Chapter 28: Secret Rumors and Scheming in the Dark
Woke up in the morning to see someone giving a reward, very happy, this is the first reward for this book, thank you "Jingqiao Bi" brother, you made Xiaochong feel that his writing can be appreciated by others. Bowing in gratitude!
………………
The two of them didn't calm down until the second half of the night, Ye Zhi Kui rested for a moment before getting up to prepare to leave. Min Fei lazily wrapped her smooth arms around Ye Zhi Kui's body and said with a flirtatious tone: "Little rascal, are you leaving?"
Ye Zhi's helpless reply was: "After a short while, it will probably be daylight, and at that time, coming and going won't be very convenient."
The empress lightly hummed in response, nipped his back, and suddenly asked: "I've heard that you're currently short of money and silver."
Ye Zhi Kui's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and Queen Min said it was true. It seemed that she had indeed found out about Ye Zhi Kui's expansion of power in Joseon and his cultivation of his own loyal followers. The Thirteen Hawks were also developing rapidly, and everywhere they went, they needed money. But Ye Zhi Kui was now penniless, having recently sold a batch of inferior military equipment seized from the Japanese to the Joseon people, but it was clear that he was struggling to make ends meet.
For the time being, it's hard to come up with so much money. I thought of Yuan Shikai making a lot of money from smuggling opium in Korea, should I also get involved? Heroin has already been invented, right? Should I sell it to Japan? But distant water can't quench present thirst, and I couldn't always go to Ye Zhichao's place to beg for help. Besides, Ye Zhichao still has a son! If things got out of hand, it would be terrible.
Thinking of this, Ye Zhi Kui suddenly remembered that Sheng Xing Hua, the younger brother of Sheng Xuan Hua, who was known as the first official businessman in the late Qing dynasty, should have died in the Battle of Pyongyang. Now, due to his own appearance, Sheng Xing Hua shouldn't be dead, and he had inadvertently saved his life. Of course, he would never know about this matter. Should he go and make friends with him?
The Empress saw that Ye Zhiwei did not speak, thinking he had acquiesced, and continued: "Before the Donghak Party uprising and Japan's occupation of the palace in Hanseong, I had indeed buried a batch of gold treasures in a place not far from Hanseong."
Ye Zhi Kui was overjoyed and asked while embracing Concubine Min's slender waist, "Is this true?"
The Empress Ming poked Ye Zhi Kui's high nose bridge with her finger and giggled: "Of course it's true, I buried it myself, how can it be fake? But we have to split the account 50/50."
Ye Zhi's brow furrowed, not minding the trivial gain, but couldn't help thinking that Min Fei was still a money-grubber. He reached out and patted her chest, chuckling: "Are we going to be apart from each other?"
The Empress Ming held his vital point and said, "Little rascal, sister still has to rely on these treasures to support her old age!" Then she leaned down, lowered her head, Ye Zhi Kui took a deep breath, and the two entwined together again.
"Aren't you going?" Min Fei raised her head and smiled foolishly.
"It's not too late to leave after this is over." Ye Zhikui replied as he rode away.
……………
After Ye Zhi Kui sneaked out of the palace, he didn't return to the military camp. Instead, he went back to his own mansion in Pingdu to rest for a while and quietly think about the current difficulties. The war had just ended, and judging from Japan's reaction, it wouldn't be possible to start another war in a short period of time. Now, what was hanging over Ye Zhi Kui's head was no longer swords and guns, but money. The batch of wealth buried by Empress Min was nothing more than a drop in the bucket for Ye Zhi Kui.
The source is far and long, which is the king's way. He has several people under him who are good at business. When he sees Ren, I am a very good candidate. He doesn't have many entanglements in China, only closely attached to himself. His experience is very old and rich. If there is capital, let him cooperate with Sheng's family, borrow eggs from chickens. The strength of the Sheng family is too great, not something that Ye Zhi Kui can control. At first, there is only one way to choose cooperation, unfortunately, he doesn't have much capital now.
Thinking of the cost, Ye Zhi Kui recalled a post from a non-mainstream military forum that he had read in later generations. The author of the post believed that the Japanese did not lose the war during World War II. Indeed, although the Japanese lost in battle, they won in war, why?
This post presents a viewpoint that the Japanese have been plundering since the founding of their country, starting from the earliest Yamato State, and Japan has taken pleasure in humiliating Korea, even if they can't win, they still want to loot.
Most of Japan's invasions of neighboring countries ended in military failure, but unexpectedly gained wealth. The spirit of Bushido, which takes pleasure in humiliating others and making a fortune by invading others, is not foolish for the Japanese who are good at calculation. Despite repeated defeats, they still enthusiastically invaded, because the wealth plundered during the war was much greater than the losses from defeat. Why not do such a good deal?
After World War II, Japan shared the wealth it had plundered with the United States and escaped compensation for losses to victimized countries. After the war, Japan relied on these hundreds or thousands of years of accumulated wealth in various Asian countries to quickly become an economic power again. Seven years after the end of the war, Japan's economy had already surpassed its pre-war level, so it can be said that Japan did not lose.
Although Ye Zhi Kui thought the author was a bit extreme, what he said wasn't entirely unreasonable. Ye Zhi Kui suddenly came to his senses and found a mountain of gold in front of him, it all depended on whether he had the guts or not.
No wonder there have been intelligence reports that the Japanese have divided into many small teams to force North Koreans to constantly dig and excavate around Hancheng, these bastards are stealing ancient tombs, not content with robbing the living, they're now robbing the dead, in history, the Japanese didn't even spare the gold teeth of the deceased, truly achieving the level of digging three feet underground and pulling out every last hair.
Ye Zhikui was excited, these goods the Japanese must not have transported back to their country yet, now what he needed to do was to rob the Japanese. Let the Japanese do the evil deeds, and let Ye Zhikui make the fortune.
Yezhi Kui couldn't stay here any longer, and hurried back to the military camp outside the city, gathering Wen Baishan, Feng Guozhang, Tufu, Jian Rensheng and several other trusted advisors to discuss this matter.
At the time of Jeonrin, I was very familiar with the atrocities committed by the Japanese locust army. He came to Joseon to get rich and had already collected a lot of information on this aspect. Moreover, he knew several places where the Japanese stored their valuables, which were not far from Hanyang Castle. These places were relatively secret, and if it weren't for Jeonrin's treachery, it would be difficult to find them. The Japanese had few guards at these locations, as they did not want too many people to know about them. As long as the plan was well thought out, it was entirely possible to steal their valuables.
Also, on the road from Hanzhong to Incheon, in order to prevent the Japanese army from transporting goods to Incheon and taking them away by sea, more spies should be sent to monitor at all times, and preparations for looting should be made as soon as there is an abnormal situation.
Osaka merchant-born Jian Ren heard that he was going to rob, and his eyes lit up instantly. He shouted "good" repeatedly and loudly declared that he would be the pioneer of robbery.
Everyone thinks it's feasible, but the matter is serious and must find a trustworthy military officer. First, the batch of treasures buried with Queen Min must be dug up first. This batch of treasures can't compare to those plundered by the Japanese army, but even a small mosquito is still meat. Handing over this smaller batch of treasures to the Thirteen Hawks is no problem; secondly, there are several hidden places where the Japanese army has hidden its wealth, and only the Thirteen Hawks are not enough in number.
Matters are urgent and cannot be delayed, with tens of thousands of people coming and going every day. Everyone is taking action separately. Ye Zhi Kui hurriedly returned to the city to report to Ye Zhi Chao that in order to promote military training, he was preparing to organize a part of the Hu Yong army for drills. Ye Zhi Chao knew that Ye Zhi Kui's daily training was strict and did not suspect otherwise, so he nodded in agreement.
The butcher returned to the headquarters of the secret organization, Thirteen Eagles, and gathered his men according to the location provided by Ye Zhi Kui to dig up the treasure of Queen Min first, then assist Ye Zhi Kui in plundering the Japanese military's wealth.
Wen Bai Shan and Feng Guo Zhang returned to the camp and passed down Ye's handwritten order, under the pretext of military training, they gathered a group of loyal and reliable elite soldiers from the Hu Yong Camp.
Money can tempt people's hearts, but Ye Zhi still decided to lead his soldiers into action personally.
It was night, and as it was a secret operation, not to fight the Japanese to the death, Ye Ziku only brought 500 elite soldiers. Beforehand, no message had been revealed. Ye Ziku asked everyone to change into easy-to-hide clothing and ordered Wu Dashan to lead a team of people to sneak in between Hancheng and Pingdu as a response. Each soldier had two horses that could be swapped, with dozens of grain carts carrying enough food. To make the exercise look real, the carts were loaded with military rations and grains. Under the cover of darkness, they quietly headed towards Hancheng.
