. Jiaji, Xia Wanchun and Du Dengchun have been here for two days, and three of them are ready. Because the Ming Dynasty lost the north, the horses are rare, and the average horse has increased from more than ten taels of silver per horse to twenty or thirty taels. It is even hard to find a good horse. A little better one costs fifty or sixty taels of silver. The three good horses prepared by Xia Wanchun cost nearly three hundred taels. With saddles and other things, the bag of gold given to him by Xia Yunzhen has already gone two-thirds of it.

This really fits the saying, spending money is like flowing water, Du Dengchun couldn't help but feel a little ashamed. He used to think that the family could collect five or six hundred stones of rent every year, but he didn't expect that it was only worth four or five horses. If it weren't for Xia Wanchun, he would not be able to afford a horse with his salary last year.

"There is a golden house in the book, and the beautiful woman in the book." It is precisely with this belief that countless scholars have only been studying hard for ten years. They were six years old and have been enlightened. Now they have been more than ten years. They have joined the Yulin Guard and trained hard every day. They thought they were a success, but they did not expect that they could not buy a horse for a year's salary, which greatly stimulated Du Dengchun.

In fact, Du Dengchun did not think about it the other way around. How many people in the Ming Dynasty could afford a good horse in a year? Many people worked hard all their lives and could not even afford a slow horse. It was normal for many ordinary people in the south to use a cow together. In some really poor places, they even used the method of pulling plows to cultivate the land.

Xia Wanchun didn't know that his friends had such thoughts in mind. The Xia family was better than the Du family, but they were not much stronger. They could only charge two or three hundred stones of rent every year. Although Songjiang had a developed textile, with Xia Yunyi's temper, he would never spend money on building weaving factories or opening shops to make profits, and could only rely on rent to survive.

However, Xia Wanchun never felt that she was short of money. In Xia Wanchun's opinion, if the money was enough, the dozens of taels of gold spent were unexpected money, and there was no need to worry at all. However, the second sister agreed to come in two days but she had not seen her figure, which made Xia Wanchun very worried.

It was already dark, and in the room at the inn, there was a light like beans. Xia Wanchun sat at the table, holding his head with his hands, and was still pounding. Du Dengchun had already fallen asleep in the next room, and his breathing was clearly heard, but Xia Wanchun forced to hold on and sleep. It was the third day after dawn. If the second sister had not come yet, Xia Wanchun had decided to return to Huaian again, and he would never let the second sister stay in the city alone to take risks.

As the night passed, it was almost three or four o'clock in the morning. Xia Wanchun finally couldn't stop her sleepiness and fell asleep on the table, but the oil lamp in the room was still not extinguished, sending a faint time.

"Bi Pi, Bi Pi." Several slight knocks on the door sounded, and Xia Wanchun immediately woke up from her sleep, looked at the door and shouted: "Who?"

There were several more "Bi Pi, Bi Pi's voice, a look of surprise flashed across Xia Wanchun's face, and he hurriedly pulled down the door, and a black shadow flashed in. The man's body was tightly wrapped in black, with beautiful lines, and his face was still a sick look. Who wasn't Xia Yunzhen?

Xia Wanchun was overjoyed: "Second sister, are you okay?"

"Are you a conscience, you are the things you want?" Xia Yunzhen smiled and threw a booklet to Xia Wanchun.

Seeing Xia Yunzhen's smile, a thought flashed through Xia Wanchun's mind. In fact, it would not be ugly if my sister looked at her carefully. It was just that no one would look carefully under the cover of her sick look. This would be a disguised effect. Of course, this thought flashed away and picked up the booklet and said disappointedly: "Sister, have you taken the wrong one?"

How huge is the account of the entry and exit of the Salt Envoy in and out of the land in one year? It is definitely not something that this booklet can accommodate. Even if it is only one month, the account will be ten times more than that in this booklet.

"Boy, don't be ungrateful. Open it and take a look."

Does this booklet have any important secrets? Seeing that my second sister was confident, Xiahou Chun thought in confusion. He turned the booklet on the first page and was immediately attracted by the records above.

June 12, 2012, eunuch Lu. Baiyin was 100,000 taels of silver in the year of Jiashen.

On the first day of the eighth month of the Jiashen year, Bo Liu of Dongping, he had 30,000 taels of silver.

On the sixth day of the ninth month of the Jiashen year...

...

On January 22, the eunuch Lu, the eunuch Lu, was 5,000 taels of gold.

On April 25, the 25th day of the year of Yiyou, Huai'an Bo silver was 50,000 taels.

On April 25, the 25th day of the Yiyou year, Huai'an Prefecture granted 20,000 taels of silver. This person is stubborn and use it to build the city walls. Is this the reason?

On May 25, the 25th day of the Yiyou year, Huai'an Bo silver was 10,000 taels.

...

On July 12, the 12th day of the Bingxu year, Huai'an Bo's silver was 10,000 taels.

On July 13, the imperial envoy of the court, 600 gold, 300 taels each.

The record of this book ended here, and Xia Wanchun's heart was thumping. The content of this book involved eunuchs in Beijing, several nobles in the court, many officials, and even Liu Zeqing, who had been dead for almost two years. The dead Liu Zeqing ignored him. The only one was Huai'an Bo and Eunuch Lu, who was shocking. These two people were meritorious officials who resisted the Tartars, and the other was meritorious in supporting the emperor, and even the Dragon Gong who directly promoted the emperor to ascend the throne.

.

"Second sister, where did this book come from?"

"Of course it was found from the home of the salt envoy Si Tongzhi."

Xia Wanchun actually knew the answer, but just asked his sister to confirm it. On July 13, 2018, four days ago, the two of them really collected Tian Lusheng's silver. In just two years, the silver sent by Tian Lusheng was less than 700,000 taels, and the imperial court's annual income in salt tax was only 400,000 taels. The borer was really a big borer.

Holding this booklet, Xia Wanchun felt that his blood was rising. All these borers deserved to die. He must present the booklet to the emperor and remove these borers as soon as possible.

"Second brother, I'm sleepy, I want to take a break. You can watch slowly. Let's set off immediately after dawn." After Xia Yunzhen said that, she jumped on the bed and sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes to rest. After she got the booklet from the Salt Envoy Office, she left the city overnight and rushed for thirty miles. She was indeed tired.

Xia Wanchun was completely sleepless. He held the booklet and gritted his teeth for a while, and was excited again. As the sky was dawn, he immediately woke Xia Yunzhen and Du Dengchun. While Xia Wanchun was out, Xia Yunzhen quickly changed her black tights and put on her usual clothes. Seeing Xia Yunzhen suddenly appear, Du Dengchun was not surprised. Xia Wanchun immediately paid the bill, bought some dry food, and each of them stepped onto a good horse, and rushed towards Nanjing.

They didn't know that just one hour after they left, the entire Huaian City seemed to have been stabbed in a hornet's nest. Teams of troops suddenly blocked the city gate, and several cavalrymen rushed out of the city and searched everywhere. However, when the cavalry searched Caojiaji, they had been walking for half a day. This half day would make the search of the cavalry in Huaian City useless.

A few days later, Xia Wanchun and his party had arrived in Nanjing. Before them, some people sent out had returned one after another, but most of them had no gains, and some were even more confused. When Xia Wanchun and his two others presented the information they received to Yan Yingyuan, Yan Yingyuan was stunned and hurried into the palace and presented the evidence to the emperor.

Looking through the various evidence brought back by Xia Wanchun, Wang Fu was furious. It was not that someone was corruption and bribery. The Ming salt tax was reduced so much that no one was corruption and bribery. It was strange that even Liu Zhaoji was involved in it and continued to guard Huai'an, but unexpectedly it hurt him.

Liu Zhaoji was originally only about 3,000 people, but later he added 5,000 people. Half of the casualties in Huai'an battle were injured and half of them were injured and killed in a few months after the war with the support of the emperor. This was rare when troops were being cut off everywhere else. Although Liu Zhaoji's treatment was far inferior to that of the Yulin Guard, he paid the actual salary completely according to the standards, and the annual amount of money and food was rated at 100,000 taels. This was an incredible thing during the Chongzhen period. It was good to get half of it at that time. Unexpectedly, it was indeed a human heart that was not as good as a snake swallowing an elephant, and it was not enough.

However, looking at the amount Liu Zhaoji received in this booklet, you can tell why he could not resist the temptation. The court rated military salary for him and his subordinates a year was 100,000 taels, but in more than a year he collected 210,000 taels from Tian Lusheng, which was higher than the military salary given by the court.

At the end of July of the second year of Hongguang, five thousand Yulin Guards suddenly rushed to Huai'an, lifted the military power of Huai'an Bo Liu Zhaoji, confiscated his property, and escorted him to the capital. The Huai'an Salt Envoy Si Tongzhi and dozens of subordinates were all arrested. Liu Zhaoji might have thought of this scene for a long time and did not resist. Instead, the Salt Envoy Si Tongzhi organized a group of thugs to protect him and escape. However, after the Yulin Guard let out a row of muskets, the group of thugs organized by Tian Lusheng seemed to have lost their souls and became prisoners obediently.

From Tian Lusheng's home, more than 2 million taels of gold and silver were found alone. The value of other calligraphy, paintings, antiques, and rare jewelry was even more incalculable. The conservative one was more than one million taels of silver. A salt official Si Tongzhi who had only been two years old actually saved up such a property, and everyone who heard it was shocked.

Before everyone could react, Lu Jiude, the eunuch who was once popular, was suddenly removed from his post by the emperor. The eunuch of Bingbi was replaced by Han Zanzhou. After Tian Lusheng was escorted to the capital, facing various evidence, he calmly admitted the facts of various bribery. Perhaps he knew that he could not escape the disaster. He also recruited himself to plan to eradicate the cases of the three major salt merchants under his control. He was able to accumulate so much gold and silver in two years. In addition to embezzling various taxes and buying salt for salt merchants at a higher price, he also obtained the family fortune of the three salt merchants for a hundred years.

Tian Lusheng's confession led to more personnel, and the two Huaihe Transportation Author did not escape. The silver seized from the two Huaihe Transportation Author's home was no less than Tian Lusheng. With the two Huaihe Transportation Author's arrest, more people were confessed, and the officials of the two Huaihe Salt Administration were caught, but no one escaped.

…………………………

The second volume is over, and the third volume is the re-opening of the Ming Dynasty
Chapter completed!