From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 540

With the emergence of three waves of forces, Zhou Yuan gradually understood the situation in Jiangnan and slowly found a breakthrough. The question now is, who will cooperate?

Will the other six families come to the rescue? Will they sell the Bai family and the Song family, escape this disaster, and strive for greater benefits?

The key is, will they send someone to negotiate?

This will be confirmed at Hengshui Wharf.

Late that night, the ship stopped. There was a lot of noise outside, flames, and shouts from many men.

Zhou Yuan stretched, got up and walked towards the deck, and saw the boss with a worried face.

He said slowly, "What happened ahead?"

The boss said, "We sent someone to ask, they said the boat capsized and they are salvaging it, plus the river is being dredged, it will probably take a day."

Zhou Yuan said, "No opening for us to pass?"

The boss smiled bitterly and said, "No, they won't accept money if we want to pass, which means we can pass tomorrow."

"Those people from the Cao Gang are very overbearing, we dare not force them, we can only wait."

Zhou Yuan nodded slowly, thinking.

Li Yu'an also walked out of the cabin. It seemed that she had not slept at all and was still in good spirits.

"Do we need to force our way through? I can go and talk to them."

Her tone was full of confidence.

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but ask, "How can you talk? You won't resort to violence, will you?"

Li Yu'an smiled and said, "That's not necessary. I can just wear a Madonna dress and go over. I've met people from the Cao Gang before. To be honest, they don't dare to mess with me."

"Their leader came to me specifically before, hoping that the Wusheng Sect would not rob their goods on the canal, and gave me a lot of money."

Zhou Yuan was silent for a moment before saying, "I won't go over. Wait. They are also following orders. They should be helping someone delay time."

"Delay time?"

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "Someone should want to see us at the Hengshui Wharf, but... they can't make it in time, so they have to send pigeons to ask the Cao Gang to help stop them for a day, and we just cooperate."

Li Yu'an nodded, looked at Zhou Yuan and said, "Before, you said that the trip to Jiangnan was full of crises and seemed to be difficult, but now it seems that it is not difficult."

"No It's just some assassination methods, poisoning, and looking for bandits, what's this? "

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "That's because you are here, so the other party's assassination has no effect. If you are not here, who knows those inexplicable poisons? Who can fight off hundreds of archers by himself?"

"Besides, it's not difficult yet. The other party is just using lower-level resources to attack us. If things continue to develop, we will soon be passive. "

Li Yu'an said, "Passive? I can't send officers and soldiers to encircle you... You are the Duke of Weiguo..."

Zhou Yuan said, "No matter how big a person is, he can't compare to someone else's life. Even rabbits bite when they are anxious. Let's see when the time comes."

River dredging, late at night, I really don't know which idiot came up with this excuse, but this also indirectly shows that the Cao Gang is arrogant and doesn't even bother to find a good excuse. It's clear that you won't pass.

But fortunately, the other party didn't continue to delay. On the second night, the opening was opened.

At noon on the third day, Zhou Yuan's ship arrived at Hengshui Wharf.

The two young men came to the side of the boat and said in a low voice: "I have been walking on thin ice all my life. Do you think I can reach the other side?"

Zhuang Xuansu didn't understand and drew his sword directly.

Zhou Yuan hurriedly stopped him and said anxiously: "Don't be so impulsive, this is my man."

He responded: "Speak of the theory of life evolution!"

The young man whispered: "The primary stage - Paramecium, will carry out simple life activities."

"It's one of us."

Zhou Yuan said: "Get on board."

The two young men hurriedly came up, then half-knelt down, clasped their fists and said: "See you, lord!"

Zhou Yuan raised his eyebrows and said: "What lord? Don't call me that in the future. Just call me sir."

"Yes, sir."

The young man handed over a thick stack of information and said solemnly: "Sir, this is a summary of the information of the eight major families in Yangzhou, including their relationship network and business areas, as well as smuggling patterns and connections with the canal transport."

"Master Guan said that the infiltration of the canal transport is currently underway, but it will take at least half a month to reach the core."

Zhou Yuan nodded and said, "How many people do we have in Hengshui now?"

The young man smiled bitterly and said, "We have just established a branch here, with only six or seven people in total. The rest are hired laborers and are not considered our own people."

Zhou Yuan said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."

He took out a silver note with a face value of one hundred taels and handed it over directly, saying, "Please treat the brothers in the branch to food and drink for two days, and you two can use the rest at your own disposal."

The young man was overjoyed and evenHe took the banknote and said, "Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"

After the two got off the boat, Zhuang Xuansu frowned and said, "Zhou Yuan, who are these people?"

Zhou Yuan said, "I call them Shenque, a special intelligence department, responsible for gathering intelligence from all over the country and infiltrating some key forces for me."

Zhuang Xuansu's face was very ugly, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Intelligence department? Zhou Yuan, do you know that establishing such an intelligence network is equivalent to treason in a strict sense?"

Zhou Yuan said, "Then you want to arrest me? There are so many civil and military officials in the court who have their own intelligence, why don't you arrest them?"

Zhuang Xuansu said in a deep voice, "Those are just spies! There is no organization or system at all, and those officials can't afford to support so many people."

Zhou Yuan was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, I am also a spy, do you have any objection?"

Zhuang Xuansu couldn't say anything else, but she realized a problem. Zhou Yuan's power seemed to be very large, far exceeding the intelligence investigation data of the inner court.

This is not the most terrible thing. The most terrible thing is... He seems to no longer want to hide anything. He is speaking frankly!

This shows that such an intelligence system has matured and can evade the investigation of the Inner Court. He is demonstrating in a unique way.

Thinking of this, Zhuang Xuansu took a deep breath, looked at Zhou Yuan, and squinted his eyes and said, "What are you going to do? Zhou Yuan."

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "Serving the country with loyalty, haven't I been doing this all these years? Master Zhuang, don't think too much, you see, our breakthrough is here."

A middle-aged scholar, carrying a small box, was watching on the bow, and then waved his hand.

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "Let him come up, it's probably the Wu family."

Zhuang Xuansu kept silent with a gloomy face. She always had a bad premonition, but now she could do nothing.

It's not that she didn't get along with Zhou Yuan. Last August, she and Zhou Yuan fled all the way south to Guangzhou Prefecture and Guangzhou.

Zhou Yuan at that time was different from Zhou Yuan now.

At that time, Zhou Yuan had an inexplicable spirit, a courage and responsibility that remained calm even when Mount Tai collapsed, and a confidence that kept moving forward at the end of a desperate situation.

Zhuang Xuansu believed that Zhou Yuan at that time was full of appeal, and was a young genius who was truly capable, idealistic, responsible, and talented.

Now Zhou Yuan gave her a deeper feeling, so deep that people could not see through him.

"Don't talk nonsense, I don't like to listen, just get to the point."

Zhou Yuan had already started chatting with the middle-aged scholar.

The middle-aged scholar was obviously stunned when he heard Zhou Yuan's words, but he soon laughed and bowed, saying: "Duke Weiguo, I am Wu Shu, from Yangzhou, the third son of the first branch of the Wu family."

"I came to visit Duke Weiguo this time to thank him for his tolerance and to make a sincere apology for the previous poisoning."

"The idiots of the third branch are ignorant and have caused trouble for Duke Weiguo. Our Wu family is willing to compensate."

After speaking, he lifted the box and handed it over.

Zhou Yuan looked at the exquisite rosewood box and smiled slowly: "When I open it...will it shoot out any poisonous arrows?"

The middle-aged scholar hurriedly said: "Absolutely not, I will open it for the Duke."

He slowly opened the box, and there was a thick stack of information inside. At the bottom was a bill from Datong Silver Shop, with a face value of one million taels of silver.

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but take a breath of cold air, one million taels, damn, you Yangzhou salt merchants are really rich!

The middle-aged scholar smiled and said, "This is a small gift from the Wu and Xu families. Please accept it, Duke."

Zhou Yuan did not take the banknote, but just looked at the information and said lightly, "Is this something from the Bai and Song families?"

"Yes."

The middle-aged scholar said, "We found it temporarily because we knew that Duke needed it. We hope it will be useful to Duke."

Zhou Yuan laughed. Look, there is a breakthrough now.