Between Jinan and Jining, a hub of Shandong, a hub of Shandong's Caoyun, the richest city, and an economic center, in order to facilitate contact. The Jiaozhou battalion did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to establish a post station system of 30 miles of horse exchange between the two cities.

The so-called hundreds of miles expedited is this system, allowing news to be transmitted between two cities at the fastest degree in this era, and carrier pigeons are also a means, but they are too unreliable, and they require very professional people to raise.

After Fang Yingren, the second eldest of the Fang family, pleaded guilty in Jinan City, before the day passed, the news was immediately passed out, and he arrived in Jining City the next night.

In addition to the Zhizhou Yamen in Jining City, there are also the Yamen of Salt Transport and Cao Yun, and the big businessmen from the north and south have set up branches here, in order to maintain such a prosperous window in Shandong, similar to the role of a free trade city, the Jiaozhou battalion in the city in addition to the Shandong Salt Gang and Lingshan Commercial Bank is relatively strong, the army and armed salt Ding are not stationed, the so-called special zone is also.

After getting the news, the person in charge of the Shandong Salt Gang's rudder in Jining was really ashamed, and let people from other provinces swagger and sell illicit salt under his nose, which was his own ineffective detection in any case.

The day after the urgent news came, the resident subordinates on the wharf came to report that they had received the news after checking and that the cao transport ship suspected of carrying illicit salt should arrive at the wharf tomorrow, and the time was urgent, and the principal in charge of Jining Prefecture was not ambiguous. directly led the entire Shandong Salt Gang to the manpower in Jining City, plus borrowed some people from the Jining branch of Lingshan Commercial Bank, and went to the dock in a mighty way.

These people add up to more than a hundred people, and with the idea of this principal, it should be enough to deal with the smugglers.

The grain ships transported by Cao are not the scale of more than ten or twenty ships, but the large fleet of hundreds of boats, after coming to Jining Prefecture, they always have to dock to rest, because here they go to Beizhili, and they can only have a formal docking dock in Tongzhou.

The Shandong Salt Gang is a semi-public existence everywhere. But the person in charge also borrowed the seal letter from Yan Ding in advance, that is, the seal letter of the inspection department to check and prohibit illegal salt. The search for whether there is any illicit salt entrainment is justified.

Unexpectedly, the ship docked, led people up to reveal their identities, and was just about to get on the ship to search, and these boatmen and escorts on the boat were all done.

Gather around the dock and shout loudly, not letting them go down to check. In this Jining Prefecture, the management of the Jiaozhou battalion is a little more lax than other places, and Jining City has become richer and richer over the years because of the peace in Shandong. The people of Jining Prefecture often speak and do things consciously and consciously rank first in Shandong.

Moreover, the literati and the common people complained a lot more than elsewhere, and it was often said that if there was no strict management by General Li, Jining City might be ten times more prosperous than it is now.

I don't know when such nonsense words came out, but they have been recognized by most people, which makes Jining Prefecture tremble all day long, for fear that these remarks in Jining Prefecture will bring some disaster to themselves.

So when the people of the Shandong Salt Gang and the Lingshan Trading House quarreled with the boatmen who escorted the boats by the dock. If only the people in other parts of Shandong saw this situation. I am afraid that I can't avoid it, but the idlers in Jining Prefecture and so on are more and more encircled.

Coaxing, watching the lively, saying strange things is not lacking, what "the prosperity of Jining City depends on everyone doing business freely, you check it like this, aren't you going to smash our Jining signboard". What else is "this world is supposed to be a good one." It's all you patrol minions who have no official status, and they are harming the people. That's going to be so much of a mess," and there are all kinds of words.

There are also the coolies on the wharf, watching their cargo owners being blocked there, and they are all in a hurry, shouting and scolding on the side, and the situation is even more unbearable.

The landlord of the Shandong Salt Gang in Jining never thought that this matter would be so chaotic, and everyone who followed him was also ridiculed by the surrounding noise and made him impetuous, while the boatmen on the boats were more imposing, pressing step by step.

Fortunately, a guy from a Lingshan trading firm had a flexible brain, taking advantage of the chaos, he sneaked to the boat parked at the dock, took a knife and cut open the sack piled outside, and the inside was rice, he changed direction, moved the sack, and made a knife in it, luckily, this bag was salt.

This also shows that the group of people who traffick illicit salt are getting more and more bold, perhaps they are not afraid of investigation and other things, and simply put a layer of grain packets outside, such a simple concealment, that is, entrainment, not afraid of any illegal salt investigation.

Since it was the salt that was searched, the courage of these people in the Shandong Salt Gang suddenly increased, and some of the other party and the people who were pushing and scolding the boatmen showed confused looks on their faces, but some of them suddenly became nervous, and the idlers who watched the excitement outside were also quiet for a while.

No matter how much Li Meng relaxed Jining City, these people also knew that Shandong's salt law was harsh, and they also knew that the price of salt in Jining City was much higher now, and this crime of trafficking in illicit salt was really amazing.

However, the Shandong Salt Gang has not yet started to arrest, but the first difficult thing is those smuggling salt dealers, a group of people are hiding short weapons on their bodies, and they suddenly burst out, and the Shandong Salt Gang was caught off guard, and they were actually rushed out by the other party, and they were even cut down a few.

As soon as they saw the blood, the idlers outside who were watching the excitement knew that they were afraid, but so many people had been watching the jokes for so long, crowded and congested, and it was not so easy to run.

Let's not talk about the people who blocked the way of these smugglers who were killed, and not to mention the people who were injured by crowding and stampeding on each other, but because of the chaos of these people, it led to a problem, the smugglers rushed out, but the team of Shandong Salt Gang was blocked and could not advance or retreat.

This situation is really embarrassing, it was not possible to arrest the salt barons, but they were killed by the salt barons, killed and injured more than a dozen, and in the end, they were actually run away by the smuggler salt dealers.

Think about the time when Jiaozhou Ying started, he relied on blocking other people's salt roads and selling his own private salt to start his business, which is the ability to watch the family. Who would have thought that someone else would do the same thing today, it is really shameful.

That's it. Shame is shame, but you have to do it step by step, Shandong Salt Gang these people used the Jianghu relationship in the city, and the Jining branch of Lingshan Commercial Bank directly informed the salt Ding and the army outside the city through people, and someone came to the door with the post to find the yamen everywhere in Jining Prefecture.

However, the actions of those smugglers were once again beyond their expectations, and these smugglers still had a stronghold outside Jining. When he arrived at the base, he immediately rode out on horseback.

Things are getting bigger and bigger, and this gang of salt dealers is armed and organized. And in Shandong, there are also people to respond.

Judging from the current situation of the Jiaozhou battalion, there is such a strange team of salt lords, which really makes people feel that something is wrong.

There was nothing unexpected this time, and after Li Meng got the news, he was thundered. The landlord of the Shandong Salt Gang in Jining Prefecture was immediately dismissed, and the deputy and the leader of the first cadre were ordered to make meritorious service for their crimes. Huang Ping, the big leader of the Shandong Salt Gang, personally presided over the investigation of illegal salt.

Things are indeed a little strange, although the Jiaozhou battalion in order to maintain the status of Jining Prefecture's economic hub, the management is relatively lax, but it will never be a clue and will not be noticed, but after Huang Ping arrived in Jining Prefecture, this thing is really so weird, when those salt dealers were in that stronghold outside the city, some people said that they had seen it, and then. It's as if it's completely gone. I can't find it anywhere anymore.

People certainly don't really disappear, but hide somewhere. But it is true that I can't find it. However, when interrogating the shipwrights and men who were with those smugglers at the Jining Caoyun Wharf, they knew that the Caoyun fleet was generally traveling together to transport grain to the north.

Hundreds of boats walked together, not to mention that they had a good look for each other, and there were also a lot of conveniences, those boatmen who were not smuggler salt dealers were from Huizhou to the north, and those smuggler salt dealers met them in Xuzhou, saying that there was some problem with the fleet, repairing the ships in Xuzhou, and delaying some time, so they made an appointment to go together.

This is also a normal extreme thing, everyone is sailing outside, going south and north, no one has encountered some accidents, those boats in Huizhou naturally have no suspicions, and these boats staying in Xuzhou Mansion look no problem, it is very normal, and there is the guarantee of the yamen, and it will converge in one place.

Along the way, the performance was decent, no one had any suspicions, who thought that when they arrived in Jining, the people of the Shandong Salt Gang suddenly came to check the ship, saying that there was entrainment.

It is indeed ridiculous to use the charge of "entrainment" on the body of the Cao boat, and the profit from transporting the grain is not as profitable as the Liu family of Songjiang Prefecture selling grain to Shandong.

The reason why many people undertake the boat, and many people are willing to come in to do it, is that he actually plays the role of the north-south hub logistics place, the profit of the boat, that is, in the process of going south to the north, the goods are entrained in the north, and the profits are much more expensive than selling them on the spot, and the special products of the north are transported to the south, which is also a big profit.

What's more, now many foreign goods are also coming in through the ports in the south of the Yangtze River, and then sold to the north, this entrainment of goods is already semi-legal, and the official is also acquiescing, otherwise who would be willing to undertake the work of this transportation.

As soon as the boat was intercepted by the Shandong Salt Gang, the gang of smuggler salt dealers instigated that this was Jining's ruffian who wanted to extort our money, as long as everyone worked hard and did not retreat, those who investigated would definitely not dare to commit public anger.

This is the trouble, and the Shandong Salt Gang has made these people disgraced.

The result of the interrogation was that I still didn't know where the smugglers were going, but I knew a few pieces of information, those salt dealers got the guarantee documents from the government, and it was generally difficult for the smugglers to have any dealings with the government, let alone get the guarantee documents, and the ships that were transported were not so easy to get.

Moreover, Shandong's salt law is so harsh, where do ordinary reckless people dare to take such a risk, in addition to Fang Yingzhong, the boss of the Fang family, there should also be the participation of the government behind this matter.

It was Kong Sande, the big shopkeeper of Wenru Firm, who made Huang Ping and them make progress. On the fourth day of the incident on the dock, a young man dressed as a merchant came to the Lingshan Firm. said that there was a letter to be handed over to Meng Lao's shopkeeper, but Lingshan Commercial Bank, whether it was a branch in Jining Prefecture or a general number in Jinan and Jiaozhou, did not have this Meng Lao shopkeeper.

This is an agreed code word, and the letter was immediately handed over to Huang Ping, who is currently in charge of intelligence work in Jining Prefecture, and the letter was written by Kong Sande, and the content was inside. It just happened to make up for what Fang Yingren didn't talk about and what was confused by the Shandong Salt Gang.

At the beginning of the letter, it was not about the private salt land, but about Kong Sande. He is now an idler, and the position of the chief treasurer of Wenru Commercial Bank has been deprived by Yan Shenggong two days ago and handed over to Yan Shenggong's second son to take charge.

This is a great event for the Jiaozhou camp, Wenru firm in Lunan and Nanzhili area, can be said to be a wealthy businessman, which naturally also has the credit of Jiaozhou camp and Lingshan firm, a lot of inconvenient things to do. It is often handed over to Kong Sande and Wenru Commercial Firm.

Moreover, the establishment of the Tuntian Grange, the reception and relief of the displaced people. In the early stage, grain and grass is also a big problem, Jiaozhou camp grange accumulation can be met, but the transportation cost required, as well as the time spent on the land is too high, in Lunan and Guide Mansion, the method adopted is to buy directly from Kong Sande, Confucius is the top three large landlords in Shandong, imitating Li Meng's grange. It is also a large amount of grain and grass that has been stored. Kong Sande directly sold these grains and grasses, giving the Jiaozhou camp a lot of convenience.

Such people. On the one hand, because of him, Li Meng's system is quite friendly to the Confucian Mansion, on the other hand, Kong Sande's business of buying and selling grain and grass and those who came forward for the Jiaozhou camp has indeed made a lot of money, and the credit is really not small, and he is quite stable in this position.

The reason for the dismissal this time is related to this private salt, don't look at the Confucian Mansion in the Li Meng system, and has obtained many benefits, but as soon as the price of this salt rises, the Confucian Mansion and other big families with a huge population immediately have complaints, especially knowing that the salt prices in the neighboring Jinan Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion are stable, and only after the price increase on their own side, the resentment is even heavier.

From ancient times to the present, the Confucian Mansion is the darling of all dynasties, in order to prove that their regime is expected by the public, especially by those literati who have the right to speak, the imperial court is Confucian Mansion is rich, official positions, land are a large number of gifts, and the children of Confucius are more and more forgetful.

Even the Son of Heaven has to treat our family preferentially, why should a Shandong general soldier be so mean to our Confucian Mansion with these methods, it is really unbearable.

The smuggler salt dealers in Xuzhou did not have contact with the Confucian government after the price of salt rose, but before that, several elders of the clan who were as popular as the merchant houses began to take advantage of the proximity of their grange industry to the canal to collude with the salt barons in Xuzhou and sell them privately.

After the price of salt rose, they began to buy in large quantities, if it was for the Kong family's own use, it was not necessarily, because Wenru Commercial House itself could buy cheap salt through the channels allowed by the Jiaozhou camp, and the Confucian Mansion was relatively not affected, and Kong Sande thought about it clearly, Li Meng mastered Qilu and gave his own family so many benefits, taking too many benefits from the other party for nothing, after all, he was uneasy, so it was better to give feedback in other aspects, such as buying some high-priced salt.

Kong Sande thought so, but his cousins may not think so, the salt they bought was obviously not for the Confucian Mansion to use, but to take advantage of the high price of salt to make a profit.

Buying salt for your own use is forgivable, buying salt for sale, this is a big violation of the taboo of the Jiaozhou camp, Kong Sande knew how powerful the other party was, and immediately went to find his cousins to theorize.

Who would have thought that when he went like this, those cousins didn't dare to argue with him, and the person who instructed him behind him stood up, the second son of Yan Shenggong, who will also inherit the title and official position in the future, is also a great figure in the Confucian Mansion, and Kong Sande's status is naturally far inferior to him.

But in Yanzhou, how many people died because of this, Kong Sande understands much more in his heart than his brothers who seek pleasure every day, and he still has to fight for reason.

Several argued in front of Yan Shenggong, Kong Sande's reason is true, Zhendong General Li Meng's soldiers and horses are nearly 100,000, controlling Shandong, and there has been such a big victory recently, the armed salt Ding in the following states and counties of the investigation and inventory, the gentry are embarrassed and miserable, everyone is not unseen, why should our Confucian Mansion touch this mold. Over the years, I have made a lot of money in the grange and the trading house, so why bother to fight for these small money.

The second son of Nayan Shenggong Di secretly scolded in his heart: "You are in charge of Wenru Commercial Bank." I don't know how much gold and silver there is in the greedy clan, so I naturally don't look down on these silvers. But he argued:

"Our Confucian Mansion is the dignity of the world's scholars, at this time, Li Meng is thinking of a way to humiliate the gentry in Shandong, and the Confucian Mansion should be even more present."

Decent things like that are just nonsense, and if you talk about decency, then you don't have to accumulate money to such a point. became a large landowner, but the second son of Yan Shenggong continued:

"At present, the price of salt is high, and there are other big families in King Lu's Wangzhuang who want to buy salt, as long as we do it with Xuzhou. It's not difficult to get 100,000 taels of silver a year......"

Hearing this "100,000 taels of silver is not difficult", Kong Sande, who had been observing carefully, noticed that Yan Shenggong's eyes flickered, and his heart suddenly screamed badly.

What kind of people is this Confucian Mansion, as one of them, he certainly has a lot in his heart, and the benevolence and morality on his lips are talking about the sky, making money and selling land in private, and he is more fierce and greedy than ordinary landlords and gentry. Otherwise, how could there be the status of the top three big landlords in Shandong today. And what did that Wen Ru business house start for?

The head of the family, Yan Shenggong, estimated that he was already moved when he heard this "100,000 taels" of silver, and after a while, he cleared his throat and said loudly:

"In the land of Qilu, my Kong family has been here for thousands of years, and there is His Royal Highness King Lu in Ziyang City, and Li Meng, the general of Zhendong, is just a vulgar martial artist, and he is so domineering. It's too much to see...... Virtue. You do it carefully, the Yanzhou gentry also suffer from salt. You are also virtuous in doing so. ”

If you want to make money by selling illicit salt in Yanzhou, it is indeed ridiculous to have such an upright reason, but Kong Sande was anxious when he heard it, and he didn't care about any dignity and dignity, so he hurriedly stepped forward and argued:

"Grandpa, even so, seeing such chaos in the world, you have to think about the future!"

This is quite clear, who would have thought that the next words would make people vomit blood, the second son said aloud:

"Even if it is a change of dynasty, the Kong family will be prosperous for a long time anyway, who else wants to be the enemy of the scholars in the world, and the enemies of the saints." But this private salt business was done once, and the second time it was broken, and those salt dealers in Xuzhou did things quite in an orderly manner, unloading at the wharf on weekdays, and then pulling them to the manor of Confucius Mansion with a cart, for this cart shop that specializes in Confucius Mansion outside the city.

This big car shop was used as a back road by them, and they specially let people keep dozens of batches of horses to ride in it, and prepare for the unexpected.

The big car shop is the industry of Confucius, and it is also necessary to raise more horses, but as soon as they were seized on the dock, these people took advantage of the chaos to rush out, ran directly to the big car shop, changed horses, and galloped away from Jining City.

The Shandong Salt Gang has no need to prepare at all, and the Xuzhou salt lords are riding horses, and the natural stones can't catch up with them.

However, in Shandong, there are armed salt soldiers and armies everywhere, and there are many local gentry who stand on Li Meng's side, and these salt lords from Xuzhou seem to know this, and they didn't run far, but directly ran into the manor of the second son of the Holy Duke of Nayan.

People are really confused sometimes, the second son of this Yan Shenggong is completely blindfolded by the rich profits from selling illicit salt, and he actually thinks that this time he is just careless, to keep these people, and to do business in the future.

In the manor of Confucius, it is indeed safe, and the soldiers and armed salt of the Jiaozhou battalion will not enter these places, but there is a very ridiculous idea, many people will not think that the descendants of saints like Confucius will go to the business of illicit salt, and the Shandong Salt Gang has never put the object of suspicion on Confucius.

Kong Sande has been in business for so many years, and he also belongs to the role of being well-connected in the clan, and the salt owl hid in the manor of the second son, and he was the first to get the news.

This time he directly found the Yan Sheng announcement, who would have thought that someone was one step earlier than him to look for the past, as soon as he said this, Yan Sheng Gong was furious, saying that you are greatly favored by the family, but why do you always think about outsiders, since there are business dealings, my Kong family is not ungrateful, and I always have to help each other when there is a problem.

but you shall give up men, the teachings of the saints. Where exactly did you put it, do you still remember? I look at Wenru Commercial Bank If you take care of it again, something will happen sooner or later, Kong Sande, you have worked hard for so many years, it is better to go home and rest for a while, and let the second child take care of it.

Thinking wholeheartedly about the survival of this Confucian family, but suffering such treatment, Kong Sande was really depressed in his heart. But then again, since Confucius didn't know what a dangerous disaster was, and abandoned himself, it would be if the disaster came. Kong Sande is also unwilling to go through hardships together.

At least he had to pick himself out first, he naturally knew that these people in the Jiaozhou camp were looking for this group of Xuzhou salt lords everywhere, and he originally wanted to tell the Jiaozhou camp about this matter as a personal favor, but now the sooner he says it, the better, so as not to be implicated.

After Lingshan Commercial Bank learned the news, in addition to immediately informing Huang Ping and his party in Jining Prefecture, it also sent someone to send a horse to Li Meng in Jinan City, after all, this matter involved the Confucian Mansion. For such a family, we must be cautious.

There are post stations along the way. Hurry up the change of horses, the degree is indeed very fast, and the news is also quickly transmitted back to Jining Prefecture, the order is very clear, those from Xuzhou Salt Owl must die, but the people of Confucius cannot move.

The second son of Confucius shielded the salt dealers in Xuzhou, and all the Jiaozhou camp civil and military who knew about this matter were extremely angry, and even Xiucai and Ning Qiangui and Zhou Yang, who were born in a person, also felt that the Confucian family really didn't know whether to live or die. It is necessary to teach a lesson.

But Li Meng, who has always hated this kind of thing. It was a relatively modest decision, but it came as a surprise.

"Yan Sheng Gong is the Duke of the Kingdom. He is also a descendant of a saint, very noble, but it is just a dry bone in the tomb, no effect, but his identity is extraordinary, although no one in the world will listen to a word of Yan Shenggong, but Confucius is a ruler, is a representative of the literati, the court of the past dynasties preferential treatment of Confucius, not for the saint to see, but for the world to read, if you do something to Confucius, it will soon be extended to your attitude towards the reader. ”

Sun Chuanting also relied on this Confucian classic to step into his career, who would have thought that there would be such a thing to say, this mistake, but it shows the persuasiveness of his words.

"On the same day Meng Yuan entered the Central Plains, it is said that the Tartar Emperor shot an arrow at the plaque of Confucius, and since then the world has been centrifuged, if he occupies the south of the Yangtze River, and then shoots this arrow, I don't know what to say...... Lord Li, people in the world still have to be cautious, and when he reaches another level, he can naturally ignore it, but it's still early. ”

Always vigorous, perhaps efficient, devastating, but there will also be a big rebound, a little change of form, the effect is often better.

However, for Huang Ping of the Shandong Salt Gang, it is really difficult to kill the salt lord and not hurt the people in the Confucian Mansion, but since the above is arranged, it has to be done.

Huang Ping led his subordinates to dress up in disguise, and inquired about the news around the manor where the salt lords were hiding, and found out all kinds of situations here, this good land between Jining Prefecture and Qufu, all owned by the Confucian Mansion, more than the Wangzhuang of King Nalu, Huang Ping and the others didn't quite understand why the Kong family was so rich, why did they still have the idea of fighting the private salt.

This is also a good explanation, one is that since ancient times, they have never thought that they have made more money, and the other is the investigation of armed salt and the adjustment of salt prices, although it is for the whole of Shandong, but as the second largest landlord in Shandong, the Kong family, but feel that this pressure should be the brunt, and it will definitely rebound.

The kindness of the Jiaozhou camp to them was understood by the Confucian government as the reverence of the martial arts for the Confucian family's thousand-year-old imperial favor and the spiritual leader of Shilin.

Even if there is no move to shield the salt lord this time, it will be reflected in other ways in other aspects, but in all dynasties, the pen has never won the knife handle, which is also the truth of thousands of years of Chinese heritage.

Huang Ping inquired about the news, and placed people on the side of the manor of the Confucian Mansion to prevent people from running away from taking advantage of the chaos.

There are 60 special operatives of the Shandong Salt Gang, 200 soldiers from Zhangjiangdi, the capital of Yanzhou, and a guide sent by Kong Sande to lead the way......