Starting from 1618 of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 33 The Pledge of Allegiance

Wang Tiqian squinted and pointed to Tongzhou in the southeast direction.

"At Zhangjiawan Wharf in Tongzhou, there's a batch of 'golden bricks' (imperial paving bricks) made in Suzhou. They're for the Emperor to use in building the Qingling Mausoleum, and we're in a real hurry. But the Tongzhou grain office and the local porters are in cahoots, and they're using the excuse of river siltation to demand three times the freight rate before they'll unload the goods. And those civil officials are fanning the flames behind the scenes, wanting to see us make a fool of ourselves."

"Go. Transport this batch of gold bricks to Beijing within three days."

Wang Tiqian's tone turned sinister: "We don't care what methods you use. But there's one condition: don't escalate this to the Censorate. Can you do that?"

Lu Yan took the waist token, his gaze sharpening, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Father-in-law, three days is too long."

"The BRICS will be in storage before sunset tomorrow."

……

Tongzhou, Zhangjiawan Wharf.

As the terminus of the Grand Canal, this place was the throat of the Ming Dynasty. Grain, silk, and porcelain from the south, and furs and medicinal herbs from the north were all transported here.

At this moment, in the most central deep-water berth of the dock, five official boats flying the yellow flag of the "Imperial Household Department" were moored. The boats were heavily loaded, indicating they were carrying a lot of cargo. However, instead of unloading ramps, dozens of dilapidated sampans surrounded the boats. Hundreds of thugs, armed with sticks and shirtless, had effectively turned these official boats into an isolated island.

In a shaded pavilion on the riverbank, a fat man with a face full of bulging muscles, dressed in a silk shirt, was drinking tea with his legs crossed. He was Liu Biao, the head of the largest porters in Zhangjiawan, nicknamed "Golden-Eyed Biao." Beside him sat a clerk from the Ministry of Revenue, dressed in a blue official robe, resting with his eyes closed.

"Master Biao, are those damned eunuchs still cowering on the ship?" the Ministry of Revenue official asked casually.

"They're hiding!" Liu Biao chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Don't worry, Lord Sun. These spineless cowards will be treated like dragons coiled up when they get to Zhangjiawan. Unless they pay three thousand taels of 'smoothing fees,' that boatload of gold bricks will just sit in the water! Once they're completely soaked, let's see how they explain themselves to the Emperor!"

Master Sun nodded slightly. This was a "warning" from the civil service to the inner court. Recently, the mining supervisors and tax commissioners in the inner court had been causing too much trouble, so they wanted to cut off the eunuchs' access to supplies.

Just then, a cloud of dust rose from the road in the distance.

A somewhat strange convoy slowly approached.

Those were twenty modified heavy wagons, pulled not by ordinary mules, but by Liaodong draft horses. There were few guards beside the wagons, only a few dozen men in gray cloth short jackets, pushing wheelbarrows with particularly large wheels, quietly following behind.

Without any banners or fanfare, the procession moved like a group of silent ghosts, passing directly through the crowd and stopping on the opposite bank of the besieged official ship.

"Hey? Who came here, you blind fool?" Liu Biao put down his teacup, stood up, and said, "Don't you know the road is blocked?"

Lu Yan jumped down from the first carriage. Today he had changed into a set of comfortable clothes that allowed him to move around easily, with the cuffs tied tight and thick-soled boots on his feet.

He ignored Liu Biao's clamor and instead picked up the "Engineering Diary" and began measuring the terrain on the shore as if no one else was there.

"The water level is high enough, but the slope is too steep. A regular gangplank won't work; we need to build a pontoon bridge." Lu Yan said to Zhao Tie behind him as he looked around. "Use Plan Three. Clear out those dilapidated boats blocking the way first."

"Alright!" Zhao Tie grinned as he carried a thick iron crowbar.

"Damn it, that's my boat!" Liu Biao roared, waving his hand. "Brothers, charge! Break these outsiders' legs!"

With a "whoosh," hundreds of thugs from the shore surrounded them with sticks.

Lu Yan closed the journal, looked up, and his gaze darkened slightly.

"Are you Liu Biao?"

"It's your Master Biao!"

"I am Lu Yan, the newly appointed supervisor of the Directorate of Palace Attendants." Lu Yan took off the ivory waist tag from his waist and waved it in his hand. "By order of Eunuch Wang, I have taken over this batch of gold bricks. I'll give you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Take your men and these wrecked ships and get out of here."

"The Imperial Household Department? Hahahaha!" Liu Biao laughed until tears streamed down his face. "Another lackey of the eunuchs! Supervising? Bah! In Zhangjiawan, my word is law! Don't even mention Eunuch Wang, even if the Heavenly King himself came, he wouldn't unload the goods without paying up!"

He grinned maliciously as he approached: "Kid, looking at your delicate skin, you've probably never seen blood before, have you? Brothers, teach this inspector what the rules of Zhangjiawan are!"

Dozens of thugs, wielding clubs, rushed up.

Lu Yan sighed.

"It's always like this. When reasoning fails, they resort to violence."

He stepped back and snapped his fingers.

"Clear the area."

"collapse!"

A heart-stopping bowstring twanged.

A heavy arrow streaked through the air like a meteor, landing precisely at Liu Biao's toes, penetrating three feet into the ground, its fletching still trembling violently.

Liu Biao was so startled that he jerked his foot back and looked up.

Suddenly, the tarpaulins covering the twenty large carts were ripped off. What was revealed was not cargo, but rows of dark gun barrels and Liaodong veterans holding hard bows, their faces filled with murderous intent.

Zhao Changying stood on the roof of the carriage, his powerful bow fully drawn again, the arrow tip pointed directly at Liu Biao's throat.

"Take one more step, and you'll die."

The word "death" seemed to carry a chilling aura of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, causing everyone present to skip a beat.

But these local bullies, used to being arrogant, did not immediately collapse due to their large numbers.

"Who are you trying to scare? Go ahead and try..."

"Bang!"

A loud bang interrupted Liu Biao's words.

That was the sound of Zhao Tie's flintlock pistol firing.

But the shot didn't hit anyone; instead, it severed the mooring rope of the largest sampan tied to the shore. Losing its traction, the wrecked boat was immediately swept sideways by the current and crashed heavily into the boat next to it, sending splinters flying everywhere.

"When Lu's business is being handled, all irrelevant personnel should step aside!"

Lu Yan's voice wasn't loud, but it sounded exceptionally clear amidst the lingering echo of the gunshot.

"One stick of incense. Anyone still standing in the core area of ​​the dock is obstructing the imperial envoy and will be treated as a treasoner. Execute without mercy."

Once the label of "treason" was slapped on him, coupled with the deafening gunshots, the surrounding laborers who had come to watch the spectacle scattered like birds and beasts.

"You...you dare to use force?" Sun, the steward in the pavilion, finally couldn't sit still any longer. He slammed his fist on the table and stood up. "In broad daylight, are you trying to rebel? I am an official from the Ministry of Revenue..."

Lu Yan turned around and looked coldly at the civil official.

"Lord Sun, these gold bricks are for the construction of the Qingling Mausoleum's underground palace. If the auspicious time is missed, the Emperor will not be able to sleep peacefully. Who do you think Eunuch Wang will harass first?"

Lu Yan walked step by step toward the pavilion, each step carrying an immense sense of oppression.

"You want to sow discord within the inner court? That's like gods fighting. But this shipment must leave today. If you try to stop it, I don't mind sending this memorial 'obstructing the imperial envoy' directly to the Directorate of Ceremonial."

He leaned closer to Manager Sun, lowered his voice, and his tone carried a chilling rationality:

"My lord, are you willing to risk your official position and even your entire family for a kickback of a few thousand taels of silver? Can you really justify this?"

Sun's face flushed and paled in turns. Looking at this young man before him, a commoner who was even more ruthless than the Imperial Guards, his defenses finally crumbled. He was a smart man; he knew when to back down.

"Hmph! I... I'm just here to inspect the river! Since you want to unload your cargo, then unload it!"

After saying this, Master Sun flicked his sleeves, slunk into the sedan chair, and ran away.

When the backing company collapsed, Liu Biao was completely dumbfounded.

"Do I have to do it myself?" Lu Yan asked, looking at him.

"No...no need! Get out of here! We're leaving now!" Liu Biao scrambled out of the dock with his men.

The site has been cleared.

"start!"

With Lu Yan's command, Lu Ji's "industrialized unloading" machine started running again.

The pontoon bridge was quickly erected, pulley systems were mounted on the mast, and the wheelbarrow convoy formed a long line. The heavy gold bricks were transported out of the ship's hold like a flowing river, loaded onto trucks, covered with tarpaulins, and ready to go.

There was no extortion, no delays, and the efficiency was astonishing.

That evening, in the Imperial City of Beijing, at the office of the Directorate of Palace Attendants.

Looking at the newly delivered inventory slip and listening to the little eunuch's vivid report, Wang Tiqian finally showed a genuinely satisfied smile on his perpetually tense face.

He picked up the two clocks that Lu Yan had given him and listened to their clear ticking sound.

"He's a ruthless person, and also a capable one."

Wang Tiqian said to his trusted eunuch, "We'll use this knife. Go and inform the Grand Canal Transport Commissioner's office that from now on, Lu's ships will be official ships of the Imperial Household Department. Anyone who dares to stop them is going against us."

"Also, didn't Lu Yan want to get his hands on Huangmu? Approved."

Wang Tiqian stood up, gazing at the deep night outside the window, his eyes gleaming with the eerie light of power.

"I'd like to see if this scholar from Shandong can help me completely turn over the dead ends in the inner court."

That night, Lu Yan's name was officially inscribed on the register of the Ming Dynasty's inner court.

This was merely the first step in his "taking advantage of the situation" and leveraging the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

In his plan, this batch of imperial timber was not only a business deal, but also the lifeline for him to connect the north and south and establish an underground intelligence network. Wherever the network extended, his "grassroots dragons and snakes" could lurk there.