The cold wind in Yongbei is gusting, but the south of the Yangtze River is already a warbler, the sky in Yangzhou is bright, the shadows of the boats on the Grand Canal, the willow trees on the bank spit out new green, the willow branches sway in the wind, and the white yellow and brown tidbits are accompanied by the swallows going north, flying in the air. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

On the wharf, porters carry bags of salt off the boat and into the warehouse, which are transported by Yangzhou salt merchants from salt farms from all over the country, and then sent from here to Jiangnan and Jiangbei.

When night falls, the canals are filled with fragrant winds and the sound of silk and bamboo.

And the numb gaze that came from under the willows.

The wealth of Yangzhou attracted displaced people from all over the country, and the Yangzhou government was very troubled by these displaced people, refusing them to enter the city and scattering them outside the city.

The homeless people destroyed the beautiful scenery of early spring, but the homeless people covered the flowers that bloomed in early spring, and the nobles stared at the flowers and ignored the ugliness behind the flowers.

In the magnificent painting boat, the dancing girls danced to the accompaniment of silk and bamboo.

Ju Yi sat on the chair, hugged the girl's soft waist, and looked at the dancing girl with a smile.

The beauty in her arms was given by several salt merchants next to her, and she was the reddest Qinglou girl in Yangzhou, with a soft waist, fair and pink skin, and a glutinous voice, which made people sweet to the bottom of their hearts.

The beautiful woman took the wine to his lips, took a sip of the sentence gently, and the beautiful woman put down the wine glass and kissed the wine on his lips.

Ju Yu's eyes narrowed into a slit, and the two old men sitting at the bottom exchanged glances with each other, and each saw a smile in each other's eyes.

"My lord, during this period of time, it has been really hard to implement the salt policy reform, and we have done our best for the imperial court. The old man in the blue robe smiled and pushed the two wooden boxes in front of Ju Yi.

Ju Yi didn't look at the two wooden boxes, still staring at the dancing girl, the old man in the blue robe gave the beauty a look, the beauty carefully picked up the wooden box and opened it, inside was a stack of silver tickets, the beauty sent it to Ju Yi, Ju Yi glanced at it, didn't make any indication, the beauty put down the wooden box, and picked up another wooden box, the wooden box was full of jewels, even the well-informed Qinglou beauty couldn't help but let out an exclamation, but Ju Yi still didn't look at it, just smiled at the two.

"Wei Lao, Gong Can, no merit is not accepted, such precious things, the lower officials will never dare to accept them. ”

The old man in blue laughed twice: "The adults are too modest, the adults are working on state affairs, and they are eating and drinking, what is useless." ”

The young man in the brocade robe also laughed and said: "Brother Wei said it well, we are also respectful to adults, and adults don't have to be polite." ”

After hesitating, he was no longer reserved, nodded slightly, and the two bosses were overjoyed, and hurriedly greeted the beauty to put away the wooden box.

The guests are happy, the dance music is more and more cheerful, and the dancer's waist is twisted more attractively.

After a few glasses of wine, Wei Lao asked with a smile: "My lord, I don't know if the plan for the reform of the salt administration has been played in the imperial court?"

Ju Yi laughed, and scolded in his heart, old fox, I don't know how many of your people are in this Qincha Yamen, have you played it, you don't know yet, this is going to be played, you will give such a heavy gift today?

"Alas!" Ju Yi put down the wine glass and sighed heavily: "It's difficult, I satisfied you, the court is not satisfied; ”

Wei Lao and Duke Xuan exchanged glances, and Duke Xuan also sighed: "My lord, it's not that I'm complaining, my lord and Lord Gu have been in Yangzhou for several months, and I have a deep understanding of the situation in Yangzhou, Yangzhou's salt field is dilapidated, if we want to take over the salt field, we must first invest a lot of silver to transform the salt field, and the salt tax of the imperial court is so heavy, it is really difficult for us to support it, and please be considerate." ”

"This is still one of them," Wei Lao took over and said: "My lord, according to the plan of the imperial court, you can build your own salt pans, which will inevitably lead to the indiscriminate construction of salt pans, and many salt pans that do not meet the requirements will also be built, and the salt produced is shoddy and unbearable, harming the people, my lord, this matter must be eliminated at the source." ”

Ju Yu didn't speak, he reached out to bring the wine glass, and the beautiful woman immediately brought it to him, brought it to his lips, and then kissed the wine stains on his lips.

"My lord, this matter is a matter of safety in the world, and you must not back down. Wei Lao said eagerly.

"My lord, for the sake of all the people, my lord should understand that the emperor is a major military matter, and he should be cautious and innovative, and he must not be rash. Gong Xuan also said eagerly.

Ju Yi sneered in his heart, he knew exactly what the two of them wanted, nothing more than a few points: first, exclude those small merchants and let them get Yangzhou Yantian at a cheap price;

Second, the salt tax should be reduced, preferably only one percent of the salt tax, and it should be exempt from tax for the first three years;

Third, the imperial court wanted to include Jingzhou, Qingzhou, Jizhou, Yuzhou and other places in the monopoly scope of Yangzhou salt, and prohibit other Hedong salt and Shu salt from entering.

As for what salt pans are seriously damaged and a huge amount of money has been invested, it is just a pretext for the back.

When Ju Yi first saw this suggestion, he almost laughed out loud, these guys are so bold that they dare to reach out to the court, and they dare to open their mouths like this.

Out of prudence, Ju Yi did not throw the suggestion in their faces, but shirked and said to take a look first, but within a few days, several gate valve families in Yangzhou, and even Huainan Wang Changshi reminded him that he should adopt more suggestions from Yangzhou Shimin, and he realized something meaning, and hurriedly sent someone to inquire, but as a result, this Wei Lao and Cangong are nominally grain merchants, but in fact, behind the two of them are each a family of gate valves, behind the Duke of Can's is the Jiangnan Lu family and the Yu family, behind Wei Lao is the Yangzhou gate valve Zhang family, and there may even be the shadow of the King of Huainan.

This discovery made Ju Yi dare not act rashly, and turned his head to discuss with Gu Wei, but Gu Wei was noncommittal.

Of course he knew that Gu Wei was Pan Lian's cronies, but this time he went down to Yangzhou, but this time he sent him out who controlled Du Zhi Cao, which began to make him a little confused, Pan Lian controlled Shang Shutai, and the palace had the support of the Queen Mother, even if the emperor was afraid of three points, but the emperor sent his newly promoted cronies out and let the king of Yanping County take over Du Zhi Cao.

Is this dissatisfaction with Gu Wei, or is it necessary to cut the power of Pan Chain?

Ju Yu was born in a low family, has many years of experience in officialdom, and is very sensitive to the direction of officialdom, and immediately noticed that the emperor's attitude may have changed.

Since leaving the imperial capital, Gu Wei has been testing Gu Wei, but Gu Wei's tone is very tight, and he has not revealed the slightest rumor.

Ju Yu was still worried at the beginning, although the emperor's attitude may have changed, but Pan Lian is still a Shangshu order after all, and he still has power over the world, if Gu Wei wants to embarrass him, this Yangzhou matter is really difficult to handle.

But what he didn't expect was that Gu Wei didn't give him any trouble, cooperated with his measures throughout the whole process, and also used his influence in Shilin to preach the benefits of the salt administration reform everywhere, hoping that Shilin would support the salt administration reform;

At the beginning, Ju Yu had an extra thought, Gu Wei cooperated so much, if the salt policy reform was completed in the future, it would be good to say, if it failed, the whole responsibility would be his sentence, so he gave some power to Gu Wei and deliberately let him do something.

Just like today, Gu Wei went to see Fang Zhen.

The Cao Gang is very strange in the rivers and lakes, saying that he is a reckless gang in the rivers and lakes, but the court admits it and entrusts him with the vital Cao Yun, but on the other hand, the court has never given the Cao Gang an official identity, so he is now a half-official and half-reckless identity.

Because the conditions with the merchants were not negotiated, the auction did not dare to be held easily, so Gu Wei suggested using the Cao Gang to let Fang Zhen break the deadlock.

For a while, the sentence was full of thoughts, but he still maintained a reserved smile on his face, drank two sips of wine given by the beauty, and said lightly: "The night is good tonight, the night of the south and the north are two different charms, Wei Lao, Cangong, some things are in a hurry, this is the same as wine tasting, good wine must be tasted slowly, before you can taste it, do you say this is the truth." ”

Wei Lao and Cangong were slightly stunned, then laughed together, and nodded again and again: "The adult said yes, the adult said yes." ”

At the same time, Gu Wei was drinking tea with Fang Zhen in Fang's Teahouse, Fang Zhen obviously valued Gu Wei very much, not only vacated the entire teahouse, but also let his young wife play the piano in the building, and the two chatted and chatted in the sound of the piano.

The two of them didn't seem to be interested in talking about business, starting with the scenery of Yangzhou, Fang Zhen recommended a few historical sites and scenery of Yangzhou to Gu Wei, suggested that Gu Wei go and see, and then talked about Yangzhou's specialties.

After chatting like this for a long time, I got down to business.

"What does Gang Master Fang think of the imperial court's salt policy innovation?" Gu Wei asked.

"Fang Mou is a reckless man, and he doesn't know much about the major affairs of the imperial court," Fang Zhen smiled first, and then said: "However, when it comes to salt politics, Fang Mou still understands a little, and it is good for the imperial court to have this strategy, but there are more wolves and less meat, everyone wants to plug in a corner, Lord Gu, I'm afraid this matter is not easy to do." ”

Gu Wei nodded, today he was still wearing a moon-white robe, and he didn't wear a crown on his head, but simply tied his hair in a bun, but this kind of casualness added a little different charm to him.

"Fang Gang Master's eyes are like electricity," Gu Wei nodded and sighed: "The reason why the imperial court implemented the salt policy innovation was to increase the production of salt and increase the income of the treasury, but what disappointed me was that the appetite of Yangzhou merchants was too great, which caused the imperial court strategy to be delayed. ”

Fang Zhen drank tea silently, this winter, he led the Cao Gang and the Jiangnan Society to fight several times, and finally drove the Jiangnan Society back to Wu County and Linjiang. Two consecutive wars, so that the Cao Gang was exhausted, when the war in Jiangnan did not stop, it was learned that the imperial court in Yangzhou to implement the salt policy reform, Fang Zhen once moved his mind, but then dispelled this idea, because Yan Qi passed the book and reported the inside situation, Fang Zhen after thinking about it, he did not dare to go to this troubled water again.