Zongwu: Madam, please respect yourself.

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Lu Wende, the envoy of the Jinghu pacification system!

Wu Gong had some doubts when he first heard the name.

But I soon remembered who this guy was. It turned out that this guy was the former governor of Xiangyang City. Xiangyang City is one of the most important lines of defense in the north, and the generals who guarded it before were not tiger generals.

They are two brothers, Lu Wende and Lu Wenhuan.

The reason why these two brothers are stationed here is because Xiangyang City is the area closest to the Mongolian grassland, and naturally it is also the city closest to the Silk Road. Because it is close to the Silk Road, Xiangyang City can also be regarded as an important pass on a lost silk route.

So he began to sell all the information in the imperial court to the Japanese pirates in exchange for more money.

But if it were converted into silver, the quantity would have reached a very huge level. This banknote is easy to hide, but the millions of taels of silver are not so easy to hide. When the millions of taels of silver are piled together, they look like a small mountain, with the whole body exuding a pure white light. Even if it is packed in boxes, it will take hundreds of boxes.

Calculating these millions of taels of silver in silver notes, it can only fit in a wooden box. If it is tied to the body, it will not be visible.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as anyone stays in this place and serves as an official, as long as he does not encounter the invasion of the Mongols, he can become rich and wealthy in two or three years at most. There is no need to smuggle anything in person, and there is no need to pay any capital. You only need to sit in the position of the prefect.

Although the imperial court also gave a lot of things, there was absolutely no way Huang Rong could give up these millions of taels of silver in vain. So they set up a game, saying that the millions of taels of silver were stolen money from the Mongolians who were going to come in to buy things, and then they confiscated it directly. Of course the Lu brothers couldn't accept it, but Huang Rong was very smart, and she didn't take it privately. Instead, the origin of this money was directly disclosed to the public. With the approval of everyone, this money was credited to Xiangyang City's account.

Not only did the Lu brothers' income drop sharply, but more importantly, as time went by, the Mongols could be said to be eyeing the entire Xiangyang defense line, and the entire Xiangyang defense line was in danger. The number of businessmen coming here is getting smaller and smaller.

And it was precisely because of these two useless people that the imperial court completely noticed that Xiangyang's defense line had become vulnerable. If it had been Qin Hui who was in power before, these two brothers might still be able to continue to be the prefects here.

They were originally planning to throw away the official silk, but for the Lu brothers, this was the only chance for them to stand up, so they came into contact with these Japanese pirates. When the Japanese pirates saw two senior officials from the Song Dynasty coming to see them, they suddenly had other ideas in mind. Their network in the Song Dynasty had never penetrated deeply into the court of the Song Dynasty. Even though these two high-ranking officials were in trouble now, their connections could still be used, so they were asked to be traitors before the silk was returned to them.

Therefore, after the queen achieved her goal, she did not kill them all. Instead, she arranged the Lu brothers in Xiangyang City. However, the official title was eliminated to the end. Now it is just a small hundred households, leading a team of soldiers. Originally, Queen Wu was going to let Guo Jing deal with these two people secretly.

In this situation.

You can live comfortably.

The two brothers cried and sighed every day, only hating themselves for not transferring all the money one day earlier. Under such circumstances, the two brothers wanted to make more money, so they bought a large amount of silk through their previous relationship and wanted to give it a try.

Of course, most of the wealth was handed over as tribute to a certain official in the court. But this was still represented by the Lu brothers, and the Lu family made a lot of money.

To put it simply, official silk is the silk of the imperial court.

You must know that with the invasion of the Mongols, merchants will encounter serious dangers. Originally, even if most of the profits were used to pay taxes, it would still be enough for the merchants to fight to the death. However, with the invasion of the Mongols, the possibility of encountering Mongolian plunder on the road has greatly increased. But remember, the vast majority of merchants have not made any money at all. They all spend a sum of money as entry fees in exchange for customs clearance documents.

But what they didn't expect was that what they thought was a move to increase their social status completely ruined their plan. Because they did not dedicate Xiangyang City to the Mongols in advance, they instead actively led troops to prepare to resist the Mongolian attack.

In addition, these two brothers have very good relationships with many important officials in the court. Although these two brothers are greedy and stupid, they are very good at winning people's hearts. In the past, the two brothers spent a lot of money to win people's hearts. Many officials in the imperial court also made huge profits through the Silk Road.

The two brothers did not hesitate too much. Anyway, for them, there was nothing worthy of their nostalgia in the Song Dynasty today. They just wanted to get enough money and then run away.

Because of Wu Guogong's relationship, the Japanese pirates' base camp was destroyed once before.

Unexpectedly, these Japanese pirates who just promised verbally actually gave them money.

Now that the freight channels are blocked due to the war in the south, they can't get so much silk, and the price of silk is skyrocketing. Regular silk is simply unaffordable. So they could only buy a large amount of silk through their friends' relationships.

But after all, the Lu brothers were high officials in the imperial court before.

Compared with those city lords in the south, they only collected 20% to 50% tax at most. The taxes in Xiangyang City were levied at a minimum of 50%, which resulted in a large amount of gold and silver flowing into the pockets of the Lu brothers like running water.

The previous commander-in-chief of the Mongols did not want to enter the Central Plains, otherwise the Xiangyang defense line would have been completely lost before Guo Jing and Huang Rong arrived.

Xiangyang City serves as a great pass.

To a certain extent, the imperial silk was not allowed to be bought and sold among the people, but was used as silver to be traded as tributes from other countries, or used by the royal family and officials. This kind of silk has obvious marks, so it is very easy to distinguish. In order to safely transport the silk to Xiangyang and then to the Western Regions, but in order to prevent the news from leaking, no escort was hired, but some personal guards were sent to carry out the task.

At that time, with the money earned from serving as an official in Xiangyang City for so many years.

I originally thought that this matter would be done quietly and there would be no problem.

Instead of running away in a hurry, the two people lurked in Xiangyang City, snooping around for various information about the court and selling it to the Japanese pirates, while secretly accumulating money, preparing to disappear after accumulating a certain amount.

Not only did he no longer resist.

So, they agreed. Under such circumstances, they got the silk back, and the Japanese pirates gave them a lot of money in order to win over them.

There is no way to hide it, let alone sell it.

In addition, they were pretty good to the officials in Xiangyang in the past and were not too harsh. Therefore, many officials gave them face, which gave them the right to act as they pleased in Xiangyang City.

Especially the Lu brothers are extremely greedy. Even though the entire defense line has become so dangerous, they are still increasing the cost of entering the city.