Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 115 Convocation
  After Jia Qiang used the Wangqi Technique for more than thirty breaths, the Wangqi Technique automatically stopped, and the world in his eyes returned to what it was before.

He felt a little uncomfortable and his body was empty.

Only then did he realize that all his mana had been consumed. He calculated that one breath of Zhanzhan Qi Technique almost used up a little of his mana.

Thirty-two points of mana were only enough to perform the Qi Watching Technique for more than thirty breaths. Fortunately, his mana recovered very quickly, and the feeling of emptiness disappeared soon after.

After the gas-gaining operation, Jia Qiang thought she could learn the 'innate divine arithmetic'.

But then he discovered that the content behind the 'Innate Divine Calculation' was extremely complicated.

If you want to measure someone's luck, you need to observe the light emitted by the qi-gazing technique, and then combine many aspects to make the calculation.

He had a feeling that in his previous life, this 'innate divine calculation' held the status of advanced mathematics in mathematics.

It is almost impossible to master the 'Innate Divine Arithmetic' in a short time. This requires a long period of research and study, and even if you master the 'Innate Divine Arithmetic', it cannot be 100% correct.

In fact, even Master Lian Nian, who has studied the 'Innate Divine Calculation' for a long time, cannot guarantee the accuracy of the calculation.

Just like the calculation of Miaoyu, Master Lian Nian came to the conclusion after many calculations.

However, it can be seen through simply observing whether someone has suffered a disaster in the near future through 'innate divine calculation'.

Before Jia Qiang could study for a long time, Si Yu came to call him to eat early today.

He went to have dinner with Lin Ruhai's family. Without delay after the meal, the door of the Lin family's old house opened and carriages drove out.

"Brother Qiang, I have found twenty sailors for you. They are all clean-blooded sailors. The gunboat is controlled by these sailors. The captain is an old sailor I have rescued before. You can believe it!" Lin Ruhai said in front of Lin Ruhai. Before boarding the boat, he pointed at the Western-style gunboat and said to Jia Qiang.

In the past few days after returning to her old home, Lin Ruhai used the Lin family's connections in Suzhou to do a lot of things.

"The teacher is very considerate!" Jia Qiang thanked with a smile.

He has no intention of making Western-style gunboats combat effective now. Training gunners is not easy, especially gunners on ships.

Lin Ruhai had no military power, and the military talisman in his hand was only the power to temporarily mobilize troops, and could not be regarded as real military power.

This made it impossible for him to find ready-made gunners from the army. Not to mention the investment in retraining, just how to train was a big problem.

Xing Zhong and his wife stared blankly at the big ship in front of them. They did not expect to board such a powerful ship when they went to Yangzhou.

This is the battleship of the Daqian Navy. Xing Zhong was able to recognize the battleship in a place with a lot of waters like Gusu.

This made the two of them feel the huge gap between them and Lin Ruhai and Jia Qiang, which made them even more cautious.

Their daughter, Xing Xiuyan, did not go with her parents, but sat in the carriage of the other girls and boarded the ship.

Consoling sounds came from the carriage from time to time. These were the girls comforting Miaoyu.

Miaoyu was about to leave Gusu, and she felt further away from her master, Master Liannian, and her tears couldn't stop falling.

The two large ships left the small pier on time and returned from the original route.

Jia Qiang found that all ships that saw them would deliberately avoid them.

Even the ships carrying Caobang, known as the canal's dominant force, also took the initiative to avoid the battleship when they saw it.

Little did he know that in just a few days, Lin Ruhai's achievements in wiping out more than 2,000 Japanese pirates had spread throughout Suzhou and nearby waters, and the news was still spreading rapidly.

Japanese pirates have become a scourge for people along the coast and near large rivers connected to the sea. Even Daegan's army can rarely take advantage of them.

The Japanese pirates had information about spies within Daqian, and the large-scale deployment of Daqian troops could not find them. The number was small and they could not defeat the Japanese pirates. This made the Japanese pirates more and more rampant in recent years.

Of course, Daqian's army is not that weak. It's just that the army that stays in the inner part of Daqian is not an army that can conquer and fight well. The real strong armies are stationed at the border.

Lin Ruhai killed more than 2,000 Japanese pirates in one boat. This achievement was enough to shock the forces seeking a living on the water near Suzhou.

These forces have warned their subordinates to stay away from Lin Ruhai's ship and must not conflict with it.

In addition, killing more than 2,000 Japanese pirates can be said to have helped many people who make a living on the water. Their active avoidance is also a kind of respect.

It took two days to go back this time and there was no trouble along the way.

In fact, this should be the norm, and encountering Japanese pirate attacks is an accident.

There was another thing that Jia Qiang didn't know. When he followed Lin Ruhai to Suzhou, some forces paid attention to it and planned to target him.

It's just that Lin Ruhai killed more than two thousand Japanese pirates, so that the forces didn't dare to act rashly. It was too scary. They were only dealing with Jia Qiang, not Lin Ruhai. How much would it cost to really take action?
  Around the time Lin Ruhai arrived in Yangzhou, eight people were sitting in a private room of a restaurant.

These eight people rented out the entire restaurant. The combined wealth of the eight people was enough to do tax work for many years.

The eight people were the eight major salt merchants. They were summoned by Wang Da Salt Merchant to gather together.

"Brother Wang, you said you had something important to call for. Why?" Huang Quanyi asked calmly.

He had been living a good life recently. He had been deliberately making friends with Lin Ruhai before. After Lin Ruhai had a powerful guard beside him, the other big salt merchants were cautious, but he was the only one who didn't worry much.

"You don't want to deal with Lin Ruhai, do you? Let me declare first, if we really deal with Lin Ruhai, I will be the first to leave!" This is what Shopkeeper Mada said.

Shopkeeper Ma Da was most afraid of Lin Ruhai. Even if he could kill Lin Ruhai, as long as Lin Ruhai's guards were not dead, no one would be able to escape his assassination if the guards took revenge.

How did the head of the Ma family die before? There were four powerful people in the world who were worshiping him, and they were protected by dozens of military experts. As a result, no one saw the head of the Ma family, and he didn't even leave his body.

"Yes, Brother Wang, I really can't afford to offend Lin Ruhai!" Shopkeeper Bao Da nodded and said.

The other big shopkeepers expressed their opinions one by one, and they all said they did not want to offend Lin Ruhai.

Lin Ruhai only had power before. Even if he had some salt in his hands, the salt could still be bribed.

They didn't have much fear of Lin Ruhai, they just kept a superficial attitude to ensure that their own interests would not be affected too much.

But something done by the guards around Lin Ruhai, especially the assassination of Mada Salt Merchant, reflected Lin Ruhai's change in handling affairs.

From following the rules in the past, now you will be punished. Ma Da Salt Merchant almost killed Lin Ruhai's daughter, but Lin Ruhai asked his guards to assassinate Ma Da Salt Merchant and succeeded.

Of course, no one has any evidence that it was Lin Ruhai's bodyguard who assassinated the Mada Salt Merchant, but everyone knows that in Yangzhou, the only one who can assassinate the Mada Salt Merchant and retreat calmly is the mysterious guard. .

Since that time, every big salt merchant has always paid attention to his words and deeds, for fear of offending Lin Ruhai.

In the past, there were still thoughts of attacking Lin Ruhai's family, but now no major salt merchant would do so.

"To be honest, I don't dare to provoke Lin Ruhai. This time I summoned all the shopkeepers here for a piece of information!" Shopkeeper Wang didn't dare to delay any longer. If this continues, everyone might leave.

"What information?" someone asked.

"I received news from someone in the Yanyunshi Yamen that Lin Ruhai is collecting information about us, especially about past illegal activities. In order to collect information, Lin Ruhai invested at least one hundred thousand taels of silver!" Shopkeeper Wang Da said in a deep voice. Explained the situation.

Shopkeeper Wang's job was not simple. Lin Ruhai had been trained and placed in the Yanyunshi Yamen long before he took office.

After Lin Ruhai took office, this person was one of the first people to take the initiative to join Lin Ruhai, and he was also reused.

This person has always tried his best to do things, and even shopkeeper Wang would offer some sweeteners to make this person meritorious.

Because of this, this person is even more important to Lin Ruhai.

Before leaving Yangzhou, Lin Ruhai arranged for a group of specially trained people to collect information on the eight major salt merchants.

In the past, Lin Ruhai's operations were normal, but Lin Ruhai spent one hundred thousand taels of silver and asked several people to be responsible for increasing the intelligence investigation of the eight major salt merchants, which had never been done before.

Among the people in charge, there was this nail, and it was only then that Shopkeeper Wang found out about it.

"Does Lin Ruhai want to take action against us?" Huang Quanyi also took a breath of cold air.

As long as you are a big salt merchant, who has not committed any crime in his hands, more or less, big or small, if you want to make a lot of money, you need to step on a lot of corpses.

Even if Huang Quanyi and Lin Ruhai have some friendship, with Lin Ruhai's temperament, if they really find evidence of Huang Quanyi's crime, they will definitely not show mercy when it is time to take action.

"As soon as we are in chaos, Yangzhou Salt Affairs will be in chaos, and Lin Ruhai, the salt patrol censor, will not be able to explain it!" Shopkeeper Bao Da followed.

"Is Lin Ruhai doing something for the imperial envoy who hasn't shown up yet?" Shopkeeper Cheng Da hesitated and said.

The imperial envoy who has not come forward is the person that the eight major salt merchants are most worried about.

Imperial envoys meet with officials for three points. In a place like Yangzhou, except for the prefect, all the other officials can be killed first and reported later.

As long as the imperial envoy is given a piece of evidence, there are many things the imperial envoy can do.

"That's what I think about it too. I invite you all to come here to discuss how to deal with it!" Shopkeeper Wang Da said with a wry smile.

"If Lin Ruhai's guards, coupled with the power of the imperial envoy, come to any of our families, who can resist them?" Huang Quanyi said with a cold sweat all over his body.

Each of the big shopkeepers here has a huge amount of wealth in their hands, and tens of thousands of people depend on it for their lives.

But at this moment, they all showed fear, thinking of the consequences of being visited by the imperial envoy.

"Brother Wang, since you called us here, you must have something in mind, just say it directly!" Shopkeeper Bao looked at Shopkeeper Wang and said.

"Everyone, our family has done some things that cannot be exposed in the past. It is difficult for a single family to cover up these things. But if the eight of us can unite and spend more money to do those things in the past, In the end, so what if we are found out!" Shopkeeper Wang expressed his opinion.

The eyes of the other big shopkeepers all lit up. Not to mention Yangzhou, even in the entire Jiangnan, the power of the big salt merchants had considerable power.

If the eight major salt merchants unite together and spend some money, they can definitely put an end to their previous scandals.

One big salt merchant may not be able to do this kind of finishing thing perfectly, but if the eight major salt merchants work together, the entire Yangzhou can do it without any omissions from top to bottom.

Of course, in the past, even if the eight major salt merchants knew that they could do this, they would not do it.

Businessmen are greedy. Who would spend a large amount of money to finish those things? Why don't they do those things just for money?

But it's different now. If they don't do it, the family may suffer greater losses because of these things.

The power behind them is indeed not small, but once the imperial envoy takes action, with the help of the mysterious guard, even if the power behind them reacts, it will be too late. By then, their home will be ransacked, and the most likely to come out is to impeach the imperial envoy.

So after Lin Ruhai returned to Yangzhou, the eight major salt merchants reached an agreement. Families that had been persecuted by the major salt merchants in the past would either receive compensation and issue a letter of understanding, or pay a certain price to let the persecuted person leave.

The same goes for some murder cases. By bribing witnesses, destroying evidence, asking the victim's family to change their story, or finding someone to blame, etc., the goal is to quickly close these murder cases.

This time, the eight major salt merchants did not use illegal means. At least it was legal on the surface. Everything was done by using power and money to clear the way.

Lin Ruhai got the relevant information that night after returning to Yangzhou, but he had no idea what to do.

He looked at the information and shook his head helplessly.

If the eight major salt merchants did anything illegal, he could deal with the eight major salt merchants through the Yamen.

But all the actions of the Eight Salt Merchants were legal, and even if he wanted to take any action, he couldn't do it.

The position of Salt Patrol Censor is closely watched by many officials. If he does anything illegal, he will be impeached immediately.

What makes Lin Ruhai most helpless is Jia Qiang's imperial mission. If this continues, no evidence of the crimes of the eight major salt merchants can be found, and there will be no way to take action against the eight major salt merchants.

The term of the Yanyan Censor is not long. He will return to Beijing next year at most, and he needs to help Jia Qiang achieve results before then.

Once he retires as the Salt Inspector, he will no longer be able to interfere in Jiangnan salt affairs.

Although Jia Qiang's force is high, finding evidence is not something that can only be done with strong force. This requires a large number of experienced manpower.

Lin Ruhai did not inform Jia Qiang of this matter. There was still time, and he needed to take another look.

He thought for a while, and spent another hundred thousand taels of silver from the Lin Mansion to increase the investigation of the eight major salt merchants. This was his support for Jia Qiang.

He hoped that by increasing investment in intelligence, he could get more clues and find out the information that could lead to the death of a certain major salt merchant. He did not really want to kill all eight major salt merchants.

(End of this chapter)