Guo Ye and his entourage set off from Longxi in the early morning of the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and arrived at the ferry port of Yangzhou Dongmen Wharf by boat, which was already the end of the first month, and they saw that the first lunar month was about to pass.

Wu Xiuxiu was a little tired from the long journey, so from the beginning of the river boat to the end of the ferry terminal, Guo Ye was supporting him all the way.

At this time, Chen Jitao had already led a group of officials from the government to wait at the ferry early, and Liu Zhenxuan also led 500 government soldiers to put the entire ferry wharf under martial law for safety.

When Guo Ye helped Wu Xiuxiu to come to everyone, Chen Jitao and a group of officials, big and small, stepped forward one after another, and asked warmly: "Welcome back to Yangzhou." ”

"Lord Thorn Shi has worked hard all the way."

"Seeing that Mrs. is a little unpleasant, it is not suitable to ride in a bumpy car, why don't you take a sedan car into the city and go back to the house to rest early?"

Guo Ye saw that they had already prepared a sedan chair, and thought in his heart that Xiuxiu should not take a car at this time, so it was better to take a sedan chair.

Immediately, he rushed to Zhang Jiujin and Wang Bajin, who were accompanying him, and ordered: "Let Mrs. take a sedan chair to go back to the mansion first, this official and Chen Juncheng and others will go slowly, and you two will bring some people to follow Mrs. Hu, and you must not make mistakes." Got it? ”

"Gotcha!"

Zhang Jiujin and Wang Bajin took a few people to send Wu Xiuxiu into a soft sedan chair and took the lead in rushing to Yangzhou City, which was five miles away from the ferry.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Zhenxuan led 500 soldiers to follow closely behind and open the way for Guo Ye to return to the city.

Other government officials either took sedan chairs or cars and left for the city one after another.

Guo Ye beckoned to Chen Jitao and said, "Mingren, you take the car with me, and by the way, report to me that I am not in Yangzhou these days, but there is something big happening." ”

Chen Jitao hummed with some apprehension, then got into a carriage with Guo Ye and walked at the end of the long snake-like procession back to the city.

The carriage and horses came all the way, Guo Ye and Chen Jitao sat on one side of each side in the car, and they were speechless for a while.

As long as Guo Ye didn't take the initiative to ask, Chen Jitao obviously didn't mean to take the initiative to talk.

After not seeing him for more than a month, Guo Ye found that Chen Jitao's temples were a little more frosty, and he had a bleak and sad face on his face, and he lowered his head from time to time as if he was bitter in his heart.

Guo Ye suddenly had a bit of ominous illusion in his heart, and muttered secretly, could it be that during my absence in Yangzhou, something big happened?

Otherwise, why did Chen Jitao hang his head and look bitter and hateful?

Salt tax!

Those two words came to his mind in an instant. Because in his opinion, there is basically no major event in Yangzhou now, except for the salt tax taken care of by Guan Jiu is the top priority at present.

Moreover, counting the days, Guan Jiu should have already collected the salt tax in Yangzhou and began to escort Chang'an to the delivery of the household department.

Guan Jiu did not come to the Dongmen Ferry Terminal to greet him this time, and obviously set off for Chang'an.

Could it be that something went wrong?

Immediately, he asked with concern: "Akihito, has the salt transportation envoy Guan paid the salt tax as scheduled and sent to Chang'an?" ”

Chen Jitao raised his head suddenly, looked at Guo Ye with some surprise, then nodded, and replied: "Back to the assassination of Master Shi, with the help of Liu Zhenxuan and Liu Duwei, the collection of salt tax from the salt transportation yamen is very smooth. Ten days ago, well, on the morning of the twentieth day of the first lunar month, the Guan Yan Yun envoy took five hundred escorts from the salt transportation yamen and personally carried the salt tax of 4,680,000 taels to Chang'an. ”

Call~

Guo Yekan breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, as long as there is no problem with the salt tax here, then all the problems are not a big problem.

After his mood relaxed, he smiled and scolded: "I explain Ren, what is going on with you today?" It's so listless, it's like an eggplant beaten off by frost, wilting. ”

Chen Jitao smiled bitterly and sighed: "Lord Assassin Shi, but there was a little mistake in the way of escorting the salt tax. Alas, before leaving, the adults entrusted all the affairs of Yangzhou to the lower officials, but, but ...... My lord, I have disappointed you. ”

After Guo Ye heard this, he stumbled, and the carriage jolted hard, and Guo Ye almost threw himself into Chen Jitao's arms.

He sat still, and shouted in great surprise, "Akihito, don't tell me that the salt tax they escorted was robbed in the middle of the road, right?" ”

"How do you know?"

Chen Jitao also replied to Guo Ye stupidly.

Oh, my God!

Guo Ye was completely dumbfounded, there are still people who dare to rob the salt tax of the imperial court in these years, this is not some kind of mountain bandit blocking the road and robbing, and then stupidly jumped out of the two robbers, opening his mouth that I opened this road, and I planted this tree, if you want to cross this road, leave the money to buy the road.

This is a fucking robbery of the imperial court's salt tax, and a robbery is millions of taels, who is Nima who has the audacity?

Although the wealth is moving, but the green forest has the rules of the green forest, and there are three kinds of silver under the peaceful and prosperous times, and the people in the green forest will never touch it. The first is the entanglement of orphans and widows of women's families, the second is the belongings of Qing officials who return to their hometowns, and the third is the taxes of the imperial court.

The first two kinds of non-robbery are easy to explain, and there is also a way to steal.

As for the third type, it's not that you can't rob it, but you don't dare to rob it. Because as long as the taxes of the imperial court are moved, it will not be a simple hundred and eighty taels, but it will provoke the encirclement and suppression of the imperial army.

As long as the imperial army moves and is really crushed, it is said that a cottage of robbers in the green forest, even the territory of Jiuzhai and Eighteen Ditches will still clear the field for you.

Guo Ye put the shock out of his mind for the time being, and asked with a solemn face: "What about Guan Jiu and the others?" Also, have you found the people who robbed the salt tax? ”

Chen Jitao whispered with a guilty face: "Everyone is okay with Guan Daren, but he didn't come back to Yangzhou after the incident, but sent someone to send a letter, saying that he wanted to stay where he was and find a way to get the tax money back, so he couldn't delay the adults." ”

"Sneer......"

Guo Ye sneered and said, "He has a fart way to get the tax money back?" If you had that ability, you wouldn't have been robbed of millions of taels of salt tax. In this way, he still hasn't found out who robbed him of the silver taels? ”

After Chen Jitao nodded and admitted, he was silent.

Although Guo Ye was angry in his heart, he still forced himself to calm down and asked, "Did you mention in his letter where the salt tax was robbed?" ”

Chen Jitao said: "As I said, after entering Hebei Road, I passed by a place called Qinghe County. That night, they chartered an inn in Qinghe County, deposited the tax money in the small courtyard where they stayed overnight, and sent people to guard it overnight. But who knows......"

"Okay, I don't want to know the process, and I don't need to know."

Guo Ye interrupted Chen Jitao's detailed explanation, and then smacked his lips and muttered: "Qinghe County, Qinghe County, it's a little familiar. Hey, yes, park, park! ”

Suddenly, he stopped the carriage, then opened the curtain and shouted outside: "Tell Liu Zhenxuan to come and see me quickly!" ”

Soon, Liu Zhenxuan galloped from the team that opened the road in front, and was about to inquire, when he saw Guo Ye urging and asked: "Last time you collected the corpse in Gujing Lane, didn't you mention that there was a young corpse that was not from the Zhang family, but a foreigner surnamed Cui?" ”

Liu Zhenxuan was stunned at first, Guo Ye suddenly asked about this, but he still nodded and replied: "That's right, this person is not from the Zhang family. Afterwards, we verified that this person's surname is Cui, and his name is true, and he is the son of the Qinghe Cui family. And it is said that he is a direct descendant of the Cui family, and he came to Yangzhou this time to discuss cooperation with the Zhang family and open a Yangzhou silver number. Hehe, Yangzhou Silver has been opened, but the small life has been lost in our Yangzhou. ”

Guo Ye had some eyebrows in his heart, and asked again: "Then how did you deal with this corpse?" Have you made a lot of noise about this man's death? ”

"No, absolutely not!"

Liu Zhenxuan replied categorically: "Because my lord, you have explained to us before that we must act in concealment when cleaning up the mess in Gujing Lane, so this Cui Yizhen's corpse, we directly disposed of it with the corpse of the Zhang clan, and buried it in a mass grave in the far suburbs of Yangzhou, and did not notify the Qinghe Cui clan to come over to identify the corpse and collect the corpse." ”

"What about Yangzhou Yinhao? Was it taken over as official property, or was it sold? ”

Guo Ye asked Chen Jitao this time.

Chen Jitao shook his head and said: "No, three days after you returned to your hometown to save your relatives, a young man from the Cui family in Qinghe took over the Yangzhou Silver Account with the deed. It was also ten days ago that Yangzhou Silver was reopened. ”

"Oh......"

Guo Ye bowed slightly, nodded thoughtfully, and muttered: "Cui Yizhen, Qinghe Cui's family, hijacking tax silver, Yangzhou silver, hehe, I probably know what's going on." It's really a wise man's thousand thoughts, it seems that the Cui family should have gotten the exact news that Cui Yizhen died in Yangzhou. ”

"Huh? It can't be such a coincidence, right? ”

"The Cui family dares to rob the tax silver? This is a great crime of raiding the family and exterminating the clan! ”

Liu Zhenxuan and Chen Jitao listened to Guo Ye's inference, and successively let out incredible exclamations and doubts.

PS: Pray for my good friend, the Ghost Emperor Qi (Black Brother), who is also a panda author, and beg 60,000 Datang book friends to pray for him together. If Brother Hei escapes this catastrophe, the old cow will be vegetarian for a month, and the old cow will break out for a month. God have mercy on me for once.