Chapter 3159
At the same time, outside a private house not far from Xingxianfang, an inconspicuous carriage quietly stopped at the gate.
After a moment, the door of the mansion opened half of the door silently. Then the curtain on the carriage was lifted, and a black shadow swooped out of the car and rushed into the door without stopping.
The gate then closed and the carriage immediately started to leave as if nothing had happened.
On the lantern swaying slightly under the eaves of the door, two conspicuous large characters indicate the ownership of this private residence - the Royal Palace.
This palace is not that palace, and the owner of this private residence is not the vassal prince or prince conferred by the Ming Dynasty, but the former Tongpan magistrate Wang Yuan of Hangzhou Prefecture.
In the officialdom of Hangzhou during the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yuan could be regarded as an outlier. Other officials generally stay in the same position for at most two or three terms. Even if they are not promoted, they will probably be adjusted.
But Wang Yuan actually never moved up and down. He stayed in the post of Hangzhou Tongpan for more than 20 years. It was not until Haihan took over Hangzhou that he resigned along with several other senior officials of the Hangzhou government office.
Usually a position that has been held for such a long time without promotion is either due to mediocre abilities and lack of merit for promotion, or lack of background and connections, making it difficult to compete with others at critical moments.
However, Wang Yuan's stagnation in officialdom did not fall into these two situations. Not only was Wang Yuan good at work, he also had strong connections, because the forces behind him were the Haihan people who were entrenched in Ningbo and Zhoushan at the time.
The cooperation between Wang Yuan and the Haihan people can be traced back to twenty years ago.
After several officials suddenly disappeared in Hangzhou, few thorny figures in Zhejiang official circles dared to openly oppose Haihan. Some officials wisely chose to accept Haihan's "good intentions" and began to provide various conveniences to Haihan overtly and covertly, including Wang Yuan, the general judge of Hangzhou.
The general judge of the sixth grade is not a big figure in Zhejiang officialdom. However, Wang Yuan is in charge of Jianghai defense in Hangzhou and can be regarded as an official with real power. This is of great use to Haihan who is eager to open up the market in Zhejiang. .
At that time, Haihan's trading activities in Zhejiang were only semi-open. Many goods produced in Haihan were either embargoed by the Ming Dynasty or had to pay high tariffs, so smuggling became Haihan's way of importing goods to Zhejiang. One of the main ways.
Wang Yuan used his authority to issue inspection-free passage documents for Haihan merchants, which saved a lot of unnecessary trouble. Of course, he also relied on this operation to earn considerable gray income for himself.
Wang Yuan was not without opportunities for promotion later, but Shi Diwen hoped that he could stay in his original position. After all, the cooperation between the two parties had passed the test of time and the process had been very smooth. If a new person were to take over Wang Yuan's position, not only would they need to re-adjust, but they might not be able to cooperate with Haihan without reservation like him.
Wang Yuan later figured out that he had no backing in the court. Even if he could rise up, most of the fellow magistrates who were in the fifth grade would be gone, and the prefects who were in the fourth grade would probably not even be able to touch the edge. And maybe after promotion, he will be transferred out of Hangzhou and arranged to work in other state capitals.
Instead of doing this, it would be better to guard the ready-made cornucopia and work for Haihan with peace of mind.
Later, Wang Yuan simply became one of the intermediaries between Zhejiang Sansi Yamen, Hangzhou Fuyamen and Haihan. Later, when Haihan took over Hangzhou, several senior officials of the Sansi Yamen set up an underground casino to continue making money before leaving. It was Wang Yuan who came forward to communicate with Haihan so that this business could be preserved.
However, the good times did not last long. The casino was suddenly closed down by the government not long ago. Although the charges were not made public, Wang Yuan was notified because the casino allowed officials to gamble, which caused other problems.
The closure of the casino had limited impact on Wang Yuan, but if something like this happened, he couldn't explain it to the other major shareholders. Although those few people have resigned and left Hangzhou, Wang Yuan still needs to rely on their relationships to clear trade channels for Haihan, otherwise he will have no value to Haihan. And the person who came to the door in the dark today was the culprit behind this incident.
In the study, Wang Yuan didn't have a good face when facing this uninvited guest: "Zhu Zhongyun, do you know how much trouble you caused last time when you brought that officer to the casino? That man turned around and sold us out. , and then someone from the Haihan government came and sealed the casino!”
"Do you know how much investment and how many connections were used to open this casino?"
"Do you know how much money we will lose if the casino is closed for one day?"
Wang Yuan had been holding back his anger for the past few days, but now it came out all at once. He really didn't understand why Ming Dynasty would send such a troublemaker here to disrupt the good casino business.
The middle-aged man sitting opposite Wang Yuan is the businessman surnamed Zhu who the Haihan Security Department is fully pursuing. Gong Shiqi and others never imagined that the object they were tracking was hiding so close to Hangzhou City.
But in the face of Wang Yuan's rebuke, Zhu Zhongyun seemed calm and responded softly: "It's just a casino. Even if it disappears, this loss is not a big deal. Mr. Wang, as far as I know, doing this You didn’t pay for the casino, right?”
When this casino was originally opened, the capital was provided by the adults of the Sansi Yamen. Wang Yuan was responsible for coordinating the relationship, which was equivalent to taking a stake. However, the inside story is obviously not accessible to ordinary people.
Wang Yuan avoided answering this question and snorted coldly: "You have obviously left, why are you coming back? Now that the casinos are gone, what's the point of sneaking back to Hangzhou?"
Zhu Zhongyun said: "Of course I sneaked back to Hangzhou to complete my unfinished mission. As for the casino, since it can't play its due role, then it's gone. The mission I want to perform is more important than that casino. “More!”
Wang Yuan said suspiciously: "Didn't you come to Hangzhou just to find out information about Haihan? Is it possible that you have other missions?"
Zhu Zhongyun still responded calmly: "Master Wang, just do your job well. If you shouldn't ask about things, it's best not to ask about them, so as not to get into trouble!"
When Wang Yuan heard his tone, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
After leaving office, he stayed in Hangzhou and managed the underground casino for those adults. He also knew that in addition to making money, this business also performed some functions of gathering intelligence.
However, this seems normal to Wang Yuan. He can send the Haihan people secretly to the areas ruled by the Ming Dynasty. Of course, he can also arrange for the Ming Dynasty's spies to collect information about Haihan in Hangzhou. Both sides can do their own thing without interfering with each other.
It's just that Zhu Zhongyun's behavior is different from those who came to Hangzhou to do business before. Not only did he want to use the casino to lure officials Haihan into trouble, but he also didn't care about the consequences. It was obvious that he had other goals besides collecting intelligence.
(End of chapter)