Shanghai's Grandeur: The Savior Begins by Listening to the Witch

Chapter 26 Oriental Academic Travel Team

About half an hour later, Dong Guanfei walked out of the Shadow Alliance Club gate and received two silver coins and four hundred eagle dollars as a mission deposit.

Of the six silver coins he received, the club took 20%, leaving him with only four silver coins and eight hundred silver dollars.

The deposit is half of the commission.

He also used one hundred silver dollars to purchase information about Zhang Fubao and his Ruyi Zhai business.

Now, Dong Guanfei still has eight silver coins and three hundred and nine silver dollars.

When he arrived at Huashan's usual training ground, it was already around 2:30 pm. He quickly took out the new gun he had bought that day and began to test fire.

The test firing was completed quickly.

He had fully grasped the performance of the six new guns, and immediately took out his food, eating lunch while flipping through the intelligence booklet he had just bought.

Zhang Fubao was born in Zhangjia Village, Xunzhou, more than 150 kilometers away.

Xunzhou is famous for its tea and silk, and many wealthy and powerful families emerged there, with the saying "four elephants, eight horses, and thirty-two dogs".

Only those with assets exceeding five million taels of silver could be called "dogs"; those with assets between ten million and thirty million taels could be called "horses"; and those with assets exceeding thirty million taels were respectfully called "elephants".

Two taels of silver were equivalent to three silver dollars.

In other words, Ma's assets were between 15 million and 45 million silver dollars.

The Zhang family was one of the "Eight Horses" and was related by marriage to Qian Chuanzong, the Jiangdong warlord who controlled Xunzhou and its surrounding area of ​​about 200,000 square kilometers. The Zhang family was also one of the latter's money-makers.

Modern warlords generally befriend or ally with one or more major powers in the East or West.

Qian Chuanzong cultivated good relations with the Golden Eagle Federation and the Bilcardia Empire.

The Zhang family is involved in businesses such as tea, raw silk, antiques, and banking, and has established branches in several countries.

Zhang Fubao's father, Zhang Dawei, built his antique business into one of the four giants in the Oriental cultural relics market.

The other three are the Bilcardia Posival Trading Company, the Dongyang Yamanaka Trading Company, and the Old Capital Ancient Rhyme Studio.

Zhang Fubao was responsible for collecting and transporting cultural relics in the Eastern continent, including bronzes, jades, porcelains, Buddhist statues, murals, sculptures, calligraphy and paintings, etc.

The Far East Chamber of Commerce Holy Alliance branch, which Zhang Wanxin was in charge of, was also a business owned by the Zhang family.

For more than 30 years, Ruyi Zhai has handled more than 200,000 cultural relics that have flowed overseas, and a considerable portion of the proceeds have been transferred to Qian Chuanzong's military funds.

In fact, many antique dealers, warlords, and foreign institutions were also involved in selling cultural relics overseas.

Foreign museums, collectors, official and church institutions actively acquire Oriental artifacts, creating strong market demand.

The wars of the past century have caused a systematic and large-scale loss of cultural relics, which has had a profound impact on Eastern cultural heritage.

According to Dong Guotao's comment, in addition to their artistic value, some of these cultural relics are spiritual artifacts, materials, secret manuals, true intentions, divine intentions, and so on, which were passed down from the descendants of impoverished aristocratic families.

Normally, the true intentions or divine intentions of a family have little effect on those outside the family, because it is difficult for others to comprehend them.

But the major Western churches seem to have a secret technique to use them as fuel, transforming their true meaning or divine will into what they need.

Often, the true intention or divine intention is not a painting, but a specific object of expression, such as a mural, sculpture, or stone tablet in a specific environment.

Dong Guanfei, having thoroughly read "The Secrets of the Spirit World," deeply understands that the spirit world and the real world influence each other.

The strength of a region's human civilization has a significant impact on its spiritual realm, influencing factors such as the types, quantities, and frequency of spiritual energy that permeates the real world.

This effect is not immediate, but rather gradual and subtle, with one side gaining and the other losing.

Over a longer period of time, the differences will become more apparent.

This situation is somewhat similar to the legendary leakage, dissipation, or the theft of dragon energy.

In addition to various Ruyi Zhai (a type of Buddhist temple), Zhang Fubao and his men also collected monuments, murals, sculptures, and even artifacts from temples and imperial tombs from the general public.

It can be said that he accepts anything related to ancient times without hesitation.

In fact, Ruyi Zhai was a place where many tomb raiders sold their stolen goods.

Dong Guanfei couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

He is still weak now, but when he becomes truly powerful, he will surely stop the large-scale outflow of Eastern cultural relics and even recover all national treasures.

It seems that Zhang Fubao's recruitment of a large number of people this time is not just for escorting Zhao Huibao and Zhang Wanxin home.

The destination is not far from here, only about 60 kilometers away, bordering the edge of the Japanese concession in the northeast of the bustling metropolis.

But most of them are difficult mountain roads.

Tomorrow they will first walk northeast along the foot of Huashan Mountain. After eight or nine kilometers, there will be a four or five-kilometer plain before they will reach Xiantong Mountain, which has an altitude of about 500 meters.

After walking more than 40 kilometers of mountain road, exit the mountains from the northeast. After exiting the mountains, walk two or three kilometers through the hilly area to reach your destination, Xianhu Town.

They would have to spend one or two nights on Fairy Child Mountain during the entire trip.

In reality, they had a faster and safer route, so Zhang Fubao and Zhao Guanghua must have had other plans in Xiantong Mountain.

After completing the escort mission, if Dong Guanfei returns alone, he can take a train from a station more than ten kilometers away from Xianhu Town. It will only take one day to return to the Golden Eagle Federation or the Bilcardia Concession.

Dong Guanfei is currently staying at Yunlai Inn in Lianhua Ferry, which is only one or two kilometers away from Zhang Mansion, the place where he applied for the job earlier.

In addition, he felt that Zhao Huibao and Zhao Guanghua's status was definitely no less than Zhang Fubao's, but he still didn't know who the siblings were.

Meanwhile, Zhao Guanghua and Zhang Fubao, whom he was talking about, were having a meeting in the study on the second floor of Zhang's mansion.

Also present was Wang Anyue, Zhao Guanghua's bodyguard captain.

Wang Anyue is a peak-level True Qi Realm martial artist.

"I really have to trouble you this time, Brother Shi. Tian Laosan's message came a bit suddenly, and all my capable men were out there at the right time."

"No need to be so polite, my dear brother. This academic trip involves the Dongyang University team, and the destination is right next to the Japanese concession. Do we have enough manpower?"

"That's enough. I know that academic tour group. Professor Yoshino Masato, who leads the group, is an Onmyoji at the same level as us, and the leader of the escort team, Murakami Ichiro, is a mid-level samurai."

"With Captain Wang here, they are nothing to worry about."

"Moreover, I have encountered this academic tour group twice before, and both times it ended peacefully, with one of the transactions even resulting in the sale of some items."

Zhao Guanghua frowned. "The Japanese have plundered too many of our precious cultural relics in recent years, it's truly heartbreaking. Are there any particularly valuable items among these items?"

"It should be some murals, sculptures, books, etc. from the Dongling Longwang Temple, but the specifics are still unclear."

"Dongling Dragon King Temple?"

"Yes, it's normal that you haven't heard of it. It's just a small temple, built no more than two hundred years ago, and its incense offerings have been very poor in recent years."

Zhao Guanghua nodded slightly, agreeing with Zhang Fubao's statement.

Generally speaking, only ancient temples that have been passed down for four or five hundred years or more may have particularly precious items.

Because true intentions or divine intentions can only be left behind by powerful individuals in the mid-to-late stages of "entering sainthood" or "entering the Dao" under specific circumstances, and the conditions for preservation are often quite demanding.

In the past four hundred years, such powerful figures have been few and far between, each of whom was renowned for their prowess.

Zhang Fubao shrugged and curled his lip. "The Japanese are really too greedy and despicable. They used to be pirates, using academics as a cover. They would take anything that seemed valuable and destroy anything they couldn't carry away."

Zhao Guanghua smiled, neither confirming nor denying.

In fact, Zhang Fubao and his ilk also damaged many precious cultural relics, such as dismantling murals and sculptures.

Zhang Fubao seemed to suddenly remember something, and casually asked, "Brother, I didn't expect to attract a guy like 'Ruthless' this time. What are your plans for dealing with him?"

Zhao Guanghua shrugged. "Once Bao'er's novelty wears off, send him away. If possible, let him come with you to escort him back here."

"By the way, Captain Wang, try using 'Ruthless' tomorrow to see what kind of tactics he uses, but try not to actually hurt him."

"Yes, Second Young Master."