Han official!

Chapter 174 Baqiao
Heavy rain washed the thatched roofs of the five pavilions, and salty mist from the Ba River flooded into the pavilions.

Guo Jie kicked open the worm-eaten wooden door, and ten personnel officers filed in. The copper spikes inlaid on the hooks gleamed coldly in the dim light.

When the captain Han Lu was about to climb out of the window, two officers used hooks to lock his shoulder blades and pressed him down heavily on the table covered with salt grains.

"In the seventh month of the second year of Jianyuan, thirty hu of salt were collected." Guo Jie threw the armory records in front of Han Lu, and salt grains tumbled out from the cracks in the bamboo slips. "The Stables Law clearly states that the monthly supply for the Tingchuan is no more than five hu. This is an excess of twenty-five hu."

He suddenly drew his ring-handled sword and split the pottery jar in the corner. Half of a Xiongnu arrowhead rolled out of the black salt. "Feed it to the Xiongnu horses?"

Han Lu's Adam's apple rolled. "That autumn flood destroyed the Ba Bridge. The extra salt was..."

"We use rammed earth to build bridges, so what's the use of salt?"

Guo Jie lifted his collar with the tip of his knife, revealing a tattoo on his collarbone. The twisted "Five Vermin" totem shone with the poisonous azure glow of malachite. "Article 3 of the Law on Thieves: 'Anyone who falsifies the law shall be executed.' What crime should the village headman be punished for forging official documents to embezzle government salt?"

The materials officials suddenly lifted up the floor tiles, and twenty pottery jars were glowing in the cellar.

Guo Jie sprinkled a handful of black salt onto the bamboo slips of "The Law of Theft." The salt grains, upon meeting the glue and lacquer of the bamboo slips, ignited into a blue flame. "Hedong snowflake salt mixed with Jiaodong gold placer, are they trying to imitate chujin?"

He struck Han Lu's knee hard with his scabbard. "In the first year of the Jianyuan era, a powerful family minted coins privately, and their entire clan was exterminated!"

Han Lu's cold sweat soaked through his robe: "My superiors, please understand! On the night of Shangsi in the second year of Jianyuan, a nobleman arrived in a carriage."

"The width of the shaft is one foot and three inches, and the wheelbase conforms to the regulations for the four-wheeled carriages of the Weiyang Palace." Guo Jie suddenly unfolded the plain silk cloth, and the imprint of the wheel tracks was stained with rouge specially supplied by the Changxin Palace.

"That night when it rained heavily, you smeared beeswax on the threshold of the pavilion." The tip of the knife scraped off the wax and threw it into the brazier, and the official script of the word "Dou" emerged.

The officers shouted in unison, and the hooks and barbs pierced Han Lu's flesh.

Guo Jie ripped open his prison uniform, revealing a tattoo mark hidden between the overlapping old and new whip marks. "During the reign of Emperor Jing, you were a garrison soldier in Yunzhong County. You were tattooed on your face for illegally selling military rations."

The scabbard poked at the festering "five" brand. "Is this new cinnabar the cinnabar produced in Hejian Country?"

Han Lu's pupils suddenly constricted. Guo Jie cracked open the second pottery jar, and gold dust cascaded down. "The Customs and Market Law states that 'anyone who secretly removes goods from the border will be branded and sentenced to hard labor in the city.'"

He grabbed a handful of gold powder and smeared it on the bamboo slips. When the tide came, it revealed a blood-red map. "The route to the Daijun Military Horse Farm is quite detailed."

"It's the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion!" Han Lu suddenly roared, "They took my wife and children."

Thunder roared, and Guo Jie, with his backhand, hammered his ring-handled sword into the beam. Amidst the humming sound of the blade's trembling, he leaned forward, "Article 4 of the Law on Arresting: 'A person who knows of a crime but fails to report it shall be punished with the same crime.'"

His fingertips traced the poisonous sore on Han Lu's neck. "Confess now, and I will protect your young son from becoming a government slave."

The materials officials brought in a wooden box at the right time, and the tiger-head shoes of the young child in the box made Han Lu tremble all over.

Guo Jie picked up the salt stains on the sole of his shoe and said, "The sea salt from Jiaodong County is mixed with Lantian jade dust. Last month, the shoe prints left by the craftsman at the Marquis of Pingyang's villa are exactly the same as the pattern on this child's shoe."

Han Lu suddenly jumped up and crashed into the burning salt jar, but was held down by the materials officer.

Guo Jie pulled out the jade from under his tongue, dipped it in fish fat, and revealed a map of the secret passage: "On the Bingyin day, the third salt cart east of Baqiao, is it loaded with golden men or poisonous salt?"

"They all have..." Han Lu collapsed to the ground, "The chest and abdomen of the golden man are filled with malachite powder, which will explode when it comes into contact with water..."

A crossbow arrow flew through the air outside the window, and Guo Jie turned around and chopped the arrow away.

The linen tied to the arrow shaft ignited green flames when it came into contact with salt, and the fire illuminated the new tattoo on Han Lu's back.

It is a reflection of the "Five Vermin" tattoo on Wei Guang's neck.

"They are the Gongyang School!" Han Lu screamed in the rain of arrows, "They are..."

Guo Jie suddenly overturned the table to block the arrow, and salt grains sparked on the bronze armor.

The timber officials dragged Han Lu back to the cellar, but saw the cellar wall painted with salt to worship the Xiongnu.

Guo Jie chopped the talisman with a knife, and a bronze talisman rolled out from the broken salt. The two words "Shui Heng" had been eroded by half, and the engraved Bashui underground canal pointed directly to the villa of Pingyang Hou.

At the time of Chen on Bingyin day, Han Lu suddenly vomited black blood, and at the time of the salt cart crossing the bridge,

The material officer opened his clenched palm, and saw the "Five Vermin" totem traced in cinnabar on the palm lines.

Guo Jie dipped the black blood in the bamboo slips and wrote quickly. The blood stains met the salt and revealed a new clue: Baqiao.

When the rainstorm gradually subsided, Guo Jie stood among the arrows.

The newly engraved "fifty-eight" bloodstains on the scabbard glowed faintly, and Han Lu's corpse was at his feet.

The materials officer presented a piece of white silk stained with blood. Next to the Baqiao map was a bloody handprint, which matched the seal on the secret letter from the Huns intercepted three days ago.

"Go and report this to Zhang Tingwei," Guo Jie tossed the bronze token to the materials officer, "On the Bingyin day, when the nets are closed, the water transport commander's ship-carrying officers will be dispatched."

He glanced at the ancient locust tree to the west of the pavilion. The brine oozing from the roots was corroding the "Five Vermin" totem into the word "Weiyang".

……

Baqiao.

Wang Meng, a retainer of the Dou family, treaded his leather boots on the ironwork of the shaft as he gazed at the lone figure at the bridgehead and sneered, "Isn't this the mighty hero Guo, the master of Hedong? I heard Wei Guang is in the imperial prison in the silkworm room, even his fingernails have been corroded by the salt."

Zhou Fu used his dagger to pick at the salt grains between his fingernails. The malachite inlaid on the hilt shone green in the morning light. "Sir, look at this."

He lifted the carriage curtain with the tip of his sword, revealing the ring-handled swords hidden in the salt cart's inner compartment. "These are all newly made this year in the armory with the 'Wei' mark on them. Once we get to Yinshan, they'll be irrefutable proof of the Wei family's collusion with the enemy."

Guo Jie's ring-handled scabbard clashed against the bridge railing, startling the crows from the willow branches. "In the twelfth month of the second year of the Jianyuan reign, the salt cellar at Dou's villa collapsed, uncovering twenty tattooed corpses. Their collarbones were branded with the same malachite pattern."

He crushed the salt block with the sole of his boot, revealing the inner layer of black sand. "Using Hejian aerobatic sand mixed with Jiaodong Sea salt, this method is exactly the same as the one used to poison Han Lu."

"Tsk tsk, is Hero Guo still investigating an old case?" Wang Meng leaped from the chariot shaft, the jade chariot hanging from the waistband of his rhinoceros armor jingling. "Wei Guang's blood-stained jade chariot is currently in the tent of the Xiongnu King Rizhu. Do you think the verification token from the Pingyang Marquis's mansion can withstand a thorough investigation by the Minister of Agriculture?"

Zhou Fu suddenly hit the salt cart with the spine of his sword, and the secret compartment in the interlayer popped open.

Bundles of plain silk certificates were scattered, each bearing the red seal of Princess Pingyang's fiefdom: "These certificates of pledge for 'a thousand horses to be donated in the second year of the Jianyuan reign' will appear at the north gate of the Weiyang Palace tomorrow."

He lifted the rolled silk scroll with the tip of his sword and threw it into the river, "just like the Xiongnu arrow in Dong Yan's arms that year, landing squarely at Wei Guang's feet."

Guo Jie threw his sword backhanded, splitting the falling silk scroll. The blade carved a deep groove into the willow trunk. "In the second year of Jianyuan, during the salt cart robbery in Yunzhong County, the arrow wounds on the garrison soldiers' bodies were pierced with specially made whistling arrowheads from the Shaofu."

He pulled out the knife that had been embedded in the tree trunk. The salt stains on the blade revealed blood-red lines. "Isn't it the same craftsmen who made the crossbows in your carriages tonight?"

"Good eyesight!" Wang Meng laughed and clapped his hands, pulling out a powerful crossbow from the secret compartment of the salt cart. "Back in the Hedong Salt Pond, Doctor Guo used a crossbow like this to shoot through thirty of Dou's private soldiers."

He suddenly pulled the trigger, and the crossbow arrow was nailed three inches in front of Guo Jie's foot. "Unfortunately, the arrow shaft is wrapped in mulberry paper from the Pingyang Marquis's mansion. When soaked in water, it will reveal Wei Zifu's palm print."

A gentle breeze blew up salt grains that fell on the Xiezhi crown on Zhou's skin.

He pointed his sword at the western twilight: "These thirty carts of 'salt and iron' arrive at the border market, and the weapons in the interlayer are exchanged for Xiongnu war horses. The return journey will be living proof of 'Wei's collaboration with the enemy.'"

The five-worm bronze bell dangled from his sword, tinkling. "Then all the nobles in the court will see the Wei family crest engraved on the inside of the saddle."

Guo Jie suddenly grabbed a handful of black salt and sprinkled it onto the chariots. The salt grains sparked with phosphorescence as they met the iron. "Just like how you two used Hedong's saltpeter to eat through the floor of Dong Yan's prisoner chariot?"

A wheel track appeared in the phosphorescent light. "This wheel track is three inches wider than that of an ordinary salt cart, which is in line with the specifications of the Weiyang Palace's golden-rooted cart. When Empress Dou lent the cart to Princess Pingyang, didn't she tell you to change the track?"

Wang Meng's face suddenly turned cold, and he drew his saddle-edge axe. "Doctor Guo, do you know what's buried under this bridge pier?"

He thrust the tip of his knife into the cracks in the bluestone. "The bodies of those missing soldiers, wrapped in salt bricks, lay here." He suddenly chuckled. "The lining of their armor was embroidered with the word 'Wei'."

The tip of Zhou Fu's sword passed by Guo Jie's ear, shaving off a half-strand of hair. "On the Bingyin day, the Imperial Court will deliver Wei Guang's confession in silk. Then, these bones will serve as evidence of Wei's treason." He swung his sword to shake off the blood droplets. "Just like when you used salt erosion to make the powerful confess their crimes at the Chen County Salt Fields."

As dusk deepened, the creaking of the salt cart startled the crows.

Guo Jie sheathed his sword, the bronze pendant clashing against the scabbard with a clear sound. "Do you know what Han Lu carved on the salt brick before he died?"

The tip of his boot crushed the loose soil, revealing the inscription of "Bing Yin" on the bluestone. "Tomorrow at this time, these salt carts will not be entering the market."

Guo Jie's voice suddenly became sharp, "It's the Water Controller's Golden Burning Furnace!"

Wang Meng's axe struck the bridge railing, sending out several sparks. "How dare you! These thirty carts of 'salt and iron' carry a pass from the Pingyang Marquisate."

"In the second year of the Jianyuan era, the Minister of Agriculture revised the Salt and Iron Code. Anyone found guilty of illegal trading would be torn to pieces." Guo Jie flung a half-bronze talisman into the salt cart. "The Water Transport Commandant's shipbuilders have taken control of the Wei River transport. Right now, the Marquis of Pingyang is admiring your two masterpieces in the Shaofu Prison."

He suddenly pulled open the car curtain, and the weapons in the secret compartment were being corroded by salt water, leaving a mark of the word "Dou".

Zhou Fu's sword fell to the ground with a clang.

Suddenly, torches lit up on the opposite bank, and the military flags of the military officers fluttered in the twilight.

Wang Meng raised his crossbow and said, "Then let this Baqiao be buried with the Wei family."

The Ba River, carrying the smell of saltpeter and sulfur from the salt pond upstream, foamed white between the cracks in the bridge piers.

Guo Jie's five fingers slowly stroked the ring-handled sword, and a thin layer of salt condensed in the blood grooves on the blade's spine over the years.

Behind him, a hundred officers formed a cone-shaped formation. The copper spikes on their hooks gleamed green in the autumn sun. They had specially approved the use of enemy-capturing weapons from the armory, and each barb was tempered with poisonous salt from Hedong.

"Doctor Guo, what a grand ceremony!"

Wang Meng's leather boots rolled over the salt grains on the bridge surface, and the jade axe hanging on the waist strap of his rhinoceros armor jingled.

He deliberately lifted the salt cart's cover, revealing the gleaming ring-handled sword within. "These 'Wei'-branded weapons were all tributes personally approved by Princess Pingyang!"

Zhou Fu's short sword lifted the carriage curtain, the hilt seeping blood in the morning light. "I heard that Sima Wei is in the imperial prison in the silkworm room, and even his fingernails have been corroded by the salt?"

He suddenly split open the salt bag, and the black sand that flew up was mixed with Lantian jade chips. "Such high-quality goods deserve to be engraved with the 'Dou family' emblem!"

The tip of Guo Jie's boot swished up gravel from the mudflats, and the salt-coated pebbles lashed Zhou Fu in the face. "In the twelfth month of the second year of the Jianyuan era, the Dou family's salt cellar collapsed, uncovering twenty tattooed corpses." The gravel sparked on the rhinoceros armor. "The malachite pattern on your clavicle is a perfect match for your sword hilt."

Wang Meng's axe suddenly chopped towards the first salt cart, and the iron-clad shaft broke.

The ring-handled swords hidden in the interlayer poured down like a waterfall, and the cold light rushed directly towards the formation of the officers.

Guo Jie turned around and kicked over the burning haystack. The sparks ignited the sulfur hidden in the axle, and the blast blew seven of Dou's private soldiers into the Ba River.

"Hook and lock the wheel!" Guo Jie shouted.

Zhang Teng, the chief of materials, led his team to roll forward, and the three-edged hook was accurately inserted into the axle of the salt cart.

The bronze spokes made a sharp and piercing sound during the wrestling, and Zhang Teng's hook suddenly slipped out of his hand.

The barbed mechanism hidden in the axis popped out, and it turned out to be a grappling device specially made by the Shaofu Kaogong Studio!
Wang Meng grinned and pulled the chain, and Zhang Teng was dragged under the car.

Guo Jie threw the ring-handled sword into the air, and the blade rotated to cut the iron chain. The moment he caught the sword with his backhand, he split the carriage open.

What rolled out from the interlayer was not weapons, but bundles of mulberry leather certificates with the seal of Marquis Pingyang!
"Send a thousand horses." Guo Jie lifted the scroll with the tip of his sword. "This ink is quite fresh. It must have been soaked in the poisonous salt in the Imperial Guards' Prison the other day, right?"

Zhou Fu's short sword was like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue, and the tip of the sword went straight for Guo Jie's throat.

Guo Jie blocked with the handle of his sword, and sparks flew as the bronze and iron collided.

Guo Jie took three quick steps back, and the leather armor on his left arm had been corroded with honeycomb-like holes.

"Stone powder from Hejian, mixed with Jiaodong sea salt." Zhou Fu swung his sword, knocking off Guo Jie's hairband. "That's how Han Lu became rotten!"

He suddenly turned around and chopped at the salt pile, and the salt mist that rose up appeared blood-red.

Exactly the same as Wuting's corpse.

Guo Jie tore off his robe and wrapped it around his mouth and nose, then inserted his ring-handled knife into the crack in the bridge stone.

Amid the humming sound of the blade's vibrations, he discerned the hollow echo of the salt cart's floor: "Rise!"

Amidst the loud shouts, the bluestone of the bridge deck cracked, and the salt-wrapped corpse hidden in the interlayer bounced up randomly. It was the garrison soldier who had disappeared many years ago!

"Look, everyone!" Wang Meng's axe lifted the corpse's breastplate, revealing the Wei clan crest sewn into the lining. "This is irrefutable proof that the Wei clan is collaborating with the enemy!"

The jade ornament that rolled out of the corpse's mouth hit the bridge railing and fit perfectly with the ornaments worn by the servants of the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion.

Guo Jie struck the corpse's skull with the back of his knife, and black salt dripped from the rotting flesh. "Three years ago, during the Yunzhong County salt cart robbery, the soldiers took this poisonous salt!"

When the salt grains met the blood, they ignited phosphorescent fire, revealing bloody wheel tracks, and the wheelbase actually matched the regulations for the Golden Root Chariot in the Weiyang Palace!
Wang Meng suddenly kicked over three salt carts, and the pottery jars hidden in the secret compartments exploded.

Poisonous salt powder swept across the bridge surface, and the rhinoceros armor of the materials officers sizzled in the fog.

Guo Jie turned and chopped off willow branches, dipped them in Bashui water, and sprinkled them into an arc curtain. "Before he died, Han Lu said that when the poisonous fog rises, there will be an ambush in the willow forest west of the bridge!"

Zhou Fu's short sword penetrated, but the tip of the sword deviated by three inches. Guo Jie had already calculated the angle of refraction of the poisonous fog!

He seized the opportunity to grab Zhou Fu's right wrist, and felt the old arrow scar with his fingertips: "That whistling arrow from Yunzhong County actually left this mark."

With a sudden exertion of force, the sound of broken wrist bones mixed with screams tore through the poisonous fog.

Suddenly, the sound of drums and horns from a ship came from the opposite bank.

Wang Meng's pupils suddenly shrank. The Mengchong warship of the Shuiheng Commandant actually broke through the Dou family's canal transport blockade!

He roared and cut the bridge ropes, and the thousand-jin gate stone fell down with a loud bang, but the ring-handled knife thrown by Guo Jie got stuck in the mechanism.

The blade bent into an arc under the huge force, and black sand fell from the salt-eroded blood groove.

"This blow will return the thirty wronged souls of Yunzhong County to you!" Guo Jie leaped into the air and tapped the suspended gate stone with his toes for leverage.

The ring-handled knife pierced into the crack of Wang Meng's rhinoceros armor like a meteor, and the blade deliberately deflected when it penetrated the shoulder blade. He wanted to let this Dou family henchman live to witness the exposure of his conspiracy!

Zhou Fu crawled towards the burning salt cart, the ointment fuse in his arms soaked with cold sweat.

He suddenly bit the poison sac on his back teeth and said, "The Lord will do this for us."

Black blood sprayed onto the salt bricks of the bridge railing, corroding a broken "five" character.

Guo Jie tore off the rhinoceros armor on his chest and found a hidden bag of stone powder that was the same as the poison that Han Lu was poisoned with.

"On the Bingyin day, the third car from the east of Baqiao" Guo Jie dipped the powder in poison and wrote quickly on the bamboo slips. The secret text that appeared when it came into contact with water pointed directly to the Ice Well Platform in Changle Palace.

When the last salt cart overturned, he caught a glimpse of the bone whistle that slipped out of Wang Meng's sleeve.

The arrangement of the whistle holes is exactly the same as the regulations of the Gongyang School's ritual instruments for offering sacrifices to heaven!

"Retreat!" Guo Jie sheathed his sword, and the fifty-ninth notch on the sheath was soaked with blood salt.

The officers dragged the seriously injured Wang Meng back to Wei Bridge, and the Ba River whimpered and swept away the broken armor and blades.

The west wind swept across the charred willow branches, startling a flock of crows that covered the sky. Deep in the willow forest, thirty crossbow-drawn watchtowers were emitting a poisonous light.
(End of this chapter)