Chapter 166 Killing Two Birds with One Stone
Marquis Cheng'en's expression suddenly changed: "Which family is it specifically?"
Prince Yu said, "The Gu family business has made great contributions in providing relief to the disaster victims in Guanzhou."
Marquis Cheng'en had some impression that Emperor Jing'an had specially issued an edict to commend Gu's and Qin's firms.
After so many years, when he heard this surname, he didn't associate it with anything.
Marquis Cheng'en was in a complicated mood. So many years had passed, and not only had they not given up looking for Shen Qingtan, they had even found the capital and recognized Shen Qingtan.
When Madam Shen adopted Shen Qingtan, she specifically tried to get information from her.
When asked who her parents were, she kept her mouth shut.
When asked where she was from, she said Nanlingzhou.
When he heard her crying for her brother, he asked her who her brother was and took her to find him.
She sobbed and said, "Changsheng, Brother Changsheng..."
Continue to ask her brother's last name.
She hiccuped and said, "Gu..."
Afterwards, Shen Qingtan forgot everything and showed his cleverness, learning things quickly.
This child was brought about by Madam Shen's evil thoughts.
Not only does she have delicate features, but she is also very smart. Keeping her by your side, you can already foresee her future value.
They had no way out, and they had no regrets about letting Shen Qingtan replace their real daughter. So they sent someone to silence her so that they wouldn't have to worry about her background anymore.
Unfortunately, the people sent came back empty-handed, as the Gu family had already been deserted.
Fourteen years later, the Gu family found the capital and reunited with Shen Qingtan.
"Just a merchant." Marquis Cheng'en remained calm. In his eyes, the Gu family was like fish on a chopping board, ready to be slaughtered at will. "I have a thousand ways to get rid of them."
This was the first time Prince Yu was exploited by someone, and that person was a woman.
He arranged for someone to monitor Shen Qingtan and discovered that she had a close relationship with Gu Zongci, which was unusual. No matter what Shen Qingtan did, there was a shadow of Gu's Trading Company.
They acted cautiously, and his people did not find out any other information.
It was just Gu Zongci's surname and ancestral home that made him suspicious of the relationship between the two. Until he found out that Gu Zongci secretly gave Shen Qingtan an estate, he could almost conclude that they were related.
Otherwise, why would Gu Zongci give Shen Qingtan such a large property when he has no relatives or friends there?
When he realized this, he sent people to Nanlingzhou to investigate the Gu family's background.
Judging from the distance, his people will be able to return to Beijing in about half a month.
"I heard that the Gu family has extensive businesses and seems to be operating a shipping company. The grain he donated to Guanzhou was transported by the shipping company's ships."
Prince Yu lowered his eyes to look at the orchid pot on the flower table. An orchid was blooming beautifully. His fingers gently brushed over the petals and held them in his palm.
"Qingzhou has a good harvest this year. The old grain we earned from selling salt permits during the natural disaster can be transported to help the people of Guanzhou."
Upon hearing this, Marquis Cheng'en was unable to react for a moment and wondered where to find food in Qingzhou.
He soon realized that the imperial court had issued an edict to Qingzhou to exchange grain for salt permits. However, the Qingzhou officials had exchanged salt permits for silver, leaving the granaries empty. If the higher-ups came to investigate, their secret would be exposed.
They had no money, so they went to buy food to fill the granaries.
Now that Shen Qingtan has investigated Qingzhou, he will sooner or later expose the case of false reporting of the disaster.
Before that, they have to pick themselves out.
Prince Yu was giving him advice. The Gu family had a shipping company that could transport grain. The imperial court had previously run out of ships to transport grain, so they had recruited ships from the public to transport grain.
They could privately rent Gu's trading company's ships and go to Qingzhou to transport grain to Guanzhou. Sailing on the water would cause more problems. They could sabotage the ships and sink them.
As for what was carried on the ship, it was not food, but bags of sandbags.
When the ship sank, they said it was carrying food, and that was what was being carried on the ship.
In this way, the hole in Qingzhou was filled.
They then reported to the court that all the grain that Qingzhou had exchanged for salt permits was sunk to the bottom of the water by the Gu family's ships.
The Gu family also has to bear responsibility for this.
Kill two birds with one stone.
However, if one wants to hold the Gu family accountable for a serious crime, one must make some changes to the lease agreement.
Marquis Cheng'en had an idea in mind and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, your opinion is excellent!"
He had previously planned to arrange for people to kill the Gu family directly, but this plan was obviously not as good as Prince Yu's.
When Prince Yu saw that Marquis Cheng'en understood his meaning, he no longer wasted time, put his hands behind his back, and slowly left the study.
Marquis Cheng'en bowed his head and respectfully saw Prince Yu off, only to see a crushed orchid floating on the ground.
After leaving the private residence, Marquis Cheng'en hurried back to the Marquisate and arranged for people to investigate the Gu family's shipping company.
Within half a day, a confidant returned with news: "My Lord, the Gu family has received an imperial plaque, making them incredibly famous. I quickly found out about him. After leaving Nanling Prefecture, he stayed in Qing Prefecture to develop his business. They own hundreds of large ships."
"Hundreds of ships..." A dark glint flashed in Marquis Cheng'en's eyes, and he ordered in a deep voice: "Arrange your men to rush to Qingzhou as fast as possible. Use any means necessary to rent the Gu family's large ships."
The confidant laughed and said, "My Lord, what a coincidence! The owner of the Gu's Trading Company is in the capital, and the person in charge of the Qingzhou Shipping Company has come to the capital with the cargo ship, which is very convenient for us to do business."
Marquis Cheng'en raised his eyebrows, feeling that God was helping him this time.
"You should get this done as soon as possible." Marquis Cheng'en planned to wait until the ship was leased, and then petition Emperor Jing'an to transport the "food" from Qingzhou to Guanzhou.
In this way, when renting a boat, it will not arouse the suspicion of the Gu family.
The confidant received the order and prepared to retreat.
"Wait."
Marquis Cheng'en called him over, worried that he might mess up. He beckoned him to lean closer and whispered a few words to him.
The confidant was extremely efficient. Within a few days, everything was completed and a lease contract was handed to Marquis Cheng'en.
After repeatedly confirming that the contract was correct, Marquis Cheng'en wrote a letter to Prince Yu, intending to mobilize their people to propose transporting grain from Qingzhou to help the people in Guanzhou.
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Gu Mansion.
Gu Zongci and Boss Qin were sitting in the front hall, discussing the salt permit issue.
"Now that harvests are coming in all parts of the country, the food shortage has been temporarily resolved. We can exchange our salt permits for salt," Boss Qin said with a gloomy face. "This batch of salt is quite a large sum. Transporting it by land would be prohibitively expensive. I wanted to ask you about renting a boat, but it's early June now, and every June brings floods, so you wouldn't rent a boat."
Gu Zongci deeply agreed with this. When the Gu family founded the shipping company, the weather happened to be abnormal that year. It turned out that they waited until the flood season was over before forming a fleet to transport goods.
Unexpectedly, the ship was hit by a storm, several large ships were damaged, and several sailors were drowned.
Since then, we rarely go out on the boat during the rainy season every year.
Especially during the flood season.
"According to the old rules, the shipping company does not rent boats in June and July every year. If you want to rent a boat, you have to wait until the flood season is over."
Gu Zongci said helplessly, "Last year, due to the drought, we didn't have a flood season, so we didn't stop sailing. This year, the director didn't receive my letter and thought we could sail normally. So, someone spent a lot of money to rent a batch of large ships to transport goods to Northern Qi."
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