Witch Wind

Chapter 7 Dimensionality Reduction Attack (Part )

In the main hall in the front yard, Li Kuisheng drank tea and told Xing Tianli in detail what had happened in the past few days.

"I've suffered a loss!" Li Kuisheng smiled bitterly.

He is the inspector of Xiaolongqiu Town. He sent the murderer with proven evidence to Dalongqiu County. The person he handed over to was Hu Lian, the county lieutenant of Dalongqiu County, who was his comrade-in-arms and old brother who did business together.

Hu Lian also personally led the county soldiers and yamen runners to cooperate with Li Kuisheng to capture the people behind Boss Sun.

"Didn't catch him?" Xing Tianli asked him.

"We caught him!" Li Kuisheng looked at Xing Tianli awkwardly. "Your uncles were all fighting men in the past. They were pure men with straight hearts. They thought that once they caught someone, convicted him, recorded his confession, and threw him into jail, everything would be fine. The county jail is your uncle Hu's territory. As long as the person is in our hands, we can do whatever we want, right? I haven't seen your uncle Hu for a while, so I ran over there, ahem!"

"Listening to music in a brothel?" Xing Tianli nodded in understanding: "It's an elegant thing!"

Li Kuisheng's face became more and more embarrassed: "We are listening to music and drinking. Well, we are just drinking and listening to music. We are all decent people. Well, those dirty guys in the prison have been released."

"You got beaten again!" Xing Tianli asked him softly, "Was it the county government's board?"

Li Kuisheng picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp: "They are accusing your uncle of framing you."

Xing Tianli said in a deep voice: "The evidence of the crimes of those I caught in the black pine forest is irrefutable!"

After another round of cursing, Li Kuisheng angrily said, "Those people all died in prison, so there is no evidence. The ones caught at the Sihai Old Inn, this is the first time I've seen them. On the surface, they are all legitimate merchants, collecting silk in Dalongqiu County. Those who were alive are dead, and they turned against us and framed us."

Li Kuisheng gritted his teeth and said in a cold voice: "Your uncle Hu almost drew his sword in the county hall and frightened the stupid county magistrate, so your uncle only got '20 big sticks'. Tsk tsk, this board is really heavy. If I wasn't strong and your uncle Hu's medicine was powerful, I would still be lying on the bed right now."

After pointing to the sky and swearing a few times, Li Kuisheng muttered a few more words, such as "Luckily I have a backer", "The magistrate of Dalongqiu County has no control over this small inspection office", "It's not that easy to touch me".

Xing Tianli picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Li Kuisheng.

Li Kuisheng sighed softly, "We old brothers are not the same as them. We follow the official path and do the right thing. Although we do some smuggling business, we occasionally help people to look after the place, and occasionally kill people and set fires. At heart, we are all good people."

"As for them, I heard that they formed a sect in recent years, called the White Lotus Sect."

"They set up incense halls in secret, preached in secret, fooled some foolish women and stupid men, and acted mysterious all day long. I don't know what they are planning. Can we men get involved with them? Isn't this just jumping into the toilet?"

Xing Tianli just took a sip of tea and almost sprayed it on Li Kuisheng's face - White Lotus Sect? Are you sure it's called this? This sect, just this name, is not a serious and law-abiding thing!
No wonder Li Kuisheng showed no mercy at all and cooperated with Xing Tianli to deal ruthlessly to those guys.

The next day, early in the morning, Xing Tianli was still practicing his boxing skills in the bamboo forest in the back garden.

Inexplicably, his whole body was burning with blood, and there was a palm-sized patch of skin on his chest, as if it was burned by a branding iron, burning his internal organs with high temperatures. The rain that splashed on him quickly turned into wisps of rising white mist.

There was a very loud knock on the door in the front yard and someone was calling out loudly.

Xing Tianli, who was upset by the burning of his blood, carried a thin bamboo pole and walked to the front yard. He heard a sharp voice scolding loudly: "Inspector Li, can you still pacify Xiaolongqiu Town? Can you still maintain the peace here? Look, your inspection office has been blown up. You are doing a really good job as an inspector!"

Xing Tianli took a few steps forward and brought the person who was speaking into his field of vision.

He was skinny and short, like a rat spirit, but he was wearing the uniform of a low-ranking official of the Dayu Dynasty. His forehead was shaved clean, and behind his head were three small copper coin braids as thick as a little finger and more than two feet long.

The system of the Dayu Dynasty.

Shave the head and wear a braid at the back of the head, this is the formal ancestral rule. According to the social status, the emperor has nine braids, the royal family has seven braids, the nobles have five braids, the officials have three braids, and the common people have only one braid.

The man in front of me has three braids, which shows that he is an official.

Beside this fellow, one on the left and one on the right, stood two men who were more than five feet tall. They were wearing dark brown uniforms with a bright, blinding red circle on their chests, and in the middle of it was written the word "Soldier" as big as a bowl!

Xing Tianli looked at the big words on the chests of these two people very seriously for a long time.

Very good, brown background, red circle, this is a target deliberately drawn on the chest for fear that people will have difficulty aiming!
These two people should be the legitimate county soldiers of Dalongqiu County, right?

Seeing how skinny they were and how they kept yawning as they stood aside, Xing Tianli was very curious about how much fighting power they had.

Li Kuisheng came up cursing and yelled at the skinny official: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, County Magistrate Ma, who the hell told you that our inspection office was bombed? Who?"

County Magistrate Ma raised his head and was about to speak when Xing Tianli added lightly, "Sir, please think carefully. The inspection office in Xiaolongqiu Town is too old and dilapidated. My uncle feels stuffy when working there every day, so we simply burned it down and build a new office."

County Magistrate Ma opened his eyes wide in astonishment. He looked at Xing Tianli in amazement, and sized him up and down, his eyes darting around as if he was wondering how Xing Tianli, who looked so young, could lie like that?
"Your inspection office was blown up by bandits!" County Magistrate Ma raised his voice.

"I demolished it myself." Xing Tianli smiled brightly. No matter what County Magistrate Ma came here so early in the morning to do, anyway, we can't follow the path drawn by the other party. If we mess around, we will muddy the water.

"It exploded!" County Magistrate Ma screamed at the top of his lungs.

"We demolished it ourselves." Xing Tianli said softly, "We burned it down first, then cleared the earth and dug a big foundation pit. We are now looking for expert craftsmen to start building the house."

"Your Xiaolongqiu Town Inspection Office was built in a new building three years ago!" County Magistrate Ma was almost jumping up and down: "You were unable to pacify the area, so the bandits broke into the Inspection Office, planted explosives, and blew up your entire office!"

"If our inspection office was bombed... you know the whole story so well, could it be that you are an accomplice?" Xing Tianli changed his tone and his voice became extremely cold: "You said we were bombed, who told you? Let him come out, I want to know where he got this news from?"

"Is he from our Xiaolongqiu Town?"

"When did he give you the news?"

"You were able to get here so early in the morning. Could it be that he crossed the lake last night? Hey, uncle, was there any boat leaving our dock last night?"

Li Kuisheng shouted with a smile on his face, "Yes, my nephew is right. County Magistrate Ma, you came to my house so early in the morning to make a fuss. Who told you that we were bombed?"

"Tell him to get out here, or I'll crush all the ox gall and horse treasure in his stomach!"

As he shouted, Li Kuisheng's mouthful of saliva sprayed all over County Magistrate Ma's face, and his loud voice made his eardrums hurt.

County Magistrate Ma's eyes rolled around.

Facing Xing Tianli, whose tone was calm but concealed the gleam of a sword, and Li Kuisheng, who was rude and reckless and shouted for killing in person, County Magistrate Ma subconsciously took two steps back, his voice trembling a little: "Okay, okay, okay, very good. Li Kuisheng, you are great, you are awesome, I can't control you!"

"It's just that you were still randomly arresting people in the county two days ago and wantonly framing people. Yesterday, you couldn't even protect your own inspection office. How can I, the county magistrate, feel at ease?"

Li Kuisheng was about to shout, but Xing Tianli took two steps forward and said in a deep voice, "Is there something behind what County Magistrate Ma said?"

County Magistrate Ma sneered, glared at Xing Tianli, took out an official document from his sleeve, and slapped Li Kuisheng on the chest: "Come on, Xiaolongqiu Town is going to be prosperous. This is wealth falling from the sky, you have to catch it firmly!"

After looking at Xing Tianli twice, County Magistrate Ma turned around and left with his men. "This matter involves a friendly country, so I was entrusted by the county magistrate to stay in Xiaolongqiu Town for a while." County Magistrate Ma took two steps, turned back and sneered, "You guys, please don't cause any new trouble for me!"

"Especially you, Li Kuisheng."

"I know you have a backer in the Governor's Office. Even the county magistrate, who is just a small inspector, has taken away your position except for a few words of reprimand and a minor punishment. There is no good way for him to deal with you."

"But, what if you offend the foreigners! Hey, you know? Even if the governor meets foreigners, he has to be polite!" County Magistrate Ma raised his voice proudly, laughed strangely a few times, and left with his head held high.

Li Kuisheng grabbed the document, glanced at it hastily, and angrily cursed out some extremely ugly swear words.

Next to the ruins of the Inspection Office, less than twenty feet away, right by the lake, a team of craftsmen wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats were surveying the terrain with gestures.

On the side, an old man from Xiaolongqiu Town was watching the excitement, gesticulating with laughter: "How can they break ground on a rainy day? Where did these idiots come from?"

On the lake, the sound of a motor was heard, and a steamer more than ten meters long, towing three large ships with ropes, slowly came to the dock. When the ships stopped at the dock, a team of workers came down from the towing ship, laid a tripod on the dock, set up a pulley, and continuously carried down various bricks, tiles, cement and other construction materials.

Soon, the construction materials on the dock were piled up into a small mountain.

Xing Tianli mingled in the crowd, listening to the chattering of the townspeople around him.

Some elders in the town are complaining and criticizing these people for not knowing the rules. They are breaking ground and building something next to the town. No matter what they are building, why don't they even hire a single worker from the town?
It would be fine if the craftsmen who surveyed the terrain and drew the blueprints were from outside, but the masters in the town were indeed not very good.

But these laborers who carried bricks, tiles and cement were actually brought by themselves.

"They don't know the rules! They took our land and built houses, but didn't give us any benefits at all!" Some village elders even said, "They are bullying our Xiaolongqiu Town. How can this be justified?"

The noise in the crowd suddenly stopped.

On the steamer ahead, several constables in black uniforms, carrying swords at their waists, swaggered down.

At the dock, County Magistrate Ma and several county soldiers came to greet them, waiting beside the gangway. After a while, a foreigner with fiery red hair and two eyes like a Persian cat, one green and one blue, walked out of the steamer's cabin. He was skinny and looked quite shrewd.

"Little Brother Li, a foreigner!" A man from the Inspection Office exclaimed, "And the county's chief constable!"

County Magistrate Ma came to the gangway attentively, as if he were serving his own father, and helped the foreigner down the trembling gangway. Surrounded by a group of constables and county soldiers, he strode towards Xing Tianli.

Facing the many townspeople who were watching the excitement, County Magistrate Ma said in a shrill voice: "Fellow villagers, you are blessed."

County Magistrate Ma boasted arrogantly and explained the origin and purpose of the red-haired foreigner.

The foreigner's name is Michel. He comes from England, the most powerful country among the 100 countries in the Far West. The Chamber of Commerce he belongs to has taken a fancy to the geographical advantages of Xiaolongqiu Town and specially set up a special office here.

In the future, the Chamber of Commerce behind Michelle will open shops and factories in the town, build transshipment yards and warehouses, and hire many employees and workers.

As more employees and manpower are hired, their food, drink, defecation, and various expenses are all in the town. As a result, the town's business will naturally develop, the economy will naturally prosper, the townspeople's income will increase, and their lives will be better!
"Of course!" County Magistrate Ma changed the subject and said, "Everyone knows what happened yesterday. As the office manager, Mr. Michel has expressed some concerns and doubts about the public security in Xiaolongqiu Town."

"So, the county government, in response to Mr. Michel's request, will set up another police station and a barracks in Xiaolongqiu Town, with 20 constables and 200 militiamen stationed there to pacify the area and maintain the market."

County Magistrate Ma was all smiles when Xing Tianli suddenly shouted, "Sir, the food, drink, and toilet expenses of more than 200 people in the police station and the barracks are several hundred taels of silver every month. Should the county government pay for this, or should the Chamber of Commerce of Mr. Mi pay for it?"

County Magistrate Ma looked at Xing Tianli and smiled, a very embarrassed smile, without saying anything.

Michel, who was tall and thin, with a pointed face and a hooked nose, and looked a bit treacherous and sinister, said in a strange voice: "It is your court's natural responsibility to provide a good security environment for our Chamber of Commerce to settle in. Therefore, this expense will definitely not be paid by our Chamber of Commerce."

County Magistrate Ma spread his hands and sighed, "The county government doesn't have that kind of money either. So, we can only raise funds locally!"

The townspeople around were suddenly in an uproar.

Even if it is a town of more than 10,000 people, it is still just a town. If there are several hundred taels of silver extra every month, it will be a lot of money in a year. If it is changed to every resident of the town, doesn't it mean that every person will have to pay an extra tael of silver every year?

County Magistrate Ma's voice became louder and louder. He pointed at Li Kuisheng in the crowd with a proud look on his face and said, "Hey, fellow elders, this matter cannot be blamed on me, nor on the county magistrate. If you want to blame someone, you should blame your Li Kuisheng, Inspector Li!"

The steamer untied the ropes and rumbled away again.

For the entire night, the townspeople who lived closer to the pier could hear the occasional "thump thump" sound of the motor on the lake. The steamer was running back and forth on Xiaoyandang Lake, tossing and turning all night long.

Early in the morning, Xing Tianli came to the dock again.

A simple storage yard had been built overnight by the dock. Huge pieces of oilcloth were tightly wrapped around piles of high-quality coal. Someone from the Inspection Office estimated that at least 50,000 to 60,000 kilograms of high-quality coal were added to the dock in just one night.

When Xing Tianli arrived at the dock, a tugboat was moored at the shore, and a dozen porters were busy transporting baskets of high-quality coal to the tugboat's cabin. At the side of the tugboat, a dozen strong men, like a row of ospreys, squatted steadily on the side of the ship, looking at the town with sinister eyes.

Behind the tugboat were twelve flat-bottomed cargo ships tied together with cables.

On the decks of these flat-bottomed cargo ships used in inland rivers, simple shacks were built with bamboo poles and tarpaulins. Thousands of numb-looking men and women huddled in the shacks like zombies, staring blankly at the shore.

Each of these cargo ships was trying to carry as much cargo as possible, and the density of people on the decks was so high that outsiders could hardly get in. A man from the Inspection Department saw the crowds of people on the cargo ships, and he took a deep breath and cursed, "These bastards! My dog ​​lives in a roomier place than them!"

County Magistrate Ma's sharp voice came from behind: "Hurry up and send these steamed buns onto the boat."

"Oh, these unlucky ones!"

"But don't look at them as pitiful now. When they get to England, they will enjoy happiness!"

"You know what? You country bumpkins, in your native land, earn copper coins. How many times a year can you see silver? But when you come to England, there is gold everywhere. Just use a hoe to gently dig in the ground, and out comes a nugget of gold!"

"Gold, they earn gold!"

County Magistrate Ma shouted at the top of his voice: "Look at these unlucky people. Their good fortune is yet to come."

Xing Tianli's expression darkened.

He finally understood where the so-called "great wealth" of the White Lotus sect members who came to Li Kuisheng came from. They also made such unscrupulous money?

Xing Tianli was so excited that his heart suddenly began to shake violently.

His energy and blood finally filled his heart, and the entire heart seemed to be carved out of colored crystal, emitting a dazzling light all over.

(End of this chapter)