Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 516 Li Shishi's Win-Win
Pei Yuan was so greedy for Jiao Yan'er's beauty that he didn't care that he had succeeded many times. He didn't rest until he was exhausted and lazily hugged the sweaty little beauty.

Just when Pei Yuan was about to get up and wipe it, a maid outside reported that a general named Chen Xinjian wanted to see him.

Pei Yuan remembered the importance of the secret letter and whispered to Jiao Yan'er, "I'll go out for a while."

Jiao Yaner responded lazily.

Pei Yuan simply wrapped himself in an outer robe and went to meet Chen Xinjian.

Chen Xinjian was already waiting at the door of the back house. When he saw Pei Yuan coming, he respectfully presented the secret letter to him.

Pei Yuan took it and unfolded it, but it was very dark at night.

Pei Yuan subconsciously looked up and saw that the sky was gloomy, so he said to Chen Xinjian, "It looks like it's going to rain, so be careful when you go back."

Chen Xinjian looked at the sky and replied, "I'm not leaving tonight. I'm going to go and meet the guys on duty in the front yard."

Pei Yuan nodded, put away the secret letter, and returned to his room.

Pei Yuan took off the outer robe that was wrapped around him casually, took the secret letter and looked at it slowly under the lamp.

Xia Ru and his son fully understood Pei Yuan's meaning.

In addition to containing many details that were enough to gain Queen Xia's trust, this secret letter also repeatedly emphasized the need for Queen Xia to give a reply after mentioning the palace secret.

In addition, Xia Ru also had the idea of ​​dragging Shouning Marquis to take the blame if something really happened. In the article, he wrote in great detail about the coercion of Shouning Marquis and his minions, packaging his actions as something he had to do.

Pei Yuan guessed that if this letter had not been shown to him, his name would probably have been on the list of people to be implicated.

However, since Xia Ru wrote this, he naturally intended to make a show of force and frighten others.

If Pei Yuan used this handle at will, they would definitely drag Pei Yuan into the water.

Pei Yuan looked at it again and again for a while, but couldn't see any problem.

But thinking of Xia Ru's cautious attitude before, Pei Yuan also felt that this matter was a bit risky.

Originally, he planned to use the power of the Xiao family to accomplish this task, but now he thought that if such a handle passed through the hands of the Xiao family, wouldn’t it also become a handle for the Xiao family to control him?

Pei Yuan thought about it and hesitated for a moment.

Jiao Yan'er, who was originally lying on the bed to rest, looked at something under the lamp and pondered silently after seeing Pei Yuan coming back.

He turned his head and lay on his side looking at Pei Yuan.

Perhaps it was because the gaze did have a strange power, Pei Yuan quickly noticed Jiao Yaner. He smiled and asked, "Do you want to get up and wash?"

Jiao Yan'er said shyly, "I'll do it myself later."

Pei Yuan felt the emptiness in his body and reflected on himself silently.

This time when we come back, the rain and dew should be evenly distributed so that we can plant widely and reap a good harvest.

I didn't even ask about the date and just wasted it all on this little girl.

Thinking about having to deal with Song Chunniang tomorrow, Pei Yuan really wished he could have a son earlier so he could get rid of this anxiety sooner.

Pei Yuan looked at the secret letter in his hand and asked Jiao Yaner, "How is your handwriting?"

Jiao Yan'er looked at Pei Yuan and asked speechlessly, "What do you think, my husband?"

Pei Yuan smiled.

Considering Jiao Yaner's family background, this statement was indeed presumptuous.

Pei Yuan handed over the secret letter in his hand, and Jiao Yan'er stretched out an arm from the thin blanket and subconsciously reached out to take it.

Pei Yuan looked at the scenery that suddenly appeared in the thin blanket. Even though he had no strength to fight anymore, he still squeezed back onto the couch and slowly caressed it.

Jiao Yan'er dodged for a few times in anger, then let him hold it while she read the secret letter.

Looking at the wording and some of the addresses in the letter, Jiao Yan'er only took a few glances and then looked at Pei Yuan in disbelief.

"This is?"

Pei Yuan did not hide it from Jiao Yan'er and told her the truth, "This was written by Xia Ru, the Earl of Qingyang, and it was to be sent to the palace."

Upon hearing this, Jiao Yaner quickly read the entire secret letter.

Then he looked at Pei Yuan in surprise, "How did the letter from Lord Qingyang fall into your hands? This is something that can kill the Xia family!"

Pei Yuan shrank down, buried his head in the arms of the little beauty, and said slowly and vaguely, "I asked him to write it."

Jiao Yan'er had already gotten used to Pei Yuan's little tricks, and her attention was mostly on the letter. She moved her eyes slightly and asked tentatively, "Did you find any evidence against Lord Qingyang?"

Pei Yuan smiled and gestured, "Isn't that right? He gave me this handle so that I could save his whole family."

Jiao Yan'er had slowly figured it out. She looked at the contents of the letter and asked seriously, "Are you planning to blackmail Queen Xia?"

Pei Yuan said lazily and casually, "I have this idea, but I haven't thought it through yet."

Then, Pei Yuan looked at Jiao Yan'er strangely.

Jiao Yaner looked back in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Pei Yuan asked, "Why aren't you surprised?"

Jiao Yaner had already connected this incident with the fragments of memories in her mind, so she was certainly not surprised.

The only thing that surprised her was that Pei Yuan's audacious plan was being pushed forward so vigorously, and he was even about to get the upper hand over the Queen.

Yes, sending the child into the palace is only the first step, and someone must push the plan forward afterwards.

It is naturally impossible to rely on Pei Yuan, an outsider.

When Jiao Yan'er saw Queen Xia mentioned in the letter, she realized that this must be the adoptive mother chosen by Pei Yuan for his child.

Thinking of Queen Xia's situation, Jiao Yan'er also felt that this candidate was very likely.

If Zhu Houzhao had no children and the time came to repeat the experience of Emperor Chenghua, as long as Empress Xia was smart enough, she would definitely stand up to support the child even without these threats.

Because as long as Zhu Houzhao had a son, no matter where the child came from, she, as the child's biological mother, would naturally become the child's guardian.

After Zhu Houzhao passed away, she became the empress dowager.

But if there is no such child, and the imperial power falls into the hands of a side branch, what is the point of her being a childless queen?
Even if it was just to be true to her own interests, Queen Xia knew what to do.

Pei Yuan's move now only increased his confidence.

Jiao Yan'er thought quickly in her mind, but she responded lightly, "Why should I be surprised? You even dare to collude with the Bazhou rebels, what else are you afraid of?"

Pei Yuan laughed and ordered, "Recopy this letter, and then..."

Pei Yuan paused, thought about it, and felt uneasy about entrusting the letter to someone else. He couldn't carry such a life-threatening thing with him, so he said, "Then you keep the original letter." Jiao Yan'er agreed after hearing that.

It was her first time to participate in such an event, and she was eager to try it out.

She patted Pei Yuan's head.

Pei Yuan stood up and let her up.

Then he thought of something else and added, "I'm not sure when I'll be able to use this letter. When you copy it, leave some key information that can be used to guess your identity blank and write the rest first. I'll add it myself when I need it."

Jiao Yan'er's eyes lit up and she smiled, "My husband, that's a good idea. I'll have to think about it carefully."

Pei Yuan simply washed himself, thinking that he would have to deal with Song Chunniang tomorrow, so he didn't dare to skip a meal, and went to the outer room to have a good meal.

After eating and drinking, they returned to the room, only to see Jiao Yan'er still sitting on the bed, looking intently at the secret letter.

It is indeed a troublesome task to hide the key information in such a secret letter by erasing a few words.

Pei Yuan advised, "I'll leave the things here with you anyway. When you have time tomorrow, you can slowly think about it."

Jiao Yan'er didn't say anything, as if she had an idea, and she used her fingers to cover the words on the secret letter from time to time.

Pei Yuan felt a little sleepy, so he squeezed in and lay down on the bed. Amid Jiao Yan'er's scolding, he half-huggled the little beauty Jiao and fell asleep.

The next morning, when Pei Yuan woke up, Jiao Yan'er was no longer on the bed.

Perhaps she heard the noise in the room, Jiao Yaner asked through the curtain in the main room, "Is my husband awake?"

Pei Yuan hummed and looked for the clothes he had changed yesterday.

After just a quick glance around the room, Jiao Yan'er came in with brand new clothes.

Pei Yuan took it with a smile and put on his clothes with the help of Jiao Yan'er.

As soon as I came out of the side room, a maid came over with some water and handed me a soaked towel.

Pei Yuan thought about the money he was going to take from Qianhu Suo, and said to Jiao Yaner, "There will be a sum of money coming in these days, you should collect it when the time comes. Bi Jun will explain to you the details of the money when the time comes."

Jiao Yan'er didn't ask any more questions and asked someone to bring breakfast for Pei Yuan.

After a while, a maid brought a food box and carefully placed the food on the table.

Jiao Yan'er always felt that she was marrying a warrior, so the meals she asked people to prepare were not of the delicate kind. There were ducks, fried fish, and large pieces of braised meat.

In addition, there is a large bowl of rice made with chopped green onion, ginger and stewed goose meat.

Pei Yuan had a hearty meal and drank a small bowl of sweet wine to relieve his greasiness. He couldn't help but sigh for the past.

Jiao Yan'er asked the maid to pack up the things and asked everyone to leave before she handed the two pieces of paper to Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan took it and looked at it for a few seconds, and immediately admired Jiao Yaner's clever idea.

It turned out that she had split yesterday's secret letter into two parts, and put the fatal content in the first part. There was nothing in this secret letter to prove her identity, so there was no way to find out.

All the things that the Xia father and son used to gain the trust of Queen Xia were placed in the second secret letter, and some sensitive key points were left blank.

Jiao Yan'er explained to Pei Yuan, "First, have someone send the troublesome letter to Queen Xia. After Queen Xia has read it, burn that letter. After confirming that it is safe, have someone send the second letter to Queen Xia and ask for her reply."

"In this way, even if there is a problem, we can cut it off in time to avoid causing trouble."

Pei Yuan put away the first letter and handed the second letter to Jiao Yaner, "Please keep this and the original. I will ask you for it when I need it."

Seeing Pei Yuan stand up, Jiao Yan'er asked reluctantly, "My husband just came back from Shandong, don't you want to rest for a few more days?"

Pei Yuan wanted to take a rest, but his small group was still in the struggle period and he didn't have many useful subordinates, so he could only continue to work as a slave behind the scenes.

Pei Yuan hugged the little beauty Jiao and comforted her, "In a few years, when my foundation is established, I will be able to enjoy a more leisurely life."

Pei Yuan called Bi Jun and asked Bi Jun to meet Jiao Yaner.

At the same time, she told him clearly that all the affairs of the family, big or small, would be taken care of by the young lady.

If she has any instructions, you must obey them. If it is difficult to solve, you can also ask Cheng Zhihu or the Jinyiwei on duty for help.

Well, soldiers from the Beijing Garrison were borrowed by various officials to serve as servants, which was considered basic practice in this era.

Some time ago, in order to select elite troops for training, Zhu Houzhao asked He Huan to count the troops in Beijing. It turned out that there were more than 100,000 soldiers in the entire Beijing camp alone, who were seconded to various government offices to serve as hard laborers.

Pei Yuan placed some Jinyiwei to guard his house, which was very rustic and there was nothing wrong with it.

When Pei Yuan arrived at the front yard, Chen Xinjian immediately came over to take orders.

Pei Yuan asked him, "Is Li Shishi still in Dongyue Temple?"

In the two days since Chen Xinjian came back, he has gathered a lot of intelligence in the capital. Upon hearing this, he said, "Li Daduxian has left Dongyue Temple and moved to his new house."

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said, "In this case, we should not be estranged. Please send a visiting card for me and tell him that I have returned from Shandong and will go to my brother's new home to get to know him in the evening."

Chen Xinjian quickly took note of this matter.

Pei Yuan went to find Li Shishi, naturally in order to pass the three levels.

Originally, Pei Yuan focused his energy on Shandong and did not want to get involved in Prince Ning's affairs anymore. However, he met Liu Pang, the doctor of ceremonies, the day before yesterday and formed a good relationship with Liu Pang, which made Pei Yuan have more ideas.

If Shandong is to be governed, in addition to continuing to open up the soybean industry chain, the cotton that was accidentally encouraged by the powerful last time to be planted in large quantities has become another fulcrum for leveraging Shandong's power.

However, Shandong's cotton cloth production technology is backward and there are not enough craftsmen, so the cost of making cotton cloth is much higher.

If you want to profit from it, you can only play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, combining cotton cloth and cotton wool to make thick cotton clothes.

In addition to being sold to Liaodong, the best dumping targets for cotton-padded clothes are naturally Japan and North Korea.

These two places are at high latitudes and are very cold in winter.

However, Pei Yuan was still completely clueless about the situation in these two countries. Even if he wanted to use Liaodong to engage in smuggling, he had no suitable trading partners.

In this era, if one wanted to contact people from these two countries in advance, the best way was naturally through the Ministry of Rites.

If Li Shishi wanted to get through the three levels, he would have to use his connections to get rid of Liu Pang, the doctor of the Ministry of Rites, who was in the way.

Since Li Shishi was going to move the person away anyway, why not do him a favor and move Liu Pang to the Ministry of Guests and Guests?

Pei Yuan had just done good things for Liu Pang when he came back. Since they have this friendship, it shouldn't be a problem for him to help introduce him to Liu Pang.

In this way, Li Shishi can not only pass the first level smoothly, but also get his favor. Isn't it killing two birds with one stone and letting Li Shishi win twice?

Pei Yuan looked at the sky and couldn't help but want to tell him the good news as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)