The Glory After Rebirth [重生之尊荣]

Chapter 436- 438

Chapter 436: A Suspicious Caravan

"Let them be," said Ling Zhang.

It was a good thing that the locals were vigilant. Besides, right now it was unnecessary for them to come into conflict with any of the residents.

"Yes, Young Master," responded Wang Dashan.

...

The caravans Wang Dashan had mentioned were staying in another local inn which focused on accommodating members of caravans and boasted a big open space and special sheds for caravans to put their goods.

The two caravans Wang Dashan had referred to were both from Youzhou, a northern prefecture.

When caravans from Youzhou traveled south, they would normally go to the capital city. It was very rare for them to specially come to Cangzhou, because apart from everything else, the journey alone would take them a lot of time. No caravans, except for large ones, would choose to enter Cangzhou at this point in time.

Apart from the fact that these two caravans were lingering despite the manifestly poor business performance, it also struck Ling Zhang as quite suspicious that they were from Youzhou.

...

While Yao Yi and some others were going in the direction provided by Ling Zhang to hunt for that secret agent from the Wan Kingdom, Jiang Yu's men had also exited the county seat and begun to conduct a covert search of nearby villages. It would take some time for them to finish the search, so Jiang Yu returned to the residence first. Seeing Ling Zhang was back, he hastened to walk up to him.

"Did you find anything out there, Young Master?"

Ling Zhang inclined his head and gave him a sketchy account of the recent movements of the rebel forces in Jiangzhou and also told him about his suspicion that Shan Congyi was planning to deliver money to Wang Xiangxin.

After hearing it, Jiang Yu said, "I've already arranged for my family's social contacts in this county to secretly search the nearby villages. I've also sent some men to go in the direction you told me. If there's indeed something out there, I would probably receive a message in a day or two."

Ling Zhang said with a bob of the head, "Good. If they really locate Shan Congyi and ascertain whether he's hiding any money in this area, it would be perfect."

"Incidentally, there are two caravans in the county seat. I want you to instruct your bodyguard to go there and check out the lay of the land when he comes back," Ling Zhang added and then had Wang Dashan tell Jiang Yu about the matter of the caravans in detail.

When Wang Dashan had finished explaining, Jiang Yu said with an inclination of the head, "Okay. I'll have him handle this matter."

Ling Zhang observed, "If the two caravans do have ulterior motives, there would be an eighty-percent chance they have something to do with Shan Congyi."

No matter what, the truth would come out after the bodyguard checked up on them.

When Jiang Yu's bodyguard returned, Jiang Yu had him take Wang Dashan out to look into the background of the two caravans together.

The bodyguard was fairly popular in this county and had a lot of close friends and relatives who were willing to provide him with information he needed. After making a few visits, he and Wang Dashan got almost all what they wanted. It'd been almost half a month since the two caravans' arrival in the county seat, and they'd been staying in that inn all along. All their goods were Youzhou specialities – a waiter of the inn had stealthily checked them shortly after the caravans checked into the inn. Local residents were quite wary of out-of-towners, so these two caravans naturally struck most locals as suspicious. However, local residents tended not to assume the worst about people. After confirming that the two caravans' goods were indeed Youzhou specialities, they'd lowered down their guard considerably. The waiter of the inn was still keeping an eye open for their behavior, but other local residents had gradually got used to the existence of the two caravans during the past half a month.