Jinting Han people

Chapter 67: Plan (4k)

While Shi Chong was pondering his future plans, Zu Ti downstairs was also observing the structure of the Jingu Garden with Shi Chao.

After being invited by Liu Cong, he couldn't contain his restlessness and joined the audacious Jin Gu Garden looting gang. With nothing else to do, he thought that looting the manor of the richest man in the Western Jin Dynasty would bring some fun to his dull life, and if he could see the bitter faces of some of the superiors, it would be even more enjoyable.

After joining, he also felt that this robbery team was full of talented people.

Zu Ti originally thought that although the Imperial Academy was large, only Liu Kun and himself could be considered outstanding talents in the Central Plains. Unexpectedly, here, whether it was the free and confident Afule, the elegant and refined Liu Cong, the indifferent and moderate Liu Xian, or the calm and resolute Liu Yao, they all left a deep impression on Zu Ti.

This also made Zu Ti, who had always been conceited, feel more competitive. He thought to himself that he must not only accomplish this, but also do it beautifully so that others would be convinced!
So when Zu Ti learned that Liu Xian asked him to help explore the Jingu Garden, he readily agreed. He immediately used Liu Kun's connections to go explore the Jingu Garden together.

Although he had known that Jingu Garden was luxurious, Zu Ti was still amazed when he was in the winding paths and secluded woods. The pepper-paste gold ornaments and the relief paintings on the railings alone dazzled him, not to mention the embroidered screens and jade lamps and pearls in the halls, which made him salivate.

What moved Zu Ti the most was the restroom in Jingu Garden. When he entered, he thought he had walked into the wrong inner room. Inside, there was a large bed with crimson gauze curtains, and the decorations were magnificent. On either side, there were several maids dressed in brocade. When they saw Zu Ti enter, they rushed over, offering him powder bags, water basins, and scented towels. They even took off his outer clothes and gave him new clothes for free.

Zu Ti smiled with satisfaction throughout the whole process, and on the surface he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, but secretly he had a murderous intent. He had never thought that there would be such a person in the world who deserved to be killed but was not.

When strolling with Shi Chao again, he pretended to ask casually, "Shi Gong's Jingu Garden is so magnificent, but I wonder where it is the most luxurious?"

Shi Chao pointed to a five-story building in the distance leaning against Mang Mountain and chuckled softly, "Of course it's the Chongqi Tower. My sixth uncle has a peerless beauty hidden in there. If there's nothing important going on, he'll have fun there!"

Zu Ti suddenly realized something and was a little disappointed. He didn't expect that the vault was not there. He lost interest for a moment and continued to listen and look in all directions.

When he walked to a small courtyard in the northeast corner, he suddenly found that there were many strong men here. All of them were tall and strong, more than seven feet tall. Moreover, these people had swords on their waists and had cold expressions. Zu Ti just took a glance and was immediately shocked: these are all colleagues!

Zu Ti pointed at these people and exclaimed to Shi Chaoyang, "There are so many strong men in the Taifu household! I wonder where they came from? What are their abilities?"

As soon as he said this, Shi Chao suddenly looked embarrassed and hesitantly said, "Ah, these are all swordsmen my sixth uncle brought from Jingzhou. For such a large Jingu Garden, there must be someone to protect it, right?"

Looking at Shi Chao's performance, Zu Ti understood what he meant and thought: This is most likely where the treasury is.

He then observed the surrounding geomancy and memorized the location of this place. At the same time, he secretly observed the number and attire of the assassins. Although he had only stood there for less than a quarter of an hour, Zu Ti had already gotten a general idea of the courtyard.

"Very tricky!" This was Zu Ti's first impression. The courtyard was very well-designed. Although he hadn't entered, Zu Ti had already seen two two-meter-high inner and outer walls and three three-meter-high watchtowers, which almost covered all blind spots in his vision.

Although there were only a hundred or so Jingzhou swordsmen in these courtyards, it was obvious that they had practiced swordsmanship for many years, and many of them had probably been on the battlefield. Liu Cong's men could not be compared with them at all.

Moreover, according to Liu Cong and others, these people may have hidden a certain number of military crossbows, and it is not known whether there is any armor hidden in the garden. If they attack here head-on, I am afraid that even a thousand people may not be able to take it down.

This is based on the premise that there are no other arrangements in the courtyard. According to the method of estimating the enemy's leniency, there must be other foreshadowings in it. If you are not careful, you will probably suffer a disastrous defeat.

Even after dinner and leaving Jingu Garden, Zu Ti still had not thought of a suitable solution.

After leaving, Liu Kun said to Zu Ti: "Shizhi, today is really an eye-opener. The dried dates used to plug the noses of wealthy families when they go to the toilet are sweet."

Liu Kun had a very satisfying trip. He seemed to think that he was just here for fun and had no pressure at all. Zu Ti appreciated this point and looked at him differently.

Zu Ti laughed and said, "He is so extravagant that it can be said that only monarchs like Jie and Zhou can be compared to him throughout history! But now it has happened to a minister. Isn't this a sign of the country's demise? How many more years can he live like this? Even if there is chaos in the Central Plains in the future and he is lucky enough to survive, he will be the first one I will kill!"

"Hahaha—Shizhi, you're thinking too far ahead," Liu Kun clapped his hands and laughed. "You haven't even scratched a layer of skin, and you're already thinking about the future. You should first think about the present and how to break into his treasure house!"

After saying that, the two laughed in unison, and spontaneously quickened their pace, galloping freely between the sunset and the jungle. For them at this moment, there were no unacceptable difficulties or failures. They just wanted to go faster themselves and the surroundings as well, wishing that everything would go faster until the moment they achieved success.

Arriving in the western suburbs again, the two of them didn't linger for long, but went straight to Liu Cong's courtyard secret room in the western suburbs. While their memories were still fresh, they added to Liu Xian's previous sketch, and in this way, the layout of the entire Jingu Garden was clearly displayed on the blueprint.

By the third quarter of the evening, Liu Xian, Liu Yao, Afule and others had also arrived one after another. In the dusk, the six of them lit candles in the secret room, listened to Zu Ti's introduction, and gathered together to study the structure of the Jingu Garden.

Just as Liu Xian had anticipated, despite the vast area and large population of Jingu Garden, the manor's perimeter defenses were lax. Built around mountains on the west and north sides, the east and south sides contained only a seven-foot-high wall. Some areas, for aesthetic reasons, were simply densely planted with apricot and pear trees, lacking even a fence. Finding a direction to break into Jingu Garden would be easy.

But the more troublesome thing now is that Shi Chong had obviously thought of this when he was supervising the construction, so he placed the guards and the treasury in the northeast, and then built a small dock around this place. Once someone tries to attack the Jingu Garden from here, they will inevitably be stopped by the dock. Although the treasury is close at hand, there is actually no way to break through it. If the siege lasts for a long time, and the other party sends reinforcements, it will be difficult to escape unscathed.

The same principle applies if the attack is changed to another direction. Jumping over the wall from another direction may avoid being discovered, but in the end, one still has to enter the fort to succeed. From this perspective, Shi Chong's design can indeed be said to be tricky.

After visiting the fort, Zu Ti had already thought about the methods of robbing the garden. He was the first to speak: "A frontal attack will never succeed. Even if we can successfully reach the fort and launch a surprise attack, the chances of success are slim. In my opinion, we can only think of a way to outsmart it."

Everyone listened intently. After all, when it came to robbery experience, Zu Ti was the most professional. Zu Ti said, "The method of seizing by wits, after all, is nothing more than deception. In practice, it can be either a feint to the east and a strike to the west, luring the tiger away from the mountain, or fishing in troubled waters, concealing the truth from the public."

Afule said: "Please explain it in simpler terms, I don't understand!"

Zu Ti choked and glared at Afule before explaining, "To put it simply, there are two ways. First, we can find a way to attack somewhere else first, tricking the people inside the fort into running out, and then we can attack them. This will naturally be easy. Second, we can find a way to tell a big lie, tricking them into saying we are one of their own, so they let us in and we can go and get the money without any hesitation."

A Fule laughed and said, "Now I understand. You mean you can either knock the mountain to chase away the rabbits, or put a pole in front of the bear."

Everyone couldn't help but smile when they heard this, but Liu Yao didn't express his opinion immediately. Instead, he asked Liu Xian, "Huai Chong, what do you think?"

Liu Xian pondered for a moment and replied, "Brother, what you said is very good, but neither of these two methods is easy."

"The so-called luring the tiger away from the mountain and making a feint to the east and attacking in the west generally means choosing the lesser of two evils. The most typical example of this tactic is when Sun Bin surrounded Wei to rescue Zhao. For the King of Wei, between the land of Zhao and his own life, his own life was definitely more important, so he would definitely let Pang Juan rescue him."

"But now they are guarding the vault. What could be more important than guarding the vault and getting the guards out? I'm afraid the only way is for us to wait for an opportunity to rob and kill Shi Chong himself. But doesn't Shi Chong have any guards around him? Can we really rob and kill Shi Chong? I'm afraid this is impossible."

"As for the second method that Grandfather mentioned, there are only two possibilities. One is that we try to hide for a few days, capture the intruder, see if we can bribe him, recruit him, and then directly charge in with the help of the insiders and the outsiders. The other is that we send someone to the Golden Valley Garden as an undercover agent to see if we can get to the vault and serve as a guide. But the problem is that it will inevitably lead to a bloody battle, and it will be difficult for us to withdraw."

After saying this, Liu Yao nodded, clearly agreeing with Liu Xian's analysis. He then looked at everyone and asked, "Do you have any other strategies that you haven't thought of?"

Zu Ti's expression turned grim. As Liu Yao had said, his strategy was either unfeasible or extremely risky, but there was really no other solution in such a hurry. And Zu Ti didn't think that high risk meant it was unfeasible. If all else failed, what about killing Shi Chong?

But Afule asked, "Since it's so difficult, why don't we try another approach? Instead of robbing him, we can kidnap Shi Chong's son and ask for a ransom. How about asking for two or three thousand gold coins? I think we can probably negotiate a deal."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yao immediately frowned and said, "Fool! Our biggest advantage right now is that he's in the open while I'm in the dark. If we sit down and talk with him, even if we take the money, we can't escape."

"Can't talk?" Afule seemed to have forgotten that he was seeking revenge and asked doubtfully, "But besides money and goods, he must have something else he cares about! Can't he use this as a flaw?"

Zu Ti was moved when he heard this, and suddenly thought of Chongqi Tower. He said, "I heard from Shi Chao that when Shi Chong was not entertaining guests, he would indulge in extravagance in a tower called Chongqi Tower. There lived a woman who was so stunning that she could be called the most beautiful woman in the world. What do you think? Can we use her to lure the tiger away from the mountain?"

Liu Xian was startled, then realized he was talking about Miss Lu Zhu. A scene from a year ago suddenly emerged in his mind, when Shi Chong had touched Miss Lu Zhu's cheek and boasted to him, saying that beauties were rare, and that even if he had to give up the Golden Valley Garden, he would keep Lu Zhu.

That look really didn't seem fake. Whether it was the love of a master for a toy, or the love of a man for a woman, at least the emotion must be genuine. If you can use this emotion, maybe you can really lure the tiger away from the mountain.

But for some reason, Liu Xian just had this idea in his mind, but he extinguished it in an instant.

He thought of the expressionless, sad eyes of Luzhu, and inexplicably, he thought of his mother's eyes. Her life was so unfortunate, just like his mother's. Although she could not be said to be worried about food and clothing, she was in despair in spirit.

If he used her, would she have no place in the Shi family? After all, Shi Chong said he didn't care about money, but in reality, he really didn't care about anything and wouldn't even mention it.

Thinking this way, Liu Xian seemed to be able to see Lu Zhu's tragic future. He couldn't bear to do that, so he was about to speak and reject Zu Ti's proposal. But at this moment before he opened his mouth, Liu Xian suddenly had another thought: why shouldn't he save her?

As soon as this thought came up, it immediately dispelled all of Liu Xian's distracting thoughts like sunlight melting ice and snow.

Liu Xian thought that the reason he came to attend this gathering was that he could not forget that day and Miss Lu Zhu.

I'd said before that I joined Afule's revenge because I admired him, but I couldn't deny that secretly, I had other ideas: I wanted to be a hero and rescue Miss Luzhu from the Golden Valley Garden. That was actually the whole thing. It was just that I had always been too sentimental and unwilling to face myself, so I hesitated again and again.

But hesitation often turns into regret, and the reason for regret is actually inaction.

Finally, Liu Xian made up his mind. Meanwhile, the debate between Liu Yao and Zu Ti had also come to an end. They both agreed that for a man like Shi Chong, no matter how beautiful a woman was, she would probably be nothing more than a plaything. They had to find another way to deal with him. But they were still at a loss as to where to begin.

Liu Xian said, "I have a solution."

The room fell silent, and everyone turned their eyes to him.

Liu Xian said slowly, "Although Shi Chong loves wealth, as a scholar, he should also love power. Otherwise, why would he entertain so many scholars in the Golden Valley Garden?"

This was a truthful statement, and everyone seemed to grasp something, but the hazy meaning still lacked a bit of truth. Liu Yao asked, "Huai Chong, why don't you be more straightforward?"

Liu Xian smiled and said, "I can introduce him to a distinguished guest. He can't help but treat him with great care..."

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(End of this chapter)