Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

The next day, Chi Honghai took out the two paintings from the fur box and stuffed two vacuum-sealed white painting scrolls inside.

A new letter was also written and included in the card.

After closing the box, Chi Honghai summoned Shen Er and Pang San, and led his men onto a sailboat, heading towards Guangzhou.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Guangzhou, Chi Honghai did not continue driving.

He instructed Shen Er to take a fur-lined trunk to the Guangzhou government office and make a grand entrance to meet with Chen Qian, the general of Guangzhou.

Upon hearing the master's words, Shen Er felt an instinctive sense of fear surge through his heart.

"Master, did I hear that right? You want me to go to Guangzhou Prefecture to find Chen Qian? That's practically sending me to my death..."

"Do you think I would let you die? Go ahead and go, I guarantee you'll come back safely, and with the General of Guangzhou Prefecture."

Shen Er's fear did not completely disappear because of his master's words, but he still obeyed his master's orders and led the way towards Guangzhou Prefecture with the fur trunk.

He certainly trusted the master, but he couldn't control his biological instincts.

Before leaving, Chi Honghai told him to take a few more ingots of silver with him.

Shen Er turned around and asked, "Master, will I be gone for a long time?"

"Go today and come back today. Without these silver ingots, how will you get the soldiers to take you to see Chen Qian?"

This statement also explains why Chi Honghai, as a businessman, was able to thrive in the officialdom.

The vast majority of people are inherently self-serving. Some are extremely greedy, while others are petty and selfish. This kind of extortion and bribery is interconnected and forms a group that cannot be avoided in officialdom.

Whether you're an outsider or an insider, once you've even stepped into this circle, it's absolutely impossible to remain aloof.

Your arrogance will ultimately lead to you wanting everything to succeed but failing at everything.

It's not that it's impossible, it's not that it's difficult to achieve, but if there's no benefit, who will sincerely help you?

Upon arriving in Guangzhou, Shen Er kept in mind Chi Honghai's wise teachings and began distributing wealth from the city gate onwards.

However, he was also quite clever. The people outside were giving out small amounts of money, and the closer one got to the Guangzhou government office, the harder it was to get rid of them with small sums of money, so naturally, it would cost more.

Otherwise, even a eunuch serving the emperor wouldn't be a true emperor.

Having spent his money to get through customs, Shen Er looked at the constables outside the government office and suddenly felt a little reluctant to part with the silver he had on him.

Although this silver came from your Guangzhou government, it took a lot of effort, and now it's being fed to these people.

He hesitated for a moment, then took out a silver ingot from his pocket and walked up to the two constables.

"My lords, could you please inform General Chen that there is a great gift to present to him?"

The two constables were naturally ecstatic to see the gleaming silver in Shen's hand, but then they pretended to be serious and started making excuses.

To put it bluntly, it's not that they're really into it; they just want more money for drinks.

But Shen Er's silver ingot wasn't a small one; it was a medium-sized ingot worth ten taels of silver, which was quite a lot.

Although the two were arrogant, their eyes never left the silver.

Left with no other choice, they had to take out another silver ingot and give one to each person.

"Gentlemen, consider this money a token of your hard work. Would you mind if this were enough to inform General Chen?"

The two men chuckled as they took the silver, tossed it a couple of times in their hands, told Shen Er to wait where he was, and then turned and walked away.

Not long after, the man returned and told Shen Er that if he wanted to give a gift, he should leave it there and then he could leave.

Shen Er wanted to explain, but was told that these were the words of General Chen, and there was nothing they could do about it.

But it's impossible to just leave this fur trunk here. If I leave it here, I won't know how to explain it if the master asks.

So he begged the two of them again.

With the intention of getting paid to do something, the two agreed to Shen Er's request, but their bodies remained unmoved.

Shen Er understood that this was money earned one step at a time, so he took out another silver ingot and handed it to him before the man set off again.

This time, the return was fruitful. Shen Er, carrying a fur-lined suitcase, followed the yamen runner to Chen Qian's office.

Chen Qian sat high on the desk writing something, without even looking up, and asked casually, "Speak, what treasure do you want me to accept personally?"

Clearly, Chen Qian had received gifts more than once or twice. He had received so many gifts that he no longer cared much about ordinary ones. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so indifferent to who gave him the gifts.

Faced with General Chen's question, Shen Er first tapped the fur-lined box, then said, "General, you will surely be interested in the paintings inside this box."

Because the sound of the fur-wrapped box was different from that of an ordinary box, Chen Qian looked up upon hearing the sound and immediately recognized it as the box he had left on the ship.

He ordered the people around him to wait outside the government office, closed the door, and stared intently at Shen Er.

"Who are you?"

"General, I am just a commoner, but someone asked me to deliver this box to your government office."

Chen Qian certainly wouldn't simply believe that explanation, but the box was right in front of him.

He walked over, took the box from Shen's hands, and placed it on his desk.

Upon opening it, one finds three paintings and a letter.

At this point, Chen Qian still did not believe it, or did not accept his fate.

He opened the three scrolls, two blank and one a flower and bird painting. He immediately recognized the flower and bird painting as the one he had personally inserted.

Looking at the painting, he smeared some tea on his finger and then applied it to the blank painting. Shen Er didn't know this and thought Chen Qian wanted to ruin something. He wanted to step forward to stop him, but his body twitched and he realized that this person was not someone he could stop.

Seeing that the blank scroll did not reveal any content after being wetted, sweat poured down his forehead, dripping onto the scroll and leaving sweat stains.

Clearly, the two most important paintings have been stolen.

But he didn't know who it was. After all, he had sent two ships to escort them, and neither ship had returned. Who could have the power to oppose him and the imperial court like this?

But what he knew for sure was that the person who hijacked his ship and stole the scroll was definitely not there to kill him.

If this person wanted to kill him, he would have already taken the painting to the imperial court. The person who came to the government office this time was not there to "deliver a gift," but rather an official from the imperial court.

Since the other party doesn't want me to die so soon, there's still a possibility of negotiation and compromise.

He shakily reached out and picked up the letter from the box, pulling it back very slowly, as if carrying a heavy object, trembling as he brought it back to himself.

It took some effort just to open the envelope.

After silently reading the letter word by word, he suddenly seemed to lose all his strength, slumped into a chair, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Shen Er looked at the stage, trying to see his expression through the letter, but he couldn't.

After staring at the ceiling for a long time, Chen Qian finally spoke a sentence in a very soft voice.

"Take me there."