gnovel Chapter 048: Owe Yue Shaobao a life
Chapter 048: Owe Yue Shaobao a life
May 12th.
The detailed battle report from Zhenjiang was finally delivered to Lin'an through a secret agent, a full day later than Qin Keqing had anticipated.
Qin Hui added three more checkpoints outside Lin'an City.
These three checkpoints were not set up at the official road passes, but at the three bridgeheads that were the only way to enter the city.
Yong'an Bridge outside Yongjin Gate, Duzi Bridge outside Qiantang Gate, and Jiaochang Bridge outside Houchao Gate.
Each checkpoint was staffed with six Imperial City Guards officers who, under the guise of "inspecting smuggled salt," checked each vendor pushing a cart or carrying a load.
This deployment was ostensibly to investigate smuggled salt, but in reality, it was to investigate all personnel and supplies coming from the Zhenjiang direction, including intelligence smuggled into the city from the docks.
Upon receiving the news, Qin Keqing immediately adjusted the delivery routes within Lin'an City.
The original direct route from the dock to the west of the city was split into three branch lines, and messengers dressed as foreign merchants were used to transport goods via the bulk cargo route, without intervening with any of the original fixed dead mail drop-off points.
Upon learning this, Zhao Bocong immediately adjusted his strategy based on Qin Keqing's deductions.
Instead of sending anyone to bypass the checkpoint, he ordered the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs to send two clerks carrying lanterns from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs.
Under the pretext of "checking the register of imperial family lands," they passed through the checkpoint at the bridgehead, using a seemingly legitimate reason to test whether these inspectors were acting on Qin Hui's private orders, without any imperial edict backing them.
He needs to confirm this last point before deciding which inch of floor to step on next.
Zhao Bocong also realized that the Imperial City Guard's requisition of city gate checkpoints for control meant that Qin Hui had escalated the intelligence war in Lin'an to a quasi-military level, and this kind of pressure could not be met by the shell of documents and the skeleton of the communication network alone.
He needs a force that can actually operate within the city, and that is a completely legally armed force.
Just as he was working out the third plan for the source of force, a name suddenly came to mind.
Xin Qizong.
Zhao Bocong had read this name in the history before his time travel.
Xin Qizong, courtesy name Chengye, was a native of Xihe.
He rose from a junior officer in the Western Army to the deputy commander of the Divine Martial Army, and then from the deputy commander of the Divine Martial Army to the deputy commander-in-chief of the Jiangnan West Route Cavalry and Infantry.
In the seventh year of the Shaoxing era, he was impeached for "cowardice and avoidance of the enemy" and dismissed from office. Nine years later, no one mentioned him again.
But this is only what is recorded in history.
The underlying storyline beneath the surface is even more intriguing.
Xin Qizong was transferred to the Palace Guard as Commander-in-Chief in the second year of the Shaoxing era, and in the fifth year of the Shaoxing era, he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Divine Martial Army, and was stationed on the outskirts of Lin'an for a long time.
Although his Shenwu Deputy Army was officially under the Palace Guard Command, it was actually stationed at the old camp of the Cavalry Command in the southern suburbs of Lin'an, sandwiched between the main force of the Palace Guard Command and the inspection area of the Imperial City Command.
For the past three years, the Imperial City Guard has repeatedly tried to purge this old camp and replace it with Qin Hui's men, but has never had a pretext.
An old camp disliked by political enemies but never formally disbanded; a veteran forgotten by history but never completely disappeared.
The man wasn't defeated; he was simply left standing to the side.
The reason Zhao Gou kept him around was probably because he was unwilling to submit to Qin Hui, yet he posed no threat.
This is exactly the kind of person Zhao Bocong can truly utilize.
Zhao Bocong immediately dispatched Liu An to the old camp of the Cavalry Command in the southern suburbs, and at the same time asked Zhao Shiyi to retrieve all the files of Xin Qizong's impeachment in the name of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, ostensibly to organize the list of military officials of the imperial clan.
Although Xin Qizong was not a member of the imperial clan, he had escorted the relatives of Prince Anding south in his early years, and his name was recorded in the "Record of Imperial Clan Accompanying Officials" of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs.
On May 17th, Liu An returned from the southern suburbs, bringing back only a verbal message.
"General Xin said that he was illiterate and could not write letters, but he asked Your Highness to come to see him in person. He said that he knew Your Highness's elder brother, Zhao Bogui."
Zhao Bozong pondered these words repeatedly in his study.
Xin Qizong did not refuse to meet, nor did he allow Liu An to bring back any written evidence that could be intercepted.
This shows that the eight years of unemployment have worn down all the rough edges of this veteran, but not his mind.
He was testing the waters, trying to see if the Prince of Puan truly wanted to use him, or if he was just another member of the royal family who wanted to use him as a pawn.
But he mentioned Cho Bo-gyu.
Zhao Bogui was Zhao Bocong's elder brother in Xiuzhou.
Xin Qizong knew the name, which meant he had done his homework on the background of the Prince of Puan's Mansion, and that he was hinting at something.
He knew that Zhao Bozong was not fighting alone, so he asked Zhao Bozong to come and talk in person, in the most frank manner, without using a middleman.
On May 19th, Zhao Bocong, along with Liu An and Zhao Shi, personally went to the southern suburbs.
When he left the city, he specially brought a blue lantern with the characters for "official business of the Imperial Clan Court".
This means that his trip was not a private lobbying effort, but rather an official visit to the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs to review files and question relevant military personnel, all under the guise of legality.
The camp was old, even older than Liu An described. The wooden pillars on the watchtower were cracked, and the iron plating on the gate rattled gently in the wind.
Xin Qizong waited for them inside the gate.
He was in his early fifties, with a half-white beard, and he wasn't wearing a military officer's uniform, but rather an old, faded military robe.
He stood behind a group of soldiers who were training, his hands behind his back, his posture upright.
Zhao Bozong got straight to the point with his first sentence.
"General Xin, I've come to borrow something from you."
Xin Qizong remained silent.
"It's not soldiers, nor food or weapons." Zhao Bozong looked into his eyes. "It's you."
Xin Qizong's brow twitched slightly.
"I am an old and useless man, what use does Your Highness need me for?"
"I'm borrowing your name," Zhao Bozong said, "as well as your 1,200 old men who are still officially employed, and half of the secret passage outside the back gate of the camp that leads directly to the Houchaomen horse path."
Xin Qizong's brows furrowed from a slight twitch to a deep frown. He glanced at Zhao Shiyi, then looked back at Zhao Bocong.
"Your Highness, how did you know about the horse trails?"
In Xin Qizong's view, although this matter was not a secret, it was also impossible for a newly promoted prince to know about it.
"In the fifth year of Shaoxing, Prince Zhang Xun returned to the capital from Bianliang and was harassed by scattered Jurchen soldiers outside Houchao Gate. At that time, you were ordered to set up an ambush outside the city and took that horse road."
Zhao Bozong's tone was very calm. "This matter was recorded in the Imperial Clan Court's records of the imperial guards. It only said that the ambush was successful, but it didn't mention that you had hidden two hundred men on the horse track beforehand."
Xin Qizong remained silent for a long time, not expecting Zhao Bozong to know so much about the matter.
Behind him, on the drill ground, the soldiers were still training, but his expression grew increasingly grim.
"Your Highness, it's alright if you borrow these people, but don't send them to their deaths after you've lent them the money."
"You've told me the truth: are they pawns you'll use to step up in the future, or shields to protect you?"
"Neither."
"Neither." Xin Qizong repeated the three words, then suddenly laughed. "Your Highness came empty-handed, without the imperial edict summoning you, without a signed transfer order from the Privy Council, and you think you can take away half a lifetime's savings with just a 'neither'?"
"That's why I came in person."
Xin Qizong did not answer immediately.
He stared at Zhao Bocong for a long time, until the drills on the training ground ended, the soldiers carried their guns and walked towards the barracks, and only a few people remained standing at the gate.
Then he took half a step back.
"Your Highness, in the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Yue Fei was imprisoned. Yang Yizhong was transferred to the Palace Guard to guard the Court of Judicial Review, and Qin Hui was transferred to the Imperial City Guard to surround Fengbo Pavilion. Lin'an City was surrounded by soldiers in layers upon layers."
At that time, my camp was still stationed inside Houchao Gate. With just one command, we could storm into Dali Temple in half an hour.
His voice suddenly went hoarse.
"I didn't drink. I sat in the gatehouse and drank all night. The next morning, Yue Shaobao died, and I knew then that I could never drink again in this life."
Zhao Bocong did not interrupt him.
"Your Highness, you've come to borrow me now. I won't ask who you're going to fight with. I only have one question."
Xin Qizong raised his eyes, his gaze fixed on Zhao Bozong's face.
"I owed Yue Shaobao my life back then, and now you want to use my life to pay for whose debt?"