Chapter 306 Taking the Initiative

Chapter 306 Taking the Initiative

Most of his subordinates were simply following orders and were completely unaware of the inside story. Only a very few of Jiang Tong's staunch confidants knew for whom they were making things easy for him.

It wasn't that no one had tried to persuade Jiang Tong in a tactful way, but after learning that Jiang Tong only wanted Xie Wanniang to be "accidentally" captured and even killed on the battlefield, rather than wanting to join forces with the Tatars and harm the Great Wei, those people didn't say anything more.

Since their master was neither sending intelligence to the Tatars nor colluding with them to open the passes and let them invade the Central Plains, the only person he could harm was Xie Wanniang.

Even if Xie Wanniang were the wife of a fourth-rank military officer, or even if she were the wife of Chang Hongchuan, the commander of the Zhenbei Army and the Marquis of Dingbei, she would not have the right to make the guards hesitate to act after being captured.

Once caught, all that awaits her is endless humiliation and a final, deadly end.

In this situation, as long as they keep their actions clean, they will never be discovered by Jiang Yuan or anyone else.

These people never even considered that Xie Wanniang might be able to launch a counterattack against the Tatar spies' elaborate schemes.

Following Jiang Tong's instructions, they turned a blind eye and let many people go to Baoding Prefecture.

Among these people, there were naturally some who were genuinely going to do business, escort goods, visit relatives, or visit friends, but there were also some who were clearly suspicious.

Not to mention those spies who had been lying in wait for a long time. They could fabricate their identities and reasons for traveling in a very convincing way. The only flaw in these people was that while everyone else was avoiding Baoding Prefecture, which was suffering from both drought and war, they were heading there with great enthusiasm.

Logically, even if no suspicious persons are found during the inspection, the local garrison should not allow such people to go to Baoding Prefecture at will. However, under Jiang Tong's secret instructions, many suspicious persons from three prefectures adjacent to Baoding Prefecture were able to smoothly infiltrate Baoding Prefecture.

Fortunately, the garrison in Baoding Prefecture had always been under the control of the Chang family. They were an independent entity, and people like Jiang Tong could not interfere with them. Moreover, because they had been resisting foreign enemies for many years, their vigilance was far superior to that of other garrisons in the Central Plains.

With their combined efforts and those of the yamen runners of the prefectural, state, and county governments, most of the Tatar spies who had infiltrated Baoding Prefecture were stopped in the county or state where they first entered the country.

Unable to take the legitimate route, those people had no choice but to abandon the official road and bypass checkpoints, opting instead to travel through mountains and forests, taking a roundabout route.

No matter how responsible the government and the garrison are, they can't possibly block all the roads.

Just like the border troops guarding the passes in various places, what they guarded were only places that could allow large groups of foreign troops to enter quickly. Those difficult-to-cross high mountains, fast-flowing rivers, dark and dense primeval forests, and endless Gobi or deserts were basically not included in the scope of strict defense.

This is why foreign tribes occasionally infiltrate, and why the border troops in various places do not always stay within the passes, but regularly patrol their own territory within the passes, as well as the no-man's-land outside the passes.

After some time and effort, the group of spies who received the order to arrest Xie Wanniang finally arrived in Tang County one after another.

Because the distances they had to travel and the obstacles and setbacks they encountered along the way varied, these people did not arrive in Tang County within two or three days.

From the earliest group to the latest group, Xie Wanniang waited for them for a full twelve days.

Yes, Xie Wanniang's strategy of avoiding trouble wasn't simply about hiding away and quietly resting during her pregnancy; rather, it was about taking the initiative as much as possible while ensuring her own safety.

Since deciding to return to her estate in Tang County to rest and prepare for childbirth, Xie Wanniang has begun to make comprehensive plans for her future pregnancy.

Transforming the village involved more than just selecting suitable personnel; she also secretly hired many people to keep an eye on Tang County and its surrounding areas.

Unlike the modern cities she lived in in her previous life, where neighbors might not even know each other, in any town or village here, residents know their neighbors well.

Some professions are more specialized, such as peddlers, itinerant doctors, shop assistants, shopkeepers, hangers-on, and beggars. They can even immediately tell whether someone on the street is a local or not.

Xie Wanniang spent some money to hire no less than two hundred people to help her keep an eye on Tang County and its surrounding areas.

Most of these people were beggars under the age of fifteen. The remaining small number were well-known figures from various places, such as hangers-on, assistants, or peddlers. Some of them constantly wandered the streets and alleys, while others stayed in teahouses, taverns, and inns where people were concentrated. In short, they could notice the strangers who appeared in the area immediately.

Because of the drought that had already struck and the impending war, apart from the merchants who flocked there to make money, most other people were not very willing to come to Baoding Prefecture at such a time.

Those merchants who frequently traveled to Baoding Prefecture were, in fact, part of the "familiar" group of local residents.

The guards Xie Wanniang sent to distribute the money asked them to keep an eye out for people outside their "acquaintances" group—those who looked strong and healthy, and some who even knew martial arts.

Because for those hangers-on, assistants, peddlers, and beggars, this was just a matter of doing something on the side, so the fees they received for their hard work were very low.

The hangers-on, shop assistants, and peddlers were given copper coins directly by Xie Wanniang, while the beggars received two large bowls of mixed flour buns and a bowl of hot vegetable and egg drop soup every day from the guards she sent out.

The children rarely get a decent meal, let alone now, in this special time of drought and impending war. The reward Xie Wanniang offered the guards was far more valuable than copper coins, whose purchasing power had already decreased by about 30%, and which could be stolen at any moment.

They were even good at calculation and planning. Every morning, after receiving their food from their employer, they would not eat it all at once, but would first drink the bowl of hot vegetable and egg drop soup.

As noon approached, having failed to beg for anything else, they would carefully eat one of the steamed buns. As for the other one, the children simply broke it in half and dried it, keeping it as a reserve food.

After all, since the drought began, they have had a hard time getting money or food. Those small families who used to give them scraps have started to tighten their belts, so they naturally have even less to give them.