Shuncheon Mansion, the lobby of the government.

After Liu Zhang's and Dong Youcai each copied the tax seal letter, Li Yuntian made another surprising move, asking the two of them to copy a few copies of the confession that Liu Zhang's had written earlier, and still have to sign and draw on it.

"Liu Zhang's family, Dong Youcai, although my father doesn't know why you want to frame my father, but my father is willing to give you a chance, as long as you are honest and honest with the main messenger behind the scenes, then this father will plead with Lord Zhao, and you will be dealt with lightly."

After Liu Zhang and Dong You finished copying Liu Zhang's confession, Li Yuntian looked through the two copies twice, looked at them quietly, and said in a deep voice.

"Grandpa Guo, what the villain said before is true, there is no half a lie, even if Grandpa Guo will not let the villain go in the future, the villain will not change, otherwise it will be difficult to repay the lord's kindness to the villain on weekdays." Hearing this, a subtle sneer flashed at the corner of Dong Youcai's mouth, and he replied seriously, showing a posture of looking at death as home.

Li Yuntian, who is now in deep trouble, can still say such a bluff, which really makes Dong Youcai feel contempt, after all, Dong Youcai is not frightened, he has a rich life experience, how can he be bluffed by Li Yuntian in a few words.

"Grandpa Guo, the women only seek justice, although they die without regrets!" Liu Zhang then also looked at Li Yuntian solemnly, and said in a righteous manner, making it clear that he wanted to fight Li Yuntian to the end.

"Alas!" Seeing that Liu Zhang's and Dong Youcai were stubborn, Li Yuntian couldn't help but sigh helplessly, and then looked at the two of them with a stern expression and said, "In this announcement, you guys, a lie often needs thousands of lies to cover up, and thousands of flaws will follow, do you think what you have done is seamless?" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Muyu's eyes suddenly lit up, according to his experience, whenever Li Yuntian said the next sentence, he would make a sharp counterattack, so he couldn't help but have some expectations in his heart, wanting to see how Li Yuntian would turn things around and turn defeat into victory.

Liu Zhang's and Dong Youcai's faces couldn't help but change slightly when they heard this, and the two were surprised to find that Li Yuntian was not the slightest flustered at this time, but seemed confident, which made the two of them feel uneasy in their hearts.

The people at the scene were also puzzled by Li Yuntian's sudden words, no matter how they looked at it, Li Yuntian was now mired in a quagmire, and even he could not protect himself and was still bluffing here, and he was ashamed to threaten Liu Zhang's and Dong Youcai's submission, this is simply an idiot's dream, since Liu Zhang's and Dong Youcai's coming to Shuntianfu, it is obvious that they have put life and death out of the way, how can they be coerced by Li Yuntian?

"Send them to the people outside the church who are literate and hyphenated." Under the suspicious gaze of everyone, Li Yuntian handed the transcripts in his hand to several servants of the Shuntian Mansion standing on the side.

Several errand officers did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly took the copies to the courtyard outside the hall, and distributed them to the literate people outside the hall, which made the people in the courtyard subconsciously gather around those who held the copies in their hands, and looked at the contents of the copies with great interest.

"Your Excellency, the Lord of the Household Department has been invited."

"Your Excellency, the Lord of the Ministry of Engineering has been invited."

Just as the messengers were distributing those transcripts in the courtyard, the messengers who had been entrusted by Li Yuntian and sent by Zhao Muyu to get the items Li Yuntian needed rushed back one after the other and shouted to Zhao Muyu.

Several officials holding square and rectangular wooden boxes in their hands followed those errand officers with expressionless faces, not knowing what was inside, and it was only at this time that people knew what Li Yuntian was going to take from the Ministry of Work and the Ministry of Households.

Since the yamen of the household department and the yamen of the Ministry of Industry were not far apart, the officials on duty in the household department and the ministry did not dare to slack off after receiving the official document from Zhao Muyu requesting assistance in the investigation of the case, and immediately sent someone to bring the items that Li Yuntian needed, for fear of delaying this focus court trial, which was noticed by all walks of life in the capital.

Because the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry are not the yamen under the jurisdiction of the Shuntian Mansion, if Zhao Muyu wants to transfer things from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households, he cannot just rely on the order sign, which is a certificate for the errand to act can be used to summon civilians, and when requesting assistance from other yamen, he must send an official document and obtain the permission of the chief official of the yamen before he can make the trip.

"Lord Zhao, my father has something to ask Liu Zhang and Dong Youcai, if it is convenient for adults." When the errands finished distributing those transcripts in the courtyard, Li Yuntian stood up and said to Zhao Muyu quietly.

"Your Excellency, please." Hearing this, Zhao Muyu hurriedly stretched out his hand and made a gesture of please, and his eyes couldn't help but show a look of expectation.

To be honest, he would prefer to see Li Yuntian fight back, otherwise today's court trial would be too bland, he believes that this is also a scene that the people want to see, only the ups and downs of the case can be impressive, and the aftertaste is endless.

Seeing this, the scene suddenly fell silent, and everyone's eyes were focused on Li Yuntian, wanting to see how he would defend himself next.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in the second year of Xuande, this prince was ordered by the emperor to quell the rebellion in Jiaozhi, when the rebellion of the King of Han was initially decided, and the treasury was empty, and there was no way to allocate the military salary for Jiaozhi to quell the rebellion."

Li Yuntian walked to the front of the hall, pacing back and forth in the hall, and said to the people outside the hall with an expressionless face, "In view of the urgent military situation in Jiaozhi at that time, my father thought of a way to raise military salaries and raise money from the merchants in Jiangnan. ”

"But the Jiangnan business community has donated a lot of money to the imperial court in those years, and the war situation in Jiaozhi is not optimistic, unless forcibly recruited, the merchants in Jiangnan have absolutely no reason to donate money for a war that seems to be about to fail, but the emperor is diligent and loves the people will not do this anyway."

As he spoke, the corners of Li Yuntian's mouth couldn't help but show a wry smile, and his expression became solemn, "Therefore, in order to raise enough military salaries, the prince asked the emperor to exchange the future commercial franchise of Jiaozhi and give the successful bidders the commercial franchise in Jiaozhi, which led to the auction in Yangzhou, which enabled the imperial army to quell the rebellion in Jiaozhi. ”

"Are there any businessmen among you?" Then, Li Yuntian paused, and asked in a loud voice at the people outside the hall with a stern expression.

"Grandpa Yuguo, the little ones are in business." There was a commotion in the courtyard outside the hall, and then a dozen or so brightly dressed men crowded in front of the crowd and answered cautiously.

"This prince asks you, if you can participate in those bids in Yangzhou and have sufficient funds, will you auction off the commercial franchise of Jiaozhi?" Li Yuntian looked at the dozen or so men and asked in a deep voice.

"Grandpa Yuguo, the villain will not bid, with the current shape of Jiaozhi, no one would have expected that Grandpa Guo would be able to exterminate those rebels in Jiaozhi, and once Grandpa Guo's levy fails, the money invested in it will be wasted."

Hearing this, a middle-aged man standing in front of the crowd with a big belly bowed to Li Yuntian and replied loudly, "Grandpa Guo, if the villain is not mistaken, the bidding results of that year are only valid for Grandpa Guo's requisition, if Grandpa Guo can't exterminate the traitors in Jiaozhi, the money will be confiscated to the treasury." ”

Li Yuntian's bidding in Yangzhou was reported by "Mingxin Bao", which already had good sales in Beijing at that time, especially popular with businessmen, so almost all the business circles in Beijing knew the experience of that bidding.

Obviously, the Ming army was defeated in a series of battles on the battlefield of Jiaozhi, and even the prince and the prince, the right governor of the right army, An Yuanhou, and Liu Sheng, the chief officer of Jiaozhi, were all killed, and the situation was so bad that it can be seen that no businessman is willing to donate property to Jiaozhi, after all, their money is not blown by the wind, how can they donate to the court one after another, in that case, it will not become a big wrong, and it is easy to be remembered by the court.

Due to the Yongle Emperor's successive wars, coupled with the fact that Emperor Xuande had just fought a battle with the King of Han at that time, this made the Ming treasury empty, and it was no longer able to allocate money and grain to Li Yuntian's army to levy Jiaozhi as military salaries.

The reason why Li Yuntian wants to mention this past incident is to tell everyone at the scene the origin of the Jiaozhi commercial franchise, and at the same time, it is also to arouse everyone's memories of the Jiaozhi counterinsurgency.

Sure enough, when the middle-aged man's words fell, the people in the courtyard broke out again into a small commotion.

Although many of them also heard about the Yangzhou auction back then, they didn't know the inside story, and they never expected that the auction would have such a strict restriction.

Zhao Muyu looked at the people outside the hall who were whispering in their ears, and couldn't help but feel admiration for Li Yuntian's mind, just a few words made the atmosphere on the scene change subtly, and the eyes of those people looking at Li Yuntian were obviously much softened.

"Thanks to the emperor's blessing, the bidding of that year was very successful, and my father remembers very well that there are 3 porcelain franchise places, and the transaction price is 10,000 taels; There are 3 franchises for medicinal materials, and the transaction price is 30,000 taels; 3 grain franchise places, with a transaction price of 100,000 taels; 4 cloth franchise places, with a transaction price of 200,000 taels; 3 liquor franchise places, with a transaction price of 100,000 taels; 4 tea franchise places, with a transaction price of 250,000 taels; 4 salt franchise places, with a transaction price of 100,000 taels; There are 5 mining franchise places, and the transaction price is 100,000 taels! ”

Just when Zhao Muyu was emotional, Li Yuntian paced back and forth in the lobby while saying in an orderly voice, "The above eight categories of commodities raised a total of 23.42 million taels of silver, of which the members of the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce contributed 1.28 million taels of silver, accounting for 3 percent of the total, and the remaining 2.14 million taels were contributed by businessmen from all walks of life in Yangzhou, accounting for 6 percent of the total. ”

"This company admits that the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce does have a connection with the father, when the company was in Hukou County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, he mobilized local businessmen to establish the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce, and the company became the honorary president of the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce, but the company can pat his chest and say that the company has never protected the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce."

As he spoke, Li Yuntian glanced around at the people gathered outside the hall with a stern expression, and asked in a loud voice, "To this day, have you ever encountered or heard of the people of the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce bullying people?" ”