Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 319 The Art of Search

Amidst Chen Zilong's worries and Xu Du's gnashing of teeth at Yao Sunfen, Yang Chao led the army up the mountain.

Although Xu Du led the way, Yang Chao was still cautious and ordered the soldiers to line up and walk step by step.

It took half an hour to walk the [-]-foot-long mountain road, and it was only at noon that we reached the mountain.

Ziwei Mountain Village, or simply called Xujia Village, because the Xu family lived here.

200 meters in front of the village, there is a boat-shaped low mountain that seems to swim from east to west, each with a small stream flowing in the same direction along the north and south sides of the boat.The boat-shaped low mountain is like a near screen and a distant barrier.Immediately behind the village is a turtle-shaped low mountain, which is a Jinping in the back. It is said that this is a female turtle, which is crawling from south to north.There is also a low hill shaped like a turtle on the southeast side of Baidun. This is a male turtle, also swimming northward.There is just a small stream flowing from north to south on the east side of the two Guishan Mountains.Therefore, people call it Shangshui Wuzhu (turtle), and say that the "female Zhu" is courting the "male Zhu" and trying to catch up with it.

The local people say that "the female Zhu chases the male Zhu, and the ministers come out from generation to generation."

Just looking at the terrain, Yang Chao couldn't help being amazed. For the big clan, this is a top geomantic treasure, but what Yang Chao saw was a dangerous place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Fortunately, he didn't fall out with Xu Du. If you don't do it well, you will lose a lot of people.

The hills outside alone are a good place to ambush, and Yang Chao did see a figure swaying on the top of the hill.

"Come on, get ready!"

Yang Chao immediately ordered to stop the advance and asked the artillery to prepare for shelling.

Hu Quan excitedly shouted orders, he never got a chance, since he became the commander of artillery, he trained artillery every day, and now he has trained [-] gunners. Of course, the level may not be very high, but it is enough to operate the tiger squatting gun up.

Immediately, twenty tiger crouching cannons that had made great military exploits in Haizhou began to approach the hill.

Xu Du was shocked: "Master Yang, what do you mean?"

Yang Chao snorted coldly: "Xu Du, you still said you would capture him without a fight, but you set up an ambush on this mountain. Could it be that you are planning to make money for your official?"

Xu Du called Qu and said: "Your Excellency misunderstood, this is a servant of the family, again to guard against thieves."

Yang Chao snorted, "Then am I a thief?"

Xu Du was already in a cold sweat. He was usually a fearless master, but when he saw Yang Chao's army, he still knew very well that resistance was tantamount to death.

Xu Du's throat moved, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and begged for mercy: "Then what should my lord say?"

Yang Chao snorted: "Let these stupid things get down, or I will bombard them down!"

Xu Du was already a little dazed. After thinking for a long time along the way, he always felt that it was a very wrong decision for him to let Yang Chao go up the mountain.

So he immediately stepped forward and shouted: "Every stupid thing, get out of here, hurry up!"

Under Xu Du's shout, the servants on the hill in front soon ran down one by one, holding weapons in their hands, of course they were not weapons, but sticks and hoes. It looked like what Xu Du said, They have no weapons.

Yang Chao nodded: "Xu Du, it seems that I have misunderstood. They don't have weapons in their hands, but I have made a big fuss. Let them follow behind, but they must not approach the army formation to avoid misunderstanding."

Xu Du hurriedly nodded and went to make arrangements.

Xu Du's people followed Yang Chao's army, but the distance was about twenty feet.

Only then did Yang Chao head towards the Xu family.

It really is a magnificent manor.

From the outside, the pines and cypresses are green inside the high wall, which is very artistic.

And one building after another is connected together, forming a market in the middle, it is a house, it is better to say it is a small city.

In fact, this is just the mansion of the three Xu clans. It can't help but remind people of the Ningrong Second Mansion in the Dream of Red Mansions.

The whole building has three main longitudinal axes: left, middle and right. In the center is Xu Honggang's "Shangshu Di", with six entrances at the front and back;

Yang Chao led his troops straight to the Shangshu Building in the center, and at the same time ordered Wang Pu and many men to lead troops into the Doctor's Building and the General's Building respectively. He had secretly instructed them to close the four doors and confiscate the servants' weapons when they entered. Then invite the old people from each house to Yang Chao in Shangshudi.

"My lord, don't disturb your family!"

Xu Du stepped forward to plead at this time.

Yang Chao smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Xu, I trust the Xu family."

Immediately he gave the soldiers an order: "Here comes the order, whoever harasses the women's family members will be killed without mercy!"

The soldiers on the left and right responded, and sent orders in a decent manner, but in fact they didn't send orders, and no one dared to do so. Where are the military regulations?

Only then did Xu Du feel relieved to take Yang Chao in, but seeing the soldiers in iron armor follow him in, he always felt uneasy.

"Master Yang, this is a gift from the Holy One!"

The first entrance has five bays plus two aisle side doors leading directly to the back hall. In the central open room there is a gate nearly one foot wide.The capitals of all the rooms are scrolled and painted.

There is a vertical plaque on the top of the Ming gate in the middle, with the inscription "Imperial Decree, Heaven's Grace and Sameness" written in gold.

Chen Zilong pointed to the plaque on it, and told Yang Chao respectfully.

Yang Chao couldn't help sneering in his heart, at this time, Chen Zilong is still using the emperor to suppress himself, doesn't it mean that he doesn't want the Xu family who has the emperor's kindness to rebel, but it is ironic that he wants to excuse the Xu family.

Yang Chao nodded and admired the plaque. It was given by Emperor Chongzhen more than ten years ago. At that time, he probably would not have thought that such a family would rebel.

Yang Chao ignored it and walked straight forward.

"My lord, the front is the back hall, and it's all about female relatives!"

After passing through an unknown number of courtyards, Yang Chao sent soldiers to guard every gate, and at the same time drove the servants outside. Xu could only grit his teeth and cooperate.

Finally at the back hall, the members of the Xu family were basically kicked out of the house, and only Yang Chao's people were left inside.

There are wing rooms on both sides, and there may not be seventy or eighty large and small houses, all of which are the residences of servants, but the servants have been kicked out temporarily.

"Okay, let's stay here, and I won't go to the inner hall."

Yang Chao smiled and sold Xu Du's face.

Then he said: "Xu Du, please come out and talk to the old people of Xu's family. The search is too disturbing. I just ask them."

Xu couldn't help being overjoyed that he didn't need to search, just asked a few words, and immediately ran to invite someone, but what was strange was that Yao Sunfu didn't object this time, instead he showed a gloomy look, which made Chen Zilong involuntarily Worry up.

Yang Chao asked his subordinates to clear out these rooms, put them on the table, and close the windows.

Soon, with Xu Du's cooperation, all the descendants of Shang Shu, General Hao and Doctor's family were invited, and all of them came to the last courtyard of Shang Shu Di with their big bellies out of breath.

Then they were invited to the wing room one by one, while Xu Du was blocked from the door.

Yang Chao started from the first wing room near the inner courtyard and walked in.

"Master Xu, be well!"

When he entered, he saluted an old man in his 50s or [-]s. Yang Chao looked very polite. Anyway, they were all surnamed Xu, and they were all the patriarchs of each house.

The first one, Master Xu, replied politely: "Xiao Ke has met Master Yang."

Yang Chao asked him to sit down, and said with a smile: "I heard that the Xu family has hidden a lot of good things, and I heard that there is a cellar of silver!"

The first Master Xu immediately pulled his face down: "Master Yang must have heard it wrong. There are more than 1000 people in Xu's family, and they usually spend a lot of money. hoard."

Yang Chao sighed: "This is what your Xu family told you. Since Mr. Xu refuses to say it, I can only ask the people next to him. However, Mr. Xu must seize the opportunity. This time the Xu family rebelled and rebelled. Those who implicate the nine clans, the money will be ransacked sooner or later, if it is given to others, it is better to give it to the official, and the official can use it to suppress the bandits, right?"

Firstly, Master Xu didn't answer, his face was turned aside, and he didn't speak to contradict him.

Yang Chao said: "Well, since Master Xu is not willing to cooperate, then you can only ask Master Xu next to you. If he says, you will have no chance, Master Xu."

After speaking, he raised his foot and walked over there, leaving the first master Xu feeling uneasy.

A total of more than a dozen long houses from various Xu families were invited, and they walked around, but none of them admitted it. Yang Chao had already thought of this.

Turned around and came to the first master Xu.

"Someone has already explained the three silver cellars, Mr. Xu, are you still unwilling to tell?"

Yang Chao had just finished speaking, before the first Master Xu could answer, a general came in through the door.

He shouted loudly: "Annoying, my lord, the old man next door refuses to explain, what should I do?"

Yang Chao snorted, "If you don't eat the toast, you'll have to chop it up!"

The general nodded and strode out.

Yang Chao became silent for a while, knowing that there was a cry like killing a pig from the next door, and soon a general walked in with a bloody knife.

"Killed?"

"killed!"

"is it?"

"This is what he passed by, I cut it off!"

After speaking, the general left one ear on the ground.

The first time Master Xu saw the ear, he threw up in nausea and trembled all over.

Then Yang Chao asked kindly: "Master Xu, you know the current affairs, why bother to die for money. How many silver cellars do you know?"

The first Master Xu said tremblingly: "Your Excellency, there are not as many as three, only, only one."

After finishing speaking, he took a careful look at Yang Chao.

Yang Chao nodded in satisfaction: "Then where is Master Xu?"

First, Mr. Xu swallowed in pain, and then said in frustration: "Under the Wannian cypress under the west wall of the women's hall."

Yang Chao immediately called one of his subordinates, told him the location, and asked him to dig.

Then he got up and patted Master Xu who scared the first one: "Master Xu is really a wise man. But I don't like to tell lies. If someone tells more than Master Xu, don't blame me for lending you This is a meritorious deed. This official is also very embarrassed, at most one family can be saved, and there are more than a dozen of your Xu family."

After finishing speaking, he walked out, making the first master Xu continue to be trembling.

After going out, I asked a few officers under my command, and they also forced me to find out the location of one or two silver cellars, and they all went to excavate them.

Three of them were quickly confirmed to be true.

After learning the details, Yang Chao went to Master Xu's house again.

"Master Xu, you are dishonest. There are three, but you say one. There is one under the rockery in Yiyantang, one under the Sanshi Shangshufang, and there is one under the Wannian Baixia you mentioned. But you only said One, someone said two. So I borrowed your head."

After finishing speaking, he slowly began to draw the knife, the waist knife rubbed against the scabbard and made a harsh sound, at first Master Xu's body trembled even more.

Who said that people are not afraid of death when they are old? The older people are, the more they are afraid of death, and they are from such rich and noble families. Death, when I was young, I was not too afraid of death.

The first Master Xu suddenly shouted: "My lord, Xiaomin remembered, remembered. There is also one under the dismounting stone on the doctor's floor."

Yang Chao nodded and put away the knife, but he was rather embarrassed: "You said one just now, and now there are two. But it still can't protect your family from death."

At this time, Master Xu looked at Yang Chao for the first time, and suddenly had a ray of courage: "Your Excellency, can you really save my family?"

Yang Chao said: "I dare to make written evidence!"

Master Xu first said: "Okay, if the adults make written evidence, Xiaomin can still think of a few."

"It's easy to do!"

As Yang Chao said, he took the pen and ink that had been prepared by the side, and wrote a letter of guarantee, guaranteeing that "Xu Cheng's family has nothing to do with Xu Du's rebellion" with his military achievements.

After taking the life-saving document, the first Master Xu immediately explained everything he knew, and he named ten silver storage places in total.

While asking people to dig, Yang Chao walked around the other rooms, told those people where he had found, and cheated them, but there was nothing else to gain. After many confirmations, the Xu family only had Ten places where silver is stored.

There are four places in the Shangshu section, three in the doctor's section and three in the general section.

After getting out, I found that each silver cellar contained 10 taels of silver, and ten silver cellars were 100 million taels.

Yang Chao couldn't help but gasp, these wealthy families are really rich.

After carefully judging the words of the five honestly confessed Xu's parents, their family really only has these ten silver cellars for storing silver, which are used for emergencies, and there are really no more.

A large pile of unearthed silver was piled up in boxes outside the courtyard, exuding a cold luster.

Xu Du was completely flustered, and it was too late to resist at this time, because he had already been guarded by dozens of armored soldiers.

Chen Zilong's face was ashen, this is plundering people's wealth, he was trembling with anger.

But Yang Chao said to him with a smile: "Master Chen, these wealthy families are really rich. I don't know if the source of this money is right?"

Chen Zilong snorted coldly and remained silent. He was also from a wealthy family, and Yang Chao's behavior at this time made him feel sad.

Yang Chao said with a smile: "Lord Chen, be safe and don't be impatient, the Japanese officials will continue the trial tomorrow!"

The money was not Yang Chao's main purpose. Yang Chao would only ask the really important things after using the prisoner mentality of separate interrogation to make them open their mouths. As long as they opened their mouths, there was no need to hide them.

Yang Chao planned to detain the thirteen parents in a wing room for one night and try again the next day, while his soldiers ordered them to enter the kitchen of the Xu family to make food first.

(End of this chapter)