Disguised as a man, she became the biggest villain in the book.

Zheng Luoqi told Lin Zifeng about her plan.

Lin Zifeng nodded to indicate that he understood, then asked in confusion, "But we're locked up now, how do we get out?"

Zheng Luoqi smiled and calmly pulled out a silver thread from her hair ornament, saying, "It's easy for me to go out; it just depends on whether I want to or not."

Lin Zifeng was stunned by Zheng Luoqi's words, "You can pick locks too?!"

Lin Zifeng could hardly believe it. Was this really Zheng Luoqi, the rumored ruthless son of the prime minister, who was already a third-rank official at such a young age? The contrast was too great.

Zheng Luoqi said with a smug look, "Kid, don't be too surprised, you have a lot to learn!"

Over the next two days, Zheng Luoqi and Lin Zifeng took turns working, figuring out the habits of the lowly soldiers.

On the third night, Zheng Luoqi seized the opportunity and began to pick the lock. In no time, the lock was opened.

Zheng Luoqi carefully opened the door and then tiptoed out.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, he quickly walked behind the guards at the door and gave them a hard knock on the back of their heads to make them sleep even more soundly.

Zheng Luoqi looked back at Lin Zifeng in the cell, then took off her outer clothes and had him stuff them with straw.

Zheng Luoqi nodded in satisfaction and then walked out of the cell.

Zheng Luoqi's shadow moved quickly in the darkness.

At this time, most of the rebels were resting, and there were far fewer patrolling guards. There were quite a few people patrolling the two watchtowers.

Zheng Luoqi searched around and found the location of the weapons. She went inside and, as her father had predicted, there were a large number of iron weapons, far exceeding the amount of iron weapons that the court had stipulated to be distributed to the people. Moreover, many of these weapons looked to be newly made.

Zheng Luoqi was now certain that there was an iron mine here, and she was secretly delighted. But soon she thought of another question: why were there no young people among the old, weak, women and children in the prison?

Based on the information and speculations he had heard before, Zheng Luoqi felt that those young people were most likely either recruited into the rebel army or forced to work in the mines.

Zheng Luoqi was still somewhat confused. How could these people dare to rebel just because they discovered an iron mine? Who gave them the courage?

Zheng Luoqi didn't linger; she decided to continue checking other areas. Sure enough, in an inconspicuous house, she found quite a few boxes.

Zheng Luoqi carefully opened each box and found that they contained a lot of treasure, most of which they had robbed.

Zheng Luoqi casually opened a few boxes, and when she opened the third box, a dazzling golden light suddenly shone in her face.

Zheng Luoqi was almost blinded by the light. When she looked closely, she realized it was a box of gold! And there was a lot of it.

The gold doesn't look like it's been refined very well; there seem to be quite a few impurities.

Zheng Luoqi finally understood why this rebel army dared to rebel. It seemed that they had not only discovered iron mines, but also gold mines. With both weapons and money, it was no wonder they would be tempted.

Zheng Luoqi pondered how to embezzle the gold and iron mines right under Pei Wenyu and Lin Zifeng's noses. Lin Zifeng was alright, but Pei Wenyu probably wouldn't be so easily fooled.

Zheng Luoqi went to other places for a stroll, and then returned to her cell without alerting anyone.

Lin Zifeng was anxiously waiting in the cell. When she saw Zheng Luoqi return, her eyes lit up with joy.

Lin Zifeng lowered his voice and asked Zheng Luoqi impatiently, "So, did you see anything?"

Zheng Luoqi nodded and said softly, "I've discovered the location of the armory, as well as the location of the mountain stronghold's wealth." Then, Zheng Luoqi told Lin Zifeng about her observations in detail, but she didn't mention the gold and iron mines at all.

“I’ve taken a quick look, and there are at most 1,500 people in the entire village,” Zheng Luoqi said.

But his mind was racing: "The village only has a little over a thousand people. According to the prefect, this rebel army should have more than a thousand, at least several thousand. So where did the rest go? Did they go mining?"

"With so many people going to mine, those two mines must be quite large," Zheng Luoqi thought to herself.

Another day passed, and Zheng Luoqi finally received a reply to the letter she sent home, along with a full 100,000 taels of silver notes!

Scarface looked at the heavy stack of silver notes in his hand and grinned so wide his mouth almost reached his ears. "My lord, I didn't expect those two lads to come from such well-off families. They gave away 100,000 taels of silver so easily. Their families must be in business. Hahahaha!" He said, unable to stop laughing.

Li San frowned, and asked with some unease, "Have you investigated?"

The person addressed as "Lord" was none other than Li San, who had also given himself a new nickname—Li Tianwang (Heavenly King Li).

Scarface hurriedly and respectfully replied, "Don't worry, my lord, I already sent someone to follow this kid to the door where he delivered the message. It is indeed a merchant's house, and it matches the information the two brothers gave us perfectly. It should be a merchant's house without a doubt."

Hearing this, Li San smiled with satisfaction, patted Scarface's shoulder lightly, and praised, "Well, that's good. You did a great job this time, Mighty General."

Scarface puffed out his chest smugly, awaiting Li San's next instructions, and asked, "So, what should we do with those two kids?"

Li San fell into deep thought. Although they had discovered a gold mine, who would complain about having too much money? After all, there would be many more places where they would need money in the future.

Then he said, "Don't rush to deal with them. Let them continue writing to their families asking for money. We'll make plans after we've emptied their family's coffers."

Upon hearing this, Scarface immediately understood Li San's intention, and a glint of greed flashed in his eyes.

Zheng Luoqi and Lin Zifeng were in the prison cell. Zheng Luoqi held the letter she had received from home and began to read it carefully. She read it quickly and caught the information that Bo Yu had revealed in the letter. A slight smile appeared on the corner of Zheng Luoqi's mouth.

"It's time to close the net..." she murmured softly, a sly glint in her eyes.

Sure enough, not long after, the soldier who had taken the jade pendant returned to the prison cell, holding paper and pen, indicating that Zheng Luoqi should continue writing letters home to ask for money.

Upon seeing this, Zheng Luoqi immediately feigned anger and burst into curses: "You bunch of untrustworthy people! You said you would let us go as long as we wrote a letter, and now you want even more money? You are utterly shameless!"

The soldier, after being thoroughly berated, said with a grim face, "Enough nonsense! If you don't want to die here, hurry up and write another letter back home, have your families send the ransom! Otherwise, there's only one word for you—death!" As he spoke, he brandished the sword in his hand, making a gesture as if he were about to kill someone.

Seeing this, Zheng Luoqi secretly sneered, but pretended to be frightened and said in a trembling voice, "Okay... I'll write... I'll write it..."

After saying that, she took the paper and pen and began to write a letter.