In the flower hall of Zhao Haoyuan in the Zhao Mansion.

Hearing this, Shao felt that it was a bit far-fetched. He thought to himself, if it is true, then why did Zhang Juzheng and Yang Bo, the two big guys, bother to deal with you? Are they just bored?

However, the atmosphere was so harmonious that he didn't want to say anything too harsh, so he said in a low voice, "Isn't it you, the young master, who is leading the campaign for the shipping proposal?"

"This is an illusion. Shipping was proposed by our Jiangnan Group. It just so happens that the chairman of Xishan Company is my godmother. Also, because of the grain shipping and benefiting Jiangnan, all officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are very supportive. So everyone thinks this is my business, right?" Zhao Hao said innocently, "If it was something else, do you think they would listen to me?"

Hearing this, Shao felt annoyed. What he hated most was officials playing Tai Chi with him. He didn't expect that his little fanboy would do this at such a young age.

He was about to speak, but Zhao Hao changed the subject and said seriously, "But since it is Mr. Chu Xiu who asked, I have no choice but to give him face!"

Shao Daxia was delighted, and his slight unhappiness immediately disappeared. People in the underworld are all about face, Mr. Zhao, come on!

But Zhao Hao changed the subject and said, "But please give me some face, sir, and wait patiently for a few more days. We can talk again after the court meeting."

"Uh..." Hero Shao was a little confused, thinking to himself, wasn't I here to negotiate just because I could interrupt your court discussion?

How can we discuss this after the court meeting?

He shook his head to sober himself up, and asked Zhao Hao, "What do you mean by that, Mr. Zhao? Are you not going to talk to Lao Xi'er before the court meeting?"

"Yes, Lao Xier is so abominable that he goes back on his word. If I don't fight them for a while, I will not be able to get over it!" Young Master Zhao picked up the wine glass, raised his head and drank it all. Then he exhaled, looked at Master Shao and said, "I wonder if Mr. Chu Xiu can understand?"

"I understand, I understand. If he isn't hot-tempered, can he be called a young man?" Shao Fang nodded heavily. He felt that this boy was more like a fellow traveler than a businessman.

"Okay, as the saying goes, if someone respects me one foot, I will respect him ten feet!" Zhao Hao happily stood up and clasped his fists and said, "Mr. Chu Xiu, I can promise you now that no matter what the result of the court discussion is, I will go to Xinzheng to pay a visit to Prime Minister Gao!"

"Sir, are you serious?" Shao Fang was delighted when he heard this. Zhao Hao had traveled a long way to Xinzheng, and his sincerity was beyond his expectations.

"Every word I spit on is a nail!" Zhao Hao said proudly.

"Okay, I believe you!" Shao Fang also picked up the wine glass, clinked it with Zhao Hao, drank the wine in the glass and said: "When the time comes, I will accompany you! Lord Gao and I are comrades, no matter how big the problem is, I will help you solve it!"

"Okay! Thank you, hero!" Zhao Hao readily agreed, and the two of them clinked glasses and started drinking.

Zhao Hao was drunk and even vomited once. Seeing him risking his life to keep a gentleman company, Shao Fang was deeply moved and felt that he was a worthy brother!

~~

The sun was setting and the banquet was over. Shao Daxia staggered away and tried his best to ask Zhao Hao not to see him off.

However, Zhao Hao insisted on sending Shao to the courtyard with the help of Qiaoqiao and Sister Ma. He said goodbye to him reluctantly and made an appointment for the next meeting. Only then did he reluctantly let go of his sedan chair.

Qiaoqiao and Ma Xianglan carried the drunken Mr. Zhao to the bedroom with some difficulty. Gao Wu came over and wanted to lend a hand, but was rejected by the two.

The two of them helped Zhao Hao onto the bed, took off his shoes, and unbuttoned his shirt. Sister Ma put her palm on his lower abdomen and massaged him to sober him up.

Qiaoqiao brought some white radish juice and honey water and helped Zhao Hao drink it. Only then did he look less uncomfortable.

The two girls were sweating all over after all the hard work, but they didn't care about themselves. Qiaoqiao wiped Zhao Hao's face with a warm cotton towel. Seeing him frowning, she felt distressed and puzzled. She couldn't help but whispered:

"He usually drinks at most a few glasses of plain wine. Why did he suddenly change his temper today? He drank with that man without restraint, and he didn't even cheat."

"Sir, there's nothing you can do. Shao Fang is a man of the underworld. People like him are afraid of being looked down upon. If you don't drink with him freely, he will think that you don't take him seriously. Besides, a man like him has seen all kinds of underworld tricks. You're trying to cheat him? It's better not to drink with him."

Sister Ma was much more knowledgeable. She reached out to tidy up Zhao Hao's hair that was stuck to his ears, and sighed softly, "People outside say that the young master is very lucky, but they only see the thief eating meat, but not the thief being beaten."

"Hey, why bother?" Qiaoqiao pouted and said, "Why do we have to make so much money?"

"This is not about money." Sister Ma looked at Zhao Hao tenderly, and gradually her face became more mature and she said, "Young Master is not doing this for himself. He has the sun and the moon, as well as the vast ocean, in his heart."

"Uh..." Qiaoqiao didn't understand and thought, how can it fit in that?

~~

At the same time, Shao Fang's sedan returned to his residence in Juer Hutong outside Bei'anmen.

He drank quite a lot today as he was drinking with a close friend, and the shaking of the sedan chair made him even more dizzy.

After he got off the sedan chair, his son-in-law Shen Yingkui helped him into the hall. Seeing that he was staggering and his face was flushed, he quickly served his father-in-law sour bamboo shoots soup.

After drinking the hangover soup, Shao Fang felt much better. He let out a long sigh and laughed, "Damn it, not only do young people fear fists, but also young people fear alcohol. I almost got drunk by a young man today."

"Old Taishan can't compete with young people." Shen Yingkui was a scholar who practiced martial arts and was very sturdy. He smiled and said, "But it seems that this trip is still quite pleasant."

"Not bad. I didn't expect that Mr. Zhao actually admires me so much." Shao the Great Hero drew his beard together and smiled complacently.

"Then the discussion went smoothly?" Shen Yingkui asked, "How should I respond to them?"

"Uh..." Shao Fang's expression was a little stagnant. He picked up the teacup and took two sips before sighing, "Mr. Zhao is a great man. Our family is in Jiangnan, so it's best not to offend him if we can."

"Oh?" Shen Yingkui was stunned. Old Taishan was full of confidence when he went out in the morning, saying that it would be easy to capture the young boy. How come he became so arrogant after drinking a few wines?

"Tell Lao Xier to let them talk to Mr. Zhao themselves. We won't get involved." After Shao Fang said this, he stood up, supported by the table, and went into the inner room to sleep.

Shen Yingkui looked at his father-in-law's back in disbelief. He knew that this old man of his was extremely arrogant. He regarded Lord Xu as a dead bone in a tomb, and Mr. Gao as a rare treasure. He even did not take the world's genius Yang Bo seriously.

In the past, the only person that my father-in-law feared was Zhang Juzheng. I didn't expect that there would be another person named Zhao Hao today. I wonder if that Mr. Zhao had three heads and six arms, or wings? He was actually valued so much by my father-in-law.

Shen Yingkui stood in the hall for a long time, shook his head helplessly, and went out to report the news.

~~

When Shen Yingkui arrived at the Sanjin Guild Hall, it was dinner time.

In the quiet courtyard, the Minister of Personnel Yang Bo, the Minister of War Huo Ji, the Governor of the Ministry of Revenue and the Assistant Minister of the Granaries Wang Guoguang, the Imperial Academy Reader Zhang Siwei, the Imperial Academy Scholar Wang Jiaping, as well as the Left Censor of the Ministry of Revenue Han Ji, and the Censor Hou Juliang were sitting around a rosewood kang table, peeling garlic and eating noodles.

Except for Zhang Siwei and Wang Jiaping, the other five are the voting ministers from Shanxi who will be recommended by the court in the future.

"Give me a bottle of old vinegar." Yang Bo, who was sitting cross-legged at the innermost, stretched out his hand. Wang Jiaping, who was sitting on the edge of the kang, quickly found the bottle of old vinegar from the bottles of vinegar on the table with tears streaming down his face, and handed it to Yang Tianguan.

Yang Bo poured half a bottle of vinegar into the large bowl of wide noodles, and added two tablespoons of garlic juice, stirring it evenly with chopsticks. He picked up the bowl to taste the noodle soup and immediately praised it: "It tastes so good!"

At this time, his cousin Yang Sihe led Shen Yingkui in. The latter conveyed Shao Daxia's words to Yang Tianguan, who was eating noodles with his head down.

The happy atmosphere in the room suddenly stagnated, and even the slurping sound of people eating noodles slowed down a lot.

Yang Bo was the one who kept his composure. He nodded and invited Shen Yingkui to sit down and eat noodles together.

Could it be that Shen Yingkui didn't even have this much insight? Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, he quickly declined and left.

As soon as he left, Hou Juliang put down his chopsticks and said angrily: "People in the martial arts world are unreliable. Who are you working hard for? Shao is the first to stay out of it!"

"That's right!" Han Ji and others also echoed depressedly, but the three bosses remained calm and continued to eat their big bowls of wide noodles, sorghum noodles with fish, and臊子面.

Only after he finished the big bowl of noodles and the soup did Yang Bo burp with a garlicky smell, wipe his mouth with a handkerchief, and said to Zhang Siwei, who had been keeping his head down and not saying anything, "Ziwei, what do you think?"

Yang Bo is old and gradually hands over the right to speak to his successor Zhang Siwei.

In the Shanxi Gang, Zhang Siwei was the one who was most enthusiastic about reinstating Gao Gong. He was also the one who made great efforts to promote the Shanxi Party's action against the Jiangnan Group.

Zhang Siwei planned to use this opportunity to teach the newly rising Jiangnan Group a lesson and clear the way for the restoration of Xinzheng Gong. Unexpectedly, Shao Daxia suddenly did not want to be the villain, which put the Shanxi Gang in an awkward situation.

"I admit that I misjudged that guy named Zhao." Zhang Siwei had an instinctive aversion to Zhao Hao, even though the two had never met.

If an official climbed up from the bottom step by step, he would not show it no matter how unhappy he was. But Zhang Siwei was born into a wealthy family, was appointed as a Hanlin at a young age, and was regarded as the only candidate for successor by the Jin Party leaders, so he naturally had the capital to be willful.

He let out a breath and said, "I didn't expect him to be so stubborn. He would rather make peace with the Duke of Xinzheng than bow to us."

"It's to be expected. This guy's greatest skill is building relationships with people." Wang Guoguang also put down his bowl, wiped his mouth and said, "I guess he has long wanted to ease the relationship with the Duke of Xinzheng. This time we let Shao Fang take action, which actually gave him the opportunity."

"If I had known this, I would have talked to him directly. Why did it have to come to this?" Wang Jiaping was a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing, so he naturally didn't want to fall out with Mr. Zhao, who was also a fellow student. So he didn't approve of Zhang Siwei's approach, but he was too young in the Jin Party to object directly.