Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 328: The Emperor’s special envoy can take charge of everything!
"What's wrong with Huo Qianxian?"

"Why, are you scared? Now you regret not going to Japan. It's not too late to ask for permission."

Zhang Tong walked up to Huo Tao and saw that his face was pale, so he started asking.

Huo Tao came back to his senses when Zhang Tong asked him, "Who was that just now?"

"Don't be surprised. He is not me. I found someone who looks like me during my stay-at-home period, and then I changed his appearance and had plastic surgery to make him difficult to distinguish with people who don't spend a lot of time with him."

"You and those assassins have rarely seen me, so it's hard to tell."

At this time, Zhang Tong walked up to Huo Tao and said.

Huo Tao nodded after hearing this, and then asked, "Where is your Majesty?"

"Your Majesty has been with me day and night for several years, so he can naturally tell the difference. Unless I stay silent and stand far away, maybe I can fool him for a while."

Zhang Tong replied.

Huo Tao nodded: "Master Ti is really cautious."

"You can't be careless!"

Zhang Tong took out a leather mask from his sleeve and put it on his face. "You have seen my appearance and heard my voice just now, so remember, what you see next may not be the real me, so don't believe what I say easily."

Huo Tao's eyes suddenly widened.

But Huo Tao thought that the intelligence investigation that Zhang Tong was in charge of needed a certain degree of mystery, so he didn't ask any more questions and just said, "Got it!"

then.

The two men then boarded their official ship.

The person who pretended to be Zhang Tong and was beaten to death was carried to the Censorate by Zhang Tong's servants who came to see him off.

"hateful!"

"This bastard is so cautious."

"He has caused us so much harm. It's a pity that we didn't kill him!"

at that time.

Outside the city, in a crowded area, the censor Liang Shibiao could not help but grit his teeth and speak to his colleague Chen Zhen, who was drinking in a tavern in the area.

Chen Zhen said: "It's good if we can kill him, but it's okay if we can't. I think we have achieved the purpose of scaring them."

"Go back, someone will come to check it out later."

"It's not good for us to stay here any longer. It will easily arouse their suspicion."

Liang Shibiao nodded and said a few words, then walked past, stopped in front of the tavern, holding a rattle and shouting to the small vendor selling pancakes, and followed the crowd straight into the city.

Then the two of them entered the city.

After entering the city, Chen Zhen said to Liang Shibiao: "The sound of muskets outside the city means that the government army has lost registered muskets. The Shenji Battalion of each guard and regiment in the capital will definitely check whether any muskets are missing. By then, they will naturally find out who lost the muskets or sold them. In this case, it is inevitable that Your Majesty will be forced to mobilize the military meritorious officers who lead the troops."

"It depends on how loyal the Marquis of Wuding, who is in charge of the army, is to Your Majesty. Anyway, he will be the one to investigate, and he will offend whoever he finds out is the one."

"No matter what, either he, Marquis Wu Ding, will offend your majesty, or he will offend a certain military hero, causing a split within the military hero group!"

"It won't be our fault after all! Those who used firearms to kill were assassins. They committed suicide after the fight, unless they can revive the dead!"

Liang Shibiao said with a smile.

Chen Zhen nodded. When he thought that no matter what the result was, the bureaucrats who came from wealthy families along the coast would win, he couldn't help but smile.

When the two men entered the city, the peddler shaking the rattle who had been following them walked towards the Zhenfusi.

Meanwhile, Huo Tao and Zhang Tong had already sailed south.

It was midsummer.

There was plenty of rain, so both the north and south canals were filled with water.

There are many ships traveling back and forth between the north and the south.

Huo Tao stared at the receding willow trees on both sides of the river and the endless stream of boats, and became dazed.

Although he and Zhang Tong went south together.

But after all, the two were not familiar with each other and their identities were different, so they consciously avoided getting too close.

So, after getting on the ship, Zhang Tong just slept in the cabin.

Huo Tao went to the deck and looked at the surrounding scenery.

Huo Tao had to admit that since the reform of the canal transport system, the number of civilian ships heading north had increased significantly because the malpractice of smuggling had been eliminated.

However, most of these civilian ships were flying under the flags of official and commercial enterprises such as "Fei" and "Wang".

Obviously, it was because the canal transportation had been completely monopolized by a few large families who surrendered to the emperor. Even ordinary merchants had to use their banners to avoid being exploited by officials along the way. Huo Tao knew that this was an improvement compared to the previous situation where the profits from the canal transportation tax were almost all taken by the gentry and wealthy families along the river.

Now, these officials and businessmen are able to monopolize the grain transport because they have bought qualifications from the Ministry of Revenue, and they are backed by families trusted by the emperor.

In this way, unless the emperor does not accept money from these officials and businessmen, these officials and businessmen will pay taxes honestly and give dividends to the court in order to maintain their qualifications.

For the lower-class merchants and common people, they only need to pay a freight fee to the officials and businessmen, and they no longer have to worry about being exploited by the powerful and wealthy along the way when they go north to sell goods.

In this way, the lower-class merchants and people can naturally save a lot of costs, and the prices of goods can be lowered, so that the people in the north can enjoy low prices, which in turn is beneficial to the stability of the lower-class military and civilian people in the north.

But Huo Tao just sighed that he was born too late and was not able to hold a high official position when the emperor made such changes, and was not qualified to cooperate with the emperor's reforms and become an official businessman.

After all, such an opportunity sometimes only comes once in a hundred years.

Many times, if you miss it, you will miss it forever.

Huo Tao didn't know if there would be another chance in the future.

The further south they went, the more boats Huo Tao noticed on the canal, to the point where one would be hit by a boat if they weren't careful. He could even see the people on the boats next to him.

boom!
When he and Zhang Tong's boat passed Linqing Chaoguan, they heard a loud noise.

Huo Tao could not help but look in the direction of the sound, and saw an arrow nailed into the wooden beam of the window of the official ship he and Zhang Tong were riding on.

Upon seeing this, the soldiers who had been protecting Huo Tao immediately surrounded him.

Huo Tao ordered the soldiers to retreat and only had the arrow taken down.

The reason why he was not panicked was that he found a letter on the arrow.

From this he knew that the other party had no intention of assassinating him, and of course they could not assassinate him. After all, after he and Zhang Tong got on board, they had been more cautious. Basically, they were always accompanied by someone when they went out of the cabin and always observed the surrounding situation.

After Huo Tao received the letter, he opened it and started reading.

Zhang Tong also came over because he heard the sound and asked, "What's in the letter?"

"I only wrote my father's name and my mother's surname, as well as their birthdays, and my children's nicknames and birth dates."

Huo Tao replied with a sullen face.

Zhang Tong suddenly understood what was going on and punched the railing:
"How despicable! You're using your family as a threat!"

"That's right, they don't want us to go to Japan!"

Huo Tao said this with a little uneasiness at this time, and his heart was chilled. He no longer had the desire to make his family compete for glory and boast like the Fei, Wang, and Zhang families in the future.

For him, what's the point of seeking wealth and honor if his family is gone.

"They probably want you to pretend to be sick and refuse to go to Japan, or cooperate with them and ruin the inspection of Japan!"

Zhang Tong said.

Huo Tao nodded: "It should be!"

then.

Huo Tao smiled bitterly, "I was ordered to talk with Zhang Yongjia before, and I thought the emperor was too cowardly to reform because he only wanted to revive the country from outside. Now I think about it, even if the emperor wants to seek governance from outside, it will be extremely difficult. The treacherous people in the world will not even allow Your Majesty to seek a way to prosperity from outside! They only want to unite with foreigners, control the emperor and father, and oppress the people."

"You're right."

"But I think they might just be trying to scare you, not really going to harm your family!"

"Because you are different from me. You are a civil servant after all. What they did is really against the rules. The lesson they taught us before when they murdered Zhang Yongjia and Wang Yangming was already big enough!"

"They should understand that if the civil servants are so unscrupulous, it will only make the internal strife among the civil servants more serious, and will only make it easier for Your Majesty to suppress the power of the scholars."

"On the contrary, it is the emperor's close ministers like me who can directly assassinate without any regard for the law. After all, the Jinyiwei and you civil officials are not one and the same."

Zhang Tong then analyzed the situation for Huo Tao.

Huo Tao nodded: "What Commander Ti said is right, but even if it is just a threat, it is meaningful! I am afraid that they are not as rational as you say, and they really take my family hostage. It depends on my performance next!"

Zhang Tong also frowned after hearing this. He really couldn't make any guarantees.

When the two men arrived in Yangzhou and were about to go ashore to rest in the inn, a plainclothes Jinyiwei came to find Zhang Tong and said that Zhu San (Lu Bing) wanted to see Huo Tao and gave Huo Tao a letter.

Huo Tao hurriedly took the letter, and then saw a small handprint on it.

Huo Tao smiled happily: "This is my son's handprint. He has a mole on his hand, and there is also one on this handprint, and it is in the same position."

"It seems that you Jinyiwei have already protected my family!"

"This Zhu San, what task did the emperor assign to him? Why is he in charge of everything?"

Zhang Tong started talking with a smile.

(End of this chapter)