Chapter 2745: The Capital (Part 101)

At that moment, in a temple outside Zhangjiaawan Town, Xu Ke found himself at an impasse.

He had an important lead in hand but could extract nothing from it.

As the special agent dispatched by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau to handle the Leng case, he had led the Special Reconnaissance Team to Tianjin only to discover that Leng Ningyun had already been rescued. By all accounts, this should have been welcome news—it spared him considerable trouble and absolved him of responsibility. But the subsequent instructions left him with a splitting headache.

The Foreign Intelligence Bureau had relayed a top directive from the Senate: using the leads uncovered in the Leng Ningyun kidnapping case, he was to root out the masterminds behind it. They also reminded him that this was very likely the "Stone Elder Group" they had been tracking for years.

The Stone Elder Group's name was well known among the Senators, yet despite years of pursuit, they had never captured any significant figures. After the relocation to Guangzhou, the already limited security forces had been stretched even thinner. Though they had cracked many major cases, no big fish had been caught, and a growing number of cases remained unsolved.

Counting them off, from the "Lingao Disturbance" to the Witchcraft Case, the Tax Case, the Fake Medicine Case—all of these bore the unmistakable fingerprints of Stone Elder Group involvement.

The root of their difficulties was simply that they possessed very little intelligence capacity in the capital. Though countless leads pointed toward the Stone Elder Group being controlled by some powerful official in the capital, the intelligence work conducted by Leng Ningyun and the Shanhai Five Routes had been limited to gathering public information. There were two reasons for this: First, operational security awareness in this era was remarkably poor—public information and even rumors were often sufficient to grasp important situations. Second, surveillance in the capital was extraordinarily tight. The Eastern Depot, the Brocade Guard, the Shuntian Prefecture, the Five City Garrison—various agencies overlapped and crisscrossed, with spies and secret agents lurking everywhere. Collecting clandestine intelligence could easily backfire and disrupt normal business operations. The Shanhai Five Routes' primary mission was generating revenue, and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau could not afford to deploy a second team in the capital. Only after the Mainland Campaign began had they established a second professional intelligence team operating parallel to the Shanhai Five Routes.

With such meager forces, and the Stone Elder Group's sophisticated tradecraft that seemed to transcend time itself, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau had failed to obtain any useful leads in the capital.

The Leng Ningyun case had exposed a wealth of valuable leads. This was precisely why, after reviewing the first batch of reports from Min Zhanlian's squad, Jiang Shan had immediately ordered elite personnel under Xu Ke's command to proceed to the capital.

After arriving in Tianjin, Xu Ke traveled day and night, reaching Zhangjiaawan on the first day of the new year. Like Min Zhanlian before him, he chose this location for his command post.

The command post was situated in Nie'ersi Village, less than ten li southeast of Zhangjiaawan Town. This area served as a crucial canal transport route, as the local saying went: "Boats reach Zhangjiaawan while rudders are at Li'ersi." The markets here were quite prosperous.

Here stood a Daoist temple called Youmin Temple, located west of Nie'ersi Village on the south bank of the canal. It was a Daoist monastery housing a bronze statue of the Golden Flower Holy Mother, commonly known as the Niangniang Temple. In the fourteenth year of Jiajing, Daoist Master Zhou Congshan had petitioned the throne and been granted the temple name "Youmin Temple."

The temple occupied elevated ground, covering more than ten mu, with its front facing north and its rear to the south. Before the temple flowed the Grand Canal. It was an ideally connected location. When Xu Ke passed through, he immediately designated it as his command post.

Such temples and monasteries often had rooms available for rent. With silver in hand, Xu Ke easily secured a courtyard, established a radio station, and under the cover of a merchant identity, began his intelligence collection work.

His arrival brought upgraded equipment for all teams operating in the capital region. Each team was outfitted with compact radios and radio operators, supplemented by walkie-talkies for reinforcement. Xu Ke could now remotely coordinate multiple teams in simultaneous action from his base in Zhangjiaawan.

From this vantage point, Xu Ke analyzed all the acquired intelligence and reached several basic conclusions.

One: this was the Stone Elder Group's handiwork. Two: the kidnapping's purpose had been to force the Senate into peace negotiations. Three: the kidnappers had changed their minds during execution, pivoting to extortion for a massive sum. Four: Little Eunuch Yang was a major suspect.

Xu Ke recognized this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They not only knew that the Stone Elder Group's mastermind was Wang Yehao, but had also uncovered major leads on several core members. The fake Daoist captured by Min Zhanlian's squad held tremendous potential for intelligence extraction. At the time, with the rescue being so urgent, Min Zhanlian's squad had not questioned him thoroughly. Now Xu Ke had time, a secure location, and professional personnel at his disposal—he could interrogate this fake Daoist inside and out.

Though he had access to the Political Security Bureau's finest interrogators, he felt they only understood "technique." Torture-based confessions were quick and convenient but inevitably introduced bias. This Liu Sha had initially chosen to confess willingly, indicating that his mental defenses were already broken. A patient, methodical approach would yield far more information.

Unfortunately, when Liu Sha was transferred into his custody, the man was barely clinging to life. Xu Ke could only have the accompanying medic provide him with nourishing food and attentive care. Though Liu Sha's wounds had missed vital organs, he had lost a great deal of blood. After the wounds were sutured, infection had set in. Days of high fever, despite treatment with antibiotics, had left even this robust man hovering near death. Interrogation was out of the question—even answering simple questions proved extremely difficult.

Fortunately, with no pressing matters in the capital, there was no need to rush. While Liu Sha recuperated, Xu Ke turned his attention to formulating plans for dismantling the Stone Elder Group.

Previously, they had known nothing about the group; now they knew the leader's identity. However, while assassinating Wang Yehao would be a simple matter, he was a court official. If he died suddenly, the court would certainly launch an investigation. Moreover, based on current intelligence, Wang was merely the financier operating behind the scenes. The actual commander was someone else entirely.

This person—or group—was not only cunning but well-versed in knowledge from the old timeline, understanding the Senate more deeply than anyone except the Hale Group itself. Xu Ke and nearly all the Senators in the security agencies believed this group very likely contained someone akin to Hale from the old timeline.

Their primary target was not Wang Yehao but this "Hale-Like." Though the Senate had never issued a specific order on the matter, the Senators in the security agencies shared an unspoken understanding.

Xu Ke dispatched three key surveillance teams. The first focused on Wang Yehao. The second covered Eunuch Yang and Little Eunuch Yang. The third monitored Manager Shen of Xia's Shanxi House.

As for other persons of interest whose leads had been discovered during the Leng Ningyun case investigation, he assigned additional surveillance personnel for round-the-clock monitoring and intelligence collection. However, aside from uncovering some conspiracies related to Delong, no useful leads had emerged yet.

"How is Liu Sha's condition?" he asked the medic.

"His temperature came down this morning, but he will probably have another low fever this afternoon. He is out of danger now."

"Is he conscious?"

"Yes. He even asked if I was one of the Kun."

Xu Ke laughed. "Tell the guards to watch him carefully. Keep an eye out for suicide attempts."

"He is in restraints with a mouth gag. He will not die."

"Get him more qi-tonifying and blood-nourishing herbs. His food needs to improve as well. Do not skimp on the expenses." Xu Ke paused. "This man is a treasure right now."

After the medic departed, the communications officer brought reports from the various teams. Delong had been open for three days. The run was over, and customer traffic had returned to normal.

A few small tricks, and it worked, Xu Ke thought with some satisfaction.

As for Wang Yehao, the priority surveillance target, there was nothing significant to report. He behaved like any ordinary capital bureaucrat—attending his office daily, making calls, meeting people, attending banquets. Nothing unusual. He met with a great many people, and with the surveillance team's limited manpower, they could not investigate everyone. The task was daunting. Xu Ke could only focus surveillance on Wang Yehao's key servants and secretaries.

Even with these priorities, the surveillance team remained stretched thin. An official of Wang Yehao's rank employed two or three dozen secretaries alone—some residing in his household, others lodging elsewhere and visiting every few days. As for household servants, besides the steward and purchasing agents, over a dozen runners regularly handled his affairs. The analysis group, after screening the collected intelligence, had produced a priority surveillance list containing more than a dozen names.

Through monitoring these individuals, Xu Ke learned that Wang Yehao was currently dispatching people to search for Wang Liang and Liu Sha—including in Tongzhou. They had also located Liu Sha's residence, where they found only bloodstains, of course. But this confirmed the authenticity of Liu Sha's confession.

The surveillance also revealed that Wang Yehao frequently met with other ministers and maintained many contacts within the Wen Tiren faction. They appeared to be discussing something of great importance. Combined with Liu Sha's confession, this was likely about "peace negotiations."

Clearly, after Leng Ningyun's rescue, the hostage-based peace negotiation scheme had collapsed. But Wang Yehao had not given up and was still maneuvering to bring about negotiations.

If he actually pulls it off, that might not be entirely bad, Xu Ke mused. But try as he might, he could not fathom how Wang Yehao intended to convince the Emperor, or how exactly he planned to proceed.

With the Emperor displaying clear intent to "exterminate the Kun" at this critical juncture, Wang Yehao's advocacy for peace demonstrated strategic vision surpassing that of many other ministers.

However, when Xu Ke thought of the "Mr. Yue" that Leng Ningyun had mentioned, he became increasingly convinced that this mysterious figure was very likely Wang Yehao's principal advisor—and quite possibly the Hale-Like he was searching for.

But this "Mr. Yue" proved remarkably elusive. None among the Wang residence's secretaries and servants had mentioned anyone surnamed "Yue." Obviously, it was an alias.

The portrait hand-drawn by the National Police Headquarters' technical department based on Leng Ningyun's description was still somewhere at sea. But of all the photographs of secretaries taken so far, none depicted this person.

Apparently, Wang Yehao and this individual maintained no direct daily contact, likely communicating through some covert channel. This has the hallmarks of modern intelligence work, Xu Ke thought. This Mr. Yue is no ordinary figure.

He had commanded many intelligence collection and special operations missions in Ming-controlled territories. The level of clandestine activity in the seventeenth century was remarkably primitive. Even secret societies and religious cults could not manage much better. As long as they had local guides, they could easily collect important intelligence.

(End of Chapter)