June 15th, a day of great significance for Wang Zhenyu. In Jingzhou Church, under the witness of Father Majipu, Commander Wang Zhenyu of Jingzhou formally married Ye Jia's daughter, Ye Zhiwen. The wedding was very simple, just a banquet for relatives from both sides, but none of Ye's family members were notified, only Ye and his two sons attended.

  Ye Zhiwen finally couldn't help but cry, although marrying Wang Zhenyu was her own dream, but thinking that from now on she would have to be separated from her beloved father and become a traditional housewife, tears still flowed down uncontrollably.

  Wang Zhenyu looked at his lovely and adorable little wife, who was so worried and sentimental, and hurriedly comforted her: "Little girl, don't cry, there aren't many rules here with your husband. In the future, if you want to go back to your parents' home, just go back, if you want to work, just work, okay? Don't cry today, or else you might end up crying for a lifetime."

  "Really, you're not fooling me?"

  Wang Zhenyu burst out laughing, then gave Ye Ziyun a big kiss on the forehead. This open display shocked Wang Longxian and others, but it was met with loud cheers from the military officers of the Menghu Lü (Fierce Tiger Corps) who were in attendance. The corps commander got married, and almost all the officers, from Deputy Commander Xu Yuanquan to Chief of Staff Yang Wanguo, came to celebrate.

  This bunch of bastards' noise level completely exceeded ordinary people's imagination, the funniest one being Li Zongren. This old fellow was usually very honest and down-to-earth. But after a few cups of wine, his brain got muddled, and he joined Bai Chongxi in inciting everyone, demanding that the division commander and his wife kiss again in public. Zhao Dongsheng, who was responsible for guarding, almost had the guards beat people with sticks. "Damn it," he said, "you guys stole my job, and I can only stand guard here for you bunch of idiots. Alas, what a pity about this fine wine."

  After a commotion, the wedding was completed smoothly.

  Wang Zhenyu and Ye Ziyun gazed deeply into each other's eyes, their hearts melting together in this moment.

  Wang Zhenyu got married, after setting up a family, he naturally went all out to make a career.

  Most of the officers from the Menghu Travel went to attend the wedding like it was New Year's, but some couldn't make it, such as He Jian who was hiding in Hongjiang. When he heard about the captain getting married, this kid regretted not being there, missing a rare opportunity to curry favor, and was thinking of buying something as a gift to make up for it. Gong Peng came in: "Brother, there's new news from Zhu's and Liu's families, their butlers said that the heads of their households want to meet with you, at Zhu's mansion, tonight."

  Upon hearing this news, He Jian did not show any excitement, but instead glared at Gong Peng with great dissatisfaction and said: "How many times have I told you, stop calling me 'big brother' randomly, call me Director, you're the deputy captain of the 9th Corps Military Intelligence Agency's Action Team after all, how can't you change this street-style way of addressing people?"

  After the Changsha incident, Wang Zhenyu established a military intelligence agency, with Wan Yao-huang temporarily serving as its director and He Jian as deputy director, holding the rank of senior captain. At the same time, he also served as a military advisor to the reserve command headquarters. As a result, this title has become quite particular; if a superior calls out "Advisor He", He Jian will certainly respond with a smile. However, if it's an inferior, you'd better be careful not to use the term "advisor" without the prefix, because the consequences are severe. Even when referring to his position in the military intelligence agency, please omit the word "deputy". After arriving at the 9th Brigade for some time, He Jian discovered that there were less than twenty regimental officers, and was shocked. Looking at the senior captain insignia on his shoulder, he suddenly felt confident, determined to promote faster than others to become a regimental officer.

  Hongjiang, Commander of the Fifth Defense Zone of Hunan Province, Zhou Zefan's mansion, Zhou Zefan was busy counting his wealth.

  Zhou Ze Fan is a native of Yiyang, Hunan Province. He has a tall and majestic physique and comes from an old military background. This time, however, he relied on the support of Tang Du to get the rich position of Commander of the Fifth Defense Zone, which is directly under the provincial government.

  Like Hongjiang, Xiangyin County, these main sources of Hunan's financial revenue naturally all have guard zones established. It should be said that Tan Yankai is still a very pragmatic politician, knowing where the key points are.

  Zhou Zefan naturally did not disappoint Commander Tan's trust. Shortly after taking office, Zhou Zefan ordered the four major families of Hongjiang and the eight major merchant groups to pay him management fees for public security and border protection. There was no standard for this levy, but that didn't matter - Zhou Zefan set an upper limit of 40 million yuan. As for how much each household would contribute, he didn't care about that; it was up to those cunning merchants to discuss among themselves. "I have 8,000 guns in my hands," he said, "and I'm not interested in haggling with you here."

  In the Qing dynasty, the four big families and eight big merchant groups were also considered to be people with a good reputation. All the officials they met would greet them with a smile. The second generation of the Zhang family, Zhang Zuoyou, even abandoned business for politics and spent money to buy a position as a Daoist priest in Guangxi Province.

  But Zhou, the commander who has taken over Hongjiang, relies on his men and guns and the backing of Changsha to act tyrannically and seize goods by force. The merchants are now like scholars encountering soldiers, unable to reason with them. Although they detest this new Jingbei commander, after all, everyone's foundation is in Hongjiang, so under duress, they honestly handed over the money. However, having mixed with the business world for many years, nowadays no one is foolish, and everyone knows that this is just the beginning...

  He Jian, who had just been promoted to captain and intelligence staff officer, entered Hongjiang City at this time, bringing Chen Hongji's letter to visit the famous Baoqing merchant leader Jiang family.

  It's hard not to be amazed at Wang Zhenyu's luck, Zhou Ze Fan this foolish master actively sent him a big gift.

  He Jian quickly met with the managers of the four major business families through the Jiang family, and successfully infiltrated Hongjiang. In the intelligence he sent back to Wang Zhenyu later, he clearly recorded what he understood and his personal insights.

  The so-called four major business families, the current head of the Zhang family is already the third generation, Zhang Jingkun. His influence cannot be compared to that of his grandfather; while Zhu Zhi's Zhu Zhida is already old and frail, bedridden with illness, but still has a strong presence and prestige. As for the Liang family's Liang Xiangfan, this person is special, he was born into a poor family selling liangfen (a type of noodle) and rose to prominence by working under the Zhu family, always following in their footsteps. With Zhu Zhida still alive, this won't change; The only exception is Liu Qishan, who is now the largest opium merchant in Hongjiang. Not only does he have a big appetite for risk, but his vision is also very accurate. During the Wuchang Uprising, the entire Hongjiang area's tung oil prices plummeted due to transportation disruptions and lack of buyers. However, Liu Qishan boldly raised funds and bought up all the low-priced tung oil. As a result, within half a year, the north and south were reunited, and the waterways reopened. The tung oil market in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces then surged in price due to shortages, and Liu Qishan naturally made another fortune, directly becoming the richest man in Hongjiang. Now he has both wealth and confidence. Although among the four major families, Liu Qishan's relationship with Zhou Zefan is currently the closest, but in the future, the one who will be most interested in cooperating with us must be this person, because his ambition is extremely great.

  He Jing's intelligence work was indeed solid, and his analytical work was very accurate.

  Zhu Zhi was already old, and he wasn't very interested in the power struggle. However, with the survival of Hong Shang hanging in the balance, facing Zhou Ze Fan's relentless pressure, this old veteran couldn't sit still either. He had to counterattack, and couldn't let Zhou Ze Fan, that arrogant parachuted official who didn't know his place, disrupt the century-old foundation of Hong Shang.

  Zhu Lao is after all Zhu Lao. As soon as his intention was made known, the other three families expressed their support. Among them, Liu Qishan was the most enthusiastic and asked to participate actively.

  Zhu Zhida naturally knew that Liu Qishan was making a bet, but since the Liu family's involvement was beneficial to themselves and harmless, Zhu Zhida would not have opposed it and instead welcomed it.

  He Kui, who had been eating leftover rice in Hongjiang for over two months, suddenly became a precious treasure. Zhu and Liu, the masters of the two families, who were sought after by many businessmen with heavy rewards but to no avail, actually wanted to meet this representative of the Menghu Travel together.

  On the night of June 18, 1913, He Jian did not bring any attendants and entered Zhu's mansion alone. The servant also didn't know how many times he had gone in and out, or how many corners he had turned, but although it was dark and he couldn't see the decorations inside the courtyard, the grand scale of the Zhu mansion still made He Jian feel some admiration for the wealth of Hong Sheng.

  They finally arrived at a brightly lit hall, where Zhu Zhi and Liu Qishan were already seated. He Jian was very polite and bowed to the two of them.

  "Mr. He, you've been in Hongjiang for over two months now. I'm afraid I haven't been well and couldn't visit you earlier. Please don't mind."

  He Qian smiled and said, "Master Zhu is a senior, how can he visit me, a junior? I've also heard that you're focusing on nourishing your life, so I didn't dare disturb you."

  Two light sentences dissolved the previous awkwardness.

  Zhu Zhi's face was filled with joy as he glanced at Liu Qishan, who was actually quite annoyed by Zhu's behavior, but had to put on a stiff upper lip and speak up: "Mr. He, I invited you here today because there is indeed something important that needs to be discussed."

  He Jian smiled and said: "Mr. Liu, it doesn't matter what you say."

  Mr. Liu? Why is Zhu Zhi Da called Zhu Lao, but when it comes to me, Liu Qi Shan, I become Mr. Liu? Liu Qi Shan was somewhat dissatisfied with this title, but could only swallow his pride and asked in a soft voice: "Your side's plans were mentioned by the person in charge, but Liu is a bit confused. If your side really takes down Hongjiang, what will happen when the provincial city authorities come to investigate?"

  He Jian listened and knew that this was an expression of suspicion towards his own side, and also if Hong Shang supported his side to take down Hongjiang, then the provincial government would intervene, and these people would be able to leave easily. These merchants had big families and businesses, and if they were held accountable, it would be a big trouble. He Jian burst out laughing: "It seems that western Hunan is still a bit closed off, hasn't Mr. Liu heard of the Changsha soldiers' rebellion and the execution of Mei Xing, the commander of the 5th Division?"

  Liu Qishan asked in surprise: "This thing has indeed been heard of, but the inside story is unknown, could it be?"

  He Jian stood up and said loudly: "This is exactly what my family's general has done. You can think about it, even Mei Xing, the respected teacher, was killed by my family's general, and Tan Dudu didn't dare to blame him. What about the small fifth defense zone commander? Is that right or not?"

  Liu Qishan looked back at Zhu Zhida, wanting to exchange opinions, but the other party closed his eyes and meditated. In his heart, he cursed "old fox" and continued: "So that's how it is, I didn't expect your side to be so brave in Changsha, admirable, admirable! However, for us small merchants, once the war starts, the risk is too great. We can simply contribute a large sum of money to send to the provincial capital and change the local officials, why take the risk to support your side in this battle?"

  He Key had long expected this to be said, and he smiled slightly mockingly: "Liu Boss is also a big shot, I didn't expect him to be so unworldly, is it really just because of Zhou Ze Fan? It's always been the case that merchants have been oppressed by officials since ancient times. Three years of Qing dynasty, 100,000 Snowflake Silver. Where did this 100,000 Snowflake Silver come from? Could it be that it was extorted from the peasants? No, it must have been cleverly taken from the merchants. Liu Boss, you can spend money to get rid of this Guard Commander today, but once Zhou Ze Fan is gone, there will be Li Ze Fan, Zhang Ze Fan... when will this kind of day ever end?"

  He Kui's tone thoroughly enraged Liu Qishan, who coldly snorted: "Ridiculous! If we invite you in, you won't bully us? You won't make unreasonable demands? What's the difference, Mr. He? It's better not to pretend to be a sage and talk big."

  He Jian did not rush to answer, but only let out a light sigh: "He Mou is just a messenger, if Liu Boss is angry because of He Mou's words, it's really unnecessary."

  "Believe it or not, you all must have received the recent letter from Chen Huizhang of Jingzhou Prefecture. Why do you still turn a blind eye to what's happening in Jingzhou Prefecture? My family's commander is different from others. In other people's eyes, merchants are just fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered, but in my family's commander, they are cooperative partners. I ask you, how many such people are there in the world?"

  Liu Qishan was about to refute, but Zhu Zhi, who had been silent with his eyes closed, spoke up: "If your commander gets the Hongjiang, can he reform politics like Jingzhou and return civil administration to local governments?"

  He Jing stood proudly: "Naturally, as long as all of you merchants support our commander with one heart, the gains in the future will absolutely be greater than what we put out today."

  Zhu Zhi took a deep breath and said to Liu Qishan: "Liu younger brother, you've arrived at a good time."

  Before Liu Qishan could understand what was going on, Zhu Zhi turned his head to He Jian and said: "Tell your commander that the matter in Hongjiang is entrusted to him."