the case with the eunuchs' misrule, but has a great deal to do with the rulers of the Ming dynasty, the emperors who sit on the dragon throne.

  After selling a lot of private salt and tea bricks, giving the guards many benefits, Zhu Yinglong and others smoothly obtained the exit certificate, but they couldn't let them out during the day. It was said that recently the wind was tight, their group was too big, and the target was too obvious, so they quietly released them at night.

  Zhu Yinglong felt that something was off as soon as he heard it. With the proof of leaving the pass, why did they have to wait until night to let them go?

  Xiong Tingbi seemed to have known that he was in trouble and sat silently on the side, as if thinking of a countermeasure.

  Shen Creek saw Zhu Yinglong's face turn ugly, and Xiong Tingyi also sat aside without speaking, understanding what was going on. In his heart, he scolded the general who had accepted his heavy bribe, thinking that this was a ridiculous world! He had clearly taken the money and handled the exit certificate, but still wouldn't let them leave, just because they thought Shen Creek's fish was too fat and wanted to swallow it whole. They couldn't make it too obvious, or they would scare away future customers and lose their chance at wealth. So they used this trick, stabilizing Shen Creek and his men for the time being, then sneaking out at night to quietly capture them. This way, everything would belong to the general, and since they were private salt smugglers, if caught, it would be a death sentence. In the future, there would be no way to deal with him. These were the usual tricks used by border generals, so why hadn't Shen Creek seen through them at the time and instead foolishly agreed?

  Lu Haitian, who had gone out to gather information, returned at this time. The news he brought confirmed Zhu Yinglong's speculation that they were being monitored and their own people had been planted in the other party's camp!

  Zhu Yinglong's face was cold and stern, the moment of testing had arrived. Whether he could lead everyone out of Longjing Pass not only affected his own safety but also proved whether he was a qualified master. If he didn't have the ability to lead everyone out of this small Longjing Pass, then what qualifications did he have to let these people follow him and support him?

  Giving more money is useless, because others only need to solve their own problems, and everything on them will still belong to others. Others are also planning to use money to buy peace, which is impossible.

  Zhu Yinglong thought for a moment and whispered to Lu Haotian to pass down the order, telling everyone not to pay attention to anything around them. If they found someone spying on them, they should pretend not to have seen it.

  Lu Haitian left with the order. At this time, Xiong Tingyi spoke up and said: "Your Highness, I think pretending to be deaf and dumb is not quite right?"

  "What's wrong with that?" Zhu Yinglong knew he wasn't intentionally speaking out his own opinion after giving the order, and he didn't stop Zhu Yinglong from issuing this command. It was because he himself hadn't thought of a better strategy either. If he had spoken up earlier, it would have only made Zhu Yinglong hesitate, so he waited until after Zhu Yinglong gave the order before speaking out.

  "Selling private salt is like licking blood on the knife, if you don't have any vigilance at all, wouldn't it make people suspicious? So if we pretend to be unaware of this, it's not quite right." Xiong Tingbi explained.

  "General Bear's concerns are reasonable, but this guard commander must also know this point, and he even sent someone to monitor us. Isn't this revealing his intentions? Would he do such a foolish thing?" Zhu Yinglong retorted.

  "Does Your Highness know this General Defender of the Pass?" asked Xiong Tingbi in response.

  Zhu Yinglong shook his head and said: "I've heard Shen Xi mention that this person is just a drunkard, so I didn't bother to understand him!"

  "Your Highness, do you really think the imperial court would entrust such an important matter to a drunkard like him?" Xiong Tingbi pointed at Zhu Yinglong.

  "Does General Bear mean that he sent someone to spy on us and it might be intentional?" Zhu Yinglong suddenly realized.

  "Prince Wang is indeed clever, and he has seen through it!" Xiong Tingyi praised, "However, this is just my speculation. The deputy commander of Longjing Pass, Xue Zhuang, was once a battalion commander under my command. Later, someone reported that he had embezzled military funds, so I demoted him and investigated the matter. After I was framed and imprisoned, the case may have been dropped, but I never expected that in just a few years, he would not only be reinstated to his original position but also promoted to deputy commander! It's truly unexpected!"

  "It's still an old friend!" Zhu Yinglong said.

  "This man is greedy and loves money, but he's actually quite skilled in battle and good at guessing what others are thinking. Unfortunately, his character is too poor, otherwise... " Xiong Tingbi sighed as he spoke, trailing off.

  "This guy is really talented!" Zhu Yinglong patted his thigh and sighed.

  "Why did you say that, Your Highness?" Xiong Tingyi asked in surprise, looking at Zhu Yinglong.

  Zhu Yinglong chuckled and said: "If we send this person to Nurhaci's side, won't I be able to know what he's thinking at any time?"

  Xiong Tingbi was taken aback, his mind not as quick as Zhu Yuelong's, and he didn't understand what was meant. With a questioning expression, he wondered how sending someone to Nurhaci's side would allow him to know what others were thinking.

  Zhu Yinglong smiled strangely and said: "Has General Xiong forgotten our great prime minister of Southern Song, Qin Hui?"

  "Oh, Prince Wang's mind is indeed quick-witted! However, this person may be difficult to tame!" Xiong Tingyi couldn't help but praise Zhu Yinglong for a moment. Now that he was still on the other man's chopping board and hadn't escaped yet, he was already thinking about how to get him to do things for himself in the future. Such composure, at such a young age, couldn't help but make him admire him threefold.

  "Your Majesty, Father, what happened to you two? You're laughing so happily. Tell Lian Niang about it too?" Xiong Hu ran over and said cheerfully to the two of them.

  "Good things don't come often, but bad luck comes in abundance. Let's conserve our energy, tonight might be a fierce battle!" Zhu Yinglong took over the conversation.

  "I knew it, as soon as Commander Lu gave that order earlier, I guessed that someone would make a move against us tonight!" Xiong Hu said with a pleased glance at Zhu Yinglong.

  As expected, the father is a tiger and the daughter is not a dog. Xiong Hu immediately pointed out the mistake in Zhu Yinglong's previous order without being polite, saying that this would make the other party more cautious, which was very unfavorable for tonight's escape! Did she also guess that it was intentional? Zhu Yinglong and Xiong Tingyi looked at each other, they had discussed and exchanged opinions before coming to a conclusion, but Xiong Hu had already seen through it in just a few words, this was too impressive!

  "Liliang, how did you figure it out?" Zhu Yinglong couldn't help but look for a gap.

  "This is simple, I went out for a spin and understood the situation of the guards here. It's easy to find out that this person is greedy but also very sensitive, good at flattering, and in just two years, he squeezed out the original guard. A person like him wouldn't do something as stupid as monitoring us. Since he did it, there can only be one purpose - he did it on purpose, because he's not afraid, even if we know his intention, we can't escape, and we'll become meat on the chopping board!" Xiong Hu analyzed very calmly.

  "Zhuang Liniang, you say that, aren't we going to die without a chance of survival? Besides, what you've heard may not necessarily be true!" Zhu Yinglong said stubbornly, he wasn't worried about this, if all else failed, they could use their secret weapon, each of them had two Suifa-style handguns on their body, which was made by Chen Yuting, the nephew of Xu Guangqi and his closed-door disciple, after going through countless hardships and difficulties, using the best steel materials, so how could the Dragon Well Pass trap this dragon?

  "Of course not, Dad, I saw someone else at Guan Shang today!" Xiong Hu suddenly changed the subject.

  "Who is it?" Xiong Tingbi asked casually.

  Rushed writing, may not be good, forgive me, help point out criticism!