Chapter 1666: Taking Action Against the Next County (Patreon)

Chapter 1666: Taking Action Against the Next County

With a faint "crunch" sound, the wall on Shu Yu's left side slowly pushed back about a meter, revealing an entrance to an underground passage.

Shu Yu and Meng Yunzheng exchanged a glance and followed the bandit's lead, entering the secret passage together.

The secret passage could accommodate two people walking side by side, not particularly spacious, but it seemed quite long at a glance.

They proceeded cautiously, and Meng Yunzheng gathered quite a bit of information from the captured bandit.

There were only four people assigned to guard the mansion. Three had already been killed, leaving only this one.

They rotated every three days, and today happened to be the day of rotation. Yuangui had intended to escape during this time, but it ended up exposing his location.

Every three days meant that, barring any unforeseen events, they wouldn't encounter anyone within these three days, giving them time.

As for this secret passage, it led to the outskirts of the town. Meng Yunzheng thought to himself that it made sense the mansion wasn't far from the city wall.

At the end of the secret passage was the black market they were seeking.

Yes, the Changjin Prefecture black market was located in a large estate not far from Chenggu County.

Unlike the black market in Jiangyuan County, this one was underground and involved countless transactions. It wasn't like the one in Jiangyuan County that had a sign; here, anyone with a bit of power and wealth knew the address.

This black market was concealed and dangerous, requiring introductions from acquaintances for entry. All the participants were of considerable status; those wanting to enter had to pass strict selection criteria.

According to the bandit, the black market hadn't been active recently, with no customers. But there were still many people there, all disguised as bandits from various places.

So, someone new like Meng Yunzheng and Shu Yu appearing wouldn't necessarily be recognized by others, unless they encountered the leader who managed them or someone from the same team.

However, over the past couple of days, some people had been reassigned. Chenggu County had already experienced turmoil from bandits, and the local residents were still anxious and under the control of higher-ups, not currently needing to worry about it. Therefore, some people had gone to the neighboring county, which would experience the same chaos as Chenggu County in a couple of days.

Hearing this, both Shu Yu and Meng Yunzheng's expressions changed.

They were planning to completely disrupt the entire Changjin Prefecture, forcing General Huang and his troops from the capital to be spread thin?

Meng Yunzheng asked the bandit, "Does the neighboring county also have a secret passage that leads directly into the city?"

"No," the bandit replied, "We plan to attack directly from outside the city gates."

Attack from outside the city gates? Nowadays, every county had tight security, but manpower was indeed lacking. However, the city gates would definitely have many guards stationed. If the bandits concentrated their attack on a single gate, the casualties among the officials and soldiers would be severe.

In Chenggu County, the damage was from internal destruction, so the officials and soldiers didn't suffer much.

Of course, that was also because the Chenggu County officials were their own people.

The different attitude towards the neighboring county was due to... the fact that the neighboring county hadn't been swayed by the Second Prince's faction yet?

As they spoke, the group had already walked a considerable distance. Meng Yunzheng suddenly noticed another fork in the road, his lips tightening as he asked, "Does the black market lead to another passage?"

"Yes, this one leads to..." The bandit hesitated for a moment, thinking about the poison he had ingested. He spoke with some reluctance, "It leads to the private residence of Chenggu County's county magistrate."