novelAbuy Chapter 050: The Embroidered Uniform Guard
Chapter 050: The Embroidered Uniform Guard
And those who actually pass on the intelligence.
The messengers were re-selected by Qin Keqing, Jinbao was a pharmacy clerk in Zhenjiang, and Manager Wang was a new waiter at the tea shop in Xiuzhou.
Their names never appeared on any page of the Zongzheng Temple archives.
They only exist in the booklet in Qin Keqing's sleeve.
This is what Zhao Bocong referred to as the dual-track integration.
The shell is the legitimate document institution of the Imperial Clan Court, while the bone is the underground intelligence network woven by Qin Keqing. The two systems are completely separate at the architectural level, and only merge at the terminal of information flow.
Actually, there could be another name, but it only existed in later generations and was invented by that legendary figure who rose from a broken bowl to become emperor—the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
On May 25th, four days after the document was established, Zhao Bocong convened a small meeting in the study of the Prince's Mansion.
There were only five people present: Zhao Shiyi, Liu An, Qin Keqing, Xin Qizong, and someone no one expected, Feng Yi.
Feng Yi came from Deshou Palace.
In the twelfth year of the Shaoxing era, Feng Yi was merely a low-ranking eunuch in the Inner Palace of Deshou Palace, but his position was extremely special.
He was one of the few eunuchs who could move between the palace and the Prince of Puan's residence without arousing suspicion.
Consort Zhang knew Feng Yi before she entered the palace. Because of this relationship, Feng Yi took care of some trivial matters for Consort Zhang in the palace and occasionally brought some clothing and food for Zhao Bozong.
Qin Hui's men always thought that Feng Yi was just an old eunuch who ran errands and was not worth keeping an eye on.
In fact, Qin Keqing had suggested to Zhao Bocong to use Feng Yi long before the Battle of Jiaoshan, and her confidence in recommending him was based on months of secret observation.
Every time Feng Yi came to the Prince's Mansion to deliver things to Consort Zhang, Qin Keqing would take the opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes.
She noticed that the old eunuch never spoke more than three sentences in the palace, but he never glanced at anything that didn't need his attention, and he never lingered in the corridor where staying any longer would be dangerous.
This sense of propriety is not something everyone in the palace possesses.
More importantly, Feng Yi mentioned in a casual conversation that he had served the eldest son of the Prince of Anding when he was young.
In the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, the eldest son was taken away from his residence by the Imperial City Guard for speaking a few words of justice for Yue Fei, and was never heard from again.
He didn't shed tears while recounting this, but his hand holding the teacup paused for two breaths. These two breaths were the key basis for Qin Keqing's judgment that he was a useful person.
"Gentlemen, the document and archive sign has been put up, but the sign is only for setting rules, not for taking the fall."
Zhao Bozong's first words were straightforward: "Qin Hui has a net in Lin'an City. The three hundred imperial guards can turn back into six hundred or even more at any time."
We also need a net, but our net must grow in the shadows. I've invited you all here only to discuss one thing: how to build the framework of this net.
Qin Keqing spread out a map of Lin'an city, on which the latest locations of the dead letter drop points were marked with charcoal.
"Liu An and I will be in charge of the Lin'an line," Qin Keqing said softly, her fingers moving across the map.
"I have reorganized the dead letter drop-off points and have kept seven. Three of them are information receiving points, three are information sending points, and the remaining one is a backup emergency contact point."
Each drop-off point has only one person in charge of receiving and sending. This person's identity is kept confidential. He only knows that he is working for a certain person, but he does not know who that person is or where his information ultimately goes.
His superior, the only person who could directly contact him, was someone I or the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard would liaise with directly.
Zhao Shi nodded. "One-way confidentiality, that's good. Even if one point is breached, the connection to the next level can't be traced."
"Xiuzhou direction," Qin Keqing's finger moved from Lin'an to the northeast corner of the map.
"Manager Wang, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, and the scribes hired by the local clansmen have all arrived."
Manager Wang's newly opened tea shop in Xiuzhou has already started using a third set of ledger passwords, which uses the same encryption method as the ledgers of the herbal medicine shop in Zhenjiang. Only a joint test is needed.
Xiuzhou is our transit point for supplies heading north of the Yangtze River. Qin Keqing paused for a moment here.
"This is precisely the most secretive way to transport goods. You mix real contraband with ordinary goods. If the Imperial City Guard randomly inspects five items, four of them will be ordinary, and they won't be able to tell if the fifth item is problematic."
"Zhenjiang," Qin Keqing said, moving her finger to the northern end of the map.
"Jinbao's pharmacy is an intelligence hub. After Li Bao incorporated the surrendered soldiers from Jiaoshan, his men were organized into six squads, each with twenty men, and were stationed in the fishing villages along the Jiaoshan coast."
Yue Yinping's veteran soldiers from Xiangyang will remain in Zhenjiang temporarily to assist in training new recruits, but her main force will not stay long; they will need her back in Xiangyang to maintain order.
Xin Qizong remained seated in the corner without speaking. "Miss Qin," he finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse.
"Too dense." Xin Qizong suddenly spoke, his rough fingers poking at the location of Wazi Lane on the map. "Three of the seven delivery points are next to the patrol stations of the Imperial City Guard. Miss Qin, your people are delivering messages on the edge of a knife."
"We have to be right next to them." Qin Keqing didn't look up. "The closer we are to the Imperial City Guard, the less likely they are to suspect us."
"You wouldn't believe it, but others would have thought your head would roll." Xin Qizong's voice wasn't loud. "I've seen more dead people than you've seen messengers. Messengers are soldiers too, and soldiers aren't meant to be delivered."
The study was quiet for a moment.
Zhao Bozong raised his hand and placed the teacup on the map between the two of them.
"General Xin is right, messengers are not meant to be sent to their deaths." He looked at Qin Keqing, "but we have no other choice."
Thus, all seven drop points were retained, but a retreat signal was added to the two in Wazi Lane. If the Imperial City Guard approached, the messenger would immediately abandon the point, and the intelligence would be taken over by Jiao Qiong's patrol team outside the city.
"I've been studying your net for over half a month. It's dense and tough enough, but it's missing one thing: a sharp blade."
If any of your seven dead mail drop-off points are discovered by the Imperial City Guard, who will rescue the messenger?
Who stopped the pursuers in the alley? Who used a knife to force back the extra two breaths of the clerk?
Qin Keqing paused for a moment when she met Zhao Bocong's gaze, then pointed to the location of the old camp in the southern suburbs on the map.
"The old camp in the southern suburbs is the furthest point from the city where the death message was dropped off—"
"A fast horse will take about half an hour," Xin Qizong finished the sentence for her. "Miss Qin has dispatched messengers to circle the city; I can send a fast horse directly from the horse path outside Houchao Gate to Beiwa."
His fingers tapped along the line from the southern suburbs to Beiwa on the map, producing three hard, resonant sounds.
"Your men deliver the message to the old camp in the southern suburbs, and my men receive it. It can be transmitted to any delivery point in the city within an hour."
The reverse is also true—your men receive the message, deliver it to the city gate, and my men receive it during the handover of troops; no one dares to stop them.
Qin Keqing looked at the route from Houchaomen to Beiwa on the map, a barely perceptible glint in her eyes.
During her four years in intelligence work, her biggest bottleneck was never the source of information, but the speed of its transmission.
From the dock to the West City Post Station, and from the West City Post Station to the side courtyard of the Prince's Mansion, every link required people to walk.
If the Imperial Guards are chasing after them, and the person making the contact doesn't have a knife, the information chain will be cut off at the fastest possible point.
Now Xin Qizong has placed a knife to her information chain.
"Two tracks." Zhao Bozong stood up, walked to the map, and drew two lines on it with his finger.
"The Ming Dynasty's track—the Imperial Clan Court's archives, with the Imperial Clan Court's tokens used to deliver documents between the old camp in the southern suburbs and various government offices within the city."
This railway system was under the supervision of Qin Hui and the Imperial City Guard; every licensed constable had an official identity, and their daily routes were documented.
Zhao Bocong drew another, thinner, and lighter line with his fingertip, barely touching the paper.
"The underground network—Miss Qin's intelligence network, with dedicated personnel delivering information point-to-point, operates without intersecting with the overt network."
The only point where the two tracks intersect is the archives warehouse of the old camp in the southern suburbs.
This warehouse is guarded year-round by General Xin's veterans, preventing the Imperial City Guards from entering.
What we want to achieve is that even if the overt trail is followed the whole time, they will never be able to touch the covert trail.
Once the covert operation is shut down, the official lottery ticket becomes the messenger's escape route.
Zhao Shi stroked his beard and suddenly chuckled.
"Your Highness, I have been working in the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs for forty years and have only ever seen one kind of dead case file. Today is the first time I have heard of a case file that can exist in both the light and the dark."
"So this needs a connection point."
Zhao Bocong looked at Feng Yi, "Zhang Yaban, you have access to the daily records of interactions between the various palaces while you are in the palace."
Documents exchanged between Deshou Palace, Cining Palace, the Imperial City Guard, and various ministries and departments were copied by the Inner Attendants Bureau when they were filed and compiled.
Can you discern patterns in the garrison changes and personnel transfers within Lin'an City from these documents?
Feng Yi hesitated for a moment before speaking, his voice slow. "I've been in the Inner Palace for twenty years. I can know the route every document has taken in the palace with my eyes closed."
Qin Hui's transfers within the Imperial City Guard were mostly conducted not through official documents from the Privy Council, but through separate documents from the Inner Palace Secretariat—the kind of documents the Emperor would review and then return directly without keeping a copy.
"Can you remember it?"
"There's no need to record it." Feng Yi smiled. "Although the records are not archived, they still have to go through the Inner Palace Attendant before being returned."
"I won't copy the original text. I'll only record the date and the reason—which day a separate record was issued concerning which government office's transfer of personnel, and which day another one was issued. As long as I remember it, Qin Hui won't be able to find any trace of it."
He paused, then added, "Our family is just an old eunuch who runs errands; the Imperial City Guard has never given us a second glance."
Qin Keqing poured half a cup of tea for Feng Yi. The tea was poured steadily from the spout without spilling a drop. This was not only a sign of respect for her senior, but also a silent tribute in the intelligence business.
Zhao Bocong picked up his teacup.
"Gentlemen, what I want to discuss today is not fighting and killing, but rules."
Qin Hui's rise to power was not due to his superior intelligence compared to others. In military strategy, he was inferior to Yue Fei; in governance, he was inferior to Zhao Ding; and in moral character, he was inferior to Zhang Jun.
But there's one thing he does better than everyone else—"
He placed the teacup back on the table with a very soft tapping sound.
"—He put all the dirty stuff into a legal drawer."
The Imperial City Guard was a legitimate institution, the Inspector was a legitimate official, and even the execution of Yue Fei was a legitimate procedure with an imperial edict.
If we can't be more disciplined than him, we'll never beat him.
No one responded, but everyone knew what kind of beginning this sixteen-year-old Prince Puan would bring them.