Chapter 454: The Final Confiscation Becomes a Disaster

Jin Ling, Yinghua Gate.

A carriage moved slowly into the city, driven by a young man clad in coarse hemp clothing.

The carriage curtain was lifted, revealing a woman's clear, clean face, and faintly suggesting her tall, graceful figure.

Behind the carriage were tied two old wooden chests, their lacquer chipped and worn—common household items from an ordinary family.

Since the three-day citywide manhunt ended, the thirteen gates of Jin Ling had been lifted from lockdown, and common folk resumed their daily comings and goings.

Though city guards still inspected suspicious individuals, they let most ordinary citizens pass without hindrance.

The man and woman driving the carriage were indistinguishable from ordinary village couples, blending seamlessly into the crowd, drawing no attention.

Naturally, no city guard bothered to search the carriage.

The carriage passed smoothly through the gate and rolled along Jin Ling's broad streets.

The woman inside half-lifted the curtain as the man on the driver's seat said, "Those people from the workshop are surely searching for us outside the city."

"By entering the city and passing straight through, we'll easily evade them—they dare not enter openly, bound by their own restrictions."

"The shopkeeper arranged for us at Taiping Gate; we'll head there now, and someone will meet us."

The woman glanced at the stacked wooden chests behind and asked, "Where did the shopkeeper tell us to take the Englishman?"

The young man cracked his whip, expertly snapping a loud, crisp lash—just like a seasoned coachman.

Yet under the bright sunlight, the missing tip of his right little finger was plainly visible.

He replied, "The shopkeeper ordered us to sail out first, lie low, and when the time is right, head north to the Love Shenjing!"

…

Outside Jin Ling's western suburbs, seven or eight swift horses emerged from the slopes of Zhong Shan, galloping along the suburban road in search.

The newly issued Rumy guns they had carried on their backs were now stowed in specially made cloth sacks, tied to their saddles for concealment.

Since discovering that the English gunsmith Henry had been seized amid the chaos, they had pursued for an hour.

They had initially tracked the cart ruts and hoofprints from Jiashan's crossroads, but near the mountain's edge, all trace vanished.

It seemed their pursuers had a master of stealth who deliberately disrupted their pursuit path.

The group halted at a fork in the road, at a loss.

One rider said to the young leader, "Chief Sun, judging by the situation, the target has surely vanished—we can't catch them anymore."

The young leader, in his twenties, tall and broad-shouldered, with a straight nose, wide mouth, and slightly protruding cheekbones, had always been sharp—but now he was bewildered.

He thought of the terrifying consequences if Henry had been taken, and a chill ran through him.

Yet under the circumstances, recovering the man was hopeless; continuing aimless searching would only waste time—unwise.

He gritted his teeth and told his riders, "Since Henry was seized, to prevent any risk, we must move the workshop out of the valley as soon as possible."

"Go into the city and find a temporary location, and hire more carts and horses for transport."

The man turned his horse's head and galloped toward Yinghua Gate in western Jin Ling.

The young leader said to the others, "We return to the workshop immediately and organize the relocation."

…

Jin Ling, Yinghua Gate.

A large force of Embroidered Uniform Guard soldiers, alongside a hundred musketeers, rode out of the city toward Zhong Shan's western slopes.

To act swiftly, upon receiving Liu Hai's report, Jia Cong and his men did not wait until the next day—even though the sun had passed its zenith, they immediately assembled their troops for the raid.

Immediately after they departed, the Five City Military Command moved urgently to impose lockdown on three western gates of Jin Ling.

Within one hour, all three western gates were sealed, restricting all civilian entry or exit.

One hour was enough for Jia Cong and Ge Zhaicheng to bring the Embroidered Uniform Guard and musketeers to the secret arms workshop Liu Hai had discovered.

Within that hour, the three western gates were closed, cutting off any possible information flow between inside and outside the city.

Though Jia Cong suspected Ge Zhaicheng's motives in this matter, his intent to implicate the Zhen family was glaringly obvious.

Coupled with the Embroidered Uniform Guard's recent setback—the assassination of Du Du Hengxin—this fearful, anxious head of Jin Ling's Embroidered Uniform Guard acting this way, Jia Cong could guess at least part of the reason.

He informed Guo Lin and himself: as Director of the Firearm Bureau, commanding eight hundred musketeers, he could not remain passive.

If he refused to assist in the raid, he risked being accused of ties to the secret arms workshop—no one could rule it out.

He quickly realized Ge Zhaicheng intended to make him and Guo Lin share the blame, filling him with resentment and deepening his dislike for the Embroidered Uniform Guard captain.

Yet the Embroidered Uniform Guard's discovery of this secret arms workshop was undoubtedly genuine; Jia Cong distrusted Ge Zhaicheng, but trusted Liu Hai.

As the first advocate of firearms in Great Zhou, he had strongly urged Emperor Zhao to adopt firearms for military strength and national defense.

He understood better than others how catastrophic it would be if firearms spread among the populace.

Thus, destroying such a secret arms workshop, rooting out the source, and intimidating the wicked was imperative.

According to Liu Hai's report, the number of personnel and guards at the valley workshop meant Jia Cong's hundred musketeers, plus two companies of Embroidered Uniform Guard, were more than sufficient to crush it.

…

The several-hundred-strong force reached the valley Liu Hai had discovered in under an hour, halting five hundred paces from Jiashan's crossroads.

Jia Cong, familiar with the terrain, assigned troops: twenty musketeers remained at Jiashan's crossroads for guard duty; the rest entered the valley in batches from multiple directions.

With preparation against surprise, and overwhelming numbers and firepower, the raid held no uncertainty.

The dozen or so gunners guarding the workshop realized the encircling troops too late—they lost their chance to flee.

Yet these gunners still launched a sudden, fierce volley—ruthless and brutal, far from ordinary—no one knew where the workshop's owner had recruited such desperate men.

But against such lopsided odds, even the most determined bravery was useless, especially when facing the well-trained musketeers of the Five Armies.

Jia Cong ordered a single volley; over half the workshop guards were killed outright, leaving only a few wounded survivors.

Besides the resisting gunners, the entire workshop—twenty-nine craftsmen of various trades and four laborers—were captured, none escaped.

…

The Embroidered Uniform Guard also found thirty fully assembled new Rumy guns; after Jia Cong's testing, their quality matched the standards of the Love Shenjing's firearm workshop.

These were thirty new Rumy guns with reliable killing power.

In the warehouse, they found two long wooden chests filled with premium northern furs, marked with the words "Deng Hongchun Fur Shop"—likely the name of a furrier.

Jia Cong found this odd: Jin Ling's winters were not as bitterly cold as the Love Shenjing's; ordinary people rarely could afford premium furs, let alone store them in a gun workshop.

The presence of these furs in the arms workshop seemed suspicious, so he ordered the musketeers to inspect the chests closely.

As the furs were removed, seven new Rumy guns were found beneath the chest bottoms—each with obvious wear, indicating long-term use.

Jia Cong found serial numbers on these half-worn Rumy guns and was greatly startled.

He had once commanded the firearms unit in Liaodong and knew their gun serials intimately; from these numbers, he confirmed these seven guns originated from Liaodong's firearms unit.

Jia Cong immediately deduced their origin and ordered a full search of the warehouse—soon, two completely disassembled guns were found.

Their serial numbers confirmed they, too, came from Liaodong's firearms unit.

Together, exactly nine guns—Jia Cong had never imagined the nine stolen new Rumy guns from Liaodong's unit would appear here.

Seeing the two disassembled Rumy guns, Jia Cong swiftly deduced the full story.

Someone had stolen nine new Rumy guns from Liaodong's unit, smuggled them to Jin Ling, had them disassembled, and begun copying them.

Though the new Rumy gun was the most advanced firearm in Great Zhou, its technology was not insurmountable.

As long as one understood its structure and details, and possessed sufficient funds, one-to-one replication was not difficult.

…

The workshop also contained complete smelting and forging equipment, unused Ottoman fine iron, large quantities of gunpowder ingredients, nine chests of fully prepared gun cartridges, and various molds for firearm components.

To outsiders like Ge Zhaicheng and Liu Hai, these might seem insignificant.

But Jia Cong, seeing them, felt a chill crawl up his spine.

Though this workshop's scale was far smaller than the Firearm Bureau's Love Shenjing facility,

it already possessed a complete production line for new Rumy guns; if allowed to continue, it could produce countless such weapons—soon, chaos would engulf the realm.

A heavy sense of crisis pressed on Jia Cong—he could not wait to bring the captured craftsmen back to the city; he began immediate interrogation.

Through interrogation, the craftsmen included blacksmiths, pyrotechnicians, carpenters—all lured to Jin Ling with large sums of money.

Since entering the workshop three months ago, they had been confined, forbidden to leave, guarded day and night by over a dozen men.

Two craftsmen attempted escape; the guards killed them without mercy—after that, no one dared flee.

About two months ago, a blond, blue-eyed foreigner named Henry arrived, teaching them each step of gunmaking; the shopkeeper, surnamed Zhao, frequently visited to inspect progress and ordered them to work day and night on the guns…

According to several craftsmen, thirty fully assembled guns had been shipped out of the valley days ago; where to, they did not know.

Ge Zhaicheng interrogated the surviving gun guards and learned they were all criminals and ruffians recruited with large bribes, with simple backgrounds.

They identified their guard leader as Sun Dacheng, whose accent suggested he was from Datong in the northwest.

…

As Jia Cong and Ge Zhaicheng prepared to escort the prisoners back to Jin Ling, a burst of gunfire erupted at the valley entrance—only a few volleys, then silence.

Both Jia Cong and Ge Zhaicheng looked startled—were there others hiding nearby besides the guards inside?

At that moment, the musket squad leader stationed at the valley entrance ran in to report.

Just now, eight swift horses tried to charge into the valley; they were blocked by the ambush guards at the crossroads—all eight carried new Rumy guns, and a firefight erupted instantly.

Six riders were killed, wounded, or captured; only one escaped on horseback.

The squad leader brought two captured Rumy guns; Jia Cong compared them carefully and confirmed they matched the thirty found in the workshop.

He told Ge Zhaicheng, "These seven men must be the gun guards who left the workshop and returned, encountering our troops."

"The three western gates of Jin Ling have been lifted from lockdown—will this man circle the city or slip inside to hide?"

…

Jin Ling, Xicheng, Xiuchun Street.

Night had fallen; Xiuchun Street was nearly empty, silent, all shops shuttered and boarded up.

A young man wandered slowly down the street, his dark, twisted shadow stretching across the cobblestones.

He walked all the way to a Huichun Pharmacy and gently knocked on the closed door.

After a long while, someone removed a section of the door, revealing a flickering candlelight within—dim and eerie, like a will-o'-the-wisp.

The man who opened the door was a middle-aged man of average height, back straight, eyes sharp; seeing the visitor, he was startled: "How is it you? Why are you here so late?"

The visitor's voice trembled with panic: "Master Zhao, something major has happened outside the city—I came here overnight to see you."

Inside the shop, the two sat facing each other; the visitor recounted the events, and the Huichun Pharmacy's manager's face darkened: "So Henry was abducted, and that same day the Embroidered Uniform Guard raided the workshop outside the city?"

The visitor said: "I can't make sense of this—Du Heng's men just abducted Henry, so how did the Embroidered Uniform Guard know the workshop's location so quickly?"

Master Zhao said: "Now is not the time to dwell on this. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's raid will uncover many things."

Those nine firearms from Liaodong, and the remaining refined iron—they're enough for the Guard to trace a great deal. Right now, the most urgent thing is to ensure this affair doesn't reach Shenyang!"

Fortunately, the craftsmen we hired aren't from Jin Ling; though they've seen me, they don't know my true identity here—I still have time to arrange things."

"Stay hidden in the shop for two days. I'll handle everything. Then you'll return to Datong for now."

Master Zhao glanced around the shop, his eyes holding a trace of longing, then hardened: "This situation is as precarious as a pile of eggs. If the Embroidered Uniform Guard strikes first, it'll be beyond repair."

"Lately, someone from Shenyang has arrived. Once I've tidied up the loose ends, I'll also need to travel far to procure medicinal herbs…"

…

Jin Ling, Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Command, Prison Interrogation Chamber.

Since last night, when the Embroidered Uniform Guard brought in over thirty prisoners from the western suburbs, the entire battalion command had been in an unusual state of agitation.

Inside the grim, dim prison chamber, the air reeked of heavy blood.

Since last night, the lights in the interrogation chamber had never been extinguished; the prisoners' screams of torture had echoed continuously throughout the day without pause.

The entire chamber felt like a hellish realm of the dead, sending chills down the spine.

Such a scene was not surprising—the battalion commander had issued strict orders to extract confessions by torture from last night's captives, and must obtain results.

After torturing over thirty men, the five or six Embroidered Uniform Guard captains responsible had nearly collapsed from exhaustion, yet still barely held on.

Because their superior, Battalion Commander Ge Zhi Cheng, had not left the chamber since last night.

All interrogations of the prisoners were personally overseen by this commander.

The main questions included: the name and identity of the workshop's owner, the origin of the nine old firearms, and whether the Ottoman refined iron seized at the workshop was connected to the Zhen family.

The first two questions were normal, but the third carried clear intent and direction.

Even the rough, uneducated captains carrying out the torture could sense the commander's aim: to implicate the Zhen family of Jin Ling.

Yet these prisoners were either impoverished migrant craftsmen or guards wounded by gunfire—they had never even heard of the Zhen family of Jin Ling.

Even when coerced into false confessions and namelessly accusing others, their statements were incoherent and disjointed; such testimony could easily frame an ordinary person.

But to use it against a powerful, deeply rooted noble family in Jin Ling? It was far too childish.

By the time the evening sky blazed with sunset, four of the thirty-odd prisoners had died from torture, yet Ge Zhi Cheng had obtained no answer satisfactory to him.

Only from a few guards who carried firearms did he glean any useful information.

They claimed the refined iron at the workshop had been delivered by the guard captain, Sun Dacheng, from outside the city.

However, some guards had returned to the workshop midway and encountered the ambush of gunners; Sun Dacheng was the only one who escaped in time.

Thus, the only lead valuable to Ge Zhi Cheng had gone cold.

…

Although Ge Zhi Cheng intended to use this case to implicate the Zhen family, following Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao's inclinations to claim an extraordinary achievement and clear himself of blame for Du Heng's murder,

he wasn't acting without basis. With his years of experience in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he was certain the Zhen family must be connected to this clandestine firearms workshop.

Though he had successfully raided the workshop with Guo Lin and Jia Cong, and arrested over thirty suspects, he still found no concrete evidence linking them to the Zhen family.

This left Ge Zhi Cheng disheartened; after much thought, he redirected his focus back to Zhen Zhen Shiwen and Haiyun Pavilion.

Although the Embroidered Uniform Guard lacked evidence to arrest Zhen Zhen Shiwen, politely inviting him to the battalion command for questioning was, on principle, barely defensible.

Yet this move would inevitably provoke the Zhen family's objections, and questions from Zhen Zhen Yingjia, the head of Jin Ling's Tiren Academy.

But Ge Zhi Cheng had no other choice—he could only steel himself and proceed.

Besides, Zhen Zhen Shiwen was no stranger to the Embroidered Uniform Guard; last time, when the Guard and Jia Cong set a trap, Jia Cong had rescued Zhen Zhen Shiwen from the battalion command.

But this time, with Zhen Zhen Shiwen back in custody, Ge Zhi Cheng believed Jia Cong would not intervene again.

Regarding the illegal firearms workshop, he had dragged Guo Lin and Jia Cong into it; morally, they could only stand with him.

…

Jin Ling, western district, Xiuchun Street.

A short arrow's distance from the Huichun Pharmacy stood a delicate two-courtyard residence.

As night fell, a young man in luxurious robes, handsome of face, approached the gate and knocked softly.

Soon, a maid of fifteen or sixteen opened the gate—slender in figure, but plain in appearance.

Seeing the man, she exclaimed happily: "Third Young Master, you're here! Come right in."

The man nodded at the maid, as if barely noticing her, then stepped into the courtyard.

The maid's face fell with disappointment; she turned and shut the gate.

This residence was Zhen Zhen Shiwen's private outside dwelling; months ago, while entertaining at Hongyu Pavilion, he had accidentally met the courtesan Yu Niang.

Yu Niang was not only beautiful and radiant, but also in the prime of her youth—slender yet voluptuous, graceful and seductive, captivating Zhen Zhen Shiwen utterly.

He had thus purchased this house on Xiuchun Street and taken Yu Niang as his concubine.

Now, they were deeply entangled; Zhen Zhen Shiwen was utterly bewitched. Had it not been for the strict Zhen household rules forbidding sons from keeping outside concubines,

he would have slept here every night, entwined with this delicate beauty.

As Zhen Zhen Shiwen entered the inner courtyard, Yu Niang stood by the door, dressed in colorful robes, her makeup vivid, smiling to greet him.

Zhen Zhen Shiwen's heart warmed; this house held only Yu Niang and her maid, Cuier—he had no restraint, stepping forward to embrace her slender waist and pulling her into the room.

Yu Niang smiled brightly, instructing Cuier to bring the wine and dishes already prepared; the two laughed and drank together inside.

The refined iron stored at Haiyun Pavilion had finally been retrieved; the clever fire had cleared Zhen Zhen Shiwen of all suspicion—the Embroidered Uniform Guard found no fault.

This lifted a great weight from Zhen Zhen Shiwen's heart.

He had long been constrained in business by his own cousin, but his father had already sent letters to Shenyang; he'd heard that his third sister's marriage to Jia Cong was nearly sealed.

Once that troublesome third sister was married off to Shenyang, the Zhen family's business would fall entirely to the main branch—and ultimately become his own.

Outside the window, a slender crescent moon glowed; beneath the lamp, beauty and wine filled the air—Zhen Zhen Shiwen felt utterly triumphant.

Yu Niang was deeply attuned to his desires, persistently pouring wine with gentle coaxing, occasionally pressing her soft cheek against his cup; after three rounds of wine, Zhen Zhen Shiwen's drunkenness surged… (End of Chapter)