Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 309 Taking over
Some big merchants participated in this martial arts performance, but no matter how much money they had, they were not qualified to go up to the Chengtian Gate Tower.

Some of them might be able to obtain the status of a scholar, but it would still not bring about any significant change in their status.

Merchants are merchants, and their status in Daqian is not high.

The leaders of the six major merchants behind Datong Money House occupied a relatively good position diagonally opposite Chengtian Tower, where they could watch the most exciting part of the martial arts performance up close.

The Luo family leader's face turned pale when he saw the scene of 2.5 million Portuguese artillery firing at the same time.

“Is there any way to contact the death squad? Ask them to stop their actions!” The leader of the Luo family asked the person next to him.

"There's no way. The people we contacted have been killed. There's no way to contact them at this time!" The person next to him shook his head and replied.

"I hope nothing serious happens!" said the leader of the Luo family bitterly.

If he had known that Prince Li Qiang possessed such a powerful private army, he would never have dared to agree to send his family's death squad to ambush.

The leaders of the other five families also looked unhappy. Although they had arranged for someone to take the blame, they lost their confidence after seeing the martial arts performance.

The five hundred artillery corps warriors collected the Portuguese artillery and put it back on Sharma's back. They mounted their horses as if nothing had happened and marched to the right in an orderly manner.

Everyone looked at these five hundred brave warriors with awe. This was the most terrifying army in Daqian, even though they only had five hundred people.

In particular, the flag raised by the 500 artillery troops was the flag of the prince's personal guard, an army belonging to the prince.

With such an army, five hundred fifth-turn generals, who can control two hundred and fifty Portuguese artillery pieces for mobile bombardment, any army and any city defense in the world will be nothing in front of them.

The eyes of the officials on the city wall changed when they looked at Li Qiang. There was more fear in their eyes, an instinctive fear of a powerful existence.

Perhaps these officials had heard many legends about Li Qiang, such as that Li Qiang single-handedly destroyed an army of 100,000 Tatars on the battlefield.

But in the eyes of rational officials, this legend was more of a propaganda of Li Qiang's military achievements and an artificial creation of a famous general.

Now they believed that Li Qiang had the power to destroy a country just by relying on this private army of 500 brave generals.

Li Qiang was very satisfied with the effect he created. He wanted to use the Daqian army to intimidate the officials in the court so that they would not think that Daqian would be finished without them.

He had no intention of playing the power struggle game with court officials. What he wanted was a group of obedient subordinates.

Use thundering methods to scare officials and make them obey your orders, instead of immediately jumping out to oppose as soon as you make any demands.

"Are your protective measures safe? Do you want to transfer these 500 brave generals to your side?" The emperor asked softly.

The six big merchants are extremely powerful, but it is almost impossible to mobilize three thousand assassins in the capital without letting the retired emperor's intelligence organization know.

Since the emperor knew about it, Li Qiang naturally knew about it too.

But Li Qiang did not take action in advance, but waited for the death squads of the six major merchants to appear.

As long as the death squads of these six big merchants appear, it will be the time for the six big merchants to die.

He has been eyeing the six major merchants for a long time, and all preparations are ready, just waiting to take action.

Initially, he was only targeting Datong Money House. But it was these six big merchants who took the initiative to jump out and wanted to bring him down as the prince. This created a great enmity with him.

These six big merchants are too deeply connected with the officials in the court. If we act rashly against the six big merchants, it will inevitably make a large number of officials in the court dissatisfied.

"No need, I have already arranged it, just watch the show!" Li Qiang said with a confident smile.

After the martial arts performance, Li Qiang and the emperor went down the city wall together. Everyone else on the city wall had to wait for them to leave before they could leave.

Just as he and the emperor stepped down from the city wall, a large number of assassins rushed out from the crowd on all sides, holding short swords and crossbows in their hands.

The area under the city wall is a strictly controlled area, and the most these assassins can bring in are short swords and short crossbows.

The sudden appearance of three thousand assassins shocked the crowd, and they cried out in surprise.

But the strange thing was that both the soldiers from the Beijing camp and the palace guards looked coldly at the three thousand death warriors.

Three thousand assassins rushed towards Li Qiang and the retired emperor, firing arrows from the short crossbows in their hands.

At this time, six armored figures appeared from the side, standing in front of Li Qiang and the emperor, allowing the arrows to fall on them.

Even if simple arrows shot in through the gaps in their armor, the six men were unable to move at all. The six men were exactly six divine corpses. Not to mention short crossbows, even if heavy crossbows and arrows hit them, they would not suffer any harm.

"Leave ten people alive and kill the rest!" Li Qiang gave the order.

As soon as he gave the order, Jia Jingang and Jia Wei rushed into the group of 3,000 death warriors.

Jia Jingang grabbed the mouth of one of the assassins with one hand and removed his jaw with a little force. Then he broke the assassin's hands and legs.

His movements were so fast that the assassins had no time to react and were killed.

When he tried to catch the second assassin, one of the assassins had already reacted and stabbed him with the dagger in his hand, but unfortunately the dagger could not even break the armor.

Five consecutive assassins had their jaws removed and their limbs broken, while Jia Wei on the other side also completed his mission.

Afterwards, Jia Gong and Jia Jian appeared, and the magic bows in their hands showed their power.

Arrows are fired at a speed of 14 arrows per second.

Since the assassins were very close to each other, one arrow could often penetrate the bodies of several of them.

Large numbers of death warriors fell during the charge. They seemed unaware of the danger and charged forward like crazy.

Jia Jingang and Jia Wei joined the massacre. Yes, it was not a battle at all, but a massacre.

A group of ants attacked an elephant, and the elephant could crush them to death with just one foot. This was the situation that the three thousand warriors encountered.

The exclaiming crowd had now quieted down. They only saw four people kill a large number of assassins.

From the time the three thousand assassins rushed out to the time they all fell down, less than sixty breaths of time passed.

After the battle, Jia Jingang and Jia Wei still faithfully carried out Li Qiang's orders, finishing off the remaining soldiers except the ten.

At this time, the officials on the city wall, especially the lords, all looked terrified.

The previous military performance showed the military strength of Daqian, but the 3,000 dead soldiers who fell under the city wall were even more terrifying than what was shown in the military performance.

Even though the 550 generals were indeed invincible, mobilizing 500 generals in the capital was still a big move.

And what was happening before them was that two archers plus two melee warriors slaughtered three thousand dead soldiers.

In fact, even if the two melee warriors did not take action, the two archers alone would be enough to kill three thousand assassins in a short time, or vice versa, the two melee warriors could also kill three thousand assassins in a short time.

In other words, the Crown Prince Li Qiang could completely destroy any army with just these four people, not to mention the others. The Tatar envoys and the envoys from other countries were all weak at this time. The strength shown by Daqian had far exceeded their imagination.

"Daqian is mighty, Daqian will win forever!" someone shouted.

Then all the people joined in the shouting, they were cheering and excited.

Today they finally understood why the Tatar tribe’s two invasions were repelled by Li Qiang and suffered heavy losses. It was because Li Qiang had so many terrible subordinates.

"Take them back to the East Palace, I will interrogate them!" Li Qiang ordered calmly.

Jia Jingang, Jia Wei, Jia Gong and Jia Jian stepped forward to pick up the surviving assassins, and did not let anyone else do this.

Li Qiang did not trust other people. Even the order to notify the Beijing camp and the palace guards not to pay attention to the attacks by the assassins was issued at the last minute.

He didn't believe that there were no officials in the Beijing camp involved in this matter. The fact that three thousand death warriors could be arranged under the city wall was not something an ordinary official could do.

"Grandpa Emperor, our family is rich now!" Li Qiang gently supported the retired emperor and said with a smile.

"If you touch them, be careful of the collapse of Daqian's business!" warned the emperor.

The retired emperor was powerless to stop Li Qiang from doing things, especially after seeing the terrifying strength displayed by Li Qiang, he became more aware of the current situation in Daqian.

Unless Li Qiang does not want to be the Emperor of Daqian, the position of Emperor of Daqian belongs to Li Qiang no matter what.

Even he, the emperor emeritus, could not change the situation because Li Qiang was too powerful.

But he still made a reminder. With his experience, he knew the consequences of touching these big merchants without authorization.

The existence of large merchants stabilized the economic operation of Daqian and also provided assistance for the flow of materials in Daqian.

If six large merchants go bankrupt at once, then before the remaining large merchants integrate the businesses vacated by the six large merchants, this period will be a period of economic chaos in Daqian.

"Since I'm going to take action against them, I must be confident enough!" Li Qiang replied with a smile.

The two men walked through an area littered with corpses, stepping on blood and leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints.

Neither of them cared. Both Li Qiang and the retired emperor had killed many people, and the corpses of three thousand assassins were just a small scene to them.

After returning to the East Palace, Li Qiang immediately ordered someone to bring ten death warriors.

He asked professional eunuchs to examine the ten assassins and found poison sacs in their mouths. If the situation was not right, they would bite the poison sacs and commit suicide.

Unfortunately, his jaw was removed, so the assassin was unable to commit suicide even if he wanted to.

The eunuch removed the poison sac and Li Qiang asked him to leave.

Li Qiang's mind moved slightly, and he contacted the 'Mirror of Wind and Moon'. He consumed ten souls to bind the loyalty of the dead soldiers.

The next thing was easy. The death soldiers answered every question. Not only did they reveal the big merchants behind the scenes, but they also told all the experiences of training the death soldiers.

With this confession, the six major merchants are doomed.

Just then, Lin Ruhai sent a confession in which an official confessed that the Wu family had bribed him.

Although there was only this one confession, the six major merchants were all involved in the major case of assassinating the king. As long as there was any clue, the case of stealing grain from the Ministry of Revenue could be pinned on them.

"Take action against the six major merchants!" Li Qiang gave the order in a deep voice.

His orders were not only issued to the capital, but were also transmitted to all parts of Daqian through special means at the fastest speed.

Long before, he had ordered the troops in various parts of Daqian to monitor the industries of the six major merchants.

This time, the action against the six major merchants was a joint action inside and outside the capital.

The houses of the six major merchants in Beijing were surrounded, but they didn't wait for anything and broke down the gates as soon as they were surrounded.

The generals leading the team this time are all 100% loyal and brave. They carry secret orders and act according to their own discretion, whether inside or outside the capital.

Once something happens that is blocked by a superior official, the official will be arrested directly with a secret order.

After issuing the order, Li Qiang did not take it easy.

First of all, the managers at all levels of the six major merchants in the capital, especially the important managers, were sent to the camp outside the palace.

Li Qiang used the "Mirror of Love and Lust" to consume the souls of all the managers at all levels of the six major merchants and bind them to Zhongcheng.

He then released these 100% loyal stewards and let them take over their original positions.

Therefore, the six major business industries in the entire capital were only slightly affected on that day and then returned to normal.

Li Qiang's life became even more miserable in the following days. He used Jia Gong's divine warhorse and traveled around Daqian at night.

Every time he arrived at a place, he would use the 'Mirror of Love and Lust' to bind the loyalty of important managers of the six major local businesses.

While the capital was still collecting evidence of the six major merchants' conspiracy, all their businesses had already changed hands.

Since all the managers were loyal to Li Qiang, the assets of the six major merchants were taken over as a whole, and all affairs were no different from before.

The only difference is that all the industries of the six major merchants belong to the royal family, and are coordinated and operated by the managers of the original six major merchants in the capital, who are ultimately responsible to Li Qiang.

As for Li Qiang's 90 million taels of silver notes, there was no need to consider exchanging them.

Because Datong Money House was also his, the largest money house in Daqian. No matter whether there were any hidden shares besides the six major merchants, the owners of these hidden shares did not dare to jump out and confront Li Qiang.

Ten days later, Li Qiang sat on the dragon throne with a tired look on his face.

Even though he had a strong physique, the short period of time spent running around in Daqian made him a little tired.

But he was still very satisfied. In front of him was a stack of account books, which were summary books of all his new businesses.

There is no other way. If it were a detailed account book, it would probably fill up most of the main hall.

"The six major merchants actually control so much wealth!" Even though Li Qiang was mentally prepared, she was still shocked after seeing the summary account book.

The six major merchants almost monopolized most of Daqian's grain, clothing and other industries. The six major merchants also had their own ships and engaged in overseas smuggling.

Among these ships, all those staying in Daqian were taken over by Li Qiang.

There is no need to worry about those ships that are doing business outside, as the managers at all levels in charge of these ships are 100% loyal to Li Qiang.

With the support of the local army, those ships at sea could not escape Li Qiang's control.

(End of this chapter)