Chapter 310

Everything in his vision was retreating rapidly, the cold wind blowing on his face as painful as a knife cut.

Qiu Wuying could no longer feel his body below his shoulders; his spine had broken at some point, and he could only watch his body fluttering in his vision like a broken rag.

Li Miao's voice came from above his head.

"Which way?"

Qiu Wuying tried hard to open his eyes, scanning the surroundings.

"East... side."

Dust flew, and Li Miao, holding Qiu Wuying's head, hurried toward the east side.

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"Aunt Zheng... Sister!"

Zheng Yi walked into the cabin, hearing Gao Anyu's greeting, her brow furrowed, but she had no heart to quibble over his slip of the tongue, only scanning the surroundings left and right.

"Where is my lord?"

Gao Anyu roughly recounted what happened after Zheng Yi and Cao Hanyan left.

Zheng Yi nodded, stepped forward to the bedside, raised her hand to pull up the arms of Gu Feixuan and the child, and pinched their pulse points.

"My lord has already treated his injuries, but his Qi and blood are depleted, and he will need to recuperate for a period of time before he can wake up. He is of no use right now, so just leave him here for now."

Zheng Yi turned her head to glance at the sleeping child again.

"As for this child... he is too young and has been frightened, showing signs of soul-loss. We have no way to deal with this kind of thing; let's find someone to treat him when we reach Nanjing."

Gao Anyu nodded.

Li Miao had handed the people to him, but he didn't know how to take care of people, so he could only carry them back and wait, fearing something might go wrong, and only now could he roughly set his mind at ease.

Zheng Yi put down their arms, turned, and led Gao Anyu out of the cabin, walking up to the second floor.

"Where is Brother Cao?"

Gao Anyu asked.

"He went to change his clothes."

Zheng Yi said without looking back.

What the two of them did was actually similar to what Li Miao did. Zheng Yi had known the location of the water stronghold, and she took Cao Hanyan directly to kill their way over, happening to run into the water bandits in the stronghold dividing up wealth with the disguised government soldiers.

Zheng Yi didn't have much of a feeling about it; water bandits were also bandits, and what they did wouldn't be much better than mountain bandits; it might even be said that robbing and killing was their duty.

Although the greenwood path had some unspoken rules like "rob wealth but don't kill" and "leave a line for others," whether to follow them depended on the cultivation of each leader. As long as things didn't blow up, no one would bring it up.

But Cao Hanyan couldn't stand these things, especially when he saw the government soldiers carrying blood-stained silk and discussing how much silver it was worth with the water bandits; his eyes turned red instantly, and he jumped in and drew his sword to start killing.

The two of them slaughtered the entire water stronghold, left a few survivors to interrogate, and delayed for some time, only returning to the ship now.

Zheng Yi didn't even have sweat on her, but Cao Hanyan was covered in blood, so he went to the second floor to change clothes first, and only then did he find Zheng Yi and Gao Anyu in the cabin.

The three of them looked at each other, and finally, Gao Anyu and Zheng Yi both cast their gazes toward Cao Hanyan.

Both of them had self-knowledge; one was a madman, the other a brute, both fine for drawing swords and hacking people, but it was better to leave brainy matters to the smart ones.

Cao Hanyan also knew what kind of people these two were, sighed, and said.

"Brother Gao, let me roughly state the information I interrogated from the water bandit stronghold. Actually, it can be summarized in two points."

"First, the four Garrison Eunuchs of Nanjing have already begun to fight among themselves, and they are all unscrupulously amassing wealth, to the point of ordering their subordinates to disguise themselves as water bandits to intercept and kill commoners."

"Of the twenty-eight water strongholds on the Jiangnan waterways, except for a few, all have colluded with them to engage in this business, and the Water Transport Commanders guarding the waterways have even personally taken the field. The water transport route to Nanjing can be considered completely ruined."

"The reason we encountered so many water bandits on this route lies in this."

"Second, the Embroidered Uniform Guard office in Nanjing has already been surrounded by troops sent by the four Garrison Eunuchs."

Gao Anyu was stunned.

"Brother Cao, are you sure you're not mistaken? The Embroidered Uniform Guard office, surrounded by troops?"

Cao Hanyan sighed and nodded.

"I didn't quite believe it when I first interrogated it, but after changing to a few people, they all said the same thing, so it shouldn't be wrong."

"Nanjing city has already become an isolated city."

"Most of the government soldiers in the city have been gripped in the hands of the four Garrison Eunuchs, and the waterways outside the city have also been tightly sealed by the twenty-eight water strongholds. Inside and outside this Nanjing city, whether it's people or news, everything has been completely cut off."

Gao Anyu was still somewhat incredulous.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard office was no ordinary office; it was the eyes and ears, the claws and teeth of the Emperor himself.

Leading troops to surround the Embroidered Uniform Guard office, intercepting and killing commoners along the way, sealing off news within the city... this was already nailed-down, unquestionable treason!

"But..." Gao Anyu still furrowed his brows.

Cao Hanyan smiled bitterly.

"I know Brother Gao's question: since they have already committed treason, why are these four Garrison Eunuchs fighting among themselves? Since they are already enemies, why can they tacitly join forces to seal off the news?"

"Also, why are they so crazily amassing wealth?"

"I'm afraid we'll only get the answers to these questions once we reach Nanjing city."

Gao Anyu nodded.

"Then, Brother Cao, what should we do?"

Cao Hanyan turned his head to look at Zheng Yi.

"Senior Zheng, what do you think?"

Zheng Yi shook her head.

"I only excel at hacking people; you decide the strategy."

Only then did Cao Hanyan nod and say.

"As I see it, we only have two paths: either build the plank road openly, or cross the Chencang secretly."

Gao Anyu scratched his head.

"Brother Cao, you'd better explain it more clearly..."

Cao Hanyan smiled.

"That is to say, either we reveal our banners and enter the city with great fanfare."

"The four Garrison Eunuchs are fighting internally and have deliberately sealed off news in the city, which means they currently have neither the heart nor the strength to truly raise the banner of rebellion. If we reveal our identities and enter the city, they probably won't dare to make a move against us."

"The benefit is safety, and my lord's subordinates will also take the initiative to contact us once they know. But the disadvantage is that once we turn from secret to open, it will be difficult to investigate news."

"Or, we find a way to enter the city ourselves and try to contact my lord's subordinates on our own. But if we are discovered, there will probably be a fight, and there's no guarantee we'll be able to contact my lord's subordinates."

"That's it, two paths, one open and one secret."

After Cao Hanyan finished speaking, Gao Anyu scratched his head.

"Brother Cao, perhaps we can wait here for Uncle Li to return? Let him make the decision?"

Cao Hanyan shook his head.

"My lord will definitely capture a few survivors to interrogate on this trip, and he will also know about these things. If he feels he needs to be with us, he will naturally find us."

"If my lord feels there is no need to rendezvous with us, and we just wait here, we would instead have to make him come back to find us, wasting time."

"And we can't really push everything onto my lord to do, Brother Gao."

Cao Hanyan reached out and tapped on the table.

"For the public, Nanjing is the auxiliary capital; if something goes wrong, I'm afraid the world will be in chaos, and I don't know how many commoners will be implicated. Even as it stands now, if this situation continues for a day, I don't know how many commoners will die on this waterway; it cannot be delayed."

"For the private, Senior Zheng's family affairs are involved, your business, Brother Gao, is also related to Penglai, and my original heart cannot just leave this matter alone—we cannot just wait for my lord to solve it for us."

"At the very least, we must do something to share some of the burden for my lord; otherwise, what are we practicing Wu Gong for?"

Zheng Yi and Gao Anyu both nodded.

The cabin was silent for a while, and Zheng Yi spoke up.

"Since that's the case, we have enough manpower, so why not try both paths."

"The open path has less risk; Gao Anyu, you take Gu Feixuan and that child and enter the city via the open path; you just need to hold your ground and show your attitude."

"You don't need to do much; just speak less and don't take a stance. Before they figure out your background, they won't dare to make a move against you. You just need to delay time on the surface."

While speaking, Zheng Yi stood up with her sword.

"I will enter the city via the secret path with Cao Hanyan; we will support each other and adapt to circumstances."

"According to the information interrogated earlier, among the twenty-eight water strongholds, there are a few that haven't gotten involved in these things, and one of them was familiar with my mother—we'll go find him and enter the city through his channels."

"There's no time to lose, let's set off now!"

Having said that, she took the wry-smiling Cao Hanyan out of the cabin and flew away.