If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

Upon seeing this action, Chief Feng's voice turned somber.

"Are the things still there?"

Ma Rong raised his head.

"The official documents were burned long ago."

Hou San squatted down next to him.

"When I asked you where you hid it, you said you burned it."

"Next time you ask, are you going to say it was swept away by the river?"

Cold sweat beaded on Ma Rong's forehead.

"Keeping that official document would only bring trouble, so I burned it."

Xu Qingshan looked at Chief Feng.

"Does he usually burn documents so thoroughly?"

"Ma Rong couldn't bear to part with him."

Feng Bao leaned against the wooden plank.

"In his eyes, official documents stamped by Yunzhou were more valuable than his own father's memorial tablet."

Ma Rong's face stiffened.

Feng Baozhang continued, "He showed it to me three times, each time wrapped in oiled paper with soft cloth padding the edges."

"He won't burn something so precious."

Xu Qingshan stood up.

"search."

"Search Ma Rong's residence, granary, and armory thoroughly."

Hou San, supporting his back, followed.

"I'll go too."

Qin Yuenu looked down from the top of the stone steps.

"where did you go?"

"Search for evidence."

"Your wound has just been stitched up."

I searched with my eyes.

"Then just take your eyes, and leave your hands and legs here."

Hou San stopped in his tracks.

Xu Qingshan patted him on the shoulder.

"Talk to Ma Rong for a bit. Tell me immediately if he remembers anything."

Hou San looked at Ma Rong, and a smile returned to his face.

"That works too."

Ma Rong lowered his head, his back visibly tense.

…………

When Liu Ruyan arrived at Duanhebao, it was already close to noon.

She brought two clerks skilled in verifying documents from Blackstone Fortress, and Su Jinniang came along as well.

Xu Qingshan recounted Feng Baozhang's confession and Ma Rong's reaction.

Liu Ruyan asked, "Has his residence been moved?"

"Liang Shun sealed the door."

"The granaries and abandoned armories are also guarded."

"Let's look at the accommodations first."

Ma Rong lived on the east side of the inner fort of Duanhebao.

The courtyard was twice as spacious as that of ordinary soldiers, with two strings of dried meat hanging under the eaves and half a bag of fine rice left in the kitchen.

Liang Shun stood outside the courtyard gate, his face growing increasingly grim.

"The soldiers in the fort have almost run out of bran to eat."

"He still has polished rice here."

Su Jinniang picked up a small pinch.

"Newly harvested rice from last autumn."

"This fine grain only comes from the villages north of Bailangji, and it's mostly caravan goods."

All the chests and cabinets in the room have been opened.

Clothes, money, food coupons, and a few pieces of jewelry were laid out on the table.

The innermost wooden box also contained more than a dozen caravan passes, some of which were stamped with the Iron Gate Fortress's customs seal.

Liu Ruyan looked through each of the papers.

"These only prove that he received goods from merchants; official documents from Yunzhou would not be placed in ordinary boxes."

Xu Qingshan asked, "Where do you think it would be?"

"Ma Rong definitely treated it as a lifesaver."

Liu Ruyan swept her gaze across the room.

"It should be placed within easy reach even when sleeping."

She walked to the bedside, first checking the bedside cabinet, then squatting down and tapping on the bed board.

The wooden board near the corner sounded noticeably hollower.

Liang Shun found a short knife and pried open the wooden board.

A layer of oil paper was visible underneath.

The oil paper package contained an official document, two private seals, and a palm-sized blue booklet.

The official document from Yunzhou that Chief Feng mentioned was at the very top.

The paper had turned yellow, and the lower right corner was stamped with the vermilion seal of the Military Supplies Transport Office.

The content is consistent with his confession.

Duanhebao received sixteen warhorses, forty sets of iron armor, and two hundred arrows, which were then transferred to the warehouse by Tiemenbao.

None of the items actually reached Duanhebao.

Liu Ruyan flipped to the end of the document.

"The serial number is Yunzhuanyizi 173".

Xu Qingshan asked, "Can you find out who opened it?"

"After returning to Blackstone Fortress, you can check the old documents in Commander Chen's iron box."

Liu Ruyan looked at the other two private seals.

One of them is engraved with Ma Rong's name.

The other one only has a crooked "孙" character, and a corner of the edge is missing.

Su Jinniang took out the sealing plaque she had brought from Tiemenbao.

The red marks left on the back of the wooden sign also show a missing corner.

"Sun Kui's personal seal."

"Many wooden boxes in the Iron Gate Fort granary have this mark on them."

Xu Qingshan picked up the blue booklet.

The first page contains no names, only a few lines of simple records.

Eight yellow trucks entered the air vent.

Sixteen long legs, crossing shallow waters.

Three batches of black iron were sent to the white wolf.

Each line is followed by the date, quantity, and profit-sharing percentage.

Liu Ruyan said, "Dark tent."

"The yellow goods are grain, the long-legged ones are warhorses, and the black iron should be weapons and armor."

Su Jinniang turned two pages.

"The price of this batch of goods is 30% lower than the normal market price."

"Black Wind Stronghold was responsible for robbing and transporting the goods. Sun Kui and Ma Rong took 40% of the goods, and the rest were sent to White Wolf Market to be sold as stolen goods."

Liang Shun stood to the side, his face pale.

"Sixteen warhorses."

"Last winter, Duanhebao only had nine rideable horses left, and Ma Rong even said that Yunzhou had never allocated any."

Xu Qingshan continued flipping through the pages.

Herbs, salt bricks, cloth, and furs were all recorded using different secret codes.

There were also a few strange entries in the middle.

"Six fawns."

"Eleven lambs."

Su Jinniang stopped pointing when she saw this.

"This is not livestock."

Liang Shun asked, "What is that?"

Su Jinniang looked at Xu Qingshan.

"The human traffickers in Bailangji used this method of notation."

"A fawn usually refers to a young woman, while a lamb refers to a child."

No one spoke for a moment.

Liang Shun grabbed the corner of the table, and the wooden board made a crisp sound.

"Are these also from Broken River Fortress?"

"I don't know, the source of the money isn't recorded in the accounts."

Liu Ruyan said, "Once we interrogate Ma Rong and the prisoners from Black Wind Village, they will naturally be able to match up."

She closed the ledger.

"Grain, horses, ironware, medicine, and people."

"The total amount of these goods far exceeds what the two border forts can provide."

There should be an even bigger story behind this.

…………

The abandoned armory is located below the north wall of Duanhebao.

The roof had collapsed halfway, and inside were piles of rusty arrowheads, broken wooden poles, and several unusable old suits of armor.

Ma Rong confessed that the official documents had been burned, but the things hidden under the bed board proved that he was still lying.

After entering the warehouse, Liu Ruyan first inspected the pile of ash in the corner.

There were several blackened wooden plaques inside.

Su Jinniang took a moment to recognize it.

"The nameplate of the White Wolf Trading Company."

"Burning the wooden sign makes it very difficult to find the original owner of the goods."

A clerk found several empty boxes behind the broken weapons rack.

The bottom of the box bears the wind patterns of Black Wind Village, while the inside of the lid is engraved with the number of the Yunzhou Military Supply Depot.

Liu Ruyan wrote down the numbers one by one.

When everyone returned to Ma Rong's residence, she had already instructed the clerk to take out the old document copies from Chen Baihu's iron box from their luggage.

The two sets of numbers were placed together.

The character "Yun" is 168.

The character "Yun" is 173.

The character "Yun" is 181.

All of them belong to the same batch of military supply transfer documents.

The signature section bears the seal of the Military Supplies Transport Office, which is under the command of Chen Huaishan, the garrison commander of Yunzhou.

Liang Shun asked, "Does this prove that Chen Huaishan was also involved?"

"For now, we can only prove that these goods passed through his military supply system."

Liu Ruyan said, "The official seal may be used by subordinates, and the serial number may be fraudulently claimed."

"To put those in power to rest, we need to find the Black Wind Stronghold's general ledger and correspondence."

Xu Qingshan picked up the secret book.

"Let Ma Rong speak first."

…………

When Ma Rong was led into the room, Hou San followed him in.

He walked behind with a limp, holding half a piece of dry food in his hand.

"This guy is pretty stubborn. We talked all morning, and all he said was that Sun Kui forced him."

After Ma Rong knelt down, the first thing he saw was the oil paper package on the table.

His face turned pale instantly.

Liu Ruyan sat behind the table.

What are the eight truckloads of yellow goods?

Ma Rong's lips moved.

"grain."

"Sixteen long legs?"

"Warhorse".

"Where are the fawns and lambs?"

Ma Rong raised his head, and panic finally appeared in his expression.

"That's what Black Wind Stronghold recorded themselves."

Hou San took a bite of dry rations.

"The account books were hidden under your bed, and Black Wind Stronghold came in the middle of the night to write them for you?"

"Sun Kui asked me to keep it safe!"

Ma Rong said urgently, "He's the one who connected us with all the business deals."

"My job is simply to let people pass through, and I'll take a little food in return."

Su Jinniang pushed several pages of accounting records in front of him.

"You took more than just a little."

"Last October, you received 240 taels of silver from twelve cartloads of cloth."

"This January, you received ninety taels from the six warhorses."

"Add in the silver, grain coupons, salt, and jewelry, and it's enough to feed the soldiers of Duanhebao for half a year."

Ma Rong opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word.

Liu Ruyan asked, "Who's in charge of receiving the goods?"

"One-eyed wolf."

"Who's in charge of disposing of the stolen goods?"

"Qi Biao".

"Where is the leader of Black Wind Stronghold?"

Ma Rong lowered his head.

"The chief only talks to distinguished guests from Yunzhou."

Xu Qingshan asked, "Who is this distinguished guest?"

I've never seen it.

Ma Rong said, "Sun Kui only said that the man came from Yunzhou and always went through the back mountain when he came to Black Wind Village."

"The people of Black Wind Village call him Master Chen."

"Chen Huaishan's men?"

Sun Kui didn't say it explicitly.

Ma Rong quickly added, "I've told you everything I know."

Liu Ruyan rolled up the official documents from Yunzhou.

"Your account books will be copied twice."

"One copy is for Tang Su, and the other is to be kept in Black Stone Fortress."

"Sun Kui's personal seal, the Black Wind Village insignia, and the military supply number will also be sent over."

Ma Rong swayed slightly.

"I'll die if I'm sent to Yunzhou."

Hou San said, "You might not survive even if you stay in Duanhe Fortress."

"Either way, it's fair."

Liu Ruyan continued flipping through the account books.

When she reached the last page, her hand suddenly stopped.

This page only has two lines of text.

The first line records the distribution of eight cartloads of grain.

The second line has smaller characters and newer ink.

Liu Ruyan turned the account book towards Xu Qingshan.

"It seems that eight cartloads of grain are just the beginning."

Xu Qingshan looked down.

The last page of the ledger reads:

"The eight cartloads are just a deposit; once the fortress gates open, the military households along the broken river can get a discount."