Sir, I can do it!

Mingde rummaged through a pile of memorials for a long time, but he couldn't find the one written by the Governor of Shuntian Mansion. Since it was not submitted to the case, it must have been left by a certain adult.Needless to say, this lord must belong to the Xie clan.

The governor of Shuntian Prefecture submitted a copy of the memorial, and the signing date was still half a month ago.And half a month ago, it was the autumn exam, and the matter of establishing a reserve was hanging over his head.Although the memorial he submitted stated the facts and pointed out the problem, there was no evidence.There are salt and iron envoys in the court who specialize in the management of salt and iron. The governor only needs to state the facts, and his own salt and iron envoys will handle the matter, but he doesn't want to intervene too much.And the Yantie envoy happened to be the government office under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Households, and the Minister of the Ministry of Households was also responsible.

Although the Huaizhong Salt Farm is in the hands of the nobles, the country has its own laws and regulations. Although the imperial court cannot control the Huaizhong Salt Industry, the four nobles do not want to rebel, so they can only pay the salt tax to the imperial court like the Xiwan Salt Farm. Follow the laws of the court.

This is more like the government-led government in the previous dynasty, and salt merchants were qualified to sell salt by ticket.The only difference is that the salt merchants in the previous dynasty were only merchants.However, the salt industry in the current dynasty was monopolized by the nobles.Salt merchants can only buy from nobles and sell at high prices.

Therefore, Li Huai's purpose of supporting the Cui family and not minding that the Cui family was contaminated with military power was to counter the Xie family.When the Zhao family was there, Huaizhong was still in balance.The Zhao family is not here, although there are Yang and Miao families, they are not Xie's opponents.Once the Xie family is called to completely control the Huaizhong Salt Field, the consequences will be disastrous.

But I didn't expect the Xie family to be so overbearing and domineering, and to resort to such vicious methods.

Li Huai's emotions have calmed down quite a bit. At this moment, his face is sinking like water, but several adults can feel that the emperor is extremely angry.

"Zhang Hong, quickly order the Salt and Iron Envoy to check how much salt is left in the salt shops in various places. From now on, lower the upper limit of salt purchase."

Hubu Shangshu bowed to answer.

"He Zhizhong, step up inspections in the counties near Shengjing. If there are people who cause trouble, you are the only one to ask!"

Shuntian Mansion Yin responded with a bitter face.

Aftershock knelt on the ground, not daring to raise his head.Li Huai's eyes fell on Yu Zhen's head again, which made him shiver uncontrollably.

"Even the officials in Shengjing City have noticed that something is wrong, and the Fangde people in Huaizhou haven't noticed anything!" Li Huai's voice was low and gentle, but in the aftershock ears, it was undoubtedly the sound of hell.

"I promoted Fang De to be governor of Huaizhou. Never did he tell me that Huaizhong was going well. Both the Yang and Miao families voted for the imperial court, and the Xie family was alone. Applying for a large sum of money to buy the local nobles, how can I not allow it?"

Li Huai sneered, threw the secret fold on Yu Zhen's head, and shouted: "This is what Fang De said was smooth! This is Fang De's answer to me?!"

Yu Zhen snatched the land with his head and cried: "The emperor is angry. Most of the retail merchants in the Huaizhong area bought salt from the Xie family. Some of the large merchants that the Yang and Miao families are striving to cooperate with have already reached an agreement and bought a lot of salt from the Yang and Miao families. But who knows, who would have thought that they would sell the salt to the Xie family instead!"

Li Huai laughed back angrily: "Fang De is stupid! Several big retail merchants bought salt at the same time, even if you think about it with your toes, you know there is a problem here. Even if you didn't expect this, you shouldn't sell all the salt at the same time To those people!"

Yu Zhen said: "The Yang and Miao families were oppressed by the Xie family, so they wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune. It would be better to dig some big merchants from the Xie family. Mr. Fang persuaded them, but the two families lost their heads for a while. He didn't listen to persuasion at all. Mr. Fang managed to establish contact with the two families, but he was afraid that he would anger them for a while and be hindered later. Thinking that they are Huaizhong nobles and have been running the salt industry for generations, they are better than a layman like him. There is no word to stop the market."

Yu Zhen kowtowed again and said, "The Xie family's influence in Huaizhong is deeper than imagined. Mr. Fang found that something was wrong, and sent several groups of people to Shengjing to deliver letters, but they were all intercepted and killed in the area of ​​Huaikou..."

"Enough!" Li Huai yelled violently: "I have invested so much energy and money in Huaizhong, you'd better pray that this goes well, otherwise..."

His sharp eyes shot at Yu Zhen, Yu Zhen only felt an electric current running through his body from the top of his head, coupled with the exhaustion and restlessness of the past few days, he could no longer hold on, and passed out on the spot.

Li Huai didn't finish his sentence, but Yu Zhen understood.If the matter in Huaizhong can be resolved, he and Mr. Fang are also condemned to death, but they cannot escape the crime of life.But if things go out of control, he and Mr. Fang will die even worse, and even implicate the family.

At dawn, Mingde cautiously reminded Li Huai that it was time for the court meeting.

Li Huai closed his eyes, even though his chest was full of anger, the things that should be resolved still had to be resolved.

All the ministers and workers were kept in the dark except for a few who knew the truth.While waiting in the Tongzheng Hall, groups of three and five piled together to communicate with each other.Those who had the quickest news had known that today the emperor of the court meeting would announce the appointment of Cui Feng as the general of the Southern Conquest Army, so they all came to Cui Feng to make a good impression.

There were also those who knew the emperor's intentions and didn't want to participate in the battle of the nobles, for fear of becoming a fish in the pond, they quietly closed their eyes and folded their sleeves and hid behind the pillars to catch up on sleep.

Those with good faith kept staring at the entrance of the hall, covered their faces with their sleeves and whispered to the colleagues around them: "It's this time and I haven't seen Mr. Xie go to court, I'm afraid I don't want to see the Cui family's glory."

Colleague A nodded and replied: "You have come and I have been fighting for so long, the Xie family can't hold on anymore, Mr. Xie doesn't want to be seen as a joke. If it were me, I wouldn't come either."

Colleague B sighed: "After all, it is a family of nobles. Although this time, we have to admit that the Xie family is very powerful. But this matter should be done early, otherwise it may be disadvantageous to the people of Weinan. The emperor wants to take it back. Weinan, don't you want to take back a Weinan that is full of holes and refugees."

Although Yuan Yu, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, did not agree with Cui Feng as the general, the Weinan matter could not be shelved.He once sent a letter to recommend other generals, but the emperor was determined to support the Cui family.Yuan Yu considered the overall situation and could only stand on the emperor's side.All the generals were also dissatisfied, but Yuan Yu expressed his position, so they couldn't say much.The few generals who persisted to the end also expressed their attitude early after the Xie family showed signs of decline.

Yuan Yu also communicated with Zhang Hong, Minister of the Ministry of Households, in advance. There are still many issues to be communicated with the Ministry of Households regarding the payment of military expenses, food and salaries for the expedition.

Someone knocked on the gate of the city last night, and Yuan Yu also got the news.He was in charge of military affairs, and the investigation by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Shuntian Mansion had just begun, and the two adults were only investigating in private, Yuan Yu didn't know about it.He only regarded it as an urgent report from the Weinan army, he had already changed his clothes and was waiting for the emperor to call at any time, and sent his confidants out to inquire about the situation.But he was told that the emperor urgently summoned the Minister of the Household Department and the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture, and that the person who knocked on the city gate at night was someone from Huaizhong.Yuan Yu immediately thought of the Xie family.

Standing in Tongzheng Hall, Yuan Yu's heart was not at peace.If there is turmoil in Huaizhong, the situation in Weinan is bound to regenerate.He glanced at Xie Hong's position, and sighed inwardly.It has only been more than [-] years since the world was settled down, and the struggle for imperial power among nobles has reached such a level. Will the peaceful and prosperous world that Duke Qi hoped for back then be realized?

Xie Hong, who was missed by all the courtiers, was furious at home at this time.

Xie Yi knelt on the ground trembling, crying with snot and tears: "Uncle Wu, what can I do, there are 39 cars in the front and rear, all of them have been robbed!"

Originally, everything was under Xie Hong's control.In advance, he sent people to quietly buy salt from various places to hoard, and gave benefits to several large retail merchants to make them buy large quantities of salt from the Yang and Miao families.In order not to make Yang and Miao's family suspicious, they asked the tribe to secretly transport the salt to a salt warehouse in Xie's family in Yingzhou when they bought it.After that, the salt that Yang Miaoxie sold to the big salt merchants all over the country also set off the next day.

Xie Hong originally wanted to be a guard and steal himself, and set up an ambush at Huaikou to intercept the batch of salt privately.On the one hand, it can force the emperor to abandon the Cui family, and on the other hand, it can take advantage of the chaos to occupy the salt fields of the Yang and Miao families.In order to exonerate himself, Xie Hong made careful arrangements so that no one would suspect the Xie family.Even if the emperor knew that this matter was related to the Xie family, he had no evidence to question the crime.

Salt is related to people's livelihood, Li Huai can't wait too long, and will definitely bow to Xie's family.Xie Hong's abacus was crackling, but unexpectedly the mantis stalked the cicada and the oriole followed.

These two batches of salt were robbed in Qifeng Mountain!

It's okay to be robbed, and Xie Hong's careful arrangement was completely destroyed, so that Fang De's stick found Xie's head in one fell swoop.

More than that, this batch of salt is to be delivered to salt merchants everywhere.Xie Hong has already greeted several major salt merchants. This batch of salt will be sold at a price that is [-]% lower than before, but it needs to be delivered later.In this way, the salt merchants of the Yang and Miao families did not know the details, and they would inevitably force them to pay salt or pay compensation.Xie Hongben didn't intend to return the salt to the two families. The two families suffered heavy losses and were bound to suffer serious damage.

However, everything was ruined. His Xie family accounted for the majority of the two batches of salt.As soon as Xie Hong thought about the compensation to those salt merchants and the robbed salt, he felt pain in his heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys.

He rubbed his face hard, trying to wake himself up, it's better to wake up and find that everything is a dream.But Xie Yi slapped him with his sobs and cries, telling him what reality is.

Xie Hong yelled irritably: "Cry, cry, cry, cry when something happens, send a letter to Huaizhou quickly, and find the hijacked salt truck at any cost."

Xie Hong stared into his scarlet eyes, gritted his teeth and said, "Remember, at any cost!"

Xie Tao instantly understood what his father meant.Noble families all have private armies, but during the time of Emperor Chu Jing, private armies were abolished, and those who raised private armies were guilty of conspiring against each other.The disbanded private armies are all registered by the imperial court as good citizens.

There are rules above, and countermeasures below.Although the noble family disbanded the private army, many people were still homeless, and they returned to the main house as guardians or tenants before the court allocated the land.As long as it does not exceed the regulations of the imperial court, the general government will not be too strict, after all, there are not many nursing homes.

And whenever natural disasters and man-made disasters occur, the nobles enclose land, and there are countless refugees. These people are all collected by the nobles as hermits, and they do not need to pay taxes to the court.These hermits gradually became the private army of the nobles.This is why nobles in troubled times can always rise up in "conformity to public opinion".

The aristocratic enclosure left the common people with no land to cultivate, and when the common people could not survive, the dynasty would soon decay and collapse.It can be said that many dynasties died from the nobility and prospered from the nobility.At least in the previous dynasties of Qi, there has never been a successful peasant uprising.

Such as the old nobles like the Xie family, the number of private troops can reach [-].Huaizhong is the foundation of the Xie family, if the two batches of salt are not returned, the loss of the Xie family will be even heavier than that of the Yang and Miao families.But the private army is the result of the Xie family's century-old management, and it must not be easily exposed.

Xie Tao persuaded under pressure: "Father, think twice!"

Xie Hong was very angry, and now his rationality has returned a little bit, he took a deep breath, and told Xie Tao: "You set off immediately and return to Huaizhou, and check the amount of salt stored in the salt warehouses of the clan. Don't lose a single one!"

He straightened his robe, and said with dark eyes: "I'm going to court now, I want to see my Xie family's jokes, but there's no way!"