Chapter 441: Marriage is all a matter of fate

The fifth day of the ninth lunar month, Huizhou, the eight-hundred-li Taihu Lake; the smoke and waves are vast and boundless, the lake surface glitters like gold. In the distance, the shadows of lone sails; nearby, the evening songs of fishermen.

On the official road along the lake, a troop with strict military bearing is marching toward the direction of Gusu.

At the head of the troop, five mule carts pull heavy items, covered with waterproof tarpaulins.

Following at the end of the troop is a spacious carriage, guarded by more than ten musketeers on the sides.

The woman inside the carriage has a beautiful, jade-like face, dressed in men's clothing.

She wears a moon-white soft robe with silver bamboo patterns, a black rhinoceros leather belt at her waist, and a green jade hairpin in her hair; her bearing is elegant and free.

Ever since Jia Cong left that day, he had reminded Qu Hongxiu that his taking three hundred musketeers out of Jin Ling this time was precisely to attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.

Along this journey down to Gusu and Songjiang, there must be people behind the scenes sending men to secretly tail and investigate, to ensure that the formidable three hundred musketeers would not make any unusual moves along the way.

Following Jia Cong's instructions, Qu Hongxiu stayed in the carriage during the day and never showed her face, as a precaution.

Only when the troop camped every night would she step out of the carriage and, under the guard of more than ten musketeer personal guards, patrol the surroundings of the camp briefly.

At night, the light was dim; those soldiers and laborers escorting the cannons only saw this "Master Jia" in white, with a handsome appearance, no different from the rumors in the streets.

As for the details of the appearance and demeanor, in the pitch black, who could see clearly?

And there were those ten fierce-looking musketeers serving as guards; when they first left Jin Ling, everyone recognized them as Master Jia's personal guards.

Therefore, among the musketeers and laborers in the troop, no one would think that this "Master Jia" with such extraordinary bearing was a lifelike fake.

Zhou Yong, the battalion commander of the Five Armies Firearms Battalion leading the three hundred musketeers, was a comrade-in-arms from the same battalion as Jia Cong's personal guards, and they communicated frequently along the way.

Whether he knew Qu Hongxiu's true identity or not, no one knew.

On this journey, Qu Hongxiu, following Jia Cong's instructions, firmly controlled the speed of the march.

Four days had passed since the troop set out from Jin Ling; yesterday they had just left Changzhou and entered the territory of Huizhou.

Now they were only fifty-some li away from Gusu; at the troop's slightly sluggish pace, they should enter Gusu territory tomorrow.

Calculated by time, the journey from Jin Ling to Gusu took exactly five days, which was completely consistent with Jia Cong's original calculations and expectations.

……

Qu Hongxiu carefully examined the map of the route on the small desk in the carriage.

In her heart, she was thinking that according to Jia Cong's prior planning, he should have succeeded in Gusu by this time.

Although Qu Hongxiu could not verify it at the moment, ever since she had known Jia Cong, it seemed he had never failed in anything he did.

He used a troop of three hundred musketeers with live ammunition, carrying five powerful cannons, to attract all the attention.

He himself secretly crossed the river, sneaking into Gusu in advance to carry out a surprise move.

As long as Zhou Zhengyang was caught, Luo Xiong of the Su Zhou Guard would become a dead piece exposed to the light; following the vine to find the melon, the number of people implicated would likely be even greater.

When Jia Cong escorted Zhou Zhengyang back to Jin Ling, that would be a bloody counter-attack.

And by that time, the Emperor's imperial decree from the Love Shenjing would surely have reached Jin Ling; Jia Cong had mentioned the content of the decree to Qu Hongxiu, and the turmoil in the Jin Ling officialdom of two years ago would surely be staged again.

……

And by that time, her Cong brother's errand in Jin Ling would be successfully completed, and the day to return to the Love Shenjing would arrive; they would have a long time to be separated from each other again.

Thinking of this, Qu Hongxiu could not help but feel sad.

Remembering that night of intimacy with Jia Cong in the carriage made her face flush and her heart race.

But she also understood that the situation between her and Jia Cong, like that with Qin Keqing, was ultimately a difficult game to play.

Jia Cong was a descendant of the Rongguo Jia family, a noble enfeoffed by the state.

Because Qin Keqing was a divorced woman from the Ningguo branch of the Jia family, it would be very difficult for her to be with Cong brother in the open for her whole life.

And she herself came from a humble and obscure background, her parents were both dead, and her family history was strange.

Although she had the status of an imperial merchant, once she entered into marriage with Jia Cong, it would be difficult to withstand the scrutiny of the Imperial Clan Court.

Many things were covered up very well, and no one would notice, but if one reached the bottom line of taboos, it would attract extra attention and investigation, and things would likely get out of control.

Qu Hongxiu's background and experience made her very clear about such truths.

She understood very well that her fate was the same as Qin Keqing's….

Just as he was feeling a hundred knots of sorrow in his heart, he suddenly heard the sound of rapid hoofbeats from afar.

A personal guard came over to report that a man named Wang Dequan was requesting an audience with the lord.

Qu Hongxiu hurriedly ordered for the man to be called into the carriage.

Wang Dequan entered the carriage and said in a low voice, "Sister Xiu, the matter regarding the Third Master in Gusu City has been handled; he asked me to deliver a letter."

Qu Hongxiu's expression brightened; she had not guessed wrong—nothing could stump Brother Cong. He had indeed succeeded in Gusu. She tore open the letter and scanned it carefully....

Not long after, the personal guard called over Zhou Yong, the platoon leader of the musket squad.

The unit quickly passed down military orders, and the mule carts dragging the cannons slowly left the main road, heading toward the southeast.

Inside Gusu City, at the second quarter of the Mao hour.

The sky was already bright, and as the streets grew increasingly noisy and bustling, the clerk from the rice cake shop, drenched in sweat, was heading toward Daoqian Street.

Someone had given him five taels of silver to deliver a note to the Su Zhou Guard yamen on Daoqian Street; as long as he delivered it into the hands of the Commander, there would be another five taels of silver as a reward.

He was illiterate and couldn't understand what the note said, but that didn't matter at all. Delivering a note and making a round trip for ten taels of silver—even a fool would do it.

A full ten taels of silver was his entire year's wages at the shop, so he was very enthusiastic about this task, hurrying along the whole way, just wanting to get the remaining five taels of reward sooner.

Perhaps he was walking too hurriedly and not paying attention to his surroundings, for he collided head-on with someone. That person stood firm as a mountain, while he, on the contrary, stumbled and fell to the ground.

The man who knocked him over was a lean, wiry fellow, full of vigor, with a pair of eyes that shone brightly.

The clerk, feeling the sharp pain from the collision, was just about to open his mouth to curse.

The lean man, however, hoisted him up by the collar and cursed, "You blind, ball-less thing, walking without eyes! You actually bumped into your Grandpa Jiang—I think your skin is itching for a beating!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he punched the clerk in the face. It was as if a dye shop had opened on the man's face; his eye socket turned black, and his nose bled profusely.

The lean man, feeling that wasn't enough, grabbed the clerk, dragged him into a nearby alley, and gave him a sound thrashing on the ground.

Passersby who saw this scene all hid far away, and some even watched the spectacle from a distance.

Such local ruffians bullying the good was a common occurrence in the Gusu marketplace; everyone was used to it.

Moreover, these ruffians were the most troublesome and dangerous; no ordinary citizen would be stupid enough to intervene.

The lean man was extremely lazy and vicious; in no time, he had beaten the clerk until his face was bruised and swollen, and he was wailing incessantly.

Just then, a man with a refined appearance walked past the mouth of the alley, and the lean man stopped only after seeing him.

The clerk, beaten into a wretched state, seized the opportunity and ran for his life.

Jiang Xiao Liu did not pursue him but instead asked the young man standing at the alley entrance, "Xiuzhu, how are things over at Daoqian Street?"

Yu Xiuzhu said, "The Count chose a good day. Every month on the fifth, Luo Xiong inspects the various camps of the Su Zhou Guard. This is what Brother Zhang Wu found out; he told me personally when he left last night.

A quarter of an hour ago, I saw Luo Xiong leave the Commander's yamen with my own eyes.

Even if this kid from the rice cake shop goes to Daoqian Street now, he won't run into Luo Xiong within two hours. That is enough time for the Count to walk several dozen miles."

Huayan Street, at the second quarter of the Mao hour.

The old night watchman brought the county yamen's chief constable and runners to...

The constable glanced at the Geng residence and sneered, "Old Chen, you short-lived old ghost, isn't the Geng residence perfectly fine? If you're trying to waste my time, I'll reward you with a beating."

He pointed to a runner beside him and said, "You go and knock open the main gate of the Geng residence. Just say the government received a report that bandits are lurking there, and we need to go inside to investigate."

The constable knew that Geng Physician was a famous wealthy man in Gusu City; he was just using the night watchman Old Chen's report as an excuse to enter the Geng residence and search it.

Although he wouldn't offend Geng Physician—after all, the other party was a person of status in Gusu City—

officials showing up at the door was not a respectable matter. Geng Physician would likely stuff some silver into his hands and ask him to get lost early; this was the conventional way for the wealthy in the city to avoid trouble. He hadn't expected that this dead-beat night watchman's report would unexpectedly allow him to make a small fortune. The constable was not only smug but had long forgotten the displeasure of having to work early in the morning.

However, the runner knocked on the door knocker for a long time, but the main gate of the Geng residence did not open, which made the constable feel increasingly strange.

At this moment, he sniffed slightly and looked back across the street. He saw that although the courtyard gate of the household opposite the Geng residence was tightly closed, a faint, pungent odor was emanating from within.

This Wuxian constable, Zhang Kui, although he had many faults and flaws in his character, had been a constable for over a dozen years and had seen many major cases; he had some experience and methods.

Perhaps it was a strange smell that others wouldn't notice, but he recognized it as the stench of human blood.

He walked quickly to the front of the house across the street. He just pushed the courtyard gate lightly and found it wasn't locked at all. With a creak, it opened, and the stench of blood became even more intense.

Zhang Kui's heart suddenly tightened. He hurriedly drew his saber and called over two runners; the three of them entered the courtyard together.

When they walked into the main hall, they found five corpses scattered haphazardly on the ground, all killed by blades. The blood on the floor had long since congealed into a dark black; they had been dead for at least several hours.

Zhang Kui had been a constable for over a dozen years and had seen many scenes, but having five people killed at once, and all finished off with a single blade, was definitely not the work of ordinary thieves.

He squatted down to examine the corpses and discovered a Su Zhou Guard waist token on one of them. Soon, he found identical tokens on the others.

Zhang Kui's face turned deathly pale. The dead were actually soldiers of the Su Zhou Guard! How many years had it been since such a thing happened in Gusu City? This was a case that had poked a hole in the sky! "Immediately go back and report to the County Magistrate: a major case has occurred on Huayan Street, five Su Zhou Guard men are dead. Tell the county to send people over immediately, and we must also notify the Su Zhou Guard yamen...."

Zhang Kui looked at the night watchman still standing at the gate of the Geng residence and suddenly realized that what the dead-beat Old Chen reported was likely true—something major must have happened on Huayan Street last night! He looked at the dark main gate of the Geng residence; the runner had been calling for the gate for a long time, but no one inside had answered.

Could it be that something had happened to the Geng residence as well? Thinking of the five people killed, a chill rose in Zhang Kui's heart.

Realizing this, he shouted to his subordinates, "Hurry and call open the Geng residence gate! If that doesn't work, climb over the wall!"

Outside the Xichang city gate of Gusu, more than ten miles away, four carriages of different styles were speeding along the road heading west.

Perhaps because the carriages were moving too fast, Chen Kuishan felt as if he were about to be shaken to pieces.

And these few carriages were like dazzling lamps attracting moths.

From all around, groups of three or five people, either riding horses or sitting in carriages, were constantly converging toward these carriages.

Eventually, they aggregated into a team of surprising scale.

Chen Kuishan, inside the carriage, looked through the window at everything happening around him, his mind in a state of constant shock.

The crowd that raided the Geng residence last night was not only astonishing in number but also had excellent organization and coordination behind it.

After these people left the Geng residence last night, another group had already prepared the escape route, allowing everyone to leave Gusu with extremely high efficiency through various identities and means.

Then they continued to aggregate along the way outside the city, able to disperse into parts or unite into a whole.

Only extremely brilliant prior planning and seasoned military discipline could achieve this level.

Could this all be the masterpiece of the young man on the carriage shaft? But Chen Kuishan had fled Jin Ling with Zhou Zhengyang two months ago, hiding cautiously everywhere, and had become somewhat disconnected from outside events.

So he didn't know about the recent movements in Jin Ling, let alone that a Director of the Firearms Division had come to the Ministry of Works in the auxiliary capital.

The constantly aggregating team traveled at the fastest speed, and two hours after leaving the city, they had reached a point more than forty miles west of Gusu City.

The team entered a gourd-shaped mountain pass, surrounded by dense small woods, and the team suddenly stopped....

Gusu, Daoqian Street, Su Zhou Guard Commander's yamen.

The bruised and swollen rice cake shop clerk was like an ant on a hot pan, waiting anxiously at the yamen entrance.

When he arrived at the Guard Commander's yamen and explained that he wanted to deliver a note to Commander Luo, the guards at the gate scoffed.

A shop errand boy actually had the audacity to want to see Commander Luo and deliver some note.

It wasn't until the clerk actually took out a note that the gate guards became half-skeptical.

However, the rank-and-file soldiers in the garrison were basically illiterate; who would become a soldier if they were literate? So he didn't recognize what was written on the note either.

It was just that early this morning, Commander Luo and the two Vice Commanders had gone out to inspect the camps according to their monthly custom.

So the gate guards couldn't pass the message and just let the clerk wait at the yamen entrance. This wait lasted for an hour.

The clerk thought about how he had slipped out of the shop halfway to earn this extra money; he had thought he could make a quick round trip, but he hadn't expected it to drag on for so long. He would definitely be reprimanded by the shopkeeper when he returned.

He had also been beaten up for no reason halfway through; these ten taels of silver were truly not easy to earn.

At this moment, the Wuxian County Assistant Magistrate visited the Commander's yamen and submitted an official document from the county yamen, looking quite anxious.

A County Assistant Magistrate, the deputy to the County Magistrate, was a proper Grade 8 official of the imperial court. The gate guards dared to dismiss a shop clerk casually, but they didn't dare to fool around with an official.

They hurriedly entered the yamen to report. The duty officer of the Commander's yamen received the county document and couldn't help but change color.

Thus, the entire Su Zhou Guard Commander's yamen began to boil over....

Su Zhou Guard riverside camp.

Every month on the fifth, Luo Xiong would take the two Vice Commanders, the Assistant Regional Commander, and other main subordinate officials to inspect the various garrison camps of the Su Zhou Guard.

If it weren't for this custom, they wouldn't have been exploited by Jiang Xiao Liu and the others, who provoked the note-delivering clerk halfway, causing him to arrive at the Commander's yamen a quarter of an hour late.

However, many things are a matter of a hair's breadth, leading to a thousand-mile error.

When Luo Xiong, who was inspecting the camps, received the urgent report from the yamen and learned that the secret posts arranged near the Geng residence had all been killed last night, he couldn't help but be shocked.

Delivered simultaneously was the note from that shop clerk.

It was a piece of coarse paper used to wrap rice cakes, written with charcoal. The handwriting was hurried and sloppy, showing that the writer was in a state of temporary urgency.

"Change at the Geng residence, Zhengyang captured, exiting Xichang Gate, respond with all speed."

Although it was only a few words, coupled with the fact that all the secret posts near the Geng residence had been killed, it was enough for Luo Xiong to outline the whole story.

The accompanying Assistant Regional Commander He Tong read the county document, which contained the night watchman's testimony: a large group of unidentified people had appeared on Huayan Street last night, and many of them were carrying weapons suspected to be muskets.

This morning, Wuxian constable Zhang Kui investigated the Geng residence and found that all the servants in the residence had been bound and gagged.

It is said that according to the servants of the Geng residence, a large group of thieves sneaked into the residence last night; their numbers were so large they couldn't be counted. They kidnapped the guests in the inner courtyard, and dozens of them were carrying muskets....

He said in shock, "My Lord, ever since the imperial court established the Five Armies Firearms Battalion, it has long issued a ban strictly prohibiting private possession of firearms.

A large group of people carrying muskets appeared on Huayan Street; could it be that Jia Cong sneaked into Gusu in advance? Now, besides the three hundred musketeers around him, who else has this kind of formation?"

Luo Xiong's face changed drastically, but he soon said in a firm tone, "It absolutely cannot be Jia Cong. There were scouts reporting back yesterday afternoon.

Jia Cong and the three hundred musketeers had just entered the Huizhou border, still more than seventy miles away from Gusu. How could they appear in the city overnight?

Moreover, with so many people entering the city, they would have long since alerted the four gates of Gusu and the garrison soldiers. How could you and I not know?

We and the several groups of people in Jin Ling have been monitoring the route strictly and have been watching Jia Cong closely. He has hundreds of people accompanying him; any movement would be impossible to hide from people.

He is not a god and has no ability to clone himself; it absolutely cannot be him!"

Assistant Regional Commander He Tong looked panicked. He and Luo Xiong were deeply entangled and knew the whole story. If Zhou Zhengyang were captured and spilled the beans, he would absolutely not be spared.

He said, "My Lord, those people entered the city overnight, cleared our secret posts, kidnapped Zhou Zhengyang, and were able to leave the city quickly; they are absolutely not ordinary people.

Could it be that the imperial court has already learned the whole story and secretly deployed people to make arrests? And they are taking the Xichang Gate, which is the direction to Jin Ling—then we are..."

Luo Xiong's face was gloomy as he said, "Now, guessing who did it is meaningless. The most important thing is to recapture Zhou Zhengyang as quickly as possible, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable.

He Tong, you stay in the city to hold the fort. In the name of capturing Japanese pirates and bandits, close the four gates of Gusu; no one in the city is allowed to enter or leave.

Also, mobilize five companies of men to follow me out of the city to pursue them!"

In fact, under normal circumstances, there would be no need for a dignified Guard Commander to take action personally.

But Zhou Zhengyang was suddenly kidnapped, and the people who did it had impressive methods, which had already made Luo Xiong like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow.

At this critical juncture, he no longer trusted anyone else. Only by recapturing Zhou Zhengyang personally would he feel at ease.

He Tong's face changed as he said, "My Lord, without an order from the Jin Ling Regional Military Commissioner, mobilizing a large number of troops to leave the garrison area is a grave crime that violates a major taboo!"

Luo Xiong smiled bitterly and said, "At this critical juncture, where can we still care about these things? If we don't recapture Zhou Zhengyang, we will all die without a burial place!"

"Also, you arrange for fast horses to send the news to Jin Ling with all speed. In case I cannot succeed, let the people in Jin Ling be able to plan and respond in time...!" (End of chapter)