Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 147 Go to Gao’s house to get someone!
There was a reason why Qilianzhi was so furious.

He also came from a military background, but the Western Desert warlords behind the Gao family had no sense of comradeship at all and were completely unrelated to him.

The person he followed back then was old man Lin Hulin in the Southern Expedition Army, while the Western Desert Army behind the Gao family was secretly controlled by Zhou Tiansheng, old man of the Zhou family.

Zhou Tiansheng and Lin Hu were both old ministers during the reign of the late Emperor Shengde. They were also the shining "star generals" during the reign of Emperor Shengde, and were known to the world as the "Fox and Tiger Generals."

But the relationship between the two is actually not good, and it can even be said to be in dire straits.

As a result, the Southern Expedition Army and the Western Desert Army were incompatible and looked down on each other.

Although Qilianzhi had already left the Southern Expedition Army, he was promoted by General Lin after all. Normally, he would not be in a good mood when he saw the generals who were born in the Western Desert Army.

Now that he heard that the Gao family, who came from the Western Desert Army, dared to kidnap the family members of his men?
How could he suppress his anger?

What's more, Zhao Guanxiang's injury was caused by Wang Ping of the Western Desert Army, which is even more hateful.

That is to say, Wang Ping was dead, and he couldn't bother with a dead person.

But after all, Wang Ping is now working for the Gao family, so this debt naturally has to be counted on the Gao family.

Qi Lianzhi waved his hand and said, "Go on, tell me something I don't know."

Gou Xiangxi bowed and said, "I don't know much about the subsequent events, but when Captain Zhao found me, he had already found out that the kidnapped Jiang Liu'er was hiding in Yifeng Royal Manor."

"This Yifeng Royal Farm was originally the property of the crown prince of the previous dynasty. After Emperor Tianwu ascended the throne, he took it back into the national treasury and later gave it to the Zongzheng Temple."

"Zongzheng Temple was poorly managed and abandoned for many years. Somehow it fell into the hands of the Gao family. After it was rebuilt, it became the most famous underground gambling house in Kyoto City. If you want to become a customer of Yifenghuangzhuang, you must have squandered three to five thousand taels of silver in Ruyi Casino in Kyoto City before you can be selected by Gao Linxiang, the second master of Ruyi Casino. Otherwise, three customers of Yifenghuangzhuang will be needed to act as guarantors before newcomers can join."

Qi Lianzhi asked in confusion: "Since there is already a Ruyi gambling house, why did the Gao family open a gambling house in the suburbs of Beijing?"

Gou Xiangxi reminded him, "General, although gambling houses are legal, they are heavily taxed. Moreover, some bigwigs in the capital would not go to such a mixed place to play with some low-class gamblers, so they would naturally look for a quiet and elegant place. As far as I know, if the business of Yifeng Royal Manor is good, the daily turnover can reach tens of thousands of taels of silver. Even if they take one tenth of it, how much silver would they earn?"

He paused for a moment and then said, "Besides, who said that Yifenghuangzhuang only does gambling business? It also does some shady business."

Qi Lianzhi no longer had any doubts and nodded, "Go on."

Gou Xiangxi said, "Captain Zhao had investigated the Yifeng gambling house before, but he failed to find it every time he brought people to the house. He suspected that someone in the Patrol Observatory had leaked the information, so he came to me hoping that the Zhao family could help."

"It is a fact that the Gao family has occupied the imperial land. If we can get evidence of the Gao family's crimes, it will be beneficial to my master's career. Moreover, Captain Zhao is willing to bear the consequences. So I took the initiative to invite Song Yizhang, the chief escort of the Tianwei Escort Agency, who escorts merchants on land, to lead the elite escort agency to secretly enter the capital and cooperate with Captain Zhao to rescue people in the imperial farm."

"We won the battle and annihilated the enemy, but we never expected that the enemy would be so cruel as to set fire to the manor. The leader of the bandits, Wang Ping, even kidnapped Jiang Liu'er, forcing Captain Zhao to go out of the city alone to rescue people."

"When our people arrived, Wang Ping was already dead, and Jiang Liu'er was successfully rescued."

"But Captain Zhao was seriously injured and in critical condition, so we had to send him to the Zhao's Trading Company's market and invite a famous doctor to treat him."

"Now, two days have passed, Captain Zhao's condition has stabilized, so I sent him back to the Astronomical Observatory."

Qi Lianzhi frowned, pointed at the women at the side of the lobby, and asked, "What's going on with these women?"

Gou Xiangxi replied, "They were all rescued from Yifeng Imperial Farm. I sent people to inquire, and found out that the women in this hall are not slaves but are from decent families. However, they were abducted by the Gao family and forced into prostitution for others' pleasure. It is really despicable!" It was quite common in the Daqian Dynasty for pawnbrokers to buy and sell human beings.

However, in the business of pawnbrokers, apart from those who were born into low-class families, only three types of people would be legally traded.

The first type is those who were stripped of their citizenship due to crimes, the second type is foreign captives, and the third type is those who voluntarily sold themselves into slavery...Except for these three types of people, the trafficking of innocent citizens was expressly prohibited by the Daqian Dynasty.

The status of a good citizen is like the citizenship of Daqian. Only with this status can one enjoy the protection of Daqian laws.

Gou Xiangxi bowed to Qi Lianzhi and said sincerely: "Now they come here to ask the Patrol of Astronomy to seek justice for them!"

Qi Lianzhi nodded with a sullen face, "Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt has its creditor, the Gao family can't escape. But with so many women, why haven't we seen so many missing persons reported in the capital?"

This is a normal inquiry.

But Gou Xiangxi was very cautious. After looking around, he approached Qi Lianzhi and said in a low voice, "I sent people to inquire. Most of these women are from Yongzhou, and their hometowns are mostly in Xiqu and Zhetong areas."

Xiqu and Zhetong are both names of county towns.

It is located in the northwest of Yongzhou, which is the border of Daqian. Further north, after passing the "Santu Pass", it is the Western Desert.

But when Qilianzhi heard these two place names, he remembered the war report he heard in the court at the beginning of this year, saying that the "Red-haired Ghost" tribe in the northwest bypassed the Santu Temple and went south to attack Yongzhou, burning, killing and looting many places, and also took away many Daqian people.

These include Xiqu and Zhetong.

The good people of Daqian who were originally abducted by foreigners were found in Yifenghuangzhuang in the suburbs of Beijing...

Looking at the appearance and figures of these women, they must have been carefully selected before being kept.

What about everyone else?

Qi Lianzhi just didn't like studying literature, but he was not really stupid. He glanced at Gou Xiangxi and saw his deliberately cautious behavior. How could he not see that this hyena official was giving him some advice?

He was originally just angry and indignant, but at this moment his mind became serious.

The Gao family was just a bunch of bandits from the Western Desert, a new family that had risen in less than a generation. Even if they had the support of the Third Prince, they were still not worthy of being taken seriously by the Major General of the Astronomical Observatory.

But now, Qilianzhi not only has to take the Gao family into consideration, but also has to keep it in mind.

If the guess comes true... this might be a big case!
"Somebody come!"

Qi Lianzhi shouted loudly in the hall, and all the people in the astronomical observation room hurried out and saluted in front of him:

"General!"

"Gather all the troops and follow me to personally go to the Gao family to take the man away!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)