Chapter 13: The Heart of a Snake and a Scorpion

  After passing through the thick and sturdy city gate, listening to the heavy city gate slowly closing behind him, Yang Shuangfeng's heart finally put down.

  Now he has really left the Imperial City.

  From then on, where to go and what to do will depend entirely on one's own abilities.

  The sky is showing its first hint of white, the morning star is getting dimmer and dawn is approaching.

  The assassin on the ground and his second uncle woke up almost at the same time, and when they opened their eyes, they both let out a cry of surprise.

  Yang Shuangfeng touched the white silk scarf on his neck, looking at the somewhat bewildered assassin with a nonchalant expression, not saying a word. The carriage was bumpy and the compartment was shaking, making the light inside the compartment flicker on and off, giving everyone's face a slightly terrifying look.

  Second Uncle looked at everything in front of him with a stunned expression, wanting to ask something but not knowing how to ask. He glanced at the assassin's beautiful face, swallowed hard, and then looked at Yang Suofeng's white silk scarf stained with blood on his neck and his gloomy face. He tactfully crawled out of the carriage and sat in the front passenger seat.

  There were only two people in the carriage, who seemed to be strangers and ignored each other.

  It wasn't long before a faint light began to seep through the gap in the curtains, and then gradually became brighter. The sky had finally lit up.

  The female assassin suddenly became fidgety, her face looked strange and abnormal. Her originally pale face slightly flushed, her thin cherry lips opened lightly, wanting to speak, but in the end she still tightly pursed them, refusing to say a word.

  Yang Shuangfen pretended not to see, lifted the curtain and concentrated on looking at the scenery outside.

  In the depths of autumn, the earth is desolate. Due to years of drought, many fields by the roadside have cracked, with some cracks deep enough for a person to fall into. At dawn, there are already sparse farmers carrying water to irrigate the poor wheat seedlings. Occasionally, a patch or two of vegetables flash by, their leaves looking yellow and scorched. The sky is a dull gray, it's unclear if the sun will be visible today, only the cold autumn wind blows incessantly.

  The area around the Imperial City is all like this desolate scene, I don't know what will happen in the Minas Tirith region.

  In Yang Suo's memory, the Menis region had relatively wide and fertile plains only along the Qingchuan Road, while other areas were mostly barren hills or mountains with very low grain yields. Therefore, every year's grain planting was extremely important. However, from Tianyuan 1721 onwards, a prolonged drought made it even more difficult for Menis' already unsustainable grain production. Perhaps, when he arrived in Menis, collecting grain would be the top priority.

  Suddenly, a moan came from behind the female assassin. Yang Shuofeng turned around and saw that the female assassin's body was curled up in pain, her face also pale and painful. He hurried over to her and, in his anxiety, forgot about the harm she had caused him, asking concernedly: "What's wrong with you?"

  The female assassin said viciously: "You are really too despicable, you are the most despicable person in this world!"

  Yang Shuangfeng was stunned for a moment, then reacted and said calmly: "Miss Dan Ya of Xingmeng Yaxuan, you misunderstood me. I didn't do anything to you. To be exact, it should be that you wanted to assassinate me, but accidentally got subdued by someone else, which led to the current situation. I haven't spoken ill of you, so why did you come to scold me?"

  The female assassin was taken aback for a moment, then said fiercely: "Who are you? How did you know my name?"

  "I am Rear Admiral Yang Shuang Feng. Your name was told to me by Xing Jian Yue's Tang Bing Na, and the one who subdued you is also her..."

  Dan Ya's expression suddenly changed, her eyebrows furrowed and she shouted in a shrill voice: "Tang Bingna! Where is she? I'm going to kill her!"

  Yang Shuangfeng smiled coldly and said casually, "Forget it, Miss Shan Yajing. Your martial arts skills are no match for hers. Even if you find her, you'll still be on a dead-end path. You might as well stay here and explain to me why you came to assassinate me. I don't seem to know you, and you don't know me either. It seems like we don't have any grudges between us, right? Dear Miss Shan Yajing!"

  Dan Ya Xuan didn't say anything and turned her face to one side.

  Yang Shuang said faintly: "Miss Shan Ya, do you know? In this carriage, there are only the two of us. If I were to do something to you that you might not want me to do, such as taking a liberty with you... perhaps no one would know..."

  "Who says my martial arts are inferior to Tang Bingya's? I was injured while assassinating Shangguan Lin, that's why my skills aren't as good as hers. And I didn't expect Shangguan Lin's son would be on leave at home, so I accidentally bumped into him and he turned out to be much stronger than me... I had a hard time escaping, but luckily those black-clothed men arrived and I was finally able to get away..."

  Yang Shuangfen said in surprise: "You go assassinate Shangguan Lin? Why did you go to assassinate him?"

  She raised an eyebrow and said angrily: "Because he bullied my brother!"

  Yang Shuangfen frowned and said: "Your brother is a soldier? Has he committed a military offense?"

  With a flick of her small mouth, she said fiercely: "It's not like that! Who would want to be a soldier? My brother is a researcher. He recently invented a new type of firework and wanted to sell it to the country, but Officer Lin didn't believe him, thinking he was talking nonsense, and wouldn't even see him. My brother was heartbroken and fell ill. In a fit of anger, I went to assassinate Officer Lin for my brother's sake, but unexpectedly..."

  Yang Shuang said "oh" and nodded to show she understood. Then, a thought occurred to her and she asked with some curiosity: "What kind of fire medicine did your brother research? How much is he planning to sell it for?"

  "Five hundred gold coins!"

  Yang Shuangfeng concentrated his mind and thought for a moment, then slowly said: "This price is too high, is it really worth that much? I'd like to see... what kind of fire medicine is it? Does your brother think it's worth selling for five hundred gold coins?"

  Dan Ya shook her head and said: "I don't know, I've never seen it before. My brother said to keep it a secret."

  Yang Shuang nodded and said: "You wait here for a moment, I want to go with you to see your brother."

  Yan Ya said with a hint of doubt: "You want to catch my brother? I won't take you there!"

  Yang Shuangfeng shook his head and said softly, "No, I want to see your brother's invention. You wait here for a moment, I'll be right back." After finishing speaking, he followed the method taught by Tang Bingna to open Su Yaxuan's acupoints, jumped off the carriage, went to find Yang Jirui, but didn't see him, so he turned his head to look for Yu Hanyuan.

  Yu Huan-yu was leaning against the carriage and whispering to Tang Bing-na, the cold autumn wind blowing on their faces, making them look rosy and captivating. When they saw Yang Shuang-feng arrive, they both looked at him with a smile.

  Yang Shuangfeng walked up to the two of them, cupped his hands and said: "Yu boss, sorry about this, I need to borrow 500 gold coins from you, it's an emergency, I'll return it to you soon."

  Yu Huan's face flashed a hint of strange expression, then immediately returned to normal, with an enchanting smile she said: "It's just a small matter, General Yang only needs to send someone to say something and it can be done, why bother coming in person? This weather is strangely cold, Ice Na, go get 500 gold coins for General Yang."

  Tang Bingna looked at him deeply, somewhat reluctantly took out 500 gold coins, and handed them to him coldly. Yang Shuangfeng knew she must have thought he was there to extort money, and didn't want to explain himself either. He took the money, said thank you, turned around and left. As expected, he faintly heard Tang Bingna's disdainful voice behind him say: "Really can't tell, doesn't even blush when asking people for money."

  Yang Shuangfeng hastily hugged the gold coins and went to find Dan Yajuan, but only saw Second Uncle holding a wine bottle, swaying back and forth, walking out from the side of the road. With a weak tone, he intercepted him and said: "What are you going to do by finding Yu Huanjuan?"

  Yang Shuang said casually: "I went to borrow 500 gold coins from her."

  "Second Uncle sighed and said, 'Why didn't you come find me? Why did you have to go find the people from Donghai Hall? You don't know, your father hated them the most when he was alive. Their business is all shady, and their money doesn't come from a good source... Never mind, just be careful in the future.'"

  Yang Shuangfeng was taken aback for a moment, then said: "Why say that?"

  Second Uncle shook his head and said with disgust, "Donghai Hall has been involved in underground slave trading, smuggling diamonds and jewelry, and some even say they have connections with the pirate gangs of the Gulf of Aden. They sell slaves illegally to provide cheap labor for Erufu. But since Donghai Hall has good relations with the government and military, no one dares to investigate them."

  Yang Shuang's face changed greatly, and he hastily said: "Is this true?"

  Second Uncle nodded and said in a hoarse voice, "Maple, do I have to deceive you? Before this, the Donghai Tang merchant group was not even ranked in the Meina area, but when the war broke out, many powerful merchant groups went bankrupt, and they made a fortune. They not only took over the assets of many merchant groups that were looted by the rebels, but also sold a large number of war slaves. The various rebel groups in the Meina area have very close ties with Donghai Tang, especially the Peng Yue rebel group and the Mani religion, providing them with a large amount of black market wealth and slaves, making them the biggest nouveau riche in the Meina area."

  Yang Shuangfen listened more and more uncomfortable, and said fiercely: "I really can't see it, she's actually such a person!"

  "Take a look around, lowering his voice, he said: "According to our intelligence, this Yu Huan-yu is not an ordinary person. She is the adopted daughter of Madame Huajing, extremely favored. Alas, it's true what they say - beautiful women are like jade, but with hearts as venomous as a snake's fang."

  Yang Shuang asked curiously: "Who is Huaguofuren again? Is she very powerful?"

  "Flower Country Madame is the younger sister of the current empress, and her husband is none other than Upper Official Lin, the newly appointed Minister of War. Upper Official Lin is a mediocre person who only wants to live a peaceful life, but his older brother is the commander of the First Military Unit of the Empire, Upper Official Bloodshed. And this madame is not an ordinary person either - she's the younger sister of the empress! Relying on her relationship with her sister, the empress, and utilizing Upper Official Lin's position as Minister of War, she has close connections with many generals in the military. Didn't you see the contraband medicine in Yu Huan-yu's carriage? Those were specially issued by the military, even bearing Upper Official Lin's seal. They traveled east, passing through areas under Upper Official Bloodshed's jurisdiction. Think about it - without such a close relationship, would these things have been able to reach the area of Meini?"

  Yang Shuangfeng suddenly realized that his uncle, Yang Jirui, didn't seem as muddle-headed and old-fashioned as he appeared on the surface. On the contrary, he was quite meticulous and astute, even paying too much attention to certain details, truly worthy of a veteran's identity. Perhaps he should reevaluate this uncle's abilities.

  Yang Shuangfen hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Does the Military Affairs Department not know that these contraband drugs will cause significant casualties to their own border troops when they arrive in Menis? How can they do such self-destructive things?"

  Yang Ji Rui looked up at the sky, his hands behind his back, and walked back and forth a few steps before slowly saying: "Feng, you may not be very familiar with the current situation in the Menis region. Perhaps I can explain it to you in detail on the way. The Menis region has experienced five years of turmoil and has reached an extremely chaotic state. Its productive forces have been severely damaged, and its population has lost more than a third. The three major rebel groups, whether it's the Radiant Empire led by Cao Shou, or the Peng Yue Rebel Army and the Mani Sect, are all somewhat exhausted. They also need to take a break, rest and regroup, repair and train their troops, and prepare for an even bloodier battle next time. At this point, they have apparently received news from some people that the Empire is about to completely abandon the Menis region. Therefore, they no longer need to worry about eliminating the remaining two Imperial border defense legions. This means that the Empire's two border defense legions are safe, and the rebels' target is no longer the Imperial army, but their former comrades."

  ;