Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 162

Within Daliang City, the Gonggongtang branch has largely withdrawn its forces. On the contrary, the Siyuetang branch purchased a large number of shops during the Gonggongtang's withdrawal, seemingly intending to compete with the Gonggongtang.

The Four Mountains Hall was a local power in the Wei Kingdom, and the Gonggong Hall's establishment of a branch there was an overstepping of its bounds.

However, Gonggongtang had a strong presence among farmers and followed the path of Lord Xinling's retainers and wandering knights-errant Li Shang, which was different from Siyuetang, which relied on casinos, brothels, auction houses, and other industries. Therefore, it was able to gain a foothold.

Now that the intention to withdraw has become apparent, on Zhang Er's advice, Situ Wanli used some underhanded tactics to acquire Gonggongtang's assets at a low price.

Gonggongtang initially did not react at all, which made Situ Wanli's methods more aggressive, but Gonggongtang still chose to silently endure it.

This inevitably made the gambler Situ somewhat smug. He also knew that Daliang City was at risk of being besieged in the future, which was why Gonggongtang had given up its properties in the city.

However, the losses incurred during the siege can be fully recovered during the reconstruction work after the siege. With more land now, despite certain risks, the potential profits are still there, floating in the wind.

A timid person won't win much money at the gambling table.

Little did the ever-victorious Situ Wanli know that he coveted the Gonggong Hall's properties in Daliang City, while Lu Wei coveted the entire Siyue Hall.

Such acquisitions of industries were carried out very carefully, and were known only to the members of the Siyue Hall and Gonggong Hall.

However, this does not mean that no one is paying attention.

...

In a small shop called Junjinxuan in Daliang City, the handsome young shop owner received a scroll of bamboo slips and coins from a customer.

He then took another bamboo scroll from the bookshelf behind him, handed it out with a smile, and the deal was done.

This shop, ostensibly selling various women's accessories, is also openly engaged in information exchange...

Chapter 181 Chen Ping

The owner of Junjinxuan is named Chen Ping.

It's a very common name. The surname Chen comes from the descendants of Emperor Shun and is a common surname. The character Ping is also not uncommon. In Daliang City alone, there are quite a few people with the same name and surname, 'Chen Ping'.

But there is only one Chen Ping who is in the intelligence business.

A lonely and helpless person openly admitting to doing intelligence work is likely to attract dangerous attention.

However, once most of the dangerous gazes fell on Chen Ping, a quick glance was enough for them to laugh it off and turn away.

Although Chen Ping, the owner of Junjinxuan, claimed that his main business was collecting and selling intelligence, the intelligence he actually collected mostly came from merchants in various places, and the intelligence he sold was mostly resold to these merchants.

The intelligence he collected consisted only of casual notes from traveling merchants, such as: 'On the 12th of this month, more than fifty refugees passed by outside the west gate of Daliang.'

"On the ninth day of the third lunar month, two gangs fought at the Yunmeng Market in Shouchun. The fight stemmed from a dispute over a bottle of herbal medicine for epidemic prevention."

'Fishing boats that went out to sea from Sanghai East Wharf on the third day of this month all returned fully loaded, and fish prices in the city dropped by 30%.'

These kinds of stories, big and small, about what people saw and heard in various places, were already tiresome for the locals. When they were brought to Daliang, they had no additional value other than serving as gossip about foreigners in taverns.

Even if there is very little valuable content, the locals have already taken advantage of it, and it would be too late for Daliang City to react.

Can this be called intelligence? So-called intelligence should be precious information known to fewer than five people, full of murder and bloodshed, and involving human death and the whereabouts of huge sums of money. Only then can it be called intelligence!

Even if it doesn't have to be that high-class, it should at least be a targeted and prepared act of infiltration to obtain accurate information, rather than this kind of aimless behavior.

This kind of behavior—collecting local clues, then using those clues to deduce the shortage of local goods in order to sell them to merchants for advance stockpiling—isn't it itself a form of merchantship?

Although Chen Ping is indeed quite capable, with an accuracy rate of about 70% over the past two years, his annual earnings are estimated to be only equivalent to that of a low-ranking nobleman.

In the bustling city of Daliang, such a status was only slightly better than that of an ordinary citizen.

This is the public's view of Jun Jinxuan and its boss, Chen Ping's, situation.

Behind the scenes, Chen Ping's personal abilities have attracted the attention of any organization or individual whose vision extends beyond the Great Liang Dynasty, who would extend an olive branch to him.

But that's where it ends up at the olive branch stage.

To gain more attention, Chen Ping needs to demonstrate even greater abilities.

However, judging from the results over the past two years, his abilities have most likely reached their limit, and may even decline over time.

In addition, this person himself appears to lack ambition, and the outside world's attention to him has become increasingly shallow day by day.

The Wei Kingdom Gonggong Hall branch has records of this person, but his rank is too low to be reported to the Dazeshan headquarters, let alone placed on the Hall Master's desk.

Because of the problems with those merchants in Sanghai, Lu Wei ordered a covert investigation along the way. This investigation led to the discovery of Jun Jinxuan and Chen Ping's files in Lu Wei's possession when he arrived in Daliang City.

Some talents require careful assessment of their abilities before deciding whether and how much to invest in recruiting them and placing them in the right positions.

Other talented individuals only need to call out their names to Hall Master Lu.

Chen Ping undoubtedly belongs to the latter category.

Especially when the words 'Chen Ping' and 'intelligence' are combined, everything suddenly becomes clear.

Is this person a Taoist disciple?

On the third floor of the only remaining building in Daliang City, Lu Wei met with Lu Ye and Chen Yu, who were still in Weidu City.

After putting down Chen Ping's file, the hall master asked a follow-up question.

"There are no clues to prove whether he has any connection with Taoism. I will send someone to Chen Ping's hometown to investigate."

The eldest brother was very interested in Chen Ping, so A Ye didn't dare to be negligent and hurriedly left to give his disciples tasks.

Glancing at Chen Yu, who was still standing aside waiting for further instructions, the hall master tapped the table three times with his right hand as if he were thinking, making a thumping sound: "Chen Yu, go to Jun Jinxuan's place tonight and express your intention to recruit that Chen Ping."

"Should we use the title of 'Hall Master' or 'Farmer'?"

After respectfully accepting the order, Chen Yu hesitated and asked another question.

“Farmer, there’s no need to mention my name.” The hall master’s eyes darted around, and he chuckled softly with interest. “If he doesn’t agree tonight, then have A-Ye mention my name again tomorrow night and make the trip.”

"Yes!"

...

Inside Junjin Pavilion, holding a new intelligence report he had just received that day, Chen Ping walked into the back room.

With the candlelight lit, the interior of the dark, windowless room was fully revealed: four large bookshelves filled with bamboo slips, and a small bed for a single person to rest on.

As for other places, from the ceiling to the walls and the floor, they are covered with cloth maps of all sizes. The densely packed terrain lines would make the first person to enter feel a chill down their spine. However, for Chen Ping, these felt very familiar.

He liked to confine himself to such a narrow environment, forcing his mind to focus on analyzing the intelligence at hand.

In the very center of the floor is an old map of the Seven Kingdoms. The borders of the states of Han and Zhao have been redrawn with thick black lines, indicating that those areas now belong to Qin territory.

The border of Jicheng and Yan State was marked with red ink, while the other areas of Dai, Yan Liaodong, Wei, and Chu were marked with the character 'danger' in red ink in the blank spaces.

The situation map probably won't need to be changed this year. Chen Ping sat cross-legged on the small bed, looking at the separate maps of the seven countries on the inner wall of the bed.

The most striking feature of these seven pictures is that each one is covered with a dense collection of names written in fine brushstrokes.

However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that these hundreds of names actually only involve about twenty specific individuals.

Some of them are already famous, while others are still unknown.

Some names appear on maps of multiple countries, such as 'Lu Wei': this name appears on maps of the five states of Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qi, and Chu.

On the same country map, some names will appear several times. For example, "Lu Wei" is written on both the Daze Mountain Range and Sanghai City on the border of Qi and Wei on the Qi-Wei map.

Chen Ping put a lot of effort into creating these images, even adding a small note about the year and month after each name.

However, the information above is incomplete. Taking 'Lu Wei' as an example again, his name is not marked on the map of Chu in the Jinghu area. The area is sparsely populated, and the lake is not even marked on the map.

Picking up his brush, Chen Ping wrote the two characters "Zhu Family" at a small inn a hundred miles north of Shouchun City in the State of Chu, and marked the date.

He got out of bed and found another slightly old map of the Chu Kingdom on the left wall, which was covered by two layers of maps. He found the location of Shouchun and there was a short line of small characters: Zhu Jia meets Ji Shi.

After much deliberation, Chen Ping did not connect the two events, but simply wrote below those five characters: 'The Zhu family led their retainers to Shouchun'

He drew a circle in red ink over the words "retainer".

The identity of this retainer is unknown.

After taking notes, Chen Ping put down his pen and went to the center of the small house. He then browsed through the dozens of maps of the seven countries, each with its own uses, to reinforce his memory.

It was already difficult for him to obtain the maps of the seven kingdoms, and it was even more difficult for him to fill these maps with text by using merchants, old friends, and certain partners.

As more and more text was added, Chen Ping was able to glean the essential trends of the world from certain trivial matters.

For example, the dispute between the Gonggongtang and Siyuetang farmhouses in Daliang City.

On the surface, it was part of a power struggle within the peasantry, but Chen Ping gleaned at least three key pieces of information from it:

First, Gonggongtang was certain that after defeating Yan, Qin would set its sights on Wei, rather than taking advantage of the situation to attack Dai, Liao, or directly take Chu.

Regardless of how Gonggongtang arrived at this conclusion, based on Chen Ping's investigation of Lu Weitang, this information is likely accurate.

With tens of thousands of people in the Gonggong Hall, it was certainly possible for him to uncover certain crucial information that he alone could not. By observing the actions of the Gonggong Hall and deducing this intelligence, he was essentially using the Gonggong Hall's intelligence network to serve his own purposes.

With the Gonggong Hall gone, Chen Ping didn't think he could risk staying. He couldn't stay in Daliang City any longer, and he had already planned to pack his belongings and make arrangements to escape at any time.

Secondly, due to the internal strife within Daliang City, Chen Ping expanded the scope of his investigation and discovered that not only was the Siyue Hall suppressing the Gonggong Hall, but the Zhu family had also joined in. A typical example was the recent incident where the Shennong Hall forces suppressed the Gonggong Hall forces over a dispute regarding the right to speak at a certain cooperative dance hall.

The three hall masters from outside the peasant family are not fools. The fact that they are fighting each other like this proves that the Tian family is likely losing power. The reason for the Tian family's decline is mostly related to the Gonggong Hall. As a result, the Gonggong Hall Master Lu is one step closer to the position of the successor of the Xia Kui, but he is also feared by the other halls.

This information would be very valuable if it were sold.

Finally, Gonggongtang must be plotting to annex the entire Siyuetang, otherwise they wouldn't have let themselves suffer such a loss!

Gonggong Hall is enticing Siyue Hall to make a mistake. Considering Situ Wanli's gambler identity, Lu Wei is enticing Situ Wanli himself to make a mistake!

The next leader of the Farmer's Sect should be decided soon.

Unfortunately, Chen Ping has been unable to find out who the current leader of the Farmer's Clan is or what his stance is; he only knows that he should be a member of the Tian family.

If he can make a breakthrough in this area, he believes that even as an outsider, he can gain a deep understanding of the attitudes of farmers!

"Ding"

The wind chimes at Junjinxuan were rung, indicating that a guest had arrived.

After squeezing the bamboo slips into the bookshelf, Chen Ping calmly walked out of the back room.

"Mr. Chen, would you be interested in joining the farm family?"

The young visitor's first words startled Chen Ping, who had just been pondering the problems of farming...

------

As expected, Chen Yu's visit was rejected. The next day, A Ye visited on behalf of Lu Wei, which led to a few more words between them at Junjinxuan, but in the end, the target still boldly rejected him.

As a result, the hall master believed that Chen Ping had already guessed that he was the mastermind behind ordering the two men to visit.