Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 852: Recruitment
In Hua Qi's words, because the Fourth Prince returned to the palace to report the news, the Emperor really wanted to bring the Third Prince, the Crown Prince, to interrogate him in person. However, this Emperor always did whatever he wanted, while the Crown Prince knew what was important and what was not, and was a first-class good boy. So the Emperor, who came to watch the fun, was personally guarding the Qianqing Palace, so the two of them came to see what was going on.
Chu Kuan, on the other hand, highly praised Zhang Shou for his carefulness and thoroughness in discovering the flaws of the so-called envoy, and even praised Zhang Shou's idea of sending Ah Liu to single out the most suspicious person for trial. Anyway, when Hua Qi praised the prince, the former number one in the Imperial Household Department directly praised Zhang Shou as a detective superman.
Even though Zhang Shou had long been accustomed to unrealistic flattery, he still felt itchy when he heard it. When he caught a glimpse of the Fourth Prince staring at him expectantly, he helplessly spread his hands and said, "If you two came here with the Fourth Prince specifically to ask the guy who claimed to be the ship supervisor of the diplomatic mission, then you may be disappointed."
Seeing Chu Kuan and Hua Qi's faces change, and the Fourth Prince was so angry that he almost jumped over, he laughed and said, "I don't know what this guy was like when he was in Shanhaiwei, but after Ah Liu drugged everyone, he took him out of the room alone and poured a basin of cold water on him. Before he could use any tricks, he confessed directly."
"How is that possible! If you are an envoy, how can you be so useless!"
It was as if a toy that he had expected to be fun suddenly became boring. The little boy, the Fourth Prince, was so angry that his face turned red. After he cursed out loud instinctively, he came to his senses and muttered gloomily, "I thought I should at least scare him!"
Hua Qi and Chu Kuan were not as concerned about the process as the Fourth Prince, they only cared about the result. And Zhang Shou did not intend to let people guess, he said directly: "The person is in Room C6 of East Second Dormitory, let the Fourth Prince take you there."
When the Fourth Prince saw Hua Qi and Chu Kuan looking at him, he turned around and ran without saying a word, but in his heart he was still complaining that Zhang Shou and Ah Liu were so quick and didn't wait for him to come back before taking action. It was a pity that he had to run back and forth in such a cold weather, and his third brother had deliberately delayed his father, but he didn't catch up.
However, when he ran to the East Second Building out of breath and was looking around for Room C6, he saw a familiar figure not far away. He ran over without thinking and called out "Sixth Brother".
Before he could ask for the follow-up, Ah Liu stepped aside and pointed to the door: "It's inside, just ask anything."
Hua Qi had long been accustomed to Ah Liu's habit of not saying much unless necessary, but when he saw the Fourth Prince rushing in alone, he still stepped forward and grabbed the man, and then glanced at Ah Liu with an unpleasant look. But Ah Liu seemed to see through his thoughts and stood there without moving: "Don't worry, he can't hurt anyone!"
The Fourth Prince then realized that people were worried about his safety, and he immediately showed a big smile to Ah Liu. After Hua Qi let him go, he patted his clothes and complained without turning his head: "Sixth Brother is so cautious, why does he need your reminder! Well, I'll just follow you!"
Seeing that the Fourth Prince actually hid behind him and Chu Kuan this time, and thinking about how he had just hurriedly reported the news and left the palace without having time to change out of his servant's attire, Hua Qi didn't know whether to say that the little guy had come to his senses, or that the little guy finally knew how to save his life.
However, seeing Chu Kuan pushing the door open with a sullen face, he didn't have time to think too much and hurriedly followed him in.
Seeing the guy tied to a chair with a sackcloth gagged and unable to struggle, Hua Qi finally understood why Ah Liu was so confident that he couldn't hurt anyone. He had taught this guy almost all his skills, but he was still better than him.
This rope is really useful. It is neither too tight to stop the blood flow, nor too loose to give people a chance to escape... It would be a pity not to become a jailer or a prison guard!
Hua Qi was secretly complaining, and Chu Kuan had already reached out and took the rag out of the mouth of the middle-aged man who was tied up. The next moment, as if he had been suffocated for too long, he immediately started to yell loudly.
"My Lord, I am a Korean, not a descendant of the Ming Taizu. I was threatened with death or even extermination, so I had no choice but to pretend to be an envoy to Shanhaiwei. I swear to heaven that if I tell a lie, I will be struck by lightning!"
The fourth prince blinked his eyes, as if he couldn't react. They hadn't even started asking questions yet, and he had already confessed... It was really useless!
If he had known this would happen, why would he have come here excitedly to be a servant? If the man was taken to the palace, would he have confessed so easily?
The middle-aged man who was still tied up certainly didn't know that in the eyes of a certain child, he had become a synonym for useless. He struggled desperately twice and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Our tribute ship was hijacked and all the tribute was gone. If we return to Goryeo, the king will not let us go. Our whole family will be beheaded... Even if we survive, we will be demoted to official slaves!"
"My grandfather was a pariah, and he passed the miscellaneous examinations with great difficulty and became a middle-class person. I also inherited my ancestor's business and passed the examination to become an interpreter. So I could only follow the diplomatic corps and take risks to go to sea, hoping to earn a living so that my children can live a better life, and not end up living a life more miserable than the pariahs because of poverty..."
Chu Kuan had no interest in this guy's life story. When he heard him complaining non-stop, he grabbed his chin with a cold expression and blocked his unfinished words. Then he let go and said coldly, "I just want to know what happened to your ship and who ordered you. I am not interested in other things."
"Yes, yes, I am the interpreter on the ship. In fact, the king is unwilling to send tribute to the Celestial Empire by sea, but because of the system left by Emperor Taizu of the Celestial Empire, the number of land delegations has always been strictly controlled, and the number of people is not enough to escort the tribute, so we can only send the tribute across the sea according to the rules. But our ship encountered pirates a few days after it went out to sea!"
As if he saw Chu Kuan's expression which turned extremely ferocious in an instant, the middle-aged man who claimed to be an interpreter shuddered involuntarily, then lowered his head involuntarily, and his voice became much softer.
"I don't know how we were blocked by pirates. We pay tribute every year, and although we encounter storms sometimes, we often borrow Ming merchant ships, so there are not many times when they capsize or encounter pirates. But this time, the king has just ascended the throne, but he is unwilling to borrow Ming merchant ships."
When talking about this matter, the middle-aged interpreter seemed to grit his teeth, as if he thought of the experience of almost being killed by pirates and almost losing his life.
"Just for the sake of the king's face, he felt that borrowing Ming merchant ships would be detrimental to the state. After killing a few members of the royal family and the yangban as an example, he finally got three ships. Those families had traded with the Celestial Empire in the past, but these ships were no match for the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty."
"So when we encountered pirates at sea, we had no ability to fight back, and we couldn't even escape. In the end, they easily attacked us from the sideboard... Many people died, many, many people..."
When talking about the danger that day, the middle-aged interpreter's face turned pale, and he even looked a little absent-minded, and even his eyes looked a little dull. When the Fourth Prince saw his expression and heard people exaggerate how the ship was covered in blood and even dyed the sea red, even though he was always brave, he couldn't help but feel a little scared.
At this moment, he heard Hua Qi's indifferent voice: "Don't listen to the nonsense of this Korean. The sea is so vast. Let alone the bloodshed and death of a ship, even if the bloodshed and death of ten ships is not enough to dye the sea red! What's more, since it is said to be a Korean merchant ship... the ship is indeed very small. A ship can only carry 20 to 30 people at most! Speaking of this..."
Hua Qi suddenly frowned, and shouted loudly to bring the middle-aged interpreter, who was still speaking incoherently, back to his senses. Then he asked, "Even if your king used confiscated merchant ships to carry tribute, he would have stationed soldiers and officers on board. Otherwise, wouldn't he be afraid that someone would be greedy and rob the entire ship of tribute?"
Chu Kuan saw that the Fourth Prince was already dumbfounded, so he explained softly, "Goryeo can travel to the Ming Dynasty by land or sea. However, once there are too many people on the land route, the distance from Liaodong to the capital is long and high, and the extreme cold at the end of the year disturbs and tires the people, so Emperor Taizu established a tribute shipping system. Most of the people who took over this from Goryeo were the merchants of our dynasty who often traveled to Goryeo."
"Goryeo is much poorer than the Ming Dynasty. The imperial court doesn't care how much tribute they send. The merchant ships go there fully loaded. After selling the goods, they bring back their Goryeo ginseng, but the cabins are still not full. It's just right to receive a wave of tribute. Moreover, Goryeo's tribute is nothing compared to the trade income between the two countries, so merchant ships have always been the safest way to transport it."
"In the nearly 100 years since the founding of the country, there have never been any problems except when we really encountered storms."
After hearing what Chu Kuan said, the Fourth Prince completely understood, and the middle-aged interpreter naturally became even more sad and angry.
"Your Excellency is right, that's exactly the truth! The Ming merchant ship is safe, but the king insists on having his own way. The ministers have no choice, and I, a small translator, have even less! Because escorting a ship is dangerous, the real Spanish military officials are unwilling to go on board, so in the end our ship is only escorted by a small officer and ten soldiers."
"But this guy was like a weakling when he encountered pirates. His own soldiers were slaughtered, but he actually raised his hands to surrender! As a result, he was chopped up and thrown into the sea to feed the fish..."
Speaking of the massacre, the middle-aged interpreter was once again filled with grief and indignation. However, Hua Qi had no time to listen to people crying about this. Chu Kuan mentioned the national conditions of Goryeo, which was considered to be explaining the knowledge of tribute to the Fourth Prince. How could he tolerate this guy's chattering? He shouted again.
"That's enough. Just tell us what the hijackers told you to do! Are the six of you here the survivors of the ship, or are there any left behind by the hijackers? Also, did you change the ship? Why didn't you tell us in Shanhaiwei, but are you talking nonsense here?"
"My Lord, the six of us are the only ones who survived from all three ships... We are really blessed by God! Our ship was sunk by them, and we replaced it with theirs. They were in charge of everything, including sailing. As for when we were in Shanhaiwei, we were all mixed together, and Shanhaiwei didn't dare to interrogate us individually. I dare not say anything..."
"Stop!" Chu Kuan suddenly interrupted the middle-aged interpreter and asked with a frown, "If they really want to sneak in and pretend to be your Goryeo tribute ship, wouldn't it be more convenient to kill you all? Do they need to know Goryeo to do such a thing?"
After these words came out, the middle-aged interpreter was still confused. The Fourth Prince, who was only allowed to watch and had no chance to interrupt, finally felt that he had grasped the key point this time: "Yes, as long as they pretend to be a tribute ship from Goryeo and sneak in, it would be much easier to convince people than pretending to be descendants of Taizu Miao or to have founded a country overseas! Could it be that these people are deliberately trying to create momentum!"
Hua Qi agreed with the fourth prince's last words. However, he had a more important question in mind: "Since the six of you are all survivors of the Goryeo tribute ship, and you six came here first, are those guys so defenseless? Aren't you afraid of what will happen to them after you confess?"
The middle-aged interpreter was slightly stunned, and then he stammered, "I don't know, those vicious guys ordered us to go to Beijing first as envoys after landing. Because everyone, including me, is proficient in the Ming language. Yes, they killed people just because they asked this question, and deliberately kept us."
Chu Kuan's brows were already furrowed. He could not care to continue questioning, and turned to Hua Qi and bowed, saying: "Master Hua Qi, I'll leave this to you first, I'll go back to the palace to report. If the emperor nods, I'll lead people there overnight, and if we can intercept those people on the way, we'll interrogate them right away!"
Seeing that Hua Qi had no objection, Chu Kuan turned around and left, forgetting even to say hello to the Fourth Prince. If the Fourth Prince, who had never been taken seriously by the Queen and the First and Second Princes, had been ignored like this, he would have been furious. But now that the three mountains above his head were no longer there, he could treat this matter with a normal mind.
Therefore, seeing Chu Kuan walking away quickly, he tilted his head and thought for a moment, then looked at the middle-aged interpreter who was hesitant to speak, and asked word by word: "Hey, you said you are a Korean interpreter, and the others are also Koreans, do you have any evidence? Also, based on what you just said, you can't be exempted from the crime or even reduced to a lighter sentence. If you investigate, it will not be lighter than the punishment you received from the King of Korea!"
"Think carefully, what did those people who robbed the tribute ship say to you ? That's why you don't eat rice, vegetables, etc. when you eat? And what about the bow and arrow of Emperor Taizu? Where is it?"
