Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 420 Death Struggle
"Leaving?" Li Laicai swallowed his saliva and remained silent for a long time. He had already agreed with Liu Siye's analysis, but he was afraid that if he stopped the action rashly, he would anger Li Guorui and get a beating for no reason.

"Master Laicai." Master Liu Si called out again, pulling Li Laicai out of his chaotic thoughts.

"What's wrong?" Li Laicai's eyes flickered and his facial muscles twitched constantly.

"As the saying goes, if you have the green mountains, you will never run out of firewood. Let's lie low first. When this storm is over, it won't be too late to continue our work." Master Liu Si really began to back down in his heart.

He had served in Gubeikou for over a decade, encountering the Mongols both inside and outside the Great Wall. He had tracked small enemy units and been pursued by their scouts. He was all too familiar with that gaze, as if examining prey. Therefore, Liu Siye was certain that those following them were no pushovers. If they were to surround and capture them, as Chen Liuye had predicted, their first instinct wouldn't be to flee, but to strike them with knives.

Liu Siye had already decided that if Li Laicai refused to obey him and insisted on "doing his job", he would secretly run away. Although the uncle of the Guo family was greedy for money, he was not a cruel master like Li Guorui who would beat and scold his servants at will.

After hesitating in silence for a while, Li Laicai asked, "Can you find a way to find out the identities of these people first?"

"Of course I have ways to test them, but if I really do that, they'll realize we've discovered them. And then, they might even realize that many of our previous actions were cover-ups, not normal business practices." Fourth Master Liu shook his head and glared at the Chen family servant who stayed behind in the compound. "So I think it's best not to do that!"

At Liu Siye's suggestion, the "United Merchants" took a series of measures to conceal their true intentions. They dispatched dedicated personnel to the market, researching prices for various commodities like normal merchants. They then negotiated prices, selecting the best and cheapest goods, and proceeded with normal purchases. After completing their purchases, they arranged for personnel to transport the goods to Tianjin, Wuqing, and Dong'an. These locations either housed the properties of the Wuqing Marquis Li family or the warehouses of the Pingjiang Earl Chen family. Without further investigation, outsiders could easily believe these individuals were simply purchasing goods to profit from the price difference.

Mr. Liu Si even speculated with some pride that the reason why those who followed them only followed them instead of coming up to ask questions directly was because they fell into his carefully designed deception.

Before Li Laicai could say anything, Liu Siye spoke up again, "Master Laicai, I must remind you that as a temporary merchant group, we've been staying in Beitang for far too long. This is extremely unusual. We really should go back. And before we go back, we'd better buy something at the market and take it to the customs to pay taxes."

"Pay taxes, why?" Li Laicai asked. They had been doing business for so long, but they had never paid taxes to the court.

Liu Siye sighed and replied, "Of course, it's to leave behind a deceptive piece of evidence. If the guards question me later, I can use this tax receipt as a defense." As the saying goes, desperation breeds wit. At this moment, Liu Siye sensed a sense of lurking danger, and countermeasures emerged one after another like stars, flooding into his mind. This feeling reminded him of the first time he had evaded pursuit and escaped. This gave him the conviction that this time, like countless times before, he could turn danger into fortune.

However, the others present didn't feel the same way; they were simply terrified. As soon as Mr. Liu Si finished speaking, the dining room fell into a deep silence, broken only by the slow sounds of chewing and swallowing. Everyone nervously stared at Li Laicai, quietly waiting for the leader to speak. Meanwhile, they were also forming their own plans.

"Hmm," Li Laicai replied vaguely. Just when everyone thought he agreed to Liu Siye's proposal, Li Laicai spoke again: "But we were sent by our families after all. It's not a good idea to go back rashly."

When Mr. Lai Cai heard this, Mr. Liu Si's brows suddenly wrinkled into the shape of a "川" (川).

Li Laicai waved his hand to stop Liu Siye, and looked away with a guilty look: "How about this, you write a letter tonight, and send someone to ride back to Beijing tomorrow to briefly explain what you found. Before we receive the reply, we will do nothing here, and I will not go to the Nanying Fort either."

In Li Laicai's original plan, the "United Merchant Corps" would find a way to make one or several silver-carrying supply ships "sink" in the middle of this month.

The silver he was targeting was a shipment of military pay from the Internal Transport Treasury. This pay, totaling 300,000 taels, was to be dispatched in six batches aboard twelve ships over six days. Li Laicai believed that if he could sink at least one of the military pay ships, he would clearly demonstrate the dangers of this route to the court. If the court reversed its policy, his mission would be accomplished. Even if the court persisted, he would still have secured a substantial sum for his family, a form of "meritorious service while serving his sentence."

However, pay ships were different from grain and cargo ships. According to the Ministry of Pay, grain and cargo ships only needed to be escorted by Coast Guard soldiers aboard. In other words, if they could "deal with" the accompanying Coast Guard soldiers, they could cause the ship to "sink," causing damage. Pay ships, on the other hand, were escorted by warships. Even if they bribed the ship owner and crew, they wouldn't be able to get away from the warships. Therefore, he visited Li Weidong and asked him to get the Coast Guard to cooperate with him.

Even though Li Weidong had repeatedly refused him and displayed a refusal to cooperate, Li Laicai remained undeterred. He had plenty of ways to manipulate Li Weidong. The corruption, the unpaid salaries, the decaying equipment—all these were obvious issues that the East Depot could easily uncover, and so could they. Li Laicai had even made a plan: if Li Weidong still used the excuse of urinating to escape, he would patiently wait for him to return and then slap these incidents in his face as a threat.

But now it seems that there is a deeper reason for Li Weidong's greedy resistance. After all, it was money issued by the palace.
Li Laicai glanced around at everyone and put on a cheering smile. "Before we reply to the letter back home, let's all take a break and go to the brothels to have some fun and relax. It'll keep us out of the spotlight and give us a break."

"Write a letter back, ha!" Before Liu Siye, the leader of the Guo family, could express his opinion, a Guo family servant sitting at the round table suddenly spoke up. "Master Cai, what if we get stopped on the way?"

The Guo family servant had thought it through very well. The so-called sending of a messenger meant sending them back to deliver the letter. If they were caught by the Imperial Guards on the way, they would likely be sent to the purgatory-like Zhenfusi Imperial Prison. Even if they were spared, a quick death would be considered the kindness of the Imperial Guards.

As the Guo family servant spoke, he glanced around at his colleagues, who immediately understood and agreed, "Yes, tell me, what should we do if we get stopped along the way?" The other two families were enjoying themselves in the brothels, while they had to travel all the way, risking punishment in the imperial prison. They would never agree! Even if Fourth Master Liu agreed, they would never agree!
"Don't be afraid. Write the letter more obscurely, or just give it a verbal message." Li Laicai forced a smile on his face, but it was uglier than crying. Li Laicai was clearly aware that the morale of this team had begun to irreversibly collapse. "I won't let you run in vain."

"Well said!" The Guo family servant who had initially spoken interrupted Li Laicai. He then looked at the Li family servants sitting across from them and said in a highly provocative tone, "Master Laicai has a generous reward. Brothers, sign up quickly." His lead was quickly followed by the other Guo family servants.

How could the Li family's servants accept this? They all turned their heads and pretended not to hear.

Li Laicai choked up, too. How could he not hear the Guo servant's teasing? But he really wanted someone from either the Guo or Chen family to deliver the letter, or even from both. It wasn't that Li Laicai wanted to expose the other two families to the scrutiny of their watchers. With this kind of conspiracy, if you could arrest a large number of people, it wouldn't matter who you arrested. Li Laicai simply wanted to take a detour, passing the news to Li Guorui through the heads of the Guo and Chen families. That way, he might avoid a beating. The atmosphere grew tense, and internal strife was brewing.

At that moment, Mr. Liu knocked on the table, drawing everyone's attention to himself. He volunteered, "Master Cai, I'll go there myself. I've been in this business before, and I discovered those people. If anyone asks about this, I'll be able to speak well of them."

Phew! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when these words came out, especially Mr. Liu Si and the servants of the Guo family.

Liu Siye wasn't trying to help Li Laicai out, nor was he willing to rein in his men. His only thought was to go back and persuade his master to withdraw from this treacherous business. Let the Li and Chen families deal with it on their own. If they were truly worried about not getting a share of the profits, then perhaps they could follow the Zhu family's example and provide the money but not the men. Diving headfirst into this boundless, indeterminate ocean, they wouldn't know when a wave would overturn them and drown them.

"That's settled!" Li Laicai agreed immediately, picking up the wine jar on the table and pouring a bowl of wine for Mr. Liu Si. He even changed his address: "Take a good rest tonight and recharge your energy! We'll set off early tomorrow morning!"

"Haha." Mr. Liu Si also responded with a smile. "Thank you for being polite, Mr. Lai Cai. I'll just pour the wine myself."

The tense atmosphere warmed up again the moment the two wine bowls clinked. Around the round table, the Li and Guo families even began discussing which prostitute was more beautiful. The atmosphere shifted so quickly that it was as if the previous argument had never occurred.

What they didn't know was that while they were toasting and drinking, Sun Chengzong's camp was less than forty miles away from them.

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"Sun Zhongcheng," Sun Yuerong said as he sat on his horse, leaning over and pointing his finger over the shoulders of Mao Yuanyi and the four escorting cavalrymen, pointing towards the distant corner. He then said to Sun Chengzong, who was riding alongside him, "After passing this forest below, we will reach the last post station before Beitang."

"I know." Sun Chengzong nodded.

Sun Yuerong was stunned for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Zhongcheng hasn't been to Beitang yet, right?"

"Haha." Sun Chengzong smiled and shook his head. "I 'indeed' haven't left Zhongwei since taking office, but Gaoyang and Beitang are only four hundred miles apart, and it's just that short a distance to the capital." Sun Chengzong emphasized the word "indeed," subtly and ironically expressing his protest against the Dongchang investigation.

"You were here when you were young?" The march was so noisy that Sun Yuerong couldn't make out the accent. Even if she did, it would be hard to understand Sun Chengzong's true intentions. After all, the East Factory had no intention of investigating Sun Chengzong in depth. At most, they had planted a useless spy in his camp. To this day, Sun Yuerong still didn't know what this spy, Li Aihong, looked like.

"Not that young." Sun Chengzong still smiled.

"Do you want to rest there for a while?" Sun Yuerong suggested.

Sun Yuerong felt like his back was about to break from the relentless galloping. After this mission was over, he would definitely ask Cui Wensheng for leave so he could rest up. Cui Wensheng was quite easy to talk to about these matters. If he spoke a little sweetly, and used the word "ancestor" a little more provocatively, he might even earn a couple of silver coins.

"No need for that. The longer the night, the more dreams there are. Let's get to the city and ask Cui Tixing for the addresses of those people." Although Sun Chengzong's old waist was a little sore, he already had a plan in mind. Since he had accepted this task, Sun Chengzong would not hesitate any longer. First, arrest the people!

"Aren't you going to eat?" Sun Yuerong pointed upwards. "The sun is almost directly overhead."

"We can eat while running," Sun Chengzong said provocatively, "but if Captain Sun is really tired, we can stop for a while."

Sun Yuerong was indeed irritated. "You're joking, Zhongcheng. If your old arms and legs can handle the bumps, why can't I?"

"Haha." Sun Chengzong laughed out loud. After spending so much time together, Sun Chengzong felt that although Sun Yuerong was cunning and spoke in a roundabout way, he was not a disgusting and treacherous official.

After advancing another two or three miles, the group finally saw the last post station. But before they reached the entrance, the five people in the front suddenly reined in their horses and slowly stopped, causing the entire group to slow down.

"What's wrong?" Sun Chengzong asked loudly.

As Mao Yuanyi turned around, he heard Sun Yuerong, who was beside Sun Chengzong, shout in a nearly broken voice, "Cui Tixing!"

(End of this chapter)