It was already late at night, and Quanzhou, which was extremely prosperous during the day, was slowly falling asleep. Even the port was closed and no ships were allowed to approach. This was mainly to prevent pirates or illegal merchants from hiding into the port at night. Therefore, at night, the Quanzhou Navy will also send warships to patrol outside the port.

There were only a few lights left in the rows of merchant warehouses on the pier. In Quanzhou City behind the pier, there was a magnificent mansion that was still brightly lit. From time to time, the sound of Hu's singing and musical instruments came from the front yard. The unrestrained laughter even reached outside the mansion. However, the neighbors seemed to have been used to this sound. Even when they were woken up in their sleep, they could only curse and block their ears because they could not afford to offend the owners of the mansion.

However, the lively atmosphere in front of this mansion is just a manifestation. In a quiet hall in the back house far away from the front yard, several gloomy men were sitting opposite each other. These men were tall, short, fat or thin, but they had one thing in common, that is, their high nose, deep eyes and different hair colors were different, and you could tell at a glance that they were Hu people.

"Ah, Ma Fengjie has been imprisoned by the Dingbei Hou. Don't you say anything?" At this time, one of the short and fat middle-aged Hu people said, "This guy is named Male, one of the famous sea merchants in Quanzhou. He has hundreds of sea boats under his name, and his business is tens of thousands of yuan.

The man called Ajise is sitting in the main seat. He is also the owner of the mansion and the largest maritime merchant in Quanzhou after the fall of the Dong family. He saw Ajise is a tall and burly middle-aged man with a curly beard. His blue eyes are often flashing with cunning and vicious light, which makes people dare not look at him.

"What are you saying? Ma Fengjie was unlucky and was implicated by his godfather in the capital. What can we do?" Aguse looked at Male who was talking indifferently and asked back.

Today, Li Zhang arrested Ma Fengjie and imprisoned as soon as he arrived in Quanzhou. This also shocked many people and also alarmed many people who had interests in Ma Fengjie, such as the Hu merchants in front of him. It was because they had fascinated Ma Fengjie and others that they could dominate Quanzhou's maritime trade. But it was precisely because of this that they were very panicked about Ma Fengjie's arrest and immediately gathered together to discuss countermeasures.

"Don't pretend to be confused. That Dingbei Hou is not a fuel-efficient lamp. With his identity, ordinary things can't make him travel all the way to Quanzhou, so I suspect he might be coming for us!" Mahler said anxiously again at this time, with a bit of pale on his shiny face.

"Yes, that Dong Qing has never been caught. I heard that he might have gone to the capital to sue the emperor. For this reason, we also respected Ma Fengjie a lot of money, so we asked him to help say hello to the capital. But now not only Ma Fengjie has been arrested, but even his backer has fallen. Do you think that Dong Qingzhen has led the case to the capital?" At this time, a thin, vulgar Hu man also spoke.

This vulgar guy was named Kegle. He used to be a slave merchant in Dashi. However, he later offended people, so he fled to the Song Dynasty by boat. Now he has changed to sea trade. However, he occasionally does slave trading in private, mainly in Quanzhou. There are many wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou who are very interested in Dashi female slaves, and he happens to have this kind of trick.

Others also expressed their opinions at this time. Most of them had the same opinion as Male and Kegra. After all, Li Zhang came this time so suddenly, and he took down Ma Fengjie as soon as he came. This is one of their biggest backers in the officialdom. If they were involved because of Ma Fengjie, it would be bad.

It was precisely because of the panic above that Kegler and others seemed very frightened, and the discussions became louder and louder, making the originally quiet hall noisy.

"Okay, let's be quiet!" At this moment, Aguse, who is the master, finally couldn't help but speak. In fact, although these people are nominally equal and are a very close alliance, there are actually divisions between primary and secondary. For example, Aguse has the greatest power, and many things were decided by him before, so he is the main one here.

However, as soon as Aguse finished speaking, the other people closed their mouths, the first Male spoke again: "Aguse, it was your head to destroy the Dong family. If the Dingbei Hou really came because of the Dong family's affairs this time, I'm afraid the first one who was unlucky would be you!"

Mahler is the second only to Ajise, and his business has developed very fast in the past two years, especially since he has a brother who is also a famous businessman in Guangzhou. With the cooperation of his brothers, his strength is stronger than Ajise, so he has always wanted to challenge Ajise's status.

At this time, Ah Guse was also angry by Mahler's provocation and immediately shouted: "Hmph, although I was the one who took the lead at the beginning, weren't you all involved? If the incident happened, you wouldn't be able to escape by then!"

When Mahler heard Ah's reprimand, he also stopped and immediately wanted to refute. However, the vulgar Kegler made a smooth move and said, "Everyone calm down. Now we are just guessing. No one knows why the Dingbei Hou came. If we lose our own stance first, wouldn't it be easier for people to catch the handle?"

As soon as Kegler said that, Male could only glar at Aguse fiercely and never spoke again. Aguse took a long breath and said, "What Kegler said makes sense. We must not be distracted. I heard that after the Marquis of Dingbei captured Ma Fengjie, he did not go to Quanzhou City, but lived directly in the Navy camp. However, he had seen local officials in Quanzhou before. It would be better for us to find out their own ways tomorrow, not to be afraid of spending money, and see if we can find some useful information."

"I think this method is good. The officials of the Song Dynasty are the most greedy for money. As long as they give the money, they can find out any news. Moreover, the Dingbei Hou came from afar. Even if he wanted to do something, he had to rely on local officials. So as long as we inquire from multiple sources, we will definitely find out some news!" Kegler said again at this time.

Ah Jise’s suggestions are also very reasonable. After all, they don’t know what Li Zhang is coming, and they don’t know why Ma Fengjie was arrested. There is a famous saying among the Han people: “Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.” Only when they know what the other party is coming will they find a way to deal with it.

Just when Aguse and others couldn't sleep because of Li Zhang's arrival, Li Zhang himself did not sleep at this time, but sat in his bedroom waiting for news.
Chapter completed!