Due to the appearance of the arquebus, Emperor Xuande was in a very good mood, and gave Li Yuntian a table of meals at noon, and asked Li Yuntian to accompany him to lunch, during which the two talked and laughed, and the atmosphere was very relaxed, and even the attendants and palace maids who were waiting on the side were clearly aware of Emperor Xuande's good mood.

After lunch, Emperor Xuande wanted to summon several dignitaries from all over the place, so Li Yuntian took his four-wheeled carriage back to the Imperial Procuratorate, and in the past two months, except for the graduation ceremony of the students of the Lecture Martial Arts Hall, he basically pressed the formation in the Imperial Procuratorate, and adopted a relaxed posture when investigating the corruption and perversion of the law in the Imperial History of the Imperial Palace, which effectively eased the tension between the Imperial History of the Cabinet camp Gu Zuobu and the Imperial History of the Six Departments, so that the operation of the Imperial Court gradually entered the formalization.

At the same time, Li Yuntian also won the trust of the cabinet camp and the imperial history of the six camps by virtue of his fair and strict attitude in handling the cases of Ma An and Niu Fei, as well as his gentle and sophisticated handling of affairs

"Resurrection, there is news from Jiangnan, Zhang Gui, this kid actually got the news in advance, and fled Yangzhou with his family before Jinyiwei arrived, and his whereabouts are unknown, Jinyiwei is now working with the local yamen to search for their traces, but I didn't expect that we arranged so tightly or leaked the news."

Soon after Li Yuntian returned to his public house, Xie Heng walked in quickly, put an envelope with the seal of Jinyiwei in his hand on the table in front of him, and then said with emotion, "Jinyiwei has already raided Zhang Gui's house, and found a large amount of gold and silver property and real estate deeds from his family's treasury, according to preliminary statistics, its value is nearly one million taels of silver, which is simply incredible!" ”

Although Li Yuntian was responsible for investigating the Niu Fei case, he wore many hats and had no time to investigate the case in person, so he removed Xie Heng and others to assist in the investigation, among which Xie Heng was the head of the imperial history who participated in the investigation.

Because Li Yuntian and Xie Heng have a friendship of the same year, although Li Yuntian is now in a high position and is Xie Heng's boss, Xie Heng still affectionately calls Li Yuntian in private, which is incomparable to other officials, and the friendship is the most important social relationship in the imperial court.

"It is said that the rich businessmen in Jiangnan are rich enough to rival the country, and it seems that the rumors are true." Li Yuntian smiled slightly, took out the official document in the envelope and looked at it slowly, without the slightest look of surprise on his face.

In fact, Li Yuntian had already known about Zhang Gui's escape, so he was not surprised at all, but felt a little relaxed in his heart.

Since Zhang Gui was involved in the Niu Fei case, and Niu Fei's case was co-organized by the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town, it was the people of Jinyi Weibei Town Fusi who went to arrest Zhang Gui this time.

In order to avoid the leakage of news, the day after Niu Fei's trial, Li Yuntian asked one of Jinyiwei's 100 households to go to Yangzhou to arrest Zhang Gui with official documents and manpower.

At the same time, Yang Yungui also let his subordinates secretly go to Yangzhou, and informed Zhang Gui of the matter half an hour before Jinyiwei entered Yangzhou City, and left in a hurry after taking a photo with Zhang Gui.

Zhang Gui was taken aback when he learned of this, he didn't know the identity of the person who came to report the news, but he also made some face-steady-looking figures in the officialdom in the capital, presumably some people were worried that he would be implicated after committing the crime, so he sent someone to report the news.

Besides, the matter between him and Niu Fei is top secret, and since the person who reported the news can tell the details, Niu Fei must have had an accident.

Due to the importance of Niu Fei's case, according to the person who reported the letter, Emperor Xuande had been alarmed, and Jinyiwei was about to arrive in Yangzhou City later, so Zhang Gui did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly asked his family to take soft and other things out of the city to hide.

Not long after Zhang Gui led his family to escape from Yangzhou City, the Jinyi Wei Baihu who was ordered to come to arrest people led his men into Yangzhou City and surrounded the Zhang family, but the Zhang family was only left with maids at this time.

Because Zhang Gui fled too quickly, he only took away some light and soft, and most of his belongings were still at home, so he was confiscated by Jinyiwei in one fell swoop.

The Jinyi Wei Baihu who went to arrest people had already passed on the Yangzhou Mansion Yamen and the Yangzhou Wei Command Envoy Yamen, asking them to assist him in searching for the traces of Zhang Gui's family.

"Zhang Gui is just an ordinary big salt merchant in the south of the Yangtze River, and he can accumulate a net worth of one million taels of silver, which is enough to be worth one-third of the annual tax of my Ming household, which is really shocking, and the tax silver that my Ming collects from the salt road every year is only one million taels."

Xie Heng sat down on the seat next to him and looked at Li Yuntian with a solemn expression, "Resurrection, it seems that the inside story in the Lianghuai Salt Road is shocking!" ”

"Freezing three feet is not a day's cold, since Taizu Lianghuai Salt Road has been the hardest hit area of corruption, Taizu has killed how many officials and businessmen of Lianghuai Salt Road, but the situation has not improved at all."

In front of Xie Heng, Li Yuntian did not hide his opinion on the Lianghuai Salt Road, and shook his head helplessly after putting down the official document in his hand, "Emperor Taizong has used troops for many years, and those salt merchants in Jiangnan have donated a lot every time, so Emperor Taizong has given them preferential treatment, which undoubtedly makes those salt merchants fearless, especially after Taizong moved the capital, the filth of the Lianghuai Salt Road has intensified. ”

"Emperor Taizong doesn't know about those bends in the Lianghuai Salt Road, but Emperor Taizong needs those salt merchants to provide military salaries, so he can only turn a blind eye." Xie Heng couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this, "Today, I'm afraid that the matter of the two Huai Salt Roads has become a bunch of bad debts that involve a wide range of things. ”

"Brother Xie, haven't you seen the salt merchant's dominance, when Wanrou returned to Yangzhou to see her eldest brother, Yuting was actually molested by a salt merchant's son in a gold shop, and later was arrested and put into the Lianghuai Salt Road Yamen, and had a short prison sentence."

Speaking of those salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, Li Yuntian couldn't help but think of a past incident, and said to Xie Heng in a deep voice.

The children of the salt merchants in his mouth refer to Wei Deguang, the second son of Wei Zhennan, vice president of the Salt Merchants Association, who failed to tease Zhou Yuting, and after being annoyed and angry, he let the people of the Lianghuai Salt Road Yamen say that Zhou Yuting was arrested in the prison of the Yandao Yamen, which caused a turmoil, and even the troops of Yangzhou Wei were alarmed.

"They even dare to offend the county lord?" Xie Heng suddenly showed a look of surprise when he heard this, although Zhou Yuting was not the county lord a few years ago, but at that time she was already the county lord, and those salt merchants' children dared to put her in prison, which shows how arrogant she is in the place.

"There is a saying among the people, strong dragons do not suppress the head snake, and those salt merchants have people behind them, and they are inevitably a little unscrupulous."

Li Yuntian smiled slightly, the so-called fox fake tiger power is nothing more than that, not to mention the salt merchants, as long as those people in the market are relied on, he sighed for a while, and asked with a smile, "Brother Xie, you said I should play back to the emperor?" ”

Since Niu Fei's case was the imperial case of Emperor Xuande, there was no serious case Li Yuntian had to report to Emperor Xuande, and his question made Xie Heng's brows furrow.

If you tell Emperor Xuande truthfully, then it will undoubtedly be asking Emperor Xuande for trouble, just imagine that a small salt merchant can accumulate so much wealth, so how strict the problem of the two Huai salt roads is can be seen.

"Avoiding the real is false!" After thinking for a long time, Xie Heng looked up at Li Yuntian and spit out four words in his mouth.

In layman's terms, that is, to report good news but not bad news, Li Yuntian can report Zhang Gui's escape to Emperor Xuande, but suppress the huge wealth found in his home, which is also a common practice in officialdom.

"In this way, the matter of Lianghuai Yandao will accumulate and it will be difficult to return, and he will definitely become a big hidden danger for my Ming Dynasty in the future!" Li Yuntian pondered for a while when he heard this, and sighed with a solemn expression.

"What, you want to thoroughly investigate the Lianghuai Salt Road?" Xie Heng was taken aback when he heard this, and looked at Li Yuntian with a surprised expression, the matter of the two Huai Yandao was widely implicated and the interests were complicated, it was a hot potato that no one wanted to provoke, and if he didn't do it, he would be burned.

"The biggest drawback of the Ming Dynasty today is the two Huai Salt Road, and the corruption of the two Huai Salt Road is not eliminated, and it is difficult to deter civil and military officials." Facing Xie Heng, who looked stunned, Li Yuntian bowed slightly, and after a deep groan, he said with a solemn expression, "The emperor is determined to forge ahead and rest with the people, you and I, as courtiers, should do our best for the emperor and the people of the world!" ”

Don't look at what Li Yuntian said is quite impassioned, but in fact, this is just an official statement, there is another hidden and important reason for thoroughly investigating the Lianghuai Salt Road, that is, to crack down on the forces of the six camps, and then make the cabinet and the six ministries reach a balance of power.

Xie Heng stayed there immediately when he heard this, he never thought that Li Yuntian would really have to deal with Lianghuai Yandao, he was shocked in his heart, with Li Yuntian's identity and status, there was no need to provoke such an incident, so he would be affected by that

"Fusheng, since you have such ambitions, then I am willing to go with you to Jiangnan to thoroughly investigate the Lianghuai Salt Road, report to Jun'en, and appease the people." Then, Xie Heng stood up and said solemnly to Li Yuntian, although it is extremely risky to uncover the shady curtain of the Lianghuai Salt Road, once it succeeds, it will definitely become famous and go down in history.

"Okay, with Brother Xie's words, my heart is much more steady." Li Yuntian slapped the table when he heard this, got up and said to Xie Heng in a deep voice, "Let's join forces with our brothers to turn the two Huai Salt Roads upside down!" ”

"Someone, invite Han Liang, the superintendent of Huguang Road, to him, and the official has something to say to him." Then, Li Yuntian groaned for a while, and shouted at the guards outside the door.

"With Han Yushi's help, we will definitely be like a tiger." Xie Heng immediately understood Li Yuntian's intentions, and said to Li Yuntian with a smile.

Li Yuntian smiled when he heard this, Han Liang was steady and thoughtful, otherwise Li Yuntian would not have chosen him to expose Niu Fei, if he was there, he would be able to help a lot in thoroughly investigating the affairs of the Lianghuai Salt Road.

In addition, Han Liang was a member of the Six Sects, and if he maneuvered from it, it would not cause the affairs of the Lianghuai Salt Road to get out of control.