Chapter 647: Xiakou

"A land of Six Dynasties splendor, an imperial domain of Jinling. Meandering green waters wind afar, vermilion towers rise in layered tiers."

"Truly worthy of an emperor's foundation!"

At month's end, before the Jubao Gate docks, Nan Wang, dressed as a merchant, gazed up at the Ming dynasty's most massive and towering Nanjing city wall, murmuring ceaselessly under his breath, his expression deeply solemn.

The East Guangfu had previously reached the outskirts of Nanjing, first turning from the Yangtze into the Jia River, then entering the Shangxin River to arrive at Jiangdong Gate.

The Shangxin River was only excavated in the early Ming. Due to its vital location, it quickly became a major dock: "Markets thronged and converged, merchants gathered and halted; bamboo, timber, oil, and hemp blanketed the river downstream — it was acclaimed as a key town along the Yangtze."

The East Guangfu moored at Jiangdong Gate and promptly began unloading under the arrangements of the receiving personnel. The Nanjing Station's warehouse was just outside Jiangdong Gate.

Nan Wang himself, along with Zhou Yi and a few other core members, all changed into inconspicuous robes, then transferred boats on the spot and cautiously passed two long bridges, rounding their way to the foot of the famous Jubao Gate.

From this stretch of road onward — in fact, from the moment they approached Nanjing — Nan Wang's team shed their previous arrogance, switched modes entirely, and entered stealth operations.

There was no helping it. Truth lies within cannon range. At present, the gunboats the Cao Clan uses to reason with people could not even get past Zhenjiang, so Nanjing still counted as "enemy-occupied territory." A team like Nan Wang's had to start behaving themselves honestly from here on out.

Working in "enemy-occupied territory" and working in "liberated zones" were two completely different sensations.

Nanjing was the Ming dynasty's secondary capital, where all manner of "conservative forces" held great strength. The locale had not only the elite battalion troops under the garrison eunuch's command, but also no small number of private soldiers belonging to ennobled houses. For an organization like an external station, if trouble blew up inside Nanjing city, they were certain to suffer immediate losses. So they all had to tuck their tails between their legs and behave, nothing like the swaggering postures they assumed in places like Shanghai.

Entering the city through the Jubao Water Gate, one could glimpse the Great Bao'en Temple Pagoda to the west. Facing the afternoon winter sun, the famed glazed pagoda blazed with gold and flowing light, dazzling to the eye.

Continuing by boat eastward along the Qinhuai River, passing Wuding Bridge, Huaiqing Bridge, Liji Bridge, Wende Bridge, Laiyan Bridge, and a long string of other stone arch bridges, one arrived at Baochao Ku Street — the site of the Ming dynasty's state treasury.

Here on Baochao Ku Street stood an exquisite residence: Meixiang Lou.

In the future, Li Xiangjun of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai would live at Meixiang Lou, awaiting the arrival of her destined young master, Hou Fangyu. Afterward, this patriotic courtesan, who lived only to thirty, would leave behind a tragic and stirring historical tale of love, hate, family, and country.

In this timeline, however, that story would likely never unfold — a certain reactionary force's tentacles had already stretched into Nanjing by 165, so presumably the miserable fates of many among the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai would be reversed.

In the parlance of later generations, the Baochao Ku plot around Meixiang Lou belonged to the core section of the Qinhuai scenic district — standard high-end villa residential area, with sky-high house prices.

The courtyards here were mostly like Meixiang Lou: three rows and two inner yards.

From the outside, these courtyards looked exquisite and elegantly understated, finding quiet amid the bustle — precisely the distinctive aura of a high-end residential area, perfectly suited for literati and refined scholars, talented men and beautiful women, adding incense by red sleeves and hiding a beauty in a golden house.

The party of "Master Nan" had come here, in fact, to claim a house.

The house had long been prepared.

Led by two capable Chang Sui, Master Nan disembarked at the bridge dock opposite Meixiang Lou. After crossing the street, an unremarkable green-brick residence within the neighborhood was the temporary lodging the Nanjing Station had prepared for Master Nan.

This residence, along with two nearby properties, all served as backup safe houses for the Nanjing Station. By the time Nan Wang and his group arrived, all household necessities had already been readied here, and personnel nearby stood ready to respond at any moment.

Of course, the party of Master Nan had certainly not come to the banks of the Qinhuai River to find women.

In truth, they had come to study.

After entering the residence, the deputy head of the Nanjing Station Confidential Group, dressed as a Chang Sui, led Nan Wang alone to the study in the Back Residence.

Inside the study, the two sides held a secret talk for roughly an hour, after which the deputy head took his leave.

After this, Nan Wang closed his eyes and rested his mind. A long while later, he drank a cup of tea, rose, and sat by the window. Using an exquisite key, he unlocked the iron lock on the desk drawer and took out a thread-bound book.

The thread-bound book had an antique appearance; its cover was something any ordinary scholarly household would recognize — brush-calligraphy vertical text reading "Expanded Annotations to the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties."

Yet when Nan Wang opened the pages, the first inner page bore a striking square red stamp in the upper right corner: Confidential.

Further down, a table of contents written in fountain pen with blue ink in simplified characters: "Recent Compilation of Social and Enemy Conditions in the Wuhan Region."

In parentheses: Category B file, restricted to internal personnel for review.

Nan Wang, newly promoted senior intelligence officer of the Imperial Intelligence System, newly appointed Station Chief of Wuhan Station.

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Before this, the Transmigrators groping their way through the fog had constantly revised their grand strategic vision as the situation evolved.

According to true history, the Ming dynasty would collapse and fall nine years later, in 1644. The Chongzhen Emperor himself would hang himself after the city fell in 1644.

The Crossing Faction had originally also planned to follow the historical sequence, "smoothly taking up the baton" in 1644 and establishing a new dynasty.

Yet in the eight years since the Crossing Over, the Transmigrators had not halted industrialization for a single moment.

Now, as industrialization accelerated in the southern regions, the Transmigrator high command, their muscles swelling by the day, had reviewed recent GDP figures and abruptly realized: We can't wait nine years. 1644 is too far away.

Just like the Chairman back in Xibaipo. At first, they estimated five years to defeat the opponent, but after the Liaoshen Campaign, the situation turned overwhelmingly favorable, and they promptly moved up the timetable for liberating the entire nation to three years.

Thus, the Transmigrators once again revised their overall strategy. "The Great Yan State replacing the Great Ming State ahead of schedule" became the consensus of the majority.

So the question arose: How to replace it ahead of schedule?

The answer: Accelerate the historical process.

How to accelerate the historical process?

Nan Wang's current appointment was a crucial link in this grand strategy.

In the Intelligence General Bureau's original planning, at least as of the year 165, there had been no intention of establishing a Wuhan Station.

The reason, as stated before, was that it was beyond their reach. They could not even get the Nanjing Station sorted out cleanly; setting up a Wuhan Station held little significance.

But with the shift in upper-level strategy, Wuhan Station transformed overnight into a key project, receiving a massive infusion of resources — which included Nan Wang's team itself.

Nanjing Station, the one closest to Wuhan, began shifting its daily operational focus not long after this grand strategic decision, throwing all its efforts into gathering intelligence on the Wuhan Three Towns — all intelligence, in every aspect, was required.

As time passed, by the day Nan Wang assumed his post, the volume of intelligence had already accumulated considerably. With the core components for telegraph machines still unable to be "imported," such a large quantity of intelligence could not possibly be transmitted electronically, so Nan Wang had to go read it on the spot.

This was also why Nan Wang's team had been arranged to stay on Baochao Ku Street today: the intelligence was all inside this study. As the soon-to-be Station Chief, what he needed most right now were all kinds of real-time data on the Wuhan Three Towns.

From the moment he opened the pages, Nan Wang entered a state of reading intelligence. He continued thus until the lamps were lit, hastily ate dinner, then resumed reading by lamplight through the night, until daybreak the next morning.

Early the next morning, after a night of hard study, Nan Wang pulled open the study door and called Zhou Yi and the others over: "I've sorted these by security classification. Read them according to your clearance levels. Afterward, all materials are to be transported in batches to Wuhan for future reference, to be managed by the Confidential Section."

"Understood."

Nan Wang's party lingered on Baochao Ku Street for five days.

During this period, personnel belonging to the two intelligence stations strictly observed the "behind-enemy-lines" security regulations. Nan Wang's team did not meet with their Nanjing Station counterparts as they had in the south. Apart from the liaison officer who handled daily travel arrangements, only Nan Wang himself, at an appointed time, went out in disguise and met alone with the current Nanjing Station Chief, Lu Cheng, at a certain tea house for a private discussion.

In early April 165, Nan Wang's team boarded the fully refitted East Guangfu, bid farewell to the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and embarked on the final leg of their journey.

Traveling in fits and starts along the way, at every key town along the middle Yangtze — including Tongling, Anqing, Jiujiang, and Huangshi — Nan Wang disembarked to rest and absorb the local customs and atmosphere.

Thus it was not until the end of April that the East Guangfu finally completed this thousand-kilometer water journey, rounded the Yangtze's broadest great bend in its middle reaches, and arrived at Greater Wuhan.

In the Late Ming, the Greater Wuhan area, the Wuhan Three Towns familiar to later generations, had already taken shape: Xiakou, Wuchang, and Hanyang.

Xiakou Town is the predecessor of later Hankou. Because its superior riverside location was irreplaceable, it had been a key military town as early as the Three Kingdoms period. By the early Ming dynasty, Xiakou Town underwent natural commercial development.

By the Late Ming, after two centuries of peace, the "newly built" Xiakou Town had developed into the most important water transport hub on the middle Yangtze. The phrase "Thoroughfare of Nine Provinces" actually referred solely to Xiakou Town during this period.

And Nan Wang, long before Departure, had already designated Xiakou Town as the headquarters for the Wuhan Station based on some background materials.

The reasoning was simple: Wuchang lay in Jiangnan and was also the provincial capital; the various Fuzhou Governors, Governor-Generals, and Regional Commanders mostly stationed there, making it inconvenient to operate.

Hanyang was the same. The old prefectural seat had all sorts of entanglements and fetters, not as "loose and free" as the new town.

Finally, on the morning of April 0, 165, the East Guangfu docked at the old-style Xiakou Town pier.

In this One Moment, Zhou Yi, having finally arrived at the starting point of his career, wore an Expression full of hesitation.

Nan Wang, Master Nan, on the other hand, perhaps from overthinking, had a steady Expression, utterly unruffled.

Waiting until noon at the bustling Xiakou pier, two ordinary-looking middle-aged men came aboard seeking them.

Seeing these two, Nan Wang was not at all surprised: "Huang Zhong, Fang Yanxiao, you two have come."

As the two middle-aged men bowed with clasped fists in salute, their faces showed the excitement of finding the Organization: "Section Chief, we've finally been waiting for you, sir!"

"Mm, hard work for you, finding your way here so quickly."

"No hard work, no hard work. As agreed, your subordinates come to check the pier twice daily, at noon and evening."

"Very good. Now brief me on the situation, so we can see when to go ashore."