Chapter 684
: Gongshuqi's firearms blueprints were stolen, and the prefect of Yingtian was invol
When Chang Mao saw Zhu Gang take out a secret memorial, his pupils suddenly shrank and the sword at his waist unconsciously moved forward half an inch.
"Your Highness, do you really want to reveal such a secret to outsiders?"
His eyes swept over Gongshu Qi who was standing in the shadow of the pillar. The chief craftsman of the Firearms Institute had specially changed into a dark blue cloth robe today.
There was still some sulfur powder on his sleeves, obviously he had gone straight from the workshop to the meeting room not long ago.
Zhu Gang tapped three short notes on the sandalwood table with his fingertips. This was the "silence" signal they had agreed upon in Mobei.
Chang Mao stopped immediately, but his eyes were still fixed on the white letter in Prince Jin's sleeve.
Zhu Gang was seen twisting the secret letter with his two fingers and slowly unfolding it. The wax seal broke into eight petals in the candlelight, and the scent of cinnabar mixed with pine smoke filled the hall.
This is the "red scale pattern" sealing wax that is only used by the secret agents directly under the Longxiang Pavilion, and there are extremely fine silver threads embedded in the corners of the scales.
This was the anti-counterfeiting mark that Zhu Gang personally supervised when he accompanied the emperor on the northern expedition three years ago.
"The Fengyu Posthouse robbery, early morning of September 17th."
Zhu Gang pushed the secret letter to the center of the desk. Three lines of tiny calligraphy were smudged with ink on the jute paper.
“There are 23 carts of military equipment, but only two boxes of Rumi gun parts are missing.
What’s even more bizarre is that the range of the fire guns used by the robbers is two meters longer than the standard ones used by the Shenjiying.”
Gongshu Qi's slightly closed eyelids suddenly opened, and his iron fingers grabbed the edge of the table.
"impossible!
Unless they improve the gun barrel line..."
He suddenly choked in the middle of his words, and his calloused thumb drew a half arc on the table, as if imitating the direction of the rifling of a gun barrel.
This master craftsman usually hated officialdom and empty formalities, but at this moment he stared at the record on the secret letter: "The barrel is three points thick and has seven spirals engraved on it," with his Adam's apple rolling heavily.
Chang Mao noticed another detail: the last line of the secret letter was stamped with a half-square official seal, with cinnabar mixed with a very light indigo - this was an anti-counterfeiting measure used in the joint secret report by the Shanxi Censorate and the Taiyuan Guard.
[Indigo can be mixed with cinnabar. This is clearly a new rule that was changed last month. No more than five people know this rule.]
He suddenly remembered the wandering Taoist priest he met by chance in Jin Temple three days ago. The jade token worn on his waist was exactly the same pattern as the Anchasi's hidden lines.
"The people from the Censorate investigated for forty days and only dared to write 'it is suspected that Liaodong craftsmen were involved.'"
Zhu Gang rolled his fingertips over the smudged ink on the paper, the sound as if it were soaked in iron sand.
“But you see this line…”
His fingertips stopped at the spot where "there was an old scar on the bandit leader's left wrist from a musket burn". "In the 13th year of Hongwu, a fire broke out at the Yingtian Firearms Bureau, seriously injuring 12 people.
The Ministry of Industry's document library records the location of each person's burns."
Gongshu Qi stood up suddenly, and the wooden chair made a harsh sound as it dragged against the blue bricks.
“I was in Yingtian back then!
"Old Zhou in the third room... No, he's in the base of his right hand!"
He suddenly shook out from his sleeve a piece of wrinkled sheepskin covered with cross-sections of various muskets.
One of them was circled in red, the "Improved Chicken Neck Gun", the curvature of the gun barrel was exactly the same as the record in the secret memorial. This was exactly the design of Gongshuqi that was rejected by the Ministry of Industry's Firearms Supervision last year.
Chang Mao's finger suddenly stopped at the edge of the secret letter, "Your Highness, there is a crucial link missing here."
As he spoke, he drew out the folding fan from his waist and knocked the fan rib on the record that "the gunpowder used by the robbers was blue-gray in color."
"Green phosphorus mixed with saltpeter is a recipe privately made by salt merchants in eastern Zhejiang.
But last December, all the private mines were under our watch!"
At this point, Chang Mao deliberately emphasized the word "we" and glanced at Gongshu Qi meaningfully.
The old craftsman's nostrils suddenly widened, as if he smelled something dangerous.
"Master Chang is suspicious of the Firearms Institute?"
His greasy palm slammed down on the gun picture he had drawn.
"Do you know that I spent seventeen nights in the workshop just to make this musket fire continuously on horseback?!"
Before he finished speaking, the sound of a pigeon whistle was suddenly heard outside the hall.
A grey-feathered carrier pigeon was fluttering towards the carved window frame, with half a piece of indigo-soaked silk tied to its tail feathers. This was the "Rain Silk Pattern" letterhead mark used exclusively by Lin Miaoyin. Zhu Gang's eyebrows suddenly tightened.
He recognized the format of the letter paper, and he knew that Lin Miaoyin should be in Yingtian Embroidery Workshop at this moment, not in Shanxi, thousands of miles away.
The guard on duty was about to pick up the pigeon when Chang Mao suddenly stepped forward.
The short blade in his sleeve flashed coldly, and the pigeon's leg ring fell to the ground.
It was not an ordinary leather rope, but was made of steel wire as thin as a hair.
There was also half a dried honeysuckle leaf wrapped around the knot, which was the secret code used by the Lin caravan when crossing the Qinling Mountains.
"From Jiangnan?"
Gongshu Qi was completely unaware of the sudden drop in air pressure in the hall and was still muttering to himself while looking at the gun diagram.
"If it is really the phosphate mine in eastern Zhejiang..."
He suddenly grabbed the teacup on the table and used the tea stains to draw a map of Zhejiang's water network on the table.
“Last winter the canal froze over and only seagoing vessels could transport the phosphate sand.
But the records of the Quanzhou Port Customs Office..."
"enough."
Zhu Gang suddenly pressed down Chang Mao's hand holding the blade, but his eyes fell on the tiny words carved on the inside of the pigeon's leg ring: "At the beginning of the hour of Xu, at the old locust tree in the Jin Temple, the throat will be sealed with blood."
This was the code word used by Lin Miaoyin's father when he was serving in the Hidden Dragon Guard, meaning that she was in a desperate situation at the moment.
The brocade handkerchief in Prince Jin's sleeve suddenly tightened, and his fingertips unconsciously stroked the "棡" character embroidered on the corner of the handkerchief.
It was embroidered by Lin Miaoyin herself during the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, and the stitches were mixed with the agarwood fragrance she usually used.
Chang Mao followed Zhu Gang's gaze and immediately noticed something unusual.
The third flight feather on the left wing of the carrier pigeon was deliberately cut short, which was Lin's signal of "urgent help".
He was about to speak when he saw Gongshu Qi suddenly throw the sheepskin map onto the table.
“Since we know it’s the phosphate mine in eastern Zhejiang, why don’t we go straight to the source?
If I add fine saltpeter to my newly made 'chain gun', its range can be increased by another 30 meters!"
There was a flash of enthusiasm in the old craftsman's eyes, as if he had already seen the improved firearms roaring on the battlefield.
Zhu Gang suddenly laughed, and his laugh was extremely cold.
"Mr. Gongshu, do you know that the governor of Zhejiang East died suddenly of illness last December?"
His fingertips traced over the half-line of small characters on the secret letter that was covered by ink. "The autopsy record says 'green discharge from all seven orifices, and black fingernails'. This is exactly the poison of green phosphorus."
The temperature in the hall suddenly dropped, and Chang Mao took a half step back with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
His eyes swept across the copper clock in the corner of the temple: the first hour of the evening was approaching, the old locust tree in the Jin Temple…
"So, this is not a 'firearm case.'
Zhu Gang suddenly brought the secret letter close to the candlelight. The bright yellow flame licked the edge of the paper, and the remaining wax fragments made crackling sounds.
"Someone wants us to think it's a 'firearms case'."
When the last line of words curled up in the fire, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Gongshu Qi.
"Sir, who else has seen your rejected 'Chicken Neck Gun', besides the Ministry of Industry's Firearms Bureau?"
The old craftsman's movements suddenly froze.
He recalled that three months ago, a middle-aged man who called himself a "Suzhou merchant" had visited the workshop. The jade pendant on his waist was engraved with...
No, that is the official seal of the Yingtian Prefecture Governor!
Cold sweat suddenly rolled down his forehead, and Gongshu Qi realized that he had never carefully checked the origin of the "Suzhou merchant".
The sound of pigeon whistles once again pierced the night sky, this time with a rapid series of three long and two short beeps.
Chang Mao could no longer hold back, and whispered to Zhu Gang anxiously: "There must be something hidden in Lin Shi's letter. The Jin Temple is only half a mile away from here..."
Before he could finish his words, there was a sudden sound of a heavy object falling to the ground outside the hall.
A pigeon with a broken wing fell on the threshold, its claws still tightly grasping a piece of bloodstained silk ribbon, which was the moon-white color that Lin Miaoyin usually used. (End of this chapter)