1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2002
After all, Yang Chengye is a person who has seen the world. Although he is a little hesitant when making choices, once he makes a decision, his execution ability is still very strong.Within a short time, the housekeeper had already prepared the sedan chair, and at the same time sent someone to the river to prepare the boat.

Yang Chengye didn't want his movements to attract the attention of the outside world, so besides the two bearers, he only brought two bodyguards with him when he went out.

There is a large field outside Yangjiazhuang, and there are no people at this time, but the canal is still a bit lively, and many painting boats that cannot be seen during the day appear on the canal at this time.These boats specialize in the business of foreign merchants, but there is no wharf for them to dock in the section of the river close to Yangzhou City, so most of them come out after dark to solicit business, and there is no need to dock, just use a springboard to let guests come from other boats .

Yang Chengye has many boats under his name, and he usually travels in and out of Yangzhou City on his own boat, so even if he suddenly arranges a trip at night, he can still make preparations in a short time and wait for his arrival by the river.

After crossing the river with the sedan chair, Yang Chengye explained the final destination to the bearer.His destination was actually not far from the place where he had dinner with Lu Kangtai more than an hour ago, but at this moment he didn't want to bump into him again.

"Master, there seem to be a lot of people making trouble in front!"

The report from outside the sedan chair made Yang Chengye recover from his contemplation. He hurriedly ordered the sedan chair to stop, opened the curtain of the sedan chair and saw that there seemed to be people on the pier in the distance, and there was a lot of noise. The place was exactly where he was going.

Yang Chengye couldn't help frowning. There were so many people gathering at the pier to make trouble at this time, obviously it couldn't be a coincidence, and it was the two salt cargo ships from Ningbo that docked at this pier.

"Wait, let's see what happens." Yang Chengye finally made up his mind to go out and cross the river to implement his plan here. Although the situation in front of him was beyond his expectation, he didn't want to change his mind and give up his previous plan.

In fact, the fight on the pier had already come to an end at this time, and this group of gangsters who came looking for trouble had completely lost their tricks. From the moment their leader was taken down by Gong Shiqi, they became a mess. Whether to fight or talk, whether to leave or stay, there is no unified attitude at all. Although the number is superior, they are not as organized as the opponent. A dozen people were injured and fell to the ground as soon as they fought.And others found that there was a gap in the combat power of the two sides, and it was impossible to snatch the lead from the other side, so some people felt fear and dared not go up.

"Someone really came here to make trouble!" Yang Chengye could probably guess the purpose of these people here to make trouble, but he didn't know who drove them here.There are too many people in Yangzhou City who have the reason and the strength to attack the Ningbo salt merchants. It is difficult for him to judge who is driving these gangsters behind the scenes.

The only person Yang Chengye could rule out was probably Lu Kangtai who had dinner together earlier. Judging from Lu Kangtai's attitude at the time, it was obvious that he planned to sit on the sidelines and wait for others to test the strength of this group of salt merchants before considering whether to take it or not. Send out his Musketeers.He had just parted with Lu Kangtai for more than an hour, so it was unlikely that he would change his mind and send a group of people to try to attack the Ningbo salt merchants in such a short period of time.The most important thing is that Yang Chengye thinks that the people under Lu Kangtai's subordinates cannot be so good. They are obviously superior in number, but they are driven back again and again by the opponent, and they are about to be scattered.

Gong Shiqi was very calm about the current situation. The gangsters exposed their inexperienced shortcomings as soon as they fought, so it wasn't too difficult to deal with them.Even if the number of people on the opposite side was doubled, Gong Shiqi felt that there was still no need to send fighters with rifles into the battlefield.He handed over the on-site command to his subordinates, and walked back to the ship along the springboard with his hands behind his back.Instead of watching this one-sided fight, it is better to go to the prisoner for a trial and find out who is behind the scenes.

Of course, Gong Shiqi would not really sink the newly captured prisoner in a sack so easily, at least not until he got information from him.

He went straight to the lower cabin, and smelled a faint smell of blood as soon as he entered. The guy who had just been put on the boat was tied to a wooden frame. It seemed that he had been punched and kicked here. A few cuts were made, and blood slowly dripped onto the floor along his drooping jaw.

Gong Shiqi nodded to the two bare-chested thugs and said, "Take a rest first."

The two nodded at Gong Shiqi, then retreated to the side to drink water.

Gong Shiqi walked up to him slowly, and said in a deep voice: "If you really want to keep a secret for your master, then I can help you, after all, only the dead can really keep a secret, so I can sink you to the bottom of the river That's it. But if you still want to survive, then I advise you to give up resistance early and choose to cooperate with us, because no one can take you out of this boat alive except me."

The man didn't respond, but Gong Shiqi could clearly hear his breathing becoming short.Gong Shiqi has so much experience in interrogation that he knew that his words had an impact on him, so he struck out while the iron was still hot: "If you are afraid of being settled by your master after you reveal the truth, then I can arrange a way out for you and guarantee you to leave. Yangzhou City, how about going to Ningbo to make a stable living? If you feel that Ningbo is not safe enough, then I can arrange for you to leave Daming."

Gong Shiqi has been on the front line of the intelligence battlefield all year round, and he is very familiar with the psychology of such low-level tool people. He knows that their loyalty is actually very limited, and most of them work for money. It is not very moral to betray their employers. burden.However, if employers are rich and powerful and have the means to counter them, then they may have more scruples because of this. At this time, arranging a very feasible retreat for them is actually disintegrating their psychological defense.

Of course, this kind of method is not 100% effective. Gong Shiqi will make adjustments according to the reaction of the person involved. For example, although the strong man who was subdued by him has not revealed any information, Gong Shiqi is very good at prying his mouth open. Have confidence.

"You have to speak up sooner or later. It's better to say it earlier so you don't have to suffer." Gong Shiqi continued to encourage the other party without haste: "Don't take any chances, your accomplices can't do anything at all, We've been chased away."

"You are not afraid... more revenge will be summoned!" The strong man finally opened his mouth, half of his tone was unwilling hatred, and the other half was somewhat desperate.

Gong Shiqi smiled and said, "I'm not afraid to tell you that the purpose of bringing these two ships to Yangzhou is to lure the local salt merchants. If they swallow their anger, I will be very disappointed. Do you think your master will send troops to come?" Help you? Don't dream, he's probably jumping around somewhere by this time, calling you a useless idiot. You've tried your best to keep your mouth shut, but your master probably wants you to die soon, That way there is no risk of betraying him."

Gong Shiqi's words were heartbreaking, even if the man had a strong mind, he would inevitably be shaken after hearing these words.He was just a gangster on the street, he couldn't deal with the experienced Gong Shiqi in terms of psychological games, and he was defeated in just a moment.

Gong Shiqi was about to continue to put pressure on him, and some subordinates came to report that there was a person outside who claimed to buy a large amount of salt and wanted to meet with Gong Shiqi for a detailed discussion.

"It's almost midnight, did you come all the way here to buy salt?" Gong Shiqi said with a smile, "How many people did he bring?"

The subordinate replied: "There are only two bearers and two attendants, it doesn't look like they are looking for trouble."

Gong Shiqi nodded thoughtfully, and after a moment of silence, said: "Then invite him to meet on board."

A while later, Gong Shiqi saw this late-night visitor.

"The conditions here are poor, so please don't mind the honored guests." Gong Shiqi personally poured a cup of hot tea for the guest sitting opposite: "I heard that the honored guest is here to buy salt, what should I call it?"

"My surname is Yang." The man took the tea cup that Gong Shiqi handed over, but put it on the table directly: "I heard that Boss Gong's two ships shipped a lot of refined salt, and the price is quite reasonable, so I plan to buy it. "

"It turned out to be Boss Yang. I wonder how much salt Boss Yang plans to buy?" Gong Shiqi was not surprised to see that the other party only gave his surname but did not sign up. After all, this is Yangzhou, and it is the sphere of influence of the local salt merchants. Meeting to buy salt by yourself has certain risks in itself, and it is reasonable for the other party to refuse to directly report their real names.

"All."

Gong Shiqi was taken aback by the two words the other party uttered, and he couldn't help but repeat them to confirm the other party's intention: "All?"

"Yes, for all the salt on your two boats, please make a price, I will take it all."

Gong Shiqi smiled and said: "To tell the truth, Boss Yang, in fact, several groups of people came this morning, and they all had the same opening remarks as Boss Yang. But the price they offered is really hard for me to accept. If Boss Yang It's also the same plan as those people in the morning, so I don't think there is any need to waste time and saliva."

The person who came here in the middle of the night to buy the two big boats of salt was naturally Yang Chengye.After much deliberation, he realized that only by letting the Ningbo salt merchants leave Yangzhou as soon as possible can the conflict between the local salt merchants be temporarily resolved, so that the tasks imposed on him by both sides will automatically lose the necessary conditions for execution.And if the Ningbo salt merchants want to disappear quickly, and use force to drive out those who are not their directors, the only feasible way is to make the other party lose their reason to stay in the local area—for example, buy all the salt they transported and relocate it to other places delivery, and then asked them to leave Yangzhou immediately.

Of course, Yang Chengye is not stupid. He knows that this is just his unilateral wish. Since the other party has shipped these two ships of salt to Yangzhou for sale, it is obvious that they have deliberately planned to find fault, and it is very likely that they will anger the local salt. business.Even if I offer a reasonable price, the other party may not make this deal with me, and it is more likely to be ridiculed by the other party and then kicked out.However, this is the only way for him to resolve the current complicated situation, and he can only bite the bullet and give it a try anyway.

But just after the negotiation started, Yang Chengye hit a snag. He didn't know who came to this Boss Gong in the morning, and what kind of conditions were offered to him, but Yang Chengye could roughly imagine that the local salt chamber of commerce would treat Ningbo The reaction from the peers was definitely not very friendly. The offer that the other party said was "somewhat unacceptable" was probably just a symbolic offer, with the purpose of driving them out of Yangzhou as soon as possible.

"Boss Gong, my purpose is different from those who came here before. I came here to buy salt with all my heart." Yang Chengye knew that it would be difficult for the other party to believe his purpose of coming, so he could only try to make his words more sincere.

Gong Shiqi saw that he was serious and didn't look like he was joking, so he tentatively asked, "Then I wonder what kind of price Boss Yang can offer?"

When Yang Chengye heard that there seemed to be a door, he quickly responded: "How about your current price?"

When Gong Shiqi heard this, the man didn't even ask for a discount. He was either joking with himself, or he really felt relieved to eat this batch of goods.

If the purpose of Gong Shiqi's coming to Yangzhou was to sell salt, then he could sell the two boatloads of salt to the other party immediately, and then collect the money and go home, saving time, trouble and worry.But the problem is that the purpose of his trip to Yangzhou was not to sell salt here. The two boats of salt and his identity as a salt merchant were just a cover-up, in order to stimulate the local salt merchants to use the elusive Musketeers, and then try to find out the composition of the Musketeers and the source of the most important weapons.

Of course, it would be better if there are other ways to achieve this goal, but Gong Shiqi is not optimistic about this. He believes that only when an armed conflict occurs and escalates to a level that cannot be resolved by conventional means, the local salt merchants will sacrifice their The big killer in his hand.And creating conflicts seems to be the only way to achieve this situation.

At this time, someone came to buy the two shipments of salt at once. Gong Shiqi's first reaction was that there were still some local salt merchants who wanted to use peaceful means to solve the problem, but this was not the situation he expected to see.Even if the price offered by the other party sounded very sincere, it was still impossible for Gong Shiqi to agree to him.

"Boss Yang, I want to ask, what are the additional conditions for you to buy these two boats of salt?" Gong Shiqi was curious about the other party's real purpose, and he was not in a hurry to reject the other party, so he slowly started to set the other party's words.

Yang Chengye hesitated for a moment before responding: "I believe Boss Gong also knows that there are some people in the local area who don't want to see you stay here any longer, including me. So after buying these two boats of salt, I hope you leave as soon as possible." Yangzhou, it’s best to leave before dawn. As for the two shipments of salt, they can be delivered elsewhere.”

(End of this chapter)