Chapter 1164: Afterthought

After a long while, Captain Yin came back to his senses and asked Zhao Hao in a low voice: "Who is this?"

Well, it seems that I was so busy looking at the beauty that I didn’t even hear what Mr. Zhao said.

"This is the eldest princess's adopted daughter, Miss Zhang, the daughter of Grand Secretary Zhang." Zhao Hao said with a cough.

"Oh, my apologies!" Captain Yin was at a loss as to what etiquette to use.

"You don't have to be so polite, sir." Zhang Xiaojing said in a distant, indifferent, and superior tone: "I just said that my godmother needs to rest. Don't make me say it for the third time, right?"

"Yes, yes, Miss Zhang, please calm down. We will get off the boat now." Captain Yin nodded quickly.

"Thank you very much."

Zhang Xiaojing bowed, turned around and went into the cabin.

There was a dead silence on the deck, and no one dared to speak...

Chen Wangcheng had completely lost his spirit and was trembling like a quail in the rain.

He was already convinced that he had made a huge mistake.

Even if there was no princess on the ship, and only the daughter of Grand Secretary Zhang, it would be enough for him and his brother to have a hard time.

Zhang Xianggong was originally in charge of military affairs. After Chen Yiqin retired, he also took charge of river engineering. Now he is the top boss of the Canal Transport Office. He actually attacked his daughter...

There was a sound of dripping water, and the crotch of Brother Liu behind him was wet. He was so scared that he peed his pants.

Seeing Master Zhao covering his nose in disgust, Captain Yin quickly whispered, "Take them away!"

Several officers and soldiers quickly pulled up Chen Wangcheng and the man surnamed Liu who were lying on the ground, covered their mouths, and brought them back to the warship.

"Now, Lord Qianhu believes it, right?" Zhao Hao said in a distant tone, expressing his dissatisfaction with his lack of trust in him.

"I never doubted it!" Captain Yin hurriedly explained, but he was afraid of disturbing the nobles in the cabin, so he quickly covered his mouth with both hands, looking very funny. "I came here on the orders of the Minister, so I will naturally follow your orders."

Then he returned the silver bills in his sleeve and said, "How dare I take your money?"

"Take it. There is no reason for me to take back the reward money I give out." Master Zhao waved his hand and patted his shoulder.

"Thank you for the reward, young master." Captain Yin's body suddenly softened and he actually knelt down to Master Zhao.

"What are you doing? Get up quickly." Zhao Hao reached out to help him.

Captain Yin knelt down for a long time and slapped himself twice, saying, "I deserved death just now. I caught such a traitor and even bothered you to interrogate him. I disturbed your rest. I really deserve death!"

"That's enough. Ignorance is not a crime." Zhao Hao has seen countless people now, and knows what he is thinking. He lowered his voice and smiled, "Don't worry, Brother Yin's rescue work will not be known by Godmother, and the same goes for Academician Zhang."

"Hey, thank you, young master!" Isn't this what Captain Yin wanted? He kowtowed several times and said excitedly: "From now on, I, Yin Zheng, will be Young Master Zhao's man!"

"We're brothers, no problem." Zhao Hao smiled and helped him up.

"Excuse me, sir, how should this matter be handled?" Yin Zheng asked in a serious manner.

"This is a serious matter, I can't make the decision." Zhao Hao thought for a moment and said, "Please invite Brother Yin to the living room for tea. I will ask for instructions from my godmother."

"It's my duty, it's my duty." Naturally, whatever he said was what it was.

Zhao Hao asked the guard to take Yin Zheng to the living room on the first floor, while he himself went into the heavily guarded cabin on the second floor.

~~

In the cabin, there were only Xiao Zhuzi, Secretary Ma and Qiaoqiao. There was no eldest princess. Even the young county lady had gone to Suzhou first, okay?

Otherwise, the person who came out just now should have been Liu Shanggong, not Xiao Zhuzi.

As soon as she saw Zhao Hao coming in, Xiao Zhuzi hurried over and asked anxiously, "Mr. Zhao, did I reveal my true identity just now?"

"How could that be?" Zhao Hao said with a smile, "Just based on your appearance, they all believed that you were the Yaochi Fairy."

"Hateful!" Xiao Zhuzi's face suddenly showed joy, and she pretended to be angry and said, "I'm being serious. This is the first time I've lied in my life, and it's such a big lie."

"Don't worry, the bigger the better, it's more satisfying when it's bigger." Young Master Zhao swallowed his saliva and said, "Anyway, they have nowhere to verify it. I'll check my godmother's testimony later and it will be perfect."

In the past few months, Mr. Zhao has created conditions for his godmother and indulged himself. In order to make his godmother happy, he even kicked his grandfather to Guangzhou, two thousand miles away, and sacrificed his biological father.

It's impolite not to reciprocate. I'm sure my godmother won't mind if I take advantage of her a little this time.

Young Master Zhao chatted and laughed with the three beauties, ate a bowl of midnight snack, and then went downstairs to meet Captain Yin.

In the living room, Yin Zheng sat upright on the chair, and did not touch the snacks and tea offered to him.

This is a critical point in his career. Whether he can get ahead depends on this, so he cannot afford to make any mistakes.

Seeing Zhao Hao coming in, Yin Zheng immediately stood up to greet him and respectfully asked if His Highness had any instructions.

"Alas, my godmother is merciful." Zhao Hao put his hands behind his back and said unwillingly, "Since no one was hurt, don't make a big fuss."

"Your Highness is truly a living Bodhisattva." Captain Yin praised him twice. He had expected the eldest princess to react this way. After all, the fact that the eldest princess left the capital was shocking enough. If it got out of hand, it would be a disaster.

"But, we must not let them off easily. We must make them pay a heavy price for their comeback!" Young Master Zhao gritted his teeth and said, "That's what I said."

"Of course!" Captain Yin immediately said, "A bunch of scoundrels dared to do such a treasonous thing. If we don't make them suffer worse than death, it will not be enough to appease the public anger! Sir, tell me what to do. I will listen to you!"

"You are doing this..." Zhao Hao lowered his voice and gave orders.

"Understood, sir. Don't worry, I am very familiar with this kind of thing." Upon hearing this, Captain Yin, who was within his scope of business, immediately smiled.

~~

In Jinling City, at the residence of the Earl of Pingjiang, Chen Wangmo was so worried that he didn't sleep a wink all night.

Normally, his brother should have returned to the city last night, but he has not been seen since then. Even if someone went to look for him, it would be like finding a drop in the ocean...

At daybreak, there was still no report. Chen Wangmo became more and more worried that something had gone wrong. With dark circles under his eyes, he and a group of nobles anxiously hid in the hall.

Finally, around noon, the people who were sent out came back in a panic.

"Something terrible has happened, Master! Second Master and Brother Liu have been arrested by the Caojiang Yamen!"

"What?!" Chen Wangmo stood up suddenly, saying in disbelief: "What are the Caojiang Yamen doing now? Why would they care about the business of our Caoyun Yamen?!"

The Caoyun Yamen was in charge of the Grand Canal, and the Caojiang Yamen was in charge of the Yangtze River. The two sides had an overlapping jurisdiction between Zhenjiang and Yangzhou. Therefore, there were many exchanges between them on a daily basis. However, since the Caojiang Yamen was in charge of river defense, it had clear responsibilities with the Caoyun Yamen, so there were not as many conflicts as between the Caoyun Yamen and the Yangtze River, and the two sides always kept to themselves.

Chen Wangmo chose the place where the action took place, and deliberately chose the place where the jurisdiction overlapped, which had already taken care of the face of the Caojiang government. If something really happened, the latter could completely deny it. I didn't expect that they were still so ignorant!

What a damn thing for a dog to meddle in other people's business!

"I didn't know what happened at first. I only saw the warships of the Caojiang Yamen blockading the Beixinzhou area. Fortunately, one of my relatives is a centurion, and I learned the whole story from him."

The subordinate quickly reported everything he had learned to the Earl of Pingjiang, saying in a tearful voice: "Second Master and Brother Liu have exposed the whole matter. This is a big deal, Earl..."

"Ah..." Chen Wangmo felt dizzy and accidentally broke his beloved purple clay teapot. He fell into a chair and muttered, "How could this happen? It's over, it's over. I'm dead now..."

"Brother, stay calm." Seeing that Chen Wangmo was panicking because of the grass growing in the temple, Nan Hebo, who came to listen to the news, quickly supported him and said, "We have to find a way to suppress it quickly. We can't make it a big deal!"

They also sent their retainers to go with them. These retainers of noble families were actually their personal soldiers who had been attached to them for generations. If something happened, none of them could escape!

"Yes, Old Chen, this matter is very strange." Dong Ningbo also had a gloomy face: "Your second son went to inform them of the changes. He should have passed the message on the night before yesterday and left Beixinzhou long ago. How could he be caught in the same pot last night? It shouldn't be!"

"Hiss..." Chen Wangmo took a breath of cold air. Something was definitely wrong.

"Hahaha!" Liu Shiyan, the sincere uncle who always regarded himself as a wise man, suddenly laughed strangely and said, "It seems that you are not that stupid yet."

"What did you see?" Everyone didn't care about his sarcasm and urged him, "Tell me now!"

"It's very simple," Liu Shiyan said in February, shaking his head and fanning himself.

"We all heard that the princess came to the south to spend the winter. But if she was really on the ship, the boy surnamed Zhao only needed to tell her her name, and even if the second brother and his men were as stubborn as they could be, they would be scared and run away. How could it be that they didn't know that the princess and Zhang Daxueshi's daughter were on the ship until they were caught?"

"Yes, his men only said 'there is a distinguished person on the ship', which is clearly a way to confuse people and lure our people into the trap!" Nan Hebo slapped his thigh and said in sudden realization.

"Do you understand now?" Liu Shiyan pointed at Chen Wangmo with his fan and said, "And it seems that he deliberately angered you when you were paying your respects at the Duke's Mansion that day, and revealed his whereabouts to you to lure you into taking action."

"How could that be?" Chen Wangmo blushed. He always prided himself on being very high-minded and could not accept being fooled by a young boy.

"Why not? You burned Xiaocang Mountain that day. It's not a big deal. Do you need that kid named Zhao to deal with it personally? He just delayed for a day on the pretext of something. First, he wanted to give Caojiang Yamen time to make arrangements, and second, he wanted you to send someone to report the incident so that he could get evidence!"

With a sneer on his face, he said to everyone, "They have already set up a trap to catch you. You idiots really don't know your own limits. You want to kidnap them? The nine big families were completely subdued by the Zhao family, let alone you parasites."

Everyone was very angry, but they also felt that what he said made sense, and they snorted angrily: "Why didn't you say these things earlier?"

"Uh..." Afterwards, Zhuge Chengyi smiled awkwardly and thought to himself that I couldn't see through it in advance.

ps. This picture is from yesterday.

(End of this chapter)