The Government Hall and the Privy Council respectively control military and political power, and are called the East and West Governments.
The Privy Council envoys are officials who are in charge of the "replacement and replacement" of officials below the head of each department in the Privy Council. When the emperor inspects the army, he must also stand in front of the emperor to report or receive orders at any time.
This is a relatively important and promising assignment.
When Wang Yanling received Cao Bin's letter, he almost died of anger. This was because he was sure that he would not reject him for such a trivial matter and deliberately acted rogue.
After reading the letter, he looked up again and glanced at Bao Mian standing in front of him, and asked with some surprise and complexity:
"Are you Bao Zheng's nephew?"
Bao Mianbusheng replied with dignity and awe:
"Family ties are not a concern in official circles. Please don't worry about my uncle, Prime Minister. Please handle official business with your subordinates."
"I will never rely on my uncle's reputation to harm the public for personal gain!"
Although he accepted Xun You's inheritance, he only increased his qualifications, knowledge and abilities, and added the attribute of absolute loyalty, but his character was not affected much, and his behavior was very Cao Bin's style.
Hearing this, Wang Yanling no longer knew what to say. This guy was just like Cao Bin, so shameless.
You came here with Cao Bin's letter to ask for promotion. Are you qualified to say this?
He pondered for a long time, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed he became. He decided to have an airing with Pan Renmei. It was a tacit agreement between the two parties to force Cao Bin to leave Beijing. He could not bear the problems raised by Cao Bin alone.
Bao Mian was still a little nervous at this time. He didn't know whether Cao Bin's plan would succeed, but he didn't know that his position would be jointly taken care of by the two big shots in the court. It was almost a certainty...
In the past few days before Cao Bin left Beijing, the court became more and more harmonious, the officials no longer quarreled, and the entire Bianjing showed a strange peace.
Everyone is hiding their thoughts, including Queen Mother Pan, Wang Yanling, He Jianzhang and others, and even Gong Liangchen is plotting something secretly.
On this day, the sky was clear and sunny.
Cao Bin was finally ready. Accompanied by Sister Yang, he took a group of staff, officials, soldiers, and honor guards, boarded the ship and went down the river straight to Yangzhou.
He originally did not intend to take Sister Yang with him, but under She Taijun's strong persuasion, he had no choice but to admit it. He only hoped that she would get pregnant early so as not to be watched by the old lady all the time.
However, there are always some servants and maids to take care of the food and daily life. One more of her is not too much, and one of her less is not too much.
Although there were many ships on the river from Bianjing to the Huaihe River, the transportation capacity was tight, and the checkpoints were dense, Cao Bin's ship would not be restricted, and it only took a few days to enter the Huaihe River.
Regardless of whether it was a ship or a checkpoint, when they saw the big flag on Cao Bin's ship, they all gave way and did not dare to delay for a moment.
On the second day after entering the Huaihe River, Sister Yang was lying on the bow of the boat looking at the scenery. She saw a small boat approaching. A man jumped on the big boat and handed a piece of information to Cao Bin. He asked curiously:
"Cao Lang, do you have any information about Huaidong?"
Cao Bin nodded, handed the information to her casually, and said with a proud smile:
"Half a year ago, my husband had ordered people to focus on collecting information on Lianghuai."
"Those salt merchants also wanted to use some tricks to deceive the imperial envoy."
"You don't know that your husband is an expert in deceiving others. How can you let them deceive you?"
Sister Yang rolled her eyes when she heard this. Looking at the very detailed information in her hand, she couldn't help but exclaimed:
"I didn't expect that handling political affairs would be more rigorous than fighting a war. If we had such detailed information when we went on an expedition before, we would have won every battle!"
As she spoke, she seemed to think of something, and couldn't help but sigh, feeling a little disappointed and said:
"It seems that my Yang family is really not suitable for being an official."
Cao Bin laughed, pulled her into his arms, and comforted her:
"You are too pure in mind and always want to get out of the mire without being stained. That's why you are not suitable to follow the crowd."
"Don't worry, now that your husband is here, he will protect your family from the evil wind and waves."
Sister Yang nodded and was greatly moved...
At this time, Huainan East Road, Yangzhou Hou Mansion.
A dozen or so luxuriously dressed officials and salt merchants were watching the singing and dancing with their heads bouncing, and from time to time toasting to Marquis Yangzhou, who was on the throne.
Yang Zhouhou was in his thirties, and although his face was a bit rough, his eyes showed shrewdness.
At this time, he looked at the officials and salt merchants in the hall who were changing glasses, raised his glass with great satisfaction and said:
"Everyone, have a drink together. Han Jiang is now subdued. As long as we continue to work hard to convince Cao Bin, we will have the final say in these two Huaihe salt fields."
"When the time comes, what will be in front of you is a mountain of gold and a sea of silver, and you won't be able to spend all the flowers?"
After hearing this, everyone was quiet for a moment, and one of them said worriedly:
"Master Yan, I heard that Marquis Zhongjing acts unscrupulously and is even more difficult to offend..."
He was only halfway through his sentence when he was interrupted by Yang Zhouhou with a wave of his hand and said displeasedly:
"What are you afraid of? The officialdom in Huaidong is all ours. They are like iron buckets and water cannot be poured into them. What's more, there is also a transshipment envoy, Mr. Pan, who is the great uncle of the Queen Mother."
"No matter how powerful Cao Bin is, what can he do? When he comes to Huaidong, he has to coil up if it's a dragon, and he has to lie down if it's a tiger."
"Don't talk about him Cao Bin, what if Wang Yanling comes? I'll still tell him to come back in vain. That guy Han Jiang is the precedent!"
When everyone heard this, they immediately relaxed and were about to speak when a housekeeper ran in and reported urgently:
"The Marquis is not well. Master Pan said that he has received a reply from the court and will leave Huaidong soon."
"He said that Marquis Zhongjing is not someone to be trifled with, and told you to be careful..."
As soon as these words came out, the whole hall suddenly became silent. No one expected that before Cao Bin arrived, he would scare away the big man who relied on him and others as a backer.
Marquis Yangzhou turned livid with anger, threw the wine glass in his hand angrily, and cursed:
"This old bastard is like a wolf and a tiger when it comes to sharing money, but he becomes a coward when trouble comes."
The old boy usually brags about his relationship with Pan Renmei, but unexpectedly he was tricked. If he really had a good relationship, how could he run away?
No matter how unscrupulous Cao Bin is, he wouldn't dare to kill Queen Mother Pan's relatives, right?
Seeing him getting angry, the dancers had already fled away in fear, and the remaining nobles were also frightened. One of the officials said carefully:
"Master Marquis, how about we cooperate with Marquis Zhongjing?"
The Marquis of Yangzhou heard this and said angrily:
"Cooperate? Tell me how to cooperate!"
"We still have at least more than 30 million salt banknotes in our hands. The court refuses to pay and we can't get the salt. Will you pay me for it?"
After Yang Zhouhou finished speaking, he saw that there were still people who were afraid, so he could only show his trump card and said:
"Don't worry, everyone. My family has an iron coupon for elixirs given by Emperor Taizu, a gold medal for immunity from death. Does Cao Bin have it?"
"As long as I don't rebel, the Queen Mother can't do anything to me!"
"What's more, I still have dozens of ministers in the DPRK and China to deal with. Han Jiang doesn't dare to do anything to me, and Cao Bin doesn't dare to do anything to me either."
"As long as I don't fall, you will be in no danger..."
After hearing this, everyone immediately relaxed. After all, they were still reluctant to part with the huge profits.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, one salt banknote can be exchanged for one rock salt, which is equivalent to six copper coins. However, in order to raise military expenses, Cai Jing issued a large number of salt banknotes. As a result, the salt banknotes in the later period did not even need a single coin, and there was no salt to redeem.
Therefore, the actual cost of the more than 30 million guan salt banknotes in their hands was only a few million guan.
Speaking of which, it was Cai Jing who tricked them, but Yang Zhouhou didn't think so.
He wanted to exchange all the more than 30 million salt banknotes at the actual price, and even forced the court to open up the salt official camp.
So, he first hoarded salt, and then secretly encouraged and coerced the salt people to defect, leaving the entire Huainan without salt and causing the price of salt to skyrocket. While he reaped huge profits, he also put pressure on the court.
What he didn't expect was that Cao Bin went to Xixia as an envoy and brought Xixia green salt at a low price, which temporarily frustrated his plan.
However, Xixia Green Salt is not a long-term solution after all. Lianghuai will definitely rebuild the salt field. As long as experienced salt people are in the hands, it will be easy for him to destroy the salt field and rebuild it.
Moreover, he also distributed a lot of salt banknotes to the public in the form of loans, which made the salt banknotes spread more widely, and many people with a little money became his community of interests.
This is also the reason why Han Jiang has been unable to rebuild the salt farm.
He had neither money nor salt, so he did not dare to promise to exchange the salt banknotes at the actual price. He offended the local people, had no experienced salt workers, and was often tripped up by local officials. It was difficult to move forward, and he had already been miserable.
He probably knew what the problem was, but he didn't dare to be cruel because the Yangzhou officials were involved too much.
It doesn't matter if the mission is not done well. As long as there are people in the court, there is still hope in the future. But if too many officials in the court are offended, it will be unbearable and even the Han family will be affected...
