Chapter 21 Chapter 2 Xu Yong's visit

On February 15th, Shangyu City. Chen Gong got up half an hour earlier than usual, not because of lack of sleep, but because there was a violent knock on the door. The moment Chen Gong regained consciousness, he thought that the person who knocked on the door was the Sima of the Wei Guojian Army who came to arrest him, and no one else would visit other people's homes at this time.He subconsciously took out a small red pill from under the pillow, which was a special poison mixed with arsenic and aconite, specially designed for emergency use.Chen Gong squeezed the pill, and listened attentively to the sound of the old servant getting up to open the door.The door creaked and opened all of a sudden, but the chaotic footsteps that Chen Gong expected did not come.

Not long after, the old servant came to the bedroom and said respectfully to Chen Gong: "Master, there is a man named Xu Yong looking for you outside the door." "Xu Yong?" Chen Gong frowned and thought for a long time, but he didn't remember that he had dealt with such a person before.However, he still got up from the couch and walked towards the door, the red pill still clutched in his right hand. Walking to the door, Chen Gong saw a middle-aged man in his forties standing outside the door.He is not tall, but has a strong physique. His long and narrow face is covered with fine wrinkles, and a scar the length of an earthworm extends from the corner of his right eye.It is worth noting that he is wearing a set of crimson casual clothes for Wei soldiers.

"Excuse me, who are you looking for?" Chen Gong asked vigilantly. "I'm looking for Chen Gong and Master Chen." Xu Yong's expression was very anxious. "I am." Xu Yong didn't continue immediately, he looked at the old servant behind Chen Gong.Chen Gong hesitated for a moment, if he let the old servant leave now, it might become one of the evidences of his guilt in the future. "I need to talk to you alone." Xu Yong insisted, his eyes proving that he was serious. So Chen Gong waved the old servant back to the back room, and then folded his hands on his chest, waiting for the uninvited guest to speak.It is early spring and February, the weather in Longxi is still very cold, the wind is blowing in from outside the door, Chen Gong regrets that he didn't take a leather jacket to put on his body just now.

Seeing that the old servant had left, Xu Yong said nervously and urgently: "I am Xu Yong, the governor of the interim army Sima directly under Wei Zhongshu Province. I hope to go to Shu Han immediately..." Hearing his words, Chen Gong couldn't help being surprised.The governor is an important deputy to Sima of the Jianjun, and his rank is quite high in Wei's internal affairs department.Now such a supervisor actually ran to his door early in the morning and asked to join the Shu Han, which was too abrupt.No matter how rich Chen Gong's experience was, he couldn't make a proper judgment in an instant.

"You must have made a mistake. If you leave now, I can guarantee that you will not report this matter to General Guo Gang before noon." Chen Gong replied coldly. "You don't have to wait until noon, General Guo Gang will come to you in person within an hour." Xu Yong threatened. "what?!" "General Guo Gang has returned to Shangbei this morning. He found out that you are a fake Chen Gong in Xuchang. He will bring someone to arrest you in a while." Chen Gong stared carefully at Xu Yong's eyes, his heart was churning, it seemed that this person knew quite a lot.Then Xu Yong continued:

"I'm not threatening you. The situation is very urgent now. You must make a decision immediately, whether to stay here and wait for death, or take me back to Chuanzhong—I think you should have a backup evacuation route for emergency situations." "...I need to think about it. Why did you go into exile to Han?" "Damn, can we discuss this topic on the road? Guo Gang's people may show up at any time." Xu Yong growled impatiently in a low voice, his forehead began to sweat, "By then, we will be finished." Chen Gong noticed that he used the word "we".

"That's right, us. If they find out, my fate will be worse than yours. If I come to you, there is no way out." Xu Yong took out a sharp knife from his waist and said in a threatening tone, "If you refuse my request and don't believe me, then I can only kill you. This is the only way to prevent them from finding me." "This behavior is really reckless, and it's full of loopholes." Chen Gong thought to himself, but this rough and hasty way was closer to the style of a temporary decision-making exile, rather than a well-planned conspiracy.Years of espionage experience taught Chen Gong that perfect things are always unnatural.

A long time passed, and Chen Gong understood that now he had to make a decision by himself.It is not clear whether the warlord in front of him is true or not. The only thing that is certain is that his identity has indeed been exposed, and it is time to retreat. Chen Gong heaved a sigh of relief, realizing that his days in Longxi were finally over.He nodded to Xu Yong: "Okay, please let me go back to the house and pack my things." "There's no time, Guo Gang will show up at any time, I understand his style." "Just a moment." Chen Gong walked back to the room quickly, took out all the manuscripts of the information from the bookshelf, threw them into the blazing pot-shaped heater on the bed in the bedroom, and then closed the lid with the iron hook.

After finishing these tasks, Chen Gong took out a piece of paper, wrote a few words on it with a brush, then put the paper in his arms and went back to the door.Xu Yongzheng looked out of the yard nervously, wiping away his sweat. "Let's go." Chen Gong said calmly. The two quickly left the courtyard of Chen Gong's house and walked towards an alley on the right.Xu Yong followed closely behind Chen Gong. At this time, the surrounding area was still silent, and there was no sign of a large group of people coming. "Please hurry up, if we can't get out of the city before Guo Gang arrives at your house, it will be completely over. If Guo Gang realizes that you are escaping, the first order will be to release sentry arrows and notify the city guard to immediately seal the city gate. "

Chen Gong did not answer Xu Yong's warning.What Xu Yong said was very clear in his heart, and he couldn't help speeding up a few steps.Fortunately, until the two arrived at the south gate, there was still no movement in the city. "So, how do we get out?" Xu Yong asked.The city gate in front of me is closed tightly, and there is still an hour before the time to open the city gate.Chen Gong was a little surprised and asked back: "Didn't you think about this issue when you went to find me?" "I know you must have an emergency escape channel... Your people have always done things very safely."

Chen Gong smiled wryly, wondering if he should take this as a compliment.He took out the piece of paper from his arms. It was a customs clearance document, and the lower left corner was stamped with the seal of the prefect's mansion.Chen Gong once took advantage of his power to secretly stamp blank documents with the seal of the prefect's mansion, and then kept them; in this way, he could forge a "real" document when necessary, which was indeed real , but the order of document content and stamping is reversed. Before leaving home just now, Chen Gong took out this thing and filled in the blank space with the words "approved to leave the customs", so it became a customs clearance document with a format that fully complied with the standard.Chen Gong even considered such details as "the seal should cover the handwriting". The two walked to the city gate and handed over the documents to the guards on duty.At this time, the guard had just been on duty overnight, but it was not yet time to take over, so he was not in good spirits and was in a daze.They took the customs clearance document and read it hastily, then handed it back to Chen Gong.Only then did Xu Yong's uneasy expression relax slightly. The soldiers called a few companions, took down the gate bar next to the city gate, opened a small door and let the two of them out.Chen Gong and Xu Yong thanked the soldiers, and walked out of Shangyu City unhurriedly. After the two left the city, they went straight to a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city.Here is a "dead spot". "Dead spot" means a stronghold that will be exposed once it is used. That is to say, it can only be used once, and it can only be used in very urgent situations.This farmer specially took care of the horses for the Shangyu cavalry, and there were eight war horses in the stable.Chen Gong got two Xiliang horses from here, and Xu Yong and Xu Yong hurried towards the southeast of Shangbi.After the two left, the owner of the family poisoned the remaining horses and fled back to Shuhan by another route. Chen Gong and Xu Yongce galloped wildly, when they ran to a small hillside, they suddenly heard a sharp whistle behind them.The two reined in the reins and looked back, only to see several whistle arrows flying from the sky above Shangyu City. Judging from the castration, they came from Xicheng District where Chen Gong's family was located.Three short whistles and one long whistle meant that the gates of the city were quickly sealed and no one was allowed to enter or exit. "If it's a trap, he should close the net now." Chen Gong thought to himself, but Xu Yong just wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Fortunately, we left in time." The two fugitives looked at each other, knowing each other. On February 16, they arrived at a gathering place of private salt dealers in the middle of the Qinling Mountains.Here Chen Gong got in touch with another line.He and Xu Yong disguised themselves as one of the private salt dealers, mixed with these dealers and returned to Hanzhong.Although there were several interrogations by the Wei army along the way, they all passed through with bribes.The most dangerous time was when they encountered the special search team sent by Guo Gang, but fortunately they were resolved by the experienced Chen Gong. Along the way, Xu Yong confessed his affairs to Chen Gong.He is a subordinate of Yang Wei, another interim military commander of Wei Zhongshu Province, and Yang Wei has always had a close relationship with Cao Shuang, the son of General Cao Zhen, so Xu Yong has always been considered a member of Cao Shuang's faction.Since the beginning of this year, General Cao Zhen has been in poor health and intends to let Cao Shuang take his place.So Cao Shuang and Sima Yi, another important minister of the court, secretly competed with each other.In a political turmoil at the beginning of the year, Xu Yong made a serious mistake.The Sima faction seized this opportunity and pressed them step by step, while the fledgling Cao Shuang planned to treat him as an abandoned son. Xu Yong used to be Cao Zhen's personal follower, so Cao Zhen, who was sick in bed, wanted to protect him and suggested that he go out to avoid the limelight.Xu Yong joined the patrolling mission to Longxi as an intelligence officer and went to Shangbei. The tour envoy's team happened to meet Guo Gang who was returning to Shangbi from Xuchang on the way, so they went together.Nominally, Xu Yong was an official sent by the imperial court to inspect the intelligence work, so Guo Gang reported the relevant situation to him on the way, including the investigation about Chen Gong.When the team marched to Jieting, Xu Yong was very disturbed when he heard that Cao Zhen was critically ill, for fear that Sima Yi would take this opportunity to settle accounts with him.At that time, Xu Yong secretly made up his mind to go to Shu through Chen Gong's line. So as soon as the patrol envoy's front team arrived at Shanggu, he immediately rushed to find Chen Gong before Guo Gang.This is the cause and effect of his hasty defection. Chen Gong did not express his opinion on this story.Logically, the story is unassailable, but the facts involved have yet to be proven. However, Chen Gong sometimes couldn't help thinking, if this Xu Yong really came to surrender, what a treasure trove of information it would be—he was the governor of the interim army Sima, and he worked in the center of the court, so he could contact It is not an exaggeration to describe its value as "pure gold" for materials of a certain level. However, this treasure trove came too cheaply.Although there are "luck" and "luck" in the intelligence world, they are rare cases after all, and more than 90% of "luck" is often "conspiracy" in disguise.But Chen Gong didn't reveal this thought to Xu Yong, it's not the time yet. They arrived in the area controlled by the Shu army without incident in early March.Chen Gong quickly found the local intelligence station set up by Si Wencao.After listening to Chen Gong's report, the intelligence station did not dare to be negligent, and immediately sent someone to fly to Nanzheng.Chen Gong and Xu Yong were housed in two small rooms independent of each other. They were provided with plenty of food and even books, but they were not allowed to go out or talk to anyone.Chen Gong comforted the uneasy Xu Yong, saying that this was just a necessary precautionary measure, and it was not aimed at a specific person. Two days later, Chen Gong and Xu Yong were notified that the envoy sent by Nanzheng Siwen Cao was about to arrive.The two put on neat new clothes, and were taken by the soldiers to wait at the gate of the intelligence station.Soon, Chen Gong heard a rumbling sound of wheels rolling in the distance, and then two courtesy carriages appeared in the field of vision, each of which propped up a five-color canopy and was pulled by two pure white shaft horses. Seeing a carriage of this size, Xu Yong felt a little relieved, at least the Shu Han did not treat him as a prisoner.Chen Gong looked at his expression and smiled secretly. Following the yelling of the two coachmen, the two carriages stopped firmly in a line in front of the intelligence station.An old man stepped out first from the first carriage.When the old man saw Chen Gong, he jumped out of the carriage and rushed in front of him excitedly, regardless of how high the carriage was still several feet above the ground. "Fuguo! You're back!" As soon as Chen Gong heard this name, his heart felt hot. It had been eleven years since he had been called that.Years of spy career made him restrain the excitement in his heart, and he cupped his hands calmly: "Teacher Yin, you are safe here." The person who came was Sicheng Yinji of Shuhan Siwen Cao Siwen.He personally came to greet Chen Gong, which shows how much Nanzheng attaches great importance to the return of the "Black Emperor".As for Yin Ji, there are also personal reasons in it.Eleven years ago, he personally trained this twenty-year-old boy and sent him to the dangerous place in Longxi; now this boy has become a tall and firm adult, and he returned to the motherland alive. This couldn't keep Yin Ji excited. The old man was a little carried away with excitement, and kept patting Chen Gong's shoulder, laughing loudly. At this time, Chen Gong smiled and said to Xu Yong who was puzzled: "Let's get to know each other again. My surname is Du, my name is Bi, and my name is Fuguo." Xu Yong nodded if he realized something. "It's just a false identity, but he didn't know the real name of the person in front of him until now. "What about the real Chen Gong?" Xu Yong asked. "Eleven years ago, Chen Gong and his father's team got lost and went to the border of our country. His father and others were killed by bandits. Our border guards only had time to rescue Chen Gong alone. Si Wencao was planning to break into the border. Longxi's internal plan, so I let me, who is about the same age and shape, go there with relevant identity documents. As for the real Chen Gong, I think he is still under house arrest in Chengdu right now?" Having said that, Du Bi turned his attention to Yin Ji for confirmation. The old man tapped his head and replied, "Yes, he has been locked up in Chengdu. Now that you are back, he can be released. After saying this, Yin Ji squinted his eyes and looked up and down at Xu Yong who was standing beside Du Bi.Xu Yong felt uncomfortable under his gaze, but he couldn't say anything, so he could only stand there in embarrassment. "Governor Xu, welcome back to the embrace of the Han Dynasty. Prime Minister Zhuge entrusted me to show you the utmost respect." After Yin Ji finished speaking, he took out a letter from his arms with the seal of the Prime Minister's Mansion and handed it to Xu Yong, " This is a letter from the prime minister." Xu Yong took it with both hands respectfully, and was about to thank him when another person jumped down from the carriage.The man hugged Du Bi and Xu Yong as soon as he got out of the car, smiling all over his face, showing his white teeth. Yin Ji stretched out his hand and introduced them, "This is Xun Xu, the director of the Jing'an Division. He also made a special trip to welcome you two." Both Du Bi and Xu Yong were very surprised. Du Bi was surprised because of this name. When he was in Longxi, his information flow with Nanzheng was one-way. He didn't know much about the personnel changes in Hanzhong. He only knew about the former person in charge of Jing'an Division. His name is Xun Xu, and he was transferred away due to the theft of the crossbow machine.Now this person actually returned to his original post, which surprised him a little. Xu Yong, on the other hand, was uneasy about the title.He knew that the internal affairs department of the Shuhan was the Jing'an Department, and now the director of the Jing'an Department came to receive him in person, and the significance was self-evident. Xun Xu didn't seem to notice the expressions of the two of them, so he greeted them warmly, and first said to Du Bi, "My lord, Hei Di, I have admired you for a long time, and welcome back." Then he turned to Xu Yong: "Mr. We are very pleased, this is really a harbinger of the prosperity of the Han dynasty." This set of diplomatic rhetoric does not mean anything, but at least it shows that Jing'an Division does not harbor any hostility. At this time, it was almost noon, and the four of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, and spent some wine and food at the intelligence station.After drinking and eating, Yin Ji urged to go on the road, saying that there was still a lot of work to be done after returning to Hanzhong.So the four of them set off in two carriages. Unexpectedly, Yin Ji did not ride with his student Du Bi, but Xu Yong, and Du Bi was with Xun Xu. When the drivers of the two carriages saw that the passengers were already seated, they turned around and drove towards Nanzheng rumblingly along the official road.Along the way, Du Bi lifted the curtain of the car and looked out from time to time, with an expression of infinite emotion. After all, he hadn't seen the land of Yizhou for more than ten years. "Mr. Du, do you think the scenery of Yizhou has changed in recent years?" Xun Xu, who was sitting by the side, asked suddenly, with a very casual tone. "Hehe, it's hard to describe in one word." Du Bi shook his head, put down the car curtain again, his expression looked a bit vicissitudes, "Compared with the scenery, I think there may be more people. It has been a few years since Emperor Zhaolie passed away?" "Well, it's been almost nine years." "When I left Yizhou, Your Majesty was in high spirits." Du Bi patted the armrest of the car seat with some sentimentality, his tone was heavy, and the car bumped rhythmically.Xun Xu let out a "huh", feeling that the atmosphere was a bit heavy, so he changed the subject: "Mr. Du, no matter what, it is our country's great fortune that you can come back safely this time. In recent years, our army's intelligence work on Longxi has been completely done. It is tied to you, and it is a great contribution." "There is no need to praise Xun for his work. In the final analysis, I was also driven out in a hurry." "Where, if we don't rely on your information, I'm afraid that the work of our Jing'an Division is really for the blind. I don't know about other departments, but the Jing'an Division will set up a shrine for you, with three incenses a day and four o'clock sacrificial offerings." .” After Xun Xu told the joke, both of them laughed. Although they had never met, they were colleagues who had been fighting together.Thinking of this, Du Bi and Xun Xu felt that they were getting closer to each other. Du Bi adjusted his posture to a more comfortable position, crossed his hands on his stomach, turned his head and asked, "Speaking of which, I heard that you were transferred a while ago?" Xun Xu wiped his nose embarrassedly, With a helpless expression, he muttered: "Why... has this kind of thing spread to Longyou? It's really good things that don't go out, bad things..." "Is it because of the incident with the blueprint of the crossbow machine?" Du Bi asked with concern, and that incident had a lot to do with him. Hearing this question, a shadow crossed Xun Xu's face, which was his lingering frustration.He turned his head to the outside of the car to look at the scenery moving backwards, and slowly replied: "Exactly, because of the failure of that operation, I had to take responsibility as the executor, so I was demoted and transferred outside." "It seems that you are still brooding over this matter, Xun Zheng." "It's not entirely because of me." Xun Xu sighed, "After all, this is a huge loss for me, and it's all because of my work mistakes." Hearing this sentence, Du Bi showed a meaningful smile, closed his eyes, raised his head and said slowly: "Xun Zong, do you want to know what happened after this incident?" "What? Did something happen later?" Xun Xu looked at Du Bi with a calm expression in surprise.Since the blueprint of the crossbow machine was stolen, there has only been one large-scale conflict between the Han and Wei armies, and it was an ambush led by the Han army. Therefore, Jing'an Division cannot judge whether the Wei army has mastered the manufacturing technology of "Yuanrong" or "Shudu" Scale equipped troops. Du Bi tapped the edge of the carriage with his fingertips, and said briskly: "I only recently learned the details. The crossbow blueprint was indeed delivered to Ma Jun in the seventh year of Jianxing, but Ma Jun After researching, Jun concluded that the technical content of this crossbow blueprint is not as high as imagined, and he believes that based on this, a continuous crossbow with five times the efficiency can be developed." "Hey! It's because they couldn't understand the subtlety, so they just found an excuse." Xun Xu let out a disdainful voice.He is very confident in Shuhan's technical advantages. "Let's just think that Ma Jun is indeed a genius, but it doesn't make much sense. You know, the current emperor of Wei State, Cao Rui, is a good man. His favorite thing is to build gardens and palaces. At the end of the seventh year of Jianxing, he decided to build a palace for Cao. Teng, Cao Song, Cao Cao and Cao Pi set up ancestral temples in Luoyang. This is a huge expenditure, and all localities have to cut other budgets to provide for the central government. The construction cost of the crossbow machine workshop is too huge, and the person in charge of budget review Zhongshu ordered Sun Zi to cut it off. So the matter was settled, and Ma Jun also returned to Yecheng." "That's it..." Xun Xu couldn't help but sneered, "I didn't expect the Emperor of Wei to be more reliable than his colleagues in the Han Dynasty." "Oh? Why did Xun Zheng make such a statement?" Xun Xu told Du Bi everything about Zhulong.After Du Bi heard this, he frowned and thought for a long time, but couldn't think of the information he had access to or the official mention of the name "Zhulong".Du Bi finally gave up and shook his head, and said dejectedly: "It must be a mouse that hides deeper than me. Maybe it is directly controlled by the Central Committee of Cao Wei, so it doesn't follow the line of Yongzhou at all." "At least we haven't been able to get his information yet... It depends on whether that man can bring us some surprises." After Xun Xu finished speaking, he lifted the curtain of the car, and Du Bi and him turned their attention to the carriage running in the flying yellow sand, and the two fell silent at the same time. Since Xun Xu was transferred to Jiangdong in the seventh year of Jianxing to serve as the chief secretary of Dunmu envoy and secretary Wen Gongcao, he worked there for a total of 14 months.In the past 14 months, Xun Xu's performance has been quite excellent, and he has won many major victories in Wu's intelligence work. The sympathy envoy Zhang Guan praised him, and even Wu officials have to admit that he is a difficult guy. .Xue Ying once commented: "I hate Xun Xu, because from my standpoint, a good intelligence officer is an annoying intelligence officer." In June of the eighth year of Jianxing, Hanzhong received information from Du Bi (Chen Gong) that Cao Zhen was planning a large-scale attack on Hanzhong.On the one hand, Prime Minister Zhuge ordered the legions stationed in Hanzhong to actively prepare for the war, and on the other hand, he ordered Li Ping (formerly known as Li Yan), the Minister of Defense in the eastern defense line of the Shu Han, to lead 20,000 reinforcements to Hanzhong.In order to ensure the safety of Hanzhong's internal affairs, Zhuge Liang asked Xun Xu, who was far away in Soochow, to return to Hanzhong with Li Ping's troops. In fact, Xun Xu is not alone, the entire bureaucratic system in Hanzhong has undergone major changes.The arrival of Shang Shu Ling Li Ping added another center of gravity to the bureaucratic structure, and the entire logistics department was assigned to him.Two of Xun Xu's best friends, Hu Zhong from the military adviser, and Cheng Fan from the military were all transferred to Li Ping's command to join the army.However, Feng Ying, Xun Xu's boss, was reprimanded internally because of the revelation of the "Liu Ying incident".Among Xun Xu's subordinates, Gao Tang went to the south in Bingtiao, Liao Hui died of illness, and only Pei Xu and Asher were left to edit the fifth channel. Every time Xun Xu talked about these things with others, he couldn't help sighing: "In short, things are impermanent." The next day, that is, at noon on March 6, the two carriages entered the boundary of Nanzheng.The road in front of the carriage became smoother and wider. Although the scenery on both sides was still khaki, large wheat fields appeared more frequently.An hour later, Nanzheng's towering city walls can already be seen with the naked eye. The strange thing is that the two carriages did not enter Nanzheng City directly along the Qudao, but turned right at the fork in front of the city, bypassed the city wall of Nanzheng and went straight east.As the wheels turned, the originally prosperous and prosperous scenery began to become desolate again. Du Bi noticed this problem, and he asked a little strangely: "Where are we going?" "Oh, don't worry, let's go to Qinglong Mountain first, which is just to the east of Nanzheng. It used to be the general affairs department of the Military Warehouse, but now it has been changed to a work place for the Jing'an Division." Xun Xu replied lightly, "Let's live here first. In the past few days, get familiar with the local environment." Du Bi had an insight into Xun Xu's psychology, and a wonderful smile appeared on his lips, "Until we figure out whether Xu Yong and I are reliable, you won't let us enter Nanzheng, right? You and I are both from Si Wen Cao, There is no need to speak layman’s language.” Xun Xu, who was told what was on his mind, scratched his head in embarrassment, trying to make his tone sound more normal: "As far as Mr. Yin and I are concerned, it is of course impossible for us to suspect a spy who has been working for the big man for more than ten years. But . . . er . . . you know, that's the rule." Du Bi laughed, and he patted Xun Xu on the shoulder: "I understand that this sudden retreat has no warning, and anyone else would be suspicious. I was captured by Cao Wei and agreed to be a double agent. This possibility It’s not impossible. I was ready to be censored before I arrived in Hanzhong.” After he finished speaking, he made a gesture of disapproval, indicating that Xun Xu didn't have to feel sorry for it. "The key is that Xu Yong. His reasons for defecting are very sufficient and reasonable, but I always feel that this is still too abrupt." "This is what we need to figure out in the next few days." Xun Xu looked at the Mercedes-Benz carriage in front of him, thoughtfully.He knew in his heart that this job was not easy. If Xu Yong defected falsely, what was his purpose in coming to Shuhan?If Xu Yong really defected, how many useful things can be squeezed out of him? Most importantly, how much does Xu Yong know about "Candle Dragon"? This is what Xun Xu cares most about.