Chapter 54
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Once Gu Yuanbai returned to court, everyone calmed down.
People secretly watching the assassins passed on the news to Gu Yuanbai. After learning about the situation in the capital, the group of assassins sent by the Jiashen Association had left in haste before the city gates closed yesterday.
As Gu Yuanbai listened to the news while grooming himself, he smiled slightly and said, “A new batch of inspectors from the Supervision Bureau has arrived, and they have already gone to Jiangnan and Jianghu South.”
The main force of the Jiashen Association was in Jianghu South, as it was chaotic and suitable for hiding. A small part of them was in Jiangnan. Unlike Jianghu South, where the rebels would be directly suppressed, in Jiangnan, which was rich and had numerous powerful families, they would likely resort to coercion and temptation.
Gu Yuanbai threw the towel into the basin of water, his gaze sweeping over the people around him, not even lingering on Xue Yuan. Finally, his gaze settled on the map of the Great Heng Dynasty on the wall.
It was a map he had just had placed there.
In the bottom left corner of the map were Jianghu South and Jiangnan.
Gu Yuanbai’s gaze rested there, he sighed, and said, “It’s finally time.”
He had been coveting the various mines in Jianghu South for a long time.
The terrain of Jianghu South was treacherous, surrounded by mountains on three sides, leaving only one side open, facing directly towards Jiangnan.
It bordered Guangdong south, and Guangdong west, both of which were areas where the court sent serious criminals into exile. For example, the former Deputy Censor-in-Chief, Feng Chengzhi, was exiled to Guangdong West.
Such a place was naturally a natural barrier, and this natural barrier was the main reason why the local powerful families felt that the emperor couldn’t send troops to suppress them.
The local powerful families in Jianghu South, such as the Lu family, were in a position to be reckoned with. In terms of major players, the Chen family led the pack.
The Chen family was the largest and ranked first. Their ancestors were officials, and they had intricate relationships with officials. They were arrogant and even dared to beat local officials if they felt offended, let alone control the officials, and even privately collect taxes, making life unbearable for the common people under heavy taxation.
As time went on and their power grew, Jianghu South had formed a regime led by the Chen family.
And these powerful families were all remnants of Lu Feng’s control of the court.
The patriarch of the Chen family was named Chen Jinyin. Chen Jinyin was already old, and his shrewdness in his youth had been replaced by greed. He no longer had the drive he once had and began to enjoy his achievements. He didn’t care about the other members of the family, but when it came to his mines, that was a different matter.
As people age, they learn to indulge in luxury. The porcelain Chen Jinyin used was the finest batch fired in the official kiln, the fruits he consumed were from Yongxing in the north and Zhejiang in the east, the freshest batch in the world. The rice he ate was top-quality, and the meat he consumed was the tenderest cut from livestock.
Luxury had dulled Chen Jinyin’s mind, as well as the minds of the entire Chen family. With the Chen family being so extravagant, which other powerful families would willingly be inferior to them?
The higher-ups were intoxicated with luxury, while the common people were even more impoverished.
Back when Gu Yuanbai sent people to track the Jiashen Association members fleeing to Jianghu South and Jiangnan, he took the opportunity to infiltrate his own people into these areas. In early April, he had his people pose as a caravan and staged a trade war in the Jianghu South region.
He played this trade war very ostentatiously, completely copying Guan Zhong’s strategy, just substituting deer with minerals. Mines were a major geographical advantage in Jianghu South, and when Gu Yuanbai’s men rushed to deliver the heads to the Jiashen Association, it was also in April.
At the time, it was spring planting season, and as per Gu Yuanbai’s instructions, the people posing as caravans stayed here in Jianghu South for two months. They completely displayed the extravagance of prosperous area caravans, saying, “We only want ore, any ore is fine, as much as you have. As long as we can find ore, we can exchange it for money.”
While seeking ore, they also scattered money around. As soon as they found ore, they paid for it immediately. They successfully made the farmers in Jianghu South forget about their unplanted fields and went to the mountains every day to dig for ore and find mines.
This news also reached the ears of the local powerful families led by the Chen family. They directly stopped all the work of their stewards and tenants, making them go up the mountain day and night to search for mines, then selling them to Gu Yuanbai’s caravan.
Two months later, after the spring planting season had passed, the fields in Jianghu South were deserted, and Gu Yuanbai’s caravan had left. The people had no choice but to continue mining, selling their findings to passing merchants. Many people even earned more money than they would have from farming.
And half a month ago, people in Jianghu South unexpectedly dug up a gold mine!
From the powerful families to the common people in Jianghu South, everyone was excited. They mined with great enthusiasm every day. Naturally, the gold mine was taken over by the Chen family. With this gold mine, they sat on a gold mine. Chen Jinyin had completely lost himself in the mine. All his servants and tenants were sent to mine.
Seeing that a real gold mine had been dug up, the previous ore was also sold off, and who cared about food? They mined to make money, and with money, couldn’t they buy food?
Jiangnan was the land of fish and rice, where the rice was fragrant and sweet. They transported grain to Jianghu South, opened grain shops, and could buy food with money without having to farm themselves. Wouldn’t it be better not to farm?
So until now, the food in Jianghu South was bought with money. They couldn’t keep up with spring planting, and all of Jianghu South was caught up in the enthusiasm for mining. In such a situation, this trade war made it easy for Gu Yuanbai to take control of the initiative.
On this day, Chen Jinyin was sunbathing and drinking iced tea in his mansion.
His sweaty youngest son came over and sat down, picking up a piece of ice that hadn’t melted and stuffing it into his mouth, casually complaining, “Those stewards are really troublesome. Just because the grain from Jiangnan is a bit expensive, they had to drag me over to discuss it.”
Chen Jinyin said, “They’ve never seen a person of mountain of gold and silver. They even want to take advantage of such small profits.”
The youngest son chuckled, “That’s what I think too. Just take it, we can afford it. I reckon those folks from Jiangnan envy us, thinking that we’ve found a gold mine, so they deliberately raised the price.”
Chen Jinyin’s mind was already dazzled by the golden light. His old eyes were blurred, and he couldn’t think clearly anymore. Hearing his youngest son’s words, he cursed, “Those people in Jiangnan are so poor that all they can do is these small tricks! They raised the price because they’ve set their sights on us buying it. But we won’t buy it. I already have a gold mine. I’ll eat wherever I want. Even the emperor can’t eat as well as I do. Didn’t we buy some good rice before? Let’s eat that first.”
“Alright,” the youngest son agreed, “I’ll take care of it.”
But as he got up, facing the sun suddenly, the youngest son was momentarily dazed, and a terrifying and absurd thought suddenly occurred to him.
He turned to look at Chen Jinyin and said hesitantly, “Dad, now that we have the gold mine, will the court send troops to attack us?”
This ridiculous statement made Chen Jinyin burst into laughter, even tears streaming down his face. He boldly declared, “Let them come! Let’s see what kind of people the court will send to attack me! I control the officials in Jianghu South. Here, I am the king of the land. If the court sends troops, let them come, hahaha.”
Hearing him say this, the youngest son also felt that he had thought too much. So he quickly went out to refuse to buy from the Jiangnan merchants who deliberately raised grain prices.
Half a month later.
Jiashen Association in Ningyuan County.
Xu Xiongyuan was talking to Liu Yan. Their expressions were very intimate, indicating that Xu Xiongyuan already trusted Liu Yan very much.
Zhao Zhou asked, “In the first half of the month, the Chen family discovered a gold mine, and the whole Jianghu South has been caught up in a frenzy of mining. Brother Liu, why did you stop the people from the Jiashen Association from mining?”
Liu Yan sighed, “Brother Zhao, haven’t you figured it out yet? Although gold and silver mines are tempting to us, this is Jianghu South, and the power is chaotic here. Even the local powerful families, the emperor can’t handle them, let alone us from the Jiashen Association lurking in secret. How could we possibly suppress them more than the emperor? In this situation, even if we have found a gold mine, in the end, it will still be snatched away by the Chen family.”
Zhao Zhou had to admit that what Liu Yan said made sense.
Xu Xiongyuan also felt it made sense, but the hidden meaning that he was inferior to the emperor still made him very unhappy. His smile towards Liu Yan also faded, “Are these powerful families really that formidable? Do they have troops and horses?”
Liu Yan naturally smiled and said, “They don’t have soldiers, but their household servants and tenants alone number two to three thousand. Moreover, they have complex and intricate relationships with officials behind the scenes. They rely on this influence to bully others and expand their power.”
Xu Xiongyuan felt dissatisfied, “How can two thousand household servants compare to my five thousand elite soldiers!”
He couldn’t help but think, if even a small merchant could seize a gold mine, wouldn’t it be easy for his five thousand elite soldiers to take over this gold mine?
Zhao Zhou seemed to know what he was thinking and echoed every word of his thoughts.
“How could that be!” Liu Yan was astonished, then quickly intervened, “These local powerful families all have close or distant relationships. If the general wants to forcibly seize the gold mine, everyone associated with the Chen family will rise up against us! The government is also aware of the general’s whereabouts. They might send troops to besiege us. Moreover, behaving like this would be akin to acting as bandits, wouldn’t it?”
Xu Xiongyuan and Zhao Zhou exchanged a glance, both thinking that while Liu Yan had his merits, he was too bookish and conservative.
How could this be called robbery? Even if they really got their hands on the gold mine, it would only be the Chen family’s way of showing respect to them.
They tacitly avoided this topic, comforting Liu Yan with smiles. But in reality, they were already thinking whether it was worth risking discovery by the government to snatch that gold mine.
If the people sent to the capital to assassinate the emperor succeed, that would be perfect. Xu Xiongyuan fervently hoped that if Buddha truly existed, he would protect him, the true dragon, and allow the assassination in the capital to succeed. It would be best if that dog emperor could just die like that.
As long as the dog emperor dies, the court will have no time to concern itself with the Jiashen Association. The emperor has no heirs, and Xu Xiongyuan did not believe that the royal clan wouldn’t descend into chaos.
Once chaos erupts, it would be the time for him, Xu Xiongyuan, the true dragon, to rise.
By then, not just the Chen family’s gold mines, but all the gold mines in the world would be his!
Hahaha, what joy!
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