Fenghou

Chapter 1063
"What else?" Chen Qing asked.

"There is also good news about the extermination of private salt on Jinghu South Road."

"Wait a minute!"

Chen Qing ordered the soldiers at the door of the tent: "Go and invite all four counselors!"

Cracking down on private salt, the entire Internal Affairs Hall is extremely concerned, and naturally invites them to participate together.

Not long after, Zhou Kuan, Zhao Kai, Zhang Miao, and Jiang Yanxian all rushed over, except Guan Shigu, the head of the military department, who stayed in Jingzhao to sit in the town, so they couldn't all come for the autumn outing.

Chen Qing said with a smile: "What you are interested in is the progress of cleaning up illegal salt on South Jinghu Road."

Everyone was overjoyed and found chairs to sit down one after another.

Chen Qing smiled at Wang Hao: "Let's report to everyone!"

"His Royal Highness, all counselors, Commander Zhong Huan of the Internal Guard led his army into Poyang Lake, destroyed the largest salt lord Zhang Tai, and beheaded him. Currently, he is doing his best to eliminate the salt dealers in the states along South Jingnan Road."

Zhou Kuan hurriedly said: "We must not be soft when dealing with these salt lords and salt dealers, otherwise it will not be enough to deter criminals!"

"Please don't worry, Counselor Zhou. We use Bashu's experience. Basically, salt lords and private salt dealers are all over the house. Even people who sell private salt in shops will be arrested and killed. The only difference is that they don't implicate their family members. We issued the circular on cracking down on private salt last year, and there is nothing they can do if they don’t listen to it.”

On the standpoint of cracking down on illegal salt, the counselors of the Internal Affairs Hall have the same attitude. Only by using the most severe means to crack down on illegal salt can criminals be deterred.

Jiang Yanxian asked: "Didn't you say that private salt is related to Zhang Jun?"

"Reporting to Counselor Jiang, what is currently being attacked is the southern half of Jinghu South Road, which is controlled by Yan Xiao, and then several states in the north, including Jiangling Prefecture, Lizhou, Dingzhou, Yuezhou, and Ezhou. These five states are all along the river and Along Dongting Lake, they are occupied by smuggled salt from the north, which should be related to Zhang Jun’s army, and Chong Huan’s next step is to clean up the smuggled salt from the north.”

At this time, Zhao Kai said slowly: "Everyone didn't ask the key point, I just want to know how much wealth has been seized, and to what extent can it make up for the loss of our salt tax?"

The four counselors looked at Chen Qing together, Chen Qing understood what they meant, and said with a smile: "This time it will not be used as spoils of war, all confiscated and seized wealth will go into the temple treasury, not the government treasury!"

Everyone was relieved by Chen Qing's statement, and Wang Hao said again: "It is true that a large amount of wealth has been confiscated. At present, it is mainly the wealth of private salt dealers. Their wealth has exceeded one million guan, but the big salt lord Zhang Tai has accumulated wealth for [-] years, but only a small part has been confiscated, and the bulk has not been obtained."

"What's going on?" Chen Qing asked.

"Zhang Tai has stored most of his wealth in the warehouse of Lin'an Baoji Cabinet Workshop. Please send someone to take them out, Your Highness. I am worried that the imperial court will also do something to this wealth after they get the news."

Chen Qing nodded, "I see, I will arrange it immediately. Besides, there should be many officials involved in covering up private salt!"

"Exactly, more than [-] officials who cover up private salt have been arrested. The evidence is solid. These officials have been sent to Jiangling Mansion for detention!"

Chen Qing glanced at Zhang Miao and Zhou Kuan and said, "These officials should be dealt with by the Supervision Department and the Officials Department!"

Zhang Miao and Zhou Kuan hurriedly said, "I'll arrange for people to go south!"

Chen Qing issued three Yongwang decrees, ordering Dangtu Xijun, Lin'an Intelligence Station and special envoy Hu Yun to fully cooperate with the inner guards to take out Zhang Tai's wealth.

At the same time, more than a dozen officials from the Department of Supervision and the Department of Officials set off overnight and took the Shangluo Road to Jiangling Mansion.

In the middle of the night, a hundred internal guard soldiers surrounded a folk courtyard. The soldiers jumped over the courtyard wall and surrounded two houses from all directions. Not long after, one person was captured from each of the two houses. It was Wang Shuang and Zhou. Hua, the two of them looked pale, knowing that their lives were in danger, Zhou Hua shouted: "Lu Sima from the military is also one of us!"

The soldier knocked him down with a slap, Wang Hao stepped forward and snorted coldly: "Don't dream, Lu Sima is following the order of King Yong to deal with you, you really take it seriously!"

Wang Shuang and Zhou Hua looked at each other, they were too regretful, Wang Shuang suddenly yelled, spit out a mouthful of blood, and fainted out of breath.

"take away!"

The soldiers put on hoods on the two men, tied them behind their backs, and took them away.

Juxiang Restaurant was also surrounded by nearly [-] inner guard soldiers. Han Feng desperately killed a bloody road and jumped onto the courtyard wall. Unexpectedly, hundreds of crossbow arrows shot from all directions. Han Feng only split five or six arrows, and the other arrows Ya couldn't hold back any longer, and was instantly shot into a hedgehog, and fell straight from the courtyard wall to the ground, killing him on the spot.

This time, Lu Tang almost leaked the secret, which made Chen Qing weigh the pros and cons again. Although the other party's spies could be countermeasures, but the other party's continuous spying on Tie Huolei's secrets also put the Western Army at a great risk of leaking secrets. After careful consideration, Chen Qing Qing finally decided to rule out the risk of leaking the secret. Wang Hao personally led the [-] internal guards to arrest Wang Shuang and his more than [-] subordinates from four locations.

The inner guards have been following them for a long time, and they know every point of information about them very well.

The night before, all the Jin Bing spies were arrested, and none of them slipped through the net. The last one was Lu Tang. The inner guard soldiers found him in a brothel and grabbed him from the bed of a prostitute.

In Lin'an, after the farce of arresting the intelligence spies of the Western Army ended, basically there was no disturbance.

The Changfeng Teahouse opposite the newspaper office of the "Beijing News" recently changed owners. This is of course a trivial matter. Even the government has not transferred ownership, and no one pays attention to it.

Dong An, the shopkeeper of Liuweiju Teahouse, continues to be the shopkeeper of this teahouse. They are not afraid that Yang Yizhong will find out again. Some games are played on the table. According to the rules, if you are forced to raid, then I will cooperate. You, so that you can explain to the superior, if Yang Yizhong really broke the rules, then the Western Army will not show mercy.

Hu Yun was still the same as usual. In the afternoon, he came to Changfeng Teahouse to drink a cup of tea and chat with Wang Mu.

But today he has a special mission. He came here specifically to find Dong An. In a private room on the second floor, Hu Yun put a wooden box on the table and pushed it to Dong An. The certificates in Lin’an Baoji cabinet workshop, King Yong asked us to take out the wealth as soon as possible, and Wang Qinghui led a fleet to meet it in the sea outside the Qiantang River.”

Dong An took the box and opened it. Inside was a certificate and half a piece of jade. Dong An asked again: "Does the imperial court know about this wealth?"

"Zhang Tai will definitely not leak it. Now I am worried about Baoji Cabinet, how much do they know? If they know who Zhang Tai is and that Zhang Tai is dead, then they must tell the court about it, so we There must be no delay, and action must be taken as soon as possible."

Dong An also heard about the background of Baoji Cabinetry, which was founded by some dignitaries from the previous dynasty in partnership.

Dong An pondered for a moment and said: "The humble staff suggested that Mr. Hu should take this wealth in the name of His Royal Highness King Yong. Baoji Cabinets dare not refuse to give it to them, and then send people to keep an eye on them, and they are not allowed to send people to inform them. We move wealth to buy time."

Hu Yun also felt that it made sense, nodded and said: "That's it, I'll give you three days to get to know Baoji Cabinet Factory first, and then I'll go to extract the wealth."

After Hu Yun left, Dong An immediately sent someone to find Wei Yanzong, and entrusted him with important tasks.

(End of this chapter)