Qing Yao

Chapter 165: One More Cruel than the Other
Looking at his cheap master lying on the ground, who was beyond dead, Zhao An's eyes filled with tears, and he wanted to cry out loud.

Reason told him that this was not a good way to demonstrate, because his master-disciple relationship with Zhang Baofa had not been long, there was no emotional foundation between them, and Zhang Baofa was "emotional" because of the canal blockage. Now, his disciple, who was going against his master, was acting as if his father had died, which would only arouse suspicion from those with ulterior motives.

Self-defeating.

The correct approach is to express three parts sadness, six parts anger, and one part doubt, accompanied by a certain degree of trembling.

Therefore, Zhao An kept his hands clenched into fists, but he couldn't shake them.

Perhaps because I haven't had formal acting training, I can't quite grasp that nuance.

There is indeed a difference between those with formal training and those without.

The gang members who remained in the incense hall filled the room, each one gritting their teeth and cursing. They were mostly locals from Yangzhou, so their curses sounded particularly amusing to Zhao An.

As he listened, he stopped finding it interesting, because it seemed like these people wanted him to be childless and without descendants.

"Young Master, Uncle died from being struck in the chest with a heavy object!"

Two experienced gang members reached this conclusion after carefully examining the body.

It is relatively accurate.

"Who is the murderer?"

Zhao An asked the question that everyone was concerned about, but no one knew the answer, because when they found Uncle's body, it was already cold, and they judged that he had been dead for at least an hour.

With a stern expression, Ding Jiu looked around at everyone: "Who's with Uncle today?"

"Ninth Master, it wasn't us."

Everyone shook their heads, then someone suddenly exclaimed, "It looks like Mondstadt!"

"Mond?"

Ding Jiu glanced at the crowd and noticed that Mond was not among them, so he asked everyone where Mond had gone.

One of the gang members said, "I saw Mond at the door an hour ago. He said that Uncle sent him out to do something."

Ding Jiu pressed further, "What did Uncle send Mond out to do?"

The group shook their heads and said they didn't know. Ding Jiu then asked others if they knew about it, but no one knew either.

Seeing this, Ding Jiu frowned, walked to Zhao An's side and whispered, "Young Master, Mond is highly suspicious. We must send someone to bring him back immediately."

"Alright! Please send the brothers to search right now, Uncle-Master. Even if Mond runs to the ends of the earth, you must find him for me!"

Zhao An's expression was almost like gritting his teeth, but he felt quite calm. Judging by the time, Mond had already left Yangzhou City long ago.

These days, nothing is connected to the internet. If you kill someone and find a place to hide, eight out of ten people can get away without being detected.

Five thousand taels is no small sum. As long as Mondl doesn't do anything stupid, he'll be living a life of pleasure until the very end.

However, Zhao An did not expect Mondl to make a move so quickly.

He glanced casually at Zhang Baofa's corpse on the ground and guessed that the old man must have ordered Mond to do something that was not good for him, which forced Mond to take action.

After Ding Jiu called over a few of his gang members and gave them a few instructions, the group immediately split up and began to act.

At this moment, a member of the gang suddenly said that the matter of Uncle's murder should be reported to the authorities. As a result, he was met with a barrage of angry curses from the other members, who simply said that the affairs of the canal gang were no longer the business of the government.

If our friends in the underworld knew that the Canal Gang had reported us to the authorities, they would laugh their heads off.

Zhao An listened silently without saying a word. If he were to report this to the authorities now, the government could issue an arrest warrant and post it on horseback along the surrounding major roads. Mond could very well be caught, which would put him in big trouble.

Fortunately, the rules of the underworld are paramount.

Ding Jiu arranged for people to carry Zhang Baofa's body to the backyard, and then sent someone to Jiangning to notify Zhang Baofa's family and buy a coffin to put the body in. After doing all this, Ding Jiu invited Zhao An to the "command center" and said with a solemn expression, "Young Master, there's something strange about Uncle's murder."

Zhao Anli immediately followed up with an expression: "What did you discover, Uncle-Master?"

“Mond is Uncle’s man, he’s been with Uncle for seven or eight years, why would he want to kill Uncle for no reason? Could it be that someone bribed Mond?”

After speaking, Ding Jiu looked up at Zhao An.

Zhao An's heart skipped a beat, and he was already prepared to swear an oath before the lamp.

He really didn't kill his uncle.

However, Ding Jiu's next words made him relax again.

"Young Master, do you think the Jiao family might be the ones who bribed Mondstadt?"

Ding Jiu's prediction was absolutely correct. As the saying goes, to shoot a man, first shoot his horse; to capture a thief, first capture his king.

No matter how powerful the Jiao family was, they were no match for the Yangzhou branch of the Grand Canal Gang, which had 40,000 members. Therefore, it was perfectly reasonable for the Jiao family to adopt a decapitation strategy to leave the Grand Canal Gang leaderless, and then defeat them one by one, forcing the Grand Canal Gang to admit defeat and stop cutting off the canal.

For the Jiao family, spending a sum of money to eliminate the core leader of the Canal Gang was a very worthwhile deal.

Jiao Zheng, who started his business as a transportation merchant, is very wealthy and powerful.

Zhao An agreed with Ding Jiu's analysis, but left some room for doubt, namely, that he did not rule out the possibility that Meng De was not the one who did it, and that the real culprit was someone else.

Ding Jiu said, "Young Master, regardless of whether the Jiao family is the mastermind behind this, it is an opportunity for us."

"What does Uncle Master mean?"

Zhao An appeared to be listening attentively, but he looked more like a top leader listening to a subordinate's report.

"Why not pin the blame for Uncle's death on Jiao Zheng and make the Jiao family pay for their blood debt!"

Ding Jiu's eyes flashed with a fierce light: "Either we don't fight, or we do, we'll uproot the Jiao family! From now on, all the salt will be transported by our canal gang. Other transport merchants will either join our canal gang or we'll wipe out their entire families!"

Hiss!
Zhao An was taken aback by Ding Jiu's ruthlessness and subconsciously said, "If we do this, the government will definitely come after us."

"What happens in the martial world should be settled within the martial world. There are no aggrieved parties, so the government won't interfere. Even if they know it was our gang that did it, so what? Do you think the government can wipe out our gang?"

Ding Jiu was very confident because this was not only a rule of the martial arts world, but also an experience.

It is also an inspiration.

Inspired by Zhao Shaojun.

It's not that the Grand Canal Gang couldn't do without the Qing Dynasty, but that the Qing Dynasty couldn't do without the Grand Canal Gang.

In the past, Zhang Baofa was always restrained in everything he did in the helm, afraid to offend this person or that person. But now that Zhang Baofa is gone, and tens of thousands of brothers in the helm are fighting against the canal transport authorities, it's no big deal to fight against the salt smugglers as well.

Whether you die or die, you might as well go all out and take a gamble.

If this succeeds, it will be like building a gold mine for tens of thousands of brothers in the Yangzhou shipping guilds—a real gold mine!
Zhao An was deep in thought.

His attack was targeted, aimed at defeating the transport merchants led by Jiao Zheng, thus laying the foundation for the Grand Canal Gang to formally enter the salt transport industry.

But Ding Jiu's fighting style is all-out attack, a style that truly aims to kill. Even though there are so-called rules of the martial arts world, he doesn't have to worry about government intervention.

But resorting to wiping out an entire family at the drop of a hat is still too insidious.

After a long while, he slowly stood up and said, "Carry Uncle's body to the Jiao family and demand that they give us half of their business. If the Jiao family does not agree, we will draw lots and kill all the men in the Jiao family!"

(End of this chapter)