Verse 68 leaves

"Miss is asleep." Chunliu immediately realized that this person's secret visit in the middle of the night must have important news to tell, and immediately said, "I'll call her up." ”

"No need," Wu Zhixiang said unexpectedly, "You quickly inform Miss Pei that Lu Yizhong, a villain with rotten intestines, has already sent a note to Nanhai County, asking them to issue a ticket to arrest Miss." Please your young lady quickly avoid it. ”

Chunliu originally thought that this Wu Xiucai was just a greedy and lustful gentleman, but he didn't expect to have such a chivalrous heart at a critical moment. I can't help but feel hot in my heart, and I am blessed:

"Thank you, Wu Gongzi Gaoyi."

"You don't have to thank you. It's better to ask your young lady to find a place to avoid it. As soon as she enters the prison, even the gods have to shed their skin, and her affairs are too big, no one dares to protect them," Wu Zhixiang said, put on the veil of her eyes, quickly turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

The news that Nanhai County was going to arrest Pei Lixiu quickly spread to Guo Yi. Although he didn't know why he caught her first instead of himself, Guo Yi thought that the time had come to retreat. If you can't catch Pei Lixiu, you will turn to catch yourself.

He pondered for a moment, and then asked someone to call Sun Chang:

"You immediately send someone to Ziming Tower and evacuate the people according to Jihua. Don't want stupid goods. The guys from other places went to the shopkeeper Sun to hide. Ask a few of his men to block back the local guys near Ziming Building early tomorrow morning. Don't go to the store. ”

Nanhai County can't catch the main owner, and most of them will catch a group of guys who are still in the building - there is no need to let them be involved.

Guo Yi gave Sun Chang an excerpt and a stamp, "This is an account opened in Delong in the name of Sun Kecheng." You give it to him to pay for the settling-in expenses. ”

"Understood, I'll do it" Sun Chang hurriedly left.

Guo Yi is packing up his things, processing documents, and transferring things. Before I knew it, it was already getting dark, and I was very hungry. Busy with people bringing breakfast. Originally, he had a dedicated cook, but he had been dismissed a few days ago. Now he was eating breakfast with the rest of the people.

While he was eating, Sun Chang hurriedly came back to his life: everything was done.

"You hurry up and eat, too. I will go to Zizhenzhai again in a while, and tell the shopkeeper Shen that the business will be stopped today. He himself would have better go to the countryside to escape. lest they be stricken by the fish of the pond. ”

"Yes," Sun Chang saw that the entire Zicheng Chronicle had become empty, and he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable in his heart—he had suffered this disaster for no apparent reason, "Proprietor, can we still come back?" ”

"Absolutely." Guo Yi looked calm, "We will be back in a few months." ”

"Yes" Sun saw that he was full of confidence, but he didn't know where the confidence came from? In his opinion, Australians just know how to make money by doing trade unions, and they can't really fight with Daming. Are they going to go to Beijing to find the way to the big guy? While he was thinking wildly, the servant quietly came to report: someone asked to see him.

"Nope." Guo Yi said. There's no need to deal with anyone anymore.

"Someone said there was something urgent"

"Who is it, the post?"

"The person who came refused to say, only said that the matter was urgent, and he could only talk to you, Guo Dongzhu."

"Okay, let's see you."

The person who came was a middle-aged man who looked like a scribe, and after seeing the ceremony, he looked at Sun Chang hesitantly.

"There's a confidential matter down there."

Sun Chang hurriedly retreated.

"It's true." The middle-aged man lowered his voice, "I am here under order to tell you: the Guangzhou Government has been ordered to take the proprietor and the three shops of the purple brand into custody early tomorrow morning." ”

Guo Yi raised his eyebrows in surprise: he had expected to arrest someone and seize him, but he didn't expect someone to come and tell him.

He also has a certain amount of friendship arrangements in various yamen on weekdays, but only uncertain news has flowed out at present. This is the first time I have heard such a clear message.

"Thank you, Mr. for coming to tell me," Guo Yi said, "I don't know who Your Excellency is?" There will be a big thank you another day."

"It's inconvenient to tell who is in the east, but I just told the proprietor: go clean, don't leave anything behind. There is no need to panic, Guangzhou will come tomorrow. After saying these few words, the visitor got up and took his leave.

Although Guo Yi doesn't know the origin of this person, the credibility of these words is ninety percent ninety. The point was one of his concerns, what it meant not to leave behind any objects and documents - it was obvious that the messenger was sent for fear that something important would be left in the purple number that would damage his interests.

Although I couldn't guess who it was for a while, this person must be a person in the officialdom, and his position is not low. Zuihou's sentence: "Don't panic, Guangzhou Mansion will come tomorrow" isn't it clearly telling him that he can run away all day today, and he can even swagger away with people?

Thinking of this, Guo Yi had suddenly become enlightened, and immediately ordered people to gather all the people who stayed on Huifu Street.

There are still thirty or forty people supporting the façade in the house on Huifu Street, Zizhenzhai, and Zichengji. Most of them are outsiders and can't go home for a while. Guo Yi has already agreed with Sun Kecheng, and this group of people will be handed over to him for placement.

"Everyone came out of their hometown and came here to work for our purple brand. This is our fate. Guo Yi said, "Zizi has not treated everyone badly. Your monthly and year-end dividends are the first in this Guangzhou city. Our purple brand has always been a well-behaved business in Guangzhou: we never do anything illegal. Don't talk about the imperial grain and national tax, even the rewards of the adults and officials never dare to get less. This time, everyone is afraid that they will also know: the government will not let us do business in An Ansheng, and will close this store ......"

Many of the guys were in tears, they had been here for as little as a year, and as many as they had been working for almost three years. There are a lot of big brands in the city of Guangzhou, but there are only those who can be as sympathetic as the purple brand, not only the monthly case is better than other places, but at the end of the year, dividends are distributed according to the ability to take care of the sick and take medicine, and some of the guys died, the store not only developed the coffin to buy the cemetery for funerals, but also took the family to the outer cabinet to be placed: even if the elderly, children and women do not work at the top, they also arrange some light work, and send a few months of money to live.

Such a benevolent and righteous owner is now forced to close, and everyone is unhappy about what happened to the owner, and they feel bleak when they think of their own road ahead.

"It doesn't matter if the store is closed. As long as our people are still there, the purple brand will always be there. Guo Yi said loudly, "At least three months, at most half a year, I, Guo Yi, will come back, and I will stand here, stand here-" He originally just wanted to calm people's hearts, so that everyone should not break up, and wait for them to come back with peace of mind, but this will remind him of the days and nights he and his colleagues in Guangzhou, and he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion, and he didn't know how to say it for a while, and he paused before saying, "Put firecrackers with everyone to reopen the brand"

After that, he took care of everyone's wages for six months, and paid the travel expenses to those who were willing to return to their hometowns temporarily. Those who don't want to go back will do things at Sun Kecheng's place first.

The guys received the money and left in batches one by one. Guo Yi didn't have time to be sad, so he hurriedly took people to search everywhere to see if there was anything important missing. was busy until the day was about to hold the lamp, and then quietly changed his clothes and left in the crowd.

Other warning signs were issued - a broken black clay pot had been dropped at the door of the house on Wheatford Street. This is a signal sent by him at a critical moment in the yamen of Nanhai, Panyu, and Guangzhou counties, indicating that the official is about to turn it against him.

The entire residences and properties on Huifu Street, as well as the Ziming Building, were completely empty at this time, leaving only two men and ten powerful dart masters to guard each place.

"Everyone's gone?" In a warm pavilion, a middle-aged man in a brocade robe and jade belt, describing the great shore, asked casually while flipping through the book.

"Back to my lord, there are only a few dart masters here and there looking at the house now."

"Have the people from Nanhai County been dispatched?"

"Nope."

The middle-aged man reading the book is none other than Li Fengjie, the governor of Guangdong. Early this morning, the county magistrate of Nanhai County came to ask him in person: Lu Yizhong gave him a note, asking him to arrest Pei Lixiu immediately. Is this a matter to be done?

On weekdays, the prefectural magistrate would not come to ask him. There is absolutely no reason for the Governor's subordinates to arrest the Zanhua to arrest individuals. But catching the concubine of Guo Dongzhu is another matter.

The three industries of the purple number are not only favored by Tian Hongyu and Yang Gonggong, but also by several bigwigs. The Nanhai County Commander was afraid that he would help Lu Yizhong arrest someone, so he would get the property into the hands of Tian Guozhang - if this was the case, once Yang Gonggong and several other bigwigs wanted to take their anger on him, he could not afford to bear the guilt. So he hurried to report to the governor.

"If Lu Zanhua wants to arrest people, he can arrest them, but the Yicang in your county should still take a look. Let's go and take a look at Yoshikura first. Li Fengjie said this without yin or yang.

"Yes, yes, I understand." The county order understands it.

After the county order left, Li Fengjie went around a few circles in the signing room. Called a patrolman over:

"You go to Guangzhou Mansion and ask them to prepare fire lottery tickets, and prepare to arrest Guo Yi and other Australians."

Then he called a close friend and took care of him in this way.

Now he was very proud when he heard that the doorman sent to report back and that everything was in his plan.

"Hmph, look at how you guys fight wishful thinking." Thinking of Lu Yizhong's embarrassment in the face of Tian Da's inability to explain, Li Fengjie showed a happy smile on his face.

The next day, the officials of Nanhai County and Guangzhou Prefecture made a big move and seized all the residences on Huifu Street, Zizhenzhai, Zichengji and Ziminglou. Of course, whether it was Guo Yi or Pei Lixiu, they didn't get any of them. Even Sun Chang, Shen Fan and other witnesses who were originally going to be "brought to the case" were nowhere to be found. Only a dozen or so guards of the house were taken to the yamen. Naturally, these dart masters didn't know anything, only that they were invited by Guo Dongzhu to watch the mansion. Sun Kecheng had already prepared the post and silver for the "big threshold", and he bailed out the dart master before night.

The city gates everywhere immediately drew pictures to arrest Guo Yi and the others, but everyone knew that this was just a waste of effort. Those who know the inside story of the seizure know that the Australians walked very calmly and obviously planned it a long time ago.

Wang Zunde was extremely unhappy, and the results of the search were greatly disappointed. Whether it is Huifu Street or the three purple brands, the seized goods are fine, and the Australian goods have been harvested a lot, but there are no important things such as documents and letters, and there is no word or paper in the title deed and house deed account books As for the characters in it, don't say "first", and even the guys with an important point have nowhere to look

Listening to the report from the Guangzhou government, he knew that someone must have leaked the news about this matter. I can't help but be secretly annoyed. I thought to myself, who could this be? It was Li Fengjie who ordered Guo Yi to be arrested, and since he wanted to arrest him, he would definitely not report the news. Thinking about it, I can't think of anyone who will leak this news.

Thinking that there were people in Guangzhou City who did not regard the imperial court as the priority, and even reported the news for the Australians, Wang Zunde was very annoyed. I wanted to track it down, but I didn't know where to start for a while: the governor's yamen, the governor's yamen, Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanhai County all knew about the seizure and seizure. There are hundreds of officials in these four yamen, and everyone may know about this.

Could it be that the city of Guangzhou is full of traitors? Wang Zunde was very worried in his heart.

At this time, Lu Yizhong came to ask for a meeting and asked how to deal with the seized thief industry.

"How many goods were seized?" Since someone secretly told Lu Zanhua that he had privately sent a note to Nanhai County, asking Nanhai County to arrest Pei Lixiu, Wang Zunde's trust in this Zanhua has greatly decreased. He has always been unaccustomed to people like Qi Wan, who are honored ministers: he thinks that they are either lying on the merits of their ancestors, or relying on women's nepotism, and they know how to loot and fatten themselves without real talent and real learning. Lu Zanhua mixed up with this kind of person, which made him quite contempt-this person still has too much heart for fame and fortune

"Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanhai County are still in the process of being counted, and a detailed list will be submitted in the near future. Here's a quick list. Lu Yizhong's face was gloomy: he made a package ticket for Tian Da, but he didn't expect that the Nanhai County County Decree was not in the yamen that day, and other officials in the county either said that there was something wrong or that the main hall was not there, so it was inconvenient to deal with it. As a result, it was a day late to get people, and Ziming Building was already empty. Subsequently, the officials of the Guangzhou Prefecture came to seal it up. Not only was the offer completely unsuccessful, but even Pei Lixiu, who Tian Da wanted, was not caught.

Tian Da was annoyed and embarrassed - this time he went to Guangzhou to achieve nothing, how to explain when he went back? scolded him in his house, and threatened to strip him of his praise and painting duties, which made Lu Yizhong embarrassed.

Wang Zunde casually flipped through the list, in addition to the properties on Huifu Street and Ziming Building, there are still all kinds of commercial "money-making guys", seats and benches, and some small machines that do not know how to use......

Wang Zunde was not interested in any of this, he was concerned about how much property could be confiscated.

A great deal of money was collected from several properties, but there was no silver. After looking at it again, there was nothing like gold or silver, except for the various goods left behind, only some toys and ornaments. The most valuable ones are the life-size glass mirror and mahogany clock in Pei Lixiu's room.

"No gold or silver?" Wang Zunde asked. He originally hoped that the seized part would be used to reward the soldiers during the expedition.

"In addition to all kinds of goods, only a few hundred pieces of Jinluo women's clothes were copied. There were also hundreds of silk and cloth horses. There are also dozens of boxes of women's jewelry. ”

"What should this be for" Wang Zunde shook his head in disappointment, these things can't reward the army, let alone sufficient military salaries. As for the confiscated goods, it would take several months to change the price -- and he knew very well that the officials below would inevitably have to enrich themselves when handling such things, and it would be good if the goods of ten taels of silver could be returned to the officials for three or four taels of silver. He suddenly wondered if there was a lot of gold and silver that had been swallowed by the people below—but thinking that they had swallowed up half of it at most, he would never dare not put an order at all.

"I heard that there are a lot of contacts between Zizi and various big brands in Guangzhou, and there is no silver deposit elsewhere?" Wang Zunde asked.

"There is no ledger, I don't know the name and number, and there is no way to track it down."

"Hmph, immediately issue a notice, asking each company to clear its own report and pay it off within a time limit. If the applicant fails to report and pay within the time limit, the Governor will not spare him."

"Yes." Lu Yizhong thought that the governor wanted to rely on bluff to force the merchants to obediently hand over the payment of the Australians, but he was afraid that he would not be able to do it - if he didn't say it, he wouldn't buy it. To have a ledger or more or less a credential.

However, it is too ugly to really not be able to pay a penny of silver. Lu Yizhong's mind turned and he had already thought about it, and no matter what, he would have to force the various brands that had dealings with the purple brand on weekdays to give some money. In this way, it should be possible to get 50,000 or 60,000 taels of silver, which is not enough for military salary, but it is still enough for rewards.

Lu Yizhong knew that this time he was running for Tian Da, and he lost the heart of Wang Zunde. It was decided to try to redeem a little bit in this matter.

When the city of Guangzhou was making a storm around the things left behind from Guangzhou Station, Guo Yi and others had already withdrawn from the city. But they're not too far away. Zhang Xin sat in the Dongguan branch of the Qiwei Dart Bureau, directing the actions of the Dart Bureau. Now their main eyes and ears are darts. Some of the indigenous staff members who had been evacuated from Guangzhou also temporarily listened to his command and scattered to inquire about the news. In particular, the news of the actions of the officers and troops.

As for Delong Bank, Meng Xian was also ready to transfer - although everyone judged that Delong was not very dangerous - and he made a backup of all the ledgers. All the original documents were transferred to secret places for storage, and the most important thing was several secret exchange books, all of which Delong handled for the dignitaries and eunuchs in Guangzhou. Some materials can become good materials for the imperial historians to hear about the wind just by revealing a little wind. For the sake of safety, Meng Xian also temporarily moved to a safe house in the city and hid it first, so that the shopkeeper's support cabinet could take care of everything.

Others are hiding in various counties scattered in the Pearl River Delta, waiting for an opportunity. Yan Maoda simply went to Leizhou to discuss the next step of sugar cooperation and trade with Vietnam.

As for Guo Yi, he decided to take this opportunity to return to Lingao once, on the one hand, to report on his work, and on the other hand, to discuss the next work arrangements with the Ministry of Colonial Trade and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau.