Lord of the Desert

Chapter 496: Piercing the Clouds

Late at night, Yunque City was sleeping in the heavy snow.

In order to avoid attracting the attention of powerful people, Hong Fan walked into the city and found Zhai Mansion in the east of the city without asking. This mansion was a hundred meters wide and occupied half of Hengsan Street. Even though the corners of the house were covered with snow, it still looked imposing. Its organization was second only to the heads of the three divisions and a few large families.

The Circuit Inspector was originally an expatriate post within the Shenjing Supervisory Line, assisting the Censorate in supervising local areas. Later, he was gradually assigned fixed yamen and jurisdictions, evolving into a permanent post of the fourth rank, respectfully titled "Inspector."

The Zhai Jiansi that Hong Fan was looking for was a member of the Six Departments Censorate. He was in charge of the administrative supervision of a county and also managed the salt law and government affairs. In theory, he had the right to dispatch local city defense offices, garrison troops and salt capture camps. His power was not small.

Even so, he was unable to hire an expert for personal protection - the total number of civil and military officials in Dahua exceeded 130,000 (80% were military officers), of which more than 10,000 were above the fifth rank, far exceeding the number of Qi realm warriors.

Although the official rank is high, it can suppress the common people but not the warriors.

Hong Fan walked around Zhai's mansion, the snow rustling under his feet. He saw lanterns hanging on several doors on the front and sides, and the breathing sounds of the guards and hunting dogs could be heard from inside the doors.

He then randomly chose a section of the wall to climb over.

It was a cold and snowy night in December. There were no guards in the palace and not even a human voice could be heard.

Finding people is the easiest thing.

These wealthy families are all built according to Feng Shui. The internal layouts are basically the same, and the master's bedroom is always in a fixed position.

Hong Fan walked along the corridor into the main courtyard and heard a long and even breathing coming from the side room. The person's cultivation level was above the level of Guantong, so he should be the patrol officer's personal attendant.

He walked over silently and shot a sand arrow through the window, knocking the man unconscious.

Bid farewell to the long wind in the courtyard.

The silver moon shone on the footprints of varying depths.

The wooden door of the bedroom opened and closed quickly, creaking slightly.

Zhai Hao had fallen asleep not long ago and heard an unusual noise, but ignored it after a while. He felt a cold wind blowing through his quilt. In a state of half-awakeness, he thought that the window was not tight, so he kicked the foot warmer at the end of the bed, signaling her to take care of it.

But no one responded.

"Zhichun?"

Zhai Hao knew that his maidservant was always alert, so he called her and realized something was wrong. He sat up suddenly and saw a tall figure standing in front of the bed.

His heart was pounding, and he glanced at the end of the bed in the dim light of the enamel stove.

Zhichun lay on his side, his chest rising and falling but he was still breathing.

"What do you want to do, Your Excellency?"

Zhai Hao felt relieved and asked in a low voice.

His face was calm and his spirit was vigorous, and his left hand quietly reached for the dagger hidden in the bed.

But the person who came moved as fast as lightning.

Take your left hand and break off your little finger in the blink of an eye.

Zhai Hao was about to scream in pain when his throat was immediately grabbed. While struggling, he felt that the other person's arms were as hard as a rock and he could not move at all.

"I have something to ask you, don't talk nonsense."

The visitor threw down an order.

The moonlight shines through the window and falls on the man's hair and jawline, making him look indescribably simple and cold.

"You are the master of the house, right?"

The voice of the person asking the question was very young, with an accent of 70% Northwestern and 30% Beijing.

Zhai Hao recognized that the person was from another place, held the broken little finger and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I am a fourth-rank official of the imperial court..."

Another sound of breaking bones mixed with the interrupted howl.

"It's not difficult to connect these two fingers, but the third one is hard to say."

The visitor said, his voice as young and cold as before.

At this moment, Supervisor Zhai's eyes became completely clear - the people in front of him, regardless of age or good or evil, were all coming for him, and he was very confident and didn't care about the power represented by the fourth rank at all.

"Please give me your instructions, Your Excellency. I will answer any questions you have."

Zhai Hao spoke in a flattering tone.

"Were you involved in the Pan family's illegal salt business?"

Although I answered every question, I didn't expect it to be so dangerous.

"Yes, it is somewhat convenient."

Seeing the other party stretching out his third finger without saying anything, Zhai Hao immediately admitted it.

"Which trade route is open to them beside Yunque City?" "The Yunmo Line to the southeast of the city is always patrolled by the Salt Catching Battalion, but it is open to the He family's salt transport team from Motan County at night."

"Will there be one tonight?"

"Everyone eats salt every day, so there should be some..."

After a conversation, Hong Fan nodded and stood up.

"If you had known better earlier, you wouldn't have to suffer so much."

He turned around, opened the door and was about to leave.

Seeing that the young man was still calm after cutting off two of his fingers, Zhai Hao became angry again.

"It is not easy to be a hero and do good deeds. Your recklessness may have consequences."

He seemed to remind her.

"Of course there will be consequences for this, but it's not because you, a patrolman, broke two fingers."

Hong Fan spoke with contempt, stopped and glanced back sideways.

"A wise man learns to forget."

"No one came tonight, no one talked to you, and anything that happened afterwards was not because you leaked the information, so the Pan family will not come looking for you."

"You broke these two fingers yourself, remember?"

Zhai Hao did not reply.

With the help of the moonlight at the door, he could clearly see the ivory badge of the Zhangwu Academy that was deliberately exposed on the waist of the uninvited guest.

As a senior official of the fourth rank, Zhai Hao knew a lot of things, and he immediately thought of the public school dispute that had been raging between Guan Qimai and Pan Yucheng in the past two years.

"I remember it."

He endured the severe pain, stood up, and bowed to the door.

At this time, the night sky was filled with drifting snow, like countless white moths dancing and falling to the ground with a puffing sound.

There are dogs barking in Yunque City, and the silence is inhuman.

Hong Fan left Zhai's house and took out his pocket watch. The hand pointed to the first quarter of the night (11:15).

······
The snow became heavier and heavier, submerging Yuncheng.

As expected, Pan Yucheng, the "Heaven and Earth Covering Hand", was living peacefully at home, but he had no idea what was happening outside.

Hong Fan thought so and flew south until he could no longer see the city wall, then he spread his wings and glided.

The earth was bound by the unknown in the darkness, and the insects and rats could only crawl around in fear.

Only the capable can act as rampant as the day.

The Sand Wing flew in the air, speeding along the southeastern Cloud and Ink Line, quickly traveling a hundred miles and passing the checkpoint of the Salt Catcher Camp...

There are no clouds or snow on the other side of the world.

Only the sky studded with star diamonds casts a faint cold light.

The He family salt transport team trudged along the official road.

There were twelve of them, wrapped in thick cloaks, with sheepskin boots tied to their knees with leather ropes, and each of the six carriages was equipped with two strong draft horses.

Even so, the lead car got stuck in the snow and mud again.

"drive!"

The driver was reluctant to get off the carriage and whipped the driver twice.

The horses pulled the cart in pain and exerted themselves, white mist coming out of their noses, but the carriage did not move at all.

"The cheap bones are usually good to eat, why are they not useful?"

The driver cursed under his breath and was about to strike again when he was slapped on the back of the head.

"Old Ma."

The driver saw that it was a team coming up and smiled apologetically.

"What are you standing there for? Come down and help. Let's try to unload half of the goods first."

Lao Ma took off his hat and threw it on the fine snow by the roadside, making a dent, then turned around and shouted.

"The checkpoint at the salt-catching camp is only thirty miles away. Wait until you get past it before you think about slacking off."

(End of this chapter)