Lin Gao Qiming

"Don't bother, I'll let you write three articles today!" the middle-aged scribe shouted loudly. Strangely enough, he was speaking with great energy at this moment, which swept away the tiredness of reading the newspaper, "You must open your eyes and see clearly. Come on, these three coins are a big coin with a gold back, and the fineness of the four-fire brass is much better than your crappy tea soup!" After saying that, he threw the copper coins on the table, picked up the bookcase and hat, and walked away with his head held high. .

About half an hour later, the young Gongsheng finished copying the newspaper, paid the tea money and left the tea shop. The snow had stopped now, and the afternoon sun revealed a few beams of light from the dense lead-colored clouds. He untied the mule tied to the door of the store, rode it along the muddy street to the book market outside Daming Gate, and stopped there. After wandering around many bookstores, we turned to Nancheng and walked all the way to Damochang Street. We stopped from time to time to visit various bookstores and antique shops. Finally, we stopped at a paper shop called "Songzhuzhai" and put the mule He tied it in front of the door and walked in.

This paper shop is small, and its windows imitate some of the latest wealthy households and large business houses in the capital. They use wooden panes sandwiched with small pieces of glass. The natural light that penetrates reflects the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the four walls. The glass The papers, books, and toys displayed in the counter are quite elegant. A waiter had already come forward to greet him: "Does this husband want to use paper? I don't know whether it is Shandanqing or Linchi. The shop has Kaihua rattan paper, Jingxian Liansi, Songjiang Tan paper, and if you use letter paper, there is also Xue Tao paper." , Suzhou sprinkles gold, if you want to write scriptures, our store has self-made porcelain blue paper, although it is not as good as Xuande's sheep-brained paper, it is not far away..."

"A month ago, a painting was sent to Guizhai for framing," the young man asked, "has it been finished?"

"Oh, it turns out to be Mr. Li. Please forgive me for being ignorant and disrespectful." The clerk raised the curtain at the back door. "Of course the painting has been framed. Please come to the back hall to take a look."

The back room of the store is a flower hall for entertaining distinguished guests. It is also equipped with glass panes, making it look clear and elegant. The waiter did not stop here, but led "Master Li" through the veranda near the side wall and walked straight back. The second courtyard has been transformed into a workshop, where work such as mounting calligraphy and paintings, binding ancient books, printing and dyeing paper, etc. are carried out. The craftsmen come and go, making it very lively. But as soon as you enter the third courtyard, it becomes deserted. Unlike the buildings in the front yard, the windows of all the houses in this courtyard are tightly taped with black felt paper, and no light can shine through. There is a wooden door in front of the verandah leading to the third courtyard. Two guards. The shop assistant stopped here: "Li Ya is here."

A guard went in to report, and soon led "Mr. Li" into a study room in the back room. There is an Australian-style cast iron fireplace placed against the wall of this room. The light from the coal fire in the furnace and the kerosene lamp on the desk illuminate a man wearing a three-spindle fine preacher's robe and a net scarf who is sitting. Reading a volume of paper at a desk.

Even if Lin Baiguang came to this room, it would be difficult for him to recognize his founding disciple at the first time. His long-term hidden life in the Ming Dynasty made Gaudi "Ming-oriented" at least in his clothing, appearance and gestures. The Leng Ningyun incident led to the complete exposure of Delong's identity as a cover for the Capital Intelligence Station, and even the Liansheng Escort Bureau was also partially exposed. Seeing that the intelligence work in the capital was in danger of being completely paralyzed, the Foreign Intelligence Service made major adjustments to the intelligence work network in the capital. Heliansheng, Delong and other brands have completely withdrawn from the intelligence work sequence and are only responsible for "making money" and providing "support" when necessary. All intelligence gathering tasks are taken over by specialized intelligence networks.

The backup capital intelligence point in this network was urgently activated, namely the "Songzhuzhai" paper shop. After the Leng Ningyun incident, the Senate decided that sending senators to Beijing, which was extremely dangerous, was not worth the gain. However, the intelligence in the capital was of vital importance, and at least one senior naturalized civilian cadre must be in charge. Therefore, Gaudi was transferred to Beijing to take charge of Songzhuzhai and became the general person in charge of the entire underground network in the capital.

Although Gao Di is from Cantonese, he has worked for the intelligence department for a long time, received professional training, and can speak quite standard Mandarin. As for a slight Cantonese accent, it is not a big problem. The capital itself is a place with many places, and there are many Cantonese people working as officials, studying and doing business in the local area.

Xinjingshi Station uses two channels to collect intelligence. In addition to continuing to develop underground informants, they also used the paper shop business of "Songzhuzhai" to try to hook up with the eunuchs of the inner court to purchase waste paper from the Forbidden City, which contained a considerable number of copies and manuscripts of inscriptions and edicts. Intelligence officers want to find "gold" from this pile of "sand". What Gao Di was looking through were two copies of the "gold" he had just taken out. One was a copy of the imperial edict: Zhao Yin Bu Jin Yi Wei Qian Hu, Ding Chou Ke Wu Jinshi Zheng Hongkui (Zheng Zhifeng) entered the palace to present a pair; the other was a copy of the imperial edict: At the beginning of the month, he sent an announcement to the ministers of the six ministries and the six departments, and prepared to hold a court meeting on the issue of sending troops to attack Kun. However, the gold mining in Shali was too accidental after all. The records of the memorial, the process of court discussions and the conclusion could not be found from the waste paper. Just when Gao Di was hesitating about this, Li Ya came.

He took the "Beijing News" from Li Ya's hand, flipped through it briefly and took out a few pages sandwiched in it. He was not in a hurry to open it and read it, but asked: "You saw Qingcheng, what happened? "

Li Ya's Fujian Mandarin turned into authentic Australian Newspeak, and he briefly talked about the morning's discussions: "'Qingcheng' finally hinted to me, asking for an increase in subsidies."

"How much does he want?"

"If I add another ten taels every month, I'll need Shanxi bills."

Gaudi raised his eyebrows slightly, this guy is really a lion! The scribes of the six departments only had a monthly salary of three or four taels of silver for processing and food. He will add ten more as soon as he opens his mouth!

"That's a good idea. Let's see how much information this guy provides."

Li Ya hesitated for a while and then told his boss what he thought: "According to my observation, 'Qingcheng' seems to be drinking some kind of medicinal wine. The smell and color of the wine are the same as those I saw during the joint training of the Political Security Bureau." The potion is very similar. No matter how he got it, he must have spent a lot of money. I think his sudden request for more subsidies is probably related to this thing." "This possibility exists," Gaudi He said: "Do you know the identity of 'Qingcheng'? This person was a candidate for Shuntian Prefecture, but he failed in the examination for many years. Later, he was appointed as a member of Zhongshushe. Although it is a noble position, there is no profit at all. , it is not that there is no hope of being a Jinshi, so they often have a sense of depression. Such people will tend to seek novel enjoyment to anesthetize themselves. Next time you have a meeting, if the time is right, you can inquire about the medicinal wine, and be careful not to look too cool. Be too deliberate and don't alert him."

After sending Li Ya away, Gao Di opened the page, which was densely covered with small regular script. He could not help but read aloud softly under the kerosene lamp: "Cheng Guoxiang, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and others would like to write this question to raise funds for the meeting of the Ministry of War to suppress Kun..." He read it several times and then picked up another piece of paper. It reads: "You are the censor of Qiandu, and Xie Wenjin, the minister of the Ministry of War, would like to discuss the matter of suppressing Kun..."

As he read, he twirled the mustache that he had gradually grown in recent years, and gradually fell into deep thought.

Since "Hearthstone Taoist" and "Mushi Taoist" were arrested one after another, Shiweng Group suffered a heavy blow. Although Gao Di didn't know how much useful information the Political Security Bureau could get from them, Wang Yehao would no longer be a member of the Senate in the future. The number one enemy.

But Wang Yehao himself didn't seem to be too affected. Judging from the intelligence sent through various channels, although Wang Yehao was confused and depressed for a time after the incident, he soon became active again.

It's just that the main scope of his activities now has nothing to do with "Kun Thief". Instead, he is actively seeking transfer.

It is not uncommon for officials in the capital to seek foreign posts, but the place he sought was Shandong.

Although the governor of Shandong is a "high official", it is not really a "good or bad" at the moment. Not to mention that Shandong is not a prosperous place. For now, it cannot even be called "peace". Large and small bandits are emerging one after another in the territory, drought locusts are constant, and folk sects such as the White Lotus Sect are ready to move... There is also the task of cooperating with Denglai to support Liaodong, which can be said to be complicated, difficult, tiring, and rushed. Gaudi couldn't help but suspect that his intention was the Shandong Station in the Denglai area.

Speaking of which, judging from the recent direction of the North Korea debate, it seems that there is indeed the possibility of "asking for Kun". Once an expedition breaks out and Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, organizes and trains, the new army that has recently made many military exploits will inevitably be transferred to the south. It is not impossible for Wang Yehao to "step in" with his rich experience in the rebellion.

However, the information collected by the intelligence network is quite contradictory. Judging from the intelligence collected from the inner court, the emperor was quite interested in negotiating peace, but the outer court was engaged in a "suppression" with shouts of beating and killing. The imperial court also issued many edicts to prepare for war. No matter how you look at it, there is a "suppression" intention.

Combined with the recent secret fight between Fushe and Wen Tiren, the entire court situation is quite chaotic.

Finally, the bell was rang to ask the guard outside the door to call the nominal proprietress of Songzhu Zhai, He Chun, a cadre seconded by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau to the Political Security Bureau.

Gao Di picked up the information sent by Li Ya: "These materials will be sent to Lingao today."

"Send the full text?" He Chun flipped through the pages, "There's a lot of content, and it will take a lot of time to decode. How about this, I'll help the translator Xiao Wang, and try to finish it all before early morning."

"Thank you for your hard work. In addition, starting from next month, the subsidy for Qingcheng will be increased to fifty taels. This must be recorded in the account."

"The outside work is up to you," He Chun said.

"There is one more important thing. Go and check the amount of energy potions in the warehouse and the anesthetics in the infirmary." Seeing He Chun's eyes widening, Gao Di waved his hand to indicate that she shouldn't be surprised: "Of course I believe in myself Comrade, but now there are several different sources of information pointing out that there are various narcotics circulating in the capital, some of which may be closer to the controlled drugs produced by the Senate. Combined with the current military trends of the Ming Dynasty, I suspect that someone is planning to Provide medicine to the Ming army to counter the Senate's superiority in firearms. In short, a war is about to begin."