"Master Hou, do you suspect that Chen Lan is Zhao Wenju's accomplice?" Seeing that Li Yuntian cared so much about Chen Lan, Lu Dezhong couldn't help but ask, as far as he knew, Chen Lan was not involved in the sale of illicit salt.

"Don't divulge today's events." Li Yuntian bowed slightly, he didn't explain to Lu Dezhong, and told him with a stern expression.

"Don't worry, Master Hou, I understand." Lu Dezhong naturally knew the powerful relationship, and hurriedly bowed his hand to Li Yuntian and replied in a deep voice.

Seeing this, a smile appeared at the corner of Li Yuntian's mouth, Lu Dezhong has a pivotal position in his thorough investigation of the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, if Lu Dezhong's role can be brought into play, then the day when the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case will make serious progress will be just around the corner.

When Li Yuntian left the Lu family, it was already half an hour later, and no one knew what he said to Lu Dezhong, but Lu Dezhong, who was full of smiles, easily sent him away through the back door, looking happy.

Returning to the Yangzhou Division of Jiangwutang, the first thing Li Yuntian did was to call Li Manshan and ask him to send someone to secretly go to Chen Lan's house in Shaoxing Mansion, Zhejiang Province to conduct a secret investigation, and arrest Zhao Dengyu's family as soon as he found traces.

In the following time, Li Yuntian began to deal with the relevant affairs of Zhao Wenju's case, the most important of which was to check the family property confiscated from the officials and salt merchants involved in the case, and the second was to verify the criminal facts of those involved in the case.

According to the information that Li Yuntian has at hand, the property stolen from the homes of those involved in the case is equivalent to nearly 5 million taels of silver, and if you include real estate and land properties, it is at least 8 million taels, which can be described as the first major corruption case after the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, the property copied from the home of Zhao Wenju, the head of the case, is equivalent to 700,000 taels of silver, of which 50,000 taels of gold alone are buried in the courtyard of the Zhao family, and the real estate and land are equivalent to 500,000 taels, and then exceed Zhang Gui's 1 million taels in one fell swoop.

It is worth mentioning that due to the lack of silver ore in the Ming Dynasty, and the quality of silver ore was not good, coupled with the improvement of alchemy technology, the ratio of gold and silver to huàn before the middle of the Ming Dynasty was about 1:6, that is, 10,000 taels of gold to 60,000 taels of silver, which shows the high value of silver at that time.

It was not until after the opening of Longqing that a large amount of silver from the Americas poured into the Ming Dynasty, which gradually depreciated the value of silver, and the ratio of gold and silver to huàn gradually increased from 1:6 to 1:10.

However, according to the information that Li Yuntian has obtained, Zhao Wenju's assets have not all been found out, as a deacon of the Salt Merchants Association, his entire net worth is obviously more than 1.2 million taels, at least 300,000 taels of property, real estate and real estate have been hidden by him, and these assets are left to Zhao Dengyu as the capital for Zhao Dengyu to settle down in the future.

Li Yuntian did not let people track down whether Zhao Wenju hid other assets, he cared more about whether Zhao Dengyu could be arrested than the assets that were hidden, as long as Zhao Dengyu was in his hands, then Zhao Wenju's psychological defense line would be completely broken, and then used by him.

According to the will of Emperor Xuande before Li Yuntian left Beijing, the silver investigated and dealt with from the two Huai Yandao corruption cases will be divided into three parts, four into five into the inner treasury of Emperor Xuande, three into five into the treasury of the household department, and two into five to the lecture martial arts hall for the construction of Jiaozhi, so as to ensure the perpetuation of the southwestern frontier of the Ming Dynasty.

This means that two million taels of eight million taels of silver belong to the Lecture Martial Arts Hall, which is definitely a surprise for Li Yuntian.

There are more places to use silver now, and the biggest benefit of Jiangwutang now is the overseas trade of Jiaozhi, but due to the difficulty of maritime trade and the need to prepare goods, the trade fleet can only go to sea once in two years, and it takes a certain amount of time to turn goods into funds, which makes the money in Li Yuntian's hands already stretched.

If Wutang can get a piece of the pie from the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, then Li Yuntian will have no financial pressure at all, and it is obvious that the amount involved in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case far exceeds the eight million taels of silver, and he can't make an estimate of how much it is now.

When Emperor Xuande distributed the silver taels confiscated from the two Huaiyan Dao embezzlement cases, no one in the Manchu Dynasty objected to the martial arts taking a share of the pie.

For the Xungui group, they wish that Li Yuntian would snatch the funds allocated by the imperial court from the civilian officials, no matter how you say it, the martial arts hall is also the direct yamen of the military cabinet, and giving the martial arts hall is equivalent to giving it to the military cabinet, that is, to the Xungui group.

Since Li Yuntian was regarded as an important member of the cabinet camp in the civilian clique, the cabinet would not drag Li Yuntian back, and Li Yuntian's thorough investigation of the identity of the chief envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Road patrol also made the officials of the six camps of the civilian clique quite jealous, and wisely chose not to provoke Li Yuntian, lest Li Yuntian take his anger out on the Lianghuai Salt Road, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

Li Yuntian has been transferred to the capital for six or seven years, whether it is investigating cases, fighting wars, or even managing government affairs, the civil and military officials of the imperial court have been impressed, and he has already had a great reputation in the officialdom of the capital.

Moreover, at that time, no one thought that Jiangwutang could get much benefit from the Lianghuai Salt Road corruption case this time, Li Yuntian was a smart person, and he must know the complex interests involved in the Lianghuai Salt Road, so it would definitely not make the situation intensify, and naturally he would not find out how much dirty silver there was.

Just when Li Yuntian was methodically arranging the affairs at hand, a carriage quietly drove into Yangzhou City, stopped in front of a remote ordinary house in the south of the city, and a boy in a white robe got out of the carriage and walked quickly into the courtyard gate surrounded by several entourage.

In the courtyard, more than a dozen richly dressed men were gathering around and whispering something, and their expressions were quite solemn, which made the atmosphere of the scene a little dull.

"The eldest son!" Seeing the white-robed boy come in, more than a dozen men immediately rushed over and bowed down one after another.

The white-robed boy looked arrogant, bowed his head slightly, and walked to the living room of the main house surrounded by everyone.

"The eldest son!" Without waiting for the white-robed boy to take a few steps, a few people came out of the living room, and the leader was Yang Muen, the president of the Salt Merchants Association, who bowed his hand to the white-robed boy, and said with a smile, "As soon as the eldest boy comes, we will have the backbone." ”

"President Yang has won the award, this son is a layman, but he is only responsible for the work of threading the needle, and President Yang is the mainstay of the salt merchants in Jiangnan." Only then did the white-robed boy have a smile on his face, and he bowed back to Yang Muen.

"Eldest Prince, please." Yang Muen smiled when he heard this, stretched out his hand, and bowed down to invite the white-robed boy into the living room.

"The eldest prince, if you don't send out the goods, there will be a salt shortage in various places next year, and the consequences will be unimaginable." After the white-robed boy took the first seat in the living room, Yang Muen, who was sitting at the bottom of the left side, said worriedly.

"Yes, eldest prince, these goods should have been sent away in early June, but now it's almost September, and Zhenwuhou has no intention of leaving, and the letters urging salt from all over the country are one after another, will this goods be sent or not?" As soon as Yang Muen's words fell, Wei Deguang, vice president of the Salt Merchants Association, who was sitting opposite him, asked with a wry smile.

"The eldest son, Shanxi is far away from Yangzhou, not to mention, the winter is even colder, it is not easy to walk the salt car, if there is another snowstorm, the salt car will be stuck on the road."

"The eldest prince, the road to Yungui is rough, and if it is not delivered, I am afraid that it will not be possible to transport those salts to the state capitals on time."

"My lord, after September, the ships on the water gradually become scarce, and the fleet of ships carrying goods is vast, which must be very conspicuous and will inevitably cause trouble."

……

The words of the two immediately resonated with everyone at the scene, and they complained of bitterness, they were both salt merchants of the Salt Merchants Association, and they were also deacons and above, and they belonged to the heavyweights of the Salt Merchants Association.

"Don't be impatient, my son is here to deliver the goods." Seeing that the crowd in the room was excited, the white-robed boy pressed down with his hands to signal everyone to calm down, and then said quietly.

"Eldest son, when will it be shipped?" Yang Muen couldn't help but be happy when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, as the president of the Salt Merchants Association, he now has to face the vice president and deacon of the Salt Merchants Association every day to ask about the delivery time, which makes him tired.

Although the Salt Merchants Association is responsible for the transportation and sales of the salt industry, it is not the president, vice president and deacons of the Salt Merchants Association who really control the salt business, but the white-robed boy in front of him.

Although the white-robed son is only a cloth cloth and has no fame, he has a great background, he is Chen Guangzong, the eldest son of Chen Shilang, who is in charge of salt introduction in Nanjing, and his younger brother is Chen Ergongzi, whose real name is Chen Yaozu, who prohibits people from the Salt Merchants Association from participating in bidding for the commercial franchise and mining rights of Jiaozhi.

Unlike Chen Yaozu, who likes to eat, drink and have fun, Chen Guangzong has already become the behind-the-scenes controller of the Salt Merchants Association in the first year of Hongxi, responsible for coordinating the relationship between the Salt Merchants Association and the Lianghuai Salt Road.

It stands to reason that at the beginning of June every year, salt merchants will always transport the smuggled salt sold to various places from the major salt works, so that by the end of the year, the salt stocks in various places can be replenished.

However, with the discovery of millions of two families in Zhang Gui's home, the salt merchants' general association's salt selling plan this year was suddenly disrupted, and it was obvious that Zhang Gui's case had become a shocking case.

Sure enough, Emperor Xuande was furious and ordered Li Yuntian to come to Jiangnan to thoroughly investigate the Lianghuai Salt Road, which made the people of the Salt Merchants Association even more afraid to act rashly.

In this way, the salt merchant chamber of commerce's salt sales plan this year was put on hold, and Yang Muen and others closely observed the progress of the situation in the Lianghuai Salt Road, secretly waiting for the opportunity to deliver the goods.

Although Li Yuntian led Xie Heng and Han Liang to travel around the mountains and rivers after coming to Yangzhou, and put on a posture of unintentional investigation of the case, no matter how Li Yuntian is now in Yangzhou, it is an invisible deterrent to the Salt Merchants Association.

Therefore, before Li Yuntian left, no salt merchant dared to transport those illegal salts away, and if something went wrong, then he would not be the only one who was unlucky, but the entire salt merchant association.

But this is not a way, if the private salt hoarded in Lianghuai can not be transported out on time, then in addition to the north and south Zhili and Jiaozhi, the other thirteen political envoys of the Ming Dynasty will have a salt shortage, so the consequences can be unimaginable.