Ning Chen watched it happen and had the weapons all carried away.

“Old Pan, I’m leaving this to you… if any of these men so much as twitches, kill them. No pardon.”

“If anything comes up, find me at the Governor’s residence.”

Pan Yucheng nodded.

Ning Chen looked at the officials of Mangzhou.

“My lords. Come with me.”

Ning Chen took his men and marched the officials of Mangzhou back to the Governor’s residence under guard.

The killing and the musket fire in the city had fallen off sharply.

Yuan Long and Mu Anbang were both hard fighters… and with musketeers to help them, putting down the rebels in the city was no great difficulty.

Ning Chen was content to stay at the Governor’s residence. He had something important left to do.

The officials of Mangzhou, high and low, were held under guard in the courtyard.

Ning Chen asked mildly, “The Governor of Mangzhou and the Prefect of Mangzhou. Step out.”

Zhuo Heguang and another official, plump and pale, stepped out shaking.

Ning Chen knew both their names. He had gone over Mangzhou’s officialdom before he came.

Governor Zhuo Heguang.

Prefect Ye Zhiyong.

Ning Chen glanced at the two of them. “You two. With me.”

He found an empty room and took Zhuo Heguang and Ye Zhiyong into it.

“Shut the door.”

Ye Zhiyong was the last one in. He shut the door, trembling all over, and looked at Ning Chen in terror.

Ning Chen walked over and sat down in a chair, square and at his ease, and looked at the two of them coldly.

“I know the two of you were Chang Chengyun’s trusted men, so there are things I want to ask you, and I hope my lords will answer them truthfully… I have a bad temper. If you answer wrong I may cut you down.”

The two of them shook where they stood.

Ning Chen asked mildly, “Chang Chengyun mined gold at Lingzhou on his own authority, and by my investigation all of it was moved here to Mangzhou.”

In fact he had investigated nothing. He was guessing… Mangzhou was the last way out for the Left Chancellor and the Empress.

They had mustered twenty thousand men here on their own authority, and that took silver.

So he guessed that the Left Chancellor’s money was all in Mangzhou.

Ning Chen looked at them. “That gold that was brought here. Where is it hidden?”

Zhuo Heguang and Ye Zhiyong kept their heads down and said nothing at all.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “What, are you still hoping to pocket it yourselves?”

“Anyone can see the two of you are intelligent men, so you should be able to figure it out. Even if you had mountains of gold and silver now, you would never get the chance to spend any of it.”

“Tell me where the Left Chancellor’s money is. If you tell me I can leave you one way out. If you don’t, you know the Inspectorate’s methods.”

“Whether you tell me the quick way or the painful way is for the two of you to decide.”

Ning Chen finished, narrowed his eyes at them and said nothing more.

The color came and went in Zhuo Heguang’s face and in Ye Zhiyong’s.

Then Zhuo Heguang said, “Ning the Silver Coat, if we tell you, can we have our lives in exchange?”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “You want to make terms with me? Are you in any position to?”

“I am certain the Left Chancellor’s money is in Mangzhou… and I know besides that it is hidden in an underground chamber, and very likely under this residence.”

“I am going to find that money whatever happens… it is only that if you tell me I save myself some trouble and you get it over with quickly. If you don’t, that is all right too. I’ll show you what it is to want to be dead.”

The Left Chancellor had said before he died that he would let his treasure rot in the ground before he let Ning Chen have it.

That one sentence had given away two things.

First, that the Left Chancellor had in fact left a great fortune behind.

Second, that it was hidden underground somewhere in the city of Mangzhou.

There was no blood left in Zhuo Heguang’s face or in Ye Zhiyong’s.

Zhuo Heguang set his teeth. “All right. I’ll tell you… I only hope that when I have, Ning the Silver Coat will be generous enough to look after us a little.”

Ning Chen raised an eyebrow and said mildly, “Go on.”

“I have a private house in the city called the Mei residence.”

“The Mei residence?”

Zhuo Heguang nodded. “My mother’s family name is Mei, so that is what I called it.”

“In the back garden of the Mei residence there is a rockery with a hidden door in it. Go through and it leads straight down under the pond… under the pond is a sealed room, and everything the Left Chancellor had is in there.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up.

“How do you open the hidden door in the rockery?”

Zhuo Heguang said, “The rockeries are laid out by the five elements, and the color of each one is different… one of them is goldish, and there is a crescent-shaped stone on it. Press it in and the hidden door opens.”

Ning Chen’s face filled with delight.

“Is that the truth? Lord Zhuo, do you know what happens to a man who lies to me?”

Zhuo Heguang said quickly, “This official would not dare deceive you. Ning the Silver Coat may send men to look.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.

“Does anyone else know about the place?”

Zhuo Heguang shook his head. “Only myself, the Left Chancellor and Lord Ye… the men who carried the treasure there were silenced every time.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Did the Left Chancellor have any other place he kept it?”

Zhuo Heguang shook his head. “No! Before the Left Chancellor came to Mangzhou, the gold and silver that arrived was hidden by the two of us.”

“You’re certain?”

Zhuo Heguang nodded quickly. “This official would not dare lie. Lord Ye can bear me out.”

Ye Zhiyong nodded again and again to say that Zhuo Heguang was not lying.

Ning Chen asked, “Are there soldiers at the Mei residence?”

Zhuo Heguang shook his head. “Only a few maids and servants who look after the place. No soldiers.”

“Where is the Mei residence?”

“On Jing’an Street.”

Ning Chen nodded, satisfied.

“My thanks to you both for your cooperation.”

Ning Chen rose slowly, walked over to the two of them, and a streak of cold light went across both their throats.

Zhuo Heguang and Ye Zhiyong clamped both hands over their throats, with the blood welling out between their fingers, staggered backward, and went down together and stopped breathing.

“If you were sent up to the capital under guard you would not have escaped being put to the question under torture… I’m making it quick for you. Call it a thank-you for being honest with me.”

Ning Chen glanced at the two bodies, walked over and opened the door, and, shaking the blood off his dagger, said angrily:

“Fine dogs of Chang Chengyun’s, both of them. Two weak scholars without the strength to truss a chicken, and they dared try to kill me. They were asking for it.”

“In here. Drag their bodies out and let my lords see what happens to a man who tries to kill me.”

Several soldiers took the order, ran in, and dragged the bodies of Zhuo Heguang and Ye Zhiyong out.

Out in the courtyard the officials of Mangzhou were shaking like a sieve of chaff, frightened out of their souls.

Ning Chen looked up at the sky. It had grown light by now.

The musket fire and the killing in the city had almost stopped. There was only a shot here and there.

Ning Chen left some of his men to guard the officials of Mangzhou and took the rest out of the Governor’s residence.

All the way along there were bodies.

The people of the city had spent the night with their hearts in their mouths, listening to men being killed.

On the way, Ning Chen met a party of Changling Army soldiers.

“Have you seen Commandant Yuan or Marshal Mu?”

Ning Chen asked.

“Reporting to General Ning, Marshal Mu is up ahead, not far from here. You’ll see him when you reach the corner… Commandant Yuan I haven’t seen.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly and took his men on.

At the corner the sharp smell of blood came at him and nearly made him sick.

This was one of the main roads, and the street was heaped with bodies, and the blood ran like a river.

(End of Chapter 248)