A Pawn's Passage

Of the four problems, the first and second could essentially be treated as one. To solve them, they had to enter Sophia’s residence.

However, once he entered Sophia’s residence, whether he took the key or destroyed it, it would inevitably alert her. That meant there would be no turning back. He would have to leave St. York immediately. Therefore, before infiltrating her residence, Qi Xuansu needed to resolve the third problem first and plan an escape route as well as a backup plan.

There were many routes from St. York to the Southern New Continent. The most convenient was by sea. St. York was located at the mouth of the sea. The Richmond District was an island surrounded by water, facing the King’s District across the harbor. The Central District lay north of the King’s District, and to its west was the Hudson River, which led directly out to the sea.

After setting out to sea, one would travel south along the coastline, pass Cape Hatteras, enter Onslow Bay, circle the entire Florida Peninsula, pass through the Florida Strait between Andros Island and the Florida Keys, and enter the Olmec Gulf. This was the boundary between the northern and southern parts of the New Continent. No matter how far Sophia’s reach extended, it could not touch the Southern New Continent. From there, one could either land directly on the Yucatan Peninsula or pass through the Yucatan Strait and continue sailing south.

Flying there was also an option, but it would be far too conspicuous and would easily expose their location.

Qi Xuansu had nothing to fear if he were alone. He had even considered striking down a floating island with a single palm and escaping amid the chaos. The problem was that he had Audrey with him. Though her body was sturdy and could probably withstand some blows, she had little combat ability. Thus, Qi Xuansu had to take this into account and avoid unnecessary battles as much as possible.

However, there was one problem. While the sea route was the most convenient, Sophia would also expect this. So, if something happened, her first response would be to seal off the ports immediately and pursue along that route.

The best-case scenario would be for Qi Xuansu to act on Friday without alerting anyone, then leave that very night. Sophia would remain unaware, as she would be on her pleasure island. She would only discover something amiss upon returning home Sunday evening. Those two days would be more than enough for Qi Xuansu and Audrey to quietly escape to the Southern Continent.

But this scenario was far too idealistic.

Even if Qi Xuansu made no mistakes and managed to deceive everyone, would Audrey’s disappearance for two days go unnoticed? Their plan would be exposed if someone reported her disappearance to Sophia.

There was also another possibility. If Sophia happened to be in a bad mood and returned home midway, she might discover something wrong ahead of time. There were simply too many uncontrollable variables. Thus, Qi Xuansu could not rely on everything going smoothly. He needed a backup plan.

The backup plan was to escape by land.

The Northern New Continent was vast, and the Western population was relatively sparse, making it feel wide and empty. This was completely different from the densely populated Central Plains. There were a few crowded areas, making it less likely for their movements to be exposed.

The Northern New Continent possessed a highly developed railway system, allowing travel by steam train. While it was not as fast as flying, it was great for concealment. However, the railway system was controlled by the Steam Evangelical Sect.

Sophia’s attempt to capture Audrey was a personal matter. Since it involved a fallen apostle, she might not dare to bring it into the open. Furthermore, she was only the Chairman of St. York’s City Council, not of the entire Northern New Continent. The various states of the Northern New Continent were relatively independent, coordinated under the Holy Court. Though Sophia could suspend the railways within St. York, she could not extend her reach into other states. Only the Holy Court had such authority. In that sense, the Holy Court was the true master of the Northern New Continent.

Although Sophia and the Holy Court appeared to be on the same side, they still operated separately. The massive economic losses caused by suspending the railway system would not be acceptable to the Holy Court.

Almost 99% of all problems could ultimately be traced back to economics. When the economy was good, everyone made money and had hope, so everything seemed harmonious because most conflicts could be masked. Conversely, when money was scarce and hope was lost, all kinds of conflicts would surface. By then, even the smallest issue could escalate into a major one.

The Holy Court had abandoned the Southern New Continent and allowed the Tawantin Empire to establish its own nation only because the cost of war was too high. From beginning to end, the Holy Court had always placed great importance on financial considerations. Thus, Qi Xuansu believed the Holy Court would not halt the railway system on a large scale simply because of Sophia.

There were many possible routes to leave St. York by land, as the railway network spread like a web. After careful study, Qi Xuansu leaned toward first heading to Harrisburg, then to Cincinnati, onward to St. Louis, passing through Springfield and Smithsburg, and finally reaching San Antonio. This place was close to the border river, the Rio Grande. From there, he could go to Del Rio, Laredo, or McAllen.

Based on this, Qi Xuansu devised several contingency plans. The preferred option remained traveling by sea, but if the sea route encountered problems, they could land nearby and switch to land travel. After all, port cities would inevitably have supporting railway systems to facilitate cargo transport.

In truth, the Central Plains also had some railways, but not many. Many people believed that building railways would disrupt fengshui, so they strongly opposed them and preferred canals instead. At a deeper level, this was tied to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of canal workers.

Since the Qi Dynasty, the Grand Canal has connected north to south. Especially since the Wei Dynasty, the canal had handled transport between the Imperial Capital and Jiangnan for nearly five centuries. Thus, such a deeply ingrained system was hard to replace. Even maritime routes faced great resistance, let alone railways.

Back when Qi Xuansu traveled to Bohai Prefecture, he went north by boat along the Grand Canal.

In the Central Plains, water transport remained the most suitable for large-scale cargo movement. As a result, coastal ports tended to flourish, while inland regions inevitably lagged behind. This also objectively constrained the development of railways. In this regard, the Westerners were ahead of the Central Plains.

The Westerners were capable, as could be seen when they seized the Shakya Kingdom and the New Continent. Even though they later relinquished East Shakya and the Southern New Continent, their strength could not be denied. But their moral standing was still questionable.

Looking at the map, Qi Xuansu finalized four routes.

In such a vast Northern Continent, Strauni was certainly not the only pawn. The Beichen Hall would have an entire network of spies. As the person of highest authority in the New Continent’s Beichen Hall, Qi Xuansu could naturally mobilize this network.

Each of these spies had their own role. For someone like Strauni, Beichen Hall would not deploy him casually or assign routine tasks. He had only one directive—to conceal his identity and remain dormant. Then, at critical moments, he would be activated to obtain key intelligence.

Thus, Strauni’s primary duty was intelligence gathering at a higher level. There were also lower-level intelligence tasks, such as observing the number of ships at ports, patterns of departing vessels, train schedules, types of transported goods, and so on. These were mainly statistical data, which would be reported upward and then analyzed.

For example, if a tavern by the port was doing very well recently and most of its customers were naval personnel, one could infer the deployment patterns of naval vessels from the tavern’s business trends. If those sailors did not frequent taverns, that was not a problem either. One could analyze the toy shops near the port. Since each voyage lasted months or longer, sailors returning home would inevitably buy gifts, especially toys, for their children. If many toys were sold in a given month, it indicated that many sailors had returned to port, thus pinpointing the timing.

Both examples relied on analyzing intelligence through the conditions of specific locations and businesses. This required extensive data collection through observation rather than running around to make inquiries or meet contacts.

These small pieces of intelligence would then be aggregated and pieced together, gradually forming a clear picture and ultimately revealing concrete movements.

Another type of spy handled dirty work, such as assassinations. These were not necessarily directed at enemies. This was aimed at traitors. If someone defected to the Northern New Continent carrying important intelligence, they would be eliminated by such agents.

Qi Xuansu contacted one dormant spy in St. York. His day job was a tavern waiter, but in reality, he was an external member of Beichen Hall. His task was not intelligence gathering, but handling miscellaneous work.

This time, Qi Xuansu did not want to assassinate anyone. Instead, Qi Xuansu instructed the spy to prepare two false identities and corresponding train tickets through the underground black market.

The agent completed the task with ease. He only knew Qi Xuansu as a superior, but not his true identity.

Then, Qi Xuansu repeated the process with three other spies—one for each route. Each of them prepared two false identities along with corresponding ship tickets.

As such, even if one of them was compromised, it would not expose Qi Xuansu’s entire plan.

As for the train and ship tickets, the timing might not be perfectly precise, but they could always be adjusted and repurchased according to changes in the itinerary.

Given the Holy Court’s manpower in the Northern New Continent, it could not establish a tightly controlled system. Not to mention, each state had relative autonomy. Some regions did not even have fully developed governments.

By contrast, the Central Plains operated by a household registration and travel permit system. Unless it was a time of chaos, wanted notices were highly effective.

However, the Northern New Continent was different. One could commit a crime in one state and simply flee to another. States did not communicate with one another, and some did not even recognize each other’s laws, leaving plenty of loopholes to exploit.

With the routes determined, it was time to prepare for the heist at Sophia’s residence.