Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 236 Different approaches but similar results
Winter is coming, and heavy snow is falling in Shanxi. It is white everywhere. The second year of Tianqi is about to pass.

Feng Quan had returned to Beijing the day before yesterday. He came quietly and left quietly. Except for Zhu Shenzhui and a few others, no one knew that Feng Quan had ever been to Shanxi, let alone his purpose of coming.

The trouble caused by the Imperial Censor Liu Ce was finally settled. Although Feng Quan did not say it clearly when he left, he told Zhu Shenzhui in other ways that the matter was over. Moreover, Feng Quan would not cause trouble for Zhu Shenzhui after returning to Beijing. On the contrary, he would help the Shanxi royal family and say something good about them, such as saying that the Shanxi royal family was in financial difficulty due to the salary arrears.

These are all real. Feng Quan even made a copy of the booklet recorded by Zhu Shenzhu and submitted it to the emperor after returning to Beijing. As for the issue of royal family smuggling, there was naturally no real evidence. However, Feng Quan found that some merchants in Shanxi colluded with court officials to privately sell private salt and smuggle it outside the Great Wall. This evidence is also real. Of course, there is no need to ask about the source of the evidence. Anyway, it was either found by Feng Quan himself or revealed to him by "interested people".

Although the officials involved were not of high rank, they all had one thing in common, that is, they were more or less associated with the Donglin Party. Of course, Feng Quan was not stupid and would not directly say that these officials were members of the Donglin Party, or that the Donglin Party colluded with local businessmen, or even that they were the backers of these businessmen.

But with these evidences in hand, if we dig deeper we will naturally find something. As for how to dig deeper and who will do the digging, that is not Feng Quan's responsibility. It depends on the emperor's intention.

Or it could be said that it was not only the emperor who meant this, but also eunuch Wei Zhongxian.

That's right, Feng Quan finally found a way to get in touch with Eunuch Wei. Of course, this method was definitely not done by Zhu Shenzhui himself, but Feng Quan remembered this favor from Zhu Shenzhui. We are all smart people, and some things don't need to be said clearly, they can just be tacitly understood.

After sending Feng Quan away, Zhu Shenzhui was relieved. Fortunately, Zhang Xijun informed him in advance, otherwise he would be in big trouble. It was a good move to let Zhang Xijun go to the capital. Although Zhang Xijun was far away in the capital, his role was no less important. If Zhang Xijun had not been there, Zhu Shenzhui might have fallen flat on his face this time.

Not only was the news informed in advance, but it was also Zhang Xijun who helped to bring back the matter of Feng Quan and his son. Zhu Shenzhu even suspected that Feng Shengming's matter happened at this time instead of earlier. Perhaps Zhang Xijun was behind it.

How could it be such a coincidence that Feng Quan had just left Beijing for Shanxi, and right after that, someone impeached Feng Shengming?
However, Zhu Shenzhu did not want to ask what the truth was. Although Zhang Xijun was his man, he would not control Zhang Xijun too strictly. He only needed to know that Zhang Xijun was working for him. As for how he did it, Zhu Shenzhu did not care. The key was the result. Just like a table of delicious food, if you want to eat it well, do you still need to know the chef who cooked it? Or even figure out how the chef made it?
Although Liu Ce's incident had passed and he was safe in the end, it also gave Zhu Shenzhu a reminder.

This matter is very strange. Logically speaking, Zhu Shenzhui set up Hengtong Trading Company in Shanxi, privately sold contraband salt and engaged in smuggling with Mongolia, which indeed violated the rules of the court. However, there were many people doing such things in Shanxi, and Hengtong was just one of them, and not the largest one, and it was far from reaching the extremely large scale and complete monopoly.

Everyone is doing business, and everyone has their own channels. You do yours and I do mine, and we don't interfere with each other. But this time, Liu Ce took the opportunity to impeach Xu Shaoji, the governor of Shanxi, and directly implicated himself, which was very unusual.

Thinking back to the previous caravan being attacked on the grassland and the mastermind behind the attack who had not been found so far, Zhu Shenzui couldn't help but connect these things together. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that there was the same black hand behind all these things, and the target of this black hand was none other than himself.

How could it be such a coincidence? A while ago, a caravan was attacked on the grassland, and then a small merchant bribed the deputy captain of the caravan. When the clue pointed to this small merchant, the merchant's family suddenly disappeared without a trace. Then, the censor Liu Ce used the excuse of impeachment to drag himself into it, thus attracting Feng Quan.

Although these things were settled one by one, the matter was not fundamentally over. Feng Quan went back, but who was the one who instigated these things? Zhu Shenzhu suspected that the real instigator of these things should be his peers in Shanxi, but there were numerous Shanxi merchants of all sizes, and there were also many powerful businesses. After eliminating them one by one, there were several who were capable of doing these things and could also hook up with the Donglin Party.

It couldn't be that all these Shanxi merchants did it together? It was impossible to think about it, but who was it? Was it one of them? Zhu Shenzhu had no way to investigate for a while, although he knew that Liu Ce must know, after all, it was Liu Ce who submitted the memorial.

How could Liu Ce, a censor in Beijing, know about himself? And even report his affairs to the emperor? If no one told him these things, Liu Ce would never know. As long as Liu Ce told who gave him the information and who intended to throw dirty water on him, the shadow behind it would be revealed.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way that Liu Ce would tell the truth, so starting from Liu Ce's side would not work.

"Brother-in-law, it's your turn!" Zhu Shenzhui was distracted for a moment with something on his mind. Xu Xiancheng, who was playing chess with him, had been making his move for a while, but Zhu Shenzhui, who was sitting opposite him, had not made his move yet. He was holding the chess piece in his hand, concentrating and wondering what he was thinking about.

After waiting for a while, Xu Xiancheng couldn't help but remind him. Zhu Shenzhui came back to his senses and looked at the chessboard, stretched out his hand and wrote a word.

"Brother-in-law, are you worried?" Seeing that Zhu Shenzhui's move was plain and not a move made after long consideration, Xu Xiancheng responded and looked up and asked with concern. Zhu Shenzhui smiled and shook his head, "I'm thinking about some business matters, some small things."

"Oh..." Xu Xiancheng replied, and after thinking for a moment, he asked, "Hasn't the business at my brother-in-law's store always been good? Could it be that there is something bothering you?"

Zhu Shenzhui originally wanted to find an excuse to get away with it. After all, not many people knew about Hengtong Trading Company's affairs. Xu Jingqiu knew about it, but he had not told Xu Xiancheng. The Xu family only knew that Zhu Shenzhui had a store business and a hundred acres of real estate outside the city, but they were not sure about anything else.

But when the words came to Zhu Shenzhui's lips, his heart moved slightly. After these days of contact, he got to know his brother-in-law quite well. Although Xu Xiancheng was not very old, he was mature for his age and especially smart. Sometimes he would have some quite innovative ideas in his conversation. Zhu Shenzhui had not thought of a better solution for this matter for the time being, so he might as well listen to his opinion.

Zhu Shenzhui immediately talked about what happened to Hengtong Commercial Bank in terms of business matters. Of course, he would not mention the attack on the caravan and Liu Ce's situation, let alone Feng Quan's previous order to come to Shanxi to investigate. He was afraid that Xu Xiancheng would be too worried if he told him these things, and it would be even worse if the news reached Xu Jingqiu.

So Zhu Shenzhui just said that his shop had good business, but it attracted the jealousy of his peers, which led to some of his peers secretly doing things behind his back, intending to cause trouble for him. Although there were no problems for the time being because of his identity and proper response, it would eventually be a troublesome matter if it continued for a long time.

As the saying goes, there is no way to prevent thieves from thieves far away. Being passive all the time is not a good thing. But the problem is that it is not possible to find out who is the final culprit, and the other party is not without background, which makes Zhu Shenzhui a little difficult.

Xu Xiancheng listened to Zhu Shenzhui's story quietly, and thought about it. After Zhu Shenzhui finished speaking, Xu Xiancheng thought for a while and asked back: "Brother-in-law, from what you said, it seems that someone is causing trouble for you, right? And we can't find out who this person is?"

"That's about right. Although it's not a big problem, it still happens from time to time, which is a problem over time. The key is that I can't find out who is behind this for a while, which is what worries me."

"Haha, I thought it was something else. My brother-in-law was worried about this after all this fuss."

"What? Do you have a solution?" Seeing Xu Xiancheng laughing, Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Xu Xiancheng smiled faintly: "If you want to investigate the case, I am not a county magistrate, nor am I an expert in criminal cases. I am naturally not proficient in investigating this matter. I cannot find out who is behind this. However, there are some ways to solve your current troubles, brother-in-law. I wonder if you would like to hear them?"

"Hahaha, we are all family, why are you trying to be mysterious with me? Just say whatever you want to say." Zhu Shenzhui laughed.

Xu Xiancheng also laughed suddenly, and he and Zhu Shenzhu laughed a few times. Then he said, "I don't understand business, but I don't think this matter is difficult to solve. I have read a lot of military books from my brother-in-law these days, and I have a lot of insights into military affairs. The major issues in the world are nothing more than the word "interest", which is true for business and military tactics."

"Sun Tzu's Art of War says, 'Those who know win, those who don't win'. This is exactly what he meant. Another saying goes, 'Those who plan more win, those who plan less lose, let alone those who don't plan at all? It's natural for the other party to suffer a little when they use their plans to face my brother-in-law's lack of plans. Now that my brother-in-law has plans, the other party's plans won't have much effect."

"Indeed, whether it is calculated or not, the key lies in victory or defeat. This is true in the art of war, and I think it is also true in the way of business. Now, we cannot know who is the one who calculated it. Although it is a bit troublesome, it is not difficult to solve it."

"Brother-in-law, as a member of the royal family, his status and position are naturally different, and there are people behind him, which is your advantage. In addition, the other party is worried and can only act secretly, otherwise he would not be so calculating. In this case, why don't you change your thinking? It would be good if you can track down the person behind the scenes, but if you can't track him down, there is no need to dwell on it, just use other methods to deal with it."

"What other methods are you talking about?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Xu Xiancheng took a sip of the tea beside him and said calmly, "I heard that during the Battle of Sarhu, an old slave of the Later Jin Dynasty once said, 'No matter how many ways you come, I will only go one way.' Although his words are simple, they have captured the essence of military strategy. Concentrate your strengths on the enemy's weaknesses, defeat them one by one, and thus take the initiative on the battlefield. Isn't that how war works? Moreover, there are also words in military books, among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, it is said that you can wait for the enemy to tire, make a feint to the east and attack in the west, create something out of nothing, and remove the fuel from the bottom of the pot... Aren't they all possible? At the very least, you can use the method of knocking the mountain to scare the tiger and killing the chicken to scare the monkey. Can it be that others can be my brother-in-law but I can't?"

(End of this chapter)