Northern Song Dynasty gangster: Start the game with a dog's head, and Mr. Bao spares his life

Since Cao Bin promised to officially collect salt in the name of the court, there is no need for them to work hard.

Hearing this news, even Wu Zang Pang, who had always hated Cao Bin, cheered up, and hurriedly asked:

"Can the Empress Dowager deliver Cao Bin's letter to us, so that I can carefully figure out his intentions."

He thought it was an extremely simple request, but he didn't expect that the empress dowager blushed instantly, and then said angrily:

"Without a letter, you can't figure it out? So mediocre, what use does this palace want you for?"

Said, got up and left.

Wuzang Yepang was so dumbfounded by the training, he didn't know what offended his sister, so he could only call Qu:

"The empress dowager calm down, I don't want any letters, but I must clarify his plan."

Wu Zang Hei Yun ignored him, went back to the harem directly, and summoned Bu Yi Xiang Yun.

After asking about the process of arresting Zhao Ji, she nodded in satisfaction, and said with some expectation:

"When Zhao Ji was escorted back to the Song Dynasty, the letter to Cao Bin must describe the details."

Having said that, she remembered the contents of the letter again, and suddenly felt hot, and ordered:

"Let the prime minister write back to Song Ting, saying that he wants to invite Zhong Jinghou to go to Xixia to discuss the purchase of salt in person..."

Bui Yi Xiangyun heard the words, although his face remained calm, his heart jumped up, and he secretly said happily, you always have a time to rest, then just look at me.

She swallowed quietly, and hurriedly agreed to find out who was wrong...

The morning breeze in early spring is clean and clear, with a slight chill.

Cao Bin didn't seem to notice it, and stood naked by the open window, admiring the rockery and flowers and trees all over the courtyard, while twisting his waist and lifting his legs to exercise his muscles and bones, feeling very comfortable.

At this time, the servant girl suddenly shouted outside:

"Master, Mrs. Li is here, waiting for you in the front hall."

Cao Bin was speechless, thinking that Li Qingzhao was deliberately retaliating.

Knowing that he hates getting up early, he just ran to the house to urge him. Does he still look like a subordinate?

Ever since Li Qingzhao found out that he was being lazy, Cao Bin always felt that he was being manipulated by the other party.

However, as a majestic marquis and an important minister of the court, he is not used to the other party.

Not installed.

He was about to disregard the previously established character setting, smash the pot and throw Li Qingzhao away, but Zhang Zhenniang who was crawling on the window sill froze, couldn't help laughing, and comforted:

"Sister Zhen don't worry about her, she can't enter the backyard."

Zhang Zhenniang didn't want it to end so quickly, she was shy and timid, looking back, but she heard the maid running into the yard and shouting:

"Master, Mrs. Li said that there is an urgent business, so please hurry up."

Zhang Zhenniang trembled in fright, got up quickly, covered her clothes, pushed Cao Bin, and said nervously:

"Master Hou, business is important, you should wash up quickly and go to work."

Cao Bin saw that she had already ordered the servant girl to prepare the toiletries with her limp feet, so he could only say depressedly:

"All right......"

After he finished washing and dressed neatly, he came to the front hall and saw Li Qingzhao sitting and drinking tea unhurriedly, his face darkened, and he said:

"Chairman Li, what is the urgent matter, and he ran to Benhou's house to urge him?"

"It's so difficult that you can't get a job without this candidate?"

Li Qingzhao was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then put down the tea bowl, stood up, looked at Cao Bin with contempt, and said in a sticky voice:

"Master Hou, I'm not looking for you to work with me as an official."

She looked at Chen Yang, who was hitting a shot in the sun, and despised Cao Bin again, before continuing:

"Just now there is news from the Political Affairs Hall that the households in the Jianghuai Salt Field have collectively robbed salt and escaped."

"In such a situation, not only will the royal salt tax be lost, but the supply of salt goods will also be cut off from several roads in the south of the Yangtze River."

"I'm afraid that the imperial court will ask Lord Hou to come up with countermeasures soon, so the lower officials came to inform Lord Hou urgently."

"I wonder if Lord Hou has an idea?"

The salt industry is a major tax item in the Song Dynasty, and it is also related to the national economy and people's livelihood. It is the top priority of the wealth under the jurisdiction of the three divisions.

The well salt in central Sichuan, the pool salt in Shanxi and the sea salt in Jianghuai are the three pillars of the Song Dynasty salt industry, each supplying a large area.

There is a problem in the Jianghuai saltworks, and half of the country of the Song Dynasty may be corrupted.

Just hearing this news, Li Qingzhao's heart turned cold. She thought that there was no perfect solution, and it was too late to urgently train salt workers.

After speaking, Li Qingzhao stared at Cao Bin closely.

Although Cao Bin's performance had disappointed her a lot during this period, but at this time, she hoped that he could find a way.

Hearing this, Cao Bin realized that he had misunderstood her.

However, he was not surprised by this situation, and he had already prepared for it, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

When Cai Jing was in charge of the third department, he often reformed the salt administration, and the salt administration in the Song Dynasty was almost ruined by him.

Although those salt households produced salt, they could only sell it to the government, who then sold it directly or resold it to merchants.

From the court to the government, and then to the salt merchants, they all benefited greatly.

Only the salt farmers who produce salt live like slaves. Not only are they exploited by the government, they are also forced to work, and sometimes they are owed wages.

Moreover, the price of salt in the Song Dynasty was as expensive as forty or fifty Wen a catty, which was more than ten times more expensive than the green salt in Xixia.

This is also the reason why the Song Dynasty strictly prohibited the entry of Xixia Qingyan.

If the green salt of Xixia was allowed to be sold, no one would buy the pool salt of Shanxi. It was too expensive, and the court would not be able to earn a lot of salt profit.

Cao Bin pondered for a while, seeing Li Qingzhao staring at him eagerly, he couldn't help laughing and said:

"Have you forgotten the letter I taught you to write to the Empress Dowager Xixia?"

Li Qingzhao suddenly realized when he heard the words, and looked at Cao Bin with a shocked face:

"Use green salt from Xixia to supplement sea salt from Jianghuai? Could it be that Lord Hou had expected this situation long ago."

She thought she was extremely smart, but she never expected that Cao Bin would act like a prophet. Is this amazing?No matter how you look at it, his tired look doesn't look like such a tall man.

Unless he was planning the salt farmers' strike.

Thinking of this, she looked at Cao Bin with horror.

Although she knows that she can't be merciful when doing great things, but it is too cruel to do such a trick.

You must know that robbery and escape are no different from rebellion.

Once captured, only death penalty...

Then she shook her head suddenly, looked at Cao Bin and said:

"No, it doesn't make sense for Lord Hou to do so."

"Doing such a rebellious thing, is it just to buy Xixia salt?"

When Cao Bin saw her saying that he knew things well, he wanted to admit it brazenly, but before he could speak, Li Qingzhao himself denied this speculation.

He suddenly got stuck, and could only tell the truth with a black face, and gave up on himself:

"You're thinking too much. This Marquis is just a little worried about Cai Jing's salt policy."

"The reason for buying Xixia green salt is to make the Empress Dowager Xixia agree to my request."

Li Qingzhao breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest, and exclaimed in a rare tone of appreciation:

"Even so, the planning in Lord Hou's chest is extraordinary."

"Since Xixia Qingyan is there to help the emergency, people in Jiangnan and other places don't have to worry about their livelihood."

Then, she was a little worried:

"It's just that Jianghuai's salt tax is a huge loss, and it's hard to make up for the deficit in the national treasury now."

"Is my third division going to retrain salt farmers for the imperial court?"

Cao Bin took a sip of tea, shook his head mysteriously and said with a smile:

"No, we're not doing anything!"

This was beyond Li Qingzhao's expectation, but looking at Cao Bin's calm and clear appearance, with her intelligence, she was a little confused for a while.

She thought she had seen another side of Cao Bin, but the other side always surprised her, which made her want to stop, so she couldn't help but ask for advice:

"Why is that?"

Seeing Li Qingzhao leaning forward, looking sincerely asking for advice, Cao Bin was secretly pleased.

Unexpectedly, if she pretended to be good this time, she would be able to reach the standard of using the inheritance card in one fell swoop, so she wanted to say inscrutablely:

"Although the escape of the salt farmers this time was unexpected, it turned out to be exactly what I wanted."

"This Marquis has wanted to change the salt policy for a long time, but the time has not come yet, and this time is just right."

No matter what kind of reform, once it is started, it will definitely harm the interests of some people and put himself at the forefront of the storm. Cao Bin will never sacrifice himself for the public like the great sages.

The reform of salt administration has been very difficult and dangerous since ancient times.

If they just go on rampage blindly, those salt merchants and salt officials can't hate themselves to death?

So he must wait for a good time or find a suitable spokesperson.

Why did Li Yu retire after he succeeded in reforming the law, while Wu Qi and Shang Yang ended in misery?

That's because the state of Wei, which Li Gui served, urgently needs to change. His reforms are in line with the interests of most people, and those who oppose them are against the general trend.

Cao Bin is waiting for such an opportunity. Only when the Yanzheng government is completely ruined and everyone loses their jobs, no matter what he does, he will change for the better, and others have no reason to object...

Seeing Li Qingzhao sighing suddenly, Cao Bin picked up the tea bowl and took a sip of tea leisurely:

"So, the next thing I have to do is to pretend to be sick and ask for leave."

Hearing this, Li Qingzhao couldn't help but rolled his eyes.

It seems that you are reluctant to say this, I am afraid that you may not have the intention to take the opportunity to be lazy.

But after she understood Cao Bin's plan, she also knew the necessity of doing so.

Since Wang Fu, the head of the Duzhi Division, was sent to see Cai Jing, Cao Bin took charge of the affairs of the Duzhi Division in person, and the Household Division was also the former department of his father-in-law, Grand Master Pang.

The Gouyuan of the Three Ministries, which supervises the various ministries, is temporarily in charge of Zhang Dun.

Now there is only one salt and iron minister, Han Jiang, who is regarded as Prime Minister Wang Yanling. If Cao Bin pretends to be sick, the Jianghuai salt case will fall on this person.

What Cao Bin was waiting for was when Han Jiang, Wang Yanling and others were helpless and asked him for help.

At that time, he came out of the mountain to reform the government, which was what everyone expected.

At that time, the chief officer of the Yantie Department was not incapable of planning one or two, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Thinking of this, Li Qingzhao couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

Things in the imperial court have always been complicated, and the simple word loyalty and traitor can never be fully summed up, especially the reform and restructuring, which affects the whole body, and there are many obstacles.

Sometimes, those so-called loyalty and cleanliness can also be the biggest obstacle to change.

Whether this Lord Cao's actions were for the sake of maintaining his power, or for the sake of Song Dynasty, she couldn't understand.

But he did solve the crisis of the imperial court in a calm and clear manner, and he also had far-reaching plans.

For a moment, she was quite moved in her heart, only thinking that a real man should be like this.

Thinking of this, she was about to apologize for her disrespect a while ago, but she heard Cao Bin say very seriously:

"Miss Li, for the next period of time, because I can't go to the third department to perform my duties, you still need you to handle the daily business on my behalf."

"You don't want to take a rest!"

Hearing this, Li Qingzhao's emotion disappeared immediately. He looked at Cao Bin speechlessly, and reminded:

"Do you need Lord Hou to watch over you all day for the daily business in the third division?"