Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

"Run! Run!"

The one-eyed dragon no longer cared about the 100,000 taels of silver. With a roar, he turned and ran wildly toward the dock.

When the remaining Japanese pirates saw that their leader had fled, they scattered and ran away crying for their parents, wishing they had two more legs.

Pei Yuan stood amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, casually flicking the blood droplets off his blade as he watched the one-eyed dragon escape into the thick fog.

He did not chase after them immediately, but instead walked slowly to the side.

Outside the warehouse, facing the dock, something was covered with an oilcloth.

That's the "Sea-Suppressing God" heavy cannon that was just delivered today and hasn't been installed on the ship yet.

Pei Yuan ripped off the oilcloth.

Several Jinyiwei firemen hidden in the shadows nearby saw their master's signal.

They immediately scrambled out and frantically began loading gunpowder.

"Sir, the fog is too thick; we can't see the river at all!"

The stoker reported this, his brow beaded with sweat.

Pei Yuan walked to the breech of the cannon, his gaze coldly fixed on the depths of the thick fog.

His powerful mental perception had already pinpointed the location of the One-Eyed Flood Dragon's few sea-coasted ships.

He personally turned the winch, slightly lowering the cannon muzzle and tilting it to the left by three-tenths of an inch.

"ignition."

With trembling hands, the pyroster lit the fuse with a tinderbox.

At this moment, the one-eyed dragon had just escaped onto the Haicang ship moored outside the dock.

He looked at the shipyard behind him, still shrouded in thick fog, and gasped for breath.

"Start the boat! That's a monster! Get out of this hellhole!"

The Haicang boat had just untied its mooring lines and sailed less than ten zhang away from the pier.

"BOOM!!!"

A deafening roar, loud enough to shatter eardrums, suddenly erupted from the shore of the shipyard!

A massive fireball tore through the thick fog, and a solid iron projectile weighing tens of kilograms, carrying Pei Yuan's murderous rage, precisely crossed the obstacle of the fog.

"Snap!"

The iron bullet slammed into the side of the Haicang ship where the one-eyed dragon was, piercing a huge hole in the hull.

The violent impact instantly shattered the keel inside the ship's cabin.

The entire Haicang boat rocked violently on the river.

Then, amidst a despairing sound of wood breaking, it quickly capsized and sank towards the center of the river.

The dozens of Japanese pirates on board, along with the one-eyed dragon who dominated the East China Sea, were all swept into the cold and turbulent undercurrents of the Yangtze River and never resurfaced.

shore.

Pei Yuan watched the smoke gradually dissipate and slowly sheathed his Embroidered Spring Blade.

He turned his head and looked at the corpses scattered on the ground, a deep calculation flashing in his eyes.

"Lu Zheng".

"Your humble servant is here!"

Lu Zheng ran over from not far away. Looking at the severed limbs scattered all over the ground, his awe of this man had penetrated to the bone.

"Send men to chop off all the heads of these sea rats for me. Find several large wooden boxes, pack them in, and preserve them with lime."

Pei Yuan took out a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blood off his hands.

"Tomorrow morning, deliver these boxes to Wan Dafu's residence. Tell him that I thank him for sending such a generous gift."

The next morning.

A group of wealthy salt merchants in Nanjing were gathered at Wan Dafu's residence for morning tea, waiting for "good news" from Longjiang Shipyard.

Wan Dafu held the covered bowl, blew on the steam, and wore a confident smile on his face.

"Rest assured, everyone. That one-eyed dragon is always reliable in his work. By this time, Pei Yuan is probably already a charred corpse."

Before he could finish speaking...

The gate of the Wan residence was kicked open.

A group of menacing Imperial Guards, carrying five large mahogany chests that reeked of lime and blood, strode into the hall.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Five boxes were thrown heavily to the ground.

With a clang, the lid of the box was pried open by the hilt of a Jinyiwei's sword.

Several hideous, unseeing heads rolled out of the box.

One of them was the one-eyed dragon with a scar on its face.

A series of pig-like screams suddenly erupted in the hall.

Several timid wealthy businessmen rolled their eyes back and fainted from fright.

Wan Dafu stared at the heads, then dropped the covered bowl in his hand with a "clatter" and shattered it on the ground.

He was struck dumb, his face turning ashen.

The captain leading the Imperial Guards stepped forward and sneered.

"Mr. Wan, my master said he appreciates your friend's visit to the shipyard last night. Please accept these return gifts. Also, my master has another message for you all."

The captain looked around at the wealthy gentlemen who were slumped on the ground.

He conveyed Pei Yuan's military orders word by word.

"The lord says that there is not enough silver for shipbuilding. He requests that everyone present donate another three million taels of silver within ten days."

"Otherwise, the next box that arrives will contain the heads of you gentlemen."

……

The plum rains in Nanjing lasted for almost half a month.

The atmosphere in Wan Dafu's mansion in the south of the city was even more somber and oppressive than the gloomy, rainy day.

The once luxurious hall, filled with the sounds of traditional music and teeming with distinguished guests, is now piled high with camphor wood chests of all sizes.

The abacus beads in the hands of several accountants clicked and clattered.

Sweat streamed down his face, and he didn't even bother to wipe it away.

Wan Dafu slumped in the armchair, his once plump and round face now noticeably thinner in just a few days.

His eyes were sunken and filled with alarming bloodshot veins.

"Master...the three silk shops in the west of the city, and the eight hundred acres of paddy fields outside the city, have all been sold to merchants from Huizhou at a discounted price. Four hundred thousand taels of silver have been raised in cash."

The head steward, holding a thick ledger, reported the contents with a trembling voice.

"Adding the existing stock in the warehouse, as well as the contributions from the various salt merchants, we have just managed to raise three million taels."

Upon hearing the figure of "three million taels," the wealthy salt merchants sitting at the lower level couldn't help but let out a mournful cry.

It felt as if a piece of my heart had been ripped out.

Ten days.

A total of three million taels of silver.

To raise the money needed to buy their lives, these wealthy families, who had controlled the salt industry in Lianghuai for decades, had to work together.

They emptied almost all the cash in the treasury and even sold off the farmland and shops passed down from their ancestors at a bargain price.

That's three million taels of pure silver!

The annual revenue of Taicang during the Ming Dynasty was no more than this!

"It's good that we have all of them...it's good that we have all of them..."

Wan Dafu waved his hand weakly, his voice hoarse.

"Load the carts quickly. Send someone to Xichun Garden to deliver a petition, saying that we commoners have exhausted all our resources to raise funds for Your Majesty's shipbuilding. We beg Your Majesty to show mercy and leave us a way to survive."

These powerful officials who once held sway over the Jiangnan region had their backbone shattered in front of the unruly and ruthless Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard), a veritable devil.

They didn't even dare to entertain the slightest thought of resistance.

That night, the long convoy of silver transport vehicles silently drove into the back gate of Xichun Garden in the drizzle.

Lu Zheng, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, personally led a team to take inventory.

Looking at those boxes of silver ingots, gleaming alluringly under the torchlight.

Even though Lu Zheng was used to seeing large-scale scenes of confiscation of property and extermination of clans, he couldn't help but secretly gasp in astonishment.

The wealth and influence of these wealthy merchants from Jiangnan are truly unfathomable.

Our master only sent over a few Japanese pirate heads, yet he managed to extract such a massive amount of wealth.

This method of amassing wealth is probably unprecedented and will likely remain so.