"Zhao Wenju, the head of the smuggling salt case, was killed on the street yesterday, and his son cried that there was a black finger behind the scenes, ready to hand over the hidden evidence."

"Come and see the news, a deacon of the Salt Merchants Association left the city with his family last night, and his whereabouts are now unknown, and the government is now investigating it."

"According to reliable sources, the deacon of the General Association of Salt Merchants who disappeared may be deeply involved in a serious crime, for more information, please see today's newspaper."

"Someone has recognized the identity of Zhao Wenju's murderer, and the government has sent someone to verify it."

"The Marquis of Zhenwu ordered the arrest of a group of soldiers who guarded the city gate last night, and it is reported that it is related to the deacon of the Salt Merchants Association who left the city."

……

Early the next morning, the crisp cries of newspaper boys sounded in the streets and alleys of Yangzhou City, causing people on the street to pay money to buy today's "Mingxin Bao," and the "Mingxin Bao" on the market had been snapped up in less than an hour.

Compared with the capital, Jiangnan, where there is a lot of humanities, has more people buying "Mingxin Bao", and the sales of "Mingxin Bao" in Yangzhou are the highest in the country.

Yangzhou City is already well known about what happened yesterday, but their sources are not reliable, many of them are hearsay, and the amount of information is limited, so "Mingxin Bao" has become an excellent choice for everyone to find out the truth.

Zhao Xinyue, the author of the two articles in the Ming Xin Pao about the murder of Zhao Wenju and the escape of Deacon Chen with his family, was very clever in avoiding Deacon Chen's identity in the article, which also aroused greater interest among readers, after all, there are very few people who know that Deacon Chen has escaped.

Originally, Yangzhou's "Mingxin Daily" newspaper had scruples about publishing Deacon Chen's escape, and was worried that Li Yuntian's investigation would be ruined, but Zhao Xinyue's identity was special, and the manuscript naturally obtained a pass, anyway, if there was trouble, Zhao Xinyue was in front.

Just when the residents of Yangzhou were rushing to buy the "Ming Xin Pao", Li Manshan brought an order from Li Yuntian to prohibit any salt merchants from leaving Yangzhou City without his permission, and the violators were punished for colluding with Zhao Wenju to traffick illicit salt.

Although Li Yuntian's order made the salt merchants on the scene feel a little surprised, it was reasonable, after all, Wei Deguang and Deacon Chen had fled Yangzhou City one after another, how could Li Yuntian let this happen again.

With Li Yuntian's order, Li Manshan's Jinyi guards took over the gates of the four cities of Yangzhou and checked the identities of the city people one by one.

Since Li Yuntian's move was mainly to prevent the salt merchants from escaping again, he deliberately asked the people of the Salt Merchants Association to assist in the investigation, after all, they were more familiar with the situation of the salt merchants, and if those salt merchants used a false identity to go out of the city, they could also be seen through.

The officialdom, business circles and people of Yangzhou are closely watching the development of the situation, who would have thought that the batch of illegal salt seized by the Caoyun Yamen would cause a series of shocking things, which made all kinds of rumors fly all over the city of Yangzhou, and people talked about it after tea and dinner.

Although the city is very lively, but the Yangzhou Division of the Wutang is calm, Li Yuntian is leisurely practicing his sword in the courtyard, he has time to consume with Chen Wenren, and the person who can't afford to wait now is Chen Wenren, if the delay in the delivery of those private salt makes a salt shortage in various places, then the bad things in the Lianghuai Salt Road will be exposed to the world without him to expose.

Li Yuntian is now waiting for news from Deacon Chen, since Deacon Chen's family left Yangzhou City, under the surveillance of his people, with Chen Wenren's forces, Deacon Chen will be able to find Deacon Chen in less than two days, and as long as Deacon Chen's life is saved at the right time, then Deacon Chen will naturally obediently confess his crimes.

"Xianggong, the cause of Deacon Chen's escape from the Salt Merchants Association has been ascertained, and the gatekeeper opened the city gate and let him out of the city after accepting Deacon Chen's two hundred taels of gold, what should I do?"

After Li Yuntian finished practicing the sword, Lei Ting came over and handed him a cup of hot water, then took the sword in his hand and asked with a smile.

The gatekeeper knew that he was in serious trouble, so at first he only quibbled that he had been deceived by Deacon Chen, saying that Deacon Chen had gone out of the city to visit his grandfather, who was seriously ill.

Later, as soon as the Jinyi guard's people tortured, the gatekeeper was honest and confessed the crime 1510, not only did he accept 200 taels of gold from Deacon Chen, but also the people who were on duty at the city gate at that time received benefits, which can be described as a bad nest case.

"The emperor has issued an order to severely punish officials for embezzlement of ink, and they dare to commit crimes against the wind, which is really unforgivable." Li Yuntian drank two sips of hot water, groaned for a while and said, "Stream three thousand miles, let them go to Jiaozhi." ”

In Li Yuntian's view, in order to ensure the long-term peace and stability of Jiaozhi, it is necessary to implement "immigration to the real side" of Jiaozhi, and only when the people of the Ming Dynasty are integrated with the local people, then Jiaozhi can be made solid.

However, it is not easy to immigrate to the real side, because Jiaozhi is a barbarian land in the minds of the people of the Ming Dynasty, so there will be no people who want to take the initiative to move there, so Li Yuntian can only fight the idea of those prisoners, and the exile of prisoners to Shibian is the most commonly used method of the Ming Dynasty.

"Xianggong, Xinyue is always running outside these days, and now the situation in Yangzhou is so complicated, I am a little worried about her."

Lei Ting bowed slightly when she heard this, Jiaozhi really needs the people of Daming to go to Shibian, and then she thought of something and said without worry.

Due to the departure of Hongluan and Zijuan, Zhao Xinyue can finally breathe a sigh of relief, she also has her own things to do, it is impossible to stay by Li Yuntian's side every day, Yangzhou is a place where businessmen gather all over the world, so she naturally wants to take this opportunity to collect some successful cases on the business road, so that she can write a series of reports related to the business road after she returns to Beijing.

For Zhao Xinyue's safety, Li Yuntian had already sent guards and brocade guards to follow her, and specially told Zhao Xinyue not to leave Yangzhou City to avoid accidents.

"Send more people to protect her, those people and dogs will inevitably make some crazy moves if they jump over the wall in a hurry." Li Yuntian knew that Zhao Xinyue had been wandering outside a lot recently, and after a deep groan, he said to Lei Ting, he knew that Zhao Xinyue's character would definitely not stay at home and do nothing, so he could only do his best to ensure his safety.

Besides, as long as Li Yuntian didn't reveal his hole cards to Chen Wenren, then Chen Wenren would never dare to fight Zhao Xinyue's idea, so he was not particularly worried about Zhao Xinyue in his heart.

Under the transmission of the 800-mile fast ride, the wanted Hua Wu signed by Li Yuntian and the official document searching for Wei Deguang and Deacon Chen were sent to the prefectures and counties around Yangzhou within a day.

After receiving the official documents, the yamen, inspection departments and health offices in various places did not dare to slack off, and set up checkpoints on various traffic arteries for inspection, and even the roads between towns and villages were carefully watched to strictly check strangers in the past.

For a time, an area of Nuoda centered on Yangzhou City became lively, and what happened to the Salt Merchants Chamber of Commerce attracted the attention of all walks of life in Jiangnan, and no one would have thought that things would change so bizarrely.

In particular, the officialdom in Nanjing paid close attention to the progress of the case of Zhao Wenju's murder, and many civil and military officials sent people to Yangzhou to inquire about the news, which made a tense and depressing atmosphere over Yangzhou City.

After two days of intense waiting, on the third day after Li Yuntian issued a wanted warrant and a search warrant, a piece of good news came:

The Xiaowu army who rushed to Yangzhou from the Longjiang Shipyard accidentally met Deacon Chen who was chased and killed by a group of bandits on the way, and then rescued the wolf deacon Chen, and captured several bandits alive.

The Nanjing garrison received Li Yuntian's official letter and gave the Longjiang Shipyard an order to transfer troops, so the Longjiang Shipyard sent 3,000 Xiaowu troops to Yangzhou to aid Li Yuntian.

It is worth mentioning that the general who led the army this time was none other than Lei Ting's second brother Lei Lie.

When Lei Lie saw Deacon Chen, Deacon Chen had already been hit by an arrow, and blood was bubbling outside, if he hadn't encountered the Xiaowu army, he would definitely have died at the hands of those bandits who were chasing him.

Those bandits were bound to Deacon Chen, even when they saw the Xiaowu Army, they did not stop the pursuit, but continued to chase murderously, and as a result, they were naturally attacked by the Xiaowu Army.

"Salt Merchants' Association!" Deacon Chen was extremely frightened, and he was injured, so he fainted after seeing Xiaowujun after only saying four words, and was given emergency treatment by the accompanying military doctor.

The bandits who chased and killed Deacon Chen were naturally sent by Chen Wenren, and they caught up with Deacon Chen's family half an hour ago, but Chen Deacon deliberately left a hand, he did not go with his family but deliberately left behind, dressed as a merchant who walked on his feet, so he escaped a catastrophe, hid far away, and witnessed his family being killed by those vicious bandits.

To Deacon Chen's shock, the bandits asked him about his whereabouts before killing his family, which shocked him.

Deacon Chen immediately understood that the people who killed him had been sent by the Salt Merchants' Association, otherwise if he had only robbed his property, how would he have to ask about his whereabouts?

Because those bandits were looking for Deacon Chen in two ways after the killing, Deacon Chen did not dare to stay for a long time and fled, but unfortunately he was found by the bandits later, and was hit by an arrow, if he hadn't met Lei Lie and others, he would have died.

In fact, Deacon Chen would never have thought that all of this was in Li Yuntian's plan, and the reason why those bandits were able to find Deacon Chen was because someone deliberately leaked Deacon Chen's whereabouts to them.

And the reason why Deacon Chen left behind him pretending to be a merchant was because he "inadvertently" listened to the words of passers-by and was reminded, otherwise how could he meet Lei Lie so coincidentally?

Deacon Chen never imagined that he had become a pawn in Li Yuntian's hands, and paid a painful price, this is not because Li Yuntian is ruthless, but in order to solve the affairs of the two Huai Salt Road, he has to do it, if Deacon Chen wants to blame, he can only blame Chen Wenren to cut it down, since he has embarked on the wrong road of trafficking in illicit salt, then he should think of today's ending.

This also means that with Deacon Chen, a crucial witness, Li Yuntian is about to launch a sharp offensive against Chen Wenren, and the affairs of the two Huai Salt Roads have finally entered the moment of the final decisive battle.