eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 373 Yangzhou is about to become famous
Yangzhou City still doesn't know about the changes in the capital.
Some father-in-laws still think that they are really capable.

Until Han Ziren arrived in a hurry.

Luo Chenglin, who has a thousand households in the Internal Guard Office, breathed a sigh of relief. He was a thousand households, and he still felt a little stressed when making decisions about many things.

"... Is the criminal office still normal?"

Luo Chenglin nodded, "That Ye Kan knew we were there, so he didn't dare to mess around. But there are people from the palace."

"It's nothing to worry about, something happened in the palace." Han Ziren stood by the window with his hands behind his hands, "Your Majesty was caught up in the matter involving the salt of the ministers, and His Majesty Longyan was furious, and cleaned many people at once."

"Does Ye Kan know?"

"Mao Yuwen is here." Han Ziren frowned and looked out the window with some thought in his eyes, "Even if he didn't know it before, he will know it now. So our information is meaningless."

Once Mao Yuwen arrives, he will definitely not let Ye Kan mess around.

Since there is nothing out of the ordinary, it is meaningless to report to the emperor.Instead, he seemed to be looking for trouble.

Luo Chenglin sighed and expressed another feeling, "With your majesty's will, the Taizu and Taizong emperors are the only ones in the Taimiao."

If there is no result in this matter, it must not work!This sentence is simple to say, how many emperors are there who can do it?
In fact, many things are a matter of determination and courage.Most of the time, the method is correct, but the implementation is not firm. One person must be released here, and one person must be released there.

"Deputy Envoy Han, what shall we do next?"

"As usual. There are so many people this time, there must be no trouble."

Compared with them, Mao Yuwen and Ye Kan were not so happy.

Ye Kan was very worried at first, because he had contact with people in the palace, but Ye Qijun's cellar was still empty. In the end, Ye Qijun was beaten to death, and he searched everywhere, and only got out a total of more than 20 taels of silver.

When Mao Yuwen came to Yangzhou, he looked like this, and looked at him a little harshly.

"what happened?"

"Ye Qijun is from the Marquis of Yongkang. The Marquis of Yongkang has been aware of the danger since Zou Cheng entered Beijing and Gu Zuo was arrested, so Ye Qijun knew about it early, and the cellar was emptied. His subordinates tortured this person repeatedly, but he wanted to To survive, he refused to tell where the silver was, fearing that if he did, he would never be able to survive. The same is true for the other two salt merchants on the list."

A huge amount of money, if the Criminal Office and the Internal Guard Office have arrived in Yangzhou, it will be too late to transport it. It can only be transported before. After all, such a large amount of money will be found out after passing through the gate of the city.

"My life is gone, and I still need to keep the money. I really want money and not my life." There are flaws in this matter, but there is a need for people right now, and Mao Yuwen will not do anything to Ye Kan.
And there is a solution to this problem.

Isn't it just that the money copied out is less?

Just find three or two families who are willing to spend money to buy their lives and add them to him.

The arrival of Mao Yuwen accelerated the actions of the criminal office. According to the principle of arresting anyone involved in smuggling salt, Jin Yiwei went deep into the streets and alleys of Yangzhou City and kicked open the doors of many salt merchants.

The three major salt merchants, including Yu Mingquan, who tried various ways to save themselves before, have already been arrested and awaiting trial. If it is proved that the sale of illegal salt is not involved, but only some other circumstances, then perhaps handing over the money can make the felony a misdemeanor .If it is involved, it will be sent to the capital.

For a time, one family after another in Yangzhou City suffered changes.

Normal salt sales will inevitably be affected.

Zhao Shen, the censor of salt inspection, took charge of the stall of the transfer salt envoy in the two Huaihe capitals. On the one hand, he reported the situation to the capital, and on the other hand, he continued to maintain the production of the salt field. sell.

Zhao Shen was so busy that he was dizzy, but he could still see clearly some situations.

The disadvantages of salt administration are by no means as simple as private salt.

The price of smuggled salt is low and the quality is good. Although the imperial court's efforts to seize and seize smuggled salt will have some effect, it is actually forcing the people to buy high-priced official salt.

From this perspective, anti-smuggling is opposed by the common people.

This is one of them.

Second, the life of the kitchen households was already miserable, and the imperial court cracked down on private salt merchants in such a way that no one dared to buy the surplus salt in their hands, and the price of surplus salt would also drop rapidly.

If it goes on like this, people will starve to death after a while!

It's true that businessmen can't make big troubles, but kitchen households can!

Therefore, his memorial was also rushed for eight hundred miles.As the censor of salt inspection, he must report these things to the emperor.

In fact, why didn't Zhu Houzhao know this?
To fight against smuggling, there must be two methods, one is to attack, and the other is to give the kitchen households a way to survive.

Otherwise, thousands of kitchen households would start selling private salt themselves.

In addition, he previously planned to conduct a salt farm auction, and he still thinks this idea is good.

Because Shaofu was asked to set up a salt merchant, and then to purchase and sell salt in a unified way, after a long time, the same problem still exists-that is, the official salt has administrative costs due to official corruption, and the price of official salt will be high.Once the price difference occurs, it is a matter of time before private salt floods.

These administrative costs are borne by the government.

It is better to carry out market operation.Production and sales are all handed over to businessmen, who only hold the ownership of the salt farm.

Although he is not a superstitious free market person, there is no doubt that marketization can indeed improve efficiency.

But this kind of change needs an opportunity,
This opportunity is to transfer the salt envoy Siyamen in the two Huaihe Rivers.

This yamen is not a small yamen, apart from Zou Cheng, the transfer envoy, there are also a co-prefect, a deputy envoy, and varying numbers of judges.

In addition, there is an experience department that is in charge of document exchanges, which is similar to a secretarial office. It has official positions such as experience and governors.

Their grades are not high, and the transfer envoys are from the third grade, and the rest are mostly from the fifth and sixth grades.

Now Zou Cheng is crazy in the capital,
Yangzhou City arrested several salt merchants and interrogated them carefully.

The whole transfer made the Yamen have no connection with the salt merchants who resell illegal salt.

The yamen was basically swept away. When Zhao Shen wanted to do things, there was only a very old experience who copied and sorted some documents for him.
Among the young people, there are still six left, but they are all low-level officials with eccentric personalities. These people seem to not even know how to curry favor with high-ranking officials like Xunyan Yushi, so naturally they can't get into that circle. '.

Zhao Shen sighed in the hall, "A total of 53 people were dispatched from the Yunsi yamen, and in the end there were only seven people who had nothing to do with the private salt merchants. It's really absurd. If this kind of thing is reported to the court, what face will the court have?"

Mao Yuwen is not worried about this, he is worried about something that the emperor will find out, and that is the problem.

"Zhao Yansi, the criminal office didn't beat them to death. These 46 people are all wealthy, and their case files have all been pledged by themselves."

"The deputy envoy misunderstood. Zhao didn't mean that. Zhao just lamented that the country's affairs are difficult and it's not easy to govern the country."

Han Ziren's voice came from outside the house,
"How hard can it be? Han once said when he was the magistrate of the county that the common people are nothing more than giving them a way to survive. Now, on the one hand, the salt merchants have accumulated a lot of money and live a luxurious life, and on the other hand, it is difficult for the stove households to survive. One full stomach. To say that governing the country is effective, all the silver on these rocks will be distributed to the kitchen households, so that the four directions will be stable."

Mao Yuwen asked: "The money stolen from the salt merchants needs to be liberated and transported to the capital. How dare Deputy Envoy Han use it?"

"If it supports the daily needs of the stove households, this money will be used."

Han Ziren has known the emperor for many years, and he is confident about this.

"You two don't need to worry, Zhao Shu has already rushed to the capital for [-] miles. I believe His Majesty will make a decision. The seized salt merchants can be tried one by one on a daily basis. It is nothing more than the length of time. The problem now is this Yunsi Yamen , report it like this, I am afraid that the court will be shaken and His Majesty will be furious."

Both Mao and Han were indifferent to this.

They are Jinyiwei, not a civil servant group.

Corruption to this extent is none of their business.

However, they also understood that Zhao Shen was the censor of Yanyan after all. Although the crimes committed by these people had nothing to do with him, in the final analysis, the censor of Yanyan was responsible for supervising these officials.
Now that something like this has happened, how do you explain it?

Don't think that Zhao Shen is worrying about nothing.

The imperial court and the officialdom have never been a place for reasoning. If the imperial court really feels that it is embarrassing to make the Yunsi Yamen like this, and wants to find someone who is responsible for it,

Who will you find?
Therefore, it is not just talking about the abyss if you are not careful in the officialdom.

But the joys and sorrows of people are not connected. Han Ziren and Mao Yuwen are unified on this point, "whatever it should look like is what it should look like. It's not that the Nanzhen government department doesn't cooperate with the Zhaoyan department. The main thing... Nansi is Collecting information for His Majesty, and this matter is attracting attention everywhere. If there is a trace of concealment, Han's head is about to move. And for Zhao Yansi, it may not be a big deal to report the truth, some people are messing around. , but His Majesty is a reasonable person."

Mao Yuwen was actually too lazy to give such an explanation.

Arresting people, interrogating people, stealing money... the criminal office is very busy now.

Zhao Shen didn't really mean to lie, he considered it from another angle,

The Ming Dynasty has not found such a case until now. This is a real gang of corrupt officials. Once it is reported, future generations will mention it a hundred years later.

The imperial court and the officialdom have turned into such a look, after all, they don't necessarily have a bright face, right?

And His Majesty is a very high self-esteem king, so he is not trying to lie, but is just wondering if he has failed to protect the emperor's face.

Of course, seeing that the emperor's two confidants had this attitude, his doubts were also dispelled.

"Since this is the case, then the memorials of the Yunsi Yamen will be uploaded as they are. At that time, all their case files will be attached. Only in this way, Yangzhou will really become famous."

That can't be helped. The imperial court wants to investigate the salt administration, which must be the result.

In the afternoon, the three people in the Yunsi Yamen received two successive orders from Beijing.

One letter was sent by the cabinet to Xunyan Yushi, which meant that the Yan class case should be carefully screened to minimize unjust, false and wrong cases.

One was sent to the two Jinyiwei deputy envoys by the Supervisor of Rituals, but the meaning seemed to be somewhat opposite. The Supervisor of Rituals emphasized the emperor's intention and the situation in the palace, so they were required to be in Yangzhou without missing a single one!
Even so, the three of them were not surprised, and the supervisor and the cabinet began to fight again.

(End of this chapter)