Since the death of Mi Rulong, there has been no new history of assassination in Caozhou, and government affairs are taken by Wang Xun, the chief of history, and for such a long time, he has neither corrected Wang Xun nor appointed a new assassination history, which is a big violation of officialdom practice and provokes speculation from all sides. Li Shigu invited Li Mao to hunt in the small pine forest, with the intention of announcing to outsiders that Li Mao was allowed to return to his hometown to visit relatives on leave, which was a reward for his meritorious service, and it was definitely not a plan to divert the tiger from the mountain and to attack Li Mao. Outsiders speculate that since Li Mao has not lost trust, is it just as simple as visiting relatives when he returns to Caozhou at this juncture? Careful people found that Li Mao's return to his hometown was not only accompanied by Qingmo, Mo Qishentong, Shikong, and Shixiong brothers, but also escorted by a number of people.

This kind of thing is not contrary to common sense, Li Mao is now a judge of the festival and a picket, which can be described as a high authority, and it is reasonable to be escorted by guards. Although there are a lot of people in the capital, but think about his current situation is relieved, he served as a picket officer for only one summer, the four major families of Ziqing were offended by him three, and moved the Pei family, and recently turned Dongping County upside down, this alone he put himself on the opposite side of the entire Ziqing officialdom, how many people hated him and wanted him to die, and it was understandable to bring more soldiers and horses.

But with so many people, returning to Caozhou at this juncture still makes people feel inexplicable, Li Mao's trip is really just as simple as visiting relatives?

Li Mao's answer was that he not only went back to his hometown to visit relatives, but also celebrated the birthday of his father-in-law Su Zhen. Li Mao is a newly rising star in Ziqing's political arena, and there is no privacy to speak of as a star. He was born lonely and poor, practiced in the ancient temple in the mountains before the age of 20, and although he was ordered by Chengwu County to come to Caozhou, he was coincidentally in the middle of the Hualong phase and entered the army.

He came from a poor background, and even some of his origins are unknown, such a big family is not eye-catching, so he has no choice but to marry the daughter of the Su family, a big family in Chengwu, who is short-tempered and can't get married, but even so, he is still looked down upon by the Su family. Now he has won the trust of Li Shigu, the envoy of Jiedu, and has become a judge of Jiedu, and also a picket officer, and he can be described as calling for wind and rain in Ziqing officialdom, and he is invincible. Returning to his hometown, showing off in front of his old people, and shaking his majesty in front of the Su family, it is also human nature.

Li Mao left, the rumors continued, and he laughed it off.

Before going to Caozhou, Li Mao did his homework and carefully investigated the background of Wang Xun and Liang Chengdong, who presided over the military and political affairs of Caozhou. It's a professional habit he's just developed, and it's also a stress response to a dark memory of a moonlit night.

Liang Chengdong has nothing special, but he is an ordinary general who has some connection with the copper tiger head, and he is not even considered to be on the periphery, the only thing that needs to be paid attention to is that his son recently married the daughter of the Laizhou Wang family, and he barely got a little bit of a relationship with the Qingzhou Wang family. The Qingzhou Wang family operates the four largest salt farms in Ziqing, and actually controls the eight major salt merchants in Ziqing, tightly grasping the production and sales of salt, and linking upstream and downstream to infiltrate the Ziqing Salt Iron Yard.

Salt is not only an important economic source for Ziqing, but also an important bargaining chip in Li Shigu's foreign exchanges, the Wang family has become a family in Ziqing by virtue of the benefits of salt, and it ranks second to the Wang family, but it is the first of the four major families in terms of strength.

The former capital of Yuhou Yan Su is just an eye and ear of the Qingzhou royal family installed in the Jiedu Embassy, and the defeat of Yan Su has a deterrent effect on the Wang family, but it does not damage its strength at all, and the Wang family is still a huge existence.

However, the Laizhou Wang family is only a side branch of the Qingzhou Wang family, and the Qingzhou Wang family operates the third largest salt field in Ziqing, and the power is not at the same level as the Qingzhou Wang.

As for Wang Xun, on the surface he was just a descendant of a declining branch of the Wang family in Yunzhou, but in fact it was not so simple, he not only had a cousin who was king in the Uighurs, but also Li Shigu's playmate when he was a child, and Li Shigu always called him brother before he became a festival envoy. When Li Shigu took over at the age of fifteen, Wang Xun was the secretary of Yunzhou, but since then, Wang Xun's career has become bumpy, wandering at the state and county levels for many years, stopping at Caozhou to join the army.

Wang Xun is the head of the copper tiger to join the army, this Li Mao can be sure, the head of the copper tiger head is tightly organized, the hierarchy is strict, the number of people on the periphery is far more than the number of people in the formal establishment, the status of joining the army is not high, but it is a formal official in the system, but this makes Li Mao dare not underestimate Wang Xun. Li Mao has been dealing with Tonghutou for many years, and he has some use value in asking himself, but so far, Tonghutou has not issued an invitation to invite him to join the gang. After he served as the commander of the right wing of the Yangdao Army, he nominally became an official of the copper tiger head, but in fact he could not touch the inside story of the copper tiger head, and if he needed to mobilize the power of the copper tiger head when performing official duties, he also needed an intermediary to convey it.

At most, it can be regarded as a peripheral personnel of the copper tiger head.

Li Mao speculated that Wang Xun was likely to be the alliance link between the Wang family in Yunzhou and the Tonghutou, and he, who joined the army, could not only do something independently, but also be a pawn in the hands of the top general of the Tonghutou.

The mystery of the copper tiger head did not disappear because of Li Mao's sudden rise, but made him even more incomprehensible, and even to this day he has not even figured out who the supreme leader of the copper tiger head is.

But one thing Li Mao can be sure of is that Li Shigu is dissatisfied with Wang Xun, which can be seen from the fact that he no longer calls him a brother after he became a festival envoy, and there is also Wang Xun's bumpy career.

Li Mao's visit to Caozhou this time is naturally not just as simple as returning to his hometown to visit relatives and wishing his father-in-law a birthday, when the case in Dongping County was nearing the end, Li Shigu forwarded him a report letter, reporting that Jiyin County had made Zheng Heye corrupt and perverted the law. Such cases are generally investigated and handled by the Shogunate, and a small case of corruption by the prefectural order seems to be a bit of a fuss for the picket. What's even more strange is that Li Shigu forwarded this report letter in the name of the Jiedu envoy.

Li Mao has not yet understood the mystery, Li Shigu announced that he would be given a fifteen-day vacation to visit relatives in the middle hall, and at this point, Li Mao finally sniffed out something, and the investigation of Zheng Heye was just a pretense, Li Shigu should have meant something else. Who in Caozhou is worthy of his picketer to go out in person?

Liang Chengdong is not qualified, Li Yingtan has just been promoted, and it is impossible, so there is only Wang Xun, Wang Xun has been a regent for nearly a year, and he still can't go up or down, which is a big perverse and a sign of an accident.

Jiyin County ordered Zheng Heye's factional color is not strong, and it is only with his talent and exquisite emotional intelligence that he has a place in the treacherous Caozhou officialdom, and looking at his previous records, Li Mao did not find that he made any fatal mistakes. Li Mao speculated that he was only because he had the most intersections with Wang Xun and Liang Chengdong, with the lowest status and the least energy, and he was the easiest persimmon to pinch. Summing up the experience of handling cases in the past, no matter how strong the fortress is, there will always be its weak points, and if you break it down and gradually go deeper, you can break through the entire fortress, and Zheng Heye is the weakest link in the Caozhou fortress.