Chapter 468: Unraveling the Mystery! (Thanks to book friend JIA. for the reward!)
Ye Mingsheng, who had changed his clothes, walked into the study. When Huo San saw Ye Mingsheng coming in, he immediately bowed to greet him.

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng smiled and waved his hand to signal him to sit down and asked casually:
"Are you anxious to wait?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Huo San shook his head and said respectfully:
"Your Excellency is very busy, I am sorry that I came here too early..."

After saying a few simple words, Huo San began to introduce the recent intelligence work of the Coordination Office to Ye Mingsheng.

"Everything is normal in Youyan area at present. Under the order of Zhao Fuqu, Youyan is preparing to transport a large number of supplies to Yunbing. In addition, we have also heard that the top leaders of the Yan army are planning to recruit 20,000 soldiers to Yunbing after the spring. It seems that Zhao Fuqu is not willing to maintain the current situation in Yunbing. He still wants to swallow Yunbing."

"Also, according to your instructions, we have been secretly monitoring Gu Shouting for a period of time and have not found anything unusual. However, the Supervisory Department's spies in Yijing have been taking action recently. It is not clear what their purpose is, but our people in Yijing are trying to find out their movements as soon as possible."

After hearing this, Ye Mingsheng did not respond and continued to ask:
"Have you investigated the details of how powerful Gu Shouting is in Youyan?"

"Yes, according to our investigation, in addition to an old subordinate named Sun Xingcheng in Jizhou, Gu Shouting also had a close friend Zhang Hongxiang when he was studying. This person is the eldest son of Zhang Hu, a former general of the Yan army."

“Zhang Hu originally wanted Zhang Hongxiang to study and become a civil servant, but because Zhang Hongxiang was not very good at studying, he finally gave up literature and turned to military affairs. Now, with the help of Zhang Hu’s connections, he is also a commander of the Yan army, with 5,000 soldiers under his command, and his garrison is in Yijing…”

Hearing that Zhang Hongxiang was stationed in Yijing, Ye Mingsheng became interested and asked:
"Do you think Gu Shouting can influence Zhang Hu? For example, if you ask Gu Shouting to write a letter to Zhang Hu persuading him to surrender, will Zhang Hu listen to Gu Shouting?"

Huo San was not surprised by Ye Mingsheng's question, but he considered his words and said very carefully:
"Zhang Hongxiang and Gu Shouting have a very good relationship. A few years ago, when the Luobei people invaded Youyan, Zhang Hongxiang's troops were trapped by the Luobei people on a small hill called Sanchakou. They were almost eaten by the Luobei people. It was Gu Shouting who rescued him despite the danger."

"Later, when Gu Shouting got into trouble, Zhang Hu also ran around, begging my father Zhang Hu to persuade Zhao Fuqu. The two of them were friends who had risked their lives for each other. I think that if our army had the upper hand and Gu Shouting wrote a letter to Zhang Hongxiang, then Zhang Hongxiang might be willing to be an insider..."

Ye Mingsheng began to think after hearing this. Gu Shouting was now an uncertain factor in his plan to enter the country. However, since the Coordination Office had not found any solid evidence that this person was connected to the Supervisory Department, Ye Mingsheng was willing to trust him to a limited extent. After all, from now on, there was still a lot of value to be tapped from Gu Shouting and the Gu family behind him.

Since he wants to dominate the world and use the world as a chessboard to play against others, Ye Mingsheng will not be afraid of risks. However, if he wants to take risks, then there must be benefits behind these risks that can match them!
"You can try to send someone to speed up the contact with Gu Shouting, but don't activate Sun Xingcheng first!" Ye Mingsheng looked up at Huo San and ordered.
After such a long period of preparation, Ye Mingsheng was still confident that he could take Jizhou in the first battle after entering the Pass. If Sun Xingcheng was used, it might make people think of Gu Shouting, which would trigger a series of chain reactions and eventually lead to Zhang Hongxiang being transferred...

Although the possibility is not too high, Ye Mingsheng is still unwilling to take risks for it. He prefers to play the long game and catch the big fish. Jizhou is just an appetizer, and Yijing is the real highlight. If he can capture Yijing, he, Ye, will basically be invincible in this battle!
"Yes!"

Huo San nodded and replied:

"How is Xu Zhaojie in Anqing doing recently?"

After picking up the teacup, Ye Mingsheng took a sip, then asked nonchalantly:
Listening to Ye Mingsheng's question, Huo San began to narrate:

"After you allocated special funds, the Coordination Office selected a team of capable personnel and sent them to Anqing specifically for Xu Zhaojie. We have already heard that Xu Zhaojie has defected to Feng Keqin, the governor of Huainan, and with the help of Feng Keqin, he killed Chen Chongshan, a local official from Anqing. Now he has completely taken control of Anqing. With the help of Feng Keqin, Xu Zhaojie is preparing to assist Feng Keqin in dealing with Cao Changping, the Inspector General of Qi and Lu..."

After Huo San finished speaking, Ye Mingsheng narrowed his eyes slightly, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Ever since he learned that Xu Zhaojie went to Anqing, Ye Mingsheng had a vague premonition in his heart for some reason that not only would he and his former boss definitely meet again, but that he would also become the biggest stumbling block in his struggle for supremacy. This feeling was so strong that Ye Mingsheng would think of it from time to time.

In the past, Ye Mingsheng did not particularly believe in premonitions, but after experiencing this series of events, he gradually began to believe in them. It was for this reason that Ye Mingsheng, despite his own limited finances, specially spent a special fund to allow the Coordination Office to send personnel to Anqing, just to take the lead in making arrangements and strike first!

Now it seems that Xu Zhaojie did not disappoint Ye Mingsheng. He led only a few thousand people to deal with Anqing, which was surrounded by wolves. It turned out that he was worthy of being the Marquis of Zhenyuan of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He still had some capabilities.

Huo San watched quietly from the corner of his eye. Ye Mingsheng, who looked calm in front of him, tried to see what was in Ye Mingsheng's mind through his expression.

As the head of the intelligence department in charge of the Coordination Office, he certainly knew about the grievances between his master Ye Mingsheng and Xu Zhaojie. So even though he couldn't tell Ye Mingsheng's true thoughts from his expression, Huo San hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively:

“My lord, the people I sent to Anqing are all very capable guys, and some of them are very skilled, so do you think you should let them kill Xu Zhaojie…”

After saying this, Ye Mingsheng smiled and asked:

"Xu Zhaojie is surrounded by many experts who protect him, and he is also good at martial arts. How confident are you that you can kill him?"

Huo San hesitated for a moment, but in order not to lose face in front of Ye Mingsheng, he said in a deep voice: "We may not be very sure, but our coordination department is not a pushover, we still have 50% confidence!"

Ye Mingsheng said without comment:
"If there is a good opportunity, Huo San, you can have someone try, but don't act rashly or just for the sake of action. The most important task of your Coordination Office in Anqing right now is to create trouble for Xu Zhaojie. He just arrived in Anqing and is unfamiliar with the place. He will definitely recruit people to prepare for battle. Now is a good opportunity to get into his inner circle."

"Understood!" Huo San nodded and said:
After discussing the situation in Youyan and Anqing, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment and asked:
"Did Xue Laowu, the man Ye Cheng caught, confess in your coordination office?"

After Xue Laowu bit his tongue and committed suicide, although Ye Cheng wanted to take the credit for himself, he was not blinded by greed. Instead, he realized that the matter was of great importance and it was not something that a small housekeeper like him could handle, so he reported it to An Miaoyi that day...
An Miaoyi was also very surprised at the development of this matter. She thought that Wang Gui's behavior was just a personal one and never expected that there was such a conspiracy behind it. In order to avoid any delays, she immediately found Ye Mingsheng to explain the whole story. After Ye Mingsheng knew about it, he handed the matter over to Huo San to handle.

Hearing Ye Mingsheng talking about this, Huo San showed a hint of hesitation, but still lowered his head and said:
"Your Excellency, Xue Laowu's family was controlled by the mastermind, so in order to protect his family, he has been unwilling to change his ways in prison and has been seeking death. In addition, he is old and suffers from heart disease. So yesterday, his men accidentally tortured him too harshly, and when we found him, he was already dead..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng looked at Huo San deeply and said in a deep voice:
"Xue Laowu is just a chess piece, and he is a death row inmate, so he is dead. But have you, Huo San, found out who is behind him?"

Feeling the unkindness in Ye Mingsheng's words, Huo San became a little uneasy. He took a deep breath and said:

"Your Excellency, we didn't find anything on Xue Laowu, but we found some clues among the Censors!"

"speak!"

"According to our investigation, when you issued an instruction last year to deal with Xue Laowu and his group of prisoners strictly and severely, although Lord Murong had already taken office as the Censor, he had only been in office for three days. Lord Murong was still familiar with the personnel and procedures of the Censorate at that time."

“Because you asked for it to be handled as soon as possible, Lord Murong did not dare to delay and signed the approval document to confirm. Therefore, from a procedural point of view, this matter was indeed handled by Lord Murong as the Censor, but the actual person in charge of this matter was Zhu Xiaowen, the Assistant Censor…”

Ye Mingsheng remembered the name after a moment and asked:

"Is that Cui Shao's nephew-in-law?"

Huo San nodded and confirmed:
"Yes, sir, it is this Zhu Xiaowen. He married the youngest daughter of Lord Cui's second brother. He was also promoted by Lord Cui when he was working in the Censorate. He has a very close relationship with Lord Cui. You met him on the day you and your wife got married!"

After Huo San finished speaking, Ye Mingsheng also recalled the tall and thin Zhu Xiaowen who looked very gentle. He hesitated for a moment and asked again:
"You mean Zhu Xiaowen did this? Was Cui Shao involved behind the scenes?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Huo San continued to explain:

"Sir, please listen to what I have to say. After learning that Zhu Xiaowen was the person in charge, we secretly controlled Zhu Xiaowen. I met him two days ago. According to his account, when Xue Laowu was prosecuted, Xue Laowu's eldest son Xue Cong did find him and offered 10,000 taels of silver to ask him to show leniency to Xue Laowu..."

"But Lord Zhu has clearly rejected him. According to our investigation, Zhu Xiaowen's confession is correct. He did not accept the money and did not show leniency to Xue Laowu!"

"The clues were cut off here, but according to our further investigation, we found that Zhu Xiaowen did not lie about Xue Cong. But what he did not say was that after he rejected Xue Cong, someone approached him and tried to intercede for Xue Laowu!"

"And this person is Zhu Xiaowen's brother-in-law Liu Fushan. Zhu Xiaowen's parents died early due to illness when he was young. As the eldest brother, he has a very good relationship with his sister Zhu Shanshan. So because of his sister, Zhu Xiaowen also takes good care of Liu Fushan and arranges a job for him in Dadongsheng Company through his connections!"

"After finding this out, we immediately arrested Liu Fushan. However, during the arrest, we encountered some assassins who wanted to silence Liu Fushan. After we stopped them, they saw that they could not escape, so in order to avoid falling into our hands, they bit the poisonous teeth in their mouths and committed suicide..."

"After successfully arresting Liu Fushan, we immediately conducted a surprise investigation on him. According to his confession, the reason why he asked Zhu Xiaowen to plead for Xue Laowu was because he was instructed by his superior at Dadongsheng Company. His superior was named Wang Weiyu. His mother's surname was Yun and she was a branch of the Yun family. It was because of the Yun family that Wang Weiyu was able to work at Dadongsheng."

"Wang Weiyu promised Liu Fushan that if he could successfully persuade Zhu Xiaowen to release Xue Laowu, he would give Liu Fushan 500 taels of silver and promote Liu Fushan to be his deputy. Liu Fushan went to Zhu Xiaowen to plead for mercy under his inducement, but Zhu Xiaowen not only refused his request, but also scolded Liu Fushan!"

"After hitting a wall with Zhu Xiaowen, Liu Fushan was still unwilling to give up, so he secretly found Chen Jiang, an experienced subordinate of Zhu Xiaowen, and took advantage of his relationship with Zhu Xiaowen to falsely pass on Zhu Xiaowen's order to have Chen Jiang replace the crown prince with a cat, secretly release Xue Laowu, and find a scapegoat to replace Xue Laowu!"

"After getting Chen Fushan's confession, we immediately went to Wang Weiyu's home, but we were still a step too late. Wang Weiyu was already dead. Not only was he dead, but his mother, wives, concubines, and children, a total of eight people, were also dead. In addition, we also found his suicide note in his home. In the suicide note, he claimed that he committed suicide out of fear of punishment. The reason why he wanted to save Xue Laowu was because he used his position in the Dadongsheng Company to help Xue Laowu with usury..."

(End of this chapter)