Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Jinling City, Yinghua Gate.

A carriage drove slowly into the city, driven by a young man in coarse linen clothes.

The curtain of the carriage was lifted, revealing a woman's pretty and clean face, and her tall and graceful figure could be vaguely seen.

There were two old wooden boxes tied to the back of the carriage. Their paint was mottled and they were common household items in ordinary homes.

Since the end of the three-day manhunt in the city, the closure and martial law at the thirteen gates of Nanjing have been lifted, and civilians have resumed their usual commuting.

Although the soldiers guarding the city would check anyone they encountered who was suspicious, they would just let most ordinary people pass.

The man and woman who drove into the city looked no different from ordinary couples in villages and towns. They blended into the crowd and attracted no attention at all.

Naturally, no soldiers guarding the city went to search the carriage specifically.

The carriage entered the city gate smoothly and drove on the wide streets of Jinling City.

The woman in the carriage half-lifted the curtain, and the man on the shaft said, "Those people from the workshop must be searching for us outside the city.

We can easily avoid them by driving into the city and passing through it. They have personal taboos and dare not enter the city openly.

The shopkeeper has made arrangements outside the Taiping Gate. If we go over there now, someone will naturally pick us up."

The woman glanced at the wooden boxes stacked on the back of the car and asked, "Where did the shopkeeper tell us to take the Englishman to?"

The young man wielded the whip skillfully, producing a loud whip flower, just like a seasoned rickshaw driver.

However, under the bright sunlight, the defect of the little finger on the right hand was somewhat conspicuous.

He said, "The shopkeeper asked us to go out to sea first, stay out of the spotlight for a while, and wait for the right time to go north to the capital!"

……

Outside the western suburbs of Jinling City, seven or eight fast horses came out of the foothills of Zhongshan Mountain and galloped on the official road on the outskirts of the city in search of something.

The new Rumi guns that they had originally carried on their backs were placed into special cloth bags and tied to the saddles to conceal their presence.

They have been out of the valley for an hour since they discovered that Henry, an English gunsmith in the workshop, was kidnapped during the chaos.

At first, they could follow the wheel tracks and horse hoof tracks at the intersection of Jiashan Road, but when they were about to leave the foot of the mountain, they completely lost track of the other party.

It seemed that there was an expert in the opponent's team who was very good at hiding his whereabouts, disrupting the direction of their pursuit along the way.

A group of people stopped at a fork in the road, at a loss as to what to do.

One of the knights said to the young man in the lead, "Captain Sun, judging by the situation, the enemy must have escaped without a trace. It will be difficult for us to catch up with them."

The leading young man was in his twenties, tall, with a straight nose, wide mouth, slightly protruding cheekbones, and bright eyes. He had always been shrewd, but now he was at a loss.

He felt a chill in his heart as he thought of the terrible consequences that might result from the robbery of the English gunsmith.

But in the current situation, there is undoubtedly no hope of getting the person back. It would not be wise to continue searching aimlessly and wasting time.

He gritted his teeth and said to the knight beside him: "Henry has been kidnapped. To be on the safe side, the workshop in the valley must be relocated as soon as possible.

Go to the city and find a place to stay temporarily, and hire more carriages and horses for transportation."

After hearing the order, the man fell on his horse's head and galloped towards the Yinghua Gate in the west of Jinling City.

The leading young man said to the other knights, "Let's rush back to the workshop immediately and direct the people to prepare for the move."

……

Jinling, Yinghua Gate.

A large number of Jinyiwei soldiers and hundreds of musketeers rode out of the city on horseback and headed towards the foothills of Zhongshan Mountain in the western suburbs.

In order to act quickly, Jia Cong and his men did not even wait until the next day after receiving Liu Hai's report. Although the sun had already passed zenith, they immediately assembled their troops and marched in to suppress the rebellion.

Just after they left the city, the Five Cities Army took emergency action and imposed martial law on the three western gates of Jinling City.

Within one hour, the three west-facing city gates were completely closed, and all citizens' entry and exit to the city were restricted.

One hour was enough time for Jia Cong and Ge Zhicheng to bring the Jinyiwei and musketeers to the privately-run firearms workshop discovered by Liu Hai.

For one hour, the three west-facing city gates were closed to entry and exit, and any possible information transmission inside and outside the city was also prevented.

Although Jia Cong had doubts about Ge Zhicheng's intentions in this matter, his intention to implicate the Zhen family was very obvious in his words.

In addition, the Jinyiwei had just suffered a setback from the assassination of Du Hengxin, so Jia Cong could more or less guess the reasons why this terrified chief of the Jinling Jinyiwei acted in this way.

He told Guo Lin and himself about this matter. As the Director of the Firearms Department, commanding 800 musketeers, he could not remain indifferent to this matter.

If he did not lead the troops to assist in the cleanup, he would be left with a huge scandal and might be falsely accused of having any connection with this private firearms factory.

It was easy for him to figure out that Ge Zhicheng was intentionally making him and Guo Lin take the blame for him. This made him very unhappy and he felt disgusted with this Jinyiwei centurion.

However, the fact that the Embroidered Uniform Guards discovered this private firearms factory was absolutely true. Jia Cong did not believe Ge Zhicheng, but he still trusted Liu Hai.

As the first person to advocate the use of firearms in the Great Zhou Dynasty, he strongly advocated to Emperor Jiazhao the idea that firearms could be used to strengthen the army and protect the country.

Naturally, he knew better than anyone else that if firearms became rampant among the people, it would cause great harm.

Therefore, it is imperative to eradicate such private firearms workshops, get to the bottom of them, and deter the scoundrels.

According to Liu Hai's report, the number of people and guards in the firearms workshop in the valley, the more than one hundred musketeers led by Jia Cong, plus the two hundred households of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, were enough to wipe them out easily.

……

The team of hundreds of people took less than an hour to reach the valley discovered by Liu Hai and stopped five hundred steps away from the Jiashan intersection.

Jia Cong assigned the personnel with ease, leaving twenty musketeers to guard the Jiashan intersection, while the others entered the valley in batches from different directions.

With the advantage of being prepared to attack the unprepared, and with absolute advantage in numbers and firepower, this encirclement and suppression was a foregone conclusion.

When the dozen or so musketeers guarding the firearms workshop in the valley discovered the emergence of a large number of encirclement and suppression troops, it was too late and they lost the chance to escape.

But these gunmen still brazenly opened fire first, with extraordinary ferocity and brutality. It was unknown where the owner of this firearms workshop recruited these desperate criminals from.

However, given the huge disparity in power, no amount of determination and bravery would be of any avail, especially since they were facing well-trained musketeers from the Five Camps.

Jia Cong only ordered a round of volleys, and more than a dozen workshop guards were killed, leaving only a few seriously injured survivors.

Except for the musket guards who resisted arrest, a total of 29 craftsmen of various types and four servants in the entire workshop were all arrested and none of them escaped.

……

The Jinyiwei also found thirty newly assembled Rumi guns in the workshop. After being tested by Jia Cong, their quality reached the construction level of the Shenjing Firearms Workshop.

These are thirty new-style Lumit guns with reliable killing firepower.

In addition, two long wooden boxes were found in the warehouse, filled with high-quality furs from the north. The words "Hongchun Fur" were written on the boxes, which should be the name of a fur shop.

Jia Cong felt a little strange. The winter in Jinling was not as cold as that in the capital. Except for the rich and powerful, ordinary people here could rarely afford high-quality furs.

These furs were still in the warehouse of the musket workshop. They looked a bit strange no matter how they looked at them, so the musketeers were asked to check the boxes carefully.

As all the furs in the box were taken out, seven new-style Rumi guns were found at the bottom of the box. The surface of the guns was obviously worn, and they must have been used for a long time.

Jia Cong was greatly surprised when he found the serial numbers on these half-worn Rumi guns.

He once commanded the Firearms Battalion in Liaodong and was very familiar with the numbers of the muskets in the Liaodong Firearms Battalion. Judging from these numbers, these seven muskets came from the Liaodong Firearms Battalion.

Jia Cong immediately thought of the origins of these muskets, and ordered the musketeers to search the warehouse thoroughly. He soon found two completely disassembled muskets.

The numbers of these two muskets indicate that they also came from the Liaodong Firearms Battalion.

There were exactly nine muskets in total. Jia Cong had never expected that the nine new-style Rumi guns stolen from the Liaodong Firearms Battalion would appear here.

Seeing the two disassembled new-style Rumi guns, Jia Cong quickly deduced what had happened.

Someone stole nine new-style Rumi guns from the Liaodong Firearms Camp, smuggled them to Nanjing, and had them disassembled and imitated.

Although the new Rumi gun is the most advanced firearm in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the technical content it contains is not something unattainable.

As long as you understand its structure and details and have a certain amount of financial resources, it is not too difficult to replicate it one-to-one.

……

The workshop also contained complete smelting and forging facilities, unused Ottoman refined iron, a large amount of gunpowder raw materials, nine boxes of ready-made musket bullets, and molds for making various musket accessories.

These things may not be a big deal in the eyes of laymen like Ge Zhicheng and Liu Hai.

But when Jia Cong saw these things, he couldn't help feeling a chill in his heart.

The scale of this workshop is far smaller than that of the Firearms Department’s Shenjing Construction Workshop.

But it already has a complete assembly line for producing new-style Rumi guns. If it is allowed to exist for a long time, there is no telling how many new-style Rumi guns will be produced, and by then I am afraid that the world will be in chaos.

Jia Cong was feeling a strong sense of crisis in his heart. He did not even wait to bring the captured craftsmen back to the city before conducting a surprise interrogation on them.

After interrogation, it was found that among these craftsmen were blacksmiths, pyrotechnicians, carpenters, etc., all of whom were hired to come to Jinling for a large sum of money.

After entering this workshop three months ago, these people have been placed under house arrest and are no longer allowed to leave. They are closely watched by more than a dozen guards every day.

Two craftsmen tried to escape halfway, but were ruthlessly executed by the guards. Since then, no one dared to escape.

Less than two months ago, a blond, blue-eyed Baiyi named Henry came to the workshop and taught them the steps of making muskets. The shopkeeper, whose surname was Zhao, would come to check on the situation from time to time and asked them to make muskets day and night.

According to several craftsmen, thirty assembled muskets had been transported out of the valley a few days ago, but they were not sure where they had been transported to.

Ge Zhicheng interrogated several surviving musket guards and learned that these people were criminals and ruffians who were recruited by the workshop at a large price and had simple identities and backgrounds.

They explained that the leader of the guards here was called Sun Dacheng, and judging by his accent, he was from Datong in the northwest.

……

Just as Jia Cong and Ge Zhicheng were preparing to escort the prisoners back to Jinling, suddenly there was a burst of gunfire at the entrance of the valley. The gunfire only lasted for a few rounds before it died down.

Jia Cong and Ge Zhi were both shocked. Could it be that besides these musket guards in the valley, there were other people hiding nearby?

At this time, the musketeers who were on guard at the entrance of the valley ran into the valley to report to Jia Cong.

Just now, eight fast horses tried to rush into the valley, but were blocked by musketeers lying in ambush at the intersection. These people were actually carrying the new Rumi guns, and the two sides started shooting at each other in an instant.

Six of the knights were killed, wounded or captured, and only one saw the opportunity to escape on horseback.

The team also took two captured Rumi guns. Jia Cong made a careful comparison and confirmed that they were of the same type as the thirty Rumi guns seized from the workshop.

He said to Ge Zhicheng: "These seven people must be the musket guards who left the workshop halfway and encountered our people on their way back.

At this time, the three western gates of Jinling have been lifted from martial law. I wonder if this person will flee around the city or hide inside?"

……

Jinling, Xicheng, Xiuchun Street.

It was already night, and Xiuchun Street was deserted and quiet. All the shops on both sides of the street were closed.

A young man was walking hesitantly on the street, leaving behind his dark and twisted shadow on the bluestone pavement.

He walked to a rejuvenation medicine shop and gently knocked on the closed door.

After a long while, someone finally removed a door panel, revealing a flickering candlelight inside, dim and obscure like a will-o'-the-wisp.

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged man of medium build, with a straight back and bright eyes. When he saw the person knocking on the door, he was surprised: "Why is it you? Why are you here so late?"

The man knocking on the door said in a panic, "Manager Zhao, something big happened outside the city, so I came to see you overnight."

The two men sat opposite each other in the store. The man who knocked on the door told the whole story. The owner of Huichuntang had a gloomy face and said, "Henry was kidnapped, and the Jinyiwei raided the workshop outside the city that day!"

The man knocking on the door said, "I really don't understand this. Du Hengxin's men just abducted Henry, so how did the Jinyiwei know the location of the workshop so quickly?"

Shopkeeper Zhao said: "Now is not the time to dwell on this matter. When the Royal Guards search the workshop, they will find a lot of things.

The nine muskets from Liaodong and the batch of unused fine iron were enough for them to deduce many things. The most important thing right now was to prevent the matter from involving Shenjing!

Fortunately, the craftsmen we hired were not from Jinling. Although they had seen me, they did not know my identity in Jinling, so I still had some time to set up the work.

You hide in the store for two days, I will arrange everything, then you can go back to Datong to take shelter for a while."

Shopkeeper Zhao glanced at the store, his eyes lingering, then his expression became fierce, and he said, "This matter is already in jeopardy. If the Jinyiwei takes the initiative, the situation will be out of control.

There are people coming from the capital these days. After I finish sorting out the mess, I will go on a long journey to buy some medicinal materials..."

……

Jinling, the Jinyiwei Qianhu Division, the prison torture chamber.

Ever since the Jinyiwei brought in more than 30 prisoners from outside the West City last night, the entire Jinyiwei Thousand Households Station has been in a state of unusual restlessness.

In the eerie and dim prison torture chamber, the air was filled with a strong smell of blood.

Since last night, the lights in the torture room have never been turned off, and the screams of the prisoners being tortured have continued all day long.

The entire torture chamber was like the underworld, terrifying.

It is not surprising that such a situation has occurred. The commander has issued a strict order that the criminals arrested last night must be tortured and forced to confess, and something must be seized.

After torturing more than 30 people in a row, the five or six Jinyi captains in charge of the torture were almost exhausted, but they were still holding on.

Because their immediate superior, Jinyiwei Captain Ge Zhicheng, has not left the torture chamber since last night.

The torture and interrogation of all prisoners were personally supervised by this captain.

The main questions asked included the name and identity of the owner of the workshop, where the nine old muskets in the workshop came from, and whether the Ottoman fine iron seized in the workshop was related to the Zhen family.

The first two questions are normal, but the third question already has clear direction and guidance.

Even though the captains in charge of torture were rough and shallow people, they could tell that the captain wanted to use this opportunity to link himself to the Zhen family of Jinling.

But these prisoners were either poor craftsmen from other places or guards with gunshot wounds. They had never even heard of the Zhen family in Jinling.

Even if he was tortured into confessing and making up stories, it would not be a big deal. There would certainly be no problem in using this kind of confession to frame an ordinary person to death.

But it would be too much of a joke to use it against the powerful and wealthy families with deep roots in Jinling City.

Until the sunset that day, four of the more than thirty prisoners had died from excessive torture, and Ge Zhicheng still had not received a satisfactory answer.

Only from several guards with gunmen did he get some useful information.

It is said that the guards said that the batch of fine iron to the workshop was sent from outside the city by the guard leader Sun Dacheng.

However, some guards returned to the workshop halfway and encountered the ambushing musketeers. Sun Dacheng was the only one who escaped in time.

Therefore, the only valuable clue to Ge Zhicheng is a kite with a broken string.

……

Although Ge Zhicheng wanted to use this case to implicate the Zhen family, he followed Emperor Jiazhao's thoughts and made extraordinary contributions to clear himself of the guilt of Du Hengxin's murder.

But he was not shooting without a purpose. Based on his many years of experience in the Imperial Guard, he knew that the Zhen family must be closely related to this private firearms workshop.

However, even though Guo Lin and Jia Cong were involved this time, the private workshop was successfully confiscated, and more than 30 criminals were arrested, no concrete evidence related to the Zhen family was found.

This made Ge Zhicheng depressed. After thinking hard about countermeasures, he turned his attention back to Zhen Shiwen and Haiyun Pavilion.

Although the Jinyiwei had no real evidence to interrogate Zhen Shiwen, it was reasonable to politely ask him to return to the Qianhu Office for questioning.

Although doing so would certainly lead to questioning from the Zhen family, as well as from Zhen Yingjia, the president of Jinling Tirenyuan.

But Ge Zhicheng had no other choice but to do it.

Besides, this was not the first time that Zhen Shiwen had been involved with the Jinyiwei. The last time, the Jinyiwei and Jia Cong had conspired to allow Jia Cong to rescue Zhen Shiwen from the Qianhu Suo in time.

But this time when Zhen Shiwen entered the palace for the second time, Ge Zhicheng believed that Jia Cong would never interfere again.

He dragged Guo Lin and Jia Cong into the matter of the private firearms workshop, and they had no choice but to stand on his side for the sake of justice.

……

Jinling, Xicheng, Xiuchun Street.

A stone's throw away from the rejuvenation medicine shop, there is an exquisite two-story courtyard.

As night fell, a young man in gorgeous clothes and handsome face walked up to the gate and knocked gently.

After a while, someone opened the gate and a maid about fifteen or sixteen years old came out. She had a slim figure but a rather ordinary appearance.

When she saw the man, she said happily, "Third Young Master, you are here. Please come in."

The man nodded to the maid, as if ignoring her, and walked into the yard.

The maid had a look of disappointment on her face and turned around to close the gate.

This courtyard is Zhen Shiwen's private residence. A few months ago, when he was entertaining people at Hongyu Tower, he unexpectedly met Yu Niang, a famous singing girl there.

This singing girl Yu Niang is not only beautiful and charming, but also in her prime, with a graceful and voluptuous figure, enchanting and charming appearance, which makes Zhen Shiwen unable to let her go.

So he bought this house in Xiuchun Street and kept Yu Niang as his concubine.

Right now, the two of them are inseparable, and Zhen Shiwen is even more obsessed with her. They are enjoying it very much. If it weren't for the strict rules of the Zhen family that forbid the children to have private possessions outside the house, they would have been very happy.

He wished he could stay here every night and spend endless time with this lovely person.

As soon as Zhen Shiwen entered the inner courtyard, Yu Niang, dressed in colorful clothes and with gorgeous makeup, stood by the door, greeting him with a smile.

Zhen Shiwen's heart was warmed. Yu Niang and her maid Cui'er lived in this courtyard, so he walked up to her without any scruples, put his arms around her slender waist, and led her into the room.

Yu Niang was all smiles and asked her maid Cui'er to bring the wine and food that had been prepared earlier. The two of them laughed and drank in the room.

The fine iron that was stored in Haiyun Pavilion a few days ago was finally taken away by the visitor. The clever fire took Zhen Shiwen out, and the Jinyiwei could not find any fault.

This made Zhen Shiwen feel relieved.

He has always been controlled by his cousin in business, but his father had already sent a letter to the capital, hearing that the marriage between his third sister and Jia Cong was about to be completed.

When the annoying third sister married and moved to the capital, all of the Zhen family's businesses were handed over to the eldest wife, and eventually became her own property.

There is a crescent moon outside the window, a beautiful woman and mellow wine under the lamp, and Zhen Shiwen is very proud.

The jade lady was quite knowledgeable and tactful, and kept urging him to drink, and from time to time she would drink from a jade-cheeked cup. After drinking more than thirty glasses of wine, Zhen Shiwen was already drunk... (End of this chapter)