Chapter 2754: The Capital (Part 110)

"He is in the Capital—that much I know." Liu Sha spread his hands. "Master Wang treats him like a precious gem and guards him most carefully."

"Because he can foresee the future?"

"Precisely. He secretly possesses a 'Heavenly Book.' Master Wang had someone steal it and copy a volume, but it was all symbols no one could decipher."

Xu Ke was unsurprised by the claim of foresight; this was an essential skill for transmigrators. As for this "Heavenly Book," it was likely a chronicle of historical events written in code—a personal reference for this Daoist Furnace Stone.

Xu Ke pressed further with many questions about Zhou Lezhi, but Liu Sha's knowledge proved limited. Regarding the man's current whereabouts especially, he could provide nothing useful. Xu Ke felt a twinge of disappointment.

He suppressed his burning desire to capture Zhou Lezhi and continued the interrogation with patience.

The next focus turned to Liu Sha's activities in Guangdong. As "Daoist Wood-Stone," Liu Sha had been extremely active there, leaving traces in numerous affairs. No matter how many cases had been solved back then, now that the Foreign Intelligence Bureau had finally landed this big fish, they would not let him slip away.

Liu Sha held nothing back, recounting his various activities in Guangdong one by one—from the earliest Riot in Lingao to the recent Fake Medicine Case. The more Xu Ke heard, the more astonished he became. The Riot in Lingao and the Witchcraft Case were familiar territory; he had studied all the case files in detail. But the Fake Medicine Case—its details had always remained murky. Now, from Liu Sha's account, he finally understood that Zhou Lezhi had orchestrated this case single-handedly, generating enormous profits by trafficking "Kun medicine" and remanufacturing it.

Xu Ke listened with mounting shock. He had never imagined such machinations! This Zhou Lezhi was truly diabolical—he understood the vulnerabilities of the Senate, that grassroots troupe of administrators, as intimately as if he had written their bylaws himself. No wonder so many in the Senate had always suspected the Fake Medicine Case was the work of a Senator-level mole. The execution had been far too professional!

Historically, Wang Yehao had been merely an ordinary high-ranking bureaucrat of the late Ming Dynasty. That he could wield such tremendous influence was entirely due to Zhou Lezhi's guidance. No wonder Liu Sha had described him as being "treated like a gem."

A sudden realization struck Xu Ke: he too had stumbled upon a treasure. What Liu Sha could provide extended far beyond the kidnapping case. The inside knowledge of the Stone Elder group alone was absolutely priceless.

However, these old matters sprawled across too wide a scope for immediate exploration. For now, his task was to clarify the organizational structure and personnel composition of the Stone Elder group, while also untangling the discord between Eunuch Yang and his son—a matter both Min Zhanlian and Leng Ningyun had mentioned in their reports. He needed to reassess their value as potential collaborators and, if necessary, impose sanctions upon them.

"What exactly is the situation with Eunuch Yang and his son's discord? Was Little Eunuch Yang involved in the kidnapping?"

"Father and son have been at odds for many days now." Liu Sha immediately recounted the story of their falling out. "This time, the intelligence about Delong having one hundred thousand taels of silver—he provided that..."

"How did he know you were planning to kidnap Leng Ningyun?"

"He didn't. It's simply that he has long been on good terms with Eunuch Cao, and Eunuch Cao is a relative of Cao Sheng."

"And Cao Sheng is another friend of yours?"

"Indeed. We frequently collaborate on various business ventures."

"Including the business of 'inviting the God of Wealth'?"

Liu Sha chuckled, his silence an admission.

Little Eunuch Yang had connected with Liu Sha through the channel of Cao Sheng.

"Later, Eunuch Yang and Master Wang also established a relationship. From then on, they interacted openly and aboveboard. The thing is, neither Master Wang nor Eunuch Yang knew that we had been acquainted long before."

"Why did Master Wang cultivate a relationship with Eunuch Yang?" Xu Ke was puzzled. Although Eunuch Yang was a "person of real power" within the palace, he served in no vital department, and his influence with the Emperor was negligible.

"For trafficking Kun goods."

Through his relationship with Leng Ningyun, Eunuch Yang could order large quantities of rare "Australian goods" directly from Lingao. Beyond using them for bribes, Eunuch Yang had no personal use for these Australian goods, nor did he possess channels to sell them.

"...Master Wang recognized this opportunity and cultivated Eunuch Yang's favor. Every month he could obtain Australian goods from Eunuch Yang. Reselling them meant enormous profits..."

Xu Ke hardly knew whether to laugh or cry. No wonder Leng Ningyun's "Australian Rare Goods" business had thrived in recent years! He had assumed the eunuch community in the palace possessed extraordinary purchasing power, but it turned out the true wholesale distributor was Stone Elder! For a moment, the entire world seemed like an absurd theatrical farce.

"Master Wang must have accumulated quite a fortune?"

"I'm not clear on exactly how much he earned," Liu Sha sneered. "It has nothing to do with me anyway."

It seemed he had received little benefit. Xu Ke noted this and deliberately said, "Presumably Yang Tianliang didn't profit much either."

"He has long been dissatisfied with his adoptive father. The big money is controlled by Eunuch Yang. Without an errand to run, he can't get a single coin and must scrape together whatever extra income he can manage."

"Including 'inviting the God of Wealth' with you?"

"Yes."

To tell the truth, Xu Ke remained quite surprised by their collaboration in "inviting the God of Wealth." Setting aside someone like Liu Sha—inherently a jianghu hero and a hawk and hound kept by the Imperial Court, possessing no sense of right or wrong, honor or shame—Yang Tianliang was still a eunuch with official rank. Embezzlement and bribery were hardly rare, but conspiring to commit kidnapping was rather shocking.

"Which Gods of Wealth did you invite?" Xu Ke's curiosity stirred.

"Quite a few." Liu Sha chuckled. "Could it be that Your Honor also wishes to invite the God of Wealth?"

"Naturally. We even intend to invite the Emperor—the greatest God of Wealth under heaven."

"Surely Sir knows that the Capital has the highest concentration of wealthy people. High officials and dignitaries, nobles and powerful eunuchs, giant merchants... countless. However, most of them we cannot afford to provoke. So the Gods of Wealth we invited were people with money but no power."

Such people abounded in the Capital. The warehouse keepers of the Ministry of Revenue's silver vault, the clerks of various yamen, the eunuchs guarding warehouses... Though they appeared to be insignificant petty officials and lowly servants, the opportunities for profit were immense. The warehouse keepers guarding the various official storehouses in the Capital openly stole inventory materials for resale—an open secret. Those in the fattest posts at the Ministry of Revenue silver vault accumulated family fortunes of tens of thousands of taels.

"Ministry of Revenue warehouse keepers? The ones who smuggle silver in their rectums?"

"So Sir has heard of this."

"Its reputation precedes it."

But the Gods of Wealth that Liu Sha and Little Eunuch Yang invited were not the Ministry of Revenue warehouse keepers—precisely because their wealth was common knowledge, too many people both inside and outside the Capital kept watchful eyes on them. Consequently, the warehouse keepers maintained extremely high vigilance. They went on duty in groups and hired bodyguards for protection. At home, they were heavily guarded and rarely stepped outside.

Liu Sha and Little Eunuch Yang carved out their own niche, specializing in inviting eunuch Gods of Wealth.

Within the Imperial City of the Capital lay multiple warehouses. The most famous were the ten Royal Warehouses, located at what was called Xishiku in the old spacetime. Named Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Chengyun, Guangying, Guanghui, Guangji, and Zangfa Warehouses, each stored tribute materials from various provinces, reserved exclusively for Royal use.

The "Jia Warehouse" stored medicinal materials; the "Yi Warehouse" mainly held various papers and padded jackets for soldiers; the "Bing Warehouse" contained raw silk floss and silk strings from the south, along with cotton from the north; the "Ding Warehouse" held raw lacquer, tung oil, white hemp, yellow wax, cowhide, deer skin, fish glue, and both raw and wrought iron; the "Wu Warehouse" primarily stored armor, bows, arrows, knives, and other weapons; the "Chengyun Warehouse" mainly held yellow and white raw silk; the "Guangying Warehouse" mainly stored various colored plain cooked silks, Hangzhou gauze, and blue fine cotton cloth; the "Guanghui Warehouse" mainly held colored woven handkerchiefs, combs, brushes, coin strings, and yarn spindles; the "Guangji Warehouse" mainly stored gunpowder; and the "Zangfa Warehouse" housed confiscated items.

Each of the ten warehouses was vast in scale, with ridge connecting to beam. The stored goods piled up like mountains and seas. Some warehouses had not been opened in years, and their contents had rotted and deteriorated. Over time, the inventory records had long dissolved into utter confusion.

Such conditions naturally flung wide the doors for custodial theft. The warehouse managers, assistant managers, clerks, and keepers would never surrender such opportunities for enrichment. Eunuchs serving as managers and assistants engaged in large-scale resale of inventory materials.

Eunuchs' greed for money far exceeded that of ordinary people. Rootless and without descendants, they could rely only on wealth. Regardless of status, they all viewed accumulation as capability. Even common eunuchs had to amass silver to provide for their old age after leaving the palace. Eunuchs serving as managers and assistants would naturally seize such golden opportunities. Thus, every term of service filled their coffers to overflowing.

These eunuchs were mostly not powerful figures, so kidnapping them required no worry about subsequent investigation.

Yang Tianliang had spotted the "business opportunity" here and specialized in providing intelligence to Liu Sha. Liu Sha then organized manpower to hunt them down according to these leads. Every kidnapping hit its mark, yielding substantial silver each time. The two split the profits fifty-fifty.

This enterprise proceeded smoothly, netting tens of thousands of taels in total.

"It's just that after inviting too many, this gang of eunuchs also grew cautious. The business tapered off..." Liu Sha said. "Little Eunuch Yang also recognized that this was no long-term livelihood. He wanted to find a stepping stone for advancement. Otherwise, following his adoptive father like this, he could see no future."

Yang Tianliang was already a man in his thirties. If he continued muddling along like this, relying on his adoptive father's status in the palace, the prospect of becoming a manager or steward in the Twenty-Four Yamen remained slim. The Emperor was still young; barring accidents, he should reign for another twenty years—which also meant the eunuchs from the Prince of Xin's mansion would hold power for at least that long.

Even if a new Emperor eventually ascended the throne, people like Eunuch Yang and his son would have long since become has-beens, utterly obsolete.

"...Never mind Eunuch Yang; he is already half-buried in the earth. But Little Eunuch Yang still has half a lifetime ahead of him."

To secure a way forward, heavy bribes were necessary.

"He sought many channels and spent considerable silver. Finally, he managed to get through to Wang Zhixin, the Director of Ceremonial (Sili Jian) and Brush-holding Eunuch. This Eunuch Wang promised that if he brought twenty thousand taels of silver, he would guarantee him a post as supervisor in the Directorate of Imperial Horses (Yumajian), and after one term, guarantee him a position as Grand Defender Eunuch (Zhenshou Taijian)."