Zhuo Qiaoniang and Cheng Luojie are both pregnant, so Leng Yi spends every night in Cheng Luo's house. Although Cheng Luoyan loves to enjoy it exclusively, she can't help but be a little anxious when she sees that they are both pregnant and her stomach hasn't moved. But it also depends on God's face, and it's useless to be anxious.

Leng Yi was in a good mood now, but soon his attention shifted to the case, because there was a case that made him decide to put enough energy into investigating and handling.

This case originated from a gift-giving two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After Leng Yi was promoted to the position of chief executive, almost no one dared to give him a gift, because he had already said that the war in front of the official family was tight, and the military expenditure was huge, and it was the time to use the money, if someone gave a gift, it would be transferred to the front, and it was necessary to explain who gave it. Because he had already done it once, no one doubted that he would really do it, so no one dared to give him a gift.

However, on the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Leng Yi received a heavy gift.

This gift list is very heavy, so heavy that Leng Yi can smack his tongue when he sees it.

The person who gave the gift was Wei Xianxin, who was the court's concubine.

Leng Yi already knows everything about the emperor's relatives and relatives, he knows that this Wei Xianxin has a lot of background, his father is the prime minister of the Song Taizu period, and his mother is the sister of the Empress Dowager Du, the mother of the emperor's Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi brothers, that is to say, the Empress Dowager Du is his aunt, and he married Princess Yongqing, the daughter of the first emperor Zhao Kuangyin. That is, his cousin niece. After he became a colt, he paid homage to the defense envoy of the state.

Why would such a double imperial relative who was a royal prince and married the daughter of the first emperor, and a close to each other, give himself such a generous gift? And it's so thick that it makes people feel terrifying, Leng Yi can't figure it out. So, he decided to meet the people who came to give the gifts.

The meeting took place at the Flower Hall in Leng Fu.

The one who came to give the gift was, of course, not Wei Xianxin himself, but the housekeeper in his house.

Steward Wei respectfully saluted Leng Yi: "The little one greets the eldest master." ”

"Excuse me, please be seated!"

Steward Wei thanked him and sat down with his butt crooked.

Leng Yi weighed the gift list in his hand and said, "I don't know why your master gave this generous gift to this official?" ”

"This is an example for the great masters of the three divisions. Hey. ”

"Copies?" Leng Yi frowned, "What do you mean?" ”

"Our lord has some business on the Wei River, and he has always been taken care of by the masters of the three divisions, which is a tribute to the masters."

Leng Yi understood, and looked at him: "What kind of money do you make for such a heavy gift?" ”

Steward Wei smiled and said: "The eldest lord usually has a lot of trouble, without your care, this business is not easy to do, so it is also appropriate to be more filial." ”

"Aren't your lords the defense envoys of this state? How did you start a business? ”

"Our lord is busy with official business, so naturally he doesn't have the energy to take care of business, so our second master is in charge. The lord and the wife, they don't ask. ”

"Oh? Your second master? It's Wei Xianxin, Lord Wei's own brother Wei Xianyong, right? ”

"Exactly."

Leng Yi dusted off the gift list in his hand and said, "What do you need me to do?" ”

Steward Wei hurriedly got up and bowed: "Don't dare to work the eldest master to do anything, hehe,"

Leng Yi raised his eyebrows: "Pingbai gave me so much money, and didn't let me do anything?" No merit is not punished! ”

Steward Wei hurriedly said: "The old man is serious. This is an example of the great lord's ordinary care. Nothing else. ”

Leng Yi nodded slowly and said, "Guibao is called ......?" ”

"Trumpet Wei Kee Shipping."

"Well, I understand. Anything else? ”

Steward Wei glanced at Leng Yi cautiously, and said in a low voice: "Master, these are not gifts, but the shares that the master should get. Therefore, it is better not to give it to the official family as military funds. Otherwise, all the masters of the three divisions don't look good. ”

Leng Yi looked at him, smiled, and said, "Do you think this official elephant likes people who dismantle the stage?" ”

Steward Wei secretly said in his stomach: You really want to think that if you hadn't woken you up like this and transferred such a heavy gift to the emperor, so many things would have come out. But he said respectfully on his face: "The villain has lost his words." Please forgive me. Small farewell. ”

Steward Wei took his leave and left. Leng Yi looked at the box full of gold and silver treasures, pondered for a moment, and ordered to prepare a sedan chair and go to the third division.

The Three Divisions were equivalent to the Ministry of Finance of the Song Dynasty. Commanding the country's financial and taxation encyclopedia, his three envoys are known as counts. And the third secretary Zhao Dezhao has died, and the emperor has not appointed a new third envoy. Therefore, the three divisions are actually two deputy envoys. One is Leng Yi, and the other is Wang Renzhan.

Leng Yi has been busy with the construction of Jinmingchi and the work of the trial court, except for the allocation of construction funds, he rarely comes here in ordinary times. Therefore, the third division is actually Wang Renzhan in charge. However, Wang Renzhan is not a fool, he knows that Leng Yi is a big celebrity in front of the emperor, and he is in charge of the trial and punishment court for picketing hundreds of officials. Now he has been promoted to participate in political affairs, and he is ranked as the ruler, whether it is official or real power, it is far from being comparable to himself. Therefore, big and small things always have to come to Leng Yi in person to ask Leng Yi for advice. And the three divisions all know that the real power of the three divisions is actually this Lord Leng.

Leng Yi came to the Third Division without prior notice, so Wang Renzhan and other senior officials did not know.

Leng Yi didn't go to them, and went straight to them

The commercial tax case of the Third Division, which is the management agency of the national commercial tax payment. Leng Yi instructed that the tax registers of merchants in all prefectures and counties across the country from last year should be brought to his own eyes. He asked for a separate room, and the ledger was piled up on several tables. He did not let the officials of the three divisions serve on the sidelines, and he himself watched by himself.

Those officials were waiting outside the door, and they didn't know what happened to the deputy envoy of the third division today, and why he wanted to inspect the tax situation of merchants across the country. They all looked at each other.

What Leng Yi wanted to inspect was naturally the tax payment of Wei Xianxin's merchant Wei Ji Shipping, who had just given him a generous gift. The Song Dynasty generally still valued agriculture over commerce, but compared with other dynasties, it attached great importance to commerce, so commerce developed rapidly in the Song Dynasty and accumulated a lot of wealth for the Song Dynasty. The taxes on business are also very lucrative. The management system is also very strict. Leng Yi soon found this Wei Ji shipping company registered in Qinzhou. Sure enough, the owner of the ship wrote that it was Wei Xianyong, the younger brother of Wei Xianxin.

However, after looking at the tax payment situation of this shipping company last year, not only was he dumbfounded, but the number above was less than a fraction of the gift money offered to him!

A meaningful smile appeared on Leng Yi's lips.

He then checked the other businesses of the Wei family and found that there were really a lot. A considerable part of them are located in Qinzhou.

Leng Yi looked at the other businesses registered in the Qinzhou Yamen, and found that a considerable number of them were opened by relatives of the emperor's relatives!

The Song Dynasty did not allow officials to do business on their own, but it did not prohibit the families of officials from doing business, so it was not taboo to openly write the names of these people on the register.

Leng Yi continued to look at it, and suddenly heard the sound of footsteps outside, and the low voice of Wang Renzhan, the deputy envoy of the Third Division, came, "Where is Lord Leng?" ”

"Look at last year's tax register in the house." An official replied respectfully.

Leng Yi immediately put back the register in his hand, picked up the register of weaving companies in Suzhou, Jiangnan, that had been turned out in advance, and looked at it with interest.

"Lord Leng!" Wang Renzhan appeared at the door, smiling all over his face.

"Lord Wang, come in!"

Wang Renzhan ran to Leng Yi's side, and said with a huff: "I don't say hello when the adults come, so I can go and greet them." ”

"What to greet. It's all brothers. You are busy with official business, and I can't bear to disturb you. Leng Yi said with a smile, and then, he sighed heavily, looked at Wang Renzhan and said: "The official family is driving in person, the progress is not smooth, it has been more than three months now, and it has not advanced to the capital of the Northern Han Dynasty!" Of course, there are many reasons for the soldiers here, such as the extremely low combat effectiveness of the van army, the unexpectedly tenacious enemy army, and the obstruction of the Liao army's strategy, and the other reason, there are also the reasons for the lack of military resources and poor logistics support of our army. ”

Wang Renzhan nodded hurriedly and said, "Yes, yes!" Incompetent! ”

"I don't blame you for this! As we all know, the official family issued an order to use most of the raised military funds for the construction of Jinming Pond. However, although most of this money has not been used, it cannot be used. As the war progresses, in the next step, who knows if the Liao army will participate, once the war with the Liao State starts, at that time, I am afraid that it will not be as easy as the Northern Han Dynasty, at that time, the military expenditure is only afraid that it will flow out. Therefore, we have to take precautions and think more about how to raise military spending, so as not to be in a hurry when the time comes! ”

Wang Renzhan said yes again and again. glanced at the account book in Leng Yi's hand, and said with a smile: "My lord is preparing to raise taxes?" ”

Leng Yi shook his head: "Increasing taxes is not a matter of one sentence, the stakes are very high, and the official family has not authorized us to increase taxes." You can't mess around. ”

"What do you mean by ——??"

"The official didn't have any particularly good methods, and he was also in a hurry to go to the doctor, so he flipped through it casually, but after watching it for a long time, he didn't have a clue at all. Alas, it's really interlaced like a mountain! It's okay for the official to solve the case, but if you want to say that this is a tax, it's a layman. I don't know if Lord Wang has any high-level tricks to raise a huge amount of military funds in a short period of time? ”

Wang Renzhan hurriedly said: "Your Excellency is polite, your Excellency is far-sighted, erudite and talented, if you can't even think of a good way for an adult, your humble position will be even more useless." ”

Leng Yi sighed again, threw away the account book in his hand, and said, "Forget it, it seems that it is really an impossible dream to raise huge sums of money in the short term without raising taxes." ”

"yes, yes."

"He's gone! I have to go to the Jinmingchi construction site to take a look, Prince Zhao Yuanzuo is newly appointed, and the official has to introduce him to the situation, there are still many things! ”

"Lord Leng is a model for us to learn."

Leng Yi smiled and waved his hand, went out and got into the official sedan chair, and walked away.

Leng Yi returned home and asked the master to write a memora, reporting to Queen Hua Rui, who was listening to the government, saying that it had been a while since the establishment of the trial court, and he was going to go to various places to take a walk and inspect it. Look at the development of trial and criminal courts in various places.

Leng Yi's request, of course, Hua Rui will not have any objections. Instant approval.

At the same time as reporting the setback, Leng Yi asked Shi Shouxin to select two hundred soldiers with strong martial arts from the forbidden army to standby.

After the approval was issued, Leng Yi convened a family meeting, at which he said that he would inspect various places.

Cheng Luoyan said: "Sister and Sister Qiao are pregnant, shall I accompany you?" ”

Leng Yi shook his head and said, "No need, it's because the two of them are pregnant, so you have to stay at home and take care of them, otherwise I won't worry." Besides, on this inspection, not only did I take the Wumei Dao and the Oil Slaughter Master with their escorts, but I also transferred two hundred people from the forbidden army as personal escorts. Follow me on the tour. So don't worry. ”

Zhuo Qiaoniang and Cheng Luojie sisters also felt that this was right, so they no longer insisted.

The family helped him pack up his things, because the next day was the Mid-Autumn Festival, so Leng Yi decided to go after the Mid-Autumn Festival with his family.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is naturally dominated by moon viewing.

The family set up a wine banquet in the back garden, eating wine and admiring the moon. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a warm and romantic festival, with the last Qixi Festival church meeting such a somewhat unpleasant precedent, Zhuo Qiaoniang told the old lady early that the Mid-Autumn Festival church meeting should not be in the back garden, where Leng Yi and their literati admired the moon to speak, and the lord was happy to chant poetry against it. The meeting will be held in the large courtyard of the front hall.

The old lady likes to be lively, as long as there is a church to sing and listen, it can be there, so this time the church meeting was set up in the front hall.

The play started, and Leng Yi naturally wanted to accompany the old lady and them to listen to the play. The old lady was very happy about this.

Zhuo Qiaoniang found that Xiao Zhou did not come to listen to the play. It's a little strange, send the grass ears to ask.

Cao Sui quickly came back and said in a low voice: "Mrs. Zheng Guo said that she was a little uncomfortable, so she didn't come to listen." ”

Zhuo Qiaoniang hurriedly said: "Is it sick?" Does it matter? Have you seen it with a doctor? Why don't you let Wuxiang take a look? ”

"Madame said no." Cao Sui hesitated a little in his words, and said in a low voice: "It doesn't matter, Madam said don't worry." Just get some sleep. ”

Then tell the maid and mother beside her, pay attention to it, there is something going on. Hurry up and report it. ”

Cao Sui agreed, turned around and went to Xiao Zhou's back yard again.

After a long time, Cao Sui came back, Leng Yi peeked at her and found that her eyes were red, obviously she had just cried. After waiting for the play on the stage to start for a while, Leng Yi secretly took a pot of wine and got up to leave the table. didn't let the little guy follow, and after the convenience, he went straight to the courtyard of Xiao Zhouhou.

But when he arrived at the door, he asked the porter, but learned that Xiao Zhou had gone to the back garden. And don't let people follow.

Leng Yi frowned, turned around and followed him to the back garden.

The moonlight is very good, and the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is very round, looking like a big disk. The so-called moon is bright and the stars are scarce, and there are almost no stars in the sky. Looking at it always makes people feel that the moon is hanging alone in the sky, a little lonely and lonely.