Upon learning that Tang Xiaobei had been attacked, Jin Feng’s first reaction was that someone was targeting the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce and the Zhenyuan Escort Agency.
As for the reason, he could not guess.
After all, the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce and the Zhenyuan Escort Agency had developed too quickly in the past six months and had offended too many people.
Later, upon hearing that the escorts had been captured in the East Sea, Jin Feng thought the opponent’s goal was to kill him.
That was why, on the way here, although Jin Feng was anxious to hurry, he constantly sent scouts ahead to probe the route, fearing a repeat of Tang Xiaobei’s misfortune.
As a result, the journey was completely peaceful. Even water bandits, seeing the fully armed escort fleet, kept their distance.
Upon reaching the coast, Jin Feng worried that the water bandits might launch an attack on the open sea, which would be disadvantageous to his side. He immediately set up camp on land and sent the large ships to the official dock for safety.
When he discovered the water bandits’ defences were lax, Jin Feng still suspected a ruse.
Now he understood everything. From beginning to end, the opponent’s true target was neither Tang Xiaobei nor putting him to death.
It was to lure him away, and the farther the better.
The distance from the East Sea to Chuanshu was thousands of li. It was now winter, with northwesterly winds blowing all day. Going downstream was quite fast, but returning would be difficult.
Against the wind and the current, they could only rely on trackers to haul the boats.
Even if Jin Feng kept three teams of trackers rotating with the ships, it would take at least two or three months to get back.
“My lord, I heard that Caiwei sent someone with an urgent report. Has something happened in Jiangnan again?”
Tang Xiaobei lifted the tent flap and asked anxiously.
Jin Feng had sent her to Jiangnan to oversee affairs, but she had secretly handed the responsibility to Yuan Caiwei and come to the East Sea herself.
No matter how one looked at it, this was somewhat wilful. If something went wrong in Jiangnan, she would bear responsibility too.
“It is not Jiangnan. It is Xichuan.”
Jin Feng handed the letter to Tang Xiaobei.
Tang Xiaobei quickly scanned it, let out a sigh of relief, then felt particularly puzzled.
She was relieved that everything was fine in Jiangnan, but puzzled because the events described in the letter were truly incomprehensible.
“The cold wave has already reached Xichuan, and it is precisely when the Ninth Princess is needed to take charge. Why would His Majesty issue an edict summoning her back to the capital?”
Tang Xiaobei asked curiously.
“What else could it be? He has listened to slanderous talk!”
Jin Feng said angrily, “The cold wave has come. It is exactly the time when those powerful nobles can line their pockets and sell grain at high prices. If the Ninth Princess is in Xichuan handling disaster relief, how can they embezzle relief grain? How can they feast on human blood steamed buns? How can they profit from calamity?”
“This… this… this is too outrageous, is it not?”
Tang Xiaobei was so shocked she could barely speak coherently, “Doing this, who knows how many people will starve or freeze to death. How can they do such a thing?”
“When have they ever cared about the lives of the common people? Anyway, it is not them who will starve or freeze to death. They only care about making money for themselves.”
Jin Feng laughed, a laugh tinged with bitterness, “It really must have taken them a lot of effort to lure me all the way to the East Sea.”
“My lord, Lord Qing is still in Xichuan. Perhaps things are not as bad as you think.” Tang Xiaobei comforted him.
“These dog officials have even managed to remove the princess. How could they spare Qing Xinyao?”
Jin Feng sneered, “If I am not mistaken, the governor of Xichuan is probably no longer Qing Xinyao by now.”
“Then what do you plan to do, my lord?” Tang Xiaobei asked, “Shall we return to Xichuan?”
“Since we are already here, no matter what, we must rescue the men!”
Jin Feng shook his head and said bitterly, “Old Han, have someone prepare the carrier pigeons. I need to send messages to Yuan Caiwei, to Xihe Bay, and to Great Python Slope.”
“Shall we prepare pigeons for the Qing residence?” Han Feng asked.
“If Qing Xinyao has been dismissed, he will probably be placed under house arrest. Even if we send a pigeon, he might not receive it, and it could alert the enemy to our plans instead. Sending to Great Python Slope will suffice.”
Jin Feng said, “If Qing Xinyao is unharmed, Brother Liang will pass the message to him.”
“Sir is indeed thorough.” Han Feng nodded in sudden realisation.
“By the way, it is too inconvenient that we can only send messages now and not receive them. Send someone to inquire locally. Find out which major clans have pigeons in Chuanshu and the capital, and buy them at a high price.”
Jin Feng said, “I need to be able to receive news directly from the capital and Chuanshu as soon as possible.”
At present, to contact Jin Feng from Chuanshu or the capital, messages still had to relay through Jiangnan, which delayed things too much.
The only solution was to buy pigeons that others had already sent to the capital and Chuanshu, then send instructions notifying the Ninth Princess in the capital and those in Chuanshu to locate the matching birds.
Only then could he receive the latest intelligence.
“Yes!” Han Feng immediately went out to make arrangements.
Jin Feng also forced himself to calm down, began writing the letters, and thought about solutions.
But distant water cannot quench a nearby fire. He did not even know the current situation in Chuanshu, so he dared not issue blind commands. He only instructed Zhang Liang to act according to circumstances and try to avoid direct confrontation with the opponent.
Because the opponent controlled the court and held the power to make the rules.
In plain terms, the laws of the Great Kang were formulated by this group. They could find any excuse to deal with Zhang Liang.
This was also the reason they had gone to such lengths to lure Jin Feng away.
Jin Feng was a noble without an official position. Although he lacked much authority, there were few things that could restrain him.
Moreover, anyone who knew a bit about Jin Feng’s past understood that this was a madman who had dared to beat Xue Henglu to death outright.
Who was Xue Henglu?
He was the future brother-in-law of the emperor.
Not only had Jin Feng beaten him to death, even the corpse had been gnawed by wild beasts beyond recognition.
And then there was Zhou Wenyuan.
Though he had kept his life, he had become a cripple.
In less than half a year, two young nobles from the capital had already fallen at Jin Feng’s hands.
If this was not madness, what was?
The soft fear the hard, the hard fear the desperate, and the desperate fear the mad.
None of those lords wanted to tear faces with Jin Feng and fight to the death.
Great families all had death warriors, but to show so-called “goodwill”, they had not sent anyone to assassinate him.
This was also a reminder to Jin Feng that nobles could use tactics against each other, but mutual assassination was forbidden.
Unfortunately, they had overthought it. Jin Feng could not care less about these rotten old rules.
Not only had they attacked Tang Xiaobei, they were also treating human lives as worthless while profiting from disaster. If the opportunity arose, Jin Feng would eliminate them without hesitation!
Jin Feng finished writing the letters just as Han Feng returned with the carrier pigeons.
He rolled the notes into small scrolls, inserted them into tiny tubes, then tied the tubes to the pigeons’ legs.
Jin Feng watched the pigeons fly away and said, “Da Zhuang, notify the first and second platoons of the first company to prepare. We must deal with the water bandits as quickly as possible.”
Previously, he had wanted to take this opportunity to let the escorts adapt to sea conditions, so that next time they encountered naval combat, they would not be as flustered as this time.
Now, upon learning of the situation in Xichuan, he had no time to slowly train the escorts.
“Sir, the brothers have never fought on water. Is this not too hasty?” Da Zhuang asked with a frown.
“We have never fought on water, so we can just find people who have.”
Jin Feng said, “Da Liu, prepare the horses. I am going to visit the naval camp and pay respects to the naval general!”
