Chapter 2764: The Capital (Part 120)

The stamp of a Dumping House served as a guarantee of credit—not something to be used casually. Liu Sha's stamp was almost certainly obtained through illegitimate means.

According to the National Police investigation, the Sanjiang Mao case remained unsolved since the Wanli era. Given Liu Sha's age, he could not possibly have been involved.

"Where did this stamp come from?"

"You people really do like getting to the bottom of things." Liu Sha laughed. "It couldn't have been me who did it."

"I know that." Xu Ke nodded. "But I'm still curious."

"I obtained this stamp from a man named Zhen Gaizhen," Liu Sha said. "You've probably heard of him—a famous 'Philanthropist' in Guangzhou. As for how he acquired it, I have no idea."

"Zhen Gaizhen?" The name rang familiar. Xu Ke racked his memory for some time before recalling that this man served as a director of the Guangzhou Puji Hall—one of its actual controllers, in fact. Throughout the Guangzhou region, he was known as a "Philanthropist."

After Liu San took office, he had assumed control of various local charitable facilities for rectification. Zhen Gaizhen's embezzlement and siphoning of charity funds under the guise of "doing good deeds" came to light during this process. More than a year ago, he had already faced prosecution, and his vast family fortune was completely confiscated.

Originally, Xu Ke had assumed the man was merely a "Charity Stick"—a fraudulent philanthropist. It now seemed this "Philanthropist" had not only embezzled charity funds but might also have been secretly involved in capital crimes—if not him personally, then his forebears.

"How much Drug Silver did this Daoist Wu refine, and where is it now?"

"Approximately fifty thousand taels. Apart from the ten thousand given to Gao Tianshi, the rest was handed over to the counterfeit currency operation in Guangzhou."

The Drug Silver given to Gao Tianshi would be discovered eventually—if not when the Planning Commission accepted the confiscated materials, then certainly when they were transferred to the Central Reserve Bank. There was little cause for concern there. But the remaining forty thousand taels had become a ticking time bomb.

According to intelligence exchanged at the weekly internal security meetings, the Central Reserve Bank had already detected a quantity of exceptionally refined counterfeit currency circulating in the market. Cast from arsenic white copper—paktong—the fakes achieved seventy percent similarity to genuine coins overall. Only the milled edges were obviously counterfeit at a glance, but after specialized aging treatments, they had reached a quality sufficient to pass in ordinary transactions.

The National Police had been attempting to determine exactly how many fake silver coins were in circulation, hoping to assess the damage to the financial system. Liu Sha's confession now solved this puzzle.

Forty thousand taels. Though Xu Ke was no expert in finance, he knew the Central Reserve Bank had allocated only two hundred thousand yuan in silver coins to the Guangdong Branch. If all forty thousand taels of counterfeits entered circulation, it would be equivalent to instantly inflating the money supply by one-fifth.

The resulting inflation rate would be devastating. Xu Ke was aware that since the currency reform, the issuance of paper currency had expanded repeatedly to fund rising military expenses, administrative costs, and infrastructure investments. Paper currency in circulation had already exceeded the original plan of one million. Add the corrosive effect of these counterfeits, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Who is in charge of this counterfeiting operation now?"

"I only know his name is Li Fugui. Beyond that, nothing." Liu Sha shrugged. "The people minting the counterfeit currency in Guangzhou are one group. The ones spending it are another. And the ones refining the Drug Silver are yet another."

"Good grief—you were in Guangzhou, and even you don't know?"

"Precisely." Liu Sha nodded. "This was Mr. Le's design. Each line operates independently."

"This Mr. Zhou is no simple character." Xu Ke spoke slowly. "But since Wu Zhiqi has been caught, how can they continue refining Drug Silver?"

"He has an apprentice named Wu Hai, originally in the same trade as Fu Wen. He got along well with Wu Zhiqi and became his disciple. The Drug Silver refining operation was originally based in Guangzhou. After Wu Zhiqi's arrest, they relocated it to an outer county."

"Where?"

"How would I know?" Liu Sha smiled. "The specific location is probably known only to Li Fugui. He's the one managing the counterfeit currency operation."

"Do you know Li Fugui?"

"I've met him once."

"What sort of person is he?"

"A middle-aged man, dressed like an ordinary merchant, speaking Cantonese. Very refined in his speech. However, he's quite familiar with the techniques of various crafts. His family most likely came from artisan stock."

Xu Ke thought, Since this man speaks Cantonese, he's almost certainly a Guangzhou native—or at most from one of the subordinate prefectures or counties.

"If you're relying solely on that to catch him, it's not as though there isn't a chance..." Liu Sha said leisurely.

Xu Ke's mind worked quickly; he immediately grasped what the man was driving at and asked with a smile, "What's this—you want to propose conditions?"

"Just tell me whether you want to catch this person or not."

"It's not about whether I want to—I genuinely don't have the authority to agree..."

Liu Sha cut him off: "You haven't even heard what I have to say. How do you know you lack the authority?"

"Then let's hear it."

"It concerns my daughter," Liu Sha said.

"I've already agreed to that matter. It's just that the journey is long, so it probably won't happen quickly..."

"I trust you on that." Liu Sha nodded. "But after the mother and daughter are rescued—can the child study in Guangzhou?"

"Attend our schools?" Xu Ke was genuinely astonished. Setting aside Fangcaodi in Lingao, even for the new-style schools established in Guangzhou, forget about officials and gentry—even middle-class citizens showed little enthusiasm for enrollment. Only a minority with foresight, or those harboring certain ulterior purposes, would send their children to study at new-style schools.

Yet this Liu Sha had thought of this?

Could it be true, as "later generations" said: the one who understands you best is your enemy? Had Liu Sha recognized their superiority?

The thought stirred a flicker of pride in Xu Ke. What could proclaim their side's "correctness" more convincingly than this? He considered for a moment, then said: "This matter requires the Senate's approval. However, though your own crimes are severe, the Senate never practices guilt by association. If your daughter wishes to study, there should be no problem. I can agree to this on your behalf."

"Many thanks." Liu Sha cupped his fists. "I entrust her future to your care."

"Easily done." Xu Ke nodded. "Rest assured."

"Mr. Le's operations in Guangzhou, though separated into independent lines that never interact directly, employ a liaison in the middle to maintain contact. This person has encountered many of the key figures. If he can be captured, apprehending the counterfeiters at minimum should pose no difficulty."

"Oh? Such a crucial figure—what is his name?"

"Speaking of which, he's also an old acquaintance of yours." Liu Sha's eyes narrowed. "Gou Xunli."

The name struck like thunder. Even Xu Ke, who had long trained himself to remain composed amid upheaval, was visibly moved.

"Him?!"

Gou Xunli and his son—ever since their escape from Gou Family Village—possessed a history as long as the Senate's own. Originally assumed to be mere footnotes in the grand narrative of the Senate's rise, they had gradually transformed into recurring adversaries.

Though this particular adversary was not especially formidable, he proved remarkably tenacious, never ceasing his opposition to the Senate for even a moment. The crucial point was his ubiquity—always lurking at the edges, a persistent reminder of the past.

Among the Senate's various enemies from those early days—the powerful, the cunning, the ferocious—gradually the dead had died and the fled had fled. Only this father-and-son pair endured; traces of their activities surfaced from time to time.

With the passage of years, their experience in "resisting" the Senate had grown ever richer. They had become true experts in the great cause of "Opposing the Australians." This made them increasingly dangerous. Consequently, the Political Security Bureau's pursuit of the Gou father and son had escalated from the initial somewhat sardonic "thirty wen reward" to the maximum bounty of one thousand yuan. Even Lai Xiao, whose whereabouts remained completely unknown, carried a reward as high as one hundred yuan. Alive, they wanted the person; dead, they wanted the corpse.

Hearing news of the Gou father and son, Xu Ke was naturally intensely interested. He asked immediately, "How do you know of him?"

"Speaking of which, it was I who found his son, Gou Chengxuan." Liu Sha recounted the details of his chance encounter with Gou Chengxuan in Guangzhou.

"...Though this Gou Chengxuan possesses no remarkable abilities, his hatred for the Australians burns fiercely," Liu Sha said with a laugh. "He shared many stories from his time in Lingao and spoke of Senate affairs in considerable detail. It was precisely after encountering Gou Chengxuan that Master Wang conceived the idea of recruiting Gou Xunli."

"Oh? How did you locate him?"

"Li Siya."

"So it was her!" Xu Ke started—they had failed to uncover any intelligence suggesting contact between the two.

"It seems Miss Li is also an old acquaintance of the Senate." Liu Sha perceived this keenly.

"If she falls into our hands, we'll have to 'entertain' her properly." Xu Ke smiled. "Where is this woman now?"

Since the liberation of Guangzhou, there had been no news of Li Siya. Ordinarily, she would spend more than half the year at sea, but she had always remained active in Macau and Guangdong for at least four or five months. Yet after the Lotus departed from Macau this time, she had vanished completely. Though guards remained posted at her Macau residence, no one knew the owner's whereabouts. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau had attempted to trace her in Macau on several occasions, all without success. Even Li Huamei—an asset Li Siya had personally cultivated—had no idea where she had gone.

"The Senate certainly values this Ghost Girl highly!" Liu Sha smiled faintly. "Not long after you seized Guangzhou, Li Siya set sail and departed. Word has it she returned to the Land of the Franks."

"She went back to Portugal?!" Xu Ke was shocked once again.

"Since the Senate wishes to 'entertain' her, how could she dare remain in Macau? The Franks cannot guarantee her safety."

"Quick to flee, I'll give her that!" Xu Ke said with evident frustration. Then he remembered the crucial matter at hand. "What about Gou Xunli?"

"Gou Xunli has been under her protection all these years. I heard he attempted to stir up quite a few schemes, all of which failed. Li Siya and I are old acquaintances—I learned his whereabouts simply by asking her. Since she was preparing to leave, she handed these old contacts over to Master Wang."

No wonder Wang Yehao, a wandering official from elsewhere, had managed to construct such an extensive covert network locally after only three years in Guangdong. He had been reaping the harvest of others' labor.

"So the reunion of the Gou father and son was also your doing."

"I wouldn't call it a contribution, but this father-and-son pair have indeed proven quite useful." From Xu Ke's tone and expression, Liu Sha could tell that the Gous' claims about "the Australians desperately wanting them dead" were no exaggeration.

(End of this chapter)