Chapter 285: Because His Left Foot Stepped Into the "Government Office" And His House Was Confiscated

Xie Yuying's mission here was just to perform.

No matter how good or bad the song she played in the end was, it didn't matter to Wei Yuan and the people on this flower boat.

They gathered together for her fame. As long as she was here, they had hundreds of reasons to explain why they were here.

How could she not know that her fame was used by Wei Yuan and King Wu?

She was just a geisha and could not control her own destiny. Perhaps even she didn't know why she asked Wei Yuan like that. Could it be that...

She wanted to play a song for him after today? She didn't know if she would have the chance to meet him again after leaving this flower boat.

She had imagined many times what a great hero who guarded the border for the country should be like?

Tall, majestic, not like an ordinary person, she had thought of all kinds of words, but only when she really saw it, would she sigh from the bottom of her heart that a hero was like this.

After two hours passed.

Wei Yuan may have felt that Xie Yuying was tired. Yes, after playing the "Breaking the Formation Music", he only took a short break and continued to play for two hours.

All ten slender fingers began to tremble slightly.

Or perhaps Wei Yuan noticed that the merchants from the noble families in this attic were tired of listening.

He slowly stood up and waved his hand, signaling Xie Yuying to go down and rest.

Seeing this, everyone was stunned and sat up straight, because they knew that the real meaning of this gathering was coming.

"As expected of Wei Hou, if anyone in Jiangnan wants to ask Miss Xie Yuying to play a song, it is already extraordinary, but this Miss Xie played for you for so long, which is really rare."

"Yes, if it weren't for Wei Hou, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to listen to such a long heavenly sound today."

"Thank you, Wei Hou."

"."

Xie Yuying is very famous in Jiangnan, and according to Wei Yuan's guess, the real boss behind her may be the King of Wu.

Otherwise, there is no reason for a geisha to refuse so many kind invitations from the wealthy families in Jiangnan every day.

She is just a geisha.

And the only person in the whole Jiangnan who can support her to do so is the King of Wu.

It is extremely difficult for ordinary people to listen to her play a piece of music, let alone play for two hours. Because of this, her title as the most beautiful woman in Jiangnan is even more rare.

Except for Xie Yuying, the women in this attic, including Zhao Jianjia, have left.

Wei Yuan began to get to the point, "Although this marquis has been dismissed now, after all, the affairs of the southeast were decided by this marquis himself. Therefore, after this marquis was dismissed, he came to our Jiangnan as soon as possible."

As soon as the voice fell, a merchant could not sit still. This person was a wealthy man in the silk industry in Hangzhou, named 'Li Youcai'.

According to the local people in Hangzhou, Li Youcai was a scholar before he became rich, but he was not talented enough and did not even pass the provincial examination. He had to marry into a merchant family and slowly started a merchant business.

Later, for some reason, he seemed to have no rivals in the silk business, and his business grew bigger and bigger until he became the number one in Hangzhou's silk industry.

But in his heart, he preferred to be a scholar, hoping that his descendants would all be talented, so he changed his name to "Li Youcai". As for what he was called before the name change, many people have forgotten it.

"Logically speaking, as a merchant, I have no right to say anything in front of you, but I think that Marquis Wei invited us here to listen to us talk about Southeast Shipping."

"Now that shipping has been open for more than a year, we have been following the rules you set at the beginning. We get 50%, the Maritime Customs gets 20%, the local government gets 10%, and you get more than 150%."

"We are following your rules completely, but now someone is asking for too much and wants to break the rules. As the saying goes, there is no rule without rules."

"Marquis Wei might as well be frank. Do you want to set a new rule by gathering us together, or do you want to follow the previous method? If you follow the previous rules, what about the person who broke the rules?"

Li You dared to speak like that. Obviously, there was someone backing him up. As for who the person behind him was, Wei Yuan didn't care and didn't want to ask.

In addition to the profits given to the Maritime Customs, the government and Wei Yuan, half of the profits were left. That half was life-saving money, and no one could touch it.

If anything goes wrong, the half profit is the explanation.

Guo Hao's face darkened when he heard what he said. He drank alone without saying a word.

Wei Yuan looked at others, "Does anyone else want to say anything? We gathered everyone together today to let everyone say whatever they want. It's best to say everything you know."

When everyone heard this, they no longer had any fear in their hearts and spoke one after another:

"Wei Hou, to be honest, we all have difficulties in doing business. We have to pay taxes to the court and support our subordinates. If someone wants to take 10% of the profit from us, how can we live?"

"Yes, if we give some tribute silver every year, it's fine. After all, that's what we should do, but we can't be too extreme in everything, right?"

"Many merchants in various parts of Jiangnan dare not do shipping business. This... How can we do things!"

"."

They were afraid that they didn't say Guo Hao's name.

Since Wei Yuan came to Jiangnan, they have been waiting to see what attitude Wei Yuan, the head of Southeast Shipping, would have.

He was the one who set the rules in the first place. Now, his people are breaking the rules again. Does he want an explanation?

Although Wei Yuan has been dismissed, many people, including but not limited to them, don't know that it is just the emperor's appearance?

In the near future, Wei Yuan will still be reused.

Or, wait until the new emperor ascends the throne.

No matter what, Wei Yuan's banner will never fall.

How could Wei Yuan not be frightened by their thoughts?

He looked at Hai Qing, the head of the Hai family from Haizhou, and asked: "Master Hai, do you have anything to say?"

Hearing the sound, Haizhou stood up slowly and bowed calmly: "Let Marquis Wei make his decision, I have no complaints."

Too many people have already said what he wants to say. What he says at this time actually doesn't matter. It's better to choose to be alone.

Wei Yuan nodded and looked at the others, "What about you?"

Everyone had no choice but to bow in unison, "Let the Marquis of Wei make his decision."

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Commander Guo, what do you think?"

Guo Hao knelt down on one knee and said, "Brother will do whatever he says. Brother, I will never break the rules again!"

Wei Yuan smiled and said: "In that case, the rules were as they were before, and they remain the same now. What do you think?"

When everyone heard this, they all breathed a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Wei Yuan would turn to Guo Hao knowingly and continue to exploit them.

"What Marquis Wei said is absolutely true. The rules you set originally cannot be changed easily."

"Listen to Marquis Wei. Whatever Marquis Wei says, it will be whatever he says."

"."

Guo Hao remained silent, he had already guessed such an outcome.

Wei Yuan continued: "But you all also know that our commander Guo has the final say on the southeastern water affairs now. If I leave Jiangnan in the future and our commander Guo regrets it, what should I do?"

Guo Hao was anxious, "Brother, please don't worry, little brother."

Before he finished speaking, Wei Yuan came to him and patted his shoulder, telling him to shut up.

Guo Hao had no choice but to lower his head and remain silent again.

Afterwards, several merchants began to talk one after another,

"Marquis Wei. It's hard for you to come to Jiangnan. You have to settle this matter before leaving, right?"

"Yes, as you said, if..."

"."

Wei Yuan said sternly: "I have a compromise. Every year, merchants from various merchants contribute thirty thousand taels of silver to honor our Commander Guo."

"No matter who becomes the commander-in-chief of the navy in the future, you will still honor him according to this method. What do you think?"

Thirty thousand for a family?

Everyone couldn't help but gasp.

All of them together would have gone for 200,000 taels of snowflake silver!

You can't kill people like this, right?

Li Youcai frowned deeply and said, "Marquis Wei, is thirty thousand taels of filial piety money a bit too much?"

many?

Wei Yuan sneered, "You guys need to be wise, it's only 30,000 taels per family, not much."

As he said that, the Tiger Guard standing here had already pulled out the sword from his waist, and the cold light was so sharp that everyone couldn't help but feel frightened.

Then, Wei Yuan looked at Hai Qing emphatically.

The latter understood what he meant, gritted his teeth and said, "What Marquis Wei said is whatever he said!"

Wei Yuan looked at the others again, "What about you?"

Now that we're all here, who dares to say no?

Although they didn't believe it, Wei Yuan really dared to kill people, and moreover, the people he killed were famous people like them.

However, they didn't want to offend Wei Yuan hastily because of this incident.

Moreover, we are still on Taihu Lake at the moment.

Even if you have objections, you should leave Taihu before proceeding.

Simply, everyone agreed.

The merchants of the aristocratic family in this attic need 30,000 taels per person. As for the other merchants on the ship, at least one person needs to pay between 3,000 and 10,000 taels.

This amount of money is already a considerable amount of income.

Afterwards, these businessmen left here and returned to their respective residences to rest before leaving Taihu Lake early tomorrow morning.

In the attic.

Wei Yuan looked at Guo Hao and said expressionlessly: "Not all the money they gave is for you. Some of it will be left to subsidize the families of those brothers Paoze who died with us, and some will be sent to the capital."

He did not say exactly how much money he was asked to take.

The money given by each merchant is fixed, and Wei Yuan can probably guess how much filial piety money Guo Hao will receive.

Therefore, whether Guo Hao gives more or less depends entirely on his wishes.

If this intention is missing, Wei Yuan's brotherly love for him will naturally be diminished.

After seeing no outsiders, Guo Hao knelt down in front of him and kept kowtowing to admit his mistake.

Wei Yuan really couldn't stand it anymore, so he asked Lin Zhaoyuan to help him up, and said seriously:

"There is nothing wrong with being greedy for money, but one cannot break the rules just because of ambition."

"Daniu has a saying that is right. It's not easy for us brothers today, but we must never repent until we see blood."

Guo Hao could feel the unkindness in his tone and said with fear: "Brother, don't worry. After this incident, I was really wrong. There will never be a next time."

Wei Yuan sneered and said, "You have a big family and a big business now. I have a title but no real power, so I can't control you anymore."

Hearing this, Guo Hao actually knelt down again and repeated the kowtow action just now, "Brother, I already know my mistake, please forgive me!"

Wei Yuan waved his hand.

He was pulled up again by Lin Zhaoyuan.

Wei Yuan said: "I heard that the daughter of the rebel king has become your woman? Do you still want to marry her?"

Guo Hao was shocked, "If eldest brother thinks her status is a hindrance, I will drive her away tomorrow."

Wei Yuan looked at him without speaking.

He was getting more and more panicked, "Brother, you want me to kill her."

Wei Yuan smiled, "You should get married. The daughter of the king of sin has been forgiven by the emperor. Now the emperor is ill, don't be too anxious to marry her."

Guo Hao's face was happy, "Thank you for your help, brother!"

Wei Yuan said, "After all, this is your private matter and has nothing to do with me."

After a pause, he stared at Guo Hao's face and said in a deep voice, "I have sent someone to take your parents to Bian Jing. Let them live in the capital for a while, okay?"

Guo Hao was panicked, "Brother, I understand what you mean. My parents have dreamed of going to Kyoto once in their lives. Now, you have made their dream come true."

What can we do now?

At this time, Chen Daniu suddenly said, "Brother, since you have decided to ask them for money, why don't you ask for more? It's not impossible to take this opportunity to teach these merchants a lesson."

Wei Yuan shook his head and said, "The relationships behind them are complicated. We don't need to offend them completely. Besides, our roots are not in Jiangnan."

Chen Daniu was thoughtful.

Wei Yuan looked at Lin Zhaoyuan, "Check the one called Li Youcai."

The latter clasped his fists and said, "The King of Wu has already recorded the list of merchants who boarded the ship and their detailed backgrounds. I will bring it to the Marquis."

As he said this, he left the room.

During this period, Wei Yuan had been waiting quietly in the attic.

Guo Hao stood there like a piece of wood, not daring to move.

Chen Daniu ate and drank as he should, without any delay.

After about a cup of tea, Lin Zhaoyuan came back and handed the file about Li Youcai to Wei Yuan.

The latter took a closer look and said, "So he is backed by Duke Lian."

Lin Zhaoyuan said, "It seems that this Duke Lian is not honest."

Wei Yuan said, "Find out what Li Youcai did and punish him."

Lin Zhaoyuan said, "I heard that he came to Taihu Lake not by water, but by carriage."

In a carriage?

Wei Yuan snorted, "He is neither an official nor a noble. Who gave him the courage to ride in a carriage? Tell Hangzhou Governor Mei Zhi on this ground and confiscate his property."

Being confiscated for riding in a carriage?

It is unique in history, right?

It is clearly written in the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty that merchants cannot ride in carriages, but can only ride in sedan chairs.

Lin Zhaoyuan frowned slightly and said, "Duke Lian's side"

Wei Yuan said, "Duke Lian has a legitimate son who is unemployed at home? Let Changzhi take care of the arrangements."

Lin Zhaoyuan bowed, "Yes."

After a pause, Chen Daniu asked curiously, "Can the governor of Hangzhou help us?"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Last time when he came to the southeast, Mei Zhi thought he had offended me, and he was very attentive to me. He even came to Fuzhou to see me, but I closed the door to him."

Chen Daniu suddenly realized, "In order not to offend the Marquis, he could only confiscate Li Youcai's house, but why did you confiscate his house?"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Didn't you just say that you wanted to give them a warning?"

Chen Daniu was stunned.

Punishment is not confiscating the house.