Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 75 Japanese Pirates (Five Thousand)
Yang had eight sons.

The eldest son Song Huai and the second son Song Yi had already served as officials in the court, but they were implicated by Yang Miaoqing of the Yang family for neglecting the royal family and were dismissed from their official positions. They are currently staying in Dongling on standby and are not allowed to leave the capital without imperial orders. Therefore, they cannot attend the funeral even if their own brother dies.

The third son, Song Jing, was not good at poetry or literature, but he was born with supernatural powers and could learn to lift the tripod like King Xiang Yu. He was a natural soldier, so he joined the army. Although he was young, he was already a general. Even when Song Huai and Song Yi were implicated by Yang Miaoqing, Song Jing was as steady as a rock.

The fourth son is Song An.

It was said that this person had a photographic memory. Of course, this was just a rumor from outsiders; the real Song An was certainly not so exaggerated. However, he could memorize most of a thousand-word article after just one reading, and would have no mistakes or omissions after reading it three times. People in the Duke's Mansion often said that if the Fourth Young Master had used this talent for reading, the title of the Song family's "unicorn child" might not have fallen to the Sixth Young Master.

Song An had no interest in poetry or prose, on the contrary he was very interested in business.

Among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants are the last!

All I can say is that these nobles are a very complicated group of people. They act like whores but still want to be virtuous.

On the one hand, almost every noble owns a large number of shops or even caravans. They rely on merchants to make wealth for themselves and maintain a luxurious life.

On the other hand, they look down on businessmen.

When Song An chose to go into business, he was opposed by almost everyone in the Duke's Mansion, except Yang Miaoqing... Yang Miaoqing was the only one who supported Song An's choice. At that time, people in the Duke's Mansion always sighed that loving mothers often spoil their children, and thought that Yang Miaoqing was too doting on Song An, so they unconditionally supported Song An's decision. But now it seems that Yang Miaoqing probably didn't want to see Song An grow up and become an obstacle to Song Zhen.

Song An is relatively unfamiliar with his fourth brother Song Yan. Since he started doing business, he has left the Duke's Mansion and has not returned home for more than six years.

When he left home, Song An was still a somewhat immature boy, but now he is much more mature than before, with an indifferent expression, neither happy nor sad. He came back this time probably because of Song Yun and Song Zhen's affairs, but there was no sadness on his face.

He was not wearing mourning clothes, but he was not wearing fancy clothes either. He was just wearing a plain white robe, and his carriage was just an ordinary carriage. Although Song An had made a great name for himself in the Ningguo business world in the past six years, he still lived a very simple life.

Just as Song Yan was looking at Song An, Song An was also looking at Song Yan. After examining him from head to toe for a few seconds, the seriousness on Song An's face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a gentle smile. He got out of the car and ignored Gu Banxia, ​​Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu beside Song Yan. He patted Song Yan on the shoulder and said, "It's been six years since we last met. Lao Jiu has grown up a lot. He is indeed much stronger than when he was a child. Not bad, not bad."

Song Yan smiled shyly: "It's hard for Fourth Brother to still remember me. I have changed a lot over the years."

"That's normal, six years." Song Anye smiled, looking like a warm picture of brothers meeting each other. Anyone who saw him would greet him with brotherly respect. "It's just that letting my ninth brother marry into the Luo family is an injustice. Hey, if my fourth brother was at home at the time, he would definitely not let this happen."

"The Luo family and I are on good terms, so I haven't been wronged at all."

"Then I'm relieved. However, when my ninth brother got married, I was far away and couldn't receive any letters from the Duke's Mansion. It was half a month later when I got the news. I was unable to attend my ninth brother's wedding. I feel very guilty." Song An sighed: "Since I'm back today, I must make up for it by attending the wedding."

Song An waved his hand as he spoke, and the driver got into the car and took out an exquisite sandalwood box: "This is a little gift from me, my brother. I hope you won't refuse it."

"You and I are brothers, why should we care about these empty formalities?" Song Yan said hurriedly.

Song An deliberately frowned and said, "How can I take back a gift I have given? Could it be that my ninth brother looks down on my fourth brother?"

Things had come to this point, and Song Yan had no choice but to accept it, so he took the box and handed it to Zhang Long. The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then Song An returned to the carriage. Judging from the direction he left, he must be returning to the Duke's Mansion.

Only when the carriage disappeared from his sight did Song Yan look away, his brows slightly furrowed.

I wonder what this so-called fourth brother wants to do this time. Is he also trying to get the position of the head of the family?

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Song Yan shook his head. Song An was not very interested in power. The only thing he was interested in was money. Song An had never shown any interest in the title of Duke from beginning to end.

Song Yan's feelings towards Song An were a little complicated. The fourth son of the Yang family had not inherited any of Yang Miaoqing's arrogant and domineering character. He was always gentle and polite in his daily dealings with others, and rarely bullied his illegitimate sons and daughters. At least in Song Yan's memory, he had never had any direct conflict with Song An.

Of course, the relationship is not close.

It can even be said that he hardly ever spoke to Song An, and the number of times they met was very few.

But the more such a person is, the more vigilant we need to be... Perhaps it is because he has been murdered too many times since he was a child, so he has paranoia, but no matter what, Song Yan does not want to lose his life in a muddle.

Thinking this way, Song Yan turned and looked at the small wooden box. He didn't have to worry about any traps or anything like that inside. Song An had handed this wooden box to him in public. If anything happened to him, Song An would be held responsible. He opened the lid and saw sheets of special paper inside. Compared to ordinary writing paper, these papers were thicker and harder, and even waterproofed.

Song Yan frowned. It was a bill of exchange.

Ten pieces worth ten thousand taels.

One hundred thousand taels of silver?
This gift was extremely valuable, even exceeding the betrothal gift that the Luo family gave to the Duke's Mansion.

Even though Song Yan was calm, he was still surprised at this moment. What surprised him was not the number of 100,000 taels, but the fact that Song An, with a character comparable to that of a Pixiu who only takes and never spends, was actually willing to take out so much money?
Could it be that he was possessed by someone?
At the very bottom of the box, there was a piece of paper. Song Yan picked it up and saw two words written on it: "Dongling!"

Dongling?

The imperial city of Ningguo.

What exactly did Song An mean by this? Was he asking him to go to Dongling? Besides being the Ningguo Imperial City, was Dongling some other special place?
Why would he leave such a message for himself?

After thinking for a long time, he really couldn't figure out the reason. Why didn't these people just say what was going on directly, but had to play tricks like this? He complained in his heart, shook his head and walked straight ahead. Before long, a shop appeared in front of him.

Qian's Trading Company!

Although the storefront is not big, the decorations are quite exquisite and antique. At first glance, you might even think it is a bookstore selling pens, ink, paper and inkstones.

In fact, what is going on here is the simplest and most crude money-making transaction.

This is the ticket number, also called the money number.

As soon as Song Zhen turned around, those bills of exchange were taken away by his sister-in-law. Now it was time to take the silver away. It was a pity that the bill of exchange of 100,000 taels given by Song An did not belong to Qian's Trading Company, otherwise he could have taken it all together.

The chubby shopkeeper was taking a nap on the counter, completely unlike the busy shopkeepers of other shops.

This is normal. After all, places like money houses serve big customers, and ordinary people don't have extra money to deposit in the safe. So it is normal that there are no customers for several consecutive days.

In this kind of business, the key is to not open for three months and then make a profit for three years after opening.

The so-called shopkeeper does not mean that the store belongs to him. The Qian family is behind the Qian's Trading Company. As for the shopkeeper, he can only be regarded as a high-level employee like a manager.

Hearing the footsteps, Shopkeeper Qian's ears twitched and he raised his head. Seeing Song Yan's face, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. His eyes, which were not big to begin with, almost turned into yellow beans. "Sir, do you want to save money?"

Song Yan shook his head: "No, get the money."

The shopkeeper's face showed no disappointment at all, and he hurriedly invited Song Yan to go to the inner hall. However, when they reached the door, Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, and Gu Banxia were stopped: "Sir, this is the rule."

He knew the rules of the money shop. After all, whether depositing or withdrawing money, bills of exchange, and codewords were extremely important. Therefore, transactions were conducted between the shopkeeper and the customer, with no third party present. Thinking of this, he nodded to Gu Banxia and the other two and followed the shopkeeper to the inner hall. The so-called inner hall was actually a dark room with no windows and extremely thick walls, ensuring that the conversation inside could not be heard by those outside the walls.

Only a few oil lamps with dancing flames provided a little light.

After the host and guest sat down, Song Yan took out the bill of exchange. The shopkeeper examined it carefully, rubbing it with his fingers and even sniffing it. After about half a minute, he finally confirmed that the bill of exchange was genuine and wrote down the number on it. "Sir, please wait a moment. I need to get the account book."

Song Yan nodded slightly. This method of withdrawing money was indeed as complicated as he knew.

After bowing to Song Yan, the shopkeeper Qian stood up and left. A few minutes later, the door was pushed open again. But it was not the shopkeeper Qian, but a slightly thin figure holding a tea tray with a cup of hot tea on it.

The man was about 1.7 meters tall, considered tall for people of that era, with a slender figure and a short, coarse cloth robe, dressed like a servant. Noticing Song Yan's gaze, he smiled somewhat flatteringly.

Whether depositing or withdrawing money, they are all wealthy and powerful people, and no servant can afford to offend them.

He nodded and bowed to Song Yan, then walked forward quickly and said, "Mr. Song, there are too many account books in the accounting office. It will take some time to search. Manager Qian asked me to bring you a cup of tea first. Please wait for a moment."

Having said this, the man placed the teacup in front of Song Yan.

Just as his fingers were about to leave the teacup, a dagger suddenly slipped from his sleeve and fell accurately into his palm. The next moment, with a swish, the sharp dagger was aimed at Song Yan's throat.

……

A group of people were walking on the path. These people had some special looks. Although they were not much different from the people in the Central Plains at first glance, some differences could be seen if you looked more closely. They were shorter and had more sinister eyes.

Although he was wearing a short robe similar to that of the common people in the Central Plains, it was too loose and looked like a monkey wearing a human robe, which was out of place.

After a short while, the city gate of Ningping County came into view.

Ningping is just a county. Although it has city walls and gates, they are not very tall. There are several soldiers at the gate, checking the identities of people entering and leaving the county. Although the soldiers feel a little strange about these people's incongruous appearance, they know there is no problem with their ID cards. They nodded and motioned these people to go in.

Compared with Songzhou, Ningping is of course much behind. However, looking at the people coming and going on the streets and the numerous shops, they still couldn't help but show strong greed in their eyes.

It is indeed worthy of being the Central Plains, so rich.

Especially when seeing those women in ruqun, the lust in their eyes was hard to conceal. In their place, it was not easy to find such delicate women. "Don't forget our purpose." The leader withdrew his gaze and shouted in a deep voice. He spoke in the Mandarin dialect of the Central Plains, but the tone was a little strange, with the voice always rising.

The remaining four people immediately averted their gaze. Judging from their previous expressions of envy, greed, and surprise, it was clearly their first time in Ningping County, yet they were quite familiar with the layout of Ningping County. Before long, they had arrived at a restaurant. This restaurant was quite upscale, and the five people's attire was somewhat inappropriate, but the restaurant owner had clearly been instructed in advance, and even when he saw the five people going upstairs, he did not stop them.

With a creaking sound, a door was pushed open, and a woman was in the room.

Gudong.

When they saw the woman, the five men swallowed almost at the same time.

Although the woman was older, perhaps in her forties, she had clearly maintained herself well, her skin still fair and delicate, her face exquisite, and her elegance and grace adorned her with luxurious brocade, her graceful figure and mature demeanor making it difficult for these men to resist.

Just one look and I felt an inexplicable heat in my lower abdomen.

There was another woman next to this woman. Although she was younger, she was much inferior to this woman and could only be described as ordinary.

If Song Yan were here, he would be able to recognize the identities of these two people, Yang Miaoqing and Yang Siyao.

Although in the eyes of these men, Yang Miaoqing still had her charm, people who were familiar with Yang Miaoqing could see that in just half a month, she had become much more haggard, as if she had aged several years out of thin air.

Yang Miaoqing was exhausted because of Song Zhen's matter.

Song Zhen was her only biological son, and she could not just watch him being beheaded.

That’s right, for Yang Miaoqing, only Song Zhen is her biological son. The others, even if they were born from her womb, are just bastards.

Yang Miaoqing felt heartbroken when she thought of Song Zhen being imprisoned in the dungeon and suffering every day.

She once tried to use the power of the Duke's Mansion, but Song Hongtao, who had been obedient to her before, may have been stimulated by the murder of Song Yun, and his personality changed drastically. The crying, making a fuss, and threatening to hang himself that had been very effective before was useless this time.

Not only did Song Hongtao not intend to use his connections to plead for Song Zhen, he even directly deprived her of her right to be the head of the family. If he was not afraid of the Yang family, she would probably have lost even her identity as his wife.

Without the power to be the head of the household, the old butler Wang took the opportunity to purge the people in the Duke's Mansion. Most of those who were loyal to her were sold to human traffickers by butler Wang, so that Yang Miaoqing now has very few people she can use.

Yang Miaoqing tried to use the power of the Yang family again. In the beginning, the Yang family was unwilling to see their arrangements of more than 20 years fail, and they did arrange some masters, but these carefully trained masters were killed one by one before they could enter the Duke's Mansion.

After sacrificing seventeen elite soldiers in a row, the Yang family stopped sending people over. Yang Miaoqing knew that the Yang family had probably given up on Song Zhen.

Damn, Zhen'er is from the Yang family.

How could they be so cold-blooded and stand by and watch someone die?

After realizing this, Yang Miaoqing felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, as if she had lost all hope at once.

She even had a mental breakdown and a white silk scarf hung on the beam of the house, but in the end, her love for Song Zhen surpassed everything else. She knew that once she died, no one in the world would care about Zhen'er anymore.

After all, she is the legitimate daughter of the Yang family. Yang is a smart person. She was once blinded by hatred. When she cheered up again, the talent and madness she showed shocked even Yang Siyao.

Yang Miaoqing was very clear about the current situation. It was impossible to rescue Song Zhen using normal methods. The only two ways she could think of were to bribe the jailer and replace Song Zhen with other death row prisoners.

But it is difficult. It is not a matter of money. Yang Miaoqing has secretly swallowed up a lot of silver and money over the years. What she is worried about is Song Yan. That person will definitely stare at Zhen'er closely. Even if she disguises herself, she will not be able to hide it from Song Yan's eyes.

The second method is to break into the prison.

However, due to the cleaning up by Butler Wang, she was not alone, but she had very few people she could mobilize. If she wanted to break the prison, she had to rely on the help of others.

Bandits can't do that. Robbers are greedy for money but dare not take such orders. Attacking the county government office and storming the prison is tantamount to rebellion. Bandits are after money and will not risk their lives for it.

Therefore, the only force she could rely on was the power outside of Ningguo.

Everything that had happened during this period of time flashed through her mind. Yang Miaoqing didn't understand why the good situation took a sudden turn for the worse and ended in complete failure. Perhaps, her only mistake was that she didn't strangle Song Yan to death in his cradle earlier.

Thinking of this, Yang Miaoqing couldn't help but clench her fingers. Suppressing the restlessness in her heart, Yang Miaoqing looked at the man in the lead opposite her: "This, is Mr. Hirata?"

Yang Siyao's beautiful eyes narrowed slightly.

It's the Japanese pirates!

Nine thousand words were updated today. Today's two chapters are four thousand words each and five thousand words each.

Some book friends said that they don’t like short chapters of 2,000 words, they prefer long chapters. Let’s see what everyone chooses. If you like long chapters, then I will add more words to each chapter.

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(End of this chapter)