Zeng Xiulin's death finally made the dust of this big case land, Li Yanqing immediately ordered Zhao Kai to be responsible for cleaning up the property and inventory of the Zeng family in various places, three days later Zhao Kai took out a property inventory, the wealth listed in it is jaw-dropping, it can be called a rich rival country, Zeng Xiulin in Chengdu as the prefect of more than ten years for the Zeng family to grab hundreds of millions of wealth, only more than ten years monopoly salt, wine and tea three income of tens of millions of taels of silver.

In addition to a large number of real estate and land, the Zeng family has thousands of shops, involving salt, tea, wine, grain, oil, cloth, silk, pig iron and other things necessary for people's livelihood, in addition to a large number of taverns, green buildings, gambling halls, silver shops, inns, etc., as well as docks, warehouses, fleets, fleets, mines, and other industries, almost Chengdu Fulu to make money in the industry Zeng family has been involved, and are among the best stores, and even in the capital Lin'an also has more than a dozen houses covering an area of more than ten acres.

Li Yanqing shook his head while looking at the list, no wonder Fan Zhixu told himself that the Song Dynasty was in financial difficulties, and it was difficult to support the military expenditure of hundreds of thousands of troops, why was the financial difficulty.

On the one hand, Zhao Ji's unrestrained profligacy, on the other hand, a large number of officials like Zeng Xiulin, who control local power, unscrupulously use the loopholes in the system to make profits for their families.

"I didn't expect a prefect to be so rich that he could rival the country, it's amazing."

Zhao Kai said with a smile on the side: "This is also the fact that Chengdu Fulu has been rich for hundreds of years, and there is not so much oil and water in other places." ”

"I heard that a lot of letters were copied out?" Li Yanqing put down the list and asked.

Zhao Kai handed a thick stack of letters to Li Yanqing, "This is a letter written by the ministers of the imperial court to Zeng Xiulin, and the main ones are here." ”

Li Yanqing took the letter, the first one was a letter written by Zuo Xiangguo Lu Yihao to Zeng Xiulin, he nodded, Lu Yihao's letter had a total of seven, which lasted for three years, Li Yanqing was a little suspicious that Lu Yihao's successful ascension to the throne may be related to Zeng Xiulin's financial support.

Zeng Xiulin can sit in one seat for more than ten years without moving, and he must have paid a lot of real money.

"What do you think about going back to these letters?"

Li Yanqing put the letter away and continued to talk about the properties in the list, "What do you think should be done with these shops?" He asked Zhao Kai.

Zhao Kai thought for a while and said: "In addition to the docks, warehouses, fleets, convoys and mines, these assets should be operated by the government, and the rest of the shops are publicly auctioned, and the highest bidder will get it, and the money from the auction will be used to supplement the lack of military spending. ”

Li Yanqing pondered for a moment and said: "Divide the gold, silver, copper coins and auction proceeds found in two, half of which will be handed over to the imperial court, after all, the imperial court's military expenses are also difficult, and the other half will be used as the military expenses of the Northwest Third Road, we will make everything public, and we are not afraid that the imperial court will send someone to investigate." ”

"The lowly position understands, so the next step is to start the reform of the sales system?"

Li Yanqing smiled, "The reform of the selling system must be carried out, but it is best to ask the imperial court to send a senior member to participate, this matter involves too many interests, I need to write another letter to the official family to strive for the support of the official family." ”

"The lowly position understands, and the lowly position will be busy with the auction during this time, and the sales reform will be put aside for the time being."

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "Then it's hard Zhao Envoy!" ”

........

Three days later, Wang Gui led 10,000 cavalry to Chengdu, Li Yanqing mixed 10,000 cavalry and newly recruited 10,000 soldiers into 20,000 troops, and stationed them in the state capitals of Chengdu Fulu.

It stands to reason that Li Yanqing is the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the highest military and political chief of the three roads of Bashu, of course, has the right to intervene in government affairs, but the fierce officialdom struggle to arrest the prefect Zeng Xiulin is very rare, which has triggered the general dissatisfaction of the imperial court civil official group with Li Yanqing, and even the emperor Zhao Ji also summoned Zhao Gou, the son of heaven, twice to put pressure on him, asking him to issue an order to Li Yanqing to release him immediately and leave Bashu.

At noon, in an elegant room in Qingfeng Building, Fan Zhixu, the right minister, and Gao Shen, the deputy minister, sat and chatted with each other, saying that it was small talk, but in fact, Fan Zhixu wanted to touch Li Yanqing's bottom line from Gao Shen.

"Fan Xiang, I think the reaction to this incident is a bit weird."

Fan Zhixu smiled slightly, "What's weird, let's hear about it." ”

"Li Yanqing's appointment as the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi is my proposal, I have no idea of reducing his power, my original intention is also to hope that he will also arrest the government affairs of the Bashu Third Road, and the official family also has this attitude, but why in the end Li Yanqing can only manage the army, but he can't interfere in government affairs, whose instruction is this, Fan Xiang has never mentioned it, and the official family does not mean this?"

"This should be proposed by Lu Xianggong, to alleviate Li Yanqing's affairs and let him go all out to resist Jin, this is Lu Xianggong's original words, and the official family also agreed in principle, but there is no formal will."

"This should be Zeng Xiulin's attitude!"

Gao Shen sneered and said: "The envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi is not allowed to interfere in government affairs, and the imperial court is beyond the reach of the whip, he has really become the soil emperor of Bashu." ”

"Don't look at the problem so extremely! The key is that Li Yanqing himself does not have time, judging from his performance, he seems to be more interested in the government affairs of Hedong Road. ”

"The problem now is the attitude of the imperial court, such an obvious big case, there are still many people in the imperial court who criticize Li Yanqing at the court meeting, saying that he stretched out his hand too long, as if these critics have forgotten, Li Yanqing is a strategic envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Zeng Xiulin is his subordinate, isn't it normal for superiors to pursue the responsibility of subordinates? Collecting taxes of 3.8 million yuan without authorization, and filling their own pockets, and the evidence is conclusive, these people turn a blind eye to such a serious case, and just accuse Li Yanqing of managing too much, isn't this weird, who is supporting them in the end? ”

Gao Shen's tone was very stern, Fan Zhixu had to smile bitterly, there is no way to say this kind of thing, but both of them know in their hearts who is supporting Zeng Xiulin, who else will there be besides the emperor?

Fan Zhixu had already vaguely guessed that this matter was actually the Emperor Taishang and the official family fighting for control of Bashu, the Emperor Taishang first encircled Zeng Xiulin, Li Yanqing must be carrying out the instructions of the official family, bringing down Zeng Xiulin, and now that Zeng Xiulin has been arrested, of course the Emperor Taishang is angry and anxious.

Fan Zhixu pondered for a moment and said: "I guess this matter has already come to an end, let's wait patiently, Zhang Yushi's recital should be sent soon." ”

The two took a sip of tea, and at this time, an entourage reported at the door: "Qi Qi two Xiangguo, the Zhizheng Hall sent an urgent letter, saying that Bashu has an urgent performance, please go back immediately." ”

Fan Zhixu and Gao Shen glanced at each other, and the two stood up almost at the same time, and the result of Bashu's struggle finally came.

.........

The atmosphere in the Zhizheng Hall was solemn, the six prime ministers were sitting in danger, and the report sent by Zhang Yushi from Chengdu was in the hands of Zheng Wangzhi, and he was the last person to read the report.

Of course, the Imperial Historical Observatory is not responsible to the Governor's Hall, they submit their reports directly to the Son of Heaven, but if the subject of the report involves important officials of the imperial court, they generally report to the Son of Heaven at the same time, and also send a copy to the Governor's Hall.

"What do you think about this?"

The first to speak was Fan Zhixu, he asked very well, not to ask what he thought of this report, the report was the result of the investigation of the Yushitai, and it should not be questioned by them, so Fan Zhixu just asked Zeng Xiulin about it.

Lu Yihao sighed, "I really know people and faces, but I don't know my heart!" I always thought that Zeng Xiulin was an honest and upright person, but how did I expect him to ...... Actually..... Ay! I want to ask the Son of Heaven for sin, I have seen the wrong person. ”

Lu Yihao's statement is very timely, everyone knows that he is Zeng Xiulin's backstage, if he doesn't clear himself up as soon as possible, once this matter ferments in the imperial court, I'm afraid he will be involved, after all, the evidence is conclusive, and the person is also dead, the Emperor Taishang will not protect a dead person, without the power of the Emperor, Zeng Xiulin's case will drown many people.

Gao Shen sneered and said: "There are still people at the court meeting today who are criticizing Li Jingluo for being nosy, if it weren't for Li Jingluo resisting the pressure to investigate and handle this case, I'm afraid the Zeng family would really be the richest in the world." ”

The profound ridicule made Lu Yihao and Fan Zongyin's faces very embarrassed, Fan Zhixu hurriedly coughed twice and diverted the topic, "The current question is how to deal with it in the future?" One is a large amount of money and industry, and there is also a new prefect of the city, and the other is whether this case should be investigated in depth? These three things are the next thing to do, let's take a stand! I would like to summarize and report to the world as the opinion of our Governor's Hall. ”

Fan Zhixu smiled at Gao Shen and said, "Gao Xianggong will say it first!" ”