David Brooks hurriedly said.

“He?”

Eric Bennett sneered contemptuously. He didn’t even know who Peter Harris was, but in David Brooks’s eyes, that expression meant something else entirely. Clearly, in this gentleman’s view, Magistrate Zhu was not worth mentioning at all.

Eric Bennett was just about to keep up his act when the boatman steering at the back suddenly walked over to David Brooks’s steward and whispered a few words.

“Master, there’s a boat behind us signaling for us to stop.”

The steward immediately stepped forward and spoke.

David Brooks was taken aback. Together with Eric Bennett, he stood up and craned his neck to look back. In the distance, they could see a red lantern swaying on the pitch-black river, sending out signals. Although neither of them understood the meaning, since the boatman said it was a stop signal, it must be so.

“There aren’t river bandits on the Yangtze, are there?” Eric Bennett asked worriedly.

“Sir, river bandits wouldn’t dare operate in this area. Wuchang is the seat of the Governor-General’s office, and there are Green Standard troops stationed here. But downstream, on Poyang Lake and the Taihu section, there are some. They rob merchants and then hide in the lakes, making it hard to catch them. But here, there’s nowhere to hide.”

The steward replied, bowing.

“Uh, so there really are river bandits?”

“Sir, there are bandits everywhere. With so many merchants traveling up and down the Yangtze, it’s inevitable that some make a living this way.”

The steward said.

At this moment, the boat behind was clearly closing in, and even the characters on the lantern were faintly visible. David Brooks, who had excellent eyesight, immediately said, “Quick, pull over and stop the boat. It’s a naval vessel under the Huguang Governor-General’s banner.”

Eric Bennett frowned and felt for the pistol in his chest.

But he quickly let go. It couldn’t possibly be for him. Although five days was barely enough for an urgent message to travel eight hundred li from Beijing to Wuchang, the Huguang Governor-General couldn’t possibly think he could travel as fast as an express courier. No need to be overly nervous.

The slow-moving sand boat soon pulled to the side and dropped anchor. Not long after, a small warship bearing the Huguang Governor-General’s flag caught up from behind and drew alongside. On board were more than a dozen Qing soldiers, led by an officer with a saber at his waist. As soon as the two boats were side by side, he leapt aboard, glanced at the group, and asked, “Which one of you is the Songjiang Assistant Magistrate, Mr. Brooks?”

David Brooks cupped his hands and said, “That would be me.”

The officer nodded, then suddenly pointed at Eric Bennett and shouted, “Arrest the imperial criminal!”

“Huh?!”

Without the slightest hesitation, Eric Bennett drew his pistol, racked the slide at lightning speed, and as two Qing soldiers approached, two shots rang out in quick succession. Two bullets instantly pierced their skulls. The two soldiers, as if struck by a heavy blow, screamed and fell backward. Before the officer could draw his saber, Eric Bennett’s gun was already aimed at his head. Only then did the people on the boat react—David Brooks’s concubine screamed and immediately fainted.

“So, who’s going to explain this?”

Eric Bennett asked curiously.

Everyone was terrified. The two Qing soldiers lay dead on the deck, each with a bloody hole in the back of their heads. Blood and brain matter splattered all over the officer, and even David Brooks was spattered. In the flickering lantern light, it looked especially grim and horrifying.

“A... a foreign gun!” David Brooks stammered, then suddenly cried out, “He didn’t load any bullets!”

“Bang!”

Another gunshot.

Clearly, this gun was not what he thought it was.

A Qing soldier on the warship, who had been raising a musket to launch a sneak attack, screamed and fell.

“I’ll ask again—who’s going to explain this?”

As Eric Bennett spoke, he pulled out a grenade, bit off the safety, aimed at the warship, and hurled it over. With a boom, a fireball exploded, blasting several Qing soldiers into the air. Fortunately, it hadn’t ignited the boat, but the vessel was now unusable, and most of the soldiers were dead or wounded. He then reached into his coat and pulled out another grenade.

Ever since the incident at the Palace of Heavenly Purity, he’d been especially concerned about his own safety. Along the way, he’d been searching for an armory to arm himself, but instead of finding one, he’d stumbled upon a group of soldiers in training. Without ceremony, he’d helped himself to a Type 92 pistol and four grenades. After boarding the boat, he kept them all on his person to avoid accidents. With the firepower he now had, he could wipe out everyone on both boats, so he acted especially brazenly.

The officer, sweating profusely, stared nervously at the gun barrel, then slowly pulled a gold leaf from his coat and showed it to him in the lantern light. It was exactly like the one Eric Bennett had seen before, except this one had four extra characters.

“Damn it, Henry Foster, you old bastard, you set me up!”

Staring at the gold leaf, Eric Bennett roared in grief and anger.

Chapter 8: A Chu Liuxiang-Style Life

The four extra characters on the gold leaf were—

Imperial criminal, report to authorities.

The cunning old Henry Foster, in his haste, could only come up with this method. The four characters were pressed lightly into the gold foil—hard to spot unless you looked closely, but easy to read if you paid attention.