Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2220 Much the same 10.0

"Why do we have to do it in secret? Second Master only has two guards around him. If there were more, it wouldn't really be noticeable, right?"

Merlin didn't quite understand and wanted to ask all the questions in his mind, but then he heard a noisy sound coming from outside.

She looked at Shen Haolin, Shen Cha, and then at Qi Bo. Seeing them nod at her, she stood up and walked to the door of the small hall. As soon as she pushed the door open, she saw Xue Ruitian, Jin Miaomiao, and Jin Jing pushing each other and walking towards the small hall.

"Hey!" Xue Ruitian saw Merlin standing at the door and waved at her, "Sure enough, you are all here!"

"Lord Hou, Brother Jing, and Sister Miaomiao are here."

After informing the people in the room, Merlin stepped aside and let Xue Ruitian, Jin Jing and Jin Miaomiao in.

The three of them entered the small hall, bowed to Qin Zheng, Yan Bo and Qi Bo first, and then each found a place to sit down.

Jin Miaomiao sat next to Shen Cha, looked at the three old men, noticed that they were avoiding her gaze, raised her eyebrows slightly, and revealed a sarcastic sneer.

"What are you hiding from?" She sniffed twice. "Are you feeling guilty? Do you know you're wrong?"

"I know, I know." Qi Bo laughed dryly twice, held up three fingers and said, "This is just this once this year, it won't happen again, I promise!"

Jin Miaomiao didn't say anything. She looked at Qin Zheng and Yan Bo, and then she realized that their emotions and states were not right. She then looked at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha, and there seemed to be something wrong with them as well.

"What happened?" Xue Ruitian and Jin Jing also felt the heavy atmosphere. They looked at this and that, and reached out to pull Merlin who was serving them tea. "What happened?"

"We were talking about the relationship between the Second Master and the Xiao family, and the Jiangning Mansion case came up." Merlin gently placed the tea in front of the two people, explained in a low voice, and said, "I didn't expect that the Second Master was so..."

"What? Are you so passionate? If it weren't for Second Grandpa, the capital wouldn't have known that Jiangnan had become like this." Xue Ruitian snorted, "The case in Jiangning Prefecture involved a wide range of people. All the prefectures and hundreds of merchants in Jiangnan were involved, resulting in the fall of thousands of officials such as prefects and governors. All the merchants involved in this case, whether they were prestigious merchant families or small merchants, had their property confiscated, their male members exiled, their female relatives dismissed, and hundreds of the main culprits were executed immediately."

"My Lord, you actually knew that?" Merlin looked at him, "Neither the Duke nor the boss knew!"

"I also heard my parents mention it by chance. They said that the gold confiscated in the Jiangning Prefecture case that year, in addition to compensating the injured people in Jiangnan, filled the two large warehouses and four small warehouses of the Ministry of Households. The rest filled the private warehouse of the palace, and it seemed that there was still a lot more." Xue Ruitian sneered, "This does not include the jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, antiques, etc. confiscated from the house. If these are counted, it is simply unimaginable." "Indeed." Qin Zheng nodded at Shen Cha and Meilin who were shocked, "The elders in the family once said that all the escort agencies in Jiangnan and the Liu family army were involved in the task of escorting these properties to Beijing. They were also worried that there would be robberies on the way, but fortunately, the journey was very smooth." He sighed softly, "Okay, let's not talk about this for now. Let's first talk about how your second grandfather started this heinous case."

"Deputy Commander Qin!" Merlin looked at him eagerly. "I just asked you, Second Master only has two guards around him, and Second Master sees that they are not the kind of people who can fight. Why did you ask Commander Liu to borrow them and protect them secretly?"

"Because we have to hide it from others!" Qin Zheng smiled at her, looked at the snacks on his small table, and picked up a plate of fennel beans. "Second Master borrowed the identity to go out for fun at that time." He looked at Shen Cha, "The name of Xuanyuan Mansion, I am considered your grandfather's little cousin."

"The Xuanyuan family is also involved?" Shen Cha couldn't help rubbing his forehead, "It's getting more and more chaotic."

"I didn't get involved. The reason why I borrowed the Xuanyuan family's identity was because Xuanyuan had nothing to do with Jiangnan. There was no other possibility for a child of a noble family in Xijing to come to Jiangnan except to travel. If he came to Jiangnan with his own identity, he would definitely be discovered and secretly sent people to watch him, and he would not be able to do anything."

"So that's how it is." Shen Cha nodded, "That is to say, when Second Grandpa went to borrow the person from Grandpa Liu, in addition to secretly protecting him, he also had to keep an eye on those people in Jiangnan, right?"

"Yes, that's what he thought." Qin Zheng sighed, picked up a fennel bean and put it in his mouth. "The people that Uncle Liu gave him are the best and most observant people in the Liu Family Army, just like..." He looked at Shen Cha, "just like your shadows. After borrowing the people, the Second Master asked them to sneak into Jiangning Mansion secretly, and he himself took two guards to walk around outside Jiangning Mansion, mainly to see how ordinary people use salt in their daily lives."

"Ask around?" Merlin was puzzled. "Wouldn't that alert the enemy?"

"There's no need to ask around. They're here to enjoy the scenery, right? This name is enough."

"Xiao Cha is right." Qin Zheng nodded, put down the half-eaten fennel beans, picked up the tea bowl and took two sips, "Your second grandfather is a gourmet, with a very picky taste. Before the accident, he was looking for delicious food everywhere, whether it was the kind of expensive ingredients or the kind of market food, he was very enthusiastic. Jiangnan has always been a place for delicious food, so he naturally wouldn't let it go. So, this is his best excuse."

"I heard from my second grandfather that the best place to eat in Daxia, the place with the most delicious food, should be Jiangnan. Not only those famous restaurants, but even the small stalls in the market are very good." Jin Miaomiao held her chin, yawned, and said, "We also tried to make Jiangnan snacks and sell them in teahouses, but unfortunately, we never succeeded and ended in failure." She thought for a while, "If you want to investigate the origin and destination of salt, the small stalls in the market are the best choice. After all, those big restaurants have their own channels, so they don't have to worry about the salt problem, because they have their own sources, but those small stalls and shops may not be so easy."

"That's right!" Qin Zheng smiled. "So, after eating out outside Jiangning Prefecture, he basically figured out the situation. These small stalls either use other salty seasonings to replace salt, or buy it from private salt dealers at a high price."

"The private salt dealers are already paying a high price, so won't the price for these small vendors be even higher?"

"Where else do the huge profits come from?" Yan Bo sneered, "If the official salt is one tael of silver, then these small vendors will get more than ten taels of silver. As for those ordinary people who don't do business, even if they want to buy, they can't find any way."