Volume 1: Mission in Danger Chapter 42 Who will take the blame?
Eleventh Floor, inside the stone house.
After hearing what Young Master Wu said, all the relatives of the Wu family were in a panic.
No matter what the reason is for the current situation, if Yihehang really goes bankrupt, although they will not be exiled like the Wu family, it will mean the loss of a large source of income from then on, and some families may even lose their largest source of livelihood.
Everyone was talking about it and didn't know . They asked Wu Chenggou, but Wu Chenggou also looked embarrassed.
Sixth Uncle said: "There is only one way to deal with this now."
Everyone asked: "What's the solution?"
"When a poisonous snake bites your hand, a brave man loses his arm." said my sixth uncle.
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Everyone knew the meaning of these eight words, but no one knew what Sixth Uncle meant by using them here.
The sixth uncle said, "If this burden is placed on the Wu family, the Wu family may go bankrupt, but we, the Wu family, cannot go bankrupt together. For now, there is only one way: if the burden is really placed on the Wu family, then we will push one person to take the blame, and find another person to inherit the Wu family's merchant status and the license of Yihehang. The Wu family's property will probably be lost, but the license and the relationship with foreign merchants will be preserved. We also have the old relationship with Fujian tea merchants, so this business can continue. At that time, the Wu family may fall to the back of the Thirteen Hongs, but even if it falls to the back, it is still a merchant after all."
Everyone listened to this, whispered to each other, some nodded, some shook their heads, and finally someone asked, "Who should take the blame?"
The sixth uncle said: "Whoever is in charge now will naturally take the blame."
Everyone said "oh" and suddenly understood, but no one had any objections.
Someone else asked: "If the Third Young Master takes over the jar, who will inherit the license and the family business?"
"Of course it's the Second Young Master." The Sixth Uncle said, "Although the Han people's rule is to establish the heir, we are now in the Qing Dynasty, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty has always been to establish the virtuous. This has been the case for several generations of emperors. Since the emperor does this, we ordinary people can certainly do the same. The Second Young Master has always respected the elderly and loved the young, and he has helped Yihe Bank for several years. He knows everything about the business, so it would be best for him to inherit the family business."
Someone else said, "But will Brother Guoying agree?"
"Do we have any other choice now?" Sixth Uncle said, "If the whole family goes down together, what good will it do to Guoying? What good will it do to the Wu family? But if we follow our method, not only will the Wu family be saved, but Guang'er can also be saved. With sons and grandsons, what else does Guoying want? Besides, Guoying has always been nostalgic. Even if he was hesitant at first, if we old guys stand together with the Second Young Master, he should be able to agree."
Many people in the room nodded, thinking it made sense.
"If everyone agrees, then let's do it." The Sixth Uncle said, "Let's set the time on the birthday celebration day. Then everyone will go to celebrate the birthday together. This is a major event related to our Fujian Wu family, and everyone must be united at that time!"
Everyone said, "Of course, of course. When the time comes, we will definitely follow your lead."
Wu Chengjian spent another night on the Huacha.
When it was almost dawn, a small boat brought news to Wu Qi.
Wu Qi got on the boat and talked about everything that happened in Shiyipu.
Zhou Yijin frowned upon hearing this and couldn't help but say, "Your second brother is simply..."
Wu Chengjian laughed and said, "You're really stupid, right?"
Zhou Yijin couldn't scold Wu Chenggou in front of Wu Chengjian, so he just said, "It's okay if he's like this... But how come that Sixth Uncle is also so unreliable?"
"Dragons are like dragons, phoenixes are like phoenixes, and mice's friends will dig holes." Wu Chengjian said, "How much intelligence can someone who follows me, the second brother, have?"
Zhou Yijin shook his head.
"But..." Wu Chengjian said, "I was originally still suspecting that the leak in Huizhou might have been done by Shopkeeper Dai Er. After all, although the tea mountain line of our family is managed by my eldest brother, it involves domestic trade routes, and many things cannot be bypassed by Shopkeeper Dai Er. So it is not surprising that he found out the tea transportation route and various key points by indirect means. But now it seems that it is not the case."
Wu Qi asked: "Why?"
Wu Chengjian said: “If Dai Er was involved in this matter, he should be able to guess the consequences for the Wu family, and there would be no need to get involved in Er Lao’s affairs.”
Wu Qi asked again: "Why is it not necessary?"
Zhou Yijin answered on his behalf: "First, there is no benefit. Maybe the mastermind didn't tell him everything before, but at this stage, he should have guessed that the mastermind wanted to destroy the entire Wu family, so there is no benefit at all for following the second young master Wu to do these things.
"Secondly, there are disadvantages. If it is true that Shopkeeper Dai is the traitor, he would not dare to cause any more trouble, lest he be implicated in other things and expose the things he really wants to hide. Young Master Wu is a crude person. He wants to plot to seize the power of the family, but he has found such a large group of relatives with complicated relationships. With so many spies, leaks are almost certain. Even if the mastermind still underestimates Young Master San, the old man and the eldest young lady may get wind of it."
Wu Chengjian nodded: "Now it seems that Shopkeeper Dai Er may not be a traitor, but it is still possible that the traitor knew the tea transportation route through him. If someone has ever asked Shopkeeper Dai Er about the details of our family's tea plantation, then this person is most likely a traitor."
Wu Qi said, "I'll go find Lao Dai."
"No, you are too young. This is not suitable for you," Wu Chengjian raised his hand and pressed: "Go find Lao Gu."
"Old Gu?"
"Yes." Wu Chengjian said, "Tell Lao Gu about my guess and let him handle this matter."
Wu Qi said: "Third Master, don't you doubt Lao Gu?"
"It shouldn't be Old Gu." Wu Chengjian said, "If Old Gu is a spy, he would either find out nothing when he came back from Huizhou, or the things he found out would be mixed with true and false. The true news has nothing to do with the overall success or failure, while the false news would be misleading. But we got the overall intelligence of the capital from Master Cai, and from this perspective, there is nothing wrong with the news that Old Gu brought back from Huizhou. Some of it can even support some of Master Cai's statements, and some of the clues hidden in it are definitely concealed by the mastermind. So, there is no problem with Old Gu."
Zhou Yijin said: "If it's Manager Dai, there's no problem..."
"The possibility of Shopkeeper Wu Si is not high. The information he has access to is too peripheral. If I were the 'enemy', I would not choose him." Wu Chengjian said, "If it is not the two of them, the shopkeepers of Yihe Bank will only fall on Shopkeeper Liu Da and Shopkeeper Hou San. Although these two are not directly in charge of the tea mountain line of the family, the shopkeeper Liu Shu is in charge of all matters of Yihe Bank, and Hou San is in charge of foreign goods shipments. Although the two of them are separated from Shopkeeper Dai Er by a layer, they can also piece together the intelligence of Huizhou Tea Road through other aspects. As long as we find out a few more key pieces of information, we can basically get 80% or 90% of the truth."
At this point, Wu Chengjian sighed, "I really don't want it to be Uncle Liu. If it's him... then even if we can get through this, Yihe Bank will basically have to make a comeback. As for Hou San, if it's him, then after the 'enemy' gets the tea, they won't have to worry about selling it. They may even sell it directly to the East India Company in the end."
Zhou Yijin said: "It may also be that something went wrong in the inner house."
"I didn't manage the specific affairs of Yihe Bank in the past. Even if I knew something, I only knew the general idea. I don't know much about the affairs of Huizhou. I don't know anything about it, and the servants in my room naturally have no way of knowing. So, there is no problem in my room."
Wu Chengjian said, "Then there are the old man, the eldest brother, and the eldest sister-in-law. The old man is very tight-lipped, but who knows if he will talk in his sleep. In recent years, the backyard has been served by Yang Yi Niang. If Yang Yi Niang hears anything, she will only tell the second brother. If the second brother wants to cheat the tea from our family's tea mountain with outsiders... then he is really blinded by greed."
Wu Qi said: "Where are the people around the eldest young master and the eldest young mistress?"
Wu Chengjian said, "Big brother doesn't have a dedicated maidservant around him. Big sister-in-law arranges the service herself. As for the male servants and boys... your sixth brother's character is closer to that of your second uncle, and he's better than you. At least he doesn't gamble, so I'd rather doubt you than your sixth brother."
Wu Qi smiled .
Wu Chengjian continued, "As for the people around my sister-in-law, Lian Qiao and Bi Tao are the closest to her. However, Lian Qiao is someone who is deeply favored by my brother and sister-in-law. I believe that if there is danger, she will rush forward to block the knife for my sister-in-law. It should not be her. Bi Tao is also a good maid, but she followed from the Cai family..."
Wu Qi's eyes lit up: "Could it be her?"
Wu Chengjian said: "But Bi Tao's family has also been arranged to work in Yihe Bank. They have already been in the Wu family."
Wu Qi said: "We can arrange for them to work in Yihe Bank, and others can also be arranged to work in Wanbao Bank. It's just a matter of digging up the roots with the soil."
"That's also possible..." Wu Chengjian said, "But it's just a possibility. In fact, there are so many people in the inner house, everything is possible. As the old saying goes, 'There are only thieves who can steal for a thousand days, but no one can guard against thieves for a thousand days.' Whenever an accident happens, there will be a loophole. What we are looking for now is just the most likely loophole."
