On the official road outside Peizhou City, a simple blue-canopied carriage slowly drove along, its wheels crunching over the muddy road after the rain.
The carriage curtain was slightly lifted, revealing a pair of sharp eyes like those of a hawk—Zhou Yun'an was inspecting the "battlefield" he had carefully chosen.
"Master, the Peizhou water conservancy project is 80% complete. Lu Jingze comes to inspect it every month on the 5th and 20th," Xiao Cheng said in a low voice. "As you instructed, our people have been infiltrating the craftsmen's ranks for several months, and even Liu Mingyuan hasn't suspected a thing."
Zhou Yun'an nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the winding new embankment in the distance.
The dam gleamed with a grayish-white luster under the early summer sun, and the stone-built walls were as smooth as a mirror.
His pale fingertips tapped lightly on the window frame, the rhythm like a countdown to death.
"What about the prefect of Peizhou?"
"They've taken the bait. That old-fashioned son owes 30,000 taels of silver at the gambling den, and we have the IOU with his fingerprint on it."
Zhou Yun'an nodded. "Three generations of only sons, and the apple of the family patriarch's eye—that's enough to make this honest and upright prefect listen to us without question."
As the carriage rounded a sharp bend, Zhou Yun'an suddenly raised his hand to signal it to stop.
He gazed at several inconspicuous depressions in the riverbed in the distance, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes: "This is it."
Xiao Cheng followed his gaze and saw a bend in the river upstream of the dam, where the river water formed a whirlpool and the rapid current constantly eroded the dam foundation.
The exposed rock strata on the shore have an eerie dark red color, as if they have been stained with blood.
"Your Majesty is wise. This 'Dragon Bay' is inherently a dangerous section," Xiao Cheng licked his chapped lips. "Once the dike breaches, the floodwaters will rush straight into Peizhou City, and the first to bear the brunt will be the southern suburban settlement that Lu Jingze built to resettle the disaster victims."
Zhou Yun'an lowered the carriage curtain, and shadows once again enveloped his face: "That's not all."
He took a yellowed drawing from his sleeve and slowly unfolded it on his lap. "Liu Mingyuan's improved sluice gate design is right here."
The blueprints meticulously marked the various structures of the dam, with a conspicuous cross drawn in red ink at the eastern gate.
Zhou Yun'an's fingertip lightly touched that spot, his voice as soft as a viper's tongue: "I want it to become a murder weapon at the most crucial moment."
Xiao Cheng leaned closer for a closer look, puzzled: "Not only does Liu Mingyuan value this place, but Lu Jingze has also stationed troops here. How can we possibly make our move here?"
Zhou Yun'an untied a leather pouch from his waist and poured a small amount of dark sand into a porcelain dish in his palm. "This is gold sand. It doesn't dissolve in water, but it will slowly corrode the binder in the stone."
——-
Three days later, in Wangjiang Pavilion, the most famous teahouse in Peizhou, several men who looked like businessmen were having a private conversation in a private room.
The patter of rain outside the window drowned out their whispers.
"Young Master Chen, the stones you requested have arrived," a burly craftsman said in a low voice, the scar on his forehead flushed with nervousness. "As you instructed, those 'special materials' were mixed in with the regular stones, but Lu Jingze personally oversaw everything and inspected them very thoroughly!"
He swallowed hard. "Our stones, along with the previous ones, have all been returned."
Zhou Yun'an, disguised as "Young Master Chen," took a sip of the pre-rain Longjing tea. The clear tea liquor reflected the coldness in his eyes: "It's alright. Where's the gold dust I asked you to prepare?"
"Things went smoothly." The craftsman wiped his sweat and pulled a small packet of samples from his boot. "They're tailings from the gold mines to the north. As you instructed, they've been ground into gravel-sized pieces and have replaced the traction cables at the drainage sluice gate."
He lowered his voice, "It may look fine at first, but over time, sand and dust will slowly seep into the bearing. If the water pressure is too high..."
Zhou Yun'an smiled slightly and pushed over a heavy brocade pouch: "Very good."
After the craftsmen left, thanking them profusely, Xiao Cheng emerged from the shadows: "Master, why not just blow up the dam? This is such a big hassle..."
"Xiao Cheng, oh Xiao Cheng," Zhou Yun'an chuckled, his fingers tracing the rim of the teacup, "there are countless ways to kill a person, but I need a fatal blow."
He tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, making a rhythmic tapping sound. "Lu Jingze has poured three years of his heart and soul into this water conservancy project. If we blow up the dam now, he still has room to maneuver."
"But when the flood season arrives, and the vast floodwaters surge back from the Peizhou Dam, which he is so proud of, and the cries of the people echo through the sky, his 'achievements' turn into a weapon of massacre, that's a situation that even a celestial being couldn't save."
Xiao Cheng suddenly realized: "At that time, the people will be full of complaints, and the entire court will surely be furious!"
"Not only that." A cold glint flashed in Zhou Yun'an's eyes as he took an account book from his sleeve and tossed it onto the table. "When the Prefect of Peizhou submits his impeachment memorial—claiming that Lu Jingze embezzled project funds and used inferior materials—even if the Emperor of the Great Gan Dynasty protects his younger brother, he can't stop the people from speaking out against him."
Xiao Cheng opened the ledger and saw that it contained detailed records of how the "Prince Jing's Mansion" inflated the price of stone materials, deducted wages, and even fabricated the false evidence that Wang Xiuxiu's caravan "misappropriated" disaster relief funds.
The most ingenious part is that each fake account corresponds to a real purchase record, only the numbers have been cleverly altered.
"Your Majesty is brilliant! Even I, your subordinate, would have difficulty distinguishing the truth from the falsehood in these accounts. At that point, Lu Jingze will not only be disgraced, but his very authority over the imperial family will be in grave danger."
After leaving the teahouse, Zhou Yun'an deliberately took a detour to the dam construction site.
The workers were working hard in the rain, completely unaware that they were building a deadly project.
Through the rain curtain, Zhou Yun'an's gaze locked onto the figure in the crowd wearing an indigo short jacket—Liu Mingyuan was personally instructing the installation of the gate, and his serious and meticulous appearance made a sneer appear on Zhou Yun'an's lips.
"Go, tell the Prefect," Zhou Yun'an lowered the carriage curtain, his voice drowned out by the increasing rain, "It's time to hand over the 'evidence' of the Prince's embezzlement, which we 'accidentally' discovered, to the Provincial Inspector. The Prefect of Peizhou submitted the evidence, but Prince Jing discovered it and suppressed it, even using assassins to silence him..."
The horse-drawn carriage slowly drove away from the construction site, splashing mud everywhere.
On the distant embankment, Liu Mingyuan suddenly shivered, looked up at the gloomy sky, and continued to bury himself in his work.
Unbeknownst to him, gold dust had already begun to seep silently into the critical bearings of the dam he had designed.
Inside the Peizhou prefectural government office, the prefect's hands trembled as he stuffed an account book into a secret report box destined for the capital...
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