After figuring out the reorganization of the crossing team, Jia Runan was no longer in a hurry to tell Zhao Dawei about the business aspects of this overseas trip, but changed to small talk.

After setting up a banquet for Jia Run'an that night, Zhao Dawei and others said goodbye to him and returned to Yuyang City the next day. Jia Run'an continued to stay in Dagu Port, on the one hand, to take a break and relieve the fatigue of half a year's travel. On the other hand, the goods brought back from Goryeo this time were handed over to the branch of the "Datong Commercial Bank" in Dagu Port, and the other party was responsible for the local trade of these goods, so there was no need for Jia Run'an, the head of the Foreign Trade Department, to continue to participate.

After taking care of the goods, Jia Run'an left Dagu Port on the morning of April 241 of the lunar calendar, traveled westward, and arrived at Beiping City three days later, and went straight to Jiedu Mansion to meet Wang Kunjun and several other committee members, as well as Fan Wucheng, the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, and Hong Yan, the actual head of the Finance Department.

For this brother, who just officially joined the team, he went south and eastward non-stop, and traveled thousands of miles in half a year, Wang Kunjun and others also descended to greet each other, and took Jia Run'an into the conference room in the back hall of Jiedu Mansion with a warm welcome ceremony.

After the brothers sat down in the conference room, Wang Kunjun, on behalf of the committee, first highly praised Jia Run'an's tireless work and fearless hardships and dangers to cross the trade trip to Goryeo, believing that it was an ice-breaking trip through the team's overseas trade and a milestone achievement in the development of the team's trade.

In this regard, Jia Run'an was naturally humble, saying that this is his responsibility as the head of the Overseas Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, not to mention that the successful completion of this trip to Goryeo is the result of the joint efforts of everyone, and he will never dare to take credit. After a few more small talks, Jia Run'an began to report to the committee and Fan Wucheng, Hong Yan and others on the details of this trip to Goryeo. Unlike when he talked with Zhao Dawei and others at Dagu Port, which mainly told interesting stories and thrilling journeys at sea, Jia Run'an talked more about business at this time, mainly involving his negotiations with the Cui family in Shandong Province for the purchase of ships, the purchase of goods, and the contact and transactions with local merchants after arriving in Goryeo, and reported in detail the current accounts of the trip and the various goods purchased from Goryeo.

Although Jia Runan is his own brother, he is the so-called "brother, settle accounts". Although the crossing team currently implements the principle of distribution of benefits according to their ability and according to their work, after all, the benefits used for the distribution of the brothers only account for a small part of the actual economic benefits obtained by the crossing team, and most of the others are reserved or reinvested in the name of the common assets of all members of the crossing team. In this way, the success of each investment in the crossing team is actually related to the interests of each team member. As a result, the financial rules and regulations of the crossing team are quite strict, and every expense and investment is treated with great care. As a new member of the team, Jia Run'an also takes a cautious and prudent attitude in this regard, and it is very reasonable to list the relevant accounts one by one.

For Jia Run'an's cautiousness and prudence, the committee, Fan Wucheng, Hong Yan and others were very appreciative, and everyone took a very serious attitude to listen to Jia Run'an's work report and audit the relevant accounts, and worked from the afternoon until the end of the lamp.

After checking an account book with Hong Yan, Wang Kunjun rubbed his somewhat sour eyes, looked at the sky outside the window that was getting dark, and said to everyone: "Okay, that's all for today." Let's take a break, and after a while, we will set up a banquet for the Run'an brothers to catch the wind and wash the dust. ”

When the brothers heard this, they naturally agreed, and stood up one by one, stretching their legs and rubbing their waists, moving their muscles and bones. Wang Kunjun also stood up and did two stretching exercises, and was about to instruct someone to ask the kitchen to prepare a banquet. As a result, before he could call out the word "come", Liang Ziyue hurriedly walked into the conference room with a codex at the door of the room. …,

Seeing Liang Ziyue's serious expression, Wang Kunjun knew that something important must have happened, and hurriedly dismissed the plan to ask someone to prepare a banquet, and asked, "Old twenty-eight, what happened?" ”

Hearing this, Liang Ziyue hurriedly saluted everyone in the room, and handed the codex into Wang Kunjun's hand, saying: "Fifth brother, eldest brother, seventh brother, and eighth brother, I just received an urgent report from the Kaifeng branch of 'Dark Feather', saying that Chai Rong has issued an order to send troops to the Northern Han Dynasty in early next month to carry out the second Northern Expedition. ”

"Chai Rong is going to attack the Northern Han, in this month, how is this possible? Is the message accurate? Wang Kunjun opened the codex and looked at it, and asked in disbelief - no wonder Wang Kunjun was suspicious, it was already summer in the north at this time, not to mention that the hot weather was not conducive to conquest, but this season was the time when the rain was the most in the north, whether it was the march or the transportation of grain and grass would be greatly affected, and it was not a good time to fight at all. Looking at Chai Rong's previous large-scale expeditions, all of them were sent in the first month of the lunar calendar or in February, and there was never a large-scale use of troops until May. Moreover, for such a major matter as the conquest and secession of the regime, the Later Zhou court did not disclose any news to the Beiping army at all, and this matter itself was abnormal, so it was impossible for Wang Kunjun not to ask about the reliability of the source.

"The message can't be wrong." Liang Zi replied very affirmatively, "Because I know that this news is very important, the 'Dark Feather' Kaifeng Branch has been verified in many ways before reporting to the main hall, and through a special channel, Ma Ping'an, the owner of the 'palace room' of the Kaifeng Branch, has been verified, and has received a positive answer from the other party, so this news will never be false." ”

"Then that's not right." Xu Shaoan questioned, "Brothers, I think that Chai Rong's expedition to the Northern Han Dynasty is not only irregular, but also that there are many things that are wrong. Although our brothers were semi-coerced and semi-coerced to let Chai Rong hand over the sixteen states of the Beiping Army to our control, which basically belonged to the form of those feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty, even if we 'didn't listen to the announcement', we still 'listened to the tune'. According to common sense, he Chai Rong wants to attack the Northern Han, and the best plan should be to give our brother a decree, ordering our brother to send troops from the Beiping Army to assist him in attacking the Zhou Forbidden Army together. With the help of our brothers, although the Northern Han Dynasty did not dare to say that it could be done, it was only a matter of ten days and half a month.

But now, he Chai Rong doesn't use such a time-saving, labor-saving, and money-saving method, and it is difficult to give up the easy ones, so he has to rely on himself to destroy the Northern Han Dynasty, which really doesn't make sense. Moreover, not only did he not transfer us to help this time, but he didn't even greet us. If it weren't for the fact that we had enough strong intelligence in Kaifeng, I was afraid that the Zhou army would have come to Taiyuan City, and we would all be kept in the dark. ”

Although Xu Shaoan's words were relatively straightforward, they also had a certain amount of truth, and Chai Rong's behavior this time was indeed unconventional, so even his eldest brother Li Junwu, who has never been much interested in politics and rarely spoke on political topics, nodded in agreement: "What the eighth said is right." As the saying goes, 'if something is unusual, it must be a demon', Chai Rong sent troops in an unsuitable season this time, and he kept it a secret from us, and there is definitely an article in it. ”

"In my opinion, Chai Rong unconventionally sent troops in the summer this time, and blocked the news of the upcoming troops from our side, the purpose of which is probably to surprise us, and to conquer the Northern Han when we are also the small court of the Northern Han Dynasty when it is not suitable for war." Zhang Weixin answered on the side, "In this way, on the one hand, he can take the opportunity to take the Northern Han by surprise, so that the other party does not have time to fully prepare for the battle, and increase the probability of his success in attacking the Northern Han." On the other hand, it is also hoped that our brother will not have time to make the necessary response to his expedition, so as not to give our brother the opportunity to meddle in the Northern Han Dynasty and take the opportunity to expand his own territory.

In the final analysis, it was the strong move of us to speak with strength at the beginning, forcing the Later Zhou Imperial Court to hand over the sixteen states of the Beiping Army to our brothers, which made Chai Rong quite wary of our brothers. He was afraid that our brothers' ambitions would grow bigger and bigger with the complete control of the sixteen states of the Beiping Army, and they began to covet the land of the Northern Han Dynasty, which was adjacent to the Beiping Army. After all, the Northern Han Dynasty and the Later Zhou Dynasty are now enemies who are not sharing the same sky, and as the nominal courtiers of the Later Zhou court, it is only natural for us to send troops to attack the Northern Han Dynasty in the name of opening up the territory and expanding the territory of the imperial court and avenging the invasion of the Northern Han army as soon as Chai Rong ascended the throne. And once the Northern Han Dynasty is destroyed by our brothers, then whether it is Chai Rong or the Later Zhou court, it will be even more difficult to get this piece of fat from our mouths.