Huai'an Mansion Yanai.

In the dead of night, a lone lamp.

Yang Zhen was holding the pen, but he was still a little undecided.

Although Shi Youmin agreed with him to break the wrist of a strong man, cut off a few key subordinates, and control the incident within a controllable range, this determination is obviously not so easy to make.

And for Yang Zhen, he has always had doubts about Shi Youmin's promise, and it is difficult to say whether his performance not long ago was more acting on the spot, or whether he was really encouraged more.

Li Heng knows a lot of his secrets, and the order of this matter must be to expose Li Heng by himself, and then Li Heng dies before he can get out.

But this step of Li Heng's death is not controlled by Yang Zhen, which is equivalent to handing over his life and death to others, which is obviously unacceptable to Yang Zheng, and whether Shi Youmin can kill Li Heng is indeed not a 100% thing.

Yang Zhen bit the pen and muttered about the pros and cons, but at this moment, there was a sound of pushing the door outside the door, and then the sound of footsteps came.

"Who?"

Yang Zhen was a little puzzled, at this time, in the dead of night, everyone should be resting, how could anyone come?

However, when he looked up, his pupils suddenly constricted, and a figure pounced, covering his mouth with a powerful big hand, it was Chef Hao, who was sent by Shi Youmin to kill him.

Chef Hao sneaked into the mansion quietly, picking the time when people were most sleepy in the middle of the night, at this time everything was silent, and the subordinates who were waiting for the prefect in the back office were also asleep, so no one noticed anything abnormal at this time, let alone found the trace of Chef Hao.

"Uh-huh.!" Yang Zhen struggled.

However, he was just a scholar, not a match for a professional killer at all, and he struggled with all his might, not even making a decent move, let alone attracting the attention of others.

At this time, he tried his best to break free from Chef Hao's shackles, and slammed his elbow into Chef Hao's abdomen.

However, Chef Hao also came prepared, and had long expected him to resist, so the big fan-like hand immediately pinched him, and with a muffled sound of "bang", Chef Hao did not move at all, but Yang Zhen became extremely painful, and tears flowed.

Chef Hao was also a little annoyed when he saw him so stubborn, Chef Hao grabbed his shoulders and pressed him down next to the table, and with the other hand, he reached for his belt, took out a sweat towel soaked in medicine and covered Yang Xuan's face, and soon, Yang Xuan fell unconscious

Chef Hao carefully restored the surrounding details, took away the paper on the table and put it in the collar, then put another written letter on the table, and then got a rope and hung it on the beam, disguising Yang Zhen as a suicide in fear of crime.

Chef Hao has done this kind of thing a few times in the past, and he is already familiar with it.

Then, Chef Hao quietly sneaked into the night.

In the early morning of the next day, the servant boy who came to bring breakfast to Yang Zhen opened the door and was immediately startled, the room was neat, but on the beam of the room, there was a corpse hanging on it.

The servant boy immediately exclaimed, and at the age of his teens, his language was already confused: "Master! What's wrong with you, sir? Sir! Don't scare the slaves...... Master, wake up, the little slave invites you to Langzhong! ”

However, he shouted for a long time, and the corpse on the beam of the house still did not move, and finally he had to face the reality that he knew very well in his heart.

In Huai'an Mansion, the prefect of the emperor-like prefect is dead!

The servant boy hurriedly rushed out of the house, opened his voice and shouted everywhere: "Someone! The old man is dead, the old man is dead, where is the ...... coming"

Hearing the sudden death of the master, the Yang family was panicked.

"The master is not such a person, how could he suddenly commit suicide?"

"Is the old man infected with a bad disease, and he knows that his time is short?"

"Nonsense, the old man is in good health, how can there be any serious diseases."

"It's strange, I didn't hear any movement last night."

Soon, the news of Yang Xuan's death made the entire government chickens and dogs jump up, not only the officials in the front yard of the government rushed to come, but the Jinyi guards who rushed to hear the news quickly took over here.

"What's going on?" Zhao Haichuan stood under the hall with his eyebrows twisted, quietly staring at the corpse on the beam.

didn't wait for the work to come, Zhao Haichuan put on gloves, stepped on a stool opposite, and personally went into battle for an autopsy.

Zhao Haichuan first pulled away the corpse's eyes.

"There are bloodshot eyes, there are not many of them, it should be caused by sleeping late, and there are no large bleeding spots, which means that they are not strangulation."

The brocade guard next to him recorded every word he said in detail.

"The pale face and no purple color are also a sign of normal hanging death."

"Judging from the shape of the lock groove at the neck, the figure of eight is not crossed."

Zhao Haichuan picked up the hair of Yang Xuan's corpse in detail, looked at the lethal acupuncture points on the top of his head and the ears on both sides, and found that there were no traces of silver needles or vertebral piercing, and his heart became more and more puzzled.

There were no traces of a fight at the scene, no one heard anything unusual last night, the time of death was at the deepest time of the night, plus the confession document on the table, everything seemed to say that Yang Zhen committed suicide in fear of crime.

But the problem is that it's all too normal.

"Save the site, a few of you stay here to guard, no one is allowed to enter, and in addition, take all the paperwork away."

As soon as the news of Yang Xuan's suicide in the backyard of the government was spread, the entire Huai'an City instantly boiled, and all kinds of rumors flew all over the sky, and the most recognized by the people was that it was rumored that Yang Zheng was greedy for power and colluded with bandits to assassinate Qin Cha and failed.

Although this is a rumor, there are also a large number of people who believe it, after all, judging from the clues currently in hand, the real suspect of the prefect is very big.

In short, among the Huai'an Mansion officials who are now in danger and are afraid of being implicated in the assassination of Qincha, there are relatively few people who hold a grudge against the prefect, but there are definitely not a few people who hope that he will die and let everyone land safely, so in a situation of discussion, even officials, many people believe this rumor.

And inside the Huai'an Mansion Station.

After Xie Jin heard the news of Yang Zheng's death, he was so angry that he threw away the inkstone on the bookcase.

"How can this be true, how can it be so reasonable?"

Zhao Haichuan arched his hand and said: "My lord, it may be a deliberate murder, but it is very troublesome to investigate, and the corpse must be dissected to see if the lungs and stomach have been poisoned." ”

"So what? Isn't it? ”

Xie Jin thought dejectedly: "At the moment, no matter whether Yang Zhen hanged himself or not, he can only hang himself, and the assassination of Qin Cha can no longer be expanded if it is found that from the third grade and the fourth grade, and then check it up, the people behind those people are not that I can afford to offend I originally wanted to take this opportunity to clean up all the political envoys of Huang Huaibu, but now it seems that there is no chance." ”

As for who did it, it is possible that it is those few people, so naturally there is no need to investigate it, and the head of the scarlet robe is indeed enough to close the case and stop everyone's mouths.

There are always some invisible boundaries in officialdom, which cannot be seen or touched, but they are difficult to cross.

Xie Jin is crazy, but he is not a fool, he still knows what to touch and what not to touch.

Zhao Haichuan thought for a while and reminded: "Since this is the case, my subordinates suggest that the adults should prepare early, lest this Yang Zhen die, and the things that should be done will not be postponed." ”

The case of the assassination of Qincha can not be investigated further up if it is found at the level of Zuo Shenzheng and the prefect, but the other line, that is, the line of Liu Fuchun, can be investigated along the way, after all, Xie Jin's task is to rectify the salt affairs and find out the annual salt tax of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver that was transferred by the two Huai Du and the subordinates.

And this involves the gentry and wealthy merchants of Huai'an Mansion, as well as the officials of the salt yamen, and the problems that the Metropolitan Procuratorate failed to solve last time, Xie Jin must solve them.

Zhao Haichuan reminded him to prepare early, that is, to start as soon as possible, and not to let this line be broken.

"Of course I have to prepare!" Xie Jin gritted his teeth and said, "But, who do you think will be the best choice?" ”

Zhao Haichuan said in a low voice: "My subordinates think that Jiang Ge, the head of the Jiang family of Hui Shang, is the most suitable. ”

"Ege?"

Xie Jin frowned, then shook his head and said: "Although Jiang Ge is important, and it seems that his power is not as strong as others, but if it is said that solving him can solve the problem of salt tax being embezzled, I will never believe it in the end, and I will work hard, I am afraid that it will be the second Yang Zhen." ”

"From the perspective of the beneficiary, Shi Youmin may not be able to get rid of the suspicion that the salt transfer of the two Huai is not possible, and when the Metropolitan Procuratorate came to investigate, some officials committed suicide and died, and the way of death was almost exactly the same."

"Hmm"

Xie Jin pondered, what Zhao Haichuan said was the key he considered.

But this point is also a tricky place.

Because Shi Youmin has always been cautious, and his official reputation is good, it was Emperor Taizu Gao who was promoted to this position with "being honest and honest", after Jinyiwei's previous investigation, Shi Youmin never accepted bribes, and even the previous Huai Shang Wu family did refuse to offer bribes, and wanted to convict him by tainting witnesses, but there was no solid evidence.

This makes it difficult for Xie Jin.

The reason why Wang Yuanshan, who was able to catch Wang Yuanshan, was done because Xie Jin used himself as bait, and Shi Youmin did not leak, which is really a bit difficult to do, which is why the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jinyiwei returned in vain before.

If it is an investigation, I am afraid that this matter can really only be carried out in private, otherwise, in the Lianghuai Salt Farm, it must be the enemy of the whole world, after all, no matter who Mingli is, he will not cooperate with Jinyiwei to continue the investigation.

But the most difficult part is that it is difficult to find out anything just by checking the account book, and the account book must be done seamlessly on the bright side.

If you can't arrest and interrogate people publicly, and you can't find out anything in private, what else can you do?

At this moment, there was a report from the Jinyi Guard, and a secret letter was sent to the Yamen of the President of Beijing's Law Reform Affairs, which was of high standard, and was escorted by a team of Jinyi Guards.

"But the letter of the national teacher?"

Xie Jin was overjoyed and asked.

"Exactly."

Xie Jin opened Jiang Xinghuo's letter and hurriedly browsed it.

After reading the letter, he suddenly lowered his voice, and said with excitement in his eyes: "The national teacher has given a clever plan that can solve this problem. ”

Zhao Haichuan didn't speak, but he knew that if it was something he could know, Xie Jin would definitely tell him.

"Why is it difficult to check this account?"

"There are too many years, too many numbers, and they are inextricably linked."

Yes, the Lianghuai Salt Farm produces half of the country's salt in a year, which is salt for 30 million people, whether it is the maintenance of the salt farm, or the expenditure for stove households, salt ding, and then to the salt sold to merchants, how complicated the accounts are, you don't need to think about it, and this is definitely not a person who is greedy, but an organized long-term plan, and in this organization, each executive individual is just a link, but it is meaningless to catch one or several, and other people at the top can be decoupled at any time.

On the books, for example, if you are greedy for a salt tax worth 700,000 taels of silver, then the normal reaction on the book is a cash shortage of 700,000 taels of silver, for reasons that are unclear and the whereabouts are unknown, but in order to cover up this act, certain means will inevitably be taken to make it not be discovered, such as creating false vouchers to make the 700,000 taels of silver go through the accounts normally, or counting this money into a certain expense, that is, fictitious expenses.

So is it okay to let salt merchants like the Wu family report and provide evidence? I don't want to, because different businessmen or merchant gangs are connected with the two Huai Du Salt Envoys, although the absolute number is amazing, but in terms of the total amount, the share of a single family is not large, and if you want to push backwards through the businessman, it is similar to a blind man touching an elephant, only a corner can be touched, and it is easy to be covered up.

As for mobilizing all the businessmen, it is even more impossible, except for the Wu family and Liu Fuchun, in the hands of the president's law change affairs Yamen, in fact, there are no other businessmen who can control it.

But Jiang Xinghuo's solution ideas are different from these, which makes the solution that I thought was impossible suddenly clear.

"Pardon the crime of selling surplus salt from salt and stove households, not count the old accounts and settle the new accounts, announce that the purchase price of surplus salt will be raised from this year, get this year's salt from stove households, and encourage stove households and salt households to launch a campaign to check moths, accumulate small into large, and use jigsaw puzzles to find out the truth."

Since the two Huai have transferred salt so that the division cannot find the evidence, the account book is seamless, and the merchants are blind people touching elephants, so simply start from the source!

What is the source of salt? Of course, it's a stove that boils salt!

This is a stupid method, a bit like the "zero" fault analysis model in systems engineering, that is, when there is a problem in a certain link within a huge and complex system, but you can't find where the problem is, you need to trace the source one by one from the first step to the last step, abandon subjective assumptions, and re-verify them one by one until the problem is completely solved.

The problem of salt affairs is troublesome to say, but in fact it is not complicated, because compared with spacecraft with dozens of systems and tens of thousands of parts, there are only three groups in the circulation of salt in the salt business.

However, there is an important premise of this method, that is, a large number of people must take over the salt works at the same time.

And Jiang Xinghuo provided Xie Jin with a choice, if necessary, he could ask the emperor to let part of the reserve army go south.

Obviously, Xie Jin has been appreciated by Jiang Xinghuo through vigorous and resolute means, if it were not for Xie Jin's previous decisive performance of winning Huang Huaibu's political envoy Si Zuo's participation in politics and Huai'an Mansion's Tongzhi, so that Jiang Xinghuo could see Xie Jin's different side and see his courage, Jiang Xinghuo would definitely not say this.

In the letter, Jiang Xinghuo also vaguely expressed his support for Xie Jin's continued investigation, and the scale can be expanded, but the results may not be guaranteed.

After all, whether it was Huang Huaibu's political envoy under Zhu Gaochi's lineage, or the governor of Caoyun who brought two gold medals for avoiding death, they were only involved in Xie Jin's task, but they didn't do much, and they couldn't solve the current problem even if they tried their best to bring them down.

Now that Yang Xuan, the prefect of Huai'an, is gone, the most important and the most difficult thing to bite, only Shi Youmin, the salt envoy of the two Huaidu, who looks impeccable.

As the so-called "Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives", before Xie Jin finished writing a reply, Shi Youmin actually took the initiative to send someone to the door, saying that the officials of the two Huai and Huai were transporting salt to the Yamen when they heard that the traitor committed suicide in fear of sin, and specially set up a banquet in the evening to wash the dust for the injured Qincha.

"My lord, are you going? If I go, maybe I can take advantage of this opportunity to do something else. ”

Xie Jin's eyebrows raised slightly, and then he reacted and said in surprise: "Could it be that you are going to do it?" ”

Zhao Haichuan nodded lightly and said, "Yes, if the officials of the Yan Envoy Division and the Yamen all go to the banquet, then maybe they can raid some places and collect some other evidence, so that they don't react in time, maybe they will find out." ”

"This thing can be tried, but"

Xie Jin groaned slightly, and finally said: "The interests involved in this thing are too great, just by checking it like this, I'm afraid it will startle the snake." ”

"Don't worry, sir!"

Zhao Haichuan was obviously confident, and swore that he would promise: "It's not to move the warehouse, but to check the outer mansions of these officials, since there is greed for ink, and there is no evidence on the surface, it is impossible for them to put them in the mansion, so most of them are hidden in other places, and the outer mansion is a very likely place." ”

Xie Jin nodded slightly, and then said: "Zhao Baihu, this official believes in your ability, but this matter must not be rushed, and the teacher must be famous." ”

"I know that."

Zhao Haichuan said with a smile: "It's just to investigate some theft cases." ”

——————

In the Yamen of the Salt Envoy Division, Shi Youmin personally looked at the venue and layout of the reception banquet, and now he got the accurate news that Yang Zhen was dead, but he was relieved, and even hummed a small tune from his hometown.

As soon as Yang Cheng died, the guilt of the rebellion was borne by the conclusive "letter of repentance", and no matter what the biggest magistrate knew about the salt affairs, it could no longer be used as evidence of betraying himself to seek preservation.

The local gentry in Huai'an Mansion had no direct contact with Shi Youmin.

I have to say that Shi Youmin is a very far-sighted person, he is not greedy for the money of the gentry and salt merchants at all, those money are too easy to be found out, he directly used the power in his hands, gathered a group of officials, took a cut from the salt tax, and then made fake accounts seamlessly.

What is a pattern? What does it mean to make the difference without a middleman?

This is also the reason why the problem of salt tax has never been investigated, because it is a confused account, and just looking at the books, there is no problem, if it is not for Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji to use mathematical methods to compare with the Northern Song Dynasty, the lack of salt tax in equal proportions, I am afraid that such a big hole will be covered up for many years.

Shi Youmin nodded, and then seemed to think of something again, and asked his henchman, "By the way, how much has the price of food in the city increased in the past few days?" ”

The henchman stretched out five fingers: "It's about fifty yuan higher than yesterday." ”

"This"

Hearing this price, Shi Youmin couldn't help but be stunned, he thought that the price of grain would rise by ten cents at most, but he didn't expect it to skyrocket five times, this is too exaggerated, right?

Although the civil affairs of Huai'an Province are not under his control, the current sharp price increase has seriously affected the livelihood of the people.

"But because of this year's poor harvest?"

"Of course not."

The henchman looked at his appearance and couldn't help but explain aloud: "The gentry and merchants are stockpiling grain, and the people in the township who have their own land to farm are not greatly affected, but the citizens in the city have not much food, and there is very little grain on the side of the Grand Canal that has been transported north recently." ”

"It's a pity!"

Shi Youmin shook his head with regret on his face, then looked at his henchmen, and said, "But the grain of our salt envoy Si Yamen, if you want to release the wind, not a single grain can flow out, you know?" ”

The salt envoy Si Yamen is in charge of hundreds of thousands of stove households, and he himself has a granary, and the scale is very large, which is enough to affect the price of grain, and Shi Youmin's decision is undoubtedly to continue to ignite a fire to the already high grain price.

"This"

The henchman opened his mouth, but stopped talking.

Shi Youmin knew what he wanted to say, so he said earnestly: "But don't underestimate these gentry and rich families, these people's power is all over Huai'an Mansion, at this critical moment, let them feel that our salt envoy Si Yamen stands with them." ”

"But there are also stove households who buy food in the market, after all, the stove households have limited fields."

The henchman's face hesitated, and after a moment he said with difficulty, "If that's the case, then wouldn't we offend them to death, and the consequences would be this."

In fact, the henchman's worry is justified, in a stove household, only Yanding is generally responsible for producing salt, selling it to the salt to make the Si Yamen exchange money, and then going to the granary of the salt envoy Si Yamen to buy rice at a price that is basically equal to the market price, and the "granary" in Shi Youmin's mouth is doing this.

But in a family, the rest of the people naturally do not eat dry food, although the land around the salt works has a relatively low grain yield, and they also have some land under their name. However, it is obvious that it is certainly impossible to feed the whole family by relying on the cultivation of such small plots of land, and because of the large-scale strike of the stove households, the income has been drastically reduced, so the stove households with poor economic conditions or relatively heavy population burdens, once the granary of the Si Yamen is not open due to salt, they can only go to the market to buy expensive grain, and the participation of these people will further push up the price of grain.

How could Shi Youmin not know this truth? It's just that in addition to the reason for what he said, he has another consideration.

"The more they can't afford to eat food and go hungry, the more the striking stove households are afraid of being punished by the imperial court for selling surplus salt in the past, and the more resentful they will be, instead of managing their salt envoys, the Yamen, understand?"

Shi Youmin mentioned it slightly, and the other party's eyes widened suddenly, and he instantly understood, and he was amazed.

"Your Excellency is wise."

The henchman smiled brightly and clenched his fists and said: "Then now it's almost a fire, and when the time comes, you can send someone to secretly fan the flames and completely detonate those dissatisfactions." ”

In fact, the granary of the salt envoy Si Yamen is self-operated, which belongs to the supporting welfare, and belongs to the kind of brand that everyone knows that does not hang the salt envoy Si Yamen, but it has its actual effect, but it is definitely not within the official establishment of the imperial court, and it is precisely in this way that Shi Youmin can completely control it.

It is precisely because it is self-operated and follows the market grain price that it is completely justified to avoid the warehouse and not release the grain, which was originally set up to facilitate the stove households to buy grain with the money from selling surplus salt, and the salt makes the Si Yamen not make money at all.

"I think that Qincha should not be so stupid, and he will definitely choose to suppress this matter and focus on us, although now the government of Huai'an Mansion has been swept away by him, and no one can take care of the price of grain."

Speaking of this, Shi Youmin smiled slightly sarcastically, and said lightly: "But those local gentry and rich families are different, they will definitely raise the price of grain wildly for the sake of profit." ”

In fact, Shi Youmin's plan is no problem from his point of view, and it can protect the interests of the salt envoy to the greatest extent and avoid the salt farm getting out of control.

This reason is very simple, Shi Youmin has food in his hands, and he has the key to solving the problem at any time, and in his opinion, although Xie Jin is menacing and has a large number of brocade guards, he has neither the support of the local gentry and wealthy businessmen, nor the necessary resources to solve the current difficulties. This autumn is generally poor, there is a shortage of grain everywhere, and in the summer, Jiangnan in order to prepare logistics for the expedition to Annan, it is even more mobilized a large amount of grain, coupled with last year's floods, it is already a bad harvest of three crops.

Shi Youmin didn't believe it, in order to help Xie Jin solve this problem, which was not the main problem, Jiang Xinghuo could really get him a large amount of food.

Food is not conjured out of thin air.

And Shi Youmin's operation in the court also has some eyebrows, as long as he is not frightened by Xie Jin to reveal his flaws, then Xie Jin can't find anything, so he naturally has to leave in disgrace, just like Chen Ying in the previous Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Chen Ying is also known as the cool official of the ancients, isn't it the same in vain?

And such as the Huai Shang Wu Jiahui Shang Jiang family, these are all big salt merchants, but in Shi Youmin's eyes, they are as small as dust, after all, they all rely on the salt envoy to eat, but the salt administration can easily handle them, and if the imperial court insists on reforming the salt law and cracking down on the salt merchants, these salt merchants will definitely not be able to resist, so this needs to be attached to the salt envoy Yamen.

The high-level officials of the salt envoy department and the yamen are ironclad, and their interests have long been entangled, they are all grasshoppers on the same line, and no one can escape, and the salt merchants also have the same position, plus the gentry and wealthy merchants, citizens, and stove households who stand together because of the price of grain.

The entire Huai'an Mansion is all my people, what are you fighting with me?

"In this way, let's add another fire, and this matter can be successfully achieved, let Qin Cha face the angry citizens and stove households first, and as for the accounts of our salt envoy Si Yamen, he can check it out."

(End of chapter)