Sun Mei is heart disease, so when Li Ye visited him, he promised to give Sun Ye a suitable position, and within two days, Sun Mei's illness was cured, and anyone who saw it knew what the reason was.

However, Li Ye also followed He Hanyan's suggestion and gave Sun Ye a position that was not bad, but it would not affect Li Ye's position ---- Weiwei Siqing.

Weiwei Temple, one of the nine temples, is responsible for taking charge of military weapons and curtains and other affairs, and by the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was already an idle position, although it had real power, but it had little power.

However, one of the nine Qings, the name must be passable, after all, it is a third-grade official position, if Sun Mei is not satisfied, Li Ye will not continue to get used to the other party.

On this day, Li Ye had just returned from the Hanyuan Palace, and Li Zhen brought a copy of the book and a stack of materials.

Seeing what was said in the recital and those materials, Li Ye's face was very ugly.

"Can you confirm that this is true?"

Li Zhen nodded and affirmed, "Your Majesty, if there is no conclusive evidence, the minister will not dare to come to see Your Majesty." According to the report of Jinyiwei in the river, the output of the salt pond in the river decreased by nearly a quarter during this time, and the river side felt a little strange, so they went to investigate.

After an investigation, it was found that there was a big problem, someone deliberately made the ledger and tampered with the delayed output. ”

"What about the extra salt? Where did it go? Li Ye's tone was very cold.

"According to the investigation, it may have been cut off by someone, and then sold to those salt merchants without permission, becoming illegal salt." Li Zhen looked at Zhang Wei next to him and said with great certainty.

Zhang Wei was also a little anxious in his heart, because Zhang Chengye was the salt envoy of the salt pond in the two counties in Hezhong, if what Li Zhen said really appeared, then no matter whether Zhang Chengye was involved or not, there would be big trouble. If you don't know, it might be better; If it's the actual leader, it's a problem.

Salt administration is very important to the imperial court, on last year's income of more than 1,300,000 guan, salt profit contributed one-fifth, almost 2.4 million guan, of which the salt pond in the river accounted for 1.5 million guan, and the salt pond in Sanchuan accounted for 900,000 guan.

It can be said that whoever moves salt profits is to bleed the imperial court, and even Li Ye's blood.

Li Ye didn't care about Zhang Wei's reaction, "At present, there are only three salt merchants in the places controlled by the imperial court, and I haven't heard that there is an inflow of private salt, are these three parties deceiving me?" ”

The three parties that Li Ye said are naturally Zhang Xiong, He Dong and the salt transportation divisions in various places.

Zhang Xiong and He Dong are imperial merchants appointed by Li Ye, and they both have the power to deal in salt, but their respective scopes are different, so they will not overlap, and there will be no conflicts due to salt sales.

The salt farms owned by the two of them all take salt from the salt ponds in the river or Sanchuan at a low price, and then sell it themselves, and part of the profit needs to be handed over to Taifu Temple.

The salt transportation department in various places was personally appointed by the imperial court, which was equivalent to the state-owned enterprises of later generations, and the profits were directly attributed to the household department.

Last year's salt profit of 2.4 million guan refers to this part and the salt profit from the sale of the salt pond to the two imperial merchants. The salt profits handed over by the two imperial merchants belong to Taifu Temple and belong to Li Ye's inner treasury, and there are about 1 million yuan.

However, in order to ensure that there is no big contradiction and that the people can eat salt, the price of salt sold by the Salt Transportation Division is low, while the price of salt in the salt village owned by He Dong and Zhang Xiong is higher, and the price of salt of the same quality cannot exceed 30 of the price of the Salt Transportation Division.

In this way, the salt village of the imperial merchant is responsible for making money for the emperor, while the salt transportation division is more of a tool for maintaining stability, and making money is secondary.

If there is an outflow of private salt, it will have an impact on the three families, so unless all three families are involved, it is impossible to not notice it at all.

Li Zhen replied, "Your Majesty, these private salts did not flow into the places under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, but flowed to Hedong, Heyang, Xuanwu and other places, so the two imperial merchants and the Salt Transportation Division did not notice it. ”

"A quarter? Last year, the salt pond in the river may have been lost by nearly 500,000 guan? How many armies is this enough for me? Li Ye was so angry that he slammed the table and rushed to the crown angrily, "Give me an investigation, I want to see who dares to be greedy for the court and my money!" ”

"Your Majesty, please rest assured." Li Zhen hurriedly said, "But Your Majesty, this matter may be involved a little widely, from the clues obtained so far, it can be seen that there is a problem with the salt pond in the river, there must be a traitor, and secondly, Wang Ke may not be able to get out of the way, as well as some ministers in the court, and even Wenxi Pei's family." ”

Wenxi Pei's family itself is in the river, plus its clansmen are all over the government and the opposition, there are people from Wenxi Pei's family in the imperial court, and there are also people from Wenxi Pei's family under the feudal towns in various places, this is a huge network of interests.

And now Wenxi Pei's family also has a lot of influence in the court, the privy envoy Pei Rong, and the criminal department Shangshu Pei Zhen are all important ministers of the court.

Li Ye couldn't help but fall silent, and only after a while did he raise his head and look at Li Zhen, "Li Aiqing, you will be responsible for investigating this matter, and no matter who is involved after the investigation, the Criminal Department will preside over the trial!" Dali Temple and Yushitai are in charge of supervision! ”

Hearing the emperor's words, Li Zhen couldn't help but be shocked, realizing that this move was killing multiple birds with one stone.

Although the Criminal Department is one of the six departments, its powers are not large, and it is basically limited to civilians and officials below the seventh grade with the right to execute, but generally has no right to punish, and the right to punish basically belongs to Dali Temple, and the middle and senior officials are also basically under the supervision of the "Menxia Province" in the three provinces.

The emperor's move is undoubtedly to enhance the power of the Criminal Department, and some of the officials involved this time must be more than seven grades and below. This time, the Criminal Department can try officials with more than seven grades, but in the future, is it okay?

However, the presiding judge of the Criminal Department also revealed some other meanings.

Who is the secretary of the criminal department? Pei Zhen, Wen Xi Pei's background, and this private salt matter will definitely involve Wen Xi Pei's people, with the supervision of Dali Temple and Yushitai, does he dare to cheat for personal gain?

In this way, there will definitely be a split within the Wenxi Pei clan, which is undoubtedly a good thing for Li Ye as the emperor.

I didn't expect that just one thing could make His Majesty think of so much, and Li Zhen had to accept it in his heart.

。。。。。。

After Li Zhen left, Li Ye looked at Zhang Wei, who was standing restlessly, and knocked on the table.

"Zhang Wei, what role do you think Chengye played in this matter?" Li Ye looked up and asked.

Zhang Wei was so frightened that his head broke out in a cold sweat, bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, Chengye should not be involved. The person who undertakes the industry, the old slave knows it, and His Majesty should also know that whether he was the Inspectorate or the Ordnance Department before, he was conscientious.

Although the old slave is a naturally incomplete person who likes money, power, and fame, the old slave can guarantee that Chengye is not such a person.

The old slave is more greedy for money, but he also knows what can and cannot be taken, Chengye is smarter than the old slave, and he must know the importance of Yanchi to His Majesty and the court. ”

For Li Ye, Zhang Wei has been with him for many years after all, even Li Ye has been with him for eight years after being reborn, and he gets along day and night, how can he not understand Li Ye's character.

It's okay to be greedy for money, Zhang Wei didn't expect to hide it from Li Ye, but he knew that as long as he didn't touch Li Ye's bottom line, the other party wouldn't pursue him at all. When the water is clear, there are no fish, and there is no system that can prevent corruption, because human nature itself is greedy.

It's like Qianlong didn't know and was a corrupt official? But why didn't Qianlong kill He, because He's ability to do things can keep Qianlong from pursuing He's corruption.

The same is true for Li Ye, as long as he doesn't go too far, he can also turn a blind eye, and the treatment of officials is gradually improving, otherwise how to keep people.

Seeing that Zhang Wei was there and kept excusing Zhang Chengye, Li Ye was also a little surprised, but he thought that the Zhang brothers had no merit and hard work.

Li Ye said in a deep voice, "You send someone to tell him that if he participates, let him stop, spit out the money that should be spit out, and hand over all the people involved, and I can let him go this time." I don't want Jinyiwei to find out about this in the end, and when the time comes, don't blame me for ignoring the past. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty! The old slave thanked Your Majesty for inheriting the industry! ”

The emotional Zhang Wei kept saluting Li Ye, which also made Li Ye a little impatient, and waved his hand, "Go out, let me wait, and call Ximen Jun to me." ”

Just as Zhang Wei was about to leave the hall, Li Ye's voice came, and he didn't deliberately lower it, as if he wanted Zhang Wei to hear it. And hearing this name, Zhang Wei's heart trembled, Ximen Jun is not an ordinary person.

Ximen, Liu, Han, Yang, the four surnames of the eunuchs in the Li Yi period!

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