Tang Mu said indifferently: "It depends on how the shopkeeper kills him." ”

Ma Xuansheng became interested: "Tell me about your price." ”

Tang Mu said: "If the shopkeeper can bring Zheng Tingqiu's head to us, the price will be two thousand taels." But if the shopkeeper doesn't do it directly, the price will naturally be cheaper. ”

Ma Xuansheng smiled: "Zheng Tingqiu's head is worth two thousand taels, it's a joke, five thousand taels, pay half first." ”

Tang Mu waved his hand: "Then let's hold it off, I'll ask others again." Find an outlaw under Zheng Tingqiu, I'm afraid it won't cost two hundred taels. ”

"yes, then why are you looking for me?" Ma Xuansheng walked up to Tang Mu, pulled out a dagger and gestured in front of him, and asked coldly.

"Our Oriental Trading Company is going to come and go for a long time at the mouth of the Pearl River, although our two families have had many misunderstandings before, but it is also because of their own masters. In the future, the trading company will come and go here, and it will be difficult to deal with you, but whoever can benefit from us depends on who is willing to help us in Zheng Tingqiu's matter. Tang Mu was neither humble nor arrogant, and in the face of Ma Xuansheng's slightly threatening appearance, he did not show any fear.

Ma Xuansheng laughed: "What a young man, brave and knowledgeable." But Zheng Tingqiu is also the four leaders in the end, whether he can kill him or not, and when he will kill him, I have to think carefully, so you can wait with peace of mind. ”

Tang Mu was slightly stunned, because Li Zhaoji's intention was to drag it back as much as possible, if he could kill Zheng Tingqiu at the end of December and early January, it would be the best.

"Okay, then follow the horse shopkeeper first, retire under the next, and come back to visit in a few days." Tang Mu got up and hugged his fists to leave.

Ma Xuansheng did not personally send the two away, but sat there and thought carefully, the reason why he did not directly agree was to maximize the benefits of this matter.

After a while, the pirate leader who saw off the guests returned, and Ma Xuansheng asked: "Do you know when these two came to Hong Kong?" ”

"I asked, yesterday at noon, I arrived on a boat from Guangzhou, and after arriving, I lived in the shacks where the fishermen lived. As for whether you have seen it, other families, the small ones don't know. The pirate leader said.

Ma Xuansheng nodded slightly, and he must have been the first to find himself when he heard about the conflict between himself and Zheng Tingqiu at the banquet yesterday or this morning.

"Are you familiar with the martial arts conference next to Zheng Tingqiu?" Ma Xuansheng asked again.

The pirate leader said: "This martial arts conference has a lot of problems, eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling everything, but the heart is ruthless, and the shopkeeper also knows that Zheng Tingqiu has a lot of eyes, but he can't fight, and he is very cowardly, so he needs people like the martial arts conference to be called by his side."

In addition, the little one also heard that in the incident on Wailingding Island, the martial arts conference's own brother was killed, and he has been thinking about revenge. Later, I heard that the Oriental Trading Company went abroad, and he also wanted to go to Guangzhou to assassinate Chen Ping, but was stopped by Zheng Tingqiu, and the martial arts conference had some complaints. ”

Ma Xuansheng smiled: "That's a good thing." ”

The pirate leader was shocked: "The shopkeeper won't want to give him Tang Mu from the Oriental Trading Company just now as a gift." ”

"That's not true, but it doesn't hurt to take advantage of it." Ma Xuansheng already had an idea in his heart.

Hong Kong's most prosperous place now is the inner bay between the island and the mainland, a small inn on the riverside, with long, narrow and low wings stretching out to the sea, this house is made of gravel masonry with a bottom and then rammed earth on top, and the roof is a thatched house.

Small boats can be parked directly at the pier along the river, and the inn has livestock sheds and warehouses, which are convenient for large and small merchants.

Ferreira and Tang Mu and a group of seven or eight people took a small boat and sailed to the inn, and saw this inn from a distance, Ferreira asked: "Why did Ma Xuansheng arrange for us to stay here, and it was not arranged at first, and it was arranged after we had dinner." ”

Tang Mu was calm: "This shows that he has some conspiracy to perform, but it's not bad, if there is a conspiracy, it means that he intends to cooperate with us, but he doesn't have to bother to find Shibi or Xu Guixiang." ”

"Even if Ma Xuansheng can't succeed, don't go to Xu Guixiang, he is a Tan people, and he won't easily do infighting." Ferreira reminded.

Tang Mu nodded, and at this time, he noticed that something was wrong: "Look, there are no fireworks, and there is no one." ”

Ferreira and the others are vigilant, Hong Kong has temporarily formed a smuggling base, it is very prosperous here, and even the inn in front of me has been newly built because of this, this inn looks good, the only drawback is that it is far away from the street.

Ferreira asked, "Shall we still go ashore then?" ”

Tang Mu thought for a while: "Go ashore, walk around the inn first, and then talk about the rest." ”

Tang Mu and his entourage did not go ashore on the trestle, but pulled over at will, and when they circled the inn, a young man appeared on the top of the inn, he ate melon seeds, and shouted: "Where did you come from, do you know whose property this is, so you dare to come here?" ”

"Oh, I'm going to ask for advice."

"The proprietor of our family is the shopkeeper of Shibi Shi." The young man shouted.

Tang Mu and Ferreira glanced at each other, and understood why Ma Xuansheng arranged for him to live here and didn't send someone to send him, just to let himself have a relationship with Shibi, so that even if something happened in the future, he could blame Shibi.

If the assassination of Zheng Tingqiu is successful, you can blame Shibi, and if the assassination fails, you can also blame it.

After finding out this, the group entered the inn, but saw that there was only this young man here, and there was no one else, no one in the barn, and no fodder.

"We are seafarers from Qiongzhou, and we want to find a place to live for a while, and we have to buy some things to store, and someone recommended here." Tang Mu clenched his fists at the young man, talked nonsense about his intentions, and asked, "The eldest brother is the shopkeeper." How to call it? ”

The young man shook his head: "My name is Ah Shui, but I am not the shopkeeper, it was Brother Ah Jiu who asked me to look at the store here, saying that in a few days, the neighborhood will be busy, and this inn will have business." ”

"Ah Jiu is one of the leaders of Shibi's subordinates." Ferreira was very familiar with the four pirates, and whispered in Tang Mu's ear.

Tang Mu laughed and took out a piece of broken silver from his arms: "Then I don't know if Brother Ah Shui wants to do our business?" ”

Ah Shui took the silver, shook it, weighed it, and said a little bit about it, he was really a little moved, and said: "But there is no bedding and rice here, and there are no cooks and servants, how can I settle you." ”

Tang Mu clapped his hands: "We all have hands and feet, we don't need others to serve us, just stay if we can." ”

Ah Shui said: "Anyway, there is an empty house, you can just stay, there is only rice for me to eat here, you don't dislike it, you can cook it and eat it." ”

Ferreira said: "We just arrived, and we are very tired, so why don't you go and help us order a table of wine and food, and everyone can eat together?" ”

As he spoke, another piece of silver was thrown over, Ah Shui smiled, and immediately went.

Not long after, a small boat brought two drawers of food, and the person who delivered the food shouted: "Ah Shui, in an hour, I will come to collect the food, and you can settle the guests." ”

Seven or eight people fought two tables, ate and drank enough, Ah Shui went fishing, he was only responsible for watching the store, and did nothing else.

On the contrary, after a while, when someone came to collect the goods, the guy greeted Ah Shui, entered the inn and found Tang Mu and said, "Brother Tang, I was sent by the shopkeeper." ”

"What does your shopkeeper mean by letting us live in this deserted inn?" Tang Mu asked.

The man smiled: "I don't know this, but my shopkeeper said that someone will come to kill you tonight, about twenty people, armed with strong bows, you have to be careful to deal with it, don't really be killed."

This letter is given to you, and the treasurer says, "When you flee, leave this letter here." ”

Ferreira and Tang Mu opened the letter, and when they saw it, the letter was actually written in the name of Li Zhaoji, the big shopkeeper of the Oriental Trading Company, to the strongest of the four surnames, and the title in the letter was very eager, and it was revealed that the two sides had been in contact with each other many times, which also confirmed their previous guess that letting them live here was to blame Shibi.

But I never thought that this disaster would come so quickly.

"Who's going to kill me?" Tang Mu asked again.

The guy said, "It's a martial arts conference." The guy didn't seem to want to say more, and reminded: "I also asked Brother Tang to help play some of them." ”

The guy packed up the dishes and left by boat, and Tang Mu looked at Ferreira.

Ferreira said: "The martial arts conference is the first knife under Zheng Tingqiu, and it is ruthless and very difficult. It is said that when you went to Wailingding Island to rescue the merchants, you killed his own brother, and this guy was bent on revenge.

Last month, he sent people to Macau to set fire to your branch office in Macau, but I stopped him. As long as someone told him that this inn was inhabited by people from the Oriental Trading Company, he would definitely come and kill him. ”

Tang Mu nodded slightly: "It seems that Ma Xuansheng's plan is not small." ”

Ferreira was so smart that he had already understood Ma Xuansheng's thoughts.

Killing Zheng Tingqiu to earn the reward from the Oriental Trading Company is obviously just an appetizer, and what he really has to do is to take the opportunity to swallow up Zheng Tingqiu's forces.

Speaking of which, among the four surnamed pirates, only the other three can swallow Zheng Tingqiu, this time he blamed Shibi, naturally Shibi can't do it, and Xu Guixiang is different from the other three, he is Tanmin, and his subordinates only need Tanmin, and these two families are excluded, as soon as Zheng Tingqiu dies, only Ma Xuansheng can be voted by the forces under his command.

Of course, Tang Mu didn't know that Ma Xuansheng happened to get the handle of the martial arts conference yesterday, which increased the probability of him annexing Zheng Tingqiu and his gang a lot.

Ferreira asked, "Tang Mu, what should we do, do we follow Ma Xuansheng's path?" ”

Tang Mu thought for a while: "You can cooperate, let the brothers prepare, make a hole in the back wall first, as long as someone kills, let's run directly from behind, behind is the bamboo forest, into the forest, they can't catch up." ”

Ferreira nodded, and he asked tentatively: "I don't understand, what is your big shopkeeper asking for Zheng Tingqiu's head?" ”

Tang Mu smiled: "This is a big secret of the trading company, you see that I am a little kid, how can the big shopkeeper tell me?" ”

Of course, Ferreira didn't believe his words, but when they came to Hong Kong together, he also knew that Tang Mu looked arrogant, but he was actually very smart, and he was very strict, so he was afraid that he wouldn't tell himself.

And as Tang Mu said, Li Zhaoji didn't tell him why this was so, but he had already informed him of his plan.

That is to trigger as much infighting between the four pirates as possible, the higher the intensity of the infighting, the better, and the longer it lasts, the better.

As for the purpose, Tang Mu had already guessed everything.

He estimated that eighty percent of it was related to the silk ticket, and the peak of the spring silk trade would be in February, but the silk ticket would be a month earlier. And if the pirates at the mouth of the Pearl River make trouble in winter, the price of silk tickets in January will definitely be reduced, which is inevitable.

This is because in addition to satisfying their own needs, Guangdong's raw silk and silk fabrics are mainly for sea trade, of course, there is also land trade, but because of the Bapai Yao Rebellion, it has also been suspended.

The purchasing power of the Portuguese in Macao has decreased, the pirates have made a fuss, the number of merchant ships going to the South Seas will definitely decrease, and the market expectation will definitely become oversupply, and the price of 'futures' such as silk stamps will also decrease. Li Zhaoji can make a fortune by relying on the information gap.

The impact of the pirate riots on the Eastern Trading Company was not great, after all, the ships that the trading companies now used for trade were armed merchant ships, and the gunboats were serious, and those pirates could still play some tricks between the islands with complicated routes, but they had no chance at all in the wide waters.

Because, the more pirates in the Pearl River make trouble, the more beneficial it will be to the Oriental Trading Company.