Gu Yuchen's thorough investigation into the salt permit incident from a few years ago was being carried out secretly, and the situation was developing quite smoothly. The Minister of Justice suddenly searched the courtyard of Zhang Si, a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, and dug up several boxes of gold from the courtyard. In addition, there were also land deeds, valuable paintings and calligraphy, and so on.
Zhang Si was completely unprepared and only slowly came to his senses when he was imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice's jail.
He thought he would be tortured immediately, but the Minister of Justice seemed to have no recollection of him at all and turned to look through the former Minister of Revenue's files.
The people inside and outside the Ministry of Justice worked overtime for two days in a row, and finally, through painstakingly unraveling the case files, they discovered a suspicious detail: the youngest son of the former Minister of Revenue had been abducted by kidnappers a few years ago and his whereabouts were still unknown.
The Minister of Justice immediately understood that his youngest son must have been sent to Jiangnan as a hostage by the King of Chu, and that he had come into contact with his youngest son before the Minister of Revenue's incident.
Only this possibility could have made the former Minister of Revenue willing to die.
The Minister of Justice submitted the investigation results to the Emperor and immediately sent someone to contact Qi Chengjun, hoping to find out who his youngest son was. He had a premonition that his youngest son was definitely gone.
However, things didn't go so smoothly in Qizhou, northern Mobei.
Zhang Yuankai, accompanied by twelve guards from his residence, rushed to Qizhou overnight and secretly met with the prefect of Qizhou on the outskirts of the city. This was the first time Zhang Yuankai had ever met the prefect of Qizhou.
Under the moonlight, Zhang Yuankai looked at the gray hair of the prefect of Qizhou and couldn't utter a word for a long time.
Is this person really the prefect of Qizhou?
According to the information provided by Chief Secretary Xie, the Prefect of Qizhou is only thirty years old.
Qizhou Prefect Wei Chengrui was clearly no stranger to such gazes. Without explaining, he took out the token and whispered, "Is this Chief Guard Zhang?"
After exchanging tokens, Zhang Yuankai finally confirmed their identities. He then asked in a low voice, "What's the current situation with Li's Escort Agency?"
Several days have passed since the death of the镖师 (bodyguard/escort) from Li Ji镖局 (Li Ji Escort Agency). During this time, Li Ji镖局 has not only been embroiled in lawsuits, but has also lost the will to continue its镖局 operations.
The people at Li's Escort Agency didn't know that the two robberies were committed by two different groups. They only knew that this suddenly appearing unfamiliar force was ruthless and exceptionally adept at killing and robbing.
Before they could find this unfamiliar force, they dared not continue their escort mission.
If they lose another shipment, their escort agency will probably end up like the Longchang Escort Agency.
What troubled the manager of Li's Escort Agency the most was that the head manager was currently preoccupied with checking the accounts and purchasing salt permits, and told them to be patient and wait until the salt permit purchase was over before discussing it further.
Therefore, Li Ji Trading Company is currently very quiet.
Zhang Yuankai nodded repeatedly and handed the evidence collected by Yuan Shiliang to Prefect Wei: "This is what Chief Secretary Xie asked me to bring to Prefect Wei. He said these things should be useful to you."
In the pitch black, Wei Chengrui couldn't see what was recorded in the booklet, but he understood from Zhang Yuankai's words. He immediately put the booklet into his pocket: "Li's Escort Agency has a lot of influence in Qizhou. There are many people in my government office who can't be used, so..."
He glanced at the dozen or so men behind Zhang Yuankai and immediately felt a headache coming on: "Guard Zhang, it's not that I don't trust you, but the Li Family Escort Agency has a total of fifty guards..."
Although they planned to launch a surprise attack on Li's Escort Agency tonight, Li's Escort Agency had a large number of people and was extremely familiar with the layout of the agency, so they were at a disadvantage.
Thinking of this, Wei Chengrui couldn't help but feel worried, and his voice became less confident: "Although I have the layout map of Li's Escort Agency, our people have never been inside. Moreover, the escorts in Li's Escort Agency are all ruthless people who have seen blood."
Zhang Yuankai already knew this, because before coming here he made a special trip to Xinliang and learned more about Li Ji Escort Agency from Yuan Shiliang.
The group didn't enter the city. Instead, they went to the hiding place of the Huo family's men. Once the lamps were lit, Zhang Yuankai reopened the layout map and marked several locations: "These are the cellar, the tunnel, and the back door."
He then marked out a few rooms: "The people in these rooms have only been with the escort agency for a short time, and their hands haven't been stained with blood. You can trust them. There are about ten of them."
Wei Chengrui glanced at him, but ultimately held back on the source of his information. He took the layout map and passed it down: "Everyone, take a look at this and memorize it. Once inside, try to persuade those who can surrender. If that doesn't work, then kill them."
Over the years, Li Ji Escort Agency has done many bad things. If Wei Chengrui wants to know the truth about these things, he naturally cannot kill all the people in Li Ji Escort Agency.
Wei Chengrui frowned deeply; with this added layer of concern, their chances of winning were further diminished.
Zhang Yuankai continued, "Once we get outside Li's Escort Agency, I'll go in first and contact these people. You all wait for my news."
In Yuan Shiliang's words, almost all the bodyguards who later joined the escort agency were recruited by him and held him in high esteem. Therefore, Zhang Yuankai, who had Yuan Shiliang's token, was very confident in turning these bodyguards against him.
After agreeing on their plan, the two split up. Zhang Yuankai, carrying Yuan Shiliang's token, quietly sneaked into the escort agency and, based on Yuan Shiliang's level of trust, went into one of the people's rooms first.
While waiting for news outside the escort agency, Wei Chengrui couldn't help but look up at the night sky. The moon was hazy tonight, and there were hardly any stars. A saying came to Wei Chengrui's mind: "A dark and windy night is the time for murder and arson."
The waiting time always felt very long. Wei Chengrui and the others kept changing their positions, and it seemed like an hour had passed before the back door of the escort agency finally opened slowly. Zhang Yuankai showed his face and waved to the group.
Wei Chengrui looked at the open door and for some reason felt that it was the mouth of a man-eating monster, and that once they went in, they would never be able to come out again.
He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, watching Zhang Yuankai's men silently walk in. He thought he had been overthinking things, waved his hand, and led the constables he trusted to rush in as well.
Zhang Yuankai pointed to the bodyguards behind him: "Next, we will divide into three teams as originally planned. Each team will be led by these bodyguards. We must capture all the bodyguards in the team."
But to their surprise, as soon as Zhang Yuankai finished speaking, they were surrounded by all the people from Li's Escort Agency.
The head镖师 (bodyguard/escort) of Li Ji镖局 (Li Ji Escort Agency) slowly walked out, holding a torch. His gaze fell on Wei Chengrui, and his expression immediately turned ugly: "I wonder what Prefect Wei is doing bringing people to our镖局 in the middle of the night?"
Zhang Yuankai and Wei Chengrui exchanged a glance, both seeing disbelief in each other's eyes.
No one expected that they would become the fish in the jar!
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