A bowl of millet porridge, a small dish of fried brown sea loach, a small dish of green and turquoise kelp shreds mixed with sesame oil, sprinkled with a little chopped green onion, the aroma will come to the nose. This is the breakfast of the head of the Zhou family in Bozhou.

In the early years, he braved the wind and waves at sea, fell into stomach disease, and no longer went into the water when he was old, Zhou Shuguang paid special attention to his health, and the meals changed every day, but a bowl of millet porridge made by simmering fire was not easy for ten thousand years.

In Bozhou, whether it is outsiders who have nothing to do with the Zhou family, or some small families attached to the Zhou family, or some peripheral personnel of the Zhou family, the current Zhou family is already in turmoil.

The Zhou family is an out-and-out wealthy family in the Great Qi, although it has been inherited for thousands of years compared to the other Zhou family and the Wu family, but the Zhou family, which arose in the Tang Dynasty, is still a wealthy family with great influence in the Qi State. Unlike other big families who desperately infiltrated the Great Qi dynasty, the Zhou family was focused on the sea. If you talk about the rich, in Daqi, they can be said to be incomparable, but when it comes to influence above national politics, they are a lot worse.

This also led to Cao Tiancheng's determination to attack the wealthy family, and a wealthy family like the Zhou family, but lacking political influence, bore the brunt of it.

The first step is to find various reasons to extort money from the Zhou family.

The Zhou family behaved very well, as long as the emperor opened his mouth, he would immediately serve it. You even have to add a little bit or two. After a long time, even Cao Tiancheng was embarrassed, although he also wanted to catch this fat sheep and pick up as much wool as possible, but he always had to take into account the reactions of other wealthy families, the so-called cold lips and teeth, Zhou himself has not complained, between the government and the opposition, there are already discussions, Cao Tiancheng has to stop a little.

Stopping doesn't mean that you won't do it, and the new county guard will come to Bozhou, and the task of the new county guard to Bozhou is to continue to gather wool, of course, the means should be more gentle and hidden.

However, Zhou's wealth was obviously beyond Cao Tiancheng's expectations, even if he was so vigorous in wool, Zhou's was still alive.

After capturing the six eastern counties of Chu State, in order to seize Jinghu Lake and deal with the naval army of Jinghu, Cao Tiancheng issued an order and asked Zhou's main water force to go to Jinghu to fight.

It is not that people who are extremely strong at sea can adapt to the combat environment there when they arrive at the inland river, on the contrary, sailors who are accustomed to the endless sea will have more difficulty adapting to the Jinghu area, where the tributaries are like a lost array.

Cao Tiancheng's purpose is very clear, to further consume the power of the Zhou family.

The State of Qi did not pay attention to the sailor for a long time, and when Cao Tiancheng wanted to clean up the Zhou clan, the investigation report of the ghost made Cao Tiancheng startled, if the Great Qi sailor and the Zhou pirates started a war at sea, the Great Qi sailor would definitely be defeated.

Since this is the case, it is natural to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, you don't have many warships, can sailors fight? Then go to Jinghu to fight with the people of Chu, and when your people are almost finished, then won't those warships of yours also be able to pocket them in a grand manner?

The course of things was unexpectedly smooth, Zhou's sailors were defeated in the contest with Chu Guoning Zhiwen, thousands of elites were gone, and the defeat of the sailors also made Zhou Jiyun's troops in the Jinghu Theater divided into pieces by Bian Wushuang, and finally tens of thousands of Qi troops were wiped out in the Jinghu Theater.

Cao Tiancheng is very happy!

Cao Tiancheng's sailor elite is finished. Zhou Jiyun suffered a big defeat, the power of the wealthy family suffered an unprecedented major blow in the six counties in the east of Chu State, and the tens of thousands of Qi troops on the left and right were the pawns of those wealthy families, and they were defeated when they died, Cao Tiancheng was not a pity at all.

It's just right to die, and the vacant number of soldiers, the court can recruit new soldiers, of course, the recruited recruits have nothing to do with the wealthy family.

The happy Cao Tiancheng simply wanted to send a pennant to Bian Wushuang Ning Zhiwen to thank them for their great contribution to the reform of internal affairs in Daqi and the eradication of the cancer of wealthy families.

The battle was fought in the six eastern counties of the Chu State, and the soldiers and horses controlled by the wealthy families died, did it have an impact on Daqi?

Of course, there is still a little, at least the reputation is not very good, ordinary people naturally can't tell the door here, only know that we have lost the battle again, well, we need to find a scapegoat to carry this pot, Ping Yi is angry, Zhou Jiyun can't move, he still has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and there is a more powerful family support behind him, the Bozhou Zhou family, who is rich and has no sailor soldiers and horses as the backing, will naturally be taken to the felt board to chop a chop.

Cao Tiancheng is also very curious, how many family backgrounds does this great pirate family, which has been rampant in Daqi for more than a hundred years, have been rectified by themselves like this, and they have not gone bankrupt?

He is looking forward to the results of this harvest.

Bozhou people know that Bozhou is about to change. The Zhou family naturally knew that Zhou Shuguang knew better, but to everyone's great surprise, the head of the Zhou family seemed to have accepted his fate, and after fleeing back from the six eastern counties of the Chu State, he had been cowering in his deep mansion compound, not showing up at all, and not doing anything, as if waiting for the emperor to cut the last knife with a click.

In such a situation, naturally those people who are attached to the Zhou family in Bozhou panicked, and after not getting the exact news of the Zhou family, and the wind is getting more and more wrong, naturally many people choose to stand aside, of course, on the side of the emperor.

The Zhou family themselves gave up, and of course they had no reason to insist.

There are those who give up, and there are naturally those who persevere. And those who insist, most of them follow the Zhou family to drift on the sea, fighting, more or less know some of the Zhou family's strength at sea, and most of the defectors are the kind of people who cling to the Zhou family to be able to take the Zhou family's clipper in order to harvest more wealth.

Generally speaking, the power of the imperial court has become a kind of dark cloud covering the top in Bozhou, and the Zhou family has retreated again and again, and there is no way to retreat.

The emperor's knife is finally coming down.

When Hu Bugui walked into the house, Zhou Shuguang just ate a bowl of millet porridge, and the head of the dignified family, who was worth a lot of money, actually stuck out his tongue and licked the remaining porridge in the bowl clean.

"Are you finally going to do it?" Putting the bowl down, Zhou Shuguang looked at Hu Bugui with a smile and asked.

Hu Bugui, who was dressed as a housekeeper, nodded, "Xiang Lian has returned to Bozhou City from Chang'an last night, and he and Hu Jian, the county guard of Bozhou, summoned Huang Lian, the general of the Bozhou garrison, and a number of important ministers of Bozhou overnight, of course they are going to do it."

Zhou Shuguang laughed, stood up, personally served a bowl of millet porridge to Hu Bugui, and handed it to him, "The sea loach that was picked up in the morning, and the kelp silk made from the kelp that was fished up, are fresh, taste it."

Hu Bugui smiled and sat down to eat.

His identity is indeed the chief butler of the Zhou family, but the status of this chief butler in the Zhou family is extraordinary, he is Zhou Shuguang's sons, and when he sees him, he has to respectfully call Uncle Hu. When Zhou's is when, he can be half. However, everyone only thought that he had won Zhou Shuguang's trust because he followed Zhou Shuguang to the sea many times in his early years and saved Zhou Shuguang's life several times, but no one knew that this great butler was still a martial arts cultivator.

"Cao Bin's sailor has already left the port yesterday. The reason is a drill, but their real goal is our Peach Blossom Island. Now, I guess I'm about to see Peach Blossom Island." While eating porridge, Hu Bugui said vaguely.

"The cooperation is very tacit, both sides work together, and we don't have a chance to escape!" Zhou Shuguang sneered.

"They'll be surprised." Hu Bugui put the empty bowl on the table, took another piece of burnt sea loach and threw it into his mouth, chewing it so loudly, "There are many ships, and there are more soldiers."

"They have a crush on our shipyard and the craftsmen there." Zhou Shuguang said: "The sailors of the Ming Dynasty are rising rapidly, and they have become the number one force on the sea, Cao Tiancheng will not be unaware, so he wants to destroy us, and take our ships, shipyards, and technicians together to build a fleet that can compete with the Ming people."

"If he had already had this idea, and reused the Zhou clan instead of thinking about stripping us naked, he wouldn't have succeeded." Hu Bugui said with a smile.

Zhou Shuguang shook his head lightly: "It's late. The power of the Ming people on the sea has long become the climate, which is one of the reasons why I made up my mind to follow the Ming people, the Ming Emperor is good at using people, daring to use people, and attaches great importance to the ocean, which Cao Tiancheng can not compare to no matter what, there is such an emperor who attaches importance to the sea, it is the gospel of a family like ours. The Ning clan has already taken the lead, and if the Zhou clan doesn't keep up, there will be no more Zhou's name on the sea in the future. Bao Zhen saw this very clearly."

Hu Bugui nodded: "After this battle, one of the most powerful sea ships in the Qi country will be wiped out, and I think it will shake the Qi country."

"It's not just a shock, in the future, the thousands of miles of sea frontiers of Qi will be full of Zhou's landing grounds, Cao Tiancheng wants to plot my head, and I will let his country and mountains shake." Zhou Shuguang is arrogant and dry.

Hurried footsteps sounded outside the courtyard, and a family member strode in, waved his hands, and said, "Master of the house, they have arrived."

Zhou Shuguang nodded, "Go, open the door, don't block it, let them come in directly."

"Yes!" The family immediately turned and left.

A moment later, rumbling footsteps came from outside, through the door of the lobby, the two of them sneered at the rows of soldiers rushing in, the first person was Hu Jian, the head of the body, it was the Bozhou Shou Hu Jian, and beside him, on the side was the ghost deputy commander Xiang Lian, and behind them, the general of the Bozhou garrison, Huang Ling, pressed his waist knife in his hand, and followed the two of them into the hall with a smile.