Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 334 Obviously Someone Else
Therefore, he can only hope that Yu Daoxiang will appear sooner, so that he can learn from his mouth which noble person in the palace is the secret son of the holy hall.

Ye Chen initially thought that the dark son of the holy hall was Wang Jien, whom Zhao Kuangyin regarded as his confidant, but although Wang Jien was considered high and powerful in the palace, he would never be called a nobleman.However, with his understanding of the original history, and the secrets that Zhang Jiye used to threaten the confidants sent by Zhao Guangyi when he trapped and killed Shangguan Bingyun a few days ago and kept telling him in front of him, Ye Chen has basically confirmed that Wang Jien is Zhao Guangyi's people.The reason is that he has not taken any action these days, nor has he told the emperor about it.It's because Ye Chen wants to do whatever he can one day.

Therefore, this heavyweight dark son of the Holy Church obviously has someone else.

There might be such a person lurking beside the Son of Heaven. Ye Chen felt a little uneasy. He was not only worried about Zhao Kuangyin's safety, but also vaguely guessed that the other party was also worried that he would know his identity through Yu Daoxiang and Li Siyan. Take the lead in attacking him, or pour dirty water on Zhao Kuangyin.Therefore, he wanted to find this secret as soon as possible.

Ye Chen also thought about telling Zhao Kuangyin about this matter directly, but after all, this matter involves the nobleman in the harem who has the closest relationship with the emperor, and Ye Chen, a foreign minister, has a lot of scruples in it, unless there is conclusive evidence, Otherwise, this kind of thing should not be done lightly.Otherwise, leaving a knot in the emperor's heart, maybe now the emperor will not only say nothing, but even write down the great merit for Ye Chen.But this matter is likely to bring death to Ye Chen in the future.

The summer is bright and bright, which is not deceiving, but it is not a lie that the afternoon is sultry. The whole city of Kyoto is shrouded in heat, which makes people very uncomfortable. Often, the clear water that is drunk will disappear from the ground within half an hour. It will ooze out from the skin, carrying the remnants in the body, turning into a layer of greasy moisturizer.Wrap the whole person.make it difficult for people to breathe.I feel bad all over.

Especially those underground people who are coolies, carrying big bags and climbing the stairs on the wharf of Bianhe, their bodies are already drenched in sweat.It even dripped onto the bluestone steps, turning into countless water marks, which seemed a little shocking.The big trees by the pier stretched out their leaves, but they couldn't completely cover the sun in the sky and the cool breeze blowing from the river.I couldn't get rid of the heat, but felt bored instead.

A black dog beside the stone steps was lying in the shade of a tree, sticking out its red tongue, panting for breath, and at the same time looked with pity at the coolies who were almost out of breath under the burden of life.

Since the capital raised grain last year, under the operation of Ye Chen, the largest gang running water transport on the canal——the Cao Gang has become an existence in the imperial court establishment in name.Zhou Jie, the head of the Cao Gang, was appointed as an official of the seventh rank.

With this high-sounding identity, the government will no longer make things difficult, and the private forces will not dare to offend easily. Zhou Jie even forcibly annexed several smaller water transport chambers of commerce and gangs.It can be regarded as basically monopolizing the water transportation of the entire canal north of Sizhou.In this way, although Zhou Jie is just a low-ranking official of the seventh rank who can't stand on the stage in the court, he is only one of the leaders of the many forces under the command of the Holy Church in the Holy Church. It is about water transportation, he is already a dominant existence.

In short, in the past six months, although the life of coolies running river transport has not changed, even because of the monopoly of the Cao Gang, life is more difficult than in previous years.However, Zhou Jie's life is getting more and more comfortable.

Until more than two months ago, after Li Siyan came back from Guanzhong and told him some things, Zhou Jie's life began to be a little worried.He even made a lot of preparations in secret, hiding a lot of gold and silver in secret places in other places, bought several houses in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wuyue Kingdom, and even some big cities in Dali Kingdom, and prepared to leave the huge Cao Gang foundation at any time , plans to flee to a foreign country.

However, considering the horrific punishment of the Holy Church for the dereliction of duty, and seeing that Li Siyan hadn't moved, he never took any action.

Three days ago, after Ye Chen came back, Zhou Jie had already prepared a number of boats for escape at any time, and parked them at several piers that were either on the surface or in secret places.

In fact, Zhou Jie didn't dare to leave the canal too far a few days ago, so he lived in a house next to the canal.As soon as Ye Chen returned to Kaifeng, he got on the boat directly, ate, drank, slept and slept on the boat, and even changed one every day.

Today, Zhou Jie had breakfast early in the morning, and according to the usual practice, under the arrangement of his confidants, he drove the boat to another extremely remote secret pier.

There were four small boats tied next to the big boat where he was, and four groups of people got off the big boat at the same time, and each group had four people, all of whom were dressed similarly, especially one in each group was dressed exactly like him, and they all wore bamboo hats.Others could not recognize which of these four people was Zhou Jie.

Under the eyes of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, although the Cao Gang under his command had a large number of people, they had no power to fight back against the imperial army and the Huaxia Weifu, so he had to be cautious.

Qi County is one of the two counties next to the canal among the fifteen counties under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture.

Because Qixian County is located on the edge of the canal, many ships and goods traveling from south to north are unloaded here before entering Kaifeng. The business is extremely prosperous, and the people have a lot of work to eat. As many as seventy or eighty thousand.It is a large county under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture, second only to Kaifeng County and Xiangfu County, and even has a larger population than some remote prefectures.

Three days ago, a nephew of Yuanwai Liu in Dongcheng came to join him with his family members. Naturally, this was not a big deal. This kind of thing is very normal these days, and no one would feel it strange.It was only later that someone heard from a servant who bought vegetables in Liu Yuanwai's house that Liu Yuanwai's nephew fell ill when he arrived, and stayed in the house all day and did not go out.

Outside Kaifeng City, in the lobby of Huaxia Weifu.

"My lord, our people have been watching for three days. Those boats and people on the canal are all a cover arranged by Zhou Jie. After a detailed investigation, we found a confidant of Zhou Jie, and followed this confidant to the county seat of Qi County today. , but Zhou Jie's confidant is also an old Jianghu, and he is extremely cautious. After he arrived in Qi County, he circled around twice, and then lived in a dormitory. The subordinates came down to ask the adults whether to arrest him. Or continue to guard. If It's easy to scare the enemy by arresting them, but if we squat, we don't know when he will wait, and we are worried about delaying the important matter of the lord, so we come here to ask the lord for instructions." Xu Fangyi said.

Ye Chen had expected Zhou Jie's caution, but he didn't expect to be cautious to such an extent. He set up such a situation to hide the truth and almost deceived the intelligence department of the Huaxia Weifu. It has to be said that Zhou Jie deserves to monopolize water transportation The head of the Cao Gang is extremely capable, and there are many capable people under his command.

After thinking for a while, Ye Chen said: "That's fine, Li Siyan and the others probably don't know where Zhou Jie is hiding. As long as I find Zhou Jie, I will meet him, and I can just hide it from others. Hmm... Spread the news that Qi County has discovered the demon monk of the Maitreya Sect, and then I will ask Bai Canghai to send some people to find him openly. Zhou Jie's confidant will definitely take action when he hears about it. When the time comes, you will follow him and you will be able to find him. Zhou Jie."

As nearly a hundred Hua Xiawei, angry horses in fresh clothes, entered Qi County with a murderous look on their faces, soon the news spread that Maitreya Sect was hiding in Qi County.As the county seat under the jurisdiction of Kyoto under the emperor's feet, such things rarely happen in Qi County, so people in the taverns, teahouses, inns and restaurants in the streets and alleys are all talking about this matter.

The same is true of the Fumen Inn on Shangyi Street. Zhang Bo is a big boss of the Cao Gang and one of Zhou Jie's confidantes.He heard that after Huaxiawei and the county government officers quickly started looking for people everywhere in Qi County, they couldn't stay any longer, and after a little thought, they left the inn.

In the private room on the second floor of a restaurant opposite the Fumen Inn, Xu Fangyi was wearing a blue straight dress, and changed his appearance a little. People who are not very familiar with him will definitely not recognize him.This matter was arranged by Ye Chen himself, and the matter is of great importance, so he personally directs here.

Qixian County was one of the earliest counties where the Huaxia Weifu established a stronghold, and there were also peripheral members developed by the Intelligence Department in the city.However, unlike most local peripheral members who are mostly beggars, there are too few beggars in Qi County. The peripheral members developed by the intelligence department are some idle thugs in a local thug.

In the private room, apart from Xu Fangyi and a few subordinates, there were also three idlers, all of whom were from Qi County. Xu Fangyi laid out three strings of ten strings of money on the table, and the idlers swallowed their saliva.

"This is tea money for the three of you, as long as anyone finds out the clue..." Xu Fangyi paused, and the three of them couldn't help but raise their heads, "I will reward another hundred guan."

After Xu Fangyi finished speaking, he pushed the money lightly, and the three quickly took it one by one and put it in their arms, all smiling brightly.Although these vagrants are already peripheral members of the Intelligence Department, they have not received the salary of the Huaxia Weifu after all. If they want to do a good job, they will naturally have to give some benefits.

These three idlers were also gangsters, they knew the rules, and they didn't ask who they were looking for.

Xu Fangyi told them: "Three, this person is also a veteran, so he must be cautious. You are all veterans, so I won't be wordy about other matters."

A dignified Qingpi nodded and bowed his waist and said: "Don't worry, my lord, the villain will definitely take care of it. As long as there are suspicious people showing their heads, they will not be able to escape my brother's eyes. We brothers have decided on the one hundred coins."

Xu Fangyi nodded with a smile, and the two intelligence agents and a few green skins beside him stood up and left. Xu Fangyi stood at the window on the second floor, watching them disappear into the bustling crowd, and followed Zhang Bo who had just left the inn.

An intelligence officer next to Xu Fangyi was a little worried: "My lord, these green skins are not reliable in their work, and the subordinates always feel that they are not as reliable as their brothers."

Xu Fangyi smiled and said: "Don't worry! I have seen these people's skills when I was hanging out in the rivers and lakes in the early years. Sometimes, when they inquire about information, you may not be better than them. The most important thing is, The reason why they are used is because this incident must not let the Holy Church realize that our Huaxia Weifu did it, otherwise the plan of the chief envoy will come to naught."

(End of this chapter)