In this salt tax inventory, a total of more than 28 million taels of cash were confiscated, not counting the piles of acres of houses that were confiscated.

Among them, the fixed assets of the acres of land and houses could not be taken away, so they were handed over to the local yamen for sealing.

When the imperial court's will is issued, it is naturally the sale of what should be bought and the reward that should be rewarded, which has little to do with Li Hao.

As for the cash, it was transported back to Bianjing by Li Hao, although the imperial court replenished Li Hao's personnel.

However, such a large amount of silver taels, it is not easy to take the land route, and after discussing it again, it was decided to take Cao Yun and enter Beijing directly through the Bianhe River.

It just so happened that Li Hao just took the opportunity to clean the Cao Gang, and now it is just right for use.

After requisitioning a large number of transport ships, Li Hao led people to escort Yin Liang and a cadre of human traffickers to Beijing and officially set off.

After more than a month, it was only on the 22nd day of the lunar month, close to the New Year's Day, that we arrived in Bianjing.

Until here, Li Hao was really relieved, after all, guarding so many silver taels, his heart was always unsteady.

At the same time, in order to receive this batch of silver two, the third division and the household department were pulled up to work overtime after the seal was on holiday.

Responsible for counting and inspecting the silver taels, and only after confirming that the amount is correct can it be stored in the treasury.

So as soon as he landed, Ouyang Xiu came over with someone, and then Li Hao handed over the account to Ouyang Xiu.

By the way, I brought all the prisoners down first, and handed them over to the people of Dali Temple, so that they could take people first.

After waiting, the handover officially began, and after Li Hao and Ouyang Xiu saw that things were on the right track, they handed over the matter to the people below.

The two left the dock and entered the palace to report in detail about the salt inspection.

On the way, Li Hao asked Ouyang Xiu about the question that he couldn't figure out: "Uncle, I don't understand why Chu Dongyang was appointed as a transfer envoy.

It is said that he is the one who was implicated after all, even if he can say it clearly, he should not stay in Huainan, and be promoted to the transfer envoy."

Ouyang Xiu replied, "I don't know the specific circumstances of this matter, but this matter was mentioned by Prime Minister Han.

The official family also wanted to calm people's hearts, so they agreed."

Hearing this, Li Haoxin said that no wonder Chu Dongyang was so determined, it turned out that he was Han Qi's person.

However, Han Qi buried such a person in Huainan, but it has been useless, what is the purpose.

Just as Li Hao was thinking, Ouyang Xiu interrupted Li Hao's train of thought: "By the way, your wedding date has been set, do you know?"

Li Hao asked in surprise, "Where do I know where to go, I just arrived in Bianjing, and I haven't returned home yet."

There was so much silver pressed along the way in the middle, and I didn't dare to communicate with the outside world.

By the way, my mother and the British government have set a date."

Ouyang Xiu said, "It's scheduled for March 19, probably because I'm afraid that there will be some moths among you.

So after the date is set, basically all the notices have arrived, and it is not good for the official family to send you another patrol errand."

Li Hao said helplessly: "The news of my marriage one day, everyone else knows, so they hide it from me alone, this is too miserable."

As soon as these words came out, Ouyang Xiu laughed.

Then he talked about the major events that happened in the court during Li Hao's time out of Beijing, and he went outside the palace.

….

When the two of them arrived at the Vertical Arch Palace, Fu Bi and Han Qi were also sitting here, waiting to hear Li Hao's return.

And this time Li Hao's treatment was quite good, when he first entered the door.

Zhao Zhen said, "My great hero has returned, and you have checked the salt tax this time.

The silver brought back is equivalent to earning back half a year's tax for the imperial court."

Li Hao replied: "This is not the work of one minister, except for the ability of subordinates.

mainly relies on the blessing of the official family, as well as the support of the three prime ministers.

Otherwise, my trip would not have gone so smoothly, so the credit for this belongs to the officials and the ministers."

Hearing this, Zhao Zhen immediately smiled and said

"Well, if that's what I say, then I won't have to give you many rewards.

After all, the main credit goes to me and the Great Minister, don't you say?"

Li Hao was dumbfounded by these words, so he had to say with a bitter face, "What the official said is reasonable."

Seeing this appearance, Zhao Zhen smiled even more happily and said, "Okay, it should be your credit, and you are indispensable.

Sit down and tell me about this investigation and tell me and the ministers about it."

Li Hao took out the specific records of this inventory and handed them to Zhao Zhen for inspection, and introduced: "After the minister personally inspected this time, he found that the situation of illegal salt sales in Huainan was far worse than the minister thought before.

In addition to the 28 million taels of silver that were seized this time, the shops in the seized Grange were converted into silver taels, and the total total amount was more than 50 million taels."

Hearing this, everyone's hearts trembled, but they didn't expect that this check was not a small half-year tax, but almost a whole year.

Ouyang Xiu also asked directly, "Then according to your estimate, how much can the tax silver increase in the next year?"

Li Hao replied, "If it can be strictly managed, I expect that the salt tax will increase by 7 million taels a year."

Now everyone really can't sit still, although your number is much worse than just now.

But this is every year, then the difference is big, and this is only an inventory of Huai salt, if the well salt and the salt are also checked, then the annual tax will not be able to rise by 10 million taels.

Thinking like this, Zhao Zhen suddenly had an impulse to expel Li Hao directly and then go to investigate the salt tax.

But Li Hao poured cold water on Zhao Zhen at this time: "Although this can increase taxes, this move consumes too much people's power, and it does not solve the problem of official salt today, and the minister does not think it is a good thing."

These words puzzled several people, and Ouyang Xiu asked, "What do you mean when you say that there is a problem with official salt?"

Li Hao replied: "After a visit to the salt patrol, I was deeply touched.

First of all, there is the problem of salt farmers, a large part of the salt farmers sell it privately to salt sellers, as to why they are willing to risk the crime of killing their heads.

At first, I didn't understand it, but when I went to the salt factory after the inventory, I learned the real situation.

Because salt farmers can only sell salt to the government, the officials in charge deliberately lower the price of salt and raise the price of salt.

As a result, salt farmers themselves could not afford to eat salt, and this livelihood was difficult to sustain, so they had to find another way out and secretly sell salt to salt sellers.

….

Second, there is the problem of collusion between officials and salt merchants, who directly take goods from official salt.

Then, in order to ensure the weight, the corresponding officials will mix sand or small stones in the official salt, resulting in the extremely poor quality of the official salt, which is not better than the private salt.

Moreover, there is no salt tax on private salt, and even if the cost of bribing officials is added, its price is still lower than that of official salt, but its quality is better than that of official salt.

In contrast to these two, the people will naturally turn to buy cheap and high-quality private salt.

In addition, there are also problems with the regional monopoly system, and these problems cannot be solved by removing a group of officials.

If we can't really solve these problems, it will be difficult to achieve the effect of banning illegal salt, and it will be harmful to the people."

Hearing that the people suffered because of this, Zhao Zhen fell into deep thought, from his heart Zhao Zhen is definitely a good emperor who loves the people, but the official salt income accounts for nearly thirty percent of the imperial court taxes, and there must be no problems.

Zhao Zhen, who didn't think about it, said out loud: "The salt tax is a major national matter, and it must not be taken lightly, but the people's life is not easy, and they should not be too harsh, what do you think about how to deal with this matter?"

After Zhao Zhen finished speaking, he looked at the four people opposite, and when he saw that no one spoke, he looked at Li Hao again.

Seeing this situation, Li Hao had no choice but to reply, "The minister hasn't come up with any good way to deal with this matter, so why don't you give the minister a little time and let the minister think about it."

Zhao Zhen also realized at this time that Li Hao had just come back, so he said, "That's right, you just returned to Beijing, and you have to prepare for the big event of getting married soon

, and shouldn't be too tired.

Anyway, now that the salt affairs in Huainan have just been cleaned up, there will be no problems in a short period of time, you can think about it slowly.

It just so happened that the post of salt and iron envoy was vacant, and you came to take up the post of salt and iron envoy after the year, just in time to deal with the salt affairs.

As for the official reward, I will wait for the opening of the government after the year, and when you go back, you will also tell the others to give them peace of mind."

Knowing that he had been promoted again, Li Hao got up and thanked the emperor for his grace.

Then he said goodbye and left, and waited until Li Hao left.

Zhao Zhen also said: "Regarding the matter of salt affairs, I have an idea, that is, to assign the power of the goods affairs to the three divisions and manage them in a unified manner.

It just so happens that you have always felt that the officials are redundant, so this time I will take this opportunity to dismiss the cargo business."

Ouyang Xiu, who heard this, was naturally happy, once the power of the goods was transferred to the three divisions, it meant that the power in his hands increased sharply.

It's just that Han Qi has something to say at this time: "If the goods are attributed to the three divisions, is the authority of the three divisions too great?

Ouyang Bachelor is upright, and there is naturally no problem in commanding the three divisions, but it is difficult to guarantee that the successive officials in the future can also have such ability.

Once the entrustment is not human, there will be no more restraint at that time, and it will be easy to spoil the affairs of the court."

Hearing this, Ouyang Xiu naturally couldn't defend himself, after all, Han Qi was talking about future officials, who can guarantee this, and earning power in public is not Ouyang Xiu's style.

So Ouyang Xiu looked at Fu Bi to see what Fu Bi meant.

But apparently Fu Bi didn't intend to get involved, so he kept silent.

Seeing this, Han Qi wanted to persuade Zhao Zhen to change his mind.

….

But Zhao Zhen was quite insistent on this, saying, "What Han Xianggong said is also reasonable, but you can't give up eating because of choking.

It's like the new policy you're implementing now, you have to try it out before you know if it's good or bad, and you're right."

Hearing that Zhao Zhen had anything to do with the New Deal, Fu Bi had no opinion on the merger, so he turned his head to support it.

Then Ouyang Xiu also took the opportunity to express his attitude, and seeing that the rest of the people agreed, Han Qi didn't say anything anymore.

Seeing that the matter had been decided, Zhao Zhen said, "Okay, then this matter will be decided, and we will start to deal with this matter after the year.

In addition, this time, Li Hao also brought back many prisoners, and they were also taken into custody, and they will be tried by Dali Temple in conjunction with the Criminal Department in the future."

After speaking, Zhao Zhen gave the record to Fu Bi and asked him to deal with the matter, and then left.

After Zhao Zhen left, the three of them left the palace one after another.

On the way, Han Qi found Ouyang Xiu: "Uncle Yong, I was just thinking about the future, not for you."

Ouyang Xiu said, "Zhigui, I naturally know your character, everyone is thinking about the imperial court."

Hearing this, Han Qi was very happy, so he made an appointment with Ouyang Xiu to go to eat and drink together.

And Li Hao had already returned to the dock at this time, after all, the tax and silver had not been handed over, and Li Hao was not at ease after all.

It was so busy that when it was getting dark, the tax and silver count had just passed a third of the time, so the ship had to be resealed.

Li Hao took the people to sleep on the ship, waited until the next day, and then counted again, and requisitioned all the anchorages plus the personnel transferred.

I was busy until dark, and finally all the checks were completed and it was confirmed that there was no problem.

Li Hao shouted everyone together, explaining that the reward would be held after the New Year.

Yang Wenyuan brought the men and horses of the front division of the palace back to the camp in the western suburbs, and the others could go home directly.

Li Hao naturally went back to his home directly, but obviously, it seemed that it was not the right time to come back this time.

There was no cold and warm in the mansion as Li Hao imagined, and when I entered the mansion, I only felt that the atmosphere was particularly wrong.

As soon as possible, Li Hao planned to go to Fu Deng to ask about the situation, but he hadn't found anyone yet.

Fluttershy walks over and says that Webster has asked her to come over and ask questions.

This confused Li Hao and didn't understand himself

Just came back, why did you provoke her.

As she follows Fluttershy, she asks, "What's going on in the house, who made my mother angry, or if it didn't go well when I agreed on a wedding date with the British government?"

Fluttershy replies, "This has nothing to do with the British government, the eldest lady is angry about the Sheng family, which is the marriage of Miss Minglan."

As soon as he heard this, Li Hao immediately thought in his heart that the Eight Achievements were Gu Tingye's movements during this time.

But before Li Hao could ask clearly, he had already arrived in front of the Wei family, and Li Hao was not good at asking again.

I had no choice but to bite the bullet and say outside the door, "Mother, the child has returned home, come to see his mother."

Then I only heard Wei Shi say in a cold voice, "Come in, I just have something to ask you."

After Li Hao entered the house, Wei asked, "Do you know that Gu Tingye is going to marry Minglan?"

As soon as he entered the door, he was asked this fatal question, and Li Hao really didn't know how to answer it all of a sudden.

….

And he didn't answer Gu Tingye, the ghost knows if Gu Tingye said anything.

But in the end, he still held the principle of confession and leniency, and sat in prison.

After only three seconds of silence, he directly denied: "I really don't know this very well, I haven't heard him mention it before, why did my mother suddenly ask about this?"

Hearing this, Wei stared at Li Hao's eyes and said, "You really don't know about this?"

Seeing Wei's repeated questioning, Li Hao was immediately relieved, it seemed that Wei's really didn't know that he had been involved.

So he hurriedly asked, "Is it what happened in Bianjing during this time?" Where did my mother hear that Gu Tingye was going to marry Cousin Minglan."

Wei said angrily, "Where else can I hear it, of course it's the Sheng family.

Their Sheng family dares to say that they are scholarly families, and all their daughters have been raised unorthodox."

Then he told what happened, and the general process was the same as in the play, Gu Tingye went to Sheng Changbai first, explaining that he asked to marry the daughter of the Sheng family.

It's best that I don't know how, so I invited his father and went to the Sheng family in person.

Originally, Sheng Hong was not there, and this matter should not have been decided, but I don't know how Gu Tingye made sense of Mrs. Wang, so she let Mrs. Wang agree first.

Everything has been discussed, basically just waiting for Sheng Hong to go home and go through the process.

But it was at this time that Gu Tingye directed a private meeting between Rulan and Wen Yan Jingyu Qingguan, and then pushed the marriage to Minglan head.

This time, because it was Sheng Hong's absence, Mrs. Wang was in a hurry to settle the matter, and wanted to settle the matter before Sheng Hong returned to the house to help Rulan escape.

This great mother's love erupted and was also powerful, causing Mrs. Wang to rise up at this time, dealing with the old lady in the house and Wei's outside, and her combat effectiveness was bursting.

Of course, in the end, there was no old lady nodding, Mrs. Wang didn't do this after all, it is estimated that when Sheng Hong returns home today, the Sheng family will still have trouble.

After explaining the situation, Wei said, "Gu Tingye used to serve under you, and now that you are back, go to him for me to talk to him, solve this matter, and don't let your cousin marry."

Now that he has understood the specific situation, Li Hao knows how to answer, and said directly: "I can naturally talk to Gu Tingye, but this matter is not something that Gu Tingye can call the shots now, otherwise what Sheng Changbai said will definitely be more useful than me.

The problem now is that Gu Hou has already come forward, and the Sheng family has already agreed.

If this thing doesn't work out, the face of the Marquis of Ningyuan's Mansion is not good-looking, and the Sheng family's face and reputation are not good-looking."

In fact, Wei also understands this, but he just doesn't want Minglan to marry Gu Tingye's prodigal.

Li Hao actually understood Wei's thoughts, so he took the opportunity to say good things to Gu Tingye: "Actually, Gu Tingye is not as bad as rumored, you also dealt with him when he was studying in our house.

His talent is remarkable, even Bachelor Ouyang is highly praised, if it weren't for the accident, it would be early

It has been titled on the gold list.

But even so, he can now be regarded as a meritorious person.

He hasn't done anything since he studied hard, and you probably haven't heard of him doing anything out of the ordinary now."

Seeing that Wei was thinking, Li Hao couldn't help but say in his heart, Xiao Qin's eldest lady is now dead, without him as a rumor-making machine, where can there be so much news circulating in Bianjing.

Seeing that Wei couldn't speak, Li Hao said again: "And think about it, Gu Tingye's eldest brother is not in good health, and he has no heirs under his knees.

In the future, I would rather the marquis be Gu Tingye's, if my cousin really marries in the past, she will be the wife of the main family, and maybe she will be able to become Mrs. Hou in the future and get a fate.

Moreover, the Marquis of Ningyuan's Mansion doesn't even have a mother-in-law now, and he doesn't have a mother-in-law to take care of him after he marries, so he is so comfortable."

Hearing this, Wei Shi was a little moved, but quickly reacted and felt that the situation was wrong.

From knowledge to strength