"One hundred and thirty-four thousand three hundred and twenty taels of gold, eight million seven hundred and thirty-six thousand seven hundred and sixty-three taels of silver, seven million eight hundred and thirty-six thousand two hundred and forty taels of money, and jewels and jade. More than 3,200 pieces of jade agate, Yanzhuang ······"

Looking at the shocking numbers on the fold, these things add up, and they are almost on top of the tax revenue of the imperial court for two or three years, Zhao Zongquan is extremely angry, and he can't help but think of his son Zhao Ceying's voice and smile, these are all exchanged for his son's life.

The more he thought about it, the more angry Zhao Zongquan felt in his heart.

"There are 138 officials involved in the case, and the amount of money involved in the case, according to rough statistics, is more than 15 million taels, and there are 36 salt merchants, all of whom have been handed over to the Yamen of the Criminal Department······

"Enough!" Zhao Zongquan lost his temper in front of the courtiers for the first time, and directly slapped the case, interrupting Wang Chong's words.

Zhao Zongquan was already furious, but in front of the civil and military officials, after venting, he could only suppress the anger in his heart: "Look at it, you all look at it, this is my good minister, one hundred and thirty-eight people, a full one hundred and thirty-eight people!" ”

"Your Majesty is angry!"

This was the first time Zhao Zongquan was angry, and the ministers in the hall knelt on the ground.

"Calm my anger, how do you let me calm my anger? One hundred and thirty-eight! It's not one hundred and thirty-eight steamed buns! And that's just for now. ”

Han Zhang, who was listed at the head of the Wenchen, straightened up and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the top priority is to quickly fill this gap, salt affairs are the lifeblood of the imperial court, and there must be no more mistakes." ”

Zhao Zongquan took a few deep breaths, got up and held the fold in both hands, bowed down to the curtain behind the dragon chair and said, "Please take a look!" ”

Behind the curtain, the attendant next to the Empress Dowager Cao immediately stepped forward to take the fold and handed it to the Empress Dowager Cao.

took the fold and threw it out directly, and the bell of the bead curtain was smashed and continued to ring.

I only heard Empress Dowager Cao's hoarse scolding: "Bastard! Darn! ”

"It's all a bunch of bastards!"

"Eat the king's lu, bear the king's worries, the first emperor treated you so well, this is how you repay the first emperor?"

"One hundred and thirty-eight people, fifteen million taels of silver!"

"That's how you repay the emperor?"

In the face of Empress Dowager Cao's fierce reprimand, the ministers in the palace dared to respond on May Day, and they all chose to remain silent, and when Empress Dowager Cao completely vented, Han Zhang, the head of the civil ministers, was the first to stand up.

"Big lady is angry!" Han Zhang held the wat board in his hand and said: "The most important thing now is to thoroughly investigate the salt case, thoroughly clean up the moths that are attached to the imperial court and drink blood and eat meat, and return the court to a clear and clear court."

The second is to track down the real culprit behind the assassination of King Huan, and use thunderous means to demonstrate the majesty of the imperial court. ”

"Prime Minister Han, you are the chief assistant of the dynasty, the elder of the three dynasties, when the first emperor was in power, he relied on you very much, you say, what should I do about this?"

Zhao Zongquan sat on the dragon chair and didn't say a word, it was all Empress Dowager Cao who spoke.

Han Zhang said with a serious face: "Since the investigation should be strict, all the people involved in the case, whether they are princes and nobles, or ordinary people, are all in accordance with the law, severely punished, and will not be merciful!" ”

"In this case, this case will be personally supervised by you, Prime Minister Han! When will this case be handled, and when will I come to see the mourning family again! Empress Dowager Cao made the final decision directly, and didn't even give Han Zhang a chance to refuse, and got up and left as soon as the words fell.

The eyes of the ministers in the palace all converged on Han Zhang's body.

"We're thanking you!" Han Zhang raised his head with his chest straight, and there was no panic in his eyes.

"If there is something to start, there is nothing to retreat!" The waiter who received Zhao Zongquan's eye signal shook the dust in his hand, stood on the top of the jade steps and shouted, the unique male duck voice clearly fell into the ears of the ministers in the palace.

The court meeting dispersed, Wang Chong returned home, bathed and changed clothes, washed away his exhaustion, and changed into a loose regular clothes, Minglan had already let the back kitchen prepare dishes, and saw that Wang Chong was about to bathe and change clothes and serve them on the table.

"The official first drinks a bowl of soup to warm up the stomach!" Minglan got up and helped Wang Chong scoop a bowl of soup stewed with old hen and soft-shelled turtle.

Wang Zhong took the soup bowl and asked, "What do you say, it's so lively?" ”

Wang Qian'er said with a smile: "I'm telling my aunt about the assassins we encountered on this salt patrol!" ”

Minglan 's smile was full of eyes to the corners of her eyes, and there was still Wang Qian'er who said the thrilling place just now, dragging the handkerchief tightly, and she was so nervous that even cold sweat was about to break out.

"Don't listen to this girl's nonsense, she doesn't have a word of truth in her mouth!" Wang Zhong smiled and whispered softly to Ming Landao.

"Slander! Third uncle, you are a naked slander, where did I say nonsense, every word I said is the truth! ”

Wang Qian'er quit, and immediately argued loudly, and then hurriedly grabbed Minglan by the arm and said, "Auntie, I'm not talking nonsense!" ”

"Auntie believes in you!" Minglan smiled and took Wang Qian'er's hand and said, "Okay, okay, let's eat!" ”

Wang Zhong had already picked up a slice of chopped roast goose and gnawed it.

Seeing this, Wang Qian'er hurriedly snatched the two roast goose legs, and very filial piety gave one of them to Minglan and the other to her mother Wang Li, and raised her eyebrows at Wang.

Wang Chong ignored her, but sandwiched a piece of stewed soft mutton into the bowl of Wang Xu with a smiling face on the side, and did not forget to advise: "Eat more meat, so that you can grow your strength!" ”

"Thank you, Third Uncle!" Wang Xu and Wang Qian'er's sisters and brothers are almost diametrically opposed.

Wang Qian'er is babbling, big and arrogant, straightforward, and has no scheming city, Wang Xu usually doesn't talk much, but his mind is not shallow, and his talent is quite high, although he does not have the ability to forget, but he is also well-read and has a strong memory, can draw inferences from one another, and is very smart.

"Okay, okay, one less word, hurry up and eat!" Seeing that Wang Qian'er was still stirring up trouble, Wang Li hurriedly glared at her.

Wang Qian'er could only stop talking, not daring to babble anymore.

Everyone moved their chopsticks together, eating and eating, Minglan suddenly said: "By the way, when are the officials going to go to the Gu family to see Second Brother Gu?" ”

"Let's go after dinner!" Wang Chongdao.

"I'm going too!" Wang Qian'er hurriedly put down the half-eaten roast goose leg in her mouth (which was put back into her bowl by Wang Li's), and hurriedly spoke, for fear that it would be slow.

Wang Chongdao: "Zhong Huai has taught you for a period of time, even if you are half a master, you should go, Brother Xu will also go with you, and then bring Zhang Xin and Zhang Yi brothers." ”

"Xiao Tao, you go to the second junior high school and ask him to inform Brother Xin and Brother Yi'er!" Minglan immediately instructed Xiao Taodao beside her.

"Slave and maid, go now!" Xiao Tao has always done what Minglan said she would, without the slightest hesitation, and never asked why.

After eating, and didn't bring any gifts, Wang Chong and Minglan sat in the carriage, Wang Qian'er and Wang Xu, as well as Zhang Xin and Zhang Yi, all rode in front of them, and arrived at Chengyuan after a while.

After waiting in the front hall for a while, Gu Er was late to help the big-bellied Zhang family.

Zhang was conceived in October last year, just three months before Gu Yankai's death, and now it is almost eight months, and her round belly is bulging the wide clothes.

Gu Yankai has just been gone for less than half a year, Gu Er's errands have long been unloaded, and he only stays at home to keep filial piety for his deceased father, and he doesn't even go to the restaurant he likes to visit most in the past, but he just takes over the errand of Zhang's housekeeper temporarily, and he is busy with trivial things at home and outside the house.

The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and Gu Er's body at home was about to rust, so he pulled Wang Zhong and started to fight.

After a cup of tea, Gu Er, who was sore all over, raised his hand to stop.

"You're still as good as ever!"

"What's the difference!" Wang Chong shook his head and sighed: "One person is limited after all!" ”

Gu Er was silent for a moment, and then took a drink of the hot tea on the table before saying, "Yes, flesh and blood, no matter how powerful it is, it is limited after all." ”

But he remembered Zhao Shichang and King Huan who were shot into hedgehogs.

Raising his eyes to look at Wang Chong, Gu Er asked, "I heard that Xiao Duan won't be able to use martial arts in the future?" ”

Wang nodded and said: "If you hurt your lung lobe, you can pick up a small life." ”

Although they haven't known each other for a long time, Gu Er still has feelings for Xiao Duan and Shen Congxing, who really regard him as friends.

"I heard that you have been assassinated more than 20 times in Jiangnan in the past few months?"

Wang Chong glanced at Gu Er and said, "Haven't you seen how arrogant those salt sellers are!" ”

"yes!" Gu Er showed a self-deprecating wry smile on his face: "The Bai family is also a salt merchant!" ”

Wang Chongdao: "They went too far, the matter was too big, the Queen Mother personally issued an order and ordered me to investigate this matter thoroughly and deal with it strictly!" ”

"I understand!" Without waiting for Wang Zhong to finish speaking, Gu Er interrupted him: "They are all to blame, I thought that they were in the same vein as my grandfather, and I showed mercy to my subordinates several times, but they didn't know how to restrain themselves, and they wanted to harm me several times and seek to rob my ancestors of the property left by their ancestors!"

Now that they have this fate, they are all to blame for themselves, and they can't blame others! ”

Wang Chongdao: "The Bai clan is not all people who are hungry for profit, and there are also honest people. ”

chatting and chatting, the topic suddenly changed: "By the way, in more than two months, my younger siblings should be born, you can have more snacks in these months, don't make your younger siblings angry, and don't let your younger siblings be stimulated." ”

How could Gu Er not know what Wang Chong meant, not just the four rooms and five rooms, especially Gu Tingbing in the fourth room was implicated in the case of rebelling against the king, and after being exiled to the frontier, everyone in the fourth room regarded him as an enemy, and his fourth uncle never gave him a good face again, but came to the Hou Mansion to find him trouble as an elder for three days.

"Hmmm! I made a note of it! ”

Within a few days, the will of the reward came down, and Wang Chongqing made a meritorious contribution to the investigation of the salt affairs case, and awarded the right doctor, the straight bachelor of Longtu Pavilion, the salt iron envoy, and the governor of the salt and iron division.

One step crossed the threshold that ordinary people could not cross for decades or even a lifetime, and became a third-grade member, and even the official uniform was changed to purple.

For Wang Chong's reward, it didn't cause any sensation, after all, this time they went south to patrol the salt, Wang Chong and the others risked their lives, and even King Huan lost his life.

I heard that there were assassins at both ends in three days, and every day I had to sleep with a knife, one eye open and one eye closed, for fear that the assassin would touch his side at night and kill himself with a knife.

Although Zhao Zongquan lost his beloved son, he did not implicate the officials in his peers, and he did not hesitate to reward the meritorious ministers.

The dispute between the emperor and the queen, which had intensified in the court, also came to an end temporarily due to the concession of Emperor Zhao Zongquan, and the power in the hands of the Empress Dowager Cao became heavier and heavier, and she interfered more and more in the affairs of the court.

And since Wang Chong was promoted to the salt and iron envoy, instead of being idle, he has become more and more busy, because of the salt case, even Wang Chong's predecessor has been implicated, not to mention the rest of the small fish and shrimp.

Wang Chong took charge of the Salt and Iron Division, and began a drastic reform in the Salt and Iron Division, and the dozen or so students who followed Wang Chong to Quanzhou also entered the Salt and Iron Division one after another, and the method of dissolving coarse salt, filtering and then distilling and crystallizing to achieve the purification effect was also rapidly popularized to various salt farms across the country.

Within Fujian, Lianghuai, and Jingdong, Wang Zhong expects to add 480 salt drying farms within three years, raising the output of sea salt to another level.

The most important thing is that the salt and iron division under the leadership of Wang Chong, began to control the price of salt, the salt merchants in Lianghuai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places have just been swept up, and the prestige of the imperial court is rising, but in a few months, the once chaotic salt price in the market has been immediately controlled.

Not long after the method of purifying coarse salt became popular, the Salt and Iron Division issued a series of policies to classify all kinds of salt produced throughout the country, divide it into grades, and set prices.

The best of the fine salt is the fine well salt produced in Shudi, which is as fine as dust and sand, white as snow, and the price of one pound is as high as 500 Wen.

Among the coarse salt, sea salt is the most, sea salt is coarse, and the taste is far inferior to well salt and lake salt, so even if it is the best quality of high-grade sea salt, the price is only 50 wen a catty, and the price is lower if the quality is worse.

Wang Chong did not take the initiative to crack down on those illegal salt dealers, let alone play any game with them, Wang Chong only lowered the price of official salt, increased the annual output of salt, stabilized the price of salt, and made ordinary people can afford to eat salt.

In addition to salt affairs, the Salt and Iron Division is also in charge of all matters related to the mining and smelting of iron ore in the country, which is the origin of the word salt and iron.

Just when Wang Chong was concentrating on his career in the Salt and Iron Division, the situation in the DPRK and China also changed dramatically.

With the death of Zhao Ceying, Gu Er kept filial piety for his deceased father at home, Emperor Zhao Zongquan lost his arm, and only Shen Congxing was left by his side, although there was still the support of Han Zhang, but the prestige accumulated by Emperor Jiayou for more than forty years was not something he could cover in just a few years.

Zhao Zongquan changed his previous state, no longer-for-tat with the Empress Dowager Cao, but asked the Empress Dowager Cao about everything, no matter how big or small, the opinions of the Empress Dowager Cao prevailed, and the husband and wife of Empress Shen were even more determined every morning and dusk, and the Empress Dowager Cao was as filial as her own mother.

The party struggle between the DPRK and China, which had just had a slight trend, has been eliminated invisibly.

(End of chapter)