At noon the next day, in the south of the city, in Lion Alley.
In an inconspicuous courtyard, six tall and thick-set men stood.
These men all have small skirts and short clothes. On his feet were grippy tiger boots. In his hand was a sheathed dagger. A scorpion crossbow hangs from his waist.
They are plainclothes captains of Fusi, Beizhen. This courtyard is one of Jinyiwei's safe houses.
Not long after, the courtyard door creaked open.
Chang Feng strode in.
The six men didn't speak, they just fisted at Chang Feng.
Changfeng nodded slightly. Pointing at both eyes with two fingers means "be on guard".
Then he entered the main room of the courtyard.
There are no beds, pots and pans in the main room. Some are just a bunch of torture instruments and an interrogation table.
Zhang Cai and Basha were already standing in the main room.
A middle-aged man in his forties was covered in injuries and slumped in a chair.
This middle-aged man is Lu Shaoyuan, the son-in-law of Geng Yu, the former Minister of Rites, and one of the eight elders of the Maritime Chamber of Commerce fifteen years ago.
Chang Feng glanced at Lu Shaoyuan's feet. It was found that a pair of his cloud-toe boots had been punctured and there were blood stains on them.
Jinyiwei always starts with nailing the footboard when executing prisoners.
Chang Feng asked Zhang Cai: "Have you ever sentenced him?"
Zhang Cai cupped his hands and said, "Afraid of delaying Master Chang's time, I decided on my own initiative and sentenced him first."
"Save you from having to waste time and execute him yourself."
Think about what the leader thinks, worry about what the leader is anxious about, save time for the leader, and the leader does not need to worry about anything like Zhang Cai, who can get away with it in any yamen of any dynasty.
Chang Feng nodded towards Zhang Cai with satisfaction.
Chang Feng sat in front of Lu Shaoyuan: "Do you know me?"
Lu Shaoyuan opened his eyes, and his eyeballs were bloodshot. He said with a weak breath: "You are from Jinyiwei. Chang Tu, oh no, Master Chang?"
"You and I have no grudges in the past and no grudges these days. My father-in-law never offended you before he was alive."
Chang Feng interrupted Lu Shaoyuan: "Do you still remember that in the first year of Hongzhi, there were Japanese pirates in Hangzhou City and eight gentry families were massacred?"
Lu Shaoyuan was stunned.
Chang Feng pointed at himself: "The one who attacked was not a Japanese pirate, but me, Chang Feng! Those eight people are all minions from the Four Seas Association."
"I was still junior and lacked power at the time. I couldn't touch you eight elders, so I could only kill eight minions to vent my anger."
Lu Shaoyuan was extremely surprised: "You actually know about the Sihaihui?"
Chang Feng said: "Not only do I know about the Four Seas Society, but I also know who the eight elders are. Including you."
Lu Shaoyuan smiled bitterly: "Just because of the Four Seas Society, you tied me here and gave me a severe punishment?"
"I was still the elder of the Four Seas Association. How long ago did that happen?"
Chang Feng asked: "Why, the Sihai Society has changed?"
Lu Shaoyuan immediately fell silent.
Chang Feng smiled and said, "Why, you want to be punished a second time, suffer twice, suffer twice? I'll make it happen for you."
"As long as you can bear it and can't die, I can not only punish you a second time, but also a third or fourth time."
"Only until you confess."
Lu Shaoyuan had already suffered a lot: "Master Chang, please spare me. I will say anything."
"The Four Seas Society has ceased to exist long ago!"
Chang Feng was surprised: "Oh? The Four Seas Society was so powerful back then, how could it cease to exist?"
Lu Shaoyuan said: "She's not the little widow of the Lin family. That little widow is very resourceful."
"I think back then, there were eight elders and one deacon in the world. The elders were responsible for supporting the smuggling trade."
"Deacons are responsible for dealing with Japanese pirates and buying and selling goods."
Chang Feng said: "If I guess correctly, the deacon is the Lin family of Quanzhou, right?"
Lu Shaoyuan replied: "Exactly. The deacon is Lin Kewang, the head of the Lin family, oh, he is also the husband of Yan Pan'er."
"Eleven years ago, Lin Kewang died of illness. His son was young. His wife Yan Pan'er became a deacon."
"Originally, the eighth elder didn't think highly of Yan Pan'er, a female figure. He planned to kick her out of the Sihai Club."
"I never expected that Yan Pan'er is 10,000 times smarter than her damn husband."
"The money earned by Sihaihui has doubled in two years."
Chang Feng poured a bowl of water for Lu Shaoyuan: "Moisten your throat and continue."
Lu Shaoyuan drank the bowl of water greedily and continued: "Nine years ago, Yan Pan'er and Wang Zhi summoned all the elders to discuss matters in Hangzhou."
Chang Feng interrupted Lu Shaoyuan: "If I remember correctly, King Jingjiang suddenly made a request nine years ago to pay tribute to Beijing one year in advance. The emperor granted permission. His royal carriage passed through Hangzhou."
"The purpose is to discuss matters with the other elders in Hangzhou, right?"
Lu Shaoyuan nodded: "Exactly. After the eight elders gathered in Hangzhou, Deacon Yan Pan'er treated everyone to a prairie hotpot."
"That hot pot banquet is no less than the Hongmen Banquet."
"She used many ingenious methods to persuade eight elders to dissolve the Sihai Society and establish a new Shuangmu Society."
Chang Feng said: "Shuangmu, Lin Ye. She actually wants to dominate the family? You, a group of senior officials, nobles and vassal kings, actually agreed?"
Lu Shaoyuan explained: "Whether it is the Four Seas Club or the Shuangmu Club, in the final analysis, it all comes down to the word 'profit'."
"As long as the Lin family in Quanzhou allows us to get more interest, what if we let her family dominate?"
Chang Feng glanced at Zhang Cai. Zhang Cai is recording the confession in a clear and logical manner.
Chang Feng asked Lu Shaoyuan: "What is the difference between Shuangmu Society and Sihai Society?"
Lu Shaoyuan replied: "The eight elders of the Sihai Society have the final say. The Shuangmu Society has no elders, only the leader. The leader alone has the final say on everything."
"Yan Pan'er is naturally the only leader."
"All the former members of the Four Seas Society have become shareholders of the Shuangmu Society."
"The Lin family holds half of the shares, and the original eight elders hold 40%."
In the words of later generations, the eight elders lost their decision-making power and only retained the right to distribute dividends.
Chang Feng asked: "Where is the other fifty and a half percent?"
Lu Shaoyuan replied: "From the government officials in coastal counties to the high-ranking officials in the capital, the other fifty and a half percent were divided up layer by layer."
"The minions' bonus money is distributed every six months."
"The big shots' dividend money will be reconciled, settled, and written off in the capital every three years."
Chang Feng was stunned: "This time Yan Pan'er came to Beijing just for the three-year dividend distribution, oh no, the spoils sharing conference?"
Lu Shaoyuan replied: "Exactly."
Chang Feng asked: "The spoils are only divided once every three years. How many banknotes will she have to bring when she comes to Beijing this time?"
Lu Shaoyuan's answer made Chang Feng take a breath: "At least three million taels."
In the fourteenth year of Hongzhi's reign, the imperial court levied physical taxes totaling 23,230,000 taels of silver; currency taxes were 3,150,000 taels of silver.
The three-year dividends of Shuangmuhui, a smuggling maritime business group, are as much as the next year's monetary tax revenue.
And this is just the dividends for the big shots. If you add in the minions' share, it will be a shocking figure.
Chang Feng asked: "When will Yan Paner's spoils sharing meeting be held? Where will it be?"
Lu Shaoyuan smiled bitterly: "I don't know."
Chang Feng frowned: "You are a shareholder, don't you know?"
Lu Shaoyuan sighed: "Oh, my father-in-law has been dead for six years. Now I am not considered a big shot in the Shuangmu Society. I am just a minion. I am not worthy to participate in the triennial dividend meeting."
"The little widow of the Lin family, because I was an elder of the Sihai Society, I will be rewarded with two to three thousand taels of silver every year to live on."
Chang Feng thought: It seems that Lu Shaoyuan is no longer the core figure in the smuggling network.
Chang Feng didn't ask Lu Shaoyuan any more about the spoils sharing meeting, as it was in vain.
He changed the topic and asked a question that seemed to have nothing to do with the Shuangmu Society: "Do you know the inside story about the six cities of Yongning, Fujian, which were besieged by Japanese pirates and You Tianjue died in battle?"
Lu Shaoyuan answered truthfully: "I am now a poor person. How can I know the inside story of such a big thing?"
"But I can roughly guess that 90% of the time it was Shuangmu Club who hired Japanese pirates to do it."
"After all these years, which maritime merchant in the southeast doesn't hate You Tianjue till the end of his teeth?"
"He seized the smuggled goods and handed them all to the Shipping Department. Maritime merchants had to spend large sums of money to bribe the companies in the Shipping Department to get the goods back."
When Chang Feng heard this, his heart skipped a beat.
He felt unfair for You Tianjue!
The smuggled goods seized by You Tianjue at the risk of his life became a source of income for the officials of the Shipping Department.
In other words, You Tianjue was treated as a sword by the internal officials of the Shipping Department. The knife that scrapes oil from the body of a sea merchant!
In the end, those smuggled goods will still be transported to the sea to make profits for maritime merchants and Japanese pirates.
When the Japanese pirates got money, they could recruit troops and gather more people. The Japanese invasion in the southeast will be like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger.
You Tianjue's more than ten years of fighting and sacrificing his life for the country ended up in vain.
"Bang!" Chang Feng slapped the table hard in anger. The force was so strong that it caused him to shrink his hand in pain.
Chang Feng got up and left the main room.
Zhang Cai and Basha chased out.
Zhang Cai asked: "Master Chang, Lu Shaoyuan seems to have lost the value of interrogation. How to deal with him?"
Chang Feng asked, "What's the point of doing business with Japanese pirates?"
Zhang Cai replied: "It's considered treason."
Chang Feng asked again: "How do Jin Yiwei always treat those who collaborate with the enemy and treason?"
Zhang Caidao: "I understand. There will be an unknown corpse in the mass grave in the south of the city tonight."
Chang Feng fell in love with this young man Zhang Cai more and more. Every time he didn't need to clarify his words, Zhang Cai could understand his intention.
Lu Shaoyuan has become a little person who doesn't know the inside story.
But today's trial was not fruitless. At the very least, they knew the purpose of Yan Paner's visit to Beijing this time - to share the spoils.
For the time being, Chang Feng only knew the first purpose of Yan Pan'er's visit to Beijing, but not the second.
Kunning Palace.
Zhang Heling has successfully brought Yan Pan'er into the palace and introduced her to Queen Zhang.
At this moment, Queen Zhang was standing in front of the fifteen kilograms of ambergris.
Empress Zhang clicked her tongue and marveled: "What a rare treasure. I'm afraid the palace has never received such a rare tribute in more than 130 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty."
Yan Pan'er is really eloquent and eloquent without metaphors or rhetoric.
She knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Long live today is the most blessed benevolent monarch in history. The Queen is the most blessed mother of the country in history."
"This rare treasure has been sleeping in the sea for thousands of years. It will only appear in the world when the most blessed mother of the country appears."
Yan Pan'er's flattery was very helpful to Queen Zhang.
Empress Zhang lowered her head and glanced at Yan Pan'er: "You are serious. You have also spent money."
Yan Pan'er said: "As long as I can honor the Queen and make the Queen smile, it will be worth it even if the Lin family loses all their wealth."
When he said this, Yan Pan'er's tears flowed down like water onto the bluestone.
Queen Zhang asked quickly: "Why are you crying?"
Zhang Heling helped: "Sister, Mrs. Lin has been wronged."
Zhang Heling did not call her "Queen" in Kunning Palace, but "Sister". It is a bad behavior without any courtesy.
He is such an unruly person. No one cares, no one dares to care.
Queen Zhang said: "Stop crying. Tell me, what are your grievances?"
Yan Pan'er began to pretend to be pitiful to win Empress Zhang's sympathy: "Empress, a commoner's wife is a widowed woman who has to keep her husband's integrity. She has to take care of her young only son and support the Lin family's family business."
"From time to time, there are still people who bully us orphans and widowed mothers. Ying Ying Ying."
Empress Zhang was very sad: "Oh, it's not easy for you as a woman."
"Tell me, who bullied you? I make the decision for you."
Yan Paner did not directly say the word "Changfeng".
She did her homework before going to Beijing. Know the relationship between the Chang family and Queen Zhang.
Since ancient times, we have been close to each other. She would not be stupid enough to say that Chang Feng bullied her and let Queen Zhang make the decision.
Yan Pan'er replied: "There are so many people who bully the orphans and widowers of the Lin family that I can't even count them."
Empress Zhang actually took off a gold and jade butterfly love flower hairpin from her head. The hairpin is decorated with dragon and phoenix patterns. Only the master of the harem can use such hairpins.
Empress Zhang handed the hairpin to Yan Pan'er: "If anyone dares to bully you in the future, take this thing out."
"The presence of this thing proves that you are from this palace. Let's see which evil person dares to bully you orphans and widowed mothers again."
Queen Zhang is a woman who is really kind and stupid. The token that the Mother and the Queen wore with her was randomly awarded to a woman she had only met once.
With this thing, the Lin family can walk sideways in the southeast from now on. How many officials dare to provoke the mother and queen of the country?
Yan Pan'er took the hairpin with both hands and cried even louder: "What kind of virtue did a common woman accumulate in her previous life to be rewarded by the Queen?"
Empress Zhang sighed: "Oh, don't cry. It's hard to be a human being, and it's even harder to be a woman. It's even harder to be a woman in charge of such a big business."
Jin Yiwei's side.
Changfeng thought hard about where to start to uproot Shuangmuhui. After much deliberation, I couldn't figure out the right solution.
No matter how powerful and capable a person is, he cannot fight against the entire court.
The beady widow, with her superb skills, had dragged the entire court down.
Before I knew it, it was evening and the wind started to pick up.
By coincidence, Wang Shouren also walked out of the Ministry of War across the street.
The two walked side by side in tacit understanding.
Chang Feng asked: "Bo'an, where does the word revenge come from?"
Wang Shouren replied: "It is said in "Yue Jueshu·Xu Wai" that if a minister does not punish thieves and a son does not seek revenge, he is not a minister."
Chang Feng said no more. Putting aside the righteousness of his family and country, even if he wanted to avenge Paozeyou Tianjue, he still had to fight with Shuangmuhui.
Chang Feng returns to the mansion. He saw a family standing in the living room from a distance in the front yard, as if they were looking at something rare.
Chang Tian also returned to her parents' house and was also in the living room.
Chang Feng walked in: "What are you doing?"
Liu Xiaoyan replied: "What do you think this is?"
Chang Feng looked at the table. I saw two small boxes on the table. The box contains white powder. The fragrance is astounding.
Chang Feng is also a man who has enjoyed wealth for more than ten years and has seen the world. He asked: "Where did you get the ambergris?"
"These two boxes add up to six taels of ambergris. They are worth two thousand taels of silver."
Liu Xiaoyan replied: "It was a reward from the Queen. She just got a piece of ambergris weighing fifteen kilograms. Let Tangtang and I go to Kunning Palace to watch it this afternoon."
"Before she left, she asked the palace maid to cut three taels for each of us and grind them into powder. Just put half a penny in the sachet and the fragrance will last for a year."
Empress Zhang truly regards Liu Xiaoyan as her biological sister and Chang Tian as her biological sister. Whatever good things happen, I think of these two.
Chang Feng was speechless: "Fifteen kilograms of ambergris? It has never been heard of in ancient times! Which vassal country in Southeast Asia paid tribute?"
Chang Tian interjected: "It was given to the Queen by a woman from a businessman named Lin in Quanzhou."
Chang Feng's heart skipped a beat: Yan Pan'er actually climbed up to the queen? This matter is getting harder and harder to handle.
(End of chapter)
