Li Chaozong has been raising silver taels almost sleeplessly for three days, and a million taels of silver are not a small amount there, Yangzhou salt merchants are rich in the world, but under the influence of scholars, even the salt merchants in the rich world are still mainly buying land.

Almost all of the silver earned by the salt merchants was turned into fields and various treasures, and whoever could leave hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at home was easy to attract thieves, not to mention, and easy to not be able to raise his head among scholars.

Therefore, in order to raise silver taels in three days, Li Chaozong spent a lot of effort and energy, and even used the relationship between his own family officials, and the loss was not small.

Many treasures and good fields were in a hurry to sell without a detailed negotiation price, and carefully calculated that Li Chaozong went out to donate two taels of silver this time, and the loss was at least nearly 100,000 taels of silver.

However, fortunately, as the largest salt merchant in Yangzhou, no matter who he is, he still has to take care of his face, otherwise, the loss will only be more.

Now, what really makes Li Chaozong care is not this silver, but in this confrontation between himself and Lin Ruhai.

The imperial court wanted to move the salt administration, which was something that the previous emperor had been doing, but it had been shelved because of the wide range of involvement, and it was not until the current emperor, Zuo Lingtian's cheap father, succeeded to the throne, that he began to deal with the matter of salt politics.

However, the new policy was implemented for a few years but it was not satisfactory, the salt policy is a fat shortage, the imperial court wants to move the salt policy, but there are very few people who really want to make changes to the salt policy, perhaps only the emperor himself and a few diehard loyalists really want to make changes to the salt policy.

The rest of the people just want to take advantage of the chaos in the salt government to get a piece of the pie, and now the emperor has ordered to use the silver on the salt industry in Yangzhou as a reward, and the first step is to test the confidence and means of the salt merchants.

Now that my side has lost at the beginning, it is even more difficult to talk about the future.

As the saying goes: a traitor is like loyalty, and a big hypocrisy is like truth.

Li Chaozong has in his heart that no matter how angry he is, he must show his bearing as a general businessman, and he can't affect the entire Yangzhou salt merchant because of his emotions, so he is still steady and elegant on his face.

Even took the initiative to help Lin Ruhai and them count the silver taels, Ma Dequan and Bao Yi'an on the side felt incredible when they saw Li Chaozong's unreasonable approach.

Bao Yi'an put down the white porcelain bowl containing the ginseng soup, pointed to Li Chaozong, who was busy, and said: "Ma Dequan, he Li Chaozong is a dog's leg, first sent out a million taels of silver, not to mention that he is still helping people to count money, if he really has his face, don't call him Li Chaozong in the future, call him Li million." ”

Ma Dequan is also strange, although Li Chaozong is a gentleman of Wenxiu, but he has not done much to privately raise salt to help people kill people and sell goods, and if his wrist is not hard, he can't sit firmly in the position of this general businessman even if he gives him the entire salt industry in Yangzhou.

Now he suffers a loss, and people are bullying him on his own turf, and he takes the initiative to help, unlike him.

Ma Dequan is not a simple-minded Bao Yi'an, he still knows what occasions and what not to say, and persuasive: "Old Bao, you'd better be honest, the Chaozong has more ideas, I won't guess if you are the one, he can sit firmly in the position of the head of the chief merchant dragon is definitely different from what we thought." ”

"What can be different, isn't it just relying on the fact that both of you have read a little bit of books to bully me Lao Bao."

Bao Yi'an's retort with a fat face was obviously unimpressed.

Zuo Lingtian walked through the public hall and came to the two of them, Bao Yi'an was still complaining about Li Chaozong's behavior, and kept talking about Li million, Li million.

didn't notice Zuo Lingtian at all, or Ma Dequan really couldn't stand it, pretended to cough, got up and hugged his fists and saluted: "Uncle Zuo County, these days are good." ”

Zuo Lingtian replied: "Yes, thank you Mr. Ma for your concern, but who is this Mr. Bao has been talking about?" ”

Bao Yi'an also reacted at this moment, and greeted Zuo Lingtian embarrassedly: "Uncle Zuo, it's okay." ”

But Zuo Lingtian didn't fool around so simply, and continued to ask: "Mr. Bao, what you are talking about will not be Mr. Li." ”

"This....... Hey, hey, hey. ”

Bao Yi'an covered his head embarrassedly, Ma Dequan turned his head and couldn't bear to see Bao Yi'an's embarrassment.

Zuo Lingtian did not make fun of Li Chaozong like Bao Yi'an, but helped Li Chaozong speak: "Bao Zongshang still understands Li Zongshang's difficulties, this million taels of silver is wanted by the imperial court, Li Zongshang, as the leader of Yangzhou General Commerce, naturally has to take responsibility, otherwise the above will blame it, and everyone will not be able to make a good profit." ”

"Hey, yes, Uncle Zuo, you're teaching."

Bao Yi'an didn't know whether to ridicule or praise Zuo Lingtian, and said yes again and again.

Zuo Lingtian chatted with Ma Dequan for a few words and left.

As soon as Zuo Lingtian stepped out of the door, Bao Yi'an spat on the ground: "Phew, you deserve to teach me a lesson." ”

Then he pointed to Zuo Lingtian's back and said: "Ma Dequan, you also heard it, this thing actually spoke for him Li Chaozong, did that Li Million want to show his loyalty to the imperial court a long time ago, and then sell us, and then the whole Yangzhou will be his own family." ”

He didn't take a few steps and kept paying attention to Bao Yi'an and the two, and now hearing Bao Yi'an say this, Zuo Lingtian couldn't help but want to laugh.

Initially, Zuo Lingtian just wanted to add some depression to Bao Yi'an, anyway, it was not pleasing to see this fat man, if it wasn't for Lao Liu personally stabbing his distant nephew in the lobby before, otherwise this thing would have been arrogant.

Now the nephew who was killed can only die in vain.

According to Bao Yi'an's temper, it seems that it is impossible not to find trouble with Li Chaozong.

Zuo Lingtian was still imagining how Bao Yi'an went to trouble Li Chaozong, but he still underestimated Bao Yi'an's ability and temper.

Now in Bao Yi'an's heart, Li Chaozong is no longer his own person, and he is thinking about how to make Li Chaozong lose face.

The events after that were naturally completely beyond Zuo Lingtian's expectations, so Zuo Lingtian still had to think about how to tear a hole in the salt merchants before he left Yangzhou.

This can also reduce the difficulty of Lin Ruhai's follow-up work, but unfortunately, after walking around, Zuo Lingtian found that the salt merchants were not monolithic, but he had no way to intervene.

The small salt merchants below only listen to the big salt merchants they follow. The big salt merchants are all under the general merchants, and now the four major general merchants, the Xiao family is in a state of semi-retirement, and the Xiao family can't move.

Old Man Xiao has different weights in the entire southern provinces, even if the provincial governor comes, he must be humbly called a student, this is the generation of a terrifying scholar.

The students of each class are intertwined with each other, and the network compiled even in some parts of the emperor cannot go against their wishes

And Old Man Xiao also knows that the imperial court is not trying to kill the salt merchants quickly, but the salt industry is seriously corrupt, and it must be corrected and changed, and Old Man Xiao is also happy to divide his power.

Zuo Lingtian also asked Xiao Qingxuan why Lao Liu shot to kill Bao Yi'an's nephew at that time, Xiao Qingxuan laughed at him for killing, his Xiao family is still one of the four major salt merchants, although it is now in name only, but the foundation is still in Yangzhou, and some things still have to be maintained.

And there is no direct stabbing of the whole court, there must be a necessary reason for the court to turn a blind eye, otherwise the crime of selling illegal salt is enough to ambush the salt merchants in the entire Yangzhou, where Lin Ruhai is also used to serve as the salt patrol imperial history.

Zuo Lingtian still wanted to continue to ask, but Xiao Qingxuan just didn't say it, just asked him to prepare to meet with Old Man Xiao, who was so faceless at that time, this gift of reparation still had to be returned.