He gritted his teeth and said, "I heard that the thousand troops General Wu sent out set up camp at the entrance of Hong Shan Stockade and then came back without even trying to rescue people. General, we've already paid for the army's provisions. We can't just throw that money into the water, can we?"
"How dare you!"
Private advisor Tang slammed the table and stood up furiously.
"You think rescuing people is as easy as you imagine?" Private advisor Tang said. "Besides, the General has his own plans. How dare you arbitrarily question and frame the General for colluding with Hong Shan Stockade? What are you plotting?"
"I..."
Liu Yun didn't expect this guy to be so shameless as to pin such charges on him just because he asked a question.
As expected of the Private advisor, impressive, impressive.
"Am I not even allowed to ask questions?"
"You still dare to talk back?" Private advisor Tang sneered. "Guards, lock him up in the dungeon!"
"You dare!"
"Why wouldn't I dare?" Private advisor Tang said. "You're just a commoner. Not kneeling when you see the General and boldly speaking recklessly, locking you up for half a year would be reasonable and lawful! Take him away!"
Liu Yun was so angry he thought his head would explode.
He had never imagined that ordinary commoners were like lambs to be slaughtered in front of Wu Ling without any say.
What should he do now?
If he didn't reveal his identity, he would be locked up.
In the end, he suppressed his anger and allowed two guards to take him away.
"Humph, this brat is quite good at enduring. I wonder what he'll do after revealing his identity."
"What else can he do?" Private advisor Tang laughed. "It's not our problem that he didn't identify himself. As for later, we'll just let him out. But by then, everything will be settled, how could a prince like him turn the tides?"
"Private advisor, you are so scheming."
"Mrs. Li, you're finally back."
Seeing Li Yao, Shi Tou felt as if he saw his lifesaver.
Seeing his anxious look, Li Yao knew something must have happened while she was away.
"You said the Ninth Prince was locked up?"
"Yes!" Shi Tou was drenched in sweat and said, "We didn't expect Wu Ling to be so bold as to imprison the prince! What do we do now?"
After thinking for a moment, Li Yao understood what had happened.
It must be that Liu Yun didn't identify himself, so Wu Ling found some excuse to lock him up. This way he wouldn't get in the way, and Liu Yun could only swallow this silent grievance.
She recalled that Private advisor Tang must have come up with the idea. This guy really was a sly old fox, catching them as soon as there was a slight flaw.
"Locking up the prince is no trivial matter," Captain Zhang said. "Should we send someone to summon the Prefecture Army from Yizhou?"
"No need."
What good would summoning the Prefecture Army do?
At most, Wu Ling would just apologize and make amends to Liu Yun. That wouldn't punish him at all.
So they still had to follow the original plan and set a trap to make Wu Ling jump in himself.
But with a sly old fox like Private advisor Tang, it wouldn't be easy to trick him.
It looked like they had to up the ante.
So she had Captain Zhang help her find paper and brush to write.
Watching the blank pages turn into Silver Bills under Li Yao's brush, Captain Zhang's eyes nearly popped out.
Forging Silver Bills was...was a grave crime!
"Mrs. Li, what do you plan to do with these Silver Bills?"
"Give them to Wu Ling."
"But...forget that it's illegal, Wu Ling will definitely be able to tell they're fake."
"It doesn't matter. I'm just going to show them to him from afar, not actually give them to him. After it's done, I'll burn them up and there won't be any evidence."
After making a thick stack of Silver Bills, Li Yao went to the General's residence.
Unlike Liu Yun's outburst, she just calmly took out the stack of Silver Bills and displayed them in front of Wu Ling and Private advisor Tang.
"General Wu, it's my fault the troops came back empty-handed this time."
"Oh? How is it your fault?"
"First, five thousand taels of silver was too little. It wasn't nearly enough for the army's provisions," Li Yao said. "Second, there were too few troops, not enough to attack Hong Shan Stockade and rescue people. So this young lady is willing to pay 100,000 taels of silver. Please ask General Wu to dispatch troops again to rescue my cousin Liu Yuan."
100,000 taels?
Even as a General, Wu Ling was inwardly shocked at this time.
This Mrs. Li really was wealthy to casually take out 100,000 taels without blinking.
Just as he was about to laugh and accept it, Li Yao took the Silver Bills back: "But I have one condition."
"Speak."
"I won't hand over these Silver Bills until after my cousin Liu Yuan is rescued. And this time, I hope the General can personally lead the troops into battle to inspire morale," Li Yao said. "It's not that I distrust the General, but since this is my entire net worth, I have to be prudent. I can sign a contract with the General so he doesn't think I'll go back on my word."
Seeing the pile of silver slipping away, Wu Ling's heart itched like a rabbit's paw. He quickly glanced at Private advisor Tang to ask his opinion.
As expected of the sly old fox, Private advisor Tang's eyes turned and he had an idea: "There's no such saying. The army is about to march and needs to eat right away, the horses need to be fed. You can't expect the troops to eat grass roots, right?"
"I can pay 5,000 taels first as a deposit."
As long as there were tangible benefits, Private advisor Tang had no objections. Even if Li Yao didn't pay afterwards, at least he'd have 5,000 taels on hand and certainly wouldn't lose out.
As for having Wu Ling personally lead the troops, it was just a few dozen miles. He could just take it as going out for a stroll.
Seeing Private advisor Tang nod, Wu Ling said, "Alright, we'll do as you say."
Li Yao took out 5,000 taels of real silver bills. Added to the previous amount, she had taken out 10,000 taels, almost all her cash on hand.
But she wasn't too reluctant. After all, she could get this money back sooner or later.
One had to spend money to set a trap for the wolves.
...
The next morning, Wu Ling put on light armor. Surrounded by personal guards, he came to the parade grounds and personally reviewed the troops.
There were a total of 6,000 troops stationed here. Aside from the 1,000 left behind for logistics and defense, the remaining 5,000 were arrayed into square formations, along with several oxen pulling contraptions like catapults. They set off for Hong Shan Stockade with great fanfare.
If one didn't know better, they'd really think a fierce battle was about to take place.
But Captain Zhang in their midst knew those catapults didn't even have fire oil ammunition loaded. They were just for show.
However, since he knew, Captain Zhang certainly wouldn't just let things be. His mission this time was to really stir up trouble between the garrison and Hong Shan Stockade.
He and Liu Hu hid some fire oil ammunition in grain transport carts and had some new recruits transport them.
With someone else doing the hard labor, the veterans were naturally happy to relax.
Captain Zhang chatted and joked with them as they went to deliberately distract them.
"Hey, this is a great job. Just going for a walk but getting paid 1 tael of silver. Our General must have made a fortune recently."
"You bet," Captain Zhang lowered his voice and said. "I heard the family of the person they captured gave our General 500,000 taels of silver."
"How much?"