“Damn you, Liu Er, I treated you well, gave you the position of chief eunuch, and you betrayed me, telling the enemy about my hidden treasury! You filthy dog of a eunuch!”
Xu San, seeing that Liu Er had so quickly betrayed him, revealing the hidden treasury to Zhu Ping’an and Mao Haifeng, immediately burst into a tirade of curses.
“Xu San, you’ve got the nerve to say you treated me well? I’m the last of my family line, with no heir, and you bloody castrated me, and you call that treating me well?! I’d kill you myself, you wretched thief!”
The scrawny Liu Er glared at Xu San with burning hatred, itching to tear him apart, cursing back furiously.
Mao Haifeng had no time for their squabble, eager to see Xu San’s hidden treasury and count the gold, silver, and jewels, tallying the final haul from the Yuedao battle.
“Lord Zhu, let’s go see what treasures this hidden treasury holds,” Mao Haifeng said impatiently to Zhu Ping’an.
“Let’s go,” Zhu Ping’an replied, curious about how much wealth Xu San, a seasoned pirate of over a decade, had amassed.
“Keep interrogating the others, see if there are any other hidden treasuries,” Mao Haifeng instructed his men to continue questioning the other Yuedao pirates, ensuring no treasures slipped through, then eagerly led Zhu Ping’an and their men to uncover Xu San’s hidden treasury.
Xu San’s treasury was concealed in the back hills, among a pile of rubble, and without Liu Er’s guidance, Zhu Ping’an and his men would never have found it.
Following Liu Er’s directions, Mao Haifeng felt around a massive boulder covering several square metres, found a protrusion, pressed it hard, and with a faint creaking sound, the boulder rotated, revealing a cellar entrance.
“Great King, Lord, this is Xu San’s hidden treasury, that bastard made the back hills a forbidden zone, no one was allowed to set foot here, he’d kill anyone who broke the rule, always stashing treasures alone, I’m his townsman, and after he castrated me, he trusted me more, letting me help move the gold and silver here, that’s how I knew about this treasury,” Liu Er explained to Zhu Ping’an and Mao Haifeng how he came to know of the hiding place.
The cellar sloped downward with stone steps stretching over six metres, leading to a large iron door.
Mao Haifeng, eager to descend, was stopped by Zhu Ping’an, who said gravely, “The cellar hasn’t been opened in ages, the air inside is thin, going down rashly could make you faint from lack of air.”
Zhu Ping’an avoided mentioning oxygen, a term incomprehensible to people of this era, using words they could understand.
“Test it with fire,” Zhu Ping’an ordered a piece of straw paper to be lit and tossed down the steps.
The paper burned fiercely but extinguished halfway before reaching the ground.
“The air’s indeed too thin,” Mao Haifeng said, a bit shaken, clasping his fists to thank Zhu Ping’an, “Thank you, Lord Zhu, for saving my life, if you hadn’t stopped me, I’d probably be collapsed down there.”
“We’re allies, it’s only right to help,” Zhu Ping’an smiled.
“Lord Zhu, with the air so thin down there, what do we do?” Mao Haifeng asked, unwilling to give up.
“Simple, cut some leafy branches, tie them with rope, toss them in, and keep raising and lowering them to stir the air, drawing in the air from above, that’ll make the air below sufficient,” Zhu Ping’an explained.
Soon, Mao Haifeng had his men cut down a few three-to-four-metre branches from nearby, tied them with rope, and lowered them into the cellar, pulling them up and down.
After a while, Mao Haifeng eagerly lit another piece of straw paper, tossed it into the cellar to test the air.
The paper burned brightly, landing and continuing to burn until it was consumed.
“Hahaha, Lord Zhu, you’re brilliant, the air’s good now,” Mao Haifeng exclaimed, delighted.
“You go first,” Mao Haifeng ordered Liu Er to enter, and seeing him reach the bottom safely, he followed with confidence.
Zhu Ping’an went down too.
Below, they found the treasury’s iron door was thick, with three locks, embedded into the stone walls.
Mao Haifeng tried pushing the door, but it didn’t budge.
This door must weigh at least a thousand catties, damn Xu San, how did he make such a solid door!
Ramming it was impractical, the underground space was too cramped for a battering ram.
The only way to open the iron door and enter Xu San’s treasury was with the keys.
“I only know one key’s buried in that corner, the other two are with that bastard Xu San, no idea where he hid them,” Liu Er dug up a key from the corner, presenting it to Zhu Ping’an like a prize, but was helpless about the other two.
Zhu Ping’an handed the key to Mao Haifeng, who, following Liu Er’s guidance, unlocked one of the locks with a click.
Trying his luck, Mao Haifeng inserted the key into the other two locks, but as expected, it was useless.
“Looks like we’ll have to torture Xu San some more,” Mao Haifeng frowned.
He’d already had Xu San harshly interrogated, but Xu San, knowing he wouldn’t die and being a tough bastard, screamed his lungs out but refused to reveal the treasury’s location.
Getting him to give up the keys would likely be just as tough, unless they went all out and tortured him to the brink of death, which might yield a slim chance.
If Xu San held out to the end, he might never talk, even unto death.
“Easy enough,” Zhu Ping’an said nonchalantly, waving his hand, ordering Liu Dadao to summon the Zhejiang army’s explosives expert, who set up a powder keg at the junction of the iron door and stone wall, with a long fuse for safety.
Zhu Ping’an and the others retreated from the cellar to the surface.
“Lord Zhu, will this work? It won’t collapse the cellar, will it?” Mao Haifeng asked, worried.
If the powder was too weak, it wouldn’t budge the thousand-catty door, but too much could collapse the entrance, making it several times harder to access the treasury.
“Don’t worry, just watch,” Zhu Ping’an said confidently, patting Mao Haifeng’s shoulder, calm and assured.
Soon, a Zhejiang soldier lit the fuse and nimbly scrambled up the steps.
Within three breaths, a massive “boom” echoed from below.
The ground shook.
Then came clanging noises from inside.
“It didn’t collapse, did it?!” Mao Haifeng, feeling the tremors, grew nervous.
A collapse would mean clearing debris to reopen the treasury, which could take ten days or more if severe.
