Chapter 1 He Had No Interest in Paying Attention

Looking at Sun Xiaofan, who seemed to be lost in thought, Xia Bin didn't dare to make a sound, and could only wait quietly. Fortunately, Sun Xiaofan wasn't the type to daydream, and quickly sorted out his thoughts. He asked, "It seems that we have no choice but to give up the assassination at the banquet this time. Even I am not confident that I can fight my way from the outer perimeter to the inner area... there are piles and piles of troublesome soldiers there. However, you will be stationed in Yunzhou permanently. With the connections you've made with the Dai family, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to open a silk shop in Ningyuan, right?"

Xia Bin nodded repeatedly, judging purely from a businessman's intuition, "Yunzhou's various laws and regulations are very favorable to merchants. In fact, not only merchants, but anyone willing to work hard and capable will not go hungry in Yunzhou. This is done better than in Chunnan and Dongping. If I mention it to the steward of the Dai family and ask for a favor, not to mention that I have some money to open a silk shop, whether it is the various tribes of Yunzhou, or the local people of Yunzhou, they are guaranteed that the silk shop's business will not be bad... Even if I don't have enough capital or want to keep more money for turnover, I can borrow a small amount of money from the Yunzhou Development Fund. Moreover, it is said that after the start of spring, the Commerce Bureau and the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau will be recruiting people. It is said that many merchants, or shopkeepers and higher-level clerks from large firms, want to try to get a job in the Commerce Bureau. This is the first time ever that merchants are directly recruited to be officials and are responsible for commercial affairs."

The situation mentioned by Xia Bin was exactly what Sun Xiaofan, who had not been in Yunzhou for long, had not been interested in paying attention to. He asked with interest: "The Commerce Bureau directly recruits merchants to be officials? Isn't that openly giving people the opportunity to abuse their power for personal gain?"

Xia Bin shook his head disapprovingly. He didn't even realize that when discussing these matters, he had temporarily forgotten his fear of Sun Xiaofan. He said with confidence: "It's not that simple. The powers of those recruited positions will be clearly publicized, just like when the Manufacturing Bureau recruited clerks earlier. And once you are recruited, PricewaterhouseCoopers will investigate your property situation, and there will be annual inspections every year. Once any abuse of power is discovered, or any inexplicable things happen, Yunzhou will not tolerate it. Even some of the old local snakes who have a good relationship with the Dai family have suffered. Moreover, in terms of doing business, what business can be more profitable and exciting than doing business with Her Highness Princess Zhaohua? Over the years, every move of the Princess's has been a touch of gold. Aren't those shopkeepers and family heads of large families who want to get closer trying to learn something from the Princess and get acquainted with her, so that the Princess can give them some ideas in business? "

Sun Xiaofan snorted, but could only admit that what Xia Bin said made sense. He suddenly asked, "If Yunzhou is going to do the exam thing again, are you confident?"

Xia Bin frowned, then relaxed, and said: "That's hard to say. However, didn't you, young master, choose me to serve the Divine Sect because you value that my brain is still quite good? At least I can tell the difference between good and bad, and understand what is good..."

There was a hint of resentment in Xia Bin's tone, but Sun Xiaofan didn't mind, instead he smiled and said: "It's good that you understand. I don't need you to be some kind of Commerce Bureau official, but I will send two people to you. You teach them the tricks of doing business. It seems like a good opportunity to plant people in Yunzhou."

Xia Bin shuddered and reluctantly agreed: "I will definitely tell you everything I know."

As a businessman, a businessman who is now controlled, Xia Bin naturally knows that the tricks of doing business cannot be explained clearly in a day or two or a month or two. Every industry has its own rules. Even a relatively successful businessman like him only understands the parts that he needs to understand and can understand. The general rules of commerce, especially the general rules of money flow, have only just entered everyone's field of vision in recent years, starting with Tan Weixin's series of works... But Xia Bin would never dare to say anything else at this moment, and can only do his best. If Sun Xiaofan's plan fails, it would indeed be a very frightening thing.

Even though Sun Xiaofan temporarily gave up the idea of sabotage and assassination at the wedding banquet, it did not mean that he gave up paying attention to the whole matter. There was no better time than now to understand the combination, alliance, and disintegration of various forces hidden behind this wedding, to capture the different opinions or disapproval that would only be revealed after the inner drowsiness and drunkenness of those in taverns and teahouses, to capture the hatred and resentment that blurted out in inexplicable discussions and disputes... Then, some of those people might become pawns in his conspiracy layout.

There were very many people who disagreed with the matter of Dai Yun marrying Ye Tao. Even within the Dai family, there was some discord regarding marrying Dai Yun, the prodigious woman who had once been internally designated as the next Dai clan leader and who had distinguished herself in battle, to Ye Tao. How could someone like Dai Yun be a concubine to anyone? And the local aristocratic families of Yunzhou were amazed that after the change in the situation, the Dai family not only did not actively maintain their original foundation in Yunzhou, but instead completely sided with Dongping and the Tan family. Under the rule of the two Pacification Commissioners, Dai's family had actually been acting impartially in various matters of adjusting Yunzhou's political strategies and military affairs, and had not given any consideration to the face of the local elders. In fact, whether it was Xu Jingtao or the current Ye Tao, the various measures taken could be said to be moderate and lenient, but since it was a change, it was bound to touch the interests of some people, and Dai's fairness at this time seemed somewhat hypocritical and like a prevarication and cover-up by the vested interests in the eyes of some people.

In fact, even within the Blood Kirin Army, there were not some different opinions? It was just that those who had once admired Dai Yun, the Governor-General, and those who were dissatisfied with Dai Yun, a woman, leading the army to make meritorious service were in the majority, but on the whole, the Blood Kirin Army was the most understanding and considerate of Dai Yun. Even those who had once admired Dai Yun had to admit that in this world, the only person who could allow Dai Yun to obtain something, including happiness, through marriage without losing the glory of a female war god, without giving up control of the army, and without reluctantly pretending to be an ordinary woman who was gentle and virtuous, was probably Ye Tao, who had never been fully understood by everyone.

While Sun Xiaofan was walking through the streets and alleys of Ningyuan, carefully observing the crowds in the various taverns and teahouses, and listening to the high-sounding talks of various people, a team of cavalry galloped through the streets, attracting Sun Xiaofan's attention. In Yunzhou, even in Ningyuan, where the density of soldiers was now so high that it was outrageous, except for a small number of soldiers who really had urgent missions, no one was allowed to ride horses on the streets. General routine patrols and deployments, even the battalion of the Iron Cloud Riders currently stationed in Ningyuan, or the Blood Kirin Army, which had a fairly extraordinary status, could only march slowly in formation according to regulations.

What happened? Very interested in this, Sun Xiaofan settled the bill in the tavern and headed in the direction where the cavalry team disappeared. Although Ningyuan was quite lively at the moment, after the cavalry team passed by, the streets quickly returned to their original state of being crowded with pedestrians, as if nothing had happened, but on the distant streets, the low sound of the cavalry trampling the ground still allowed people like Sun Xiaofan to follow the trail of the cavalry team.

What he didn't expect was that the cavalry team was not, as Sun Xiaofan had expected, to suppress any unrest in the city, but instead ran out of Ningyuan City, and then joined a scout cavalry team outside Ningyuan City, forming a team with very strong mobility and combat power, disappearing into the vast plains. In order not to arouse the vigilance of the soldiers guarding the city, Sun Xiaofan naturally could not ask what had happened, and, he knew very well that, according to the style of the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office, an explanation would be given later for this kind of military deployment that could easily cause misunderstandings among the people.

As Sun Xiaofan had expected, an hour later, a notice of the military deployment in Ningyuan City was posted on the bulletin board outside the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office. It turned out that someone had mixed in with the entourage of the guests coming to Ningyuan, and suddenly launched an attack at a banquet, intending to assassinate senior military officers of the Yunzhou Command. Due to the strong defense on the scene, the attempt failed. After an emergency investigation, a unit each from the garrison battalion stationed in Ningyuan City, the Iron Cloud Riders battalion, and the Frost Wolf Army battalion stationed outside the city were dispatched to conduct a rapid search of the area within sixty li around Ningyuan, to hunt down the remaining assassins.

This simple news made Sun Xiaofan vigilant. It was very normal for people to be dissatisfied with the current development of Yunzhou, with Ye Tao and those he promoted increasingly deeply controlling Yunzhou, or simply with Ye Tao or Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, and their trusted aides, but Sun Xiaofan really did not expect that someone would not be able to help but take action now. What he also did not expect was that in the current tense and complex situation, Yunzhou was not only able to protect Ye Tao and others very tightly, but also able to extend this protection to many important figures in Yunzhou. It seemed that the actual power of the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office was stronger, or more closely knit, than Sun Xiaofan had previously expected.