Tong Guan naturally did not dare to neglect the emperor's decree. As soon as the court meeting was over, he personally led hundreds of elite Imperial Guards to the Shunde Marquis Mansion and surrounded the entire street where Qian's family was located, frightening the people around him. He ran out in a hurry, surprising Sun Tu and others who had been guarding the gate of the Hou Mansion for half a day.
When things got to this point, Sun Tu knew that he had no way out, and he couldn't afford to be negligent in the slightest. Now that it was confirmed that the source of everything was in the Shunde Hou Mansion, he could not let any of them escape after hearing the news. Therefore, after explaining everything to Tong Guan last night and asking for his assistance, he led a group of brothers to guard outside the Hou Mansion. , always keep an eye on anyone who comes in and out, whether it is a domestic slave or a steward. As long as you go out, someone will follow you.
After staying up until noon, suddenly a large number of forbidden troops came from all directions and surrounded them and the entire Hou Mansion. It wasn't until he saw Tong Guan coming slowly on his horse that Sun Tu breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly raised his hands to greet him: "Sun Tu, the head of Kaifeng Prefecture, is here to see Tong Guan."
After seeing Tong Guan nodding, the officers and soldiers blocking the way put away their swords, guns, bows and arrows, and let Sun Tu approach. A hint of approval flashed in Tong Guan's eyes, and then he said: "Qianli, have you been staying here all this time? Are you interested in accompanying me to go in and meet Marquis Shunde?"
These words made Sun Tu feel even more energetic, and he immediately clasped his fists and said, "I have my wish, but I don't dare to ask my ears!"
"Then come in with me." Tong Guan said, turning over and jumping off the horse neatly. Even though he is over sixty and his hair is already gray, his movements are still as nimble as when he was in his prime. After landing, with a shake of his hand, he threw the riding whip to the personal attendant beside him. Then, escorted by more than a dozen personal soldiers, he came to the closed door of the Hou Mansion and ordered the door to be opened.
In the Hou Mansion, Shunde Hou Qianmo, who had already learned that his property had been raided by Kaifeng Mansion, and had found out the exact information about many abducted women, was already pale with fright, covered in cold sweat, and was in the lobby. Wandering around, there was only one sentence left in his mouth: "What should we do..."
Since the Qian family came to vote soon after the founding of the Song Dynasty, the whole country has become extremely submissive and low-key. Even if Qian suddenly died suddenly in the Taizong Dynasty after returning from a banquet in the palace, none of the descendants of the Qian family dared to complain or be dissatisfied with the court.
The natural cowardice and the clear understanding of their identity have turned the dignified royal children of Wu Yue Kingdom into a group of existences that can only survive. They just want to be a stable and wealthy idle prince, and they have no other ideas. And now that he knew that his family was actually related to some gang members with evil intentions, the head of the family was even more frightened, and the prince of the court completely lost his sense of control.
At this time, after hearing the report from his servants that the entire mansion was surrounded by imperial troops, Qian Mo was so frightened that he stumbled and fell to the ground. Fortunately, the steward on the side had quick eyesight and quick hands, and just supported him: "Master Marquis, be careful. Privy Tong is waiting outside the gate. Please ask Master Marquis to tell him whether to open the door and invite him in to talk."
"Of course, please come on my behalf. No, I will go and welcome him in person." Qian Mo quickly broke away from the support after a moment's composure and hurried out.
Soon, he came to the gate, ordered his servants to open the door, and said respectfully
He bowed respectfully and saluted: "I didn't know that Privy Tong is here, but Xiaohou didn't come far to greet him. Please forgive me." He lowered his posture very low.
Facing the dignified Marquis who was greeting him with such a graceful attitude, Tong Guan didn't show much fear. He just smiled and raised his hands as a return gift, and then stepped forward to help Qian Mo, who had been bending over, straighten up: " Marquis, you don’t have to be like this. Although I am here on orders today, you are still a Marquis of the imperial court after all. If others look at you like this, it will do no good to you or me."
"Yes, yes, Privy Tong, please come to the hall to speak." Seeing that the other party's attitude was quite friendly, Qian Mo calmed down a little, and quickly welcomed Tong Guan, Sun Tu and others who were following him in.
Looking at the Shunde Marquis who was obviously panic-stricken and did not even care about his dignity, Sun Tu could be sure that he did not know the inside story of the matter, because the Qian Marquis did not have the guts to collude with Fen Yanzi.
Sure enough, when they came to the lobby and took their seats, Qian Mo almost knelt down and cried out as soon as Tong Guan said that he was here to be held accountable according to the decree: "You are wronged. Privy Tong, Xiaohou has always been cautious and low-key in the city of Tokyo. Apart from running some industries, I hardly have much interaction with outsiders, so how can I dare to collude with some Pink Swallow thieves? There must be some misunderstanding... "
Tong Guan did not respond, but just turned his head and glanced at Sun Tu who was standing behind him. Of course, he brought him into the Hou Mansion not just because he admired his actions, but because he wanted to use him.
Sun Tu understood and bowed first and said: "Forgive me, Lord Marquis, but according to the investigation before I went down to the official position, Fen Yanzi's group of thieves are indeed closely related to the Shunde Hou Mansion. Not only are Fen Yanzi's thieves mostly from the south of the Yangtze River, Zhejiang people, and the lower officials even got a carriage with the mark of the Hou Mansion from them. In addition, the several thieves captured before confessed that they were indeed following the orders of someone in the Hou Mansion. Finally, last night we found several abducted women from the Miaoyue Pavilion under the name of the Hou Mansion, all of which proves that this matter is closely related to the Shunde Hou Mansion."
To be honest, Sun Tu really admired the scheming of the person behind the scenes. He would actually locate the most important den in such a crowded brothel. He really understands that the more dangerous the place, the safer it is.
No wonder he and his men searched everywhere but failed to find the yard where Jin Yi and the abducted woman mentioned that they were hiding. It turned out that the place had been right under his nose. In order to find clues some days ago, Sun Tu sent several groups of people to Miaoyue Pavilion to inquire. No wonder Jin Yi and the others always mentioned that they could vaguely hear the sound of silk and bamboo before. I am afraid that it should be coming from the brothel nearby, or even from Miaoyue Pavilion itself.
When these words fell into Qian Mo's ears, every word made his face paler and his body trembled slightly: "How is this possible? That Miao Yue Pavilion is under the control of Qian Cong, he How could someone hide people in it?" As he spoke, his eyes fell on the steward next to him who had always lowered his eyebrows and was full of doubts.
Sun Tu and Tong Guan also stared at that person with suspicion. This is a man in his thirties with an ordinary appearance. But after feeling the gazes of the three people directed at him, he suddenly straightened up his slightly bent waist.
, and at the same time, the whole person's energy and spirit also suddenly changed, from an inconspicuous house slave to a dangerous person exuding a powerful aura.
He looked directly into the eyes of Tong Guan and Sun Tu without any hesitation, and said loudly: "Yes, the leader of the Pink Swallows you have been looking for is me, Qian Cong. It is precisely because of the Shunde Marquis Mansion that I can bring out the many depressed people." Or people in the world who were dissatisfied with the imperial court gathered in the city of Tokyo and formed Pink Swallows!
"But the Marquis doesn't know about all this, and no one in the entire Marquis Mansion knows my true identity. If you want to take someone to task, just do it. I can tell everything truthfully!"
"This... Qian Cong, how could you..." Qian Mo's face was full of surprise and disbelief. The confidant who had been trusted by him for decades actually did such a big thing behind his back. This was really unexpected, and it made the fear in his heart even stronger.
Qian Cong glanced at his master with some guilt, then knelt down and kowtowed vigorously: "Master Hou, Qian Cong did all this out of helplessness. You don't know something. As early as more than ten years ago, , our Hou Mansion has already been unable to make ends meet, and if we hadn’t taken the risk and let Pink Swallow’s people kidnap women and children to sell, I’m afraid that all the properties under the name of the Hou Mansion would have collapsed.”
"What? This... how is this possible?" Qian Mo's face was full of surprise, obviously unable to accept this fact.
"What kind of business in Tokyo does not need to be managed from top to bottom or have a strong backer? Although our Shunde Marquis Mansion is called the Marquis Mansion by outsiders, how many officials actually put us in their eyes? Whether it is the Street Department or the In Kaifeng Mansion, people come to Kaifeng every month with various pretexts to ask for benefits? If we don't feed these people, our shops will be in constant trouble, let alone open for business." Qian Cong said with a look of resentment: " We, the young ones, dare not let you, Lord Marquis, know about this kind of matter, and we cannot go to the Yamen in Beijing to seek justice, so we can only think of other ways and resort to some heretical ways."
"So you just... established Pink Swallows in the capital and used them to make ill-gotten gains?" Qian Mo said tremblingly, staring at the steward in front of him.
Qian Cong nodded: "You really shouldn't have kept this secret from Mr. Hou, and you shouldn't have done a lot of illegal things in order to get more benefits." After saying that, he turned to Tong Guan again: "Privy Tong , all of this is a petty act and has nothing to do with my Marquis. He doesn’t even know about it. If you want to finalize the case, just take me over for questioning, and I won’t complain whether you kill him or chop him into pieces... "
Qian Mo's eyes were full of sadness, but he was speechless. He was already cowardly, and now that the case was so big, he didn't dare to plead for his butler at all.
Tong Guan stared at Qian Cong for a while and then said: "I really can't believe that the leader of Pink Swallows who has made the people in the capital talk about it is actually such an inconspicuous servant of the Hou Mansion like you. I am really shocked. The vision has improved. Someone..."
Just when he was about to give the order to take someone, Sun Tu, who was behind him, suddenly put his head to his ear and whispered something in a low voice. After hearing what he said, Tong Guan's face darkened again: "Qian Cong, you are still hiding something until now. Who else do you want to protect? If you don't recruit him from the truth, it will only harm the entire Shunde Marquis Mansion. !”