Within one day, the news that Liu Dapao planned to reform the entire Yizimen spread throughout Yangzhou.

Because there was going to be a big feast, Liu Dapao began to order people to prepare the ingredients that day, and to recruit people who could cook from among the brothers from the Yizimen to help.

From the scale of Liu Dapao's preparation of ingredients, it can be easily inferred that the scale of Liu Dapao's gathering this time will most likely be more than 10,000 people, and it is very likely that all the brothers of the Yizi Sect will gather together.

to one piece.

To be honest, the concept of more than ten thousand people has surpassed most of the military towns in the Great Zhou Dynasty. In terms of pure number of people, the brothers of Liu Dapao's Yizimen have surpassed most of the Jiedu envoys of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

It's just that these so-called brothers are a mixed bag. Each has its own boss and each has its own industry. The organization is actually very average. For example, in Xiangjiang in the 1990s, the Xiang brothers claimed to have 200,000 subordinates at their peak.

, the Youth Gang during the Republic of China even claimed to have 800,000 disciples, but if they really wanted to fight, they would only have a few thousand members.

In other words, whether there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people under normal circumstances, gangs, as a carrier of a mob, are unlikely to bring everyone together under normal circumstances.

First of all, there is really no need. Why call so many people together? Is it a fight? Or a war?

If there was a fight with a few thousand people, it would have been over long ago. If there was a war, Du Yuesheng had sent the so-called 800,000 Youth Gang disciples to the anti-Japanese front line, but the mob did nothing except waste the bullets of the Japanese army.

function.

Secondly, the cost is high. Not to mention anything else, the cost of this flowing banquet alone is more than 10,000 yuan. This is only the cost of the ingredients themselves, and the miscellaneous items add up to more than 10,000 yuan.

Compared with the cost of the running table itself, the red envelopes given to the younger brothers are the real bulk of the cost, and they can only be paid out of one's own pocket, and the money can be taken from one's own private account, and public funds cannot be used.

This alone is another hundred thousand coins.

Thanks to the opening of Yanzi Building a few days ago, he received a big golden pig. Now he is in a state of having money and no place to spend it. Otherwise, the one hundred thousand yuan alone would be enough for him to spend all his money.

My teeth were broken.

And this is not counting the losses caused by the closure of his Yizi Sect. His brothers are spread across all walks of life. Not to mention anything else, if he holds such a conference, the docks in the entire Yangzhou City can almost stop moving on that day.

Already.

In essence, Yangzhou City is a city that relies entirely on the dock for development. If the dock stops, the entire Yangzhou City will also stop. The direct and indirect economic losses caused by this cannot be calculated at all.

There is no benefit at all, but a huge expense for such a party. Apart from showing off one's muscles, that is, having a good time, I really can't think of any other purpose.

However, flexing muscles itself is the third disadvantage of doing this: big trees attract wind.

What do you want to do by gathering more than 10,000 people? Do you want to rebel?

If something like this happened during a period when the country was at peace and the people were at peace, and the dynasty had the strongest control over the political power, it might not be impossible to directly characterize it as a rebellion.

This kind of thing is really completely different from the Black Heart Bear who has always been relatively low-key. Naturally, everyone in the world, and even within the Yizi Sect, will be surprised by this, and then start to analyze it randomly and discuss the Black Heart Bear like this.

What is the purpose of a large gathering that is almost a provocation to the authorities?

The people's imagination is endless, and the rumors naturally become more and more outrageous. In less than two days, some people said that he wanted to take the opportunity to revolt and capture Yangzhou City. They even said that he had a bad heart. Xiong once secretly ordered people to weave yellow robes, and also wanted to have a yellow robe added to the body in Yangzhou City.

Naturally, smart people would not believe such nonsense, and Liu Dapao did not bother to pay attention to it. To a certain extent, he even wished that such rumors would spread.

He launched such a large-scale campaign precisely because he couldn't afford to compete with those bureaucrats who were dressed like beasts, so he wanted to take advantage of the power vacuum created by the civil-military game in Yangzhou during the short period of shock caused by the change of emperors in the court. , try your best to expand your own power.

This power must expand in a short period of time to the extent that even if the court regains stability or even Chai Rong is resurrected, it will not easily deal with him.

In this way, he can use some means to recruit people by showing a more respectful and low profile, and after being recruited, his status must be greatly improved, so that he can barely squeeze into the big players like Shen Yi and Suning. Card table.

So at this time, it is not a good thing to use such rumors to scare them. Of course, the premise is that the spread of this rumor does not exceed Yangzhou City.

Ignoring these rumors that might put him in a desperate situation, Liu Dapao did not give up in the next few days. Instead, he spread the hero message widely and sincerely invited the heroes of Yangzhou to attend the event eight days later. grand event.

Nearly a hundred wealthy merchants in Yangzhou City, including the top ten salt merchants, received invitations written and sent by Liu Dapao respectfully. Although it was just an invitation and there was no compulsory element, in the face of Liu Dapao, who was gaining momentum, , these wealthy businessmen all naturally enthusiastically expressed that they would cooperate well.

In addition to these wealthy businessmen, some heroes who were well-known in the world but were not gang members were also invited by Liu Dapao.

What's even more bizarre is that even the four academies in Yangzhou actually received invitations from Liu Dapao. There are even rumors that Liu Dapao rushed to Suiyang to invite the elders of Suiyang Academy and invited them to attend as guests. .

Why would you invite a bunch of teachers to a gang gathering?

It is difficult to tell whether it is true or not that Suiyang Academy went to invite people. However, the four small academies in Yangzhou, even if the mountain chief was too proud of his status and did not want to be associated with him, they all gave him more or less face. It is said that at least A teacher or even the vice-dean will be sent to support him.

Everyone was curious about what Liu Dapao wanted to do. However, in the government office, Shen Yi and Zhou Guangquan couldn't laugh after hearing about the scale of Liu Dapao's party.

I don’t know why, but this meeting itself was a provocation to him, not to mention that they had broken up on bad terms when they were talking about buying and selling people, so this meeting seemed to be originally aimed at them.

Especially Shen Yi, he had been depressed because of this all day, and he didn't even eat dinner.

Liu Dapao had always been too meek and too sensible. Now he suddenly acted so ignorant, which really caught him off guard.

He even couldn't figure it out. It was just asking him to buy and sell a few people. Even if the scale was larger, how could he step on the tail of his evil-minded bear?

Those refugees have no food and clothing, and there is no way to survive in Yangzhou City. Even if they are lucky enough to find a job at the dock or in a small workshop, isn't it still just hard work money? Is it really better than selling to a wealthy landlord?

Will living a better and more dignified life as a tenant?

Besides, when did he, the black-hearted bear, have a conscience?

It would be even more unbelievable if you are worried that things will get bigger and that you will be settled by the imperial court in the future. But as a gang leader, you have a lot of leverage. No matter how big your crime is, is it any different from selling illegal salt? It's not all the same.

A life?

To put it ten thousand steps back, even if this black-hearted bear really hates this matter, then it will be fine if you don't do it.

In essence, they were discussing with Black Heart Bear. Even if there was some coercion and inducement, couldn't Black Heart Bear really refuse?

With his black-hearted sophistication, couldn't he still find a way to politely refuse without hurting his friendship?

But he was angry and had nowhere to vent his anger. He couldn't even find a trusted person to discuss it with.

Because he didn't want people to know that he had a conflict with Black Heart Bear, and he did it because Black Heart Bear didn't give him face. Otherwise, the administrative work in the short term would be very difficult. Not to mention, the key is

This will make him feel very shameless.

So when Liu Dapao set up the flowing water banquet, he not only had to go, but also had to go there with a smile. While feeling extremely aggrieved, he naturally became more and more confused.

In particular, he had already determined that Liu Dapao was not an ordinary person. He could not have suddenly become an official and became hot-headed, nor could he plan to completely defect to the military with the support of Suning.

In fact, according to Shen Yi's understanding of Liu Dapao, even if he really wanted to join the martial arts, he would definitely try not to offend himself.

There must be a monster when something goes wrong. The more he thought about it, the more Shen Yi's emotions gradually changed from anger to doubt, and then from doubt to panic. Because of the panic, he couldn't help but feel a little fear.

Even when I went to bed at night, I tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep no matter how hard I tried, but I simply put on my clothes in the middle of the night, under the moonlight, and went directly to the inn, and went to Zhou Guangren's bedroom to find him.

He could only come to him to discuss the strangeness.

Naturally, the guards at the inn did not dare to stop him, so he sat directly on Zhou Guangren's bedside in the middle of the night. Fortunately, Zhou Guangren was on a business trip this week, so he was quite restrained, and there was no romantic woman under the bed.

I woke up from being shaken in a daze. When I opened my eyes, I saw Shen Yi's big face. I was completely stunned. I couldn't help but sit up in confusion.

"Master Shen, what are you doing?"

"Xiao Zhou, what on earth do you think Black Heart Bear is doing?"

Zhou Guangren immediately broke his guard: "Sir, you broke into my bedroom and woke me up in the middle of the night, just for this?"

"This matter started because of you. If I didn't look for you, who else could I look for? Get up quickly and discuss it with me."

"I……"

Zhou Guangren began to curse in his heart.

Isn’t this a bastard!

Isn't this clearly a form of bullying?

However, after all, he is only a sixth-grade official. Even if he is not in the same system and has no direct relationship with Shen Yi, the gap is still a lot bigger. What's more, if the two Huai Salt Transportation Yamen really move to Yangzhou, they will not be directly related to Shen Yi.

They in Yangzhou Prefecture rarely have to deal with them.

The level of officialdom is overwhelming.

He also understood that Shen Yi's rude behavior was not because he was close to him, but because he was already resentful of himself. He was blaming himself for ruining the honeymoon relationship between him and Black Heart Bear.

In desperation, he had no choice but to endure the embarrassment and temporarily swallow the negative emotions. He gave Shen Yi his hand first, then put on his clothes, found a basin of water, washed his face, and used cold water to dispel the embarrassment. Then he forced out a smile and sat next to Shen Yi.

He cupped his hands and said, "Sir, if you think about it, all the things Black Heart Bear did were all caused by my wrong words. However, I never thought that he would be so intolerable to anger."

"For the long-term peace and stability of Yangzhou City, how about I go to him tomorrow to apologize, say some nice words, and try to get his understanding? Even if I give up this old face of the official, I will definitely not harm you, my lord, and the people of Yangzhou Prefecture. Half the prestige.”

After all, he was just an official. He just washed his face and caught the main contradiction in this matter.

In the final analysis, he is just a small official who can put on airs in front of the black-hearted bear, but in front of frontier officials like Shen Yi, his position is still very accurate.

It doesn't matter whether you succeed or not, it doesn't even matter whether you do something or not. When facing Shangguan, you must first correct your attitude.

When Shen Yi saw what he said, it was indeed what he thought. He nodded with satisfaction. At least his attitude was commendable.

But after nodding, he shook his head and said: "You just don't understand the Black Heart Bear. How could he be a person who can't control his temper from being a little gangster in the wilderness to where he is today?" , how can you be so ignorant of the general situation?"

"Not to mention that when Magistrate Yang was here before, he was not only cautious, but also thorough and well-rounded when doing things. Therefore, he received the strong support of Magistrate Yang. In fact, if it were not for Magistrate Yang's support, he would not be able to become the official. This is an official of the fifth rank."

"According to this person's character, he has always been extremely low-key. I have known him for many years. He always makes plans before taking action. You have not experienced the previous Yangzhou Rebellion. I have never done it before, so I don’t understand that one link is within another, one step is within one step, and every step is just right and sophisticated, it makes people shudder just thinking about it.”

Zhou Guangren was stunned and said: "You mean that the Yangzhou Rebellion was promoted by him behind the scenes? Could it be that he still has contact with Tiance Mansion?"

When Shen Yi heard this, he nodded and said: "I'm afraid it's nine out of ten. You're not from Yangzhou, so you don't know. During the whole turmoil, Shi Ping died, Magistrate Yang was in chains, and He Zimen was gone.

To talk about the Tiance Mansion, it is nothing more than destroying a batch of military supplies that will be sent to the Sichuan and Sichuan front lines. I have thought about this matter over and over again. There are too many coincidences. The Tiance Mansion is a group of street rats. , even if you secretly sneaked into part of Yangzhou City, how could you accomplish such a big thing?

If you say they took advantage of the situation and took advantage of the situation, I believe it. But if they say that this matter was led by them behind the scenes, I don't believe it at all. It is impossible for Yangzhou City to let them infiltrate to this extent without knowing it. .

If they really had this ability and had even secretly controlled the Hezimen, they would never be able to expose the Hezimen so easily. They could have asked for something bigger. They could even wait for an opportunity to capture the entire Yangzhou City in one fell swoop. It's not impossible.

Only the Black-Hearted Bear, through the Yangzhou Rebellion, unified the world of Yangzhou, took on the role of an official, and established a patrol camp. At the same time, he took over Shi Ping's forces and became a figure on the table in Yangzhou City today. , the civil servants and military generals are all showing their kindness to him."

Zhou Guangren was shocked: "According to what you said, this unrest in Yangzhou may really be caused by this black-hearted bear."

Shen Yi sighed and said: "It's not just the Yangzhou Rebellion. The April snowstorm before was really weird. I even suspected that it was related to him. You know, the Black Heart Bear is related to Magistrate Yang had not had much contact with each other before, but just before the snowstorm in April, Magistrate Yang had just taken advantage of the incident and privately ordered someone to beat this black-hearted bear to vent his anger."

"Is there such a thing? I thought that Magistrate Yang and Black Heart Bear have been friends for many years, so..."

"Friendship is nothing. Magistrate Yang has done very little practical work since he came to Yangzhou Prefecture. He is so proud of his status, how could he have so much contact with people like Black Heart Bear? In daily life, these things are all done. It was me who did it, and I am the person who really knows the Yangzhou government office and Black Heart Bear."

"Then what's going on..."

"Yeah, then what's going on? Magistrate Yang, who was not familiar with him, beat him up for no reason and even killed Dakoujiu. Do you think he would have done anything when he saw Dakoujiu die? Do you feel as sad as a rabbit dies and a fox dies?”

"That's it. Not only did he endure this, but he also coaxed Governor Yang to look like his own elder. Not long after that, there was snow in April and chaos in Yangzhou, and he directly handed over the feudal official. He was sent to the capital in a shackles car, and before leaving, he was given an official position."

"If all this is not part of his black-hearted plan, it can at least show that he is a deep-minded man. Magistrate Yang beat and humiliated him for no reason, but he was able to coax Magistrate Yang to regard him as his nephew."

"How come you are here to discuss business with him, or are you, the Yandao Yamen, taking the lead? You are the villain. I am just a middle-aged person. How could there be such a big reaction?"

"If he was behind the two major events of April Snow and the Yangzhou Rebellion, then things would be even more abnormal. A person with such deep thoughts and scheming must always make decisions before taking action. , how could it be possible to suddenly act like a dazed young man?"

"In other words, what kind of terrible conspiracy is hidden behind this point, even if you don't hesitate to make such a big splash?"

Zhou Guangren was also a little frightened by such a terrifying inference, and couldn't help but said: "Is it possible that he has a villain's mentality, and when he is suddenly promoted, he becomes rampant when he succeeds?"

"This possibility cannot be ruled out, but it should be unlikely. He has been the commander for a while, and I have never seen him become more arrogant. He has even become much more low-key than before."

"Besides, don't you think the timing of the appearance of soy sauce, Liyan wine and other things is too exquisite? I don't believe that he only developed such a magical thing at this time. This shows that this person has a good nature. Tolerate."

"When something goes wrong, there must be a monster. Unless this black-hearted bear suddenly has a conscience, and a big conscience at that, otherwise, after thinking about it, based on my decades of experience in the ups and downs of the officialdom, there seems to be only one possibility."

"What?"

"When you can't figure out the logic of a person's actions or find out his motives, it must be because the information you have is different from his, or there is some information that you know that he doesn't know.

Or, there is some information that he knows but you don’t."

"Xiao Zhou, your Salt Road Yamen is directly under the jurisdiction of the three departments. Recently...have you received any news about Kaifeng?"

"Are you saying that the reason why Black Heart Bear made such a big fuss is because something might have happened on the other side of Kaifeng, but he knew about it, but you didn't? How is this possible?"

"There is nothing impossible. Even I don't know how far Black Heart Bear's connections are. Not to mention Suning Xian's deliberate efforts to win over him, his relationship with the Murong family, the elder and the younger, is also extraordinary.

, it would not be surprising at all if there is any news that reaches the Murong family from Kaifeng first, and he gets it through the Murong family's channels before me."

"This... Xiaguan is just a case of six-grade salt. Indeed, I haven't heard of any major changes in Kaifeng City."

"Well, in my opinion, this matter will most likely fall on Old Madam Murong. I will naturally go to inquire about it tomorrow morning. However, after all, their family is still a warrior, and they are not of the same mind as us.

Even if there is something, I may not be able to find out."

"And the most important thing is that he held such a large-scale meeting with such a black heart. We have no idea what he is going to say and what he is going to do. Even if we are guessing, there is no clue.

"

"Then what should I do?"

"It's difficult to get information from old Madam Murong, but it might be much easier if you get the information from the young lady of the Murong family. Miss Murong has a very close relationship with Black Heart Bear and once spent the night in his house."

"If there is anything that we don't know about, the big news from Kaifeng will most likely be told to him by Murong Yan. Brother Zhou, I have thought about it and only you can do it. It is most suitable for you to do it."

"Me? I'm a sixth-grade Yanzheng, and I've never even met Miss Murong. How can I get away with it?"
Chapter completed!