Chapter 651: Information in the Di Bao

It had already been half a month since the opening of the Ke Bo Pavilion. By late April, on one afternoon, Zhou Yi hurriedly stepped through the wooden door connecting the backyard and the middle courtyard.

His face covered in sweat, Zhou Yi was coated in dust from head to toe.

He wore a bamboo hat, a coarse cloth robe, cloth wraps bound around his legs, and a blue cloth traveling bag slung over his shoulder. This getup was clearly the look of someone returning from a long journey.

Entering the seemingly deserted backyard, he reached up and removed his bamboo hat, revealing his face. Zhou Yi casually swept his gaze over the hidden sentry position and gave a slight nod.

Immediately after, without stopping his stride, he quickly stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door of the main room.

The next moment, Nan Wang's calm voice came from inside: "Come in."

"Station Chief, I'm back."

Seeing that it was Zhou Yi pushing the door open, Nan Wang, who had been looking down at documents behind his desk, was somewhat surprised: "Oh, that trip to Xinyang was several hundred li round trip, and you're back so soon?"

"Things went smoothly, so I came back early, rushing to report to you!"

As he spoke, Zhou Yi panted for breath, wiped his face with his sleeve, and then unloaded the traveling bag from his shoulder, setting it in the corner by the door.

"Mm, you've worked hard. No rush, have some cool tea first." Seeing his top lieutenant travel-worn and weary, Nan Wang quickly stood up and lifted the teapot to pour water.

"With a fast horse, it wasn't too tiring." Zhou Yi didn't stand on ceremony here, taking the cup and gulping it down, downing four cups in one go before he was done.

Wiping his mouth, Zhou Yi sat down and caught his breath, then immediately began his work report: "Station Chief, the operation in Xinyang has been set up. Captain Fang, under the name of a branch, found a location in the county seat and opened a cart inn. It was already open for business before I left."

Nan Wang's expression was calm: "Mm, continue."

"On the official side, gifts were delivered to the county magistrate and the Household Clerk. We also sought out the residence of Qian Jinshen. Master Qian read the letter, accepted the gifts, and wrote a reply."

"For all of the above, I personally followed up and handled it in the capacity of an assistant."

Hearing this, Nan Wang nodded slowly: "Mm, all standard procedure. The officials and the gentry must always be contacted first. In an unfamiliar place, only with their backing can we properly deal with all the other snakes and insects."

At this point, Nan Wang relaxed. He leaned back with a smile and then said: "The General Bureau has standard procedures for how to establish a communication branch station in the 'Red Zone,' and you've all received training. You also personally experienced the establishment of the Wuhan headquarters before, so I'm not worried in that regard."

Saying this, Nan Wang seemed to remember something: "Fang Yanxiao handling that operation, no problems, right?"

Zhou Yi chuckled upon hearing this: "Station Chief, you worry too much. Captain Fang operated undercover alone in Xiakou for so long, which proves his skill. Now that he has personnel, funds, and material support, going to Xinyang to oversee a branch station is a sure thing."

"Mm, hearing you say that puts my mind at ease."

"However, the Xinyang communication station is still quite important."

Thinking of this, Nan Wang stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and began pacing in the room as he thought: "Xinyang's position is extremely important. It reaches Shangqiu and Yu to the north, connects to Wuhan in the south, and links to Anhui in the east. It is our material transfer station for moving north."

"The key point is that Xinyang's territory is mountainous."

Nan Wang paused here and glanced at Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi smiled knowingly and picked up the thread: "The remaining veins of Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain are right in the Xinyang region. So Xinyang is not only a commercial material transfer station, but also an excellent place to hide troops and store grain."

"Mm. It seems you paid close attention in last year's training courses."

Nan Wang nodded with satisfaction: "According to the General Bureau's strategic forecast, the Central Plains, especially areas like Henan, will become a key battlefield where the Official Army and peasant armies seesaw back and forth for years to come. Almost all cities will be breached by peasant armies."

"When the peasant armies come, they kill the rich and rob them; when the Official Army comes, they extort military funds and behead people to claim merit. So, there's no need to pour more resources further north."

At this, Nan Wang first sighed, then pointed a finger at the floor beneath his feet: "Even the Wuhan Three Towns aren't entirely safe. You must note that from now on, our personnel and supplies must be prepared to evacuate at any moment, lest some Great King treat us like fat sheep."

"Understood." Zhou Yi nodded with a solemn expression.

"Therefore." Nan Wang's face turned serious as he spoke: "Xinyang, with its complex terrain, is our sole forward station in the direction of Henan for the next phase."

"Fang Yanxiao's post must not only maintain daily operational conditions and open commercial transport channels, but also expend effort to survey the surrounding areas. This includes scouting and establishing clear communication and dealings regarding material storage points in the mountains, retreat routes, and even the mountain folk and bandits, laying a solid foundation for our next steps."

These few sentences were already orders. Zhou Yi cupped his hands in acknowledgment: "Yes, I will dispatch someone to convey this clearly to Captain Fang."

Talking like this, Zhou Yi spent roughly one hour before he had reported all the detailed matters of this business trip to Xinyang.

And on Nan Wang's side, he then briefed Zhou Yi on the latest situation and handed him two pages of documents: during the days Zhou Yi was away on business, an escort agency named "Zhenyuan" had reached a strategic agreement with the Ke Bo Pavilion commercial firm to be responsible for escorting the firm's future northbound goods.

The Zhenyuan Escort Agency had a long history and was native to Hankou. Passed down through the generations, it was now at its fourth generation and was a standard family enterprise.

The ancestors of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency came from a Military Household and general's lineage. The current Chief Escort, Zuo Daguang, is an Outer Disciple of Shaolin (a formal Trainee). His Shaolin Six-Harmony Staff technique and family heirloom Qi Family Saber are wielded with supernatural skill. In his youth, he was a renowned master of the Edo across the three regions of E-Yu-Wan.

The Zhenyuan Escort Agency has a massive business scale, primarily handling the escort of general red and white goods, as well as official and merchant wealth and family members, across both land and water routes in E-Yu-Wan. With outstanding reputation, it is one of the top three large escort agencies locally.

After reading the background documents on the Zhenyuan Escort Agency in his hands, Zhou Yi couldn't help but furrow his brow.

Although hiring a local escort agency to provide logistics services was the established policy, Zhou Yi, accustomed to having everything controlled by his own people, ultimately felt somewhat uneasy: "Many of our future goods will be contraband. An escort agency is a critical link; it would be best to open our own."

"You're telling me."

Nan Wang sighed leisurely: "It's just that we've spread ourselves too thin."

At this, Nan Wang helplessly started counting on his fingers: "The headquarters commercial firm, the affiliated cart and horse company, the Xinyang cart and horse company—look, we've only been in Xiakou a few days and have already opened three operations. Where would we find the energy to open an escort agency too?"

"Besides." Nan Wang picked up his tea bowl and took a sip: "Armed escort work isn't so easy to walk. You have to pay respects at the docks of every mountain and peak, every ox-ghost and snake-spirit. We're newcomers; this line of work, which relies so heavily on familiar faces and local knowledge, can't be done right now."

Although Zhou Yi was unwilling in his heart, he also understood the reasoning Nan Wang laid out, so he could only relent helplessly: "Then shall I go contact the Zhenyuan Escort Agency tomorrow?"

Given Zhou Yi's current position within the team, which was akin to Deputy Station Chief, it was impossible for him to openly hold a position like Shopkeeper.

His role required him to participate in various affairs without drawing attention, so Zhou Yi's external identity was currently just the commercial firm's "Purchaser," similar to a procurement agent.

"No, I'll assign someone else to the escort agency matter. You have a more important task."

"What important matter is there nowadays... eh? Important?"

In that moment, Zhou Yi's instincts as an excellent intelligence agent kicked in, quickly judging the meaning contained in that word. He instantly became excited: "Station Chief, could it be that there's news on that matter?"

"Heh, you are clever." Nan Wang pointed a finger at him, then stood up and turned around: "Follow me."

Zhou Yi hurriedly followed Nan Wang into the east wing room.

As the current temporary headquarters of Wuhan Station, the several rooms in the inner courtyard where Nan Wang resided separately stored all the station's advanced equipment, weapons, and large sums of cash silver.

And the east wing room was Nan Wang's study and bedroom, also the room where the station's confidential files were kept.

When Zhou Yi lifted the bamboo curtain and entered the east wing room, the first thing he saw was a large black-lacquered desk almost entirely piled half a person high with bamboo paper.

Zhou Yi knew these were all di bao.

In ancient times, means of information transmission were scarce. If the common people wanted to understand official information, most of it came from di bao.

And this gave rise to the "Di Bao Transcription" business: whenever a new edition of the di bao arrived at the yamen, aside from being publicly posted outside the yamen, there would also be people specifically transcribing the di bao to supply it to the classes that had a demand for it.

Thus, di bao in fact served the function of a newspaper.

Since arriving in Wuhan, Master Nan had spent his leisure time at the residence reading and writing, but in truth, most of it was spent reading official gazettes — Nan Wang had ordered his men to collect every gazette, official dispatch, imperial decree, and memorial from the Wuhan Three Towns over the past three years.

To put down roots and build achievements in a place, one cannot do so without a solid, thorough understanding of the local reality — especially for the chief officer of an intelligence system.

Although the members of Wuhan Station had studied a large volume of background material on the Wuhan Three Towns before coming, it was all copied by the Transmigrators from Baidu and contained no real-world data.

Yet at this moment, as Zhou Yi took the gazette transcribed in tiny regular script, all the groundwork Nan Wang had laid previously paid back in full.

This was a gazette that seemed very ordinary at first glance, issued four months ago by the Wuchang Prefecture.

It contained over a dozen items, most of them routine administrative matters.

However, Zhou Yi, who had undergone systematic training in intelligence analysis, spotted the piece of information he wanted from the gazette at first glance.

The content of this item was very simple: four months ago, within Xiaogan territory, Wuchang Prefecture had captured three spies working for the rebel and Daring General Li Zicheng.

These three rebel spies were all surnamed Tian and were natives of Suide, Shaanxi. After standard procedures such as court interrogation were completed, the spies had been confirmed guilty by the authorities and thrown into death row, now merely awaiting execution after autumn.

That was all.

Zhou Yi first skimmed through this information at a glance, then read it carefully once more, then pinched his chin and savored a few key terms. Finally, he looked up and asked, somewhat uncertainly, "Station Chief, could it be that we're going to raid the execution grounds?"

Nan Wang heard this and laughed heartily. "Raid or not, you go scout it out first. I'll just wait for the plan to be submitted."

"But the way I see it," Nan Wang said with a beaming smile, "raiding the execution grounds is probably too late. You'd better just raid the prison instead."