The Tomb Sweeping Day holiday is about to pass, and I have to go to work in the ministry tomorrow.
It's still early now, only after noon.
After Feng Yibo received the invitation, he got up and went straight to Lin's house.
Lin Ruhai had already arranged for someone to wait for him at the door, and he was taken to the study as soon as he arrived.
"uncle."
As soon as he entered the door, he saw Lin Ruhai sorting something out.
Feng Yibo shouted softly and greeted him at the same time.
Lin Ruhai didn't even raise her head when she heard his voice.
He just said: "Sit down first!"
Feng Yibo was not in a hurry and just waited aside.
After a while, Lin Ruhai seemed to have finished sorting it out before putting down the information in his hand.
He looked up at Feng Yibo and smiled:
"I asked you to come here because I have a favor."
After hearing this, Feng Yibo quickly stood up and said:
"I don't dare. Uncle just takes care of the matter."
Lin Ruhai smiled, waved his hand and said:
"Don't be busy yet. Someone is here! Let's watch the tea!"
The two of them sat down respectively as guest and host, and someone immediately offered tea cups.
Lin Hai gave another order and said:
"Go down, don't let anyone come this way."
The servant responded and went out to close the door.
Feng Yibo was a little curious, but Lin Ruhai didn't speak and he didn't ask any more questions.
After the two of them took a few sips of tea, Lin Ruhai stood up and walked to the door again.
He opened the door and looked around.
After confirming that there was no one, he sat back and said:
"I may be going to Yangzhou in the next few days. Daiyu and her aunt would like to entrust you to take care of them."
As soon as these words came out, Feng Yibo became confused.
Lin Ruhai has now resigned from the job of patrolling the salt censor, leaving only the doctor of Lantai Temple.
Yangzhou is not his hometown, so what else is he going to do?
Doubts remain doubts. Feng Yibo immediately responded after hearing this:
"Later, I will ask someone to take my aunt and sister over to live with them in the name of my master's wife."
If he is moving around normally, he can do it in his own name.
But now we have to live together for a while. Even if we have a marriage contract, we must pay attention to the differences between men and women.
Therefore, it is best to use the name of the elders in the house.
Feng Yibo responded first, and then couldn't help but said curiously:
"But why did uncle go to Yangzhou? Did the Holy One send another errand?"
Seeing that he had thought carefully, Lin Ruhai nodded with satisfaction.
Then I heard him ask about his trip to Yangzhou, so he smiled and asked:
"Do you still remember what happened in Yangzhou before?"
Lin Ruhai looked mysterious just now, and now I heard him mention the past events in Yangzhou.
Feng Yibo was stunned for a moment, and then thought of the major event recently.
A suspicion emerged in his mind that made him a little worried.
"Could it be that uncle wants to disturb the Zhen family?"
Hearing this, Lin Ruhai stroked his beard and smiled, praising:
"You really know everything."
At that moment, he stopped going around in circles and said directly:
"Yes, now that the Zhen family has completely lost its backer, it is time to eliminate evil for the country and avenge Daiyu's mother."
What Feng Yibo just thought of was the death of the old concubine of the Zhen family.
At this time, hearing Lin Ruhai admit it personally, his brows suddenly tightened.
He hesitated a little and said:
"Uncle, this matter..."
Lin Ruhai saw his expression and asked with a smile:
"how?"
Feng Yibo was a little confused, then sighed softly and said:
"I just feel like now is not the time."
"oh?"
Lin Ruhai was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said:
"I'm afraid you don't know what the Zhen family has done. If you did, you would understand why I chose this time."
Feng Yibo shook his head gently and said:
"Although I don't know the details, it is simply related to the salt policy, and the salt and iron issues have been around since the Han Dynasty, and the corruption of ink has never stopped."
"Lun on Salt and Iron" comes from the Han Dynasty.
Since then, salt and iron have been a national specialty.
It is also an important source of revenue for the treasury.
Lin Ruhai became even more curious after hearing this and asked:
"Since you have guessed something, why do you still think it's not the right time?"
Feng Yibo pursed his lips lightly, and then sighed softly.
"Because the old concubine's body is still cold. No matter how big a mistake the Zhen family makes, the Holy Emperor will inevitably have some sympathy for the old concubine."
Seeing Lin Ruhai frowning, Feng Yibo continued:
"If the original intention was to confiscate the family and exterminate the family, now the most they can do is to confiscate the family, and they may even be given resettlement."
"If the house was originally going to be ransacked, now we might just fine them a silver and leave enough dignity."
"If it was originally a fine of silver, now it might be..."
Having said this, he paused slightly before continuing with a wry smile:
"Maybe three drinks as a penalty and laugh it off."
Seeing Lin Ruhai frowning after hearing this, Feng Yibo continued:
"In short, with the kindness of the old concubine, the Holy One will definitely demote her and punish her in order to show her benevolence and filial piety."
Lin Ruhai pondered for a long time before sighing and saying:
"Yibo, you are right in the direction you expected, but you obviously underestimated the amount of money they committed."
Obviously, Lin Ruhai realized that he was a little anxious.
But he firmly believed that even Emperor Jingshun would leave some dignity to the old concubine as Feng Yibo said.
The Zhen family also cannot escape punishment.
"Um?"
Feng Yibo was stunned when he heard this.
Lin Ruhai pointed to the information he had compiled before and said solemnly:
"Over there are the accounts I compiled. Just the last small part is nearly one million taels."
When Feng Yibo heard this, he blurted out:
"so much?"
He was not surprised by a million taels of silver, but that a million taels was only a small part.
"The secret book I gave to the Holy Emperor earlier contains most of the accounts. This part was something you didn't have time to sort out before going to Yangzhou."
Lin Ruhai stood up and walked to the bookcase, picked up the account and handed it to Feng Yibo.
"Now that the Zhen family has no backer, I just sorted it out recently and prepared to give the Zhen family a fatal blow!"
Feng Yibo took it and looked through it and saw that it was all about Invesco's salt products from around ten years ago.
He looked at it with some confusion and said:
"Is there anything wrong with this account?"
Lin Ruhai smiled and shook his head and said:
"If you just look at this account, you won't find any problems, but as long as you compare it with the accounts of the Account Department, you can immediately find the mystery hidden in it."
Seeing that Feng Yibo was a little confused, Lin Ruhai started from the beginning.
"When Taizu was on tour to the south, the ancestor of the Zhen family, Zhen Yingjia's grandfather Zhen Qiu, was only the general merchant of the Lianghuai salt merchants. Later, because of his merits in taking over the salt merchants, he was promoted to the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy. "
It turns out that when Emperor Taizu of the Wei Dynasty visited the south, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River did not dare to take it lightly.
The government has also mobilized all resources to prepare for the reception.
At that time, the Zhen family was the leading salt merchant in the south of the Yangtze River and was as wealthy as the country.
Picking up a car involves too much money, so the government pushed Zhen Qiu to the front desk.
Let him figure out a solution to the problem.
Zhen Qiu naturally cannot bear the responsibility alone, but uses the power of the government.
Share the pressure with a group of Jiangnan salt merchants.
Receiving the emperor is not a simple task, and the size is difficult to determine.
Especially the founding emperor who founded a dynasty, who was not a murderous hero?
If you are not careful, the consequences will be disastrous.
Moreover, Taizu of the Wei Dynasty’s southern tour, in addition to the desire to enjoy the mountains and rivers, obviously also had some political considerations.
Fortunately, Zhen Qiu did an excellent job in this regard.
He first tried his best to reject all opinions and did not listen to Taizu's own request to "strive to screen out the glitz".
Instead, local civil and military officials wore court uniforms, as well as representatives from senior citizens, gentry, and students from all over the south of the Yangtze River.
Along the way, they knelt down to greet them.
It was also arranged that all old men and women over eighty years old wear yellow cloth or yellow silk coats.
Holding the incense in hand, he knelt down to receive it.
Dragon boats and lantern boats were set up on the river to create a grand scene of "alley dance and yamen song".
It was the planning of this pick-up, coupled with his identity as the general merchant of Lianghuai Salt Industry.
Let Zhen Qiu fall into Taizu's eyes.
In the end, Taizu made six southern tours in total.
Zhen Qiu was in charge four times!
And every time, he can come up with different tricks!
This made Taizu very happy.
Under Longyan's great joy, Zhen Qiu was specially promoted to the post of transportation history officer of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department.
Zhen Qiu was also granted the title of Guanglu Doctor and was rewarded with numerous rare and rare treasures.
The Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department is the current Lianghuai Salt Administration Office.
The chief officer at that time was Transshipment History.
Lin Ruhai's salt inspection censor was an additional errand sent by Emperor Jingshun.
It is not a fixed official position.
Three generations of the Zhen family presided over the salt administration of the Huaihe River until the eighth year of Jingshun.
Emperor Jingshun gave Zhen Yingjia an imperial mission to Jiangnan Tiren Academy on the grounds of understanding the sentiments of the people.
Apparently he was aware of something.
"Back then, Taizu spent a lot of money on his southern tour, and the money was poured out like running water."
Lin Ruhai was also from a wealthy family in Jiangnan, so he had obviously heard about this matter.
Because she was good at flattering her superiors, Zhen Qiu fell in the eyes of Taizu.
But everyone in the world envies his honor and favor, but they don’t know that the Zhen family also has a hard time talking about it!
"So the Zhen family was named as the history of salt administration transfer. It was obviously intended to compensate. It should be the consensus at the time."
Because the salt merchants were rich, they became fat in the eyes of Jiangnan officials.
Anyone wants to tear a piece of flesh from them!
In this way, Zhen Qiu was forced to come forward to meet him, but the money available was all the salt merchants' money.
Now that the pick-up was successful, all the honors and favors belong to the Zhen family.
Naturally, other salt merchants would not agree!
You know, receiving Taizu's four southern tours.
The Yangzhou salt merchants headed by Zhen Qiu invested millions of dollars!
Plus the money donated to the court, it's even more.
No matter how great the financial resources are, they cannot withstand such consumption.
As a result, all the salt merchants could only block the situation, and the only one who seemed to be benefiting was Zhen Qiu.
He must give an explanation!
"When Emperor Taizu reformed the salt policy, he changed the laws of all dynasties and began to use the method of salt introduction. At the beginning, he distributed 400,000 taels per year, and he could collect 1.2 million taels."
Taizu's reform and implementation of the pre-extraction salt introduction system also points to Zhen Qiu as the history of transportation.
This allowed the salt merchants, who were spending money like water, to see the possibility of making up for their losses.
Not only them, Zhen Qiu, the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy appointed by Emperor Taizu, also found room for maneuver.
The two parties hit it off immediately and each got what they needed!
But unfortunately, human greed has no limits.
"But since Taizu visited the south of the Yangtze River, he raised from 200,000 to 400,000 yuan every year, and this continued until I left."
Hearing this, Feng Yibo was stunned.
More than twenty years have passed since Taizu's last southern tour.
The Zhen family hasn’t taken action yet?
"If we calculate it as three taels per quotation, the shortfall over the past twenty years has been at least tens of millions of taels. No amount of compensation can justify it."
An additional 200,000 to 400,000 salt coins are issued every year.
It makes sense to say that it started out as a way to make up for the shortfall.
After all, Taizu acquiesced.
It can last for three generations and more than twenty years.
That’s an income of 10 million to 20 million taels of silver!
Obviously the Zhen family makes a living out of this!
Feng Yibo also found something very strange, or it was obvious.
That is, Zhen Yingjia was transferred first, and then Lin Ruhai was appointed as the Salt Patrol Censor.
It’s hard to say that Emperor Jingshun didn’t do it on purpose!
"Because I accidentally discovered something strange back then, I checked the files of the Household Department and found that there was no document for reporting and distributing items. It seemed that there was confusion and illegal corruption."
"I went back to inquire about the strangeness of this account, and found out that this amount of money had never been used for private purposes? I felt so shocked at the time!"
Speaking of this, Lin Ruhai showed a hint of emotion on his face and said:
"It was also at that time that I understood the purpose of the Holy One sending me to patrol the salt. However, when I submitted the report in secret, the Holy One only asked me to continue collecting evidence and not to act rashly."
As Feng Yibo expected, Lin Ruhai also discovered this.
There is no way, Emperor Jingshun's arrangement is too obvious.
Feng Yibo felt that Emperor Jingshun and the Zhen family knew each other well.
The only one is to stop the loss in advance and hit it by the way.
But one can only struggle to death and make money crazily.
In order to make up for the shortfall, they even colluded with Japanese pirates!
"Later I thought that both Jinshang and Prince Zhongshun were born to the old concubine Zhen, so I obviously had some concerns, so I stayed put and waited for the time to come."
This was obviously the reason why he didn't tell Feng Yibo about the secrets of the palace.
Such a moron has remained until now because of concern for the old concubine's face.
If such an inside story were revealed, the royal family would not look good.
When Feng Yibo heard this, he suddenly thought of a question:
"Then the Supreme Emperor didn't know about this when he was in power?"
Lin Ruhai had obviously thought about this issue, and immediately replied:
"Think about it, Taizu Yuze was still there at that time, and the power of the Wei Dynasty was steadily rising. In addition, the only two princes of the Supreme Emperor were both born to the old concubine, so we didn't go into details."
Speaking of this, he sighed quietly and said:
"But now that the national treasury is empty and internal and external troubles continue, the Holy One cannot tolerate them continuing."
Obviously, Da Wei has begun to decline.
Not only are there constant natural disasters, but there is also unrest on all sides.
There are also issues such as the annexation of land by the nobles of the Manchu Dynasty.
What happened with the Zhen family is a microcosm of this type of problem.
Feng Yibo sighed softly and said:
"The Zhen family is also crazy. No wonder they are amassing money like crazy and dare to collude with Japanese pirates. I think they know that the Holy One intends to touch them and try their best to make up for the shortfall to avoid being driven out and exterminated."
Lin Ruhai nodded and agreed:
"That's how it should be."
After a moment of silence, Feng Yibo asked again:
"So my uncle knew that he had this intention this morning, and the amount was huge, so he felt very confident?"
Lin Ruhai nodded and said frankly:
"Now that the old concubine has been buried, the funeral procession will probably return. I am going to wait for the Holy Emperor to come back and submit the last piece of evidence to the court to try to get this job. Then the Zhen family will be caught off guard. To avoid any accidents happening again.”
Speaking of this, Lin Ruhai showed a look of longing on his face and said:
"In this way, you can retire as soon as possible. When you and Daiyu get married, you can live a long life."
"Uncle, what you said makes sense, but..."
Feng Yibo pursed his lips and then said:
"I still suggest you wait."
