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

Chapter 364

"How did it go? Did it succeed?"

The day after the assassination, Li Xian saw the last few dozen surviving men and said anxiously.

"I don't know. Just when Zhou Chu was about to give up, his horse suddenly rushed in. It was a famous horse called Snow-Treading Black Steed. Zhou Chu mounted the horse and broke through the encirclement. He was seriously injured and his life or death is unknown."

Upon hearing this, Li Xian became anxious. Regardless of success or failure, as long as there was a result, he could plan the next step. But now that Zhou Chu's fate was unknown, he didn't know what to do.

In fact, Li Xian's ability to carry out this assassination quietly, and to train more than a thousand people without being discovered beforehand, was inseparable from the salt gang and salt merchants in Yangzhou.

Although the people in Yangzhou were not from the same line of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, they shared the same understanding as Li Xian regarding Zhou Chu: that once Zhou Chu came to power, it would probably be only a matter of time before he turned against them, so it was better to prepare for the worst.

Exactly one year ago, Li Xian approached them and they hit it off immediately. The Salt Gang had a large number of members, so the extra thousand or so people were not noticeable at all.

This assassination attempt was less a scheme orchestrated by Li Xian himself, and more a joint plot between the Salt Gang and Li Xian.

However, Li Xian was the one who charged into battle for the salt gang and the salt merchants of Yangzhou. After all, Li Xian was the president of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce, and he was more eager than these people to kill Zhou Chu.

The salt gang and salt merchants also wanted to kill Zhou Chu, but only on the premise that the trouble would not befall them.

The salt gang had already sent people to keep an eye on things in Yuyao, and once they received the news, they immediately relayed it back to Yangzhou.

"Zhou Chu's fate is unknown; he is said to be seriously injured. What do you all think?"

At this moment, all the prominent salt merchants of Yangzhou were present in the Salt Gang's council hall, with the Salt Gang leader at the head. He looked at the crowd and asked a question.

"Whether Zhou Chu lives or dies, Li Xian cannot live. If Li Xian is captured, we will be exposed."

One of the businessmen, while fiddling with the ring on his finger, said this.

“That’s right. Li Xian is just a grasshopper in autumn, taking advantage of our power to hop around for a few more days. Now he’s useless, keeping him around is a disaster for us.”

Another salt merchant agreed.

On the other hand, after much deliberation, Li Xian finally decided to hide. He knew very well that the first people who wanted him dead were none other than the salt gang and salt merchants of Yangzhou.

As for the imperial court and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it's only a matter of time before they discover that the assassination was their own doing.

This was originally a dead end. The only way out was to kill Zhou Chu. Once Zhou Chu was dead, the gentry and officials in Jiangnan would respond to his call and then completely take control of the entire Jiangnan region. Then Li Xian would have the leverage to negotiate with the imperial court.

Unfortunately, Zhou Chu's fate is now unknown, which greatly surprised Li Xian. According to his subordinates' descriptions, Li Xian finally realized what he had overlooked: Zhou Chu's martial arts skills. He never expected that Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who did not seem particularly strong on ordinary days, would have such terrifying combat power.

Fully armored, Shen Lian and his companion actually killed three or four hundred people. Then, with the support of Wang Yangming, the Jinyiwei centurions, and the academy students on the perimeter, they managed to reduce their thousand-strong force to only a few dozen men.

Zhou Chu! Zhou Chu!

Li Xian kept repeating Zhou Chu's name in his heart, and the more he repeated it, the more terrifying Zhou Chu seemed.

Despite possessing such terrifying combat power, he has never revealed it to outsiders, and is always accompanied by guards, creating a misconception for everyone, including Li Xian.

Li Xian believed that his assassination plan was flawless; anyone else would have been doomed, but Zhou Chu had managed to escape.