After I got into the drama, I led the plot astray

Zhao Zhenyuan left the City Lord's Mansion, strolled on the street, and actually found a yard.

The owner of this yard moved away, leaving the yard to his nephew. The nephew was alone, and since the yard was a bit big, he wanted to rent it out to make some money.

Zhao Zhenyuan looked at the house inside and out and felt quite satisfied. Most importantly, his nephew could help him feed the horses and cook, which solved his worries.

The nephew's name was Sun Yi. He had a lame leg and was already in his thirties. He usually found odd jobs to do so that he could survive without starving. But Zhao Zhenyuan felt sorry for him and gave him ten taels of silver, saying that it was for one month's rent.

Sun Yi was so happy when he got ten taels of silver that his mouth was grinning from ear to ear. That night he bought good meat, dishes and wine to entertain Zhao Zhenyuan.

After two glasses of wine, Sun Yi seemed to have opened up and started talking nonstop.

Zhao Zhenyuan agreed while eating and drinking, but didn't say much.

Sun Yi is very satisfied with his current house and money. He said, "The plague before the New Year caused panic among the people. Many people could not survive and many died. I thought this year would be very difficult, but I didn't expect that after the New Year, there would be more work. It's a pity that I can't do heavy work with my lame leg, otherwise I would have made more money."

Zhao Zhenyuan asked calmly, "What kind of job is it? Is it suitable for me to do it?"

Sun Yi waved his hand and said, "There's no work left. We finished the work a few days ago. Do you know the valley east of Huai'an City?"

Of course Zhao Zhenyuan didn't know, but he nodded anyway.

Sun Yi said: "I don't know why, but suddenly a lot of people came to that valley to build houses. I went to help them build houses."

Zhao Zhenyuan paused, but quickly raised his glass and said to Sun Yi, "Come on, let's drink. I didn't expect that Brother Sun could build a house. I underestimated you. Who are those people? Why build a house in a valley?"

Sun Yi clinked his glasses with Zhao Zhenyuan and said, "I have been helping people build houses for decades. If I didn't have this skill, I would have starved to death long ago. I don't know who those people are, but it is said that the city lord specially allocated that piece of land for those people to build houses. There are quite a lot of houses built. After the completion, I counted them and there are almost a thousand houses. After the houses were built, the city lord also gave the place a nice name, called Caibaotun."

Zhao Zhenyuan was very upset. Qian Jingui only thought about money.

However, Zhao Zhenyuan had his own guess. The houses built must be for Grand Tutor Gui's private soldiers to live in. But Grand Tutor Gui still has more than 100,000 private soldiers under his command. This is only a part of them. Where are the others hidden?

Sun Yi has never married and doesn't usually interact with people. Now that Zhao Zhenyuan has finally arrived, he finally has an outlet for all the things he has been pent up in. He keeps talking like pouring beans.

Zhao Zhenyuan filtered out some useful information from Sun Yi's nonsense. He decided to go to Caibaotun tonight to confirm his guess.

Sun Yi said too much, so Zhao Zhenyuan said he wanted to take a rest while drunk and staggered back to the house.

The room that Sun Yi prepared for Zhao Zhenyuan had no floor heating and no charcoal stove, but fortunately the bed and quilt were semi-new and quite thick, so it was still warm when covered with them.

Zhao Zhenyuan lay down again with his clothes on, and soon he began to snore loudly.

Sun Yi packed up and went to sleep. With the ten taels of silver in his hand, he didn't have to go out to work for a long time. He was very happy and slept very soundly that night.

After nightfall, Zhao Zhenyuan suddenly woke up. His overly bright eyes blinked a few times in the darkness, and he quickly came to his senses. He sat up and touched the spear on the bedside, which was still wrapped in black cloth, tightly wrapped.

Zhao Zhenyuan held the spear and quickly jumped over the wall and out of the yard, disappearing into the darkness.

In the blink of an eye, Zhao Zhenyuan arrived at the valley where many new houses were built.

The temperature in the mountains is lower than in the city. Normally, people here should have gone to bed early, but the lights in many houses were on and whispers could be heard constantly.

There were secret sentries in this place, and there were more than one or two, but Zhao Zhenyuan was like a man in an empty place, and no one could find him at all.

These houses are simple houses built with wood. They are not built very well and there are even big gaps in some places. The cold wind blows in through the gaps, freezing people's bones.

These people had been living well in the fishing village, and many of them had married and had children, living in harmony with their families. Unexpectedly, their true identities were discovered by the imperial court, which sent troops to attack the fishing village. Not only were their wives and children separated, they also had to leave their homes and move to this remote valley. There was no floor heating in the house, let alone a charcoal stove, and they almost froze to death.

These people were so cold that they couldn't sleep, so they simply went out to collect firewood and burned it to keep warm. Therefore, there was light coming through every room, but it was not light from lamps, but light from burning firewood.

There were more than a dozen people living in each room. They were so cold that they couldn't sleep. Many of them sighed and regretted not submitting to the court and following the man named Gui. Now their families were broken up and they were separated from their wives and children.

Some people already had rebellious intentions, and Zhao Zhenyuan knew that if he added more fuel to the fire, he might be able to provoke them to turn their guns against Grand Tutor Gui.

Zhao Zhenyuan was still eavesdropping against the wall when he saw a man walk out of a room and jog to the toilet.

Zhao Zhenyuan's eyes rolled around, and he followed him in a flash. The man was knocked unconscious by Zhao Zhenyuan right after he came out of the toilet. Zhao Zhenyuan took off his cotton-padded jacket and put it on himself, then threw the man into the kitchen. Anyway, there was a fire on the stove in the kitchen, so the room was warm and he wouldn't freeze to death.

Zhao Zhenyuan walked into the room wearing the man's cotton-padded jacket. He took a quick look and found an empty bed. He bent over and got on the bed. No one knew that a spy had entered the room through his coming and going.

There were several people in the room who were unable to sleep due to the cold and were chatting in low voices.

Zhao Zhenyuan listened quietly without interrupting.

After a while, a man named Wang Chu called out in a low voice: "Zhang Qing, you are usually the one who talks the most, why did you become mute after going to the toilet?"

Zhao Zhenyuan thought about it and thought that this question should be about the person he had pushed. Zhao Zhenyuan hummed vaguely and said with his tongue rolled, "I'm sleepy."

Wang Chu groaned and said, "You kid, you went to the city to find a woman during the day. I was just about to ask you if that woman was coquettish, but you said you were sleepy?"

Zhao Zhenyuan didn't dare to respond. The news had not been obtained yet and could not be exposed.

Another person said in a muffled voice: "Brother Wang, please stop yelling. Lord Qian will come to question and arrange matters tomorrow. You should go to bed early to avoid being scolded."