When Han Xiufeng first arrived in Jiangning, he didn't know if he could go to Taizhou to take office, so he was in a hurry, but now he can go to Taizhou at any time to take office, and Han Xiufeng has become not in a hurry at all.

stayed in Yizhen for two days, waiting for Zhang Dejian's daughter and son-in-law to help Zhang Dejian's son Zhang Shiheng pack his luggage and send Zhang Shiheng to the county seat. Waiting for Su Jinping, a student of Yangzhou Mansion and who had been hired by the squire of Hai'an to be the dean of Fengshan Academy in Hai'an for 15 years, he sent his third son Su Jueming to the inn together with Wu Xiucai, and after eating the reception banquet and send-off banquet of the Su family, he went to the county government to say goodbye to Duzhi County, and then hired a boat to rush to Yangzhou.

Pan Er sat on the bow of the boat, happy and a little unhappy.

Happily, Han Si is different as a Shangguan, and he went to say goodbye to the county master of Yizhen County in the morning, and the master of Yizhen County not only gave Han Si ten taels of silver to Cheng Yi, but also asked his family to give him and Yu Youfu and others a few hundred dollars. The unhappiness is that the four of them don't have much entanglement on their bodies, and if they can't earn money for a while after they take office, and they don't even know if they have anything to eat, Han Si actually accepted another half-sized boy who can't do anything and can't do anything, and a smooth-tongued splash!

What made him even more unhappy was that Han Si seemed to value the splash surnamed Su very much, and as soon as he got on the boat, he chatted with the splash surnamed Su, and they chatted until this point.

Su Jueming is twenty-six years old, although he has studied for a few years, he has not even been a child, but he pretends to be a scholar, wearing a Confucian shirt, wearing a satin-faced short jacket, and he is still holding a folding fan on such a cold day.

Yu Youfu didn't seem to hate the surname Su, he kept sitting on the side and listening, interjecting a few words from time to time, asking some people and things about Hai'an.

"If you want to talk about the inspection master and the patrol hall, I don't know how many I have seen in Hai'an for more than ten years. Especially the lord of the patrol department, some of them are the governors of the Yunsi Yamen, some are the Yunsi Yamen's judgments, and there are also many alternate officers sent by the Yunsi Yamen, the patrol hall is different from the Yamen of the Patrol Department, the lord of the patrol hall can only work in Hai'an for half a year, and they change every six months, and they don't stop changing, anyway, they can't care about local affairs, and the big families in the town don't need to talk to them, and I don't need to deal with them, so I can't remember the name. ”

Su Jueming took a sip of wine to warm his body, and then said: "If I want to say that I know a lot about the inspection master, Hai'an Town is not big, just a stone street less than two miles long, although the academy is not in the town, but no matter what the town has to do, the inspection master has to discuss with the local gentry, although my father is not a local, but most of the schoolchildren and those supervisors in the town are my father's students, and the inspection master has to be invited, and he has to be treated politely." ”

"This is natural," Han Xiufeng smiled and asked, "What were those inspection masters in the past usually busy with?" ”

Su Jueming thought for a while, put down the cup and said: "It depends on the person, there are a few patrol masters, who can be transferred from Taizhou City to investigate smuggled salt." I have ever seen one of the most powerful inspectors, who not only transferred fifty or sixty young men from Taizhou, but also transferred twenty or thirty green battalion soldiers from Taizhou, arrested more than 30 smuggling salt dealers, and seized more than a dozen boats of smuggled salt. ”

"And then?" Han Xiufeng asked subconsciously.

"I got rich, the seized private salt is called gong salt, and it is directly sold to several salt shops in Hai'an, Huji, and Baimi, and I don't need to pay taxes to the transportation department, and the silver I earn doesn't need to be handed over to the state government, and I take out a little reward for those fast catchers and green battalion soldiers, and then take out some filial piety to the lord of Zhizhou, and the rest all goes into the pocket of the inspection master."

Yu Youfu thought that everyone said that Yangzhou was rich, but the people on both sides of the river were not only not rich but also very poor, they couldn't see a few tiled houses, and most of them were thatched houses at a glance, thinking that Han Si could only make a fuss about private salt if he wanted to make money after he arrived, and couldn't help asking: "Su San, how did the inspector you said catch the smuggler of salt?" ”

"I don't know, but he must have eyeliner. Master Han, Yu Bantou, you haven't been to Hai'an, I don't know, but when you arrive, you will know how many rivers there are in Hai'an, there are rivers everywhere, and there are few bridges, so you can only take a boat if you want to go anywhere. Those smugglers are not fools, their boats either go through the wild river where there are no people for several miles, or they go to the harbor during the day to hide and come out at night, how can they be caught without eyeliner? ”

The reason why Su Jueming was willing to go to Hai'an with Han Xiufeng was that he just wanted to eat, and after thinking about it, he said: "Even if you have eyeliner, you may not be able to catch them, after all, the places under the jurisdiction of the Hai'an Inspection Department are not big or small, and there are few easy ways to walk. ”

"Those big and small rivers extend in all directions, and the boats of the smugglers don't necessarily have to be transported to the salt river?"

"Yes, it's really accessible in all directions, and those wild rivers and harbors are full of reeds, who can find them if you hide in the reeds!"

Yu Youfu groaned: "So the inspector doesn't have eyeliner, but an insider. ”

"Eighty percent of them." Su Jueming looked up at the boatman standing at the stern of the boat, and suddenly leaned into Han Xiufeng's ear and said: "Master Han, I don't know what the situation of the Yamen of the Inspection Department is now, but those former officials and archers have not received the benefits of smuggling salt dealers, and even some farmers who live by the river have received the benefits of smuggling salt dealers. ”

"Even the common people take the benefits of smuggling salt dealers?" Han Xiufeng will be skeptical.

"It's not a good deal, it's just a small advantage, and the smugglers are worried that they will report to the authorities, some will throw them a small bag of salt, and some will give them a few feet of cloth or some worthless pots and pots."

"Pots and pots?"

"Those smuggled salt dealers don't go to the salt works to buy smuggled salt on empty boats, some under the guise of selling rice, some under the guise of selling pots and cans, some sell groceries, some say they are from Xinghua, they say that Xinghua has been flooded, and they do everything anyway." Su Jueming thought for a while, and then said: "But these are all small illegal salt dealers, and they don't sell much illegal salt every time." The one I just talked about is a serious salt baron, more than a dozen boats, dozens of people, to say the least at a time, they also have to smuggle hundreds of thousands of catties of salt, they not only have swords and shotguns, they are not afraid of the few officials and archers of the inspection department, let alone the few officials and archers who see their farmers go to report to the official. ”