Chapter 42 Smart Shift Pad

At this moment, there was a strange noise in the backyard.Qi Junyuan winked, and immediately dodged with Qin Shengsheng, each occupying a favorable position to seal the door leading to the backyard. In a false alarm, it was Wang Yanba who appeared from the door.His thoughts were the same as Qi Junyuan's, and he felt that the inn was a relatively safe place now. "I saw that they retreated on both sides. The mountain road that Xue Kang walked all the way, and the waterway that he walked all the way. By the way, I encountered three of their claws when I drew the sign. Judging from the weapons they used, it was very It’s like the tiger and leopard teams of the advance guard of the Great Zhou.” Wang Yanba’s killing just now was very calm, and he had more leisure time than Qi Junyuan who hurried away from the small crossroads, so although the two of them had close contact with their opponents, Wang Yanba observed more carefully than Qi Junyuan.

Qi Junyuan frowned slightly, because he felt that the current Wang Yanba was much more sophisticated than the Wang Yanba he knew before, both in his tone of voice and in his thinking and judgment.Although he has indeed experienced many things these days, for an assassin, the speed of maturity will not be so fast.So Wang Yanba is either a genius, or it is the same as his previous judgment, he is hiding some things, covering up his true self. "Did you really see that they all retreated? Have the human claws deployed everywhere been withdrawn?" Qi Junyuan suddenly felt that this situation was very important.

"They all withdrew. I saw with my own eyes that many human claws appeared in the dark, and the positions all fit the appropriate point around the town. Then they all gathered at the small pier and took a boat. Now we just go back to the guest room to sleep in the big room." I think everything is fine." Wang Yanba was sure. "No! Let's go! Leave the inn immediately. As long as they find that the other party has withdrawn from the town like themselves, they will immediately focus on us again. Take advantage of this gap to leave quickly, and they will be caught by their claws again if it is too late." Get stuck here."

Qi Junyuan acted while explaining, and slipped out of the inn as swiftly and quietly as a civet cat.Those two people also heard the urgency of the situation, and followed closely behind him without falling behind. The three quickly disappeared into the dark forest. An ancient text "Wuping Ji Chen" discovered in Hunan folk before the founding of New China.This book is a private record of strange and strange things by local folk idlers, and the specific age is not indicated.There is a record in it: "During the reign of Zhou Wuping, there was a night robber in Wuping. The people were all asleep and didn't know it. When they got up in the morning, they saw several corpses. Some were killed and some were burned. The lives of the people were not lost, but many shops were damaged by fire. No one knew why." From " According to the analysis of "the years of Zhou Wuping envoy", it is likely to refer to the period when Zhou Xingfeng served as Wuping Jiedu envoy.And Qi Junyuan and the others don't know if the town or the area they passed by this time is called Wuping. If so, the thing recorded in the book is very likely to be this night fight.

Besides, Shu Emperor Meng Chang left Xiao Yan, the special envoy of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and turned back to the study "Yi Tian Xia" where he usually tasted literature and appreciating utensils, and then hurriedly summoned the chief envoy De sent by Li Hongji. Throughout the Southern Tang Dynasty, only Li Hongji was trusted by Meng Chang.Although the two of them have only met each other twice, they have similar temperaments and similar ambitions.Therefore, the two have kept in close contact and used each other, hoping that one day they can work together to pursue greater aspirations.

Director De came to Chengdu to meet Meng Chang this time, because there was indeed an extremely important matter.After the tax increase in the Southern Tang Dynasty, it had a great impact on neighboring countries.Nanping, Nanhan, and Wuyue have all adopted certain strategies to deal with it and reduce losses in time.Dazhou, which is most affected now, has not taken any action, which may be because Zhou Shizong's northern expedition never returned.It is estimated that when Sejong returns to Kyoto, there will definitely be a lot of money to make a splash.However, although Zhou Xingfeng in the Chu region occupied the territory, he did not claim the title of emperor, and he still led the military envoy of the Wuqing Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and had power over the affairs of Tanzhou, so he was regarded as a subsidiary of the Great Zhou Dynasty.Although he also secretly took certain measures against the tax increase in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he still sent countless memorials to the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty.Chudi and Nantang had not settled the previous feud, he wanted to urge Dazhou to react and strike at Nantang as a punishment.And Zhou Xingfeng can take the opportunity to cooperate with Da Zhou to fight hard to avenge his past.

But regardless of whether measures have been taken or not yet, several countries will pass the crisis on to Shu.Li Hongji is a talent of an emperor, and Feng Yansi and Han Xizai had already speculated that there would be such a result when they discussed whether they should raise taxes that day.But he didn't stop it. First, he didn't want to offend any of the two ministers, because they might become a strong support for him to win the throne.In addition, he also has his own plan in mind, and wants to make full use of the vicious consequences of tax hikes, so as to determine his status in the country.Later, Gu Zijing and two officials from Tanzhou wrote a letter requesting a tax increase, and also analyzed that after the tax increase, only the Shu Kingdom across the region would eventually bear the impact.Yuanzong Li Jing agreed to raise taxes immediately for the sake of immediate benefits, and this approach made Li Hongji secretly happy, because it happened to fall into his plan.

The tax increase in the Southern Tang Dynasty ultimately affected the Kingdom of Shu.But the Kingdom of Shu will definitely not stop there. They will use other means to counteract their neighbors, even at the expense of mobilizing troops.Once the Shu Kingdom was in trouble, all kinds of spearheads would turn to the Southern Tang Dynasty again.In the Southern Tang Dynasty, it was difficult to provoke the anger of the masses, and it was even more difficult to defeat the enemies. At that time, there would definitely be great chaos in the ruling and opposition parties.Li Hongji has already figured it out. If it really comes to that point, he will ask Meng Chang of Xishu to propose among the nations that Yuanzong is old and fatuous, disregarding the people's livelihood, ignoring the interests of neighboring countries, and taking plunder by inhumane means. He should be replaced by Mingzhu ; Then he proposed to let Li Hongji's son take the place of his father, which logically pushed Li Jingsui aside.

Because of this idea and purpose, Li Hongji definitely wanted to prevent all possibilities of friendship between Southern Tang and Shu.On the other hand, he had to maintain close contact with Meng Chang secretly, regulate the relationship between the two countries, and use the power of Shu to achieve his wishes.When he learned that Han Xizai asked Yuanzong Li Jing to send Xiao Yan to Shu to try to form an alliance and discuss how to jointly deal with other surrounding countries, Li Hongji immediately took action and asked his confidant, Director De, to bring his secret letter to Shu. , explaining his intentions, and asked Meng Chang to give Xiao Yan a negative attitude.

In addition, in order to speed up the process of his plan, he also brought a suggestion to Meng Chang.Even if the tax increase in the Southern Tang Dynasty has not greatly affected the Kingdom of Shu at this time, the Kingdom of Shu can take the first countermeasures and implement them immediately.The specific operation is to increase the amount of transactions with neighboring countries, the other is to increase the transaction price of its own outbound goods, and the third is to gradually increase the transaction tax rate for entry and transit.Doing so would be of great benefit to the Kingdom of Shu: using the Nantang tax increase as an excuse to earn considerable benefits first; at the same time put further pressure on the economies of neighboring countries and gain the upper hand in terms of national strength; Doing so can also prompt other neighboring countries to take extraordinary measures against the culprit, Nan Tang, so that Li Hongji can have a chance to ascend to the throne.

In fact, the first two points of this suggestion coincided with Wang Zhaoyuan's decision to barter at the border, but the price Li Hongji proposed to increase was much higher than Wang Zhaoyuan's original setting. Xishu is already planning to carry out barter transactions on the border of Shu and Zhou, and regards this as an excellent opportunity to reap huge benefits.It happened that an envoy from Da Zhou came to the Kingdom of Shu and bluntly said that Da Zhou was short of grain and salt, and asked to sell low-priced grain and salt to Da Zhou or barter for grain and salt.At this time, Li Hongji, an ally of the Southern Tang Dynasty, also asked Meng Chang to increase the amount and price of transactions with surrounding countries.The most important point is that Wang Ce, the former special envoy of Zhou State, once analyzed that if the Southern Tang raised taxes, the burden on all neighboring countries would eventually be passed on to the State of Shu.This is the best way for the Kingdom of Shu to avoid harm and benefit instead. Therefore, combining the common requirements of several aspects, Meng Chang immediately drafted an order to ask Wang Zhaoyuan to increase his efforts to collect grain and salt with coupons, and then transport them to the border of Dazhou for barter or trading.But the price has to be raised again. As for how much to increase, this will be discussed by Director De and Wang Zhaoyuan.Because Director De knew what price the grains going abroad to Dazhou would reach after the Nantang raised taxes.As long as the transaction price of Xishu is slightly lower than that of Nantang, Dazhou will find it profitable. After drafting the decree, Meng Chang did not let Chief De to rest, but let him go directly to Wang Zhaoyuan's mansion with the eunuch who issued the decree.This is what Xiao Yan saw at the gate of Shu Palace, but Xiao Yan and his subordinates mistakenly thought that they were going to Jiexuan Pavilion. Wang Zhaoyuan did not accompany the special envoy of the Southern Tang Dynasty to meet with him that day, because Wang Ce and Zhao Pu, the special envoys of the Great Zhou Dynasty, had misunderstood the move of Xishu government acting on behalf of the private sector and border barter, and questioned that they were transporting food, grass, soldiers and horses, which would be detrimental to the Great Zhou. .So these days Wang Zhaoyuan is busy with this matter in the Yafu, one is to take action as soon as possible to eliminate this misunderstanding, and the other is to make Da Zhou feel that Shu is not taking advantage of the fire.To do these two things well is actually very simple and not so simple. It is to choose an excellent barter standard. To put it bluntly, it is a matter of price. If Meng Chang is to be satisfied, Da Zhou must also be satisfied. But Wang Zhaoyuan never expected that he would meet an unofficial Southern Tang secret envoy in the official residence inexplicably.After reading Meng Chang's imperial decree and understanding its true intentions, he was a little scared.On the surface, it seems that Meng Chang's will can solve his problem. The manager of Germany will come to negotiate with him on the barter price, and he can shirk the responsibility to the manager of Germany.But in fact, judging from the whole matter, now it has deviated from the starting point of earning wealth and striving for status that I originally envisioned, but it is related to internal disputes in other countries and conflicts of interests among several countries.This time, I really made a wrong calculation. If things are going to be done well, I am just a creditor for making money and doing my best.If it can't be done well, the crime will be serious, and the officials who oppose his move in the Manchu Dynasty can turn over the flowers to charge themselves with guilt.What's more, my money-making plan itself has risks. If I neither achieve the emperor's goal nor make any money, then the emperor will have to kill me?At that time, what is favored or in a high position will become unlucky and in a memorial place. Holding the imperial decree, Wang Zhaoyuan frowned tightly for a long time.His thoughts flew aside, his mind traveled to the sky, and regardless of whether he was rude or not, he completely ignored the chief eunuch and Chief Dean standing there.Just when the eunuch was about to throw his sleeves away angrily, Wang Zhaoyuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of a strategy taught to him by his master Zhixuan: pull a back. Wang Zhaoyuan only smiled at this moment, and resumed his usual hypocritical attitude in the officialdom.While ordering someone to arrange a banquet for the eunuch and Chief Dean, he secretly brewed a memorial for Meng Chang in his heart.Zhiji once asked him to bring Prince Xuan Zhe together to do the official barter business. The excuse was that he wanted the prince to make contributions and win the trust of his subjects as soon as possible, so that he could stabilize the country in the future.But Wang Zhaoyuan has never found a suitable opportunity to raise this matter. This time Meng Chang once again paid attention to the matter of barter in order to help Li Hongji. He just took this opportunity to drag Prince Xuanzhe into it.