Chapter 55: The Beauty "Calamity"

  Peng Xin reported the matter of Chunxiang Building to Lin Chunjing, and Zhou Feng knew about it. He was anxious and repeatedly urged Lin Chunjing to take back Cui Yu'er immediately, saying that those three people were unknown and Cui Yu'er would suffer if she followed them. Lin Chunjing intuitively felt that Cui Yu'er's identity was not simple, but he couldn't persuade Zhou Feng, so he planned to wait and see before making his next move.

  Before long, the servant reported that Yu Yan secretly sought to see him. The two were quite embarrassed when they met, but both of them had thick skin and acted as if nothing had happened before. Yu Yan directly asked Lin Chunhong to save Cui Yuer. Lin Chunhong was surprised and asked why, so Yu Yan explained Cui Yuer's background in detail.

  Originally, Cui Yu'er lost her parents at a young age and was sold to a brothel in Nanjing. By chance, she met Zheng Cai, who was the trusted subordinate of Zheng Yi Guan, a notorious pirate on the high seas. At that time, Zheng Yi Guan was planning to surrender to the authorities. To gather information about the imperial court's movements, he sent Zheng Cai to Nanjing to set up a spy network. Zheng Cai saw that Cui Yu'er had both talent and beauty, so he took her as his adopted daughter and renamed her Zheng Die. Zheng Cai hoped to use Zheng Die's beauty and artistic talents to infiltrate the official circles of Nanjing and gather intelligence. Zheng Yi Guan and his cohorts were pirates who roamed the seas, killing people and stealing goods, openly defying the imperial court. Zheng Die, who knew the inner secrets of Zheng Yi Guan and Zheng Cai, felt uneasy and feared that if the authorities discovered her connection to them, it would cost her her life. At that time, Yu Yan was serving as an official in Nanjing and admired Zheng Die's talent and beauty, following her wishes in everything. When Yu Yan was transferred from Nanjing to serve as the magistrate of Yiling four years ago, Zheng Die saw this as a good opportunity to escape from the Zheng group and secretly asked Yu Yan to take her with him to Yiling. Under the temptation of Zheng Die's beauty, Yu Yan agreed to her request.

  When Yu Yan brought Zheng Die to Yiling, he was about to take her as a concubine. However, news arrived that Zheng Yi Guan had surrendered to the imperial court and been appointed as a touring general. Yu Yan knew that Zheng Yi Guan and Zheng Cai were vengeful and cruel, so he felt terrified and delayed taking Zheng Die as his concubine. Zheng Die, who wanted to live a peaceful life, was extremely disappointed in Yu Yan and did not want to rely on the Weng family anymore. The eldest daughter of the Weng family had long been displeased with her and wanted to drive her away. Taking advantage of Yu Yan's absence, she sold Zheng Die to Chun Xiang Lou. When Yu Yan found out about this, he was helpless against the eldest daughter, whose family background was too powerful for him to provoke. He could only acknowledge the fact and secretly took care of Zheng Die, also known as Cui Yu Er, in Chun Xiang Lou.

  It never occurred to them that Zheng Cai and others would find Yiling, with the intention of bringing back Cui Yu'er. According to Yu Yan's words, Cui Yu'er knew many secrets about Zheng Yi and others, and this person was a potential threat to them in the interior. Now Yu Yan had long since given up on the idea of taking Cui Yu'er as his concubine, but he felt guilty for selling her to Chunxiang Tower, so he hoped Lin Chunhong would help him with this matter.

  Lin Chunhong sighed at Cui Yuer's experience and was very interested in the inside story of Zheng Yiguan that Cui Yuer knew: Zhao Hehai and others wanted to open up a situation on the sea, maybe they could rely on Cui Yuer. He hesitated with Yu Yan for a long time until Yu Yan agreed to change the iron mine at Huo Shao Ping in Changyang County from official mining to private mining, Lin Chunhong finally agreed to Yu Yan's request.

  Yu Yan also made an agreement with Lin Chunhong: the iron ore mine in Huoshao Ping, as a state official, he couldn't intervene, but if the warehouses in Jingzhou were to contribute shares, his share must not be missing. Lin Chunhong would certainly not refuse, it was just a matter of priority in buying original shares, no big deal. Lin Chunhong was overjoyed, the iron ore problem that had been troubling him for a long time finally had a solution in sight. He had long known that the iron ore in Huoshao Ping was of high quality, not comparable to Ma Lian's iron ore. The only trouble was that Huoshao Ping was located deep in the mountains, far from Qingjiang River, making transportation more troublesome.

  Lin Chunhong immediately took action, taking out three thousand taels of silver, and through Yu Yan, he got the deed of sale from Li Laoban. He then arranged for Cui Yuer to quietly hurry to the Yi Ling warehouse at night. When Cui Yuer heard that it was Zhou Feng who had helped her redeem herself, she was terrified in her heart, fearing that she would implicate Zhou Feng. It wasn't until she saw Lin Chunhong that she put her mind at ease. Others didn't know about Lin Chunhong's hidden power, but Cui Yuer understood him very well through various channels.

  Peng Xin, Zhou Shiliang and others treated Cui Yuer as a lady, taking care of her in every possible way. This made Cui Yuer smile bitterly. To say that someone like her, a vagabond in troubled times, could marry Lin Chunhong as a concubine was not a bad choice, but she had a good relationship with Zhou Feng. This time, Lin Chunhong came to redeem her on Zhou Feng's orders, and she knew it clearly. In this situation, how could she possibly become Lin Chunhong's concubine?

  Lin Chunhong had long planned to return to Zhijiang, but was delayed by the matter of redeeming Cui Yu'er. The next morning, in order to prevent Zheng Cai's men from finding out where Cui Yu'er had gone, Lin Chunhong took Cui Yu'er with him on his way back to Zhijiang. Zhou Shiliang, who had lost the previous battle and was afraid of being punished by Lin Chunhong, made an extra effort to please him this time, personally leading two guards to escort them.

  Five people set off on their return journey, braving the biting cold wind. Two of them sat in a horse-drawn carriage, while three rode horses. To match the speed of the carriage, the three horsemen held back the reins, allowing the horses to walk slowly. From Yiling to Zhijiang, the mountain peaks gradually lowered and the terrain became more open. This section was located at the intersection of the Badong Mountains and the Jianghan Plain, making the road easier to travel. In less than half a day, the five people arrived at Anfu Temple, which was already under the jurisdiction of Zhijiang. Lin Chunhong felt like he had returned to his own territory. Thinking back to when he recruited refugees at Anfu Temple, Lin Chunhong couldn't help but feel a sense of regret. If only the officials from Henan and Shaanxi had been more thoughtful, there wouldn't have been any refugees. The situation would not have escalated, causing the people to suffer and the imperial court to be on shaky ground.

  Lin Chunhong and Zhou Shiliang were discussing the gains and losses of their previous conflict. Lin was very satisfied with Zhou's timely retreat. Zhou believed that the White Stick Troop's strength lay in their skilled use of weapons, tight formation, and coordination, which far surpassed the Imperial Guard. Although the Imperial Guard fought bravely, they lacked skill and their formations were easily broken by the White Stick Troop. Moreover, the atmosphere was also much weaker than that of the White Stick Troop. The two men continued to summarize as they walked forward, completely unaware of the danger approaching them.

  As the horse let out a loud whinny, Lin Chunhong and Zhou Shiliang suddenly found their path blocked by five men. Zhou Shiliang hastily spurred his horse forward and asked, "You dare to block our way? Quickly move aside, or you'll be sorry!"

  Xin Yigen didn't put Zhou Shiliang's arrogance in his eyes at all, and he didn't intend to give way. He shouted: "As long as you leave Cui Yu'er behind, we'll let you go!" Xin Yigen was the leader of the group that went to Chunxiang Building that day, and he was Zheng Cai's subordinate.

  Zhou Shiliang was furious and shouted, "Are you all tired of living?" After finishing speaking, he subconsciously glanced back and found that there were also five more people behind him, staring at them with a fierce gaze.

  Zhou Shiliang's anger did not impress Xin Yigen, who repeated: "Leave Cui Yu'er behind and I'll let you go!"

  Lin Chunhong quietly pressed the wooden knife wrapped around his waist and said loudly, "You are Zheng Cai's people, right? You are all officials appointed by the imperial court, yet you still block the road and intercept people. What kind of behavior is this? Aren't you afraid of implicating your superiors?"

  Xin Yigeng burst out laughing: "We've done a pretty good job as officials appointed by the imperial court, and when we encounter shameless philanderers, of course we have to teach them a lesson."

  Lin Chunhong's anger suddenly rose, and he said coldly: "The court has its own laws, it's not up to Zheng Yiguan, this pirate, to control!" After finishing speaking, he glanced at Zhou Shiliang and another guard, and was about to ride his horse away.

  Xin Yigeng saw the situation, let out a loud shout to get ready, raised his fire gun, aimed at the road in front of Lin Chunhong, pulled the trigger, and a loud noise came, spewing out a burst of smoke, directly blasting the road in front of Lin Chunhong into flying dust and rocks. This fire gun was a rapid-firing gun, with fast shooting speed. Lin Chunhong was shocked, his whole body covered in cold sweat, staring at the several guns aimed at him, hastily stopped the others, using stillness to control movement.

  Xin's mouth crooked, and he smiled: "How about it? Do you want to let Cui Yu'er go? You're nothing but a dog of Yu Yan's, where can you run to? There's no need to sacrifice yourselves for him!"

  Lin Chunhong's face was cold and he didn't say a word, his mind racing to think of an escape plan. Zhou Shiliang was anxious, knowing that today was a dead end. He looked at Xin Yigen loading the gunpowder into the bullet again, not too fast or slow, and secretly told Lin Chunhong: "Later, I'll rush up with Yu Jiaoer, wait for them to finish firing their guns, then you and Cheng Si grab the opportunity to run, they load slowly, after one shot, it's useless." After finishing speaking, he was about to instruct Yu Jiaoer and Cheng Si. Lin Chunhong stopped Zhou Shiliang's crazy action of using self-sacrifice to protect him, saying: "It hasn't come to that yet!"

  Only to see Xin one root hand one move, the front and back ten people step by step tight pressure, just over ten steps away, their faces on the ferocious smile Lin Chunhong saw clearly. Lin Chunhong was anxious, his mind immediately had a plan, he shouted loudly: "Listen, we four are just underlings of the Weng Mansion, as you said, it's not worth risking our lives, we'll hand over Cui Yu'er!"

  Xin Yigeng and others stopped in their tracks, bursting into loud laughter: "As the saying goes, those who know the times are heroes!"

  Cui Yu'er had long opened the curtains of the carriage to observe the outside, and now hearing Lin Chunhong say this, she couldn't help but burst into tears...