Shen Hao and Feilong were fed a large table of food, and everything was left in the pot.
"Hiccup..." It was rare for Shen Hao to burp. He always felt more comfortable eating with someone who could eat as well.
Feilong can indeed eat, but it is worse than Shen Hao. Now he is half slumped on the chair, his belly is bulging, and he looks like he is full.
"Let's go to the lotus pond in the back and take a walk to eat."
"Okay sir."
After hearing this, Feilong reluctantly stood up and followed Shen Hao to the backyard.
It is now late November, and winter has entered in Haocheng. Although it is not as cold as in the north, the lotus pond has withered, and the broken stems and some gray-yellow fallen leaves on the water surface look very depressed.
Shen Hao walked in front, and Feilong followed one step behind, bending slightly.
"Do you have any clues about what attracted your attention last time?"
"Sir, the number of orders in the black market has grown rapidly recently. Whether it is medicinal materials or elixirs, they are all going in and out. The import and export channels we control can no longer account for the majority. Many of them disappeared during the strict inspections two years ago. Both the supply and receipt ends have resurfaced. These people are very capable, and it will take some time to figure out the context."
Shen Hao nodded. Although he did not get a satisfactory answer, he was not dissatisfied because things were indeed as Feilong said. After the "severe winter" in the black market in the previous two years, with the overall victory and end of the southern war, and The new harvest strategy revealed by the Jing Dynasty against the barbarians this time has made the country more peaceful. All aspects are recovering and developing rapidly, and the black market has also regained its vitality.
If it hadn't been for taking advantage of the window period before clearing the money, and with the deliberate help of Xuanqingwei, Feilong would not have been able to capture the black market of Jingjiu Dynasty without any resistance. There are also reasons why many black market bosses avoid disaster and hide themselves.
Nowadays, the import and export volume of the black market has more than tripled compared with last year, which shows that it is revitalized.
Although Feilong didn't say anything about this situation, Shen Hao also knew that the entire black market was under huge impact. All parties' previously hidden forces were emerging at this time, which was bound to form a new and huge challenge to Feilong's black market territory.
As soon as Feilong came in, Shen Hao smelled the golden sore medicine on him. He also heard from Wang Jian that Feilong had been attacked and killed many times during this period. If it weren't for the many desperate brothers in his hands, Feilong would have died long ago. .
Therefore, it is reasonable and acceptable to encounter some obstacles in the assigned tasks.
"It doesn't matter, as long as you know what's going on."
Shen Hao hopes to use the import and export of medicinal materials and elixirs on the black market as a breakthrough to find out the external context of the evil monks. You can't always be led by the other party, and you can't always see them when something goes wrong. You have to be more proactive, so that you don't cut off the subsequent investigation every time the other party cuts off an arm, and put you back again. Hide.
"Don't worry, sir. I will sort out the chores in my hands as soon as possible, and then dig out the information you need.
In fact, some of the new forces that have emerged recently are very strange in themselves. They only produce elixirs but rarely buy medicinal materials from the black market. This shows that they have stable and cheap sources of medicinal materials and do not need to rely on the black market. But now there are only a few kinds of medicinal materials in Guochao. Most of them are sold in major government-run medicine stores, some rare ones are sold in auction houses, and the remaining small amount goes into the yamen inventory. The medicinal materials in the black market are also obtained through unclean methods.
Unless there is a direct connection to the south, based on the amount of elixir produced by those people, they will never be able to afford it. "
Shen Hao paused, turned around and asked, "Are there many cases like this?"
"Currently, it seems that five factions are like this. Although they all cover up and use false methods to collect medicinal materials, in fact, the medicinal materials are taken out with their left hand and out with the right hand, and they are not actually retained.
However, my lord, I am aware that if these five families are all owned by each other, I cannot say with certainty now. Moreover, it is not yet certain whether there are similar forces hiding in the dark. "
Feilong didn't dare to finish his words. Although he actually had some ideas about this matter, he only dared to mention it. Everything had to wait until the new round of competition in the black market was over.
However, this news still has certain reference value to Shen Hao.
Blackwater had previously speculated from the "Grey Worm Juice" in the reverse elixir that the base camp of the evil monks should be in the City of Wasted Death, and speculated that it might be hidden in the "Eternal Life Gate", one of the three leaders of the City of Wasted Death. Because medicinal materials such as "Grey Worm Juice" are specialties in the barbarian realm, and "Eternal Life Sect" is the largest collector of such medicinal materials.
Since medicinal materials can be collected, naturally they will no longer collect high-priced medicinal materials from the black market. However, even if it is cheaper to collect medicinal materials from barbarians, it still costs money. Where does this money come from?
Even if Heishui's speculation is true and the evil monks are hiding in the Immortal Sect, they may share some of the benefits of the Eternal Life Sect, but these benefits are not as huge as imagined, and they are not enough for the evil monks to stay within the scope of the Jingjiu Dynasty. Arrange so many strongholds to do things.
After all, Wusi City is only a city in the final analysis. No matter how many masters there are, its resource consumption and output cannot be compared with that of the Jingjiu Dynasty. As the third leader of the Changsheng Sect, the manpower under his command also consumes a lot of resources, and even if the profit is given to the evil monks, it is very limited.
Therefore, according to Shen Hao's speculation, the funds for the evil monks must come from the huge market in the old Jing Dynasty. It's unlikely on the surface, but there is definitely a black market, and there is definitely not a lot of it.
There is another point involved in this, that is, there are definitely a lot of alchemy masters among the evil monks. And this is the business that Shen Hao estimates that the evil monks can make the most money in the Jingjiu Dynasty. After all, fast-moving consumables such as elixirs are in short supply all year round, whether in the market, elixir shops, or auction houses, and it is not easy to leave mistakes.
Judging from the news Feilong just said, there is nothing wrong with Shen Hao's guess. As long as you find those forces that are selling elixirs but not medicinal materials in the black market, and then follow the clues, you can seize this important channel for evil monks to raise funds. Once the action starts later, directly cutting off the opponent's financial resources will definitely be a heavy blow to the evil monk.
"Well, you just have to be aware of this.
Also, what about the news from Jingbei? How's the collection going? "
Feilong took out a copper bar from the storage bag in his arms, offered it with both hands, and said, "Sir, it's all in here. From the time you brought it to my attention, until the end of last month, all the people in the Jingbei black market who had something to do with the Qin family The connections are all figured out. They think that by following the path of the small intermediaries, they can distract themselves and hide themselves, but they don’t know that 80% of the small and medium-sized intermediaries are my people. It’s too easy to figure out their tricks.”
