On the first day of the ninth month of the seventh year of the calendar, in the No. 1 private room of Tianzi in the "Tianfu Building", Zhang Weixin and Zheng Zhiwei casually flipped through the negotiation outline in their hands, and looked at Liu Yunyan and one of her subordinates sitting opposite them for a long time, waiting for the other party to give an answer to the cooperation conditions proposed by their side.

At this time, Liu Yunyan and her subordinates were angry in their hearts, and the cooperation conditions that Zhang Weixin had just proposed were very harsh. He not only proposed that the "Qingyuan" brothers should occupy eighty percent of the profits of the trading shops and Qinglou restaurants used as cover, which was higher than the limit of seventy percent of the profits that Liu Yunyan could accept, but also proposed to change the original monthly dividend system to annual dividends. This is tantamount to invisibly controlling Liu Yunyan's financial power, which is very unfavorable to the development of the "Feiyantang" Youzhou branch in Liao.

If Liu Yunyan can still tolerate it on the issue of money, after all, most of the funds for these transactions are from the "Qingyuan" brothers, and Liu Yunyan will only symbolically make half of it, which can be regarded as a sign of her sincerity in cooperation - Liu Yunyan actually wants to give more, so as to fight for more right to speak for herself, but she needs to spend more money, and the funds she gets from the main hall are limited, and she can't compare with the "Qingyuan" brothers who have done business all over the world.

Among the conditions that Zhang Weixin put forward next, Liu Yunyan was required to provide detailed information on the personnel arranged by the "Feiyan Tang" in the prefectures and counties of Youdu Prefecture, Liu Yunyan was required to regularly provide the list of new local members developed by the "Feiyan Tang" in various states and counties, and asked to share the various information obtained by the "Feiyan Tang", and so on, which made Liu Yunyan a little unbearable. Because if she did this, it would be tantamount to completely exposing the Youzhou branch of the "Feiyan Hall" to the other party, and in front of the "Qingyuan" brothers, she and her subordinates would no longer have any secrets to speak of—this would be absolutely fatal to a secret spy organization.

However, as the saying goes, "How can a person not be under the low eaves", although Liu Yunyan couldn't bear it anymore at this time, she couldn't do the counterattack that didn't need to be endured. The current situation is just like when she and Zhang Weixin negotiated the cooperation between the two sides for the first time, and she has asked for the "Qingyuan" brothers, and she has not much bargaining chips to use with the other party.

As for the use of strength, it is something that should not be thought about, with Liu Yunyan's understanding of the strength of the "Qingyuan" brothers, she knows very well that the other party, whether it is financial, material or human, is far stronger than the shili she controls. It is said that the one or two hundred spies under his command who are mainly splashing skin and gangsters, even if the officials and soldiers of the Liao State are a little smaller, it is impossible to get a little bargain in front of those guards under the "Qingyuan" brothers. Liu Yunyan believes that as long as the "Qingyuan" brothers want to, then they with official status can use the liliang of the Liao State Government to wipe out the Youzhou branch of the "Feiyan Hall" without much effort.

Therefore, after the initial anger, Liu Yunyan quickly calmed down and began to use the few chips in her hand to bargain with Zhang Weixin. One of the two is aggressive, trying every means to weaken the other's strength and keep it under their control. The other is to take it one step at a time, trying every means to refute the other party's demands, not only to maintain his independence, but also not to make the other party turn his face and make it impossible for the negotiation to continue.

After a fierce exchange of words, and after each side made some compromises and concessions, the two sides finally reached an agreement. On the premise that Liu Yunyan agreed to share information that did not involve the internal secrets of the "Feiyan Tang", Zhang Weixin gave up the request for the other party to provide the information of the existing spies and the list of new local members for future development -- this article seems to have been made by Zhang Weixin as a concession, but since the people of the "Feiyan Tang" need to rely on the various shops opened by the "Qingyuan" brothers as cover, it is not very difficult for the "Qingyuan" brothers to grasp the spies arranged by the other party in each hall, so it is not very important whether there is such a clause or not.

Liu Yunyan's mind could naturally think of this, but the reality of the situation made her have to do something to deceive herself in order to complete the task assigned to her by the main hall as soon as possible. The only thing that gave her some comfort was that, at her insistence, Zhang Weixin finally gave up her request for a list of new local spies for future development. With this foundation, she can use the old team to fool the "Qingyuan" brothers, and at the same time, establish a new team in the states and counties of Youdu Province to find out news for herself and exchange local shili, without worrying about the interference of the "Qingyuan" brothers. ,

The negotiations between Zhang Weixin and Liu Zhiyan lasted three days, and only ended in the evening of the third day of September when the two sides made their own compromises. According to the agreement between the two parties, from the 10th day of September, the trade department of the crossing team began to operate, and a large-scale wave of buying and selling shops and new construction swept the entire Youdu Province, and gradually spread to other state capitals in Nanjing Road.

However, unlike the previous acquisitions or new trading stores, which operate independently, each store is self-contained. In this large-scale shop acquisition and new construction trend, the crossing team used a unified name, or a unified external LOGO for the right to use for the first time - "Datong Commercial Bank". According to Xie Tian, who is in charge of this work, one of the most striking characteristics of the "Datong Commercial Bank" is its large size. This is reflected not only in its name, but also in its scope of business, which covers almost all areas of business, and according to its previous life, "Chase Trading" is a large trading group that invests and operates in all areas it believes will be profitable, in order to bring good profits to itself.

As the shops changed to the banner of "Chase Commercial Bank", batches of shopkeepers and men from the original shops of the crossing team were also sent to various new shops to prepare, so as to operate these shops as soon as possible, so that they could play the role hoped by the crossing team. And among these shopkeepers and guys, some of them are spies from "Dark Feather". In addition to helping other shopkeepers and guys maintain the operation of the new store, these spies also have to find out all kinds of news as much as possible, secretly monitor the various halls of the "Feiyan Hall", and develop new members, so as to prepare for the next big thing to do in the crossing team.

The large-scale acquisition and construction of new shops lasted from mid-September to the spring of the following year, and while the name of "Datong Commercial Bank" was launched, the tentacles of the crossing team were extended to all corners of Youdu Province, and gradually spread to other parts of Nanjing Road, and even appeared in the major cities of Liao such as Xijing Datong Mansion, Tokyo Liaoyang Mansion, Shangjing Linhuang Mansion and other major cities of Liao.

After more than half a year of development and expansion, the strength of "Dark Feather" is no longer the same as before. If it is said that the "dark feather" when it was first established at the beginning of the sixth year of the calendar year, it has neither much strength nor many members, and it can only be regarded as a chick that has just broken out of its shell. Then in the spring of the eighth year of the calendar, the wings of this chick have gradually plumped, the originally weak body has become much stronger, and the attack power has become much more ferocious, and it is fully capable of meeting greater challenges and playing its due role for the crossing team.

Of course, the development of anything cannot be achieved overnight, and secret spy organizations like "Dark Feather" are no exception. While rejoicing in the development and growth of "Dark Feather", as one of its founders and leaders, Liang Ziyue, who is in charge of the team's internal investigation, will also be in a bad mood. The reason for his unhappiness came from the investigation of Fan Wucheng.

From the end of August of the seventh year of the calendar year when he accepted the task and began to lead people to secretly investigate the possible connection between Fan Wucheng and Liu Yunyan, until the end of October of that year, Liang Ziyue and the investigation team led by him and Zheng Zhiwei, who later joined the team to support them, after two full months of open investigation and covert visits, they found almost nothing. Not only did the investigation team not find any signs of abnormal contact between Fan Wucheng and Liu Yunyan or other members of the "Feiyan Hall," but because there had been no progress in the investigation, the members of the investigation team became somewhat impatient and began to act a little recklessly, so that Fan Wucheng was even aware of the investigation work, so much so that in the telegram he sent to the committee, he vaguely revealed his dissatisfaction with this phenomenon.

There was no progress in the investigation, but the parties had been alarmed, which made Liang Ziyue, who was originally full of confidence in the investigation, very depressed. He discussed with Zheng Zhiwei again and again, and after repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, analyzing the pros and cons, and getting Zhang Xiaofei's approval, the two put forward a proposal to the committee to "suspend the investigation and restart it when the time is ripe".

After discussion, the committee accepted the suggestion of Liang and Zheng, decided to suspend all investigations of Fan Wucheng, and Zhang Weixin came forward to conduct necessary communication and exchanges with Fan Wucheng at an appropriate time, so as to reassure him from the side, so as not to cause him to resist and thus affect his own work.

The reason why the committee agreed to Liang and Zheng's proposal to suspend the investigation, and at the same time asked Zhang Weixin to try to appease Fan Wucheng, was that the investigation of Fan Wucheng was based on a series of inferences obtained through Fan Wucheng's abnormal behavior at that time, and there was no real evidence in itself. Now the investigation has reached a dead end, and Fan Wucheng, as a party, is aware of the investigation. If he is not communicated and appeased in a timely manner, then his dissatisfaction with this matter will affect his own work at least, and at worst it may be publicized, thus causing a storm within the crossing team.

On the other hand, whether it is because of the inexperience of the members of the investigation team, or Fan Wucheng is too good at covering it up, or the other party has no problems in this regard at all, since Fan Wucheng has not been found to have any problems after two months of investigation, then according to the theory of "presumption of innocence" in the judicial system in the previous life, Fan Wucheng is now innocent. Since he is innocent, it means that the investigation against him that was launched earlier was wrong, or at least relatively rash. Therefore, appeasing Fan Wucheng can be regarded as an acknowledgment to him that the committee made a mistake in decision-making.