The ice on the Luan River ferry at Yongping Prefecture cracked like thunder. Shen Xitang’s black boots crunched over a "Taxation and Duty List" left behind by the canal laborers. Xiao Heng’s Xiuchun Saber cleaved open a frozen canal boat; the secret compartment in the hull spilled not salt, but bundles of "Ministry of War Bureau of Defense Documents"—each official seal accompanied by the secret enciphered exchange codes of the Rishengchang bank in Shanxi.
"A fine job, Li Ruhua!" She shook out a scrap of the document. "This Minister of Revenue has a knack for juggling military funds that’s three parts sharper than Yan Song’s ever was!"
A horse whinnied from behind a stack of fodder. Five men dressed as porters were loading crates of tung oil onto a mule cart; the black liquid seeping from the seams formed a "Fortune" pattern on the ice. Xiao Heng’s sleeve arrow shattered a crate lid, revealing not cargo, but twenty corpses of Eastern Palace attendants in crimson robes.
Chapter 142