Chapter 1 When the Hurricane Hit

When the hurricane crashed into Jiaoya Island, its edge slightly brushed against Yuhang, somewhat cooling down the fierce duels between the students of the two countries and the highly anticipated performance of Liu Xiangyuan's theater troupe. Due to the Seven Seas Trading Company's meeting seemingly lasting longer than expected, and affected by the hurricane, it appeared that the time for those people to return to Yuhang would be delayed. Finally, the troupe began its premiere in Tan Weishi's frustration and dissatisfaction, without Ye Tao present.

After arriving in Yuhang, Liu Xiangyuan put a lot of thought into getting the play staged. The theater stage, converted from a large banquet hall, was a little too small, not to mention the sound effects of the theater were far worse than the Yizhan Tower lecture hall in Danyang, which had considered acoustics from the beginning of its design, let alone the Danyang Grand Theater that was under construction. During these days, she readjusted the seating arrangements in the temporary theater to allow more people to enjoy a better performance, and adjusted the original performance plan to suit the somewhat cramped stage... Fortunately, Liu Xiangyuan was very experienced in this area, and her enthusiasm for work was very high. She also had an almost inexhaustible supply of funds and manpower to allocate, so she completed the task smoothly.

Filled with curiosity and longing for this performance style, which was completely different from the local operas in various places, perhaps also because Lianfei Chang Ling was so persistent in bringing this theater troupe to Chunnan, and so enthusiastically and grandly mentioned this performance style to many dignitaries in Chunnan, the performance, which Liu Xiangyuan felt was very shabby due to the unqualified stage and theater, achieved a considerable sensation.

The plays performed in Yuhang were the poetic drama *Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai*, which Liu Xiangyuan's troupe had already performed to perfection in Danyang, and the court struggle play *The Prince's Revenge*, which was very popular with Chang Ling... Both of these scripts were adapted from Shakespeare's famous plays. Although they had undergone significant modifications in this time and space, they still couldn't hide the brilliance of the story and the script itself.

However, after the grand and successful performance, another argument emerged. Some people said with a rather regretful tone that the scholars of Dongping were indeed very talented, but these talents were always consumed by some meaningless things. Such were the so-called gewu (investigation of things), accounting, and other knowledge, such was the methodology of researching history itself, and so were these theatrical performances that had become one of the mainstream cultures of Dongping. Perhaps because the weather was not good, this argument did not spread. And Tan Weishi, who had always firmly defended the cultural position of Dongping, seemed a little helpless, and also a little indifferent. She already understood very well that the cultural atmosphere of Dongping and Chunnan, and the standards for what was useful and what was useless, were completely different. She had absolutely no interest in that kind of nonsensical argument.

Many people wanted to go to the theater to see the play, and while some of them were certainly trying to get close to the dignitaries invited by Lianfei Chang Ling, more of them were just looking for something new. This performance, because it was fully sponsored by the Chunnan royal family, especially Chang Ling's mother's side—the Xia family—became one of the few non-commercial performances of Liu Xiangyuan's troupe, and all the audience members were invited. In the end, after Tan Weishi and Dai Qiuyan made a request, two more performances were finally added, open to the public. And in fact, the atmosphere was most enthusiastic during these two added performances.

However, with Ye Tao absent, both Tan Weishi and Dai Qiuyan felt a little bored.

After the second added performance, when Tan Weishi and Dai Qiuyan returned to the mission's residence, they suddenly found it bustling with activity. After asking, they learned that Ye Tao and the others had returned. However, the atmosphere in the residence was a bit heavy.

After learning about what had happened, Tan Weishi and Dai Qiuyan were both a little scared. In just one month, Ye Tao had been involved in so many things, whether actively or passively, and this time Ye Tao had actually fought in a real battle. The scene of flashing knives and swords was something that Dai Qiuyan and Tan Weishi couldn't imagine, and didn't want to imagine.

Ye Tao returned to Yuhang slightly earlier than the other members of the Seven Seas Trading Company. On the one hand, it was because the meeting was basically over. Although there were many things to deal with after the bitter battle, it was no longer necessary to delay Ye Tao's time, and there was nothing to discuss on the small island where the cleanup operation was underway. On the other hand, Ye Tao had to return to Yuhang to do some things that only he could do.

The Seven Seas Trading Company did not hide the news that they had been attacked by the Black Hawk Gang during their meeting and suffered heavy losses. This kind of news couldn't be hidden. Rather than letting it be spread as rumors, it was better to explain it openly themselves. The open-mindedness of the Seven Seas Trading Company confused the Chunnan merchants who had been losing business due to the rise of the Seven Seas Trading Company in recent years, or those officials who were secretly colluding with the Black Hawk Gang, or even those who were cultivated by the Black Hawk Gang with a lot of money and connections. What was the Seven Seas Trading Company planning to do?

Several Chunnan officials who came to comfort the "frightened" Ye Tao didn't get any news from Ye Tao's mouth. However, two days later, Ye Tao met with the Chunnan king and formally proposed negotiations on the matter of exterminating the Black Hawk Gang. Chunnan had a very long coastline, and had always been unable to eradicate pirates, which was one of the reasons why the Black Hawk Gang was able to thrive in Chunnan, collecting "protection fees" from many sea merchants until their hands were soft. Now that Chunnan was clearly going to focus all its energy on the strategy against Xiling next year, it was even less in the mood to deal with the Black Hawk Gang.

However, as an important minister of Dongping, Ye Tao's formal proposal of this matter could not be ignored. Fortunately, Ye Tao was also very understanding. When the Chunnan side finally said that they would provide some convenience in the process of "exterminating" the Black Hawk Gang, he generously did not make any further demands. But the atmosphere at the meeting held afterwards in the Seven Seas Trading Company's clubhouse in Yuhang was not so good. The Seven Seas Trading Company might have been somewhat disunited before, with many members considering their own interests and face more. But after being attacked by the Black Hawk Gang, they all became angry. Everyone demanded revenge, especially those families who had important people die on the island, or who suffered heavy losses in this battle, even threatening to uproot the Black Hawk Gang even if it meant bankrupting themselves.

However, the Black Hawk Gang seemed to have disappeared. Just as the stewards returned to Yuhang to hold this meeting and set the tone for dealing with the Black Hawk Gang, a hastily assembled fleet originally prepared to attack a stronghold of the Black Hawk Gang further south, but found nothing. The Black Hawk Gang had actually taken the lead in clearing out that stronghold, taking all the accumulated treasures and goods with them, and setting all the facilities on fire.

The Seven Seas Trading Company understood very well that searching for the Black Hawk Gang's whereabouts on the vast sea, relying on incomplete charts and island by island, was simply too unreliable. Even the wealthy Seven Seas Trading Company couldn't afford to maintain such a battle fleet to do this kind of thing. Especially after the loss of a large number of ships, the fleet used for escorting was really stretched thin. However, Ye Tao felt that they could start by looking for the Black Hawk Gang's whereabouts from the officials placed by the Seven Seas Trading Company, and the families of those Black Hawk Gang power figures arranged in various places in Chunnan. Whether out of consideration for kinship, or considering the efforts that the Black Hawk Gang's high-level members had put into those people over the years, these people could not be abandoned. But the Seven Seas Trading Company itself did not have the ability to organize such an intelligence system.

Just as everyone gathered again at the Yuhang branch of the Seven Seas Trading Company to discuss the matter, Ye Tao brought a middle-aged man. The middle-aged man's face was so ordinary that it seemed like you would forget what he looked like as soon as he turned around. And this middle-aged man was the person in charge of the Dongping Intelligence Bureau stationed in Yuhang. After Ye Tao returned to Yuhang and heard about what had happened recently, he began to cooperate closely with Ye Tao.

"I don't even remember what my name is now," the middle-aged man said. "The name I'm using now is Xing Siming, who is in charge of purchasing at Yayun Collection. First of all, I'm here to apologize to everyone. After all, the Intelligence Bureau's arrangements in Yuhang are not thorough enough. We didn't know anything about the Black Hawk Gang's big operation in advance. It wasn't until these few days that we repeatedly scrutinized very trivial matters, plus the news you got from interrogating those Black Hawk Gang members and small leaders, that we pieced together a clue. Xu Hanchao had been to Yuhang before. However, saying this is a bit late now. I have already reported the situation to Bureau Chief Nie, and have received orders to assist the Seven Seas Trading Company in clearing out and monitoring the Black Hawk Gang. From now on, I will be the one to contact you and arrange these matters. Because the intelligence that the Intelligence Bureau has buried is of different types and levels, and there are quite a few subtle and critical points, I can't tell you where each piece of news I bring comes from, or who it comes from. But I can explain to you whether this news has been verified and how reliable it is. If you have no objections, I will be stationed here from today to operate this matter for you. If you don't want this and would rather find your own people, you can say so. The Yuhang branch of the Dongping Intelligence Bureau still hopes to cooperate with you."

Xing Siming's words were without emotion, but the fact that the Dongping Intelligence Bureau was willing to provide assistance had already made everyone overjoyed. Intelligence was not a simple job, especially the large number of professional personnel required for large-scale monitoring and espionage, which was a big problem that these merchants could not solve. Many of these people had played some simple commercial espionage tricks, but it was okay to use espionage as a scheme, but to treat this kind of work as a regular operation required professionals.