Luoyang's capital, satellite city.
The headquarters of the "Rain-savoring Tower" was located in the official residence of the City Lord of the Satellite Town, overlooking the entire city in an imposing manner. In the study of the City Lord's Mansion's western courtyard, Thunder Sword Qi stood by the window, staring at the distant sky with a desolate expression.
There was also a young woman standing behind the thunderous sword energy. She was dressed as a swordsman and looked very capable and experienced. She was the deputy head of the Rain-listening Tower, Forsaken Tears.
Looking at the post starter's expression, he said with tears in his eyes, "Post starter, even the Baleful Bloody Mercenary Group has invited Lord Tianyi to be an independent director. Can we follow suit and repair our relationship?"
Thunder Sword Qi didn't turn around. He said desolately, "A broken mirror will always have cracks no matter how hard it is repaired. Since we've already betrayed each other, we can't go back anymore. We might as well forget each other in Jianghu! "
"…" His tears had stopped flowing, and he was speechless.
That was the way of the world. There was no medicine for regret, and there was no turning back.
Once he took a step forward, he could no longer turn back.
In the study, there was a long sigh of Sword Qi Thunder.
One week ago, March 14th, Shanhai City.
After the Imperial Guards conquered the Dragon Seeking City, Ouyang Shuo shifted his attention back to the Capital City Advancement Mission. The war in Minnan was left to the General Administration of Military Affairs and Huo Qubing to handle.
Ouyang Shuo wasn't even in a hurry to make arrangements for the four prefectural governors and the army reorganization plan. Minnan Province was temporarily under military control, and they would make further plans after Shanhai City was promoted to the capital city.
Ouyang Shuo no longer paid attention to Minnan. There was another matter that was holding him back.
Not because of anything else.
The examiners sent by the imperial court of Dali had finally arrived quietly!
…
On the morning of the fourteenth, a merchant ship entered the Lianzhou Basin via the Friendship River. Along the way, it did not stop at the Xila Lake pier, but directly entered the central pier of Shanhai City.
After reaching the shore, the attendants carried down boxes of tea leaves, all of which were high-quality Pu 'er tea.
The central pier of Shanhai City was bustling with people. Whenever a merchant ship docked, it would immediately be surrounded by a group of brokers or second-hand dealers. Merchant ships that were not familiar with these merchants would easily be deceived by them and sell their goods directly.
As long as a middleman found a suitable buyer, he would be able to earn a sum of money in the process.
Knowing that the caravan had actually brought high-quality Pu 'er tea, the second-hand dealer jumped up and down like he had been injected with chicken blood. Because tea leaves sold well overseas and were easy to transport, they were most loved by the great merchants.
Once they changed hands, the middleman would earn 20% of the profit.
Speaking of which, it was strange. This caravan was probably a newbie or something, but they sold all the tea they had brought at the pier, making the second-hand dealers so happy that they couldn't find their way north.
After selling their items, the group strolled around Shanhai City empty-handed. As they strolled, they purchased items that caught their attention. It was as if they were a newly arrived merchant group.
Unfortunately, their actions at the pier had already attracted the attention of Shanhai City's secret agents.
The higher-ups had given the order to not let any suspicious person go.
The spy followed them and found something strange. The leader of this caravan was a middle-aged merchant. There was no doubt that he was a merchant. What was strange was that while this caravan was strolling around, four of the workers quietly left the main group and blended into the vast crowd.
This time, the leader of the Shanhai Guards who was in charge of surveillance was excited. He had a premonition that he had caught a big fish. As he arranged for people to monitor the caravan and the workers who had left, he reported it to the headquarters.
After a while, the news reached Ouyang Shuo.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he ordered the Shanhai Guards to continue monitoring the caravan and not alert the enemy for the time being. At the same time, they could not let their guard down, lest they fall into the enemy's trap.
This surveillance basically locked on to the caravan.
There was nothing strange about the caravan. The key was the four workers who had left the group. The four of them seemed to have a division of labor. Some of them wandered around the city, observing the construction and layout of the city, stopping from time to time to take notes.
Some went in and out of the shops and chatted with the workers. Some went into the homes of the commoners and talked about all sorts of things. The last one disguised himself as a scholar and entered the hall of Southwest University China.
They thought that they had done it secretly, but they did not know that they had fallen into the eyes of the secret agents of Shanhai City.
Since there were no problems with the mock assessment led by Jiang Shang, and it could even be said to be very good, some of the minor problems had been dealt with in the past few days. Ouyang Shuo did not do anything superfluous and arranged for the four of them to do their own assessment.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to see if they could fabricate something out of nothing.
The afternoon passed in the blink of an eye.
In the evening, the caravan found an inn to stay for the night. The travel permit they used was issued by the Dali Imperial Court. According to the rules of Shanhai City, traveling merchants had to have travel permits. Otherwise, they would not be able to stay.
The four workers who had left the group also quietly met up with the main group in the evening. They looked a little dejected, but they did not manage to find anything that could be used against Shanhai City during the day.
Another day passed, and everything was as usual.
Ouyang Shuo sat in the study and calmly waited. As long as these people did not reveal their identities, Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to expose them. He wanted to see what tricks they had up their sleeves.
The incident happened on the morning of the 16th.
That morning, the main group of the Chamber of Commerce walked into a watch shop owned by a Westerner. It seemed that they were preparing to purchase a batch of clocks. It was not strange at first.
However, not long after, this group of people became unreasonable. They insisted that the workers in the shop dismantle the clocks and let them see the internal structure before they could buy them.
How could the workers agree to such a rude request?
Even if they agreed, the workers were all locals of Shanhai City and would not dismantle the clocks.
This time, they were furious. Without saying a word, they began to smash things in the shop.
The workers tried to stop them, but they were beaten up by the followers.
One of the workers was pushed down by one of the followers. His head hit the clocks, and blood immediately flowed from his head.
The commotion at the front door finally alerted the shopkeeper in the back hall.
The shopkeeper was a British merchant. When he saw this situation, he immediately became angry and asked his worker to report it to the authorities. In less than ten minutes, the bailiffs of Shanhai City arrived at the scene and brought the group of people to the yamen for interrogation.
When the secret agent of the Shanhai Guards who had been in charge of surveillance saw this, he became anxious and quickly reported it to the authorities.
When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he frowned.
According to the "Territory Code", causing trouble and injuring someone would be sentenced to at least three months in prison. The problem was, if that was the case, what would happen to the assessment mission?!
However, the case had already been taken over by the Shanhai City Internal Affairs Bureau, so Ouyang Shuo could not interfere immediately. He only instructed Wei Yang to keep an eye on the case.
On the morning of the 17th, after the case had been investigated, Ouyang Shuo summoned Wei Yang to ask for the opinion of the Internal Affairs Bureau.
According to the verdict of the Shanhai City Internal Affairs Bureau, the merchant leader was sentenced to three months in prison, and the followers who had participated in the smashing of the clocks were sentenced to four months in prison.
As for the follower who had injured the workers in the shop, he was sentenced to six months in prison.
In addition, the Chamber of Commerce had to compensate the financial losses of the watch shop and the medical expenses of the injured.
The entire sentence was fair, just, and open.
Originally, this was not a big deal. After all, the examiners that the Shanhai Guards had targeted were the four workers who had secretly investigated. Even if these people were sentenced, it would not affect the assessment mission.
The problem was, whether it was a coincidence or intentional, when the caravan entered the watch shop, the worker in charge of inspecting the shop followed them in and even participated in the smashing of the clocks.
This was simply nonsense!
"Official Wei, how do you think this case should be handled?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
Wei Yang knew the inside story, but his attitude was firm. He said, "My lord, no matter who it is, as long as they break the law, they must be punished according to the law. There is no favoritism."
Ouyang Shuo said awkwardly, "Then what about the assessment mission? Do we have to wait until four months later?"
"If there is no other way, then we can only wait."
"..." Ouyang Shuo was speechless.
Four months later, the daylilies had all turned cold.
"Can you let that worker off alone?"
Ouyang Shuo tried to ask. He really wanted Shanhai City to become a capital city as soon as possible. This not only affected the establishment of Shanhai City, but it also affected Ouyang Shuo's conjecture about the capital city's satellite city.
If this dragged on for too long, Ouyang Shuo was worried that something would happen to the Dream House and the Shadow Alliance. Even if it was the Breeze Pavilion, they wouldn't be able to hold on for so long without their satellite cities.
Wei Yang said, "My lord, if we show favoritism and let that worker off, then where is the dignity of the Territory Code? How can we talk about judicial fairness? Without judicial fairness, the Territory Code will not be able to pass the imperial court's assessment. In that case, the assessment mission will be a complete failure. "
Ouyang Shuo was shocked. He was so anxious that he lost his mind. He said, "You mean to say that this is a trap set by the other party? Their intention is to lure us into favoritism and ruin the advancement mission? "
Wei Yang nodded and said, "Very likely. I have a detailed understanding of the case. According to the witnesses, the other party is completely unreasonable and unreasonable. What is even stranger is that worker. His timing was too coincidental, and he even participated in the smashing. If he is the examiner, then this is too absurd. "
Ouyang Shuo was 80% convinced by Wei Yang's words. The other party thought that they had done it secretly, but they did not know that their every move was under the control of the Shanhai Guards.
That was why they came up with such an absurd idea.
Ouyang Shuo made up his mind and decided to believe Wei Yang's judgment. He said, "Alright, this case will be judged as it should be. I will not show favoritism or protect. If the heavens want Shanhai City to delay for four months, I will accept it. "
"My lord is wise!"
Wei Yang had a gratified expression on his face as he respectfully bowed.
...
The development of the matter was as Wei Yang had predicted.
The three workers who did not participate in the smashing were placed under house arrest in the inn. When they saw that Shanhai City was serious and wanted to sentence them according to the law, they changed into official robes and revealed their identities as examiners.
Ouyang Shuo gave them enough face and personally went to the inn to welcome them.
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