strictlysupreme Chapter 287 Shopkeeper Wu Duo
Chapter 287 Shopkeeper Wu Duo
The sky will be bright.
Li Cunxi got up, washed up, and had breakfast with Wu Yanhao and Li Yuanfang. Then he called Hu Jinghui, who had ordered the guards to be on duty, and the four of them went to Bainiao Trading Company accompanied by the inner guards.
After asking along the way, Li Cunxi found out that the Bainiao Trading Company was very famous in the area around Henan Prefecture and had many branches.
The Bainiao Trading Company in Dengzhou is just a branch. As for where the headquarters of the Bainiao Trading Company is located, the officials and people here are not clear about it.
Dengzhou Sima Penghai, who accompanied them, also knew nothing about this, but he did hear that there were royal relatives behind the Bainiao Trading Company.
Peng Hai had no idea which royal relative it was.
There were so many royal relatives in the Wu Zhou Dynasty. The eunuch Zhu Liren, who was beaten by Li Cunxi before, claimed to be a royal relative.
According to this group of people's philosophy, as long as you are related to the emperor, you are a royal relative.
For example, according to Zhu Liren's idea, Wu Sansi, the King of Liang of the Wu clan, was Zhu Liren's sister-in-law, so Zhu Liren was a relative of Wu Sansi, and Wu Sansi was a relative of Wu Zetian, so Zhu Liren was also a royal relative.
If we talk about the royal relatives of the Wu and Zhou dynasties, even if the relatives of the Wu and Li families are added together, the number of royal relatives today would still be in four digits.
However, in response to this explanation of royal relatives, Wu Zetian did not explicitly state that people like Zhu Liren were not considered royal relatives, so Zhu Liren's extortion of ministers became a common knowledge.
If you don't hand over the silver when you enter the court, the Zhuli people will pretend to pass on the imperial edict to you. Unless you are as shameless as Li Cunxi, you will not be able to escape the silver you received when you first entered the court.
Fortunately, the Zhu Guoqi in the court is no longer around. Ever since Li Cunxi and Wu Sansi had a falling out, Zhu Guoqi was sent to the Dali Temple. It was said that he was taken away by people from the Internal Guard and tortured to death.
Poor Zhu Liren's wife. It is said that as soon as Zhu Liren died, she was taken into Wu Sansi's room and they enjoyed music and dance every day.
Li Cunxi also had sufficient understanding of Wu Sansi.
I forgot where I read it, but Wu Sansi slept with his wife's elder sister, who was the wife of Ji Chu'ne, the Minister of the Imperial Household, and another elder sister of Zhu Liren.
Ji Chu'ne personally sent his wife to Wu Sansi's bed, and barely gained the official status of a royal relative, which was a rather rare thing.
Just as he was recalling the story of Wu Sansi sleeping with three beautiful women, the carriage Li Cunxi was riding in suddenly stopped.
Wu Yanhao put away the Analects in his hand, opened the curtain, got off the carriage first, and then reminded:
"Cunxi, come down."
Li Cunxi came back to his senses and glanced outside the curtain, and found that he had arrived at Bainiao Trading Company.
"Quite fast."
He muttered something, took Wu Yanhao's hand, and got off the carriage.
The shopkeeper of the Bainiao Trading Company branch was already standing outside. He had a bald head and was dressed in extremely gorgeous clothes. Just by looking at him, one would think that he was either rich or noble.
"Your Excellency has come to visit the Hundred Birds Trading Company. I am sorry for not welcoming you in person. I hope you will forgive me."
The bald man lowered his head respectfully and saluted Li Cunxi.
"I am Li Cunxi, the Shao Yin of Henan Prefecture. I am here to investigate the death of Yu Lei, the governor of Dengzhou."
Li Cunxi walked forward, looked down at the bald man, and a big smile appeared on his face.
"When the elders give orders, I will tell them everything I know."
The bald man was extremely humble. He lowered his head and did not dare to look at Li Cunxi.
Unable to see the man's face, Li Cunxi felt very bored. He left the man and winked at the evil spirit.
The demon spirit understood what was meant and waved towards the Bainiao Trading Company, and a group of guards holding the Night Walker Knives immediately filed in.
In just half a cup of tea, a figure hidden among the ordinary guards walked out and bowed to Li Cunxi.
"Li Shaoyin, the interior of the Bainiao Trading Company has been completely controlled. You can go in."
"Order people to guard this place and don't let anyone escape."
"Yes!"
Shadow led a few guards and stood outside the store, ready to defend the store.
Li Cunxi reached out and patted the bald man's head with a wild smile on his face.
"I haven't asked the shopkeeper yet. Your Bai Niao Trading Company should be just a branch, right? What do you call it?"
The shopkeeper was trembling and unwilling to look up, but Li Cunxi grabbed his scalp and forced him to lift up.
"In reply to Li Shaoyin, our Bai Niao Trading Company is indeed just a branch. The headquarters is not here. I am the shopkeeper here. My name is Wu Duo."
"You know what, I hate it most when people lower their heads when talking to me. I feel that this is disrespectful to me. I'm not scary. You lower your head not because you are afraid to face me, but because you are hiding something from me."
"I didn't do anything. I really am afraid of Li Shaoyin."
"Am I a scary person?" Li Cunxi asked with a grim smile.
"No, no, Li Shaoyin is approachable. It's the common people's problem."
A few meters away, Wu Yanhao lowered his voice and said to Li Yuanfang and others beside him:
"This must be a servant from one of my cousin's families, I guarantee it."
Li Yuanfang asked curiously, "Master Wu, this person's surname is Wu, so he is most likely your relative, right?"
"Relative? Is he worthy?" Wu Yanhao sneered.
"If they are not relatives, why is your last name Wu?"
"General Li, you don't know, these must be the servants of some relative who was exiled to Lingnan. Later, my father and his family were recalled by His Majesty, and these servants also came back. Because they never left, these people were given the surname Wu. All the servants and most of the guards in my family who are over 30 years old have the surname Wu."
When it comes to exile to Lingnan, Hu Jinghui has a lot to say.
His family was also a famous family in those days. You know the Taiyuan Wang family, there used to be two branches. Hu Jinghui's family was one of them, and the other was the family of Wang Xiao, Li Cunxi's childhood playmate.
Because of what his aunt Queen Wang did, all of Hu Jinghui's branch was exiled to Lingnan, leaving only Hu Jinghui.
If those slaves and servants from back then were still alive, they would probably be given the surname Wang.
The four of them were still chatting in low voices. Li Cunxi in front had had enough fun, so he let go of the bald shopkeeper Wu Duo and walked into the Bainiao Commercial House in a swagger.
Noticing this, the four of them quickly followed in.
The Bainiao Trading Company is indeed a large enterprise with presence in many states and counties. The main hall of its branch in Rang County alone can only be described as unusually spacious.
Li Cunxi made a comparison and found that even if the Xize Silver Bank in Yangzhou doubled in size, it could not be compared with the branch of Bainiao Trading Company.
"Li Shaoyin, I heard that you were coming here to inquire about the case, so I asked the servants to make tea. It must be the best tea of the spring. Please wait a moment."
Wu Duo walked past Li Cunxi in two or three steps, came inside, and asked Li Cunxi to sit down and talk.
Li Cunxi was not in a hurry, and deliberately made things difficult:
"Why did you ask me to wait, instead of asking them to sit down and wait?"
"You know, these two generals hold higher positions than me."