I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

Chapter 081: Stronghold Taken Down

The 29th day of the twelfth lunar month in the twelfth year of Shaoxing, the eve of

Xiuzhou.

A blue cloth carriage sped along the official road. The driver was a middle-aged man with a square face and thick eyebrows. He cracked the whip quickly and fiercely. Inside the carriage sat a man and a woman.

Qin Keqing was dressed in the blue cloth robe of a female official of the Imperial Clan Court, with a bamboo hairpin in her hair. Her charcoal pencil moved steadily across a new page of the booklet. Xiao Bieli sat opposite her, dressed in a clean, dark-colored outfit. His knife rested on his lap, and his back was ramrod straight.

It would take a full day to travel from Lin'an to Xiuzhou at a fast pace; they set off at dawn and arrived before nightfall.

But the closer they got to Xiuzhou, the more frequently Xiao Bieli's right hand rested on the hilt of his sword. Every time the carriage passed a roadside tea stall or a rest shed set up along the official road, he would glance out the window before looking away.

“Someone followed us three times,” Xiao Bieli suddenly said. “The first time he pretended to sell firewood at the city gate, the second time he rode a donkey on the official road, and the third time he lowered his head when we passed him, thinking I hadn’t seen the calluses on his hands.”

"They were spies from the Imperial City Guard." Qin Keqing didn't look up and continued writing. "When I left Lin'an, I had Feng Yi spread false information that I was heading towards Zhenjiang."

This scout who came with us was there to confirm the direction. After he confirmed it, he left and didn't follow. This means that the Imperial City Guard's target wasn't me, but Xiuzhou.

"Then why did you come?"

"Because I need to evacuate the people here before the Imperial City Guard takes action."

Qin Keqing closed the booklet and looked out the car window at the winter scenery rushing past.

In the twelfth lunar month, the Xiuzhou Plain was a barren yellow, with a few crooked mulberry trees standing in the bare rice paddies, and wisps of smoke rising from the distant villages.

She paused for a moment, then said the name in a very calm tone: "Today is my father's birthday."

Xiao Bieli remained silent.

"He is fifty-three years old this year. According to the Qin family's custom, he will not see any outside guests on this day, but will only have a cup of tea with a few of his closest relatives in the signing room. I used to bring the tea in, but I won't this year."

After saying this, Qin Keqing turned her face to the car window.

As dusk settled, the carriage entered Xiuzhou City. The guards at the city gate checked Qin Keqing's travel permit and let her pass. As an official from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, she was entering the city on official business; all her procedures were legal, and there was nothing to check.

Manager Wang's tea shop is located in an inconspicuous alley in the east of the city, with a very small storefront.

The Lunar New Year is approaching, and every household has hung red lanterns, but the teahouse door is tightly closed, with only a faint candlelight shining through.

Qin Keqing got out of the carriage, walked to the entrance of the teahouse, and tapped three times with her fingers.

After a pause, I knocked twice more, but there was no response.

She frowned slightly; this wasn't like Manager Wang.

In the past, as long as the password was correct, Manager Wang would always come to open the door himself; it wasn't like his shop hadn't been vandalized before.

"Break down the door." Qin Keqing took a half step back.

Xiao Bieli took two steps back, then kicked the door hard.

The sound of the bolt snapping was particularly jarring in the night. He drew his knife and stepped over the threshold.

Then he stopped.

The teahouse was in a mess.

The counter was pushed to the ground, the copper coins in the drawers were scattered all over the floor, and the tea boxes piled in the corner were split open with a knife, the tea leaves flowing all over the floor like black blood.

The scroll of "Tea and Zen in Harmony" that Qin Keqing had repaired for him when she came to Xiuzhou last time was torn off the wall again. This time, it wasn't placed on the ground; it was nailed to the roof beam, with the nail piercing right through the center of the character "tea".

Manager Wang collapsed behind the counter.

His left eye was hit hard, and the entire eye socket was swollen. His left arm, which was still injured, was broken by a new force and hung at his side at an unnatural angle.

Fortunately, he is still alive.

Qin Keqing squatted down beside him, took out a clean bandage and a packet of Panax notoginseng powder from her sleeve, and began to stop the bleeding and immobilize the wound.

"Manager Wang," she said in a low voice, "can you speak?"

Manager Wang looked at her with his still-functioning right eye, his lips moving for a long time before he finally uttered a sound. "Miss Qin... you shouldn't have come."

Tell me what happened.

Manager Wang's mouth moved with difficulty.

"A messenger from Lin'an brought a scroll of documents with him. When he entered the teahouse, I was organizing the accounts. He spread the scroll on the counter and asked me three questions."

Qin Keqing paused for a moment while bandaging his severed arm, then continued tying the bandage. "How many men did he bring?"

"There are five of them in total, including him. The other four are sitting in the four corners of the teahouse drinking tea. I know they are there to hold the line. If I dare to run, they will draw their swords."

Manager Wang's voice was intermittent. "He questioned me for nearly two hours, from the opening of the tea shop to the liaison with the imperial clan, from the liaison with the imperial clan to the medicinal herbs transported from Zhenjiang, and from the medicinal herbs back to when I met the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard."

He had a document in his hand that I had never seen before, but he asked me a few questions that only I and the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard knew.

With each question, he would glance at a case file in front of him from his sleeve; he already had intelligence in hand, he was just verifying it.

"What did you say?"

"He didn't say anything." Manager Wang suddenly laughed at this point. "I'm just an old man selling tea, all I know is bookkeeping. I don't understand officialdom. He still doesn't believe me even though he knows nothing about it."

Qin Keqing tied the last knot in the bandage.

Her worst fears were confirmed at that moment.

Before the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard was arrested, the Imperial City Guard had already obtained some intelligence on the Xiuzhou line.

Before the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard could speak, Tian Ruyi was already sitting in the Xiuzhou teahouse, comparing and verifying the list of imperial clansmen and the transportation routes of medicinal materials.

Since Tian Ruyi was able to find out this much, it means that he had already obtained the contact list of the Imperial Clan Court in Xiuzhou before the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard even spoke.

Or perhaps Qin Hui already possessed fragments of this document, but lacked someone to piece together the whole picture.

Tian Ruyi is that person.

"Manager Wang, are those two Imperial City Guard sentries left in Xiuzhou still there?"

"Yes, I saw them twice in the alley. One was squatting in front of the tea shop pretending to beg for food, and the other rented a room opposite the coffin shop and aired his quilts every day."

"Okay, you can leave Xiuzhou tonight. I'll take care of the rest."

Manager Wang wanted to shake his head, but the excruciating pain from his severed arm meant he could only gently wiggle the hand that was still movable.

"The list is still in my hands. I burned all the paper records of the contact information for the seven clan branches, but the list is in my mind."

They've been working for the Prince of Puan's residence for over half a year; I can't just abandon them to the Imperial City Guard and leave them to their own devices."

Qin Keqing stood up, walked to the window, and looked out.

The alley was quiet, but the dark figure crouching in the corner at the alley entrance wasn't a beggar. At this hour, no real beggar would be huddled motionless in the cold January wind.

The real beggars had long since gone to sleep in warmer places.