Chapter 382: The trapped beast still fights (Part 1)

In Chang'an, it is already May, and the air is already a little bit summery. The red flowers on the branches fade, and the trees become more green and lush. Under the blue sky, the fragrance and soft warmth fills every corner of Chang'an.

But some people's hearts are not shining in the sun, and they are still as cold and dark as winter nights.

A carriage rushed into Wubenfang angrily, and stopped in front of Li Mian's mansion. The anger made the movements of King Guangwu Li Chenghong ten years younger, flexible and full of power. Before the carriage could stop, he jumped out of the carriage, staggered, staggered forward a few steps. The guard next to him quickly got off the horse and helped him, but he threw it away, "Get out!"

Generally speaking, there are three things that attract men most: power, money and women. King Guangwu Li Chenghong had no interest in power. Of course, he once dreamed that he was praised as the throne by Tubo people, but after waking up, he realized that the throne was too far away from him. He was originally interested in women, but this year he was almost seventy years old. In order to live longer, he had to give up this sexual interest, but he never changed his love for money. He fell into the eyes of money when he was a teenager. Today, money has become his second life. He even dared to kill and set fire for money.

Today is his day of anger. He just received the news from Guangling. Zhang Huan sealed four of his shops in Guangling. No! He strangled his second life to death.

Zhang Huan wanted to take office, and Li Chenghong once thought about being his eyes and ears. For this reason, he insisted on being a supporter of Li Mian. It was not until he found out that Zhang Huan was not interested in his favor that he officially ended his allegiance to the Empress Dowager.

But now he took the initiative to join the camp against Zhang Huan, and his wish was so strong that he gave him a horse and a sword. Maybe he could pick up the sword and rush to Jiangdu to fight Zhang Huan desperately.

Hate blinded his eyes so much that he did not see the carriages parked outside Li Mian's mansion, nor did he see two men staring at his carriage in an alley a hundred steps away, and then wrote in a booklet: 'King of Guangwu Li Chenghong'.

Li Chenghong strode into the gate. Without him reporting, Li Mian's housekeeper quickly welcomed him into the inner palace. For one morning, almost everyone who came was like Li Chenghong, with a fierce hatred bursting out from his eyes. This was simply a template.

"Prince, please follow me." The housekeeper led Li Chenghong to walk through the door for a month and saw Li Mian's eldest son Li Ping coming hurriedly and almost colliding with Li Chenghong.

"The Second Master is here too!" Li Ping hurriedly bowed to Li Chenghong.

"Where are you going?" Li Chenghong asked in surprise when he saw him dressing up as he walked a long way.

"A fraud case occurred in Taiyuan Prefecture, involving this year's imperial examination. The imperial court ordered me to go to Taiyuan to investigate the matter strictly. The matter was urgent, so I had to rush to Taiyuan."

Li Chenghong frowned. Li Ping was the Minister of Rites and was in charge of this year's imperial examination. This case was indeed within his jurisdiction. However, it is an extraordinary period. Isn't Li Mian less help when he leaves?

Li Ping seemed to know what he was thinking, and smiled slightly and said, "Your Second Master will know when you enter the inner palace. It doesn't matter whether I am here or not."

After saying that, he bowed to Li Chenghong and hurried away.

Li Chenghong looked at his back and frowned. What does Li Ping mean? From afar, he had already seen the hall of the inner palace, and there seemed to be someone shaking inside.

Li Chenghong walked into the hall with great strides and was surprised and happy. He didn't expect that there would be so many people, many people, and everyone could take risks together, and the law would not blame everyone.

In the hall of the inner palace, there were nearly a hundred powerful royal families. The three of them were in a group and talking about the major events that happened in Jiangdu. They said the hatred, their fists were clenched, and their teeth were chewing loudly. This is no wonder, since the Kaiyuan period, the canal transport brought the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and the commercial areas in the Jianghuai area were prosperous, especially in Yangzhou. Every inch of land was valuable, and countless powerful royal families flocked to Yangzhou to open stores, and the rich profits were rolling. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once ordered five to strictly prohibit officials and businessmen from opening stores in Yangzhou and strictly prohibited land mergers, but they were just talking, and they never acted genuine. When Emperor Suzong was Emperor, they even stripped the civil and commercial businesses, but they remained unmoved at all. Even after the implementation of the salt and iron monopoly system, they even went down.

The orders for civil and commercial enterprises are not allowed to engage in the transaction of bulk materials such as salt, iron, tea, oil, rice, etc., and they can only be operated by officials and businessmen. During the Qingzhi period, although private trade was relaxed, the trend of officials and businessmen monopolizing bulk transactions had become. The majority of civil and businessmen could only eat some leftovers. But now Zhang Huan actually attacked officials and businessmen in Jiangdu. That was their core interest, which was tantamount to stabbing into the delicate hearts of these officials and businessmen with one sword. Although he knew that the risk of opposing Zhang Huan was extremely high, the anger in his heart had already blinded their rationality. As long as someone was willing to stand up and take the lead in opposing Zhang Huan, they would fully support it. Moreover, there were more than a hundred people and they were accomplices, and the risks they took would be greatly reduced.

"The second uncle is here too." Li Shen, who was talking in a corner, saw Li Chenghong walking into the hall and quickly came forward to meet him. Their brothers had business in Hedong, Shuzhong, and Jianghuai. There were five stores in Jiangdu alone, all of which were extremely large in scale. Among them, Wu Yuetang specialized in maritime trade with Persia and Dashi, making tens of thousands of dollars a day and made extremely profitable. For decades, Li Shen's brothers had annexed land in Guanzhong and Luoyang, and accumulated 30,000 slaves because of their strong financial support.

This time, Zhang Huan seized five stores in Jiangdu in the name of fundraising and tax checking, and seized their money in major counters in Jiangdu, causing them to suffer a loss of millions of yuan. Although this has not shaken their foundation, Zhang Huan's strong attitude made them deeply worried and showed their face before they even took office. Once they ascend the throne, their wealth will definitely become the flesh on Zhang Huan's chopping board. It is precisely for this consideration that the Li Shen brothers resolutely decided to support Li Mian against Zhang.

Li Chenghong sighed, "Everyone is the same. Rabbits can bite people if they are too anxious. For their own personal interests, let's unite!"

"Second uncle said it well!" There was a burst of applause from the side door, and Li Mian walked out of the side door next to him with a comfortable smile on his face. He had just learned about what Zhang Huan did in Jiangdu, and he undoubtedly became the biggest beneficiary of the Jiangdu incident. He sent people overnight to contact the involved people of the "Jiangdu incident". He thought that there were 20 or 30 people to come, which made Li Mian feel surprised. However, he also knew that most of the people were angry for a moment and their fever might fade in a few days, so he just discussed with Duan Xiushi that he would do it as soon as possible before the popularity of everyone was fading.

Li Mian greeted everyone one by one. Seeing that most of the people who came were royal families, some old officials and idle officials who had retired from office. He suddenly saw Wang Ang in the crowd and happily went forward to say hello, "Even Master Wang is here."

Most of the Wang Ang family's industries were in Xiangyang. When Cui Qinggong attacked Xiangyang, he had been looted by the rioters once. Later, after Zhang Huan occupied Xiangyang, he cleaned it up again. The Wang family's family in Xiangyang had been defeated. Fortunately, he still had three shops and a transport fleet in Jiangdu, especially the transport fleet. He had to be protected by the Jianghuai Transportation Engineer, who was loyal to their Wang family, and became the leading fleet in the Jianghuai Water Transportation Transportation Transportation Transportation, with more than 500 cargo ships of various types. It was the heavy profits brought by these shops and fleets that barely maintained the huge expenses of their Wang family.

Now, the last major force that supported the Wang family's wealth has been broken. The new and old hatreds have made Wang Ang resolutely participate in the group opposing Zhang Huan. However, he was unwilling to show up, so he hurried among the crowd and wanted to act in a low-key manner. Unexpectedly, Li Mian suddenly pointed him out and everyone looked at him together.

Wang Ang had no choice but to bow to Li Mian and smiled awkwardly: "I hate what that guy does just as much as everyone else. Everyone should work together to fight to protect their own interests."

Li Mian nodded, and he strode to the front desk, waved his hand and said loudly: "Please be quiet for everyone."

The hall suddenly became quiet, and more than a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at Li Mian. Only Li Mian's passionate voice was echoing in the hall.

"You must have seen that Zhang Huan made the 'Jiangdu Incident' this time, but I think this is something he has planned for a long time. Have you ever thought about why he wanted to seal the shop? Is it really for the so-called disaster victims? No! No, he used the name of disaster relief to accumulate wealth, to support his huge military expenditure, and to prepare for his Western Expedition. We, the powerless and powerless royal families are the targets of his attack. Do you know why? Because his surname is Zhang, he did not regard himself as the Li clan clan. Now he is sealing our shop. The next step is to confiscate our land. In order to protect himself, I can only unite to stop him from taking office. I, Li, are willing to lead everyone to fight."

Li Mianfu's inflammatory words deeply hurt these wealthy and powerless royal families. After the aristocratic families, they no longer had a political say and could only lower their heads to make money. Now that they had accumulated decades of wealth and land to be taken away by Zhang Huan, how could they be willing to be willing? As soon as Li Mian finished speaking, Li Shen raised his arms and shouted: "No one can take away our finances. The Tang Dynasty is the world of our Li family, and it is not his turn to Zhang Huan to control it."

Li Chenghong was also excited. He stood up and said loudly: "Please give us money and work hard, and we will never give up at all!"
Chapter completed!