Jiaohua

Chapter 1651 Senior Sister and Junior Brother Digging Traps Everywhere

After briefly recounting what had happened, Xia Zhaoyi placed the letter back in front of Zhili: "But I have never seen Fang Yiping's handwriting, so I cannot confirm whether this letter was written by him personally."

Zhili said, "Xie Zhong is a man who always gives me the creeps. He's not only wicked, but also vicious."

Xia Zhaoyi nodded: "Yes, I'm afraid he knows that Fang Yiping is not on their side and will use this to his advantage. But thinking about it this way, this letter probably wasn't written by Xie Zhong, because if Xie Zhong knew that Fang Yiping had made contact with Shen Lie, then in Xie Zhong's opinion, we would recognize Fang Yiping's handwriting."

"Hey, that makes sense! Even if he has someone under him who's extremely skilled at imitating handwriting, he'll still be wary of your abilities, Junior Sister. But what if he anticipated this and deliberately wrote this letter to cause trouble for us? After all, he's really cunning. But then again, what if this letter wasn't written by Xie Zhong, but by Fang Yiping? The places Xie Zhong mentioned in the letter as his targets are all strategic locations for Yun Bozhong. Yun Bozhong is currently helping us, so should we help him too?"

Seeing Zhili's worried expression, Xia Zhaoyi smiled gently: "These are not big problems."

"Huh? This isn't a big deal?"

"It's actually very easy to deal with Xie Zhong. He's greedy and he'll go wherever there's money."

Zhi Li recalled the imperial tombs that Xie Zhong had dug up: "I understand. If we really want to deal with Xie Zhong, we just need to secretly set a few traps!"

"Correct."

Zhili looked at Xia Zhaoyi with admiration: "Junior Sister, you are so amazing! Instead of being led by the nose, you tied a carrot in front of his nose so that he would smell it and come to find it himself! Look at me, I was just thinking about how to solve this problem, whether or not to go to him."

Xia Zhaoyi rummaged through a wooden box full of scrolls and found a small map. When unfolded, it showed the exact southern part of Yunbozhong, and it was extremely detailed.

She picked up a charcoal pencil and marked the strategic locations mentioned in the letter. Then, she selected a mountain range that was close to each of these strategic locations.

“This is it,” Xia Zhaoyi said with a smile. “Let’s build up the buzz first.”

Zhili stared at the map, his gaze becoming thoughtful.

An idea suddenly came to him.

If they could trick Xie Zhong into this position, then they could also trick him into going anywhere else...

As long as the place falls within Xie Zhong's acceptable range for taking action, then Xie Zhong will definitely go there.

After all, he has no money, no food, and no land.

However, Zhili did not intend to tell his junior sister about this idea.

My junior sister is too busy; he can handle this little thing.

Zhili left with great interest.

That very evening, Zhili conspired with He San and Liu Jia.

First, lure Xie Zhong to the foot of the mountain designated by Xia Zhaoyi, let Xie Zhong taste a little sweetness, and then gradually trick him into going to Zhuzhou.

After the plan was finalized, the next morning, two groups of people left the post station one after the other to arrange the performance.

Xia Zhaoyi was also leaving; she was going to Fushang County in Liuguili, which was Songzhou, the capital of Jin Hongkang.

Upon reaching the southeast of Guzhou, Xia Zhaoyi left his men behind and took only three people with him.

Songzhou was under complete martial law. They rode swiftly into a secluded canyon, winding their way through for several days. After arriving in Songzhou, Xia Zhaoyi entrusted her mount to two subordinates. Disguised as a peasant woman, she and Feng Ping hired a carriage and headed south to Liugui Village.

Fushang County was deserted. Few people walked the streets, and everyone was dressed in plain clothes with a gloomy and listless expression.

Xia Zhaoyi knew the way well and went directly to Mr. Liuhe's house. Mr. Liuhe was wary and didn't open the door immediately. But when he heard her voice through the wooden door, he was overjoyed and quickly opened the door.

"Ah Li!" Mr. Liu He said in a low voice with delight.

He was building a kennel for the puppies in the yard when Feng Ping noticed that the puppies looked familiar: "General, could it be that Little Fatty was born here?"

Xia Zhaoyi smiled and said, "Yes, Little Fatty was a gift from Mr. Liu He."

After washing his hands, Mr. Liu returned and said happily, "Ali, I thought you were still in Beiyuan. Everyone in the city is saying that you lead troops out of nowhere and that when you led the Xia family army in the northwest Pingyang Road, you made General Wen Lang's Yizi Army and Yuchun Army run around in circles. Now that you have suddenly appeared, I am really pleasantly surprised!"

Xia Zhaoyi said, "Uncle Liu, I came to see you specifically because I was worried that with martial law in Songzhou, it would be inconvenient to send letters. If they were intercepted, it would be detrimental to you."

Mr. Liu's expression turned serious, and he nodded: "Yes, it's all in chaos. It's hard for you to think of me, but I feel bad for putting you in such danger. By the way, what is it about that you came to see me about? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yes, there are two things. First, if Fushang County is captured in the future, no matter whose troops break in, you can take out this item and those soldiers will not touch you. You can protect whomever you want."

Xia Zhaoyi handed over a token the size of her palm.

Mr. Liu felt a warmth in his heart: "Ali, you're so thoughtful. What's the second thing?"

"My junior brother has been helping me investigate a group of people for the past year, but we still haven't heard anything about Feng Qingang."

Mr. Liu frowned: "That beast Feng Qingang..."

"Uncle Liu, you've met him and had contact with him. So, if you were asked to create a replica of Feng Qing'ang, could you do it?"

Mr. Liu was taken aback, his eyebrows rose, and then his eyes brightened: "Ali, you mean to say..."

"Hmm, really not? Aren't there any fake ones yet? If there are fake ones, it might just lure out the real one."

"Interesting!" Mr. Liu adjusted his posture. "I can! I'm sure I can. Feng Qing'ang is a cruel and murderous man. It would be too easy for me to spread rumors about him!"

"Let's assume he's in Zhuzhou."

"Alright!" said Mr. Liuhe, "Then let's do it in Zhuzhou!"

There is no third thing.

Xia Zhaoyi came and went in a hurry, while Feng Ping, under the guise of teasing the dog, secretly placed ten taels of silver on the stove while they were talking.

After they left, they returned along the original route without incident and made it back to Guzhou.

After a short rest in Guzhou, Xia Zhaoyi planned to set off directly back to Beiyuan the next morning.

Zhili is leaving tomorrow. Xia Zhaoyi's trip to Fushang County and back took several days. During this time, Zhili received a letter saying that their publicity campaign was very successful. Xie Zhong indeed looked down on Yun Bozhong's strategic points and directly led his men to the mountain range that Xia Zhaoyi had fenced off.

In those mountains, Liu Jia's men built a luxurious mausoleum, claiming it to be the tomb of a nobleman from five hundred years ago.

The tomb was deliberately aged and heavily fortified; they buried a great deal of jewels inside.

Xie Zhong and Fang Yinai were overjoyed to have unearthed these jewels after going through countless hardships.

Zhi Li will set off tomorrow to arrange another burial site for Xie Zhong.

That night, Zhili reluctantly went to find Xia Zhaoyi. After this parting, he didn't know when he would see his junior sister again.