Zhou Chenyang asked with a displeased look, "What is it now?"
Liu Tianwen knew that he had suffered a setback at the Lin residence tonight, and that talking about it would only worsen his mood. However, this matter was too important to keep quiet.
Liu Tianwen had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "The iron block was stolen, and the man we sent there was killed!"
"What!" Zhou Chenyang jumped to his feet, his eyes wide with shock. "What did you say?"
Liu Tianwen replied, "Just now, someone covered in blood came back to report that the iron blocks had been stolen and all our men had been killed."
Zhou Chenyang's eyes were filled with disbelief: "They were all killed? How is that possible!"
Liu Tianwen also thought it was impossible, but the person who came back with the news was covered in blood, so it was impossible for him to lie.
He then said, "I have already sent people to the scene to investigate..."
"I'll go myself!" Zhou Chenyang's eyes were full of anxiety, for no other reason than that this batch of iron blocks was too important to him.
What was originally a foolproof plan has turned out like this; how could he not be anxious?
Liu Tianwen immediately went to find horses, and then they left the city overnight.
About three hours later, they arrived at the scene of the accident, where several boats were stranded on the shore and corpses were scattered everywhere.
The blood had stained the river water in this area red, making it look extremely gruesome.
Zhou Chenyang ignored the corpses and went straight to check the cargo on the ship; the iron blocks inside were long gone.
Zhou Chenyang said coldly, "They can't have gone far with the iron blocks. Go after them immediately!"
After searching the surrounding area with his men, Liu Tianwen said with some difficulty, "City Lord, there's no way to pursue them."
Zhou Chenyang asked coldly, "How could there be no way to pursue them?"
Liu Tianwen replied, "Those bandits didn't use our boat or our boxes, and we didn't see any wheel tracks around us."
"After this bend, we'll be out of Chongqing's territory."
"From the time the incident occurred until our people went back to report it, and then until we arrived, the time was too long."
"At this time, if they continue along the waterway, they have probably already arrived at Liefeng City, where the Prince of Pingnan's residence is located."
Zhou Chenyang: "..."
Once the iron blocks reach Galewind City, even if he finds them, he won't be able to take them away.
Unless he can lead his men to destroy the Pingnan Prince's Mansion right now.
But he doesn't have that kind of strength yet.
Zhou Chenyang's face was extremely ugly. He asked coldly, "You suspect that it was the Prince of Pingnan's men who stole our iron blocks?"
Liu Tianwen replied, "In Liefeng Prefecture, no one except the Prince of Pingnan's men could kill so many of us."
“The city lord has been causing trouble for the Prince of Pingnan a lot these days, and he probably doesn’t like the city lord anymore.”
"He's probably doing this to give the city lord a warning."
Zhou Chenyang's expression changed several times.
Liu Tianwen's statement is valid. The Prince of Pingnan has dominated Liefeng Prefecture for many years, and no one but him could kill so many people within the territory of Yucheng.
He cursed, "That old scoundrel, the Prince of Pingnan! The Prince of Pingnan's heir is utterly shameless!"
At this point, he could completely suspect that the Prince of Pingnan's insistence on staying in his city was a ruse, a pretense to deceive him.
The whole "Peaceful Southern King and the Southern King are at odds" thing is a lie!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He felt like he had been tricked and was extremely frustrated!
Liu Tian asked him, "City Lord, what do we do now?"
Zhou Chenyang didn't know what to do either.
Ever since his wedding date with Jiang Xinrou was set, everything has gone wrong, and he strongly suspects that she is a jinx.
He said coldly, "Keep this matter hidden for now. Quickly speed up the mining progress and find a way to report back to the imperial court."
Liu Tianwen said with some concern, "But the mine has been almost completely mined out."
"Even if all the iron ore were mined now, the quantity would probably not be enough, and there wouldn't be enough time."
Zhou Chenyang took a deep breath and said, "I have a way to handle this. All we need to do now is mine a batch of iron blocks."
Liu Tianwen nodded, but then reminded him of something else: "The mine doesn't have much money left, we need to find a solution to this as soon as possible."
Although Zhou Chenyang monopolized the most profitable gambling dens and brothels in Chongqing after arriving, the amount of money involved was still limited.
Chongqing's annual output is limited. Under these circumstances, even if gambling dens and brothels make a lot of money, they cannot support the huge amount of money involved in iron ore mining.
Not to mention that he also had his own selfish motives, secretly raising an army and secretly manufacturing weapons, all of which were extremely expensive.
This is also the fundamental reason why he was so determined to obtain all the money in the Lin family mansion.
Zhou Chenyang said somewhat irritably, "Money, money, money! We need money everywhere!" (M.cascoo.net)
Liu Tianwen said softly, "City Lord, if we can't get the Lin family's silver through gentle means, perhaps we can use force."
Zhou Chenyang looked at him and said softly, "Anyway, there was a rumor a while ago that a notorious bandit had entered Chongqing."
“Notorious bandits usually target wealthy households when they enter the city. The city lord doesn’t have to rob just the Lin family’s house; he can rob all the wealthy households in the city as well.”
"This way, we can both deceive others and solve the city lord's urgent problem."
Zhou Chenyang felt that Liu Tianwen's idea seemed like a solution, but since such a thing had happened in the city under his jurisdiction, he would be held accountable.
If things go wrong, he might lose his position as city lord.
However, if he cannot resolve the issue of money, he will also lose his privately maintained army, which will have equally serious consequences.
He was still a little undecided, so he said, "Let me think about it first."
Liu Tianwen bowed and said, "I hope the city lord will make a decision on this matter as soon as possible."
Zhou Chenyang nodded somewhat irritably. He regretted sleeping with Jiang Xinrou at this moment; he would not have had these troubles if he had just married Lin Xiuyan.
Thinking of this, he cursed Jiang Xinrou in his heart again for seducing him and causing him so much trouble.
When he returned to the city lord's mansion, exhausted, the manager of the gambling den rushed up to him and said, "City lord, something has happened!"
Zhou Chenyang heard this sentence several times that night, and each time it made him furious.
He asked irritably, "What is it?"
The manager said tremblingly, "Last night, for some reason, many gamblers came to the gambling den to exchange chips."
"At first I didn't pay much attention and let them exchange it. Later I found that too many people were coming to exchange it, and it was too late to stop them."
"Now all the gamblers in Chongqing are gathered in front of our gambling den. Please, City Lord, make a decision."
The total amount of chips to be exchanged in the gambling den is close to one million taels!
They knew exactly where these chips came from; they were the ones they lost during the last fight.
However, the gambling den did not have that much silver to exchange.
Because under normal circumstances, most of those chips just circulate within the gambling den and don't need to be exchanged.
Since the casino opened, there had never been any large-scale chip exchange incidents, so the manager didn't take it seriously at first.
By the time he realized something was wrong and tried to stop it, it was too late, because all the traffickers in Chongqing had arrived!
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