In the early morning of the next day, Li Yuntian was neatly dressed under Zhou Yuting's service, and rushed to the imperial city in his black four-wheeled carriage to attend the great court held at the Taihe Hall today.

Because it was still early, Li Yuntian closed his eyes in the carriage to recuperate, and when he approached the imperial city, there were more four-wheeled carriages on the streets, and with the official launch of the four-wheeled carriage after the year, the first batch of court officials who got the carriage changed to take the four-wheeled carriage.

This is not only because the four-wheeled carriage is more spacious and comfortable, but especially because the four-wheeled carriage is more magnificent than the sedan chair, and the momentum of the four-wheeled carriage is obviously better than that of the sedan chair when the two are placed together.

Therefore, the civil and military officials in the capital have abandoned the original sedan chair, after all, the officialdom pays attention to a face, and no one wants to be pressed by others in the limelight.

When waiting for the court in the corridor room of the left thousand steps, Li Yuntian was surrounded by the imperial historians of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and greeted him, because he was not yet the official of the Imperial Procuratorate, so he was in the same corridor room with the imperial historians.

Before that, including the imperial historians of the Imperial Procuratorate, the civil and military officials in the capital all thought that Li Yuntian's trip to Yangzhou this time was just a formality, after all, freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and it is not easy to deal with the corruption of the two Huai Salt Roads.

But the result was beyond everyone's expectations, no one thought that Li Yuntian's encounter in Yangzhou was full of twists and turns, first the illegal salt of the Lianghuai Salt Road was accidentally seized by the Caoyun Governor Yamen, and then it was Chen Wenren, the left waiter of the Nanjing Household Department, who kidnapped Li Yuntian's woman, and then angered Li Yuntian and turned the Lianghuai Salt Road upside down, so that Chen Wenren and others did not have the slightest power to fight back.

The news that Li Yuntian is going to be promoted to the right deputy capital of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate has spread in the officialdom of the capital in the past two days, although Li Yuntian's qualifications are still shallow, but no one thinks that he is not worthy of the position of the right deputy capital imperial history, just imagine that in the Ming Dynasty, except for Li Yuntian, who can find out this shocking case of Lianghuai Yandao in such a short period of time? And who would have the guts to investigate this case?

After the court meeting began, Li Yuntian led Xie Heng, Han Liang, Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao and Qin Ke to report to Emperor Xuande about the two Huai Yandao ink corruption cases.

The two Huai Salt Road corruption cases involved a wide range of people, with nearly 30,000 people, among which the officials of the two Huai Salt Roads were wiped out, and the salt merchants of the Salt Merchants Association were all arrested, which can be said to have created a precedent for the corruption of ink after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the evidence of the crime was conclusive, and the iron case was like a mountain.

Chen Wenren, the left attendant of Nanjing's household department, and Zhang Sheng, the transfer envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Road, and more than a dozen officials involved in the case were escorted to the front of the palace and bowed down in front of the Manchu civil and military to confess.

Emperor Xuande approved the death penalty of Chen Wenren and nine others on the spot, and beheaded them outside the noon gate during the autumn of this year, while Zhang Sheng and other remaining officials were fortunate to be pardoned and sent to Jiaozhi.

As for the punishment of the rest of the people involved in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, Emperor Xuande waved his pen and carried it out in accordance with Li Yuntian's report, of which more than 200 people were beheaded, and the rest were all mismatched.

It is worth mentioning that more than half of the deacons of the Salt Merchants Association were sentenced to beheading, which is not Li Yuntian's broken promise, but those people were involved in other life lawsuits in addition to the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case.

In fact, among the more than 200 people who were beheaded, very few were really executed because of the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, and Li Yuntian adopted a tolerant attitude towards those involved in the case.

It's a pity that they can't live because of their own evils, and after the Lianghuai Salt Road embezzlement case, those people who were bullied by the officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the salt merchants of the Salt Merchants Association have complained about their grievances, and many people have been cut off their heads.

What particularly shocked the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty was that Li Yuntian had seized a total of 150 million taels of silver in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, and the property that arrived at the Hubu warehouse yesterday was equivalent to nearly 100 million taels of silver, which immediately reversed the Ming Dynasty's overstretched finances.

In addition, the value of the seized houses, shops, and fields was not counted, and Li Yuntian listed them on the form and handed them over to the household department.

Afterwards, some people joked that Li Yuntiantong's two Huaiyan Dao corruption cases moved half of the wealth of Jiangnan to the capital, making the funds of the Ming treasury unprecedentedly abundant.

After disposing of the people involved in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, Emperor Xuande issued an edict and rewarded the meritorious personnel in this case, among which Li Yuntian was undoubtedly the most generous.

Emperor Xuande not only gave Li Yuntian 5,000 taels of gold, but also rewarded him with Chen Guangzong's mansion in Yangzhou City, which was seized by the government, plus 5,000 acres of fertile land outside Yangzhou.

At the same time, Li Yuntian's official position in the Imperial Court was officially promoted from the left to the right deputy imperial history, and he became the youngest official in the Ming court, and was appointed as a scholar of Zuo Chunfang University.

The prince's east palace was called Chunfang in ancient times, there are two yamen of the left and right Chunfang to lead the affairs of the East Palace, and there is no affiliated organization in the left and right Chunfang in the Ming Dynasty, but it still has an official position, and it has become the place where the Hanlin Academy is promoted, and its highest official position is the left and right Chunfang University Scholar.

Left and right Chunfang scholars are also known as "cabinet scholars", which is a necessary position to be promoted to "cabinet scholars", and almost all the elders of the Ming Cabinet have held these two positions.

Xie Heng and Han Liang made outstanding contributions as the deputy envoys of the salt patrol of the two Huaiyan Roads, so the two were sent to Jiangnan to serve as the prefect, of which Xie Heng was appointed as the prefect of Suzhou Prefecture and Han Liang was appointed as the prefect of Hangzhou Prefecture and became the local magistrate who governed the place.

Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao and Qin Ke were also promoted because of their merits in supervising the trial, among which Pan Xingmin was moved from the left waiter of the Nanjing Criminal Department to the left waiter of the Beijing Division of the Criminal Department, Zhang Tao was moved from the left deputy capital of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate to the left waiter of the Beijing Household Department, and Qin Ke was moved from the left Shaoqing of Nanjing Dali Temple to the right Shaoqing of Beijing Dali Temple.

For Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao and Qin Ke, the three of them can be described as "blessings in disguise" this time, and they unexpectedly benefited a lot from the two Huai Yandao corruption cases that were avoided in advance, and were able to turn over and re-enter the core of power in the Ming Dynasty.

This was Emperor Xuande's further weakening of the power of the Six Ministries, and at the same time, he hoped that a third force would appear in the civilian clique to balance the relationship between the cabinet and the Six Ministries, and Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao, and Qin Ke were the leaders of the third force he expected.

The reason why Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao and Qin Ke served in the Nanjing Yamen was naturally because they were squeezed out by the officials of the Beijing Yamen, so the three of them had the innate conditions to confront the officials of the Beijing Yamen, and with the support of Emperor Xuande, they would be able to further expand their power.

Emperor Xuande promoted him by one level from the position of the five thousand households in the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town, and became the deputy envoy of the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town, second only to the Fufu Envoy of Beizhen in Beizhen, and the second most powerful person in the Fusi of Beizhen.

"Your Majesty, when the minister confiscated the homes of some criminals, he found some account books that recorded bribes to court officials, and the minister did not dare to read them without authorization, so he asked the emperor to decide."

After the reward was over, Li Yuntian walked to the front of the hall and bowed to Emperor Xuande.

Hearing this, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became tense, and Li Yuntian not only brought back nearly 100 million taels of silver from Yangzhou this time, but also brought a bunch of account books recording the bribes of the officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the salt merchants of the Salt Merchants Association to bribe the officials of the imperial court, and these account books will directly or indirectly implicate many officials in the capital.

"Bring it to the temple." Emperor Xuande issued an edict with a blank face when he heard this.

Then, several guards in front of the palace walked in carrying two bamboo baskets and placed the baskets beside Li Yuntian, and in the baskets were a book of accounts.

The contents of these account books were not known to anyone except Li Yuntian, and once they were searched, they were strictly blocked by Li Yuntian, even Yang Pu and Hu Ying had not seen them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think I should do with these account books?" Emperor Xuande glanced at the account books in the two baskets, and quietly glanced at the civil and military officials in the main hall.

"Your Majesty!" Hearing this, the ministers couldn't help but bow down one after another, and said in unison.

"Holy Judge?" The corners of Emperor Xuande's mouth showed a sneer, and he stretched out his hand and pointed to those account books and shouted in a deep voice, "If I hand over these account books to the Jinyi Weibei Town Fu Division, I'm afraid that some of you will be imprisoned, and it is an eye-opener for me to be implicated in so many officials of my Ming Dynasty!" ”

"Guo Shangshu, as a household Shangshu, didn't you notice the strangeness of the two Huai Salt Roads at all?" As he spoke, Emperor Xuande's gaze fell on the body of Guo Zi, the head of the household department, and asked coldly.

Although the salt introduction of the Lianghuai Salt Road was opened by the Nanjing Household Department, the Jingshi Household Department had the responsibility of supervision, so Guo Zi could not escape the blame for the accident of the Lianghuai Salt Road.

"If the minister neglects to supervise, please ask the emperor to punish the crime." Guo Zi's face showed a depressed look, and then he walked out of the train and knelt in front of the hall to ask for guilt, the greed for ink in the two Huai Salt Roads has been around for a long time, and the two Huai Salt Roads give the most generous charcoal and ice respect to the household officials, even if he wants to manage it, he is powerless.

"Zuodu Imperial History, you all have the responsibility of supervising the salt road, and those who patrol the salt imperial history turn a blind eye to the greed of the two Huai salt roads, but you, the officials of the Imperial Inspectorate, also follow me to hide it from me, which is really disappointing to me!"

Subsequently, Emperor Xuande looked at Gu Zuo, the left capital of the Imperial Palace, and said in a cold tone, in addition to the household department, the Imperial Procuratorate is undoubtedly the second Jingshi Yamen who is responsible for the corruption of ink in the Lianghuai Salt Road.

"The minister is derelict in his duties, please ask the emperor to punish the crime!" Gu Zuo walked to the front of the main hall and knelt down expressionlessly, he couldn't defend himself in the face of the greedy ink case of the two Huai Yan Dao, otherwise it would only get darker and darker and anger Emperor Xuande.

"Spread my will to revoke the two Huai Salt Road Yamen and the local salt road yamen!" Emperor Xuande glanced at Gu Zuo, who was kneeling there, and after a deep groan, he issued an edict in a loud voice.

In fact, the Lianghuai Yandao Yamen has now become an empty shell, and all the officials and officials in it have been arrested, which is actually no different from being abolished.

As soon as these words came out, there was a commotion in the hall, if there were no two Huai salt road yamen, then how to collect the annual salt tax? The salt tax of Lianghuai is the most important source of tax revenue for the Ming household.

Although the household department can now be said to be "rich and rich", but the money will eventually run out one day, so the salt tax of the Lianghuai Salt Road is indispensable.