Starting from 1618 of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 149 The Kong Brand Time Bomb

Autumn of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign.

Autumn comes earlier in Dengzhou than inland. You can feel the chill in the wind as early as the beginning of September. In the morning, there is sometimes a thin layer of frost in the cracks between the bricks in the yard, which does not melt until noon.

When Shen Qing entered the study, Lu Yan was reviewing an official document about the progress of warship construction. He didn't stop writing, but he glanced up to recognize the person, then lowered his head again and continued writing.

After he finished signing the document and put down his pen, Shen Qing was already sitting in the chair opposite him.

"Speak." Lu Yan pushed the official document aside.

Shen Qing took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, placed it on the table, and left it there without pushing it over. He put his hands behind his back and said, "Kong Youde, there are a few things worth mentioning in these three months."

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Lu Yan glanced at the paper, but didn't take it, gesturing for him to speak.

"Firstly, his position—" Shen Qing's voice remained consistently flat, as if he were reading from a prepared script, "In early autumn this year, the imperial court reorganized the old troops in Liaodong, and the various camps under Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Town were reorganized. Kong Youde, based on his accumulated military achievements over the past two years, was promoted from guerrilla commander to deputy commander, a third-rank official, and is now the deputy commander of Dengzhou and Laizhou. He is nominally under the command of Lord Sun Yuanhua, but is actually stationed at the northern camp of Dengzhou City."

Lu Yan picked up the teacup beside him, but didn't drink from it; it remained suspended in mid-air.

"Commander-in-Chief," he said, his tone flat, as if confirming the word.

"Yes," Shen Qing said. "He rose through the ranks faster than most of his peers. His military achievements are real. He has fought in several battles and is a capable fighter. His subordinates also speak highly of him, saying that he spares no effort on the battlefield."

"Then what."

"Secondly," Shen Qing continued, "there's friction with the Dengzhou-Laizhou reorganization system. He was promoted to brigade commander, but half of the original men in his camp were former troops from Dongjiang Town, and the other half were Liaodong defeated soldiers who were gradually incorporated. Their meals, pay, and organizational structure are still not clear." He paused, "Kong Youde has already reported this matter twice. The first time, it went unanswered. The second time, the Provincial Administration Commission sent back an official document saying, 'We are aware of this and will handle it later.'"

“Pending processing,” Lu Yan put down the teacup, “meaning I’m not processing it.”

6

"Yes."

How did he react?

'

"He didn't say anything in public," Shen Qing said, "but my informants outside the camp reported that after the document got into his hands, he threw a tantrum that night, kicking over a table in the tent. Everyone in the camp knew about it, but no one said a word."

Lu Yan didn't speak, but placed his hand on the table, his fingers not tapping, just resting there.

"Thirdly," Shen Qing said, "the direction of the complaints in the camp has changed somewhat."

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"So who was it aimed at all?"

66

"So it turns out they were complaining about the late and insufficient pay from the imperial court, the suffering on the frontier, and the exploitation of middlemen," Shen Qing said. "Such complaints are everywhere, and the boss knows it too, so it's not surprising."

6

"And now?"

"6

"It's still about paying rations and salaries, but there's an extra layer—they're starting to name names." Shen Qing paused for a beat, "They're naming Lord Sun Yuanhua. They're saying that Lord Sun is a scholar who doesn't understand military affairs, only knows how to copy Western methods, has no respect for military men, and is unfair in promotions and rewards."

The stillness in the study had taken on a different quality.

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan picked up the teacup he had just put down, took a sip, and drank the tea, which was already mostly cold. He didn't change it and just drank it. He put the bowl back in its place and said, "It is Kong Youde's original words that Sun Yuanhua does not understand military affairs."

"It came from the people on the third level of his camp," Shen Qing said. "It wasn't Kong Youde who said it himself, but a few close officers in his tent were discussing it privately. But if such words have spread to this extent, Kong Youde couldn't possibly not know about them."

7y

"He knew," Lu Yan said, "so he didn't suppress it."

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"Yes," Shen Qing replied, offering no further comment.

This is precisely what Lu Yan cares about.

People who vent their grievances and then let them dissipate are not worth paying special attention to. But those who vent their grievances and whose commanders do not suppress them, allowing them to fester in the camp—such people have something else on their minds.

He was using the voice of the camp to force the higher-ups to give an explanation.

Or perhaps he's waiting for an opportunity to use the resentment of that battalion to do something.

"Has Lord Sun Yuanhua received any news?" Lu Yan asked.

"Not yet," Shen Qing said. "Lord Sun has been focusing on artillery affairs lately. His clerk may have reported the complaints in the army, but Lord Sun hasn't taken any action yet."

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Lu Yan thought for a moment and then asked, "Which layers of Kong Youde's camp can you currently cover?"

"The first layer is public knowledge, his comings and goings," Shen Qing said. "The second layer is his close confidants keeping track of his daily activities. The third layer," he paused slightly, "is the spies planted last autumn. So far, they haven't been discovered yet, but their infiltration is limited. We can only hear some things that go outside the camp, and the private discussions inside the tents don't reach us."

"Is the third layer enough?" Lu Yan asked. "It depends on the decisive matter, whether it will be issued from the camp first."

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"I think," Shen Qing rarely offered his opinion, "if he's going to do something, he won't just plot in the camp. Sooner or later he'll make contact with people outside."

"Yes," Lu Yan said. "So the most important thing right now is not to listen to what he says in his camp, but to see what kind of people he brings out."

"Yes, I've been keeping an eye on this line," Shen Qing said. "In the past three months, among the outsiders he's been in contact with, there haven't been any obvious exceptions; they've all been familiar military officers and former subordinates."

"Keep watching," Lu Yan said. "Don't alert them, just keep a close watch."

"Yes."

Shen Qing stood up, took the folded paper back from the table, and prepared to take it with her.

Lu Yan stopped him and said, "Take that piece of paper with you, don't leave it in the yamen."

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"I've always been like this," Shen Qing said, putting the paper back in his pocket, stepping back to the door, pausing for a moment, "Master, there's something I'm not sure if I should say."

"explain."

"I've been following Kong Youde for almost a year," Shen Qing said, his tone devoid of any particular emotion, merely stating a fact. "He's not like an ordinary martial artist. He has something, in the words of the chiliarch who taught me interrogation back in the day, which is called 'knowing one's own worth.'"

Lu Yan didn't respond immediately. After a moment, Shen Qing continued, "If you can't give this kind of person the right amount, something bad will happen sooner or later."

6

The study was quiet for a moment.

Lu Yan said, "You're right."

Shen Qing glanced at him, bowed, and left, closing the door behind her.

The footsteps faded into the distance along the corridor, without any lingering sound.

Lu Yan remained seated in the chair, not moving immediately.

Outside the window, the autumn wind swept away a few more leaves from the old locust tree in the yard, which landed on the bluestone ground, spun around, and stopped.

Kong Youde.

A deputy general, a third-rank official, commanding a battalion. There was resentment within the battalion, which the commander-in-chief could not suppress. He also sought alliances with old acquaintances in Liaodong.

Each of these issues, taken individually, is not a major matter.

But when you put all the lines together, plus Shen Qing's last words—"This is not a fuse, it's a cannon that's already lit, and we don't know which direction it's aimed at or when it will go off"—it's all there.

Lu Yan lowered his head, picked up another official document, pressed it down under his hand, and did not open it.

He was thinking about two things.

First: Could Shen Qing inform Kong Youde three days in advance before he makes his move?

The second thing: If you tell him three days in advance, what should he do during those three days?

On Changshan Island, Fan Fu had recently retraced the evacuation routes and replenished the food supplies. The people on the island were also busy, and he knew all of this.

But these preparations are for "just in case".

What he really wanted was for the "what if" option to never be used.

However, some things are not something he can get just because he wants them.

He opened the document, picked up his pen, and began to review it again.

A few more locust leaves fell outside the window, and the courtyard became increasingly empty.

Autumn is here.

Time passed by like this.

In the winter of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, Kong Youde was quiet, the market was quiet, and battle reports from Liaodong arrived one after another, none of them good news. Lu Yan filed them one by one without making a fuss.

In the spring of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Wei Zhongxian's influence grew ever stronger, and the Donglin Party members in the court faced increasingly difficult times. Through Shen Qing's connections, Lu Yan secretly moved several families of officials implicated in the affair to an inconspicuous fishing village near Changshan Island. They were settled without alerting anyone, and the accounts were kept secret by Hu Jingshui.

In June of the same year, Cui reported that she was pregnant.

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan paused in the study, said, "I understand, take care of yourself," and then continued reading official documents. Madam Cui stood at the door for a moment, then turned and left, her steps steady, without uttering a second word behind her.

During that year, the warehouse on Changshan Island expanded again, and four new craftsmen were added to the firearms workshop, with the monthly production of flintlock muskets remaining stable at around thirty-five. Shen Qing's intelligence network extended a new line to Laizhou, and Zhao Changying retrained his personal guard, eliminating more than a dozen old and weak soldiers and replacing them with veterans selected from the defeated troops of Liaodong, all of whom had seen blood.

Kong Youde, on the other hand, still had a low-grade fever, but had not yet developed symptoms.

Shen Qing would report every two weeks, and each time Lu Yan listened, he would say the same thing: Keep an eye on things, but don't alert them.

And so it came to the sixth year of the Tianqi reign.

spring.