knife

Chapter 740 Smuggling
A pair of hands carefully parted the waist-high, withered yellow grass in front of them, revealing a pair of eyes that scrutinized a large ship slowly approaching the shore below.

This is a makeshift dock.

Only a seasoned veteran familiar with the hydrology and geography of this area would know that large ships can dock here. Of course, those who are familiar with these things are certainly not in legitimate business.

To put it bluntly, this is a smuggling ship.

Once the ship had come to a complete stop, the ship's leader, Zhou Kun, stepped out of the cabin, holding a lit incense stick in each hand and waving them in the air. The red flames danced in the night, creating intricate patterns.

After a moment, Zhou Kun threw the incense stick in his hand directly from the boat into the sea, put his hands behind his back, and looked up at the withered grass in the distance.

One person stood up from inside, and then another. In a short while, the once deserted place was now filled with hundreds of people.

One person stepped out from the crowd, his figure swift and agile. He touched the rocks on the shore with his toes and leaped forward more than ten feet. In the blink of an eye, he swept across the beach and landed on Zhou Kun's boat.

Zhou Kun glanced at the other party with some dissatisfaction: "We've known each other for a long time, do we really need to be so careful? It's wasting so much time. Hurry up and get the goods out of here, I need to hurry up and load some more!"

"Captain Zhou, don't think we don't know what you're secretly transporting to the border. It's grain! The General has repeatedly ordered that grain not be transported out of the country. You've gone too far!" the man said coldly.

Zhou Kun snorted and said, "General Xiang Dong, if I weren't bold, would I dare to smuggle weapons and medicines back from beyond the Great Wall for you? Do you know how strictly the navy is inspecting Xuanwu right now? Do you know how much risk I took to get these ready-made wound medicines? These weapons are all standard-issue weapons from the Beiting Protectorate, and the wound medicines are from top medical clinics. I don't need to say how effective they are, do I? What else here is worth the high price from beyond the Great Wall? Isn't it grain? Ten times the profit! If you don't allow it, then let's part ways and go our separate ways!"

The man named Xiang Dong was speechless after being choked by Zhou Kun's words.

Zhou Kun isn't the only one smuggling grain to the area beyond the Great Wall, but very few have the guts to transport weapons and medicines from there. And Zhou Kun is the only one with connections to obtain wound medicines from major medical clinics. Based on that alone, Xiang Dong can't do anything to Zhou Kun.

He was well aware of the effectiveness of these ready-made wound medicines. The so-called "produced by a grand medical clinic" was actually produced by Changchun Valley. Such wound medicines were controlled substances even outside the Great Wall.

"We don't have much food left either, and all this fighting will affect this year's spring planting!" Xiang Dong said weakly.

"That's none of my business, I only care about making money!" Zhou Kun sneered.

Xiang Dong was furious. For someone like Zhou Kun, anyone who offered benefits was fair game; he didn't care at all whether the Xiang family could win this contest. Xiang Dong even suspected that this guy might be selling medicine to the other side as well.

"Let's inspect the goods!" Xiang Dong said through gritted teeth.

There's no way to settle accounts now. We'll wait until we win this war, kill Na Wei, and reclaim the world before we do. We'll settle accounts with people like Zhou Kun and make sure they pay back everything they took, with interest.

Prying open the bottom deck, one by one, neatly stacked boxes were revealed. Opening one of them, he took out something wrapped in oiled paper. After tearing off the outer oiled paper in a few quick movements, Xiang Dong's eyes lit up immediately.

These are repeating crossbows from beyond the Great Wall. These crossbows are ingeniously designed, capable of firing three bolts at once. Their small size and ease of use make them a formidable weapon for infantry close combat or special operations. They had previously acquired a few through other channels, but unfortunately, the craftsmen of Jiangnan couldn't replicate them. Ultimately, the problem lay with the steel. The steel suitable for making these crossbows could only be smelted beyond the Great Wall.

There's nothing we can do about it.

Ten boxes, twenty crossbows in each box, two hundred of these crossbows—Xiang Dong's eyes lit up at the sight.

"How did you manage to get so many this time?"

"This is the last trip!" Zhou Kun said. "My supplier, that old man, has retired. This is his last bribe. I don't know if I'll be able to make new connections in the future. But there's good news on the medicinal herb side. My contact got promoted, so the shipment volume will be larger in the future. But I guess that guy's appetite will also increase!"

"As long as we can get our hands on them, it doesn't matter if we're greedy. You can't buy these things with money!" Xiang Dong waved his hand, and his men on the hillside behind him rushed down, several of them carrying boxes on their backs. These boxes were placed in front of Zhou Kun. When he opened the boxes and saw the glittering little goldfish inside, Zhou Kun's eyes narrowed into slits with a smile.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you, General Xiang. See you again in three months!"

Standing on the shore, watching the ship gracefully retreat back into the sea, then turn around and silently disappear into the darkness, a voice of admiration came from beside Xiang Dong: "What a fine ship! General Xiang, when you do your last business trip with him, take this ship with you. It's a new type of merchant ship built by the Xuanwu Shipyard outside the Great Wall. It requires fewer sailors, has a larger cargo capacity, and is faster. In comparison, our ships of the same size at sea probably can't even catch up with their shadows."

"Let's talk about other things after we defeat Na Wei and take back Danyang City. He's very important to us right now. These medicines can save so many brothers!" Xiang Dong said, patting the box beside him.

"How come there are so many good things beyond the Great Wall?" The man shook his head, hoisted a box onto his shoulder, and said, "Didn't people always say that the land beyond the Great Wall was barbaric, remote and bitterly cold? But now, looking at all these medicines and weapons, General Xiang, I feel like we are the barbarians beyond the Great Wall!"

Xiang Dong remained silent.

Such changes outside the pass were naturally due to that Li Dachui.

I have seen that person before.

In Danyang City, he even guided this person to see Xiang Zhuang.

This man ultimately became the death knell for the Great Chu and the bane of the Xiang clan.

Trying to negotiate with a tiger for its skin will only result in being bitten and bruised by the tiger. At that time, Xiang Dong was just a nobody, and the Xiang family had no right to speak for him.
Although things have improved somewhat since the middle of the year, it's only enough to withstand Na Wei's offensive. Those families that used to be so closely connected are now hedging their bets, some even juggling multiple relationships. This has made the situation in the South unpredictable, making it really hard to distinguish between friend and foe.

Despite Xiang Dong's boastful words, he had absolutely no confidence in the future of the world or the future of the Xiang family.

(End of this chapter)