Chapter 10

Time flies, and seven years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Song Zhehao, who is in his twenties, has already become a world-famous wealthy businessman. His shops are spread all over the country, and there is almost no industry in the country that he does not cover.

The annual income was even more than the taxes collected by the imperial court, and Song Zhehao became a veritable tycoon.

At this time, Song Zhehao was already the father of a son and a daughter. The eldest son was six years old and the youngest daughter was three years old. Both children looked like their parents, with red lips, white teeth and crystal clear skin.

After having a son and a daughter, Wen's mother no longer had to worry about Song Zhehao taking a concubine. The two children were raised by Tao Hui and Wen's mother. As for their mother Wen Xiaoqiu?

Over the past few years, Wen Xiaoqiu has grown from a rookie in the business world to one of the top female shopkeepers in Huo City.

Wen Xiaoqiu is smart and capable, has a photographic memory for accounts, and is quite intelligent. Every shop that passes through her hands is doing booming business.

In the current Song family, Tao Hui and Wen's mother take care of the housework together, while the business affairs outside the house are handled by Wen Xiaoqiu, and the business outside Huocheng is handled by Song Zhehao.

This couple is well-known in Huocheng for their extraordinary talents and deep affection. In particular, they have been together for so long, but they always look like they have just met and never get tired of each other.

The housewives who were on good terms with Wen Xiaoqiu also found it strange and came to her for advice, asking her how they could keep their husbands loyal to them.

There were even housewives who secretly asked Wen Xiaoqiu if she knew any seductive skills, otherwise why would Song Zhehao be so consistent with her and not even look at other women?

In response to this kind of question, Wen Xiaoqiu could only respond with an awkward smile.

She wanted to tell them that there were very few husbands like Song Zhehao, and she was the only one he had met, but she didn't dare to say it out loud.

There are many people who ask this kind of question, and they force themselves to ask it out loud, which is really annoying.

In response to Wen Xiaoqiu's complaints, Song Zhehao suddenly had an idea and said, "How about we write a book together called 'Enlightenment for a Happy Family Life'? I think it will be hard to find in bookstores if we put it on the shelves."

Wen Xiaoqiu was just thinking about this idea, but Song Zhehao was very playful and actually started preparing materials for a new book.

However, before he could finish the draft, his peaceful and peaceful life became unstable...

In fact, over the years, although Kyoto and the surrounding metropolises, such as Huocheng and other places, have a peaceful life, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and there is a scene of singing and dancing.

However, in the frontier areas far away from Kyoto, local bureaucrats oppressed the people, neighboring countries burned, killed and looted, and bandits were rampant.

The local people live in a hellish situation with dire straits and miserable lives every day.

In the past few years alone, there have been more than a dozen rebellions of varying sizes in border areas.

Although the imperial court sent troops to suppress the rebellions, the rebellions were too frequent, military pay was not sent in time, and the supply of food and fodder was intermittent, so the efforts to quell the rebellion in the border areas had little effect.

Unexpectedly, just a few months ago, a rebellion suddenly broke out in the border area, and more than a dozen small rebel kings who had previously acted independently united this time to fight against the imperial court, causing the imperial army to suffer a crushing defeat in three attempts to suppress the rebellion.

At this time, the emperor was still engaged in large-scale construction projects and complained about the bitter cold in winter and the hot summer, which made it impossible for him to concentrate on state affairs and unable to patiently review memorials.

Moreover, the large number of concubines that the emperor has recently recruited have no place to stay.

As a result, he had a wild idea to build a large palace garden, the scale of which was probably unmatched in all previous dynasties.

The court was full of treacherous ministers. The emperor had such an absurd idea that misled the people and the country, but not a single minister stood up to oppose it.

All wise people in the world know that this court is like a grasshopper in autumn and will not be able to jump for many more days.

At this time, because of the need to carry out large-scale construction projects and to raise military funds, the court formulated a series of taxes and miscellaneous books, and demanded money from the people.

As Song Zhehao is a world-famous wealthy businessman, how could the court let go of this piece of fat meat?

In just a few days, several of Song Zhehao's shops in Huocheng had been closed down, and the charges were all trivial.

When the store was sealed off, Song Zhehao smelled a conspiracy.

A few days later, the prefect came to visit again. He first expressed his regret for not becoming father-in-law and son-in-law with Song Zhehao, and then talked about the dilemma and difficult situation that the court was facing.

Now, how can the ministers and subjects bear to ask the emperor to revoke his order and stop repairing the land and gardens?

Then let's reduce the military pay even more. This is a serious matter in the face of national crisis and we cannot be careless at all.

So, as long as these subjects come to share the country's worries, and Song Zhehao, as a world-famous wealthy businessman, naturally has the ability and the need to make great efforts.

After listening to Governor Gu's insinuations, Song Zhehao finally smiled and said simply, "I don't have any money."

When Governor Gu heard this, he was unable to react for a moment. He had never seen such a person who was so ignorant of the current situation in his life.

Governor Gu's expression changed instantly, and he said in a stern tone, "I'm telling you! This time you have to come out, or not!"

"Now, the imperial court has set its sights on you. If you leave, the imperial court will appoint you an official, and everything will be fine. If you don't know how to handle the current situation, the imperial court will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. I'm afraid you won't even have a place to regret it then."

Song Zhehao listened, completely dismissive, and said, "I've made up my mind. You don't need to worry about it, Governor. I, Song, have always been law-abiding and have never missed a penny in taxes. As for what's not mine, even if you say something out of the blue, I won't pay a cent!"

"Besides, our dynasty is already on the decline. It's hard to say how many more years Governor Gu can hold on to his position. If I donate all my hard-earned money, I'm afraid I won't even hear a sound about it."

As soon as these words were spoken, Governor Gu was struck by lightning and jumped up from his chair. After being furious, he looked shocked.

He never expected that Song Zhehao was a person who did not know the current situation, and he did not expect that he would dare to say such treasonous words. Now it is not a question of whether he considers paying or not, but Governor Gu must immediately arrest this traitor.

Governor Gu shouted to the guards outside the door, "Come here! Capture this thief!"

Before he finished speaking, there was a crisp sound of weapons falling to the ground outside the door, and then the mighty figures of several officers and soldiers outside the door fell down in an instant.

Governor Gu was a cunning old man. When he saw this scene, he naturally knew what was going on. Then he saw the servants of the Song Mansion who suddenly broke in, and saw their agile skills just now, so he guessed that they were not ordinary servants.

Think about what Song Zhehao said just now. Since he dared to say such words, how could he not have made any preparations?

Governor Gu was so frightened that he quickly took a few steps back and pointed at Song Zhehao and shouted, "Are you planning a rebellion?"

Song Zhehao told him clearly: "That's exactly what I meant, but you found out too late!"

After saying that, Song Zhehao waved his hand, and several servants helped up Governor Gu, stuffed his mouth, threw him into a sack, and carried him out.

The leading servant, a handsome man, whispered in Song Zhehao's ear, "Everything is ready. Shall we proceed as planned?"

Song Zhehao nodded and told him, "Go and do it quickly!"

The servant received the order and hurried out!

In fact, Song Zhehao had already anticipated what happened today.

As a time traveler, Song Zhehao has the right to know about future plots.

He knew that in the original plot, this was the time when the world was in chaos and righteous men from all over the country rose up in rebellion.

This war was different from previous ones in that it was not suppressed by the imperial court as in the past. Instead, it intensified and eventually took eight years for the corrupt dynasty to be overthrown, a new court to be established, and peace to return to the world.

Song Zhehao, who already knew the key plot, knew that taking advantage of this turmoil, the original owner's former father-in-law, the prefect Gu who had always coveted his family wealth, would not let go of this good opportunity?

Over the years, Song Zhehao has bribed more than half of the officials in the court. So after Governor Gu submitted the memorial to confiscate Song Zhehao's property, an official who was on good terms with Song Zhehao secretly hid the memorial and then sent someone to deliver it to Song Zhehao overnight.

Just a few days after Song Zhehao finished reading the memorial, the anxious Governor Gu came to his house to extort money.

Prefect Gu kept saying that Song Zhehao should protect himself by losing money to avoid disaster.

In fact, Song Zhehao knew that even if he handed over his huge fortune, Prefect Gu would not let him go.

The memorial submitted by Prefect Gu had not yet been approved, but he dared to bring people to extort money. If Song Zhehao handed over the money, it would all go into Prefect Gu's pocket.

Governor Gu will definitely deny this matter.

After Governor Gu receives the reply to the memorial, he will abuse his power for personal gain and confiscate all the remaining assets of Song Zhehao's family. When he hands them over, he will be rewarded with a high position and promoted.

In this way, not only did he fill his pockets, but he also made great contributions and was promoted to a higher position.

It's really the best of both worlds.

However, Governor Gu was wrong in that he treated Song Zhehao as a lamb to be slaughtered.

Song Zhehao started preparing very early...

Over the years, Song Zhehao's business has spread across the country, and he even has many estates in foreign countries. On the surface, he is doing business, but privately he is building his own network of relationships, intelligence network, and power network.

On the surface, Song Zhehao is just a businessman, but in terms of strength, he is already the most rebellious person.

If Song Zhehao rises up in rebellion, with his current strength and the power he has established, he will be able to enter Kyoto and sit on the throne of emperor within half a year.

But Song Zhehao disdains to do so. He thinks that the current fairy-tale life is what he wants.

His efforts have been able to protect the Song family from all harm.

After placing Governor Gu under house arrest, Song Zhehao ordered his servants to withdraw all the remaining people back to their hometown according to the pre-planned plan.

In fact, as early as three days ago, when the shops in Huo City were sealed off, Song Zhehao had guessed that Governor Gu would take action, so he ordered a team of reliable servants to take all his family members to a safe place in his hometown.

After Song Zhehao had dealt with Governor Gu, he planned to take all the remaining servants and employees in Huo City, as long as they were willing to follow Song Zhehao, back to his hometown.

Back home, Song Zhehao's earth-shattering idea is being implemented in full swing...

On the night when Song Zhehao left with the last group of people, several servants of the Song Mansion hung a sack of linen in a crowded place.

There was a note attached to the sack, which said that the person in the sack was Kou Feilang, the notorious bandit leader nearby.

This man was full of evil. He bullied men and women, burned, killed, looted, and did all kinds of evil. The people of Huocheng hated him to the core and wanted to devour his flesh and drink his blood.

However, this person's whereabouts were mysterious and he was always hard to find. The government tried to capture him many times but to no avail.

Now, a righteous man from the martial arts world has captured him and handed him over to the people of Huocheng for punishment.

The people of Huo City hated Kou Feilang to the core. When they saw this scene, they didn't care whether it was true or not, they just vented their anger.

Unexpectedly, the sack was discovered before dawn. Many people gathered around and heard a "humming" sound coming from the sack, but they didn't dare to open it to take a look.

After being looked at by that evil villain, how could I have the courage to seek revenge?

So everyone picked up stones and smashed the sack from midnight until dawn. Finally, a few officers and soldiers found the blood-soaked sack.

Those officers and soldiers came to look for the missing Governor Gu. When they saw the bag, they opened it curiously.

Who knew? The person in the bag was not the bandit Kou Feilang, but the Governor Gu they were looking for.

Governor Gu was already dead, his body was bloody and horrible to look at.

Although it was a tragic death, this was also an unsolved injustice. All the people in Huo City were involved. We can't arrest them all, right?

Moreover, they are all related.

Besides, when Governor Gu was alive, he was always harsh to his subordinates and liked to use his authority to oppress others. He also had a bad reputation among the people. There were even rumors that the reason Kou Feilang had never been caught was because he would spend money to bribe Governor Gu after every robbery.

Even the servants of the prefectural governor's mansion caught a glimpse of Kou Feilang entering the mansion through the back door.

Therefore, after the death of Prefect Gu, no one bothered to pursue the matter. Besides, how could anyone who dared to deal with the ruler of a state be an ordinary person?

Everyone made up an excuse, saying that the prefect was killed by Kou Feilang, and asked the court to send people to arrest the thief Kou Feilang.

If we catch him, we will be ridding the people of a threat!