As soon as Li Chaozong's words came out, before Zuo Lingtian could react, the salt merchants of all sizes were already crying poor.

Ma Dequan is a famous golden abacus in Yangzhou, and he is not familiar with the major account books, standing behind Li Chaozong and saying to Zuo Lingtian: "My lord, Yangzhou has been rampant in private salt for ten years, and the annual salt industry income is less than one-fifth of Jianren's year. ”

Bao Yi'an also stood up and complained: "Yes, the price of private salt is only half of the official salt, and now there are hundreds of thousands of catties of official salt on the dock. ”

The general merchant spoke, and the small retail merchants below also complained about the problem of private salt, saying that they didn't make any money, and they would lose money, and they didn't dare to reduce their annual taxes.

said as if he was worse than the beggars on the side of the road, Lin Ruhai had a headache, even if he encountered this situation for a long time, he had to deal with it carefully, these salt merchants were difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood in their words, and all kinds of means could not be thought of at all, otherwise how could he have no gain from serving as Yangzhou Salt Patrol for three years.

After thinking about it, Zuo Lingtian confidently called himself to encircle and suppress the Salt Gang, he must have his own way to break the situation, and planned to look at it lightly, and then come forward to help him break the siege when it really didn't work.

Zuo Lingtian also made a head, pinched his eyebrows and pretended to be impatient: "Everyone, everyone, I understand that if you don't pay this private salt, it will definitely not work." ”

After speaking, he didn't give the salt merchants a chance to continue to speak, took out the gold beads that injured him before, walked up to Li Chaozong and asked: "Li Zongshang, I was attacked by a small child when I surrounded and suppressed the salt gang today, and the little one used a gold bead, and there was a word written on it, Bao Zongshang said that it was a strong word, I don't read much, please take a good look." ”

handed over the gold beads to Li Chaozong, turned around and walked back to the front of the case, and continued: "Today, I heard from you that this salt gang should indeed be suppressed, the beads used by a child of the salt gang to beat people are all gold, and this bead is enough for the people to eat and wear for a year, presumably there must be a mountain of gold and silver hidden in this salt gang." ”

Li Chaozong took the golden bullet in his hand, and immediately recognized that it was his own thing, but he felt that it was a big trouble.

Zuo Lingtian shouted: "Ah Da, come in." ”

"Yes."

More than a dozen ironclad soldiers behind Ah Da carried a box in their hands and placed it in the middle of the hall, Zuo Lingtian continued: "The Salt Gang is indeed going to suppress it, you guys, I will kill one first, selling illicit salt is a capital crime, and these are all the heads of those who resisted." ”

After the words fell, more than a dozen soldiers opened the box in their hands, and the bloody breath in the lobby became heavier, and many salt merchants did not dare to look at them directly, and Xiao Qingxuan, who was sitting on the side, even vomited out.

Zuo Lingtian was dressed in blood-soaked clothes, and at this moment, in the eyes of the salt merchants, he was the ghost envoy of the underworld.

Zuo Lingtian said in a consultative tone: "You will hand over the salt gang to me to suppress, I will only take sixty percent of the gold and silver obtained, and the remaining forty percent can be regarded as a compensation for you, after all, the salt gang has brought so many losses to you over the years, how about it?" ”

The words fell, but no salt merchant dared to talk easily, the head was placed in front of him, who dared to be so presumptuous.

Ma Dequan set his eyes on Old Man Xiao, but he didn't care about the smell of blood at all, and still squinted his eyes to rest, so he put his hope on Li Chaozong, hoping that Li Chaozong would come out and say a few words.

But Li Chaozong himself is difficult to protect, the golden bead in his hand is simply a life-urging talisman, if Zuo Ling Tiantian really links this bead with the Salt Gang, the entire Li family will definitely be greatly injured, he just didn't go home for two days on Jinfei Lake, why did so many things happen?

Zuo Lingtian still wanted to continue to press, but Lin Ruhai suddenly stopped talking and said: "Ling Tian is done, the encirclement and suppression of the Salt Gang is time-consuming and laborious, and it may kill innocents indiscriminately, and the encirclement and suppression of the Salt Gang requires the mobilization of sergeants, this is not a trivial matter, it needs to be ordered by the imperial court personally, and the silver taels rewarded by the border army still need to be paid attention to." ”

Zuo Lingtian looked at Lin Ruhai puzzled, isn't it good to solve the problem of the salt merchants in Yangzhou here once? However, Zuo Lingtian himself did not refute it, but just agreed: "Lord Lin is in charge." ”

Lin Ruhai saw that the lord agreed, and looked at the salt merchants again.

The money in the salt gang is all the salt merchants' own, let Zuo Lingtian go to the salt gang, the salt merchants themselves can only take the remaining forty percent, if the salt merchants themselves leave a handle or something with the salt gang, they can't get a cent and have to pay for their lives.

Two million taels of dozens of people present was not a large amount, and the salt merchants naturally readily agreed.

Lin Ruhai took out another letter of worship and handed it to Xiao Qingxuan in person, and pleaded: "Miss Xiao's talent is famous in the three provinces, and the little girl has also reached the age of studying. ”

Without waiting for Xiao Qingxuan to return the salute, he left with Zuo Lingtian.

At noon, Zuo Lingtian sat on a rattan chair and frowned, very puzzled by Lin Ruhai's approach, today he obviously had the opportunity to solve the problem of Yangzhou's salt industry at one time, but he wanted to stop himself.

In just a few days of contact, Zuo Lingtian knew very well that Lin Ruhai was a person with a deep heart in the city, could he be an ordinary person who could understand the truth of the tightly guarded silver treasury by relying on the account books alone?

Lin Daiyu was called by Lin Ruhai to the front of the hall to receive guests, and happened to meet Zuo Lingtian who was thinking, and felt very funny when she saw his meditative appearance, so she asked, "Brother Zuo, what are you worried about?" ”

Zuo Ling Tian saw that it was Lin Daiyu, his frowning brows soothed and replied, "It's okay, I'm just wondering about some of Uncle Lin's practices." ”

Lin Daiyu walked behind Zuo Lingtian with steps and rubbed his temples for him: "I thought it was a big deal, it was worth your hard work, I was still thinking about what was worthy of my father's praise, and I didn't understand my father's affairs, so I could ask him directly." ”

Zuo Lingtian closed his eyes and enjoyed Lin Daiyu's rubbing, and said with a smile: "Yes, you can go directly to ask Uncle Lin." However, Daiyu, you are quite comfortable to rub, I really don't want to get up. ”

Lin Daiyu's face flushed when she was provoked by Zuo Lingtian's words, and she remembered the embarrassment when she was examined by Zuo Lingtian with True Qi yesterday.

knocked on Zuo Lingtian's head: "Be careful about your skin, my father asked me to go to the front hall to greet the guests, and said that he wanted me to apprentice, and you went with me." ”

"Apprentice, I'm not interested, in fact, it's good to let Uncle Lin teach my sister, and I can save some silver."

Zuo Lingtian remembered that Lin Ruhai personally handed Xiao Qingxuan a prayer note today, begging Xiao Qingxuan to be his daughter's teacher, but he didn't expect it to be so soon.

After listening to Zuo Lingtian's words, Lin Daiyu naturally didn't follow: "I don't care, the idea of letting me apprentice is yours, you must go with me." ”