During this period of time, in order to be able to listen to the news, Zheng Xiaru has not been idle, he laid more than a dozen eyeliner outside the city, when Fang Decai hurried back from Qinghe, there were eyeliner to see him, and then immediately rushed into the city to tell him, it seems that for them, the curfew of the city gate after night is naturally nothing, holding the waist card of the Yanyun Yamen, as long as the waist card is flashed, the basket will fall on the city, and then hang him to the city.

When Zheng Xiaru got the report, it was already the second half of the night, and almost as soon as he learned the news, he ordered someone to call the master, and soon Zhao Pingyue also hurried to his study in cotton clothes.

This will Zheng Xiaru was there to suppress the excitement in his heart, waved his hand to let the messenger leave, looked at Zhao Pingyue, and said with some excitement:

"Brother, the success or failure of things depends on tomorrow!"

After a long silence, Zhao Pingyue just nodded slightly, and then turned to leave. He knew that the Dong Weng in front of him didn't need him to say anything more, after Zhao Pingyue left, Zheng Xiaru couldn't sleep at all in the second half of the night, and didn't fall asleep in a daze until the sky was about to light.

It wasn't until nine o'clock in the morning that the officials of the yamen hurriedly pushed the door in and reported that someone was rushing to buy the bearer book.

Although this news made Zheng Xiaru's sleepiness disappear, he said lukewarmly.

"Oh, someone sells, someone buys, what's all the fuss!"

Zheng Xiaru was extremely calm, as if he was talking about something that was not mentioned, and Zhao Pingyue also walked over, and he seemed extremely calm.

Seeing Zhao Pingyue coming here, Zheng Xiaru said:

"Scribe Wang, tell Mr. Sun what you just said again!"

Wang Liping hurriedly repeated.

"Master, these days, only people keep putting out the compendium, and now suddenly someone is there to collect the compendium. Isn't this already up in half! ”

Zhao Pingyue, who knew that this matter had been done, asked quietly:

"Really? What's the big deal? Someone sells it, someone buys it, isn't this compendium just for people to buy? ”

And Zheng Xiaru pretended to be contemplative, and then commanded:

"Well, it's not wrong to be careful, ask around, and see who is buying those compendiums!"

Then Zheng Xiaru gave a few more instructions before letting the officials in the yamen leave, and after he left, he was just about to get up, when he suddenly felt a little weak, and Zhao Pingyue hurriedly reached out to support him.

"Master, you are ......"

Taking a deep breath, in order to calm himself down, Zheng Xiaru first picked up a matter that was not tight and smiled.

"You say, in the future, will they make me a tablet and curse me?"

And Zhao Pingyue was silent, he first turned around and closed the door, then walked to Zheng Xiaru's side, and then suppressed his throat and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear:

"We're doing everything very well now, as long as we let out all those compendiums in the past few days, we can show some flaws to Qiu Dong's family!"

Zheng Xiaru nodded again and again, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Hey, actually, this matter is indeed a bit unkind, but the business is ...... Always! ”

After this sigh, Zheng Xiaru's eyes flashed, and he secretly thought in his heart, it is better to die than to die. Rather than letting those compendiums become waste paper in his hands, it is better to turn them into waste paper in the hands of others. Just wait a few days, and the waste paper that looks worthless will turn into cash.

Zheng Xiaru didn't wait long, but only three days later, a henchman at home hurried to the yamen and whispered to him that all the compendium books at home had been sold, and the price was even one and a half times higher than usual.

"Have the Lu family and the Sun family gone out?"

The reason why Zheng Xiaru asked this is because this matter is not his own business, and relatives and friends cannot be left behind.

"They all turned out, not only did the other families also transfer out, but our family not only kept the capital, but also made a net profit of 330,000 taels of silver!"

Looking at Zhao Pingyue, Zheng Xia felt as if he was in a dream, not only kept his capital, but also earned more than 300,000 taels of silver.

"So, plus the other families, this time, at least one million taels, right?"

And Zhao Pingyue on the side hurriedly said:

"Congratulations, sir! The great master's hard work was not in vain, this time the eldest master raised nearly one million taels of military salaries for the strategy! ”

Zhao Pingyue's congratulations made Zheng Xiaru's face change from time to time, the silver earned must not be put into his pocket, this silver must be handed over to Jing Liu, in that change of expression, he suddenly laughed wildly, and there was always some helplessness in the laughter.

Zhao Pingyue was a little worried and wanted to step forward to support him. But Zheng Xiaru pushed him away, still laughing, but in that laughter, anyone could see that his face was extremely ugly.

At this moment, I only heard Zheng Xiaru say loudly:

"Brother Zhao, if it is possible, you must not enter the officialdom, if you want to be an official, if you want to be an official, if you want to be prosperous and rich, you don't know how many things you have to do! Zheng someone's use of the country this time can be said to have lost his conscience, exhausted the wealth of Shaanxi businessmen, and threw morality aside......"

This will make Zheng Xiaru's eyes red, as if he has received some blow. Suddenly, after this burst of wild laughter, he sighed again.

"I hope the scriptures can understand Zheng's hard work......"

High-sounding reasons are needed by everyone, and for Zheng Xiaru, he also needs them. Of course, he also needs to be able to understand his painstaking efforts, and as for whether he can understand or not, it is no longer within his control.

Two days later, when Zheng Xiaru's submission was sent to the government office in Qinghe, there was also a report handed over by the military chief in front of Zhu Mingzhong, and it was this report that made his whole person frown tightly and with anger on his face.

"Jinglu, how are you going to deal with this matter?"

Raising his head suddenly, Zhu Mingzhong said sharply.

"How to deal with it, he Zheng Shijie actually used the salt tax reform to harm others for his own selfishness, his selfishness is so heavy, if he is not severely punished, how can he correct the law?"

Looking at the sharp strategy, Zhu Daxian said:

"After a while, Zheng Shijie is just a promoter in this matter, if he is investigated, he has nothing illegal."

"Yes, according to the strategy, although Zheng Shijie lured a group of Shaanxi merchants into a trap by fraud, causing many Shaanxi businessmen to go bankrupt, but in terms of the law of the Ming Dynasty, he did not break the law......"

It's not illegal yet!

Zhu Mingzhong interrupted them with a wave of his hand and said:

"If you don't deal with this matter, how can you make the people of the world obey, this loophole in the law, he Zheng Shijie can drill it, and others will be able to drill it in the future!"

Taking a sip of tea, Gu Yanwu said slowly:

"Jingluo, this matter, although Zheng Shijie has something wrong, if you want to deal with him, the lower officials will naturally be difficult to stop, although he is selfish, but he also has a bit of public heart, he and the Jiangnan salt merchants took out all the money and profits obtained this time, which is what those Shaanxi businessmen can't do, after all, Shaanxi is still under the rule of the Qing Dynasty! If he can't be hurt by this matter, how can he reform the salt tax smoothly? As for the Jiangnan businessmen, after this incident, even if they have a whisper in their hearts, they dare not speak, after all, Jinglu has already shown them a favor! ”

This latter sentence shocked Zhu Mingzhong's heart, indeed, every reform, you need to kill chickens to show monkeys, Jin merchants are chickens, and Shaanxi merchants are the same, as for those salt merchants from Jiangnan who kept their capital in this matter, it is equivalent to a disguised grace, after all, they have kept their capital.

Zhu Daxian lit his cigarette pouch, took a puff of cigarette, and then said:

"Kill the chicken to show the monkey, Zheng Shijie has meritorious deeds in this matter, at this critical time, after a little employ, he should take his talent first! As for the rest, it's secondary. ”

In the face of their suggestion, Zhu Mingzhong's whole person fell into contemplation, his mood must be complicated, this matter really made him feel a little disgusting, the most fundamental reason is that before this, Zheng Xiaru did not greet him at all.

But on the other hand, he also knew that this matter did have some benefits for the government, not to mention more than 1.21 million taels of silver, which was the biggest benefit, turning a pile of waste paper into white silver, and this silver could do a lot of things!

But will this matter lead to damage to the reputation of the government?

Obviously, it has no impact on the government office, but for Zheng Shijie himself, his reputation can be said to be a double blow...... What a man he is!

With a long sigh in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong shook his head helplessly and sighed.

"Is it for the public? Or is it for selfishness? I think the former is true, but the most fundamental thing is the latter......"

And Gu Yanwu said calmly on the side:

"Everyone in the world is selfish!"

This sentence is selfish, which makes Zhu Mingzhong irritable for a while:

"Selfishness, selfishness......"

Zhu Daxian said while smoking a dry tobacco pouch.

"In this matter, Zheng Shijie does have selfish intentions, but in this selfishness, there is also a little bit of public intentions, in this matter, it is beneficial and harmless to the government office, so Jingluo only needs to choose silence!"

Zhu Daxian's suggestion made Zhu Mingzhong angry and said:

"No, if I do this, it will be tantamount to acquiescing in this matter, and what if other officials also do things that harm the people on the grounds of the so-called "public heart" in the future? ”

This is what Zhu Mingzhong is most troubled about, after all, he has seen too many such things, I don't know how many people, in the name of being a public servant, there to harm the interests of the people, and then he snorted and said:

"We are officials, and we do things for the public, not only for the public, but also for fairness! Fair! This is the way to be an official, if it is for the sake of justice, and it harms fairness and justice, what is the public? ”

Without waiting for them to react, Zhu Mingzhong said.

"This matter must not be turned a blind eye, this time, it will be handed over to the Criminal Constitutional Division!"

After that, Zhu Mingzhong got up and walked away, leaving only Zhu Daxian and Gu Yanwu standing in the room, speechless for a long time.