Fang Yuan comforted Mao Bijiang with a few kind words, promised to give him an explanation, and hurriedly said goodbye, and went straight to Yangzhou Mansion.

He directly found the prefect Ma Minglu, and without beating around the bush, he directly inquired about the auction of the big salt field in the eastern suburbs.

Ma Minglu cried with a sad face, and hurriedly cleared up the relationship, "Governor Fang, that big salt farm was sold by His Royal Highness King Yongwang to the Shanshan Merchant Gang, and it has nothing to do with the lower officials!" ”

Fang Yuan slapped the table heavily and scolded sharply, "King Yong has done such a ridiculous thing, as an official of Yangzhou Mansion, why don't you stop it?" ”

Qu Congzhi was much more upright than Ma Minglu, and said bluntly, "His Royal Highness Yongwang is playing the name of exercising government affairs on behalf of Governor Fang, and how dare we manage Governor Fang's thunderous methods?" ”

Now all the charges have been planted on Fang Yuan's head, it seems that the Yangzhou Mansion intends to indulge King Yong's misdeeds, and it is also Xiang Zhuang dancing the sword, and the sword is pointing at Fang Yuan! These old oilmen of officialdom are even more difficult than those officials in Suzhou Prefecture!

Fang Yuan sighed deeply and said in a deep voice, "Has the joint letter of the Hui Merchants and Merchants been reported?" ”

Ma Minglu was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile, "It's still under pressure on the Yangzhou Mansion, Governor Fang can't see it, how dare the Yangzhou Mansion turn it in?" ”

Fang Yuan couldn't help but say anything when he heard Ma Minglu's words, and he didn't mention this matter at the reception banquet before. The so-called ordering Fang Yuan to turn over Yunyun after passing it through is just talking nonsense! If Fang Yuan hadn't taken the initiative to ask, it is estimated that Ma Minglu would have directly thrown the joint letter to the capital. Fawning favor with Fang Yuan right now, it's just seeing the wind and making the rudder!

Fang Yuan didn't care about Ma Minglu's two-facedness, and said straight to the point, "The joint name of the Hui Merchants and Merchants Gang was immediately deducted, and all the previous transactions of the Great Salt Farm in the eastern suburbs were invalidated, and the buyer was re-selected." ”

Ma Minglu and Qu Congzhi glanced at each other, nodded again and again, and said, "Yes, yes, the Yangzhou Mansion immediately issued an order to re-select the buyer of the Great Salt Farm, and everything was decided by Governor Fang." ”

Fang Yuan slapped the table again and said, "From today on, without my consent, King Yong will no longer be allowed to meddle in any affairs of the Yangzhou Mansion." ”

Ma Minglu nodded again and again and said, "Yes, yes, the lower officials will do it immediately." ”

In the next few days, Fang Yuan changed his scheduled itinerary and did not return to Suzhou Mansion, but stayed in Yangzhou Mansion, and ordered the prefect Ma Minglu to hand over all the bids of all parties in the auction for him to review them one by one.

Fang Yuan reviewed the quotations of all parties, and took Xuanjiajun to the eastern suburbs of the big salt field for a field investigation, found several skilled workers in the salt field to consult the annual output of the big salt field, and then went to the market to inquire about the price of salt, and finally assessed the value of this big salt field as 300,000 taels of silver.

The price quoted by the Shanshan Merchant Gang was 100,000 taels of silver, and the price quoted by the Hui Merchant Gang was 150,000 taels of silver, both of which were far lower than the actual value of the Great Salt Farm. The Hui Merchants Gang is actually as black as a crow in the world, laughing at fifty steps and a hundred steps, and they have a face to jointly write a book, and they are birds.

Fang Yuan didn't say a word, and directly sent back all the quotations of the Shanshan Merchant Gang and the Hui Merchant Gang, canceled the auction mode, and directly offered the price of 250,000 taels of silver to this big salt farm. And said in public that if the Shanshan Merchant Gang and the Hui Merchant Gang did not want to take over, no matter what merchant gang could take over.

Fang Yuan waited in the Yangzhou Mansion for five days, and no one from the Shanxi Merchant Gang and the Hui Merchant Gang came to accept this price, obviously wanting to take Fang Yuan's army, if the government did not give up at least 150,000 taels, they would not take over.

Fang Yuan was too lazy to pay attention to these rich businessmen who were not treacherous and businessmen, and the big salt farm of 300,000 taels was only sold for 250,000 taels, which was already Fang Yuan's concession. These two merchants are simply insatiable, no wonder they will bite the dog and bite directly in front of Chongzhen.

The two merchant gangs tacitly did not come forward to take over, but it was Fang Yuan's old acquaintance, Shen Xiang of the Dongting merchant gang, who suddenly visited the Yangzhou Mansion and proposed that the Shen family was willing to spend 250,000 taels to buy this big salt farm. With the Shen family to relieve the siege, Fang Yuan was overjoyed, and without saying a word, he directly sold the big salt farm to the Shen family. The transfer procedures will be completed in two days, and the Shen family will be able to enter the big salt farm.

The salt industry in Yangzhou Mansion was originally the two divisions of the Shanxi Merchants Gang and the Hui Merchants Gang, but now it has made the Dongting Merchants Gang come to intervene, and the Shanxi Merchants Gang and the Huizhou Merchants Gang have lifted a stone and smashed their own feet, and it is too late to regret it.

But Fang Yuan had just defeated the Manchu Iron Cavalry and was promoted to the governor of the Four Provinces, and now his reputation is as good as the sky, and his command is even stronger and stronger, and he forced the Weng family of the Dongting Merchant Gang to commit suicide before, and lent them a guts, and they didn't dare to come to Fang Yuan to ask for the bribe money, so they could only knock out their teeth and swallow it in their stomachs.

Fang Yuan is not the master of black money, Zhu Cizhi accepted bribes first, he can't just accept money and not do things, there is no such saying in the world, and it is not good for Zhu Cizhi's reputation if it spreads.

He allocated 50,000 taels of silver from the silver from the sale of the big salt farm, returned the silver that the Shanshan Merchant Gang bribed Zhu Cijiong, and strictly ordered the Shanshan Merchant Gang not to mention the 50,000 taels of silver in the future, which can be regarded as wiping Zhu Cizhi's ass for the catastrophe he broke through.

Fang Yuan vigorously and resolutely disposed of the affairs of the big salt field in the eastern suburbs, regardless of the Shanxi merchant gang or the Hui merchant gang, at least on the surface, they did not dare to make waves. The next thing is to reprimand Zhu Cizhi for his absurdity, and to punish Qiu'er who came all the way from the palace to Yangzhou Mansion with ill intentions.

Fang Yuan led a hundred Xuanjia troops directly into the Yongwang Mansion, and the male servants and maids of the Yongwang Mansion were frightened to dodge in all directions.

Zhu Cizhi was deprived of the power to deal with the government affairs of Yangzhou Mansion by Fang Yuan, and he was also surprised to see Fang Yuan make such a big move.

Seeing that Fang Yuan's face was becoming more and more gloomy, he was still afraid of this teacher, so he hurriedly and honestly invited Fang Yuan into the palace hall, and stood obediently on the side, waiting for Fang Yuan's reprimand.

Fang Yuan glanced at Sun Qing with both eyes, and said slowly, "I have retired on behalf of His Royal Highness King Yong for the silver of the Shanshan Merchant Gang, and from now on, I will remove Sun Qing from the post of the head of the palace and move out of the palace immediately." ”

Sun Qing looked at Zhu Cizhi as if asking for help, and Zhu Cizhi hurriedly said, "Teacher, not only do you want to deprive me of the right to exercise government affairs, but also the candidates for the long history of the palace?" ”

Fang Yuan heard the dissatisfaction between his words, and said lightly, "King Yong, I ordered you to act as the power of the Yangzhou Mansion because I want you to sharpen and sharpen. As the ruler of a place, you should have given justice to various merchant gangs, but for some money, you pulled up a bias and was almost impeached in the capital, which is ridiculous! You don't have the ability to manage the government affairs of a government now, you have thought about it in the palace first, and you really understand it, I will arrange a county town under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Mansion to take care of it for you, you better start from the grassroots level! ”

"As for this Sun Qing, King Yong, what you should learn is the royal way of governing the world, not the treacherous way of greed and forgetfulness, come on! Blasting Sun Qing out of the palace for me! ”

The Xuanjia army got the order and directly threw Sun Qinglian out of the Yongwang Mansion.

Zhu Cizhi was so frightened that he didn't dare to take a breath, watching Sun Qing being thrown out of the palace, but he didn't dare to say a word.

Fang Yuan thundered and dealt with Sun Qing, stared at Zhu Cizhi again, and said slowly, "King Yong, I heard that there is an old man from Yonghe Palace in the palace, bring it out and let me take a look!" ”

Zhu Cizhi's face changed greatly, and he said hesitantly, "No, no!" ”

Fang Yuan asked again, "King Yong, really not?" ”

Zhu Cizhi still shook his head resolutely and said, "No! ”

Fang Yuan said sharply, "Someone! Search for me, and find out all the ladies for me! ”

Zhu Cizhi still had to stop it, how could he stop the wolf-like Xuanjia army, the Xuanjia army rushed into the inner courtyard of the palace and brought out all the women in the palace.

Fang Yuan spotted Qiu'er at a glance in the pile of women, pointed at her, and asked knowingly, "King Yong, this woman is familiar, who is it?!" ”

Zhu Cizhi hurriedly explained, "It's the personal palace maid in the mother's palace, Qiu'er, the teacher should have seen it." ”

Fang Yuan asked unhurriedly, "Among the people accompanying King Yong, there doesn't seem to be a palace maid like Qiu'er, why did he travel thousands of miles from the capital to Yangzhou Mansion?" ”

Zhu Cizhi said truthfully, "Yes, it was sent by the harem." ”

Fang Yuan was slightly startled, the harem sent someone to send it, it was clearly the assignment of Queen Zhou, the stakes were very high, Fang Yuan couldn't bear it, and said in a deep voice, "King Yong, the palace maids in the palace are all His Majesty's women in name, but you have stayed with you, if it is spread to the capital, to His Majesty's ears, how should King Yong explain?" Let's go back to the palace! ”

As soon as he opened his mouth, he wanted to drive Qiu'er back to the palace, although he was a little domineering, it was also for Zhu Cizhi's sake, if Qiu'er was left in the Yongwang Mansion, there would definitely be rumors that Zhu Cizhi had already had an affair with the palace maid of Yonghe Palace to Chongzhen's ears, and Zhu Cizhi's future future would be bleak.

This is obviously a conspiracy carefully planned by Empress Zhou, who first destroyed Zhu Cihong, who posed the greatest threat to the crown prince Zhu Cihong, and made Zhu Cihong sit firmly on the throne of the crown prince.

Qiu'er was disgraced when she heard this, and couldn't help but fight back against Fang Yuan and said, "The slave maid was selected by the harem to serve His Royal Highness King Yong, it is justified, what are the gossips?" It's worse than the Governor Fang's reputation for seducing a married woman! ”

"Bang!"

Qiu'er dared to take out the relationship between Fang Yuan and Liu Ruyi to fight back, which made Fang Yuan is deeply angry, swept all the wine glasses on the table to the ground, and suddenly got up and said, "Someone! Capture this woman for me, escort it back to the capital, and return it to the harem. ”

The sergeant of the Xuanjia Army immediately rushed up to arrest the person and detained Qiu'er directly.

Zhu Cizhi was frightened, and hurriedly pleaded for Qiu'er and said, "Teacher, teacher, Qiu'er is the confidant of the mother's concubine, and I have known each other since childhood. The teacher escorted her back to the harem, and she was completely finished! For my mother's sake, spare her this time! ”

Fang Yuan looked at Zhu Cizhi coldly, and the thought of Tian Guifei's support before her death came to mind, thinking about it, after all, it was he who had a precedent, was busy with military and political affairs, and neglected to discipline Zhu Cizhi, which allowed the local merchant gang, Qiu'er, and even Queen Zhou to take advantage of the opportunity to take advantage of the loophole.

Fang Yuan said sharply, "King Yong! If you continue to mess with this Qiu'er, all your future will be ruined! ”

Zhu Cizhi knelt on the ground again and pleaded, "After the death of the mother, the student didn't think about any future at all. Qiu'er is the student's only relative, and the student is willing to bear all the consequences alone! If the teacher doesn't talk about it at all, he will punish Qiu'er, and punish the students first! ”

Qiu'er still had a hard face, and scolded, "Governor Fang, when the concubine was lonely, the slave maid was also present. Governor Fang is so unreasonable, he often reprimands His Royal Highness King Yong, and even His Royal Highness King Yong's favorite person has to interfere, I'm afraid it is not the original intention of the noble concubine Niangniang Tuogu! Governor Fang should punish only one slave and maid, and not His Royal Highness the King of Eternity. ”

The relationship between Zhu Cizhi and Qiu'er has obviously gone beyond the master and servant, but the relationship between men and women. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty favored older palace maids, which were genetic, such as Xianzong and Wan Zhen'er.

Fang Yuan really couldn't interfere in these things between men and women, let alone make his own decisions, and it would be too cruel to arbitrarily break up the two. What's more, if Qiu'er is forcibly punished in front of Zhu Cizhi today, it will be difficult to maintain the relationship with Zhu Cizhi.

Everyone has their own ambitions, since Zhu Cizhi is willing to destroy his future, let him go! Zhu Cizhi can't support the wall with mud, but fortunately he still has a card in his hand, which is Zhu Cihuan, the king of Wuyue.

Fang Yuan let out a long sigh, turned around, walked to the door and said lightly, "Yongwang, Qiu'er, you two will do it for yourself in the future!" ”

Zhu Cizhi and Qiu'er saw that he had forgiven the two, and hurriedly got up and threw their hands at him again and again, "Thank you, teacher, for your success." "Thank you, Governor Fang, for making it happen."