good season

Chapter 266 The Falcon (Two chapters combined)

Xia Dachuan has an accomplice, Xiuxiu.

Xia Dachuan could only investigate the men, but Xiuxiu could chat with the aunties and older women.

It was Xiuxiu who discovered the suspicious points about the Lei family.

She was chatting with some of her aunts when she heard that there was no one with the surname Lei in Lei Family Village, and that's when she realized something was wrong.

Not everyone can happen to step on a landmine like the Lei family of nine. After all, situations like those in Lei Family Village are very rare. There are no people with the surname Lei in Lei Family Village, so who would have thought?

However, Xiuxiu soon learned something else.

One of the women said that when the food was being distributed that day, her husband heard a familiar name: Shan Poshao (闪破勺).

The surname Shan is extremely rare, and the name Poshao is even rarer.

Two years ago, her husband went out to do odd jobs and collapsed from heatstroke on the roadside. It was this broken spoon that took him to the hospital. This person is their family's benefactor.

Two years passed in the blink of an eye. When she heard the name again, her husband was overjoyed and rushed over to recognize her.

But instead, he met a stranger who simply said, "Just a coincidence of names."

Her husband was very disappointed and told his wife about it: "I never thought that we could have the same name."

The woman was just remarking, but she took it to heart. Xiuxiu immediately told Xia Dachuan about it. Xia Dachuan found out that Shan Poshao was not traveling with his family, but had come to the city with his two brothers to do odd jobs. They encountered heavy rain and could not go home, so they went up the mountain with the others.

Because they were from the countryside and came to the city to work, all three of them had travel permits, which clearly stated: Wanghe Village, Yuan County, Shanposhao.

The surname Shan is not common. In the Tongzhou area, there is only one branch of the Shan family in Wanghe Village, Yuan County. There are only ten households, and these ten households are all close relatives within five degrees of kinship.

Shan Poshao is a native of Wanghe Village. The Shan Poshao that the sister-in-law's husband met back then was also from Wanghe Village. The travel permit that Shan Poshao is holding now is real, but whether he is the real person is another matter.

Following Zhao Shiqing's instructions, Xia Dachuan did not alert the enemy, including the nine members of the Lei family. He treated them all equally, and even arranged for several aunts from Lei Family Village, along with the husband of that sister-in-law, to work elsewhere under the pretext of doing chores.

The road signs held by Shan Poshao's two friends who were doing odd jobs together were not from Wanghe Village, but from other places. They met while working and came together from all over the country.

Xia Dachuan selected a group of young and strong men to help repair the house, including Shan Poshao and his two companions, as well as the Lei family. Although these people pretended not to know each other, their eyes did not lie.

They know each other!

At the same time, Xiao Yao and Da Pang also discovered that Shan Po Shao and the other two had been secretly in contact with several other households, and those households also had dealings with other people.

They can fool people, but they can't fool cats!

These people never dreamed that the two cats sleeping anywhere were actually spies.

Two days later, Xia Dachuan compiled a list based on the information Zhao Shiqing had given him.

The list contains thirty people, including twenty men and ten women.

Zhao Shiqing sneered: "Not bad, not bad, they've all infiltrated."

The next day was a sunny day. The men continued to repair the houses on the mountain, while the women washed clothes and bedding.

In order not to interfere with the adults' work, Zhao Shiqing asked the older women, including Old Madam Hao, to take care of the children.

The men and women who were working were also unknowingly divided into several groups.

As evening approached, while people were still busy, the landlady and her children brought food to everyone. Because they had to work today, everyone ate at the place where they were working. After delivering the food, the landlady and her children left.

Just then, Xiuxiu ran over and called out to the women who were eating, "Those with children, go back and pick them up. The aunties and grandmas have been working hard all day, they deserve a rest."

The women hurriedly finished their meal and went to pick up their children in twos and threes. They never returned, and the others were also called away under various pretexts.

These thirty people were not grouped together, but were divided into several places. By the time they realized that those still remaining were all their own people, it was too late!

They are surrounded!

If there were thirty of them together, they would indeed be difficult to deal with, but now they are separated. They are highly skilled assassins, but the guards who are besieging them are not ordinary people either.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Xia Dachuan and the other twenty men are often abandoned by Zhao Shiqing; they are genuine guards of the Prince's Mansion. Not to mention the old master's four top experts, who were already top-tier martial arts masters before being recruited by the old master.

More importantly, these thirty people realized something was wrong as soon as they made a move; their skills had been greatly reduced!
"Cartilage powder, there's cartilage powder in the rice!"

It was indeed a bone-softening powder, which Murong Linlang gave to her disciple for self-defense before leaving the capital.

There was no other way; he knew his own disciple well—his martial arts skills were mediocre. This packet of "soft bone powder" was a testament to the master's deep love for his disciple.

These people are all experts. Although the Soft Bone Powder is colorless and odorless, Zhao Shiqing is still worried that they will notice it. In the stories, experts can tell if something is poisonous just by tasting it. What if the Soft Bone Powder takes effect before they have even finished a bowl of rice? If they find that they can't even hold their chopsticks, wouldn't that alert them?
She didn't want to take any risks, so she didn't release much of her cartilage. As expected, these people didn't notice until they took out the short blades hidden on their bodies and realized that they couldn't exert any strength at all.

At this point, they were no stronger than ordinary strong men, and after only a few rounds, they were tied up with leather ropes.

This was the first time in Zhao Shiqing's life that she had personally commanded a battle. Of course, Miss Zhao believed that if there were more than ten people, it would not be a fight, but a battle!

She said to Lingbo, "Lingbo, is this what it means to win without bloodshed?"

Lingbo: "Second Miss is amazing!"

Zhao Shiqing shook her head smugly and said to Xia Dachuan and the others, "The alert will not be lifted for now. We will conduct a surprise interrogation tonight."

The interrogation lasted all night, and the guards increased their patrols, creating an atmosphere of fear and unease on the mountain.

The disaster victims living on the mountain slept very soundly; after a busy day, they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

The next morning, it rained again. The disaster victims were relieved that their roofs had been repaired and their clothes had dried the day before, so they didn't have to work today and gathered together to chat.

As they chatted, they realized that quite a few people were missing.

"Hey, where's Old Lei's house? Did they move to a different place?"

"You just realized? I noticed it first thing this morning. They live in the same room as me, but I didn't see them when I woke up this morning."

"And the Wang brothers, were they called to do some work? Those two brothers are both very strong."

"The broken spoon is nowhere to be found either." The women, being more observant, noticed the anomaly earlier than the careless men.

"Let me tell you, the Lei family's wife didn't come home to sleep last night."

"Really? They didn't come back to sleep. Where else could they have gone? They couldn't have gone to sleep with their husbands, could they?"

"How could that be? There are rules in the mountains. Even if they dare to go, their husbands wouldn't dare to let them stay."

For the next two days, none of these missing people returned. Some ignored them, some inquired about them, and others quietly prepared to leave.

The guards caught several people trying to leave. They appeared to have no connection with the thirty men, but the guards found hidden weapons on them.

One of them was actually using a soft sword, which was wrapped around his waist and would not have been noticed unless he was searched.

Another person, seeing that something was wrong, fled in panic. He ran towards the teahouse and happened to see the owner's youngest daughter playing in front of the teahouse. The man rushed over and picked up the little girl.

The man's large, iron-like hand gripped the little girl's delicate neck as he roared at the approaching guards, "Back off! If you dare take a step forward, I'll strangle her!"

Before he could finish speaking, a whooshing sound came from behind him. He was startled and tried to dodge, but it was too late. A thin willow-leaf throwing knife pierced the back of his neck. He released his grip, and the little girl fell to the ground.

Zhao Shiqing walked slowly over. Murong Linlang's martial arts skills were mediocre, but she was good at using hidden weapons. Under her master's stick, Miss Zhao had also learned most of the skills.

Lingbo acted first, stabbing the man through with a single blow. Then she stood to the side, while Zhao Shiqing pulled the throwing knife from the back of the man's neck, wiped the blood off with the man's clothes, and carefully put it into her leather bag.

Wei Ren said that the first time he killed someone, he used a stone, which he kept in a brocade box for more than ten years.

Although this wasn't her first time killing someone, it was the first time she had used a throwing knife to kill someone, and she wanted to keep that throwing knife as a keepsake.

Well, I'm pretty excited.

After this incident, the alert on the mountain was finally lifted.

Including those who died, a total of 35 people were arrested in this operation.

Of these 35 people, two committed suicide, one was killed, and the rest survived.

However, of these survivors, only two eventually confessed. The others remained steadfast, their lips tightly sealed, refusing to utter a single word despite severe torture.

Fortunately, there were two who were willing to confess.

Just as Xiao Zhen and Zhao Shiqing had guessed, these people came from the mountain gate.

However, they do not entirely belong to the sect, because many years ago, the eldest branch was completely wiped out in an incident.

Although they died, two of their trusted confidants escaped the tragedy: the strategist Wang Yin and Shan Ye's bodyguard Quan Gang.

Seeing that they could no longer stay in Dayong, the two went to Dalu!
When they first arrived in Dalu, they were in a very difficult situation, while the Dalu king's sons were fighting each other to the death.

By chance, the two rescued the third prince of Dalu. When the prince learned that they had served the descendants of Emperor Ai and had killed many officials of the Dayong Dynasty, he became very interested and treated them as honored guests. In particular, the strategist became the third prince's teacher, teaching him Han Chinese military strategy.

With the help of these two men, the third prince of Dalu was greatly empowered. He also contributed money and effort, allowing the two men to learn from the experience of the mountain gate and spend nearly twenty years building a second mountain gate for Dalu.

It was named Hai Dongqing by the third prince of Dalu himself.

Over the years, the gyrfalcon has made great contributions to the Third Prince. Of the fifteen sons of the Dalu King, only three remain. The other twelve all died at the hands of the gyrfalcon.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the other two turned to the Third Prince. Five years ago, the Third Prince sent Hai Dongqing to assassinate the old King of Dalu and the prime minister, and became the new King of Dalu.

However, the gyrfalcons did not rest; they continued to eliminate dissidents for the Dalu King and consolidate his throne.

But the more people he killed, the deeper Dalu King's suspicions grew.

Just two years ago, Quan Gang was beheaded in his own home; the murderer was his newly acquired concubine.

After killing Quan Gang, the concubine committed suicide by slashing her own throat.

When the strategist Wang Yin saw Quan Gang's corpse, he knew that the King of Dalu's sword had already been swung towards them.

They did too much for the Dalu King, and they knew too much.

The gyrfalcon is no longer the same as it used to be. The influence of the Dalu King has infiltrated, just like this beautiful concubine, who is one of the Dalu King's people.

The strategist Wang Yin had been prepared for this for a long time. Unlike Quan Gang, who only knew how to fight, he knew that this day would come sooner or later.

Therefore, he had been secretly searching for the descendants of the Mountain Lord. The Han people were different from the Dalu people; the Han people needed a name and an origin.

So many years ago, while training Dalu assassins, he also trained a group of Han Chinese assassins. These people were either descendants of Han Chinese who had lived in Dalu for generations, or orphans he had sent people to adopt in Dayong.

"We entered the country from Yan. After entering, we heard rumors of flooding in Tongzhou. We reported this to the military advisor, who told us to disperse and lie in ambush, avoid the eyes and ears of the mountain gate, and wait for the military advisor's secret orders."

Until two months ago, we suddenly received a secret order to come to Tongzhou.

Our purpose in coming to Tongzhou is twofold: first, to create chaos, the more chaos the better, ideally inciting a riot among the refugees; second, to protect and take away one person. As for who this person is, we do not know; someone will bring that person here, and we will escort them to the Dalu.

Zhao Shiqing asked, "How many of you came? Who is the leader?"

The man said, “Our leader is Brother Jin Twelve, also known as Lei Dabao. I don’t know how many people there are in total, but I know that fifty of us entered the city. After discovering that there was another force in Tongzhou, Brother Jin Twelve decided to play along and follow you up the mountain.”

"Fifty people? Besides the thirty-five who went up the mountain, where are the other fifteen?" Zhao Shiqing asked.

The man shook his head: "You'll have to ask Brother Jin Twelve about that, I don't know."

The "Brother Jin Twelve" mentioned by this person, also known as Lei Dabao, looked like he only wanted to die quickly and refused to say a word.

Zhao Shiqing thought of someone. She walked to the room where Jin Shier was being held, looked at the guy who was pretending to be deaf and mute, and asked, "Fairy Cao has already confessed. She said the person you're taking away is surnamed Yang and named Yang Shengqiu, right?"

Jin Shierge suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes, looked at Zhao Shiqing in disbelief, and finally spoke, uttering his first words since being captured.

"You've captured Cao Wuniang? How is that possible!"

Zhao Shiqing smiled, thinking to herself, "So that's what Fairy Cao is called, Fifth Sister Cao. This gyrfalcon is modeled after the sect. Just like the sect, the higher the ranking, the higher the martial arts skill and the higher the status within the sect. Jin Twelve is the leader of this operation, ranked twelfth, while Fairy Cao is ranked fifth, clearly indicating that her status is much higher than his."