Chapter 1072: Chapter 23: Ruthless Toward His Own People
Some things can be compromised, but some cannot.
If it were just internal squabbles of the Yang Family, Wang Yunxiao didn’t feel he had any reason to get involved.
He wasn’t a Yang, and didn’t have any real sense of how unforgivable the Yang Family’s actions were back then.
He could only say, accept the lord’s pay and bear the lord’s worries, doing his best.
But when it came to opium, that was another matter altogether.
How the Yang Family trafficked and planted opium back then, Wang Yunxiao also wasn’t very clear.
After all, there weren’t any specialized books on the market digging into the past, and the storybooks didn’t describe it very clearly either.
This kind of business, if you don’t stand on the governmental level, you can’t see the full picture.
There is only one thing he knew, which is some Jianghu World knowledge circulating on the streets of Tianmen City.
In the future era, the most famous flour brand was jokingly called “Double Lions Stepping on the Earth.”
And in this era, the most famous opium was none other than “Three Sheep Bringing Good Fortune,” not just circulating nationwide, but also selling abroad.
This “Three Sheep Brand” was the unique commercial mark of the Guangdong Province Yang Family back then.
Just based on this, if you were to say which of the two Yang Family members here is innocent and which is dirty, it wouldn’t be very important.
Trying to find a person in Tianmen City, with a population of one and a half million, in the dead of night is understandably difficult.
But if you really want to do it, it can’t be said that there’s no way whatsoever.
After all, the reason why the city’s villains and supernatural entities have disappeared is because the officialdom holds even greater means and figures.
For example, the Astronomy Bureau.
Among the three major bureaus, the Special Service Bureau decides on matters on the spot, the Secretary Bureau stores confidential documents, while the Astronomy Bureau remains hidden in the fog, with few high-ranking officials knowing what this department does or where it’s hidden.
But Wang Yunxiao happened to know.
Saying he “knew” is not quite accurate; it should be said he experienced it.
In simple terms, the Astronomy Bureau is a secret unit centered on the “Chess Herald” Dharma Gate, responsible for monitoring temporal tide disturbances.
Ordinary people don’t even know what the Chess Herald is, but Wang Yunxiao’s Special Service Section team had a member cultivating the Chess Herald Dharma Gate.
When Chen Yan first started, she could see through multiple dimensions, anchoring herself while spatially swapping with others.
Now, after a year of experience, she has entered a bottleneck period before advancement, with her strength somewhat diminished. Even so, nothing in the school, not a blade of grass, escapes her eyes.
In the same way, why the Special Service Bureau can repeatedly succeed in sting operations is clear to Wang Yunxiao. It’s not because there’s a genius in the bureau, but because they always get information a step ahead and then make arrangements accordingly.
Not to mention the presence of strong Demon Lords like Mephisto and Behemoth; even transmigrators like Wang Yunxiao and Li Mumu may think they’ve disclosed no information, but the moment they arrived, it likely caught the attention of the Astronomy Bureau.
This was the conclusion Wang Yunxiao and Li Mumu came to when comparing notes in private.
The simplest way to find Yang Jian’s whereabouts is to seek help from the Astronomy Bureau. But the question now is, whether his case is worth the Bureau’s attention.
It’s like everyone knows that under big data surveillance, your online and hard drive activities can’t escape the cops’ eyes.
But cops are human too; they need to eat and sleep, work hard, stay up all night, handle trivial family matters while also dealing with higher-ups’ inspections, not to mention having no time for flirting or playing video games.
Is there really a need for them to go through your hard drive?
Yang Qiming did not agree to Wang Yunxiao’s request for technical support from the Astronomy Bureau; instead, he found an Astrologer for him.
Chess Herald Righteous Path Advancement, Astrologer.
This profession has another name within the navy, called “Navigator.”
Principal Zhou worked hard teaching at Qinghe Middle School for years but only managed to train one Chess Herald, Chen Yan.
By the time he expected her to be useful, it’d be too late.
In fact, the department dedicated to training Chess Heralds for the Astronomy Bureau is the Navy.
The modern Ming Country navy has its roots in the United Kingdom’s navy, and back in the day, the Royal Navy relied on two policies implemented from the Victorian Era to sail worldwide.
“Wizards aboard ships,” and “Mechanical Puppet Navigation.”
Ming Country didn’t have schools dedicated to wizard training or a peculiarly developed technology tree, so they chose to deploy Heavenly Armor for naval combat and use Chess Heralds instead of Mechanical Puppets for physical navigation.
Called over by a phone call from Yang Qiming was Yu Tongxuan, a professor of military geography at the Naval Academy.
This was a tall man, exuding an aura of authority and power clearly characteristic of a military background. However, he wore an eyepatch over his right eye and had scars on his face, hardly looking like a typical teacher from a school.
He might very well enjoy inviting people for a drink.
“The Marshal’s concerns are valid.”
After listening to the summary report, Yu Tongxuan nodded and said, “We can’t mobilize the Astronomy Bureau over this matter; who knows, that might be their goal.”
Wang Yunxiao asked, confused, “Why do you say that?”
“Firepower reconnaissance.”
Yu Tongxuan explained, “Think about it: for the Four Seas Commerce Guild as a whole, is the knife hanging over the Yang Family’s head more important, or is the Astronomy Bureau, capable of monitoring their every move from the shadows, more important?”
Wang Yunxiao realized that from this perspective, it could explain part of the issue.
Everyone wants to know how the Astronomy Bureau operates, and Wang Yunxiao is also very curious.
Using this incident to lure the Navy into deploying the Astronomy Bureau for a citywide search to observe its operational traces would indeed be an adequate motive.
But after considering for a moment, Wang Yunxiao rejected this hypothesis.
That would be like writing a script for others and treating them like fools.
Preventing risk doesn’t mean that the risk will necessarily occur.
Yang Qiming isn’t a fool, and neither is Yang Jian.
With or without luck, you might shoot three times, but hoping to feast on luck is unrealistic.
Therefore, the current reconnaissance focus should still be on the pieces laid by the Four Seas Commerce Guild in Tianmen.
Through analyzing Yang Jian’s personal information, Wang Yunxiao arrived at a gut feeling, although it wasn’t supported by much evidence.
This person is ruthless to his own people.
After all, as an Incense Master of the Red Cases, his main job is dealing with internal traitors.
But this also means he has developed a psychological dependency on this approach.
It’s like those serial psychopath killers; the majority will only choose specific targets instead of killing randomly without a pattern.
Simply because it’s a habit.