The Imperial History of Salt Patrol arrested a deputy envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division, and in addition to allowing some salt merchants to gather to discuss countermeasures, it did not cause much turmoil among the citizens of Yangzhou.

However, on September 6, a small official of the procuratorate led a team of nearly 100 sergeants from the north gate of Yangzhou to enter, and then went straight to the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division, and took away dozens of officials from the salt transportation envoy, Yangzhou people finally became interested in this term of the salt patrol imperial history Han Yiliang.

Although the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division and the Salt Inspection Institute are both in Yangzhou, there are not many local people engaged in the work of salt merchants, and most of them are engaged in some industries that serve salt merchants.

The prosperity of the salt industry in the two Huai provinces has made the salt merchants of the two Huai basically live in Yangzhou Prefecture, and these salt merchants from all over the country have brought economic prosperity to Yangzhou, but this prosperity is very deformed.

First of all, after the merchants of the Ming Dynasty made a fortune, they either pursued official hats or embroidered shoes. The group of salt merchants is particularly prominent, and the two Huai salt merchants are the representatives of salt merchants.

The prosperity of Yangzhou City is based on the needs of the salt merchants of the two Huai, in order to meet the needs of the salt merchants for women, it gave birth to the Yangzhou thin horse. In the beginning, it was just some Yangzhou Lehu who cultivated their daughters' various skills, and then tried to marry their daughters to rich businessmen as concubines in exchange for money.

However, in the apocalypse years, with the increasing reputation of Yangzhou salt merchants, the unique Yangzhou erotic culture of Yangzhou thin horses also began to become famous all over the world. As a result, the thin horse in Yangzhou, which was originally just a small fight, has become the second largest industry in Yangzhou in addition to the salt industry.

The development of the sex industry in Yangzhou has not only destroyed the sense of responsibility of the people of Yangzhou for their families, but also destroyed the social atmosphere of the entire Yangzhou. The people of Yangzhou no longer regard hard-working workers as a way to change their lives, but seek a shortcut to make a fortune.

Inside and outside the city of Yangzhou, all kinds of prostitutes and crooked prostitutes fill every street and alley, and there are countless turtle dukes, matchmakers, and idlers who are attached to these prostitutes. Although the women of the local people in Yangzhou are deeply affected, there are often hundreds of girls who are purchased or abducted from all over the country every year.

It is because the local people in Yangzhou do not have much good impression of those extravagant and erosive salt merchants, and they do not even have much awe for the Yamen of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division. The news that Han Yiliang, who had just been transferred from Henan to patrol the salt and the imperial history, had almost arrested all the personnel of the Yamen of the Salt Transportation Division made many people applaud it.

The officials of the Salt Transportation Department accepted bribes from salt merchants, and the people of Yangzhou were naturally known to everyone. However, how can any of the officials of the Ming Dynasty not be corrupt, and even if the people know, they are just complaining in private.

However, most of the salt merchants in Yangzhou are outsiders, and if they want to buy land and produce in Yangzhou, they will inevitably have conflicts with the local people. Especially since more than 10 years ago, the trend of building gardens among salt merchants has become popular, not only to make these salt merchants live comfortably, but also to make friends with officials and literati.

Yangzhou Mansion was originally a densely populated and narrow area, especially the land inside and outside Yangzhou City was even more valuable. If these salt merchants wanted to build gardens in such a place, they would necessarily occupy the indigenous industry. Although the social atmosphere in Yangzhou City is very bad, some people are willing to sell their ancestral homes as long as they have money, but there are also many people who are not willing to give up their own property.

Since ancient times, selling a property is not a simple matter, you must first ask relatives and friends and then ask your neighbors, if these people are not interested, you can sell it to outsiders. This is a good order of customs, after all, the Ming Dynasty is still an agricultural society, and the interpersonal relationship of a family rarely changes, once someone settles down, it is a neighborhood relationship for hundreds of years.

It is precisely this extremely stable social relationship that gives rise to the saying that distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. If there is a bad neighbor around them, who would want to? As the saying goes, there are only a thousand days to catch a thief, and there is no thousand days to prevent a thief. In particular, these salt merchants want to expand their industries at every turn, and who knows if their houses will become the next target.

As a result, the relationship between these salt merchants and the local people was not so harmonious, and even disputes often arose. Once a dispute arises, the Yamen of the Salt Transportation Division often favors the salt merchants and suppresses the local people. The Yamen of the Salt Transportation Division is higher than that of the Yangzhou Mansion, and the salt transportation envoys of the Salt Transportation Division are all Beijing officials, so the local officials dare not offend too much.

As a result, in Yangzhou Prefecture, the disputes between the local people and the salt merchants failed nine times out of ten, and this kind of resentment naturally had to be accumulated in the hearts of the locals.

In addition, since the establishment of business registration in Yangzhou in the 13th year of Wanli, there are 14 more business students in Yangzhou Mansion School. Although these 14 business students are additional, they do not occupy the quota of local students. However, the number of lifting places in Yangzhou has not increased, and these 14 non-local students participating in the local imperial examination are essentially competing for the local lifting quota in Yangzhou.

This situation naturally caused dissatisfaction among the local scholars, but the Yangzhou salt merchants not only befriended the Yamen of the Salt Transportation Division, but also treated each salt patrol imperial history with great respect, plus they deliberately handed over the outstanding scribes in Jiangnan, so the protest voice of the Yangzhou scholars quickly disappeared.

However, the voice on the surface is gone, but in private, these scholars still hate the behavior of the salt merchants, otherwise there would not be so many markets, and the salt merchants are regarded as villains.

It is precisely because of this mentality of the people of Yangzhou City that there was no chaos when the procuratorate arrested the officials of the Yamen of the Transportation Division. No one came out to stop them, so they let the soldiers take the officials out of the city.

However, for the local salt merchants, the officials of the Yunsi Yamen were basically arrested, which was completely bad news. Not to mention, the huge amount of silver they have spent on these officials who have been fed over the years may be wasted. It is that over the years, they have colluded with these officials of the salt transportation department, and those illegal things they have done, if they are exposed, they will also be destroyed.

So the salt merchants of all sizes in Yangzhou City, after receiving the news, immediately rushed to the home of the eight major salt merchants, and wanted the eight merchants to come forward to talk to the procuratorate to see what the new salt inspector wanted to do.

However, after the families of the eight chief merchants came forward to receive these salt merchants, they learned that the procuratorate had invited the eight chief merchants early in the morning and had not returned until now. Without the eight merchants, these salt merchants suddenly became a swarm of headless flies, not knowing what they were going to do now.

While these salt merchants were waiting for the chief merchants to return home, the eight salt merchants were also distressed. After they were summoned by the procuratorate in the morning, they were separated from each other when they entered the door, and each of them was placed in a separate room to explain his bribery. And waiting outside is also a group of strange soldiers, not the officers of the procuratorate.

However, the general merchant Huang Wanyu was given preferential treatment, and after he entered, he was led by an officer of the procuratorate and went directly into the small garden in the backyard. The place of the courtyard is not large, and this small garden is naturally not as good as the garden of those salt merchants. However, this small garden from the hand of a certain salt patrol imperial history is quiet and elegant, not less thoughtful, no less than the famous garden in Yangzhou.

It was not the first time that Huang Wanyu had come and gone to the courtyard, and he was also amazed by this garden, but he had no interest in appreciating the beautiful scenery today, so he just followed the errand officer to the small pavilion in the southeast corner of the garden. The pavilion is located in a small pond, with three sides of the water but no mosquito nuisance, apparently brought in by living water.

The inspector brought Huang Wanyu here, and ran away as if he were running away, without even receiving the reward money that Huang Wanyu took out. This attitude of avoiding it suddenly made his heart sink.

Wang Chunyun in the pavilion walked out at this time, and after stepping forward to salute Huang Wanyu, he said with a smile: "Today has frightened Huang Shibo, the little nephew is here to accompany Shibo, please sit down in the pavilion and talk." ”

Only then did Huang Wanyu see who the person who came out of the pavilion was, although this made him feel a little more at ease, but he still said with palpitations: "What is going on?" This is different from what Brother Wang told me before. ”

Wang Chunyun pulled Huang Wanyu into the small pavilion and sat down with a smile on his face, and there were a few exquisite refreshments on the stone table in the pavilion. While pouring tea for Huang Wanyu, Wang Chunyun said: "My father said to Shibo before that he wanted to make Shibo a bull's ear in charge of the salt industry of the two Huai. If there is no major case to wash the Lianghuai salt industry, how can Shibo stand out and master the Lianghuai salt industry? ”

Huang Wanyu's face was ugly, and he said in shock and anger: "What kind of big case have you done, why are even the officials of the Yun Division and the eight chief businessmen involved?" The city gate caught fire, affecting the fish in the pond. The 8 major merchants entered the procuratorate together, and in the end only I went out, so won't I become the target of public criticism in the future? Your father and son are not trying to harm me. ”

"What did Shi Bo say, since Shi Bo was invited to the procuratorate, it will not be the only one who left unharmed in the future. What Shi Bo is worried about, how can the little nephew be negligent. ”

After listening to Wang Chunyun's answer, Huang Wanyu's face looked better. However, Wang Chunyun's next words made his face ugly again.

"The officials of the Yamen of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Department colluded with the Lianghuai salt merchants to forge salt and embezzle national revenue. These eight major salt merchants are the accomplices in selling fake salt for the officials of the salt transportation department.

Although the officials of the Salt Transportation Division must be dismissed from their posts and investigated, the eight major salt merchants will be fined, confiscated their illegal gains, and punished until they are exiled, depending on the severity of the circumstances..."

Huang Wanyu's cheeks twitched, and he couldn't help but say, "Even I have to be fined?" I have always been devoted to the court and cooperated with you. ”

Wang Chunyun looked at him disappreciably and said, "Of course you have to be punished, how can you let the salt merchants below know that Shibo is also a victim?" Besides, Shibo will be in charge of the Lianghuai salt industry in the future, so he will naturally have to understand the previous things.

Now that the fine has been imposed, the previous corruption and bribery can be regarded as whitewashing. Now there is no fine, and when the case calms down and the Lianghuai salt industry is on the right track again, the imperial court should find Shibo to settle the account.

The little nephew is also thinking about the love between our two families, so he asked for this punishment for the uncle, if the uncle is unwilling, then it will be better if the little nephew has never said this..."

Huang Wanyu suddenly remembered that this was not in his own garden, but in the backyard of the procuratorate, he suddenly softened his tone, and said with a smile: "It's my uncle, I'm confused, and I ask my nephew to continue, but the amount of the fine?" ”