In the old mansion of the Kang family at the headquarters of the Tianyu League.

On the hall sat Li Tianyu, Chen Youliang, Cui Hao and Supreme Bao.

After Li Tianyu and his entourage left the Fengqi Building, Li Tianyu originally wanted to give his advanced clothing design masterpieces such as "stockings" and "cheongsam" to Nakang Yibing. Later, I thought that I had solved the problem of opening a physical store of a banking institution early this morning, so I still called a car and rushed to the gang's headquarters.

"Supreme Treasure, is there any information from Zhao Tianba?" Li Tianyu remembered that he had sent Zhao Tianba to track down the thieves of the Salt Gang before, so he hurriedly asked about it.

"Back to the leader, he has not yet returned, but according to a brother who went with the military advisor before, the thief went around the city for half a circle, and only in the evening did he get into a carriage and go straight to the canal east of the city." The Supreme Treasure reported 1510.

"Did that person go to find the contact surnamed Ge?" After Li Tianyu heard this, he frowned slightly and asked.

"Nope. When the thief reached the canal, it was nightfall, and then the thief got into a small boat and went east. The Supreme Treasure replied.

"It seems that I still underestimate that 'Wu Dalang'. It is estimated that he circled around the city because he recognized that we would send someone to follow him, and when he went to the canal at night to see that the situation was wrong, he knew that the surname Ge was no longer reliable, so he took advantage of the night to take a boat directly back to their salt gang headquarters. What about the Celestial Tyrant? Did Tianba continue to keep up? Li Tianyu said while thinking about it.

When he returned to the leader, the military advisor ordered the brother to come back and report the situation, and he also found another boatman and quietly followed him. He also sent the brother back with a letter and gave it to the helper. With that, the Supreme Treasure took out an envelope from his arms and presented it to Li Tianyu.

Li Tianyu took the envelope and took out the letter paper inside to look at it, but saw twelve words written on it: "Don't worry about following the thief, report the letter at that time." The handwriting was very sloppy, and it must have been written in a hurry, but it was not written with pen and ink, but with blood.

Li Tianyu sighed after reading it, then handed the letter to Chen Youliang, who was sitting on the side, and then opened his mouth and said:

"Tianba is really a talent! I don't forget to take my letterhead with me when I go out, and I am really a qualified military advisor. I just don't know if his letterhead would have been used for other purposes in the first place. Tomorrow, Supreme Treasure, you will personally lead a few brothers to the pawnshop in Nafulong, where I have already told the shopkeeper. You just have to go over and take over, and you can buy whatever you need to buy, and as for the specific matters, you will follow the arrangement of the treasurer. You must tell him that I am going to open a money bank -- the Datang People's Bank. ”

"Yes, helper, the little one obeys." The Supreme Treasure answered.

"Alright, you go down first. In the past few days, I also remember to send a few clever brothers to keep an eye on the one surnamed Ge. Li Tianyu waved his hand.

"Yes, helper, the little one will retire." The Supreme Treasure arched his fist and then retreated.

"Tianyu, are you worried that Zhao Tianba will betray us?" Chen Youliang saw that there was no one now, so he asked softly. And at this moment, the blood letter is being held by Cui Hao in his hand.

"Betrayed. Not really. After all, we don't have much value to sell at the moment. It's just that I appreciate and worry about talents like Zhao Tianba. Li Tianyu picked up the tea bowl and took a sip and said slowly.

At the same time, Hailing County, Jiangsu Province (present-day Taizhou).

Zhao Tianba came out of the gang yesterday, and has been quietly following the Salt Gang thieves who were captured by the gang and then released. Fearing that he would be discovered by the other party, he kept a long distance from the Salt Gang thieves, just enough distance for him to distinguish the vague figure in front of him.

Just a moment ago, Zhao Tianba saw that the thief had entered a certain mansion on the outskirts of the city, so he quietly stepped forward, and after seeing the door plaque of the house, he immediately left quietly.

"I didn't expect that this salt gang's nest is no less than the headquarters of our Tianyu Alliance. There are not many such big mansions in the entire Hailing County. For now, let's go find an inn to make a point, but fortunately, when I came out, I still had the silver tickets that the previous helper gave me. Zhao Tianba muttered to himself.

"What? The gang leader is not in Hailing County? Did the gang leader go to Yancheng County? In the hall of the courtyard, the "Wu Dalang", who had just escaped from Yangzhou County, the headquarters of the Tianyu League, slapped the table with some resentment, ignoring the tea on the plane and the snacks piled up on the plates that were almost shocked to the table.

"Back to the helm master, the helper went to Suzhou with the previous Hu man John the day before yesterday." But I saw a little brother of the Salt Gang answer with some trepidation.

"Suzhou? Is there our business over there now? But seeing that "Wu Dalang" instantly calmed down his anger and asked calmly.

It is said that the land in Suzhou has long been a piece of fat in his eyes, and it can be said that the best in the entire Jiangsu market belongs to Jinling, Yangzhou and Suzhou. It's a pity that the business in the gang has only taken off with the help of outsiders in the past two years, otherwise, the business of the salt road would have been done in Suzhou. It's no wonder, after all, the gang leader still mainly relied on the tea business as the mainstay, and Yandao has always been in a state of unpopular operation. It was also thanks to the help of outsiders that two improved ships were sent to the gang, which made the salt transportation business soar. When he left the gang headquarters to go to Yangzhou to take up his post, he also mentioned to the gang leader to expand his business to Suzhou as soon as possible.

"Well, the small one isn't very clear. I had occasionally heard the gang leader say to the John boy that the government in Suzhou was very strict, and it happened that the John boy was also going to buy some silk ribbons back in the past few days, so the gang leader took a few brothers and set up five carriages to go to Suzhou with the John boy. The little brother of the Salt Gang saw that the helmsman in front of him had been looking bad after he came back, so he ignored the conversation of the gang leader that he overheard by chance, and said a respectful word.

"Did you say when you were going to return to the helm?" But seeing "Wu Dalang" after hearing this, he sat down and sighed slightly.

"This, the helper has not explained, only said that he will go out for a few days and go to Suzhou to do something. What the little one said before, please ask the helmsman to ...... for the little one," the little brother of the Salt Gang said cautiously.

"Alright, I see, you go down." But seeing that the little brother of the Salt Gang hadn't finished speaking, "Wu Dalang" waved his hand impatiently.

"Yes, helmsman." Seeing this, the little brother of the Salt Gang had no choice but to hug his fists at the helmsman, turn around and leave.

After the little brother left completely, the Yangzhou helmsman of the Salt Gang sighed again. Then he closed his eyes and leaned back to the back of the chair, remembering the previous operation in the Salt Gang, only to feel that he had put on a limited agent and at the same time had bad luck, because of the appearance of a dog, the operation was defeated. It's really annoying and unwilling. However, the other party's headquarters was open in the middle of the night to confuse the military situation, and I have to say that the other party was bold but also accurate, and forced himself to bump into it. The one they called "Strategist" was obviously not a simple character. Not to mention their helper, that calm and unhurried bearing alone is far superior to that Ge Gongzi. At present, if you want to keep the foundation in Yangzhou, you can only wait for the helper to come back and then make plans.

On the other side, Zhao Tianba had already found a nearby inn to eat something to rest for a while, and indeed he was a little hungry and sleepy after seven or eight hours of tossing and turning. It's just that when I think of the Salt Gang mansion I saw before, I still can't help but sigh a little, no wonder the power of this Salt Gang can spread all over Yangzhou. When he left Black Wind Village to join the Tianyu Alliance, he was already deeply shocked by the headquarters mansion, and he was even more embarrassed when he heard that the mansion was originally the old mansion of the wealthy businessman Kang family in Jiangsu, and at the same time, he also strengthened his belief that the future of the gang leader was immeasurable. In addition to the fact that the headquarters of this Salt Gang is no less than that of the Tianyu League, what is intriguing is that this house clearly looks like a new house, at most it will be almost half a year, and it is very likely that the Salt Gang has chosen a place to purchase the mansion that has appeared. In this way, the strength of this salt gang is indeed not to be underestimated, at least this kind of wealth, I still can't compare to them. But what was written on their gatehouse? It turned out that Zhao Tianba saw the three big characters "Divide the Moon" written on the door plaque at the door of the Salt Gang headquarters before. And although the gatehouse of the headquarters of the Feather League did not have the name of "Tianyu League" written on it, it was replaced by the words "Home and Everything". It is said that the gang leader originally wanted to hang the name of the gang, but later considered that it was a dove occupying the magpie's nest after all, and the gang was not easy to be too ostentatious in the initial stage, so in the end it was replaced with a door plaque like "Home and Everything".

A penny month? What does that mean exactly? If it is a code name, but their rudder in Yangzhou is not the so-called "Erfenyue", but the house of the Ge family with the surname. The more Zhao Tianba thought about it, the more he couldn't touch the doorway, and he even forgot to eat the meal he had just picked up in his hand.

"Shopkeeper!"

"What do you command?"

Zhao Tianba tried his best to no avail, so he was ready to ask the shopkeeper in the store about one or two. At the moment, it is only three o'clock in the morning, and there are not many guests in this inn, and the real peak time is still at noon, so it is convenient to talk. The shopkeeper looked like a businessman, but he was also very talkative, maybe it was also for his own amusement.

"I'll ask you about something. Come, and please sit down with the shopkeeper. With that, Zhao Tianba pulled out the chair on the other side of the square table and invited it.

The shopkeeper did not refuse, picked up a flask and two glasses from the counter and sat down. Immediately poured a glass of sake for Zhao Tianba and sent it to his eyes, and then poured a glass for himself.

"The official is polite. The little ones can help you, just ask. With that, he took his glass and drank it all.

"The treasurer is a man of temperament. To tell the truth, in Xia Xie Wendong, a native of Yangzhou, his family is the ship's operator. This time I came to Hailing County to visit the merchants of Huaishui River Transport in your county. I don't know which one in Hailing County has done the most in terms of boat operators? Zhao Tianba said as he picked up the wine jug and personally poured a new glass for the shopkeeper. It's just that this nonsense that seems to be true and false is also clear-sighted, just like the one when I first met the gang leader that day. If you want to win the trust of others, you must first win the trust of yourself, otherwise no one will talk to you in a deep way, he still knows this.

"It turned out to be Gongzi Xie. To tell you the truth, the boat operators here in Hailing County were all doing it before, the Zhang family, the Wang family, the Zhao family and everything else, and the routes they took were also miscellaneous. After all, our small county is by no means comparable to Jinling and Yangzhou. ”

"And now? I had heard from my elders at home that the recent situation in Hailing County was like a bamboo. I vaguely heard that it seems that he also made the way to transport the salt. Zhao Tianba didn't seem to be in a hurry, and seemed to say it casually. Because he also knows very well that if he wants to get more news from the living, the most clever thing is to participate in the small talk with him and dispel the other party's guard, rather than not revealing anything himself. After all, the world is dangerous, and there are occasional precedents that are not ancient in the hearts of the people, and at least they will be truthful and involved in disputes, or they will be detained for "arguing about the government and politics" and imprisoned. It is also thanks to the rule of political open-mindedness and open-mindedness, otherwise if it is like the Qin Dynasty, such strange talk is extremely rare.

"It's exactly as Gongzi Xie said. Since the beginning of spring this year, the shipping in Hailing County seems to have been integrated, and there are many more big ships out of thin air. In the past, most of our cargo ships in Hailing County could only carry seven or eight thousand stones, and the most was only eight or nine thousand stones, as the so-called 'water does not carry ten thousand'. However, the large ships that entered the water in March after the beginning of spring could carry the weight of tens of thousands of stones, and the scale of the ships was much larger than that of ordinary ships. ”

"Oh? Did the ship ever have an official mark on it? This kind of ship is nothing in my Yangzhou, so the Qin family also has a few big ships with tens of thousands of stones, but it is not necessarily the official family. Zhao Tianba also took a sip of his wine glass.

"I don't know about this. However, there is a grapevine that those ships came from Yancheng County to the south, and some ships often travel between Yancheng County and Hailing County on weekdays, and most of the rest go to Jinling and Yangzhou. I heard that two months ago, some people saw a ship larger than this one drifting eastward from Yancheng. The mark on the ship seems to be a flag with the word 'rice' written on it, and I don't know if it is an official ship. ”

"Yancheng? That's far enough. If you need it urgently, it would be more convenient to take a donkey cart directly. Zhao Tianba narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he had caught something.

"Yes, if you don't say that those ships carry tens of thousands of stones. Moreover, I heard that most of the ships returning from Jinling were filled with tea, and some were filled with porcelain bottles and cloth. ”

"Although this Yancheng doesn't produce much tea, and it is far away from Jinling, there is no need to transport so much tea at once. Now there should be semicolon tea estates in all parts of Jiangsu, and the daily reserves should be enough to meet the needs of weekdays. Zhao Tianba only felt that the clue he had caught before seemed to be a little clear, but he was still in an uncertain position at the moment.

"This little old man doesn't know. After all, these are just hearsay from the little old man, Xie Gongzi, it doesn't hurt to listen to it, don't care about it, so as not to miss your own livelihood. But seeing that the shopkeeper was also a delicate person, he was embarrassed to dissociate himself directly, but spoke for Zhao Tianba to help him draw a clear line.

"This is natural. Now that I have come to Hailing County, I must still visit and inspect it in person. The shopkeeper, you have a wide range of acquaintances in Hailing County, I don't know if you have ever heard of the name 'Yifenyue'? ”