Chapter 184 Fight to the death

Chapter 184 Fight to the death

Before coming to Jiangning, Zhao Yushu had imagined all the possibilities that the Duke of Yue and his son would set traps for him, including open squeezes and covert assassinations. It was even possible that if pushed to the limit, they would mobilize a large army to crush him head-on.

But he never thought that the Yue Kingdom would beg for mercy.

He had no doubt about the authenticity of the Duke of Yue's plea for mercy. Given his status as a duke, bowing his head was more terrifying than death.

But he still lowered his head. Perhaps it was because he loved his son so much, or perhaps he was frightened by the prince's unreasonable interrogation today, but no matter what, he lowered his head.

If one only considers the benefits, the conditions offered by the Duke of Yue are very generous. As long as one does nothing, one can easily get a full 10% share of the salt tax.

And if he insisted on killing Wang Shaolin, not only would he lose the money, but he would also most likely face a desperate counterattack from Duke Yue.

No one doubts that a local tyrant with hundreds of years of experience would not be able to defeat a mere fourth-level heaven master, even if you are the sixth master of the academy.

If it were a mature person, at this moment, even if he didn't want to agree, he would pretend to agree, or even extort more benefits and then turn against Zhao Yushu, but Zhao Yushu was not that kind of person.

"You got one thing wrong." Zhao Yushu shook his head.

Duke Yue's face turned cold. "If Mr. Liu has other conditions, you can also raise them. As long as I can do it, we can discuss it."

"I'm not a god. I'm just a human being, just like you and the more than 10,000 people who died."

Zhao Yushu stood up and said, "If you want to take action, now is the best opportunity, and probably the last chance."

Zhao Yushu suddenly smiled, remembering a joke from his previous life. It was perfect for showing off at this time: "Wang Shaolin is dead. Even the emperor can't save him. I said so."

Mr. Liu swaggered away from the pavilion, the back garden, and the Duke's Mansion.

The Duke of Yue never made any move. He just sat there quietly without saying a word.

Zhao Yushu exhaled a breath of foul air, and his back was soaked.

If that old man Wuxu had taken action yesterday, I probably wouldn't even have had the chance to use the Shadow Step. Fortunately, Duke Yue didn't fight to the death.

People are like this. If I kill my old man, he will definitely come and destroy the Duke's Mansion immediately. This is a dead end. But if I don't kill him, he feels that there is still room for maneuver. Between immediate death and possible death, people will choose the latter.

Old Man Wuxi sat in the same position where Zhao Yushu had just sat: "You missed it."

Duke Yue nodded: "If I ask you to do it, will you do it?"

"Ha, Crazy Old Man is his nickname, not mine. Why should I offend him for you?"

Duke Yue laughed bitterly, "Yes, a mere fourth-level heaven. If it weren't for the academy, he would have died a hundred times. But he must kill Shaolin. What should I do?"

"What should we do? Hide that stupid boy and wait until the man surnamed Zhao leaves Jiangning, or..."

"or?"

"Or let him kill you. You're not old, so just give birth to a few more. Hahahaha."

The Duke of Yue stopped talking, and Old Man Wuxi had left without anyone noticing.

"Master, this is Elder Xu's post."

The butler handed over a letter, and Duke Yue immediately took it and read it carefully: "Perhaps, someone still dares to do it."

After refusing the Duke of Yue's offer, Zhao Yushu suddenly felt the pressure building up. Before the other party made it clear, he might have been willing to deal with him with a glimmer of hope, but now it was clear that they were ready to fight to the death. He was not afraid of being killed, but he was afraid that Wang Shaolin's grandson would just hide. To be honest, except for the time when he knocked on his door last night, he had not shown up at either the prince's banquet or the trial.

He went to the Beggars' Sect headquarters in the morning, and then attended the trial. It was already noon now, so Zhao Yushu had a quick lunch. He had an appointment with Li Jian in the evening, so he didn't have much free time.

The prince's torture today was beyond his expectation, and the prince's purpose became more and more confusing. It seemed that no matter who it was, he would have to honestly hand over the silver this time, even Prince Fu was no exception.

But Zhao Yushu still felt that the emperor's move of sending the prince here was too much of a big deal. Suppose Wang Yan directly admitted that he was related to Prince Fu, Prince Fu only had 15%, and if he spit out all of it, it would only be a few hundred thousand taels. How would the prince plan to take the shares of others?

The questions were becoming more and more numerous and complicated. Zhao Yushu was not the type to play political games, so he quickly shook his head and put these questions behind him. Now he was only thinking about how to find an opportunity to kill Wang Shaolin. It would be best if he could do so without causing any trouble to the academy, and it would be even better if he could do so without causing any trouble to himself.

Alas, with so much consideration for the academy, I have really become the shape of the academy.

Zhao Yushu walked back to the Taoist temple, but saw Sun Wuyang and Lin Shan talking about something worriedly. When they saw him coming, they invited him in.

"Brother and sister, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? Junior brother, you are here too. Wang Yan can't stand it anymore." Sun Wuyang sighed, "It seems that the counselor is really the emperor's man. The prince went south to take back the salt tax."

Zhao Yushu blinked: "Wang Yan can't hold on, what does it have to do with us? Isn't Wang Yan a man of Prince Fu?"

Lin Shan rolled her eyes at him. "Wang Yan is the Salt and Iron Commissioner. In previous years, he was in charge of how much each family got. It was because he was Prince Fu's man that Prince Fu got the lion's share. If he can't stand it and takes action, although the court won't pursue the money from the past, my father will definitely not be the Salt and Iron Commissioner anymore. And seeing how radical the prince was this time, it will probably be difficult to divide the money peacefully in the future."

Zhao Yushu scratched his head. "I don't think that's right. If that's the case, then does the prince have to take the money from the Duke of Yue and the local nobles as well? If not, there's only Prince Fu and our academy, and there's not much left. And if we make such a big move to Prince Fu, who knows what will happen in the two capitals, just for a few hundred thousand taels? Unless you say that the emperor wants to use this as an excuse to kill Prince Fu, and he doesn't hesitate to fight with Prince Fu and the academy at the same time."

Sun Wuyang shook his head: "If it's such a big move, I guess we'll have to collect them all together."

Zhao Yushu smiled and said, "That's not right. Duke Yue just told me that if I don't kill his son, he will give the academy 500,000 taels a year. This money should be the salt tax."

Sun Wuyang and Lin Shan were both stunned: "You agreed?"

"I refused."

"Have the guts!"

Sun Wuyang gave a thumbs up: "When you put it like that, it does make sense. But you overlooked something. Duke Yue's move inadvertently revealed a very critical issue."

"what is the problem?"

Lin Shan took over the conversation: "That means the Crown Prince wants to make a move with Duke Yue as well. Duke Yue is now looking for a backer."

Zhao Yushu took a deep breath, recalled what Duke Yue had said to him, and slapped his thigh. Yes, Duke Yue only said that he was a dog of the Tang Dynasty, but he didn't say that he was the emperor's dog.