Chapter 348

Everything in his line of sight was receding rapidly, the cold wind blowing on his face as painful as a knife cut.

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

Li Miao's voice came from above.

"Which way?"

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

"East... side."

Dust flew, and Li Miao grabbed Qiu Wuying's skull and rushed toward the east side.

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"Aunt Zheng... Sister!"

Zheng Yi walked into the cabin, and hearing Gao Anyu's greeting, she frowned, but had no heart to quibble over his slip of the tongue, only scanning 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 lift 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 look at the sleeping child.

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

Gao Anyu nodded.

Li Miao had handed the people to him, but he had no idea how to take care of people, so he could only carry them back and wait, fearing that something might go wrong, and only now did he roughly set his mind at ease.

Zheng Yi put down the two people's arms, turned around, 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 led Cao Hanyan to kill their way over directly, just happening to run into the water bandits in the stronghold dividing up wealth with disguised government soldiers.

Zheng Yi didn't feel much; water bandits were also bandits, and what they did was no better than land bandits; it would be better to say that robbing wealth and killing people was their duty.

Although the Green Forest path had some unspoken rules like "rob wealth but don't kill" and "leave a line for others," whether to follow them still 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 this, especially when he saw the government soldiers picking up blood-stained silk and discussing how much silver it was worth; 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, and left a few survivors to interrogate, which delayed them for some time, and only now did they return to the ship.

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 came to the cabin to find Zheng Yi and Gao Anyu.

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 and the other a brute, they were fine at drawing swords and killing people, but it was better to leave brainy matters to smart people.

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

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

"First, the four garrison eunuchs in Nanjing have already started fighting each other, and all are unscrupulously gathering wealth, to the point of ordering their subordinates to disguise themselves as water bandits to rob 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 canal transport battalion commanders guarding the waterways have even personally taken the field; the canal transport waterways to Nanjing can be considered completely ruined."

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

"Second, the Embroidered Uniform Guard yamen in Nanjing city 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 yamen, surrounded by troops sent by someone?"

Cao Hanyan sighed and nodded.

"I didn't quite believe it when I first interrogated it, but I changed a few people, and they all had the same story, so it should be correct."

"Nanjing city has already become an isolated city."

"Most of the government soldiers in the city have already 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 isolated."

Gao Anyu still couldn't quite believe it.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard yamen was not an ordinary yamen; this was the Emperor's own eyes and ears, his claws and teeth.

Leading troops to surround the Embroidered Uniform Guard yamen, robbing and killing commoners along the way, sealing off news inside the city... this was already nailed down, unquestionable treason!

"But..." Gao Anyu was still frowning.

Cao Hanyan smiled bitterly.

"I know Brother Gao's question; since they have already committed treason, why are these four garrison eunuchs fighting each other? Since they are already enemies, why can they tacitly join hands to seal off the news?"

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

"I'm afraid we can 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 specialize in killing people; you decide the strategy."

Only then did Cao Hanyan nod and say.

"According to my view, we only have two paths; either we openly repair the plank road, or we secretly cross the Chencang."

Gao Anyu scratched his head.

"Brother Cao, you'd better make it clearer..."

Cao Hanyan smiled.

"It means, either we show our banners and enter the city with great fanfare."

"The four garrison eunuchs are fighting internally, and have deliberately sealed off news inside 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 advantage is safety; my lord's subordinates will also take the initiative to contact us after they know. But the disadvantage is that once we go from dark to light, it will be difficult to investigate news again."

"Or, we directly find a way to enter the city ourselves, and find a way to contact my lord's subordinates ourselves. But if we are detected, I'm afraid there will inevitably be a fight, and there's no guarantee we can contact my lord's subordinates."

"That's it, two paths, one light and one dark."

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 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 will instead make him turn back to find us, wasting time."

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

Cao Hanyan reached out and tapped on the table.

"For the public, Nanjing is the secondary 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 if we look at the present, as long as this situation continues for one day, I don't know how many commoners will die on this waterway; we cannot delay."

"For the private, Senior Zheng's family affairs are involved, Brother Gao, your affairs are also related to Penglai, and my own 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 kind of martial arts are we practicing?"

Zheng Yi and Gao Anyu both nodded.

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

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

"The light path has less risk; Gao Anyu, you take Gu Feixuan and that child to enter the city via the light 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 express your position. 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.

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

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

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

After saying that, she dragged Cao Hanyan, who had a bitter smile on his face, out of the cabin and flew away.

(End of chapter)