Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"Ruifeng Trading Company." Zhao Liangzhu was very smart. When he heard her words, he immediately realized that his previous investigation direction was wrong.

It was almost three months before he checked on those who spread the news, so his hope was slim. And those people were obviously instructed by someone to spread the news and disappeared long ago. But the caravans and merchants on that road were not fools, they would not take risks just because someone said a few words that could save time or make money.

In other words, there is a "middleman" between those who spread the news and the caravans and merchants. This middleman must know the person who spread the news and must be trusted by the caravans and merchants.

Only when we know and trust each other will we be willing to take risks.

After thinking this through, Zhao Liangzhu lamented why he hadn't thought of this before, and continued, "According to the two men, they heard the shopkeeper of Ruifeng Trading Company muttering that the caravans that traveled to the border made a lot of money, so they wanted to organize a caravan to travel. However, Ruifeng Trading Company only does buying and selling, and has never traveled goods. The shopkeeper was afraid of losing money, so he couldn't make up his mind. After discussing it privately, the two of them asked the shopkeeper where he got the news from. Then, according to what the shopkeeper said, they found the person who passed on the news. After carefully inquiring, they thought they could give it a try, so they discussed it with the shopkeeper and decided to go on this trip."

Chen Shao took out yesterday's list, asked the names of the two old friends he knew, and then took a pen and added the words "Ruifeng Trading Company" after their names.

His list was quite detailed, and he remembered clearly which caravan corresponded to which guide. Unfortunately, he only knew that these two old friends sold the goods to their old employers, and knew very little about the other caravans.

Chen Shao did not force him. After asking him a few more questions, he put the list away.

"Should we arrange a few more people to go and inquire?" Zhao Liangzhu asked.

"Not for now," Chen Shao refused. "When you sent people to inquire, the person who showed the way couldn't find his whereabouts, but many people in those caravans knew where he was. This proves that although those caravans don't obey the law, most of them are people who make a living by running goods. This is enough. Once you finish dealing with things here, it won't be too late to slowly investigate there."

Zhao Liangzhu felt relieved when he heard her say that, but suddenly he asked in shock, "Are you planning to leave Hongyuan County?"

Chen Shao had no intention of hiding it from him, so he said, "I probably can't leave for a while. I have to wait until everything at hand is arranged properly."

After a pause, he looked at him again and said, "During the time you were away, I entrusted the matter of growing medicinal herbs to Master Xu and the others. Have you visited them since you came back?"

Zhao Liangzhu nodded: "I have read it. After all, you are the master. You have considered it more thoroughly than I did, and your arrangements are more detailed and reasonable."

Chen Shao smiled and said, "I've been very busy lately, and I haven't had time to go and see it, but I plan to hand over the cultivation of medicinal herbs to him. He has students, so it's just right to teach them according to their aptitude. As for you, you've seen what's going on in Hongyuan County now, so I plan to let you be in charge of the market."

"Sir, are you talking about the two comprehensive shops that Miss Quan is planning?" Zhao Liangzhu sat up straight.

"Not only that," Chen Shao said, "there is also the city order."

Zhao Liangzhu sat up straighter. "I've never done this before, and I don't know much about it. If I take charge of this, I'm afraid..."

"There's no rush for this," Chen Shao said, "I'll ask Fu Jiu to call the current mayor over, and you can just learn from him. Anyway, the business in Hongyuan County is in ruins right now, so I'm not afraid of you starting from scratch."

Zhao Liangzhu did not refuse and said generously: "Then I will give it a try."

"Give it a try. I'll arrange two more students to be your assistants. As for the rest of the personnel arrangements, just like the Huimin Pharmacy, you can handle it yourself." After Chen Shao gave a brief explanation, he turned the topic to his trip to the border. "How many places did you visit this time?"

"Changming City, Tuoyu City, Kunlun Town, Butou City, Yunshui Town, Wen Town and Nanjiang City, a total of seven places," Zhao Liangzhu said, "the caravans that carry goods trade with the Shan Kingdom, and these are roughly the only seven places. Changming City, Tuoyu City and Kunlun Town are slightly larger, Yunshui Town and Nanjiang City are slightly smaller, and finally Butou City and Wen Town are the smallest. In addition to these seven places, I also met some merchants or people from the Shan Kingdom who came here to do business with the introduction of Ren Hanmin."

This caught Chen Shao's attention. "He only introduced you to these people?"

Zhao Liangzhu nodded. "He wanted to introduce me to some of the managers that the Shan generals had arranged to do business with them at the border. But for some reason, according to the merchants from Shan who came here to do business, the generals have withdrawn their people in the past two or three months."

It seems that it is the same road. The princelings of the previous dynasty calculated that she would arrange people to investigate along this line and prepared countermeasures early on.

Fortunately, she has already caught the clue that they are selling iron ore to the prince's party of the previous dynasty. As long as she finds more concrete evidence, she can directly question them. Then, she will not be afraid that they will not confess.

After asking Zhao Liangzhu a few more questions about the business situation in the seven towns, and asking him to stay for breakfast, Chen Shao asked Fu Jiu to follow him to find the mayor, and then he set off for Uncle Fang's house.

The news that Fang Shu was taken away and Ma San was also arrested was spreading rapidly in every alley of Shipailou.

Seeing her carriage coming again, many people who were still eating, despite the biting cold wind, still followed with their bowls in hand, vying for a chance to watch the fun.

Only after asking Chan Yi to distribute the reward money for helping to capture Ma San yesterday did Chen Shao enter Uncle Fang's courtyard.

The small courtyard had been surrounded by Yulin Guards and yamen runners, and the people who kept moving forward were stopped outside.

Chen Shao glanced at the courtyard and saw that it was no different from yesterday, so he lifted the curtain and went into the house. He walked around several rooms and found no obvious entrance to the cellar, so he simply told Li Tianliu, "Arrange someone to search."

Li Tianliu waved his hand, and more than a dozen Yulin guards immediately dispersed to various rooms and started knocking and hammering.

While they were looking for the entrance, Chen Shao turned around and went to the kitchen.

Fang Shu said that the kitchen knives and axes in the house were brought back by Manager Lin and his team. In other words, they not only forged knives and swords, but also forged utensils. She had to take a closer look to see what characteristics these utensils they forged had.

There are three knives in the kitchen, an ordinary kitchen knife, a boning knife, and a boning knife.

None of the three knives had numbers, but the casting level was extremely high. Chen Shao could not tell the difference between the craftsmanship, so he gave them all to Li Tianliu and asked him to identify them.

As Li Tianliu was looking through it carefully, a shout suddenly came from the inner room: "Found it, the entrance is here!"