Chapter 860

The iron door of the dungeon closed behind Gao Jiong, the sound of the iron bolt falling into the slot echoing twice between the damp stone walls.

Poison Scorpion was tied to a wooden pillar soaked in tung oil, the iron chains at his wrists and ankles digging into his flesh, blood dripping from the gaps in the chain links, falling onto the stone slabs of the dungeon and forming a small, dark pool of water.

Although his chin had been reset by Hongye, his entire face was still deformed, his left cheek bulging high, the torn wound at the corner of his mouth exposing the gap where three teeth were missing on his gum to the light of the torch.

Gao Jiong moved a low stool and sat in front of him, holding a bronze pot in his hand, the spout facing down, pouring a line of clear water onto Poison Scorpion's face.

"Wake up."

Poison Scorpion's eyelids twitched twice, his blood-red eyeballs rolling half a circle in the firelight, his voice leaking from his swollen lips, garbled and bloody.

"What... do you want."

Gao Jiong set the bronze pot on the ground, his fingers crossed on his knees, his voice neither high nor low.

"Thirty-six people, how did they enter Xiazhou City."

Poison Scorpion's Adam's apple rolled twice, blood foam bubbling from the corners of his mouth.

"They... climbed the wall themselves."

Gao Jiong's fingers lifted from his knees, making a gesture toward a hidden agent standing behind him.

The hidden agent took out an iron clamp the length of a palm from his waist, the two clamping jaws of the iron clamp roasted red by fire, the edges shimmering with a dark orange heat.

Gao Jiong took the iron clamp from the hidden agent's hand and shook it in front of Poison Scorpion, the heat wave making the blood water seeping from Poison Scorpion's face hiss.

"I'll ask one more time, how did they enter the city."

Poison Scorpion's eyeballs nailed onto that glowing red iron clamp, the cold hardness of the assassin remaining in his pupils peeling off layer by layer under the scorching heat.

His voice became three points more urgent.

"Wait... wait, I'll say, I'll say."

Gao Jiong moved the iron clamp an inch closer to his face, the heat wave curling the edges of the blood scab on his swollen left cheek.

"Speak."

Poison Scorpion's body struggled on the wooden pillar, the sound of iron chains colliding with the wooden pillar echoing twice in the dungeon, his voice squeezed from the deepest part of his throat with all his might.

"It was arranged by people in Yinzhou; Qian Wansan sent someone to meet us outside the city, that person had a customs clearance document, an official standard document of the government, stamped with the seal of the Yinzhou Inspector's Office."

Gao Jiong's fingers gripped the handle of the iron clamp by one point.

"Who issued the document."

Poison Scorpion's voice shattered by a beat, every word carrying a thick bloody smell.

"The Changshi of the Yinzhou Inspector's Office, surnamed Zhou, called Zhou... Zhou Deyu."

Gao Jiong's fingers paused for a breath on the iron clamp.

Zhou Deyu.

Changshi of the Yinzhou Inspector's Office, rank 5b, in charge of the daily government affairs and official document correspondence of the Inspector's Office, holding the approval power for customs clearance at the Yinzhou city gate.

Gao Jiong withdrew the iron clamp from beside his face, his voice carrying a layer of something that dropped the temperature of the dungeon by two points.

"Did he forge the document?"

Poison Scorpion's head drooped forward by two inches, blood dripping from the tip of his chin and landing on the night-traveling clothes on his chest.

"It wasn't forged, it was real, he opened it with the official seal of the Inspector's Office, the identity written on it was accompanying guards of a Western Region caravan, thirty-six people divided into six batches, six people per batch, entering Yinzhou City from six different city gates."

Gao Jiong's voice turned cold by half.

"What else did he provide you."

Poison Scorpion's voice became so rapid it was nearly gasping for air.

"Intelligence, he provided the internal defense map of the Governor's Office, where the sentries were, where the patrol teams were, the time of shift changes, all provided by him. Qian Wansan said this person had been operating in Yinzhou City for over ten years and could get any news."

Gao Jiong threw the iron clamp back into the hidden agent's hand and stood up from the low stool.

His fingers reached into his sleeves, clenching into a fist, his finger bones producing a faint cracking sound under the cover of his sleeves.

Changshi of the Yinzhou Inspector's Office, forging customs clearance documents for the Chamber of Commerce, providing military intelligence, coordinating Western Region assassins to assassinate a Pillar of State of the Great Zhou.

This line was three points deeper than smuggling salt and iron.

He turned around and strode toward the iron door of the dungeon, the sound of armor plates colliding one step more urgent than the last, one step heavier than the last.

"Watch him, don't let him die."

The hidden agent hammered a fist against his chest.

"Subordinate obeys."

Gao Jiong crossed the iron door of the dungeon, walking quickly up along the stone steps, the sound of armor plates colliding one step more urgent than the last, one step heavier than the last.

In the study, the blood stains on the chessboard had dried, the black and white pieces stained with blood shimmering with a dark brown luster in the candlelight.

Chen Yan sat in the Grand Master's chair, his fingers resting on the edge of the armrest, his gaze falling on the courtyard outside illuminated by the lingering light of the torches.

Gao Jiong's footsteps came from the end of the corridor, urgent all the way to the study entrance.

"Pillar of State."

Chen Yan's fingers drew an arc on the armrest, his voice unhurried.

"Pried it open?"

Gao Jiong crossed the threshold, walked to the desk, his voice pressed to a level only two people could hear.

"Yinzhou Inspector's Office Changshi, Zhou Deyu, is the insider planted by the Chamber of Commerce in the government, using the official seal of the Inspector's Office to forge customs clearance documents, sending thirty-six assassins into Yinzhou City in six batches, while also providing internal defense intelligence of the Governor's Office."

Chen Yan's fingers paused on the armrest.

"Zhou Deyu."

Gao Jiong's voice followed.

"Did the Pillar of State guess this person before?"

Chen Yan's mouth curled, the arc dragging a layer of coldness in the candlelight that made Gao Jiong's spine feel tight.

"The Yinzhou city gate inspection is under the jurisdiction of the Inspector's Office; to be able to open a passage during the period of tightest defense and also get the defense intelligence of the Governor's Office, there are no more than three people in the entire Yinzhou City who can do both, and Zhou Deyu ranks first."

His fingers pointed toward the direction of the door.

"Gao Jiong, Qian Wansan's smuggling caravan was intercepted, thirty-six assassins were wiped out, the news of these two things will reach Yinzhou by noon tomorrow at the earliest; what do you think Qian Wansan will do after receiving the news."

Gao Jiong's voice was half a beat faster.

"Run, or destroy the evidence."

Chen Yan stood up from the Grand Master's chair, strode to the Northwest Seven Prefectures Trade Route Map behind the study, and poked heavily at the position of Yinzhou with his finger.

"Cannot give him time."

He turned around, his gaze sweeping across Gao Jiong's face, the temperature of his voice dropping to a degree that made the air in the entire study thin within this breath.

"Order Gu Yuci to assemble five thousand elite iron cavalry, three horses per person, carrying three days of dry rations, and set out from the Xiazhou Camp within a quarter of an hour, galloping to Yinzhou overnight."

Gao Jiong's fist clenched by three points at his side.

"Subordinate obeys."

Chen Yan's fingers pointed toward his direction again.

"At the same time, send a carrier pigeon to the hidden agents you left in Yinzhou, telling them to infiltrate near the city gate tonight, and open the city gate from the inside the moment the iron cavalry arrives at the city wall."

Gao Jiong's voice became one point faster.

"Pillar of State, the Yinzhou city gate commander is a man of the Inspector's Office, a direct subordinate of Zhou Deyu; the other side might resist when the hidden agents act."

Chen Yan's voice squeezed from his teeth, every word carrying a weight that made Gao Jiong's back feel a chill.

"If they resist, kill them; kill those who sound the alarm first, this Duke wants the Yinzhou city gate to open silently the moment the iron cavalry arrives, and Qian Wansan to be blocked in his bed by five thousand horizontal blades in his sleep."

Gao Jiong hammered a fist against his chest armor, turned, and strode toward outside the study, the sound of armor plates colliding urgent to the point of forming a line in the corridor.

Hongye stood up from the corner of the study, her fingers resting on the hilt of the short sword, her voice lowered by half.

"Pillar of State not going to Yinzhou to sit in command?"

Chen Yan withdrew his fingers from the map, inserting them back into the side seam of his cloak, his voice carrying a hint of indescribable leisure.

"Not going, Gu Yuci and Gao Jiong together are enough to deal with a few fat pigs with their hands tied."

He turned and walked back to the Grand Master's chair, sitting down, his fingers picking up a black piece from the chess container and turning it half a circle at his fingertips.

"This Duke will just sit here and wait for news."

Hongye's voice flattened.

"Then subordinate will go fix the window, the wind is pouring in."

Chen Yan placed the black piece on the chessboard, his voice carrying a hint of something that couldn't capture emotion.

"Fix what, have someone change it for a new one tomorrow; just make do with the wind tonight, it's sobering."

Outside the study, the sound of a muffled horn came from the direction of the Xiazhou Camp, the horn sound lingering in the night wind three times, low and long, the signal for large-scale troop mobilization.

The sound of horse hooves exploded from the direction of the camp.

Five thousand elite iron cavalry filed out of the camp gate, three horses per person, the horse hooves wrapped in thick cowhide cloth strips, the contact between the horseshoes and the ground absorbing most of the sound through the cloth strips, the sound of thousands of warhorses merging together, not thunder, but a muffled low-frequency resonance that made the ground tremble slightly.

Gu Yuci spurred his horse to the very front of the iron cavalry formation, his long spear held upright on the left side of the saddle, the tip shimmering with a layer of cold, icy glint in the night.

He looked back at the black iron-armored torrent behind him, his voice crushing out from his chest, not loud but overriding the horse hooves and the night wind.

"Bite the wooden bits, no sound allowed, forced march for four hours, must reach the Yinzhou city wall before dawn."

Five thousand iron cavalry unfolded a winding black dragon on the loess plateau, the dust kicked up by the horse hooves invisible in the night, only a thick smell of mud and fishiness could be smelled.

No torches, no horns, no sound at all.

The five thousand-man team surged silently in the darkness, the muffled sound of iron armor colliding pressed to the lowest level by the night wind, only the white hot air sprayed from the horses' noses condensing into wisps of mist in the cold air.

Yinzhou City, Chamber of Commerce Headquarters, secret chamber.

Qian Wansan leaned back in the tiger-skin chair, holding a cup of Longjing tea, the tea lid flicking back and forth between his fingertips, producing a faint, clashing sound of porcelain.

A satisfied smile hung on his face, the three chins piled into several folds under the pull of the smile, the jade thumb rings on his fingers shimmering with an oily green light under the oil lamp.

"Gentlemen, by the foot speed, Poison Scorpion and the others should have acted by now."

He placed the tea lid back on the teacup, his voice round and carrying a confidence that made one's teeth itch.

"Thirty-six top-tier assassins, acting in the middle of the night, even if Chen Yan is made of iron, he can't withstand thirty-six poisoned curved sabers; early tomorrow morning, we will be able to receive good news."

Lin Xin sat opposite him, also holding a cup of tea, but the tea had not been drunk from the moment it was picked up, the heat on the surface of the tea having dissipated.

"President Qian, are you really sure Poison Scorpion can succeed? We haven't not experienced the methods of that person Chen Yan."

Qian Wansan's voice raised a notch.

"What are you afraid of! Poison Scorpion has even killed a Rouran chiliarch, Chen Yan is still two arms and two legs, let alone being ambushed in the middle of the night, he will have to be chopped into meat mud before he even has time to put on his pants."

Wu Hongyuan leaned forward from the chair in the corner, his voice lowered by half.

"President Qian, I'm not afraid Poison Scorpion can't beat Chen Yan, I'm worried about the smuggling caravan, the delivery at Black Wind Pass..."

Qian Wansan waved his hand, the jade thumb rings on his fingers drawing half an arc in the air.

"Black Wind Pass has been walked a dozen times, nothing has ever gone wrong, no third living person knows that secret passage except our people and the Rouran contact, what are you worrying about."

Wu Hongyuan's lips moved twice, ultimately swallowing the words that reached his mouth.

Yang Huairen sat in the furthest corner of the secret chamber, saying nothing, his fingers clenching a piece of iron the size of a fingernail in his sleeves.

The iron piece was a micro-version of the smuggling secret passage map he had secretly traced from the secret compartment of the Chamber of Commerce secret chamber three days ago, carved onto a thin iron piece, hidden close to his body.

His gaze moved away from Qian Wansan's round, fat face, falling on an inconspicuous dark corner beside the stone wall of the secret chamber, a crack so fine it was nearly invisible in the brick seam of the dark corner.

Behind that crack was a tunnel abandoned for many years, leading to the Dragon King Temple in the north of the city.

Yang Huairen had accidentally discovered this tunnel three years ago, and spent half a year secretly repairing a collapsed section at the exit, preparing it just in case.

His fingers clenched the iron piece by two points in his sleeves, his voice lowered to a level only he could hear.

Time to go.

Outside the secret chamber, the night sky of Yinzhou City was so quiet there wasn't even a dog bark, the lanterns on Zhuque Avenue swaying in the wind, illuminating the blue stone road surface dimly.

No one knew that at this moment, in a dilapidated inn in the north of Yinzhou City, hundreds of Mingjing Si hidden agents left by Gao Jiong were making their final preparations.

They had changed into the standard armor of the Yinzhou city defense army, horizontal blades tucked at their waists, dark red armbands wrapped in cloth strips on the inner side of their arms, the armbands pressed at the very bottom by the cloth strips, showing no flaws from the outside.

The hidden agent leader dismantled a bamboo tube, pulling out a thin silk from inside, the silk being a secret order sent by Gao Jiong via carrier pigeon, with only eight characters.

Open the city gate from the inside, kill all who resist.

The hidden agent leader stuffed the thin silk into his mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it, his voice pressed to a level only the three people beside him could hear.

"Act at dawn, split into four groups, each group watching a city gate, the Changshi's order is to focus on the south gate, with the other three gates as auxiliary, the iron cavalry will enter the city from the south gate."

The three squad leaders memorized the direction of the city gates they were assigned to, turning and disappearing behind the various secret doors of the inn.

Time passed breath by breath.

The Hour of the Rat passed, the Hour of the Ox passed, and a layer of gray fish-belly white appeared on the horizon at the Hour of the Tiger.

Behind a low slope two miles outside Yinzhou City, the silhouettes of five thousand iron cavalry appeared in the gray morning light.

The cowhide cloth strips on the horse hooves had been worn to tatters by the long-distance raid, but they were still wrapped, a wooden bit stuffed into the mouth of every warhorse to prevent the warhorses from neighing in excitement.

Gu Yuci's gaze passed through the edge of the low slope, falling on that tightly closed iron-plated wooden city gate of the Yinzhou south gate.

Two lanterns were still lit on the city gate tower, the night-duty guards on the city wall dozing behind the crenellations, one person's long spear leaning against the wall, the person huddled in the corner, his head sinking lower and lower.

Gu Yuci pulled the wooden bit from the mouth of his mount, his fingers tapping on the shaft of his long spear.

"Wait for the city gate to open."

As soon as the words fell, a muffled sound, extremely short and light, came from the city gate tower, followed by the sound of a body falling, falling to a position behind the crenellations where it couldn't be seen.

One lantern on the city wall went out.

Then came the second muffled sound, and the second lantern went out.

The city wall fell into a brief darkness.

In the darkness, the creaking sound of the winch turning came from the gate tunnel, the sound not loud, but exceptionally clear in the silence before dawn.

The heavy iron-plated wooden city gate, under the pull of the winch, slowly opened from the inside toward both sides, revealing the blue stone road in the gate tunnel that had been turned gray-white by the morning light.

In the shadows of the gate tunnel, a silhouette waved the dark red armband in his hand twice toward the direction outside the city.

The signal of the Mingjing Si.

Gu Yuci's arm swung forward.

"Enter the city."

The five thousand iron cavalry urged their mounts simultaneously the moment these two words fell, the cowhide cloth strips remaining on the horse hooves being shaken off in the first step of the sprint, the sound of iron hooves stepping on the loess ground exploding, shaking the sky and the earth.

The disguise was over.

When the iron cavalry surged into Yinzhou City from the south gate, the commoners in the city were still in their dreams.

The sound of horse hooves echoed in the narrow streets and alleys, the muffled sound of iron armor colliding merging into a surging metallic river, pouring all the way into Zhuque Avenue from the south gate.

Someone was startled awake, pushing open the window lattice to take a look, seeing that dense torrent of iron armor on the street, their fingers gripping the window frame trembling three times, closing the window lattice again, and shrinking back into the house.

The five thousand iron cavalry split into three strands, the first strand of two thousand men charging straight at the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce Headquarters at the end of Zhuque Avenue, the second strand of fifteen hundred men dispersing to the four directions of Yinzhou City to seal off all traffic arteries, the third strand of fifteen hundred men surrounding the Yinzhou Inspector's Office.

Outside the Chamber of Commerce main gate, the iron cavalry completed the tactical encirclement within half a stick of incense.

Heavy bows and repeating crossbows occupied all the roofs and high places around the Chamber of Commerce mansion, the clicking sound of crossbows being cocked coming from all directions, dense enough to make the air feel three points heavier.

Outside the wall of the Chamber of Commerce mansion, the long saber soldiers formed a three-layer deep semicircular formation, the long sabers held in front of their chests, the blade edges reflecting a dense, cold light in the morning sun.

Gu Yuci spurred his horse to a stop ten paces in front of the Chamber of Commerce main gate, the long spear taken from the saddle, the tip pointing toward the tightly closed main gate.

Noisy exclamations and footsteps came from inside the Chamber of Commerce mansion, someone shouting and yelling inside, someone throwing things, someone's voice raised to the point of changing pitch.

In the secret chamber, the Longjing teacup in Qian Wansan's hand slipped from between his fingertips the moment the sound of horse hooves reached inside, the teacup smashing onto the rosewood desk, the lid jumping up and falling, tea splashing over the entire tabletop.

The satisfied smile on his face was shattered to the point not even a scrap remained, the three chins shaking in the trembling of the fat, piling into five layers, the jade thumb rings on his fingers colliding and producing a faint, tinkling sound that made one's teeth ache.

"What sound! What sound!"

The steward rushed in from outside the secret chamber, crawling and rolling, the sound of his knees smashing onto the stone slabs echoing twice in the secret chamber, his voice raised to the limit of his throat.

"President! The Xiazhou iron cavalry has entered the city! There are soldiers everywhere, the Chamber of Commerce is surrounded!"

Qian Wansan's voice squeezed from his throat, high to the point of being off-key.

"Impossible! What about Poison Scorpion! What about the thirty-six assassins! Chen Yan should be dead!"

The steward's forehead knocked against the stone slabs, his voice trembling like a bellows about to fall apart.

"There has been no news from the assassins, President, there has been no news sent back at all!"

Qian Wansan's knees softened by half, his entire body sinking into the backrest of the tiger-skin chair, his fingers gripping the armrests, his finger bones producing a series of crisp sounds under the pressure of the jade thumb rings.

Lin Xin sprang up from the chair, his face white to the point that even his lips lost their color, his voice shrill to the point of cutting ears.

"It's over! It's all over! Poison Scorpion failed, Chen Yan is alive, he sent troops to arrest us!"

Wu Hongyuan's body slid from the chair, his entire body slumping onto the stone slab floor, his hand pressing on the hilt of the saber at his waist, but pressing twice and then loosening, ultimately not even having the strength to draw the saber.

"Run... run where..."

Yang Huairen stood in the furthest corner of the secret chamber, his fingers clenching that piece of iron in his sleeves until his fingertips turned white.

His gaze moved away from Qian Wansan's face, which had already twisted into something inhuman, falling on an inconspicuous dark corner beside the stone wall of the secret chamber.

The crack was still there.

The tunnel was still open.

His footsteps moved silently half a step toward the direction of the dark corner.

Outside the Chamber of Commerce main gate, Gu Yuci's long spear swung forward.

"Smash the gate."

A dozen Beiwei death guards carrying a bowl-thick iron-plated wooden battering ram charged toward the Chamber of Commerce main gate, their footsteps treading a neat rhythm.

The iron head of the battering ram smashed into the gold-inlaid iron-clad main gate.

The first time, the door panel dented inward by two inches, a piece of gold lacquer on the iron plating shattering.

The second time, the mortise and tenon structure of the door frame produced a crisp sound of tearing.

The third time.

The main gate detached from the door frame, the two iron-plated wooden door panels falling inward toward the courtyard, smashing onto the blue brick floor, the dust raised in the morning light diffusing into a gray-white mist.

The sound of the door panels falling reached the secret chamber.

Qian Wansan slumped in the tiger-skin chair, Lin Xin knelt on the floor, Wu Hongyuan slumped on the stone slabs.

Yang Huairen was no longer in the corner.

The brick seam in the dark corner beside the stone wall of the secret chamber was an inch wider than before.

No one noticed his departure.