Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Although he spoke firmly, Shi Youmin quickly adjusted his clothes and faced the yard.

Yang Gu is the fourth-rank magistrate, and he is the transfer envoy from the third-rank capital. Although Shi Youmin's rank is half a level higher, Yang Gu is the parent official of Huai'an Prefecture, so he must be treated with some respect.

As soon as Shi Youmin walked into the courtyard, Huai'an Magistrate Yang Gu couldn't wait to salute and said, "Yang Gu pays homage to the transfer envoy of the capital."

"Master Yang, there is no need to be polite."

Shi Youmin pulled the other party's sleeve into the room, motioned the other party to sit down, and then asked directly: "Mr. Yang Fu suddenly visited today. I don't know why?"

"There is something I want to tell you about the transfer."

Yang Wei later told the truth about the "secret" he had learned, but Shi Youmin was a little surprised. Li Heng, a colleague of Huai'an Prefecture, actually had someone escape from Yangzhou Prefecture and report the news to him.

This made Shi Youmin a little confused. Was Jin Yiwei so careless when deploying the arrest operation, or was it intentional?

And what happened to the imperial envoy Xie Jin who received this knife?

Is all this really a coincidence?

It's a little scary to think about it further.

But no matter what, Yang Gu couldn't allow him to think too much.

"Master Shi, you are the biggest official in Huai'an. The salt tax is a major plan for people's livelihood. How can we allow outsiders to interfere with it?"

Yang Wei obviously knew the seriousness of this problem, so after finishing speaking, he looked at Shi Youmin expectantly.

Shi Youmin didn't want to discuss anything with Yang Wei. Unlike the stubborn Yang Wei, he was already ready to move to another position. For him, these matters were not a matter of life and death. On the contrary, the goal was to get rid of himself as soon as possible. , so he didn’t plan to tell Yang Wei at all in the first place.

When Shi Youmin heard this, a look of embarrassment appeared on his face, and he said bitterly: "Of course I know this truth, but hey, I am really helpless!"

"Master Shi, do you have any difficulties that you need my help with? No matter what, we are all colleagues, how can I just sit back and watch?"

Seeing his demeanor, Yang Wei was even more convinced that there was something wrong with Shi Youmin. Although he and Shi Youmin didn't interact much on weekdays, they also knew who the other person was. Now that Shi Youmin would show this kind of demeanor, it was enough to prove that he really Some people have other thoughts, either intending to quit or have other plans.

But if he was in Yang Wei's position, he would be very embarrassed.

Of course, the position of a prefect is very high. Just like Ding Meixia, the prefect of Changzhou, it is enough to control the fate of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people in a place. But the problem is that the prefect has not yet reached the top of the local officials. The center is even worse.

Once the central government decides to do something to a certain place, local officials like them, who can't reach the sky or the ground, have almost no ability to resist.

This has been clearly demonstrated in the previous surprise inspections by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Some middle-level officials directly responsible for salt affairs in the Lianghuai Salt Farm and Huai'an Prefecture were taken away directly. If the methods of the Metropolitan Procuratorate were not ruthless enough, or the mouths of these people were tough enough, then Yang Ping's position in the prefecture would be I can't even sit on it now.

The reason why Yang Wei sent Li Heng, his deputy, to follow Wang Yuanshan was to find out the imperial envoy's secrets. However, he failed to find out. Instead, he was charged with assassinating the imperial envoy.

"well"

Shi Youmin sighed quietly and continued: "Who says it's not the case, but I can't stop it, otherwise the two Huaihe Rivers will be in chaos, and we will still be the ones to suffer the biggest losses."

When Yang Gu heard this, he immediately fell into thinking.

Listening to your words, just like listening to your words, Shi Youmin's ambiguous nonsense is not the key, the key is attitude.

And this attitude doesn't seem strange.

Wang Yuanshan is the second-in-command of the Huanghuai Chief Envoy Department, and Li Heng is the second-in-command of the Huai'an Prefecture. Regardless of whether it was planned by Xie Jin himself, now that there are both witnesses and physical evidence, he wants to take this opportunity to go to Huanghuai. The chief envoy went down to Huai'an Mansion and was completely uprooted.

In this case, the Lianghuaidu Salt Transport Department, who was supposed to be the protagonist, was not involved. In addition, it was determined that he had other plans, so it is no wonder that Shi Youmin was so concerned about matters that had nothing to do with him. Got an attitude.

In fact, both Yang Wei and Shi Youmin underestimated the extent of Xie Jin's madness.

Why the Metropolitan Procuratorate could not find any evidence was not because there were insufficient witnesses, but because all the physical evidence had been destroyed.

Well, Xie Jin simply changed his mind. Since there is no physical evidence, then I will make the physical evidence myself and hand it to you. When the time comes, your crotch will be covered with yellow mud, which is either shit or shit.

As for witness, that would be easier to handle. Do you understand the tainted witness?

For the Huanghuai Chief Envoy and the upper echelons of the Huai'an Mansion, this method was used, while for the grassroots officials who directly carried out salt affairs, Liu Fuchun was used as a chess piece.

To put it simply, the Metropolitan Procuratorate may still emphasize procedural justice, but Xie Jin does not. He only wants to perform meritorious services.

As for the businessmen on the profit network, when the time comes to finally close the network, the Wu family has its own role.

The reason why the Wu family is not used to implicate the officials, and why Jie Jin has to solve it himself, is because he wants to preserve the Wu family and limit its bad influence to the business world. Of course, if Jie Jin can't solve it, then Jiang Xinghuo can't say the end. The only option is to activate the Wu family and force it to self-destruct.

When Yang Wei saw that Shi Youmin was not the same person as him, he knew that nothing could be achieved by spending time here, so he stood up and left.

After leaving the Yamen of the Lianghuai Capital Salt Transport Envoy, Yang Gu got on his carriage.

"Master, are you going back to the government office?"

"If you don't go back to the government office, go to another house and change a car. If the car is empty, go back to the government office. You can drive it yourself. You have to go to Fengyang to see the Chief Envoy."

Yang Gu then told his confidants: "If anyone comes to ask, tell me I'm sick. I'll thank you behind closed doors and I'll be back in a few days."

Although Fengyang, Huai'an, and Yangzhou are bordering areas, judging from the location of the administrative city, they basically form an equilateral triangle, and the distance is more than 200 miles. This trip is probably going to take Yang Ping's body and bones. The seat fell apart.

But Yang Wei didn't know when Jie Jin would come to investigate. Now that the matter was urgent and he had no idea, he had to go to Fengyang to meet the big boss in person.

——————

On another line, Liu Fuchun was successfully introduced.

The "Looking for Persons" Dianshi took him to another room.

Here, facing Liu Fuchun's enthusiasm, several officials found it useful. After all, everyone is willing to be praised by others, even if he has not achieved much.

"As for the cargo, I will make my own arrangements when the time comes. I brought you here mainly to tell you some rules about carrying salt."

To Liu Fuchun's surprise, these insects came up and went straight to the topic.

Originally, Dianshi was talking about asking his colleagues for ways to contact merchants to sell goods, not about him carrying salt.

But in this way, it suited Liu Fuchun's wishes, because in Xie Jin's simple and crude plan, the most critical thing was to obtain evidence on a large scale from middle- and lower-level officials in the Yanwu Yamen.

As for this physical evidence, Jiang Xinghuo had also prepared it for him. It was up to Liu Fuchun how he would deliver it.

For these officials, they don't care where Liu Fuchun's salt came from. Whether the "salt in the banknotes" was obtained from the Ming Dynasty Bank or from what source it was originally obtained, they only care about their own status in the goods. How much money can be drawn from the two aspects of Yanyin and Yanyin is also the profit-seeking method of these grassroots officials.

In fact, Liu Fuchun's salt certificate was issued by Jiang Xinghuo when he "received salt from the banknotes" in order to withdraw currency. It was a serious salt certificate recognized by the court, but everyone knew that the situation at the Lianghuai Salt Farm was not right recently. Therefore, those who carry salt basically carry it from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and few people go here.

The leader, a sixth-grade judge, first pushed a stack of documents that didn't look too thick in front of Liu Fuchun and motioned for him to read them first.

Liu Fuchun didn't hesitate when he saw this, picked it up and flipped through it. After a while, he nodded and praised: "It's really thoughtful, I admire you."

Although Liu Fuchun is a Yangzhou businessman, he has never been involved in the business of directly coming to the salt farm to collect salt. He is a second-level distributor, but he is well versed in the ways. If there is no such thing as "salt in the money paid", he will Extracting salt from the salt field is often the most labor-intensive and material-intensive task. Without strong background and connections, it is impossible to extract salt from the salt field for a long time.

As a businessman involved in various industries, Liu Fuchun understands the difficulty of this far better than ordinary people.

"It's just, can this be lower?" Liu Fuchun squinted his eyes and smiled, looking like a profiteer and a philistine.

An ordinary salt merchant would never be as presumptuous as him. Even if he was dissatisfied, he would only murmur a few words in secret. He would never say it out in front of the officials like him. After all, they all rely on the Salt Affairs Office. For meals.

Unlike when he was flattered before, Liu Fuchun's attitude obviously did not make the officials feel at all comfortable. On the contrary, they all felt that the businessman was too ignorant to dare to talk about such things directly.

But the leading judge said softly "Hey".

The original invitation to him to sit down and the disclosure of the salt rules to him were meant to be a bit of a test.

If Liu Fuchun agreed boldly, it meant that Liu Fuchun was simply too lazy to make excuses with them. Not only that, the judge had some vague doubts about the other party's purpose this time, but he did not express it, but planned to use this matter to test. Fan.

Now it seems that both Liu Fuchun's words and gestures look like a businessman fighting for his own interests, and most of the doubts in the judge's heart have dissipated.

"You should know that this is the lifeblood, and there are many joints that need to be opened. If you feel it's too high, you can queue up. It's just that it's not easy to pick up salt from the Lianghuai Salt Farm."

"Haha, the judge misunderstood."

Liu Fuchun hurriedly waved his hand and said: "What I want to say is that you can pay more treasure money and ask the adults to lower the salt deduction rate."

Regardless of whether this is a backup plan prepared by Liu Fuchun, it has to be said that this plan is still quite attractive to the officials.

Because the officials' method of profiting from the salt supply was actually 300 jins per yin or 200 jins per yin. The merchants could only get 60 to 70% of the salt by relying on the salt yin. , and the extra money in the middle was divided up by the officials.

The reason for doing this is because what the officials have in their hands is salt. In other words, they can only deduct this part.

And since the purpose of dividing salt is to make money, why not just collect the money? If Liu Fuchun is willing to pay more, Liu Fuchun can certainly get the salt exchanged for salt.

Although Bao Chao is not a piece of cake now, compared with the situation two years ago, when a dog even wiped his butt and found it dirty, it can be said to be as high as in the sky or on the ground.

"Don't you have any copper coins or silver?" Dianshi asked with a frown.

"Carry copper coins with you"

Liu Fuchun's words were a little vague, but the officials present immediately understood that it was difficult to move this thing one by one, and it was more convenient to transport goods over long distances. Carrying treasure banknotes is indeed much more convenient than carrying copper coins.

As for silver, which is also easy to carry, well, the Ming Dynasty was short of silver, and silver was not legal currency.

But what they didn't know was that the treasure banknotes that Liu Fuchun wanted to use to bribe them, but after Jiang Xinghuo heard about Jin's plan, he asked Daming Bank to specially make them and entrust Li Zengzhi's fleet to transport them. The freshly baked banknotes kind.

"I can pay a batch of money in advance." Liu Fuchun looked distressed.

"no."

The judge of the Duyuan Envoy Division shook his head and said: "Pay in full, and then go pick up the salt."

Although he is only a sixth-grade judge, he still has some connections in this three-acre land. As long as he is given a share of profit, the salt field will naturally allow the merchants to carry as much salt as possible. After all, there is no violation. Prohibitions.

"this."

Liu Fuchun pondered for a moment, but did not agree immediately.

Although Liu Fuchun wanted to send all these hot treasures away quickly and complete the task, he was very clear that he could not do this because it would expose his flaws in front of this human-like judge. After all, He is now a businessman looking for money. As long as he has the slightest chance, he should strive for his own interests.

Liu Fuchun shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it's a bit troublesome. If there are some twists and turns in this kind of thing, if the salt field doesn't recognize it, I'm afraid it won't be easy to deal with."

When the judge heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little jump in his heart, and thought to himself: "This man is not only brave, but he is also meticulous."

Do you know why? There are not many cases where the yamen and the salt field play ball with each other. It is not uncommon for the salt yamen to promise to help you but end up accepting the money and not doing it.

Even though there are so many officials sitting there, what can you do if people don't recognize you once you step out of this gate?

"Don't worry."

Seeing the doubtful look on Liu Fuchun's face, the judge immediately smiled and said: "Just keep your heart in your stomach. I'll make sure you can lift the salt smoothly on the other side of the salt field."

Seeing that the judge was so confident, Liu Fuchun was stunned, and then asked tentatively: "It's not that I can't trust you, but it's just a small profit, I'm afraid."

"Small profits? You are too modest."

The judge smiled and shook his head and said: "Not to mention your batch of goods, that is another matter. As far as I know, just from the salt from the Lianghuai Salt Farm, if you sell it to Nanzhili, you can make two or three dollars at worst. Times or even higher, and this is just retail, if you are more courageous and earn this, it may not be a problem."

After saying that, the judge made a gesture.

Although he did not directly re-commit, the judge's attitude was clearly revealed, and he glanced outside the door, and after a brief meeting, they were brought to the crossroads.

If you don't agree, let's break up and lose your salt.

Seeing this, Liu Fuchun seemed to be fighting for a long time, and finally nodded and agreed readily. At the same time, he took out two thick stacks of the largest denomination banknotes from his sleeves, handed them to the clerk beside him, motioned for him to keep them, and then He stood up and bowed together: "I hope you will take care of me."

so much?

The judge and Dianshi were both slightly shocked, but they still did not take it and rush to "inspect the goods", but exchanged glances with each other.

"There are also channels for the goods. I also need help from adults to introduce them. Otherwise, I am a foreign businessman and I may not be able to sell these goods." Liu Fuchun hurriedly explained.

This reason is quite reasonable. After all, what Liu Fuchun asked for at the beginning was to help introduce local businessmen who controlled the market and sell off the goods he brought one after another.

Now that the salt delivery and sales are done together, it can be said that one thing does not bother the two masters.

The judge pondered for a moment and finally said: "That's fine. Then leave your current address and tonight, I will introduce you to some businessmen and let's have a glass of wine together."

Liu Fuchun secretly cursed in his heart: "Now you have accepted my precious money, and the special mark on it that can only be revealed by potion is enough to kill you all, and I still drink Laoshizi wine? Even if this guy is dead, I don't feel sorry for him, Imperial Master The gift is much more than these goods.”

However, he also knew that since the acting was not over yet, according to the social rules of the Ming Dynasty, invitations from officials were highly desirable. No matter how busy they were, they could not refuse, so Liu Fuchun nodded quickly and said: "Thank you, sir!"

Seeing this, the judge handed him the bill of goods that Liu Fuchun had originally given to Dian Shi and the officials, and said, "This is settled."

——————

The upper and lower levels each have their own calculations and interests, and Xie Jin didn't stop there either.

Now Xie Jin is completely crazy. For the sake of his great future, he must do everything he can to "rectify the salt affairs in Lianghuai River" assigned to him by Jiang Xinghuo.

For this reason, he even did things that even the Jin Yiwei and the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not dare to do last time.

——Personally tortured local officials to extract confessions.

Jie Jin's abdomen was still wrapped with a thick bandage. He used his left hand to pick up a red-hot iron.

"Master Li, if you can help me, I would be grateful."

With that said, Jie Jin used his right hand to take out a list of names from his arms and solemnly pushed it in front of Li Heng: "Let's see if these people are all comrades."

Li Heng glanced at the list in front of him, then frowned and asked, "Jie Jin, are you crazy?"

However, before he finished speaking, the branding iron in Xie Jin's hand was deeply imprinted on his skin.

"ah!!!"

Li Heng's screams were almost heartbreaking.

Beads of sweat dripped from his body like rain, and the veins on Li Heng's forehead almost popped out.

"I said, just let me go!"

Xie Jin said with a smile: "You think too much. Confessing just makes you suffer less."

"You madman! Madman!"

Zhao Haichuan on the side also advised: "Sir, these are big businessmen in Huaiyin, as well as representatives of the country gentry and wealthy families. Isn't it too risky to do this?"

Although he felt that Jie Jin's idea was feasible, these squire and wealthy families had been entrenched for decades and had deep foundations and huge power. Even the big local salt merchants did not dare to provoke them easily.

These two forces are tied together, and it is too difficult to wipe them all out.

"There are always only two types of people in this world - those with power and those without power. People without power have no need to worry at all."

However, Xie Jin snorted coldly and said, "I have thought it over carefully. Now there are only this group of moths left in Huai'an Mansion. If we clear them out, we will give the people a bright future."

"Recruit or not?"

"ah!!!"

After a while, Jie Jin walked out of the torture room with satisfaction. He got what he wanted in his hands.

"Calculating the time, Liu Fuchun should have successfully completed his mission. Let's go and lead the team to Huai'an Prefecture. This time we will rectify the salt affairs in the two Huaihe Rivers, it is better to go faster than slower, sooner rather than later."

Dedicate a new book "Dragon Clan: Chu Zihang Returns from Hokage"