In early November, Yangzhou Wharf.

On the wharf, the pennants were unfurled, the gongs and drums were noisy, and the crowd of people who welcomed them was densely gathered, and Li Yuntian, who was dressed in a white mink coat, stood in front of the crowd and talked and laughed with Pan Xingmin and others, and the atmosphere looked extremely relaxed.

Today, two jurors from the Beijing will arrive in Yangzhou by boat, one is Yang Pu, a cabinet elder, and the other is Hu Ying, a scholar of the Ministry of Rites.

What happened in the Lianghuai Salt Road reached the capital in mid-October, and then caused an uproar in the officialdom of the capital, this incident happened too suddenly, there was no warning in advance, and no one thought that Li Yuntian would suddenly attack the Lianghuai Salt Road.

However, well-informed people have already heard about the grievances between Chen Wenren and Li Yuntian, so Li Yuntian's excesses have a reasonable explanation, and it is obvious that Chen Wenren's kidnapping of Zhao Xinyue angered Li Yuntian.

If it were someone else, maybe he would have endured the sulking of Zhao Xinyue's kidnapping, after all, the Lianghuai Salt Road is a matter of importance, and it is impossible to touch it, and the people who can serve as the salt patrol envoys of the Lianghuai Salt Road are usually old and serious, and they will definitely not joke about their career for the sake of a woman, thinking about settling accounts with Chen Wenren in the future.

But Li Yuntian is different, not only is he in the limelight, he has won the trust of Emperor Xuande, but at the same time, he is in a high position, and he is at the age of blood and strength, which makes Chen Wenren's wishful thinking fail, and in the end, he harms himself.

For the cabinet and the six ministries who were fighting openly and secretly in the capital, this sudden news immediately disrupted their deployment in the court, and they turned their attention to the two Huai Salt Road.

As an important source of tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty, the Lianghuai Salt Road has extremely important political and economic value, and the Six Ministries naturally do not want the Lianghuai Salt Road to cause chaos and implicate others, while the cabinet is eyeing the Cabinet and wants to take advantage of this opportunity to make a big fuss and give the officials of the Six Ministries a heavy blow.

Therefore, as soon as the news of the Lianghuai Salt Road came to the capital, the cabinet elders and the officials of the six ministries entered the palace one after another to report the matter to Emperor Xuande.

Naturally, the cabinet elders hoped that Xuande Dijia would punish the two Huai Yan Dao on the grounds of rectifying the imperial program, while the Sixth Ministry tried their best to excuse the two Huai Yan Dao, and wanted to send someone to Yangzhou for a jury trial on the grounds that the matter was serious, so as to avoid the expansion of the case, and the two sides also had a fierce wrestling in the court for this reason.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Li Yuntian's report on the case of the Lianghuai Salt Road had not yet arrived in Beijing, which also made Emperor Xuande unable to adopt the opinions of the cabinet and any party of the Six Ministries, after all, the most official news of the affairs of the Lianghuai Salt Road came from Li Yuntian, how could he issue the relevant decree when Li Yuntian had not yet reported?

Therefore, Emperor Xuande sent someone to send a holy decree to Li Yuntian, asking Li Yuntian to return to the inspection affairs of the Lianghuai Salt Road.

In the midst of the chatter and quarrel between the cabinet and the six ministries over the Lianghuai Salt Road, Li Yuntian's report was finally delivered to the capital by an 800-mile fast horse at the end of October.

What shocked the civil and military officials of the capital was that Li Yuntian had not only found out the case of illegal salt in the Lianghuai Salt Road at this time, but also implicated the bribery of officials in the Lianghuai Salt Road and the household department in Nanjing.

According to Li Yuntian's preliminary statistics, since the first year of Xuande, nearly 100 million taels of silver have been lost in taxes and silver in the Lianghuai Salt Road, the Nanjing Household Department, and the Salt Merchants Association.

This figure not only surprised Emperor Xuande, but also made those high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the court feel incredible, although everyone knows that the Lianghuai Salt Road is a yamen with plenty of oil and water, but in just six or seven years, they can earn 100 million taels of silver is far beyond their imagination.

You must know that the annual income of the treasury of the Ming household department is only about three million taels of silver, so that when Emperor Yongle conquered Mongolia in the north, he needed donations from merchants, among which the donations of salt merchants were the main force.

It's really ridiculous to say it now, it seems that the money donated by the salt merchants before was the salt tax lost by the Ming Dynasty, which means that the salt merchants not only profited a lot from the Lianghuai Salt Road, but also won the reward and reward of the Yongle Emperor with the donations that originally belonged to the Ming treasury tax silver.

Although the officials in the capital felt incredible about the figure provided by Li Yuntian, no one doubted its authenticity.

This is not only because Li Yuntian's recital has the signatures and seals of Pan Xingmin, Zhang Tao, and Qin Ke, the three officials of Nanjing's three legal divisions, indicating that the three will be responsible for this, but more importantly, Li Yuntian's recital indicates that he will recover the lost tax money, which is not trivial, and the result will be truly laid out there and cannot be fabricated.

The loss of 100 million taels of tax silver in the Lianghuai Salt Road made Emperor Xuande furious in the court, which made the civil and military officials silent, but if you look closely, you will find that the officials on both sides of the Xungui group and the cabinet camp have gloating expressions on their faces, while the officials on the side of the six camps are crying and looking very depressed.

Obviously, the people who had an affair with the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case were basically officials from one of the six camps, and once this case was investigated, many officials who had received benefits would be unlucky.

After a lot of anger, Emperor Xuande ordered that the two Huai Yandao transfer envoys, who had left office during the Xuande period and were now holding positions in the capital ministry, be taken down on the spot and handed over to the Fusi of Jinyi Weibei Town, waiting for Li Yuntian's thorough investigation.

Listening to Emperor Xuande's edict, one of the two two Huai salt road transfer envoys fainted on the spot on the main hall, and the other person knelt there with a pale face and begged Emperor Xuande for mercy, and finally the two were dragged out by the guards in front of the palace like dragging dead dogs.

Subsequently, Emperor Xuande got up and brushed his sleeves away, and left the Taihe Hall angrily, which made the Manchu Dynasty civil and military bow down in awe.

Emperor Xuande has been mild since he ascended the throne, and it is the first time that he has been angry in public, especially when he took down the two Lianghuai salt road transfer envoys in public, showing his arbitrary side to the outside world, which made the high-ranking officials and magnates present realize that Emperor Xuande is no longer the young emperor who did not do more and did not do more things in the past, and was at their mercy, but he had the blood of Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Yongle in his body.

When he arrived at the palace, after Jin Ying removed the chamberlains and maids in the palace, Emperor Xuande couldn't help laughing loudly, his face was full of a smug look, and the anger above the hall was like two people.

Emperor Xuande scolded very happily in the main hall before, in the past, there were always senior civil officials and nobles in front of him babbling in front of him to embarrass him under the banner of national righteousness, but today those people are honestly standing there, without half a rebuttal, which really makes him sulk.

What made Emperor Xuande particularly pleased was that Li Yuntian had done an excellent job of completing the task of the two Huai Salt Roads this time, not only finding out the case of illegal salt and corruption, but also recovering huge losses for the imperial court, which would surely make the cabinet have the ability to compete with the six ministries, so that he would be able to better control the government.

"Your Majesty, how do you reply to the secret letter of the Marquis of Zhenwu?" After Emperor Xuande finished laughing, Jin Ying came to him and bowed down and asked.

Along with Li Yuntian's recital, there was a secret letter addressed to Emperor Xuande, in which Li Yuntian asked Emperor Xuande for instructions on what to do next, and he now had evidence in his hands that the people of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the Salt Merchants Association had bribed the six members of the imperial court.

In the secret letter, Li Yuntian spared the six members of the Naxi Ministry, who had taken bribes from Emperor Xuande, and accused the officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road case against the officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the Nanjing Household Department, so as not to cause turmoil in the court situation, and at the same time to prepare for the aftermath of the incident.

"Give an edict to the Marquis of Zhenwu, I will entrust him with full authority over the matter of the two Huai Salt Roads, I believe he will not disappoint me!" Emperor Xuande took a sip of the fragrant tea on the table next to him, then made up his mind, and told Jin Ying loudly, reassuring that Li Yuntian was acting very reassuringly.

"Your Majesty, if the Marquis of Zhenwu recovers the lost tax silver, then our Ming treasury will be full, and it will save those adults of the six departments to ask for silver every day." Jin Ying bowed forward and took the teacup in Emperor Xuande's hand, and said with a smile on his face.

In fact, this time Li Yuntian recovered the lost tax silver, and the biggest benefit was the inner treasury of Emperor Xuande, which was controlled by Jin Ying.

"This is the difference between Zhenwu Hou and them, they only know how to open their mouths to ask me, while Zhenwu Hou has his own ideas to raise funds." Emperor Xuande couldn't help but sneer when he heard this, and his tone was quite dissatisfied with the officials of the Sixth Ministry, and at the same time, he was full of praise for Li Yuntian.

According to the eunuch of Jiaozhi Town, Jiaozhi not only harvested grain this year and the market gradually prospered, the people have been talking about the emperor's kindness, according to the slaves to see that Jiaozhi has been effective under the governance of Zhenwuhou, and will be able to maintain long-term peace and stability."

Jin Ying stood aside with a teacup, and said to Emperor Xuande at the right time, secretly saying good things to Li Yuntian, his own nephew has joined the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce, and now that he is in the mix, he naturally wants to repay the favor.

"If it weren't for the Marquis of Zhenwu, I'm afraid Daming would have lost Jiaozhi." Emperor Xuande was quite touched by what Jin Ying said, and nodded subconsciously, if it wasn't for Li Yuntian leading the army to Jiaozhi to quell the rebellion, he would have given up Jiaozhi for the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty.

"By the way, let King Fu come to the palace, and I will discuss with him the matter of sending the children of the royal family to Jiaozhi as officials." Subsequently, Emperor Xuande remembered something and opened his mouth to order Jin Ying.

In Li Yuntian's view, in the more than 60 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the number of children of the imperial family has been several times that of the founding of the country, and this number will continue to grow in the future, and it is a geometric growth.

Since the Yongle Emperor Jing martyrdom, the Ming Dynasty has lost its former power, completely raised by the imperial court, can not engage in politics and business, all expenses are responsible for the imperial court, this is undoubtedly a lot of expenses, the future will become a huge pressure on the Ming finances.

Therefore, Li Yuntian re-mentioned to Emperor Xuande the idea of Emperor Hongwu to use the imperial family as a "feudal Ping Jingshi", and tried to use Jiaozhi as a pilot to let those children of the imperial family enter the officialdom, which not only solved the big trouble of the children of the imperial family who had nothing to do and were bloated in numbers in the future, but also wanted Emperor Xuande to rest assured about Jiaozhi, lest someone say that he was too big to lose at the tail of Jiaozhi.

In view of the martyrdom of Emperor Yongle and the rebellion of King Han, Emperor Xuande couldn't make up his mind about this matter for a while, but today he was in a happy mood, and Jin Yingyi suddenly remembered this matter, so he wanted to find King Fu to discuss.

"Minions, let's do it." A subtle smile flashed at the corner of Jin Ying's mouth, and then he bowed and left, obviously he didn't mention Jiaozhi unintentionally just now, but deliberately sold Li Yuntian a favor.