Chapter 656: Rescuing the Rebel, Part 5

The greater Wuhan region is crisscrossed by rivers and dense waterways. Within Hanyang City alone, not counting the water systems skirting the city walls and the large and small lakes nearby, there were as many as five or six canals cutting right through the city.

"Yun Ke Lai" was a traditional high-end restaurant situated beside an inner canal, a landmark establishment of long standing in Hanyang City.

The restaurant was elegantly decorated in an antique style, with private booths and rooms on the second floor. After leaving the Prefectural Yamen prison, Xiao Guan headed straight for Yun Ke Lai at the first moment. Getting out of the carriage and entering the door, Xiao Guan went directly up to the second floor and pushed open the door to Jiazi No. 2 Private Room.

The two idlers who had tailed Xiao Guan the whole way there naturally could not afford the extravagance of booking a private room and ordering dishes. Seeing Xiao Guan enter the inner room, they had no choice but to grab an ordinary table in the outer section and, under the waiter's contemptuous gaze, order a pot of plain tea.

Once Xiao Guan went inside, fragmented snatches of conversation drifted out from the private room from time to time. Although the two idlers desperately wanted to press their ears to the door and eavesdrop, they were hindered by the other patrons upstairs and the waiter who had been watching the two paupers the entire time, so they had to give up resentfully.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of hot tea, Xiao Guan emerged from Jiazi Room Two, his face wreathed in smiles. At the doorway, with one foot still inside, he cupped his hands in a salute and said to those within, "Both of you, please rest assured. With me, Xiao Guan, handling things, everything will be properly arranged... Just wait for my message."

Having said that, Xiao Guan went downstairs and headed home.

Seeing Xiao Guan's movement, one of the two idlers also went downstairs and continued tailing Xiao Guan to confirm whether he went home. The other, named Hu Liuzhi, sat as steady as a rock, keeping a firm watch on Jiazi No. 2 Private Room.

After another half an incense stick's worth of time, the guests in the private room finally came out.

Their voices preceded them. A shout thick with a strong Ganshan accent rang across the second floor: "Waiter, bring me the bill!"

When Hu Liuzhi fixed his eyes on them, he saw that emerging from the private room were two burly men wearing short cotton robes, felt hats, and thousand-layer-soled cloth shoes.

The two big men were similar in appearance, as if cast from the same mold — both broad-waisted and round-bellied, with brutish faces, fierce eyes, and bulging waistlines. They looked exactly like the kind of Edo types ready to draw a blade at any moment.

Idlers like Hu Liuzhi habitually skulked around the marketplace, stealing chickens and swiping dogs, relying entirely on their own sharp eyes to scrape together a few silver coins. After confirming their look, Hu Liuzhi knew these two big men were the most unprovokable kind... either Edo bandits with blood on their hands, or horse traders and salt smugglers who roamed far and wide.

So, having memorized their features clearly, Hu Liuzhi immediately lowered his head and devoted himself to savoring the plain tea on the table.

Shortly after, the big men went downstairs, and Hu Liuzhi soon heard the waiter's drawn-out voice seeing the guests out. The next moment, he tossed a few copper coins onto the table and quickly got up.

Yet the outcome disappointed Hu Liuzhi. After exiting, the two big men hired a small boat right there at the river dock behind the restaurant and left along the city's inner canal.

At the open river dock, if Hu Liuzhi were to wave down a "cab" and give chase like in the police films of later generations, it would be far too obvious. Besides, as a mere idler, he didn't have the guts to test the other party's vigilance with his own life.

So Hu Liuzhi turned around and left.

Hurrying along without pause, Hu Liuzhi eventually returned to the Prefectural Governor's Yamen... to Yaxi Street beside it, and entered the prison through the familiar West Side Gate.

In an office room within the prison, Bao the Jailer, his apprentice Gu San, and another idler, Ma Diao'er, were already waiting for him.

After entering the room, Hu Liuzhi dared not conceal anything. Catching his breath, he spilled everything he had subsequently seen.

Bao Shinan stroked his beard and listened intently to what Hu Liuzhi said. After this, he clasped his hands behind his back, lowered his head, and paced several circles in the room, then began to interrogate the two idlers.

Turning the matter over and over for a full half hour, Bao Shinan meticulously questioned every detail until he was clear. Finally, he nodded with satisfaction. "Mm, exactly as I anticipated, without the slightest deviation."

At this, Bao the Jailer, notoriously stingy, was in excellent spirits and actually, uncharacteristically, pulled a few pieces of silver from his bosom. "You two can be considered old hands on the street. You handled this assignment well. This is reward silver; there will be more later."

"Thank you for your generosity, Master Bao!"

"Starting tomorrow, keep those men firmly under watch for me. Do the job meticulously; don't leave any loose ends."

"Orders received!"

Seeing the two idlers gleefully pocket the silver, Bao Shinan made another promise. "If you handle this assignment diligently, there won't just be reward silver... I'll also give you my personal guarantee here: once the matter is settled, I'll attach you two to the Sea Arrest Head's roster in the Criminal Division, so you can draw a stipend as auxiliary runners."

Upgrading from self-employed idlers to temporary administrative workers drawing auxiliary grain stipends was probably the ultimate goal in the idler world.

Wretches like Hu Liuzhi and Ma Diao'er, hearing Bao Shinan make such a weighty promise, hurriedly bent at the waist and performed deep salutes, shameless nonsense like "Grandpa Bao's great kindness and virtue" pouring from their mouths as if it cost nothing.

"Just one thing — this matter is of grave importance. Don't you dare leak a word of it to me!"

Having promised enough benefits, it was time to emphasize discipline. Bao Shinan's face immediately fell, and he swept a sinister glare over the three men in the room. "If any of you lets something slip to me after a few cups of yellow liquor, then I'll give another guarantee today: I will certainly have the Sea Arrest Head formally escort you here to this very Prefectural Prison to eat grain rations!"

"We understand the stakes. Please rest assured, Master Bao!"

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At the same time Bao Shinan was presiding over his meeting, at the head of Five Kui Bridge, in Zhou's Inn, Jiazi No. 3 Courtyard, the same scene was playing out in the rescue team's temporary command post.

Those present included not only the three chariots — Zhou Yi, Huang Zhong, and Mao Tai — but also Xiao Guan and the two team members who had impersonated the Shaanxi big men.

In addition, two team members with unfamiliar faces were reporting. "Target No. 1, after seeing with his own eyes that Xiao Guan entered his home, returned to the Prefectural Yamen and entered through the West Side Gate."

"Target No. 2 as well. After discovering the contacts had boarded a boat, he returned to the Prefectural Yamen."

"The matter is now clear." After listening to the reports from the two team members responsible for counter-surveillance, Action Team Captain Mao Tai was the first to speak. "This Bao Shinan wants to earn great merit by catching rebels... so he deployed men to tail Xiao Guan... heh heh... casting a long line... to catch big fish like us."

"Hmmmm......"

Zhou Yi, resting his chin on his hand in a contemplative pose, did not rush to express an opinion... even though, judging from the intelligence gathered while monitoring Bao Shinan over the past few days, everything fit the script of "Constable Bao Shinan catching rebels" perfectly.

What held Zhou Yi back from stating his view was a faint sense of "something off" that he had detected.

As a special agent with a mode of thinking from a later era, Zhou Yi, who specialized in intelligence analysis, keenly sensed at that moment what was wrong: Bao Shinan's behavior was peculiar.

In the late Ming, natural disasters and man-made calamities never ceased, and class contradictions were irreconcilable. The Shaanbei Peasant Uprising, which erupted in the seventh year of Tianqi (1627), had now been going on for eight years.

Over such a long period, large-scale peasant uprisings had flared up one after another. To be honest, various regions within the Great Ming had developed a degree of immunity to this kind of chaotic situation.

In other words, everyone had grown callous.

If, in earlier years, yamen runners could still obtain substantial rewards for capturing a few rebels... then nowadays, with roving bandits everywhere and rebels as common as dogs, what benefits could capturing a few rebels possibly bring?

What's more, this time Bao Shinan had actively mobilized his private subordinates and expended private resources to investigate this case.

Even setting aside whether he could ultimately catch rebels as he wished... even if he did, would the gain truly exceed the cost?

In short, in Zhou Yi's view, either Bao Shinan had water on the brain, or there was some other currently unknown reason driving him to such courting-death behavior.

However, on the whole, Zhou Yi could still accept the current situation.

The one variable the rescue team feared most was Bao Shinan, heedless of all consequences, openly reporting to the Prefectural Yamen that he had discovered rebel accomplices... at that point, the rescue team would have to withdraw immediately, and the rescue operation would effectively be declared a failure.

In the present circumstances, no matter what private schemes or grand strategies Bao Shinan was playing out, as long as he hadn't blown the matter wide open, Zhou Yi was confident he could complete the mission.

"Here's what we'll do. Old Huang, go investigate urgently — in the previous Tian Da Rebellion Case, what kind of reward did the Xiaogan Patrol Inspector who captured the rebels receive afterward?"

Zhou Yi, who everyone had expected to state an opinion, had unexpectedly issued such an order out of the blue. Huang Zhong was slightly taken aback upon hearing it.

The next moment, realizing this was a formal order from the equivalent of the Deputy Station Chief and team leader, Huang Zhong quickly nodded in acknowledgment. "Alright, I'll go investigate personally right away."

"We have too little information right now; I can't make a final judgment." Zhou Yi turned to Mao Tai and said, "Captain Mao, on your end, continue close surveillance of Bao Shinan's movements and gather intelligence. All manpower is at your disposal."

"Understood."

After arranging these tasks, Zhou Yi gently reached out and patted Xiao Guan on the shoulder. "Xiao Guan, although you haven't trained at headquarters, you're naturally excellent material for intelligence work."

"Come with me. Let's practice the wound-cleaning and bandaging techniques again; we'll need them very soon."

...... At noon the next day, Xiao Guan, dressed in a plain, simple robe, appeared once more in the alley beside the Prefectural Yamen.

Not long after, Xiao Guan saw Tian Da again inside Death Row.

This Time, the Jailer-in-Chief Bao Shinan did not show his face... nor could he Be Unlikely To accompany Xiao Guan every time. Standing behind him in Bao Shinan's place as Monitor was his disciple, Gu San.

Xiao Guan had brought wine and food again this time.

After Xiao Guan left yesterday, the jailers had not only given Tian Da a fresh straw mat, but also provided clean, coarse prison uniforms and meals of normal standard.

In addition, the jailers had brought two buckets of water so Tian Da and the other man could wash themselves.

So today, when Xiao Guan saw Tian Da, he found his spirits and appearance much improved.

Only, even after receiving such care, Tian San's high fever still had not broken. Aside from being able to drink a few sips of water, he remained dazed and groggy the rest of the time.

Fortunately, this time Xiao Guan had brought what Tian San needed most.

Through the bars, Xiao Guan put his newly learned skill to immediate use, first taking out a Knife and alcohol to treat the wound on Tian San's shoulder.

Next, Xiao Guan dissolved the fever-reducing miracle medicine "Huang'an Powder," obtained from the "old physician at the Horse and Mule Market," into water and had Tian Da feed it into Tian San's mouth.

Finally, Xiao Guan left behind a small packet of the medicinal powder, instructing Tian Da to administer the medicine and change the dressing on time... this same powder was for both internal and external application.

After doing all this, Xiao Guan smiled as he tipped the jailers with silver, and then, amid their respectful send-offs, smiled as he walked out of the great prison.