Since ancient times, talented people have been born in the Red Chamber

Chapter 722: The aftermath of the Yanzhou smuggling businessman case (first update)
Chapter 731

"My dear, this salt lake is really not small..." Wang Yang reined in the horse's head on the high slope, looking at the land surrounded by pure white and deep blue, smelling the strong wind. The salty smell that blows over, can't help but smash his tongue.

And when you observe carefully, you will feel that it is not appropriate to use white to describe it, it seems to be a bit black and blue.And here is Yanchi, known as Wuchi. The salty taste of this pond is salty and fresh, and its color is blue. It is praised as the best salt, and it is also praised by the world as green salt.

"There are 21 large and small salt ponds in Yanzhou. Among them, Wuchi, which is rich in green salt, and Baichi, which produces white salt, have the largest output and the best quality. The annual output of the two ponds is about [-] shi (dan) accounting for a quarter of the total. one."

"Now, due to the war, many salt ponds in Yanzhou have been suspended for nearly two months..." Next to Wang Yang was Gao Qiu, the general magistrate of Yanzhou.

Looking at these few people, Nuo Da is next to Wuchi.Although there are still many courtyards and residences, as well as many salt-making tools, they have long been deserted, and they look very decayed, which makes Gao Qiu very distressed. "The work has been suspended for two months, how much money will be lost..."

"It's quite a lot. The most important thing is the salt. Wang has assured His Majesty that except for one-tenth of the green salt in Yanzhou that will be kept and sold by Yanzhou, the rest of the green salt will be escorted to the capital. , Yanzhou also needs to ensure that all the salt used in Shanxi Road and Jingzhaofu in the Song Dynasty..." Wang Yang was also very helpless, but what he paid attention to was not money, but salt.

The salt production in Yanzhou is not like that in Sichuan, which relies on digging wells to cook salt. The labor and cost of these natural salt ponds here are astonishingly low. The most important thing is that the salt production and quality are very good.

In the past, most of the salt produced in Yanzhou would become smuggled goods and flow into the Song Dynasty, making huge profits from the wealthy class of the Song Dynasty.

But now, as Yanzhou is controlled by the Song Dynasty, these salt ponds naturally become the Song Dynasty's. According to the past practice, the production of salt industry is generally not controlled by the local government, but directly managed by the court.

However, the current court has been looking for an official who is suitable to go to Yanzhou to take charge of the Yanzhou Salt Field.But the question is, will anyone dare to come?Wang Yang's reputation is so fierce that he never cares about the identity of the other party when he gets angry with others.

This gave an impression to all the ministers and workers in the court, that is, this guy can only get along with those generals, or can get along with those officials with weird tempers. As for ordinary officials, hehe...

He will not abide by the rules of the officialdom, let alone acquiesce to the unspoken rules of the officialdom.None of the previous merchants who were trapped in Yanzhou because Yanzhou was captured by the Song Dynasty's surprise attack could escape.

But the problem is that in this age of officialdom, which powerless merchant dares to engage in large-scale smuggling business, and can openly sell the green salt from Yanzhou to Jingzhaofu or even Bianliang, Tokyo.

Therefore, because of Wang Yang's strong sense of justice, he not only brought this matter to Su Dongpo, the envoy of Lue'an, a Shaanxi road manager.What's more, the matter was directly brought to the bloody young emperor Zhao Xu.

This made Zhao Xu, the young emperor, unable to hold his nerve for a moment. After reading Wang Yang's letter, he went straight to Shaanxi Road with a strict order and demanded a thorough investigation. The backgrounds of all smugglers must be found out and strict enforcement was carried out. punish.

Before that, the young emperor Zhao Xu decided to continue to endure, just to see how many officials were involved in it.

Academician Su has always been a loyal and upright gentleman who hates evil as much as he hates it. But when it comes to interrogation, he is very self-aware and decides to hand over this important task to Wang Yang, a young talent who is always full of evil.

Under the interrogation of Daguan Wang's elegant and noble method of extorting a confession by torture that comes from the 21st century and will not cause harm to the human body.

No smuggler could survive more than three and a half days of interrogation by the gang of torture experts taught by Mr. Wang.

Soon, as these businessmen confessed their informants or backgrounds one by one, they also revealed their smuggling careers, their smuggling channels, and the identities, ranks, positions, etc. of the officials who were bought by them. wait.

As the businessmen confessed one after another, more and more officials were on the list, and even Wang Daguan himself felt a toothache and had to ask Su Dongpo, an old driver, for instructions.

After Su Dongpo was able to see him, he continued to order Wang Yang to continue his strict investigation, and at the same time began to conceive the memorial. After the final interrogation, a total of 130 officials, large and small, were involved, including 64 officials from Shaanxi Road, Jingzhao There are 38 people in the government, and although there are only 19 officials in the capital, there are as many as 14 senior officials above the fifth rank.

As expected, Su Dongpo was a very good map shooter who never cared about anything, so he handed over the memorial, together with the charges, to Bianliang, Tokyo. As for these businessmen, they were all escorted to the prison in Huanzhou. in, waiting for processing.

With 130 seven officials involved in this major smuggler case in Yanzhou, coupled with the emperor's determination not to conceal it and his intentional connivance.

It definitely shocked the world and was extremely sensational. It can be said to be the most influential smuggling case in the history of the founding of the Song Dynasty.

And among them, there are also a large number of capable ministers and officials who are well-known in the circle of ordinary people and officials, or loyal ministers who appear to be loyal and upright, as if they were the reincarnation of Wei Zheng from the former Tang Dynasty...

In short, they all became notorious, and even the residences of many officials in the capital were splashed with feces by some troublemakers.

Although among the important officials in the court, the proportion of officials involved is less than one-tenth, but the problem is that it is just such a case.Just involving so much is enough to prove that you guys are probably not much better.

It can be said that all the important ministers of the dynasty felt the extremely heavy pressure brought by the eyes and comments of the common people.

And this kind of pressure has made Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice and Yushitai not dare to slack off in the slightest, let alone show favoritism, because in that case, it is very likely that they will be treated as fellow party members. .

No one dares to do anything inappropriate in this extraordinary period. Even those officials who have been taken to Tokyo's Bianliang prison one after another, many of whom are indirectly related to the salt smugglers, are thinking about how to cut off their tails. Survive.

And those officials who are directly related to the salt smuggling business, and it can even be said that their family members or domestic slaves are involved in the profiteering salt smuggling industry, are directly ashamed and heartbroken.

On the second day after being imprisoned, three officials planned to hang themselves. Fortunately, at the beginning of the trial, such an emergency was anticipated.

(End of this chapter)