After a few days, the soldiers of the Pingnan Army went out in a big way and raided the three largest salt merchants in Yangzhou in the name of searching the rebellious remnants. For a time, Yangzhou was shocked.

Located by the canal, relying on the salt and transportation of the two Huai, Yangzhou is extremely prosperous, but this prosperity depends on salt too deeply. Most of Yangzhou's wealthy merchants are engaged in salt-related businesses.

Now the three major salt merchants have been raided by the Governor's Palace, and the other small and medium-sized salt merchants are also frightened.

Under the intentional publicity of the three, the businessmen in Yangzhou understood that it was Pingnanhou who fell in love with the business of the three and then made a brazen move.

If one day Pingnanhou wins the three major salt merchants, will he do it to other salt merchants in the future? Their own strength and power are not as good as the three major salt merchants of the Jiang family, the Lin family, and the Shen family, how can they keep their own industry and business?

Of course, some people felt the crisis, and some people saw the opportunity, and there were many more people visiting the Governor's Palace these days, some of whom flattered Chen Yue in the hope of escaping the catastrophe, and some hoped to replace the three major salt merchants.

Among the people, the people talked about this matter even more, but because the matter had not yet affected them for a while, the people only talked about it in the state of watching jokes.

The extravagance of the three major salt merchants is seen in the eyes of all the people of Yangzhou, and it is a thing that many people like to see that they are unlucky.

Under the instruction of Shan Minglei, the spies of the Enemy Intelligence Department were all over the city of Yangzhou, preaching to the people that the three major salt merchants were rich and unkind, and they were worth millions but sold illegal salt, evaded taxes, and refused to take out a tael of silver to help the army.

Under the auspices of Shan Minglei and Wei Yang, the scale of the Enemy Intelligence Division became larger and larger, and it not only sent a lot of meticulous spies to the enemy-occupied areas in the north, but also recruited a large number of peripheral personnel in the areas controlled by the Pingnan Army. There are hundreds of peripheral personnel in Yangzhou City, most of whom are people in the market, who are responsible for investigating various news.

Strictly speaking, these people are not considered to be members of the governor's palace, but they receive some money and food every month, which can be regarded as help. Now is the time for these people to make a difference.

Under the propaganda of the Enemy Intelligence Department, the deeds of Chen Yue, Marquis of Pingnan, who defeated the Manchurians, saved the Holy Driver, and quelled the rebellion, were widely spread, and Shan Minglei even paid someone to write a book of words, and hired a storyteller to publicize it in the teahouse and wine shop.

One is to promote Chen Yue's heroic deeds, and the other is the cruelty of the thieves, and the brutality and inhumanity of the Mantars. After the thieves broke through Beijing, they burned, killed, looted, and chased the stolen goods and helped them to tell the fierce ones one by one, and publicized the deeds of the Manchurian Tartars who entered the customs and looted the mountains and tokyoki to exterminate humanity one by one.

Tell the people that the strong enemy is eyeing the north, and will wave troops south at any time, attack Lianghuai and attack Yangzhou, if it is captured by the enemy, what kind of fate will the people of Yangzhou face?

And if you want to hold Yangzhou, if you want to be free from the poison of thieves and thieves, of course, you must rely on the invincible Pingnan Hou and the Pingnan Army that has won a hundred battles.

But it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and the army also needs to be clothed and fed, and without food, no matter how brave the army is, it will not be able to fight.

In this case, the three major salt merchants, the richest people in Yangzhou, refused to donate a little silver, but refused to contribute a little to the peace of Yangzhou.

Under the propaganda of the Department of Enemy Intelligence, the people of Yangzhou were filled with righteous indignation, and they condemned the salt merchants for their wealth and unkindness, and supported the righteous deeds of the salt merchants of Pingnanhou, but not many people realized that what the Pingnan army did was really a clever and devoid of what the means were.

Chen Yue, who came from later generations, naturally knew the importance of public opinion, and if he wanted to win the war with the salt merchants, it was very important to control people's hearts.

As long as most Yangzhou people think that the salt merchant's home is righteous, then the behavior of the Pingnan Army is the trend of the times.

However, the counterattack of the salt merchants should not be underestimated, these people can do such a big business and accumulate so much wealth, how can it be easy?

Chen Yue has been waiting, waiting for the salt merchants to fight back, so that they can see the flaws and give them a fatal blow.

In order to lure the salt merchants, Chen Yue even sent his own governor's guard of honor out of the city several times, and sent a stand-in to sit in the governor's eight-carried sedan chair out of the city to review the training of recruits. hoped that the salt merchants would assassinate themselves in an attack, and even planned to lure the enemy in person, but were stopped by Shan Minglei.

As long as the salt merchants dared to make their moves, they would have absolute reasons to kill them, and attacking the governor of Jiangbei was tantamount to rebellion, and no one could save them at that time.

However, the salt merchants were very clever, and even if they themselves appeared in the city, they did not make drastic moves.

Chen Yue even planned a fake assassination, sending someone to pretend to assassinate himself, and then put the blame on the heads of the salt merchants. Think about it or forget it, it's too despicable to do this, it has broken through its own bottom line, and the consequences are too serious.

You can't do things that break through the bottom line, if you do it once, you will have a second time, and you will become an unscrupulous person in the future, which is not what you don't want.

In the past few days, soldiers of the Pingnan Army have raided the mansions and shops of the salt merchants, but the three major salt merchants have disappeared without a trace and refused to show their heads. Things have come to this point, and there is no room for turnaround.

The Governor's Mansion interrogated the fugitives from the captured salt merchants' families, and charged the three major salt merchants with the crime of taking in the criminals for rebellion.

Under the strength of the Governor's Palace, Ma Ming, the prefect of Yangzhou, could only compromise and issued an arrest warrant according to the orders of his immediate boss. The commissioners of Yangzhou Prefecture and Jiangdu County were dispatched to arrest the families of the three major salt merchants, of course, how effective it could be is another matter.

After all, the collusion between the salt merchants and the people in the government is too deep, even if Ma Zhili himself is more upright, no one in the government can guarantee it. And there must be the salt merchant's eyeliner among these people, who will ventilate for them.

However, there is no way, the training of recruits is not over yet, and many veterans and officers in the army are participating in the training of recruits. The remaining army still has to control the city defenses, and there are not many people who can draw up. The strength of the salt merchants was too great to be enough on the strength of the Doge's Palace.

However, Chen Yue did not intend to arrest Jiang Heming, Lin Xiaotian, and Shen Mo, after all, they did not commit many crimes, at most they harbored and took in fugitives, and these crimes can be easily shirked, after all, such a big business, so many family servants, some of them are inevitable, at most it is a crime of negligence.

What Chen Yue wants is to constantly coerce them, make them feel a great crisis, and then take risks, and then it is the time to kill them. After cleaning up the three major salt merchants, the salt of the two Huai was controlled, and in the future, the Pingnan Army's army would not be a problem to raise the army, and the salt tax of the imperial court would be more.