Liu Ye knows more about Zheng Bao's affairs.

After all, they are locals, and there are more or less rumors that spread to the local area.

When Liu Ye briefly told Yuan Yao about Zheng Bao, Yuan Yao nodded calmly.

Sure enough, similar to the information he controlled, the biggest difference between Zheng Bao and other water thieves is that this person knows the trade-offs, and there is no way to go to the dark.

Although he understands that it is easy to make money by relying on mountain bandits, he also knows the dangers involved, so he still has to have a suitable identity on the surface.

In this way, it will not attract the attention of the imperial court, and at the same time, it will be able to establish a good relationship with the officials in the county, and it will be able to learn about the news from the surrounding area as soon as possible and report to the water thieves.

Zheng Bao let his two righteous brothers gather water in Chaohu Lake and the Yangtze River respectively, so as to facilitate the plundering of merchants and cultivate their own power at the same time.

Zheng Bao himself, on the other hand, is in Chengde County, receiving customers and making friends with the township, on the one hand, he is kind and benevolent, cultivating his own fame, and on the other hand, he is good at communicating, and has made many celebrities and nobles.

The imperial court sent soldiers and horses several times before, wanting to exterminate the water thieves, but often in vain, one is that Zheng Bao has already learned the news through his own channels, and sent people and horses to Zhang Duo in advance, Xu Gan ventilated the news, so that they could prepare to evacuate in advance, and when the court went, it was already empty.

As soon as the people and horses of the court surrounded and suppressed the water thieves left, those water thieves suddenly appeared again, and so repeatedly, the court was also powerless, so it naturally ignored these water thieves.

And those water thieves rarely disturb the people, but only do something to those businessmen who come and go, and the status of businessmen in the society is not high, and they can only admit it if they suffer a dumb loss.

Or, he begged the government, but the government couldn't help these water thieves at all, and it had no effect, but let Zheng Bao learn the news through the channel, and directly ordered the water thieves to take people to find the trouble of those merchants.

After such a thing came a few times, those merchants not only did not dare to report to the officials, but would also join hands with these water thieves and directly pay a certain amount of protection money to the water thieves, so that their merchant ships could cross this water area safely.

The water thieves are naturally happy to do this, and the filial piety they get every year is no less than millions, feeding many thieves.

Because of this, Zheng Bao and his two younger brothers were able to grow rapidly in just a few years.

"This Zheng Bao is extremely cautious, if he sends troops to exterminate this person directly, just killing a Zheng Bao will not have much effect, and there are Zhang Duo, Xu Gan and other water thief forces, which are still rampant."

"If you want to directly suppress Zheng Bao, if you want to serve it in one pot, you need to pull out these water thief strongholds at the same time and eliminate them together, but in this case, you will need more manpower."

Yuan Yao thought about it for a while, and if he wanted to directly destroy Zheng Bao, it was quite difficult.

Unlike Chen Ce, this Zheng Bao is obviously more difficult.

If it wasn't necessary, Yuan Yao obviously didn't want to directly use force to solve Zheng Bao.

"Don't worry about these for now, Ziyi, send me a prayer post, let's go to Zhengjiabao and meet this Zheng Bao."

If Yuan Yao doesn't plan to use force directly, then go and talk to Zheng Bao to see what kind of attitude the other party has, and then decide what to do next.

He and Zheng Bao have no friendship, and if he goes rashly, the other party may not sit down with him to talk.

Send a greeting post to the other party, so that the other party knows his intention. It is not after targeting him that the other party is likely to receive him.

Tai Shici quickly wrote a post according to Yuan Yao's words, and sent someone to send it to Zheng Bao.

On the second day, Yuan Yao will bring someone to visit in person.

The next day, Yuan Yao arrived at Zhengjiabao as promised.

Because Yuan Yao had already been to the dock fort of Mijia in Xuzhou before, so after coming to Zhengjiabao and seeing the huge and magnificent Zhengjiabao, he was not so frightened.

Judging from the area alone, the Zheng family's dock fort should not be inferior to the Mijia dock fort that Yuan Yao saw in Xuzhou.

What is a little different is that a large number of houses and buildings in the Mi family's dock fort may be stored with the goods operated by the Mi family, as well as some belongings accumulated over the years.

And this Zhengjiabao, there are fewer houses inside, but there are more, similar to the open space of the martial arts field.

On the castle tower outside, there are also a few more arrow towers, which seem to be more heavily guarded.

If it is attacked from the outside, it will be difficult to take down the walls of this dock fort with such a strong wall.

It's like a small town, and it doesn't take 10 days and half a month, and it is estimated that even the tower of this dock fort may not be broken.

As long as the people inside have enough water and food, it will not be a problem to hold on for half a year.

Before Yuan Yao could bring someone forward and knock on the door.

The people inside opened the main gate of the dock fort directly, followed by a middle-aged man who looked to be about 40 years old.

He led a large group of people out of the dock fort.

The middle-aged man glanced outside, and soon his eyes fell on Yuan Yao's body.

"Xiaomin Zheng Bao, I don't know that my son came from afar, and he is so neglectful, and he hopes to forgive his sins."

Although Yuan Yao didn't bring many people this time, only brought a few dozen guards, counting Tai Shici and Liu Ye, Yuan Yao's luxurious clothes and the temperament of a handsome son can still make Zheng Bao recognize at a glance that Yuan Yao is the master of this trip.

In addition, yesterday Yuan Yao had asked Tai Shici to send a letter of worship to indicate his identity, Zheng Bao had already understood that Yuan Yao was Yuan Shu's eldest son, although he was a abolished prince, but in the past month, Yuan Yao's name has been completely spread in the Huainan area.

Chengde County is not far from Shouchun, and the news will naturally not be closed, not to mention that Zheng Bao himself is sensitive to these news.

What made Zheng Bao even more shocked was that Yuan Yao was the one who eliminated Chen Ce a few months ago, which made Zheng Bao like a great enemy, and he didn't dare to slack off.

For a while, Zheng Bao couldn't grasp the intention of Yuan Yao's sudden visit, so he could only receive Yuan Yao first.

In order to show his respect for this meeting, Zheng Bao also deliberately asked most of the people with heads and faces in the entire castle to attend.

That's why there is such a grand pomp.

A group of dozens of people stood behind Zheng Bao and saluted Yuan Yao, a young man, respectfully.

Yuan Yao dismounted, then glanced at Zheng Bao, and then smiled.

"Uncle Zheng doesn't need to be polite, he suddenly came to visit, there is a lot of trouble, it should be Yuan Yao and I feel a little guilty."

This time, Yuan Yao bought Zheng Bao because he didn't use the sword, so he still had to show an amiable and courteous corporal.

Yuan Yao's behavior really flattered Zheng Bao, especially when Yuan Yao called him by his name, he didn't call him by his name, but called him Uncle Zheng, which made Zheng Bao a little surprised.