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"I don't know who this Yi Qian's backstage is, but when the official arrives in Nanjing, he wants to see this person's head!"

Wang Tong just said such a sentence before leaving, a cadre of people naturally did not dare to slack off, and such a thing happened, when Wang Tong left, the Xuzhou staff general Bao Rushan suggested not to take a civilian boat, and should be replaced by an official ship honor guard on the side of Pizhou. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

But Wang Tong still insisted on taking the civilian boat, and just said with a smile: "If there are such thieves and soldiers along the road, there is nothing to be afraid of!" ”

It's not nice to stop talking, but it's also the truth, more than 1,000 soldiers and horses were killed by Wang Tong's more than 100 personal guards, and there is really no threat.

…”―”

"Master Hou, that gang of Yanding was beaten away just now, they didn't recognize the waist card of the hundred households of Jinyi Wei, and they took out the people from the thousands of households to come on the boat to check, fortunately, the brothers were waiting for it, they might not be able to afford to offend, so they left."

After Han Gang came to report, he saw Wang Tong's indifferent expression, and couldn't help but say angrily: "Master Hou, since you passed Pizhou, this card is too dense, and these Yanding, who don't even have an official waist card, are actually arrogant like this, and the hundreds and thousands of households in Jinyi Wei can't hold it down at all, and they are arrogant like this." ”

"Han, do you know how many people eat this Huaiyan in the world?"

Wang Tong asked such a question, Han Gang shook his head a little confused, Wang Tong opened his mouth and said: "Almost two-thirds of the population of the Ming Dynasty are eating Huai salt, and in order to make the salt boil have enough fuel, the people are not allowed to reclaim the wasteland, only let the grass grow, do you know how much of the revenue of the Ming treasury comes from the salt tax?" And how much was obtained from these two Huai areas? ”

Han Gang naturally didn't know, Wang Tong said with a smile: "At most, the salt tax used to account for sixty percent, and forty percent of it was the salt tax of this one. ”

Seeing that Han Gang was still a little confused, Wang Tong said again: "With such a proportion, Lianghuai has become the foundation of the imperial court, and the two salt merchants investigate and seize illegal salt, which is naturally to maintain the foundation of the imperial court, and it is also necessary to be arrogant." ”

Liu Saburo on the side was silent, and interjected: "I have heard that since the beginning of the Jiajing year, the salt tax has been decreasing year by year, until Zhang Juzheng was in power, the salt tax has gradually increased, and now it has been less in the past two years. ”

"The foundation is different, how many scholars in this Nanzhili rely on the funding of these salt merchants, not to mention that many officials in Beijing and the local government are supported by these salt merchants, inextricably linked, intertwined, with such a force, it is naturally arrogant."

Wang Tong spoke again, everyone in the cabin was silent, and they went out to get busy, Wang Tong glanced at the roll on the table a few times, and put the roll back in the iron box.

That guide Lu Da knows a lot of things, for example, Pizhou's patrol surname is Lu, in his twenties, he used to be the No. 1 evil boy in Pizhou, and after doing the inspection, he obviously investigated the illegal salt trafficking and smuggled salt, and there was a large amount of gold and silver in the account, but he was still willing to rob the boats on the river, and he was full of fun to kill, and the patrol surnamed Lu was cut down by Wang Tong's personal guards that night, which saved a lot of trouble.

But according to Lu Da, the Lu inspector is the illegitimate son of Lu Guihe, a big salt merchant in Yangzhou, Lu Guihe is one of the largest salt merchants in Yangzhou, but there is no one to inherit the huge family business, married more than a dozen concubines, but only gave birth to four daughters, this inspection is his unknowingly merry child.

This Lu Guihe has such a big family business, I don't know how many people are staring at it, there is one more illegitimate child, his sons-in-law are afraid that they will kill people, Lu Guihe is nearly seventy years old, so he naturally understands this truth, and simply gives the illegitimate son a shortage of inspection in his hometown of Pizhou.

Let him learn something in the patrol, and he can also have his own team to protect himself, Lu Guihe has great power in the Liangzhun area, and his illegitimate son's nonsense is naturally covered up, and the result is that Lu Patrol is so unscrupulous, in the end, he ran into Wang Tong's big board.

"How are the soldiers here in Liangzhun better than those in Pizhou?"

"Pizhou's side is not good, but it is not bad, what can really be pulled out and can be fought is the armed forces of those salt collections, and the nursing homes in the salt merchants are also strong."

This Lu Da is really quick-witted and knows how to read words and feelings, Wang Tong asked this, and he actually knew what to answer.

"Who can fight the most in this Jiangnan place?"

This question is vague, Lu Da is a common man in the end, although he has walked a lot, but he doesn't know this, but he still replied: "The little one really doesn't know, but everyone is talking about the family soldiers and generals of the Xu family of Wei Guogong, that is the first-class strong soldier, and the people who meet the small ones say that they are strong."

There are almost more than 500 generals in the Xu family of Wei Guogong, and nearly 1,000 domestic soldiers who are ordinary servants as domestic servants, these people as the backbone can set up tens of thousands of troops, whether it is the file of the Jinyi Guard or the discussion of the generals, this is the case.

All the way south, such a bold thing as Pizhou was only encountered once, and in other places, although the soldiers and salters along the coast were inspected more frequently, there was no danger.

But then again, in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, there was a collusion between the patrol and the garrison, robbing and killing the merchants on the ship, and even the gentry officials in the past.

The Zhun'an Mansion has already sent someone to investigate, and in this case, the two governors of Nanzhili, and even the Jingshi Criminal Department may be alarmed, depending on how far the people who are pursuing want to investigate, Wang Tong is too lazy to care.

What he saw was that in Huai'an and Yangzhou, the power of the salt merchants was greater than the sky, and he saw the salt government patrol on the wharf many times to reprimand the soldiers and errands on the shore.

The local salt merchants control everything, and they have a certain amount of power in their hands, not to mention sufficient financial resources, so such a land of two Huai is really too independent.

If it is said that the maintenance of the salt industry is for the finance of the Ming Dynasty, but now the salt merchants are big private salt dealers, and the profits from the salt monopoly flow into their own hands, but the state gets less and less.

Lu Da really did the same as he said, and he knew a lot about the stories everywhere, for example, when the county magistrate of Anton County arrived, in addition to receiving bribes from salt merchants, he also wanted to make more money, and let several of his cronies set up Kacha private salt in the city, that is, for three days, these family members were cut off at night, and what is even more amazing is that the severed head was thrown into the bedroom of the county order at night, and the county order fainted directly in fright.

This is not the end, within a few days, someone in the government accused the county magistrate of corrupting the law, and the official did not do it, and was directly sent to prison.

There is a new thing, a battalion stationed in Yangzhou Prefecture marched on the river one day, and as a result, the boat capsized and many people fell into the water and drowned, but in fact, the battalion officers of this battalion used soldiers to traffic illicit salt, but they were in fire with the salt merchants to check the team of illegal salt, and the officers and soldiers were beaten by the salt Ding inspection, and the casualties were heavy, and then the battalion officer was also scolded by the boss, and finally demoted, and the dead and wounded had nowhere to account, and it can only be said that they drowned during the march.

"Jiangbei is a salt merchant here, Jiangnan is a local wealthy family, although the salt merchant in Jiangbei is domineering, but to the south of those big clans, but also bow their heads and be soft, humble and polite, every year the salt merchants in Jiangbei have to send heavy New Year's gifts to some high doors in Jiangnan, just to let their own business go on smoothly, as for the government, there is no government in Jiangnan, and there are few local people who go to the yamen to go to the yamen, and there are many who go to the local famous homes to seek justice!"

Lu Da only told the story, but Wang Tong was full of emotion when he heard it, I really don't know if this Nan Zhili is not the Nan Zhili of the Ming Dynasty...

…”―”

If he hadn't encountered those things in Pizhou, Wang Tong's trip would not have been violent all the way south, but the news of the big case in Pizhou has been transmitted, and the news that Wang Tong has arrived in Nanzhili is known to everyone who should know.

Since it was to investigate the case of the Xu family's encroachment on the land, and it was started by Hai Rui's superiors, Wang Tong should go to Nanjing to meet Hai Rui first, and then go to Songjiang Mansion.

A cadre of officials here in Nanjing is also waiting for the news of Wang Tong's arrival, but since the beginning of Linqingzhou, Qincha's team seems to have disappeared, and when a cadre of people is confused, they receive a report from Pizhou, and everyone complains while arranging for people to go to meet them halfway, and everyone can't afford to be in chaos.

A few days before receiving the news in Nanjing, the relevant people of the Songjiang Xu family already knew that the Songjiang Xu family was the object they really needed to be feared.

......, the most prominent nobles in Nanjing City is the Duke of Wei Xu's family, compared with those princes who have no real power in Beijing, the function of Nanjing garrison is equivalent to the hereditary Xu family, and the garrison elsewhere is just a military attache who cannot be on the stage, but the Nanjing garrison is about the same position as the governor of Beijing, and the military authority is heavy.

There is a saying in the world that the Xu family is in charge of the southeast on behalf of the Son of Heaven, although it is quite exaggerated, it also shows the power of the Xu family.

Qin sent Wang Tong to Jiangnan, if the contemporary Wei Duke Xu Zhitao is polite, he can go to meet him, if he doesn't want to see him, no one will say that he is not.

Wang Tong's ship passed Gaoyou, and when he was halfway through the journey in Yangzhou Mansion, the Duke of Wei received a letter.

In Wei Guogong's study, the leader of his personal guards whispered there: "It should be the letterhead that was thrown in last night, and the people picked it up there today, so they reported it to the steward of the outer house, and then..."

Wei Guogong frowned, waved his hand, and said: "All those who have touched this letter have rushed to the Zhuangzi outside the city and circled it first!" ”！。