Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 456 Suggestions
When Zhao Zongquan heard that Li An had an unexpected release, his doubts were dispelled and he said, "I understand. How well do you know about the salt business?"

"Father, the salt business is very complicated and I will need some time," said Zhao Ceying.

"You talk to Li An about this matter, and let Li An assist you when you conduct a thorough investigation of the salt business in the future," said Zhao Zongquan.

"Yes!" Zhao Ceying replied.

……

The next day, Empress Shen summoned the families of the generals who were going to the expedition and went with her to the Daxiangguo Temple to fast and pray.

After the news spread, everyone in Bianjing praised Queen Shen for her virtue.

Ningyuan Houfu
After hearing the news, Xiao Qin frowned and said, "Why would the Queen go to Daxiangguo Temple to pray for blessings at this time?"

The news that Gu Tingye was joining the army to fight was only spread when the army set out, and Xiao Qinshi didn't know about it.

Therefore, after Gu Tingye left, Xiao Qinshi did not rush to visit him, but was thinking of a solution.

She was planning to visit him these two days, but Yu Yanran went to Daxiangguo Temple with the Queen to pray for blessings.

The coincidence was so great that she couldn't help but feel suspicious.

"Have the people who have been monitoring us these days brought us any useful information?" asked Xiao Qin.

"Madam, there is no news. The second young master's wife has not left the house since the second young master left. However, the eldest lady of the Li family often goes there. By the way, a doctor was called in yesterday, and he said that the second young master's wife has caught a cold." Mother Chu said.

"wrong!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Qin said, "If she really had a cold, how could she go to Daxiangguo Temple with the Empress to pray for blessings?"

"Maybe it's healed already?" said Mother Chu.

"Idiot, do you think she took a magic medicine and her cold was cured overnight? Did you ask the doctor to find out whether it was a cold?" asked Xiao Qin.

"I asked, and the doctor said it was a cold, so I didn't say anything." Mother Chu said.

"Have you got the medicine? Did you write down the prescription?" asked Xiao Qin.

"The medicine was taken, but the prescription was not. After asking so many questions, the doctor became a little suspicious." Mother Chu said.

"There must be something wrong here. Find a way to pry open the doctor's mouth. I want to know the exact news." Xiao Qin said.

It was a bit unusual that Queen Shen suddenly wanted to pray for the soldiers.

After all, if we want to pray for blessings, we should have started when the army sets out, and the army has been on the march for several days.

Moreover, Yu Yanran was clearly ill, yet she went along.

If Yu Yanran wanted to pray for Gu Tingye, couldn’t the Queen see that she was sick?
"Yes!" Mother Chu responded and walked out.

She found her son and asked him to do it personally.

However, when Chu's mother's son went there, the doctor insisted, no matter how much he tried to persuade him, that it was just a cold.

For doctors, confidentiality is even more important than medical skills.

Every wealthy family has their own dirty deeds. If he doesn't keep his mouth shut and the news gets out, who would dare to look for him?

Xiao Qin was very dissatisfied with the result. She also knew that some doctors often used by wealthy families were tight-lipped and would not speak carelessly.

So he turned his attention to the eldest lady of the Yu family.

The doctor Yu Yanran found must be the one the Yu family often uses. Madam Yu is nominally Yu Yanran's stepmother, so she should be able to find out the answer if she is in charge.

Xiao Qin always felt that there was some secret in this and wanted to find out.

……

When Li An was off duty, he received an invitation from Zhao Ceying, inviting him to attend a banquet at Prince Huan's mansion in the evening.

After returning home and changing his clothes, he took a carriage to Prince Huan's Palace.

Prince Huan's Palace was originally Prince Yan's Palace. Actually, Prince Yong's Palace is bigger and more luxurious than Prince Yan's Palace.

Unfortunately, Prince Yan plotted rebellion and sent people to kill Prince Yong's family. The entire Yong family was slaughtered, and only the youngest son escaped the disaster by hiding in a dry well under the protection of an old servant.

Although the Prince Yong's Palace was not destroyed, so many people died, which was a bit unlucky.

The guards of the palace had obviously received instructions, and as soon as Li An got off the carriage, he was welcomed in.

"Zi Qian!"

As soon as I passed the front yard, Zhao Ceying came to greet me with a smile on his face.

"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you!" Li An said.

"Today is a private banquet, so there's no need to be so polite. The wine and food are ready. Please follow me into the house." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

"Yes."

Regardless of whether Zhao Ceying was acting or not, the fact that a prince condescended to come and greet him was already a great honor for him.

If it were someone else, they might have the urge to die for their friend.

When we arrived at the main hall, we saw that the table was already filled with various exquisite dishes.

Zhao Ceying invited Li An to sit down, picked up the wine glass and said with a smile: "The last time I drank with you was when we were in Yuzhou. Come, let's have a drink first."

"Your Highness!" Li An raised his glass to gesture, then drank it down.

Zhao Ceying finished the wine in his glass and said with a smile: "After we parted, I thought we would never see each other again. I didn't expect that we can sit together and drink together again. It's a pity that my uncle and Zhong Huai are not here. When they come back, we can get together again."

The maid holding the wine jug came forward and poured wine for the two of them.

Zhao Ceying waved his hand and said, "You all should leave."

"Yes." The maid put down the wine jug, bowed and left.

"Ziqian, I have another purpose for calling you here besides drinking." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

Li An was not at all surprised to hear this. Zhao Ceying definitely didn't ask him out just to drink. He didn't say anything and waited for Zhao Ceying's next words.

"The national treasury is empty, and my father asked the prime minister for advice. The prime minister suggested a thorough investigation of the salt business. The salt business accounts for nearly half of the court's income. My father took a closer look and found that the salt business revenue has been declining every year in recent years. He also intends to conduct a thorough investigation of the salt business. However, the salt business has been corrupt for so long that it must have far-reaching consequences. My father wants me to be responsible for this matter." Zhao Ceying said.

Ang Lee was stunned when he heard this. In the original drama, Zhao Ceying was responsible for a thorough investigation of the position, but that was because no one was willing to go, so Zhao Zongquan asked him to go.

Why does it sound like Zhao Zongquan asked Zhao Ceying to be in charge from the beginning?
However, after a little thought, Ang Lee realized that the original play was probably a play performed by the government, and Zhao Ceying was originally intended to be in charge.

After all, if the thorough investigation of the salt business is not handed over to a trustworthy person, it is estimated that nothing will be found in the end, so it is better not to investigate it.

If Zhao Zongquan had said from the beginning that Zhao Ceying should be responsible, the ministers in the court would definitely have opposed it.

Zhao Zongquan first asked the ministers in the court if there was anyone willing to take charge of this matter. Those people thought that they were unwilling to take the job, so Zhao Zongquan had no one to use and had to give up.

Moreover, doing so would also give Zhao Zongquan a warning.

As a result, when no one was willing to take over, Zhao Ceying volunteered, and the ministers had no way to object.

I have to say that Zhao Zongquan played this tactic of advancing to retreat very well.

"I lack experience and know even less about salt affairs. I wonder if Ziqian can teach me?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"Your Highness, I don't know much about salt affairs. But there is someone who should be able to help Your Highness." Li An said.

"Who?" Zhao Ceying asked curiously. "Duke Qi." Li An said.

"Duke of Qi?" Zhao Ceying frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Although he once served as the Salt Transport Commissioner, didn't he get the position thanks to the Princess of Pingning County?"

Although the Duke of Qi is a duke, he is not the son of the old Duke of Qi.

He was originally the nephew of the old Duke of Qi, but the old Duke of Qi's son, like Gu Tingyu, was weak and sickly since childhood and had no heirs, so he was able to inherit the title.

Therefore, he was not trained as the heir to the Dukedom since childhood and his abilities are average.

Later, he married Princess Pingning and was granted the lucrative job of Salt Transport Commissioner of Gyeonggi Road.

In Zhao Ceying's opinion, the Duke of Qi got the lucrative job through nepotism and has no ability at all.

Maybe he doesn't even understand how the salt business works in detail.

"Your Highness, I understand what you mean. But even if the Duke of Qi does not understand how the salt business works, he must know something about some of the tricks involved." Li An said.

"What you said makes sense." Zhao Ceying thought about it and nodded.

"Also, I also know something that may be helpful to Your Highness."

Li An then told Zhao Ceying about what happened when he returned to Yangzhou and encountered a ship carrying smuggled salt on the canal.

"Illegal salt is so rampant?" Zhao Ceying was shocked. "So what we want to investigate is not the salt business, but illegal salt?"

"No."

Li An shook his head and said, "I later learned that the so-called private salt is official salt. It's just that it is not bought from the government. After all, private salt is useless, you still need a salt shop. And the salt merchants who open salt shops all have salt permits."

"I understand what you mean. You mean that some officials took out the salt belonging to the court and secretly sold it to those salt merchants, right?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"That's right, but my ability is limited. I only know these. I don't know the specifics of how it was done. Duke Qi should know something about it." Li An said.

"I didn't know where to start before, but after you said that, it became clear instantly, like the clouds have been cleared away to see the sun. It turned out that I made the right choice to find you." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

"Your Highness, thank you for your compliment." Li An smiled and said, "Your Highness, have you ever thought about what to do next after thoroughly investigating the salt business?"

"What do you mean?" Zhao Ceying didn't understand what Li An meant for a moment.

"Your Highness, the corruption in the salt administration is not only due to the officials' embezzlement, but also proves that there are big problems with the salt administration system. If the root cause is not solved, the salt administration will still be corrupt, perhaps in a few years or even decades." Li An said.

A thorough investigation of the salt administration is only a temporary solution; only by improving the system can the root cause be addressed.

"Do you have any good suggestions?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"I don't even understand the specific procedures of the salt business, so what suggestions can I make? I am just reminding Your Highness." Li An said with a smile.

"You are right. We must be on guard against this. I haven't thought about this before. I will think about it carefully later." Zhao Ceying said.

They chatted until late at night. When they were a little tipsy, Li An stood up and said, "Your Highness, it's getting late. I'll take my leave now."

"Ziqian, don't be impatient!"

Zhao Ceying smiled and clapped his hands, and two good-looking young girls walked in.

"These two are the families of criminal officials. They were both ladies from scholarly families and are virgins. I'll give them to you." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

Generally speaking, civil officials were not subject to the death penalty and were at most exiled, and their families were rarely implicated.

Just like Lin Xiaoniang, she was originally from a family of officials. When her family committed a crime and their house was searched, she herself was not implicated.

It’s just that because my house was ransacked, I couldn’t make a living.

This is the same as the rule of not killing scholars and officials. These are implicit rules that were gradually formed as civil officials constantly instilled ideas into the emperor.

For civil servants, these two points concern the interests of everyone and will naturally be maintained.

Whether they are corrupt officials or good ministers, they all have some selfish motives.

According to the previous rules, the family members of criminal officials would be confiscated by the Jiaofangsi. The men would become slaves, and the beautiful women would be given as rewards to meritorious officials or become official prostitutes. The ordinary or older women could only be maids.

Serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. Even a loyal minister may be killed and his property may be confiscated.

Therefore, civil officials all like the emperor to be without fangs, not to kill civil officials, and not to implicate their families.

But this does not include the crime of treason.

When Prince Yan rebelled, many people had their property confiscated, and the former rich daughters were given as rewards to meritorious officials.

King Huan naturally also got some, and these two were among them.

In the Song Dynasty, giving concubines to each other was no different from giving ordinary gifts. Instead, it was considered an elegant thing.

But Li An could not accept it. He bowed and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. But I promised my wife that I would not take a concubine in this life. Your Majesty wants to give Princess Anyang to me as my equal wife. I feel very sorry for my wife."

"Haha, I didn't expect Ziqian to be such a lovesick man. In that case, I won't be a bad guy anymore." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

……

After returning home, Li An told this incident to Minglan as a funny story. Minglan was deeply moved and in order to reward Li An, she suppressed her shyness and took the initiative.

Li An was feeling a little dizzy and wanted to sleep, but he couldn't fall asleep after seeing this.

The two of them tossed and turned until dawn before falling asleep.

The next day, Ang Lee yawned and got out of bed quietly.

After he finished washing up, Minglan was not woken up. He told Danju and the others not to wake Minglan up, and went to work after breakfast.

…………

"Mother-in-law!" When Xiao Qin saw Madam Yu getting off the carriage, she greeted her with a smile.

"Madam Gu!" Madam Yu bowed.

Xiao Qin pretended to be unhappy and said, "I call you mother-in-law, but you call me Madam Gu. Isn't this too distant?"

"Haha, I was wrong." Mrs. Yu apologized quickly with a smile.

"I am older than you, so we can call each other sisters in private from now on." Xiao Qin said with a smile.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, the two entered Sanqing Temple, went to the main hall to burn incense, and added some incense money before going for a walk in the garden.

The servants followed from a distance behind, while the two walked in front, talking and laughing.

"Sister, how is the thing I asked you to do going?" Xiao Qin asked.

"Sister, can you really guarantee that Gu Erlang will divorce his wife and marry my Yanhong?" asked Madam Yu.

After Yu Yanran married Gu Tingye, she visited him several times, but each time she was ridiculed by Gu Tingye, which made her feel embarrassed, so she never went again.

But she would usually go to any wedding banquet or something like that.

Thanks to Xiao Qin's deliberate efforts to make friends with them, the two of them had a good relationship.

Xiao Qin had promised her that she would let Gu Tingye divorce his wife and marry her daughter.

"Of course. Although Erlang is not my biological son, I have always treated him as my own. But since he married Miss Yu, our relationship has become worse and worse. It must be Miss Yu who instigated it. As long as I can get the evidence, I will make Erlang divorce her." Xiao Qin promised.

(End of this chapter)