Chapter 86: The Hai family’s handle (III)

Autumn has passed, and the weather has slowly turned colder. Sooner and evening, thin ice began to appear. Gradually, it was almost the end of the year. Late that night, Chengdu Jiangshoujin Wharf seemed to have fallen asleep. Hundreds of large ships were parked neatly and orderly on the dock. There were more than thirty sand boats parked on the west side of the dock. Hundreds of porters were carrying large boxes with difficulty. Each wooden box needed four porters to carry. Despite this, the heavy wooden box still made the porters extremely difficult. They shouted in a low voice and moved closer to the sand boat step by step. On both sides of these porters, dozens of strong men in black clothes walked back and forth with knives and whips, watching the porters' every move vigilantly. These wooden boxes were the goods that the Hai family was about to transport to Tubo. The waybill was written with tea, which had been checked by the government and all the procedures were complete.

At this time, a porter who was about to board the boat seemed to slide under his feet, and the rod was thrown off, and a staggered and lost the center of gravity. The heavy wooden box immediately slid off the rope, turned over several times, and fell heavily on the embankment. With a loud bang, the box was broken and bundles of strips wrapped in oil paper were scattered. One of the bundles of oil paper had been poked, and a black iron bar was penetrated. It was particularly dazzling under the moonlight.

More than a dozen men in black nearby suddenly saw something happening and rushed towards him with a whip. The four porters who were in trouble saw that the situation was not good, turned over and jumped into the river one after another, and disappeared in an instant.

"What's wrong? What's yelling?"

A thin and black middle-aged man opened the curtain and came out of the cabin. He was Hailan's confidant Hai Jiu, responsible for the escort of the goods. He saw the goods scattered all over the ground at a glance. He was shocked and shouted, "A bunch of idiots! Why don't you bring them on the ship quickly."

Several men in black hurriedly picked up the goods, jumped onto the ship in a few steps, and got into the cabin. When Hai Jiu saw that the goods were discovered, he immediately ordered his subordinates to search for the four porters along the coast, but the four porters seemed to be like shattered bubbles, and there was no trace in the night. When he asked the other porters, he shook his head and said that he did not know the four people. Hai Jiu had no choice but to strengthen supervision to prevent another accident. He only secretly hoped that the four people did not see the goods clearly.

"Master Jiu, it seems that the master is here!"

Hai Jiu was shocked. Sure enough, he saw a group of black shadows surrounding a carriage and driving towards this side. He hurriedly went forward. The carriage stopped. The thin Hailan slowly got off the carriage. Since Li Qing left Chengdu, he became Dugu Qiubai again. He hangs among a group of old men by Huanhua Creek all day long, enjoying fishing. Half a year ago, the Shi family launched a rice battle, but he sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, just like an old monk entering a meditation. In the end, he just moved his mouth and beat the Shi family to the point of distraction. It seemed that nothing could distract him. But today, he made a special trip to the dock to check the loading situation. The reason was that a secret visit by Tubo a month ago, asking him to transport a batch of pig iron and armour to Tubo, and placed an order of 500,000 yuan, which was so large that it was unprecedented.

What Tubo needs most is the pig iron of the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang Dynasty strictly prohibited the export of pig iron. Therefore, Tubo could only get the pig iron needed from underground channels. The Hai family was one of the channels. For this reason, the Hai family opened a sword test hall twenty years ago, which was nominally selling various weapons, but this was just a cover. The real purpose of the Hai family's opening sword test hall was to acquire and store pig iron. In the past few years, the Hai family's pig iron has accumulated tens of thousands of dan, and it has been cast into iron bars and placed in the warehouse of the sword test hall. Even if someone is suspicious, he cannot get the Hai family's account book and does not know the consumption of pig iron for casting weapons, and he can't do anything about it.

This time, Tubo sent people to urge ironware, but Hailan did not dare to neglect it. He came to visit Li Daofu in person, promised a kickback of 50,000 yuan, and so he obtained a full set of legal procedures.

The cargo volume is huge and it has to be taken in at least three trips. Today is the first time to load the ship. The best fine iron is transported. Hailan was worried and rushed to inspect the shipment overnight.

"Lao Jiu, has it been leaked?"

Hailan had a sharp eye. He had seen a group of people packing a broken wooden box by the boat. Hai Jiu secretly glanced back and cursed in his heart that the group of people were slow to handle and was seen by the master. He dared not hide it anymore, so he had to honestly say: "Master, the porter accidentally broke a box just now, but the goods inside were wrapped in oil paper. No one knew what it was inside. Please rest assured!"

Hailan looked at him for a long time before slowly saying, "Where are those porters?"

The sweat had already flowed down Haijiu's forehead. It seemed that the master did not completely believe his words. "A few porters had caused trouble and all jumped into the river to escape. The subordinates were incompetent and did not catch any of them."

"If you run away, you have to find a way to find them!" Hailan said decisively: "Don't worry about this matter, I'll let the third master do it."

Hailan immediately turned around and ordered his subordinates, "You should inform the Third Master immediately and ask him to use all the power of Emei Hall. No matter how you want to find out the whereabouts of these four porters, you must catch them before dawn."

His subordinates took the order and rode away on horseback. Hailan saw Hai Jiu's face slightly confused, as if he was feeling a big deal. He was immediately angry. He shouted sternly: "You have been telling me for at least thirty years. If this matter is leaked, what will the consequences be? Don't you know?"

Hai Jiu was frightened and quickly lowered his head. Hai Lan saw it and cursed with a blue face, "You have been fighting with me for decades before I can feel at ease to let you do this. If you make any mistakes, our Hai family will all die at your hands. Seeing you being careless, how can I feel at ease to let you go? Forget it! Get back and hug the woman! I personally take the boat this time."

As he said that, Hailan took off his robe and threw it away, and then walked towards the boat. The Hai family was so scared that they were trembling all over. He pounced! He knelt on the ground, climbed a few steps, grabbed Hailan's hand and cried, "Master, Xiaojiu knows the crime! Xiaojiu knows the crime!"

Hailan was held back by him and couldn't help but sigh at the sky. The anger in his chest was really hard to calm down. Since last year, the Hai family has suffered many disastrous consequences and greatly damaged its strength. At this time, Tubo came to ask for goods again. He had just shown a reluctant expression. The secret envoy of Tubo threatened him. If he refused to agree, he would report it to the court. It was not as beautiful as before. Everything was related to Tubo's blood relatives. "Hum!" Hailan snorted heavily, and he had no choice but to be helpless. It was already difficult to get on the tiger!

He sighed, "Get up! Be careful on the road. When you encounter someone blocking the road, don't be stingy with money, do you know? We are not trying to make money this time."

Hai Jiu wiped away his tears and said with a trembling voice: "Xiao Jiu remembers the words of his master."

"Go!" Hailan patted his shoulder, "Be flexible on the road, don't let me down!"

Hai Jiu knelt down and kowtowed again, then got up and wanted to leave, but was stopped by Hai Lan. He took out a letter from his arms and solemnly handed it to Hai Jiu: "This is a handwritten letter from the governor. It is a request for officials along the way to release this ticket. This matter is of great importance. You are not allowed to take it out unless you have to. Do you understand!"

"I understand! If there is any change, I should destroy this letter first."

Hai Jiu knew in his heart that if something really happened and if this letter was received by someone who was interested, the first person who turned against the Hai family would definitely be Li Daofu.

"Just understand, go! I wish you a good journey."

The night was deep, and a fleet slowly left Jiangshoujin, passed through the thick fog, and headed south.

At the same time as the fleet left the port, the gate of the Min Gang headquarters was brightly lit, and four men were wet and rushed out of the bamboo forest opposite, like four otters exploding nests, rushing straight towards the gate of the headquarters. Before the door, dozens of black-clothed gang members flashed out from each side, holding a cold-light horizontal knife in one hand and aiming at them on the other side with military crossbows.

A burly red-faced man stood proudly like a wall, pointing at them with a wide back and big knife, "Who, stop me!"

"Brother Qin, don't shoot arrows! It's us, little fifth son."

"Little Five, why are you?"

The big red-faced man hurriedly supported them, "But there is news?"

The four of them nodded repeatedly, "Go and report to the leader of the gang, we have the exact news."

Soon, the four were taken into the lobby. Although they had thick coats from brothers in the gang, the four were still as cold as their lips were black and purple, and their bodies were shaking.

Wang Bing was sleeping soundly, and suddenly was woken up by his confidant. He heard that there was news from the Hai family, so he rushed to the lobby before he even had time to put on his shoes. Since he came back from Yibin County, Wang Bing each arranged a lot of eyeliners to stare at the Hai family's every move. The little five sons and the four were responsible for Jiangshoujin West Wharf. When the four of them saw the leader coming out, they knelt down and bowed.

"I'm here to see the leader of the gang!"

Wang Bing waved his hands, "Forget it! Tell me quickly, what have you seen?"

The leading little five son stepped forward and said, "The batch of goods I saw today was on board the ship late at night, and the cargo was extremely heavy and quite suspicious, so we took advantage of the opportunity to board the ship and broke the box. My subordinates saw it very clearly, and everything contained in it was iron bars."

"What kind of iron bar is it?"

"Bundled with oil paper, each one is about three feet long, but an iron bar poked out, and it is the best fine iron."

"Iron bars! Why isn't they iron blocks?" Wang Bingge pondered for a moment, and suddenly sneered, "I understand that this must have been transported from the Sword Test Hall."

"Thank you for your hard work!" Wang Bing patted everyone on the shoulder with praise, "Each person is rewarded with twenty guan, go and change clothes quickly!"
Chapter completed!