The purpose of establishing the river defense anti-smuggling bureau was to address the frequent flooding of major rivers, which required a large number of laborers to repair dikes and prevent flooding. In addition, some canal transport projects also required laborers to excavate.

Because many peasant uprisings throughout history broke out among the laborers who were responsible for flood control, such a large group of people gathered together was a real hidden danger. Therefore, the imperial court established a special river defense battalion to supervise these people and at the same time take on the work of flood prevention and disaster relief.

Later, with the development of the Grand Canal, the river defense battalion was also responsible for the safety of the trade routes along the river and for eliminating some ferocious beasts along the way in the wilderness.

The salt industry in the Mingyue City area is highly developed and contains huge profits, so much so that smuggled salt is difficult to eradicate. The River Defense Battalion has taken on the task of cracking down on smuggling, and over time, people have come to call it the River Defense Anti-Smuggling Battalion.

In a secret room inside the river defense camp's headquarters, Commander Sang Qian was respectfully bowing to another old man: "Father's move was indeed brilliant, turning the Wang and Chu families against each other without lifting a finger."

Sang Hong stroked his beard, not overly pleased: "It's not that simple. If this could turn the two families against each other, then we would be underestimating Chu Zhongtian."

"Could it be that Chu Zhongtian can turn the tables?" Sang Qian asked curiously.

“He will definitely come up with a series of countermeasures, but it doesn’t matter,” Sang Hong chuckled. “Yin’an is just the beginning. There are a lot of other methods waiting for him. First, eliminate their most powerful ally, and then deal with the isolated Chu family.”

“Mingyue Gong sounds quite imposing, but isn’t he still being manipulated by Father?” Sang Qian laughed heartily.

Sang Hong shook his head: "It's not that Chu Zhongtian is inferior to me, but that the Emperor and Empress support me, and the court supports me. It's an inevitable trend that cannot be reversed by human effort."

Sang Qian thought to himself that his father liked to talk about mysterious things. He was clearly awesome, but he didn't like people praising him. He was really too humble.

"By the way, Father, you must take care of your health. Those 'Slender Horses of Shenxianju' that the wealthy merchants in Mingyue City sent you before were indeed quite good." Sang Qian winked as he spoke, with an expression that every man understood.

Sang Hong glanced at him indifferently: "Aren't you very resentful now? I forbade you from going to Shenxianju to seek out prostitutes, but I turned around and took their young prostitutes?"

"I dare not!" Sang Qian hurriedly bowed his head and apologized, but he did have some thoughts in his heart. "Father, you have always been honest and upright. If you rashly accept the 'lean horses' from those wealthy merchants this time, it may tarnish your reputation in the future, and it may also attract attacks from your political enemies in the court."

“As long as you can complete the task assigned by the court, what does personal reputation matter? Today, I will teach you a lesson,” Sang Hong said in a deep voice. “Being aloof is of no use except for seeking fame. If you want to be an honest official, you have to be more cunning than a corrupt official.”

"Only by accepting gifts from those families will they consider you one of their own, making future cooperation much easier and avoiding unnecessary suspicion."

"Our primary task now is to deal with the Chu family and seize their salt and iron wealth for the imperial court; everything else is secondary."

Sang Hong bowed respectfully and said, "Father's teachings are correct."

He couldn't help but marvel at how someone could be so righteous and eloquent about taking a woman, spouting endless platitudes. There was no one else in the world like his father.

"Hey, it's Chu family's son-in-law Zu'an, bringing people to request an audience!" At this moment, a soldier ran to the door to announce.

"What's he doing here?" Sang Qian frowned. For some reason, he subconsciously disliked that guy.

The thought that such a scoundrel could marry the angelic Miss Chu made him feel like a beautiful flower stuck in cow dung—no, more like a beautiful flower falling into a cesspool.

He was especially annoyed when he thought about how Zu'an had swindled hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from his own gambling den last time.

“You show your emotions too much. I’ve taught you so many times, but you still can’t change,” Sang Hong said with dissatisfaction. His son was impetuous and hadn’t learned any of his composure. “Go and see what Zu An’s intentions are.”

"Yes~" Sang Qian replied sullenly. It was all Zu An's fault that he got scolded by his father again.

Meanwhile, Zu'an was waiting in the hall when he suddenly saw that he had received two waves of anger points from Sang Qian in the backstage.

Zuan was speechless. This guy hadn't even met him yet, and he was already so resentful?

Could it be that he found out about me and his fiancée?

But apart from being a little ambiguous and touching each other a few times, we didn't actually do anything.

It's so unfair to be blamed like this.

Just as he was lost in thought, Sang Qian finally came out: "Young Master Zu, may I ask what brings you to the River Defense Camp today?"

The way this guy called him "young master" disgusted him for a long time. What did he have that made him worthy of the title "young master"?

But his father taught him not to show his emotions, and that if he called him by his name directly, wouldn't the hostility be too strong?

He was in a state of great inner turmoil, little did he know that Zu'an had already learned of his hostility through other channels.

"We've discovered a large shipment of smuggled salt that's going to be shipped from the dock tonight, so we request that Commander Sang must gather his forces and wipe out those salt smugglers completely." Zu An didn't bother with any more pleasantries and directly stated his purpose.

"Smuggled salt?" Sang Qian was startled. "I wonder where Brother Zu got this information? Why didn't our river defense camp receive a single word?"

As he spoke, he glanced at one of his subordinates without making a sound. The subordinate nodded slightly and silently withdrew.

Because there were many people on the river defense camp side, and Zu'an and his group were not familiar with the people here, they wouldn't notice anything if one or two people were missing.

"The key issue now isn't where the intelligence came from, but rather catching those salt smugglers as soon as possible." Of course, Zu'an wouldn't be foolish enough to reveal Qiu Honglei's identity.

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