"Your Majesty! Those two unknown things dared to chew their tongues in the palace, and the slave and maid went to cut their tongues! ”

The emperor no longer walks as slowly as before, and now he is carrying the wind and running all the way to the Qianqing Palace.

As for the incident in the back garden just now, he didn't say anything, did nothing, and didn't show his identity in front of the chief eunuch of Shangshan.

People who don't know the emperor still think that it should be nothing serious, and listen to it as if they haven't heard it.

But Liu Jin knows that not only is there something, but it's also a big deal!

"No one!"

When the emperor heard his words, he turned around and said viciously, "If what this chief eunuch says is the truth, why should he cut off people's tongues?" If what he said is not the truth, then there must be an inside story, you cut off his tongue, how can he explain it? ”

"Then ......" Liu Jin thought again, "The slave maid will find someone to arrest her first and take strict care of it!" ”

This old eunuch is panicking!

He is the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, in the end, he should take care of the people who have no roots in the palace, and now he doesn't know how big the storm is, so he is naturally worried!

Zhu Houzhao frowned,

He actually didn't worry about these bad things in the palace, tens of thousands of eunuchs were concentrated here, and there were many complicated and bad people in his heart, and he wouldn't expect these people to be honest people.

But Gu Zuo is different, and he has poured a lot of hope into Gu Zuo.

In fact, as an emperor encountering such an official, it is difficult not to pour hope for him, if such a talent is not reused, I really don't know who else should be reused.

Can......

Something similar has happened many times in history.

is like Emperor Yongzheng, how much he liked Nian Qianyao before, and then tortured him to the point that life is worse than death.

"Liu Jin, you are the eunuch of the palm print of the celebrant eunuch, I know that everyone in the palace and outside the palace will give you a face, and you may know more things than me. I don't mention anything else now, you tell me the truth, as far as you know, what is Gu Liqing's personality in private? Do you believe he's greedy? ”

Liu Jin knelt down with a 'poof',

The so-called companion is like a companion tiger, which is similar to these questions, and an inappropriate answer is a different head!

"Your Majesty, the slave and maid serve Your Majesty wholeheartedly, do not think about anything else, and have very little contact with the foreign ministers, and besides, the literati in the outer court are arrogant, and they themselves do not look down on the slave and the maid, a rootless person, and the slave and maid do not think about anyone else in their hearts except Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houzhao was a little impatient, "I'm not asking you to show loyalty, I'm asking you if you believe that Gu Liqing is greedy!" ”

"This ......" Liu Jin was in a hurry, "I don't know my heart, I don't know my heart, whether Gu Shilang is greedy for ink or not, and the slave and maid can't say it well." However, the slave maid heard that Gu Shilang's official reputation in private was excellent, and he was definitely not a greedy official. If...... If His Majesty is really suspicious, the slave can go and summon the two of them and ask them to explain the situation 1510. ”

Zhu Houzhao's mind was still relatively impetuous, and he rejected this proposal, "I feel a little strange about this matter. And I haven't thought it through yet, it's not appropriate to make a decision at this time, so I'll leave them alone for now, and you're not allowed to startle the snake, and I'll talk about it when I've thought about it. ”

"The slave obeys." Liu Jin's heart was still trembling.

For the emperor, when he is upset and angry, he does not make decisions easily. It's his habit.

So he went back to the Qianqing Palace to lie down on his own.

Recently, there have been a lot of things, Zhou Yanzhang doesn't know if he can win, and the salt law has to be changed......

He is a soul of later generations, and he has come to this level in this era, in fact, many things have been involuntarily. The road ahead is valuing, no one can give him similar experience, and the resistance to reform is already great, and when he has doubts about whether he is on the right path or not, he only relies on the belief that 'he must not give up halfway'.

Of course, his desire to restore the prosperity of the Central Plains Dynasty has never changed.

No matter how many people he has to kill along the way.

At a certain moment, he thought again, in fact, no matter what, he is still the emperor after all, in the feudal era, the emperor held the power of life and death, and he was the one who stood at the top of the world.

That's right, he is the emperor, it shouldn't be him who is depressed, according to his own ideas, to strengthen a country, he should be the one who does this kind of energetic thing!

And back to this one,

Speaking of which, Gu Liqing is greedy and not greedy.

If you are not greedy, then nothing will happen.

If they are greedy, then punish them.

What's there, the world is his, not Gu Liqing's, everything is still fine without this person in the past, what can I do?

And he estimated that the sudden rumor of this incident in the palace was very likely to be true.

But...... If so, what logic would there be?

Thinking of this, Zhu Houzhao's eyes widened suddenly: there is indeed one.

Gu Liqing will definitely offend many people for the sake of the salt law this time, and some of the people who were offended by him naturally tried every means to put him to death.

If there is such a motive, then it is not surprising that anything would be done.

But these are all his guesses, no matter what, the eunuch is less likely to dare to talk nonsense, so the possibility of him being greedy for ink is still a little greater. It's just that the possibility of Gu Zuo being framed is not zero.

As emperor, he wields great power, and this power is sometimes used sparingly.

"Someone."

There was a sound in the house,

Liu Jin hurriedly rolled closer, "Your Majesty, the slave is here." ”

After some careful thinking and calmness, Zhu Houzhao had returned to his original appearance at this time.

There was something he wanted the celebrant to do......

But...... Liu Jin is actually not honest, at this particularly critical time, he has some doubts about this person in his heart.

So I changed my mind for a while, "Go and call You Ji." ”

"Yes."

Liu Jin muttered in his heart, but he wasn't sure if the emperor's anger had disappeared, so he didn't dare to say more than a superfluous sentence at this juncture.

】

You Ji's side also moved quickly, and he didn't dare to delay for half a minute.

When he arrived, according to his will, no one but him could enter, not even near him.

"Slave and maid, see Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houzhao dragged his long robe and walked down from the dragon chair, "The chief eunuch of the palace Shangshan Supervisor...... You get to know this person secretly, remember not to let him know, and it is better to put someone next to him. Let's see who he has contact with on weekdays, and whether he has a relationship with the outer court. When necessary, you, as the celebrant and eunuch, can also arrange for him to leave the palace unconsciously. ”

You Di listened carefully, "Your Majesty, does this matter need to be known to Gonggong Liu?" ”

"If he wants to know, what am I looking for you to do?"

"The slave understands. The slave and maid will arrange it. ”

Zhu Houzhao's idea, if what the chief eunuch said is true, then Gu Zuo can be arrested, and if what he said is false, Gu Zuo can also be arrested.

Grab it...... Let's see how the eunuchs in the palace will react and whether they are colluding with someone outside.

In fact, a few days ago, Hangul's recital was also a little strange, and it may also be related to this matter.

Anyway, there is something unusual everywhere now, which makes Zhu Houzhao have some ominous premonitions in his heart.

……

……

Yangzhou,

Gu Zuo received a letter from the celebrant and ordered him to set off for Beijing.

That's fine.

The main reason is that Liu Da and Liu Er, who he sent out before, have not come back yet, so he has to wait for one more day.

After Liu Da and Liu Er came back, they went straight to report the situation to him.

Liu Da said: "The two of us checked along the way, and now there is very little salt in the people, at most 30%, and the trend of illegal salt flooding is difficult to stop. Some salt merchants, who have been handed down from their ancestors, obviously have several generations of experience, but they are bankrupt because they are unable to support the salt in their hands. According to them, "

Originally, the imperial court stipulated that adults above the fourth rank and nobles such as kings, dukes, and earls were not allowed to receive salt quotations, but since orthodoxy, this rule has gradually become useless. Adults and nobles have a hundred ways to obtain salt leads, and they are afraid of hard work, so they are not willing to work hard to run errands and do business, and only think of selling salt leads to ordinary people at a high price, so that they can make a lot of money. ”

If someone with enough energy comes forward and goes to the salt field as soon as possible to support the salt, the price of the salt is high, and if the grade is lower, the price of the salt is naturally low. Therefore, every salt merchant who does it has nobles of the imperial court behind it. ”

Liu Er picked up, "Most of the officials in the salt transportation department set up by the imperial court are not good people. After the imperial court recognized the existence of 'surplus salt', Yousi would use rice and wheat to buy "surplus salt" in the early years, and then sell it to salt merchants who held salt leads; Later, the rice and wheat reserves were insufficient, no one was willing to use the Ming treasure banknotes, and the exemption from servitude enjoyed by the stove households was even more in name only. ”

"But the stove households are already short of food and clothing, where is the silver used to offset the service? In desperation, the stove households had to sell the salt they had privately produced to the smuggler in exchange for the silver they needed for their lives, and hand over some of the silver to the company, and make a difficult living. Even so, there are still many stove households that are ruined, and stove households flee from time to time. ”

The more Gu Zuo listened, the more angry he became, speaking of which, in fact, the salt class in the imperial court had become a place with no rules at all. People up and down stared at the little bit of silver in the salt class, and everyone decided the amount of income according to their own power, and in the end, the salt class in the imperial court became less and less.

The more powerful the person is, the more nourishing the life is, while the ordinary stove household has been oppressed to the point that he has to flee in order to survive.

Bang!

Gu Zuo couldn't help but slap the table, "The magnates and officials are excessively demanding, and the salt government is so corrupt, if it is not rectified, I will die in the Ming Dynasty one day!" ”

I think about how good the salt law was in the time of Taizu and Taizong, but it has completely changed over the past hundred years, and the internal order has been lost.

Now that the Ming Dynasty wants to prosper, what is Zhongxing called Zhongxing with such a salt law?

"Let's go back to Beijing!"

Gu Zuo has made up his mind, this time he is broken, and he must also report the matter to the emperor clearly!