Do you know: I have a different surname: Wang, uncle Minglan.

Chapter 281 Setting up a stage to sing
Outside Hangzhou.

When Guo Hao heard what Chen Daniu said, he was a little stunned.

When they were still in Daizhou, Chen Daniu gave him the impression of being simple and honest, not smart, and someone who could be easily fooled.

But now, when he looked at Chen Daniu again, he could hardly see through him.

"You have grown a lot around big brother."

Guo Hao said something.

He was originally planning to go directly from Hangzhou to Suzhou, and was even ready to set off, but Jiang Suiyun's words suddenly enlightened him.

During the trip to Suzhou, he didn't mind leaving anyone except Chen Daniu.

If Wei Yuan really wanted to kill him, then the only person who could protect him was Chen Daniu.

This is because the one among the Eight Tigers of Daizhou who has the closest relationship with Wei Yuan is Chen Daniu.

"You are getting more and more confused as you grow older. It's not easy for us brothers to get to where we are today."

Chen Daniu glanced at him coldly, "To be honest, my brother did have murderous intentions towards you, and I should have left Hangzhou yesterday at the latest."

Guo Hao was shocked, "You stayed here just for me?"

Chen Daniu snorted coldly: "What else? I can't just watch you die, can I?"

Guo Hao was somewhat touched, "Among us brothers, you are the most loyal."

Chen Daniu closed the car curtain and stopped looking at him. "You are the most heartless and disloyal."

Guo Hao smiled bitterly, jumped onto the carriage, and took the reins from the driver. "Third brother will personally whip and drive for you."

Chen Daniu didn't respond at all.

At this time, in Hangzhou city.

In an old house.

The King of Wu was sitting in the courtyard, calm and focused.

After a while, a guard came over and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, General Chen has already left the capital."

King Wu nodded.

The guard was puzzled and asked, "Marquis Wei meant that he hoped that the prince could hold General Chen back. At the very least, General Chen should not appear in Suzhou before Guo Hao arrived. Why did you let General Chen leave?"

The King of Wu asked, "If General Chen is determined to leave, who among you can stop him?"

The guards were speechless.

Since they left Taihu Lake some time ago and went to various wealthy business families, they often sparred with Chen Daniu, but were defeated in just a few moves.

If Chen Daniu insists on leaving Hangzhou, at least forty or fifty people will be needed to stop him. After all, it is not a fight to the death.

On the one hand they had to be careful not to hurt Chen Daniu, and on the other hand they had to stop him, which was very difficult.

Seeing that he was silent, the King of Wu continued, "Why do you think General Chen deliberately wanted to stay overnight in Hangzhou?"

"Do you have the impression that General Chen is simple-minded, honest, and stubborn?"

The guard nodded.

King Wu sneered, "But what if he insists on letting you see this side of him?"

The guards were immediately shocked.

"If he really wants to leave, you can't stop him. You might as well let him go with General Guo to Suzhou."

Hearing the King of Wu speak again, the guards were full of confusion, "General Chen is the Marquis of Wei's man. Isn't he afraid that the Marquis of Wei will be disgusted by him if he does this?"

The King of Wu said earnestly, "This is the most interesting thing about General Chen. He can be so loyal to someone like Guo Hao, so how could he not die for Wei Yuan?"

"How could Wei Yuan not know this?"

The guard suddenly realized, "Your Majesty, when will we set off for Suzhou?"

King Wu lay in the rocking chair, slowly closed his eyes, and smiled: "Who said we are going to Suzhou?"

The guards were even more confused.

The King of Wu smiled and said, "We are only responsible for setting up the stage for the Marquis of Wei. Now that the stage has been set up, how the play is performed and with whom it is performed has nothing to do with us."

All the prestigious business families in Jiangnan and Southeast China gathered at Taihu Lake in Suzhou. It was impossible for the imperial court not to know about such a major event.

At such a critical moment, it doesn't matter where the King of Wu appears, but he must not appear in Taihu Lake in Suzhou.

He and Wei Yuan understood each other tacitly.

The person who set up the stage was indeed the King of Wu, but the people performing the show were not Wei Yuan and Guo Hao, as the latter were not worthy.

Wei Yuan made such a grand event because he was actually doing it to collude with the singer in the capital.

Guo Hao was just a pawn being used.
-
Lin Zhaoyuan's personal guard, named Han Guang, arrived at the flower boat on Suzhou's Taihu Lake before Guo Hao.

At this time, Wei Yuan was sitting on the deck fishing.

This is the thing he has done most since coming to Jiangnan.

During the fishing, Han Guang stood behind him and reported to him in detail the scene and words of Guo Hao while eating the fish.

He smiled at Lin Zhaoyuan and Shi Jian who were sitting on his left and right sides and said, "It seems that General Guo is quite hardworking." Lin Zhaoyuan asked, "How does General Wei plan to deal with Guo Hao? Is he going to be killed?"

After hearing this, Han Guang tactfully withdrew.

Shi Jian and his gang members are one of Wei Yuan's trump cards, specifically doing some shameful things for him, so there is no problem for him to continue sitting here and listening to such sensitive topics.

Wei Yuan said: "If I really wanted to kill him, I wouldn't have let the King of Wu and Chen Yuanzhi stay in Hangzhou after they finished their business."

Before this, when he called Chen Daniu, he definitely didn't call him by his full name.

Lin Zhaoyuan was shocked. "General Wei made this arrangement to see if Yuanzhi would go with Guo Hao?"

The reason I asked this question was because I wanted to know whether Wei Yuan intended to test Chen Daniu.

After all, before coming to Suzhou, Chen Daniu had made it clear that he did not want the brothers to kill each other. In other words, Chen Daniu did not want to see Wei Yuan kill Guo Hao.

At first, Lin Zhaoyuan was worried that this kind of thing would make Wei Yuan feel resentful towards Chen Daniu.

If Chen Daniu went to Hangzhou because of Wei Yuan's arrangement, it means that their eldest brother is also dissatisfied with Daniu.

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "You think too much. I know Chen Yuanzhi better than any of you. If I'm not wrong about him, he will definitely choose to go with Guo Hao. I do this to give both of us a way out."

Lin Zhaoyuan suddenly realized.

No matter what, Wei Yuan didn't really want to kill Guo Hao.

But the other party broke the rules after all. If he doesn't kill him, it won't be enough to enforce the law. If the Eight Tigers of Daizhou or those generals from the Daizhou network cause problems again in the future, how can he convince the people?
But once Chen Daniu follows Guo Hao to Suzhou, putting Chen Daniu in the middle can indeed give both of them a way out, so that things don't have to reach the point where they have to go to extremes.

"Of course, I asked King Wu to keep Chen Yuanzhi in Hangzhou on purpose, and I also wanted to see if Chen Yuanzhi would choose to go with him for Guo Hao."

Just as he said this, a carrier pigeon came over with a message saying that Chen Daniu and Guo Hao were on their way to Taihu Lake.

After reading the contents of the letter, Wei Yuan said with a smile: "From now on, if any of you calls Da Niu stupid again, I will be the first one to be unhappy."

Lin Zhaoyuan also laughed along with him.

But the smile was somewhat forced.

He understood better than anyone that ever since Wei Yuan took the position of the commander-in-chief of the Palace Front, something had changed.

Only Chen Daniu and the others still thought that Wei Yuan had not changed.

Before this, perhaps there really was some brotherhood involved.

But now, it is more about the relationship between superiors and subordinates, and between the lord and his ministers.

The reason why Lin Zhaoyuan was able to discover this silent change was that he had always regarded Wei Yuan not only as his elder brother, but also as his "master".

This word may sound a bit harsh, but this is what Lin Zhaoyuan really thinks.

He didn't know whether Wei Yuan's transformation was good or bad, but he didn't care. He just needed to remember what his mother said before she died.

"For generations, the Lin family has gone through fire and water for the Wei family, even if it means death."
-
In the seventh year of Jiayou, in late May, Chen Daniu, Guo Hao and his party had arrived in Suzhou.

They took a boat all the way through the canal to Taihu Lake.

Along the way, Guo Hao's confidants, as if they had met someone they admired, would learn martial arts from Chen Daniu whenever they had the chance.
"General Chen, a few years ago, the Liao cavalry pretended to be bandits and harassed the people around us. At that time, I was ordered to fight against them. I met a Liao general. His weapon was very strange. It was a scimitar with an iron chain. When he used it, I couldn't get close to him. If I meet him again, how should I fight him?"

"General Chen, when we were competing yesterday, could you show me the move that knocked me to the ground again?"

"General Chen"

"."

This has been almost the case for the past few days.

Because all the generals from Daizhou knew that Chen Yuanzhi was a martial arts fanatic. He would compete in martial arts with various schools from time to time, and he could be said to have integrated the strengths of each school.

We are all born as warriors, who wouldn't want to improve his martial arts? That's why I often ask.

If it were someone else, Chen Daniu would have been annoyed long ago. After all, those generals had nothing to do with him.

Why should I teach them martial arts for free?
But who made these generals come from Daizhou?
Daizhou is the second hometown of Chen Yuanzhi and others.

Chen Yuanzhi even often told people that when he got older, he would go to Daizhou to retire.

Therefore, he had a natural affinity for the generals who came from Daizhou.

Nowadays, some soldiers in the capital city, in order to gain the favor of the Eight Tigers of Daizhou, have deliberately found ways to change their ancestral home to Daizhou.

In the past, those warriors were proud of being the soldiers of the capital's imperial guards, and regarded the soldiers of Daizhou and Yanbian as "local soldiers", saying that they were not real imperial guards.

But now, times have changed.

Those who can make a name for themselves in the army basically come from border troops.

Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the present, among the Eight Tigers of Daizhou, which one does not hold an important position?
Xu Changzhi served as the commander-in-chief of the cavalry.

Yang Huairen, who was close to the Eight Tigers of Daizhou, served as the deputy commander of the Infantry Department.

Xiao Yuming was promoted by Wei Yuan to be the Palace Guard.

In the middle of last year, even Shen Qing, the least famous of the Eight Tigers of Daizhou, got a position in the Ministry of War.

The influence of Daizhou forces is growing day by day.

Therefore, the imperial guards who were born near the capital and once took pride in guarding the capital now longed to obtain the status of frontier soldiers or have a background in Daizhou.

(End of this chapter)