ILSITM Chapter 14

I continued, “I estimate that he will definitely sell the stolen Chui Ji jade and Zhang Zeduan’s ‘Jinming Pool Boat Race Painting’ to us modern people. These are national cultural relics, and we must promptly report this situation to the cultural relics authorities and also report the case to the public security organs. This will be the first plot we need to create and track after we travel back to Jiudong City.”

After the brief meeting, we split up.

I went to the Jiudong City Public Security Bureau to report the case, informing them that a criminal suspect who traffics in precious national cultural relics had recently infiltrated our city. I requested that the public security organs increase their control over the cultural relics trading market and seize the opportunity to arrest him.

Old Lin and Old Zhang went to the Jiudong City Cultural Relics Bureau to report relevant clues about a criminal suspect involved in trafficking precious national cultural relics. They requested that the cultural relics department increase inspections of the Jiudong City cultural relics trading market and, together with the public security organs, carry out a special operation to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes.

Wen Rourou went to the Jiudong City Photography Equipment Mall and purchased three mini cameras.

Because we reported the situation in a timely manner, the public security organs and the cultural relics inspection brigade acted quickly. In the afternoon, they caught a man in ancient costume in the cultural relics trading market. He was trading with a buyer at the time.

However, after the cultural relics bureau’s experts Identification（jianding), identified and confirmed that these two cultural relics were “fakes”.

Why did they think these two cultural relics were “fakes”?

“The Chui Ji jade from the Spring and Autumn period recorded in ancient books has not been preserved to this day. It was lost as early as the Li Ji Rebellion in the Jin state; and Zhang Zeduan’s ‘Jinming Pool Boat Race Painting’ is now in the collection of the Tianjin Museum. It is impossible for there to be a second ‘Jinming Pool Boat Race Painting’ in the world. Therefore, I believe that these two cultural relics are fakes,” a cultural relics Identification（jianding) expert said undeniably.

Since they were all “fakes”, it did not constitute the crime of trafficking in cultural relics, and the public security organs had no choice but to release the person.

As soon as that person came out of the detention center, the four of us surrounded him.

“Come with us!”

“Where to?”

“Back to the Great Ming!”

The middle-aged man in ancient costume showed a surprised expression and asked, “Who are you people?”

I took out a waist tag and said, “I am the Commander of the Northern Garrison Command of the Great Ming.”

The man was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he stood there timidly.

That night, we escorted the criminal suspect through the underground caves beneath the Pedestrian Street in Jiudong City and traveled back to the Ming Dynasty.

We interrogated this person overnight, and he confessed to the criminal facts of murder and theft he had committed.

In just a few days, I solved ten cases designated by Emperor Tianqi, which caused a sensation in the court and the public, and I was in the limelight.

The next day, the four of us decided to do another big thing.

Today, the four of us came to the Imperial Garden early to discuss a major national event with Zhu Youxiao.

“Your Majesty, that day after we entered Tiger Cave, we found that there was an even more secret passage inside. This passage is connected to the crossing cave we dug in Du Guangfu. Do you know about this passage?” I asked Zhu Youxiao.

“This passage was ordered by me to be dug by the eunuchs in the palace using the digging machine I invented,” Zhu Youxiao said with a chuckle.

“So it was Your Majesty’s masterpiece! This passage was dug with superb craftsmanship and ingenious mechanism design. I was wondering who this deity was,” Old Zhang began to flatter Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao looked overjoyed.

I changed the subject and said to Zhu Youxiao, “Your Majesty, since we traveled to the Great Ming, we have done two major things. The first is to protect hundreds of thousands of Liaoxi civilians from being massacred by the Later Jin soldiers, and the second is to solve the ten cases designated by you, bringing the bad guys to justice. Now we want to do a third major thing.”

Seeing that I only said half of it and then stopped, Zhu Youxiao asked anxiously, “What’s the big deal? Why don’t you finish it!”

“We want to ask you to help us build a car and then help us build nine bridges,” I said nonchalantly.

“Building a car and building bridges, this is simple, does this also count as a big deal? This is just a small matter for me,” Zhu Youxiao said with a smile.

“This car can run in the narrow passage you dug, and these nine bridges are to be built on top of the nine underground caves we dug in Du Guangfu,” I said, looking at Zhu Youxiao, who had a smile on his face.

“Running a car in a narrow passage and building bridges over bottomless caves, it seems you really want to do something big! What exactly do you want to do?” Zhu Youxiao asked suddenly curiously.

“Your Majesty knows that since the Western Han Dynasty, there has been the Silk Road connecting the Western Regions. We are now preparing to build a ‘shopping agent road’ that runs through ancient and modern times, transporting our modern small commodities to your Great Ming, and then transporting your Great Ming’s small commodities to our modern times,” I said somewhat excitedly.

“Listening to you, this is indeed a big deal, benefiting the country and the people, both enlivening the economy of our Great Ming and allowing our people to come into contact with your high-tech products. It’s just that the passage is narrow, running a car is already not easy, and even more difficult is that the wood for building bridges is not easy to transport inside,” Zhu Youxiao said with a troubled expression.

“Actually, it’s not difficult. You just need to build a car that can run in the narrow passage first, and the transportation of the wood for building bridges will not be a problem,” Old Lin said, looking at Zhu Youxiao.

“Among our modern vehicles, there is a train that runs on rails. It has many carriages and can transport a lot of goods. I think you can build such a miniature train in the passage,” I also suggested.

Zhu Youxiao seemed to have a sudden flash of inspiration and said excitedly, “I have a way!”

The next day, the four of us got up very early and agreed to set up a street stall and live broadcast shopping agent together.

The markets of the Ming Dynasty capital were mainly distributed around the Imperial City: north of the city near the Bell and Drum Tower outside the Di’anmen Gate, south of the city outside the Zhengyang Gate, east of the city outside the Dong’anmen Gate’s East Four Memorial Arches, and west of the city near the West Four Memorial Arches outside the Xi’anmen Gate. However, the market with the most merchants and the most dense flow of people was Chessboard Street, located between the Daming Gate and the Zhengyang Gate.

This street was flanked by the “Five Mansions and Six Ministries”, connecting the inner and outer cities from north to south, and communicating the east and west inner cities.

Those who came here to shop included not only common people but also the royal family and scholar-officials.

These seemingly inconspicuous small vendors along the street had millions of fortunes. Even the salaries of the Minister of Rites and other second-rank officials in the court paled in comparison.

However, during the Ming Dynasty, the court did not allow officials to engage in commerce. Otherwise, these officials would have gotten up early and competed with the small vendors for stalls.

I was not a registered court official, so I was not bound by restrictions on doing business.

Before I went to set up a street stall, I specifically visited Zhu Youxiao, who was building a small train, and asked him if he wanted us to sell some of his woodenware on commission.

Zhu Youxiao said with a smile, “Then you can help me take this folding wooden bed to the market and see if anyone will buy it?”

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