When Cao Song hurried to Shangshutai, he heard the shouts of Da Changqiu Zhao Zhong in the house from a distance.

Zhao Zhong had already gotten the news of Hedong first, and was scolding the Zhenbei general Li Hongmu for being lawless and acting recklessly, and asked His Majesty to immediately issue an order to arrest Li Hong.

The Son of Heaven looked at the excited Zhao Zhong with a smile, pointed to Cao Song, who was panting on the side, and asked, "Two Aiqing, who is heavier?" ”

Zhao Zhong was so angry that he pouted, and replied angrily: "Your Majesty, the old minister is a little heavier." ”

"Oh?" The Son of Heaven reached out and touched the bulging bellies of the two, gestured, and said with a smile: "I think Cao Aiqing is a little heavier, although Aiqing's belly is big, it may not have weight. ”

Zhao Zhong's face suddenly turned red, the fat on his face shook violently twice, his eyes were even more angry, and he didn't say a word for a long time.

"Aiqing should go to Changle Palace, the Queen Mother is very busy and needs manpower." The Son of Heaven said, "I will deal with this matter." ”

Zhao Zhong didn't say a word, and left with a huff.

"Tell me, Lord Taiwei, what the hell is going on?"

Cao Song wiped the sweat from his forehead and opened the scroll in his hand.

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Winter is about to begin, and under Li Hong's repeated urging, all kinds of affairs in Tuntian are proceeding faster and faster, and the subordinate Peng Shi of the Captain's Mansion and the Governor's Mansion of Diannong are busy with their feet and working day and night. The county government of Zhang Yan and Taiyuan Shangdang also invested all their efforts to help the two prefectures smoothly carry out the work of tuntian. The protégés and former officials who followed Zhao Qi to Bingzhou and Tang Fang and other bureaucrats from the Bingzhou Assassin Mansion were all over the two counties, and they made great efforts to enable Tuntian to advance in an orderly and gradual manner.

In order to be able to see grain in May next year and alleviate the food crisis in Bingzhou, Li Hong invested almost all his money and materials in the military cantonment. At the end of September and the beginning of October, the work of measuring the land in Juntun was completed, and the 150,000 tuntian soldiers who remained in Taiyuan and Shangdang quickly entered their respective tuntian areas and began to rush to plant winter wheat. At the same time, the government offices of the two counties also successfully organized and supervised the farmers of the original two counties to plant winter wheat.

At the end of October, the work of measuring the land in Mintun was basically completed, and the displaced people scattered all over the country rushed to Mintun District one after another under the arrangement of the local government and the Tuntian Pengshi to rent the land allocated to them by the Captain of the Tuntian Guard's Office. After settling in the Mintun area, the displaced people have already missed the planting period, and they can only wait until spring to go to the fields to cultivate, when they need food, huts, tents and winter clothing most. The grain and cantonment materials needed by the state suddenly became strained.

At the beginning of November, Li Hong decisively ordered Yang Feng, who had already led 200,000 Tuntian soldiers to Hedong, not to accept grain and Tuntian materials for the time being, but to transfer all the materials to Taiyuan and Shangdang in advance to supply the displaced people in Tuntian.

But at this time, Li Hong received the news of the sudden interruption of the supply of grain and tuntian materials. Li Hong was taken aback and immediately called Xie Ming, who was in charge of the salt and iron operation in Bingzhou.

"Isn't salt and iron always being sent to Guanzhong? Do Lu Zhong and Xu Ling not want to live anymore? ”

"My lord, this is not the fault of Lu Zhong and Xu Ling, the materials they bought in various places are still being sent in a steady stream." Xie Ming said angrily, "But all the supplies are stranded on the south bank of the Yellow River. ”

"Why?"

"Hedong County suddenly set up 13 checkpoints on land and water, and levied transportation taxes on vehicles and ships." Xie Ming said, "If a truckload of materials is transported from Guanzhong Kanto to Bingzhou, the materials on the car will not even be enough to pay taxes. Merchants from all over the country had no choice but to suspend operations. ”

Li Hong stood up abruptly and asked angrily, "Thirteen levels? Isn't there only a triple? Why did it rise so much in the blink of an eye? Was this privately ordered by the Hedong County Government or was it the will of the imperial court? ”

"I heard that it was the will of the imperial court." Xie Ming said, "Lord Koji came to the book and said that it was Xia Yun, the Zhongchang servant, who presided over the collection of transportation taxes in Hedong. Lord Koji has already negotiated with Han Ying, the Taishou of Hedong County, but there is no result, and Xia Yun, the servant of Zhongchang, has not seen Lord Koji at all. ”

"Why didn't you tell me about this until now?" Li Hong asked dissatisfied.

"Your Excellency has been patrolling back and forth between Taiyuan and Shangdang, and your whereabouts are uncertain, and it is difficult for us to find you. In addition, the situation in the first two days was not so serious, and the supplies were still arriving one after another, and it was not suddenly suspended until today. Xie Ming timidly glanced at Li Hong, who was angry, and said cautiously, "After Zhong Yuan arrived in Luoyang, he never got the holy decree to reopen the salt and iron, I ...... be careful."

Of course, Li Hong knew what Xie Ming was watching out for. Xie Ming beware that when he was angry, he went on a killing spree and made things out of control. Compared with the resumption of salt and iron, the materials that have been temporarily interrupted for a period of time are indeed insignificant. The key to the success of Tuntian is not these materials, but the reopening of salt and iron. As long as the salt and iron are reopened, the huge amount of money needed for the tuntian can be exchanged.

Li Hongqiang endured his anger and forced himself to gradually calm down. He patted Xie Ming on the shoulder and expressed his gratitude.

"How much grain and grass is left in the camp?"

"There is not much grain and grass, but there are still a lot of livestock." Xie Ming saw that Li Hong did not jump like thunder but calmed down, and his heart suddenly relaxed, and he said happily, "Although many of these captured livestock have been transported away by the government offices of the two counties one after another, there are still more than 100,000 heads in the big camp, which just come in handy, and it is more than enough to be in a hurry." ”

Li Hong nodded, and instructed Xie Ming to immediately inform the Hutian Commander's Mansion of this matter, and let them come to Daying to collect livestock to relieve the displaced people in Mintun District who were short of grain, and at the same time ordered the Diannong Governor's Mansion to allocate part of the grain to the Hutian Captain's Mansion for emergency relief.

Now, Zhao Yun's Changshui battalion is in Handan, Yan Rou has already taken the Yue cavalry battalion north to support Xian Yufu after driving away the Baibo Yellow Turban Army in Xihe County, and the 20,000 infantry army led by Jade is going to defend Jinyang, and Li Hong only has 3,000 Black Panther Yicong to call on. Li Hong immediately ordered Yan Liang to temporarily lead the Black Panther to obey and prepare to go south to Hedong at any time. Yang Feng was ordered to lead 200,000 Tuntian soldiers to garrison along the lower reaches of the Fen River to ensure that the Fen River and the northeastern part of the river were unimpeded. Ordered Koji to garrison south of the east Chi Road of the river.

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A few days later, Li Hong received a secret letter, in which it was revealed that Han Ying, the Taishou of Hedong, had secretly colluded with businessmen to resell salt and iron to make huge profits.

Li Hong immediately summoned Yushi, Xie Ming, and Xiaolan to discuss the matter. At present, Shi Zuoyan, the chief of the Zhenbei General's Mansion, is an inspector of the Diannong Governor's Mansion, Sima Li Wei is in Luoyang, and Zhonglang Tang Yun is an inspector of the Hutian Captain's Mansion, and Xie Ming, who has been reappointed as the Zhonglang of the Zhenbei General's Mansion, is in charge of the salt and iron of the state, Sima Song Wen of the cavalry army goes north to Yanmen Pass with Xu Rong, Sima Yupeng of the infantry army goes north with Xian Yu, and Sima Yin Si of the chariot battalion stays in the chariot battalion all day to tinker with his chariot, and the daily chief of the entire Zhenbei General's Mansion is only the main Bo Xiaolan. Xiao Lan is extremely talented, thoughtful, resolute, and resolute, no matter how tricky it is, it can be solved immediately in her hands. The bureaucrats of the prefectures were full of praise for this young and handsome lord of the Zhenbei General's Mansion, and even Zhao Qi asked Li Hong, whose protégé is this Lord Zhu, why is his intelligence so outstanding, can he lend it to me? Li Hong smiled but did not answer, and resolutely refused.

"This secret letter was sent by the Hedong Wei Gate Valve." Xiao Lan handed the silk silk in his hand to Yu Shi and Xie Ming, and smiled at Li Hong, "Your Excellency probably doesn't know that this Wei family is the number one gate valve in Hedong, right?" ”

Li Hong shook his head.

"The Wei family is famous all over the world for being proficient in historiography, three of their ancestors have been Jiuqing, and more than a dozen have been members of the court of 2,000 stones, and their family background is very prominent. The head of this generation, Wei pursued Huang Lao's learning, was indifferent to fame and fortune, refused to go out several times, and concentrated on opening a museum in Hedong to teach, with a great reputation. Xiao Lan smiled lightly and said, "But the last time Xu Ling came, I heard him say that the Wei family is the richest man in Hedong, with billions of family wealth and tens of thousands of hectares of land, which is as rich as the country. ”

"Do you know where their money came from?"

Li Hong didn't think about it, and said casually: "Are you reselling salt and iron in private?" ”

"In my lord's words." Xiao Lan said, "The east of the river is divided into north and south by the Fen River, the north of the Fen River is sparsely populated and the fields are barren because of the invasion of the Hu people, while the south of the Fen River is extremely rich because of the protection of the natural barrier of the Fen River, not only Yanchi iron ore, but also a large area of fertile land. Because of this, most of the powerful people in Beijing bought land here, called arable land and farming, but they were actually reselling salt and iron. These people colluded with the bureaucrats and tycoons in Hedong to smuggle all the money of the Han Kingdom back to their private treasury. ”

"At this time, the Wei family secretly told Hedong that Han Ying was corrupt and perverted the law, which must be related to Xia Yun, the regular servant of the Zhongchang Dynasty, who went to Hedong to collect transportation taxes." Xiao Lan explained, "Whenever these lieutenants go to a place, they will exploit them on a large scale, and they will never give up without scraping the ground. The rich people in Hedong must be unbearable, so in desperation, they secretly told the Zhenbei General's Mansion, the purpose of which was nothing more than to use the hand of the adult to drive away Xia Yun. ”

Jade sneered: "There is no such thing as a good thing. When they denounce Han Ying, aren't they afraid of implicating themselves? Hmph, shoot yourself in the foot. In my opinion, it is better to take this opportunity to sweep away the corrupt officials and corrupt officials in Hedong. ”

"Lord Jade is probably underestimating these gate valve families." Xie Ming sighed and put down the secret letter in his hand, "If you want to take this opportunity to suppress corruption in Hedong, you must consider the consequences of suppressing corruption. ”

"It's not like the time when adults are in Xiliang. When the adult was fighting corruption in Xiliang, he was just a general of the unified army, and there was Taiwei Zhang Wen and Taiwei Mansion on top, even if the anti-corruption failed at that time, the most people who were implicated were only tens of thousands of adults' subordinates, but now? The adult is a general of an important town, supervising the military affairs of the two counties of the three states, and is responsible for the tuntian of the state, once he fails, he will not only be implicated by his subordinates and millions of displaced people, but also the safety of the society of the Han Kingdom. ”

"If the Hedong Guardian dares to send someone to send this secret letter, he must have carefully discussed with the wealthy people in Hedong, and they must be completely sure that the Lord will not dare to launch a thunderbolt to sweep across Hedong." Xie Ming said, "The key thing for adults now is that they have no money to tuntian. Once Tuntian fails, the blow to the Great Han State can be imagined, but if Tuntian wants to succeed, the only way at present is to reopen and merge the salt and iron of the state, and if the imperial court wants to agree to our salt and iron proposal, the lord cannot offend the magnates in Beijing. Behind these gate lords and tycoons in Hedong are the magnates in Beijing, and if the adults move them, the consequences will be ......"

"In this regard, the powerful people in the DPRK and China have long been offended by us." Jade said, "What's more, we arrested Hedong Taishou Han Ying and drove Xia Yun away, which is not the same as offending the traitors in the court." Offending one is also offending, it is better to offend one, we can take the opportunity to threaten the magnates in Beijing with the lives and property of these people, and perhaps, we can also help Zhongyuan in Luoyang. ”

"Jade-sama is wrong." Xiao Lan smiled, "Lord Yu hasn't seen the true purpose of the Hedong Guard's letter yet. ”

"What other purpose?" Jade said impatiently, "Do they still want to send us money?" ”

"Yes, Lord Jade is right this time." Xiao Lan patted her delicate little hand and said with a coquettish smile, "The purpose of the rich people in Hedong is to send us money. ”

Li Hong already understood, he reached out and patted the back of the jade, and said with a smile: "We have been fighting for a long time, and our brains are no longer bright." ”

Xiao Lan said with a smile: "If you want to succeed in Tuntian, the first thing is to reopen the salt and iron, and the second is to develop commerce, and both of these require a large number of merchants. At present, we are buying food and supplies through Lu Zhong and Xu Ling, which is only an expedient measure in desperation. It is a huge threat to us to be run by two merchants and to merge with the state, just look at the crisis caused to us by the sudden interruption of supplies in Tuntian. ”

"The wealthy men of Hedong obviously saw the business opportunities of the state, they were close to the state, the transportation was convenient, and they had a lot of money in their hands, of course, they wanted to take advantage of the good opportunity to make a lot of money in the state, but they did not have the opportunity to get the trust and acceptance of the adults, so they had this move to ask for directions."

Xiao Lan looked at the jade and asked with a smile: "Have you ever thought about it, if your lord is bloody and corrupt in Hedong, although he can get the hearts and minds of the people and money, he will also lose the trust of the world's businessmen, which may be a disaster for the future merger of states." Compared with the two, should we accept the rich people from Hedong to join the state of Tuntian? The rich people in Hedong are profitable, and the magnates in Beijing can also benefit from it, isn't this more helpful to Zhongyuan in Luoyang? ”

Jade was speechless, and said admiringly: "Lord Bo's talent, admire, admire." ”

Xie Ming also stared at Xiao Lan in surprise, secretly surprised. A little girl has such a talent to learn, and she can see so far-reaching, she really sighs to herself.

"Xiaolan, then how do we decide?" Li Hong asked.

"My lord, although Zhong Yuan added a five-year covenant to the salt and iron policy reformulated in Luoyang, he also added Hedong salt and iron to the place of reopening. In order to maximize the benefits of Hedong's salt and iron, it is best for us to control the Hedong County Government, or replace the Hedong County Government with upright and enlightened people, so as to ensure that Hedong officials are honest and honest, and ensure that Hedong becomes a solid guarantee for the Tuntian of Bingzhou. As long as there are no problems in Hedong, and even if there is a recurrence in Tuntian, we are not afraid. At that time, we wanted money and food, and we wanted food, so what were we worried about? ”

"Therefore, adults can take advantage of this opportunity to purge the rule of Hedong officials and kill corrupt officials in Hedong, but we must control corruption in Hedong within a limited range, so that we can not only get the support and trust of the wealthy people of Hedong Gate, but also take the opportunity to replace the officials of Hedong County Government, killing two birds with one stone." Xiao Lan said calmly, "What do you think, adult? ”

"Tiger fathers have no dogs and girls, good plans."

Li Hong was overjoyed, and immediately sent a fast cavalry to inform Lu Yi and secretly contact the Wei lord in order to obtain more evidence of the corruption and perversion of the law by the Hedong bureaucracy. At the same time, he was ordered to send some iron cavalry to Kabanjin, Fenglingdu and other ferries, and prepare to block all passages in and out of the east of the river.

At this time, the imperial court's decree was sent to Bingzhou, agreeing to Li Hongzhi's proposal to reopen Bingzhou and Hedong Salt and Iron. The General's Mansion in the north of the town was boiling.

Li Hong immediately ordered Xiao Lan to sit in the Zhenbei General's Mansion, and he took Xie Ming and Black Panther Yi to fly to Hedong. Along the way, as long as the checkpoint was encountered, it was all demolished, and all the Hedong Prefecture officials and county soldiers guarding the checkpoint were arrested.

After receiving Li Hong's order, Koyi rushed into Anyi City, the administrative office of Hedong County, with lightning speed, and detained Xia Yun, the chief servant, and Han Ying, the Taishou of Hedong County.

Stranded on the south bank of the Yellow River, merchants and people roared with joy, and horse-drawn wagons and ships carrying all kinds of supplies quickly north along the unimpeded gallop and the Fen River.

The jealous and hateful Koji Yi waved the butcher knife again, and in the face of the tight-lipped and refusing to confess to the history of Hedong Mansion, he tortured and served, killing eleven people in a row. The corrupt officials looked at the bloody corpses in the lobby, frightened, and their hearts and galls were broken, and they rushed to confess one by one. By the time Li Hong arrived at Anyi City, the evidence that Koji had obtained had already piled up.

Li Hong's face was as cold as frost, and he took a cursory look at the confessions of the corrupt officials, and asked, "Have the county government officials and salt and iron officials been arrested?" ”

"Beard and Xiao Lazy have already taken people to various places, and they can be caught back in a few days." Koji Yi said hatefully, "The corruption of this Hedong Mansion is unbelievable, and the corruption of the Hedong bureaucrats has reached an outrageous level. ”

He immediately listed the magnates and tycoons in Hedong involved in the corruption in Hedong and handed over a list. Li Hong didn't even look at it, and handed it to Xie Ming casually, "It's burned." ”

"My lord, why is that?" Koji Yi raised his eyebrows and asked angrily, "What did you say when you were in Xiliang?" Now that the official is bigger, is there no conscience? ”

Li Hong stared blankly at Koji Yi, who was about to split, and his heart was extremely painful. It turns out that it is so difficult for a person to have a conscience.

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