Chapter 256 The Ming family’s estrangement begins.

Because of the intimidation of the old lady of the Ming family, the Ming family used strong means to ensure the unity of the clan on the surface. After all, after many years of operation, at least to the outside, it was relatively unified.

But Fan Xian doesn't think so.

If the balance of power is not maintained, the larger the community of interests, the easier it is for it to fall apart from within.

"No matter if it's the Ming family's business or not, as long as it's related to the Ming family, has cooperation with them, or pays tribute to them, harass and disrupt all of these businesses!"

"The Ming family has stretched their hands too far. Now that they are about to be destroyed, why are they still holding on to so many things?"

"How many of our people have arrived in Jiangnan now?"

Wang Qinian chuckled and answered respectfully, "The Supervisory Council has sent more than 200 people, all of whom have arrived at the designated locations, and the number of peripheral members is countless."

"very good!"

Fan Xian nodded and calculated the time.

Now that all preparations are complete, it's time to start.

Just in time to deal with the prince and the eldest princess before summer!

"Although the businesses of the other branches and collateral branches of the Ming family are considered independent, they still have internal cooperation and are still dependent on the big tree of the Ming family. If the Ming family falls, they will naturally be like the skin that will die and the hair that will fall. But if they run into big problems first, the profits of the Ming family's business will at least be reduced by half!"

It's not just about profit, it's more about channels.

The main people in charge of these businesses are the five men from the other families.

About a month after Fan Xian gave the order, the entire Suzhou, and even several surrounding areas, fell into a strange atmosphere.

As shops everywhere were inspected, audited, and harassed by people from the Supervisory Office for various reasons.

These five men can hardly bear it anymore.

They met in private and complained bitterly.

This was a clash between Fan Xian and the main family of the Ming family, and they were caught in the crossfire. But they still had to rely on the main family of the Ming family, and even if it was difficult, they had to use all their power and funds to protect the eldest branch.

But someone had different ideas!
"We only need to wait for profit distribution every year. It is not our turn to make decisions on family affairs, nor should we! In the past two years, we have not received much money, and we have to be implicated by them. The business is about to fail, and we still have to take out money to protect the eldest house from disaster? What's the logic of this?"

"Old Four is right!"

"It was clearly the eldest son's family who had people mess up the three warehouses, which angered the imperial envoy. Why should we be the ones to pay for their sins?"

"Then according to your advice, what should we do?"

"Here!" The eldest son of the Ming family waved his hand and gave a seemingly feasible suggestion: "First, contact the connections and channels in your hands, especially those officials who have been supported for so many years. If your shop is harassed again, ask them to come forward to quell the matter. Observe for a month, if it still doesn't work, then we have to..."

At this point, the third brother hesitated a little.

But seeing the miserable faces of his brothers, he made up his mind and said in a deep voice: "Then we have no choice but to curry favor with the imperial envoy, whether it means giving money or shares, or even selling out the eldest son's family! We have to keep our jobs!"

If the eldest branch of the family can get through the difficult times, they will not benefit much either, and the most likely outcome is that the status quo will be maintained.

But the money they had spent previously would not come back.

It would be better to go after the eldest son's financial resources and share the profits with the imperial envoy!
"Is this feasible?" "Won't this just make people poke our spines?"

"I think Fourth Brother is afraid of revenge from the eldest son's family, right?"

The few of them gradually started arguing, but surprisingly, no one rejected the third brother's suggestion.

"I guess we brothers are also moved, otherwise we would have refuted me a long time ago!"

The third brother sneered and said, "You all know what will happen if you go against the imperial envoy! The eldest son's family is now helpless. If they had a way, they would have dealt with Fan Xian long ago!"

"I know that Fan Xian is guarded by the Overwatch Council, and he himself is a ninth-rank expert. To put it bluntly, the Jianghu people in our Jiangnan area, whether they are doing business with their heads on their waists or assassins who send people to the underworld to report, can't do anything to Fan Xian!"

"Even if we can kill Fan Xian, what does it matter? Will His Majesty in Kyoto spare us? Or is Chen Pingping's sword not powerful enough?"

"What if we do it perfectly?" said one person with a sinister look on his face and a sneer.

"I think you have a mess in your head!"

The third brother obviously disagreed with this aversion and sneered: "Doing things in a way that gives people a satisfactory and convincing answer and result is what those big shots should consider! It is their fig leaf that will not tear each other apart!"

"Let's not talk about whether we can kill Fan Xian or not. Even if we can, those bigwigs in Kyoto will not consider anything else and will destroy the Ming family first! No matter if they are the eldest son or not!"

"He is truly a frog in a well who deceives himself!"

As the third brother scolded, the man who spoke earlier did not refute abnormally, but fell into deep thought.

Seeing that his brothers were persuaded by him, the third brother struck while the iron was hot and continued, "If Fan Xian was still alive, he would be more important to His Majesty than ten or a hundred Ming families. The fact that Fan Xian has been allowed to die is proof of this. But if Fan Xian is dead, he is certainly not as important as a Ming family, even if it is in ruins. But I'm afraid that the few of us will be cannon fodder used to appease His Majesty's anger!"

The other brothers were shocked and said in disbelief, "So, we are going to die anyway?"

"That's why I said that Fan Xian and I can only be friends, not enemies!"

"Even if I have to be a dog, I will survive!"

The brothers' eyes lit up when they heard this, and they said, "That's right, let's do as Third Brother said before!"

"That's absolutely true, as if the eldest son's wife is not the eldest princess's dog!"

"That being said, we still have to be on guard against the old lady. You know, Old Seven was..."

"The old lady is old after all!" The third brother sneered. Seeing that his brothers all agreed with his suggestion, he couldn't help but feel a little relieved.

If he were left to face the revenge of the eldest son's family alone, how could he cope with it?
"The eldest branch of the family is already in a difficult situation. I predict that Fan Xian's future actions will only become more violent! Even with the old lady's methods, she will not have time to take revenge on us!"

The last sentence completely dispelled the doubts of several people, and smiles appeared on their faces.

······
"What? What are you doing?"

The owner of a shop hurriedly walked out from behind the counter, with his hands outstretched, and blocked the way of several officials from the Supervisory Council who were smashing things, shouting, "Open your dog eyes and see whose shop this is!"

Before he could say that this was the property of the Fifth Master of the Ming Family, several officials from the Supervisory Council in front of him looked at each other and smiled. One of them hit the shopkeeper's temple with a knife at an extremely fast speed, and he instantly collapsed to the ground.

What a baby-like sleep!
(End of this chapter)