Your Majesty, the princess is fleeing famine with her child!

Chapter 265 Smuggling

"Damn it, the Wen family is so bold that they even dare to touch the prince. They are so tired of living!"

"If I had known this, I shouldn't have listened to the prince and said, 'Let's play the long game and catch the big fish.'"

"We should have wiped out the Wen family first!"

Zhao Xuesi started to curse and yell incessantly.

He was so excited that he accidentally touched his wound, causing him to grimace in pain and hiss.

Yun Fuling slapped him on the shoulder and said in a deep voice, “Okay, is this the time to curse?”

"The most urgent task right now is to find the prince and Commander-in-Chief Zuo!"

"Explain to me what's going on!"

"What exactly did you find out? Don't hide anything from me."

"I need to know the whole situation before I can know how to find the whereabouts of the prince and Commander-in-Chief Zuo!"

After Zhao Xuesi got over his initial emotional outburst, Yun Fuling slapped him in the face, and he gradually regained his senses.

He understood that Yun Fuling was right.

His impotent rage here was of no use at all.

Only by telling Yun Fuling the whole truth, the more she knows, the more likely she will be able to find clues and find Xiao Jingyi and Zuo Yan as soon as possible.

Even though Jinzhou was a muddy place, Yun Fuling shouldn't have been dragged into it.

However, the whereabouts of Xiao Jingyi and Zuo Yan are unknown.

Now that Yun Fuling has arrived in Jinzhou, she and Xiao Jingyi have a deep love for each other. They have a tacit understanding that no one else can match. Maybe if they want to find Xiao Jingyi's whereabouts, they really have to rely on her!

Zhao Xuesi's mind turned slightly, and in an instant, he made up his mind to tell Yun Fuling everything he knew.

"After we arrived in Jinzhou, based on the confessions of those people in the capital's Shenxianju, the prince decided to start the investigation from Jinyulou."

"We pretended to be gamblers and went to the Jinyulou to gamble a few times."

"There are three floors in the Jinyu Building. The higher you go, the bigger the fun becomes."

"The prince was very generous. In a few days, I was qualified to go to the second floor."

"After reaching the second floor, someone in the Jinyu Building started selling gold paste to the prince."

"Fortunately, the prince had made preparations. He pretended to buy the gold paste, and when no one was paying attention, he replaced it with the fake gold paste he had prepared in advance, and smoked it in front of those people to eliminate their vigilance."

"The prince pretended to be addicted to the golden cream and went to the Jinyulou to buy the golden cream again and again, and used this opportunity to investigate the origin of the golden cream in the Jinyulou."

"Originally, Jinyulou kept the origin of the golden cream very secret, and we returned empty-handed several times."

"I didn't expect that during one of my investigations, I would stumble upon an internal fight among the Wen family, but I gained something unexpected."

"The Wen family is the owner of the Jinyu Tower and is also a local noble family."

"The Wen family was originally headed by the eldest branch of the family, but more than ten years ago, Master Wen accidentally fell off his horse and died. Master Wen had only one son, Master Wen."

"But Mr. Wen has contracted some terrible disease. Countless famous doctors have been consulted but none of them can cure him. He can't even get up from his bed, let alone manage the huge Wen family."

"So the power to make decisions in the Wen family falls to the second branch."

"But the third wife is also jealous and has been fighting with the second wife in private, trying to take the power of the family from the second wife."

"That day we happened to run into the quarrel between the second wife's eldest son Wen Zhao and the third wife's Wen Tianlin."

"This Wen Tianlin is Wen Zhao's third uncle, but there is no warmth and affection between this uncle and nephew. Wen Zhao is even more aggressive towards his third uncle and doesn't give in at all."

"It was from their quarrel that we learned that the Wen family was involved in the smuggling business, and that the golden paste was smuggled in."

"However, the smuggling business is mainly carried out by the second branch of the Wen family. The third branch is jealous of the profits involved and also wants to get involved and get a piece of the pie."

"And the local government of Jinzhou is also involved in this matter."

"After getting this clue, the prince turned to investigate the Wen family."

The Great Qi Dynasty opened up maritime trade, so merchants in coastal areas benefited from it and made a lot of money.

As long as they paid enough customs duties and the traded goods did not involve strategic materials such as grain, ironware, horses, and salt controlled by the court, the court welcomed the maritime countries to trade with Daqi.

But there are always some people who are greedy.

They have obviously made a lot of money, but they always want to make more and don’t even want to pay a small amount of tariffs.

This gave rise to smuggling.

Although the imperial court has been investigating and cracking down on this issue strictly, it has still not stopped.

I didn’t expect that the Wen family was also involved in smuggling, and that it was collusion between officials and businessmen.

Yun Fuling thought about this and couldn't help but ask, "What did you find out?"

Zhao Xuesi nodded, "The smuggling location is in Xiaoyue Bay, but the place is heavily guarded and we can't get in at all."

Although Jinzhou is located in the heart of Daqi, one side of it faces the sea.

This made Jinzhou's maritime trade prosperous, and all kinds of imported goods entered various parts of Daqi from Jinzhou's docks.

Zhao Xuesi thought for a moment and said, "I suspect the disappearance of the prince and Commander Zuo may be related to Xiaoyue Bay."

"The prince came to Jinzhou to investigate the case of the golden cream. The origin of the golden cream is related to the smuggling of the Wen family."

"So the prince turned his attention to Xiaoyue Bay, hoping to investigate the Wen family's smuggling."

"As long as the smuggling case is investigated, the case of the golden paste will naturally be solved."

"The prince also said that the golden cream incident might just be the tip of the iceberg, and the smuggling issue is the most important issue."

"I don't know if the prince has found out something else and hasn't told us, but he takes the Wen family's smuggling very seriously."

"I originally thought that smuggling was just a matter of money. The prince just needed to mobilize the troops, catch them in the act, arrest all the people involved, and punish them according to the law."

"And if we catch those involved in smuggling, we can also get the origin of the golden paste from them. Isn't the matter over here?"

"But the prince said that this matter is of great importance and we should not alert the enemy and should play the long game to catch the big fish."

"I don't know what kind of fish he's going to catch."

When Yun Fuling heard this, she looked thoughtful.

After a long while, she asked, "What's going on with the assassination in Jinyulou? Does it have anything to do with you?"

Zhao Xuesi was silent for a moment before he said, "There is a little bit of relationship..."

Yun Fuling looked puzzled: "What do you mean by a little bit of relationship?"

"That day, the prince, the left commander, and I were originally going to the Jinyu Tower to gather information."

"Who would have thought that Wen Zhao was entertaining a Japanese man, and there was another person in the room."

"The man was wearing a cloak, covering his entire body, and his face was covered with a mask."

"This person is so secretive that he doesn't even dare to show his true face. He must have a secret!"