bestfiction Chapter 181 The Significance of Assassination
Chapter 181 The Significance of Assassination
Jiang Xinyu's words jolted Xiao Yuan awake like a bolt of lightning.
He was so focused on Zhang Zhongyi's assassination attempt that he didn't even notice the significance behind it.
He thought that the old scoundrel had finally reached his breaking point after putting up with him for so many years and wanted to get rid of him once and for all while he was away from the capital.
Thinking about it now, it doesn't seem right.
The old emperor's thought process is becoming increasingly peculiar; he used to talk about evidence and motives, but now he only wants to talk about results.
To the old emperor, Xiao Yuan was the knife and Zhang Zhongyi was the fox; his role was to intimidate Zhang Zhongyi.
For the old emperors, if a knife broke, they would simply replace it; if they knew it was chewed by a fox, they would just give it a good whack.
But now the old emperor is afraid of death and suspicious. His first reaction after the knife broke was to worry about his own safety.
The guy with paranoia would frantically gather everything at hand to kill the fox first, and then look for a suitable weapon.
It doesn't matter whether the fox gnawed the knife through it, or whether the fox went out of control.
The important thing is to completely eliminate the possibility of the fox biting him.
Zhang Zhongyi couldn't possibly be unaware of what he knew, yet that old man still resolutely attacked him, and with deadly intent.
This proves that the other party doesn't care if the old emperor attacks him, or that he has already prepared to rebel.
This flood is a good opportunity.
If they send out him, the head of the Eastern Depot, and hundreds of people he absolutely trusts, then the other side must have also planted people in the Eastern Depot.
If news of his death were to reach the Eastern Depot, it would inevitably cause chaos, effectively rendering one of the emperor's direct forces useless.
The Emperor is now protected by five layers, from the inside out.
The closest are the Dragon Guards, who are loyal, skilled in martial arts, but relatively few in number.
There are dozens of them in total, but only a dozen or so are on duty each time. They are good at dealing with assassinations, but not very effective in dealing with rebellions.
The second layer consists of the Imperial Guards, which are not few in number but their formations are too chaotic.
Since Zhang Zhongyi dared to rebel, the commander of the Imperial Guards is probably no longer one of the Emperor's men.
Either the other side has a top-notch expert who can solve the first or second level.
The third level is their Eastern Depot, which is close by and has many elites.
If he's around, he's considered highly loyal; if he's not, it's hard to say.
The fourth level is the Five Cities Military Command, which has many people, poor quality, chaotic factions, and is easy to bribe.
This group is just a rabble. They might be useful for searching out the remnants of the enemy and ransacking their homes after things settle down, but otherwise, they're useless.
The fifth level was the main camp on the outskirts of Beijing, with a large number of regular troops, but unfortunately, it was too far away to reach them.
If the emperor knew in advance about the rebellion and secretly mobilized troops, that would be fine; otherwise, by the time the three rounds of killings had taken place in the capital, they would have only just entered the city.
By then, the Third Prince will have already donned the yellow robe and the old emperor will be dead. Do you really expect the generals of this army to avenge the old emperor?
They were the army of the Great Jin Dynasty, so of course they obeyed whoever was the emperor.
To be honest, there were only one and a half people who were absolutely loyal to the emperor: one of the Imperial Guards and half of the Eastern Depot.
Of course, if it weren't for the rebellion of the Third Prince and his son-in-law, the Second Prince, supported by Zhang Zhongyi, then his half-rebellion could be ignored.
He'd been annoyed by that old guy for a long time; not only did Zhang Zhongyi want to kill him, but he wanted to too.
After figuring out the key points, Xiao Yuan told his wife and began writing a letter.
Several messages were quickly sent out by carrier pigeon, and more than a dozen trusted spies secretly left the group.
On the third day of disaster relief in Yongshun County, the expected distress call from Yonghe County arrived.
The couple exchanged a serious look; they had guessed correctly, but they weren't happy.
The corpses that have been burning here for a day are still not completely burned. If enough manpower is left behind, it will be to the enemy's liking.
However, if manpower is transferred to Yonghe County, the situation will be difficult to control.
However, they all knew that they needed to keep some manpower on hand.
The enemy is determined to use a tactic of splitting up his forces. Even if he takes more men this time, various unexpected events will force him to split up his forces along the way.
Yan Fei confessed that Zhang Zhongyi sent out twenty assassins. Even if he didn't know everything, Zhang Zhongyi had at most a hundred or so assassins under his command.
He needed to reserve a portion to protect himself and prepare for a coup, so about twenty would be enough for his side.
Even if he recruited some martial arts figures, it would only amount to a hundred or so at most. His side was already prepared, and his wife had brought the Thunderclap Bomb. It was not impossible for them to confront the other side head-on.
After making up his mind, Xiao Yuan quickly arranged for the person in charge here to distribute a portion of the grain, medicine, and other supplies.
He himself only took 500 soldiers, 30 agents from the Eastern Depot, and a dozen secret guards to Yonghe County.
Xiao Yuan had assumed that the other side would wait until they arrived in Yonghe County and had used up half of their manpower before making a move.
Unexpectedly, the other party couldn't wait any longer.
The procession arrived at a place called Manyu Village at dusk, when the two yamen runners from Yonghe County who had come to ask for help reported the situation.
Further ahead lies a forest with rugged and difficult roads, so we might as well set up camp here and continue our journey tomorrow.
In ancient times, there was a rule in military campaigns: do not pursue a desperate enemy, and do not enter a forest. After looking at the geomantic map, Xiao Yuan also decided to set up camp here.
However, out of caution, they did not enter the village, but instead found a flat grassy area some distance away to pitch their tent.
Jiang Xinyu felt inexplicably uneasy. She rode her horse around the area but couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.
There are no mountains nearby and the river is far away, so even if the dikes break, the water won't reach this area.
He could vaguely see the woods in the distance, but they weren't going into the woods, so even if there were people hiding there, it wouldn't make him panic.
As for using fire, that's even more absurd; cooking is a struggle here in this damp climate...
Are they going to burn the grain?
It's difficult to start a fire for cooking because damp wood is hard to ignite, but coal and coal briquettes are not affected by that.
If the other party intends to burn food, they likely brought kerosene, which can be ignited in damp conditions.
Or, if we don't use fire, what if the enemy has a lot of poison? If we just sprinkle it on the grain sacks, will they distribute the grain or not?
Distributing food that kills people is no joke, but if there is food but it is not distributed, the disaster victims will definitely riot.
Moreover, this toxic grain cannot be thrown away, it can only be burned. If this gets out, the disaster victims will tear them apart alive.
Everyone is starving, and you burn all that pure white rice. It would be strange if this didn't cause a popular uprising.
Jiang Xinyu told Xiao Yuan about her concerns, and Xiao Yuan took it very seriously. He placed the grain cart in the very center of the cart and had it covered with alum oil cloth.
This stuff is waterproof and fireproof, and its high density means you don't have to worry about anything seeping into the bag.
In fact, it was not easy for large quantities of food to be poisoned, mainly because the poisons of that era were not so concentrated.
Discussing toxicity without considering dosage is nonsense.
One bag of rice here needs to be cooked into several large pots of porridge. It's definitely not feasible to put a lethal dose of poison into the rice bag.
Biological poisons are too rare and ridiculously expensive to be used on a large scale.
Plant-based poisons are readily available in large quantities and are quite toxic.
But which Chinese medicine isn't dark and has a strange smell? Putting it in white rice porridge is just too conspicuous.
Unless everyone involved in taking the grain, cooking the porridge, and serving the porridge has been bribed, it's impossible for them not to discover it.
What remains are mineral poisons, which are not only bitter and hard to swallow, but also easily identified by changing color when tested with a silver needle.
It is customary to test the porridge for poison before distributing it, and no one has died from poisoning in the Great Jin Dynasty for decades.
Of course, quite a few people died from eating it.
After all, sometimes if you're too greedy, the so-called porridge might only contain a few moldy grains of rice. You'd be hungry, get an upset stomach, and it would be strange if you didn't die.
The troops stationed in Hexi will likely arrive in two days; tonight and tomorrow night are the last chances.
After nightfall, the couple lay down fully clothed and didn't dare to cause any trouble. There were people patrolling back and forth in the camp, but there was always a feeling that a storm was brewing.