Cao Liang asked: "Then how is the operation of Yipinju now, and can the economy of the Sima family still support it?" ”

When asked about Yipinju, Bai Lingyun obviously knows more, after all, how many years has Bai Lingyun been the chief steward of Yipinju, even if she is stepping down now, but when it comes to Yipinju, she is still like a treasure.

Although Yipinju was hit by Cao Liang twice and suffered a lot of losses, Yipinju is Yipinju after all, and it has been monopolizing Luoyang business for so many years, and the background is quite thick, and it is impossible to collapse because of such two setbacks.

Therefore, in recent years, although Yipinju's business has decreased a lot compared with before, it is still the pillar of the Sima family's economy, maintaining the operation of this huge empire.

Although he was implicated in the Hedong private salt case, Hou Cheng, who served as the chief steward of Yipinju, relied on the trick of losing his pawn to protect the handsome and breaking his tail to survive, so the Sima family did not admit to the private salt case, so Hou Cheng also won the trust of Sima Yi and continued to serve as the chief steward.

I have to say that this Hou Cheng is very good at business, after the Hedong Chiyan Road was cut off, he started the business of sea salt again, and sold sea salt in the area of Xuzhou in Qingzhou into Beijing to make huge profits.

Although the road is farther than that from Hedong, and the cost of trafficking is higher, after evading a huge amount of taxes, illegal salt is completely a lucrative business, and it is worth it even if it is a long way.

In addition to private salt, Hou Cheng also started a private iron business, anyway, what the court prohibited, he did, and what the court forbad, usually profiteering, Hou Cheng was through this means, for the Sima family to collect a lot of money.

Yan Cao Liang can understand, after all, everyone has to eat salt, and there is no market for selling illegal salt. But iron tools are different, ordinary people have at most a kitchen knife at home, and some plows, rakes, hoes and pickaxes are used for farming, which are not very widely used, and the iron itself is controlled by the state.

Bai Lingjun told Cao Liang that Hou Cheng sold smuggled iron, not to the common people, but through the Yongliang bureaucratic system controlled by the Sima family, he secretly sold the smuggled iron to Hexi Xianbei, Ma Lanqiang, Lushuihu, the Xiongnu and Di people, as long as there was money to be made, Hou Cheng did not mind who he sold the smuggled iron to.

Cao Liang couldn't help but be a little stunned, selling iron weapons to the Hu people, which in itself seriously violated the ban of the imperial court, and belonged to the capital enemy collaborating with the enemy.

In order to grab benefits, the Sima family has reached the point of unscrupulous means, and they don't even abide by the bottom line of the lowest business.

The purpose of the imperial court's implementation of the iron monopoly was not to guard against ordinary people, and it was really impossible to do anything big with the little iron tools that ordinary people had at home. The purpose of the imperial court's control of private railways was to suppress and crack down on the Hu people.

The Huns were good at riding and archery, and they could hold bows at the age of three, but the Huns had always been trapped in the situation of iron weapons, and the arrows they used were mostly made of animal bones or stones, and rarely iron or bronze arrows.

The grassland desert does not produce iron, coupled with the monopoly of salt and iron implemented since the Han Dynasty, it did inhibit the development of the Xiongnu and other Hu people, but Hou Cheng did not hesitate to use the behavior of the enemy in order to grab huge profits, and sold the private iron to the Hu people.

What Hou Cheng did must have been tacitly approved by Sima Yi, the two items of salt and iron have always been a monopoly system of the state, in order to sell iron to the Hu people, Hou Cheng first had to follow Sima Yi's relationship and open up sales channels in the Yongliang area.

It is precisely because Yipinju is the industry of the Sima family, so in the Yongliang area, the goods of Yipinju are unimpeded, and even the government in some places also covers Yipinju and escorts these private goods.

In fact, it is only necessary to hide it from the Yongliang Governor of the West General Xiahou Xuan, Xiahou Xuan is high, and the people below him are bullied and concealed, he can't know at all that Xiahou Xuan is the governor of Yongliang, in fact, it is quite sad, and it is completely hollowed out by the pro-Sima forces, the so-called governor, in the eyes of others, is just a joke.

The whole Yongliang can be called an iron plate, needles can't be pricked, water can't be splashed, Xiahou Xuan has been the governor for several years, but he can't really control Yongliang, so that Yipinju is rampant in Yongliang and sells illegal iron, he has never heard of it, he has never seen it, let alone anything else.

It seems that the economic power of the Sima family is far larger and stronger than Cao Liang thought, and they have relied on the power attached to the Sima family to grab huge profits.

In order to make money, the Sima family has no bottom line at all, as long as someone can afford the price, they can get the weapon they dream of, which is completely to quench their thirst.

Now that the incident is approaching, even if Cao Liang learns about the Sima family's money channels and wants to stop them, it is obviously too late, even if he cuts off the path of the Sima family's salt and iron, he can no longer stop the Sima family's ambitions.

The whole incident is already imminent, Bai Lingyun may not be able to detect anything, but she told Cao Liang everything she knew, which couldn't help but give Cao Liang a clear understanding of the entire system of the Sima family, it seems that there is no need to wait for the first ten years, the rebellion of the Sima family will happen at any time.

Cao Liang may be fortunate to have an insider like Bai Lingyun, who can provide him with a lot of detailed and useful information, grasp the dynamics of the Sima family at all times, and win a lot of time for his preparations.

Otherwise, Cao Liang would be blind to the situation of the Sima family and would not know anything, and when the Sima family suddenly launched a rebellion, Cao Liang would fall into an extremely passive scene.

Therefore, how to make good use of the chess piece of Bai Lingyun is very important to Cao Liang.

So Cao Liang stipulated to Bai Lingyun that the time limit for exchanging news should not be less than five days, and within five days, Bai Lingyun must send an intelligence to report everything that happened in Sima Mansion to Cao Liang in real time, and in case of special circumstances, it can be reported on the same day without being limited to five days. Cao Liang will send someone to get in touch with Bai Lingyun and contact him through a secret signal to ensure that he is not detected by the people of Sima Mansion.

At the same time, Cao Liang asked Bai Lingyun to come out to meet with him once a month, and he would notify him of the place and method of the meeting separately to facilitate the exchange of information.