novelSusiti Chapter 18 The Net Closes in, the Net Makes Its Move
Chapter 18 The Net Closes in, the Net Makes Its Move
Laiyang City, Laiyang Prince's Mansion.
More than three months have passed since Jiang Ce was exiled to Laizhou, and exactly one and a half months have passed since he arrived in Laiyang.
In the past month and a half, he successively defeated two raiding forces of several thousand men from the Eastern Barbarians. With several clean and decisive victories, he made a name for himself in the Laizhou area.
As the news spread, displaced people from the surrounding areas flocked to Laiyang with their families, and the once deserted city gradually came back to life.
Under Wei Renpu's governance, Laiyang City has seen its permanent population exceed 40,000 in just one or two months.
Although this number is far less than the population size of Laiyang at its peak, the increasing sounds of vendors hawking their wares in the streets and the bustling traffic at the city gates indicate that Laiyang is now developing in a visible and positive direction.
After finishing his military affairs, Jiang Ce removed his armor, changed into plain clothes, and walked slowly down the main street of the city with Tian Yan.
The chill lingered on his dark armor, but his plain robes accentuated his refined features, making him both incongruous and strangely integrated into the bustling city.
Looking at the endless rows of shops on both sides and listening to the shouts of vendors, an unprecedented sense of accomplishment welled up in Jiang Ce's heart.
But as he passed a teahouse on the street, he suddenly stopped.
Outside the teahouse, several well-dressed out-of-town merchants were whispering with a local grain merchant at a tea table.
The grain merchant's fingertips were stained with a few grain chaff, but his cuffs were embroidered with exquisite cloud patterns, making him no ordinary merchant.
The cloud pattern was finely detailed and subtly conformed to official regulations; anyone with discerning eyes could tell at a glance that it was of extraordinary origin.
Upon noticing Jiang Ce's gaze, the group panicked, their eyes darting away as they averted their eyes. They quickly ended their conversation and then picked up their teacups, pretending to sip their tea.
However, a hint of unease crept into his expression, and his grip on the teacup tightened.
Jiang Ce walked away without making a sound, already having a guess in his mind.
"Looks like the fish has taken the bait."
With Jiang Ce's tacit approval and the Luo Wang organization's deliberate relaxation, spies from all directions have likely already spread silently like a spider web throughout every corner of the city's streets and alleys.
They thought they were doing something completely undetected, but little did they know that their every move was being monitored by the Net, which was waiting for the right opportunity to wipe them all out.
Now it seems that it's time.
"Yan'er," Jiang Ce said calmly.
"What is it, Your Highness?" Tian Yan feigned ignorance.
Tian Yan has been following Jiang Ce for quite some time now.
Judging from the expression he just showed, it was clear that he was preparing to let Zhao Gao close the net.
However, even though she had guessed it, she absolutely could not say it aloud, otherwise it would be considered speculating on the monarch's intentions.
"Notify Zhao Gao that it's time to close the net."
Jiang Ce spoke calmly, and Tian Yan immediately understood. She bowed and stepped back, her steps light as a butterfly, and disappeared into the crowd in the blink of an eye.
Although Tian Yan, a Grandmaster at the peak, is gone, Jiang Ce still has a half-step Celestial Realm expert by his side. That person is hidden in the shadows, his aura blending into the surrounding noise. It is basically impossible to make a move against him in Laiyang City.
Laiyang City, the temporary stronghold of the Luo Wang (Net of Law Enforcement).
When Zhao Gao heard Jiang Ce's order to close the net from Tian Yan, he immediately ordered the Six Sword Slaves to lead the Earth-ranked assassins to directly destroy the lair of the enemy's spies.
In Laiyang City today, there are spies from two different factions.
One was the Yuan family, and the other was naturally the Eastern Yi.
These two forces, perhaps because of a common enemy, have temporarily chosen to unite. They not only spread panic everywhere, but also secretly draw up city defense maps.
Their hideout is located in an abandoned pottery kiln in the north of the city!
They thought they were hiding very well.
Little did they know, everything was under Zhao Gao's surveillance.
…………
That night, the moon was dark and the wind was high.
Zhao Gao personally led the team, and the assassins of the Luo Wang organization surrounded the pottery kiln like ghosts. With his order, hundreds of elite assassins broke in, and shouts of killing suddenly arose.
The dozen or so Dongyi spies inside the cave, along with several of the Empress's secret guards, were still dreaming of the fall of Laiyang and the violent death of Jiang Ce when they were killed in their sleep, none of them escaping.
[Ding dong, the host's Luo Wang has killed a total of three top-tier martial artists, six first-tier martial artists, and fourteen martial artists below first-tier but above third-tier while eliminating spies in the city, accumulating 190 summoning points.]
The current host possesses: two random summoning cards, one gold summoning card, one legion summoning card, and 1541 summoning points.
The following morning, twenty-three bloody heads were hung high above the city gate, with a notice posted next to them detailing the conspiracy of the Eastern Barbarian spies.
The panic-inducing rumors were crushed in the face of absolute force and bloody facts.
When the people on the street saw the heads of those Dongyi people, they cheered and jumped for joy. Their gazes toward King Jiang Ce of Laiyang were filled with a mixture of awe and respect, reaching an unprecedented level.
Even if the Empress eventually found out, after Jiang Ce wiped out all the secret guards she had placed in Laiyang, she couldn't do anything, since Jiang Ce had made it very clear.
These dead people were all spies from the Eastern Barbarians. If she were to hold Jiang Ce accountable, wouldn't she be digging a hole for herself?
Although the Empress's contact with the Eastern Yi has not been severed since Jiang Ce was exiled, it has always been done in secret. If it were done in the open, the reputation of the entire Yuan family would be completely ruined.
After eliminating these spies, the atmosphere in Laiyang City improved dramatically, giving Jiang Ce more time to develop the military and economy in order to expand his military strength.
...............
In the 27th year of Tianfeng (1648), in mid-February.
After several months of development, Jiang Ce now has more than 5,000 soldiers, all of whom are young and strong. Under the training of generals such as Chang Yuchun, Chen An, and Lan Yu, their combat quality is quite high.
If there's anything missing, it's the chilling atmosphere of the battlefield. After all, most of these people train on the training grounds and haven't experienced the carnage of actual combat.
Therefore, Jiang Ce prepared to train his troops, and his chosen target was naturally the bandits who occupied parts of Laiyang.
Laiyang Prefecture had a total of twenty-one counties under its jurisdiction.
Jiang Ce only occupied the capital city of Laiyang.
As for the remaining 20 counties, they were occupied by powerful clans, the Eastern Yi people, and bandits, respectively.
This time, Jiang Ce is preparing to reclaim some of the lost territory.
However, before that, Jiang Ce still needs to make a summons, since five thousand men alone are not enough to deal with the challenges ahead.