Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1077 1072 [Telegram to request the king’s flag]

Because of paying taxes and performing military service, the baojia heads often met privately and had their own small circle.

These people are most familiar with the grassroots, and they know very well what is happening in the surrounding area.

As the cases came to light one after another, Yang An, the Left Governor who was sitting on the jury, remained calm at first, but soon a look of shock flashed across his face.

During the Song Dynasty, people with the surname Yang whose household registration was in Sichuan accounted for about a quarter of all people with the surname Yang in the country.

Yang An came from the Yang family of Meishan.

He originally belonged to Gao Jingshan's direct line. After Gao Jingshan passed away, he turned to Zhang Gen and was promoted.

As Zhang Gen retired and returned to his hometown, this faction gradually evolved into the Jiangxi School. Yang Anrong could not enter the core circle, so he moved closer to Li Hanzhang.

In 23 years, Yang An rose steadily from a former Song Dynasty scholar to the position of Left Governor of Huainan Province. He must have had outstanding political achievements, otherwise it would have been difficult for Li Hanzhang to promote him; and he was very honest and never engaged in corruption, and he managed to avoid every major corruption case.

As his official position became higher and higher, Yang An remained sober and did not become carried away.

Under Yang An's leadership, Huainan Province had no major problems. The population was growing, taxes were increasing, industry and commerce were flourishing, and the overall living standards of the people were improving.

This is a qualified bureaucrat.

But he was standing too high, and he could only see the outlines of the mountains, but not the flowers, plants and trees in the mountains.

Yang An knew that there was something wrong with the Chuzhou Li family, and he sent people to tell Li Xiaojian several times to slow down and not to mess around. He felt that the Chuzhou Li family had a long history of scholars, and there was a member of the family serving as prime minister, so no matter how they messed up, they would have a bottom line and would not do something that would break the sky.

For example, what Tao Dingan said at the beginning were just trivial matters in Yang An's eyes.

It was not until Tao Dingan told a story about a case that Yang An finally realized that it was difficult to resolve the matter.

"There is a Shahe Society in Chuzhou. It was originally a group of boatmen who formed an association to help each other. Later, a boatman named Yao Guangzu became the leader of the society. The Shahe Society quickly changed its appearance and controlled the canal from Baoying to Huaiyin. The coolies, boatmen and boatmen along the coast had to pay to join the society, otherwise they would not be able to find work."

"At first, they were just bullying the market. After they were helped by a 'noble', they started to intercept merchant ships. They didn't dare to intercept official ships or canal ships, or merchant ships with strong backgrounds, but they dared to intercept all other passing ships."

"They never make mistakes when intercepting ships. They know which ships can be provoked and which ships cannot be provoked. If the intercepted ships do not pay, they will be in trouble. Two years ago, a merchant ship caught fire. The government found out that it was caused by a boatman knocking over an oil lamp, but the crew members who jumped into the river to escape said that they saw the bad guys. This matter has long been spread throughout Chuzhou, and no one knows whether it is true or not..."

"I also know some boatmen and trackers. According to them, the Shahe Society also helps smuggle Huai salt..."

Commander-in-chief Guo Xiong could no longer hold back and shouted angrily, "What nonsense! I am personally in the provincial capital to crack down on smuggling. How dare Shahe smuggle salt under my nose? Could it be that the officials at the Mokou Bank also helped with the smuggling?"

Zhao Dun, the Huainan provincial councillor in charge of commercial taxes, said quickly, "I don't know anything else, but the Mokou Bank could not possibly help with smuggling. If the censor doesn't believe it, he can investigate it at any time."

Tao Dingan has given up completely: "It really has nothing to do with the banknotes. The boatmen and coolies who have joined the Shahe Society will take the contraband salt home in batches before the smuggling ships pass the banknotes, bypass the banknotes in the wild at night, and reload the salt on the ships in Shawan Village in Shahe Township. The villagers there all know about this, and sometimes they even hire villagers to help load the ships in order to save time."

"My home is in Yanhe Village, Mokou Township, and next door is Shawan Village, Shahe Township. My wife also married here from there. One night, I was visiting relatives and staying at my father-in-law's house, and I saw with my own eyes those people loading the boats by the river."

Yan Tao asked, "Salt in Huainan is cheap, so it is definitely impossible to sell it locally. They go to such great lengths to smuggle it, but do you know where they sell it in the end? To put it another way, do the smuggling ships go north or west?"

"Going west." said Tao Dingan.

"That means they will be sold to Henan or the two capitals." Yan Tao, the imperial censor, was shocked by this.

In order to ensure the coordinated development of various salt-producing areas, salt cannot be sold indiscriminately after production.

Henan Province, Luoyang and Kaifeng are the sales areas of Luyan.

These guys smuggled salt and transported it towards Henan, which violated the court's salt monopoly system.

As long as the officials of Huainan Province did not involve themselves, they would turn a blind eye to the matter even if they knew about it, because it was beneficial to the economic development of Huainan and even benefited many merchants and people in Huainan. The ones who suffered were of course the salt merchants and salt workers in Shandong.

The Left Governor Yang An had a calm expression at this moment, but his heart was in turmoil.

He thought that Li Xiaojian was only intercepting merchant ships to collect tolls, but he never expected that those guys were so bold as to kill people, rob goods and smuggle salt!

Yang An did not attach too much importance to money, thinking that as long as it was enough, it was enough.

He still couldn't figure out why Li Xiaojian, who had made so much money from the canal, took the risk of collecting exorbitant taxes. The impact of collecting exemption money was too bad, and too many people were involved. If you didn't pay attention, it would cause a big trouble. And the money you got was not as good as smuggling a few more ships of salt.

The returns are low and the risks are high. Li Xiaojian doesn't need that little money, so why does he have to ask for it?
In Yang An's view, this behavior was like a wealthy man who was trying to snatch the leftovers from a beggar, and the beggar was holding a knife in his hand.

Again, Yang An climbed too high and was no longer at the grassroots level. Li Xiaojian was not just one person, but a representative of a group.

Li Xiaojian himself may not care about the money, but the officials who are in cahoots with him are crazy about it. This man is a black and white person, and he can't stop even if he wants to. Although he is full, the people under him are still hungry!
Li Xiaojian strictly prohibited things like murder and robbery.

But a certain merchant was too disrespectful and offended the boss of Shahe Society, who in anger burned the boats and robbed them. What could Li Xiaojian do? He called someone over and scolded them afterwards, and then used his connections to help Shahe Society settle the matter. After all, he still had to rely on Shahe Society to smuggle salt.

The illegal collection of exemption money was not initiated by Li Xiaojian himself, but by the clerks at the prefecture and county levels.

After Nie Wen sent people to post notices, Li Xiaojian ordered that no more reckless behavior should be done, and officials at both the prefecture and county levels also severely reprimanded them. However, those clerks, who were crazy about poverty and daring to the extreme, simply did not listen to the admonitions from their superiors and forced the wealthy to send money to Li Xiaojian's home.

Li Xiaojian closed the door and refused to accept any of them. Many wealthy families were frightened even more and knelt down outside the side door of Li's house and cried.

He has too many dogs and can't tie them up with a leash, so they always go out and bite people.

Of course he was not wronged, because the arrogance of these dogs was cultivated because he often let them out to bite people.

In the past, they bit and killed countless people, but they never received the punishment they deserved. As a result, the dogs developed the illusion that no matter how much they bit, their masters would protect them. Their masters were omnipotent and there was nothing they couldn't handle!

Yan Tao turned his head and looked at Yang An.

Yang An closed his eyes and began to think about how to extricate himself.

He was a truly honest official, and he was very strict with his family members, and he was not afraid of being investigated by the censors. But the provincial capital and the provincial government were so rotten, and as the left governor, he was responsible for failing to supervise, and he was estimated to be demoted by at least two levels.

Right Governor Zhang Su's mouth curled up slightly, then he regained his seriousness and said, "Inspector Yan, I still have some people I can use, and General Li can also help with the case. As for the officials at the prefecture and county levels, I'm afraid they will have to recuse themselves, and the Censor needs to recuse himself from this case even more."

Yan Tao bowed to Li Jiang and said, "General Li, please lend me one thousand soldiers."

Li Jiang said: "I need an official document from the Ministry of War, or a royal flag."

Yan Tao said: "I will immediately send a telegram to the Inspectorate, and the Inspectorate will report to Your Majesty."

"Then I'll wait." Li Jiang said.

Li Jiang has only been transferred to Huainan for half a year, and he is not deeply involved here.

He is Li Bao's man.

But that Guo Xiong was Zhang Guangdao's man.

Huang Shilian and Guo Xiong felt their eyes go dark as they watched Yan Tao and Li Jiang go to the telegraph office. They were finished, they were too deeply involved in the case, they were also involved in the smuggling of salt, and they also helped Li Xiaojian to settle the criminal case.

A bunch of officials were waiting at the Chief Secretary's office.

About three hours later, Yan Tao returned to the Provincial Administration Office and said, "I didn't get the military transfer order, but I got the royal flag. General Li has already sent troops to assist in the investigation. In addition, the three judicial departments will not come to Huainan to investigate the case, but they have seconded officials from the Shandong and Nanjing Censorate. This case is quite large and complicated, and it may take several months to investigate. There is a deputy censor in Nanjing who will temporarily take over the post of Huainan Censorate."

Huang Shilian almost fainted, and he was removed from his post pending investigation.

Yan Tao also said: "Left Governor Yang An, return to Beijing immediately to see the emperor. Right Governor Zhang Su, temporarily take over the post of Left Governor, and do not delay the immigration. If any prefecture or county officials are involved in the case and are investigated, Zhang Su has the right to temporarily appoint relevant officials to ensure the smooth progress of the immigration work."

"Snapped!"

A sound was heard and everyone turned to look.

It was Feng Liang, the deputy envoy and academic official, who stood up to greet Yan Tao when he saw him return, but when he sat back down, he found that his butt was empty. In panic, he grabbed the armrest of the chair and fell to the ground with it.

Yan Tao frowned and said, "Deputy Envoy Feng is in charge of the education in Huainan. Could it be that there is something wrong with the imperial examination here?"

"Nothing, there is nothing wrong with the imperial examination." Feng Liang quickly denied.

Yan Tao said: "If there is something wrong, you should turn yourself in. You can get a lighter punishment. If we really find out, it will not be good for anyone."

Feng Liang said with a sad face: "Then... I will turn myself in. There was no favoritism or fraud in the imperial examination. It's just that the outer dormitory students (self-funded students) of the official school paid an extra amount of money. Also, there was a little problem in the examination for the outer dormitory to the inner dormitory."

Yan Tao smiled and said, "It's just a small matter, not to mention that you have surrendered yourself. As long as the amount is not large, at most you will be dismissed from office, return the stolen money, be fined, or go to jail. Deputy Envoy Feng didn't take much bribes, did he?"

"Not much, not much..." Feng Liang was really about to cry. He was actually very timid.

(End of this chapter)