Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 135 The Chase! Descendants of the Liu Family, Zheng He's Treasure Map
With the return of the Crown Prince and the establishment of a temple by Prince Jing, the once bustling Pinghu Port, which was filled with jubilation during the day, finally fell silent as night fell.

Jinyufang, the closest to the imperial palace and the Wushan Songxiu Bureau, has always been the preferred residence for high-ranking officials of Wufeng Banner, large merchants, and foreign dignitaries.

It is the most prosperous place in the entire Pinghu Port, full of large shops, restaurants and many luxury residences.

Analogous to the ancient city of Luoyang, it was Qinghuafang, which was located near the imperial city and was known as "a place of jade palaces and golden land".

After being bathed in golden blossoms during the day, most people here felt relaxed and slept soundly.

But a mysterious family that had only recently moved to Jinyufang was always on high alert.

Even with many guards in the house, the owner was still restless and dared not fall asleep.

"You're like a persistent ghost! I've already run all the way to Yingzhou and I'm not going back, why won't you leave me alone?"
You meddlesome bastard!
"Young master, I only embezzled some payments; what's the big deal about killing a few people?"

The owner of the house, Liu Jianzhen, paced back and forth in the main hall, gritting her teeth and cursing incessantly at her pursuers behind her.

His trusted steward could only stand by, serving tea and water, and acting as an emotional dumping ground.

After a while, he finally got tired of cursing, sat down in a chair, took a sip of tea that had long since gone cold, and began to wallow in self-pity again:
“Uncle Fu, Uncle Fu, you said that Duke Zhongxuan left us, his descendants, a secret that could drive countless water collectors crazy, but he did not leave us any means to protect our family.”

This forced our Liu family to flee our ancestral home and live in constant fear, hiding our identities.

Who could have imagined that back then, all the military households, military leaders, and generals of the Great Zhao Dynasty had to kneel in front of my house and call themselves my lackeys?

"I, the eldest grandson of the third branch of the Liu family, would actually have to flee to another country for violating a legal contract? Isn't that ridiculous?"

The butler was startled and quickly stopped him:
"Young Master Sun, you mustn't slander our ancestors."

"In this den of thieves far from the Great Zhao, we mustn't let anyone know you're a descendant of Duke Zhongxuan, otherwise we'll probably end up like the wealthy Shen family, a delicious piece of meat."

Although Liu Jianzhen was still indignant, she knew the gravity of the situation and only dared to mutter under her breath.

"I'm just stating the facts; how can that be considered slander?"

People may not be familiar with the posthumous title "Duke Zhongxuan", but they must know his real name well: Liu Daxia!

Even though the other person has been dead for decades, this name is still known to everyone in the coastal areas affected by the [Mountain and Sea Curse].

Emperor Xianzong of this dynasty once intended to emulate Emperor Taizong and restart the voyages to the Western Ocean, ordering the Ministry of War to review all the navigational data collected by the eunuch Zheng He.

However, Liu Daxia, then serving as the Director of the Carriage and Horse Management Department of the Ministry of War, declared:

“Zhang Sanbao’s voyages to the Western Ocean cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in grain and money, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians died. Even if he obtained treasures, what benefit would it bring to the country? This corrupt policy should be abolished! The sea ban must never be lifted again.”

He also burned down all the documents, nautical charts, and treasure ship blueprints compiled from the seven voyages to the Western Ocean, which had been achieved with countless lives and painstaking efforts.

This directly led to a technological gap in the official ocean navigation capabilities of the Da Zhao state, and thereafter Da Zhao ceased large-scale maritime activities.

He also used the same method to burn maps and documents from the early days of the Dai Zhao's conquest of Annam, thus preventing the use of force against Annam.

He argued, "If a conflict is started, the southwest will be in ruins." He claimed that he did this to save the people's resources and avoid wasting money and manpower.

Many people simply do not believe that Liu Daxia actually burned those precious documents.

why?
Because the most basic rule among the taboos and regulations for officials of the Heavenly Rank [Confucian Scholars] is: "Respect and cherish written words!"
When Cangjie created writing, millet rained from the sky and ghosts cried at night. Written paper can carry civilization and continue the literary tradition.

Disrespecting written words is like disrespecting ghosts and gods.

A folk saying goes, "The King of Hell doesn't arrest those who recite scriptures." This means that if I'm engrossed in reading, communicating with the will of the sages across thousands of years, even the King of Hell would have to wait until I put the book down before he can arrest me.

The situation is relatively better for ordinary people.

If any scholar dared to use any paper with writing on it to wipe his buttocks, he would surely be ostracized from the scholarly community and from the spirits, and might even be struck dead by lightning on the spot.

Therefore, many people do not believe that Liu Daxia would dare to burn such a precious treasure that concerns the future of Chinese civilization.

Otherwise, if the retribution for the decline of Chinese culture had come, the entire Liu family would have been wiped out long ago.

Now that a descendant of the Liu family, living in seclusion, has appeared here, it means that the records of Zheng He's voyages must still exist!
As expected, Liu Jianzhen, being young, hesitated for a while under the butler's supervision before finally speaking up:
"Uncle Fu, you are an elder in the family. You were already a page in the Liu family when our ancestor passed away 45 years ago. You even personally studied the blueprints for the treasure ship, which I was not even qualified to see."

Our ancestors hid this batch of precious 'written paper' that could influence the fate of a nation, causing our descendants to be completely cut off from the world of calligraphy and literature.

No one could become a scholar after passing the imperial examinations; they could only move to the coast and make a living from the sea.

We, the Liu family, have paid such a heavy price. When will we finally see the results?
"Uncle Fu, you be the judge. Back then, many gentry and powerful families benefited from our joint plot, but the Liu family has borne all the blame and infamy. Isn't that unfair?"

These two important documents were clearly not destroyed, but were hidden in the Liu family's private treasury and have been studied by them quietly.

The Liu family thrived despite only understanding a tiny fraction of the facts.

They operated businesses such as shipbuilding ironworks, Western clock and watch shops, dyeing workshops, and pawnshops in Tukeng Port, Citong City.

They not only operate upstream channels, but also have three fleets with a combined total of over sixty ships.

Over the years, he has also formed a huge alliance of interests with the cliques of yesteryear, and is definitely a core member of the gentry faction, far superior to the likes of Pu Shouying and Xie He.

The old steward sighed and said, "Those documents involve many overseas secrets and evil spirits, and are mostly recorded in coded language. Only the high-ranking members of the treasure ship fleet understand them."

Those people all disappeared into the depths of the vast ocean after their seventh failed voyage to the Western Ocean.

The nautical charts are relatively easy to decipher; four ocean-crossing star charts have already been completed: "Ceylon to Sumatra", "Dragon Island to Ceylon", "Guderian Hormuz", and "Hurmuz to Calicut".

Progress on the blueprints for the treasure ships, especially the seven [Heavenly Craft Treasure Ships] powered by thunder and fire, is slow.

The master and his men are preparing to capture renowned master craftsmen, artisans from various lineages, and the powerful courtier who possesses the unique skill of "listening to thunder" and can even understand animal language without a teacher, in order to forcibly decipher their abilities.

However, these people must be the best of the best. Normally, arresting even one would cause too much of a stir, so this time they took advantage of the chaos in the East China Sea to start making their move.

Young Master Sun, the Master and his men will not allow the imperial court to successfully recruit the pirates and stabilize the situation, so please rest assured.

"Just hold on for a few more days, and soon we won't have to stay outside to avoid trouble anymore."

After saying that, he reminded him with a hint of helplessness:

"Young Master Sun, you just can't hold your temper. If you hadn't spoken carelessly while drunk, you wouldn't have had to stay in Yingzhou and suffer all this."

Knowing she was in the wrong, Liu Jianzhen didn't argue and sighed again.

"Sigh, it's all because of drinking that things went wrong."

With the main motivation in mind, the course of events is not complicated.

He was the eldest grandson of the third branch of the Liu family and was in charge of buying and selling the Yingzhou shipping route.

On the way to Yingzhou, while drinking with a business partner with whom he had signed a contract, he inadvertently boasted that his family possessed Zheng He's star charts for his voyages and a wealth of shipbuilding materials.

To keep the secret, he not only violated the transaction contract witnessed by Elder Shen, the "Director of the Imperial Household," and embezzled the other party's payment, but also killed all of their people.

[Chaofenglang] A man of his word, he never goes back on his promises, he takes responsibility for his oaths and acts as a guarantor for all transactions.

Using the golden knife used by Emperor Gaozu when he made the Golden Knife Prophecy as a guarantee, he swore to keep the knife hidden and to break the knife's appearance. He said that if he was to vouch for it, he would definitely come to kill him!
The key issue is that the copper coin mark on his body is impossible to remove. Every twelve hours, or when driven by his pursuers, it will manifest strange phenomena on the spot, which he cannot avoid.

If we dared to turn back now, we might be intercepted and killed halfway.

Therefore, after they arrived at Pinghu Port, they did not dare to return to Dazhao.

He simply turned around and joined the Five Peaks Banner, spending a large sum of money to become a disciple of Peng Laosheng, the "knife-selling man".

He used a method called "Borrowing a Life for a Blade" to find many scapegoats and scattered them throughout the city, misleading the pursuers and the Golden Blade Prophecy.

Originally, Liu Jianzhen thought that the officials of the "Directorate of the Year" were not subordinate to each other and were strictly prohibited from crossing the boundary. Old Man Shen was too old to cross the sea to hunt her down.

With the seas in such chaos right now, I figured it wouldn't be long before nobody bothered with their petty act of breaking an oath and killing someone.

Just as Liu Jianzhen had predicted, they had been hiding for several months since before the Lunar New Year, and thought the storm was about to pass.

Unexpectedly, Elder Shen, the "Director of the Imperial Secretariat," did not come, but a few days ago a ruthless female assassin suddenly appeared.

Having eliminated all the scapegoats who were merely creating a smokescreen, he had found Jin Yu Fang and was very close to his true self.

If it weren't for Sun Xiong, the mountain-carrying general, who shielded us from disaster last time, we might have been found.

Sudden.

The power of the magic contract on Liu Jianzhen's body erupted once again, and a golden spot shaped like a copper coin on the back of her neck lit up, about to shoot golden light into the air.

Fortunately, the golden light was intercepted and transferred by Peng Laosheng's "Borrowing Life with a Debt Knife" technique as soon as it appeared.

A golden beam shot into the sky from the opposite direction, just across the street from him, standing out conspicuously in the night.

"what--!"

Immediately, the scream abruptly stopped.

Liu Jianzhen, who immediately hid behind a pillar, secretly glanced at the rooftop in the distance, where a bright and beautiful girl with cunning fox-like eyes had appeared out of nowhere.

Judging by her eyebrows and eyes alone, she was no more than twenty years old, and she wore a gold veil over her face.

Her features were delicate and soft, like those of the Da Zhao people, but her long, narrow, charming eyes had a slight turquoise tint, like a fox's, with a touch of light blue eyeshadow, and a small beauty mark on the corner of her right eye.

Wearing a gorgeous dark blue peacock dance dress, adorned with jewels and gold armbands and anklets, she harmoniously blends traditional Chinese attire with exotic charm.

It didn't feel like an assassination attempt; it felt more like attending a grand court ball.

This is a stunningly beautiful girl who, with just one glance, makes one wholeheartedly agree that "the attack on the Western Regions was definitely not for raisins." Seeing her makes one instinctively hold their breath, lest they offend such a beauty.

However, her dazzling outfit also concealed an inconspicuous gold medal at her waist.

The inscription on it reads "Zhi Sui," exactly the same as the one in Wang Cheng's hand!
(End of this chapter)