Cao Lei lost his son in old age, and every time he thinks about this place, he feels extremely painful.
So when he found out that his son's death was not caused by robbers, but someone deliberately murdered him, he would naturally become so angry that he ran away instantly.
But as Chen Ping said, the culprit may be Qi Hongming. He was worried that these illegal activities would be discovered, so he silenced the people involved.
Now Qi Hongming is a minister of the Dali Temple and is far away in the capital. Just killing a Ling Shu can not relieve the hatred in his heart.
"If you have any ideas, just come to me. As long as you can avenge Huo Wang, you will be at your disposal in Jiulong Hall!" Cao Lei suppressed his anger, staggered two steps, and the steel knife in his hand clattered to the ground. He went back and sat down and said in a deep voice.< /p>
"Private mining of iron ore is a serious crime. If you want to bring down Qi Hongming, you must have evidence so that he can be dealt with according to the laws of the court. And why they want to sell the iron ore to the north is also worth pondering. So we have to take a long-term approach," Chen Ping said soothingly.
"Then what do you think we should do?"
"We can't get in touch with Qi Hongming for the time being, so let's start with Ling Shu. If he wants to successfully transport the ore out of Qianzhou, he will definitely pass through many checkpoints, and he will need a customs clearance note approved by the government."
Cao Lei nodded solemnly and said, "That note must have been approved by Ling Shu from Qi Hongming!"
"Back then, Huang Liu was mining, the young hall master was transporting, Qi Hongming approved the note, and Ling Shu was transferring. The whole process should be like this. The question now is whether Ling Shu is still doing this kind of business after Qi Hongming was promoted. If so, the iron ore mine Where did it come from? Who approved the approval note?"
"Actually, after Huo Wang died, although I had no evidence, I had been secretly paying attention to Ling Shu."
"What can be gained?"
"No!"
Chen Ping was secretly shocked, "With Jiulongtang's ability, can't we find it?"
"Do you think my Jiulong Hall is definitely safe?" Cao Lei said meaningfully.
If it is safe, why bother to stay away from tonight’s conversation?
Chen Ping was speechless and sighed.
"Ling Shu is very cautious in doing things. All the goods in his hands are shipped to various places in Dayu. Even if there is occasional illegal salt, it doesn't prove anything."
"I understand." Chen Ping also suffered from the lack of clues. "We only found out that he was transporting illicit salt."
"It seems that he really wanted to inquire about you yesterday." Cao Lei's guess was indeed correct.
"It should be. We bought the house in front of Liu Bi and found the record book, and then we found out that Qi Hongming and He Lingshu were connected. After Lingshu found out, he has been sending people to keep an eye on us these days."
"Speaking of record books, Huo Wang also had an account book before, but I read it over and over again and there was nothing special about it," Cao Lei recalled.
"Where is the account book? Can you let me see it?" Chen Ping asked hurriedly.
"Wait a moment, I'll go look for it." After finishing speaking, Cao Lei walked towards the inner hall.
Chen Ping sat there and thought about the news he got today. He felt that the trip was worthwhile. The whole incident had almost been put together completely. Moreover, Cao Lei was in pain of losing his son. He had the same goal as them and could fully cooperate.
In less than a moment, Cao Lei walked out of the inner hall and handed a torn leather booklet to Chen Ping.
Chen Ping took it and quickly opened it to check. Most of them contained transportation records of ordinary objects.
[In the spring and February of the sixth year of Tianqi, three hundred kilograms of raw meat were brought to Sheng Pavilion for six carts and five hundred and twenty-seven taels.]
[In April of the sixth year, a thousand catties of sea fish entered Kanglin County, nine hundred and thirty-two taels.]
[In the same month, I entered Mizhou and found four carts of black rice noodles in Hongjia Village, worth 4,600 taels.]
[In June of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, ten carts of sea fish, three carts of white flowers, stone forest, two thousand taels.]
..........
Most of the records contain only a few strokes, and some do not even include the year, month, and day. They are so vague that no clue can be discerned at once.
Chen Ping wondered, what kind of meat is raw meat, pork or beef?
What is this white flower? Is it a slang in the world?
Apparently Cao Lei also noticed his doubts and shook his head helplessly and said: "He was just afraid of my involvement, so he deliberately wrote it unclearly. This is called a boring note without naming the name."
"Although the records in the account book are not detailed, and some places are even confusing, they must be related to the actual goods." Other thoughts flashed in Chen Ping's mind, "For example, raw meat and live fish are all
It is obviously impossible to transport something that cannot be stored for a long time to the north because it is too far away, so it is very likely that these are just code names for some kind of goods, intended to confuse the public and avoid being discovered."
"There is indeed no seafood in Qianzhou," Cao Lei said, thinking that what Chen Ping said made sense, "but some were transshipped from the southeast."
"Where to transfer it?" Chen Ping asked with a sudden thought.
Cao Lei was stunned for a moment, "This...it exists in various places, but I remember that most of them go north."
"Marine fish live in sea water. Water... sea water..." Chen Ping suddenly had an idea, "Could it actually refer to salt?"
"There are also records of salt in this account book." Cao Lei said while flipping through other records.
"What if he did the opposite, worried that someone would check the account books and deliberately make a few transactions to confuse his view? You see, although there are some records of transporting salt, the quantities are very small, and each time they are mixed with other goods.
It was transported together with China. This way, even if it is discovered, it won’t be a big deal.”
Cao Lei was dumbfounded for a moment, thinking that this was not impossible.
Chen Ping feels that his idea should be correct, but it needs further verification.
Then his eyes fell on the record of the white flowers, and he asked puzzledly: "Most of the circulation time of these goods is concentrated in summer and autumn, which is the harvest season. The white flowers... are the rice grains produced by drawing wheat ears?
?"
Cargo transportation is inherently related to solar terms.
Especially in this era, the characteristics of farming are obvious. There are no greenhouses. The goods that can be harvested in autumn and stored in winter are just food.
Cao Lei went up to take a look, "...the time is really right, but there is no actual evidence for this."
"The evidence has been found. Such a large amount of goods must not be hidden. We can start to inquire from the places they passed by. For example, the raw meat and fish. In the middle of summer, such things should be transported by land. It must be
It smells good. And the young hall master has been transporting it for many years, so it’s impossible for no one to notice it."
"But now several years have passed, are there any clues left?"
"It is not easy to open a hidden transportation tunnel. I believe Hall Master Cao knows this better than me. Although the iron mines in Yongshun County have stopped, the routes from other places into Zhengxing Prefecture are still maintained, so regardless of
We have to give it a try no matter what."
As the boss of the largest transportation gang in Qianzhou, Cao Lei naturally has a deep understanding of the development of transportation lines, which involves all aspects of the relationship. Therefore, once the line is fixed, it will not be easily changed unless there are major changes. After all, it will be changed.
The cost and risk of the line will be higher.
"Then according to you, which record is the ore?" Cao Lei asked again.
"Most of today's rice noodles are white or gray-yellow. Where did the black color come from?" Chen Ping hesitated, "This black rice noodles..."
"The black ash left by the ore?" Cao Lei reacted and stood up excitedly and said.
Chen Ping nodded, feeling that what he said was reasonable. He quickly looked through all the records about black rice noodles, and the more he read back, the more uneasy he felt.
The transportation volume of black rice flour is extremely large, and the total amount in several years has reached staggering levels.
Around May of the eighth year of Tianqi alone, the black rice flour transported from Cao Huowang to the north amounted to 3,000 kilograms.
"Whether it is true or not, I will send people to these places to check." Cao Lei was impatient and wanted to confirm his suspicion.
"If it is as we suspected, I believe we can always find some clues." Chen Ping nodded, only Jiulong Hall can handle this matter, "But Hall Master, don't be too hasty. If these places are really
If there is a problem, just send someone over directly, otherwise they might alert the enemy."
Cao Lei still appreciated Chen Ping's cautiousness and asked, "What do you think we should do?"
"To see the overall situation from the details, the hall master might as well send a few people to investigate the surrounding area secretly. He pretends to be a businessman and wants to do this kind of business, so he asks about the relevant market conditions."
"Okay, Lao San is the best at this. His people often run out, and they can bring some groceries to sell, so they won't arouse anyone's suspicion!"
The third hall master looks big and rough, but he is extremely trustworthy and honors his promises.
Chen Ping had seen this before and felt reassured by this person, so he nodded in approval.
"One more thing, please remember, Hall Master. If you find any clues, you must not act rashly. Leave the rest to me."
"Leave it to you?" Cao Lei was a little confused, "Do you want to go and investigate in person?"
"That's not true. The main reason is that there are many people in Jiulong Hall, and I have a suitable person here. It will be safer if he rarely shows up. But please don't worry, Master, I will inform you of any news as soon as possible.
."
Cao Lei looked at Chen Ping seriously and nodded in agreement.