Chapter 114: Hundred Thousand Gold

In the Yangzhou Grand Governor's Office, Wei Tao was sitting before the case to handle official duties, and he seemed a little absent-minded. This morning, he had just received a quick letter from King Di, his son-in-law. Although he did not blame him for the Yangzhou incident in the letter, there was a hint of dissatisfaction with himself in his tone between the lines.

Wei Tao was in a bad mood. He originally did not agree with the trick of assassinating a villain. Last time he could not hinder King Di's begging, so he sent Ronald to join the army to attack Li Qing'an, but failed. But now, King Di actually blamed himself for his poor work, which really made him feel annoyed.

‘Bang!’ Wei Tao threw the pen to the ground hard, and walked in the room with a gloomy face. After a while, his anger subsided. He glanced at the pen on the ground and couldn't help but shake his head and pick up the pen.

At this time, Luo Zhanjun's report came from the door, "Chief Wei, I have important things to report to you."

"Come in!"

Wei Tao sat back on his seat, the door opened, and the military officer Luo Wu walked in quickly, bowed and said, "See Wei Changshi!"

"Tell me! What's the point?"

Luo Wu closed the door and lowered his voice and said, "Changshi, I have a distant relative who is from King Qing's Beppu. He came to my house last night. He told me that King Qing's whereabouts are unknown. King Qing's aide Yan Kai was searching everywhere, just near Yangzhou, Changshi Wei, see if we want it."

Wei Tao sneered and asked, "What is your relative doing in King Qing's Beshu?"

"He is the manager in the kitchen."

"Hmph! Can a small kitchen manager know about 100,000 taels of gold? Luo Chengjun, you are being used."

Luo Zhanjun was stunned, "What the Chief Secretary meant was Yan Kai's deliberate arrangement?"

"Of course! Li Qiu escorted more than 100 ships of treasures north, and basically took away all the warriors of King Qing in the Jianghuai River. Yan Kai was short of manpower and wanted to use me to help him find it. He made a wishful thinking and thought I couldn't see through it?"

"But why can't we just follow the trap?"

Wei Tao's thoughts changed, and this was true. If he could get the 100,000 taels of gold, King Di could also explain it.

"Well! You've made sense, okay! I'll leave this to you. Remember, you can't let anyone suspect that we did the last assassination."

"I understand, I will go now!"

Luo Zengjun left in a hurry, and Wei Tao picked up his pen again, "100,000 taels of gold". He muttered to himself, and his eyes gradually lit up.

Spring rain, the dense raindrops are as small as needle tips, and the entire Jianghuai Plain is shrouded in the misty rain and mist. In Jiangdu Nan City, Li Qing'an's confidant He Yanming was looking around with two subordinates, "Let your eyes widen, don't go to see women, find the bronze shop quickly."

While he gave the order, his eyes secretly turned to the beautiful beard who was recruiting guests at the door of the restaurant. He felt itchy and couldn't press it down. He ordered: "My legs were injured in the last battle of Xiaobolu. It hurts when it rains. I want to take a rest. You go to the bronze shop and come to the restaurant and call me."

The two soldiers were despised and had no choice but to go. Seeing their subordinates walking away, He Yanming immediately ran to the restaurant, smiled and said, "Little Beauty, I'm here."

"Oh! Jun Ye is here, please come in quickly."

The wine-selling girl was circulating with her eyebrows and touched her arms, and she went into the wine shop intimately, "Do you want a few glasses of Gaochang wine?"

He Yanming pinched her face and smiled, "As long as you are willing to drink with me, you can drink as much as you like."

A silver bell-like laughter suddenly came from the restaurant, "The Jun Ye is so evil that he actually teased someone."

As soon as He Yanming sat down, before he could order food, his two subordinates ran over, "Captain, the bronze shop is next to the winery."

He Yanming was stunned for a moment and cursed: "Grandma, just say it clearly if you want to drink, hey! Call two little beauties, Jun Ye, I feel happy. You will be rewarded."

The two soldiers smiled and sat down, "It's great to follow Jun Ye to do things, there's wine to drink, and Hu Ji is with you."

After drinking for half an hour, He Yanming paid the wine and rewards and came to the next door with satisfaction. This was a big shop, filled with various copper ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware inside and out. Since copper ware ware ware ware inside inside and out is relatively expensive, because copper ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware ware inside inside and outside is relatively expensive.

When He Yanming walked to the copper shop, a guy stepped forward and smiled and said, "Does Jun Ye want to buy bronze ware?"

He Yanming raised his face and said arrogantly: "I want a lot, do you have it here?"

"Yes! Yes! My boss has three bronze shops, and we have hundreds of pieces in our store, and there are more in the warehouse, and the Junye wants as much as he wants."

He Yanming pointed out a finger and said, "I want a thousand pieces, today."

‘One thousand pieces!’

The guy's eyes widened, and he immediately turned around and shouted, "Shopkeeper, a big customer is here."

A middle-aged man ran out, and the guy whispered a few words in his ear. The shopkeeper's eyes lit up and he immediately bent down and smiled, "Mr. Jun, please sit inside."

The shopkeeper invited He Yanming into the inner room, and then asked, "I wonder what kind of bronze ware does Jun Ye want a thousand pieces?"

"All kinds of bronze ware should be a little bit, not too big in size. Among them, 400 bronze ware used in temples should be sent to the place I designated."

He Yanming took out a piece of paper and handed it to the shopkeeper and said, "It's these two places that someone will come to pick up the goods, and the money will be cleared on the spot."

"Okay! I'm going to prepare now. But a dozen ships will be hired for a thousand bronzes. The freight is very high. Can Junye pay me first?"

"no problem!"

He Yanming took out two cakes of silver from his skin and placed them on the table and said, "This is one hundred taels of silver, enough for you to pay for shipping. In addition, I don't want you to ship goods during the day, so you can set off tonight."

The shopkeeper received the money and smiled, "No problem, I'm ready now!"

These days, the situation in Yangzhou has been quite calm. Du Bosheng and the stolen money were already on the road two days ago, and the prefect Lu Huan personally escorted it to Beijing.

However, the public's discussion on the salt case began to heat up, and various statements emerged one after another. Among the countless statements, the most discussed wealth of the Du family. The Du family sold private salt for at least five years. No one knew how much profits they made during this period. But there was a saying that many people believed that the wealth of the Du family must have not been discovered.

In King Qing's Beppu, Yan Kai sat in the room and carefully checked the information. These information were sent when the salt case was most nervous some time ago. Now they have become waste paper, but Yan Kai always wanted to find clues about the 100,000 taels of gold from it. At present, there are not many people who can use it in his hands, so it is impossible to attack in full swing.

Yan Kai picked up a piece of information from Duliangshan and lowered his head to ponder. This was the information written by one of his subordinates after interrogating several horses in Duliangshan. That night, the third son of the Du family transported property to prepare to board the ship at the Xuyi County Inspection Office, but was ambushed by Li Qing'an, and all the property of the Du family was intercepted.

The information mentioned that there were hundreds of iron boxes, but there were no iron boxes among the property Li Qiu snatched from the state warehouse, all of them were wooden boxes. Is the problem here?

Yan Kai hurriedly found the list given to Li Qiu by Li Qing'an from a pile of information. At the bottom of the list, there was a line of words: It was a night battle, and some items sank into the river, which was exactly in line with the report they were under. Xuyi Inspection Bureau had 120 ships, but after the fierce battle that night, there were only 116 ships left and four ships were missing.

Suddenly discovering this clue, Yan Kai trembled all over with excitement. He stood up and shouted, "Come here!"

A follower came in and bowed: "Is there anything wrong with sir?"

"Prepare horses for me immediately, I'm going to set off immediately."

A quarter of an hour later, Yan Kai led a dozen followers to the north of Jiangdu City on horseback. About an hour later, more than twenty other people, led by Luo Wu, also quietly followed him.

In the military camp, Li Qing'an was receiving an important guest. The guest came from the capital, namely Li Linfu's personal bodyguard commander Chen Zhong.

"The Prime Minister's order is that Du Posheng must not enter Beijing and must be dealt with halfway. I was ordered to come and ask the general to send someone to help me."

After reading Li Linfu's handwriting, Li Qing'an said to him again: "Since there is a prime minister's order, I should obey it. Please wait, I will make arrangements!"

He went out to find Li Fei Shouyu and said a few words to him. Li Fei Shouyu was surprised and immediately said excitedly: "It's best to kill Du Bosheng. No one will know about the 100,000 taels of gold."

"I think so too. I just take this opportunity to get rid of this trouble. You will bring more than a dozen brothers to help Chen Zhong."

"I got it, I'll go now."

"Wait a minute!" Li Qingan called him again, "How is the situation in Xuyi County?"

"Don't worry! With Cui Ping's assistance, we have all arranged it to ensure that it is seamless."

Li Qing'an nodded. He had just received the news that Yan Kai and Luo Zhanjun from the Grand Governor's Office went north one after another. If he was not wrong, he should have gone to Xuyi County.

After arranging all the links, Li Qing'an breathed a light sigh. He looked up at the drizzle. It was already afternoon and immediately ordered: "Prepare a horse for me!"

Li Qingan turned over his horse and galloped towards Gaoyou County with several confidant followers.

Like Yangzhou, Xuyi County has been drizzling these days, from morning to night, there are constant rainfalls, and there are few people on the official roads, and the rivers are the same. Since the Dupo salt case has temporarily come to an end, the work of the Inspection Department has obviously relaxed and no one has to check every boat. In the continuous rain, they prefer to stay in the house to drink and gamble, and more than a dozen yamen runners want to go out.

"The official office, it seems that a boat is coming outside." A yamen runner saw several small boats coming from the river.

The bureau was just glanced at and kicked a yamen runner, "Qin San, go and have a look!"

"Why are you always asking me to go?"

The yamen runner named Qin San muttered and got up and went out. He came to the riverside, covered his eyes with his hands and looked at it. Four ships came, and there were figures on the ship shaking.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"You are blind, we are from Prince Qing's Mansion." Someone on the boat replied coldly.

The yamen runner was startled and ran back to the house, shouting in a low voice: "The official, the ship outside said it was from Prince Qing's Mansion."

Shuzheng was stunned. How could the people from Prince Qing’s Mansion come to him? At this time, a yamen runner on the other side shouted: "Shuzheng, look, there are still several ships over there."

The bureau was lying in front of the window and looking out. In the night, there were several small boats on the other side of the river, but they did not move, as if they were waiting for something?

He secretly cried in his heart, and he was afraid something might happen tonight.

"Everyone listen to me, sneak out one by one, the farther you run, the better. It's important to save your life."

After saying that, he ran out of the back door by himself, spread his feet and ran desperately into the night. More than a dozen yamen runners followed each other, and ran away in a moment.

In the river, Yan Kai stared at the water surface nervously. The water surface was undulating and shaking. Someone dived down. Suddenly, a splash of water rolled, and a fisherman floated onto the water surface and said, "Master, there are several wrecks below, and the ship is full of iron boxes."

Yan Kai was overjoyed and said repeatedly: "Hurry! Hurry up and grab a few iron boxes and come and take a look."

The fishermen pulled a rope and dived down again, and two other hired fishermen also went into the water. They were churning under the water. After a moment, a fisherman floated up and said, "Okay, pull the rope."

Yan Kai grabbed the rope and pulled it up slowly. He was so excited that his hands were trembling. Slowly, a tin box was pulled up. Several followers carried the box onto the boat, wiped the water from the box, and each of them lit a torch and came forward.

"Open it!" Yan Kai said tremblingly.

With a 'click!', the iron box was pried open, and the follower took out several small bronze Buddha statues from it, "Sir, they are all bronze statues."

At this time, another iron box was also pulled up. When you opened the box, there were several copper and wooden fish inside. "Sir, there are also bronzes here."

Yan Kai was stunned for a while, and suddenly thought of something. He immediately pulled out a dagger and slashed heavily on the bronze Buddha statue, carving a deep mark, which was still copper inside.

Yan Kai sat down powerlessly, "What's going on? Why are they all bronze ware?"

Suddenly, the follower holding a torch screamed, and an arrow shot through his chest and fell into the water.
To be continued...