Chapter 158 Conspiracy

Conspiracy awaited its moment of unveiling, yet Danyang, the Bell Tower, the Ye Family Workshop, the Princess Manor, and the Imperial Guard Commandery were operating at their own pace, neither hurried nor slow.

Old Feng, observing the hoisting of the chimes, felt a pang of regret deep within. He couldn't master these techniques, couldn't learn Ye Tao's ability to create miracles, and couldn't bring such landmark architecture to Western Ling. But that didn't stop him from admiring and praising such a building.

On the day the chimes were hoisted, many apprentices, workers, and foremen, including Old Feng, gathered on the ground floor, straining their necks to watch the four chimes, weighing a total of two thousand *jin*, slowly rise amidst the creaking of pulleys and the taut pulling of ropes. If an accident occurred and a chime fell, they wouldn't have time to escape. But everyone had an unwavering faith in Ye Tao.

Ye Tao's pulley system included thirty-two main pulleys and twenty-four auxiliary pulleys. The main pulleys bore the weight and lifted the chimes, while the auxiliary pulleys served a series of purposes, including balancing the weight and mitigating risks. Even if the four winches didn't exert force evenly, the distribution through the pulley system would allow the four chimes to rise smoothly and safely.

The hoisting of the chimes seemed to be accomplished by a giant with immense strength yet gentle precision. Apart from the squeaking, the entire hoisting process was flawless. The ascent speed was even, and the positioning was accurate. After reaching the top, several apprentices easily connected the chimes to the beams and then began to dismantle the pulley system methodically. A team of technicians with higher skill levels began to connect and link the chimes to the chime chamber.

Old Feng watched all this, sighed inwardly, and left the Bell Tower. He returned to the foreman's dormitory, where Xiao Yu was already waiting.

"Xiao Yu, have you thought it through?" Old Feng reminded Xiao Yu one last time.

"I've thought it through." A frenzied light shone in Xiao Yu's eyes. "I've taken care of the other fire oil bombs. I've managed to get some into the Chang Feng Trading Company's warehouse. It's about a mile and a half from here. When the Imperial Guards and those guards are in chaos, we'll have even more opportunities. There are seven of us brothers on the construction site, including you and me. I've told them all to set the fire together. We'll burn the onlookers clean. Old Feng, you should leave the city early tomorrow morning. Otherwise, there'll be a city-wide search, and you won't be able to escape. The Lord is waiting for you to go back and build us such a magnificent building as well."

In Xiao Yu's mind, Old Feng was the top craftsman in the organization. But at this moment, Old Feng couldn't bear to tell Xiao Yu that he had learned very little. He hadn't even learned ten percent of the intricacies of the Bell Tower. He nodded. During tomorrow's test ringing, many influential figures would be ascending to the observation deck and the viewing hall. He and his workers would certainly be unable to work. His disappearance at this time, with a simple fabricated reason, would go unnoticed. Under the cover of night, Old Feng quietly left the construction site. But Old Feng couldn't bear to leave Danyang so quickly. Although he was a spy, he had spent several months sweating at the Bell Tower and had been deeply valued for his work, entrusted with the work of the viewing hall. He secretly hid in a corner of the city, wanting to hear the Bell Tower's test ringing tomorrow before leaving.

Since the news of the test ringing had been released long ago, many people in Danyang knew about it. The grand occasion of the Yicheng Bell Tower, which had been rumored for months, was about to reappear in Danyang, attracting many people to watch. From early in the morning, many people spontaneously gathered around the Bell Tower, each searching for a place with a good view and some shelter from the sun. Those with money were sitting in groups by the windows of restaurants and teahouses, chatting while waiting for the moment of the test ringing. In this era, there was a lack of tall buildings that could block the view. Even in Danyang, apart from the Bell Tower, which stood out, the tallest buildings were only four stories high and located far from the Bell Tower. The area around the Bell Tower was a large area with a good view.

As the sun climbed higher, teams of Imperial Guard soldiers were dispatched. They were stationed on all sides of the Bell Tower and on the two roads leading from the Hall of Political Affairs and the Princess Manor to the Bell Tower. It had been decided long ago that Tan Weixin would personally attend the ceremony at the Bell Tower. After the morning court session, some ministers would also come to join in the fun. To accommodate these people's schedules, the test ringing of the Danyang Bell Tower would be delayed until almost noon.

The young man from Western Ling was now disguised as a noble young master, draped in a silk robe, talking loudly with two servants. The various spies and secret agents from Western Ling lurking in Danyang, even the assassins and death warriors who had been lying dormant for many years and might only be used once, totaling one hundred and twenty-seven people, were now scattered among the surrounding crowd according to his instructions. In this activity where the people were gathered and there was a hint of everyone leaving their homes, blending into the crowd was the best cover. These spies, secret agents, assassins, and killers naturally knew how to find the most ideal attack positions in the crowd, how to wait for opportunities, and how to seize opportunities.

Ye Tao, who had already successfully run the Seven Seas Tower in Yicheng, seemed extremely confident in the quality of this project and the installation of the equipment. Although many important figures would be present, he did not come to the Bell Tower early to inspect the installation and debugging of the various equipment, nor did he have the spirit of last-minute cramming. Instead, he arrived at the Bell Tower just a quarter of an hour earlier than the Princess's carriage. The simple gravity elevator sent him to the observation deck. The dense crowd of people below gave him a sense of accomplishment. After all, it was another landmark building. As an architect, what kind of honor did he enjoy in this era?

Tan Weixin couldn't withstand strong winds, so the attendants set up screens for her before she gracefully stepped onto the observation deck.

Standing beside Ye Tao and holding the railing, Tan Weixin was viewing Danyang from this height for the first time. Tan Weixin looked down at the entire city from the top of the tower, but her expression was still so aloof, which was similar to Ye Tao's when he first climbed to a high place and looked out. After all, they were both used to looking out from the height of office buildings. Ye Tao's studio used to be only on the twenty-sixth floor, but Tan Weixin used to work on the fifty-eighth floor. For these two people, this height of three hundred *chi*, about one hundred meters, was not very interesting.

"Actually, I might like it more if you turned the Bell Tower into a super-large music box," Tan Weixin joked.

Ye Tao rolled his eyes. A music box to tell the time? The sound wouldn't travel far. Besides, such a large Bell Tower, telling the time in the form of a music box? Wouldn't that really become a grandfather clock magnified many times? "Do you want to carve a hole and install a ten-*chi*-tall mechanical cuckoo bird?" Ye Tao weighed it, smiled, and said, "Don't say it, if I really wanted to, I could really make it."

"That... is too magical, forget it." Imagining such a scene, Tan Weixin could only put such a picture in a fairy tale book to match.

The two chatted while pointing at the streets next to the construction site, watching carriages stop, and middle-aged men and old men, some fat and some thin, stepped out of the carriages, cupping their hands to each other, and walking towards the Bell Tower together. Most of these people had just finished the morning court session and rushed over, while others were representatives of large merchants who had close relationships with the Ye family or the Internal Affairs Office. Many of these people were investors in the Danyang Bell Tower.

Although many important figures came to the scene in person, they declined to climb to a high place. They preferred to sit in the shade built on the open space, drinking tea and chatting, waiting for the important moment to arrive. In the end, only a dozen people climbed to the observation deck, apart from a few excited Ministry of Works officials, there were also Chi Yun, Chi Lei, and others who had good relationships with Ye Tao and the Princess.

The arrival of many important figures also brought a large number of guards and attendants, the number of whom made the ground of the entire construction site seem somewhat crowded.

Such a scene made the Western Ling spies who were nervously watching on the sidelines very nervous. There were too many people, and there were indeed many among them that they could not easily deal with.

Xiao Yu had been lurking in the Bell Tower since last night. In fact, he had been hiding in the elevator shaft, using two leather ropes to tie himself to the top wall of the elevator shaft. When the morning preparations were gradually unfolding, he quietly slipped out of the elevator shaft and mingled with the workers who were doing the most basic cleaning work in the viewing hall. No one looked at him twice.

The large piles of construction tools and materials piled up in the hall would no longer be transported to the ground. Although there was a gravity lifting system, it was too troublesome to transport a large number of things. Considering the various people who would be gathering and waiting in the top floor hall, those mountains of materials and tools were pushed to the side of the wall, covered with whole pieces of very dirt-resistant blue-gray cloth. Xiao Yu took the opportunity to crawl under the cloth, twisting himself into an extremely uncomfortable shape and wedging himself in the gaps between the wooden boxes of different sizes. Then he took out the flint and tinder and held them tightly in his hand. A can of fire oil was under his head, but the can of fire oil was placed in a large bag of lime. When the test ringing took place, when the most people gathered in this viewing hall and these people were in the most enthusiastic mood, he would light the tinder. The smell of gunpowder rushing into his nostrils at the moment the tinder was lit would make him completely fearless.

Today, except for the personnel who were adjusting and maintaining the chime chamber and the chimes, from the time Ye Tao arrived at the construction site, all other workers in the entire Bell Tower were gradually required to go down to the ground. Even those workers who had worked all night to complete the resonance chamber were the same. But everyone didn't feel any annoyance at being excluded from such a grand event. Today, as long as the test ringing could be carried out smoothly, all the workers would receive a red envelope equivalent to half a month's wages. Among these workers gathered below looking up, the spies from Western Ling were already prepared.

Among these few people, only two were using workers to disguise their identities. The remaining four were like Old Feng, coming to steal skills. But since they were spies, they had also received basic fighting and sabotage training. After these people helped Xiao Yu and Old Feng hide those fire oil bombs, they discussed that once the fire oil bombs hidden in the Chang Feng Trading Company's warehouse were ignited and the crowd became chaotic, they would try to ignite the fire oil bombs hidden in various places on the construction site. Various wood and stone materials were piled up like mountains on the construction site, and it was impossible to inspect them every day, giving them ample time and space to hide things.

However, variables still occurred.

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