Liu Yin remained expressionless. He continued leafing through the case files and said:
"You and Liu Tan instructed the Brocade Workshop to rush the brocade robes and crimson padded jackets, then obtained a Cargo Permit for this shipment. You issued the supporting documents."
Wang Yang replied as though it were perfectly natural:
"Yes. Since I'd given him the goods, of course I had to provide proof. It's not contraband."
"The Cargo Permit says the destination is Xiangyang in Yongzhou."
"Right. I heard the market in Xiangyang was good."
Liu Yin's tone grew stern. "Then why does the route on the Travel Verification detour through Wenyang? Isn't that taking the long way around?"
Taken from the Southern Qi map in volume four of Tan Qixiang's Historical Atlas of China. I photographed the map with my phone and added the three arrows myself, but (moved into the main text because of the character limit)
(But the system limits image sizes, so I compressed it and enhanced the image quality. The Yongzhou and Xiangyang section is still rather unclear.)
At the time, a Cargo Permit certified that the goods were legal, and only the final destination needed to be listed. A Travel Verification, however, had to specify the exact route.
Now that Liu Yin had pointed out the discrepancy in the route, Wang Yang remained utterly unruffled and drawled:
"Wenyang has lovely scenery. A little detour doesn't hurt."
"What about the Transit Pass? Liu Tan obtained a Transit Pass for fifty people in total-the people from the Liu Residence and the wagon crew you hired. Why does it only cover travel to Wenyang Commandery, not Yongzhou?"
"Plans can't keep pace with change. What if we make other arrangements after reaching Wenyang Commandery?"
Liu Yin looked at Wang Yang, a sharp light flashing in