Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

In the Huai'an government office.

In the dead of night, there is a lone lamp.

Yang Wei held the pen, still a little undecided.

Although Shi Youmin had made an agreement with him to cut off the brave men's wrists together, cut off a few key men, and control the incident within a controllable range, this determination was obviously not easy to make.

And for Yang Wei, he has always had doubts about Shi Youmin's promise. It is hard to say whether his recent performance was more of a show-off, or whether he was actually encouraged more.

Li Heng knows many of his secrets, and the order of events must be to expose Li Heng himself, and then Li Heng dies before he can get out.

But the step of Li Heng's death was not controlled by Yang Gu. This was equivalent to handing over his life and death to others. This was obviously not acceptable to Yang Gu. Moreover, it was true whether Shi Youmin could kill Li Heng. It's not a 100% thing.

Yang Wei bit his pen and pondered the pros and cons. However, at this moment, there was a push on the door, and then the sound of footsteps.

"who?"

Yang Wei was a little confused. It was quiet at night and everyone should be resting. Why would anyone come?

However, when he looked up, his pupils suddenly shrank, and a figure rushed over, covering his mouth with strong hands. It was Chef Hao who was sent by Shi Youmin to kill him.

Chef Hao sneaked into the government office quietly, choosing the time of night when people are most sleepy. At this time, everything was silent, and all the servants serving the prefect in the government office were asleep, so no one noticed anything unusual at this time. Not to mention finding traces of Chef Hao.

"Hmm...!" Yang Wei struggled hard.

However, he was just a scholar and was no match for a professional killer. He struggled with all his strength and didn't even make a decent sound, let alone attract the attention of others.

At this time, he tried his best to break free from Chef Hao's shackles, and violently hit Chef Hao's abdomen with his elbow.

However, Chef Hao came prepared and had already expected that he would resist, so his big hands like cattail leaf fans immediately pinched him. There was a muffled "bang" sound. Chef Hao did not move at all, but Yang Gu became extremely painful. , tears streaming down my face.

Chef Hao was a little angry when he saw how stubborn he was. Chef Hao grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down next to the table. His other hand reached for his belt, took out a sweat towel soaked in medicinal liquid and covered Yang with it. On Chen's face, Yang Wei soon fell into a coma.

Chef Hao carefully restored the surrounding details, took away the paper on the table and put it into his collar. Then he put another written letter on the table, then got a rope and hung it on the beam. Yang Wei pretended to commit suicide out of fear of crime.

Chef Hao has done this kind of thing several times in the past, and he is already familiar with it.

Afterwards, Chef Hao quietly slipped into the night.

The next morning, the servant boy who came to deliver breakfast to Yang Chen opened the door and was shocked. The room was neat and tidy, but there was a corpse hanging on the beam.

The servant boy immediately screamed. At the age of ten, his words were already confused: "Master! Master, what's wrong with you? Master! You must not scare this little slave... Master, wake up." Ah, I will hire a doctor for you, little slave!"

However, after he shouted for a long time, there was still no movement from the body on the rafter. Finally, he had to face the reality that he knew very well in his heart.

The magistrate who acted like a local emperor in Huai'an Prefecture is dead!

The servant boy rushed out of the house, shouting at the top of his voice: "Here comes someone! The master is dead, the master is dead, here is the person..."

Hearing that the master died suddenly and suddenly, everyone in the Yang family was panicked.

"Master is not that kind of person, how could he suddenly commit suicide?"

"Is it possible that the master has contracted a serious illness and knows that he doesn't have much time left?"

"Nonsense, the master is in good health, how can he have any serious illness?"

"It's strange, I didn't hear anything last night."

Soon, the news of Yang Wei's death caused the entire government office to jump up and down. Not only the government servants from the front yard of the government office rushed to the place, but the Jin Yiwei who came after hearing the news quickly took over the place.

"What's going on?" Zhao Haichuan frowned and stood in the hall, quietly staring at the body on the beam.

Without waiting for Wu Zuo to arrive, Zhao Haichuan put on his gloves, stepped on a stool on the opposite side, and went to do the autopsy himself.

Zhao Haichuan first opened the eyes of the corpse.

"There are bloodshot eyes, but the amount is not much. It should be caused by going to bed late. There is no large amount of bleeding, which means he was not strangled."

The Jin Yiwei next to him recorded every word he said in detail.

"The face is pale and not purple, which is also a sign of death by hanging."

"Judging from the shape of the lock groove on the neck, the eight characters do not cross."

Zhao Haichuan plucked the hair of Yang Wei's corpse in detail, looked at the lethal acupuncture points on the top of the head and the ears on both sides, and found that there were no signs of being pierced by silver needles or vertebrae, and he became more and more confused.

There were no signs of fighting at the scene. No one heard any unusual noise last night. The time of death was at the deepest night. Coupled with the confession document on the table, everything seemed to say that Yang Wei was normal. He committed suicide out of fear of crime.

But the problem is that this is all too normal.

"Save the scene. You guys will stay here to guard it. No one is allowed to enter. In addition, take away all the documents."

As soon as the news spread that Yang Wei committed suicide in fear of crime in the backyard of the government office, the whole city of Huai'an was instantly boiling. Various rumors were flying all over the sky. The most recognized by the people was that it was said that Yang Wei colluded with bandits in an attempt to assassinate the imperial envoy because of his greed for power and failed. Now that the imperial envoy has arrived and has seen through his conspiracy, he commits suicide out of fear of guilt.

Although this is a rumor, a large number of people believe it. After all, judging from the clues currently available, the real suspect of the prefect is very large.

In short, among the Huai'an officials who are now in danger of being implicated in the assassination of the imperial envoy, there are relatively few people who hold grudges against the prefect, but those who hope that he will die so that everyone can land safely are definitely It's not a minority, so in the midst of a lot of discussion, many people, even officials, believed this rumor.

And inside the Huai'an Mansion Station.

After Jie Jin heard the news of Yang Wei's death, he became furious and threw away the inkstone on the desk.

"How can this be true? How can it be true?"

Zhao Haichuan cupped his hands and said: "Sir, it may be intentional murder, but it is very troublesome to investigate. The body must be dissected to see if the lungs and stomach were poisoned."

"So what if it is? So what if it's not?"

Jie Jin thought sadly: "Right now, regardless of whether Yang Gu committed suicide by hanging, it can only be done by hanging himself. The assassination of the imperial envoy cannot be expanded from the third rank to the fourth rank. If we go higher up, those people are behind the scenes." I can't afford to offend such people. I wanted to take this opportunity to clean up the Huanghuai Chief Envoys, but now it seems that there is no chance."

As for who did it, it is possible that it was just those few people, so there is no need to investigate, and the head of the Fei Pao officer is indeed enough to close the case and silence everyone.

There are always some invisible boundaries in officialdom, which are invisible and intangible, but are difficult to cross.

Xie Jin is crazy, but he is not a fool. He still knows what should be touched and what should not be touched.

Zhao Haichuan thought for a while and reminded: "In this case, I suggest you make preparations in advance, lest if Yang Gu dies, you will not be able to postpone what you need to do."

The case of the assassination of the imperial envoy cannot be investigated further after reaching the level of Zuo Shenzheng and prefect, but the other line, that is, Liu Fuchun's line, can be investigated further. After all, Xie Jin's task is to rectify the salt affairs , to find out the annual salt tax of hundreds of thousands taels of silver that was wasted by the salt envoys of the Huaihe and Huaidu capitals.

And this involves the gentry and wealthy businessmen of Huai'an Prefecture, as well as the officials of the Salt Affairs Office. Xie Jin must solve the problems that the Metropolitan Procuratorate failed to solve last time.

Zhao Haichuan reminded him that the purpose of preparing early was to start as soon as possible and not let this line be broken.

"Of course I have to prepare early!" Xie Jin gritted his teeth, "But who do you think will be the best choice?"

Zhao Haichuan whispered: "My subordinates believe that Jiang Ge is the most suitable head of the Jiang family of Huizhou merchants."

"Jiang Ge?"

Jie Jin frowned, then shook his head and said: "Although Jiang Ge is important and seems not as powerful as others, if you say that solving him will solve the problem of salt tax corruption, I will not believe it." In the end, after all the hard work, I was afraid that I would become the second Yang Wei."

"If we look at it from the perspective of the beneficiaries, Shi Youmin, the person who transported salt from the Huaihe River to the Huaihe River, probably cannot escape suspicion. Moreover, when the Metropolitan Procuratorate came to investigate before, some officials committed suicide and died in almost the same way."

"Um"

Xie Jin began to think deeply, and what Zhao Haichuan said was the key to his consideration.

But this is where it gets tricky.

Because Shi Youmin has always been cautious and has a good official reputation. It was Emperor Taizu Gao who promoted him to this position because of his "honest officialdom". After Jin Yiwei's previous investigation, Shi Youmin never accepted bribes, and even the former Huai merchant Wu family , and it is true that the bribe was rejected, and there is no solid evidence to convict him by tainting witnesses.

This makes Xie Jin very difficult to handle.

The capture of Wang Yuanshan, a third-grade servant, was only possible because Xie Jin used himself as bait, and Shi Youmin was spotless, which was really difficult to handle. This is why the previous attempts by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Jinyiwei failed.

If it is an investigation, I am afraid that this matter can really only be carried out in private. Otherwise, everyone in the Lianghuai Salt Farm must be the enemy. After all, no one in Mingli will cooperate with Jin Yiwei to continue the investigation. .

But the most difficult part is that it is difficult to find out anything just by checking the account books. The account books must be flawless on the surface.

We can’t arrest people for interrogation in public, and we can’t find anything in private, so what else can we do?

At this moment, the Jin Yiwei suddenly reported that a secret message had been delivered to the President's Reform Affairs Office in Beijing. It was of a very high standard and was escorted by a team of Jin Yiwei.

"But the letter from the Imperial Master?"

Xie Jin was overjoyed and asked.

"Exactly."

Xie Jin opened Jiang Xinghuo's letter and browsed it hastily.

After reading the letter, he suddenly lowered his voice and said with excitement in his eyes: "The Imperial Master has given me a clever idea that can solve this problem easily."

Zhao Haichuan said nothing, but he knew that if it was something he could know, Xie Jin would definitely tell him.

"You said this account, why is it difficult to check?"

"There are too many years, too many numbers, and they are inextricably linked."

Yes, the Lianghuai Salt Farm produces half of the country's salt in a year, which is salt for 30 million people. Whether it is the maintenance of the salt farm, the expenditure for kitchen households and salt collectors, or the salt sold to merchants, You can know how complicated the accounts inside are without even thinking about it, and it is definitely not the greed of one person, but an organized long-term plan, and in this organization, every individual who executes it is just a link. But there is no point in catching one or a few. Others at a higher level can escape the hook at any time.

On the books, for example, if the salt tax worth 700,000 taels of silver is embezzled, the normal reaction in the books is a cash shortage of 700,000 taels of silver. The reason and whereabouts are unknown, but in order to cover up this act, certain means will inevitably be adopted. In order to prevent it from being discovered, for example, creating false vouchers to make the 700,000 taels of silver go through the account normally, or including the money into a certain expense, that is, false expenses. At the beginning of the corruption, the greedy person will definitely After careful planning, it was quite laborious to check it out.

So is it okay to let salt merchants like the Wu family report and provide evidence? I don’t want to, because different businessmen or business gangs are connected with the Lianghuai Capital Salt Transfer Department. Although the absolute numbers are staggering, in terms of total volume, the share of a single family is not large. If you want to use businessmen If you think about it backwards, it is similar to a blind man touching an elephant. He can only touch a corner and it can be easily covered up.

As for mobilizing all the businessmen, that is even more impossible. Except for the Wu family and Liu Fuchun, there are actually no other businessmen in the hands of the president's reform affairs yamen.

However, the problem-solving ideas given by Jiang Xinghuo were different from these, and the solution Jin thought was impossible suddenly became clear.

"Pardon the crime of selling surplus salt by salt farmers and kitchen households, settle old accounts and settle new accounts, announce an increase in the purchase price of surplus salt starting from this year, obtain this year's salt output from kitchen households, and encourage kitchen households and salt farmers to initiate Investigate the movement of borers, add small pieces into large pieces, and use jigsaw puzzles to find out the truth.”

Since the Department of Salt Transport in Huaihe River can't find any evidence and the account books are flawless, and the merchants are blind and trying to figure out the elephant, then we might as well start investigating from the source!

What is the source of salt? Of course it’s the kitchen owner who cooks the salt!

This is a stupid method, a bit like the "return to zero" fault analysis model in systems engineering. That is, when a problem occurs in a certain link within a complex system, but you cannot find where the problem lies, you need to Trace the source one by one from the first step to the last step, abandon subjective assumptions, and verify again one by one until the problem is completely solved.

The problem of salt affairs sounds troublesome, but in fact it is not complicated, because compared with spacecrafts that often have dozens of systems and tens of thousands of parts, there are only three groups in the salt circulation in the salt affairs. Zaohu-two Huaidu Salt Transport Department-Shouzhi merchant.

But this method has an important prerequisite, that is, a large number of manpower must be available to take over the salt field at the same time.

Jiang Xinghuo provided Xie Jin with a choice. If necessary, he could ask the emperor to let some of the Japanese troops go south.

Obviously, Xie Jin gained Jiang Xinghuo's appreciation through his vigorous and resolute methods. If not for Xie Jin's decisive performance in taking down the Huanghuai Chief Envoy Si Zuo Shenzheng and the Huai'an Prefecture Tongzhi, Jiang Xinghuo would have seen a different kind of Jie Jin. On the other hand, Jiang Xinghuo would definitely not say these words after seeing his courage.

In the letter, Jiang Xinghuo also expressed implicitly that he supported Xie Jin in continuing the investigation. The scale could be expanded, but the results were not necessarily guaranteed.

After all, whether it was the Huanghuai Chief Envoy who was a direct descendant of Zhu Gaochi or the Governor of Water Transport who brought two gold medals to avoid death, they were only involved in Xie Jin's mission, but not much. Even if they tried their best to bring it down, they could not solve it. The problem of the moment.

Now that the prefect of Huai'an, Yang Gu, has passed away, the most important and hardest thing to crack down on is Shi Youmin, the seemingly invulnerable salt envoy of the two Huaidu capitals.

As the saying goes, "Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives." Before Xie Jin could finish writing his reply, Shi Youmin took the initiative to send someone to the door, saying that the salt envoys from both Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers were being transported. Banquet to cleanse the injured imperial envoy.

"Sir, are you going? If you go, maybe I can take this opportunity to do other things."

Xie Jin raised his brows slightly, then realized what he was doing and said in surprise: "Is this what you planned?"

Zhao Haichuan nodded lightly and said: "Yes, if all the officials from the Salt Envoy's Yamen go to the banquet, then maybe we can make a surprise inspection of some places and collect some other evidence. If they don't respond in time, they might find something."

"You can give this a try, but"

Jie Jin pondered for a moment, and finally said: "The interests involved in this thing are too great. Just checking it like this will probably alert the snake."

"Don't worry, sir!"

Zhao Haichuan was obviously confident, and he promised categorically: "We are not moving the warehouse, but checking the foreign residences of these officials. Since there is corruption, there is no evidence on the surface, and it is impossible for them to be placed in the mansion, so most of them are being detained." It’s hidden somewhere else, and the outer house is a very likely location.”

Xie Jin nodded slightly, and then said: "Zhao Baihu, I believe in your ability, but you must not rush this matter, you still have to learn from your mistakes."

"I know that."

Zhao Haichuan said with a smile: "I'm just going to investigate some theft cases."

——————

In the Salt Envoy's Yamen, Shi Youmin personally saw the venue and layout of the reception banquet. Now that he had the accurate news that Yang Gu was dead, he felt relieved and even had the time to hum a tune from his hometown.

After Yang Wei's death, the responsibility for the imperial envoy's rebellion was all shouldered by the "letter of repentance" with conclusive handwriting. No matter what Yang Wei, the biggest local official, knew about the salt affairs, he could not bring it back. Take it as evidence that you betrayed yourself and sought protection.

The local gentry in Huai'an Prefecture had never had direct contact with Shi Youmin.

It has to be said that Shi Youmin is a very visionary person. He is not greedy for the money of the gentry and salt merchants at all. The money is too easy to be found out. He directly uses the power in his hands to recruit a group of officials to collect money from the salt tax. Take a commission, and then make fake accounts flawlessly.

What is a pattern? What does it mean to make a difference without a middleman?

This is also the reason why the salt tax issue has never been discovered, because it was originally a confusing account, and just looking at the books, there is no problem. If Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji hadn't used mathematical methods to communicate with the Northern Song Dynasty, In comparison, the lack of salt tax is calculated in equal proportions. I am afraid that such a big hole will be covered up for several years.

Shi Youmin nodded, and then seemed to think of something again, and asked his confidant: "By the way, how much has the price of food in the city increased in the past few days?"

The confidant held out five fingers: "It's about fifty cents more than yesterday."

"this"

Hearing this price, Shi Youmin couldn't help but was stunned. He originally thought that the price of food would rise by up to ten cents, but he didn't expect that it would rise five times. Isn't this too exaggerated?

Although the civil affairs of Huai'an Prefecture are not under his control, the current sharp increase in prices probably has seriously affected the livelihood of the people.

"But is it because of the bad harvest this year?"

"of course not."

The confidant looked at his appearance and couldn't help but explain: "The gentry and businessmen are all collecting grain. The people in the countryside who have their own land for farming are not affected much, but the citizens in the city don't have much food. The Grand Canal There is very little food shipped north recently."

"What a pity!"

Shi Youmin shook his head with regret, then looked at his confidants and said sternly: "But our Salt Envoy Si Yamen's grain must be released to the wind, and not a single grain can escape. Do you understand?"

The Salt Envoy's Yamen oversees hundreds of thousands of kitchen households. It has a granary itself, and the scale is large enough to affect the price of grain. Shi Youmin's decision is undoubtedly to continue to keep the price of grain at a high level. A fire was lit.

"this"

The confidant opened his mouth, but stopped talking.

Shi Youmin knew what he wanted to say, so he said earnestly: "Don't underestimate these wealthy gentry, their power is spread throughout Huai'an Prefecture. At this critical moment, we must let them feel that our Salt Envoy Si Yamen, I stand with them."

"But some Zao households also buy grain in the market. After all, Zao households have limited farmland."

The confidant looked hesitant, and after a moment he spoke with difficulty, "If this is really the case, then wouldn't we have offended them to death, and the consequences would be..."

In fact, the worries of the confidants are justified. In a kitchen household, usually only salt cubs are responsible for producing salt, which is sold to the salt magistrate's Yamen in exchange for money, and then goes to the salt magistrate's Yamen's granary to buy rice at a price that is basically equal to the market price. , this is what Shi Youmin calls the "granary".

But in a household, other people naturally do not live on dry food. Although the grain yield of the land around the salt field is relatively low, they also have some land under their names for cultivation. But it is obvious that just relying on the cultivation of this small piece of land will take a long time. It is definitely impossible to feed the whole family, and due to the large-scale strike of Zao households, their income has been reduced sharply. Therefore, Zao households with poor economic conditions, or with a heavy population burden, will only Being able to go to the market to buy expensive grains, the participation of these people will further push up grain prices.

How could Shi Youmin not know this truth? It's just that besides the reason he said it, he had another consideration.

"The more they cannot afford to eat and are hungry, and the striking kitchen households are afraid of being punished by the court for selling surplus salt, the more they will resent the court instead of the salt envoy Si Yamen who manages them. Do you understand?"

Shi Youmin gave a little hint, and the other party's eyes suddenly opened wide, he understood instantly, and he was amazed.

"Your Excellency is wise."

The confidant clasped his fists with a bright smile and said: "Then now we are just short of a fire. Then we can send people to secretly fan the flames and completely detonate those dissatisfaction."

In fact, the Yanshi Yamen's granary is self-operated, and it is a supporting welfare. It is the kind that everyone knows does not have the name "Yalshi Si Yamen" but has its actual function, but it is definitely not part of the official establishment of the imperial court. It is precisely in this way that Shi Youmin can take complete control.

Precisely because it is self-operated and follows the market price of grain, it is completely reasonable to avoid storing grain in the warehouse. It was originally set up to facilitate kitchen households to buy grain with the money from selling surplus salt. The Salt Commissioner Si Yamen does not make any money at all. , now that food prices are soaring and the granary cannot make ends meet, it can naturally be closed, and no one can point fingers or use administrative power to force anything.

"I think the imperial envoy is not that stupid. He will definitely choose to suppress this matter and focus on us. Although now he has wiped out all the government offices in Huai'an Prefecture, and no one can intervene in the price of food."

Speaking of this, Shi Youmin smiled sarcastically and said lightly: "But the gentry and wealthy households in those places are different. They will definitely raise the price of food crazily for the sake of profit."

In fact, from his point of view, Shi Youmin's plan was not problematic, and it could protect the interests of the Salt Commissioner to the greatest extent and avoid the salt field from getting out of control.

This reason is very simple. If Shi Youmin has food in his hands, he holds the key to solving the problem at any time. In his view, although Xie Jin is coming menacingly and brings a large number of royal guards, he has neither the support of the local gentry or wealthy businessmen, nor the support of local gentry and wealthy businessmen. The resources necessary to solve the current difficulties. This autumn's harvest was generally poor, and there was a shortage of food everywhere. In the summer, Jiangnan mobilized a large amount of food to prepare logistics for the Annan expedition. Coupled with last year's flood, it was already the third crop. The harvest is bad.

Shi Youmin didn't believe that in order to help Xie Jin solve this problem that was not the main problem, Jiang Xinghuo could really get him a large amount of food.

Food is not conjured out of thin air.

And Shi Youmin's operation in the court has also gained some insights. As long as he is not frightened by Xie Jin and exposes his flaws, then Xie Jin can't find anything, so he will naturally have to leave in despair, just like Chen Jin who was the former Metropolitan Procuratorate. Same as Ying.

Chen Ying is still known as the cruel official in ancient times, but he also returned without success?

For example, the Wu family of Huai merchants and the Jiang family of Huishang merchants were all big salt merchants, but in Shi Youmin's eyes, they were as small as dust. After all, they all relied on the Salt Envoy to make a living, but the Salt Administration Secretary could easily If the imperial court insists on reforming the salt law and cracking down on salt merchants, these salt merchants will never be able to resist, so they need to rely on the Salt Envoy Si Yamen.

The senior officials of the Salt Envoy's Yamen are monolithic, and their interests have long been entangled. They are all grasshoppers on the same line, and no one can escape. The salt merchants also have the same position, plus the gentry, wealthy businessmen, citizens, and other people who all stand together because of the price of food. Kitchen door.

The entire Huai'an Mansion belongs to me, what are you going to fight with me for?

"In this way, if we add more firepower, this matter can be successfully accomplished. Let the imperial envoy face the angry citizens and kitchen households first. As for the accounts of our Salt Envoy Si Yamen, he can check it as he pleases."