Peeping Tom

  Zhu Youjian ascended to the throne at a young age and personally witnessed Wei Zhongxian isolating and deceiving Emperor Tianqi, so he hated it most when officials looked down on him.

  At this point, how to deal with Sun Yuanhua is no longer important.

  The impeachment on the imperial court ended with him angrily waving his sleeves and retreating from court. Zhou Yanru clearly felt that as he left, he glared at him fiercely, and in that gaze, there was no longer any respect for the senior officials of the imperial court, only a cold and icy light!

  His back was like a porcupine with quills, prickly all over. Zhou Xiang dragged his legs as he walked out of the grand hall, falling behind the officials. The only one walking alongside him was Wen Tiaren.

  "Ah... Minister Wen." The hot air in the grand hall blew past, and Zhou Yanru came back to his senses, looking at Wen Tiuren with a hint of surprise on his face: "Perhaps... I should be addressing you as Minister Wen now?"

  Wen Ti Ren's face didn't change color, he cupped his hands: "Why did Yuan Fu say such a thing? I don't understand what you're saying."

  Zhou Yanru took a deep breath, he was skilled in party struggles, this time he was caught off guard by Wen Tiren, so he ended up in such a sorry state. Who would have thought that Wen Tiren would take advantage of a trivial matter in Wuwei County to launch a surprise attack? He had been on his guard against everything, but not against this!

  That young man who suddenly appeared out of nowhere... has really brought him enormous trouble, and may even make it impossible for him to escape!

  "Chang Qing... If I go out, Dong Lin will surely concentrate their attacks on you." Zhou Yanru still wanted to make a last effort: "The disaster of party struggle is in Tang, in Song, and in the eunuch party Donglin. Now that the country is facing many difficulties, it cannot be disturbed, Chang Qing, you must think thrice!"

  "Many difficulties bring prosperity to a country." Wen Tiren heard him still being so hypocritical at this time, and coldly laughed: "Know my crime, only Spring and Autumn!"

  After hearing this, Zhou Yanru was so angry that his whole body trembled. After a while, he hummed and left with a flick of his sleeve.

  Yu Guozhen did not know that his own affairs would stir up a major political storm, and Zhou Yanru, who was originally supposed to retire the following year, was actually forced out ahead of schedule. As a result, Yu also entered the sights of certain figures earlier than he had planned.

  What delighted him was that Yu Yixuan's activities had an effect, and Wuwei County set up the Xiang'an Patrol Inspectorate. Since the patrol inspector needed to appoint someone with a meritorious name, Yu Yixuan became the nominal patrol inspector of the Xiang'an Patrol Inspectorate.

  In this way, he can openly lead the Yu family guards in Wuwei County and surrounding areas to exercise and train without worrying about being reported by informants.

  "This small Xiang'an has actually produced such a person." In the only inn in Xiang'an Town, two people whispered to each other.

  "Yes, they actually killed the Taihu Lake bandits. Although it was just a group of bandits, to have such bravery in this remote and rural area is quite impressive."

  However, the more formidable he is, the greater the suspicion. More than 50 Taihu water bandits were captured and killed by him without exception. It's possible that Xiao Si Lang's gang of twenty or thirty people was also involved in this.

  "This matter must be reported to Big Brother Song as soon as possible... If it's possible to sneak into that guy's mansion, two thousand catties of salt will have to be stored somewhere!"

  "He is extremely cautious, I spent several hours outside today, and there was always someone in front of the door, roughly changing shifts every hour."

  "Don't act rashly, or you'll scare the snake by hitting the grass. He Shan and his gang have some reputation in Taihu, but because of carelessness, they ended up becoming that guy's meritorious service... damn it!"

  Their whispers were very careful, and after the two of them had discussed for a while, one of them left first, and the other still lived in the inn. The next morning, he wandered out of town early, came to Yu's villa, but he was very careful, stopped about a mile away from the villa, and looked at the house from afar.

  He thought he got up early, but the young men in other courtyards got up even earlier, and even the children in the family school were already running around in the courtyard, their shouts entering his ears.

  "What a madman! A group of little kids, and he's always making them run... This Yu Guozhen, is he really proficient in military strategy or just a big fool?"

  That man scratched his head, feeling both contempt and confusion in his heart.

  Then he saw a cart with a pig on it being pushed into the Yu family's backyard, and that person suddenly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, feeling both envy and jealousy: "This cheap goods, even these refugees from Shandong get to eat meat every day, one pig per day, damn, they're living better than me!"

  He had been watching for three days, so he knew that apart from a pig, more than 200 kilograms of fish would be brought in every day. The pigs were transported by boat from outside, while the fish were delivered by fishermen from Xijiang and Chaohu Lake. He secretly calculated that on average, there were less than 300 people in the Yu family's courtyard, with an average of nearly one kilogram of pork and one kilogram of fish per person per day!

  It's just the rich family, and they don't live like this every day. That Yu is not the Dragon King, where did he get so much silver? Without a doubt, as Song said, eight or nine out of ten bags of salt must have fallen into his hands!

  He thought so, then retreated a few steps. He was not one of those stupid and greedy water bandits, he was a salt smuggler, and the salt smugglers were familiar with the officials and soldiers, how to investigate the situation of the officials and soldiers, he was more skilled than the water bandits.

  Just as he turned around and left, a group of young men ran over to him. They were the Yu Fu family guards, now known as the Xiang An Patrol Guards.

  That man stopped in his tracks, looking like an ordinary onlooker, watching as the group of young people ran past him. Among them, the one running at the very front was Yu Guozhen.

  "This guy looks like he's just a bit taller and bigger than usual, how can he do so many things?" The scout looked at Yu Guozhen for a moment, then shifted his gaze away.

  Yu Guozhen also turned his head and looked at him, smiling and nodding at him.

  The scout was somewhat bewildered, could it be that he had been wandering around here for the past few days and he actually remembered him?

  As he thought of this, he slowly turned around and walked towards the town. After a few steps, he heard footsteps behind him again. He turned his head to look back, only to see two young men running towards him, one on the left and one on the right.

  The scout ran without hesitation, had just passed by his side, and was now chasing after him, he must have shown his horse's hoof somewhere.

  As he ran away, a burst of laughter and shouting came from behind: "He's indeed got a problem, catch him!"

  "Blackmail me!" The scout almost fell over in surprise, only to find that he was being blackmailed instead!

  Yu Guo Zhen looked at the scout from a distance, smiled silently, he just felt that this person was not quite right when their eyes met, so he let Da Zhu and Er Zhu go up to tease him, but did not expect that he really had a problem.

  If it were an ordinary person, they would have reacted by avoiding and asking questions, but this person turned around and ran away, and not towards the crowded town, but towards the wilderness, the only possibility is that he has a guilty conscience.

  "Luō Jiǔ Hé, Yè Wǔ Yá, Qí Niú!"

  Translation: "Luo River Nine, Ye Wu Cliff, Qi Cow!"

  He shouted out the names, and the three people who were called responded in unison. Yu Guozhen pointed to the person who had already escaped far away: "You three have performed the best recently, now I will hand that person over to you, and you must bring him back alive."

  Three people showed joy on their faces. Under Yu Guozhen's reward and punishment system, the competition between the three teams was quite fierce. However, Qi Niu led the model team because they were trained early, so they always suppressed Luo Jiuhe and Ye Wuyue, making them unwilling to accept it. This time is an opportunity for them to prove themselves, so the three of them turned their minds and ran in three different directions.

  Qíniú led the model partners to chase directly from behind, and all of them were "veterans" who could run very well. If it is said that in the past two months, the new young people have already had a good discipline similar to the model partners, but there is still a big gap with the model partners in physical fitness. Qíniú believed that the escaped person would not be able to run better than the model partners.

  Ye Wuyue saw the direction in which the scout was escaping. Since the scout was so professional, he must have found a way out beforehand. He was now running towards a three-forked road junction, where they could take a shortcut to intercept him and prevent his escape. Therefore, Ye Wuyue led his group through the fields, rushing to cut off the scout's path from the fields that were being harvested.

  Luo Jiuhe turned his eyes, leading his men along the river bend, and his calculations became even more profound. The scout had pursuing troops behind him and interceptors in front of him, and the only direction to escape was to jump into the Xijiang River. He took advantage of the situation on the banks of the Xijiang River and happened to be able to catch up with the scout head-on.

  Yu Guozhen saw this scene behind him and smiled slightly. The choices made by these three people were indeed consistent with their personalities.

  "Big pillar two pillars, you both come back, let them chase after."

  Dazhu and Erzhu followed Yu Guozhen for the longest time, their running speed was incredibly fast, at this moment they had already shortened the distance with that Tanzi by half, but then they heard Yu Guozhen's command, the two of them smiled and stopped.

  "It seems that Young Master wants to take a look at the results of their efforts over the past two months."

  "That's natural, every day they're fed with fine food and drink, if you don't take them out to exercise, how do you know whether these guys are sneaky or not?"

  The two of them were promoted to squad leader and deputy, it turned out that among the new recruits in the past two months, there were also those who were lazy. In fact, five people have been eliminated from the original eighty-three, including two who are relatives of Lian's family and were expelled from the Yu family for theft and deceit.

  This made the remaining young men extremely frightened, because their bodies were all in Yu's hands. Being driven out was not just letting them fend for themselves, but directly calling people to sell them! The new owner would not raise them like Yu's family did, and if they encountered a cruel master, they would be tortured to death and then sold to some mine, that would be a cry to heaven and earth with no response!

  The two of them whispered and walked back, Yu Guozhen said: "Do you think that guy will end up in whose hands?"

  "I think it will fall into Wu Ya's hands. Wu Ya took a shortcut and must be able to intercept him at the intersection."

  "No, I think it should be in the hands of Jiuhe. He is the most cunning and sometimes even I can't handle him."

  Dazhu and Erzhu said so, Yu Guozhen asked the surrounding partners again. It's not that Ye Wuyue is Luo Jiuhe, but no one looks good at Qi Niu. Yu Guozhen chuckled and shook his head: "I think Qi Niu has a greater chance of catching it."

  "Why did you say that, young master?" Others didn't dare ask, but Dazhu didn't care about that.

  "Qīniú does things, somewhat like a big pillar, stupid but relying on his absolute advantage to crush all difficulties." Yú Guózhèn said: "If the distance is a bit farther, Wǔyá and Jiǔhé both have a chance, but at this distance, that guy can't escape."

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  (Thanks for the reward from Shunshun666, today's chapter should be very fitting, haha)