Not long after, Sun Sheng took Imperial Physician Li to the Heart Cultivation Palace.

After Taiyi Li finished his pulse, he said to Zhang Lingyang: "The queen mother's mind is a little too anxious these days, wait for Weichen to prescribe a prescription, and the queen mother will take it and rest for a few days."

However, in the next two months, the queen must remember to relax her mind, otherwise, it will have an impact on the dragon fetus in her womb. ”

"I heard you!" Zhang Lingyang looked at Queen Wang and said, "In the future, you have to relax your mind and raise the fetus with peace of mind, and don't worry about other things." ”

"The concubine knows!" Queen Wang nodded and agreed.

Zhang Lingyang looked at the sky outside and said, "Now that the weather is cold, the queen needs to go back to Changchun Palace earlier, otherwise the sun will set in a while, and I am afraid that the weather will be even colder." ”

"Sun Sheng, go and prepare a warm sedan chair for the queen."

……

After sending the queen out of the Heart Cultivation Palace, Zhang Lingyang returned to the bed and sat down, frowned at Sun Sheng in front of him and asked, "Say, who told the queen about Qin Sijie?" ”

Sun Sheng replied: "If you go back to the Long Live Lord, it should be said by the Duchess of Anguo."

Originally, the queen didn't know about Qin Sijie, but this morning, Duchess An Guo entered the palace to visit the queen mother.

Soon after the Duchess of Anguo left, the queen mother came to the Heart Cultivation Hall to ask to see the Lord of Long Live ......"

Hearing this, Zhang Lingyang's brows tightened again, and then after thinking for a while, he said: "When you have time to leave the palace, go to Anguo Mansion to warn Wang Guowei, and let him disturb the queen if he has nothing to do, remember?" ”

"Minions understand!"

Zhang Lingyang nodded with satisfaction.

……

The next morning, the sky was overcast and terrible, and the howling north wind pierced people like ice blades, and they couldn't even open their eyes.

"Looks like it's going to snow!" After the morning court, Zhang Lingyang returned to the Heart Cultivation Palace, looked at the sky outside the window and muttered to himself.

"Isn't it going to snow?" Sun Sheng answered, "It's been more than a month since the beginning of winter, but it hasn't rained.

The minion was still worried before, if there was less rain and snow this winter, he was afraid that the life of the common people would be difficult next spring. ”

"Oh?" Zhang Lingyang looked at Sun Sheng in surprise, "Do you still know the suffering of the people in your heart?" ”

Sun Sheng laughed dryly and said: "Long live the lord said that he was laughing, the slave is also from a poor family, how can he not know the suffering of this people?" ”

Zhang Lingyang then woke up to the fact that none of the eunuchs in the palace were sent to the palace because their family was so poor that they couldn't survive?

From Sun Sheng and the eunuchs in the palace, Zhang Lingyang thought of the millions of victims in southern Henan, so he said: "Sun Sheng, you immediately send a decree to the cabinet, and prepare a holy decree for me to pass to Zhu Kaishan, the governor of southern Henan.

Now that the autumn tax has been collected, plus the silver confiscated in Yangzhou, there is no shortage of silver in the treasury now, and then Zheng Yongji, the secretary of the household department, was ordered to allocate 500,000 taels of silver to southern Henan, and Shen Chao, the imperial history of the right capital, was specially responsible for building houses and buying clothes for the victims to spend the winter. ”

"Long live the benevolence of the master, the three emperors and the five emperors can't be compared, the slave will go to pass the decree!"

slapped Zhang Lingyang's ass, and Sun Sheng went to pass the decree.

Not long after Sun Sheng came out of the Heart Cultivation Palace, Xiao Fuzi, the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Eunuch, rushed over and replied: "Long live the Lord, the Imperial Merchant Qualification Auction Conference has almost been prepared, and most of the wealthy merchants from all over the country have also rushed over, I don't know when the Imperial Merchant Qualification Auction Conference will be held?" ”

"In three days!" didn't want to think about it, Zhang Lingyang said.

"But...... Long live Lord, I'm afraid that there will be heavy snow in the past two days, is it going to be moved a few days later? Xiao Fuzi said worriedly.

"It's okay!" Zhang Lingyang waved his hand and said, "In such a snowy weather, the big guys eat hot pot together and drink a little wine, isn't the atmosphere warm?" ”

"Slaves obey!" Seeing that Zhang Lingyang's attention had been decided, Xiaofuzi was not good at persuading him again, so he left the palace after receiving the holy order......

In the Donghua Pavilion, Zhang Zhiyuan, the first assistant of the cabinet, Zhou Shanning, the secretary of the ministry, Zheng Yongji, the secretary of the household department, and others were discussing the matter of Yangzhou salt affairs, and they saw Sun Sheng coming.

After Sun Sheng passed on Zhang Lingyang's words and left, Zhang Zhiyuan was greatly relieved: "Your Majesty finally understands the matter and knows that he has begun to be considerate of the people's suffering. ”

Then, Zhang Zhiyuan looked at Zheng Yongji and said, "Zheng Shangshu, how much silver is there in the treasury right now?" ”

Zheng Yongji said: "In addition to the four million taels of silver that were confiscated from the salt merchants in Yangzhou, more than two million taels of silver were collected in this year's autumn tax, and now the treasury has a total of more than six million taels of silver. ”

Hearing this, Zhou Shanning, the secretary of the ministry on the side, frowned and asked, "Why is there such a little silver?" The old man always thinks that what is not going to be good? ”

After thinking about it carefully, Zhou Shanning said: "Yes, there must be something wrong with Yangzhou Salt!" ”

Seeing Zhang Zhiyuan and Zheng Yongji looking at him suspiciously, Zhou Shanning explained: "The old man remembers that when Zheng Shangshu played His Majesty, he said that the annual salt tax in Yangzhou was about six million taels where the country was founded, and then it decreased year by year, and now it is only less than two million taels.

In other words, at least four million taels of silver were corrupted by the salt merchants and the officials of the salt road yamen every year.

But now that the stolen money seized from the salt merchants and the salt road yamen is only enough to make up for a year's salt tax, don't the two adults feel that something is wrong? ”

As soon as Zhou Shanning said this, Zhang Zhiyuan and the two suddenly realized.

"When you say this, the old man also thinks that there must be something strange in this. Could it be that those salt merchants and salt road officials still have something to hide? ”

The more he thought about it, the more likely it became, so Zhang Zhiyuan shouted outside: "Come on, prepare a sedan chair immediately, the old man wants to go to the yamen of the criminal department!" ”

With that, Zhang Zhiyuan got up and walked out of Donghua Pavilion.

After arriving at the yamen of the Criminal Department, after Zhang Zhiyuan made his intentions clear, Chen Yiming, the secretary of the Criminal Department, said: "Even if Zhang Ge doesn't say it, the lower officials will also explain the situation to His Majesty when they go to court tomorrow."

After the investigation of the criminal department, the lower officials found that the account books of the salt merchants and the salt road yamen were passive, and the old man estimated that the stolen silver concealed this time was at least tens of millions of taels. ”

"Those salt officials and salt merchants have the audacity to hide so much silver?" Hearing this, Zhang Zhiyuan couldn't help but be taken aback.

You must know that the current annual tax revenue of the state treasury is only less than six million taels.

And the salt affairs of Yangzhou, which is just a small amount of Yangzhou, concealed so much silver, Zhang Zhiyuan was not surprised.

Chen Yiming smiled bitterly and explained: "The household department now has a salt tax of more than one million taels per year, and it is not a matter of one or two years. Since the time of the first emperor, the salt tax revenue has been less than two million taels, and there is no need to think about how many of them are greasy! ”

Seeing Chen Yiming say this, Zhang Zhiyuan was relieved, and then said: "I'm tired of Chen Shangshu to show the old man the case files that have been tried by the Criminal Department, and the old man has a little bottom in his heart. ”

"Elder Zhang Ge is polite, the lower official will order someone to take the file!"