novelAbuy Chapter 042: Li Bao Requests to Fight
Chapter 042: Li Bao Requests to Fight
Qin Keqing continued walking towards the side courtyard.
He pushed open the door to his little hut, placed the bamboo basket on the table, and took out the clothes one by one, folding them neatly and quickly.
She lowered her eyes and turned her palm over; there were no calluses from holding a knife, no rough textures left from labor.
These were hands that had practiced the calligraphy of Chu Suiliang, so white that the calluses were almost invisible. The fact that her hands were unusually clean was one of the biggest flaws, and the starting point for Zhao Bozong's initial suspicions.
However, Zhao Bozong did not follow this clue to investigate further.
Before that, she had to seize every moment she had alone to write down all the information she couldn't say aloud in a place where no one could find it.
She took a thin booklet from under her pillow, opened it to a blank page, and picked up a pen.
"On the 22nd of April, Zheng Gang entered the Qin residence in the middle of the night and did not leave until dawn. The situation in Zhenjiang was urgent."
After she finished writing, she folded the page to the size of a fingernail and tucked it into the hollow bamboo hairpin by her bedside.
The bamboo hairpin was hollow, and three pieces of paper like these were hidden inside.
One is a record of the date of Qin Hui's secret meeting in his study, another is a list of recent banquet guests invited by the Jin envoy, and the last is a newly added warning for Zhenjiang.
She stuck the bamboo hairpin in her hair and pulled the quilt over to wrap herself up.
When I close my eyes, my father's face appears in my mind.
Does she hate him?
She pulled the blanket up to cover her face.
In late April, a thin layer of mist floated on the river in Zhenjiang.
Li Bao's fleet anchored in the reeds at the foot of Jiaoshan Mountain.
The three cargo ships were their official business, transporting tea and cloth.
But hidden in the cargo hold's mezzanine were thirty bows and arrows, twenty waist knives, and twelve long spears.
Li Bao sat in the cabin, a bowl of wine in front of him. The wine was local Zhenjiang rice wine, very cloudy, but strong enough.
The cabin door was knocked three times, two long knocks and one short knock.
"Enter."
The woman who came in was in her early twenties. She was wearing an indigo cotton shirt with a leather apron tied around her waist. The sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, revealing her two rough forearms that had been exposed to the river wind.
She was clutching a roll of wax paper that had just been delivered from Lin'an.
Jinbao.
Jinbao learned to row a boat at Jiaozhou Wharf at the age of thirteen, married a foreign goods merchant in Zhenjiang at the age of seventeen, and opened a "Li Family Pharmacy" at Zhenjiang Wharf at the age of twenty.
The pharmacy's ledgers contained records of the infiltration of the Jiang River flood control forces, and the pharmacy's medicine boxes contained intelligence sent from Lin'an. The pharmacy's manager was completely unaware of all this.
All I know is that my wife goes to the dock every two weeks to deliver goods to relatives back home.
"News about Sister Keqing." Jinbao handed over the wax paper. "She came from Lin'an; the ship arrived this morning."
Li Bao unfolded the wax paper.
The characters are written in tiny, neat characters, only twelve in total.
"The situation in Zhenjiang is urgent. We secretly met with Qin Hui, and the Ministry of War's navy was immediately mobilized."
Li Bao brought the wax paper close to the oil lamp and burned it.
"Zheng Gangzhong".
He uttered the name in a deep voice, "He was one of those who jointly impeached Marshal Yue in the Privy Council back then."
Jinbao stood at the cabin door without saying a word.
She had seen this man when he was angry.
On the day the news of Yue Fei's death reached Zhenjiang in the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Li Bao sat alone in the cabin, drank an entire jar of rice wine, and then practiced swordsmanship on the deck all night.
When she boarded the ship the next morning, there were dozens of knife marks on the deck, each one cutting into the wood.
But Li Bao didn't get angry today. He crushed the ashes of the burned wax paper between his fingers, looked up and asked Jin Bao, "How many medicinal herbs are left in the pharmacy?"
"Overt or covert?"
"In the dark."
"Enough to equip thirty people." Jinbao paused, "But the batch of Sichuan fritillary bulbs that came in from Jiangzhou last month were fake, mixed with Zhejiang fritillary bulbs to impersonate them. I kept the fake medicine in a separate box and didn't sell it."
"Keep the fake medicine." Li Bao stood up, walked to the corner of the cabin, lifted a panel, and underneath was a list wrapped in oilcloth. "It's useful."
The list contained thirty-seven names.
Next to each name was a label indicating his identity: a porter at Zhenjiang Wharf, a hunter at Jiaoshan, a boatman at Guazhou Ferry, and a blacksmith at Runzhou.
These people are all ordinary citizens on the government's household register, but they share a common identity.
Before the eleventh year of Shaoxing, they had all served in Yue Fei's army.
After Yue Fei's death, Li Bao spent a year finding them one by one and settling them in various places in Zhenjiang, ostensibly letting them return to being ordinary people.
But in reality, everyone is waiting. Waiting for the opportunity to pick up their weapons again.
"Jinbao." Li Bao wrapped the list again in oilcloth and put it back under the deck. "Go back and tell your sister Keqing that everything is ready in Zhenjiang."
Tell her in Lin'an to tell Prince Pu'an that Li Bao is illiterate, but he is a skilled warrior. With just one letter from him, ships from Zhenjiang will sail north.
Jinbao nodded and turned to leave.
"And another thing," Li Bao called out to her, "ask her if Jinse from Jiaozhou is doing well after she got married. If we ever go to Jiaozhou someday, we old friends can get together for a meal."
Jinbao's eyes were slightly red, but she didn't let the tears fall.
"I ask her every time. She always says yes."
It takes two boat trips for news from Zhenjiang to reach Lin'an.
One route was Li Bao's boat from Zhenjiang to Lin'an Wharf, which was the overt route. The other, covert route was Jin Bao's boat from Zhenjiang to Jiaxing and then to Lin'an.
The two lines run parallel, unaware of each other's existence. This way, even if one line is cut off by Qin Hui, the other line can still deliver the message.
The information about Qin Keqing was sent to Zhenjiang through Jinbao's secret contact.
On the 28th day of the fourth month of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, Jinbao's boat quietly docked at the entrance of the underground canal along the Beiwa River.
She traveled along the river to the west of the city and slipped the message into the feeding trough compartment of the post station's stable, the last drop-off point left by Manager Wang before he left the city.
At dusk on the same day, when Qin Keqing returned from the laundry shop in the west of the city, she pushed open the door of the side courtyard, carrying a package of herbs in her hand. A copy of the Zhenjiang pharmacy's account book was pasted tightly onto the inner layer of the paper package, with a line of text written beside it:
"Zheng Gangzhong has issued a transfer order to Zhenjiang, and Li Bao has volunteered for the mission."
Qin Keqing brought the piece of paper close to the candle flame and burned it, then sat down at the table and wrote a reply: "It is not advisable to act for the time being. Prince Puan has other plans."
She didn't send it away immediately after she finished writing it.
She gazed at the flickering candlelight for a long time, lost in thought.
An idea, which I pondered many times, yet I hesitated to put into words.
Li Bao was an upright official, Niu Gao was an upright official, and Yue Yinping was also an upright official.
These loyal ministers didn't understand what "retreating to advance" meant; they only knew how to fight, how to charge, and how to use their chests to block the blade.
Zhao Bocong can mobilize their fighting strength, but he may not be able to completely control their impulses.
She needed someone to relay messages among these loyal officials; someone calm, loyal to Prince Puan, and able to suppress Niu Gao's pro-war impulses.
This person must be familiar with the old organization of Yue Fei's army, but cannot be anyone who has ever been associated with the Qin family.
Feng Yi.
She added a line to the paper: "Please have Prince Puan write this letter to Yi in his own handwriting, without involving Niu Gao."
After writing this line, Qin Keqing rolled up the note and stuffed it into the bamboo hairpin, waiting for the right opportunity.