Zhou Pu was extremely annoyed now, you must know that the Zhongzi battalion had lost nearly two thousand people so far, and there were still too many losses in Jinfeng Town at that time, all of which were killed by those assassin killers here on the edge of the Yunjiang River, so now he must hold these merchant ships accountable one by one.

Among them, the most critical is of course Luo Ding'an, when Luo Ding'an appeared from the beginning, Zhou Pu felt that he had a problem, why did a merchant ship suddenly appear on the edge of the Yunjiang River and block the way of the grain army?

This was clearly deliberately arranged in advance.

The timing was too coincidental.

And the reason why the Zhongzi battalion was caught off guard by those at this moment was actually a big reason that Zhou Pu and Li Mu were worried that these merchant ships on the Yunjiang River would pose a threat to them, so they set up the formation in the direction of the Yunjiang River.

Who knows, those killers will come from behind to sneak attack, which makes the defense of the Zhongzi battalion a little confused, resulting in heavy losses.

Zhou Pu said to the white-haired old man headed by him:

"Sir, how many merchant ships are there?"

The white-haired old man immediately knew Zhou Pu's intentions, and arched his hand and said: "If you go back to your lordship, there are a total of sixteen merchant ships, and each merchant ship has a total of 35 people from the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, a total of 525 people, all of them have been gathered here, waiting for the dispatch of the lord and the generals. ”

This old man's desire to survive was instantly full, he knew that this matter was already very serious, and after Luo Ding'an disappeared, he knew that if he did not fully cooperate with these officials and soldiers, it was likely to lead to the extermination of the entire Jiangnanjiu.

This is not a joke, if the Jiangnan Wine Party includes the workers of those wineries, there are tens of thousands of people.

The white-haired old man in the institute will be so submissive.

Zhou Pu nodded: "Are you sure there is no one on the ship?" ”

"I didn't ...... No, the old decay has been checked many times, and even the boatman who drove the boat has been called down. ”

Looking at the more than 500 people kneeling on the ground, Zhou Pu asked again:

"Is there any weapon, gunpowder, oil or anything like that?"

Zhou Pu asked this, and directly scared the white-haired old man half to death.

He said hesitantly: "There are no weapons and gunpowder, and the merchant ships of our Jiangnan Drinking Party have always been without weapons, because now our Liang Dynasty pays attention to water transportation, and there are Cantonese troops escorting us along the way, so we dare not bring weapons and gunpowder privately." ”

These two exclusions, what does that mean?

Zhou Pu frowned: "What about the oil oil?" ”

The oil does not seem to be much dangerous, but in fact, if it is used reasonably, it can burst into a very powerful battlefield advantage.

Especially on the surface of the river, if you pour oil and light it, it will burn violently on the river.

The old man said hesitantly: "Before we set off from Jiangnan, President Luo urgently purchased fire oil in Jiangnan, and we had two merchant ships in the cabin, not full of wine, but fire oil. Forehead...... The old man also asked President Luo why he needed the oil oil, and he said that he had received an order from the north, and they bought the oil at a high price on the battlefield. Forehead...... Since the approval documents for the purchase of this batch of oil are very complete, and the officials and soldiers of the waterway have also inspected it many times, there are no too many concerns. ”

The old man thinks about it carefully now, maybe Luo Ding'an has some purpose for this matter. Because of the oil thing, even if it is needed on the battlefield in the north, there will be officers and soldiers of the imperial court who use official ships to transport it, because merchant ships transport oil privately, although it is not non-compliant, but it is rarely operated in this way.

Unless, what does Luo Dingan want to use this thing to burn?

Sure enough, Youruo and Li Mu also looked at each other, feeling that fortunately Zhou Pu was delicate and asked about this thing, otherwise if the boat sailed to the surface of the Yunjiang River later, it would be burned by the fire oil, and all the grain and grass on the ship would suffer.

Zhou Pu doesn't care about the life or death of this Luo Ding'an now, and doesn't care what these oil oil is used for, he only has one idea now, that is, to dispose of all these oil oils.

He said, "Sir, are there any spirits on board?" ”

The white-haired old man shook his head and said: "There is no liquor, our chamber of commerce is the first boat, all the wine has been transported to the destination, originally I was going to go back to Jiangnan today, this is not too late to catch up with the sky, so I rested at the Yunjiang ferry for one night." ”

After the white-haired old man finished speaking, he instantly lowered his head to the look in Zhou Pu's eyes, and did not dare to speak again.

All this is too much of a coincidence, you know, Yunjiang is hundreds of miles away here, why did it stop at the location where the grain army crossed the river? And now there is so much fire oil on board.

Hey, I can't wash it by jumping into the Yellow River.

The old man is not a fool, he probably thought about it in series, and he knew that Luo Dingan must have some bad intentions in his calculations.

Are these killers related to Luo Ding'an?

Why are there traces of a fight in Luo Dingan's cabin, and why are more than a dozen people dying inside?

Why was Luo Ding'an thrown his body on the river?

Also, are these fire oils really sold to the Northern Battlefield?

Or is this fire oil just a thing that Luo Ding'an used to prevent the grain army from crossing the river?

All things are connected in series, and the old man is really chilling in his back.

But there was one thing he really couldn't figure out.

What is Luo Ding'an's identity?

He is the boss of the Jiangnan Cocktail Party, and his status in the entire Jiangnan business community is second only to Cheng Kuanyu, the chairman of Jiangnan Salt Affairs.

You must know that wine, salt, tea, and iron, these four things, whether it is in the past dynasties, are very important.

Because he involves things about the national economy and people's livelihood.

So Luo Ding'an's status in the Jiangnan business community is very important, to be honest, the official attitude towards him is also very friendly, whenever there is a meeting, he is allowed to participate, and they are all guests.

attaches so much importance to it, plus Luo Ding'an's money is also very strong, and his strength in Jiangnan is not to mention.

But such a person, why should he be an enemy of the official army?

On the edge of this Yunjiang River, a killer in a hurry came to grab the supplies of the imperial court?

Oh my God, where is this something that an important member of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce can do.

To put it mildly, this is simply a matter of robbing bandits.

Thinking of this, the old man's face was as black as pig's liver, and he had no choice but to wait until the next time he had the opportunity to see Luo Ding'an, and then ask carefully.

Of course, this premise is that he is still alive.

Tonight he was seen being thrown from the boat onto the river.

The thing he is most worried about now is whether this incident will make Jiangnan Wine completely destroyed?

This possibility is not impossible, you must know that the imperial court has no room for tolerance in this kind of thing, the grain army is related to the victory or defeat of the war in the north, the empress has always attached great importance to anything related to military affairs, once this matter is spread, the future days of the Jiangnan Cocktail Party must be very sad.

Thinking of this, a trace of worry also appeared on the old man's face.

Zhou Pu said: "Old man, now you have to do two things. The first thing is to let all of you take all the oil from the two ships and move them to where they are, and knock down the open space in the back mountain, and then separate a fire zone and burn all the oil. ”

Zhou Pu felt that he couldn't take this risk and let the ship put so much fire oil, in case something happened, he couldn't afford it, this was related to the survival of the entire Zhongzi Battalion, and whether their supplies could be successfully escorted to Dongrin City.

Therefore, it is better to cause a certain amount of waste than to bury hidden dangers.

The white-haired old man felt a pity: "My lord, these fire oils are all rare goods, and the oil quality is very good, otherwise, if you bring them to the north, they will definitely be used in the army." ”

Zhou Pu didn't think so far, he was only responsible for escorting the supplies safely, and he didn't want to care about whether these fire oils were useful or not.

"You just do what I say, and you don't care about the rest."

"Yes!" The white-haired old man naturally didn't dare to resist, although this batch of hot oil was bought by the Jiangnan Wine Club, and it has not yet been delivered to the buyer, and this thing must be a very big loss. However, what he has to worry about now is not a simple matter of a little oil, but the entire Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, how to protect itself, these things are not so easy to fool, if this batch of materials can not reach the northern battlefield smoothly, then the follow-up empress will definitely count all the faults on the head of the Jiangnan Cocktail Party, and at that time, this huge organization of tens of thousands of people pointing to eat will basically be destroyed.

The old man didn't say a word, and immediately let more than 500 people do it, get on the boat to carry the oil oil, this thing is so heavy, a jar can only be carried by two people, it took an hour of effort, and finally all the oil of the two merchant ships was transported to a clearing 500 meters away from the river, where the soldiers of the Zhongzi battalion have opened a separation zone, so that if the fire is lit here, the mountain will not be set on fire.

And there is also a protective forest here, where a fire is lit, and the wind will not affect it too much.

I saw that on the edge of the Yunjiang River, a fire soon appeared, and seeing these flames burning monstrously, Zhou Pu, Li Mu, and Youruo all breathed a sigh of relief.

Youruo said: "Lord Zhou is really old and spicy, so much fire oil, ordinary people are really reluctant to burn it." ”

Youruo had fought a war, so she knew the value of these oils, and on the battlefield, a small amount of oil was enough to burn through a soldier's clothes, making them worse than dead.

But Yu Ruo also knew how dangerous it would be if the oil was placed on a merchant ship and waited for them to cross the river later.

The trade-off between the two is that it is definitely safer to burn them all.

But ordinary people are really reluctant to do this, so Youruo also feels that Zhou Pu's decision is very old-fashioned.

Zhou Pu said: "This is only the first step, there will be a follow-up later!" ”

Youruo and Li Mu pondered, what else did Zhou Pu want to do?

Zhou Pu said with a smile: "Didn't you say that you want to bring these people from the Jiangnan Drinking Party to the merchant ship and accompany us across the river together?" Then put them all on a merchant ship. ”

Now that all the liquor in the merchant ships has been sold, and the warehouses are empty, it is not a problem to hold hundreds of people.

Li Mu agreed: "We still don't know the identities of these people, in case we cross the river, they come to the water, it will be very unfavorable to us." Although Lord Zhou had ruled out the danger of fire oil on the ship, who knew if they had other means, so it was safest to take them all with them. ”

Thinking like this, the fire over there was almost burning, and all the thousands of jars of fire oil had been burned clean.

Li Mu first asked the brothers of the Zhongzi Battalion to go on the ship and inspect it, all the cabins and rooms on the ship must not be missed, and most importantly, every corner must be carefully inspected to see if there are weapons, gunpowder, oil and other things,

By the time all sixteen merchant ships had been inspected, it was already dawn.

The white-haired old man and the others were already very tired, and they all sat on the ground waiting for Zhou Pu's orders.

Zhou Pu asked Li Mu to load all the materials on the ship first, the volume of this kind of merchant ship is very huge, it is not a problem to load all the materials, and then there is a separate ship, Zhou Pu came to the white-haired old man and said: "Old gentleman, please invite all of you people from the Jiangnan Drinking Party to get on the sixteenth ship." ”

"Huh? Are we going up too? ”

The white-haired old man thought that after the officers and soldiers borrowed these merchant ships to the other side, they would drive the ships back and return them to them, but he didn't expect that all of them would also get on the boats?

This is very unacceptable!

Some people in Jiangnan were reluctant last time, why? Oh, we're not at fault, we've lent you the boat, and now you're going to take us all with you, what do you mean? Oh, doubt us?

Zhou Pu didn't say anything, he was a dignified four-grade official of the imperial court, do you still need a reason to let these people get on the ship?

What's more, the entire Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, large and small, is managed by the Ministry of Households.

As long as the household department gives an order, these people can't eat and walk around?

Zhou Pu said coldly: "Don't bother talking so much, do you have any problems, you still need to wait for the imperial court to verify, now the official has let you all get on the ship, and if you refuse to get on the boat, you will be punished according to the anti-party and executed on the spot." ”

The official authority on Zhou Pu's face was mixed with anger, because the loss of the Zhongzi Battalion tonight was too serious, if it weren't for Li Mu and Youruo to show their might, basically the outcome of this battle would be even more miserable.

Therefore, Zhou Pu now has this kind of atmosphere, also because there is really no other way, and he can't treat these people with the kind attitude he used to have.

What if these people are really the killers?

Therefore, they were all imprisoned on a ship, and the soldiers of the Zhongzi battalion were sent to guard them, so that if there was any problem, they could do it in time.

If they were assigned to a dozen ships, wouldn't every ship's people be attacked by them if they were all killers?

Therefore, it is the wisest choice to keep them in a centralized manner.

The Jiangnan Cocktail Party is staring at this white-haired old man one by one, except for Luo Ding'an, the president of the Jiangnan Cocktail Club, this person's identity and status is the highest, he is now the backbone of everyone, without his order, they dare not mess around, of course, I also hope that with his respected identity, Zhou Pu and them can open up their nets.

Zhou Pu is now murderous, and if he detains them, he will find a way to get rid of them, which is also possible.

Now the people of the Jiangnan Drinking Party hope to be able to ensure their own safety while cooperating with the officials and soldiers of the imperial court.

After all, there is still a need to do business in Jiangnan in the future, and it can't be said that because of one Luo Ding'an, tens of thousands of people's jobs will be smashed, right?

However, everyone still hates this Luo Ding'an very much in their hearts, he doesn't do good business, and he meddles in the affairs of the court, but now it's okay, his ass is stained with shit, and he can't get rid of it.

After thinking about it carefully, the old man said, "My lord, okay, we are willing to get on the boat, and everything is arranged by the lord." ”

As he spoke, the old man led the more than 500 people to the boat en masse.