A few days later, in Yizhou City, Ren'anfang, deep inside the Ye family mansion.
In a spacious yard, there was a middle-aged man sitting in a wheelchair, looking at the peach blossoms in front of him expressionlessly, and quietly listening to the words of a young man not far behind him. Although he looked disabled, there was an intimidating light in his eyes, indicating that this man was no ordinary person.
This person is Ye Sanlang's uncle, the younger brother of his father Ye Tianzheng, and the current head of the Ye family, Ye Tianfang. His legs were disabled and he could only spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but he had no regrets. In order to seize the position of the head of the family, he did not hesitate to poison himself to impeach his eldest brother. After all, the elders of the family underestimated his ambition and did not expect that he would do that. Although he saved his life and drove away his eldest brother, But he also paid the price of having his legs disabled for life.
However, speaking of it, all of this was actually under his control. According to his plan, although he walked away from the gate of hell back then, he could be healed and returned unscathed. However, he failed to calculate that the old slave who had been with him for many years actually changed the antidote he had secretly prepared out of his friendship with Ye Tianzheng. Although he discovered it in time, it took a lot of time to prepare the antidote again. For a lot of time, the best time for treatment was delayed, so although he saved his life, he paid the price of two legs. The price was not heavy, but in return, he also gained the Ye family. He could only use this to comfort himself.
A few years ago, he knew that if the Ye family continued like this, it would not be able to develop solely by relying on the pharmaceutical industry. At best, it would only continue without any further improvement. Therefore, he also considered running a business a few years ago. However, another prominent family in Jiannan Road, the Zhao family, did not allow them to become powerful and tried to squeeze them out of business. As a result, his business plan went bankrupt and he could no longer bring it to fruition. I hope it's business.
He originally thought that the Ye family would decline like this, but unexpectedly, his eldest son, Ye Dingtian, met the younger son of Tubo Zampu by chance. The two of them were both pleasure-loving people and felt that they were superior to others, so they were very similar. . It was through this relationship with the young prince that Ye Dingtian discovered a shortcut to make money.
Although the Ye family has not made much progress in business, it can be said that the medical industry in Jiannan is almost controlled by the Ye family. Even Jiangnan Road and Shannan Road have Baiyetang industry, and the Ye family's medical skills are also passed down all over the world. Famous, many local dignitaries and princes and nobles in Chang'an have been treated by the Ye family. Therefore, although the Ye family has a route for transporting medicinal materials on the Yangtze River, no one has ever checked it. The young prince also fell in love with this route and approached Ye Dingtian. Of course Ye Dingtian readily agreed. When he first heard about this, Ye Tianfang was of course very sad and even wanted to deal with Ye Dingtian's family. However, when he learned about the reward offered by Tubo, he remained silent. The reward for this transaction is the total income of his Ye family for five years. How do you ask him to refuse this?
Therefore, the Ye family started a treasonous deal with Tubo. Every spring, the Ye family's fleet would transport medicinal materials along the Yangtze River to various branches, all the way to Yangzhou and then anchor. If we come as usual, the boat will generally be useless when it returns. That is to say, if we come as usual, although the boat will charge for two trips, in fact, the Ye family only uses it once. . But since then, every time the Ye family's fleet returns to Jiannan, it always returns with a full load. Most people don't know what it is carrying.
In fact, every time the fleet returned, the waterline was much higher than when it left. This was because of the cargo it carried - cast iron. Yes, although Tubo was at odds with the Tang Dynasty every year and had no shortage of men, it was extremely short of weapons. And due to terrain problems, there were not many iron ores on the plateau where Tubo was located, and very little cast iron was produced. It could be smelted every year. The weapons made often could not keep up with the assembly of the new armies recruited, so Tubo turned its attention to the Tang Dynasty. Every year, it imported cast iron from different channels to use it to cast weapons. Why not just buy the weapons directly, you ask? First, although cast iron is relatively common in all states of the Tang Dynasty, weapons casting places are not available everywhere. Every weapons shop is registered with the Ministry of Industry. Of course, it is impossible for such a place to export weapons to Tibet. Therefore, Tubo could only find a solution on cast iron.
Moreover, just smuggling cast iron to Tibet was a serious crime of treason that could be punished by the whole family. Most people would not dare to think about it. Those who secretly maintained transactions with Tibet were making money with the lives of their whole families.
Every time the Ye family's fleet arrived in Yangzhou carrying remaining medicinal materials, and after unloading, it became a fleet of empty ships. At this time, Yangzhou Governor Liu Zhao would use his official duties to transfer the police on the dock for various reasons, and King Qing's men were responsible for loading the countless cast irons that had been prepared long ago onto the fleet. When they returned, they would be diverted to the dock near Yaozhou, where the Tibetan people who had been waiting would unload the goods, and then the batch of cast iron would be It passed through Nanzhao and was transported back to Tubo. Most people would not know at all. Moreover, even if King Nanzhao knew that someone was smuggling cast iron from the Tang Dynasty into Tubo, he would generally not take care of it. This was a tacit understanding between him and Tubo Zampu.
In other words, on such a cast iron smuggling route, there are a total of three forces involved. One is the Ye family, who is responsible for transportation, and the other is Yangzhou Governor Liu Zhao, who is responsible for covering up and ensuring the passage of the fleet. The third is King Qing. Speaking of which, a person like Prince Qing actually doesn't have to rely on crimes like treason to make money. However, today's prince Li Longji has never cared about or loved him. Even the prince is not his own, so he has to rely on himself. What's wrong with obtaining money through such transactions? He has considerable power in Yangzhou, and even his adopted son Li Qiu, Prince of Bohai County, has been stationed at his manor in Yangzhou for a long time. It is not difficult for him to secretly collect a certain amount of cast iron every year.
It wasn't until he got Liu Zhao's account book that Ye Sanlang found out that Li Linfu had known about it for a long time. However, he did not tell Li Longji. Instead, he secretly asked his son-in-law Li Huaiyuan to make mistakes. It was really hard to figure out his intentions.
After the incident in Jiangnan, Liu Zhao, King Qing and Ye Tianfang were frightened. During that time, they were silently waiting for Li Longji's punishment. However, there was no movement for many days in a row, which made them feel relieved. Perhaps Liu Zhao had already disposed of the account books and other items before committing suicide. Just when they thought everything was over, there were rumors that Ye Sanlang might have come to Jiannan after leaving Yuanzhou, which made Ye Dingtian increase his vigilance. He knew that Ye Tianzheng had always held a grudge against him because of the dispute between the heads of the family, and the killers he sent several times were blocked by the Xianyu family. He had long known that such a day would come, but what worried him was that It is how Ye Sanlang will take revenge on the Ye family.
After so many days of probing, monitoring and collecting intelligence, he had already vaguely felt that there was something wrong with the identity of Mr. Li, but at this moment. However, his second son came to report that Ye Sanlang was actually in Jiangzhou at the moment. He led the army to wipe out several groups of bandits near Jiangzhou, and he was holding a gold medal given by the emperor. It should be correct.
At this time, he realized that he might have underestimated his nephew.
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