After a fierce wrestling between the cabinet and the six ministries over the corruption case in the two Huaiyan Provinces, under the mediation of Emperor Xuande, the two sides gradually reached an agreement and decided to send a senior member to Yangzhou City to try the case, so that the struggle between the two sides came to an end for the time being.

It is worth mentioning that because of the heavy case of the two Huai Yandao, even the queen mother who lived in the harem was alarmed, and specially asked Xuande for details, after all, Emperor Xuande was too young and inexperienced in governance, and she was worried that once it was not handled well, it would trigger a big fire cake between the cabinet and the six ministries, thus disturbing the court situation.

Knowing that Emperor Xuande only wanted to beat the six parts and not to make a heavy hand, the Queen Mother put her mind at ease and was impressed by Emperor Xuande, and at the same time, Li Yuntian favored him: with Li Yuntian, a courtier who can be literate and martial, hard-working and not arrogant, to assist Emperor Xuande, Emperor Xuande will be able to suppress those high-ranking officials and dignitaries with deep qualifications in the court, and then become a generation of Ming monarchs.

Yang Pu and Hu Ying were selected by the cabinet elders and the officials of the six ministries to become the jury judges of the corruption case in the two Huaiyan Road.

"It's coming!" At the Yangzhou wharf, when Li Yuntian was chatting and laughing with everyone, a voice sounded in the crowd, and a double-decker boat with the Yellow Dragon Flag appeared on the surface of the canal, which was very eye-catching in the river where the boats were scattered.

The officials and gentry on the dock immediately lined up behind Li Yuntian according to their identities, and bowed down to welcome the arrival of Yang Pu and Hu Ying, two important ministers of the imperial court.

After the ship docked, Yang Pu and Hu Ying appeared on the deck of the bow of the ship together, and after the two humbled each other, Hu Ying took the lead in getting off the ship, both in terms of seniority and official rank, Hu Ying was higher than Yang Pu.

"The two adults have had a hard journey." Li Yuntian greeted him with a smile on his face and said to Yang Pu and Hu Ying.

"I've seen two adults." Pan Xingmin and the others who followed him bowed to the two of them in unison, although Li Yuntian's official rank was lower than that of Pan Xingmin, but he had the title of Marquis of Zhenwu to protect him, so he did not need to bow to Yang Pu and Hu Ying.

"Marquis Zhenwu really deserves to be a young talent, and he has tried the corruption case of Lianghuai Yandao in such a short period of time, and he is really a model for my Ming officials." Hu Ying smiled and bowed back to Li Yuntian, and said a compliment to Li Yuntian.

Although Li Yuntian is over 30 years old, he is about 60 years old in Hu Ying, and it is not impossible to call him a "young talent".

"The Marquis of Zhenwu cleared out those corrupt officials in the Lianghuai Salt Road this time, and saved a huge amount of tax and silver for my Ming Dynasty, which is really my Ming Dynasty's luck." Yang Pu also praised Li Yuntian, and smiled and arched his hand to Li Yuntian.

Compared with Hu Ying, the relationship between Yang Pu and Li Yuntian is undoubtedly more intimate, after all, Li Yuntian entered the cabinet after returning from Jiaozhi to assist the cabinet elders.

"Two adults, Ben Hou has already prepared a reception banquet, please." After greeting Yang Pu and Hu Ying for a few words, Li Yuntian stretched out his hand and made a gesture of please, leading the two to get into the four-wheeled carriage parked on the side, and went to the most famous restaurant in Yangzhou City surrounded by everyone.

"Zhenwu Hou, this car is spacious and comfortable, and it is stable, I heard that the imperial court is going to distribute this car to the officials of various ministries and halls, I don't know when it will be built and issued?" Although the atmosphere in the Lianghuai Salt Road was tense, and Yang Pu and Hu Ying came with a heavy responsibility this time, the two of them talked and laughed with Li Yuntian on the road, and Yang Pu even pulled the topic to the four-wheeled carriage they were riding.

"Lord Yang, don't wait for a long time, the carriage will be delivered to the house at the beginning of spring next year." Li Yuntian smiled slightly when he heard this, and replied quietly.

The four-wheeled carriage is more elegant and comfortable than the sedan chair, and the key is that the license plate number shows the identity and status of the owner, so it is very popular in the officialdom of the capital once it is launched.

According to Li Yuntian's plan, the first batch of four-wheeled carriages will be launched on the market after the Spring Festival, including vehicles distributed to ministers and officials.

"Master Hu, I'm blessed to wait for this, even if it's windy and rainy, don't worry." Hearing this, Yang Pu smiled and said to Hu Ying, who was sitting beside him.

"I heard that this four-wheeled carriage was conceived by Hou Ye, Hou Ye is very knowledgeable, and this official really admires it." Hu Ying smiled and complimented Li Yuntian.

"Lord Hu has won the award, Ben Hou just met a few Xiyi people by luck, and learned that they were driving this kind of four-wheeled carriage there, and later changed it slightly." Li Yuntian hurriedly waved his hand and said with a humble face.

If it is left in the eyes of outsiders, it must be thought that Li Yuntian, Yang Pu and Hu Ying are colleagues with good relations, but they don't know that the three of them are just acting on the spot now.

Obviously, Li Yuntian, Yang Pu, and Hu Ying all have different demands on the two Huaiyan Road corruption cases, Li Yuntian wants stability, Yang Pu wants to take the opportunity to crack down on the Sixth Ministry, and Hu Ying wants to protect himself, and the three of them will certainly engage in arduous negotiations and compromises to achieve their respective goals.

After the banquet, Hu Ying went straight to the prison of the Yamen of Lianghuai Salt Road to meet Chen Wenren, the servant of the household department in Nanjing.

Chen Wenren has lost a lot of weight in the past month or so, and his eyes have become a little dazed and dull, since Li Yuntian interrogated him once in early October, he has never been let over the court, this anxious and uneasy waiting is undoubtedly a torment for him.

"Hu Shangshu!" When Chen Wenren was brought into a wing room in the yamen prison of Lianghuai Salt Road, Chen Wenren's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly straightened the official hat on his head, stepped forward and bowed.

Since Chen Wenren is now only wearing a sinful body, so he still retains his position, he knows very well that the black gauze hat on his head is only temporarily worn on his head, and it will not be long before Emperor Xuande will issue an edict to remove him from his official position.

"You all go down, this official has something to say to Lord Chen." Hu Ying bowed slightly to Chen Wenren with an expressionless face, and then commanded the guards and officials accompanying him in the room in a deep voice.

Hu Ying was the head of the Ming Dynasty, and the people at the scene naturally had to obey his words, so they walked out one after another and slowly closed the door.

It didn't take long for the expressionless Hu Ying to open the door and leave, leaving only Chen Wenren with a defeated face and desperate eyes in the room.

Li Yuntian knew about this matter for the first time, and his eyes couldn't help but show a trace of pity, Chen Wenren served as the head of the Nanjing Household Department during the Hongxi Dynasty, and Emperor Xuande only planned to investigate the responsibility of the relevant officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the Nanjing Household Department since the Xuande Dynasty, so Chen Wenren naturally became the best scapegoat.

This is also why Li Yuntian only mentioned the amount of salt tax lost by the two Huai salt roads since the Xuande Dynasty in his recital to Emperor Xuande, and did not mention the Hongwu Dynasty, Yongle Dynasty, Hongxi Dynasty and even the Jianwen Dynasty, which has invisibly indicated to the outside world the bottom line of his investigation.

In fact, according to the account books provided by those salt merchants, Li Yuntian already had conclusive evidence of the greed for ink in the two Huai salt roads since the end of the Hongwu Dynasty.

Before Emperor Yongle moved the capital, the issuance of the salt introduction of the two Huai Salt Road was responsible for the Beijing Household Department located in Nanjing City, which made many household officials involved, as the first major ministry of the Ming Dynasty, the high-ranking officials of the capital and the local government occupied a considerable proportion.

If Li Yuntian investigates according to those evidences, the Ming Dynasty's Jingshi Household Department and Nanjing Household Department will definitely suffer a catastrophe, and by the way, those officials from the household department of the imperial court, plus the officials who have benefited from the Lianghuai Salt Road, the entire Ming officialdom will cause a violent shock, and the consequences are unpredictable.

In addition, Emperor Xuande did not want the matter of the two Huai Yandao to involve the deceased Emperor Hongwu, Emperor Yongle and Emperor Hongxi, so he decided to investigate the Xuande Dynasty, and Chen Wenren, as a household servant in Nanjing, naturally had to shoulder this responsibility.

The day after Hu Ying met Chen Wenren, Chen Wenren wrote a confession in prison and took the responsibility of Lianghuai Yandao off the shoulders.

Li Yuntian opened the court to interrogate Chen Wenren after getting his confession, and in front of Yang Pu, Hu Ying and others, Chen Wenren confessed all the crimes on the confession, and then took off the black gauze hat on his head and knelt in front of the court to plead guilty, becoming the last official involved in the case to confess in Lianghuai Yandao and Nanjing Hubu, and also the highest-ranking official.

Due to the large number of people involved in the Lianghuai Salt Road embezzlement case, almost all the officials who served in the Lianghuai Salt Road and Nanjing Household Department were wiped out, and even those officials who had been transferred to other places were arrested, so Li Yuntian's New Year was spent in Yangzhou City.

While investigating the case, Li Yuntian had another thing to do, that is, to recover the stolen money involved in the case, which was a huge project, and just before the Chinese New Year, he severely punished dozens of officials who tried to take possession of the property of those involved in the case.

At the end of the first month of the seventh year of Xuande, Yang Pu and Hu Ying left Yangzhou City by boat and returned to the capital to return to Emperor Xuande to return to Emperor Xuande.

In this Lianghuai Salt Road corruption case, the officials of the Lianghuai Salt Road and the Yamen of the Salt Road in various places were wiped out, and all salt merchants from all over the country were arrested, and the two sides were completely wiped out.

According to preliminary estimates, nearly 30,000 criminals and their families were involved in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, which is comparable in scale to the Hu Lan case during the Hongwu Emperor's reign.

What is particularly shocking is that, according to preliminary estimates, the value of the property confiscated by Li Yuntian during the raid was as high as 120 million taels of silver, which was enough to cover the tax revenue of the Ming treasury for 40 years.

Although the Lianghuai Salt Road corruption case seems to have come to an end, there is an uneasy atmosphere in the officialdom of the capital, because Li Yuntian has already grasped the evidence of the bribery of court officials in the Lianghuai Salt Road and the Salt Merchants Association, not only many officials in the Six Ministries camp have accepted bribes, but also some officials in the cabinet camp have also received benefits.

After all, the civil officials in the court before Emperor Hongxi were all from the six ministries, and after Emperor Hongxi strengthened the power of the cabinet, a situation of confrontation between the cabinet and the six ministries was formed, so the officials of the cabinet camp can be said to be divided from the six ministries, and naturally they also benefited from the salt affairs of the two Huai salt roads.

It's just that with the competition between the cabinet and the six ministries, the officials of the cabinet camp have gradually distanced themselves from the two Huai salt roads controlled by the six ministries camp, so naturally they can no longer benefit from it.

As for the evidence in Li Yuntian's hands, even Hu Ying and Yang Pu have never seen it, because Li Yuntian has never taken it out, and it is naturally inconvenient for the two to ask Li Yuntian for it.

Moreover, Li Yuntian had already coordinated the interests of the cabinet and the six ministries in the Lianghuai Yandao corruption case, and there was no need for the two of them to bother themselves, since Li Yuntian had not released the evidence, he must have his own ideas.

After this case, the former prominent salt merchants became the history of the Jiangnan business community, and the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce officially took charge of the Jiangnan business community, which opened the curtain of Jiangnan business innovation.