This visit to the British Mansion, the front was still very smooth, at least in front of the guests outside, the British Duke and his wife did not say anything, but were full of smiles.

Especially when receiving the dowry, it was specially pointed out that the reward of the official family not only made the guests present envious, but also made the Zhang family gain a lot of face.

But privately, after completing the previous process, the British Duke also called Li Hao and said, "You want to go south to check the salt tax, the official family has already told me.

You want to serve your country, I shouldn't have said anything more.

But if you want to use this as an excuse to rely on the trust of the official family, you have to treat my daughter slowly, then it will not work."

Li Hao hurriedly explained, "You have wronged me, I dare to swear to the sky, I have never thought like this.

This time I went south to patrol the salt simply because it was more appropriate for me to go, and the choice of this time was only to assist the ministers in their transformation."

"If that's what you really think, that's fine, otherwise not everyone in my family can bully the door." After the lesson, the British Duke said, "Your marriage, my family will discuss with your mother, and it will be done after you return to Beijing.

Now that you have accepted the levy, then the two of us can also be regarded as Weng sons-in-law, I know that when you go south this time, you will send the people of the palace to accompany you.

Naturally, there is no problem in terms of safety, but there are some things that they may not be able to do."

After saying that, he summoned a person from the backyard and looked about forty-five or sixteen years old.

Li Hao was curious about who this was, so he heard the British public introduce: "This is the personal guard who has been following me, Zhang Fu.

This time, I asked him to go south with you, and I also have some people I know well in the command camp in the south, if you need to find someone to help, you can ask Zhang Fu to find it."

Hearing this, Li Hao was a little flattered, he didn't expect that he would be able to enjoy the blessings of his father-in-law's family before he officially got married.

Of course, Li Hao can also understand that this person is also a British person who wants to be by his side and listen to his news.

But Li Hao didn't intend to refuse, anyway, he didn't have anything to hide, and this could indeed help him better complete his errand.

So he was ready to thank him, but he had a difficulty in how to call it, and now it seems that it is a bit bad to call the British duke, after all, he just said that he will be Weng's son-in-law in the future.

can call Yuezhang directly, doesn't it seem a little too early.

Now there is no time for Li Hao to think about it too much, so he simply said cheekily: "Then I will thank my father-in-law for helping me and get the errand done as soon as possible."

As a result, when the British public heard this, his face froze, perhaps because he didn't expect Li Hao to change his words so suddenly, so he looked at Li Hao twice.

Then he didn't speak, and left directly, leaving only Li Hao and Zhang Fu.

At this time, Zhang Fu stepped forward and said, "The little one visits my uncle, the grandfather of the country has already told the little one, and let the little one listen to your instructions all the way."

For the old man in the Guogong Mansion, Li Hao was not easy to pretend to be big, and hurriedly said: "You are polite when you are old, you are the one who was born and died with the grandfather of the country, how can I talk about whether I give orders or not.

It's just that I'm really not familiar with the local situation, so I'm going to need your help."

After hearing this, Zhang Fu also said politely, and asked, "Then how to arrange it on my side, do you want to give it first." ….

Li Hao said, "Okay, then I'm welcome, that's what I think.

This trip to the south, I will definitely be eye-catching, and it may be inconvenient to investigate the news.

So I want you to take the first step, go directly to Yangzhou, and help me find out the real situation there in the dark, and we will meet directly in Yangzhou, what do you think."

Zhang Fu agreed: "Then do as my uncle said, and the little one will go to Yangzhou in advance tomorrow."

When my uncle arrives in Yangzhou, I'll be trying to find a way to contact you."

After Li Hao thanked him, he left first and returned to the front hall.

After Li Hao left, the British Duke appeared in the house again and asked Zhang Fu, "After talking to him, what do you think of him?"

Zhang Fu

said: "From the conversation just now, we can see that our new aunt is quite ingenious, and he is not an ordinary mediocre person.

And from the words, he is kind to others, not a pampered and arrogant character, and he is barely a match for our girls."

The British Duke was silent and said, "I have seen people's hearts for a long time, and this time I went south, you will be by the side to help me watch him.

If there is a problem, it will always be revealed after such a long time, so you can write it down and come back and talk to me."

After the explanation, the British prince told him to go down and prepare, so that he could leave on time.

When Li Hao returned to the front hall, the guests here were almost the same, and when Wei came out of the backyard, Li Hao's family returned to their mansion.

However, in the carriage, Li Hao looked at Wei's face and did not look good all the way, and thought that something had happened in the British Mansion, so he motioned to ask Li Jian.

But Li Jian also spread his hands, saying that he didn't know what was going on.

It wasn't until Li Hao and the others finally entered the mansion and sat down in the inner courtyard that Wei said to Li Hao, "Look what you are doing, today the British Duchess pulled me into the back room to talk.

There was a lot of grievance between the words, saying that the marriage had been decided, and the communication between the two families was comfortable, and the date had already been determined.

As a result, you were about to leave suddenly, putting the marriage on hold, and she asked if our family thought that their family was doing something bad.

He also said that their family would definitely add a lot of dowry to the girl this time, and hoped that we would not treat their daughter slowly.

In the end, it was their girl who helped you say a few words, and I was able to get by."

Li Hao replied: "The British couple is naturally fond of such a daughter, and the mother should not care too much.

But listening to what her mother said, this Zhang Guifen is reasonable, and she thinks that when she enters the house, her mother and her can talk to her.

Actually, today the British Duke also came to me and asked about it, but when I explained the situation, he did not mean to embarrass me, but sent his confidants to the south with me to help."

After Li Jian heard this, he seemed to reassure Wei: "Yes, you see that this shows that the British duchess still agrees with this matter, and now it is nothing more than the British duchess loves her daughter and complains a little.

It's also normal, and in the future, you can go to the British Mansion and walk around a little bit and talk about it, and you'll be fine."

Hearing this, Wei didn't say anything. ….

So next, Li Hao returned to the courtyard and began to prepare for the trip, after all, this trip was not short, and there were really a lot of things to bring.

It's not good, but it's not a march to fight this time, so Li Hao brought Fu Deng with him and asked him to clean it up for himself.

In addition, Li Hao also has the Cao Gang to bring, after all, they all rely on water transportation to make a living, and they have also done the work of private salt transportation.

It's just that it's not the wave of people who are engaged in the sale of illicit salt, otherwise it is estimated that the settlement of illicit salt will be smoother this time.

The people who took the Cao Gang this time wanted to use their way to find out the news, and by the way, see if they could take this opportunity to remove the black sheep in the Cao Gang, so that they could be controlled in the future.

Of course, Li Hao didn't let them all act together, but after selecting the candidates, he left one person to facilitate contact, and the others went south first.

Just waiting for himself to be summoned in Yangzhou, these people, like Zhang Fu, were left behind.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, according to the itinerary planned in advance, Li Hao led a group of people to embark on a trip to the south to patrol the salt.

The first stop of this salt tour is Li Hao's hometown Yangzhou, of course, the reason for choosing this destination is not that Li Hao wants to return to his hometown to show off.

Rather, such as today's salt, it is mainly divided into detoxified salt, well salt and sea salt.

Among them, the salt is produced in Hedong Road, mainly supplied to the west of Henan, Hebei, Cao and Pu, and east of Qinfeng;

Well salt is produced near Chengdu Fu Road and supplied to Yizhou, Zizhou, Lizhou and Jiaozhou four roads.

The rest is sea salt from Lianghuai, which is supplied to the rest of the country

。

Therefore, it is obvious that the sea salt of Lianghuai and the pool salt of Jiezhou account for the largest proportion in the country, and the two together basically account for seventy percent of the salt production of the Great Song Dynasty.

Among these seventy percent, Jianghuai accounts for more than forty percent, which is equivalent to cleaning up the salt of the two Huai, which is equivalent to clarifying nearly half of the country's salt tax.

After all, Huainan West Road is the central part of Anhui, the northeast of Hubei and the southeast of Henan, which are all inland areas, not salt production areas.

Not to mention the salt merchants, the famous Hui merchants in this era and later generations have not officially risen.

These two Huai salt farms are distributed in Tongzhou (Nantong), Chuzhou (Huai'an), Taizhou, Haizhou (Lianyungang) and Lianshuijun (Lianshui) on Huainan West Road, with an annual output of more than 33 million kilograms.

Therefore, the big salt merchants who sell Huai salt are basically concentrated in Yangzhou, the capital of Huainan West Road, which is why Li Hao first rushed to Yangzhou.

Of course, in addition, returning to his hometown is also a goal, after all, Yangzhou is also Li Hao's basic plate.

Li Hao's house in Yangzhou is still bought by a salt merchant.

In addition, more importantly, Li Hao's partner Cheng Shi has made a lot of money in the soap and soap business over the years, and his reputation in Yangzhou's business community is not small.

Especially in the past two years, with the momentum of Li Hao's promotion to the knighthood, with this relationship, he has also gained something in other aspects.

Of course, Cheng Shi did it in a measured manner, so Li Haocai never said anything.

However, since he borrowed Li Hao's light, it is time to use Cheng Shi now. ….

It is precisely because of this layer of arrangement that Li Hao is confident that he can do a good job of patrolling salt.

Of course, it is a pity that Gu Tingye was not brought this time, otherwise the Yangzhou Bai family itself is a big salt merchant, and it would be much easier to have them take the lead and come to investigate again.

In the evening, when Li Hao was planning these alone, he heard a report from Fu Deng, saying that Sheng Hong had come over to discuss how to clear the salt tax.

Li Hao was a little curious, Sheng Hong could have a high opinion, so he let him in.

Li Hao asked, "Uncle said that he wanted to discuss the matter of clearing the salt tax, did he think of something?"

I only heard Sheng Hong reply: "The huge amount of salt tax that the imperial court loses every year, the virtuous nephew should be very clear.

If there is no official support for so much salt, it will never be possible.

Although most of the salt merchants in Yangzhou were in Yangzhou, they were far more than just Yangzhou officials were actually implicated.

In Bianjing, this matter involves the Salt and Iron Division, the Shipping Division, and the Cargo Department, and at the local level, it also involves the Transshipment Department and local officials in various places, and this matter is not easy to investigate."

Li Hao knew that Sheng Hong would definitely not be lost without a loss, and there must be a reason for saying this.

Then he asked: "We don't have to worry about the affairs of Bianjing, as long as we get the evidence here, the two prime ministers and Ouyang University Scholar will directly take people in Bianjing, and they will not be tolerated."

As for Yangzhou, my uncle has rebelled here for a few years, so I don't know what to teach me."

Sheng Hong said: "When I was in Yangzhou as a general judge, I actually heard some rumors about this.

The opening of the private salt here in Lianghuai is mainly in three aspects.

One is the salt factory, the other is transportation, and the other is salt introduction, and the problem of transportation comes from the Transshipment Division, which is why I reminded you in Bianjing in the first place."

Hearing this, Li Hao happened to ask, "Please uncle, tell me clearly, what is wrong with this transfer division."

Sheng Hong explained, "I have heard that some of the salt that comes out of the salt works is actually detained and sold directly to the merchants before the transshipment begins."

Li Hao was puzzled: "This is not right, this salt must have been weighed before transportation, and it is not right to deduct a part of this weight."

After hearing this, Sheng Hong went on to explain, "That's right, what's wrong with the weight, then add something to it.

So someone is responsible for mixing impurities such as sediment in the table salt to ensure that

The weight is correct.

In the middle, salt is transported from the salt farms in Tongzhou, Taizhou, and Chuzhou to Zhenzhou, and then from Zhenzhou to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jing, Hu, and other places.

Hearing this, Li Hao was puzzled: "Isn't no one caring about this blatant behavior?"

Sheng Hong said: "Those who want to manage have no right to manage, and those who have the right to manage don't want to manage, who do you let manage.

And if you really want to care, you have to have evidence, this thing happened on the water, and this evidence is not easy to find.

Even if the people and horses of the palace under your command are stronger than the army that transports salt in the local area, can they still play a role on the water.

You know, if you really push them into a hurry, they just sink the ship and report the loss of the reef, and the evidence is gone."

Hearing this, Li Hao already believed that what Sheng Hong said was probably the truth, but in this way, if he really found out about Yan Fu's father, how should he deal with Yan Fu. ….

Li Hao didn't come up with an answer for a while, so he didn't want to think about it for the time being.

Then he asked, "Except for the Transshipment Division, you don't know the problem of salt release and salt farms."

Sheng Hong replied: "I have good contact with these two, but I don't know the specific situation.

But I've been to the salt works, and the situation in there is really bad, so you'll know when you see it for yourself.

In that case, it is absolutely possible for salt farmers to bande together to hide salt and resell it to smugglers."

Hearing this, Li Hao also understood that Sheng Hong's coming this time today was to explain Yan Fu's matter to himself specifically, so as not to feel guilty.

Then the two discussed the problem again, and then they dispersed to rest.

After that, every day, Li Hao only organized everyone to discuss how to clear it up when he was free.

In the end, I also discussed a few sets of plans, but in the end I got the place and saw the move.

There is no need to discuss things anymore, the rest of the journey is extremely leisurely, and after half a month, the group finally arrived outside Yangzhou City.

Before entering the city, I found that there was already a row of officials standing outside the city, and they hadn't seen their faces clearly.

Just by looking at the clothes, you can see that there are not only local officials in Yangzhou, but also officials from the Transshipment Department who have come from Chuzhou.

So Li Hao couldn't help but sigh, these people were afraid that they had been eyeing him early in the morning, and they had been paying attention to the itinerary of their group.

Sure enough, as soon as Li Hao and the others approached, they saw the group of officials coming up.

Among them, the leader should be the current Huainan West Road transfer envoy Wang Youqian, and Li Hao's biggest opponent this time.

From knowledge to strength