"Worship heaven and earth!"

"Second worship high hall!"

“······”

The ceremonial officer was presiding loudly, and the bride, dressed in a red wedding robe and a green wedding dress, holding a fan to cover her face, saluted in front of the hall.

Ning Yuanhou Gu Yankai, who was sitting in a wheelchair, sat on the high seat in the north with Xiao Qin's family, but on the high table between the two, there was a tablet of the god lord.

Not to mention the city of Tokyo, this is the first time that the sky has been drawn.

The guests were full of smiles and clapped their hands from time to time, but in private, they couldn't help but be curious and whispered about it.

Gu Yankai had a smile on his face, especially Xiao Qin's expression, his expression didn't show the slightest abnormality, as if he was really broad-minded, and he didn't mind the same position in the middle between her and Gu Yankai.

Gu Er's fourth and fifth uncles next to him didn't have a smile on their faces, and their cold faces were as if Gu Er owed them tens of thousands of taels of silver.

What happened to the Gu family is not a secret, Gu Lao Si and Gu Lao Wu have just moved out of the Hou Mansion for half a month, and even the family property has been divided clearly, I heard that Gu Yankai left most of the Gu family's property to Gu Tingye, just waiting for today, and then hand over these properties to Gu Er's bride.

Their faces were ugly and they didn't seem to understand.

"There are a lot of people who are ranked together, and there are two places where they are ranked, but it is the first time that two living people are ranked together."

"What a day to see!"

"Little Qin, Lady is also willing?"

"What if you don't want to? Now the Gu family is such a promising Gu Erlang, and the old marquis is now sick like this, and the entire Gu family will not have to rely on Gu Erlang in the future. ”

"Who would have thought that the former No. 1 gentleman in Tokyo has now become the pillar of the Marquis of Ningyuan's Mansion!"

“······”

The guests exchanged heads and talked endlessly.

After the bun ceremony in the new house, Gu Er was pulled out by Wang Zhong and others and toasted from table to table.

The male and female guests are divided into two places, Gu Yankai is still in a wheelchair, so it is naturally inconvenient to entertain guests, but fortunately, with King Huan, Gu Er's fourth uncle and fifth uncle dare not make any trouble at Gu Er's wedding banquet even if they are not happy.

At night, Minglan and Wang Qian'er walked in front of the carriage with Wang Chong's hand on the left and right, and slowly walked towards the county lord's mansion.

Time flies, and more than half a month has passed in a blink of an eye, and the excitement at Gu Er's wedding has gradually been forgotten by people.

On the contrary, it is another matter, which has caused heated discussions.

It is rumored that on the second day of the marriage of Gu Er and Mrs. Zhang, the Marquis of Ningyuan, Gu Yankai, was in the ancestral hall of the Gu family, divided the family for the three sons, and entrusted the Gu family's various properties one by one, and the housekeeper power of the Marquis of Ningyuan Mansion was also handed over to Gu Er's eldest lady, Zhang.

The Great Pilgrimage.

"If there is something to start, there is nothing to retreat!" The unique male duck voice of the chamberlain resounded throughout the hall.

"Minister, Wang Chong, the deputy envoy of the three divisions of salt and iron, has a play!"

Every time he went to the court, Wang Chong, who had never expressed much opinion, suddenly walked out of the crowd, walked to the hall, held a wat board, bowed down, and said loudly.

"Quasi-play!"

Zhao Zongquan's voice sounded.

Wang Chongdao: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty is valued, transferred to the Third Division, appointed as the deputy envoy of salt and iron, the main salt affairs, Your Majesty attaches so much importance to it, the minister never dares to slack off, since entering the Third Division, first out of the accounts of the past ten years, found that since ten years ago, to the sixth year of Jiayou, the first emperor ordered the addition of salt farms in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian coastal prefectures and counties, and the salt tax has not increased in the slightest in the past few years, but has become less and less year by year.

Since the sixth year of Jiayou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other coastal places have added a total of 48 salt farms, Jiayou six years to Jiayou eight years, the salt tax has increased year after year, but to Jiayou nine years, but it has declined again, the minister has transferred out all the files of the previous ten years, it took several months to sort it out from beginning to end, and found that the salt tax has declined to varying degrees over the years, although the magnitude is not large, but in the past 20 years, although there are occasional disasters in the territory of my dynasty, but most of the time it is smooth and rainy, which must be strange, please ask Your Majesty to issue an order, thoroughly investigate Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Lianghuai and Shudi Salt! It has been returned to the Qingming Dynasty. ”

"Is Aiqing's words true?" Zhao Zongquan's expression was grim, and he asked with a solemn face.

"The minister will never dare to speak falsely!" Wang Zhong hurriedly took out a letter from his bosom and held it in both hands: "This is the sum of the salt taxes over the years that the ministers have counted over the years, please look at it, Your Majesty!" ”

"Bring it on!"

As soon as Zhao Zongquan's words fell, the internal officials around him immediately bowed down and agreed, walked down the jade steps quickly, took the fold in Wang Chong's hand, and gave it to Zhao Zongquan.

Zhao Zongquan opened the fold and hurriedly glanced at it, and immediately sat up from the dragon chair, bowed down to hold the fold, and said to the curtain behind the dragon chair: "Please take a look!" ”

When even if there was an attendant who came out of Zhao Zongquan's hand, he respectfully took the fold, returned to the back of the curtain, and handed it to the Empress Dowager Cao who was sitting on the phoenix chair.

"What?"

Empress Dowager Cao was a little unimpressed at first, for so many years, if there was a problem with the salt affairs, Emperor Jiayou couldn't find out, but when she finished reading the icon attached to the back of Wang Chong's fold, she couldn't help but be shocked.

"So much less?"

If it's just a few hundred thousand taels of silver, then it's just that, but a few hundred thousand a year, after a few years, it will reach a million, and the total number has already exceeded 10 million over the years.

Rao is the queen of Cao, who has been sitting in the position of the lord of the six palaces for more than 30 years, and she can't help but be moved when she sees the data and charts that Wang Chong has counted.

"Qi Yu Niangniang, six years ago in Jiayou, the salt and iron division of the annual salt class is counted, the salt tax has ups and downs, the top of the sky is hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, when the first emperor reigned, I have been repaired with the Liao State, Xixia for many years, the border has not been at war for nearly 20 years, even if there are occasional natural disasters, it is just a disease of scabies, even if it is affected by the private salt, but the salt tax will never be reduced so much every year, please Da Niangniang to see."

"From the second year of Huangyou to the sixth year of Jiayou, but in twenty years, the salt tax has been reduced by three million taels! Where did all this money go? ”

"Thorough investigation, this matter must be thoroughly investigated!"

At this moment, Queen Cao, like an angry tigress, roared excitedly.

"What the eldest lady said is very true!" As the emperor, Zhao Zongquan was like a courtier, bowing to the Empress Dowager Cao and saying: "The salt tax is the cornerstone of the imperial court, and it must not be tolerated!" ”

"Wang Chong!"

"Wechen is here!"

Empress Dowager Cao's voice changed, and she suddenly said: "You are the deputy envoy of salt and iron, who do you think should be handed over to investigate this matter?" ”

Wang Chong was fine, but Zhao Zongquan, who was standing on the edge of the dragon chair and bowing to the back of the curtain, stiffened, as if he felt the gaze that shot out from behind the curtain and was looking at him.

"The imperial court has its own laws, and Weichen is now the deputy envoy of salt and iron, so he should avoid suspicion." Wang Zhong replied in a loud voice that was neither humble nor arrogant.

After a pause, Empress Cao's voice sounded again: "What does the emperor think?" ”

Zhao Zongquan arched his hand and said: "What Deputy Envoy Wang said is not unreasonable, if the court has a law, then it can act according to the law." ”

Empress Dowager Cao seemed to be quite satisfied with Zhao Zongquan's answer: "I don't know what Prime Minister Han has?" ”

Han Zhang, who was listed at the head of the Wenchen, walked to the hall, bowed and bowed: "Go back to the eldest lady!" The matter of salt affairs, involving the national capital, should be tried by the three divisions of Dali Temple, the Criminal Department, and the Yushitai to set the record straight. ”

"If you have a charter, then you can do it according to the charter!"

Zhao Zongquan arched his head behind the curtain, sat back on the dragon chair, his eyes swept over the ministers below, but he didn't know how to feel in his heart.

As an emperor, but like a courtier, there is a emperor sitting above his head, everything in the court, you have to ask the Empress Dowager Cao to decide, at the beginning, the Empress Dowager Cao will also ask him the emperor's opinion, but recently, the situation has changed.

Wang Chong retreated into the imperial column, and Empress Dowager Cao ordered Qi Heng to come out again and asked about the progress of the anti-Wang Yu party.

After the court meeting dispersed and left the main hall, Gu Er hurriedly chased after him, pulled Wang Zhong under the corridor and waited for King Huan to arrive, and the three of them walked out together.

"After today, I'm afraid that the thick folds of impeachment will pile up again!" Gu Er shook his head and sighed.

"Zihou doesn't have to worry." King Huan said: "The salt is eroded, and the father has long had the intention of rectifying it, but the situation was not stable before, and there was chaos in the south, so it was suppressed, and now the war has calmed down, and the situation has gradually stabilized, it is time to rectify the salt affairs." ”

Wang Zhong said: "I'm afraid this matter is not that simple." ”

King Huan nodded with a solemn face and said, "The salt tax is the most important tax revenue of the imperial court every year, no matter how difficult it is, it must be thoroughly investigated." ”

······

Within a few days, Qi Heng took the servants to the Gu family's four-room and five-room house, and arrested Gu Er's two cousins, Gu Tingdi and Gu Tingbing, to the Kaifeng Mansion and put them in prison.

This time it stabbed the hornet's nest, but this group of hornets was not aimed at Qi Heng, but at Gu Er.

Fortunately, although Gu Yankai is seriously ill, he is still conscious, but he can't walk and speak normally.

In another half a month, the case of the investigation of the anti-Wang Yudang gradually came to an end, and the criminal department also sent people to the Salt and Iron Division, transferred all the account books and files of the past years, and began to investigate the salt tax case.

It's just that the salt and iron division was investigated, Wang Chong was temporarily idle, and seeing that Minglan 's belly was getting bigger day by day, Wang Chong pulled Minglan and took Wang Qian'er and Shulan's family to live in Zhuangzi outside the city.

Minglan also deliberately asked Cuiwei to go back to the Sheng family, and asked Mrs. Sheng to lead Changdong and Wei Shuyi to meet in Zhuangzi.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, the chestnuts are almost ripe, there are dozens of chestnut trees on the hill on the village, early in the morning, just dawn, Wang Qianer and Wang Xu, Changdong several people are ready, carrying bamboo poles, with tongs, carrying baskets and going straight to the chestnut forest, until the day of the three poles, only one person carries a basket of chestnuts with shells back.

The chestnut is not yet ripe, the shell has not yet cracked, but the size has almost grown, the flesh inside is also very tender, the skin is mostly light yellow and white, it is the best time to eat raw.

If it is the farmers, naturally will not go to the chestnuts at this time, because these young chestnuts that are not yet ripe are not easy to store, and they will be bad after a few days.

Wang Chong took Minglan and the old lady and ran to the lake, and one of them took a fishing rod and caught a fish.

Wang Li, Shulan and Wei Shuyi went into the kitchen, making pastries and exchanging cooking skills.

There is no intrigue, no deceit, and life is comfortable and comfortable.

Wang Zhong lived in Zhuangzi for seven days, and needed to go to the government, so he rode back to the city early in the morning, and rushed back after the government, until the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, he pulled a large family back to the city.

At the beginning of September, the Great Pilgrimage Meeting.

A petty official who had already been under the command of Emperor Xining suddenly played and posthumously crowned King Xianshu, Zhao Zongquan's biological father.

Immediately, the Yuzhou family and the great minister Han Zhang, who had already fallen to Emperor Xining, put forward a proposal to respect King Xianshu as the 'imperial examination', but then it was opposed by a large number of civil and military officials.

Liu Xun, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, pointed directly at Han Zhang's nose and scolded: "Examination is the father, concubine is the mother, in the past, when Your Majesty was the prince, it has passed under the name of the first emperor and the queen mother, on the royal family tree, it has belonged to the first emperor, and has nothing to do with the first Shu king, now the first emperor is His Majesty's father, and the Queen Mother is His Majesty's mother. Where will the eldest lady go? ”

"Is the Prime Minister trying to trap His Majesty in unfilial piety?"

"Your Majesty Mingjian, the eldest lady Mingjian, the minister has no such intention!" Han Zhang immediately defended himself.

Liu Xun snorted coldly, glared at Han Zhang, bowed in the direction of the dragon chair and said, "Your Majesty, please treat Han Zhang's sin!" ”

"Liu Shilang's words are wrong." As soon as Liu Xun's words fell, someone stood up again: "King Xianshu is His Majesty's biological father, if there is no King Xianshu, there will be no ······ Your Majesty."

But there are not a few people who disagree with Zun Xianshu King as the 'imperial examination': "How can one son have two fathers!" Your Majesty is inherited from the name of the first emperor and the queen mother, so naturally it will ······"

But in a moment, there was a sudden quarrel in the court, and the two sides were arguing, all of them quoted scriptures, and they did not speak with half a dirty word.

All of a sudden, the Great Dynasty Meeting became a vegetable market.

Not long after the dispersal of the dynasty, a letter of enclosure was handed to Zhao Zongquan's case like a snowflake, and basically all of them impeached Han Zhang.

Some officials headed by Han Zhang and the Yuzhou family insisted on calling King Xianshu the 'imperial examination', and the yamen, headed by the Ministry of Rites, the Imperial Historical Observatory, the Tai, the Second Yuan, the Imperial Historical Observatory, the Hanlin Academy, and other civil officials and clear streams, resolutely opposed this matter, believing that it was not in accordance with the law of etiquette.

There are even people who impeach Han Zhang in front of Han Zhang, and provoke the relationship between the official family and the Queen Mother, and the words are simply not too straightforward and ugly.

This quarrel is several months, and I have never been able to fight for a reason, once the quarrel is on the top, Liu Xun, the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites, is too excited, directly above the court, a mouthful of spit on Han Zhang, scolded Han Zhang, saying that his books for so many years have been read to the dog's stomach to go to Yunyun, that posture, no worse than those women who scolded on the street.

If it weren't for a few colleagues next to him, I was afraid that Liu Xun would give Han Zhang a big coercion on the spot.

Then he was forked out by a priest, and on the grounds of the emperor's misconduct, he was punished for three months and grounded for one month.

But without Liu Xun, those opposing voices have not decreased, but have become more and more intense, especially Qi Heng, a fledgling stunned young jumper.

The attention of civil and military officials was attracted by this matter, and the matter of thorough investigation of salt affairs proposed by Wang Chong before was covered in the past, but the investigation of the Salt and Iron Division by the Criminal Department, Yushitai and Dali Temple has never stopped, and even people have been sent to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Lianghuai and Shu.

After the end of the day, the red-faced colleagues who were fighting in the court saw each other's eyes red, snorted coldly, put aside a sentence of difference, and walked away.

Wang Zhong and Gu Er were stopped by two small chamberlains, and when King Huan arrived, they followed King Huan straight to the palace.

The three of them waited in the pavilion in the imperial garden for only a short while, and Emperor Xining, who had already changed into his regular clothes, arrived, and the three of them hurriedly got up to salute.

"You don't have to be formal, just sit down!" Emperor Xiping took the lead in sitting down, and raised his hand to signal the three of them to sit down.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The three of them sat around the table, and in the small pavilion, naturally there were not a few people standing, except for the two female officials who were waiting, and the rest of the attendants were sent away.

Emperor Xiping's gaze fell on Wang Chong first, and said, "Zihou can still remember, what you played before, the reorganization of the Imperial City Division?" ”

"Your Majesty is in trouble?" Wang Zhong asked.

Emperor Xiping sighed and said, "What Zihou said before, I thought it was true, and I asked Ying'er to reorganize the Imperial City Division three months ago!" ”

"The Imperial City Division belongs to the Inner Servant Province!" Zhao Ceying next to him added.

Wang Chong instantly understood, the so-called internal service province, refers to the eunuchs in the palace, who have served as the Imperial City Division, the eunuchs in the palace, and those who can take on this important task are all the emperor's henchmen, and those who previously served as the Imperial City Division are naturally the henchmen of Emperor Jiayou, and now although Emperor Jiayou is deceased, the Empress Dowager Cao is still alive, and she holds great power and prestige, and the Empress Dowager Cao has been in charge of the harem for more than 30 years.

"When the rebel king mutiny forced the palace, the Imperial City Division failed to notice, causing the first emperor and the queen mother to fall into danger, almost lost at the hands of the rebel king, the imperial city division up and down, it is difficult to escape the blame, since Your Majesty wants to reorganize the Imperial City Division, it is better to be thorough, the Imperial City Division will be independent into an army, eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled, recruit soldiers from the good family, and re-train!"

"Separate into an army and retrain?" Zhao Zongquan and Zhao Ceying glanced at each other, and then looked at Wang Chong in unison.

Gu Er next to him hurriedly looked at Wang Zhong and asked, "What does Zihou mean is to recruit new soldiers, train them with the method of training scouts, and then disperse them all after training to act as eyes and ears?" ”

I have to say that Gu Er's thinking is really quick, and he has a guess in an instant.

"That's not all!" Wang Chongdao: "Acting as eyes and ears is only one aspect, more importantly, let Your Majesty have an army in your hands that is completely in your Majesty's hands!" ”

The eyes of Zhao Zongquan and Zhao Ceying, father and son, lit up instantly.

The nature of the Imperial City Division is somewhat similar to the Black Ice Platform in the Qin Dynasty, the bad people in the Tang Dynasty, and the Jinyi Guard in the Ming Dynasty, but to some extent, the power and means of the Imperial City Division are far inferior to the other three.

And the Imperial City Division, which Wang Zhong suggested that Zhao Zongquan reorganize, was the new yamen that initially had most of the powers of Jinyiwei.

Listening to Wang Chong's detailed explanation in simple terms, the eyes of the father and son became brighter and brighter.