Chapter 21
Chen Qing pushed open the door to the inner room and walked to the bed. Yan Yunhe lay exactly as they had left him, eyes tightly shut and reeking of alcohol.
With a solemn expression, he slowly raised his hand and drew the long saber from his waist.
Zhou Ran followed behind him, his eyes betraying his restrained urgency. “Dage, shouldn’t we reconsider?”
The veins on the back of Chen Qing’s hand bulged as he gripped the saber’s hilt. “I must secure our brothers’ survival.”
He threw the saber to the floor with a heavy thud. Turning to Zhou Ran, he said, “Erdi,1 give me the antidote.”
Zhou Ran sighed and produced a porcelain vial from his robe. Chen Qing uncorked it and was about to hold it under Yan Yunhe’s nose when the supposedly unconscious imperial envoy suddenly snapped his eyes open.
Chen Qing recoiled in shock, nearly dropping the antidote.
Yan Yunhe unhurriedly propped himself up, gazing at the three men standing by the bed with a genial smile. “Congratulations on making the right choice.”
Xu Hu panicked. “Dage, the wine, I swear…”
Chen Qing shot him a sharp glare. “Shut up.”
Yan Yunhe casually bent his right leg, resting his palm on his knee in a posture of utter indolence, like a pampered young master. He showed no signs of being affected by the drug in the wine. On the contrary, his gaze was sharp and his presence overwhelmingly intimidating. Even the three members of the Qingyi Gang, who had weathered their share of storms, couldn’t help but feel a jolt of fear under his piercing gaze.
Yan Yunhe tapped his fingers against his knee and commanded, “Everyone except Chen Qing, leave.”
Xu Hu stepped forward angrily, but Zhou Ran immediately blocked his path.
The moment Zhou Ran saw Yan Yunhe, he knew his brother had made the right decision. They couldn’t escape this imperial envoy; their best bet was to use their bargaining chips and cooperate with him instead.
He dragged Xu Hu out of the room before he did something impulsive, closing the door behind them. Xu Hu still couldn’t understand. “I really did put the drug in his wine! I even watched him drink it. The dose was enough to knock out a bull! How is he still awake?”
“He tricked us, you idiot!” Zhou Ran snapped. “He was faking it.”
Xu Hu scratched the back of his head. “He sure has guts. With so many of us here, isn’t he afraid we’ll just kill him?”
“Who do you think you could kill with that brain of yours?” Zhou Ran gave up arguing and kept dragging Xu Hu away.
If the imperial envoy hadn’t taken the antidote beforehand, then his martial arts and internal energy must have reached unimaginable levels to neutralize the drug so effortlessly. With his meager skills, Xu Hu wouldn’t stand a chance against him. Challenging him was basically asking for death.
He’s truly hopeless, Zhou Ran thought with a sigh, gazing at Xu Hu with concern.
Xu Hu was perplexed, but he obediently followed Zhou Ran. Chen Qing had instructed him to listen to Zhao Ran at all times.
Inside the room, Yan Yunhe stared at Chen Qing, who knelt on the floor. “The goods in your stronghold—are they the batch of firearms that arrived in Yunzhou three days ago?”
He cut straight to the point, unwilling to waste time with Chen Qing. He already had a basic understanding of the situation, but he needed Chen Qing’s confession to confirm it.
Even if Chen Qing refused to cooperate, it wouldn’t matter. Yu Qin had already taken Yan Yunhe’s troop deployment token to mobilize their forces this very night. By dawn, soldiers would be stationed in Yunzhou.
To catch a thief, one must seize the stolen goods.2 Storming the Qingyi Gang’s territory to recover the lost firearms would be easy, but uncovering the entire smuggling network through Chen Qing’s testimony would be far more valuable.
Chen Qing’s intentions were now clear. To protect the rest of the Qingyi Gang, he would sing like a bird.
Chen Qing lowered his head. “At first, we had no idea what those goods were. We simply robbed them based on prior intel and delivered them to designated locations.”
Yan Yunhe mused, “Branding you as bandits was part of their ruse, a smokescreen to conceal their true intentions.”
“The Qingyi Gang was only responsible for a single transit point between the capital and Yunzhou. None of my brothers knew what we were carrying. I swear, if we’d known it was this kind of cargo, we would never have gotten involved in the first place!” Chen Qing insisted urgently.
Yan Yunhe pressed, “So what exactly was hidden in the crate Xu Hu knocked over?”
Chen Qing’s face turned ashen. “Gunpowder. It was a shipment of gunpowder.”
“The audacity!” Yan Yunhe deliberately enunciated each word, his face grim.
Sweat soaked through layer after layer of Chen Qing’s back. “The quantities were always small, and the smuggling runs were infrequent, with drop-off points scattered across the country. But in the past six months, the shipments suddenly increased. I suspected something wasn’t right, but before I could figure it out, Wei Zhili reported to the court and requested military intervention to wipe us out…”
Yan Yunhe cut him off. “You brought disaster upon yourselves the moment you exposed what they were smuggling.”
Even if they weren’t killed now, they would be eliminated when the time was right. Xu Hu’s mistake had merely sped up the process.
Using bandits as a transport crew was as clever as it was ruthless. These were desperate men, easily swayed by gold and silver, and just as easily disposed of afterwards.
Yan Yunhe pressed further, “You still haven’t answered—did the firearms from the capital reach your hands?”
Chen Qing nodded, but his face betrayed hesitation. “Yes, but something was wrong with this shipment.”
“How so?” Yan Yunhe narrowed his eyes.
“The shipment was supposed to be gunpowder, but somehow it turned out to be firearms.” Chen Qing raised his pale face. “Firearms bearing the official seal. We wouldn’t dare transport those carelessly! It was always gunpowder before, so why would they send official goods this time? Could it be they're trying to frame us?”
Yan Yunhe shook his head. “You overestimate yourselves. All it takes to eliminate you is reporting you to the court, like Wei Zhili did.”
In other words, if anyone else had come, they wouldn’t have bothered investigating. They would simply lead troops to raze the Qingyi Gang’s stronghold and take its members’ heads to the capital to claim the reward.
Why go to the trouble of replacing gunpowder with firearms, drawing the court’s attention?
Wait…
In a flash, all of the pieces in Yan Yunhe's mind finally fell into place.
“Vice Minister Zhao Xiang!” Yan Yunhe’s eyes lit up, and he slapped his knee.
Driven by greed, Zhao Xiang took the risk of smuggling gunpowder. But based on what Chen Qing had said, initially, the gunpowder was likely intended solely for mining and quarrying.
Great Jin kept a tight grip on gunpowder, and therefore it was expensive on the market. There were also strict requirements for its distribution, which increased demand among the private sector. Where there’s demand, there’s supply, and thus, illicit channels for gunpowder emerged.
Zhao Xiang must have noticed irregularities in the gunpowder’s transport frequency and suspected he might be assassinated, so he preemptively replaced the gunpowder with firearms. The loss of these firearms would inevitably draw the court’s attention and prompt an investigation.
Regardless of the mastermind’s true intentions, Zhao Xiang’s scheme had already thwarted most of their plans.
The Minister of Works, Jiang Shang, was a direct relative of the empress dowager. If someone were to plot a rebellion and use that gunpowder, Jiang Shang would bear inescapable responsibility, putting the empress dowager at risk of being implicated. No wonder the Embroidered Uniform Guard had gotten involved, hence why Yu Qin had accompanied him to Yunzhou.
That being the case, the true purpose of this trip suddenly became clear.
Yan Yunhe darkly looked at Chen Qing. “If you want to protect your Qingyi Gang, you must do something for me.”
…
As dawn gradually broke, the bandit suppression troops had already encamped outside Yunzhou.
Yu Qin, clad in black, rode his horse to the agreed-upon location to meet with Yan Yunhe.
The previous night, when Yan Yunhe had handed him the troop deployment token, he had said with a playful grin, “Lord Yu, my life is entirely in your hands.”
Yu Qin had not said a word then, and now, he also stared at Yan Yunhe in silence.
The Qingyi Gang’s territory was located in the treacherous terrain of the Heiyu Luan Mountains, characterized by its steep cliffs. Their meeting place was perched atop one such cliff, offering a panoramic view of the gang’s entire mountain stronghold.
The biting wind howled fiercely, and the winter air was so frigid it could slice their skin off.
When Yan Yunhe turned around, he noticed that Yu Qin was no longer wearing the fur-lined coat he had gifted him. Instead, he wore a black flying fish robe, its dragon-like beast3 embroidered with golden thread. This robe had been personally bestowed by the empress dowager.
“Lord Yu, why aren’t you wearing the coat I gave you?” Yan Yunhe asked calmly.
Yu Qin rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, slowly approaching Yan Yunhe. Hearing the question, he lowered his gaze and replied, “That thing didn’t suit me.”
Yan Yunhe frowned, looking genuinely hurt. “Yu Hanchu, your words truly break my heart.”
He had never addressed Yu Qin so intimately before, but Yu Qin didn’t rebuke him for his audacity, perhaps finding it unnecessary.
Since he got no response, Yan Yunhe said, “Let me guess—are your colleagues rushing here at this moment?”
Yu Qin pursed his lips. “I’m alone for now.”
In other words, if Yu Qin failed, there were others ready to finish the job later.
Yan Yunhe slowly drew a sword from his waist. No one would expect the signature weapon of a veteran of countless battles to be a soft sword4—its blade as thin as a cicada’s wing, capable of slicing through hair in a mere breath.
This was the first time he had drawn his weapon against Yu Qin, because this time, both of them knew the inevitable outcome:
Only one of us will leave this place alive.
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