The secret message contained a single sentence:
“Shen Wanjin feigned his death and is hiding in Yangzhou. Find him quickly. Secretly question him about the location of the salt silver, then kill him when the interrogation is complete. Leave no loose ends.”
Gongsun E was startled because, although he had given Wei Xiao the ruby ring, he had never told him that Shen Wanjin might have faked his own death.
First, the Eastern Depot’s ruthless methods often led to wrongful convictions. Second, with Wei Xiao’s temperament, if he captured Shen Wanjin first, he would never allow Gongsun E to participate in the interrogation.
For those reasons, Gongsun E had concealed the matter deliberately. He had never imagined that the Crown Prince’s intelligence was so effective that, even in the capital, he had uncovered signs of Shen Wanjin’s feigned death.
It was unsurprising that the Crown Prince wanted Shen Wanjin captured. As matters stood, Shen Wanjin was the only person who knew where the missing salt-tax silver had gone.
But the final four characters sent a chill through Gongsun E: Kill him after questioning.
Once the facts were established, what reason was there to silence him?
Those four characters were so chilling that Gongsun E could not help thinking more deeply about them.
Fang Shoulian was startled by his expression and leaned in to ask nervously, “What is it? What does the message say?”
Gongsun E said nothing. He pushed the books back into Fang Shoulian’s arms and replied calmly, “Nothing. In a moment, I’ll find a way to draw away the guards outside. Take everything back where you found it, and make sure no one sees.”
Fang Shoulian dared not ask further. Seeing the grave look on his face, he clutched the volumes and hurried away.
Once he was gone, Gongsun E faced an urgent and difficult problem.
He had to find Shen Wanjin before Wei Xiao did.
Otherwise, if the Eastern Depot got to him first, the man would certainly be killed as soon as the missing silver’s whereabouts had been extracted.
But Yangzhou was neither particularly large nor particularly small. How easy could it be to find someone deliberately hiding after staging his own death?
At daybreak the next morning, Gongsun E left the official residence alone and met He Tianyang at their previously agreed location. Together they planned to visit the headquarters of the Canal Transport Guild and see whether they could find any clues.
He Tianyang had not expected him so early. He hurried over from home with half a flatbread still in his hand. Without waiting for it to cool, he stuffed it down in two or three mouthfuls, choked, and thumped his chest for quite a while before managing to speak.
“Your Excellency, the guild headquarters is at the canal wharf on the outskirts of town. It’s about an hour on horseback. We can set out now.”
Gongsun E regarded He Tianyang with some surprise. He had not expected a young man from a respectable family to be so straightforward. “Brother He, there’s no need to eat so quickly. We still have time. It would be unfortunate if you burned your stomach.”
He Tianyang waved a hand, untied his horse’s reins, and moved briskly. “It’s nothing. I’m used to it. In an investigation, each moment gained may give us another chance to turn things around. Delay could cost a human life. We cannot afford it.”
He swung into the saddle, glanced back at Gongsun E, and lowered his voice to share unexpected news.
“Your Excellency, you may not know this. Since the day before yesterday, the Eastern Depot has suddenly been conducting sweeping searches throughout the city. They’ve arrested quite a few people, and everyone is on edge. Even on official business, we would be questioned if we crossed paths with those mad dogs. It’s better to avoid unnecessary trouble and get moving.”
Gongsun E’s expression changed slightly. He had not expected Wei Xiao to act so quickly.
The day before yesterday. That meant the Eastern Depot had begun arresting people as soon as their party landed in Yangzhou. Wei Xiao had clearly been guarding against Gongsun E behind his back and had not let a hint escape.
Worried that further delay would cause complications, Gongsun E mounted immediately. “No time to lose. Let’s go quickly, before anything else happens.”
He Tianyang took him at his word and urged his horse out of the alley. Gongsun E followed. The two riders galloped along Yangzhou’s still-quiet morning streets toward the canal wharf.
The Canal Transport Guild’s headquarters stood west of the wharf. It was a substantial three-courtyard compound with black tiles and blue-gray bricks. A black signboard with golden characters read “Canal Transport Office.” Outside stretched a broad freight yard crowded with mountains of grain sacks and salt packages, where laborers hurried back and forth carrying cargo.
As soon as they arrived on horseback, nearby boatmen and porters turned to look, their wary expressions impossible to miss.
Gongsun E wore a long white robe, and He Tianyang was dressed as a civil official. Amid a cargo yard full of laborers in short coarse-cloth clothes, the two stood out conspicuously.
He Tianyang dismounted first, stepped forward, and saluted an elderly boatman. “Would you please announce that He Tianyang, registrar of Jiangdu County, requests an audience with Guild Leader Zhu on official business?”
The old boatman set down his shoulder pole and slowly looked He Tianyang up and down. “Registrar He, was it? Wait there.”
He turned and went into the compound, leaving the two outside. Instead of dispersing, the porters watching them grew more numerous and gradually formed a ring around the pair.
Gongsun E surveyed his surroundings without betraying alarm. Noticing the hostility in their eyes, he said to He Tianyang:
“We’ve only just arrived. Why do they seem to expect an enemy attack?”
He Tianyang also sensed that something was amiss. Uncertain, he replied:
“Perhaps the authorities have squeezed them too hard over the years. Whenever something happens at the wharf, the yamen tends to seize a boatman as a scapegoat, guilty or not. After so long, they have little affection for anyone wearing official robes.”
He glanced at the gate, speaking with a touch of regret. “Still, Guild Leader Zhu is a reasonable man. I have dealt with him several times. If he is here today and comes out himself, matters should be easier.”
Gongsun E nodded, though he remained wary.
They waited about as long as it took to drink a cup of tea. At last the old boatman reappeared, followed by a lean man in his forties. The newcomer wore a faded brown short jacket, and years of sun and wind had darkened his skin. Yet he exuded a vigorous, tigerish energy.
“Registrar He! What an unexpected visitor. What brings you here?”
He Tianyang saluted. “Steward Qian, I trust you’ve been well. This is His Excellency Gongsun of the Criminal Investigation Office. He has been ordered by the emperor to investigate the massacre of the Shen family and wishes to ask your guild a few questions.”
At the mention of the authorities, Steward Qian’s smile faded slightly. His gaze returned to Gongsun E, and his smile became a mask of empty courtesy.
“So this is Your Excellency Gongsun. I’ve heard much about you. But our guild merely handles a little freight transport. Murders and massacres have nothing to do with us.”
Gongsun E spoke calmly. “You misunderstand, Steward Qian. I am not here solely for the Shen household case. Shen Wanjin had dealings with your guild’s young leader, Zhu Lan. Young Guild Leader Zhu has been missing for months. Do you not wish to learn where he went?”
Steward Qian’s smile finally froze.
The slippery expression left his face. He studied Gongsun E with undisguised caution for a long moment before asking, “May I know Your Excellency’s honored name?”
Gongsun E returned the salute slightly, his tone unruffled. “There is nothing honored about it. My compound surname is Gongsun, and my given name consists of the single character E.”
Steward Qian’s pupils contracted.
The Gongsun clan of Luzhou had judged criminal cases for generations, and half the empire’s judicial officials came from their lineage. Although Qian was a man of the martial world, he had heard of that family. The man standing before him was none other than the legendary Gongsun E, famed for solving cases with uncanny skill and daring to investigate even imperial relatives.
It took him a moment to collect himself.
“So it really is Your Excellency Gongsun. Forgive my disrespect. Our guild leader has scarcely been able to eat or sleep since the young guild leader disappeared. Most of his hair has turned white. Now that you are willing to investigate, I am sure he would welcome it.”
He paused, moved aside, and made an inviting gesture. His voice was far more respectful than before.
“Please follow me, gentlemen. The guild leader is in the incense hall.”
“Thank you.”
Gongsun E nodded and exchanged a glance with He Tianyang. Things were progressing more smoothly than he had expected.
The Canal Transport Guild was a brotherhood born of the north-south waterways. It had been rooted in Yangzhou’s river transport network for decades, controlling vital routes and commanding thousands of members. But in recent years the court had clamped down on private shipping, dismissed guild workers, and imposed ever harsher levies. The guild’s influence had declined year by year, its circumstances grown straitened, and relations with the authorities had become increasingly confrontational.
Following Steward Qian into the guild headquarters, the two men were met by an unmistakably martial-world atmosphere.
An incense altar stood in the center of the main hall, bearing a statue of Patriarch Luo, the guild’s founder. Incense burned continuously beneath it, blue smoke rising in thin coils. The walls were hung with rules of brotherhood such as “Help those of our guild” and “Support one another in hardship.”
Weapons racks on either side bristled with blades and spears. Their cold gleam added an edge of killing intent to the shifting incense light.
Before the visitors could inspect the place closely, an elderly man seated in the chief position rose to greet them.
He was nearing sixty, with frost at his temples and a simple dark short coat. Although plainly dressed, he carried the measured authority of someone long accustomed to command. In his right hand he rolled a pair of black iron exercise balls, producing a heavy, muted clacking sound.
His keen eyes traveled over Gongsun E and He Tianyang without the slightest surprise. Someone had clearly informed him of their visit.
“I am Zhu Changfeng of the Canal Transport Guild. I have long heard of Your Excellency Gongsun’s extraordinary skill in solving cases. Your presence at our humble headquarters today is a great honor.”
Gongsun E detected something unusual in the guild leader’s manner. He stopped He Tianyang, who was about to speak, and returned the salute himself.
“Rumors are often exaggerated. I cannot accept such praise. I am Gongsun E, Criminal Investigation Commissioner, and I am acting under imperial orders to investigate the massacre of the Shen family. I have taken the liberty of calling today because of your guild’s young leader, Zhu Lan.”
Zhu Changfeng’s hand paused over the iron balls.
They slowed visibly between his fingers, their heavy grinding unusually clear in the quiet hall. He narrowed his eyes at Gongsun E, regarding him more intently than before, though his polite smile did not change.
“Indeed? Your Excellency has come about my son?”
He slowly resumed his seat, gestured for Steward Qian to arrange tea, and said evenly, “Please sit. I would be interested to know what my son, a rough fellow who earns his living on the water, could have to do with the massacre of Shen Wanjin’s family.”
Gongsun E sat composedly. “Guild Leader Zhu, the Shen family massacre implicates many people, and some matters cannot be discussed openly here. Today I only wish to ask about your son’s movements before and after his disappearance.”
Zhu Changfeng looked up at Gongsun E with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“If Your Excellency truly came to investigate, we commoners should cooperate. But as you can see, our guild has many dealings with outsiders. Surely I cannot tell every detail of my son’s affairs to any stranger who arrives claiming to be an investigator.”
He paused and looked Gongsun E over again, his gaze lingering on the folding fan at his waist.
“I have heard of your reputation, of course. But there are plenty of swindlers around who pretend to have official authority. You say you’re Gongsun E. Why should I believe you?”
He was nearly picking a quarrel. He Tianyang’s expression changed, and he was about to object when Gongsun E raised a hand to stop him.
“Guild Leader Zhu has every reason to be cautious.”
He produced a copper identification badge from his sleeve, placed it on the table, and slowly pushed it toward Zhu Changfeng.
“This is my identification badge from the Criminal Investigation Office. Please examine it.”
Zhu Changfeng glanced down at the badge but did not touch it. “A badge can be copied with a little money in any marketplace. If I trusted everyone who showed me one, I would have been cheated countless times.”
He raised his eyes to Gongsun E and continued meaningfully:
“I have also heard another story. Long ago, an ancestor of the Gongsun family traveled the realm and exposed countless wrongful convictions. In recognition of his service, the late emperor bestowed upon him a Fan of Redressed Injustices, with black fan ribs inlaid with gold and the words ‘Let Injustice Be Righted’ inscribed upon it.”
“Whoever holds that fan may overturn wrongful verdicts and investigate concealed crimes. Neither imperial relatives nor the highest ministers may obstruct the bearer.”
“If Your Excellency really belongs to the Luzhou Gongsun family, surely you must have that fan with you?”
Silence fell across the hall.
Gongsun E smiled, his tone difficult to read. “If you are hoping to see that fan, Guild Leader Zhu, I’m afraid I must disappoint you. An object bestowed by a former emperor is enshrined in our ancestral home. I do not carry it with me.”
As though proving his claim, he drew the folding fan from his waist and snapped it open, then turned it slowly between his fingers. The fan was blank on both sides, white as snow, with neither calligraphy nor picture.
Zhu Changfeng gave a cold laugh and was about to speak, but Gongsun E continued before he had the chance, his voice steady.
“Why test me repeatedly, Guild Leader Zhu? A token may be kept outside, but a person’s convictions belong within. Whether I have the imperial fan or not, I will investigate this case thoroughly. I will not allow your son to be falsely accused, suffer injustice, or die without anyone clearing his name.”
Click!
As the last words fell, Zhu Changfeng’s iron balls abruptly stopped moving with an almost piercing sound. He raised his head, his gaze striking Gongsun E like lightning. Gongsun E met it without flinching.
The muscles in Zhu Changfeng’s face twitched. He seemed about to speak, but his lips shook without forming a word. After several breaths, this hard man who had weathered half a lifetime of storms closed his eyes tightly. A closer look would have revealed the redness around his eyes and the trembling of his fingers.
It was the expression of someone driven to the extreme of grief.
Zhu Lan had been missing for months, with no word at all. However unwilling Zhu Changfeng was to believe it, he had to acknowledge that his beloved son was most likely dead.
His earlier challenges had not sprung from real doubts about Gongsun E’s identity. The affair ran too deep. Without the authority of the late emperor’s gift to support him, Gongsun E might not truly be able to bring the enormous force behind it to justice, nor secure redress for Zhu Changfeng’s son.
At last Zhu Changfeng moved. He wiped a hand over his face, erasing the traces of his loss of composure, then looked up and gave Gongsun E a desolate smile.
“Since Your Excellency has spoken so plainly, it would be wrong of me to conceal anything further.”
In a hoarse voice, he slowly related what had happened before his son disappeared.
“Several months ago, Shen Wanjin had collected the salt taxes and was preparing to send them to the capital. It happened that my old illness had flared up, leaving me confined to bed. So I entrusted all guild affairs, including the transport and escort arrangements with the Shen family, to my son Zhu Lan.”
“He has always been careful and dependable, managing every affair thoroughly. The plan was for our guild’s fleet to escort the million taels north once the Shen family had gathered the silver. But two days before the Shen family massacre, my son vanished without warning.”
The old leader, who had steered ships and faced danger all his life, could not keep the tremor from his voice.
“At first I thought he had gone out privately, as young men sometimes do. But a day passed with no news, then another. I began to panic. Immediately afterward came the destruction of the Shen residence by fire, and the disappearance of a million taels of salt silver.”
“I reported my son’s disappearance to the authorities. But they were frantic over the missing taxes and paid no attention to Zhu Lan. Worse, they suspected that he had stolen the silver himself. They sent people to interrogate us at guild headquarters over and over, always trying to lay the blame at our door.”
Zhu Changfeng slammed the two iron balls onto the table. His eyes burned with indignation and helplessness.
“If our guild did not have several thousand boatmen working the docks, the officials might have named my son the principal criminal just to close the case, and made the entire guild bear the blame!”
He Tianyang stood nearby, frowning deeply. As registrar of Jiangdu County, he knew official corruption only too well. When an important case went unsolved, it had become all too common to find a scapegoat and close the investigation summarily.
Had the guild not been so powerful, they might indeed have been branded the principal culprits and hauled off to satisfy their superiors.
Throughout the account, Gongsun E only listened quietly and offered no agreement.
First, the case was still unsolved. It was too early to conclude that the Canal Transport Guild truly had nothing to do with the stolen salt silver.
Second, Zhu Changfeng was devastated by the loss of his beloved son and could hardly avoid favoring him in his account. Whether Zhu Lan was truly innocent remained unknown.
Gongsun E waited until the old man had regained his composure before asking:
“If Young Guild Leader Zhu took over the transport of the tax silver, there must have been records of his dealings. Was there any secret correspondence between him and Shen Wanjin before he vanished? Did he have a trusted attendant? And who in the guild was the last person to see him?”
Zhu Changfeng was about to answer when hurried footsteps sounded outside the incense hall. Steward Qian stumbled inside, his face anxious.
“Guild Leader! Disaster! A band of yamen officers has suddenly surrounded the compound! They claim our guild is sheltering a wanted felon!”
Everyone in the hall started. Zhu Changfeng slammed his hand onto the table, making the two iron balls leap.
“Outrageous! Who has the nerve to come and cause trouble on our guild’s territory?”
Steward Qian, pale and agitated, swallowed before delivering the shocking news.
“The man leading them looks like the Chief Eunuch of the Eastern Depot! With him are Zhou Mao, the assistant prefect of Yangzhou, and Zhang Yunzhi, the prefectural vice-administrator. They’ve brought a huge force of yamen constables and Eastern Depot agents right to our outer gate!”