Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 419: Alarming the Snake
In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Cui Yuan designed a rather complicated surveillance plan specifically for this "joint merchant group".

Team C, responsible for investigation and surveillance, discovered that while these individuals had united and were operating in a planned and organized manner, each family still operated independently. There was no counter-reconnaissance deployment, with each family forming a small group with a few individuals and rotating members within each group. Based on this, Cui Yuan established a rotation schedule based on each family, clearly specifying which individuals would be responsible for closely monitoring which family's slaves on which day.

The roster consisted of two-day shifts. When the shift was up, the roster would either rotate to monitor another household's slaves or simply move to another group to investigate a different target. Correspondingly, when the original Group C members were rotated out of their group, members from other groups would take their turn to monitor these key targets.

As long as the detectives strictly abide by this shift schedule, they can ensure that the same Group C personnel will not often appear near the same slaves.

Not long ago, Cui Yuan issued new orders to Group C, canceling all shifts. To ensure no one escaped, each member of the "United Merchant Corps" was assigned at least one, and often two, dedicated guards, who followed them closely. As a result, familiar-looking individuals began to appear around those members of the corps who left their base, drawing the attention of the perceptive Guo family leader.

"Master Liu, please stop exaggerating." Although the Guo family leader, surnamed Liu, looked extremely anxious, the Chen family servant who stayed at the house still didn't believe him. Not only that, he even wanted to open the door to take a look. "Maybe he's just passing by."

"I'm your grandma. I used to work as a night stalker in Gubeikou. I've followed more people than you've eaten chickens." The Guo family leader saw the Chen family servant reaching for the door bolt and hurriedly grabbed him. "What do you want to do?"

"Of course I took a look!" The Chen family servant rolled his eyes at him.

"Look at your mother's womb!" Liu Siye said anxiously, "They don't know we've discovered them yet, but if you stick your dog-like head out and sniff left and right, and make eye contact with them, they'll know."

"So what if you know!" Mr. Liu Si's angry tone ignited the stubborn temper of the Chen family's servants.

Even servants and slaves were always divided into different levels. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the highest-ranking servants were naturally the eunuchs who would call themselves slaves when meeting the emperor. They could rise to the rank of powerful and respected prime minister, while at the lowest, they would enjoy the emperor's protection and have no worries about food and drink.

Below the imperial family, the power and financial resources of each family were considered. Compared to the Chen family of Pingjiang Earl, the Guo family of Boping Earl, who, without a queen, relied solely on the emperor's nostalgia, were considered the lower-class nobles with limited power and financial resources. Therefore, the Chen family's servants had always looked down upon the Guo family's servants. Even when facing a leader of the Guo family like Liu Siye, these ordinary Chen family servants would occasionally make some disrespectful jokes. How could they tolerate Liu Siye's constant barbs of "your grandmother" and "dog head"?

The Chen family servant shook off Liu Siye's hand, grabbed the door latch with both hands, stepped out of the door in three steps, and looked around at the intersection. As he looked around, he cursed: "I have to see who dares to follow me!"

Sure enough, just as he had expected before opening the door, there was not a single pedestrian on the entire road, only the shadows of tree leaves swaying slightly in the breeze.

The Chen family servant, believing he had won the argument, immediately started boasting. "There's no one here!" The Chen family servant returned to the stunned Liu Siye, raised his head and proudly flaunted his bookish words: "People like you are the ones who are always panicking and seeing enemies everywhere."

"Oh!" The leader of the Guo family sighed and laughed, shaking his head as he led the donkey towards the barn. As he walked, he called out to the leader of the merchant group, "Come here, Mr. Cai!"

"Master Laicai hasn't come back yet." The Chen family servant said behind him.

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Half an hour later, Li Laicai, the leader of the Li family caravan, returned to the farmyard with two servants.

"Master Laicai, you're finally back." The one who opened the door was the Chen family servant who had stayed behind. As soon as he opened the door, he enthusiastically took the reins from Li Laicai's hands. Li Laicai hadn't gone into the city, but had gone to Beitang Fortress to meet Li Weidong, the Tianjin coastal defense guerrilla. The two places were not far apart, and even by foot, it wouldn't take long to get there. Therefore, of the three of them, only Li Laicai, the leader, rode a mule.

"Have everyone else returned?" Li Laicai asked the Chen family servant.

"They're all back," the Chen family servant nodded and replied, "We're just waiting for you to have dinner together."

"Yeah," Li Laicai responded with a sigh.

The Chen family servant seemed to hear the sadness in this response and asked, "Master Lai Cai, could it be that the guerrilla named Li still doesn't know what's good for him?"

This wasn't their first visit to Li Weidong, the Tianjin coastal defense guerrilla commander. Given his privileged status as a servant of a noble family, Li Weidong always invited them to see him and treated them with unwavering courtesy. If it happened to be dinnertime, he would even invite them to share a meal. However, despite his courteous manners, whenever the conversation broached the "real business" of collaborating for profit, Li Weidong would evade it with a joke, subtly redirecting the subject, or simply disappear, as he did today, claiming to need to relieve himself and then waiting outside for a quarter of an hour before returning.

"." Li Laicai just shook his head and didn't waste too much time arguing with the Chen family servant.

In the evening, the members of the United Merchants Group gathered for dinner. They had two tables, one large and one small. The small square table sat in the middle, facing the door and directly gazing at the sunset, while the large round table sat in the corner, only able to enjoy the afterglow through the gap in the window.

"Come on, Mr. Cai!" Just as the table was being served, before the dishes were even laid out, the Guo family's leader, surnamed Liu, couldn't wait to speak. "I don't think I can stay here any longer."

"What's the matter now?" Li Laicai's hand that was pouring wine suddenly stopped and his brows furrowed.

"Master Liu Si wants to say again that someone is following them!" The Chen family servant who was guarding the door and the house interrupted.

"Shut up! When was it your turn to speak?" The Chen family leader looked at Master Liu Si and shouted, not really knowing who he was referring to. Master Liu Si had no intention of engaging with these people any further, and continued to speak to Li Laicai, "Master Laicai, someone really is following us. I saw it clearly, three of them, two of whom looked very familiar. I don't know who they are, but I'm sure I've seen them somewhere before. They followed us all the way from the city to the village entrance, and didn't stop until we entered!"

"So?" Li Laicai still filled the wine bowl.

Mr. Liu Si hurriedly said, "So we can't stay here any longer. We have to leave as soon as possible!"

"Leave here." Li Laicai took a sip of cold wine, frowned and sighed, "Then what? Where to go? Things are not finished yet."

Li Laicai was being sent to "redeem meritorious service." After that report, Li Guorui summoned the nobles and relatives to Tsinghua University for a meeting. After deciding on a plan, Li Guorui unexpectedly gave Li Laicai the task of "redeeming meritorious service" by leading the "United Merchant Corps" to protect the trade routes and stabilize everyone's cash cow. Li Guorui spoke as if it were Li Laicai who had chopped down the cash cow with his axe.

But the arm can't change the thigh. Regardless of Li Guorui's attitude, since Li Guorui has given this task to Li Laicai, Li Laicai must do it, and do it well. Otherwise, that mad dog-like "young marquis" will really bite him to death. After all, Tsinghua University is outside Beijing, and there is no need to go through customs inspection when entering or leaving. If he is killed, he can be dragged to any barren mountain and let wild dogs and wolves gnaw on him for two days, and then such a living person will be killed.

"Even if the matter is not completed, we can talk about it after this period." Liu Siye could not hear Li Laicai's resistance, but he still said: "We are being watched. It's not safe here anymore!"

Li Laicai frowned even more tightly, but this time he did not respond and continued drinking.

"Master Liu Si, stop being so suspicious all day long." At this time, the leader of the Chen family raised his wine bowl and toasted Master Liu Si. "Come, drink."

"I'm not being suspicious!" Liu Siye didn't clink glasses with him, and didn't even take the wine bowl. "Why don't you believe it? I used to..."

"I know, I know. You used to work as a night stalker in Gubeikou," the Chen family leader shrugged. "If you ask me, since you've found the people who were following you, why not just arrest them?"

"Catch him?" Master Liu Si asked in surprise, "Master Chen Liu, what do you want to do?" Among the three team leaders present, Master Liu Si was the only one whose master's surname had not been changed.

"What else can we do?" At this moment, a plate of steaming and fragrant braised pork was brought to the table. Uncle Chen Liu immediately picked up his chopsticks, picked up a piece and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed and said, "There are thirteen of us here, and there are only three of them. Let's catch them and beat them up. Ask them why they dared to follow us. If they have bad intentions, hehe!" Uncle Chen Liu grinned, and hot pork fat mixed with sauce flowed from the corners of his mouth. "Then kill them and throw them into the mountains."

"You still want to kill someone?" Seeing his soldier-like and bandit-like demeanor, Mr. Liu's eyes widened. Li Laicai also glanced at Mr. Chen Liu.

"We're all military men, and we've seen blood before." Chen Liuye rolled his eyes at Liu Siye. "Besides, there are old woods everywhere around here. If we kill them and throw them into the woods, they'll be eaten until only the bones are left in two days. Who would know it was us who did it?"

"Do you know who they are? How dare you kill people?" Mr. Liu Si couldn't resist the temptation of the big piece of meat and picked up a piece to eat.

"If I knew, I would need to arrest someone and ask him. Haha, I'll just kill him." Mr. Chen Liu looked big and strong, but his alcohol tolerance was actually very average. He was already a little drunk after drinking two bowls of wine.

"If someone is really following us, who do you think they are?" Li Laicai had never worked overnight. He had no experience following anyone, nor had he ever been followed. But after all this arguing, Li Laicai was starting to get suspicious. Thinking carefully, it did seem like someone was following him since he left the Coastal Defense Battalion.

"They can't be just any ordinary people." Liu Siye raised his wine bowl and took his first sip of the night's wine. "Think about it, we've only been here for a short time. Those people we met earlier had no need or ability to follow us. I could smell the fishy smell of the sea on those fishermen and boatmen from a distance."

"Haha, are you a dog? You can smell fishy smells." Mr. Chen Liu started interrupting and talking nonsense.

Liu Siye glanced at him unhappily, but ultimately didn't respond. He then said to Li Laicai, "Also, don't tell me you don't know what we're doing. This is a life-threatening business that goes against national policy. Even the Imperial Guards might come down to investigate!"

The atmosphere in the dining room immediately darkened as the words "Jinyiwei" were uttered. Even the Chen family servant stationed at the gate unconsciously withdrew his smile. Only Master Chen Liu, who had been drinking too much and was gradually getting drunk, was still joking and laughing to himself.

"No, no, no! It can't be the Jinyiwei." Li Laicai said loudly in a tone that everyone could hear: "The Jinyiwei has transferred a lot of people from all over the place. They are short of manpower and can barely maintain order in the capital. How could they come to Tianjin to check our background at this time!" No matter what, he had to stabilize people's hearts.

"There are two factories and one guard. The Jinyiwei can't take care of itself, but there are still the East Factory and the West Factory there." Mr. Liu Si became more and more convinced as he spoke.

"That's even more impossible!" Li Laicai continued to refute. But at this time, he could already hear his own heartbeat very clearly. "The East and West Factories cannot leave Beijing without permission, unless the emperor..." Cold sweat broke out on Li Laicai's forehead. "Impossible, absolutely impossible! We are so cautious..."

Fourth Master Liu interrupted him, "How is that impossible? Two ships have already been put on the list of displaced people by the Ministry of Revenue because of us! The Ministry of Revenue has already issued the compensation. Maybe the Emperor sent the Imperial Household Guards to investigate because he knew about this. We can't move around anymore! At least not for the foreseeable future. We'd better leave here as soon as possible!"

Mr. Liu's analysis is spot-on and reasonable. The diversion of shipping was ordered by the emperor. Now that it's happening, and ships are sinking immediately, the Ministry of Finance reports it to the higher authorities, and the emperor dispatches an investigation—it's a natural and logical outcome. If the three individuals Mr. Liu mentioned are indeed members of the East or West Depot, then any further action they take would be putting their necks on the sword. As for those who murdered the factory guards, they're testing the emperor's sword with their own clans.

(End of this chapter)