Chapter 526: The Huizhou Merchants Panic

That claim was somewhat disingenuous. Even if the two sides were in collusion, they couldn't be summoned at a moment's notice.

Looking at Xu Xianchun, Han Qi's expression didn't change at all. He now knew he was being targeted, but he didn't believe Xu Xianchun would actually dare to do anything to him.

Han Qi raised his head and said, "What do you want to do? Arrest me? Or arrest the entire Han family?"

Han Qi looked at Xu Xianchun and said with a smile, "If you have demands, just say them. It's nothing more than negotiating terms."

This wasn't something he hadn't experienced before; Han Qi could be said to be thoroughly adept at it.

These people stirred up trouble every day, sometimes just to prove their competence. So Xu Xianchun coming to find him to negotiate terms wasn't too surprising a thing.

Xu Xianchun glanced at Han Qi, then directly shook his head, no longer prepared to say anything more to this Han Qi before him, because there was truly nothing worth saying—the two sides' thinking simply wasn't on the same wavelength.

The man was still so high and mighty—how could he possibly show Xu Xianchun any respect? They had to be thoroughly beaten down and made to understand their own situation, or else these people would never drop their condescending airs.

"Arrest him." Xu Xianchun glanced at Han Qi, shook his head, turned, and walked out.

Xu Xianchun was going outside to oversee things. The Embroidered Uniform Guard had already begun making arrests—every member of the Han household would be taken into custody, and their shops would be sealed.

Under these circumstances, they had no time to waste here. He had originally only come to see Han Qi, but now he had lost that interest.

Behind Xu Xianchun, the Embroidered Uniform Guard surged in and immediately seized Han Qi.

Han Qi was stunned—he had never imagined Xu Xianchun would actually dare to arrest him here.

Han Qi directly raised his head, wanting to say something, but before he could even open his mouth, the two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers beside him had already made their move.

When the Embroidered Uniform Guard made arrests, people shouting wildly was very common. They were thoroughly familiar with this sort of thing—if they didn't want you to shout, you couldn't get a sound out.

One of the Guard officers reached out and drove a punch straight into Han Qi's stomach. The blow was both swift and powerful, nearly knocking the wind out of him completely.

Han Qi doubled over on the spot, gasping for air, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

And right after that, the man beside him grabbed Han Qi's jaw and gave it a twist—the motion was fast, the force great.

With that single move, Han Qi's jaw was dislocated.

Under these circumstances, speaking was impossible for Han Qi, and shouting was even more out of the question. He could only be dragged out by the two Guard officers.

The others in the room didn't dare move so much as a muscle.

Seeing this scene, Huang Changzong directly shook his head, turned, and walked out.

Huang Changzong had come along this time to take a look—first, to see if there was anything he could help with, or anything he needed that he could communicate to the Embroidered Uniform Guard; second, to witness this very scene.

Of course, this wasn't something Huang Changzong had wanted to see himself—it was what the Emperor wanted him to see.

Huang Changzong would soon be taking over the salt business, and the profits involved could well be imagined. Having him witness their fate was presumably also a form of intimidation.

Huang Changzong was indeed thoroughly frightened. He estimated that once these people entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard's headquarters, things would get even worse for them.

Glancing at Chen Zhenglin beside him, Huang Changzong scratched his head.

At this moment, Chen Zhenglin naturally had no need to keep up the pretense either—he too was being escorted out.

The ones arresting Chen Zhenglin were not the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but men from the Office of Transmission. These people moved very quickly as well.

Only, Chen Zhenglin was far more cooperative than Han Qi. He showed no intention of speaking at all and simply let himself be escorted out.

Chen Zhenglin was even clearer about his own situation.

Chen Zhenglin had already thought it through over the past few days and prepared himself mentally. So when he was arrested today, he offered no resistance at all and simply followed the Office of Transmission's men out.

At the same time, the entire city of Yangzhou was thrown into chaos.

First, the city's defenses were taken over, then countless soldiers appeared throughout the city—men of sturdy build, well-equipped, with sharp eyes. One look told you they weren't Yangzhou's troops.

These soldiers moved very quickly and soon occupied every corner of the city. Ever since entering Yangzhou, they had already been making preparations.

In this regard, after several years of training, Qi Yuanfu had become someone capable of handling matters on his own.

After entering the city, Qi Yuanfu surveyed maps and made arrangements—where to station men in the city, how to relay messages between positions, which locations needed troops posted, and which needed liaison officers.

Everything had been prepared, and two days earlier, these men had each scouted their positions. As soon as Yangzhou was taken out of play, they could immediately move in and rapidly occupy the places they had planned to seize.

And things went exactly as Qi Yuanfu had arranged. Yangzhou city was completely taken over, the city gates were sealed, and armored soldiers could be seen everywhere on the streets.

This threw the populace into panic. Many people directly shut their doors and cowered inside their homes. The scene left people baffled—they all thought Yangzhou was about to see another outbreak of soldier-bandits.

Happening simultaneously was the arrest operation.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard began seizing the Han family's assets—from farmland and estates to shops—and everyone in the household was arrested as well.

At the same time, the Office of Transmission also began making arrests, except the people they took were all officials.

Xu Guangqi and the others also appeared, coordinating seamlessly with Zhu Youxiao, and quickly took full charge of Yangzhou's administrative affairs.

With Xu Guangqi and his people in place, the smooth operation of the entire city of Yangzhou was ensured—no problems would arise.

In an instant, the whole city of Yangzhou fell into a rapid rhythm that left people unable to make sense of it.

But there were also clever people.

At this moment, the Huizhou Guild Hall had gathered quite a number of people.

Over the past two years, commerce had boomed, and guild halls had been built all over the country. Basically, local wealthy merchants funded their construction, then invited local merchants to work together, forming something akin to regional merchant associations.

Once they had capital and strength, they would build such guild halls throughout the nation—every major city would have one of theirs.

Besides providing convenience for merchants, the guild halls also provided convenience for scholars. They were responsible for keeping in contact with locals abroad, so everyone could band together and keep each other warm. Many officials were even courted by them, and merchants could communicate with one another when doing business.

If, within a guild hall, you cheated a fellow townsman in business, your reputation would truly stink to high heaven—no one would ever do business with you again.

If you wanted to do business in another region, people there would contact the guild hall of your hometown to get information on you. Without a guarantee from your hometown's guild hall, your business could be said to be virtually impossible to conduct.

Under such circumstances, the importance of guild halls and merchant associations became evident.

The Huizhou Guild Hall was one of the foremost guild halls in the Great Ming; the Huizhou merchant association was also one of the very top-ranked merchant associations in the Great Ming. There were those more powerful than them, but not many.

The Shanxi merchants had originally had deep foundations, but they had lost a good half of their strength at Zhangjiakou in previous years, and in recent years they had been severely suppressed by the Huizhou merchants here in Yangzhou, so their current momentum was far inferior to what it once had been.

With the salt business, the Huizhou merchant association had grown even more powerful.

And besides the local Huizhou people, there were also others present who dealt in the salt trade—such as the Ye family of Shanyang.

The Ye family of Shanyang had not risen for very many years, but their strength was considerable.

The reason was also simple: an ancestor of the Ye family of Shanyang had served as Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

The Minister of Revenue was not originally such a high-ranking official, after all, in this world, how many Grand Secretaries were there in the Grand Secretariat? If every high-ranking official's family wanted to run such a big business, there wouldn't be that many businesses in this world to go around.

But the Ye family was different — they were from Shanyang, which was later known as Huai'an, the seat of the Governor-General of Grain Transport's yamen. One could see how important Shanyang's geographical position was.

The Ye family's ancestor was Ye Heng, a Chancellor of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was also when Ye Qi served as Minister of Revenue that he successfully persuaded the Hongzhi Emperor to change the court's policy of paying grain for salt trading rights to paying silver instead.

As a result, the Huizhou merchants, leveraging their geographical advantage in the Lianghuai region, rose up overnight. And the Ye family, in Huai'an, also took advantage of the momentum to grow large, becoming a very famous salt merchant family.

Of course, compared to the Han family, the Ye family was still somewhat lacking. But the Ye family had its own advantages — they were right in Huai'an, the lair of the Governor-General of Grain Transport, where they operated deeply. Although officials always changed, the Ye family did not.

Back then, the reform Ye Qi carried out appeared on the surface to be for the court, but in reality, all the salt merchants at the time had put in effort behind it, and some even went so far as to bribe Empress Zhang's brother, the Marquis of Shouning, Zhang Heling.

At that time, paying silver for salt trading rights had already become the fundamental interest of all salt merchants. Everyone was pushing this matter forward, and they truly accomplished it.

Ye Qi presided over the reform, and his status was now very high, with an excellent reputation in official circles.

After all, when you've received benefits, you have to spread the word for someone — even the Hongzhi Emperor of that time was praised as a diligent and benevolent ruler who loved his people.

But in Zhu Youxiao's view, the Hongzhi Emperor had done even worse than the Jiajing Emperor. This salt administration reform of the Hongzhi Emperor was simply a huge pit — one that he still hadn't climbed out of to this day.

At this moment, inside the Huizhou Guild Hall, Ye Chi of the Ye family sat there, idly playing with his fingers as if there was something particularly interesting on them.

This made the people around him frown in displeasure.

But no one dared to offend Ye Chi either — the man held the grain transport in his hands. If he wanted to cause you trouble, you wouldn't even have a place to cry about it.

Under such circumstances, everyone could only let him be. Besides, this time they had called Ye Chi over precisely because they wanted to borrow his strength.

In the seat of honor, Cao Bang, the patriarch of the Cao family, sat there expressionless, his gaze slowly sweeping across everyone's faces.

At this moment, Cao Bang was very worried — one could even say he was extremely afraid.

Like many salt merchants felt, he too was trembling with fear.