Huguang Province, Jingshan County Yagongtang.

A large number of people under the hall watched, and Li Guangming, who was wearing prison uniforms, was taken to the court by the officials, and sitting on the top of the public hall was Wang Yue, the left deputy capital of the Imperial Palace, who was wearing a three-grade official uniform.

Wang Yue Rong has been a horse for half his life, although he is stained with the Confucianism of a literati, but there is no lack of iron and blood of a soldier on his body, and now he is sixty years old, but his eyes are still bright.

After An Lu's life and resurgence, he slapped the shocked wood like a sword out of its sheath and said in a deep voice: "Prisoner Li Wenguang, are you guilty?" ”

"Lord Qincha, haven't you already found it all?" Although Li Guangming was imprisoned, he was still well-informed, and asked with great disdain.

There has never been love for no reason in the world, and the reason why the price of salt in Jingshan County is one hundred and fifty yuan cheaper than that in Anlu Prefecture is naturally not due to the mercy of greedy people like Li Guangming.

Under Wang Yue's investigation, the truth of the matter finally surfaced.

What Li Guangming sells is not Huaiguan salt, but Cantonese official salt, because "salt and separation, that is, private salt", so it can also be regarded as a category of private salt.

During this period, private salt can be divided into five categories: market smuggling, commercial smuggling, official smuggling, tyrant smuggling and neighboring smuggling.

Smuggling refers to the behavior of stove households bypassing the government's control over private transactions.

Commercial smuggling refers to a kind of smuggling behavior carried out by merchants in the capacity of official contract salt sales, which is the largest and largest smuggling mode.

Official smuggling refers to the smuggling of salt by official personnel by taking advantage of their positions, which is a smuggling behavior that anti-smuggling officials dare not control at all.

Smuggling refers to the smuggling of civilian gangs, which usually have their own small armed units.

Neighbor smuggling refers to the illegal cross-border sale of salt from adjacent land.

Due to the fixed salt sales area divided by the imperial court, even if you get cheap official salt from Guangzhou, if you want to sell it to the capital, this will never be allowed, and Guangdong salt can only be sold in Guangdong and two or three neighboring provinces in Guangxi.

On the other hand, after the salt merchants got the official salt from Yangzhou, they could transport it to Jingshan County for sale, and resolutely monopolized most of the country's economic towns.

Although Huai salt has a wide sales area, it is very corrupt and has long become a gathering place for maggots.

Huai salt merchants can't stand the lion opening of the salt official, and they have to bear high transportation costs when they are sold to Jingshan County, so the cost of each catty of salt will go up.

On the other hand, Guangdong has the Guangzhou Salt Division and the Haibei Salt Division, where the cost of official salt is low, and the transportation cost is much less, so Guangdong official salt has an absolute price advantage.

Not to mention that a pound of salt costs 250 Wen, even 200 Wen can make a profit, and the salt store under Li Guangming's name sells Guangdong salt, which is also the secret of his low price salt sales.

"I always thought that the salt store was Zhao's shopkeeper, but I didn't expect it to be just for Li Guangming!"

"Everyone already knows about this matter, but why did Li Guangming suddenly admit that Yan Xing was his?"

"Isn't it because of Hu Daniu's case earlier? It's just that Li Guangming is also unlucky, and it just so happens that Guangdong sent smuggled salt over to Qin Cha and was caught red-handed! ”

"That's right! Now even if Li Guangming wants to quibble, this sale of illicit salt is already a matter of people getting stolen goods, I heard that he is going to cut off his head, right? ”

……

When the people in the hall saw the progress of the interrogation, they knew that Li Guangming's sale of illicit salt could no longer be denied, so they couldn't help but whisper.

Wang Yue saw that Li Guangming's face was full of arrogance, but he didn't expect that there was no trace of repentance at all, so he immediately patted the hall and said: "Pass on the salt lord Huang Batian!" ”

"The villain sent salt from Guangdong, and what he earned was nothing more than a little hard-earned money. In the past, the trader in Jingshan was called Chen Laoliu, and once he came to Jingshan, he was arrested by Xiao Zhi County, and then Li Guangming personally came forward to bring us out of the county prison, so the villain always knew that the new partner was Li Guangming, so this time ...... "Huang Batian was escorted to the court, and he confessed.

"That's why you swaggered into the city this time, just to give the Qin Cha and everyone to get the stolen goods, right?" Yang Jizong, the Huguang inspector who was listening to the trial next to him, stroked his beard lightly and helped to add.

"Exactly!" Huang Batian said with great remorse.

Wang Yue looked at Xiao Zhixian who was kneeling in the hall, and said angrily: "Xiao Zhixian, Ben Qin sent more than 30,000 taels of silver from your back house, and you have not taken any of the benefits from it over the years!" ”

"The offender is guilty!" Xiao Zhixian knew that he could no longer defend himself, so he pleaded guilty.

Wang Yue did not sympathize with Xiao Zhixian, who was in cahoots with Li Guangming, and turned his head to look at Li Guangming on the other side and said, "Li Guangming, can you plead guilty?" ”

"A physiognomist said that the old man had a catastrophe this year, which is really true! Even if it is a fixed number in heaven, the old man has nothing to argue, just take the confession! Li Guangming naturally couldn't deny it, and he looked very free and authentic.

"Who is the fortune teller he said, I also want to tell a hexagram!"

"It should be the blind woman in Jingyuan Village, but I heard that she has been transferred to Anlu Prefecture to open a shop!"

"It's a pity! But this time Li Guangming is really unlucky, he didn't say who knew that he opened the salt shop? ”

……

The people in the hall were very interested in metaphysics, and combined with Li Guangming's encounter, they all thought that Li Guangming was indeed unlucky, and they couldn't help but talk about the goddess.

Wang Yue turned his head and glanced at the scribe next to him, who had already prepared the three confessions, so he got up and sent the confessions to the three people.

Li Guangming and Xiao Zhixian are both literate people, so they naturally know what the content of the confession is, while Huang Batian is gambling that Wang Yue will not pit himself.

Huang Batian is an authentic Cantonese person, because he was born poor, his family has long had no land, and he was forced to embark on this road out of desperation.

In fact, he already knew that there would be such a day, but this was the path he chose, and he happily signed and confessed to this crime.

Wang Yue confirmed that the three confessions were correct, and pronounced a verdict on Huang Batian: "According to the law of the Ming Dynasty: those who cross the border will be sentenced to be confiscated." It is true that the prisoner Huang Batian and his subordinates brought Guangdong salt from Guangdong to Huguang, and the amount of smuggled salt was very huge, so they were sentenced to be confiscated to Xiangzhou, Guangxi, and taken down! ”

As the verdict was announced, the two yacha immediately stepped forward and took the prisoner Huang Batian down.

"Huh? How is exile sentenced? ”

"yes, shouldn't it be beheaded?"

"Beheading is deliberately alarmist, and generally the circumstances are not serious, and they are exiled!"

"If this Huang Batian is only sentenced to exile, then Li Guangming will not be beheaded, right?"

……

The people in the hall saw that the first verdict was released, but the situation was not what many people thought, and even they looked at Li Guangming Dao, who was kneeling in the hall.

"Lord Qincha, I don't know how to sentence the judges?" Li Guangming looked up at Wang Yue, but took the initiative to ask.

Wang Yue was very unhappy with this fearless Li Guangming, so he suppressed his anger and asked: "Li Guangming, how do you think Ben Qincha should judge you?" ”

"According to the Great Ming Law! Whoever peddles in smuggled salt shall have a hundred rods for three years; If there is any weapon, one more class will be added, and the person who resists arrest will be beheaded. Xia Guan did participate in the sale of smuggled salt, but he had no weapons and no resistance to arrest, so he naturally had a hundred rods and three years in prison. The corners of Li Guangming's mouth raised slightly, and it seemed that the reason should be authentic.

"My lord, Da Ming Law is indeed so!" Yang Jizong's criminal master stood next to him, and when he saw Wang Yue's brows tightly locked, he kindly reminded him.

"Xia Guan is not talented, but he has accumulated a little family assets over the years, and Xia Guan is willing to lose Su to atone for his sins!" Li Guangming was smug that he was familiar with the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and added.

"Is that all right?"

"Or else? This is all stipulated by the law of the Ming Dynasty! ”

"Mourning boy, let you study hard, you don't believe it!"

……

The people in the hall thought that Li Guangming was in a catastrophe, but it turned out that they would be fine at all, and an old father was so angry that he slapped the back of his son's head.

Hu Guang pressed Yang Jizong to stroke his beard lightly, and found that there was nothing wrong with Li Guangming's approach, even if he turned his head to look at Wang Yue who was sitting upright in the hall.

Wang Yue's face was gloomy, thinking of this system of atonement for sins, thinking that Hu Daniu died because of this, and this person was actually going to "live" because of this, he couldn't help but grit his teeth for a while.

"Lord Qincha, please announce the verdict quickly, the lower officials have to go back to take a shower and change their clothes to get rid of bad luck!" The corners of Li Guangming's mouth rose slightly, which was to urge the authentic.