I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 500: The Three Kingdoms have their own thoughts. Su Liang: Everything is under control
The fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, afternoon.

The boat that Su Liang and others were on was traveling on the canal.

It is the dry season now.

However, as it is close to the end of the year, many big cities need New Year's goods, and the river is still filled with sails.

Su Liang has ordered his soldiers to look for Cao Hu, and the Japanese envoy Qingyuan Youde has also sent people to look for evidence.

The laws of the Song Dynasty emphasized "innocent until proven guilty".

If Qingyuan Youde couldn't even find the "evidence of doubt", then he could only commit suicide.

These days.

Qingyuan Youde, Xiao Kaishi, and Wang Youcheng seemed to have nothing in common, but in fact they were communicating with each other through eye contact or secret codes.

Su Liang saw through it but didn't say anything. He was not afraid of what countermeasures the three people might come up with.

……

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, near dusk, everyone arrived in Chuzhou.

Su Liang ordered the ship to stop for one night to replenish food and water, and then go to the designated sea area to anchor tomorrow morning to search for evidence and solve the case at sea.

When the ship docked, Su Liang chose to stay on board, while Qingyuan Youde went ashore.

Chuzhou has subordinates who are pure and virtuous.

He needed to deploy personnel to search for evidence, which was his freedom and Su Liang did not interfere.

In order to prove their "fairness", Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng never got off the boat.

These two days.

The two have always highlighted their "selfless and will judge right and wrong based on evidence" character in front of Su Liang, and they do not want to be implicated.

……

into the night.

In a private room of a teahouse in Chuzhou City.

Qingyuan Youde and a sturdy young man dressed as a businessman knelt facing each other.

"Ohashi-kun, what's going on?"

This young man's name is Qingyuan Ohashi, and he is a military commander of the Qingyuan clan. This time, he is in charge of this matter.

Qingyuan Bridge looked gloomy.

"The clan leader believes that attacking and killing Su Liang is a bad idea. It will easily bring disaster upon us and lead to a full-scale war with Song. However, we have to protect our maritime trade, so we have adjusted your strategy."

Say it.

Qingyuan Bridge handed a letter to Qingyuan Youde with both hands.

Qingyuan Youde frowned slightly, opened it, and read it carefully.

After reading.

His hands were shaking and his face was becoming increasingly gloomy.

"What? You can only send 500 assassins this time? And whether the assassination of Su Liang is successful or not, I will die?"

"I...I quit! I was angrily criticizing the Song Dynasty in front of the Honglu Temple in Bianjing City, but it was the clan leader's order. Why put all the blame on me?"

Qingyuan Youde was so angry that he wanted to overturn the table.

Qingyuan Bridge said calmly, "We only sent 500 soldiers because the more people we sent, the less likely the Song people would believe that it was pirates who caused the riot. We must not let the Song people suspect that this accident was arranged by us."

"Don't worry, as long as you do this, five hundred assassins can kill Su Liang!"

"As for your death, it was a worthy one."

"If the attack on Su Liang fails and you are killed by pirates, it will reduce the Song people's suspicion of us, and the king will not have to apologize to the Song Dynasty; if the attack on Su Liang succeeds and you are also killed by pirates, it will still help us get rid of suspicion, and your death is worth it. For Japan, you must die for your country!"

"If you don't follow the instructions of the patriarch in the letter, not only will you die, but your family will also die!"

……

Qingyuan Youde's face darkened. After a long pause, he said, "I... I will follow the instructions of the clan leader. Ohashi-kun, please kill Su Liang, otherwise my country of Japan will soon be in danger of extinction."

"No problem!" Qingyuan Bridge nodded heavily.

If he could kill Su Liang, although he would not become famous, the King of Japan would certainly reward him handsomely, so he would definitely do his best.

……

late at night.

Qingyuan Youde returned to the ship with several relatives.

As soon as he pushed open the cabin door, he saw Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng sitting in the room, the latter also waiting for news from Qingyuan Youde.

"How is it? Is it going well?" Xiao Kaishi asked.

Qingyuan Youde said expressionlessly: "It went smoothly."

Wang Youcheng then asked, "How confident are you?"

"One hundred percent!" Qingyuan Youde said without hesitation. If he couldn't kill Su Liang, his death would be in vain.

"What specific actions will be taken?" Xiao Kaishi asked in a low voice.

"No comment!"

Qingyuan Youde snorted coldly, walked to the bed, took off his boots and coat, lay down on the bed, covered himself with the quilt, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng looked at each other and left immediately.

About a quarter of an hour later.

Goryeo envoy Wang Youcheng returned and came to Qingyuan Youde's room again.

Qingyuan Youde looked displeased.

"Special Envoy Wang, since you have chosen to watch the fire from the other side of the river, you don't need to know too much. I won't tell you anything."

Wang Youcheng smiled faintly.

"Special Envoy Qingyuan, we have 20,000 elite soldiers, 50 large warships, and sufficient bows and crossbows in our Goryeo port. We can support your actions at any time."

"What? You...you...are willing to help me? Why do you want to help me?" Qingyuan Youde looked puzzled.

Wang Youcheng explained: "The Song people have long dominated the maritime trade, and our Goryeo has also suffered heavy losses. Moreover, if we can get rid of Su Liang, it will be equivalent to cutting off an arm of the Song Dynasty, so our dynasty is naturally happy to do it. However, if our dynasty goes to war, we will disguise ourselves as Liao soldiers and withdraw after the battle to avoid leaving evidence. Do you understand?"

"I understand, I understand." Qingyuan Youde became excited.

If the Goryeo soldiers disguised themselves as Liao soldiers and destroyed Su Liang's fleet, or even led to a full-scale war between Song and Liao, then Goryeo and Japan would be the biggest beneficiaries.

Even if the two countries cannot seize the land of the Song Dynasty, they can still plunder the coast.

He might not have to die for his country.

"Can you now tell me the next deployment?" Wang Youcheng asked.

"Okay, okay." Qingyuan Youde was very excited and he would definitely not be able to sleep tonight.

Half an hour later.

Wang Youcheng walked out of Qingyuan Youde's room with a smile on his face. As soon as he returned to the room, he saw Xiao Kaishi, the Liao envoy, sitting inside.

"Done?"

"It's done!"

"Okay, as long as we can kill Su Liang this time, our dynasty will immediately sign a wartime alliance treaty with Goryeo."

Wang Youcheng added: "Brother Xiao, you must make sure that we don't get caught and let the Song people think that everything was done by the Japanese."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything."

Xiao Kaishi stroked his beard lightly and suddenly felt that everything was under his control.

Those 20,000 Goryeo soldiers were not disguising themselves as Liao soldiers, but as Japanese soldiers.

He wanted to launch an all-out war between the Song Dynasty and Japan in order to deplete the Song Dynasty's military strength.

……

Early the next morning, the ship set sail.

The destination is a sea area east of Chuzhou Wharf, which is the main shipping channel gathering area for maritime trade among countries.

Su Liangshe had the Liao and Goryeo envoys judge the case at sea in order to highlight the fairness of the matter and to leave no room for those who wanted to "find fault" to find fault.

on the deck.

Su Liang was looking at the blue sea, feeling happy.

At this time, Liu Sandao came over and said, "Boss, everything is ready."

"Okay." Su Liang nodded.

On the surface, Su Liang only has more than 3,000 guards.

In fact, after entering the sea, there were eight warships carrying artillery, crossbows, and soldiers, disguised as merchant ships, quietly following behind, and Chuzhou and Haizhou had 20,000 soldiers on standby at any time. Su Liang went out to sea, and his position was between the Song Dynasty, Goryeo, and Dongying.

Naturally, he had to take precautions to prevent the other party from attacking and killing him without following martial arts rules.

Also.

Su Liang's men have found Cao Hu.

But it would obviously be inappropriate to call him immediately, so Su Liang asked him to come later and also ordered him to send people to investigate the movements of ships from Japan, Goryeo and Liao.

In this sea area.

The five states of Dengzhou, Mizhou, Haizhou, Chuzhou and Yangzhou have long since formed a sophisticated intelligence network.

All information can be quickly transmitted to Su Liang.

Two days later.

That is the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month.

An official ship was anchored in a sea area under the escort of nine warships.

at the same time.

Qingyuan Youde was picked up by a Japanese merchant ship.

Su Liang's agreement with him was that before sunset on the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, Qingyuan Youde must return here with sufficient evidence and hand it over to Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng for review. If he could not come back, he would be considered to have framed someone.

Su Liang arranged Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng on a warship, providing them with food and drink, but in order to avoid suspicion, he ignored them.

The climate at sea is still relatively warm.

Su Liang had nothing to do, so he started sea fishing.

As a native of Yangzhou, his fishing skills are quite superb.

In addition, if the sun is shining brightly at noon, Su Liang will jump into the sea and swim around, just like on vacation.

He wasn't worried at all that Qingyuan Youde would find any solid evidence.

The sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Cao Hu, with his arm broken, came to Su Liang with more than ten subordinates.

His subordinates.

Some are responsible for inspecting the goods, some are responsible for guarding, some are responsible for accounting, and some are responsible for transactions...

There are also two large transaction ledgers, which can be said to be fully cooperating with the investigation.

After a while.

Su Liang brought Cao Hu and others to Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng.

"Special Envoy Xiao, Special Envoy Wang, our merchant Cao Hu and his main entourage are here. You may inquire at will."

"I will not be involved in anything during this period, and you do not need to tell me anything. Once the results are found, you can write a document first and announce it when Qingyuan Youde and I are present. Thank you for your hard work!"

Su Liang bowed slightly towards the two of them.

"Don't worry, Su Zhongcheng!"

Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng quickly bowed in return.

The two knew that Su Liang was using them to prove the innocence of the Song Dynasty and leave the world speechless.

Su Liang's style of doing things is straightforward and clean, which makes people admire him.

Even though Cao Hu was from the Song Dynasty court.

But if he just relied on business to bully Japan, and most of the people he killed were pirates, he would be right, and Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng would not be able to prove that the Song Dynasty was wrong.

They deeply felt that it was too difficult to deal with people like Su Liang.

He lays everything out in the open, and you know you're going to be a pawn being used by him, but you can do nothing about it.

In the blink of an eye.

It was the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng investigated for several days but did not find any problems.

Cao Hu's maritime trade.

They neither relied on the Song army to bully the weak and disrupt maritime trade, nor did they kill innocent Japanese merchants.

Clean and tidy.

The two had to admire the character of the Song people, as they could not find any fault with them.

Although there are also some black-eating-black businesses.

But Cao Hu had evidence of the other party's crimes, which was impeccable.

and.

Sulfur, silver, gold, spices, wood and other commodities that flowed from Japan to the Song Dynasty.

These were all done by some Japanese businessmen who were pursuing profits. They were chasing Cao Hu for cooperation, but Cao Hu had no means of coercion or threat.

What made Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng most depressed was that Cao Hu’s maritime caravan was too profitable!

Goods that others cannot sell or are difficult to sell can quickly become best-sellers in their hands.

On the one hand, it was because of the prosperous trade in the Song Dynasty.

On the other hand, Cao Hu had many talented people under him, all of whom were business experts.

It's almost dusk.

With only two days left until the deadline.

Qingyuan Youde returned on a Japanese official ship.

He quickly came to the Song warship where Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng were, and said directly to them: "You two, hurry up and go find Su Liang with me!"

"Special Envoy Qingyuan, have you found any evidence?" Xiao Kaishi asked.

"You will know when you meet Su Liang!" Qingyuan Youde said with a dark face.

The two looked at each other and nodded.

Although they didn't know what Qingyuan Youde's plan was, they decided to cooperate with him completely.

After a while.

On the deck of the official ship where Su Liang was.

Qingyuan Youde, Xiao Kaishi and Wang Youcheng stood together, looking towards the cabin ahead.

After a while, Su Liang walked out of the cabin.

He smiled and looked at Qingyuan Youde, and said, "Special Envoy Qingyuan, have you found any evidence?"

Qingyuan Youde puffed out his chest and said in a cold tone: "We have found the evidence, but I would like to trouble Su Zhongcheng to go there in person. If you don't go, I'm afraid there will be no evidence."

"What does this mean?" Su Liang looked puzzled.

"Hmph! Three days ago, my subordinates found a Japanese merchant caravan that was being blackmailed by the thief merchant Cao Hu. I wanted to take them back, but before we arrived, a group of pirates hijacked them. These pirates are all from Song Dynasty, and they are most likely Cao Hu's men. I hope that Su Zhongcheng will send someone to help me catch the pirates. Even if our Japanese merchants are killed, we can still dig out evidence from the pirates!"

"I have found the pirates' lair. It is only half a day's journey from here. Do you dare to go there, Su Zhongcheng?"

Before Su Liang opened his mouth, Xiao Kaishi said, "Central Minister Su can send someone to capture those people. Why do you have to go and capture them?"

Su Liang smiled slightly and said first: "Special Envoy Qingyuan is worried that I will destroy the evidence and will kill them all or collude with them, right?"

"That's true!" Qingyuan Youde replied.

He must lure Su Liang to the island, otherwise he will not be able to implement his plan.

Su Liang asked again: "When do you suggest we set off?"

Qingyuan Youde looked at the sun that was about to set in the west and said, "Let's set out when it gets dark."

"can."

Su Liang looked at Liu Sandao and said, "Sandao, give orders immediately. All personnel should be on standby and set out at dark."

"Yes." Liu Sandao said loudly.

……

A moment later, inside the cabin.

Su Liang looked at the map in front of him and drew a circle at the port of Goryeo.

He had just learned this morning that Goryeo had sent out forty warships disguised as merchant ships.

Now, Qingyuan Youde is eager to ask him to go with him to catch the thief and find evidence.

Su Liang suddenly understood what kind of conspiracy this was.

"All this should be Xiao Kaishi's idea. It's quite interesting. I'll play with them!" Su Liang murmured.

(End of this chapter)