HLnovel Chapter 371
Chapter 371
In Yangzhou, both Sun Ao, the leader of the Salt Gang, and the salt merchants were purged. With the salt merchant's confession, all the evil deeds they had committed in the past were brought to light.
Zhang Cong was the one who purged these people. When Yun Jin learned that Li Xian was the one who took action, he led people to search for Li Xian's whereabouts. For this reason, Zhang Cong strictly ordered officials of all prefectures to fully cooperate with Yun Jin's investigation and to report immediately once Li Xian's whereabouts were discovered.
However, both Zhang Cong and Yun Jin were well aware that it was already quite good that some of the officials in Jiangnan were not protecting Li Xian, and it was practically impossible to get them to go to great lengths to search for Li Xian's whereabouts.
After all, some of the existing officials in Jiangnan are still the same ones from before. These people have kept a low profile, not daring to cause trouble, but they also won't help the court investigate Li Xian's whereabouts.
Of course, it's unlikely they'd protect Li Xian. After all, Li Xian is just a businessman, and he's no longer of much value to them. Besides, Li Xian has just accomplished something so significant. Right now, Li Xian is a ticking time bomb. Anyone who dares to take him in will be blown to pieces.
Yun Jin's first step was to pinpoint Li Xian's hiding place in Suzhou Prefecture. According to the salt merchant's testimony, after the incident, they sent people to kill Li Xian to silence him, but they couldn't find him.
Li Xian had clearly anticipated that these people in Yangzhou would take action against him, so naturally he wouldn't hide in Yangzhou.
Li Xian was originally from Suzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture was the place he was most familiar with. When a person chooses to hide, the most likely choice is a familiar environment rather than a completely unfamiliar place where he doesn't even know the way.
Hiding in unfamiliar places makes people feel insecure; this is a subconscious feeling.
Yun Jin investigated all the counties in Suzhou Prefecture one by one and finally came to the conclusion that Li Xian was either hiding in Chongming County, or in Shanghai County of Songjiang Prefecture, which is adjacent to it, or in the marshes of Kunshan County.
All three places are highly likely, but Yun Jin felt that with Li Xian's cautious nature, he should consider his own escape route. If he hid in Kunshan Water Margin, firstly, food and drink would be a problem, and secondly, once he was blocked, it would be difficult to have a way out.
Unlike Shanghai County, Chongming County could be used as a fallout route for Li Xian if things went wrong. Although this was extremely risky, it was a way out.
Therefore, Yun Jin focused her search on Chongming County and Shanghai County, and did not give up on Kunshan County either, sending out one or two hundred people to search.
As for Chongming County and Shanghai County, Yun Jin was unfamiliar with the places, so she went directly to the Embroidered Uniform Guard and met Chen Zhao.
Chen Zhao knew Yun Jin. When Zhou Chu first arrived in Suzhou Prefecture, Zhang Ziyi led his men to besiege the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Yun Jin was right next to Zhou Chu when he appeared.
Not long after, Yun Jin disappeared. Chen Zhao was initially puzzled, but when he saw Yun Jin appear wearing armor similar to that of the Tiger Legion, he suddenly understood.
He had always heard that the imperial court had a very powerful army at sea. He had only heard about it before, but now, looking at Yun Jin and the Xuanwu Army behind her, Chen Zhao suddenly realized what was going on.
Sure enough, none of those who could follow Lord Zhou were ordinary people. Just think of Shen Lian's exaggerated martial prowess, and Chen Zhao felt a chill run down his spine.
He didn't know Shen Lian's specific combat strength before, but he thought that since Lord Zhou had always kept Shen Lian by his side as a guard, his martial arts skills must be quite good. So he proposed to spar with Shen Lian.
It would have been better if they hadn't fought at all. The fight left Chen Zhao with a psychological scar. Chen Zhao couldn't even last three moves against Shen Lian before being defeated.