Jinghong Tower

Chapter 433 Zhu Family
Intelligence from Fuzhou was sent to the capital city gradually, but due to the long distance, even if it was delivered as soon as possible, it would be delayed by the time it reached the capital city.

However, this will not affect the overall situation, because from the very beginning, there were two strategies for Fuzhou.

Either kill or beat.

Since we can't kill Jing Chongguang for the time being, we will wait until we reach Fuzhou and then take his head.

In the capital, the spies of the Imperial Guards would deliver intelligence about the Ding family to Zhong Yi every day. It had been more than two months since Zeng Ziqi went to the Ding family as a teacher. Everything was normal at the Ding family. Since Zeng Ziqi entered the Ding family, he usually concentrated on teaching the four teenagers at home. But yesterday, Zeng Ziqi walked out of the Ding family for the first time.

He went to the inn where he had stayed before. The innkeeper said that Zeng Ziqi came to the inn to look for a book.

Zhong Yi became interested and decided to go to the inn to take a look in person.

Just at this time Chunwang came to him and said that He Ran wanted him to come over for something.

Zhong Yi went to Laomofang Hutong. He Ran came to find him and happened to ask about the Ding family.

The Ding family is a relative of the Han family, and Zong Qi regards Old Madam Han as a family member. Last time, he heard that the Ding family was a little strange. Now that Zong Qi is not in the capital, He Ran will naturally keep an eye on it for him.

Seeing that He Ran was asking about the Ding family, Zhong Yi said, "It's about Zeng Ziqi who is the teacher at the Ding family. I am going to investigate a matter. If the boss is interested, you can go with me to make a private visit."

He Ran also wanted to take a look at the street market, so she changed her clothes, took Xiaoli with her, and followed Zhong Yi to the inn.

This inn is well-known far and wide for having produced four Jinshi (imperial examination scholars) and has many guests. In the past, some guests would leave things behind, but the inn is also a time-honored brand in the capital and would not be greedy for such petty profits. Therefore, whenever the inn finds something left behind by a guest, it will be put away separately. There is also a box in the inn that is specifically used to store these things.

Zeng Ziqi said that he checked out in a hurry that day and left a book in the inn, so he came to look for that book.

The waiter said, "Mr. Zeng said he had lost a book. I asked him the title of the book and he said it was Qing Ping Travel Notes. The shopkeeper opened the box and checked. After confirming that the book was not there, he told Mr. Zeng the truth. However, Mr. Zeng refused to give in and insisted that the book was in our inn.

The shopkeeper had no choice but to let him go to the box and check it himself. There were five or six books in the box, but the book he mentioned was not there.

But unexpectedly, Zeng Jinshi pointed at one of the books and said that this book was also dropped by him and he must take that book away.

His name was not in the book, and every time we picked up items left behind by guests, we would mark the room the guest stayed in and his name on the item.

But there was no mark on the book, because we found it in a flowerpot in the corridor and we didn't know who lost it.

So when Mr. Zeng said the book was his, the shopkeeper did not doubt it and let him take the book away.

He Ran asked, "What was the name of the book that Zeng Jinshi took away?"

Seeing that she was a young girl, but she came with the Jinyiwei, the waiter did not dare to look down on her and said hurriedly: "That book was picked up by me. I remember the title of the book, it is called Zhushan Mansion Records."

After leaving the inn, He Ran said she wanted to go to the bookstore to take a look.

I went to three bookstores in succession, but none of them had the copy of "Records of Zhushan Prefecture".

Fortunately, when we arrived at the fourth bookstore, the owner happened to be there. He was an old man with white hair and beard.

When he heard that they were looking for "Zhushanfuji", the old man was startled and asked, "Where did you hear about this book, sir?"

He Ran asked with a smile: "Why, is this book a unique copy of an ancient book?"

The old man shook his head: "It's not a unique copy of an ancient book, but a banned book."

He Ran glanced at Zhong Yi, who also looked confused.

He Ran winked and Zhong Yi showed the badge of the Jinyiwei. The old man was startled and saluted quickly: "I didn't know it was the official who came. Please forgive me."

Zhong Yi said seriously: "Then tell me about this book. When was it banned and why was it banned?"

The old man said: "This book was banned forty years ago. In fact, I have never seen this book before, so I guess not many copies were printed.

I still remember that one day, officials from the Imperial Guard came to the shop and asked if I had the book. I said no. The officials didn't believe me and searched the shop again. After confirming that I didn't have the book, they went to the bookstore next door.

By the way, forty years ago, there were two bookstores on this street. The owner of the other bookstore was from the same hometown as the old man. Coincidentally, the book was in his bookstore. It was said that it was written by a scholar who came to take part in the imperial examination and was put on consignment in his bookstore.

Who would have thought that it was a banned book!
Just like that, the bookstore was closed down, and the old man’s fellow villager was beaten with twenty sticks and then returned to his hometown.

At that time, because of this book, five bookstores in the capital were closed down one after another, and each shop owner was given twenty lashes of the cane.

Later, I heard from others that the situations of the other four families were the same as that of my fellow villager. A scholar had left his books with them for consignment, and they let the scholar put the books down out of kindness. Unexpectedly, disaster struck.

Later, I thought about it and realized that the scholar had actually come to my shop. It happened that my mother and my wife were arguing during those days, and I was caught in the middle and was very upset. Someone wanted to consign something, but I chased him out without even looking at him, and thus I escaped a disaster.

Therefore, this incident and this book are very vivid in my memory. "

The old man remembered what happened that year, but he didn't know the content of the book. This was because when he knew about the book, it had already been banned, so he didn't dare to inquire about the content of the book.

Coming out of the bookstore, seeing He Ran was silent, Zhong Yi asked, "Did the boss see anything?"

He Ran said, "Zeng Ziqi came to the capital to take the exam. Do you think he had the leisure to read the travel notes while he was staying at the inn?"

The first thing Zeng Ziqi wanted to find when he returned to the inn was a travelogue.

Zhong Yi shook his head: "That shouldn't be the case. In that case, the travelogue he mentioned was just an excuse. What he really wants to find is this banned book."

He Ran nodded: "But the waiter said that the book was found in the flowerpot in the corridor. I noticed the flowerpot he mentioned when I was in the inn. The flowerpot is very tall and big, and there is indeed enough space for a book. It is also possible that the book was not lost by Zeng Ziqi, but was hidden there by someone on purpose. Unfortunately, it was picked up by the waiter."

For Jinghonglou, books are not only used for academic purposes, but also serve as codes.

Now the Jinyiwei are also using books as codes to transmit messages.

Therefore, whether it was He Ran or Zhong Yi, the first thing they thought of was the password.

He Ran said to Zhong Yi: "Go check why this book was banned back then."

Although forty years had passed and the previous files had been destroyed or lost when the capital was moved, it was not difficult for the Jinyiwei to find them.

Three days later, Zhong Yi found out what happened that year. The Zhushan in "Zhushan Prefecture Records" is not a place name, but the ancestral home of a clan.

This clan is the Zhu family in Fujian.

Many years ago, the Zhu family was a large family in Fujian. Their ancestor Zhu Shengyou was listed as one of the ten great princes of the previous dynasty along with Zhou Chi's grandfather.

But later, Zhu Shengyou's favorite eldest son was diagnosed with an incurable disease. The world was in chaos at that time. Zhu Shengyou was only interested in finding a famous doctor for his son and had no intention of competing for the throne. He simply dismissed his disciples and returned to his ancestral home. Over the next few decades, the court experienced many ups and downs, but there was no trace of the Zhu family.

Later, the country was in chaos and warlords fought for supremacy, but the Fujian area was not affected. After Zhou Chi established the dynasty, Fujian made a smooth transition. Therefore, when Zhou Chi was alive, he had no idea that Zhu Shengyou's descendants were still in Fujian.

In fact, after Zhu Shengyou returned to his hometown, he built a Zhushan Tower, and all five branches of the Zhu family lived in the Zhushan Tower. After Zhu Shengyou's death, his descendants obeyed his orders and did not rebel like other famous families. Instead, they took advantage of the chaos in the world to make a fortune from the war. Until Zhou Chi became emperor, the little-known Zhu family had become rich enough to rival a country.

However, the Zhu family remained unknown, and on the surface they were just country gentry whose ancestors had some reputation.

However, just forty years ago, during the reign of Emperor Taizong, a scholar who came to the capital to take the imperial examination wrote a book called "Zhushanfuji" and put it on consignment in several bookstores for sale.

Someone bought this book accidentally, went home and took a closer look. The more he read, the more surprised he was, because he discovered one thing in the book, that is, the Zhu family living in Zhushan Building was extremely rich, extremely rich!
This scholar who wrote the book was a servant of the Zhu family.

He used to be the servant of the young master of the Zhu family. Because of his intelligence, he was noticed by the master of the Zhu family, who allowed him to study with the young master.

The Zhu family's children only engaged in business and did not take the imperial examinations, but the head of the Zhu family returned all of his family's indentures to them, and from then on they were no longer slaves.

The Zhu family had been paying for this scholar's studies and allowed his family to live in Zhushan Tower. Even his servant was provided by the Zhu family.

Of course, the Zhu family also had selfish motives in supporting him to study. After all, there were no officials in the Zhu family anymore, and no matter how rich a merchant was, he could always have someone in the officialdom.

If it weren't for this book, this scholar would have passed the imperial examination and then used the money given by the Zhu family to build his own network of contacts. He might have been promoted all the way to a high position and become a helpful figure for the Zhu family, or he might have had a mediocre career and eventually become a sixth or seventh rank official. But even so, he would still be an official.

Unfortunately, all this is just a dream.

In that book, he showed the world how wealthy the Zhu family was, and how many of their wealth were beyond measure.

This book was sent to the emperor. Emperor Taizong, the extremely scheming Zhou Laoer, immediately ordered that the book be banned after seeing it. He did not want others to see this windfall.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards traveled thousands of miles to Fujian. They found the Zhushan Tower, but saw that the Zhushan Tower looked ordinary on the surface. There were no pavilions, no flying eaves or brackets. It was just a round building. It was hard to tell how wealthy it was.

However, what they didn't expect was that the Zhushan Building was already empty. The Zhu family had apparently received the news and left first.

The Jinyiwei could only see the legendary wealth from the furniture and utensils that they could not take away.

The Zhu family disappeared from then on, and all the Jinyiwei could find were the Zhu family's side branches and some shops and land that the Zhu family had displayed in public.

Even so, the Jinyiwei still took 100,000 taels of silver back to the capital to report.

One hundred thousand taels was already a huge sum for Emperor Taizong, who was short of money at the time.

But in He Ran's view, these one hundred thousand taels were the silver that the Zhu family paid for her life.

With these 100,000 taels, the Jinyiwei could go back and report, and the emperor would stop for a while. By the time the emperor recovered and wanted to continue asking the Zhu family for money, the Zhu family had already transferred the remaining property away. The distance from the capital to Fujian is long, and it would take three or four months to go back and forth. With these three or four months, the Zhu family could escape thousands of miles away.

This incident happened forty years ago. Because the book was originally only sold in a few bookstores, it did not cause much sensation at the time. Even today, very few people still remember this incident. It was only fortunate that He Ran and Zhong Yi met the old man, otherwise it would have taken a while to investigate.

He Ran thought of the four major families in Fuzhou. The four major families had an elite navy. Zong Qi trained day and night to deal with this navy, not the navy of the Later Zhou Dynasty.

He Ran founded the Ran Army. She knew better than anyone how much money it cost to build an army.

Over the years, He Ran has been making money from all directions.

The money and mines of the Cai family, the money and mines of the King of Jin, the money of the King of Kaizhou, the money of Liu Shanhe, as well as the private property of the King of Qi and the Qian family, plus the offerings from merchants from all over the country, all this silver would pile up into a mountain if it were combined.

But all this money was invested in the army to fight the war.

The army is a bottomless pit.

However, the four major families have a navy, a navy that would require He Ran to spend several years preparing for a battle.

Seeing He Ran remained silent, Zhong Yi cleared his throat and asked, "Is the boss also thinking about the Zhu family's money?"

He Ran smiled and said, "Yes, I was thinking that maybe the Zhu family didn't go far back then. They might have always been in Fujian. The people are still there, and the gold, silver and treasures are still there. Only Zhou Laoer would think that the Zhu family ran away to the ends of the earth."

When mentioning Zhou Laoer, Zhong Yi's mouth twitched.

However, he immediately realized what He Ran wanted to express.

"You mean, the four major families?"

He Ran nodded: "It would be fine if the four major families swallowed up the Zhu family's money. I am now worried that there is still an underground emperor in Fujian."

What does it mean to be extremely wealthy?

Being the richest man does not mean you are as rich as a country.

The Zhu family is rich enough to rival a country, so can they also establish a country?

That navy is actually the Zhu family’s navy?

Are the four major families working for the Zhu family?
If this is the case, the Later Zhou Dynasty, Jing Chongguang and Emperor Yonghe were just the foreshadowing.

Zhong Yi said, “I’ll go check it out!”

A few days later, Mingming received news from the capital.

"The Zhu family?"

Mingming's eyebrows were slightly frowned. She had been in Fujian for a long time and knew a man named Zhu.