Jinghong Tower

He Shaolin is nearly 40 years old. He started going out to do business when he was 15 years old. Now he is a grandfather. From going out alone at the beginning to now going out with his two sons and a dozen men in the village, he has also changed from the smiling boy to a middle-aged uncle with a big belly.

Hearing that He Shaolin's two sons were also there, He Ran asked him to bring his sons to Laomofang Hutong.

He Shaolin's two sons, one named He Duofu and the other named He Duoshou, are both calm and shrewd young men.

He Ran asked about their marriage. He Duofu married a girl who was born and raised in Hejia Village. They had a son and a daughter. They loved each other and had a happy family.

When asked about He Duoshou, He Duoshou raised the newspaper in his hand and said, "Boss, to be honest with you, the girl who reported to the police is my wife."

The hottest topic discussed in newspapers recently is the farce of Emperor Long Teng's ascension to the throne and the 102 poor women who died unjustly.

He Ran immediately thought of the girl who ran to the county government to report the crime. However, that girl was engaged at that time. Could it be that He Duoshou was the girl’s fiancé?
He Duoshou continued, "There are four villages nearby, and a total of 102 girls died in the four villages. My wife was almost the 103rd one."

He Ran was startled and asked, "What's going on?"

He Duoshou said: "My wife was engaged back then. After the incident, she returned home, thinking she would live a peaceful life from then on. But she never expected that the family would cancel the engagement. Not only did they cancel the engagement, they also said my wife was worthless, saying that she had been in the harem and had lost her virginity long ago. They also said that she had been in the government office and had no sense of shame.
At that time, girls in the village died one after another, and my foolish father-in-law forced my wife to hang herself. When she refused, they refused to give her food and told others that she was determined to die and was on a hunger strike.

He Duoshou was very excited. This strong man had red eyes.

"My mother-in-law let my wife go quietly while everyone in the family was asleep. My wife ran away all the way to a town. She went to a pawnbroker and wanted to sell herself. I happened to be in that town collecting mountain products and went to the pawnbroker to ask someone to be a guarantor. Seeing that she was a young girl, I was worried that she would meet bad people, so I took her with me and sent her to Jinghong Tower as an apprentice."

He Shaolin at the side said with a smile: "My second daughter-in-law is capable. She became a master in less than three months and now has an apprentice. Aunt Tao is such a powerful person. She used to treat me with contempt, but now when she sees me, she takes the initiative to treat me to a meal. It's all for my daughter-in-law's sake."

That night, He Ran invited He Shaolin and his family to have dinner in Laomofang Hutong. After they had enough food and wine, He Shaolin said to He Ran, "Boss, just give me your orders. Our whole family, from my father, my mother, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law to my grandchildren, will all be at your disposal."

He Ran smiled: "I'll let you take a trip to the desert."

Three days later, He Shaolin selected eight people from the team he brought, including his eldest son He Duofu and seven people brought from Hejia Village.

These seven people either have many brothers in their families or are married with children, including He Duofu. He Shaolin believes that if they die, their parents and brothers can support them, and the boss will definitely take care of their wives and children.

He Duoshou and several other young men were either the only sons in their families, or they were unmarried or had no children after marriage. No matter how they begged, He Shaolin did not take them with him.

This time, the mountains are high and the waters are long. This time, life and death are uncertain.

Jinyiwei appeased He Mingyue and personally led a team of people, disguised, to escort He Shaolin and others to the desert.

He Mingyue was also from Hejia Village. He Shaolin recognized her at a glance and said with a smile, "Mingyue girl, do you still remember me?"

He Mingyue said with a grin: "How could I not remember that you still owe me a small purse embroidered with gold thread."

He Shaolin laughed loudly: "Okay, this time when I come back, I will bring you the most beautiful little purse."

In the blink of an eye, it is April, the grass is green, the birds are singing, and spring is in full swing.

In April, good news came one after another. First, Dong Jinzhen brought good news that two warships had successful water trials.

Then, good news came from Yunnan. Zhou Cangyue's Tiger Army captured two cities in succession. The King of Baoxiang was furious and sent people to poison Zhou Cangyue. Since the last time he was poisoned by eating mushrooms, Zhou Cangyue has been very careful. He even sent people to find Nong Liuniang thousands of miles away and asked for a batch of anti-poison pills. Now he always carries medicine with him. The people sent by the King of Baoxiang failed to poison him to death, and he was caught on the spot instead.
Zong Qi, who was far away in the East China Sea, also brought good news. His navy had already fought against the Japanese and won a victory.

At this time, Jing Chongguang finally noticed this new force from the East China Sea.

"I found out that their camp is the island where Chen Abao used to be. No wonder there has been no news about Chen Abao recently. I thought he had turned over a new leaf, but it turns out he was picked by someone."

Jing Zhongguang's face was as gloomy as water: "Stop talking about these useless things. Where did this group of people come from? Don't tell me, they are just the fishermen who can't make a living on the seashore."

In the past, eight out of ten boats doing unprofitable business on the sea were owned by fishermen. But that is no longer the case now. Jing Chongguang would rather believe that the subordinates in front of him are women than believe that that group of people are fishermen.

The subordinate scratched his head. He really wanted to say that these people were fishermen, and he did check, but there were no clues.

"We haven't found out yet which family they belong to."

They have already checked the four great families, and this group of people is definitely not funded by the four great families, nor do they belong to government offices at all levels. Since they are against the Japanese, they definitely have nothing to do with the Japanese. After much thought, they can only be those poor fishermen who have gone crazy.

Jing Chongguang scolded, "You are a bunch of rubbish. You only checked the Fujian area. What about the merchants in Zhejiang area? Have you checked them?"

The subordinates were hesitant: "It's hard to investigate over there. Our people don't dare to go there now."

Jing Chongguang waved his hand and asked him to leave. Just a few days ago, his meeting with the Japanese general was forced to cancel.

Three Japanese ships were hijacked by the group from Wuming Island. The Japanese general was very angry, so the meeting originally scheduled for Jiangba Island was cancelled.

Those three ships were actually sent out by the Japanese general for patrol. As a result, the ships did not return, and except for two people who were lucky enough to escape, all the others died.

Now the Japanese believe that all this is Jing Chongguang's conspiracy. Jing Chongguang does not want to cooperate with the Japanese at all. He just set a trap to lure them into his trap.

Jing Chongguang was very angry about this. He was in urgent need of help from the Japanese and he really didn't want to be held hostage by the four great families anymore.

As for the new force on the nameless island, their origins must also be found out. He wants to wipe out this group of people in one fell swoop and use their heads to extinguish the anger of the Japanese.

In contrast to Jing Chongguang's nervousness, Emperor Yonghe had a lot of fun every day.

Ever since he had Mingming as his partner, Mr. Jin has become the absolute king of the gambling world in Fuzhou.

Not only in Fuzhou, in fact, many of Master Jin's defeated opponents came here from other places specifically for his reputation. Unfortunately, all of them lost. Among them were real gamblers, and there were also masters like Master Jin who were employed by some wealthy gambler and hired others to play because they could not win themselves.

Young Master Jin and Mingming joined forces and won a huge fortune. Even Jing Chongguang set his eyes on the money they won.

In addition to the silver he won, Young Master Jin also owns shares in several gambling houses, which were given to him for free by the gambling houses. Looking around, anyone who runs a gambling house would want to be associated with this great god, Young Master Jin.

It is conceivable that Young Master Jin is now wealthy and has money coming into his account every minute.

At first, Mr. Jin gave away the silver he won as rewards, but later, as the silver became more and more, he had people carry it back to the palace and then carry it to the next gambling house the next day. Since Mingming came into his life, and he also had a stake in the gambling house, the amount of silver increased exponentially. Mingming told him that if this continued, someone would definitely want to take advantage of the silver.

Young Master Jin also thought so. He was even certain that Jing Chongguang would come to rob his money.

There are all kinds of people in the casino. Jing Chongguang sent people to pretend to be gamblers and hang around in the casino, but these are all small characters. In front of a big shot like Young Master Jin, they are nothing.

Even though Emperor Yonghe could do nothing but sow seeds in the palace, he was the most powerful person in the gambling house.

He and Mingming's money was quickly transferred out.

Not even in Fuzhou.

When Jing Chongguang broke off relations and asked Emperor Yonghe for money in person, Emperor Yonghe spread his hands and said, "What money? I got my money from the Regent. Why is the Regent asking me for money?"

Jing Chongguang looked at him coldly. At this moment, Jing Chongguang suddenly realized that the emperor in front of him was no longer the child who curled up under his wings.

Although Jing Chongguang could only find out the superficial amount of money that Young Master Jin had earned, it was already a huge sum of money.

There is a shortage of silver everywhere now. Emperor Yonghe is the emperor, so isn't it his responsibility to take out the silver?
It should indeed be done, but Emperor Yonghe thought it should not be done.

He said that the Later Zhou Dynasty belonged to him, but in fact it had nothing to do with him.

This belongs to Jing Chongguang, and it belongs to the four major families. Even the beauties in the harem have a share. Only he, the emperor, has nothing.

So why would he throw the money he had earned with great difficulty into the bottomless pit of the Later Zhou Dynasty?

He didn't even know how long he had left to live. Once a woman gave birth to his son, he would be dead soon.

Therefore, no matter how Jing Chongguang used both soft and hard tactics, Emperor Yonghe would not give a penny.

Jing Chongguang searched again and again, but could not find out where Emperor Yonghe had hidden the silver.

There was no other choice, so he decided to attack Mingming.

The Yonghe Emperor in the past was not as stubborn as he is now. It was this lowly woman named Mingming who corrupted him and made him dare to disobey even the Regent.

Everyone thought that Emperor Yonghe would be like all men and would be attracted by beautiful women.

But in fact, they were all wrong. Perhaps a few years ago, Emperor Yonghe was still a young and passionate man.

But after he became emperor, he could no longer choose the woman of his choice according to his own preferences.

The women in the harem were either from the four great families or had earned their place by paying a fortune. If one picked carefully, one could pick out a few beauties, but there were only a few. Most of them were of average looks, and the few that were, gradually became haggard and dull in appearance after entering the palace.

Therefore, it is unknown from when on, Emperor Yonghe lost all interest in favoring women, he even felt that it was torture to him.

Even Mingming, whom he later brought back from outside the palace at great risk of his life, was still the same.

What's more, Emperor Yonghe had to have more than twenty days every month to favor the concubines who had to be favored according to the order set by Jing Chongguang.

This round was enough to cost Emperor Yonghe half his life. Even when facing Mingming late at night, he only wanted to gamble and nothing else.

Today, it was Emperor Yonghe's turn to favor Concubine Shu. He went to Concubine Shu's palace, paid the public grain tax in no time, and then returned to his own bedroom under the moonlight.

This is his world, and here is his Mingming.

Mingming was wearing a loose pajamas, holding dice in his hand, and gambling with himself.

When Emperor Yonghe saw Mingming, it was like seeing a long-lost relative. When he saw the dice spinning around, Emperor Yonghe wanted to kiss them a few times.

"Come, come, come, I will fight you for three hundred rounds."

Mingming looked at him lazily and said, "Did that old bastard force you again?"

Who is this old bastard?
Of course others don’t know, and dare not know.

This is how Emperor Yonghe and Mingming addressed Jing Chongguang.

That’s right, in the eyes of both of them, Jing Chongguang is just an old bastard.

When talking about this matter, Emperor Yonghe gritted his teeth and said, "You guessed it all right. That old bastard is really eyeing our money."

Mingming snorted coldly: "Shameless, why hasn't he died yet!"

Emperor Yonghe: "I really wish I could kill him with one blow."

Mingming: "Kill him with one knife? That would be too easy for him. He bullied you so much and treated you like a human being all day long, but you let him die quickly. I really overestimated you."

Emperor Yonghe's face turned red. He felt ashamed to be said like this by the woman he loved.

"One day, I will cut him into pieces and feed them to the dogs."

Mingming smiled and reached out to touch his head: "That's more like it. By the way, I just thought of something. Do you want to hear it?"

"What's the matter? Tell me about it." Emperor Yonghe said.

"You really didn't know who your father was when you were little?"

If someone else asked such a question, they would definitely be tortured to death, but since this question came from Mingming, Emperor Yonghe thought it was normal. (End of this chapter)