The morning light is faint.

Si Ning and his entourage had already left the city gate.

Si Ning lifted the curtain and looked at the deserted official road outside, and asked Dongqing, who was riding a horse next to the carriage, "Dongqing, how long will it take to get to Yinchuan?" ”

Yinchuan is not close to the capital.

"Back to the county lord, it will take four days to get a fast horse, according to our current speed, it is estimated that it will be good to arrive in seven days."

"Seven days?" Si Ning frowned when she heard this, this time obviously exceeded her expectations, and she thought that it would be about three days at most.

However, she also understands that their group has carriages and luggage, and it is normal for them to not go fast.

"Well, tell me to go down and be careful."

"Yes."

After Si Ning finished speaking, he lowered the curtain, and as soon as he turned his head, he saw the dew drops staring at him, and he couldn't help but be startled.

She clutched her chest, "Dewdrop, what are you doing here?" ”

Seeing that she had frightened the county lord, Luzhu hurriedly said, "The slave should die, the slave should die, please punish the county lord." ”

"Forget it." Si Ning waved her hand, Dew Drop was the one who had served her since she was a child, and she was loyal to her, so she naturally would not punish her for a trivial matter.

"I'll rest for a while, and you can rest too."

I woke up too early today, and the carriage shook like this, so I felt even more sleepy.

"Yes."

Seeing the county lord resting on the soft pillow with his eyes closed, the dew drops breathed a sigh of relief silently, blaming her for being distracted just now.

Dew looked at the county lord's stretched eyebrows, and the nervousness and panic of going out for the first time gradually calmed down.

……

In the later journey, Si Ning did not let them speed up because they were in a hurry, safety first, and the carriage finally arrived at the boundary of Yinchuan after traveling on the official road for six days.

Si Ning got out of the carriage with the help of the dewdrops, she stretched out her hand to cover the scorching sun, and looked up at the words on the city gate - Yinchuan.

……

At the same time, Li Su, who was one step ahead of Si Ning and hurried to Yinchuan, had already arrived for four days.

After Li Su arrived in Yinchuan, in order not to startle the snake, he specially disguised himself into Yinchuan City, and after entering the city, he found an inn to settle down at random.

Then he arranged for Jingyun to go to Yinchuan City to secretly investigate, and he took Songbai to pretend to be a merchant to investigate the market.

What makes people feel strange is that Yinchuan produces salt, but the price of salt in Yinchuan is two percent higher than that in other places, and even so, the amount of salt is not much.

Even in the inn where they lived, they did not use salt for stir-frying, but vinegar cloth, and if they wanted to eat salt, they had to pay for it.

You must know that the salt production of Dazheng is not low, and there are two main types of salt in Dazheng, one is sea salt and the other is well salt.

The first is mainly in the coastal area, where there are salt pans, where seawater is put in and fenced off, and the water is evaporated by sunlight, and the salt is naturally precipitated to extract salt.

The second is to take the brine with high salt content from the well and evaporate the water by steaming to extract salt.

Of course, there is mineral salt, but mineral salt is toxic, and the salt production is not low, so only a very small number of people will eat mineral salt.

Yinchuan's salt belongs to the second kind, Yinchuan has a lot of salt wells, and the output reported last year can be 460,000 catties, so why is it so difficult for Yinchuan people to eat salt.

To know that a thing is the cheapest in the production area, think of lychee, which is worth a thousand gold in the capital, but as long as the farmers who plant it in Hainan can taste two.

Li Su's eyes narrowed slightly, there must be something strange about this Yinchuan.

Two days later, Jing Yun came back with new news, according to the news he had secretly found in the past few days, the difficulty of eating salt in Yinchuan had lasted for five years, and most of the people's homes used vinegar cloth and mineral salt.

And the reason for all this is that the price of salt is too high.

"Five years without salt? They're too miserable. He really can't imagine what it would be like to go without salt for five years.

Li Su had expected this, and the current Yinchuan Thorn Shi Liu Yuan has been serving as the Yinchuan Thorn Shi for just five years.

Jing Yun continued to speak, "Master, my subordinates went to the salt shop and said that they wanted to buy more salt, but the strange thing is that the salt official was unwilling to sell more salt, and his subordinates talked about it and increased the price, so he agreed to sell it for a hundred catties."

It will be three days before it can be traded. ”

Li Su asked, "He said that he would trade in three days?" ”

"Yes."

Li Su: "You immediately go back and keep an eye on that salt official and see who he is in contact with today." ”

"Yes, my subordinates will go."

After Jingyun left, Li Su also sent Songbai out and asked him to go to Yinchuan Yanjing to investigate.

Li Su stayed in the inn to integrate all the clues in the past few days, and after straightening out all the clues, Li Su frowned and sat on the chair.

According to today's clues, it is not difficult to see that the matter of illicit salt must be related to Liu Yuan, but the strange thing is that if this matter was done by Liu Yuan, then why did he send a large number of illicit salt sellers to the capital, isn't this self-defeating?

Obviously, Liu Yuan thought the same way.

Yinchuan Thorn Mansion, study.

Liu Yuan hurriedly paced back and forth in the room, and the master on the side looked dizzy, "Lord Thorn Shi, you quickly dissipate your anger, you still have to think of a good countermeasure for today."

Otherwise, the court will have to find out about us sooner or later. ”

Liu Yuan stopped, panting, his eyes full of red blood from anger, "It's still sooner or later?" His Majesty has already handed over this matter to the Three Law Divisions for strict investigation, and maybe there are already people from the Three Law Divisions on the territory of Yinchuan now. ”

When the master heard Liu Yuan say this, he also panicked, "Then my lord, how is this good?" ”

"How is it good? How to be good! Liu Yuan kicked the table in front of him over, and the table hit the ground with a heavy muffled sound.

"Mao six bastards, who asked him to sell illicit salt to the capital on his own initiative, did he think our lives were too long?"

Speaking of this, Liu Yuan was very angry, he was able to sit in this position, naturally he had brains, and he was not stupid to sell illegal salt to the capital.

Naturally, it is not easy for them to act in person, so they have always given salt sellers to smuggler salt dealers, and they are also afraid of being discovered, so they will warn those salt dealers every time.

If you want to get the goods from them, you can only sell the illicit salt to the northwest or outside the customs.

The supervision of the imperial court over there is a little lighter, and even if it is discovered, it is impossible to have anything to do with Yinchuan, which is far away in the world.

Although the northwest and the outside of the customs are quite far away, there are naturally people who are willing to do so.

There is a way to walk by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet, this time.

That Mao Liu is also their old customer, he has taken the goods under their hands a few times, and there is no mistake in any time, I don't know why he went to the capital to sell the smuggled salt this time, isn't this looking for death!

"What about Mao Liu?"

As soon as Liu Yuan learned about the private salt, he sent someone out to arrest Mao Liu, and now he can't fall into the hands of others.