The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 157

Only a thousand households and a few hundred households knew something about Zhou Chu's affairs in the capital.

Among them, the commander knew the most and understood best why Zhang Ziyi was acting this way. The commander knew that if Zhang Ziyi had been even a little slower in admitting defeat, he would probably have been beheaded.

However, he was wrong. Zhou Chu only wanted to scare Zhang Ziyi. After all, he was the vice president of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce. He would raid Zhang's house sooner or later, but not now.

Zhou Chu had just arrived in Suzhou Prefecture and had not yet established himself. If he rashly killed such an important figure at this time, the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce would have no choice but to declare war on him in order to maintain its authority in Jiangnan.

Often, for organizations like the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, wanting to do something is not the same as not wanting to do it. If they want to maintain the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce's dominant position in the entire Jiangnan region, they cannot allow anyone to provoke them in this way.

Of course, Zhou Chu wouldn't kill him, but he also wasn't going to let him off so easily.

"Whether you were drunk or not, it is an indisputable fact that you led the attack on the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If you cannot give me an explanation, then you will die here today."

Zhou Chu's tone wasn't serious; it even sounded somewhat teasing. But the more he said it, the more frightened Zhang Ziyi became.

"Whatever a superior asks of a novice, the novice will do without hesitation."

Zhang Ziyi hurriedly assured him.

"Who among you was bullied by them just now?"

Zhou Chu looked at Chu Li beside him and the Imperial Guards behind her.

"Sir, he just beat one of my centurions."

Chen Zhao, the commander of the Imperial Guard in Suzhou Prefecture, hurriedly stepped forward.

Everyone found Chen Zhao's words incredibly strange. A commander of the Imperial Guards was bowing to a centurion and calling him "sir"? They wondered if they were dreaming.

Zhang Ziyi didn't have time to think about all that at the moment. In his opinion, it was only natural for this commander to call Zhou Chu "Lord Zhou Chu." He was sent by the emperor, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was on a mission to inspect the land on behalf of the emperor. When he arrived in the local area, he was three times more respectful to the officials.

"Whoever got hit, step forward!"

Zhou Chu said with a serious expression.

Upon hearing this, a commander of the Imperial Guards hurriedly stepped forward, a clear handprint still visible on his face.

"Sir, he slapped me."

The commander of the Imperial Guard looked ashamed.

"What a coward! Why don't you dare slap him?"

Zhou Chu looked at this person with a face full of disdain.

"Go, swing your arms and hit me with all your might, ten slaps, not one less!"

Zhou Chu rebuked.

Upon hearing this, the centurion's eyes lit up. He went up to Zhang Ziyi, swung his arm, and slapped Zhang Ziyi's face repeatedly, making it look like a pig's head.

Zhang Ziyi glared at the Imperial Guard, seemingly wanting to warn him, but at this moment the suppressed emotions of the Imperial Guard commander were suddenly released, and a tear rolled down his cheek. He didn't care about anything else and quickly finished slapping him ten times.

Zhang Ziyi was so dizzy from the beating that he saw stars.

Zhou Chu looked at Zhang Ziyi's appearance and nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Chu Li.

"What did he want to see you about?"

Zhou Chu knew exactly why, but he needed Chu Li to say it so he could blackmail her.

"The Zhang family wants to forcibly seize a large quantity of my raw silk."

Chu Li said with a face full of grievance.

"How much are these raw silks worth?"

Zhou Chu pressed for an answer.

"About thirty million strings of cash."

Chu Li answered truthfully.

Chu Li originally had ten million guan in cash notes, which she used to pawn almost all of Zhang Ziyi's raw silk, which accounted for 30% of the entire Jiangnan raw silk market.

Later, through short selling, ten million strings of cash were used to buy about 50% of the raw silk in Jiangnan. According to the original price, this raw silk should be worth about sixteen million strings of cash.

However, after more than a month of soaring prices, the price of raw silk was now double that of the original price per kilogram. It was reasonable to say that the raw silk in Chu Li's hands was worth more than 30 million strings of cash.

However, if a large quantity of raw silk were to be sold, the price of raw silk would definitely drop to varying degrees, and it would be impossible to sell it for more than 30 million strings of cash; at most, it would sell for 27 or 28 million strings of cash.

Even so, Chu Li still made nearly double the profit after these series of operations.

“Alright, I won’t make things difficult for you. You just need to sign an IOU for 20 million guan with her, and I’ll let you go.”

Zhou Chu smiled.

Zhou Chu wasn't afraid that the old man in front of him wouldn't pay back the money. The IOU was just a pretext. As long as Zhou Chu accumulated enough strength, the first thing he would do was raid Zhang Ziyi's house.