In January of the fifth year of Bao, the change of ownership of the East Palace was like a dark cloud without moisture, lightning and thunder, and the momentum came violently, and in the end only a few heavy raindrops fell, and then drifted away.

Wei Jian, the secretary of the Criminal Department, degraded Cang Taishou, and was exiled to Linfeng County in July of that year, and then died; Longyou and Hexi Jiedu made Huangfu Weiming degrade Sichuan Taishou (now Zunyi, Guizhou), and died of a violent illness halfway; too little to protect Li Shizhi's depreciation of Yichun and his own defense, when he arrived, he committed suicide by drinking medicine;

Wei Jian's nephew and heir, Xue Wang Li Yuan, was demoted to Yiling County, and his son-in-law Baling Taishou Lu Youlin was exiled to Hepu County, and his younger brothers Wei Zhi and Wei Lan were all confiscated to the Western Regions.

Tai Li Heng immediately wrote a letter, saying that he had nothing to do with Wei Jian's family, and in order to show his intentions, Li Heng retired as a concubine and forced her to become a nun.

The early spring of Tianbao's fifth year was indeed an eventful spring, and after disposing of the backbone of the Taidang, Li Longji used Xi Yu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Lu Jingrong, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, as the reason of their old age, and allowed the two to retire and return to their hometowns to raise Tiannian.

Immediately in the DPRK to carry out a major personnel transfer, the left minister Chen Xilie was reappointed as the right servant of Shangshu and too young Bao; Pei Kuanjin, the secretary of the Ministry of War, is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and the same book;

Adjust the sword to the south of the festival to make Zhang Qiu and Qiong as the left minister, and the same book under the door of the Ping Zhangshi and the military department of the book; transferred the original Yizhou assassin Li Daofu to the Ministry of Industry and the general supervisor; Li Linfu also protected the Sichuan assassination Shi Pei Dunfu as the secretary of the Criminal Department;

After the completion of a series of personnel transfers, Li Longji immediately issued an imperial decree to implement the new salt law throughout the country, and ordered Li Jiao, the king of Guangping, to be the salt and iron envoy, and Li Qing, the household servant, to be the deputy envoy to jointly implement the salt law.

The sudden introduction of the new salt law was like a thunderbolt in the clear sky, which stunned all stakeholders large and small, and for a while, all stakeholders conspired in tandem, and the undercurrent under the salt law surged, and various conspiracies began to brew.

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In early spring and February, the light rain is as moist as a crisp, this is a kind of extremely fine rain that makes people unable to distinguish the raindrops, floating on the body, face, and infiltrating to the heart, the sky is like a light gray veil, hazy, the mountains are green, the water is green, as if it is a very rich ink painting.

In the Ten Princes' Mansion in Chang'an, a carriage slowly stopped in front of King Qing's mansion, and a handsome and elegant young man in imperial clothes walked out of the car, and several servants immediately stepped forward with umbrellas and helped him into King Qing's mansion.

The gatehouse of King Qing's mansion did not step forward to block it, and the emperor was King Qing's own brother, King Rong Li ++ came when it was almost dark, but today it was noon, and it was the first time.

Li Wan is Li Longjidi, and Qing Wang Li Cong was born to Concubine Liu Hua, fighting the tiger depends on his own brothers, naturally the relationship between the two is the closest, like other brothers, Li Wan is also full of halo, in the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan, he was awarded Jing Zhaomu, and he led the ambassador of Longyou Jiedu from afar; In the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan, the three divisions of Fuyi were added, and the rest was the same; In the first year of Tianbao, he was awarded to Dadu Protection.

As soon as he stepped into the door, he saw that his eldest brother Li Cong greeted him in a hurry, and he didn't have an umbrella, and the dense drizzle wet his hair and clothes, which showed that he had been waiting for him for a long time in the rain, Li Wan couldn't help laughing and said: "What makes the imperial brother so restless, he doesn't even have an umbrella?" ”

Li Cong frowned, stepped forward to hold his brother's arm, and sighed with a bitter face: "It's hard to say, the imperial brother will go to the brother's study first and sigh in detail." ”

The two entered the study, Li Cong put down the doors and windows, and instructed his subordinates to guard outside and not let anyone in. ”

"King Yong's empty rejoicing, I'm too late to be happy, how can I be unhappy about this matter,"

With a 'bang', Li Cong slammed his fist on the table, gritted his teeth and said, "I'm annoyed by the salt law, so wouldn't it cut off my financial route." ”

Li Cong has countless salt pans and salt wells in Puzhou and Yizhou, never pays a salt tax, and sells salt privately every year, which can make a profit of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

As soon as the new salt law came out, the mountains and seas of the whole country had to be sold privately, although his industry was not lost, but the price of salt collected by the imperial court must be according to the current official price, only ten per bucket, which is too big a difference between him and his private sale of five or ten per bucket, if you deduct miscellaneous labor and loss, he will almost be unprofitable, how can this not make him anxious and annoyed.

Li Wan glanced at the eldest brother who was hanging his head sympathetically, he had just learned about the new salt law, he himself did not involve personal interests, so the new salt law had little to do with him, but the eldest brother was different, most of his financial resources were made by selling salt for profit, and the new salt law came out, which had a particularly big impact on him.

Li Wan touched his thin face, and said in a slight mutter: "I also read this new salt method hastily, I remember that it seems that the government will resell it to merchants after getting the salt, and the eldest brother will not follow suit?" ”

Li Cong snorted heavily, and he said hatefully: "You still don't understand, if the raw salt is bought by the government, and they sell it at a higher price, the price will definitely not be as simple as one or two percent, they will inevitably cut off most of the salt profits, and the salt people and salt merchants can only take a small head

will become eight officials and two people, how profitable is this? ”

Speaking of this, he raised his head and stared at Li Wan, and said with hope in his eyes: "But I think that no matter how good the law is, it depends on people to enforce it, if this salt law is not implemented properly, it will inevitably cause public resentment to boil, and then my father may abolish it, so I came to you to discuss what way to drag Li Jiao's rabbit cub back and make it difficult for him to have an order." ”

Li Wan sneered, shook his head slowly, and said, "Big brother thinks that this new salt method is really Li Jiao's doing?" If you aim at him, you are very wrong. ”

Li Cong was slightly stunned, and after a little thought, he suddenly woke up and said, "You mean.

Li Wan nodded lightly, a sarcastic look and a treacherous shadow drifted through his eyes, "Yes, the real behind-the-scenes controller of the new salt law is your old rival, the new household servant Li Qing." ”

"Old adversary?"

Li Cong sneered, "Is he a little squire, also worthy of being my opponent?" At most, it's just a thorn in my foot, just pull it out. ”

For Li Qing, Qingwang Li Cong has never taken him to heart, the matter of the Hai family, he thinks that it is planted in the hands of Zhang Qiu and Qiong, a petty official from the fourth rank who has not even grown up, how can he be compared with himself and the dignified emperor, Zhang Qiu and Qiong can only be regarded as reluctant.

Li Wan saw that he despised Li Qing, and shook his head slightly, although he didn't know who this new salt method came from, but judging from the fact that Li Qing had just introduced this method as a household servant, it was very likely to be related to him, but he knew that the eldest brother was arrogant and stubborn, and Li Wan didn't say much, he thought about it and said: "I have a way, but it can help the eldest brother avoid this difficulty." ”

Li Cong's spirits were greatly lifted, and he urged repeatedly: "Say it quickly, what is the solution?" ”

"This method is related to the new pattern of the current dynasty."

Li Wan Yin Yin smiled and said: "Zhang Qiu and Qiong are the left ministers, this chapter of the enemy party was born, the new official took office three fires, this salt law is probably also one of his own, I am thinking, since we want to destroy this salt law, will Li Xiangguo stand by and watch?" The answer is naturally no, so I advised my eldest brother to talk to Lee Sang-kook, maybe he would have a good way. ”

Li Cong nodded, Li Wan was reasonable, since there was a common enemy, he might as well join forces with Li Linfu again.

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After the Wei Jian case, the Tai Party collapsed, the pattern of the DPRK changed abruptly, and the emerging Zhang Qiu Party began to show its head and feet, but Li Linfu breathed a sigh of relief, since Li Longji thought of using the new party to balance himself, this shows that he has not yet gotten rid of his own heart.

Despite this, he is still very jealous of Zhang Qiu's party, if he allows them to sit big, then the position of governor in the future will have to be changed to Zhang Qiu and Qiong, and this Zhang Qiu and Qiong are not as easy to pinch as Li Heng, so he must be able to deal with them with twelve points of spirit.

In the afternoon of this day, Li Linfu had just returned from the court, but he saw a luxurious carriage parked outside the house, and there were dozens of guards standing next to it, which seemed to be a little familiar.

"What did he come to himself for? Is it for the sake of the salt law? ”

The biggest smuggler of salt in the Tang Dynasty is King Qing's Li Cong, which Li Linfu knows, but he has always pretended to be confused, but when he asked the royal family, but this time the new salt law was promulgated, and the first to bear the brunt was King Qing.

At the moment of entering the door, Li Linfu suddenly smiled, and a plan to kill people with a knife flashed in his mind, the new salt law was determined by Li Qing, he and King Qing had old grudges, new hatreds and old hatreds at the same time, this was a good opportunity to clean up Li Qing.

"This king came uninvited and disturbed Xiangguo." Fu, seeing him enter the door, he hurriedly greeted him with a smile.

Li Linfu arched his hand and smiled: "Where! It is the honor of the old man to visit the old man when His Royal Highness King Qing, how dare he complain. ”

The subordinate served the tea, bowed his head and retreated, Li Cong was anxious, so he went straight to the point and said: "This king came to Xiangguo to inquire about the salt law, I don't know which minister formulated it, this king found that there are many loopholes, so I want to discuss it with him!" ”

"What about the salt law? The old man heard that it was proposed by Li Qing, the new household servant, and that he was relatively young, so he might not have thought about the problem well, and it was inevitable that there would be loopholes. ”

Li Cong was silent, it was really Li Qing's decision, he secretly cursed Li Qing, but he was thinking about how to open this mouth in his mind, but after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't find an excuse to join forces with Li Linfu.

"It made the people's grievances boil, and in the end the gains outweighed the losses, so this king was thinking.

Speaking of which, Li Cong couldn't go on, he wanted Li Linfu to come forward against the new salt law, but Li Linfu's constant smile made him unable to speak.

But Li Linfu seemed to know what Li Cong thought, he smiled slightly, and said: "That Imperial History Yang Guozhong is quite similar to His Royal Highness's thoughts, if His Royal Highness thinks that there is something wrong with this new salt law, the old man suggests that you can go directly to Yang Guozhong, he is the Imperial History, this is his duty." ”