Say goodbye to the scorching summer heat, and autumn is quietly coming. The cool autumn breeze makes people feel refreshed, but the wealthy businessmen and magnates of Nanyang County feel the cold winter from the gentle breeze.

Since the new big farmer Chengdong Guo Xianyang rushed to Nanyang County to govern Wancheng and sit down, the officialdom of Nanyang County has undergone earth-shaking drastic changes in just over a month.

First of all, the imperial court sent to inspect the imperial history of the Cheng Shangshu to impeach Nanyang Taishou Sima Hong for unauthorized power and fraud, and the accompanying court lieutenant and right supervisor did not even wait for the approval of the emperor or the prime minister's office, and immediately arrested Sima Hong and sent him to Chang'an for trial. Liao Ai, the governor of Nanyang County, and the county lieutenant under his command were even wiped out by Lieutenant Zhang Tang, who personally led a large number of government guards to conduct a thorough investigation, and they were not given any chance to defend themselves at all. Obviously, the imperial court attaches more importance to the military system of the government and the military of a county, and does not hesitate to completely purge it in line with the principle of not letting go of wrongful killings.

As for the ruffian bullies who dared to provoke and make trouble, they were even "severely cracked down" by the newly appointed county lieutenants. The concept of striking hard was specially and repeatedly admonished by Prince Liu Che before Lieutenant Zhang Tang left, which meant that in order to solve the conspicuous public order problems in a certain period of time, he should deal with them severely and quickly according to the law, and severely crack down on criminals.

Zhang Tang naturally followed the intention of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, although he was not qualified to appoint the governor, he still promoted a few cool officials to temporarily take over as the county governor of Nanyang County. In addition to being flogged, bullies with serious crimes are also nailed to a wooden frame for public display. In just over a month, along the roads between the counties in Nanyang County, you can see towering wooden frames and tragic prisoners who continue to wail until they bleed to death; The ruffians who committed less serious crimes were shackled and taken to various wharves in the surrounding counties, where large quantities of salt bales were unloaded from ships and transported back to trucks.

A fire at the city gate will inevitably affect the fish in the pond. Not only Nanyang County itself, but also a large number of officials in the surrounding counties have been imprisoned on various charges, and only the officials of Henan County can get out of the way. This is also reasonable, after all, the prosperity of Henan's county rule Luoyang is better than Wancheng, and the open and secret struggle between the merchants of Luoyang and Wancheng has lasted for hundreds of years, even if it is said that they have a feud.

In the matter of salt prices, Henan merchants not only did not secretly help Nanyang salt merchants, but actively assisted Qidi salt merchants in the transportation and dumping of sea salt, not only leasing carriages, horses and ships to them at a reasonable price, but also allowing their caravans to purchase a large amount of sea salt from the wharves along the Yellow River and then go south together, in line with the principle of small profits but quick turnover, retail cheap sea salt to the people along the way in Nanyang and surrounding counties to earn the difference in profits.

In the face of a series of stormy actions of the imperial court to purge the officialdom, the wealthy businessmen and tycoons in Nanyang were silent and uneasy.

Wealthy businessmen gathered in Nanyang, and it was inevitable that the princes of traffic would cling to the powerful in Pingshu, especially the officials of the county government who governed Wancheng, and they were the objects of bribes deliberately made by wealthy businessmen. It can be said that Nanyang's officialdom [***] is rotten from the roots, and the few honest officials who want to be alone are either disheartened and asked to be transferred elsewhere or are secretly excluded.

Now that many officials led by Sima Hong, the Taishou of Nanyang, have been imprisoned, if they confess to the Nanyang giant businessmen who bribed him, I am afraid that it will set off another bloody storm. The frightened Nanyang merchants sent their henchmen to the capital with a large amount of money and valuable gifts, hoping that they could help.

I don't know if it was because the magnates in the capital really helped, in short, after the court completely purged the Nanyang officialdom, it did not chase and fight, let alone do anything to the local merchants, but replaced a group of new officials lightly, trying their best to maintain the stability of Nanyang County.

Many salt merchants who thought they were a little weaker were apprehensive and unwilling to unite with the big businessmen to continue the confrontation with the powerful royal industrial group, so they reopened their salt shops and sold sea salt to the people in the county at a purchase price of 80 yuan per stone, just to break the fortune and eliminate the disaster.

Several big salt merchants led by the Cao family in Nanyang had no way out, so they could only stubbornly resist to the end. Just because they borrowed a large amount of money from the Kong family and other iron merchants at extremely high interest rates to hoard millions of stone sea salt, if they were sold at the purchase price, they would not be able to pay the high principal and interest that had nearly doubled, and they could only face the miserable situation of losing all their money and losing their wealth.

The mansion of the Confucius family in Nanyang occupies a huge area, and in Wancheng, where every inch of land is valuable, the huge mansion land alone is worth tens of thousands, not counting the luxurious decorations and exquisite household goods inside. In the face of the national policy of valuing agriculture and suppressing business, even the wealthy Chang'an giant businessmen can only live in the civilian area of Beique. The Nanyang Kong family's house was built on the adjacent street of the Taishou Mansion, which shows the great power of the Kong family in Nanyang County.

However, since Nanyang Taishou Sima Hong was imprisoned, he has been snubbed in front of the noisy Kong family. And the housekeeper and the maid were also repeatedly told by the housekeeper not to bully others outside in the future, so as not to cause trouble for the lord's house.

In the main hall, Kong Yu, the contemporary head of the Kong family, was frowning, pacing back and forth with uncertainty on his face.

"You're stupid!" The angry Kong Yu couldn't care about the difference between the old and the young, pointed to the few white-haired Cangcang clan elders in the hall, and reprimanded mercilessly, "Ping said that in addition to relying on the old and selling the old, what other skills do you have?!" It's really inadequate! ”

"Father's anger, the matter has come to this point, and it will be useless to hold your uncles accountable, and it is imperative to think about how to deal with it." Kong Yu's youngest son, Kong Yu, only saw a few elders bowing down to listen to the training, his face was unbearable, and he said comfortingly.

Kong Yu's face changed, and he sighed with a little sadness: "The matter has come to this, what can I do about it?" At the beginning, your uncle Kong Li had already written to tell him not to be involved in the salt industry. The old man also repeatedly ordered that the clansmen were not allowed to contact the local salt merchants, who knew that these stupid people still secretly embezzled the huge amount of money in the treasury to lend to the Cao family and the Zhuo family for some profits, wouldn't they want to put my Kong family in a place of no return? ”

Kong only pondered for a moment, and then replied: "Father doesn't need to worry too much, although the imperial court has now purged the officialdom, it has not investigated the collusion between officials and businessmen, let alone dealt with businessmen. I want to come to the imperial court because I want to keep dignity, and I don't want to be honest, causing panic among merchants everywhere. In this way, things should have turned around. ”

Kong Yu's face was a little pale, he knew very well that his youngest son Kong was only a weak crown year, but he was proficient in calculations, and there were few mistakes in the study and judgment of the situation, and now he said that there was a turnaround, and he did have a good idea.

Kong only saw that his father stopped, and couldn't help but pause, and after clarifying his thoughts, he continued: "The initiator who really stirred up the storm is none other than the royal industrial group, and only the royal family's business can use such huge manpower and material resources, and can also borrow from the imperial court. Although the actions of several uncles have caused some trouble to the royal industrial group, they are unintentionally inserted willows, if they can be used well, I am afraid that they will help the royal industrial group in disguise to push the Nanyang salt merchants into a place of death. ”

"Oh? What is the only way to say this? Kong Yu was still at a loss, and couldn't help but ask suspiciously.

"Nowadays, the price of salt in Nanyang and the surrounding counties has fluctuated violently for half a year, and with the abolition of the salt tax, the government-run salt shops and many post posts are openly selling high-quality sea salt, and the bitter mineral salt produced locally is rarely interested. The common people only cared about the benefits they had obtained, and could not help but feel grateful for the benevolence of His Majesty the Emperor, but the unsustainable salt merchants could only cry without tears by guarding the salt bales piled up into a hill in the warehouse. ”

Kong only slowly analyzed, and his thoughts became clearer and clearer: "Dongguo Xianyang is the largest salt merchant in Qidi, and he is extremely shrewd and good at manipulating prices. He must still have a backhand, and I am afraid that when the local salt merchants have emptied their money and hoarded sea salt, they will have to sell more sea salt on a large scale, causing the price of salt to plummet. ”

When everyone in the hall heard this, they were all shocked, especially the faces of several old men. They are all people who have been in business for decades, and they were only in the bureau before, and they couldn't see the situation clearly because of their desire for profit. Now, after Kong Zhi's analysis, they have easily come to the conclusion that the Nanyang salt merchants may lose all their money.

An old man even wailed and said: "In this way, the salt merchants are unable to repay their debts, and the old man's savings for many years have been wasted?!" ”

"Shut up!" Kong Yu raised his eyebrows and scolded angrily.

The old man was stunned suddenly, and then collapsed to the ground weakly, and his gray head hung down in a decadent manner, as if the spirit of his whole body was instantly emptied. He is still responsible for embezzling a huge amount of money from the family, and he has lost not only his savings for many years, but also his status and power in the clan, and I am afraid that it will affect all the clansmen of his branch.

Seeing that everyone had regained their quietness, Kong Yu frowned and looked at Kong Yu, and asked in a deep voice: "If the salt merchants really have nothing to lose, and the huge amount of money they borrowed cannot be recovered, and they have offended the imperial court, it is really a big bad thing, why do you still think that things have taken a turn for the better." ”

Kong only said confidently: "The so-called hundred-legged insect dies but does not stiffen, and other small salt merchants will naturally lose their property, but the Cao family and the Zhuo family have been in business for many years and have a net worth of hundreds of millions, even if they suffer heavy losses, as long as they are willing to break their arms to survive, they will only be seriously injured, but they will not hurt the fundamentals, and the royal industrial group will not be able to completely annex it, and it will not be able to do its best." Now that the uncles have a huge amount of IOUs from the Cao family and the Zhuo family, as long as we continue to lend to them, we can even reduce the interest slightly. At that time, as long as someone takes these IOUs and goes to ask for principal and interest, I am afraid that even if they sell their ancestral property, they may not be able to afford to pay it. In this way, not only will the imperial court no longer embarrass the Kong family, maybe we can also get a piece of the pie from the Cao family and the Zhuo family. ”

"Oh?" Kong Yu seemed to understand his son's intentions, stroked his beard and pondered for a long time, and said with his head bowed: "It's just that this matter needs to be kept secret, and it is better to secretly discuss it with Dongguo Xianyang first, so as not to let the court misunderstand." ”

Kong only smiled faintly: "The child has been admiring Dongguo Xianyang for a long time, and he just took the opportunity to pay a visit. It's just that I need to give some meeting gifts, and the IOUs in the hands of several uncles are just right, and I think Da Nong Cheng will be satisfied. (To be continued.) )