"Trouble you, My Lord, to lure them out." She tore off the jade pendant from her belt, and the agate beads rolled into the modified mechanism of the Pear Blossom Rain Needle. "Three breaths from now, the southeast wind will turn northeast."
Xiao Heng struck the iron wheels of the salt cart with his Steel Whip, the piercing sound prompting a volley of crossbow bolts.
Shen Xitang silently counted her heartbeats, releasing her hidden weapon just as the third beat of the bronze gong rang out.
The agate beads collided with the salt stack, and the exploding indigo powder scattered in the wind, adhering to the crossbowmen's robes to reveal their positions—it was precisely the tracking phosphor powder specially made by the Shen Family dyeing house.
"They're wearing the Salt and Canal Yamen's uniform!" Xiao Heng snatched the crossbow mechanism, the arrowheads clearly engraved with the Ministry of Revenue's fire seal. "Vice Minister Wang's reach is long enough."
Shen Xitang used a Silver Hairpin to pry open the crossbow's rotating wheel, discovering traces of the spring plates being corroded by sulfur: "They use sulfur-tainted salt for lubrication. In less than half a month, the chamber would have exploded."
She suddenly recalled that when checking the accounts last month, the quantity of tung oil purchased by the Salt and Canal Yamen was a full three times greater than usual.
The sound of clashing metal suddenly came from behind the salt stack, and Qingxing dragged out a bound Japanese merchant, stumbling over. The jade pendant at the man's waist was carved with a chrysanthemum pattern, but its inner side was embedded with the share contract seal of the Shen Family embroidery workshop.
Shen Xitang pried open the secret compartment of the jade ornament, dropping a roll of secret letters soaked in alum water, the handwriting appearing upon exposure to heat: "The third watch, third quarter, Qiantang Sluice."
"It's the canal transport's secret code." Xiao Heng lifted the Japanese merchant's chin with his Steel Whip. "The Qiantang Sluice opens to release salt boats on the third day of every month, and today happens to be..."
Before his voice faded, the muffled, thunderous sound of the sluice gates opening suddenly came from the distance.
Shen Xitang climbed up the dilapidated watchtower and saw twenty salt boats on the Qiantang River flowing out in single file, yet the waterline at their bows was unusually light and shallow.
She snatched the telescope to look closer. The posture of the boatmen carrying the salt bags was stiff, and the reflection of Chain Mail faintly showed at the hems of their robes.
"Signal the naval forces immediately!" She snapped the gold-threaded waist ornament at her wrist and tossed the string of agate beads to Xiao Heng. "Use the red-eyed qingluan from the Shen Family pigeon loft; they recognize the bronze whistle frequency of the Ministry of War's urgent decree."
When the sun was high in the sky, the salt boats were already close to Hangzhou Bay. Shen Xitang stood on the deck of the modified treasure ship, the incomplete volume of *Creation of Heavenly Works* in her hand flipped by the river wind to the "Naval Warfare" chapter.
She adjusted the angle of the bed crossbow according to the illustrations, the iron sighting notch aligning precisely with the tip of the Leifeng Pagoda on the opposite bank—this was the ranging secret technique her father had taught her before his death.
"The southeast wind rises!" Qingxing raised her hand and scattered the phosphor powder, which drifted toward the rear cabins of the salt boats.
Shen Xitang turned the winch, and the sulfur-tipped arrows on the triple-bow bed crossbow fired on cue, accurately piercing the cargo compartment bulkhead of the third salt boat.
A deafening explosion shook the river surface, and salt grains filled the sky like scattering sleet.
Shen Xitang steadied herself against the bulwark amidst the blast wave, watching bundles of Madao roll out from the exploded cargo hold—the branching vine patterns on the sword hilts shared the same origin as Xiao Heng's Steel Whip, and they were precisely the batch stolen from the Ministry of Works armory.
"Fire arrows!"
Xiao Heng's Steel Whip pointed at the mast of the salt boat, and twelve arrows wrapped in stone-grease water pierced through the air.
The sails of the salt boat ignited upon contact with fire, the indigo-colored flames revealing the secret that the canvas had been soaked in sulfur.
Shen Xitang suddenly realized the truth, grabbed the bronze gong, and struck three long and two short beats—this was the distress signal used by the Shen Family canal boats.
Dozens of floating logs suddenly emerged on the river surface, each with a reflective bronze mirror embedded in its top. Sunlight refracted through the mirror surfaces, weaving a net of light among the salt boats.
Shen Xitang raised the modified telescope and saw that the center of the light net was none other than the helmsman's cabin of the fifth salt boat—the number of Madao piled up there far exceeded that of the other boats.
"Prepare the ram!" She jerked the signaling flag. "Aim for the center of the light spot, full speed ahead!"
The keel of the treasure ship let out an unbearable groan, and the iron ram broke through the port side of the salt boat. Shen Xitang leaped onto the enemy ship amidst flying wood splinters, her Pear Blossom Rain Needles all shot toward the helmsman.
Amidst the sound of steel needles piercing flesh, she caught a glimpse of the familiar carved marks on the steering wheel—these were the tidal scales routinely used by old Shen Family boatmen.
"The Third Miss has fine methods."
A man in a python robe strolled out from the shadows of the salt hold, holding a Glazed Lamp with a Madao.
Shen Xitang's pupils shrank—this was clearly the ancestral sea lamp enshrined in the Shen Family ancestral hall, and its lamp oil formula was known only to successive family heads.
"Brother Yanzhou, trust you have been well since we last met?" She secretly twisted the needle cylinder mechanism. "If Father knew you were using the ancestral lamp oil to start fires..."
Shen Yanzhou suddenly swung his blade to split the salt stack, and in the rising salt mist, a gilded tally was revealed: "Authorized by the Ministry of War, requisitioning civilian ships to suppress Japanese pirates!" The wear marks on the edges of the tally matched the branching vine pattern of Xiao Heng's Steel Whip precisely.
The river wind suddenly shifted, and Shen Xitang caught a trace of the smell of tung oil. She abruptly hurled the needle cylinder, the steel needle piercing through the partition of the cabin wall to reveal barrels of fierce fire oil.
Shen Yanzhou's Madao had already reached her face, and she leaned back to evade the blade, her Silver Hairpin smoothly slicing open an oil barrel.
"Qingxing!"
The maid threw a flint striker in response, and Shen Xitang rolled over to tumble into the gaps between the salt stacks.
The fierce fire oil exploded upon contact with the naked flame, and the blast wave hurled her toward the ship's rail. At the critical moment of life and death, Xiao Heng's Steel Whip wrapped around her waist, and the gold-chi-dragon whip tip shattered the handguard of Shen Yanzhou's Madao.
"Take him alive!" Shen Xitang shouted through coughs of blood-tinged foam. "What he wants is not weaponry..."
An unusual movement suddenly arose on the river surface, and the unexploded salt boats turned their bows simultaneously. Shen Xitang caught sight of the indigo markings emerging on the waterlines at the bottoms of the boats; those were the anti-worm lacquers specially made for the Shen Family canal boats—they would show up when meeting alkaline water.
She suddenly remembered the old accountant saying that a batch of lacquer had been forcibly requisitioned by the Salt and Canal Yamen last month.
"They're going to ram the sluice!"
Where Xiao Heng's Steel Whip pointed, ten salt boats were charging at full speed toward the Qiantang water sluice.
Shen Xitang snatched the steering wheel, and the treasure ship barred the middle of the river. She pulled the mechanism according to the illustration in *Creation of Heavenly Works*, and an iron caltrop net flipped out from the inner hold of the ship—this was the "Thousand-Jun Net" modified from Shen Family looms, specially designed to break the hulls of water bandits.
The sound of metal scraping pierced the eardrums, and the keel of the foremost salt boat shattered.
Shen Xitang watched through the tremors as Shen Yanzhou leaped into the river, wearing a Japanese diving suit beneath his python robe. She flicked out her last three Pear Blossom Rain Needles, and as the steel needles pierced his right shoulder, twenty refined iron water-spikes suddenly rose from the riverbed.
"It's the Ministry of Works' river defense mechanism!" Xiao Heng yanked the signaling flag. "Haul in the net!"
The iron caltrop net entangled the water-spikes, and the salt boat disintegrated in a series of chain explosions.
Shen Xitang lay prone on the ship's rail, watching Shen Yanzhou's blood drag a winding red line across the river surface, pointing straight to the abandoned granary of the Salt and Canal Yamen on the opposite bank.
As dusk gathered, Shen Xitang stood in the cellar of the granary.
Cases of secret archives were pressed beneath charred salt bags, and the mulberry-paper account book on the very top recorded: "In the third year of Jiajing, purchased three hundred piculs of Japanese sulfur, recorded as official salt wastage." The fingerprints on the edge of the ledger page were identical to the vermilion ink paste of the Ministry of War's official document.
"My Lady, look at this!" Qingxing pushed aside the broken bricks, revealing the lower half of a refined iron gear. Shen Xitang nudged the teeth with her Silver Hairpin, discovering that the meshing method shared the same origin as the Xuanji key—this was clearly a component of the "Xuanji Instrument" lost by the Ministry of Works.
Xiao Heng's Steel Whip suddenly propped against her neck: "Miss Shen is so well-versed in the secrets of the Ministry of Works. Are you truly merely a merchant's daughter?"
Shen Xitang countered by revealing the Pear Blossom Rain Needle mechanism, the inner wall engraved with tiny standard script: "In the third year of Xuande, convert crossbows into looms."
Facing Xiao Heng's scrutinizing gaze, she pressed the needle cylinder against the gear of the Xuanji Instrument—the patterns of the two surprisingly matched completely.
"Does My Lord still remember your late father's branching vine pattern on the Steel Whip?" She flipped open the final page of *Creation of Heavenly Works*, revealing the Ministry of Works artisan roster tucked in the interlayer. "Xiao Yuanshan, entered the Directorate for Imperial Armaments in the twenty-second year of Yongle, specializing in..."
The river wind suddenly poured into the cellar, extinguishing the torch. The sound of a mechanism meshing echoed in the darkness, and Shen Xitang felt a tightness at her wrist as she was locked to the Xuanji Instrument by iron shackles.
Xiao Heng's voice came from overhead: "Tonight at the midnight hour, the tide will submerge this place. If Miss Shen is willing to hand over the true Xuanji secret key..."
Before his voice finished, the cellar shook violently. Shen Xitang used the momentum to slam into the Xuanji Instrument, the gears jamming the shackle mechanism.
She felt for the flint striker in the secret compartment, and the moment she blew it bright, she caught sight of the blood-written characters on the wall—"The seventh day of the seventh month of the Guiyou year, the tide carries bane."
"Qingxing! Dismantle the third load-bearing pillar!"
The maid swung her axe in response, and amidst the roar of the snapping wooden pillar, the cellar dome revealed the starry sky.
Shen Xitang dragged the iron chain and swung out of the ruins, seeing twenty Red Horse Boats drifting on the Qiantang River—the Shen Family's merchant flags were planted at their bows, yet the hidden pattern on the flags was the Ministry of Works' Tiger Tally.