Salt is a major part of the national finance, and it is also a necessary product for the daily life of the people, which is related to the national economy and people's livelihood. In the traditional era when the country was founded on agriculture and the industry was not very developed, it was always a government monopoly. However, with the development and change of social economy, the expansion of the market, and the increasing density of the population, it has become increasingly impossible for the state to monopolize the salt trade in its own hands. Therefore, since the Song Dynasty, there has been a policy of liberalizing the state monopoly and allowing designated officials and businessmen to operate.

People take food as the sky, food must have a taste, salt is something that every family and everyone can not leave, so salt has become a sought-after thing that is not valued in modern society.

In June of the third year of Hongwu, Shanxi Province reported this universal problem to the Ming court, suggesting that the imperial court let merchants go to Datong Cang to pay 1 stone of rice, or Taiyuan Cang to hand over 1 stone of rice and 3 buckets of rice through the sale of salt monopoly rights controlled by the state, and then give Huai salt a small lead, that is, 156 catties of grain can be exchanged for 200 catties of salt, and then exchange salt for salt transportation and sales to make a profit. This not only saves freight, but also makes the side storage sufficient.

Thus, the Ming Dynasty set a precedent for merchants to sell salt.

More than 100 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, political corruption and the use of power by the royal family, nobles and officials to seek rent intensified. Especially after the Zhengde period, it became a common practice to operate Huangzhuang and Huangdian, occupy people's land, and do business for profit, and the common people did not dare to speak.

As the ruling group became increasingly corrupt, the royal family, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats saw that it was profitable to hold salt, and they begged to resell it for profit. This phenomenon is known as "nest occupation".

During the Chenghua period, the emperor's relatives and border town generals occupied the nest. Every year, the household department began to distribute salt citations, and before the list arrived, the families of the powerful inside and outside all held the books and asked for help in advance.

If you have more, you can get thousands of salts, and if you have less, you can also get one or two thousand salts. The border towns are full of sordid deals of power and salt. And in Datong, which 'excites grain for salt', every time the powerful get a salt lead, they can sit back and reap higher benefits.

"One lead to white gets six silver coins, and if you accumulate a thousand leads, you can get six hundred gold, and ten thousand leads can get six thousand gold."

This kind of behavior of reselling securities by virtue of privileges is extremely profitable and extremely harmful, and it has fattened a handful of silverfish at a huge cost of damaging the country's border reserves.

Now Li Yan happened to encounter this kind of thing.

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In the Wenhua Hall of the Imperial Palace, Emperor Hongzhi is dealing with government affairs, reviewing and reviewing the folds, the territory of the Ming Dynasty is vast, there are many affairs, and there are at least hundreds of folds sent up every day, although there are cabinet Li Dongyang and others to share their worries, but major decisions still have to be approved by the emperor before they can play local officials. Since Emperor Hongzhi ascended the throne, he has to review and review the recitals every day, and it has never stopped.

Today, Emperor Hongzhi was reviewing the folds, but when he saw Mu Bin hurriedly walking in, he couldn't even wait for the little official eunuch to pass the order, so he knelt directly in front of Emperor Hongzhi.

"Enlighten the emperor, the ministers have something to play."

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Mu Bin knelt on the ground and told Emperor Hongzhi all the things reported by Zhao Shun word for word, especially His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was also able to testify on the spot, and even under Mu Bin's deliberate description, this paragraph became the top priority.

After listening to Mu Bin, Emperor Hongzhi's face was like sinking water, especially when he heard that they were killing the crown prince Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Hongzhi couldn't sit still at all, and directly took the case.

"Check! Give me a hard look! Dare to involve the prince, whether it is a chaotic person or a corrupt official, whether it is related to salt politics or not, I have to investigate them one by one! ”

Emperor Hongji's chest rose and fell, and his face was not good-looking.

Emperor Hongzhi is rarely so angry, if it was just a matter of Yanzheng, he would not be so angry, it was only after learning that this matter was related to the crown prince Zhu Houzhao that he was angry like this.

Someone wants to assassinate the prince, this is worth it, the old Zhu family is just such a lone seedling in the world, you can move if you want to?

Mu Bin fell to the ground and kept saying long live my emperor and take care of the dragon body.

After a while, it seemed that his body was better, and Emperor Hongzhi knocked on the table with his hand, not knowing what he thought.

"Mu Qing, since this matter is the first to be learned by Li Yan under your command, then let Li Yan investigate, what do you think?"

Emperor Hongzhi looked at Mu Bin and said.

Mu Bin was stunned for a moment and asked puzzled. "Your Majesty, this Li official has just arrived in the capital, I'm afraid he will not be able to handle this matter......"

"No need, it's just Li Yan." Mu Bin didn't wait to finish speaking, but was interrupted by Emperor Hongzhi.

Mu Bin's face was bitter, and the matter was still spread on his Jinyiwei......

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Li Yan had just returned, and his ass hadn't been hot yet, when Mu Bin's order came.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao and Liu Jin were still there, they were left by Li Yan to drink tea, but they didn't expect the tea to be drunk before they learned the news.

Although Zhu Houzhao often looks like he can't support the wall with mud, sometimes he is still very righteous.

Hearing the news, Zhu Houzhao didn't even drink tea, and went back to the palace to find his father to intercede.

Even Zhu Houzhao can see that this matter is not simple, so how unsimple should it be?

Everyone was clean, and Li Yan asked Zhao Shun and them to go back to the Qianhu on duty, and sat alone in the courtyard, holding a cup of tea in a daze.

"Xianggong is not happy?" Sun Ying didn't know when she walked out of the house, slowly hugged Li Yan from behind, and asked softly.

"Yes." Li Yan nodded, and then asked casually. "There is a difficulty in front of your Xianggong, Xianggong obviously doesn't want to touch this trouble, but now someone has asked me to touch this trouble, so do you say Xianggong wants to touch this trouble?"

"Alas, Xianggong, are you a tongue twister? I was confused by what I said. Sun Ying knocked Li Yan's back in disgust, and said. Actually, I don't know whether to touch it or not, but I feel that Xianggong wants to move forward, so he must step over this trouble. ”

"Really? You think so too? Hearing this, Li Yan immediately came to his senses.

"When...... True. Sun Ying was a little baffled by Li Yan's play.

"It's good to be serious, in fact, I just thought about how to pit them better, after all, you are so honest and honest, you will always go out to pit people."

Sun Ying was speechless.

Li Yan came to his senses, and immediately went out to call Zhao Shun, who had just walked not far, back to discuss countermeasures.

Sun Ying stood stunned in place.