Chapter 207: Killing the King (IV)

Just as Song Jia's side hastily began their preparations, Zheng Sancai's side had already finished assigning tasks.

Location: Hengguangkang Da Shufang. Zheng Sancai first called Lu Da and Lu Er, a pair of Fuzhou locals, into the room from the group of underlings waiting outside the door. Next, he took out two packs of broken silver weighing 50 taels each and placed them before the two brothers: "This bit of silver is not a reward; it's for you to keep and use on the road. If by any chance you encounter city patrol troops, or soldiers on the gate tower, use the broken silver to send them off."

The Lu brothers responded in unison.

"You two are geography fiends, familiar with every road." Zheng Sancai, at this point, circled from behind the desk to stand before the brothers and extended an open palm: "500 taels. Just deliver the message to the Great Boss, and that's 500 taels of reward silver from me. As for how much the Great Boss rewards you, that's separate."

Seeing the brothers' excitement written all over their faces, Zheng Sancai could not help but add another warning: "You two will split up and go separately. Lu Da goes to Nanmen, Lu Er goes to Jinglou Gate. Rest assured, even the one who arrives later will receive the same reward silver, not a single tael less. So on the road, do not be greedy for merit; caution comes first."

"Aye!" The two brothers cupped their hands in salute and responded in unison.

"Go."

After watching the two brothers walk out of the study, Zheng Sancai let out a long breath, then turned his head to Zheng Huairen, who was sitting to the side, and said: "The great merit you've earned, the Great Boss will know of it tonight. In the future, you will certainly not lack for benefits. As for right now, it's best you leave early. Oh, and regarding the girl, you still need to put in the effort; do not be negligent."

Zheng Huairen rose upon hearing this: "Then I'll take my leave first. Tomorrow, I'll send a clerk over to inquire about the results."

Zheng Sancai, following behind Zheng Huairen out of the study, clasped his hands behind his back and looked at the dozen or so underlings gathered in the courtyard. After a moment of silent deliberation, he beckoned a skinny young man over.

Leading the young man under the eaves, Zheng Sancai said in a low voice: "Nanmen is the critical point. Bai Yuer, you follow behind Lu Da, but do not make a sound. After he safely leaves the city, come back and report to me."

The young man nodded, turned around, and left through the courtyard gate.

Zheng Sancai then loudly addressed the remaining men: "Keep a close watch on both the front and back gates. Anyone bringing a report, lead them to me. Those with nothing to do, go rest, but sleep in your clothes."

After sending everyone away, Zheng Sancai brought a clay basin from the house and tossed it into the courtyard, beginning the final preparatory task: burning letters.

The malice the authorities had revealed today made Zheng Sancai cold and shivering. Even under the most ideal circumstances, if Zheng Zhilong escaped this great calamity, there would inevitably be a series of fierce battles ahead before a result could be fought out.

He could not judge how the authorities would treat Hengguangkang; after all, once this night passed, both sides would have completely torn off all pretense.

So Zheng Sancai began burning the letters.

Fuzhou City in the Ming Dynasty was basically a perfect circle in shape. And Dezheng Fang, where Hengguangkang was located, sat in the lower-right area of the city. This meant that the time it took for the Lu brothers, Lu Da and Lu Er, dispatched to deliver the message, to reach their respective city gates was roughly the same.

Nanmen, where Lu Da was headed, was the most critical location: Zheng Zhilong was right at the Official Dock outside Nanmen, separated by just one wall. If everything went smoothly, Lu Da could complete his mission very quickly.

As for Jinglou Gate, where Lu Er was headed, the route was diametrically opposite: Jinglou Gate was in the north of Fuzhou City, roughly the upper-right position, and outside the gate was the Min River Chuanchang, where large shipyards stood in dense clusters.

The reason for arranging Lu Er as this insurance was that the Zheng family had informant lines in the Min River Chuanchang area; even if some mishap occurred at Nanmen, Lu Er's side could still send the message to the docks south of the city via private boats dispatched from the Min River Chuanchang.

And the basic deployment on the Fuzhou Station side was like this: Xue Haiyuan, who was closest to Jinglou Gate in the north, was responsible for intercepting Lu Er.

When Xue Haiyuan first came to Fuzhou, his main purpose was actually to buy ships. At that time, the Dayuan Shipyard was newly built and lacked the capability to construct vessels of a hundred tons or more, so Xue Haiyuan had set up his trading post near Jinglou Gate for the convenience of buying ships and wholesale goods... He never expected that today it would be a case of hitting the mark by a fluke: Xue Haiyuan now had ample time and could set up in advance before Jinglou Gate, waiting for the rabbit to come.

Song Jia's side, however, was a bit more pressed.

The area around Ya Men Qiao (called Aomen Bridge by later generations), where Jia Le Fu was located, was roughly parallel in position to the Hengguangkang Silk Village.

That is to say, the distance for both sides to Nanmen was about the same, forming two points of a triangle. So Song Jia was now in a bind: Lu Da had set off before him, and he had to use even greater speed to catch up to his target.

However, Lu Da was thinking the same thing.

Spurred by the high reward silver, Lu Da at this moment wished he could sprout a pair of wings from his ribs to swiftly deliver the message to the Great Boss outside the city, so that the two brothers could ascend to the peak of life overnight — he knew the reward silver was no empty promise; the sea lords had boundless silver.

Moreover, he was the one responsible for storing the recognition flags that Hengguangkang sold every month, and he knew very well how much silver was in the silver vault in Hengguangkang's backyard.

..... Hurrying anxiously through the night, Lu Da relied on his familiarity with the roads, threading through streets and alleys the whole way, dodging patrol guards. With the bright white moonlight overhead and the brilliant starlight of the Milky Way in the distance, it took him only an hour to travel from Hengguangkang to the south gate of Fuzhou City.

Of course, emotionally charged as he was, Lu Da did not notice the tail behind him.

Looking at the pitch-black Nanmen gate tunnel not far ahead, Lu Da slowed his pace and walked over. Getting through the city gate was certainly out of the question; he didn't have the ability to make the gate guards open Fuzhou Nanmen for him in the middle of the night: even in this time of peace, without a big shot of the Prefect's rank personally present, the city gates could not be opened.

Lu Da's objective was the hanging basket on the gate tower.

The hanging basket was a very useful thing. In wartime, the hanging basket could be lowered from the city wall to send down guests, envoys, negotiation experts, and such figures to communicate with the enemy.

And in peacetime, in a large city like Fuzhou, almost every few days someone needed to leave the city urgently. People with urgent business, those seeking a doctor to grab medicine, a master who had kicked the bucket and whose servants were going to find the Second Young Master on a West Lake painting boat to return for mourning... all sorts of strange reasons, too many to list.

So when Lu Da hurried forward a few more steps, arriving directly beneath the gate tunnel, and saw the dim lantern overhead and heard that lazy call of: "Who goes there?" he was not worried in the slightest.

Two city guards, wearing old uniforms and holding long spears, were leaning crookedly against the city wall at this moment. They opened their bleary, sleepy eyes and sized up Lu Da.

The Ming Dynasty, having reached the present day, had already enjoyed peace for over 250 years. Apart from the years of the Jiajing era when the Wokou pirates caused trouble, startling the city three times a night for a few years, the city guards of Fuzhou City had always been this indolent. These two were the ones on night duty; the main force was all holed up sleeping in the side rooms of the gate tunnel.

Upon hearing this, Lu Da immediately stood still under the lantern and said in an urgent tone: "Leaving the city. My master has fallen ill; I need to fetch Li Yizhen from Chengnan Guanxiang to see him."

"Oh, seeking a doctor, eh? Brought the road money?" The two gate guards, hearing it was someone leaving the city, immediately propped themselves up on their long spears and walked over: by custom, they could share a bit of road money from such matters, so the two instantly became enthusiastic.

"Brought it, brought it." Lu Da hurriedly reached into his robe, pulled out a handful of copper coins, and placed them into a hand already extended before him — an aged, dark, and chapped hand.

After the gate guard withdrew that hand, by the dim lantern light overhead, he discovered the handful was all fine Jiajing gold-back coins. His eyebrows bloomed with smiles, and his attitude softened considerably: "Go on up. Ding, the Squad Commander, is on duty tonight; do not be disrespectful."

"Many thanks, many thanks." Lu Da dared not delay any longer. Leaving behind the two gate guards who were now tugging at each other to split the money, he turned and strode quickly to the right. Anyone who has visited a city gate tower as a tourist knows that to ascend the tower, one must go up the horse ramp on the side; either left or right will do.

Lu Da quickly climbed up to the gate tower.

Aside from a couple more lanterns hanging and a few more soldiers on duty, the gate tower was equally lifeless. Lu Da knew that the next step was to meet the man in charge: the City Gate Guard Commander.

In peacetime, the rank of the City Gate Guard Commander was not high. The one on rotation tonight, for example, was Squad Commander Ding Hu.

When a few underlings surrounded Lu Da and entered the gate tower building, Squad Commander Ding, wearing a worn official robe, with a full beard and a short, stocky build, was currently sitting in the large armchair at the head of the room, cradling a goose-quill saber and resting with his eyes closed. When he heard voices and opened his eyes, he asked, as if it were a routine matter: "What is it?"

Lu Da: "Reporting to Master Ding, my surname is Ma. My master..."

The moment Squad Commander Ding heard Lu Da utter his surname, he knew this man had some grease on him. So he quickly squeezed out two ounces of a smile: "This steward, leaving the city also requires a fee."

"Good, good." Lu Da once again reached into his robe. This time, what he grabbed was a handful of broken silver, about ten taels.

Bending forward, Squad Commander Ding snatched the broken silver from Lu Da's hand with a swift grab. He picked out a piece, bit down hard on it, and upon discovering it was indeed fine snow-thread silver, let out a hearty laugh and leaped up from the armchair: "Lads, Steward Ma has given a generous tip. Carefully send this good man out of the city; do not be negligent!"

The several city guards immediately beamed with joy and, together with Squad Commander Ding, crowded around Lu Da and escorted him out the door.

..... Every trade has its inside secrets; this is what is meant by living off the mountain you live on. For an outsider who doesn't know the inside secrets to get better service, there is only one way: spend more silver.

The hanging basket system on the gate tower was essentially just an oversized windlass for fetching water, not much different from the windlass beside the well platform in an ordinary household. And because Lu Da had paid extra silver today, he received additional care: the city guards first had him sit inside the hanging basket, then turned the windlass. Once the basket was pulled up past the height of the battlements, someone pushed the boom, and Lu Da was smoothly shifted horizontally to the outside of the city wall.

After that, it was very simple: as long as the windlass turned, Lu Da would be lowered down the wall, the whole process steady and safe. As for those who were unwilling to spend more silver and haggled over the price, the city guards usually couldn't be bothered to serve them: the hanging basket would just be left suspended outside the wall. If they wanted to descend, they'd have to climb over the battlements into the basket themselves. In the pitch-black darkness, every year someone fell from the city wall to their death or crippling injury...

You get what you pay for.

So, Squad Commander Ding, a man of great professional ethics, was at this moment standing with his hands on his hips, leaning on his saber, and admonishing the man turning the windlass: "Turn it a bit slower. Steward Ma is a man of refinement; he must not be subjected to jostling!"

Just at the moment when the gate tower VIP client Lu Da was slowly sinking down, three figures suddenly dashed up the horse ramp.

These three were positioned two in front and one behind. When they charged over, one of them, while still running, threw his entire body forward, slamming himself onto the windlass. And then, the windlass was jammed.

The other one, upon rushing in, rewarded someone with a flying kick, sending Squad Commander Ding — the only person present with a weapon — tumbling like a rolling gourd. The others, in their effort to serve the VIP client, had long since tossed their tattered long spears aside.

The one bringing up the rear was a boar spirit: the monster wore a suit of black hide, an iron helm on its head, and on its face was a thick, long black snout that covered half its face.

Before the dumbstruck good-for-nothings on the gate tower could react, the boar spirit dashed to the crenel in two strides, leaned half its body out, gripped an iron device with both hands, and aimed it straight at Liu Lan.

The next moment, as a low muffled *thump thump* rang out, Lu Da in the hanging basket was instantly turned into a sieve, and blood began to drip down from the basket toward the ground under the city.