Cannon Fodder is King [Quick Transmigration]

"You wait." Meng Zezhi said to Song An.

Then he ordered the personal eunuch Mangui: "Go and invite You Qingdao and General Chen over."

You Qingdao rate is one of the six rates of the East Palace, and it is also a pro-military in the actual sense of the predecessor.

With that said, he turned and went back to the bedroom.

"You all go down."

"Yes."

Swinging away a group of court ladies and eunuchs, Meng Zezhi pinched his fingers, and his figure disappeared into the air.

When he came back, he had an extra wooden box in his hand.

When he returned to the study, General Chen led by You Qingdao had arrived.

He handed the wooden box to He Xingjian: "You take this, and it shouldn't be a problem to protect your family."

He Xingjian took the wooden box respectfully, opened it, and found a book of Analects.

"This——" He Xingjian glanced at Meng Zezhi, flipped through the Analects, and when his eyes touched the content written in the book, his face changed drastically. He raised his head suddenly, and said in a low voice: "This is— "

Meng Zezhi looked at him: "I just remember, your younger brother who is a direct relative is the county magistrate in Lianghuai."

With a snap, He Xingjian closed the wooden box in his hand. He took a deep breath, and without asking where it came from, he just said, "I understand."

As he spoke, he lifted up his robe and knelt down: "I thank Your Highness for saving me."

"You and I, don't worry about these things." Meng Zezhi helped him up with his own hands, then looked at You Qingdao and led General Chen: "General Chen, Mr. He will leave it to you, please take good care of him."

"The last general takes orders." General Chen immediately replied with cupped fists.

"I'm waiting to retire."

Sure enough, in the early morning of the second day, Pei Zhongyue, the deputy capital of the right, and thirteen censors jointly participated in the performance, Zuo Cheng, the chief envoy of Shaanxi, announced that Cheng Yuanzhong, the envoy, had donated money to prisons and impostors. .

"There is such a thing?" Emperor Tianming frowned instantly: "Is there any evidence?"

Even if there was a censor who came out of the class, he said: "The censor Jiang He, my minister, was on his way back to his hometown to visit relatives a month ago. He passed by Shaanxi because he was visiting friends. He saw with his own eyes that it was raining heavily this year in Shaanxi. He also asked the local villagers and said that Shaanxi In recent years, the weather has been smooth and there are few natural disasters. It is a rare bumper year, and Shaanxi donates prisons not to collect grain, but to convert it into silver. However, the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi has reported the drought situation to the court year after year. It is true, but Zuo Cheng, the chief envoy of Shaanxi Province, announced that Cheng Yuanzhong, the chief envoy of Shaanxi, has been involved in embezzling and donating money with officials from top to bottom in Shaanxi."

Emperor Tianming's face suddenly sank: "Where is the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment?"

"The minister is here." The Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment immediately came out of the class and responded.

"I order you and the right deputy capital censor Pei Zhongyue to go to Shaanxi to investigate the situation of disaster relief and prison donations in the past years." Tianming Emperor said angrily.

"The ministers are waiting for the decree." The two immediately knelt down and bowed.

Hearing this, the Eldest Prince Qin Yu's eyes flashed with pride, and he couldn't wait to see the prince's face turned pale with fright and gnashing his teeth.

Thinking of this, he turned his head, never thinking that Meng Zezhi was sitting on the chair calmly, his expression unchanged.

Qin Yu frowned immediately, and couldn't help but think, doesn't the prince know that He Xingjian's concubine brother is working in Shaanxi?

At this moment, the great eunuch He Mu flicked the whisk in his hand, and shouted loudly: "Play early if there is something to do, and retreat to the court if there is nothing to do!"

He Xingjian, the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, immediately went out of the class and said: "I report to Your Majesty, I have this performance."

Emperor Tianming who was about to get up had no choice but to sit back again: "Please speak, Ai Qing."

"The minister joined the Lianghuai salt merchants in collaboration with the salt field, and Si Chao, the salt transporter, issued salt quotations, and embezzled and retained more than six million taels of silver from them."

As he spoke, He Xingjian opened the wooden box in his hand, took out an account book and held it above his head: "This is the account book that my younger brother accidentally obtained from the Fan family, the head of the salt merchant."

As soon as the words fell, the expressions of the officials changed drastically.

The great eunuch He Mu came to his senses and subconsciously looked at Emperor Tianming.

Emperor Tianming nodded expressionlessly.

He Mu immediately walked down the steps, took the account book from He Xingjian and handed it to Emperor Tianming.

At the beginning of the Qian Dynasty, the border was still not very peaceful. In order to resist foreign aggression and prepare border reserves, the imperial court initiated the "opening of China and France".That is, the Ministry of Households issued a list to call merchants, and the merchants on the list transported the grain to the frontier fortress or other food-deficient places. After the local yamen registered the weight of the grain shipped, they issued a corresponding amount of warehouse bills, and then the merchants took the warehouse bills to the salt-producing areas. After the salt envoys exchanged for salt imports, they took the salt and imported it to the salt field to support the salt, and finally shipped it to the designated area for sale.

Therefore, the salt dispatched by the Salt Transport Commissioner every year is linked to the grains transported by the salt merchants to the border, and the silver earned from the excess will naturally fall into the pockets of the salt merchants and the officials of the Salt Transport Commissioner. .

Just as Emperor Tianming was looking through the account books, He Xingjian continued: "My minister joined the Lianghuai salt merchants to open salt ports, took lessons and trafficked them, and won countless silver. Salt merchants spend more than [-] taels of silver every year to bribe officials of the imperial court, and the dirty money they bribed is recorded in pen and pen."

After speaking, He Xingjian took out all the account books from the wooden box and presented them to Emperor Tianming.

How rich are Lianghuai salt merchants?

The family properties of Lianghuai salt merchants are firstly counted in tens of millions, and secondly counted in millions. Salt merchants with a capital of less than one million can only be called small merchants.

You must know that the annual fiscal revenue of the Qian Dynasty treasury is only 2000 million taels of silver. For ordinary people, the annual expenditure of a family of four is only three taels of silver.

In Lianghuai salt merchants, it costs 50 taels of silver to eat a bowl of fried rice with eggs.The officials of Lianghuai Salt Administration Yamen spent 40 taels of silver for meals every day, and hundreds of taels of pen, ink, paper and other miscellaneous items.

Where did the salt merchants get their money from?

Take the Fan family, the head of the salt merchants, as an example. The Fan family opened a salt farm privately in Liuzhou. When the Fan family went to Guangdong to sell salt every year, they only brought a small amount of salt from the official salt farm, and then went to the salt farm opened by the Fan family. A large amount of private salt was carried on board, transported to Guilin for repacking, and sold to private salt dealers from other places.

For private salt dealers, the purchase price of official salt is 58 yuan per catty, and private salt is [-] yuan per catty. Selling private salt as official salt can make a net profit of eighteen yuan per catty in addition to the profit from selling official salt. arts.

Salt merchants have more means than these, because the profit of selling official salt is not as high as that of selling private salt, so in order to maximize profits, they often mix various impurities in official salt, such as sand, broken rice... Then they can sell these impurities for the price of official salt.

At the same time, because the reputation of official salt was ruined by salt merchants, this led to a greater demand for private salt in private, but private salt is still controlled by these salt merchants, and they are naturally happy to drive up prices in order to make huge profits. .

For example, the Fan family, the head of the salt merchants, can make more than two million taels of profit every year just from private salt.

The officials were terrified, but they hated He Xingjian from the bottom of their hearts.

He Xingjian prostrated himself on the ground, his body was extremely stiff.

He knew that as soon as this matter happened, he offended most of the officials in the court.

With a snap, Emperor Tianming threw the account book on the imperial table.

It can be seen that he is angry.

"Your Majesty, forgive me." All civil and military officials knelt down in unison, not daring to take a breath.

"Check." Emperor Tianming took a deep look at Meng Zezhi, left a word, and walked away.

"Retire!" the eunuch He Mu immediately sang.

Only then did Meng Zezhi get up from the ground unhurriedly.

"His Royal Highness is really good at it." The eldest prince Qin Yu walked over, smiling on the cheek.

Things have come to this point, how can he not know what Meng Zezhi's idea is.

"To each other." Meng Zezhi patted the dust that didn't exist on his body, "But you, brother, how do you feel if you steal chickens and lose nothing?"

The aristocratic family is noble and unwilling to associate with merchants, and most of them are well-off, so a slap in the face of corruption and perverting the law can be counted.On the other hand, Xungui, relying on his own merits, is used to being lawless on weekdays. There are not a few people involved in this private salt case.

It just depends on how the Emperor of Heaven chooses.

The eldest prince Qin Yu's face was completely pulled down: "Then the eldest brother also advises you, a person is not happy for a thousand days, and a flower is not popular for a hundred days, hum."

After speaking, he also walked away.

"Your Highness." He Xingjian approached.

"Don't worry." Meng Zezhi patted him on the shoulder and promised: "If there is a lonely day, there will be a day for you."

Regarding his character, Meng Zezhi was still very relieved.

He Xingjian's heart relaxed, and he looked grateful: "Thank you, Your Highness."

Meng Zezhi was in a good mood. When he left the hall, facing the warm sun above his head, he thought, anyway, there is nothing to do in the afternoon, so go to bed and thank Jianze.