Evergreen Immortal..

Chapter 225: Looking beyond the frame

"And any more goods?"

Yan Zhongxing immediately became interested.

As the chief officer of the Municipal Trade Bureau, he is undoubtedly the one who cares most about the goods.

Li Rui nodded:

"Yes."

Hearing this, Yan Zhongxing's eyes lit up.

"Could it be that the captain of the An Ning Guard hid the goods in advance?"

Right.

Otherwise, how could he be so bold as to decide to abandon the goods.

'Not all, at least part of it.'

Hope rose in Yan Zhongxing's heart, and he hurriedly asked, "Where is the cargo?"

With the goods, the first trade between the two countries can be considered a complete success, and we can report to His Majesty the Emperor and the Prime Minister.

Not only Yan Zhongxing, but everyone including Cao Wei and Dao Mo showed interest.

Especially Dao Mo and his group.

They were all present at the time and saw nearly ten thousand kilograms of goods being abandoned on the official road.

The merchants from Wu State were even more confused.

"Could it be that this Yu official has some means of concealing the truth?"

For a while.

Everyone's eyes fell on Li Rui.

Li Rui looked calm and spoke calmly, "I have 100 kilograms of Nanjiang tea cakes here."

As soon as these words came out.

The Wu country merchant who spoke first was so angry that he laughed: "One hundred kilograms? Only a thousand kilograms would be of some use."

There were more than a hundred people participating in the trade this time from the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce alone, not to mention the other businessmen and individual travelers.

One pound of tea cake per person?
It's just child's play.

If this matter gets out, it will definitely be ridiculed by the whole world. Who will do business with the Wu Kingdom in the future?

Yan Zhongxing listened to Li Rui's words and seemed to be thinking about something.

Li Rui didn't even look at the Wu country businessman and continued:

"As far as I know, there are still quite a few tea cakes in Qinghe City. If we add them together, it should be enough."

"I mean, the goods we want don't necessarily have to be in southern Xinjiang."

Hear the words.

Yan Zhongxing and Cao Wei's eyes lit up, and they both understood what Li Rui meant.

"good idea!"

Yan Zhongxing praised.

He was a businessman who was good at accounting and understood the implied meaning.

Qinghe is adjacent to southern Xinjiang.

Although the mutual trade between the two countries has only just begun, in fact the private trade has never been interrupted for thousands of years. Which of the large households, clans, and families in Qinghe City does not have things from southern Xinjiang?
Adding them together, the number is much greater than the total number of the Wu Kingdom caravan this time.

They have always limited their thinking to the goods of the current caravan, but they don’t realize that once they open their minds, Qinghe City is a huge warehouse of the Witch Kingdom!

"As expected of an old man from Qinghe!"

It's just a matter of spending more money.

The Municipal Trade Bureau was the agency responsible for managing the trade between the two countries. It was directly managed by the Ministry of Revenue and received personal attention from the emperor.

I really am not short of money.

As long as we can solve this urgent problem, we can make up for it later.

In fact, this trade was more about form than substance. As long as it was opened and looked acceptable on the surface, it would be fine. Do those merchants really dare to sue the Municipal Trade Bureau for this?

Yan Zhongxing is not the kind of person who would be easily bullied.

Dao Mo also understood.

It doesn’t matter what the goods are, as long as the people are there.

Compared with the future profits, the loss of gold and silver in a trade is not worth mentioning.

'No wonder he chose to abandon the goods so decisively.'

Now, Dao Mo understood Li Rui's real intention.

Think back to everything that happened last night.

It was clear that everything was part of Li Rui's plan, from sacrificing belongings to save people at the beginning to choosing the route into the mountains, all of which had been planned for a long time.

It looks thrilling, but it is actually as steady as an old dog.

Dao Mo couldn't help but admire such a character.

Forewarned is forearmed, without prejudging the waste.

Li Rui is so cautious and thoughtful in his work, which is a blessing for both countries!
"wonderful!"

Xu Wen, who was standing by, was the person involved in the matter. Now that he understood, he couldn't help but praise him.

Dao Mo took the initiative to express his position: "My Wu Kingdom can pay for the purchase of goods this time. I just hope that Lord Cao and Lord Yan can help to smooth things over and manage the relationship."

Yan Zhongxing smiled slightly:
"Easy to say."

He did not spend this period of time in Qinghe in vain. He had been running around and building good relationships with the prominent forces in Qinghe City.

Now is the time to use it.

Cao Wei also nodded.

In the State of Yu, especially in Qinghe, there were no clans or major families that dared not do business with the imperial court.

Besides, it’s not like we’re not paying.

He smiled and looked at Li Rui with appreciation: "Very good."

Then his face became serious:
"But since the goods were lost from your hands, it is your job to find them back. I won't make it difficult for you, as long as you can find out the identity of the person who did it this time."

"Yes."

Li Rui bowed and clasped his fists. He had already made plans to investigate the case.

He was the captain of Simao, and this was his job.

"very good."

Cao Wei turned to look at Yan Zhongxing and Dao Mo: "Let's leave it at that for now. Preparing for the opening of the market is more important. Let's return to Qinghe to prepare."

"Master Cao is right."

Yan Zhongxing and Dao Mo nodded in unison.

Then everyone rode back to the city.

Two days later.

The doors of the wealthy and powerful families in Qinghe City were knocked on by government officials one after another. Upon asking, they found out that they were there to do business.

I only want things from southern Xinjiang.

At first, these people thought it was a sting operation, so they hid their belongings. Later, seeing that the government had no intention of doing so, and because they were in someone else's territory, and because other families who had taken out things were fine, they all agreed.

If you encounter a tough guy, An Ningwei and the Municipal Trade Bureau will naturally invite you for tea.

Just two days.

Just prepare all the goods.

The cross-border trade between the two countries is open as normal.

There were more than thirty businesses in Wu State, with a total of more than one hundred people setting up shops in the market designated by the Municipal Trade Bureau. Merchants from Qinghe and surrounding areas who heard the news flocked to the market, making it very lively.

"I heard that even many people from the capital came here."

Ning Zhongtian and Li Rui also came to join in the fun.

However, those who knew the inside story were not very interested in the things bought in the store.

They were all looted from various households in Qinghe, just to make up the numbers.

of course.

For those foreign businessmen, there are still many new and interesting things.

As always, although there are flaws, the merits outweigh the flaws.

I managed to get by.

"Brother Li, do you think those people will come?"

Ning Zhongtian scanned the crowd in the market, thinking:

"Even if they come, there's no way they can find it with so many people, right?"

Li Rui shrugged:

"Just trying my luck."

Yes, he came to the Municipal Trade Market not to buy things, but to investigate a case.

In fact, there is no need to check.

He was almost certain that the people who took action must be those who were causing rebellion in southern Xinjiang.

It's just for show.

Cao Wei and Yan Zhongxing have already used their connections to inquire about the situation at several other ports.

Unsurprisingly.

Including Qinghe, a total of three ports were attacked.

There were casualties at each port, and at one port all the people and goods were destroyed. In desperation, they could only announce to the public that the construction site had not been completed and the time would be extended.

The emperor was furious, and the commander of the Simao garrison who was in charge of the matter was directly dismissed and exiled, and even the lieutenant general of the garrison was demoted.

With the contrast of peers.

This shows how well Qinghe has done.

It can be said that Li Rui not only failed, but even made great contributions.

But the goods were still lost after all. Although it was impossible for Cao Wei to reward Li Rui openly, he was much more relaxed about the investigation and did not set a time limit.

There is no set time.

In fact, he was hinting to Li Rui that it didn't matter whether he investigated or not.

After all, even without investigating, one can guess that it was definitely done by the bandit army from southern Xinjiang. Are the An Ning Guards going to rush into the territory of the Wu Kingdom to capture people?
An Ningwei suffered almost no losses this time, so of course there was no way they would get involved in muddy water and get themselves into trouble.

But Li Rui will not relax because of this.

Cao Wei can ignore it because he is a lieutenant general.

He is different. He is the Simao Xiaowei who is responsible for trade stability.

What happened before was just the beginning. Those princes will definitely send people to do whatever they can to disrupt the business of Qinghe Port.

So he had to find a way to catch the spies lurking in Qinghe.

The actions that day were a good clue, and we could follow them to find the real cause.

At the other end of the Municipal Trade Bureau market.

A young couple walked in the crowd.

The man's face was not very good, and his eyes were gloomy: "Damn, where did they find these goods?!"

The woman glanced at the man and said, "Speak louder. They are deaf and can't hear you."

Qi Yu glared at Liu Jiaoniang.

He snorted coldly and stopped talking.

Yes, these two people were Qi Yu and Liu Jiaoniang, but thanks to Liu Jiaoniang's superb disguise skills, outsiders could not tell their true identities at all, and they appeared in the Municipal Trade Bureau openly.

They just heard the news and came to confirm it.

Qi Yu looked at the goods that appeared out of thin air in the store.

According to a rough calculation, the thirty businesses have more than ten thousand goods, which is a considerable scale.

He racked his brains but couldn't figure it out. All the goods of the Wu Kingdom caravan had been taken away by them. Where did they find so many Wu Kingdom products?

Is it possible that there are gods in Qinghe?

In short, the Qi family's action in southern Xinjiang this time was a complete failure.

The Qinghe opening was not the least bit impressive.

Just when Qi Yu was depressed.

Liu Jiaoniang said, "I have inquired about it. These goods were collected from the wealthy families in Qinghe City. It seems that the idea came from an official named Li Rui."

"Li Rui?"

Qi Yu frowned.

Liu Jiaoniang nodded: "Not bad."

"He was the one who led the An Ning Guard this time, and he was also the one who sacrificed his property to protect the people."

Qi Yu narrowed his eyes slightly.

Killing intent flashed.

In other words, the official named Li Rui single-handedly sabotaged this operation.

"Must die!"

Qi Yu said this through gritted teeth.

Liu Jiaoniang looked at Qi Yu with disdain and said disdainfully:

"What's the point of killing a sixth-rank official?"

"You came here just to kill people?"

Qi Yu was speechless for a moment. When he thought that he was speechless because of a woman, he couldn't help but get angry:
"Then what do you think we should do?"

But Liu Jiaoniang seemed not to hear him at all, but stared in one direction.

Qi Yu followed Liu Jiaoniang's gaze.

I saw an old man in his seventies walking in the crowd with his hands behind his back, his eyes almost narrowed into slits.

It's really what you say.

"Li Rui!"

(End of this chapter)