Chapter 1228: Monitoring

Little Treasure knew the moment Ogedei’s convoy changed its route. He waved at the two people from the trade caravan beside him and asked, “Is there a byway nearby that leads to Weizhou?”

“Yes, there are several of them. Because we’re in charge of guarding this place, we know our surroundings very well. Even if they take a byway, we can intercept them from the front.”

Satisfied, Little Treasure instructed, “Then choose four skilled scouts to follow them. We’ll intercept them from the front.”

After the subordinates left, Little Treasure asked Little Bear, “Considering we’re already a certain distance away from the border, how confident are you that we can capture Ogedei if we make a move now?”

Little Bear calculated the number of people on their side and the number of people on the other side and replied, “80%. We have more people than them.”

Although the other party had more guards, Yuan Qing had arranged many of his men to follow the trade caravans as escorts and guards. He could mobilize them at any time.

However, Ogedei’s horse was pretty good. If anything happened, his guards would definitely risk their lives to help him escape. Therefore, they could not rule out the possibility of Ogedei escaping.

“Then let’s wait a little longer. We’ll take action if we really can’t find out why he came to Great Qi.”

“What if he has assistants in Great Qi?” The guards felt that this was too dangerous and persuaded the two young masters. “We still think it’s better to let Yuan Qing handle this matter.”

Little Bear looked down on them. “Even if he has assistants in Great Qi, could it be that his assistants are greater in numbers and more impressive than mine?”

“That’s right. With my order, who would dare to disobey the garrison of the prefecture? Why would I fear that he has assistants on Great Qi’s territory?”

“In fact, we’re afraid that he won’t deploy his assistants. Once he makes a move, we can take down his men in one fell swoop!” The two of them settled the matter just like that.

The guards had nothing to refute and could only follow closely beside the two masters. They only hoped that they could return to the capital safely and successfully complete this mission. Next time, they would rather die than come out with the Crown Prince and Prince Rong. Coming out with them was too challenging, okay?

Ogedei’s men were staying in the wilderness outside Weizhou City, with one group occupying a gold mine and another group occupying a silver mine. Because of this, although they had gathered in the mountains to be bandits, they had never robbed anyone because they had gold and silver to buy grains in the city. As a result, the magistrate of Weizhou City still did not know that these two groups of people existed outside the city.

Last year, when Ogedei occupied the area from Dongjing to the Central Capital, he drew a map of all the gold and silver mines that had been surveyed. Then, he killed all the miners inside and even killed those officials in the regions who knew about this. Therefore, the new magistrate did not know that there were two large reserves of gold and silver mines under his jurisdiction.

Back then, Ogedei had arranged for his men to be stationed here because this place was closest to the grassland. If this region was seized one day, this would be the easiest place to reach.

Last year’s war was too fierce. Great Jin fought with Da Yuan, Great Qi fought with Da Jin, and then Great Qi fought with Da Yuan, so even if there were many deaths one would not find it surprising. Now, Weizhou City had a small population, and the trade caravans typically traveled on the official roads. Meanwhile, not a single person could be seen on the bypass, not even a village that was inhabited.

Ogedei and the others could only find an abandoned village to settle down in. Looking at the dilapidated village, Nahe could not help but sigh when he thought of the tragic battle last year. He did not want to see another battle, so his master had to return to the grassland safely. Otherwise, Great Yuan would be in chaos again.

Even if he had to lose his life, he had to make sure his master returned to the grassland safely.

Oblivious to the fact that his aides were already prepared to sacrifice themselves for him, Ogedei just spread out the map and looked at it. Then, he said excitedly, “We’re not far from our destination. After making a turn into the mountains tomorrow, we’ll be able to meet them.”

Nahe took the opportunity to ask, “Why did you come to Great Qi this time, my lord?”

“For money!” At the thought that he was going into the mountains to see his former trusted aides tomorrow, he did not hide it from Nahe.

Nahe opened his mouth wide and could not help but ask, “How can you guarantee their loyalty though?”

“Of course they’re loyal. Their parents, wives, and children are all in Great Yuan. Even if it’s for their sake, they’ll work hard to be loyal to me.”

How could Ogedei not make adequate arrangements since this was his backup plan?

Not only were the people who stayed behind in the mines once his trusted aides and were very loyal to him, but their parents, wife, children, or siblings were still living on the grassland. As long as their families were still in Great Yuan, it was impossible for these people to betray him!

Ogedei led his men into the mountains at noon the next day. At this moment, Little Treasure and Little Bear had also settled down in a relatively large village.

When the disguised trade caravan saw that they were not far from Weizhou City, they requested to leave one after another. The guards went to stop them.

Since the matter was not over, it was best for these people to continue to follow them.

At night, when Little Treasure and Little Bear received the news sent back by the scout, the two of them could not help but widen their eyes. “A gold mine, you say?”

“Yes, there are quite a number of people in the gold mine. I can’t tell the exact number of people. Because their defense is tight, we didn’t dare to get too close. We could only hide halfway up the mountain and observe the situation.”

Little Bear frowned. “Even if it’s a gold mine, there’s no need for an Emperor like him to come personally, right? Isn’t it just a gold mine? Couldn’t he have just sent his subordinates over?”

Little Treasure’s mind raced. “Unless Ogedei doesn’t have anyone he can trust.”

“But he’s the founding Emperor. How can he not have a single trusted aide?”

Logically speaking, the founding Emperor should have the most trusted aides, right?

“Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that he doesn’t trust anyone other than himself.”

Little Bear said sympathetically, “How pitiful.”

“Alright, stop with the pity for now and think about what to do next instead. Since the number of people in the gold mine is unknown, how confident are you?”

“He’s the Emperor, so he can’t stay inside all the time. Since this is Great Qi, he can’t possibly bring more people with him when he leaves. Therefore, we’ll wait for him to come out before taking action. As for the people in the gold mine, we can get General Yuan to send troops to exterminate them since Yuan Qing is some distance away.”

Dading Prefecture guarded by General Yuan was only two days away from here and there were 200,000 troops stationed there. Dealing with a gold mine was as easy as crushing an ant.

Little Treasure had always listened to Little Bear when it came to safety and war. When he heard this, he nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll do as you say.”

Though Ogedei pulled a few carts of furs and herbs up the mountain, he had disposed of most of the goods when he descended the mountain. Instead, there was a lot of gold hidden underneath while the surface was covered with furs and herbs.

He had already agreed with his trusted aide guarding this place that when he opened up the trade route from Weizhou to the grassland, gold and silver would be transported to Great Yuan via this secret route.

Satisfied, Ogedei descended the mountain and said to Nahe, “Let’s go to Weizhou City to rest for a day and change our road passes to head back. We’ll look for the silver mine on the way back.”

“My lord, it’s too dangerous to bring so much gold into the city.”

“There’s an apt saying by the Han people: The most dangerous place is the safest place. Besides, we need an excuse to sell the goods we have on hand. If we don’t even enter Weizhou City, who will believe that we’ve sold our goods in exchange for gold and silver?”

“But how are we going to transport so much gold and silver out?”

“This is one of the reasons why we have no choice but to enter Weizhou City. We’ll go to the grain store to buy some grains and hide the gold in the grain bag. The grassland is short of grain, so the Han people won’t suspect anything.”