When Jiang Jin arrived at the stables, there were three carriages and four horses left.
She finally chose a large carriage drawn by two horses. Not only was it spacious, but it also had hidden compartments.
In this era, noble carriages were generally divided into front and rear sections. The front was the seat for the carriage slave driving the vehicle, while the rear was the cabin where the masters sat.
Beneath both sides of this carriage's cabin were extra compartments, convenient for storing goods or the master's personal belongings.
The compartments were quite large, perfectly sufficient for storing sundries like rice, grain, and bedding.
There were small doors at both the front and back of the compartments for easy access. It couldn't be more convenient; the design was simply brilliant.
With this carriage, it wouldn't easily arouse suspicion when she took things out of her spatial storage in the future, and a two-horse carriage would travel faster.
She then stored the other two carriages into her spatial dimension. Their cabins were in good condition and shouldn't be wasted.
After that, she selected two strong horses.
As a person from the 25th century, she didn't know how to harness a carriage. However, she had asked Yao Ji and the others about it in the afternoon, and they had explained it to her clearly.
So, at this moment, she harnessed the carriage with practiced ease and great speed.
This was her first time driving alone. She had learned a bit yesterday and got the hang of it, but Dong Si had been beside her to supervise, and a two-horse carriage was harder to control than a single-horse one.
"Hyah," Jiang Jin started off very slowly, only accelerating once she grew more accustomed to it.
Strangely enough, as she drove the carriage through the governor's manor, no one stopped her.
A small squad of manor guards hurriedly ran inside, perhaps heading to put out the fire, and even stepped aside to make way when they saw her carriage.
Jiang Jin was speechless. This feeling was quite peculiar.
Watching the carriage speed away, a soldier standing next to the guard squad leader asked, "Captain, why didn't we stop them? I feel like any carriage leaving the manor right now is highly suspicious."
The squad leader gave him a dark look. "Are the corpses littering the ground not enough to make things clear to you? Stop them? With what? Our lives?"
"Besides, who knows who is sitting inside? What if it's actually our master? Wouldn't we be courting death by stopping them?"
Another soldier immediately chimed in, "Right, the lady of the house might very well be inside."
At this time, they didn't yet know that Jiao Zhu had already been killed. This carriage was mostly used by Jiao Zhu on regular days.
The squad leader sighed heavily. "Even the Great General has been killed. We should carefully look for a way out for ourselves."
Their squad consisted of six people in total, all of whom were surrendered Han soldiers from Liang City. They were cowards who clung to life and feared death to begin with.
Now that Jiao Liang was dead, who knew if the Jiao people would settle the score with them? It was better to make plans early.
Jiang Jin soon reached the main gate. Seeing that Little Red was indeed still waiting there, she shouted, "Little Red, follow me!"
Hearing her voice, Little Red actually galloped wildly behind the carriage.
As a result, two mares unexpectedly ran behind as well, perhaps attracted by Little Red's peerless beauty.
Jiang Jin didn't yet know that Little Red had brought a buy one, get two free deal. The massive carriage cabin blocked her line of sight, preventing her from seeing the situation behind.
She just found it a bit strange; from the sound of it, why did it feel like more than one horse was following behind?
Yao Ji and Xie Nanxiao had already arrived at Tongfu Street. The two quickly stopped and loaded the grain, gold, silver, and other valuables they had hidden there in advance onto the carriage.
These things were all from the cellar, and they naturally couldn't bear to throw them away. During their night operation, they had brought the items out and hidden them here.
Today, the two of them were going to break out from the North Gate. Tongfu Street was a necessary path to the North Gate and also the gate closest to the cellar.
Because of this, the two were assigned to this gate. After all, Zhou Sui had rescued people, and since his carriage would inevitably be occupied by passengers, it wouldn't be easy to store goods.
As for Princess Jinyang, they couldn't possibly let a woman like her load so many things onto the carriage by herself.
Moreover, she was already a one-person team. She had to drive the carriage, deal with enemy attacks, and looking after this batch of valuables would make her too overwhelmed.
The two cooperated seamlessly, and in just over a dozen breaths of time, they had loaded everything onto the carriage.
The two exchanged a glance and nodded. Xie Nanxiao got onto the carriage and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Jiao Liang has been killed! Jiao Liang is dead! The North Gate, East Gate, and South Gate are wide open! Those who need to leave the city, prepare as quickly as possible!"
"Jiao Liang has been killed! Jiao Liang is dead! The North Gate, East Gate, and South Gate are wide open! Those who need to leave the city, prepare as quickly as possible!"
Yao Ji took the lead, galloping wildly toward the North Gate, while Xie Nanxiao drove the carriage closely behind, occasionally finding time to shout out the message.
This was something they had discussed beforehand: to alert people to the fact of Jiao Liang's death and allow the Han commoners to escape the city as much as possible.
At this time, the city was empty and leaderless. With them paving the way, the commoners still had a high chance of escaping the city.
The sound of horse hooves and shouting seemed abrupt and loud in the quiet night. Especially on this chaotic night, most people were anxious and uneasy, listening intently to the commotions outside.
Hearing such explosive news at this moment, everyone was at a loss. Jiao Liang's death would very likely lead the Jiao people to directly slaughter all the Han people in Liang City!
"Husband Zhou, what should we do? Was Jiao Liang really killed? What do we do?" a woman from one household asked.
Listening to the shouts outside, she only anxiously asked the man of the house to make a decision after the hoofbeats faded into the distance and she was certain she hadn't misheard or missed anything.
Husband Zhou paced back and forth in the room, his expression highly agitated. Finally, he gritted his teeth: "Pack our luggage first. I'll go ask my eldest brother."
He believed eighty percent of the shouted message. After all, too many coincidental things had happened today.
First, the Cao family's granary was burned down, then the city's granary was burned down, and now the governor's manor was on fire. He wouldn't believe it if someone told him this was unpremeditated and unplanned.
Opening the door, he turned back to remind her: "Be quick. Bring the valuables and food, and abandon whatever else you can. Also, wake up all the children."
"Alright, go quickly, I'll pack right away," the woman hurriedly replied.
Similar conversations were playing out in the households of Liang City's commoners. As for whether to leave or stay, that was up to each individual's choice.
However, everyone knew the brutality of the barbarians, so the majority of the commoners chose to leave.
On the other side, Zhou Sui rode his horse galloping in front, his loud voice shouting the same message.
"Jiao Liang has been killed! Jiao Liang is dead! The North Gate, East Gate, and South Gate are wide open! Those who need to leave the city, prepare as quickly as possible!"
Chen Xi drove the carriage closely behind.
Inside the cabin sat Chen Zi and Luo Qingci. With the jolting of the carriage, both of them were pale-faced, pursing their lips and tightly gripping the handholds to prevent falling.
Chen Zi, whose entire body was covered in injuries, bit her lip until it almost bled. She didn't utter a single sound, forcefully enduring the pain.
Luo Qingci freed one hand to messily spread open her bundle, which contained a few of her clothes.
Taking advantage of a jolt, she padded the clothes under Chen Zi and softly comforted her, "Wuniang, bear with it."
Chen Zi tried to force a smile but failed. She struggled to articulate, "I can manage."
An arrow shot toward Zhou Sui.
