From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 569

Late at night, an old man got off the carriage and hurriedly walked into a manor.

The manor was brightly lit, and the core figures of the Wu family stood in the yard, waiting for a long time.

"Master Guan, you are here, please come in."

Wu Qinghe bent over and said hurriedly: "Everyone is here, just waiting for you to take charge of the situation."

Guan Lindu glanced at the hall and saw more than a dozen people sitting here, each with a gloomy face and a heavy heart.

He strode in, sat on the main seat, and said in a cold voice: "Look at you, you look like a dog that fell into a pond in winter, embarrassed and discouraged."

"Is Zhou Yuan a god? Can he eat all of you?"

Wu Qinghe whispered: "Master Guan, everyone is uneasy, so please make the decision."

"Now the Bai family is going to be gone, the Song family has surrendered, and I don't know if Zhou Yuan is full. If he is not full, we must have a way to deal with it."

Guan Lindu said: "His military equipment bureau only needs 8 million taels, and now it has collected 15 million taels. How can it not be collected yet!"

"Besides, even if his belly is big, why would he arrest you without evidence? Officials protect each other, and the defense is like a copper wall and iron wall. How can Zhou Yuan break through?"

"Even if Qin "He is not good, and he can't just arrest people randomly, otherwise the ministers in the court will naturally report him."

Yue Lingkang suddenly said: "Mr. Guan, Zhou Yuan sent someone to visit Bai Jingtang yesterday. He stayed in the prison for a full hour. I guess Bai Jingtang must have struggled to death and said something."

Guan Lindu frowned and said: "He dares to say it?"

Yue Lingkang said: "I didn't dare before, after all, he relied on us to save him, but Zhou Yuan took the step of Wushengjiao and directly forced the Bai family into a desperate situation. He might be desperate to seek medical treatment."

Wu Qinghe smiled bitterly and said: "There are very few people who know about the thirteen salt mines, but Bai Jingtang is one of them."

"What if Zhou Yuan wants to take action against us, what if he directly takes action against the thirteen salt mines, we might be very passive."

As soon as this was said, everyone present was silent.

Guan Lindu frowned and said in a deep voice: "What are you afraid of? If it doesn't work, I will go to meet him in person."

"What's the imperial envoy? What's the governor of three provinces? The world is not surnamed Zhou!"

He wanted to say surnamed Guan, but felt it was inappropriate, and forced himself to hold it back.

Wu Qinghe hurriedly said: "Master Guan, that's exactly what I mean!"

"We would like to ask you to talk to the Duke of Weiguo, let him stop while he is ahead, and make a good relationship, so that our six major families can help him in the future."

"Leave a way for everything, don't kill them all."

Without the Bai family and the Song family, the other two families will naturally divide the market, and they will only make more in the future. If the Duke of Weiguo wants a little money, the six major families will not be reluctant to give it.

Guan Lindu said: "Okay, see how scared you are? If I go in person, can he not give face?"

After this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The pressure from the Duke of Weiguo was indeed a bit great, after all, the end of the Bai family was too tragic.

…

At noon the next day, Guan Lu hurried back to the official residence.

When he saw Zhou Yuan, he lowered his voice and said, "Zhang Fei took people to find out the truth. There is no problem. The location of the thirteen salt mines is correct."

"The other party is guarding very tightly, and there are secret guards every few miles. Fortunately, they sent masters this time, otherwise we would be exposed."

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but be overjoyed: "Great, this is almost the biggest progress since the Jiangnan Salt Inspection. Gather the forces, we must seize these thirteen salt mines at lightning speed, which is equivalent to holding the lifeline of the other six major families."

Guan Lu said: "But the Yangzhou garrison camp... may not be reliable in this situation!"

Zhou Yuan said: "It doesn't matter. In the past few days, many people have sneaked into the inner court. There must be more than a hundred people. Don't we have more than a hundred people?"

Guan Lu smiled bitterly and said, "How can this be enough? Wan If a Yangzhou garrison camp goes against us, it will be difficult for us to protect ourselves. "

Zhou Yuan snorted and said coldly: "If things get to that point, they will be the only ones who are unlucky."

"But just in case, I will write a letter and you will send someone to Jinling immediately."

"If they want to play hard, I will play hard with them."

As soon as the voice fell, the guards outside shouted: "Sir, an old man wants to see you, and he said you must see him."

Zhou Yuan looked at Guan Lu and couldn't help laughing: "It seems that not only we are nervous, but the other party is also nervous."

Guan Lu said: "I will take my leave first."

Zhou Yuan came to the main hall and saw an old man in brocade clothes. His hair was gray and combed meticulously. He wore a jade hair crown, sword eyebrows and cold eyes, and he was very aura.

He sat on the Taishi chair,He glanced at Zhou Yuan, but did not stand up. He just said lightly: "Are you Zhou Yuan?"

Zhou Yuan was not angry either. He sat down slowly and said with a smile: "Who are you? What's the matter with visiting me?"

The old man looked calm and said: "You don't need to know who I am. I just came to congratulate you. You were made a duke at a young age, and you went south to inspect the salt and took down two major salt merchant families. Your achievements are extraordinary."

"Your Majesty will definitely reward you. Even if you make a fortune from this huge amount of silver, no one will blame you."

"This time, you made a lot of money, and it's time to retire."

"Yangzhou is a small place, and it can't afford a big man like you to stay for a long time."

Zhou Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly , said: "I am the governor of three provinces appointed by His Majesty, and I control all military and political power in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi. I can stay as long as I want."

"Except for His Majesty, I think no one can ask me to leave."

Guan Lindu raised his head proudly and said coldly: "Fifteen million taels of silver, the accumulation of the two major families of the Bai family and the Song family for decades, haven't you been satisfied?"

"Zhou Yuan, do you intend to destroy Yangzhou? Do you intend to ruin the hard-won stability of the Great Jin?"

"I advise you to stop while you are ahead, don't let it end up in a way that you can't even end it yourself."

Zhou Yuan looked at him, his face no longer smiling, only cold.

He said softly: "The hard-won stable situation? Sorry, this stable situation was created by me. Without me pacifying the two Jiangs, recovering the Central Plains, and expelling the Eastern Tartars, there would be no stable situation."

"What I created, others have no right to say it was destroyed."

The old man stood up and said angrily: "You mean, you still want to eat? You want to uproot the eight major families in Jiangnan?"

Zhou Yuan said: "Does this have anything to do with you?"

The old man sneered, with arrogance flashing in his eyes.

Alas, young people nowadays are so ignorant, they really don't want to drink a toast and drink a penalty!

He looked at Zhou Yuan and said word by word: "Then I will officially tell you that my surname is Guan! My name is Lindu!"

Zhou Yuan was stunned for a moment, then frowned and said: "What? Do you want to give you an award?"

This light and casual sentence choked Guan Lindu directly.