Chapter 225

"There are still goods?"

Yan Zhongxing immediately became interested.

As the chief official of the Trade Office, he was undoubtedly the one among them most concerned about the goods.

Li Rui nodded:

"Yes."

Hearing this, Yan Zhongxing's eyes lit up.

"Could it be that this Anning Guard Captain hid the goods in advance?"

That makes sense.

Otherwise, how could he be so bold as to make the decision to abandon the goods?

'Not all of them, even a portion would be fine.'

Hope rose in Yan Zhongxing's heart, and he hurriedly asked: "Where are the goods?"

With goods, the first mutual market between the two countries could be considered a complete success, and he could report back to His Majesty the Emperor and Zhang Shoufu.

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

Especially Dao Mo and the others.

They were all present at the time, and they saw with their own eyes nearly ten thousand jin of goods being abandoned on the official road.

The Wu Kingdom merchants were even more puzzled.

'Could it be that this Yu Kingdom official has some way to deceive the heavens?'

For a moment.

Everyone's gaze fell on Li Rui.

Li Rui's expression remained as usual, his tone steady, and he said indifferently: "This subordinate has a hundred jin of Southern Border tea cakes here."

Once these words were spoken.

The Wu Kingdom merchant who spoke first was angered into laughter: "One hundred jin? One thousand jin would barely be of any use."

Those participating in the mutual market this time included over a hundred people from the Jiangnan Great Merchant Association alone, not to mention other merchants and individual travelers.

One jin of tea cakes per person?

It was simply a farce.

If this matter got out, it would definitely be ridiculed by people all over the world, and who would do business with the Wu Kingdom in the future?

Yan Zhongxing was lost in thought after hearing Li Rui's words.

Li Rui didn't even look at that Wu Kingdom merchant and continued:

"As far as I know, there are still quite a few tea cakes in Qinghe City; added together, they should be enough."

"I mean, the goods we need don't necessarily have to come from the Southern Border."

Upon hearing this.

Yan Zhongxing and Cao Wei's eyes both lit up; they both understood Li Rui's meaning.

"Good idea!"

Yan Zhongxing praised.

He was a businessman skilled at calculating, and he understood the implication.

Qinghe was adjacent to the Southern Border.

Although the mutual market between the two countries had only just begun, private trade had never ceased for over a thousand years; which of the great households, great sects, and great clans in Qinghe City didn't have goods from the Southern Border on hand?

Added together, the quantity was far greater than the total of this Wu Kingdom caravan.

They had always limited their thinking to the goods of the current caravan, not realizing that once their thinking was opened up, Qinghe City was a huge warehouse for Wu Kingdom goods!

"Worthy of being an old hand in Qinghe!"

It was nothing more than spending a bit more money.

The Trade Office, as the agency managing the mutual market between the two countries, was directly managed by the Ministry of Revenue and personally monitored by the Emperor.

It really wasn't short of money.

As long as this urgent need could be resolved, it wouldn't matter if they made up for it later.

In fact, this mutual market was more about form than content; as long as it opened and looked decent on the surface, that was enough. Would those merchants really dare to report the Trade Office for this?

Yan Zhongxing was not the type to be bullied easily.

Dao Mo also realized this.

What the goods were didn't matter at all, as long as the people were there.

Compared to future profits, the loss of gold and silver from one trade was not worth mentioning.

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

Only now did Dao Mo understand Li Rui's true intention.

Recalling everything that happened last night.

It was clearly all within Li Rui's plan, from the initial act of abandoning goods to protect people, to the choice of the route into the mountains, all of it had been long plotted.

It looked thrilling, but in reality, it was as steady as an old dog.

Such a mindset... Dao Mo couldn't help but feel admiration.

Preparedness ensures success, while lack of it leads to failure.

Li Rui's cautious and thorough way of doing things was truly a blessing for both countries!

"Wonderful!"

Xu Wen, who was on the sidelines, was a participant, and now that he understood, he couldn't help but praise aloud.

Dao Mo took the initiative to state his position: "The funds for purchasing the goods this time can be provided by our Wu Kingdom; I only hope that Lord Cao and Lord Yan can facilitate this and help smooth things over."

Yan Zhongxing smiled slightly:

"Easy to say."

During this time, he hadn't spent his days in Qinghe in vain; he had long been running around to build good relationships with the influential forces in Qinghe City.

Now was the time to make use of them.

Cao Wei also nodded.

In the Yu Kingdom, especially in Qinghe, there were no great sects or clans that dared not do business with the imperial court.

Besides, it wasn't as if they weren't paying.

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

Then his expression turned stern:

"However, since the goods were lost on your watch, you have the duty to retrieve them. I won't make things difficult for you; as long as you can find out the identity of the person who took action this time, that will suffice."

"Yes."

Li Rui bowed and cupped his hands; he had long planned to investigate the case.

As a Trade Captain, this was his primary job.

"Very good."

Cao Wei turned to look at Yan Zhongxing and Dao Mo: "Let's leave it at this for now; preparing to open the market is more urgent, so let's return to Qinghe quickly to prepare."

"Lord Cao's words are reasonable."

Yan Zhongxing and Dao Mo nodded in unison.

Everyone then rode their horses back to the city.

For the next two days.

The doors of the great sects and great households in Qinghe City were knocked on one after another by government officials; only upon asking did they realize they were there to do business.

And they only wanted things from the Southern Border.

At first, these people thought it was a sting operation and hid things away. Later, seeing that the government had no such intentions, and hindered by the fact that they were on someone else's turf, and that other families who brought out things were all fine, they agreed one after another.

If they encountered a tough nut to crack, naturally the Anning Guard and the Trade Office would invite them to drink tea.

In just two days.

The goods were fully prepared.

The mutual market between the two countries opened normally.

Over thirty merchant firms from the Wu Kingdom, with a total of over a hundred people, gathered in the market designated by the Trade Office to open shops, and merchants from Qinghe and the surrounding areas who heard the news poured into the market, making it very lively.

"I heard that quite a few people even came from the capital."

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

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

They were all scraped together from various families in Qinghe, just to make up the numbers.

Of course.

=9+Book_Bar

For those merchants from other places, there were still quite a few novel and good things.

In short, although there were flaws, the flaws did not obscure the virtues.

It could be considered as having passed the test.

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

Ning Zhongtian scanned the sea of people in the market, thinking to himself:

'Even if they came, with so many people, it would be impossible to find them, right?'

Li Rui shrugged:

"Just coming to try our luck."

That's right, he came to the Trade Office market not to buy things, but to investigate the case.

Actually, there was no need to investigate.

He was almost certain that those who took action must be the people of the several rebellious princes of the Southern Border.

It was just a matter of going through the motions.

Cao Wei and Yan Zhongxing had already inquired about the situation at other ports through their connections.

As expected.

Including Qinghe, a total of three ports were attacked.

Casualties occurred at each, and at one port, both people and goods were wiped out; having no other choice, they could only announce to the outside world that the venue was not yet fully constructed and the time was extended.

The Emperor was furious, and the Trade Captain responsible for the matter was directly dismissed and exiled, and even the Commandant of the guard battalion was demoted.

With the contrast of their peers.

It showed how beautifully the matter in Qinghe was handled.

Li Rui could be said to have not only committed no fault but even performed a great service.

But after all, goods were lost, and although it was impossible for Cao Wei to reward Li Rui openly, he relaxed a lot regarding the investigation of the case and did not set a deadline.

No deadline set.

Actually, it was also hinting to Li Rui that whether he investigated or not was not important.

After all, even without investigating, one could guess that it was definitely the work of the rebel army of the Southern Border; would the Anning Guard really have to charge into the territory of the Wu Kingdom to catch people?

The Anning Guard had almost no losses this time, so of course, they wouldn't wade into muddy waters and find trouble for themselves.

However, Li Rui would not relax because of this.

Cao Wei could ignore it because he was a Commandant.

He was different; he was a Trade Captain specifically responsible for the stability of trade.

The previous incident was just the beginning; those princes would definitely send people to try every possible way to ruin the business at the Qinghe port.

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

That day's action was a good clue; he could follow the vine to find the melon.

At the other end of the Trade Office market.

A pair of young man and woman walked through the crowd.

The man's expression was not very good, his eyes gloomy: "Damn it, where did they find the goods?!"

The woman glanced at the man: "Speak louder, they are all deaf and can't hear you."

Qi Yu glared at Liu Jiaoniang.

He snorted coldly and stopped talking.

That's right, these two were Qi Yu and Liu Jiaoniang, but thanks to Liu Jiaoniang's superb disguise techniques, outsiders couldn't see their true identities at all, and they even appeared in the Trade Office openly.

They had heard the news and came specifically to confirm it.

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

A rough estimate showed that the thirty merchant firms had a full ten thousand units of goods, a not insignificant scale.

He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought; the goods of the Wu Kingdom caravan had all been moved away by them, so where did they find so many Wu Kingdom goods?

Could it be that there were immortals in Qinghe?

In short, this action of the Southern Border Qi clan could be considered a complete failure.

The opening of the Qinghe market was not affected in the slightest.

Just when Qi Yu was depressed.

Liu Jiaoniang spoke: "I've inquired, these goods were all collected from the homes of those great households in Qinghe City; it seems it was an idea from an official named Li Rui."

"Li Rui?"

Qi Yu frowned.

Liu Jiaoniang nodded: "That's right."

"The person leading the troops of the Anning Guard this time was also him, and the one who abandoned the goods to protect the people was also him."

Qi Yu narrowed his eyes slightly.

Killing intent flickered.

In other words, that official named Li Rui had single-handedly ruined this action.

"He must die!"

Qi Yu said through gritted teeth.

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

"What an ambition, what's the use of killing a sixth-rank official?"

"Did you come here just to kill people?"

Qi Yu was speechless for a moment, and upon thinking that he had actually been rendered speechless by a woman, he couldn't help but be annoyed:

"Then what do you think should be done?"

But he saw Liu Jiaoniang staring fixedly in one direction as if she hadn't heard him speak at all.

Qi Yu followed Liu Jiaoniang's gaze.

He saw an old man over seventy walking through the crowd with his hands behind his back, his eyes almost narrowed into slits.

Speak of the devil.

"Li Rui!"

(End of chapter)