What to do. This is the common line in the hearts of Zhao Yuanxi and Zhao Pu at the moment. But soon Zhao Pu calmed down first, after all, as an old fox who had been in the officialdom for many years, he already had a way to deal with it at the moment.

Since the two Zhejiang transfer envoys were still in the field at the moment, there was no way to discuss this matter more before he came back, so Zhao Guangyi could only put the matter aside for the time being and discuss other matters.

That night, Zhao Yuanxi secretly entered the Prime Minister's Mansion.

"Xiangye, what should we do? If I let my father know that we instructed the two Zhejiang transshipment envoys to increase taxes in Huating, my father would not let us both go. You also know the temper of your father, and he will not easily forgive this kind of thing that touches his bottom line. ”

"Don't worry, the prince will be fine, the two of us will be fine, the Liangzhejiang transfer envoy was originally the old man's protégé, as long as he is given enough benefits before he enters Beijing, he will definitely be able to bear the blame for us, rest assured."

"So do you need to do something about Lone?"

"I think this is good, with the attitude of this dynasty towards literati, the official family will not want his life, as long as the prince gives him a promise, if he ascends to the throne in the future, he will definitely be reactivated, and he will be added to the rank of knight."

"It's natural."

"Not only that, but you have to give him extra commitments."

"What promise?"

"Once his son is enthroned, he will definitely be reused."

"Okay, these orphans promise you."

In this way, the two agreed on the countermeasures to let the two Zhejiang transfer envoys take the blame.

"This hateful Zhao Weiji, not only cut off the wealth of the lonely king, but also plans to overthrow the orphan, the lonely will definitely not let him go, I don't know what countermeasures the prime minister can deal with this Zhao Weiji?"

"Well...... Old man Rong thinks about it. ”

In fact, it is really not easy to deal with Zhao Weiji, and Zhao Weiji has been most wary of Zhao Guangyi since he crossed over. Therefore, in order to prevent Zhao Guangyi from finding fault with him under any pretext, he basically did everything in all the legal procedures. And many times, in order to avoid trouble, they don't even make money that can be made by drilling the law, Confucius. So it's not easy to deal with him.

But sometimes you don't have to start with a person himself, you can find a breakthrough in the people around him. Zhao Weiji's chamber of commerce recently added a new Sichuan businessman, who ostensibly sells bamboo products, but secretly sells illicit salt.

In fact, all the members of the Chamber of Commerce know this, in this era of salt and iron official camps, there are always people who will sell this kind of thing privately. Because the size of iron is so large that it is difficult to hide, few people will sell iron tools privately. But salt is different, salt is small in size and can be smuggled in countless ways. Moreover, the profit of salt is also high.

Since the sale of illicit salt is a common phenomenon among the people, all members can avoid the problem of illicit salt when discussing the rules of the chamber of commerce, in short, you can sell it as long as you don't get caught. Even if you are caught selling illicit salt, as long as you are not executed, you are still a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Therefore, when this Sichuan businessman joined the Chamber of Commerce, he made it clear to everyone that he was doing private salt trading, because Sichuan has a large amount of well salt. Everyone also understood him, and the only requirement was that you don't seek the Chamber of Commerce to sell illicit salt for you, just enjoy the other benefits you should enjoy, and help you if you want to export.

But what all the members of the Chamber of Commerce didn't expect was that this person actually knew Zhao Pu, in fact, it would be more accurate to put it another way, the backer behind this person was Zhao Pu.

It's not a big deal for smuggling salt dealers to collude with officials, and if you don't have a background in the government, even if you have the guts, you won't dare to sell smuggled salt.

At this time, Zhao Pu thought of this person, so for his own political prospects, he was ready to betray this person in exchange for Zhao Yuanxi's trust. After all, if he can continue to hold a high position in Zhao Yuanxi, there will be as many businessmen who need to convince him, and the loss is insignificant.

"I thought of a man named Lan Zhi, a Sichuan bamboo merchant. Recently, I joined the so-called Chamber of Commerce in Zhao Weiji's alley. ”

"So what?"

"This is just his identity on the surface, secretly his identity is a smuggler of salt, and he is following the path of an old man."

As soon as Zhao Yuanxi heard Zhao Pu say this, he understood what he wanted to do. In this era, in addition to selling illicit salt in places that do not produce salt in China, it was more often smuggled to the Liao State.

At this time, the Song and Liao countries had been in a state of war for many years, and they did not open a moat on the border to conduct mutual trade. And the Liao State needed a lot of things that were only produced in the Song Dynasty, so many merchants would take the risk of smuggling to the Liao State. One of the most important is salt.

However, the risk of smuggling from land to Liao is very high, so more often merchants will choose to smuggle goods into Liao through Bohai State.

Almost all ports have such ships, including the port of Quanzhou, where he Zhao Yuanxi.

"Xiangye means to betray this Lan Zhi and capture him directly when he is loading the ship Huating and going to sea?"

"Yes, although this cannot directly deal any fatal blow to Yangshan Port, it will make the officials focus on it, so that merchants will no longer dare to smuggle goods from there."

This can not be said more thoroughly, if the businessmen no longer go to Yangshan Port to smuggle goods, then where will they go, the answer is naturally Quanzhou. Because although Dengzhou is close to Liao, it has always been taken care of by the Song court. So Quanzhou will become a smuggling paradise. As long as Zhao Yuanxi makes use of these smugglers, he may not be able to make more money than he does now.

"Okay Xiangye, I'll leave all this to you."

……

Five days later, the transfer of the two Zhejiang provinces brought Gao Gu back to the capital.

Of course, before Gao Gu was about to enter Beijing, he had already had private contact with Zhao Pu's people, and Gao Gu, who had obtained two promises from Zhao Yuanxi, now entered Beijing for the sole purpose of resisting all this.

"Gao Gu, I ask you, why does Huating City increase the export commission? Do you know about this? ”

Hearing Zhao Guangyi's question, Gao Gu didn't have any panic, because he had already thought of all the lines on the way into the palace: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister knows that it was the minister who ordered the Huating City Bosi to increase taxes." ”

When Zhao Guangyi heard Gao Gu's answer, he immediately became angry: "Gao Gu is so bold, who gave you this right to increase taxes?" Are you making your own decisions, or is someone behind it? ”

"It's the minister's own opinion, there are more than 1,000 ships in and out of Yangshan Port every day, the minister just wants to increase the financial revenue for the country, the country has been at war for many years, and the treasury is huge, and the minister also wants to share the worries for His Majesty."

"So, I should reward you?"

"I don't dare."

"According to your theory, since there are many ships entering and leaving Huating Port, the tax should be increased, what if the ships change ports after the Huating tax increase? The Great Song Dynasty is not only a port in Huating, should Dengzhou, Quanzhou, and Suzhou also increase taxes to increase the income of the imperial court? ”

"This ......"

How and how much a country raises taxes has always been a matter that must be very careful. In ancient Chinese society, when it was in its prime, the monarch did not dare to increase the type of tax or the proportion of tax at will. Light taxation has always been a symbol of a peaceful society, while exacting taxes is the opposite.

Zhao Guangyi thinks that he is still a Ming monarch, and it has only been more than ten years since the Central Plains completely ended the division of the five dynasties, so Zhao Guangyi does not want to bring too much burden to the people. Therefore, although it has been fighting with the Liao State, it has not increased any taxes, including commercial taxes.

Although the increase in the export tax will not bring any burden to the people, Zhao Guangyi does not want anyone to take advantage of the problem to spread rumors that the increase in the commercial tax is only a prologue.

In fact, the reason why this incident caught Zhao Pu and Zhao Yuanxi off guard was because Zhao Weiji used Zhao Guangyi's psychology, and while exposing the incident to the newspaper, Zhao Weiji also used the network of the beggar gang to spread the rumor that this tax increase was just the beginning in the capital.

"Alright, you don't have to say anything. Since it is up to you to make your own decisions, then you alone should bear all the responsibility. All official positions in Gaogu were dismissed, and he immediately returned to his hometown, and he was no longer in use for life. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." In this way, Gao Gu alone stopped all the guilt and lost the black yarn. But Zhao Pu and Zhao Yuanxi were saved.

……

"The result of the matter came out, Gao Gu took all the blame, lost the black yarn, and returned to his hometown and was not allowed to be used again for life."

Hearing Jiang Yu's report, Zhao Weiji was a little surprised: "That's it? What about Zhao Yuanxi? Not implicated in any way? ”

"Yes, no."

"Looks like I'm underestimating my uncle."

"What do we do next?"

"Cold salad, what can we do now that we don't have any handle from Zhao Yuanxi." Thinking of this, Zhao Weiji also sighed a little, the short-lived ghost who didn't pay attention to it was so powerful.

"What if King Xu has the next move, Lord Wang?"

"At this stage, I can only see the moves, and I don't have any good ways for the time being, wait for him to make the next move, and let the pigeons keep an eye on it." The pigeon mentioned here is the intelligence network set up by Zhao Weiji, because Zhao Weiji's stall is getting bigger and bigger, so some things he must hand over to his henchmen, and Tie Zheng, who has no battlefield to go on for the time being, has become the person in charge of the pigeon.

"No problem, I'll talk to Zhongtang."

"That's good, did I find the place I asked you to find?"

"Back to the prince, I found it."

"That's good, our next chance to make a fortune depends on that. In this way, you put what you have in advance, and then we will call Uncle Shangxin to go there with us. ”

"No problem, lord, it's just that something ......"

"I'm going to hand these over to Mrs., I see that Chai Yu has been a little annoyed with the children recently, so it's time to find something for her to do."

"Okay, lord."

In this way, Zhao Weiji handed over all the things at hand to Chai Yu to take care of, and then he and Jiang Yu, Zhao Xin went to Fuliang County, because he sent someone to find a place, a place that would change the world.