Reborn and married to uncle, husband and wife teamed up to abuse scum.

The officials of the yamen hid away under the pretext of urging people to leave. Xin An and Tang Mo, who came to eavesdrop in the name of Tang Gang, sat in the alley on the side of the yamen. The layout there was ingenious, and they could see some of the situations in the lobby and clearly hear what those people were saying. It must be said that Tang Gang's name was still very useful.

Tang Mo was puzzled and whispered, "Since Huaijiang is under the control of the emperor, why doesn't he just ask these merchants to pay the money instead of doing this?"

Xin An lowered his voice and said, "Because the princes have reached adulthood and the emperor is old, merchants always value profit."

It's not easy for businessmen either. The emperor's mountain looks extremely majestic, but the emperor has his own ministers, and no one dares to stick to one path to the end. They have to bet on many parties. I think the emperor knows this, so he didn't give a direct order and was prepared to go through some twists and turns.

"You should look at it carefully today so that you can come up with the rules as soon as possible."

The two of them just said these two sentences and then stopped, waiting quietly. After a while, Tang Mo felt a chill on the back of his neck. He turned around and almost screamed in fright. Tang Gang, who had appeared out of nowhere, was staring at him sinisterly from behind. Xin An was also startled when he turned around.

Tang Gang glared at the two men in annoyance. These two nameless people dared to act behind his back. Fortunately, he was very observant and realized something was wrong before coming to find them.

"How do you know where I am?"

Tang Mo was sure that he did not alarm him when he went out.

"I know it when you're shaking your butt..."

"Okay, I know you have a good nose."

Tang Mo asked him to be quiet and pointed outside the wall, asking him not to alarm the people outside.

Tang Gang glared at him and began to wait silently.

Mu De'an waited for two incense sticks, and just before his patience ran out, the salt merchants arrived one after another.

"I'm really sorry to have kept Lord Mu waiting for so long. The rising water almost flooded the salt yesterday, so I'm late."

"Master Mu, please calm down. There are hundreds of thousands of kilograms of salt piled up on the dock. If it gets wet, the loss will be huge. We will deal with this matter first and then come here in a hurry."

Mu De'an sneered, "The water level is rising. It just rained a little last night, so why is the water level rising?"

"You may not know, sir, but the water level is rising upstream."

The salt merchants were very calm. "It rained heavily upstream last night, and the water was surging violently. We are going there overnight, so we dare not delay."

"Yes, yes, sir, you must be discerning. We dare not deceive you..."

Without waiting for the big salt merchant to say anything, the small salt merchants interrupted Mu De'an's words. They acted as if he was being unreasonable and had no sympathy for the salt merchants' difficulties.

Mu De'an stopped harping on the matter and got down to business. "I asked you all to come here today because I have something to discuss with you."

He said that the court was in trouble and hoped that everyone would be generous. "You have all benefited from the court. Now that the court needs me, I think you should be willing to help."

"Boss Yao, why don't you express your opinion first?"

Boss Yao is still in the capital. Today, it is the second master of the Yao family who came. After being named, he bowed and said, "We are where we are today because of the favor of the court. Lord Mu is right. If the court needs us, we will naturally do our best. Although business has not been good in the past two years and the profits are meager, the Yao family is willing to squeeze out ten thousand taels of silver to help."

"Boss Yao is righteous."

Boss Huang immediately expressed his attitude, "Our Huang family has had a hard time in the past two years. We are not as well-off as the Yao family, but we are willing to raise 5,000 taels of silver as a token of our gratitude."

"Our Mu family is also willing to squeeze out 5,000 taels..."

"Our Han family can only squeeze out three thousand taels. Please don't despise it, sir. It's really not enough..."

Everyone rushed to express their willingness to donate money and kept saying thank you to the court, but the amount became smaller and smaller. In the end, there was even someone who donated one thousand taels, and he had to pawn his wife's jewelry to raise this one thousand taels.

Mu De'an's face turned pale, and the people who followed his lead were also stunned. All the donated money could not even make up 100,000 taels, and the gap to 1 million taels was too far.

Master Yao Er bowed and said, "Master Mu, when will you need the money? We will raise it as soon as possible so as not to delay your work."

Mu De'an sneered repeatedly, "Okay, everything is fine."

"Boss Xin, you haven't spoken yet, what should I say?"

He thought Xin Kuan was Tang Gang's relative, so he would say more for Tang Gang's sake. Xin Kuan stepped forward and bowed, "I just calculated it carefully, and I can raise about 12,000 taels with all my strength."

"Your Excellency knows that Marquis Weiyuan is my relative. If there is any condition, I will fight for his honor. It's really...ah..."

All the salt merchants were very satisfied after hearing this. They were afraid that Xin Kuan would stab them in the back in order to curry favor with his in-laws. If that were the case, they would have to be on guard against him in the future.

Tang Gang's mouth twitched slightly behind the wall, and the meals he had eaten at the Xin family in the past few days emerged in his mind. They were so cunning, these salt merchants were too cunning. Fortunately, he did not rush forward to ask for money, otherwise how could he save face?

Mu De'an was really embarrassed. Things were completely different from what he had imagined. How dare these salt merchants do that?

"Who doesn't know that you salt merchants in Huaijiang are extremely wealthy? You all wear brocade and fine clothes, but you can only offer this little money?"

Boss Huang raised his arm, revealing a frayed sleeve beneath his brocade sleeve. "Your Excellency, you don't know that we, the salt merchants of Huaijiang, are just in name only, and we only have a glamorous appearance."

"I'm sure you're on my side. Private salt is rampant. Those people are privately opening salt mines or going to the northwest to secretly dry salt, or bringing sea salt to disrupt the market. The price is half cheaper than the salt we have. To save money, the people buy private salt. We can't do business anymore."

"Nowadays, everyone's warehouse is full of salt, and the salt on the dock is piled up like a mountain. We have all suffered heavy losses."

"Boss Xin is right. If we have more money, how can we not do our best for the court? It will bring honor to our family and ancestors. How can we not be willing to do so?"

"Yes, please help us, sir."

"Please, sir..."

As soon as Boss Huang's words came out, many small salt merchants had tears in their eyes. They raised their hands to wipe their tears, revealing that the clothes underneath were either frayed or patched. It really proved that it was only the appearance that was bright.

"Wait..."

Mu De'an pointed at everyone with a trembling hand, and the officials of the government office also spoke up, "Lord Mu, the Huaijiang salt merchants have had a hard time in the past two years. What do you think about the matter of arresting the smuggled salt dealers..."

This is a man who doesn't want to pay but still wants to work. Mu De'an took a step back and said, "Wait..."

He was speechless. Tang Gang and Tang Mo behind the wall also looked unhappy. After today's incident, they finally understood the salt merchants. They had strong backgrounds and were closely related. Ordinary officials really had no way to deal with them.

Xin An looked indifferent. She knew very well that these salt merchants were not trying their best and Mu De'an was not a good match at all.