Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 190 A bunch of dying rats still dare to bite.

The emperor's words, "Begin arresting people," were not the start of an order, but merely a declaration.

The real orders to kill had already been sent to the generals in secret edicts before nightfall.

Everything is ready; all the dormant claws and fangs are just waiting for the right moment to strike.

Night is the best curtain.

East Gate, Zhenhai Gate.

Liu Sande, the city gate captain, was yawning, preparing to welcome the brothers who were about to change shifts.

The wind was strong on the city tower, making the lanterns hanging below the corner tower sway precariously, and the light and shadow flickered on his face, which had been hollowed out by wine and women.

He was already considering whether, after receiving this month's tribute from the salt merchants, he should go to the familiar Chunfeng Tower to order a top courtesan and have a cup of hot wine, or go to the gambling den to play a couple of rounds of dice.

As for city defenses?

In Tianjin, the greatest threat did not come from the sea, but from the imperial court.

But so what?
Liu Sande didn't live off that meager military pay; his superior was the Commander of Tianjin Garrison. His life belonged to the Commander; his wealth and status were also given to him by the Commander.

When the former governor, Bi Ziyan, was in office, he repeatedly ordered a strict crackdown on smuggling, but Zhenhai Gate was still bustling with ships coming and going, and revelry every night.
Lord Bi is the governor, but he has no jurisdiction over the garrisons, let alone the family affairs of the commander.

Suddenly, a subtle, rhythmic vibration came from the ground beneath his feet.

It wasn't the bumps and jolting of a carriage passing by, but a heavier, more rhythmic resonance.

Liu Sande's expression changed instantly. The laziness that had seeped into his bones was replaced by a beast-like alertness. He immediately lay down on the battlements, his eyes narrowed to slits, and strained to look into the darkness outside the city.

At the end of the distant official road, countless torches, like a fiery dragon emerging from the depths of hell, were silently approaching the city gate.

What chilled him to the bone wasn't the sheer number of flames, but rather the patches of armor reflecting a dark, cold light beneath them, and the all-consuming silence.

These are not bandits, nor are they pirates.

This is... the Beijing Garrison!
He opened his mouth abruptly, but the word "enemy," which was about to pierce the night sky, and the shrill alarm that was about to notify the commander, were forever stuck deep in his throat.

Without warning, a short blade emerged from the shadows behind him, as if the darkness itself had sprouted a poisonous thorn, slicing across his neck with precision and swiftness.

The faint hiss of a drop of blood spurting into the trachea was immediately dispersed by the cold night wind.

Liu Sande's eyes instantly lost their luster, and his strength was quickly drained from his body.

In his final moments, he saw his dozen or so brothers, whom he used to call sworn brothers, fall silently to the ground in the exact same instant, like wheat cut down by an invisible sickle.

Behind every fallen figure stood a ghostly figure in black, calmly wiping the bloodstains from the blade onto the still-warm prison uniform of the deceased.

To Bi Ziyan, this city gate, guarded by the commander's confidants, was an iron wall that could not be reasoned with or persuaded.

His decrees end here, and his authority ceases to exist.

Because the loyalty of people like Liu Sande was already firmly tied to the salt merchant's money, the promises of his superiors, and his own greed, it was impossible to change his mind.

But for the emperor tonight, this obstacle only needs to be smashed by something harder.

There were no warnings, no questions asked.

In this purge personally approved by the emperor, no one who might raise an alarm was qualified to be subdued.

Death is their only pass!
An expressionless Jinyiwei captain stepped over Liu Sande's still convulsing body as if it were an insignificant stone. He walked to the winch and worked with another man to turn it.

Below the city gate, the heavy drawbridge slowly lowered with a teeth-grinding creak, opening the gates to this sinful city to the iron-fisted torrent of imperial power outside the city.

Lu Xiang-sheng stood on his horse at the bridgehead, coldly ordering a group of men already in position within the city: "Seal the gates! From this moment on, not even a fly is allowed to fly out! Anyone with official documents, detain them! Anyone who tries to break in without documents, kill them!"

……

As the leader of the Changlu salt merchants, Wang Fu's residence was more like a small fortress than a mansion.

It was surrounded by high walls and deep courtyards, with watchtowers even built inside the walls.

The mansion had more than 300 guards and servants, many of whom were desperate samurai who had wandered over from Japan and veteran soldiers who had been on the battlefield.

When the soldiers of the Beijing Garrison surrounded the mansion, Wang Lin, the head steward of the Wang family and Wang Fu's nephew, was still quite confident.

"Tell the people outside that this is the Wang residence! Anyone who dares to act recklessly will face our wrath!" Wang Lin shouted sternly from the high watchtower, addressing the dark mass of troops below.

His answer was a series of sharp whistles that pierced the night sky.

Dozens of rockets, each tied with a canister of kerosene, trailed long plumes of flame as they precisely flew over the high wall and landed on the wooden pavilions and side rooms throughout the mansion.

With a few loud booms, flames shot into the sky.

"Loose the arrows! Open fire!" Wang Lin shouted desperately.

The servants inside the mansion, using the walls as cover, began to return fire with bows and arrows and a small number of muskets.

In an instant, arrows flew everywhere and gunfire rang out.

However, their resistance seemed utterly ridiculous in the face of the standard equipment of the Beijing garrison.

"Break the door!"

At the commander's order, several muscular soldiers, carrying a huge battering ram, marched heavily toward the vermilion gate of the Wang residence, which was covered with iron sheets.

"Boom!"

With a loud crash, the door shook violently.

"Boom!"

The nails on the door began to fly off.

"Boom!"

With a loud crash of breaking wood, the two large doors collapsed inwards!

"kill!"

The Beijing garrison soldiers, who had been waiting at the gate, surged in like a tide, ruthlessly and efficiently reaping the lives of those guards who stubbornly resisted.

These so-called elite troops raised by the salt merchants were as vulnerable as lambs to the slaughter in front of soldiers who were trained all day long to kill.

Screams, the clash of weapons, and the cracking of bones echoed throughout the mansion.

Leading the charge was not the new army of the Beijing garrison, but a group of Imperial Guards dressed in flying fish robes.

Their target was not these guards at all.

A Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) commander, holding a pre-drawn map of the mansion's interior, shouted to his men: "Team A, go to the artificial hill in the backyard; there's a secret passage leading out of the city! Team B, follow me; target: the underground chamber of the Accounting Office, Tingyu Pavilion! Team C, control the women's quarters; don't let a single one escape!"

His commands were clear and precise, as if he had lived in this mansion for decades.

This is what the emperor emphasized—the power of intelligence!

These maps, the locations of these secret passages, and the mechanisms of these hidden rooms came not only from the infiltration of the Embroidered Uniform Guard over the past few months, but also from the deadly intelligence sent out by Bi Ziyan's former subordinates who had suddenly 'reformed' under questioning by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The Imperial Guard commander, leading his team, rushed straight to the elegant study in the backyard. The study was in complete disarray; several accountants were frantically throwing ledgers into the brazier.

"Leave them alive!"

After the Imperial Guards burst through the door, they pounced on him like wolves and tigers, instantly rendering him unable to resist with extremely swift and decisive movements.

Baihu kicked over the brazier and personally snatched out several account books with burned corners, carefully blowing away the embers.

His gaze shifted from the ledgers to the face of an accountant pinned to the ground, and his voice was as calm as if asking for directions: "Where is the secret room?"

A resolute glint flashed in the accountant's eyes. He gritted his teeth and turned his head to the side.

The centurion didn't ask a second time. He gave a wink to the captain who was holding down the accountant. The captain understood and pulled out a short blade from his boot. Without hesitation, he plunged it into the accountant's thigh and twisted it forcefully.
"Ah—!" A scream twisted in agony echoed through the study, but it was quickly muffled by another captain who used a rag to block it out.

The centurion walked up to another accountant who was already pale with fright and patted his face with the blood-stained scabbard.

"Your turn," he said in the same flat tone.

The man could no longer hold on and completely broke down, screaming with tears streaming down his face, "I'll talk! I'll talk! It's on the bookshelf...it's on the bookshelf...don't kill me!"

Which bookshelf? How do I open it?

"The one on the right! The third row, that set of 'Zizhi Tongjian'! Press... press 'Zhenguan', 'Kaiyuan', 'Tianbao'... turn the mechanism in this order, and it... it will open!"

Baihu then revealed a cold smile, walked to the bookshelf, and did as he was told.

With a "click," the entire bookshelf slowly slid to one side, revealing a dark, downward-facing stone staircase.

"Light the torches and get down there!" he shouted to his men, then added, "Bring everything inside, every single box, back up! As for these few... keep them alive for now, we'll deal with them after we've interrogated them."

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Finally, under a pile of rice chaff, the sound of the iron skewer striking the ground became hollow.

"right here!"

Several captains immediately stepped forward, lifted the rice husks, and cleared away the loose soil, revealing an iron plate disguised as a floor tile.

Together they pried open the iron plate, and a foul gust of wind, mixed with the salty smell of seawater and the stench of mold, gushed out from underground.

They lit torches and peered down, only to find an unimaginably huge cellar below.

The cellar was deep and wide enough to hold dozens of people.

Inside the cellar, what was piled up like mountains was not grain, but bags of salt tightly wrapped in oilcloth!
The little flag jumped down, casually slit open a salt bag, and snow-white salt grains poured out.

He grabbed a handful, smelled it, and then licked it with his tongue, a ferocious smile spreading across his face.

"Good heavens! Top-quality salt!" He stood up, his gaze sweeping over the salt packets, noticing the words printed on them in ink.

He picked up the torch, brought it close to a bag of salt, and read it out slowly and deliberately: "Exclusively for...Huai...Nan?"

He then looked at another one, which clearly read "Strictly Prohibited in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces!"
These were all official salts from other salt-producing areas that were explicitly prohibited from being sold in the Changlu region by imperial decree.

These salt merchants not only smuggled their own salt, but also extended their reach to the national salt administration system, reselling and transporting official salt from various regions, forming a vast underground network.

"Seal it! Count all the salt bags and seal them all!" the little flag officer shouted, his voice filled with the excitement of discovering a treasure. "Tell the sir, we've struck gold!"

The entire city of Tianjin was transformed into a treasure trove being gutted, with countless hideouts like the Wang family mansion being simultaneously and precisely wiped out.

The confiscated gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, and paintings were carried out in boxes, gleaming with a sinister light under the fire.

Thousands upon thousands of illicit salts were seized and piled up like mountains.

Most importantly, of course, were the ledgers that recorded their crimes and the letters they exchanged with officials in various places!

……

As the night deepened, Tian Ergeng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, sat in a grand chair. The flying fish robe he wore seemed to come alive in the flickering firelight, with the ferocious beasts on it poised to devour someone.

At his feet knelt a row of trembling salt merchants and officials.

The long table was covered with core ledgers that had just been seized from various places.

He did not personally go through the accounts; his clerks did it. He only looked at the secret accounts that were selected to record special gifts and the letters.

"My lord, spare my life! I... I'm really just a nobody. Wang Fu forced me to do it!" cried a captured salt transport official.

Tian Ergeng didn't even bother to lift his eyelids, and said indifferently to the captain beside him, "Pull out the tongue, it's too noisy."

Without the slightest hesitation, the captain dragged the official outside. Soon, a heart-wrenching scream came from outside, followed by silence.

The others inside the ancestral hall trembled even more violently.

Just then, a young salt merchant was brought in.

He seemed to be so terrified that he suddenly felt a surge of fearless courage. He roared at Tian Ergeng, "You can't touch me! Let me tell you, my uncle is the Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, Lord Lin! If you touch me, my uncle will not let you get away with it!"

Upon hearing this, Tian Ergeng finally reacted.

He slowly stood up and walked step by step to the young salt merchant, a smile on his face like that of a cat playing with a mouse.

He raised his foot and seemingly casually kicked the salt merchant in the stomach.

With a "plop," the salt merchant flew out like a tattered sack, crashing heavily into a pillar behind him and vomiting a mouthful of sour water.

“Very good.” Tian Ergeng’s voice carried a chill that penetrated to the bone:
"After I catch you, I'll go catch your uncle."

In the young salt merchant's eyes, his last hope and arrogance were completely extinguished, leaving only endless fear.

Tonight, in front of this man, any backing or background is just a joke.

Everyone kneeling on the ground finally realized that the backer of the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in front of them was Heaven!

"Take him away!" Tian Ergeng waved his hand impatiently, as if he were just shooing away a fly.

Tian Ergeng walked back to his desk, enjoying the feeling.

It's not about enjoying the killing, but about enjoying the extension of absolute power—having everything under control.

Just then, a commander, covered in blood, rushed in, knelt on one knee, and said urgently:

"Commander! Most of the strongholds have been cleared! But... but the Salt Gang's stronghold at the Iron Shipyard in the west of the city is facing fierce resistance!"

Tian Ergeng raised an eyebrow.

"The Iron Shipyard is Wang Zonghai's old lair, built up over many years. It houses no fewer than five hundred desperate criminals, all ruthless bandits who have lived on the edge!" The commander gasped for breath.

"They relied on their sturdy docks and pre-built fortifications, and used muskets and crossbows to block all entrances. We...we launched two assaults, but were driven back!"

Tian Ergeng's eyes finally turned cold.

"A bunch of dying rats, still daring to bite?"

(End of this chapter)