gnovel Chapter 093: Discovery
Chapter 093: Discovery
Zhu Fu is indeed still alive, and he does indeed return to his old residence in Ezhou once a year in the twelfth lunar month.
But this line of text also means that if the Imperial City Guards had entered this alley before Xiao Bieli, they would have also seen this calendar.
Xiao Bieli squatted by the door and touched the joint between the stone steps and the corner of the wall. The bricks there were slightly loose, which was a trace left by the repeated turning of the calendar when it was changed.
He took out half a dried cattail root from the crack in the brick, which was the symbol used by Zhijia's death letter method. There was still a bit of dried wax stuck to the bottom of the cattail root.
This is how he learned on his exile to distinguish which marks in the brickwork were from the wind and which were from repeated touches by human hands.
This is a very simple signal, indicating that someone has been here.
This person had mastered Zhijia's method of recording death messages and knew that the seam in the stone steps of Zhu Fu's former residence was a pre-reserved point for placing secret messages.
It was Zhu Fu.
Zhu Fu was using Zhi Jia's marking method to leave secret codes.
This means he must have the missing transport company ledger in his possession, and he is still waiting for a signal to make contact.
Xiao Bieli put everything back exactly as it was and quietly retreated into the shadows.
Without disturbing any residents of Liulin Lane, he returned to Hanyang Inn before dawn and sent a short message in code towards Xiangyang.
"There are traces of an old friend at Zhu Fu's former residence. The calendar on the door is this year's calendar, indicating that this person is still alive. We will continue to investigate after receiving this letter and maintain contact."
After sending the letter, a pale blue hue appeared on the horizon. Xiao Bieli sat by the window and drew his knife.
Today, he will officially enter the Ezhou Military Equipment Bureau as a clerk escort for the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs to review old records of military equipment allocation from the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era.
Before Qin Keqing left, she gave him a detailed list of files to consult, which listed several types of file numbers that might contain clues to the Transport Department's account books.
This includes all crossbows, armor, and arrows dispatched from Ezhou to Xiangyang in the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing.
The old archives warehouse of the Ezhou Ordnance Bureau was located in an old arrow tower in the north of the city, and it had been neglected for many years.
The old clerk in charge of the warehouse searched for a long time before finally finding the transfer records from the eleventh year of Shaoxing. It was a thick stack of papers, the pages of which had turned yellow and some were chipped by insects.
Xiao Bieli searched through the numbers given to him by Qin Keqing, from the beginning of the twelfth lunar month to the twenty-ninth.
The ink and paper condition of all the transfer slips in the entire record were similar, except for a slight anomaly in the record of the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month: the number of arrows transferred from Ezhou to Xiangyang had been altered.
The original number was "three thousand", but it was covered up with thick ink and "one thousand five hundred" was rewritten next to it.
The correction was stamped with the official seal of the Ezhou Military Commander's Office, and the official who issued it was the former Ezhou Military Commander, Dong Xian.
Xiao Bieli noted this unusual detail in his mind, then closed the old file, casually thanked the old clerk in charge of the warehouse, and took his leave.
As he walked out of the arrow tower, he noticed someone selling firewood at the alley entrance again. The same firewood seller had also appeared at the entrance of Hanyang Inn the day before.
Xiao Bieli didn't even glance at him, and walked straight towards Hanyangzhan.
Dong Xian tampered with the records of arms allocation.
He changed the number of arrows from three thousand to one thousand five hundred. The missing one thousand five hundred arrows, along with the batch of crossbows listed as "old and in need of repair," were mostly transported to Xiangyang.
He was using his own methods to leak supplies from the Ezhou arsenal to Xiangyang bit by bit, and he made sure to cover up every single detail with a correction stamp.
But this superficial effort is not deep enough.
Tian Ruyi's men were stationed outside the Ezhou government office, and sooner or later they would discover this pattern of revision in the old files.
Once they check the records one by one against the direction of the corrections, all the normal loss accounts that Dong Xian had previously corrected will be exposed.
When the time comes, it won't just be those few crossbows and bundles of arrows that will be exposed, but all the traces of how Dong Xian, this "Qin Hui's pawn," secretly helped Xiangyang to survive.
After Xiao Bieli returned to Hanyang Inn, he compiled Dong Xian's situation in Ezhou and the discovery of Zhu Fu's former residence into a coded message.
He instructed Manager Chang to send the tea via the Han River tea boat towards Xiangyang, and noted at the end of the message: Dong Xian is in danger and a plan to receive him from Ezhou needs to be prepared in advance.
On the 25th day of the first lunar month, the support team dispatched by Xin Qizong was ready to depart from the old camp in the southern suburbs.
This support team is specifically designed for emergency reinforcements in the Ezhou direction. All members are selected from the most experienced veterans in the 36-man rapid response team who are most familiar with the geography along the Han River.
Once the Imperial City Guard takes action in Ezhou, this small team can travel along the Han River at full speed to the outskirts of Ezhou within four days to help Dong Xian evacuate.
On this day, Yuwen Xu also completed the site selection for the bell frame on the Han River section of the Tongling extension line.
Three simple bell stands need to be set up from the Hanshuikou ferry crossing to the opposite bank of Baima Temple, with each stand about seven miles apart. The code rhythm uses the same "fire alarm backup copper bell verification device" code as the one used in the direction of Lin'an.
The only difference was that the tension of the bell tongue spring was adjusted to a frequency suitable for sound transmission in the open areas of the Han River.
"The three bell stands are all concealed by abandoned watchtowers and old fishermen's sheds along the river. The wood is taken from driftwood in the Han River, without cutting down trees along the river, so it will not attract the attention of local patrols."
He drew a route map on the ground with a twig from the mouth of the Han River to the White Horse Temple. "As long as these three bell stands are erected, the signal from the bronze bell of the White Horse Temple can reach the ferry crossing at the mouth of the Han River within half a cup of tea."
After receiving the signal, the fast ferry at the ferry crossing sailed downstream, delivering the message to Li Bao's boat at Guazhou Ferry in a day and a night. The overall delivery speed was at least three days faster than human transport.
When Zhao Bocong received Yuwen Xu's progress report in Lin'an, Qin Keqing was standing next to him checking the latest batch of Imperial City Guard personnel transfer records that Feng Yi had brought out of the palace.
She pulled out a single page and placed it in front of Zhao Bozong. It showed that five days ago, the Imperial City Guard had transferred at least eight plainclothes inspectors from the direction of Ezhou into the jurisdiction of Xiangyang Prefecture. Two of them were carrying security assistance badges from the Xiangyang Prefecture government.
"Your Highness, the Imperial City Guard's control over Xiangyang has reached the point where they can enter the city."
Yue Yinping needed more than just Li Bao's boat and Yuwen Xu's bell; she also needed someone capable of independently identifying these plainclothes scouts within the city and marking all their deployment points on the city's defense map.
Zhao Bozong pushed the latest message from Xiao Bieli, sent from Ezhou, in front of her.
"Xiao Bieli is in Ezhou following Zhu Fu's trail. On his way out of exile, he meets a survivor from the breakout of Zhuxian Town. The same person had once been Yue Shaobao's groom and later became an outlaw near Ezhou."
If we can find this survivor before the Imperial City Guard, we might be able to locate Zhu Fu's whereabouts faster than expected.
After he completes his mission in Ezhou, his next stop will be Xiangyang.
After reading the message, Qin Keqing walked to the window. At the end of the first month, Lin'an was beginning to warm up, and the willows outside the window sprouted a light green.
However, there were more inspectors patrolling the Imperial Street in the distance than before. After the government offices reopened on the fifth day of the first lunar month, Qin Hui expanded the Imperial City Guard by another sixty people.
At least half of these sixty men were deployed along the route between the Prince of Puan's residence and the old camp in the southern suburbs.
Standing by the window, Qin Keqing couldn't help but recall those years by the Jiaozhou River.
At that time, she didn't know what an intelligence network was, what a legitimacy shield was, or what copper bell coding was.
All she knew was to stand on the dock and wait for her father to come. But her father didn't come. Instead, a woman named Wang came and took her into the Qin mansion.
Later, she learned to write, to use coded language to hide intelligence in ledgers, and to navigate the Imperial City Guard's surveillance network by posing as a laundry worker.
But there was one thing she never learned: how not to worry about others.
The cat jumped from the windowsill onto her shoulder, its tail brushing against her ear.
She took the cat off her shoulder and said something inexplicable: "Xiao Bieli left some osmanthus cakes at the inn in Ezhou, but couldn't bear to eat them all."