"what are you thinking?"
Shen Hao picked up the tea cup in front of him and took a sip. The slightly bitter medicinal smell inside made him frown slightly, but he felt a sweet aftertaste soon after entering the mouth, and the taste was not bad.
It was mainly sent by family members to relieve the heat, and Shen Hao did not refuse.
"Sir, I think I can give it a try."
Standing in Shen Haogong's room was Wang Jian. This guy was ordered to rest at home for a few days, and he came here just yesterday when he officially started his work, in order to get the new intelligence information from the city.
The front-line spies have very little information. Firstly, there is no need to let them know too much, and secondly, they are building fire trenches for the intelligence system.
But after the intelligence is summarized and finally reaches the hands of Blackwater Division 4, it is different. It can restore a more intuitive result like a puzzle.
Shen Hao got this latest information about Wusi City at noon the day before yesterday. At that time, Wang Jian was still in Xiu Mu, so Zhang Liao sent it to him. Combining some of the inferences so far, a branch line was finally drawn out that was unexpected and seemed reasonable, which made Shen Hao happy.
As the intelligence focus of Blackwater, the Zhengyang Sect in Waishi City has always been "taken care of". However, due to environmental restrictions, Blackwater's own intelligence channels in Waishi City have been slow to develop, and they want to get to the core. No suitable entry point has been found yet.
It's a bit slow, but there are certainly rewards. Coupled with the large number of intelligence dealers and informants in Waishi City with good methods, Blackwater's huge investment in Waishi City can still get a considerable return.
For example, the information about Zhengyang Sect that was fed back this time mentioned two aspects. One is that Zhengyang Sect has been purchasing medicinal materials for a long time, but almost no elixirs have been exported. The second reason is that the imperial dynasty began to reversely investigate the human trafficking network within the country, and at the same time strictly investigate the people on the waterways of the Ruoshui and Xiahe river basins. As a result, human trafficking in the city of Wuxi fell into silence, but the Zhengyang sect behaved abnormally. It was obvious that You could tell the reaction was a bit panicked.
Both pieces of information are interesting, especially the former one.
Where did the Zhengyang Sect’s medicinal materials come from? This isn't hard to guess at all.
The flow of medicinal materials within the Jingji Dynasty was very limited, and large transactions were recorded in the Yamen and strictly controlled. Basically, 90% of the medicinal materials have been taken away by the major sects and the government-run shops of the Jingji Dynasty, and the remaining one floor will also be snatched up by casual cultivators. Even though there are some private medicinal materials collected from the mountains in various cities, overall they are very few and not enough to be counted.
Including Changsheng Sect, one of the three leaders of Waishi City, most of the medicinal materials purchased in Waishi City do not come from the Jingjiu Dynasty, but from the barbarian realm.
There are generally two types of channels. The first one was purchased from the barbarians by the caravans of the Jingjiu Dynasty, and then sold to the black merchants in the city of Wansi or the purchasing disciples of various sects. Then it will be transported back to Fusei City by water or sea.
The second is for the people in the City of Waste to go to the barbarian territory on their own and directly find the existing people or tribes of the barbarians to negotiate for acquisition.
The flow of the former medicinal materials can still be traced, and it was even carried out with the tacit approval of the frontier troops of the Jingjiu Dynasty. It can be regarded as another tacit understanding between the Jingjiu Dynasty and Wushiteng City. The intermediary of their transactions is either silver money or spiritual stones.
The latter is one of the few behaviors in the City of Waste. Although it will not cause the Jingjiu Dynasty to fall out, the transaction required is much more difficult. Because to trade directly with the barbarians, what is needed is not just money and spiritual stones.
Silver coins and spirit stones are hard currencies, but not many people like them in today's barbarian world.
The reason is very simple, that is, if you don’t have enough to eat, who can you buy things with money from?
The physical cultivators of the barbarians are about to be killed and become a rare species. Who can use the spiritual stones?
Survival, this most basic need, is the only theme on the barbarian land today. So if you want to trade with the barbarians, it must be something they need.
For example, food in the belly, or sharp tools that can be used to survive: iron tools.
In the words of the southern frontier army, as long as you have food and iron tools in your hands, you are an ancestor in the barbarian territory. If you want anything, just ask for it, even if you want the wife of a tribe elder, it will be no problem.
Then here comes the problem. The medicinal materials of the Zhengyang Sect can definitely come from the barbarian realm, and are not included in the transaction list between the Jingjiu Dynasty and Wushiteng City. The medicinal materials of Zhengyang Sect can only be obtained from private transactions with barbarians.
So where did Zhengyang Sect get its food and ironware? And is it a stable supply?
There is only one answer, and that is to find a way out of the Jingjiu Dynasty.
Long-term, stable, and private delivery of grain and ironware to Wusi City, avoiding the interrogation of Shuimen, and avoiding the entry and exit records of grain and ironware from various yamen. This is definitely not something that ordinary people can do, and there must be considerable power in the Jingjiu Dynasty to protect it.
Then... It wasn't Shen Hao's intention. He just naturally connected the Zhengyang Sect's medicinal materials with the Qin family who frequently appeared in front of him recently. Then after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that there was nothing wrong , they can really be put together without any sense of disharmony.
Doesn’t the Qin family have so many pills that they have to sell them on the black market? And the quantity is not small and stable. Could this be explained by the fact that the source of the elixirs in their hands was the Zhengyang Sect? After all, the Zhengyang Sect’s ability in alchemy is well documented. Didn’t the former pseudo-evil monk Ma Sankui just rely on elixirs to knock on the door of the black market? Now it seems that it is not impossible to switch to the Qin family, but it is more hidden.
Back then, Ma Sankui came to the black market looking for nothing more than food and iron tools. Nowadays, the Qin family's biggest purchases are also grain and ironware. It's just that the Qin family has more tricks, and the food channels will go round and round, using others as a cover to hide themselves.
And according to the information that has been found, the end of the route that the Qin family's food takes is likely to be in vain.
Isn’t this closed?
After a few strokes, a complete closed loop is very clear. Although it is only a possibility, the possibility of being close to the real situation is more than 70%, because even if it is a coincidence, it is impossible for all the links to come together. . In other words, at this time, the files of the Qin family can be linked to the pile of files of the pseudo-evil monks.
Even Shen Hao could officially launch an investigation against the Qin family at this moment if he wanted to, including arresting people and searching. But he was in no hurry.
If it had been before the banquet at the beginning of the month, Shen Hao might have actually attacked the Qin family directly. But now the situation has changed. Lu Liang's involvement makes him think that the Qin family's case can be dug deeper?
So the first piece of new information about the Zhengyang Sect that arrived in the City of Waste was temporarily put on hold and continued to follow up secretly.
On the contrary, it was the second piece of information about the Zhengyang Sect that made the Black Water Division 4 think it was a rare opportunity, and at the same time they hoped to obtain Shen Hao's action warrant. Wang Jian came here today mainly for this matter.
