Chapter 13
The night breeze from the Qiantang River, carrying the bleakness of late autumn and the thick, fishy smell of water, blew across the chaotic docks of the Tongyuan Cao Gang's headquarters. Most of the lanterns that once burned brightly through the night were broken and extinguished, leaving only a few swaying in the wind, casting ghostly halos of light. The air was filled with the stench of cheap liquor, the sour stench of vomit, and the fresh, sickening smell of blood.
In the open space at the center of the dock, a makeshift incense table was overturned, its incense, candles, and offerings scattered across the ground. Over a dozen bodies lay sprawled, their wounds grimacing, blood oozing into the filthy mud. A few men, mortally wounded but not dead, huddled in a corner, groaning, their eyes filled with fear and numbness. More gang members, armed with knives and clubs, faced each other, their eyes fierce as fighting beasts. Heavy breathing and suppressed curses mingled in the night.
"Liu! Who do you think you are? Are you worthy of being the gang leader?" A burly man with a face full of flesh and bare upper body roared, blood still dripping from the ghost-head knife in his hand. "The gang leader's body is still warm, and you want to seize power? Have you asked about the knife in my hand?!"
The leader surnamed Liu, who was being pointed at, had a sinister glint in his triangular eyes and sneered, "Zhang the Reckless Man! When the leader was here, you were just a watchdog! Why are you pretending to be loyal now? It wasn't just the leader who died on the pleasure boat, but also Master Li and Captain Wang! Now that they're dead, according to the rules, it's my turn, Liu Kui, to take over! You don't accept it? I'll beat you into submission today!"
"Bullshit! Gang rules are dead, but people are alive! Whoever has the bigger fist has the final say!" Zhang Mangfu was furious, waving his ghost-head knife. "Brothers! Fight this Liu guy! Kill him and divide the goods at the dock equally among us!"
"kill--!"
"Chop off these traitors!"
A roar instantly ripped through the already tense atmosphere! The opposing sides, like two turbid torrents, clashed violently! Blades and clubs flashed, blood and flesh flew everywhere! Screams, the crackling of bones, the clashing of weapons, and hysterical curses instantly transformed the dock into a hellish wreck. Gang rules and loyalty, faced with a vast power vacuum and readily available profits, became as fragile as paper.
No one noticed that from the shadows of a mountain of discarded timber outside the dock, two cold, star-like eyes were observing the bloody internal conflict with icy eyes. Mo Ya was like a lifeless reef, his aura restrained to the extreme, his rigid face motionless in the darkness. Behind him, several elite Shadow Scales, also blending into the shadows, were like venomous snakes waiting for their prey.
"A mob." Mo Ya's lips barely moved, his cold voice like a mosquito, only reaching the ears of those behind him. "Confirm the target location. Team three, eliminate the outer sentries. Team one, follow me to the headquarters accounting office. Team two, control the dock warehouse, especially the area where the 'contraband' is stored. Move."
"Yes!" Several barely audible voices responded at the same time.
Like drops of water dropped into boiling oil, several figures, fused with the night, suddenly moved! Their speed was so swift that only a blurry afterimage remained! Several Cao Gang sentries, tasked with keeping watch on the periphery and equally distracted by the internal turmoil, felt a chill on their necks. Without even a groan, they collapsed, their companions swiftly dragging them deeper into the darkness.
Mo Ya's figure was like a ghost, darting past the edge of the chaotic and fighting crowd, his target heading directly for the most solid bluestone building behind the dock, which was now wide open and sparsely guarded - the headquarters accounting office!
***
Shengjing, deep in the imperial palace.
The lights in the western warm room of Qianyuan Palace remained on all night.
Emperor Zhao Heng sat listlessly on the dragon throne, seemingly having aged ten years overnight. A mountain of memorials lay before him on the imperial desk, yet he could not read a single word. Gu Linzhi's calm, yet bottomless eyes resurfaced in his mind like a nightmare. The cold words he had spoken when he had refused the marriage proposal, every word burning like a red-hot iron, seared into his heart.
"It's not about a woman..."
"I only seek to live up to Your Majesty, to our country, and to... the blood debt I have already paid..."
"I dare not use this personal matter to affect the political situation..."
Arrogant! Overbearing! Disrespectful to the emperor and his father!
Zhao Heng suddenly grabbed a fine Ding kiln white porcelain teacup at hand and threw it hard to the ground!
“Crash!”
The sharp sound of shattering echoed in the silent warm room, and porcelain fragments flew everywhere.
"Your Majesty, please calm down! Your Majesty, please calm down!" Wang Defu was so frightened that he fell to his knees on the ground, kowtowed repeatedly, and his voice was filled with tears.
"Calm down? How can I calm down?!" Zhao Heng's chest heaved violently, his face ashen, his eyes bloodshot with humiliation. "Gu Linzhi... does Gu Linzhi still have me, his king and father, in his eyes?! I granted him this marriage as a gesture of respect! It's a great favor! How dare he... how dare he contradict me like this! 'Cold temperament'? 'Unsuitable match'? He's slapping me in the face! He's slapping the royal family in the face!"
Like a trapped animal, he paced anxiously behind the imperial desk, the hem of his dragon robe rustling against the cold, golden brick floor.
"The stability of the country depends on clear laws and clean governance? Clean governance? Ha... what a high-sounding excuse! He, Gu Linzhi, killed Xie Yong and slaughtered officials in Jiangnan. Heads rolled and blood flowed like a river! Is this his law? His clean governance? He is clearly taking this opportunity to eliminate dissidents and seize power! The Anguo Mansion... He doesn't even look down on the Anguo Mansion. What on earth does he want?! This country?!"
The last three words were almost roared out, with fear and despair deep in his bones.
Wang Defu lowered his head even lower, his body shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind, not daring to breathe. He knew that any consolation at this moment would only add fuel to the fire.
Zhao Heng suddenly stopped, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the broken porcelain pieces and water stains on the ground, as if that was Gu Linzhi's hateful and terrifying face.
"Does he think...does he think he can really cover the sky with one hand?" The emperor's voice suddenly became low, and he muttered nervously, "Jiangnan...Jiangnan...Yun Ze will...Yes, Yun Ze will...Gu Linzhi, you are not without opponents in Jiangnan...I...I..."
A vague and crazy idea grew and twisted in his chaotic mind, like a poisonous ivy. He needed a knife, a knife that could hurt Gu Linzhi, or at least make him burn to a pulp! Regardless of whether the knife itself was good or evil!
"Wang Defu!"
"I'm here!" Wang Defu was startled and responded quickly.
"Send a secret decree to Cao Wushang, the commander of the Southern Pacification Division!" Zhao Heng's voice was filled with a desperate, ruthless, and cold tone. "Have his men keep a close eye on Jiangnan! Especially Gu Linzhi's men! And... that 'Yun Ze Society'! Investigate them! Find out what they're doing! If there's any sign of trouble, especially... especially anything involving Gu Linzhi's weakness... Report it! Report it immediately! Remember, this is a secret decree! Gu Linzhi's men must not know a single word!"
"As ordered!" Wang Defu's heart pounded, knowing that the emperor was about to use his most secret power to spy on the evil spirit. This was tantamount to playing with fire! But he didn't dare to hesitate for a moment, and even rolled back to draft the order.
Inside the warm room, only Zhao Heng's heavy breathing and the crackling of the candlelight remained. He gazed out the window at the darkening night, as if he were witnessing the bottomless vortex of Jiangnan, stirred by Gu Linzhi. Fear and a hint of morbid anticipation intertwined and flickered in his eyes.
The headquarter and accountant of the "Tongyuan" Cao Gang.
The faint sounds of fighting and screaming from the dock outside only served to accentuate the dead silence of the violently ruptured stone chamber. A thick odor of dust, mixed with the musty smell of damp ink and paper, filled the air. Tall bookshelves lay toppled, ledgers and documents scattered across the floor, which was covered in messy footprints and splattered blood—clearly a brief, bloody struggle had taken place here, too.
Mo Ya's gaze swept across the messy ground like the most precise probe. Several members of the Shadow Scale were rummaging through scattered account books and documents at an astonishing speed, their movements swift and silent.
"Commander Mo!" A Shadow Scale member squatting beside the wreckage of a bookshelf in the corner called out, holding up a few pages of tattered paper with burnt edges and dark brown stains. "We found this! It's buried under the splintered wood. It looks like it wasn't burned cleanly in a hurry!"
Mo Ya stepped forward and took the fragments. The paper was rough, the ink blurred by water and smoke, but the key words were still legible. They were a few extremely brief shipping records, no date, no shipper, only the delivery location code and a description of the goods:
"...Three warehouses in the Jia character...camphorwood boxes...seven..."
"...fine iron... three thousand kilograms... hidden in a bag of 'green salt'..."
"...the Bing-class ship...arrived at Heishiji..."
The record abruptly ended, the rest of the text burned. But next to the blurred ink marks, there was an extremely obscure mark covered with a special cinnabar ink—an extremely abstract pattern that resembled clouds swirling around a lake!
Yunze Club!
The muscles on Mo Ya's stern face tensed slightly. Ge Ping's dying scream echoed again. Seven camphorwood boxes! Fine iron! Black Stone Rock! It was indeed them! This fragment confirmed Ge Ping's confession and also proved that at least one member of the core of the Tongyuan Cao Gang had directly handled this deadly shipment of "contraband"!
"Anything else you found?" Mo Ya's voice was still cold.
"Commander Mo! This way!" Another voice came from the direction of the warehouse.
In a flash, Mo Ya appeared in the connected warehouse area. The heavy wooden door had been violently broken open, revealing a pile of sacks of goods awaiting transport. The air was filled with the mixed smell of salt and grain. Several members of the Shadow Scale were gathered in an inconspicuous corner at the back of the warehouse.
In the corner, a few seemingly ordinary empty wooden crates were stacked. But one of the Shadow Scales used a short blade to pry open the bottom compartment of one of the crates! Inside, scattered within, were several palm-sized black iron nuggets with a cold, metallic sheen. Next to them, a small amount of powder, also jet-black, but with a distinctly different texture!
Mo Ya picked up a piece of iron. It felt heavy in his hand, its texture unusually dense and hard, definitely not the crude iron you'd find in ordinary people. He then picked up a little black powder and brought it to his nose, where a faint, pungent smell of sulfur and saltpeter reached him.
Fine iron! Gunpowder!
This is the "contraband" they're shipping to the "north"! It's the raw material for forging sophisticated weapons and armor, and for manufacturing explosives! It's irrefutable evidence of aiding the enemy!
"What style of box?" asked Mo Ya.
After prying open the interlayer, Shadow Scale immediately pointed to several empty boxes of the same specifications that had been pried open and inspected. "Commander Mo, look here! There are the same incisions on the inner wall near the corner of the box!"
Mo Ya leaned over, his fingertips brushing over the deliberately worn, yet still recognizable, indentation—it was the same abstract, cloud-like, water-patterned mark as on the fragment of the account page! Next to the mark, inscribed in tiny letters, was a number: "Three."
The third box!
Then, each of the seven camphorwood boxes burned on Ge Ping's ship bore such markings and numbers! They were the special containers used by the Yunze Society to transport contraband, and they were also the key evidence linking this massive chain of illicit goods!
"Report!" A blood-soaked Shadow Scale member, breathing slightly rapidly, rushed in from outside. He was the captain of Team Two, responsible for the outer perimeter security. "Commander Mo! The unrest at the dock has largely subsided. Liu Kui severely injured Zhang Mangfu and has temporarily taken control of the situation. But just now, a speedboat suddenly appeared on the river to the north, speeding straight towards the dock! The boat was filled with people, and their intentions were unclear!"
A cold light flashed in Mo Ya's eyes. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind?
"Retreat!" He made a decisive decision, his voice emphatically emphasizing, "Our objective has been achieved! Take all the evidence we found, including these pieces of refined iron and gunpowder samples! Follow the planned route and evacuate immediately! Erase all traces of our presence!"
"yes!"
Just as they had come, several dark shadows merged silently into the shadows of the warehouse, leaving behind only a few pieces of abandoned fine iron and gunpowder powder in the corner, like a silent mockery, mocking the stupidity of this bloody infighting and the coming, even greater storm.
Mo Ya was the last one to leave the warehouse. His cold gaze swept across the dock outside, which was still filled with blood and chaos, and finally fell on the speedboat that was rapidly breaking through the night and approaching with an ominous aura.
The Yunze Society? Or another force looking to take advantage of the situation?
It doesn't matter anymore.
The thread the Prime Minister was looking for had been grasped. A new bloody move in this chess game had just begun.
The waters of Jiangnan were completely muddied. And those who muddied the waters never intended to fish in troubled waters, but rather... to expose the truth and eliminate them all!
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