A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 1448: Signing the Confession

Soon, General Long finished his confession.

Qi Xuansu took the recorded testimony, quickly glanced through it, then returned it to the Daoist responsible for documentation and asked, “General Long, your account was very detailed. Let me ask you this—when you carried out these actions, were you acting on your own initiative or following someone’s orders?”

General Long lowered his head. “I acted under the orders of the Deputy Chief Military Officer Ma Jinguo. I used the Nanhai Navy’s warships to conduct smuggling operations.”

Qi Xuansu asked again, “For what reasons?”

General Long replied, “Partly because I was tempted by greed and received a share of the profits, and partly because I was threatened by Deputy Chief Ma and dared not disobey.”

After the recording Daoist finished writing down the final sentence, he looked toward Qi Xuansu and asked for instructions. “Chief Deputy, may we proceed with the signing and fingerprinting?”

Qi Xuansu nodded. “Let General Long sign it.”

The Spirit Guards took the confession from the recording Daoist. Normally, precautions had to be taken to prevent prisoners from tearing up or swallowing their confessions. However, Qi Xuansu had maintained a gentle attitude toward General Long throughout. Not only had he refrained from placing restraints on him, but he also signaled for the Spirit Guards to stop pressing down on his shoulders.

Qi Xuansu instructed, “Give the confession to General Long and let him read through it carefully to check for any mistakes or omissions.”

General Long was already overwhelmed with gratitude and shame. “I trust you, Sage Qi. I shall sign it immediately.”

With that, General Long took the brush and signed his name on every page of the confession, then took the ink pad and pressed his fingerprint onto it.

Finally, a Spirit Guard took the confession and handed it to Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu briefly scanned through it, folded the confession, and placed it into an official envelope.

For major cases like this, voice and image recordings were kept. After the interrogation concluded, these materials would likewise be handed over to Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu placed these materials together with the account book and the Taiping Bank voucher, then said, “Please remain here for a few more days, General Long.”

General Long hurriedly replied, “Of course, Sage Qi. If you have no further questions, I will take my leave.”

Qi Xuansu nodded.

The two Spirit Guards escorted General Long out once more.

Only then did Qi Xuansu say, “Bring Ma Jinguo up.”

The two Spirit Guards inside the hidden chamber finally released their grip on Ma Jinguo’s shoulders. They lifted him on each side and dragged him back into the interrogation room.

Qi Xuansu was no longer as gentle or courteous toward Ma Jinguo. Leaning back against the chair, he said, “Deputy Chief Ma Jinguo, what else do you have to say? Do you intend to become a second Fang Linhou? What I said to General Long is also meant for you.”

At this point, Ma Jinguo’s psychological defenses had collapsed completely. Unable to hold out any longer, he said, “I’ll confess everything.”

Qi Xuansu wasted no time and asked, “Fang Linhou was merely a Deputy Mansion Master, so I doubt he could truly command you. If he had really been the mastermind, then the two of you should have been partners. After Fang Linhou was arrested, he should have implicated you, even if only to lessen his own punishment. But clearly, he did not. This only showed that the two of you were not partners, and Fang Linhou was not the true mastermind. I’m guessing there is a common figure above the two of you pulling the strings.

“Tell me, who is this mastermind? Don’t worry. I won’t get scared and back out. Surely, this person can’t be more powerful than Wang Jiaohe or more formidable than an Immortal like Chen Shuhua.”

Of course, Qi Xuansu was asking while already knowing the answer. He knew perfectly well that the mastermind was Li Tianlan, but he could not say it himself and then force Ma Jinguo to confirm it. That would only allow others to accuse him of leading the witness. His real purpose was to pressure Ma Jinguo into speaking the name himself.

At this moment, Ma Jinguo also felt enormous pressure. Qi Xuansu used his past achievements to intimidate people, demonstrating that he had not risen through nepotism or connections but through genuine accomplishments earned with blood and danger. Among the bones beneath Qi Xuansu’s feet were not only those of enemies but also those of his colleagues.

After all, Qi Xuansu was only able to cross the threshold into the second rank through the major Poluo case.

Wang Jiaohe had been a Mansion Master and one of the 36 Omniscient Sages.

Chen Shuhua was a Chief Deputy Mansion Master, but she possessed Immortal-level cultivation.

There was also Sun Heyu, a first-rank Tianzhen Daoist.

The Mansion Master, Chief Deputy, and Second Deputy of the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion could not compare to those three figures. Not to mention, the current Mansion Master and Chief Deputy of the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion were standing on Qi Xuansu’s side.

Ma Jinguo slowly said, “It was Li Tianlan, the Second Deputy of the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion.”

A faint curve appeared at the corner of Qi Xuansu’s mouth. At last, this matter reached Li Tianlan.

Ma Jinguo continued, “The smuggling business was planned and directed by Li Tianlan. It first began in the 30th year of the Jiushi Era. However, Li Tianlan never personally appeared. He remained behind the scenes. On the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion side, Fang Linhou was responsible for handling matters openly. At first, Fang Linhou managed the accounts himself, but later, he handed them over to Liu Shiying. Naturally, many others were involved as well, spread across various positions, though all of them took orders from Fang Linhou.

“Relying solely on the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion was naturally inconvenient. So in the 32nd year of the Jiushi Era, Li Tianlan had Fang Linhou approach me. I used my connections within the Nanhai Navy to cooperate with their smuggling operations. The Heavenly Court also participated, though they answered only to Li Tianlan. When the profits were divided, Li Tianlan took the largest share, roughly half. Fang Linhou and I split the remaining half.

“However, each of us also had our own subordinates under us. They could not be used for free, so they had to be paid their share. In the end, the amount that actually reached my hands, just as recorded in the ledger you hold, ranged from roughly 30,000 Taiping coins to 50,000 Taiping coins, depending on how good business was that year.”

That was not a small amount, and that was merely one year’s income. Back then, Old Master Gao’s entire fortune amounted to only 400,000 Taiping coins. Ma Jinguo earned the equivalent of half of Old Master Gao’s wealth in just five years. How could that be a small sum?

According to the records in the ledger, Ma Jinguo took roughly 10%. Using the average of 40,000 Taiping coins, that amounted to 400,000 Taiping coins per year. Over ten years, the losses inflicted upon the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion totaled at least more than 4 million Taiping coins.

It was an enormous deficit for the Daoist Order.

Qi Xuansu asked again, “What was Zhang Juquan’s relationship with you people?”

Ma Jinguo replied, “Zhang Juquan was not working with us. He could even be considered a rival. Seeing how much money we were making, he also entered the smuggling trade. Using the Zhang family’s name as his backing, he prospered quite well. However, Li Tianlan later got hold of evidence against him. The incident that later befell Zhang Juquan was also orchestrated entirely by Li Tianlan.”

Zhang Juquan was another example. Though he was a member of the Zhang family, his situation was no different from that of Li Tianlan in the Li family.

Li Tianlan’s side accounted for roughly 5 million Taiping coins. Even if Zhang Juquan’s business was smaller in scale and lasted for a shorter period, it still likely amounted to around 1 million Taiping coins.

No matter how deep Jiangnan Daoist Mansion’s reserves were, they could not withstand such continuous plundering.

Qi Xuansu asked, “After the first major Jiangnan case erupted, how did you people plan your response?”

Ma Jinguo said, “Chief Deputy Qi, I’m sure you know that the key figure in this case was Chief Deputy Zhang. At the time, Li Tianlan intended to eliminate Chief Deputy Zhang, but Sage Cihang, the former Jiangnan Daoist Mansion Master, stopped it. Though she had already stepped down, many people within the Daoist Mansion still answered to her. Word leaked out, and Sage Cihang personally intervened to save Chief Deputy Zhang. With her backing, Chief Deputy Zhang began investigating the case. Since Li Tianlan remained hidden behind the scenes and never exposed himself, Fang Linhou, who had been the face of the operation, became the breakthrough point.

“This involved the struggle among the three Daoist sects. Sage Cihang and Sage Donghua successively intervened in the matter because their real target was the Taiping Sect. Li Tianlan realized he could no longer suppress the situation and had no choice but to sacrifice part of himself to preserve the whole. Since I belonged to the Imperial Court and had little visible connection with the Jiangnan Daoist Mansion, I had not been exposed at the time. Li Tianlan personally came to me and ordered me to handle the aftermath and destroy the evidence. Afterward, he also met with Fang Linhou. As far as I know, neither Li Tianlan nor Fang Linhou believed Fang Linhou would actually die. After all, he was a dignified second-rank Taiyi Daoist. At worst, they assumed he would simply be stripped of office. So long as they were alive, they could always start over. That was how Li Tianlan persuaded Fang Linhou to shoulder all the blame himself.

“The plan at the time was to destroy as much evidence as possible and silence anyone who knew too much. Liu Shiying was one of the targets marked for elimination. General Long wasn’t eliminated because he had not been exposed. At the same time, operations were suspended. A few expendable people were sacrificed, and part of the dirty money was surrendered to Jade Capital as an explanation, all in order to make the matter pass quickly. The most important thing was that everyone had to maintain a unified story.

“Since Li Tianlan persuaded Fang Linhou to shoulder the entire matter himself, the agreed narrative was that Fang Linhou alone had engaged in smuggling and illegal trading through the black market and that neither Li Tianlan nor I had anything to do with it. Li Tianlan promised that he would do everything possible to help rescue Fang Linhou and take care of Fang Linhou’s family. Of course, this was coercion. Li Tianlan used all means to get Fang Linhou to submit.

“If Fang Linhou had known that he would die, he definitely would not have agreed. What Fang Linhou failed to anticipate was that Sage Donghua intended to make an example out of him to warn the rest. Some people also wanted to take the opportunity to seize Fang Linhou’s shares, so his bribery was exposed. In the end, Fang Linhou was sentenced to death.

“However, Fang Linhou was not naive. He had made preparations in advance and left these things behind. After Fang Linhou died, both Li Tianlan and I sent people to search for them. At first, we suspected they might be connected to Chief Deputy Zhang, but later, we discovered that was not the case. Moreover, Chief Deputy Zhang’s status kept rising to the point where we no longer dared to act against her lightly. Later, we learned that Liu Shiying had a daughter, and the items were most likely in her possession. We also found out that she was in Longmen Prefecture, so...”

At this point, Ma Jinguo paused. He lifted his head and looked toward Liu Hu, who stood silently beside Qi Xuansu. “That’s how it happened.”

Qi Xuansu now understood the situation fully.

No wonder Madam Qi had said that Fang Linhou did not die unjustly. She had also told Liu Hu not to dwell any longer on her biological father.

Liu Hu had never shared much affection with Fang Linhou to begin with. She had never benefited from him in any way. In fact, the hardships of her first half of life, including the deaths of both her adoptive fathers, had all stemmed from Fang Linhou.

Qi Xuansu instructed, “Have him sign and fingerprint the confession.”