Cao Hao's heart suddenly raised: "It's so serious? ”

Jiangnan is a major tax place in the world, and because of the bloody crimes committed by the Eight Banners Army in the early years, the imperial court has mainly appeased Jiangnan for decades.

Only in the past two years, the emperor implemented a new policy, and he was more strict with Jiangnan.

Li Wei sneered: "After a long time, some people don't know what to do. Where is the law of the court in their eyes, and they are not happy to be their own soil emperor. I have also been to Yungui, where there are also 'grouping' and 'xenophobia' in the officialdom, but they will not be as unscrupulous as the Jiangnan officialdom. if it is according to their heart, they remain; If it doesn't suit their wishes, let alone stand firm, they may lose their crown. It is to cure the life and cure it, otherwise they still think that they can cover the sky with one hand. "In the end, I was a little excited.

Although Cao Hao had long known that the local gentry in Jiangnan were energetic, he was not as resentful as Li Wei.

"The reason is that the officials and gentry will not confront each other for no reason. And even if there are 'Jiang bandits' to suppress, it is not the turn of the general soldier to go into battle in person, why are they injured? Seeing that Li Wei was excited, Cao Hao calmed down and asked lightly.

"There is indeed something else going on." Li Wei replied with some embarrassment.

He was about to continue talking when he heard movement in the back room.

Cao Song realized it later, and only then did he react, it is not good to say these officialdom secrets in front of his wife and children, if the child is ignorant and learns the past in front of others, he doesn't know what will happen.

"Big brother, it's Jinghui who brought the children over to see the eldest brother, because the eldest brother is not here, go to the back room and wait first." Cao Song explained to Cao Hao, and then raised his voice: "Big brother is here, Mrs. come out." ”

Jinghui answered in the back room and came out with her three children.

"Uncle." The tide took the jade, and the two little sisters were crisp and saluting.

Tianwang tugged on Jinghui's sleeve, stared at Cao Hao with big round eyes, and looked at Cao Hao curiously.

Speaking of which, this is the first time that the uncle and nephew have met.

Looking at his tiger-headed appearance, Cao Hao's face couldn't help but smile a little more.

This little guy looks familiar, and it is clearly a reprint of Cao Songxiao.

Cao Hao was rare, and bowed down to pick up Tianwang.

"Come, uncle." Cao Hao said.

Tianwang was not afraid of life, reached out and grabbed the buckle on Cao Hao's collar, entertaining himself, but he refused to speak.

Waiting for Cao Hao to call people again, he still didn't give face, turned around, looked at Li Wei, and shouted in a milky voice: "Uncle, uncle......"

"Hey, good baby, uncle is here......" Li Wei smiled, waved his big hand, and looked at the sky.

Cao Hao snorted lightly when he saw Li Wei's "villain's ambition", but he understood in his heart that Li Wei was too close to the General Military Mansion, and he didn't avoid staying at home, otherwise the three-year-old child would not remember Li Wei.

Looking at the two sisters Lang Chao and Lang Yu, both of whom are well-behaved and lovely, Cao Hao said to Jing Hui: "The children are well educated, and the younger siblings are tired. ”

Jing Hui blushed, and said uneasily: "Uncle, it's all the fault of the concubine's recklessness, and before he knew the severity, he wrote a letter asking for help, and the uncle who hurt him traveled thousands of miles. ”

Cao Hao shook his head and said, "I can't blame you, if you weren't so scared, you wouldn't have made people gallop back to Beijing to deliver a letter." ”

Their relatives talked, Li Wei couldn't sit still, and wanted to get up to say goodbye, but Cao Song squeezed his eyebrows and left behind.

Cao Song is weak at this moment, where does he dare to face his eldest brother alone, he will not allow Li Wei, the "culprit", to slip away.

Li Wei didn't move, Jinghui couldn't stay any longer, so under the pretext of preparing a reception wine for Cao Hao, he took the children back to the inner courtyard.

There were only three people left, and Li Wei said the reason for the confrontation between the officials and gentry in Jiangnan.

It's just because of the word "profit".

The emperor valued the salt tax in the south of the Yangtze River, so he reused Li Wei. Li Wei also lived up to the grace of the saint, and after arriving in Jiangnan, he confiscated several large private salt workshops.

He somewhat "kills chickens and monkeys", and it is also a sign of the determination of the imperial court to let those smugglers take it easy.

did not dare to take a few salt merchant families in the south of the Yangtze River, most of them were people with a deep foundation after the investigation.

Although there is a suspicion of "bullying the soft and fearing the hard", it is also a helpless move, after all, he came to Jiangnan as an errand, not to Jiangnan to fight, if the local gentry are offended, then the future errand is not easy to do.

I didn't think that there were two workshops behind them.

Even the Yangzhou Cheng family was invited to be the middleman, but they were so secretive and refused to reveal their identities, which made Li Wei suspicious.

When he was in Yunnan, he also investigated and dealt with illicit salt. It is not surprising that the salt dealers reacted to the plea.

Since ancient times, there has been an old saying, "The people do not fight with the officials". There is also a saying, "collusion between officials and businessmen".

After all, whether it is a business or an official, it is more for the word "wealth".

But the backers behind the two workshops were only willing to pay money to dredge up the relationship and ransom people, but they didn't mention the confiscated private salt workshop.

A private salt workshop, and tens of thousands of bags of private salt that have not been shipped out, are worth a lot of money.

Even if it is a salt merchant family like the Cheng family, if a workshop is confiscated, it will feel painful.

This infamous "Wanfu" does not take it to heart at all.

Abnormality is a demon, Li Wei made people pay attention to it, and investigated the details of this "Wanfu", but it was the same as what came out of the ground.

The two private salt workshops were owned by two small salt merchant workshops in the early years, and the family road changed hands to 10,000 families one after another ten years ago.

The few people who want to redeem Wanfu are the stewards of these two private salt workshops, and none of them have the surname Wan, but they are cousins in name.

The more you look closely, the more you can find that these people are not ordinary people. The place of origin is unclear, the accent is different, and there is no clear kinship.

At first, Li Wei thought that these people were eating sea rice, and when they returned to Jiangnan to retire, they were more vigilant.

When I went back and checked the house that sold the private workshop, there was no trace.

Li Wei was furious in his heart, and he would let people go easily.

If such a person is really a pirate, the owners of the two private salt workshops may have been killed.

Although the production and sale of illicit salt is a violation of the laws of the imperial court, he may not be a good person. But if he is really killed in vain, he, as a parent official, can't be ignorant.

The Cheng family is just a middleman, and when they see that Li Wei does not let go, there is no way, but they have to remind Li Wei in private, "I would rather offend a gentleman than a villain" and something like that.

Li Wei has chivalrous spirit in his bones, and when he was only an official of the Sixth Department many years ago, he dared to offend the Prince of the Iron Hat; Not to mention that he is already a member of a province now, where will he take a few "villains" to heart.

He refused to give in, and those people were also stubborn and refused to take a step back, and the matter was deadlocked.

In Li Wei's opinion, if it is really found out that Wan Fu and the people are "pirates", then even if they are all dealt with, they will eliminate harm for the people.

I don't want to, but the next development is weird.

In addition to the Cheng family, there are other big families in Jiangnan who came forward to intercede for these people.

Although the tone of the message was still humble, the governor's yamen made a lot of noise every once in a while.

Li Wei somewhat understood the intention of the Cheng family's reminder, these people are outlaws, and they have to be careful that they jump over the wall in a hurry.

Li Wei is stubborn in temper, where is he willing to give in, and being provoked by these people, he gritted his teeth more and more to "cut the grass and eradicate the roots", and returned a peaceful place in the south of the Yangtze River.

After investigation, these people were hidden in two places, one is Longshan Island in Qiandao Lake in Chun'an, Hangzhou, and the other is Pangjia Village in Shannan Township, at the southern foot of the Zijin Mountains in Jiangning.

Although the yamen of the governor of Zhejiang is located in Hangzhou, Li Wei also knows that the yamen is not monolithic, otherwise he would not let those little ghosts make trouble.

In order to keep it secret, he did not do anything in Hangzhou, but found a son to go to Jiangning, and in the name of investigating and dealing with illicit salt, he asked Cao Song, the general soldier of Jiangning, to encircle and suppress Pangjia Village with the 200 Fubiao he brought.

Because of some ambiguity in this, Cao Song couldn't explain to his subordinates, so he had to go out in person and accompany Li Wei.

500 town standards are the same as 200 Fu standards, 700 officers and soldiers, and a village of more than 100 people is encircled and suppressed.

No, after the officers and soldiers surrounded the village, the people of Pangjia Village took up arms, and the two neighboring villages also sent men to attack the officers and soldiers.

The other party had a few masters behind him, probably thinking about "catching the thief and capturing the king first", and they all rushed to Li Wei and Cao Song.

Li Wei has been in Jiangnan for two years, and has been running around, and has hired several masters to be guards by his side; Cao Song guarded the Yamen of the General Army, although he had pro-soldiers, his skills were a step behind.

As a result, Cao Song was cut off the horse. Fortunately, there is a protective soft armor by his side, otherwise something would have happened.

Li Wei saw that it was wrong, and in the name of Cao Song's serious injury, he gathered his soldiers and horses, made a gap, released a small half of those people, and arrested the rest.

Only in this way can the situation be brought under control, and there will be no tragic fighting.

The men in several villages have weapons hidden, and the old, weak, women and children can all swing knives at the officers and soldiers, which is not just the simple situation of the "pirates" going ashore.

On the one hand, Li Wei wanted to follow the vine and touch the melon, and on the other hand, he wanted to keep it secret in Beijing, waiting for the emperor to show him, so he detained Cao Song and released the news that he was seriously injured and dying, so that the other party would not be suspicious.

After all, I have been arrested and suppressed before, and I have suddenly died down at this time, which also makes people suspicious.

Unexpectedly, these people who were caught were tortured, and they asked out the inside story.

"That Wan Fu is not an outsider, it is the son of Wan Yunlong, the leader of the Fujian Hongmen bandits many years ago. After the civil strife in Hongmen that year, he was still in infancy, was taken out to sea, and only returned to Jiangnan when he grew up, collected the old department of Hongmen, and hid the people. Li Wei said.

When Cao Hao heard this, he couldn't help frowning, and said, "This ten thousand years are not old? ”

"Yes, it's a few years younger than Fu Ruo, and it's not even thirty this year." Li Wei replied.

Cao Hao's heart became more and more puzzled, when he met Wan Yunlong, Wan Yunlong was already in his sixties. If you say that you can leave a two- or three-year-old child, you can't say that it's impossible. It's just that in that case, you shouldn't mention it before you die.

Besides, he later asked about Hongmen in front of his father, and he never heard the news that Wan Yunlong had a son.

Seeing Cao Hao's surprised expression, Li Wei asked, "What's wrong, but what's wrong?" ”

Cao Hao nodded and said, "This Wan Fu appeared inexplicably, I only heard that Wan Yunlong is a monk and has never married in his life, how can he have a son?" ”

"Huh?" Listening to Cao Hao's words, Li Wei couldn't help but be surprised, looked at Cao Hao and said, "Fu Ruo still knows Wan Yunlong? ”

Although there was some movement in Hongmen in the early years, mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang, at that time, Cao Hao was still a child.

Cao Hao nodded and said, "I heard Mr. mention that Wan Yunlong was born in Southern Shaolin, and he has no nephews, only two adopted sons......"

(To be continued)