Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

Yang Mingcheng was stunned for a moment after hearing what Ning Qingqing said, and then his eyes lit up.

He knew that Hengdaomen was the largest underworld force in Jizhou, and it was also one of the best underworld forces in Liaodong.

However, he didn't know what the relationship between Ning Qingqing and Yu Qingyi was.

But since Ning Qingqing said so, Yang Mingcheng still clasped his fists and saluted, saying: "Mingcheng greets aunt!"

"..."

Ning Qingqing was completely frozen.

He actually called me aunt!

This this this~~~

Ning Qingqing looked at Ji Hai beside her with a stiff face, her charming face was pale and stiff as if covered with frost.

"Senior brother, am I that old?"

She said that she and Yu Qingyi were sisters, and Yang Mingcheng should call her aunt, but in fact, she didn't really act like an aunt.

She just wanted to use this to bring the two sides closer.

What a bullshit aunt, she and Yu Qingyi are not sisters, where does the aunt come from?

However, she didn't know that Yang Mingcheng was a sincere person. Yang Mingcheng thought that she had saved him and was a sister to his mother, so calling her aunt was nothing.

The cold and handsome Ji Hai almost couldn't help laughing when he saw Ning Qingqing's unbelievable expression.

"Ahem! Nephew Yang, let's talk inside!"

The word "nephew" was like a stab in the back, which hurt Ning Qingqing's heart again.

However, Ji Hai's "nephew" was not taking advantage of Yang Mingcheng. He was older than Ning Qingqing and Yu Qingyi, and only six or seven years younger than Yang Zhengshan, so it was not too much to call Yang Mingcheng "nephew".

"Then here~~" Yang Mingcheng looked at the corpses on the street.

"Don't worry, I will arrange for someone to deal with it. There is another survivor over there. I will personally ask about their origins!" Ji Hai's eyes flashed with a fierce look.

Committing a crime in their Hengdaomen inn, do you really think that their Hengdaomen is easy to mess with?

Yang Mingcheng thought about it and felt that it would be better to leave this matter to the two seniors in front of him. This was his first time to experience this kind of thing and he had no experience. It would be better to have two seniors to help him than to do it himself.

"Then I'll trouble you, seniors!"

Ji Hai nodded slightly and took Yang Mingcheng back to the inn.

"Dear guests, it's just a group of petty thieves who don't have long eyes. They have been dealt with. You can rest assured!"

The innkeeper was comforting the guests who stayed overnight. The bodies and bloodstains in the inn had been cleaned up at this time, but there was still a little bloody smell in the air.

The guests saw that they were safe and stayed in the room to continue sleeping.

Yang Zhengshan returned to his room and found that the tables and chairs that had been damaged by the fight had all been replaced with new ones, and even the broken windows were sealed with window paper. There were only some traces on the wall.

"Dear guest, there are no other rooms in the inn. I can only ask you to stay here for one night!" The innkeeper said politely.

If Ji Hai hadn't said that, he would never have been so polite.

Yang Mingcheng had provoked the people, and the incident was caused by Yang Mingcheng. Logically, Yang Mingcheng should be responsible for all the losses of the inn, and he should chase Yang Mingcheng to ask for compensation.

As for those men in black, no one wants to ask for debts from the dead, so they have to ask for debts from the living. This is the rule of the underworld.

When two parties fight and destroy the things of the store, they usually ask for compensation from the winner.

However, Yang Mingcheng didn't know this, but he thought that Xinfu Inn was very particular and the service was very thoughtful.

"No problem, please trouble the shopkeeper!"

"Then I won't bother you!"

The shopkeeper retreated, Yang Mingcheng put down the bloody spear, looked at the position of the door, and then looked at the window.

He recalled the previous battle in his heart and summarized the mistakes of the battle.

Although he performed very well just now, he still made omissions in many places. After all, this was his first real combat.

"Dad said that every battle is worth careful consideration, and every battle is the most valuable experience!"

"I shouldn't have jumped out of the room just now. Although the room limits my performance, it also limits the enemy's attack. On the street, I was trapped in a situation of being besieged."

"And when I faced that strong man just now, I should have been more proactive. There were several opportunities to kill the opponent, but I didn't grasp it!"

...

Yang Mingcheng summed up the gains and losses of the battle bit by bit. After all, it was his first time to experience actual combat. Although he often competed with others before, there was still a big gap between competition and actual combat.

Competition is feeding moves, while actual combat is life-and-death struggle.

He is used to competition, but not adapted to the cruelty of life-and-death struggle.

If he was not strong enough, he would have been killed by the strong man in black just now.

The next morning, Ji Hai came to Yang Mingcheng's room.

"Those people last night were hard bones. We didn't ask about their origins!" Ji Hai's face was a little ugly.

Except for one who escaped, there was only one survivor among the black-clad men yesterday, and this survivor did not say a word after his interrogation.

There are only two possibilities for such a person, one is that he is a mute, and the other is that he is a death warrior trained by a certain force.

Obviously, he is not a mute.

"Is that so!" Yang Mingcheng didn't know what to do. He was still confused and had no idea why the other party came to him.

"But judging from their accent, they should be from Shuntian Prefecture!" Ji Hai said the only useful information he got.

"Shuntianfu! Didn't they come from Kyoto?" Yang Mingcheng asked.

Shuntianfu is not big. In addition to Kyoto, there are Wanping and Dasheng counties.

"Yeah!" Ji Hai nodded slightly.

Yang Mingcheng frowned and thought about it. He still couldn't think of anyone who wanted to kill him.

Ji Hai thought more. The target of this group of people was very clear, that is, Yang Mingcheng. As for the reason why they attacked Yang Mingcheng, it was probably an enemy of the Yang family.

He didn't know much about the Yang family, but he also understood that the enemy of the Yang family must be someone in the court.

Once the court was involved, it would not be appropriate for them, such as the Hengdao Sect, to be involved.

After the two chatted briefly, Yang Mingcheng thanked Ji Hai again and promised to reward him generously in the future, and then set off to leave Xinping Town.

Since someone wanted to kill him, he naturally couldn't drag it out any longer. It would be better to rush back to Tenglongwei as soon as possible.

...

Tenglongwei

Yang Zhengshan was meeting guests in the teahouse. In addition to him, Liu Zhe was also in the teahouse, and the guest was Zheng Xiao from the Salt Transport Department.

Zheng Xiao came very suddenly. Yang Zhengshan had just written to him two days ago to ask about the matter of letting the Luo family become salt merchants. Unexpectedly, Zheng Xiao came to Tenglongwei today.

Although Tenglongwei is not far from Liaoan Prefecture, Zheng Xiao should not leave the Salt Transport Department easily.

After the three of them exchanged pleasantries, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help asking, "Why did Lord Zheng have time to come to me?"

He was very curious about why Zheng Xiao came?

In theory, Zheng Xiao didn't need to come, because what Yang Zhengshan asked for was not difficult for him.

Yang Zhengshan asked for two things. The first one was to let the salt field of Tenglongwei sell salt in the name of the salt field under the jurisdiction of the Salt Transport Department. Now that Yang Zhengshan has obtained the approval of Emperor Chengping, the Salt Transport Department dare not disobey the emperor's will even if it is unwilling, so this matter only requires Zheng Xiao to cooperate a little.

The second thing is to make the Luo family a salt merchant. This is difficult for others, but it is still easy for Zheng Xiao, the Liaodong Salt Inspector.

The Salt Inspector, although only a seventh-rank official, is a knife hanging over the head of the Salt Transport Bureau. If the Salt Inspector is not well taken care of, the entire Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau will not be at peace.

So the Salt Inspector made some small requests, and the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau were still willing to cooperate.

If it was just because of these two things, Zheng Xiao didn't have to make this trip, and he should help Yang Zhengshan for the sake of Liu Yuanfu.

Zheng Xiao pondered for a moment, looked at Liu Zhe next to him, and sighed, "I came here this time to ask General Yang for help!"

"Help? What help?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"I want to trouble General Yang to give me a team of soldiers to protect me!" Zheng Xiao said.

Yang Zhengshan narrowed his eyes slightly, and his face suddenly became serious.

Liu Zhe next to him stopped pouring tea, looked up in astonishment, and looked at Zheng Xiao.

"Is Lord Zheng in danger?" Yang Zhengshan asked in a deep voice.

If Zheng Xiao's life is really in danger, then this is not a trivial matter.

The imperial censors who are out on tour are on behalf of the emperor. If you dare to harm the imperial censors, it is tantamount to rebellion.

Zheng Xiao nodded slightly and said, "I want to investigate the Liaodong Salt Transport Envoy Luo Fu and the former Imperial Salt Transport Envoy Zhao Mingsheng for accepting bribes from salt merchants and pre-selling salt permits privately!"

Yang Zhengshan and Liu Zhe looked at each other and were surprised.

It has become an unspoken rule for officials of the Salt Transport Bureau to accept bribes. In fact, their way of accepting bribes is very simple, that is, taking kickbacks.

Salt merchants need salt permits to buy salt, and it is the Salt Transport Bureau that distributes salt permits. The officials of the Salt Transport Bureau distribute salt permits according to the amount of kickbacks from salt merchants.

Officials receive money for salt permits. Big salt merchants have money and connections to buy off officials and form a monopoly on salt trading.

This is a very simple chain of interests.

These are all well-known things, and Yang Zhengshan and Liu Zhe were not surprised, but what does it mean to pre-sell salt permits privately?

Yang Zhengshan asked the doubts in his heart.

Zheng Xiao smiled bitterly and explained.

The so-called pre-sale of salt permits privately is actually very simple, that is, selling the salt permits for next year this year.

In this way, the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau can not only get kickbacks one year in advance, but also use the silver sold by the salt permits in advance.

Take the Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau as an example. Every year, the sale of salt permits can earn millions of taels of silver. If the salt permits are sold one year in advance, it means that the Salt Transport Bureau can control millions of taels of silver.

The silver sold by selling salt permits this year will be handed over to the court, and the salt permits for next year will be sold this year. Then this sum of money will remain in the Salt Transport Bureau for one year. The Salt Transport Bureau can do whatever it wants with this batch of silver, and put it in the money house for lending, and it can collect a lot of silver in a year.

"Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng have already sold next year's salt permits! And now there is no silver in the silver vault of the Salt Transport Bureau!" Zheng Xiao said with some heaviness.

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and fell into deep thought.

Talent!

Really talented!

Pre-selling salt permits, isn't this futures trading?

Then use the money from the pre-sale of salt permits to make money.

There are risks in taking kickbacks, and people can also say that you are taking bribes, but the pre-sale of salt permits is not corruption or bribery at all, it can only be regarded as misappropriation of silver from the treasury.

And when it is time to pay the silver to the Ministry of Households, there is no need to take back the previous silver, because they can sell next year's salt permits and give them to the Ministry of Households.

This is equivalent to the Salt Transport Bureau always having more than one million taels of silver to lend out.

And here, borrowing from money houses and pawnshops is mostly nine out of thirteen.

If all the more than one million taels of silver were loaned out, it would double in a year.

Borrowing money to make money, tut tut, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but sigh at the cleverness of Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng.

Look at what they do, damn, why does it feel more profitable than being a salt merchant?

Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but wonder if they also took out the silver from the Weisi Yamen to lend out?

What the hell is this salt field?

Of course, he was just thinking about it. It is also a serious crime to embezzle the treasury silver privately, and he doesn't want to be punished.

And the cleverness of Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng is here. You said that he embezzled the treasury silver privately, but this treasury silver should not exist in the first place, because it is the treasury silver for next year, and it does not belong to the Salt Transport Bureau this year.

So Zheng Xiao only said that the two of them pre-sold the salt permits privately, and did not say that they embezzled the treasury silver privately.