Chapter 252 The Ming family’s helplessness.

No wonder the high-ranking officials of the Water Fort and the young masters of the Ming Mansion were so afraid of the newcomer.

It turned out to be the unreliable and unyielding Imperial Envoy from Jiangnan, Lord Fan!
When Fan Xian walked onto the deck, countless wealthy businessmen and Suzhou officials came to greet him. For a moment, there was singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was filled with people and joy.

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"It's not that I'm afraid of him!" Ming Lanshi said with a gloomy face as he sat on a stone bench in the garden.

Opposite him was Zou Lei, the censor of the Jiangnan Censorate.

Behind him, walking slowly was Ming Qingda, the current head of the Ming family, and the actual owner, the old lady of the Ming family.

Zou Lei had some contact with Fan Xian during the previous bidding for the inner treasury, but he did not expect that he was so deeply involved with the Ming family.

Seeing Ming Lanshi speak frankly without any reservation, it can be seen that Zou Lei and Ming Fu have great trust in each other.

"I have met my cousin Lanshi, my uncle Qingda, and the old lady."

It turned out that Zou Lei was actually a cousin of the Ming family. He asked in confusion, "Did this imperial envoy come here just to celebrate the birthday?"

It should be noted that Fan Xian had passed by Suzhou City three times before without entering it. Even when he returned to Suzhou, he only stayed temporarily on the border and had never gone deep into the core sphere of influence of the Ming family. Everyone knows that he is on guard against the Ming family!
"I'm afraid this person has bad intentions this time!"

Old Lady Ming glanced at Zou Lei coldly. She naturally knew that Junshan had attacked Fan Xian before, but Fan Xian was not only fine, he did not return to Kyoto, but turned back instead.

"Grandma, why should we be afraid of him?" Ming Lanshi sneered, "Fan Xian is so young but he holds great power. Now he is going to Jiangnan as an imperial envoy. He wants to renovate the inner treasury, and he does things as he pleases without any scruples!"

"He is certainly ruthless and confident."

"But his biggest failure was that he did not take any of the inner treasury output into his own hands. The nearly 20 bids were all won by my Ming family and Xia Qifei of the Water Stronghold. As long as we make peace with Xia Qifei, Fan Xian's desire to operate the inner treasury without a steady stream of financial support will undoubtedly be a pipe dream!"

From his words, it was clear that the eldest grandson of the Ming family did not take Fan Xian seriously.

Put yourself in his shoes. If Ming Lanshi had the resources and power that Fan Xian had, he would have accomplished much more than what is shown here!
"But Xia Qifei is not our kindred spirit after all. If our clan wants to tamper with the inner treasury again in the future, it won't be so easy!" Zou Lei said with some concern.

"You have been an official for a long time, and your thinking is different from ours!" Ming Lanshi's character is not against a certain person, but he looks down on everyone. He looked at Zou Lei, smiled contemptuously, and said sarcastically: "You are really confused as an official! What we need to think about now is how to deal with Fan Xian who came with bad intentions, and send him away and drive him out of Jiangnan!"

Zou Lei smiled apologetically and did not refute. Instead, he nodded sincerely, as if he understood his mistake.

The old lady felt inexplicably uneasy, frowned, and tightened the cane in her right hand.

Ming Qingda said: "I have never heard of an official who is not greedy!"

"My father!" Ming Lanshi said with a bitter smile, "As early as when Fan Xian first came to Suzhou, my son sent people to contact him and even prepared a full 400,000 taels of silver! This is the most vulgar method, but also the most efficient and direct method. But Fan Xian is like a piece of wood, and he won't listen to anything!"

"Four hundred thousand taels?"

Ming Qingda couldn't help but exclaimed, "Where did you get so much money!?"

Ming Lanshi's eyes were filled with murderous intent as he said, "I kept the tribute money that I had sent to Kyoto in the past six months, thinking that I would use it to pay off Fan Xian first and then get more money from other places. But Fan Xian didn't accept it, so I had no choice but to send it back to Kyoto intact."

"My grandson handled it correctly!" The old lady, who had been silent for a long time, spoke to finalize the matter.

Ming Lanshi easily avoided the crime of embezzling tribute money.

"That's four hundred thousand taels! It's enough to raise an army, and yet it still can't impress Fan Xian? He really has a big appetite!"

Ming Qingda gritted his teeth and said. Ming Lanshi shook his head and gritted his teeth and said, "There is still 20% of the dry shares!"

"Bastard!"

Ming Qingda cursed: "You bastard, do you understand what a 20% stake means?"

The old lady's lips moved, but she couldn't say that this was her instruction.

To put it nicely, this is called cutting off one's own flesh to ensure safety.

If you look closely, this is admitting defeat.

But they had to admit defeat. After a bidding for the inner treasury, the clan had no cash left. As a last resort, they mortgaged part of their land and properties and borrowed money from the China Merchants Bank for an emergency.

How could Ming Lanshi not know that 20% of the shares were actually more valuable than 400,000 taels?
He slowly closed his eyes, his expression changing from time to time, showing his inner restlessness. After a moment, he suppressed his unhappiness, opened his eyes and slowly said, "That's why I said that Fan Xian can never be bribed!"

"It would have been easiest to just kill him. Even if he was the emperor's illegitimate son, so what? If he died suddenly from acclimatization problems, we would always have an excuse once we enter Jiangnan!"

"But he came to Suzhou City openly and in public, and we missed the opportunity!"

Ming Lanshi didn't know that the Junshan Society had already gathered forces to assassinate Fan Xian.

"What's the situation with the princess now?" Zou Lei thought of Li Yunrui, the most powerful person in Jiangnan and the biggest backer of the Ming family. "Our Ming family has made so much effort, the princess will not remain indifferent!"

"The eldest princess is not in Jiangnan now!" the old lady told the truth.

No one was surprised, as they had already guessed this situation.

If the eldest princess were still in Jiangnan, many things would not have developed this way.

Zou Lei thought for a moment and said, "Fan Xian is now an imperial envoy, and he is in Jiangnan. The emperor is far away, so we might as well make some trouble to expand the impact. Maybe His Majesty will recall Fan Xian for the sake of stability?"

Ming Lanshi taunted, "That's why I said you've been an official for too long and have become confused!"

"Even if a legitimate prince went to Jiangnan, our Ming family would have a way to make him return in disgrace. But can the same be said for Fan Xian, the illegitimate son of His Majesty? It's OK that he has money and power, but the most important thing is that he has military power!"

"Imperial envoy, imperial envoy! Your Majesty is here in person!"

“If he really did what you thought and incited the people to cause trouble, it would be fine if he was not caught. But if there was any evidence, do you believe that he would immediately dispatch the Black Cavalry to wipe out my entire Ming family? By then, even the Jiangnan Governor Xue Qing would not help us. He would only cooperate and dispatch troops to surround us as soon as possible!”

Zou Lei was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He took a breath and said doubtfully, "No way? Acting this way will only make outsiders think that he is incompetent and can only rely on the Black Cavalry to deal with the incident. Then he will not be able to explain to His Majesty!"

"hehe!"

Ming Lanshi gritted her teeth and said, "Fan Xian has a reputation, but he is a ruthless madman! Unless you can hit him with one strike, you must never provoke such a person."

"This is also the reason why I tried so hard to win him over, even at the cost of my own life!"

No one mentioned that Fan Xian was also a ninth-rank master who was proficient in the use of poison. This time, he was accompanied by six swordsmen from the Overwatch Council who specialized in assassination.

(End of this chapter)