After the immortal disappeared

He got a bottle of solution from somewhere and poured it on the door bolt. If there was a formation guarding it, the cave door would be isolated and not be contaminated by these corrosive drugs.

But now the metal-clad hardwood door was smoking and making a few hissing sounds.

He looked around, fortunately the sound was not loud and did not attract unnecessary attention.

The door bolt was soon dissolved into a hole, and the brass lock fell to the ground.

The black shadow pushed the door open lightly and slipped in.

The cave behind the door had several fluorescent spores embedded in the wall, illuminating the place in every detail.

The cave was not big, only about 100 square meters, with a bed, two chairs, and four or five stone tables.

There were bottles and jars everywhere, and herbs and insects and snakes floating in the jars.

The black shadow opened a jar casually, and inside was a green paste with a pungent smell.

He opened another wine jar, and the contents almost made him shake the jar off—

Scorpions, dozens of black, green, and brown scorpions.

He didn’t have time to see what other colors there were, and closed it again with a snap.

Then, he began to explore this space.

“Mr. Wei’s cave” has never been open to the public, and even the palace guards are curious about what is hidden inside. But when the black shadow came in today, he was disappointed.

It was too empty and boring, not quite what he imagined.

There was nothing useful, so Mr. Wei was a pharmacist?

Then he remembered his mission and quickly lit up the spore lamp to shine everywhere.

He searched every corner of the cave, but there was no secret door, at least he didn’t feel it.

He also crawled under the table to look around, knocking on the ground, solid.

There was no tunnel under the table.

This seemed to be an ordinary cave that couldn’t be more ordinary, without any extra tampering.

He didn’t give up, and patrolled again, and there was indeed no formation, no mechanism, and no tunnel.

So he turned off the spore lamp, pushed the door carefully out, and closed the kiln door with his backhand, and then left in the moonlight.

The man did not notice that there was a small spider hiding on the jujube tree opposite the cave.

He did not leave Yongquan Villa quickly, but walked to the main road, no longer hiding.

On the way, he met two patrolling palace guards, and the two looked at each other and left.

More than a quarter of an hour later, the man walked to a row of houses and stopped, asking the palace guard at the door: "Is the boss still awake?"

"He went to bed early. What's the matter? I'll tell him."

"No, no need." The man was about to turn around and leave, and the door creaked open, and Zhao Song yawned out, "Han Zheng? Come in and talk."

The person who broke into the mountain kiln at night was actually Zhao Song's subordinate. Han Zheng followed him in and whispered, "I just explored Wei Yishan's cave. It's a dead hole with no passage to the outside."

"No formation?"

"I looked for it, but there's nothing."

Zhao Song asked again, "What about the ponds in front and behind?"

"There is a pond with running water, connected to the main river in the village, but the opening is very small, and people shouldn't be able to get through."

Zhao Song nodded, "Are you sure there's no other way in the cave?"

"Sure. I've knocked on every wall, including the ground."

"Okay, get out." Zhao Song wanted to sleep, so he sent him away.

...

Tianshui City is preparing for the upcoming Emperor Liujiang.

In recent years, Emperor Liujiang has occurred frequently, and Tianshui City also has its own set of rules for receiving spiritual rain, similar to Panlong City back then, that is, each family guards their own territory, and residents in Tianshui City who go out to receive spiritual rain are considered to be crossing the border and will be punished.

Even if the heavens bestowed blessings, the rich and powerful families would get more, because their gardens were more spacious, and the Emperor's Flowing Slurry that fell within their mansions would be counted as theirs. And they had more means to receive the Emperor's Flowing Slurry, not just pots and pans.

He Lingchuan owned Yongquan Villa, which was half new and half old, but it covered a large area.

Of course, he didn't need anyone to remind him, and he was ready one step ahead of the nobles in Tianshui City -

Even if he had other plans in secret, he still had to make full preparations for receiving the Emperor's Flowing Slurry on the surface, otherwise it would arouse unnecessary suspicion. The facilities that should be built, the formations that should be deployed, and the materials that should be used, all must be available.

These would naturally be reported to King Yao. His preparations were so thorough and detailed that if King Yao hadn't known that he had secretly sent Yang Shan away, he would have thought that he had taken great pains to receive the Emperor's Flowing Slurry.

After the news that the Emperor's Flowing Slurry was about to erupt was announced, Tianshui City became even more nervous. Because this time point is really very delicate:

The refugee riot in Tianshui City was indeed suppressed by heavy troops, and Tianshui City also breathed a sigh of relief.

But everyone knows that the fundamental problem has not been solved:

The refugees have no food and can't make money.

How can a living person sit and wait for death, especially when there are more than 90,000 refugees in Tianshui City!

Although Yao State urgently purchased food from abroad, Tianshui City is located in the center of Yao State and is not close to any border. It takes at least seven or eight days to transport food from abroad to China, and this is still calculated at the fastest speed.

Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

The simplest strategy that Yao Ting can take at the moment is to do both:

First, forcefully suppress the refugees, and then distribute the food from foreign aid.

After all, 90% of the refugees in Tianshui City are not Yao people. No matter how much loss there is in the process, Tianshui City actually doesn't care from top to bottom; batches of foreigners squeezed into Tianshui City, and in a blink of an eye, those losses seemed to have never existed.

Of course, Yao Wang also felt that someone might be behind the refugee riot.

Because the timing was just too good.

The Emperor's Flood came at this critical moment, which was really adding fuel to the fire.

Spiritual broth can stimulate the greed of all creatures. Even people with good tempers may go crazy because of the Emperor's Flood, not to mention the refugees who are hungry and waterless at this moment.

The arrival of the Emperor's Flood is like a bloodthirsty potion for them, which may make them more violent.

Is the next refugee riot coming soon? Will it be more intense when the situation gets worse?

Tianshui City needs to deploy more troops in advance to prevent it.

In order to prevent a riot of 100,000 people, the original officials of Tianshui City are far from enough. What's more, there are too many Gangwu and the refugees are too scattered. So Yao Wangting, under Bai Tan's suggestion, mobilized the garrison to drive the refugees in Gangwu to several designated large open spaces in advance, gather them together and keep a close watch.

It is not a small project to drive 100,000 people, and 100,000 disobedient people.

There were several riots on the day of the announcement.

Some refugees were unwilling to be driven to the concentration, while some refugees knew that they had participated in the riots and would not have a good end if they were recognized and caught, so they followed the rioting team to smash, loot, burn, kill and rob, and they did not hold back at all.

Fires broke out everywhere, and the people in the city were panicked. Two fires caused all the shops along the street to catch fire, and several small temples behind the street were burned through.

Tianshui City was busy and exhausted. After the iron-fisted suppression a while ago, the refugees were relatively honest. In this way, the garrison of 13,000 people transferred from the nearby Yaoting was thrown in, and the riots were barely stopped, and they were driven to the open space and concentrated.

It is still so difficult now, what should we do when the Emperor's juice breaks out!

There are far from enough people.

Some ministers suggested that the palace guards could be temporarily sent to the scene at that time.

The guards of the Yaowang Palace City total 5,600 people. Previously, 900 were assigned to protect (monitor) He Lingchuan. Now they are stationed in Yongquan Villa, so there are more than 4,000 people left.

In extraordinary times, these thousands of well-trained guards can be of great use in Tianshui City.

Bai Tan was the first to jump out and express his opposition, saying righteously:

"No! The guards protect the king's safety, how can they be transferred to suppress the mob!"

The minister said: "The palace has always been stable. Once the palace gate is closed, why do we need 4,000 elite soldiers to guard it? On the contrary, Tianshui City is short of manpower. If there is a big mess when the Emperor Liujiang comes, and the rebellion becomes a trend, it will be difficult to deal with it later."

The two masters each insisted on their own opinions, and other ministers continued to join in the argument. The two sides were evenly matched.

Even You Rongzhi stood up and opposed the transfer of the guards.

King Yao was annoyed and slapped the back of the chair hard, saying, "Stop arguing!"

The two sides finally quieted down and listened to King Yao's words:

"On the day when the Emperor Liujiang descended, 300 people were left with He Xiao, 1,000 people were left in the palace to guard, and the rest were allocated to suppress the riots!"

Several ministers were arguing fiercely and had not yet reacted: "Your Majesty, He Xiao..." Why are there 300 people left?

King Yao was too lazy to argue with them: "I have made up my mind."

Everyone else shut up, only a few people including You Rongzhi understood the king's thoughts: He Xiao must not be allowed to escape in the chaos, at least some people must be left to watch him.

Bai Tan lowered his eyes, but sneered in his heart:

At this critical juncture, King Yao is still thinking about the millions of taels of gold in He Xiao's hands.

At that time, he will know what it means to lose the big picture for the small.

After the meeting, You Rongzhi privately proposed to King Yao: "Your Majesty, on the night of the Emperor's Flowing Water, why not summon He Xiao to the palace. The palace's garrison force can be increased to 1,300 people."

Yao Wang pressed the Qingming acupoint.

On the day of the Emperor's Flowing Water, he would of course summon He Xiao to the palace! The above personnel allocations were deliberately said to Qingyang, how could they be really implemented?

Real and false, false and real, then change the deployment at that time, must catch Qingyang off guard!

Here, Bai Hengbo came to Bai Tan privately and whispered: "Uncle, the king ordered me to take 300 people to guard Yuquan Palace and the Imperial Study in four days! In the past, this garrison position was held by Zheng Da!"

"On the night of the Emperor's Flowing Water?" Bai Tan was overjoyed, and at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay, I said that this job should be assigned to you! It's worth our efforts."

At the beginning, he went to find He Xiao overnight and bought the first row of Jingshe in Youhu Villa with a large sum of money to express his feelings to King Yao. King Yao was indeed moved and promoted his nephew Bai Hengbo to be the Minister of the Imperial Court.

The Imperial Court was responsible for the security of the inner palace and the deployment of the inner palace guards.