kvmb Chapter 166 1 stone 2 birds
Chapter 166 1 stone 2 birds
Marquis Chengen's expression changed drastically: "Which family exactly?"
Prince Yu said, "The Gu family business has made great contributions to providing relief to the disaster victims in Guanzhou this time."
Marquis Chengen had a vague recollection that Emperor Jing'an had issued a special decree to commend the Gu and Qin trading companies.
Years later, when he heard this surname, he didn't make any connection to it.
Marquis Chengen was filled with mixed feelings. So many years had passed, and not only had they not given up searching for Shen Qingtan, they had even made it to the capital and reunited with her.
Back then, when Madam Shen adopted Shen Qingtan, she deliberately tried to extract information from her.
When asked who her parents were, she shut her mouth and remained silent.
When asked where she was from, she said it was Nanling Prefecture.
Hearing her crying and asking for her brother, he asked her who her brother was and took her to find him.
She sobbed, "Chang Sheng, Brother Chang Sheng..."
Continue by asking her what her brother's last name is.
She hiccuped as she cried and said, "Gu..."
After that, Shen Qingtan forgot everything and showed her quick wit, learning everything very fast.
This child was conceived because of a momentary lapse of judgment by Madam Shen, when she harbored evil intentions.
Not only are her features exquisite, but she is also very intelligent. Keeping her by my side means I can already foresee her future value.
They had no way out, and they had no regrets about letting Shen Qingtan take the place of their real daughter. Therefore, they sent someone to silence her, so that they would no longer have to worry about her background.
Unfortunately, the people sent there came up empty-handed; the Gu family had already vanished.
Fourteen years later, the Gu family found their way to the capital and reunited with Shen Qingtan.
"Just a merchant." Marquis Chengen remained calm and composed. In his eyes, the Gu family was like fish on a chopping board, at his mercy: "I have a thousand ways to get rid of them."
This was the first time Prince Yu was used by someone, and that person was a woman.
He arranged for people to monitor Shen Qingtan and discovered that her relationship with Gu Zongci was close and unusual. No matter what Shen Qingtan did, the shadow of the Gu family business was always involved.
They acted cautiously, and his men found no other information.
However, Gu Zongci's surname and ancestral home made him suspicious of the relationship between the two. It wasn't until he discovered that Gu Zongci had secretly given Shen Qingtan a sum of money that he could almost confirm that they were related.
Otherwise, why would Gu Zongci give Shen Qingtan such a large sum of money when they have no family or kinship?
Realizing this, he sent people to Nanling Prefecture to investigate the Gu family's background.
Judging from the journey, it should take him about half a month to return to the capital.
"I have heard that the Gu family has a wide range of businesses, and it seems that they also run a shipping company. The grain they donated to Guanzhou was transported by the shipping company's ships."
Prince Yu lowered his eyes to look at a pot of orchids on the flower stand. One orchid was in full bloom, and he gently brushed his fingers over the petals, gathering them in his palm.
"This year, Qingzhou has had a bumper harvest of grain. The old grain obtained from selling salt permits during the natural disaster can be transported here to help the people of Guanzhou."
Upon hearing this, Marquis Chengen was momentarily stunned, wondering where in Qingzhou there was any grain.
He quickly realized that the imperial decree issued to Qingzhou required the exchange of grain for salt permits. However, the officials in Qingzhou were exchanging salt permits for silver, and the granaries were all empty. If the authorities sent someone to investigate, the deception would be exposed.
They had no money to spare, so they bought more grain to fill the granaries.
Now that Shen Qingtan has investigated Qingzhou, he will eventually uncover the case of falsely reporting the disaster.
Before that, they need to extricate themselves from the situation.
Prince Yu then offered him advice, pointing out that the Gu family owned a shipping company with vessels capable of transporting grain. He noted that the imperial court had previously faced a shortage of vessels for transporting grain and had recruited ships from the private sector to divert grain.
They could secretly charter ships from the Gu family's trading company to transport grain from Qingzhou to Guanzhou. But sailing on water presents many problems. They could sabotage the ships, causing them to sink.
What the ship was carrying was not grain, but bags of sand.
When the ship sank, they said it was carrying grain, so the ship was indeed carrying grain.
In this way, the hole in Qingzhou was filled.
They reported to the imperial court that all the grain that Qingzhou had obtained in exchange for salt permits had been sunk to the bottom of the water by the Gu family's ships.
Gu Jia will also have to take responsibility for this.
Kill two birds with one stone.
However, to bring the Gu family to justice, the lease agreement must be manipulated.
Marquis Chengen had an idea in mind, and bowed, saying, "Your Highness is wise!"
His previous plan was to directly arrange for someone to kill the Gu family, which was clearly not as clever as Prince Yu's plan.
Seeing that the Marquis of Chengen understood, Prince Yu wasted no more time, put his hands behind his back, and slowly left the study.
Marquis Chengen bowed respectfully to see Prince Yu off, and saw a crushed orchid fall to the ground, its petals withered.
After leaving his private residence, Marquis Chengen hurriedly returned to his manor and arranged for people to investigate the Gu family's shipping business.
Within half a day, his trusted aide brought back news: "My lord, the Gu family has received an imperial plaque, and their reputation is too great. I quickly investigated information about them. After leaving Nanling Prefecture, they stayed in Qing Prefecture to develop their business. Their shipping company owns several hundred large ships."
“Several hundred ships…” A dark glint flashed in the eyes of Marquis Chengen, and he ordered in a deep voice, “Arrange for men to go to Qingzhou at top speed, and rent the Gu family’s large ships by any means necessary.”
The confidant chuckled, “My lord, what a coincidence! The owner of the Gu family business is in the capital, and the manager of the Qingzhou shipping company has come to the capital with the cargo ship. This will make things convenient for us.”
Marquis Chengen raised an eyebrow, feeling that even the heavens were helping him this time.
"Go and get this done as soon as possible." Marquis Chengen planned to petition Emperor Jing'an after the ship was leased to transfer the "grain" from Qingzhou to Guanzhou.
In this way, the Gu family will not suspect anything when the boat is rented.
The trusted confidant accepted the order and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute."
Marquis Chengen stopped him, worried that he might mess things up. He beckoned him closer and whispered a few words in his ear.
The trusted confidant was extremely efficient; within just a few days, the matter was settled, and a lease agreement was handed to Marquis Chengen.
After repeatedly confirming that the contract was correct, Marquis Chengen wrote a letter to Prince Yu, intending to persuade his people to propose transferring grain from Qingzhou to relieve the people of Guanzhou.
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Gu Mansion.
Gu Zongci and Boss Qin were sitting in the front hall, discussing the salt permit matter.
“Now that harvests are in full swing across the country, the food shortage problem has been temporarily resolved. We can exchange our salt certificates for salt and sell them.” Boss Qin said with a worried look, “This batch of salt is not a small amount. If we were to transport it by land, the cost would be too high. I originally wanted to ask you to rent a boat, but it’s early June now, and every June brings the flood season. You don’t know how to rent a boat.”
Gu Zongci deeply agreed. When the Gu family founded their shipping company, the weather was unusual that year. They had waited until after the flood season before forming a fleet to transport goods.
However, they were still hit by a storm, which damaged several large ships and drowned several sailors.
Since then, during the rainy season each year, the boats have rarely set sail.
Especially during the flood season.
"According to the old rules, the shipping company does not rent boats in June and July. If you want to rent a boat, you have to wait until after the flood season."
Gu Zongci said helplessly, "Last year there was a drought and the flood season didn't come, so we didn't stop sailing. This year, the person in charge didn't receive my letter and thought we could sail normally. Someone spent a lot of money to rent a batch of large ships to transport goods to sell in Northern Qi."