After Hu Zongxian dealt with the case of the theft of the salt tax, he went straight back to the governor's palace, and he was thinking about this problem all the way, a small official dared to do anything about the salt tax of the imperial court! Those high-ranking officials must only act more unscrupulously, not to mention the lucrative salt merchants behind them.

Those salt merchants have gathered tens of millions of dollars by selling illegal salt! And only eight or nine million taels of salt taxes were handed over to the imperial court every year, and most of these salt taxes were greedy by officials at all levels, and only more than one million taels finally reached the hands of the imperial court.

The development of these salt merchants was inseparable from the Kaizhong Law set up by the imperial court at that time, allowing some merchants to transport a series of materials such as military rations and horses to more remote areas to ensure the supply of materials.

In the third year of Hongwu, there was a special shortage of grain in Shanxi, and in order to solve this problem, the imperial court came forward to recruit merchants, and also promised that after sending the grain, these merchants would receive a certain amount of salt, and the merchants who obtained the salt introduction could take the salt to the designated place to sell, so that they could obtain a considerable fortune.

Later, however, the rule of the imperial court gradually decayed, and the law could no longer be enforced, so the officials in charge of these joined forces with the salt merchants to sell illicit salt and make huge profits from it.

"Do you want to give Your Majesty a lesson and take the opportunity of collecting the salt tax this time to solve this matter?" Hu Zongxian sat beside the bookcase and thought so.

For a long time, Hu Zongxian seemed to have made up some kind of determination, spread out the pen and paper, and said word by word: "Your Majesty, the current salt tax system is erosive, and the imperial court cannot collect enough silver, so that the imperial court's finances are tight!" ”

"In addition, as far as Wei Chen knows, the salt merchants and officials behind it colluded to traffic in illicit salt, and the wealth they gathered every year was not more than 10 million, but they only paid 8 or 9 million salt taxes to the imperial court, so Wei Chen asked His Majesty to take action to remove these moths from my Ming Dynasty......"

After Hu Zongxian finished writing the note and put it in the envelope, he immediately called his cronies and said in a deep voice: "You must personally hand over this letter to Your Majesty, and you can't pass anyone's hand in between!" Do you understand? ”

Looking at the solemn expression on Hu Zongxian's face, his cronies also understood that the content of it must be extremely important, and it is absolutely not allowed to make any mistakes.

I saw him take the envelope, kneel on one knee, and said in a deep voice: "Yes, Your Excellency Governor, my subordinates must bring the letter!" ”

"Well, okay, wait until dawn, and you'll go." Hu Zongxian looked at the sky outside and ordered.

"Yes!" After saying this, the cronie put the envelope into his bosom very solemnly, bowed and left.

……

The night passed quickly, and the next morning, Hu Zongxian's cronies rode fast horses and rushed in the direction of the capital.

"Your Excellency, the reply from the Ministry of War has arrived."

As soon as Hu Zongxian got up, a guard came to report.

"Well, you go down."

Hu Zongxian took the reply letter from the guard's hand and spoke.

"Yes!"

After the guards left, Hu Zongxian opened the envelope, and after seeing the content on it, he couldn't help but show joy, the above content is that the military department will send thirty-six warships with ocean-going combat capabilities to cooperate with Hu Zongxian's operation, and at present, there are only about fifty warships in the Daming Naval Division!

"This must be Your Majesty's instruction, otherwise, it is absolutely impossible to transfer so many warships from the military department, which is equivalent to most of the current Daming Naval Division."

"Your Majesty attaches so much importance to this matter, Weichen will definitely go all out to wipe out the group of pirates entrenched on the sea!"

Hu Zongxian thought so in his heart, and with a little more force in his hand, he clutched the reply letter from the military department.

"Inform Qi Jiguang, just say that the official has something to look for him." Hu Zongxian instructed his subordinates on the side.

"Yes!" The subordinates soon left, went to the place where the army was stationed outside the city, and informed Qi Jiguang.

Soon, after Qi Jiguang received the news, he hurried to the Governor's Mansion of Zhejiang.

"Lord Governor!" As soon as Qi Jiguang entered the hall, he immediately saluted Hu Zongxian.

"Get up, sit!" Hu Zongxian said, pointing to the seat in front of him, then picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for himself and Qi Jiguang.

"Thank you, Governor." Qi Jiguang said that, sat down next to Hu Zongxian, and looked restrained.

"The Governor suddenly summoned the last general, is there something to be done about the suppression of the Japanese?" Qi Jiguang hesitated for a moment and asked.

"Well, that's right, with the support of His Majesty, the military department will send thirty-six warships to assist us in the battle!"

"What? So much! After listening to the news brought by Hu Zongxian, Qi Jiguang couldn't help but be shocked.

"Well, Your Majesty has taken great pains to do this, and at present, I have only more than fifty warships in total! We must fight this battle beautifully. Hu Zongxian picked up the teacup and took a sip.

"Yes, Governor! The subordinates will do their best. After listening to Hu Zongxian's instructions, Qi Jiguang immediately knelt on the ground and said in a deep voice.

"How's the matter you told you before?" Hu Zongxian shifted his gaze to Qi Jiguang, and then asked out loud.

"Report to the Governor, what you told the Admiral before, the Admiral has already done! The last general has selected more than 3,000 soldiers from the army and trained them, and they will definitely be able to handle this battle. ”

"Well, the three thousand here, plus the two thousand on the ship, add up to five thousand troops, plus more than thirty warships of the military department, presumably they will be able to completely wipe out Wang Zhi's gang of Japanese robbers at that time!"

"After exterminating this gang of pirates, this official will personally ask Your Majesty for a reward!"

Hu Zongxian was very satisfied with Qi Jiguang's performance, nodded and encouraged.

"Yes, thank you, Lord Governor!" After hearing Hu Zongxian's words, Qi Jiguang's face was full of excitement.

Then Hu Zongxian waved his hand, asked his subordinates to bring the map, pointed to an island on it, and said: "Look, this is the Zhoushan Islands, and there is an island in the Zhoushan Islands, called Jintang Island, which is the lair of Wang Zhi, the leader of the Japanese bandits!" ”

"The officer's idea at that time is to use the guns on the ship first......"

Time passed unconsciously, when Qi Jiguang came out of the governor's mansion, his face was full of bamboo, after detailed planning, if it was only fifty percent before, then now he is ninety percent sure that Wang Zhi's gang of would-be robbers can be completely wiped out!

At the same time, the army's food, grass, ordnance, salary, and so on were also secretly allocated.

……

In a dimly lit cell, the smell of blood lingered for a long time, and the people who had previously participated in stealing the salt tax tried all kinds of severe torture punishments in the prison under the arrangement of Zheng Michang, and those who were weak died on the spot! Those who survived were also tortured and dehumanized, and from a distance, they looked like a lump of rotten flesh dripping with blood.

Zheng Michang covered his mouth and nose, walked in, and asked the jailer on the side, "How is it?" ”

"Report to your lord, five have died, and these two are left!" The jailer said, pointing to the two people who were hanging upside down on the beam with iron hooks, and flattered.

"Well, hurry up and take care of it all." Zheng Michang frowned and commanded.

"Yes, sir! The subordinates must do their best. ”

After Zheng Michang finished speaking, he walked out of the cell, and the moment he stepped out of the prison door, a wail sounded behind him......

(End of chapter)