Chapter 1 Kong Xinhua

Kong Xinhua only looked young, but in reality, he was already twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Speaking of which, he was indeed from the Kong family, just a member of an obscure branch of the family. Twelve years ago, he boarded a ship for the first time, wanting to see the outside world with his elders, but unexpectedly encountered pirates. Although the fleet he was on fought desperately to escape, they unfortunately encountered a tsunami. Fortunately, they unexpectedly encountered the fleet of Qi Zhentao, the old Master Qi. At that time, the old Master was in the final stages of transitioning from a pirate to a great merchant, conveniently saying that it was best not to kill a single person or loot a single ship for a year, which was actually the only year the old Master did that. The old Master brought Kong Xinhua back to Yicheng, where Kong Xinhua, at his young age, witnessed the miracles that the equally young Ye Tao began to create. Ye Tao naturally didn't have such a long-term plan. At the time, he simply had Kong Xinhua become a hidden asset, thinking it would be nice to have someone to chat with.

But the old Master Qi exploited this Kong family member thoroughly. Although Kong Xinhua didn't have a high status in the Kong family, the old Master still gave him a ship and the first batch of goods, allowing him to start his own business. Naturally, this handover was done extremely discreetly. The old Master first let Kong Xinhua return to Northern Liao, and then had Kong Xinhua encounter "pirates" during his second voyage. In a chase, Kong Xinhua repeatedly made accurate suggestions, amazing the adults around him. Then, when they defeated the pirates and seized a large amount of supplies and three ships, they asked Kong Xinhua what reward he wanted. Kong Xinhua asked for the things that the old Master Qi had promised him, not even asking for an extra box of items. And his legend in Northern Liao, in the Kong family, began from that day. Over the years, he had become the largest smuggler in Northern Liao, without exception. The other forces who seemed to be fighting him to the death were actually also his. Of all the smuggling routes from Dongping to Northern Liao, both by sea and land, there was only one route with a military background that he couldn't control. It seemed that several routes were fighting each other, and some people had to die, but most of it was just his way of eliminating problematic figures within the organization. And the Kong family had gradually been completely controlled by him. After all, whether in terms of financial resources, material resources, or even military force, he had too great an advantage.

The Kong family had also had rebellions. Some elders and people who coveted his wealth had set up schemes to harm him, but seeing clearly the faces of those people in the family, he finally made the decision to carry out a purge of the family. Not many people know about that silent purge to this day. He arranged for people to continue playing the roles of many of those who died. This act had been going on for several years. In reality, the Kong family had become Dongping's largest pawn in Northern Liao. In the beginning, the old Master Qi had been assisting in cargo transportation, but later, once it involved the arrangement of secret agents, and also because the old Master had to manage various matters in Yazhou, he didn't have the energy to manage the problems in Northern Liao. This line was transferred several times, but in the end, it was handed over to Ye Tao, becoming a part of Ye Tao's plan for Northern Liao. This made Kong Xinhua extremely happy. Although Kong Xinhua had always respected the old Master Qi, if he were to speak his mind, he greatly admired Ye Tao. Not only because Ye Tao was a brilliant inventor, but also because he could make those commonplace lives extraordinary.

In the beginning, Ye Tao didn't want to operate this line too much. Although he had been making various preparations, he originally hoped that the Kong family could become a model for Dongping to appease the Northern Liao aristocratic families after the war, so that people could see Dongping's goodwill. But Kong Xinhua himself was very dissatisfied with this arrangement. He was also a child who had grown up at sea, although he never seemed to age, no matter how the sea breeze blew, and he was considered to have a natural gift, but he was a person who longed for adventure. If he were purely doing smuggling business, with his current strength, he wouldn't need to scheme at all, but he craved a bigger adventure. And this time, the order Ye Tao sent was very much to his liking. Ye Tao didn't give a very specific plan, but just asked him to find a way to alienate the relations in the Northern Liao court and to find a way to hinder the Western Route Army. And Kong Xinhua understood and began to operate these things. The heated discussions in the court and among the people caused by the repeated defeats of the Western Route Army, and the recent arrangements of the court regarding air defense spending, etc., made him see an opportunity. He didn't even ask Ye Tao for instructions and jumped right in. Although it seemed that he was transfusing blood to Northern Liao with a large amount of grain, and Zhang Ci could have a little more money in his hands, which would be of some small help to the current military strength of Northern Liao, what was most important was that he had won Zhang Ci's trust. And Zhang Ci, the Minister of Revenue who was sitting on pins and needles, and Situ Lian, who was full of lawsuits and urgently needed some ideas, would be good breakthroughs.

No one likes to fight, Kong Xinhua understood this very well. Although the court and the public are always discussing how to defend against Dongping and how to prevent Northern Liao from perishing, if a glimmer of hope can appear, no one will want to be involved in a tragic war. And this was the point that Kong Xinhua could use the most. Transfusion and consumption are actually two sides of the same coin. Now, every penny that Northern Liao can earn, every bit of strength will undoubtedly be invested in war preparations, and that will slowly exhaust the last bit of vitality of Northern Liao. Although Kong Xinhua was a Northern Liao person, he also had such contradictions. He felt that rather than fighting, it would be better for Northern Liao to perish in Ye Tao's hands, at least Ye Tao was a benevolent ruler. It wasn't that Kong Xinhua lacked love for Northern Liao, but he really lacked loyalty to the Northern Liao royal court. In his opinion, if it weren't for the Northern Liao royal court's decades of extortionate taxes, lack of progress, and allowing local officials to be corrupt and solve all problems with force, Northern Liao would not have been reduced to being beaten by Dongping. Looking at Dongping's rise, it has only been the time of Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, this couple's generation.

"Big sister, then will we continue according to the plan?" Kong Xinhua asked seriously.

This person he called big sister was originally a female guard by Dai Yun's side. After this line of Kong Xinhua was handed over to Ye Tao, she quietly came to Northern Liao and became an important assistant by Kong Xinhua's side, mainly in terms of force. This woman was actually a few years younger than Kong Xinhua, but Kong Xinhua looked young, and everyone gradually adopted this title. This woman named Chen Su was planning the final blow against the smuggling route that had relations with the Northern Liao military.

Chen Su shrugged, looking relaxed, and said, "Let's continue. In fact, the impact on Northern Liao is very limited, but at this moment, it can make Zhang Ci trust you more. No one will believe that you have no selfish motives at all, and besides, hasn't the drama already been prepared? It would be a pity not to use it."

Kong Xinhua smiled. That smuggling route not under his control was naturally the Western Route Army's. They were smuggling not only for wealth, but most of the time they were even paying money to purchase a large number of precision instruments and the like. Now, the war has been lost, but the demand for weapons and equipment is even greater, and this route is becoming more and more rampant. And the people under Gao Senqi who manage this route were able to adhere to the principles of secret operations before, but now they openly enter the country and begin to transport publicly, making the upstream suppliers suffer unspeakably. In fact, Kong Xinhua knew that the upstream supplier was none other than the Dongping Intelligence Bureau. Only Nie Rui's subordinates dared to let so many telescopes, timing devices, and other equipment flow into Northern Liao, seemingly not worried at all. But this supplier was too well disguised. Kong Xinhua understood the operation of this route very well, and now it was time to clean up. The other side had a large batch of goods entering Yanjing today, and it was said that they were preparing to deliver the goods to the Eastern Route Army. On the one hand, although Kong Xinhua had confidence in the old Master's fleet, he still felt that it was too dangerous for Tan Weiran and Chi Lei's forces to be isolated in the Northeast. He couldn't allow the Eastern Route Army and other troops to be further strengthened. On the other hand, he also wanted to show his strength and completely control the flow of goods in his hands. And those goods that could be obtained through that channel, he could also meet the requirements of the Northern Liao military and other parties, and could even get better things. Of course, he would carefully control the quantity and time of these things, otherwise, it would really become a big misunderstanding. And recently, the Western Route Army's caravan actually clashed with a caravan that was clearly under Kong family's command. In fact, there was no reason, it was just that two smuggling caravans met on a narrow road, and the Kong family's caravan was transporting a batch of medicinal materials, several telescopes, some tools and weapons, etc., which happened to be what the Western Route Army wanted. They naturally refused to hand them over. The Western Route Army had just purchased their own goods and naturally couldn't come up with the money to buy them, and even thought of the idea of writing an IOU. This was something that the smuggling industry deeply hated. Once something happened, they couldn't even find an official to arbitrate and could only settle it privately, but the other party was the Western Route Army. But after being rejected, he didn't know what wind the Western Route Army's caravan had caught, but they actually surrounded the Kong family's caravan and forcibly bought all the goods. And this time to toss them, basically, was to say to retaliate for this incident.

"Then I'll leave it to you, big sister. I can't beat those iron-headed guys." After Kong Xinhua understood the pros and cons, and prepared how to gradually put things on his track after the event, he said to Chen Su. And Chen Su smiled sweetly, not looking like she was going to kill and set fire later. Kong Xinhua didn't follow, but walked around the surrounding area, identified all the people who were following him, and then returned to his residence in Yanjing. Then, all he had to do was wait.