MLMD -Chapter 123 Theft

“Young Master!”

“My Lord!”

As Yue Yang’s voice rang out, several cries filled with surprise echoed in response.

“Shunbao, have you forgotten what I told you earlier?” Yue Yang’s voice carried a trace of anger as he glared at Shunbao and scolded him bluntly. “I told you long ago that without my orders, no one is allowed to step even half a pace into this courtyard. Looks like you’ve taken my words as mere wind in your ears!”

Seeing Yue Yang fly into a rage, Shunbao hurriedly explained, “No… Young Master, something really has happened!”

“Even if something happened, you still had no right to barge in here without permission! Even if the sky were to fall, it wouldn’t matter! What did I tell you before? Anyone who trespasses—kill without mercy!” Yue Yang roared mercilessly. Then he turned to the dozen or so guards behind him and barked sharply, “Remember this well. If anyone dares to trespass here again, don’t bother reporting to me—kill them on the spot. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lord!” the dozen guards shouted in unison.

Faced with Yue Yang’s expressionless face and the guards’ thunderous reply, Shunbao’s complexion turned faintly pale. He clearly sensed that his young master was not joking at all. If he dared to force his way into this courtyard again, these guards would definitely dare to strike him down.

“Alright, Shunbao, come with me.”

With a stern face, Yue Yang clasped his hands behind his back and walked outside. Shunbao hurriedly followed.

After walking for quite some time, Yue Yang finally asked, “Speak. What exactly happened that made you disobey my orders and force your way into the restricted area?”

“Young Master, something happened at our military factory yesterday,” Shunbao said quickly. “Before dawn today, my father sent someone to inform me that the military factory was robbed last night!”

Yue Yang stopped in his tracks and turned to stare at Shunbao. “Robbed? Which factory lost something? What was stolen? How much?”

Under Yue Yang’s piercing gaze, Shunbao swallowed hard. “It was the factory producing firelocks. Six firelocks were stolen. At the same time, two craftsmen who made the firelocks also disappeared. They vanished along with their families. We searched all of Wuli Village but couldn’t find them or the stolen firelocks.”

“Gone!” Yue Yang’s eyebrows slowly rose, his breathing growing heavier, as if he were about to explode. Shunbao lowered his head and dared not utter a word. Yue Yang’s authority had grown stronger with each passing day. When he wasn’t angry, he appeared gentle and approachable, but once he flared up, even Shunbao—who had grown up at his side—didn’t dare meet his eyes.

After a while, Yue Yang’s breathing gradually steadied. Then, after a long pause, he let out an angry laugh. “Good, very good. Looks like they finally couldn’t hold back any longer. They even took the firelocks along with the craftsmen who make them. Dorgon certainly acts fast.”

“Young Master, you’re saying this was done by the Tatars?” Shunbao asked in surprise. He was clearly puzzled as to why Yue Yang was so certain it was the Later Jin.

Yue Yang sneered. “Of course. Who else do you think would be interested in our firelocks? If those cannons weren’t so heavy, they’d probably want to haul a few tiger-crouching cannons back as well. I know those Later Jin people all too well—once they set their eyes on something good, they won’t rest easy until they get it. Same temperament as the Japanese.”

“The Japanese? Young Master, do you mean those Eastern dwarves?” Shunbao asked, confused. He knew of the Japanese as another name for the Eastern pirates, but what did this have to do with them?

“Uh, don’t ask about that for now. I’ll explain it to you another time,” Yue Yang said, clearly unwilling to digress.

Lowering his head, Yue Yang pondered for a moment before sighing. “Looks like my work still wasn’t thorough enough. I actually let the Tatars slip people inside and steal the firelocks, even taking away two craftsmen. This is really…”

With a wave of his hand, he said, “Let’s go. We’re heading to the military factory to take a look.”

“Yes!”

Soon, Yue Yang and Shunbao arrived together at the firelock manufacturing factory. They saw that the place was tightly guarded by soldiers. Zhou Dandangtou, who had only been appointed by Yue Yang as the factory head a few days earlier, sat dejectedly on a stone, smoking his dry tobacco with his head lowered. Standing beside him was Yue Laifu; both looked utterly dispirited.

“Lord Yue has arrived!”

A cry rang out. Zhou Dandangtou quickly stood up, knocked the ash from his pipe, tucked it into his belt, and hurried to Yue Yang’s side. He dropped to his knees with a thud, weeping uncontrollably. “Lord Yue, I have failed your trust. I am guilty!”

With a soft sigh, Yue Yang reached out and helped him up. “Get up. I already know about this. This matter can’t be blamed entirely on you—you only took over the factory the day before yesterday.”

At these words, Yue Laifu felt his face burn. Yue Yang’s remark was clearly pointing at his own previous negligence.

Before he could say anything, Yue Yang continued, “Uncle Laifu, you don’t need to be too distressed either. Now isn’t the time to pursue responsibility. One of you, tell me exactly how this happened.”

“Yes…” Zhou Dandangtou and Yue Laifu exchanged a glance, then began explaining.

It turned out that the two missing craftsmen were responsible for producing the Minié rifles at the factory. They had joined the factory a month ago. Seeing that they had decent skills and had brought their families with them, Yue Laifu had asked only a few cursory questions before letting them enter the firelock workshop.

Yesterday evening, the factory had just completed a batch of new firelocks. According to regulations, newly produced firelocks had to be tested. The two men volunteered to handle the task, and the testing was quickly completed without incident.

Afterward, the firelocks were all placed in the warehouse. Coincidentally, the troops were scheduled to collect a batch today. When the soldiers began inspecting the goods, they were shocked to discover that six Minié rifles had been swapped out with scrapped firelocks.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the hundred-household officer immediately summoned Zhou Dandangtou and Yue Laifu. They ordered the factory sealed off at once and gathered all the workers and craftsmen. Only then did they discover that two men were missing. At that point, they were certain the loss of the firelocks was a deliberate theft.

Yue Laifu then summoned his own son and told him to report the matter to Yue Yang immediately, which led to the scene earlier that morning.

After listening, Yue Yang pondered for a moment and asked Shunbao, “Did you send people to pursue them?”

Shunbao nodded bitterly. “I did, right away. But so far, there’s been no news.”

Yue Yang nodded. “Mm. We still have to pursue them, but don’t hold out too much hope. I suspect they’ve already gone far from Wuli Village. With our current capabilities, we won’t catch them. Once they’re out of Yingzhou Prefecture, they could go anywhere. Two men and six firelocks aren’t very conspicuous—it won’t be easy to find them.”

“Young Master, my lord, I am guilty. Please punish me!” At this moment, Yue Laifu and Zhou Dandangtou stepped forward and dropped to their knees before Yue Yang.

Looking down at the two guilt-ridden men, Yue Yang reached out and helped them up. “Forget it. This can’t be blamed entirely on the two of you. The Tatars must have planned this for more than a day or two. It’s understandable that you were caught off guard.”

Yue Laifu said anxiously, “But these firelocks are our army’s most lethal firearms. Those two traitors have already learned the production methods over these past days. Once they return, they’ll surely pass the techniques on to the Tatar craftsmen. If we fight them in the future, we’ll suffer great losses!”

“Hahaha…” Yue Yang burst into laughter. “Alright, both of you, get up. Uncle Laifu, you’re worrying too much. The Tatars think that by planting two spies in our factory for a month, they can make firelocks to rival ours. They don’t realize they’re still far from it.”

“How can that be?” Yue Laifu grew anxious. Even if those two spies were slow, surely they would have learned something after more than a month.

Yue Yang waved his hand. “You don’t need to doubt this. Ask Zhou Dandangtou and you’ll understand.”

“Zhou Dandangtou, is that really the case?” Yue Laifu turned his gaze toward him.

“It is indeed so,” Zhou Dandangtou replied proudly, though his heart was still heavy. “Our firelocks differ from others in one key aspect—the barrel. The inner wall of our barrels has spiral rifling. Based on that alone, the Tatars could study for another twenty years and still fail to replicate it.”

“There’s such a thing?” Yue Laifu exclaimed, dumbfounded. “Then how did we make them?”

At this, Zhou Dandangtou gave a bitter smile. “These barrels were all obtained by Lord Yue himself. He also had us attempt to replicate them, but even now we can’t reproduce the steel used for the barrels, let alone carve rifling inside them.”

Hearing this explanation, Yue Laifu finally let out a sigh of relief. He slapped his forehead and said ruefully, “That’s a relief. Otherwise, we’d have been sinners of Wuli Village.”

“But this matter isn’t over yet,” Yue Yang said solemnly. “This incident shows just how weak our factory’s defenses are. Six firelocks were stolen openly, yet the guards noticed nothing. Two craftsmen disappeared with their families overnight, and no one discovered it. What does this tell us? It tells us that our defenses are riddled with loopholes—huge loopholes.

“I’ve decided that in a few days, I will establish a Youchuan Division in Wuli Village, dedicated to internal intelligence and security. In addition, there will be a Youshan Division responsible for external intelligence. We absolutely cannot allow such a thing to happen again!”

Through this incident, Yue Yang finally realized that although he commanded several thousand elite troops, he lacked a powerful intelligence organization. This allowed Later Jin spies to swagger into the factory, steal intelligence, and leave as if the place were empty. Such a situation had to be corrected, and thus the idea of establishing an intelligence department was born.