He specifically went to the Chief Envoy's Office to investigate. It turned out that the Lingao Wu County Magistrate was a recently famous capable person in the province and was very popular in the Chief Envoy's Office. He had reported several times the victory of the bandit suppression and even delivered it to the Chief Envoy.
The heads of many pirates and bandits have come to the government - some of them are the key criminals that the government and the province have named. Moreover, when a storm disaster was reported recently, he did not ask the government for money and food and just helped the people there without causing any refugees -
―The registered household population in the county has increased. Last year’s money and grain taxes were also paid in full.
Magistrate Wu has been "excellent" for two years in a row. If he continues like this, his promotion to the prefect is already expected.
On the one hand, the gangsters occupied the shop, and on the other hand, the Lingao County Magistrate became an unprecedented "capable officer" - there was indispensable collusion between the officials and the gang. At the very least, they maintained a tacit understanding.
I think Magistrate Wu has gained a lot of benefits from Kun Thief in recent years. Lu Yizhong thought that if he came this time, he could have a serious talk with him. If Wu Mingjin is a knowledgeable person, not only Magistrate Wusha of Lingao County can
If you keep wearing it, you will get better.
When his staff were planning strategies, Li Xijue asked:
"Why don't you arrest Guo Yi, Pei Lixiu and others immediately? They are at least fake Kun. The inside story of the real Kun will be known at the first trial. If we don't arrest him now, he will definitely run away when the news is heard, and the military plane will also be leaked."
"No, no." Lu Yizhong shook his head repeatedly, "Several purple-branded properties are in full view of Guangzhou City. I don't know how many people are watching. Once sealed, it will be extremely difficult to deal with. It is better not to move temporarily. As for Guo Yi and others,
He is just a fish in the bottom of the cauldron. In Nanhai County, the Guangzhou Prefecture will send more public servants to protect him and he will not be able to escape - how can he leave such a huge family property in Guangzhou and run away so easily?"
It is precisely because the three businesses of Zizihao are coveted by everyone that we cannot take action now. Once Guo Yi and others are arrested and imprisoned, the Zihao brand will of course be seized as an infringement. How to deal with it then will become an embarrassment.
Not to mention things that are far away, there are some big guys in Guangzhou who are interested in eating a piece of meat. They are either local gentry, or celebrities in the officialdom, or people who can stretch their hands very long from a distance.
eunuchs, honorable ministers and relatives of the state.
When these people come together, the matter of "dealing with adverse labor" will become a hot potato. Thinking of this, Li Xijue couldn't help but admire the caution of his colleague.
"Anyway, Guo Yi doesn't have the word "concubine" written on his head. It's reasonable not to arrest him. It's just a piece of cake to catch him." Lu Yizhong already regarded Guo Yi and others as flesh and blood.
Guo Yi was currently swirling in the core whirlpool of a conspiracy. He knew very well that Guangzhou Station did not have many days left. No matter how many useless struggles he made, the fate of Guangzhou Station would be determined by the upcoming war on Hainan Island.
This is inevitable.
Although he had thought many times that this day would eventually come, he was still a little sad thinking about everything he was about to face. Everything he had built with his own hands.
The storm facing Guangzhou Station is getting closer and closer. Even in the secret room on Weifu Street, he can feel the deep chill coming. Many people are reaching out to here: those little fish and shrimps that pretend to be powerful are gone.
Now the real predator appears. While cruising around the target, he stares at the fat meat of the three shops with purple fonts, ready to swallow it in one bite.
This safe house no longer has the calmness of the past - the brazier on the ground is filled with large masses of ashes. This was left by Zhang Yuchen who burned the telegram manuscripts and information when he hurriedly evacuated with the radio station. Now he has retreated to a place in Guangzhou.
At a secret location, he continued to maintain contact with Lingao.
In Guo Yi's hand, he was holding a telegram from the Ministry of Colonial Trade sent from Lingao. Although Si Kaide recognized the Foreign Intelligence Service's idea of "withdrawing Guangzhou and Leibao" from Guangzhou and Leizhou, he was not convinced about keeping Guangzhou.
There is still a glimmer of hope for the station. In the telegram, he once again requested that while preparing for retreat, he should try his best to seek the possibility of continuing to exist in Guangzhou. In the telegram, the Ministry of Colonial Trade agreed: If there is no other choice, you can consider dedicating money to the station.
The processing mode-Gao Ji or Liang Cunhou are better candidates
"Humph, it's too late to think about this matter now." Guo Yi already knew who was eyeing the big fish in Guangzhou Station - they were all heavyweight predators. Not to mention Liang Cunhou's background,
Eunuch Yang, who was behind Gao Zhi, probably didn't dare to provoke them at all.
While he was in a daze, suddenly the bell in the room rang. He quickly lit the telegram with a match and threw it into the brazier. After watching it turn completely black, he opened the door and walked out.
In the courtyard where the safe house is located, only the most trusted servants, all strictly vetted indigenous staff, can enter. Others can only ring the bell and ask for permission after registering with the gatekeeper outside the moon cave door of the courtyard.
According to the discipline of Guangzhou Station, veterans cannot be called out of the safe house unless there is an urgent matter.
The person who came to see him was Sun Chang, which was a very unusual thing. As Sun Chang, he had to deal with many things and would never suddenly come to see him for no reason.
"What's up?"
"Someone came to see me."
"Didn't you say that everyone who is not an acquaintance will not be seen?" Guo Yi knew that the person coming here was definitely not a kind person. If he saw many people, he would be entangled, so it was better to avoid seeing him.
"The person coming here has a big name." Sun Chang took a step forward and whispered, "He is a member of Tian Huang's family."
"What?" Guo Yi didn't understand.
"Prince Tian is the father of Concubine Tian." Sun Chang knew that Guo Yi was from overseas and knew little about the people of the Ming Dynasty. "Concubine Tian is the emperor's favorite concubine..."
"So he's the father-in-law?" Guo Yi immediately thought of the "father-in-law" in movies, TV shows and operas, who are generally not good people. Generally speaking, the people's feelings are quite accurate.
"Yes, it's Qi Wan." Sun Chang said a special term at that time, Qi Wan, which is the natal relative of the royal family. Tian Guozhang is the Qi Wan of this generation, and his daughter is favored, and her reputation and power are equal to those of others.
It’s different, “Tian Guozhang’s reputation is second only to Lord Jiadingbo.” Jiadingbo is the father of Queen Zhou.
"Why did he come to Guangzhou?" Guo Yi felt strange. This Tian Guozhang should not be in *** city. He would not come to Guangzhou for no reason.
"Who is he? He is a servant of his family who specializes in helping him." Sun Chang said, "I'm afraid this person has bad intentions."
"It's nothing more than coveting our property." Guo Yi originally wanted to say no, and asked Sun Chang to deal with a few words to let him go. Then he thought, it would be better to meet him. Now that several parties have revealed their interest in Zizihao
Ambition, letting them keep each other in check might be a way to delay time.
The last person walking at the end was a round-faced man in his forties. He wore a six-in-one hat, a green parrot silk robe, and three-silk official shoes. He was dressed in neither expensive nor cheap clothes. He came to the yard.
He stopped immediately - seeing that Guo Yi didn't step down to greet him, he crossed his legs, put his hands behind his back, rolled his small eyes gloomily and glared at Sun Chang fiercely.
"How dare a calculating person make such a big deal!" He cursed in a low voice before coming up from the main steps.
Guo Yi met him and knew that the person coming was Tian Da, a "family member" of Tian Hongyu's house. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, royal consorts such as empresses, concubines and consorts were selected from "good family members" of common people.
.This kind of family is generally not a wealthy family. The so-called "family" are basically people who contributed money after they became prosperous. Among them, there are many local "evil people" who rely on the influence of the royal relatives to do evil outside. They are called "family members".
The royal relatives also benefited for themselves.
This Tian Da's appearance does not look like he was born as a slave. Instead, he looks like a local "living ghost" or "hit six cities" or something like that.
"Master Guo," Tian Da looked at the maid who brought the tea and did not look back until she left the room and spoke, "You are worthy of being the richest man in Guangzhou, you are very generous!"
"No, Mr. Guo is just a foreign trader. It's true that he made a fortune by selling some foreign goods. If we say he is the richest man, he is far from rich." Guo Yi smiled.
Tian Da did not hide his intention, and bluntly proposed that Guangzhou Station donate three Zi's brands to the Tian family.
According to what he said, Guo Yi wanted to "honor" the father of the country 40,000 taels of silver at a time, and then pay 60,000 taels of silver every year.
"...As long as you become the property of Tian Guo's father-in-law's family, no official in the world will dare to embarrass you." Tian Da spat and said, "No one will dare to say that you are a pirate."
This figure made Guo Yi take a breath - this was really a big deal for the lion. Not to mention that he had no such plan at all, even if he had, he would be criticized in the Senate for agreeing to this condition.
"This matter is of great importance and should be considered for a few days."
"It's up to you whether you want to think about it or not. But if you continue to think about it, you'll be thinking about going to jail. Why is Boss Guo so uninformed?" Tian Da pointed his nose with a fan unceremoniously, "The court is about to move.
We will send troops to destroy your home base in Australia. When the time comes, your whole family will be sold to the government, and even the blade of grass under your feet will no longer be named Guo. Now I have donated a mere 100,000 silver to my husband to protect your life.
Wealth safety - very careful calculation!"
After finally seeing Tian Da off, Guo Yi then met with several envoys who explicitly or implicitly asked him to surrender. Even Gao Ji sent his chief steward to come twice to tell him that Mr. Yang was going to Guangdong.
Come to purchase ivory. If you want to donate it to Eunuch Yang, this is a good opportunity.
"Eunuch Yang is very fond of the Australian goods you donated. If you submit them to his disciples this time, Eunuch Yang will look at you differently."
Guo Yi had no choice but to say "I have to think about it for a few days" one by one and make a delaying strategy first.
Although the Ministry of Colonial Trade had agreed that "donation" could be considered as a way to preserve property during a state of emergency, he knew very well that once this was done, it would inevitably cause an uproar in the Senate.
On the bright side, surrendering to Tian Guozhang or Eunuch Yang is a good way out. The two can not only provide a strong protective umbrella, but also establish a very extensive relationship between the government and the opposition.
However, he knew very well that there was no such thing as a free lunch. How much appetite Eunuch Yang and Tian Guozhang had, and what their temperaments were, were all unknown. Now that they had agreed to increase the amount to 60,000 taels per year, what should they do? They had to directly
How to deal with intervening in the personnel and management of three purple-branded companies? Or the worst case scenario may occur: as the owner in the legal sense, he can kick Guo Yi and others out at any time and directly occupy these three purple-branded companies. This kind of thing does not happen to him in Guangzhou
I have seen many times that many small and medium-sized shops that were originally intended to be protected by wealthy gentry, suddenly turned against them because of the owners who donated them, and they ended up going bankrupt and their families were ruined.
"This is a matter of principle." He muttered. In his hesitation, he suddenly understood: the destruction of Guangzhou Station is inevitable, and the sound of cannons from high altitude will also announce the rebirth of Guangzhou Station. Now let it change its name.
Continuing to exist will only increase future troubles.
At this moment, he suddenly understood. Zichengji, Ziminglou, Zizhenzhai, without Australians and Australian products, they are just empty shells without souls. Whoever wants them can take them.
He quickly returned to the safe house and quickly drafted a telegram reporting his specific plans.
He clearly objected to the donation in the telegram. This will increase the complexity of their return to Guangzhou in the future. Once the name belongs to someone else, it will be very difficult to take it back, and continuing to operate it will cause problems that are difficult to control.
Guo Yi reported his response plan in the telegram: He planned to start the evacuation operation immediately and evacuate most of the vetted indigenous staff - it is not necessary to evacuate all the indigenous staff back to Lingao. They can first evacuate to the counties under Guangzhou Prefecture temporarily.
The local craftsmen who live here are temporarily sent home with half a year's housing allowance.
Guo Yi believes that the Guangzhou Station will be closed for a few months at most, or a year at most. It will be reopened as the battle situation in Lingao becomes clearer. He is very confident about this.
Having set a policy, it became much easier to do things. Guo Yi immediately summoned people from the Guangzhou Station to hold a secret meeting. It was decided that Delong Bank would settle its accounts with Zihao on the same day, and all deposits and outstanding accounts would be written off to avoid the possibility of Zihao once.
The trade name was blocked and the official went to Delong to demand the deposit.
For the goods in stock, he has sent Sun Chang to the Gao family to negotiate and sell all the goods in stock of Zichengji to the Gao family on credit. The Gao family will definitely accept it now.
"The collection day for the Dragon Boat Festival in May has arrived. We owe the Gao family, and the Gao family owes us, we must also clear the account." Zhang Xin said.
"Try to balance the accounts as much as possible." Guo Yi said, "Put back the surplus money for later use."
"What is it for?"
"Withdrawals should be made." Guo Yi said. Many people who had deposited money in Zizihao have now heard about the news and are asking for withdrawals one after another. Many people do not even ask for interest, but only want to withdraw the principal.
The money is actually deposited in Guangzhou Delong, but now for the sake of safety, Guo Yi does not want to have too many money transactions with Delong anymore, so he decided to only offset the accounts with Delong, and the repayment of the deposit will be directly performed by Zizihao.
As for the payments owed by other merchants to Guangzhou Station, they need to collect them immediately when they are due. Zhang Xin originally considered trying to transport the silver back to Lingao or purchase goods to transport back. But I'm afraid it's difficult to do that now - according to reports from his staff, there are more people nearby recently.
There are many public agents operating nearby, and the large amount of silver transportation and transactions may not be transported at all, and even if it is transported away, it cannot be hidden. Guo Yi instructed him that all the silver collected should be used to clean up the accounts.
"We don't have to rush people to pay back what they owe us - they won't dare not pay it back in the future; what we owe people must be repaid in full. Keeping the money in our hands is a waste of money for the corrupt officials in Guangzhou." Guo Yi said, "We
If you want to leave, you have to leave behind a reputation as an Australian who honors its promises."
"Understood." Zhang Xin nodded, "Originally I was worried that it would not be easy to deal with the situation of bank runs, but now the payment collected in this batch should be enough."
As for the ledgers, land deeds, house deeds, deeds, IOUs, receipts... all kinds of evidence, he has already asked people to pack them all in boxes and prepare to transfer them. He has secretly destroyed all the ledgers related to Delong.
Most people don't know Delong's true identity, and it is very likely that he can be saved.
"This is our 'change account'." Guo Yi said to Zhang Xin, "When we come back in the future, this will be the evidence to recover our capital."
Zhang Xin asked: "How to transport these dozens of boxes of ledgers?"
Guo Yi said: "Transfer them out in batches. It is best to transport these ledgers back to Lingao. If this is not possible for a while, they will be stored in a secret stronghold for the time being."
While he was talking, a servant came to report: Shen Fan came.
"Invite him in." Guo Yi was about to talk to Shen Fan about how to deal with Zizhenzhai.
"Proprietor!" Shen Fanlai was so anxious that he even skipped the usual etiquette, "Does the government really want to seal down Zizhenzhai?"
"How could this happen?" Shen Fan was so anxious that he wiped his sweat, "Didn't I offer my advice to the Liang family?"
"Even if I offer it to the Liang family now, the Liang family may not dare to take it." Guo Yi told him about Tian Da's visit.
"What?! Tian Guozhang is also interested..."
"That's right, if he reaches out, who else dares to ask for it?" Guo Yi shook his head and said, "I have made up my mind, I would rather be broken into pieces than intact. This city of Guangzhou cannot accommodate us, we just leave..."
"Are you going back to Australia?" Shen Fan asked anxiously. He has worked for Guo Yi for more than two years, and the guest and host complement each other perfectly. He is also very happy that he can still be the owner of such a large and prosperous shop in his old age.
Now it was suddenly said that the government was going to seal it up, and Guo Dongzhu had to return home. Shen Fan couldn't help but have a thought in his heart: Why can't people in the Ming Dynasty tolerate people to do business and live a good life.
"I have to go out and hide from the noise." Guo Yi whispered, "If I stay here, I'm afraid I will be sued for no reason."
"Is it so serious?!"
"Exactly, I wanted to talk to you about how to deal with Zizhenzhai..."
"Yes..." Shen Fan saw his solemn expression and knew that he was definitely telling the truth. Thinking that this young man had saved his grandson's life, he treated himself well. Seeing that such an industry that was responsible for the prosperity of the brocade business was about to be destroyed. , couldn't help feeling sad, and sighed heavily.
"How many goods are there in Zizhenzhai?"
"Not much." He took out a book from his arms, "This is the inventory book." He quickly added, "There are more people coming to the counter to withdraw deposits these days..."