Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 497 The storm is rising
"Yes!"

The leading official stepped aside and said, "Your Highness, please!"

Zhao Ceying nodded and walked in.

Li An and Xia Shaohua accompanied him, followed by hundreds of imperial guards.

The official's name was Yang Zengqin, and he introduced the situation of the salt field to the few people along the way.

The salt field is right by the sea, the air has a salty smell, and you can hear the sound of waves.

Many salt ponds have been dug on the seashore, some of which still contain water, while others have very little water, with some white particles exposed around them.

There are also some salt ponds where the water has dried up, leaving only a layer of white particles.

Many laborers are busy.

While introducing the situation of the salt field, Yang Zengqin answered Zhao Ceying's questions, appearing to be very familiar with the salt field.

Li An looked at the salt field. He had never seen how salt was produced in his previous life. Now they were using the traditional method of drying salt, so he was still a little curious.

After watching for a while, he lost interest and listened attentively to Yang Zengqin's story.

After listening for a while, Li An frowned slightly and noticed something was wrong.

It was unusual that Yang Zengqin knew too much about the affairs of the salt field.

Normally, he is the highest official of the salt field, knows the salt field very well and is very responsible.

But in ancient times, most things were actually handled by minor officials.

What's more, he has many subordinates and it is impossible for him to do everything himself.

It is normal not to know much about something, but it is abnormal to know too much about it.

Moreover, when Zhao Ceying asked about the salt field's output, he answered without any hesitation.

Just like I had memorized it in advance.

This situation is normal. After all, when the superiors come to inspect, you can’t be ignorant of everything.

Most people would prepare in advance after hearing the news, and they would know what to do regardless of whether the leader asks or not.

But Yang Zengqin pretended not to know that Zhao Ceying was coming.

It’s not that he wasn’t prepared to welcome it, but some places in the salt field looked a bit messy.

This would be a bit too deliberate. The news that Zhao Ceying was inspecting the salt business had already spread.

There are countless eyes watching in secret. Even if Zhao Ceying didn't notify them in advance, someone would have notified them.

Even though he was not sure that Zhao Ceying would come, what if?
At least someone should clean up the salt field.

He did none of these.

On the one hand, he deliberately pretended that he didn't know Zhao Ceying would come.

On the other hand, he knew everything about the salt field.

Is he trying to pretend to be clueless to increase the credibility of his words?

"Your Highness, I want to look around." Li An said.

"Yes." Zhao Ceying nodded and said, "Go ahead."

"This lord is not familiar with the salt field. Let me ask someone to lead the way for you," Yang Zengqin said with a smile.

"No need, I'm just wandering around. I've never seen salt making before, so I'm a little curious." Li An said.

Yang Zengqin did not insist after hearing this. Li An bowed and left the team.

Li An strolled around and saw the workers collecting salt. He stopped to watch, looking very curious.

From time to time, he would chat with the civilians.

Minfu was very reserved when facing Ang Lee, and spoke haltingly, with a strong local accent, making it feel like they were talking to a deaf person.

"Sir, these civilians are from nearby towns and they cannot speak Mandarin. If you have any questions, you can ask me." A man dressed as a clerk stepped forward with a flattering smile on his face.

The so-called Mandarin is actually the ancient Mandarin.

However, this Mandarin is different from that of later generations.

As the saying goes, the language varies from place to place. In ancient times, people were troubled by different accents, which made communication inconvenient.

Therefore, every dynasty had its own official language, and the standard of this official language actually depended on the emperor’s accent.

Just like in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was from Fengyang, and Fengyang dialect was the official language.

Not everyone speaks it in standard form, but most officials or businessmen who travel around the country tend to speak in this direction, and generally speaking, they can understand it.

The official accent of the Song Dynasty is more similar to the Central Plains accent.

The southern dialect has the most mixed accents, while the northern dialect is relatively easier to understand.

Therefore, it is normal for the common people not to be able to speak Mandarin and not to understand it.

Li An frowned slightly. If there was a problem with the salt field, all the officials and clerks might have been punished.

The civilians have most likely been confessed, but they are simple-minded and it is relatively easy to get some information out of them.

They may not know everything, but they definitely know some basic things.

If all the illegal salt comes from the salt fields, it would be very easy to find the problem.

All the salt produced by the salt fields will be sent to Zhenzhou.

There are records of how much is produced and how much is delivered each month.

This aspect cannot be faked. If you want to fake it, you can only increase the output.

As long as we know how much salt these salt ponds can produce each time, and then compare it with the monthly salt production of the salt fields, the problem will emerge.

The officials at the salt field are also aware of this. If there is a problem, the data they provide will definitely be wrong.

Although we can also send someone to supervise and then compare the data with what they say.

But they are very clear about the salt-making process, and even if they send someone to supervise, they are afraid that they will not be able to find out anything.

The accent problem is a big problem.

Li An put all this aside for the time being and started chatting with the clerk.

After chatting for a while, Li An lost interest. What this clerk said was basically the same as what Yang Zengqin said. There were some differences, but they were not big problems.

Li An simply didn't bother to ask and continued to walk around.

This time Li An did not continue to ask questions, but just watched the laborers work.

There was no way to communicate at all, and the questions he had just asked the civilians seemed to have sounded a wake-up call to these people.

Whenever he arrived at a salt pond, the clerk in charge of supervision would come over to him.

The nice thing is to introduce him.

However, Ang Lee did not gain nothing, he still found some problems.

After staying at the salt field for a morning, Zhao Ceying refused Yang Zengqin's attempt to stay, left the salt field and went to Yancheng County.

The magistrate of Yancheng County came with a group of officials to welcome Zhao Ceying and his party and hosted a banquet for them.

After dinner, Zhao Ceying sent everyone away and went to the post station.

Although Yancheng is only a county, it is quite prosperous because there are many salt fields and many people work in them.

The post station is not small.

"Tell me, is there any problem with that salt field?" Zhao Ceying said, rubbing his head.

"Your Highness, after a rough look, I didn't find any problems. I think we should station at a salt field and conduct a detailed investigation. After a long time, we will always be able to detect problems!" said Xia Shaohua.

Zhao Ceying was not satisfied with the result and looked at Li An. How long would it take to find out?

Zhao Zongquan proposed a thorough investigation of the salt affairs, and because it was proposed suddenly, it caught everyone off guard.

In fact, the pressure is very high.

If he fails to make a breakthrough, he might be stopped.

"Your Highness, I have noticed some problems." Li An said.

"What problem did you find?" Zhao Ceying asked excitedly.

"I noticed that there was something wrong with the laborers' work. It seemed like they were deliberately slowing down," said Li An.

"Li Hanlin, isn't it normal for laborers to want to be lazy while working?" Xia Shaohua frowned.

"Minister Xia, it is normal for laborers to be lazy, but that is different from being lazy. I observed the laborers working and found that sometimes they would work faster unconsciously, and then the supervising clerks would scold them, and then they would slow down. Unfortunately, I could not understand what they said." Li An said.

"That's indeed a problem. If the salt collection is delayed by one or two hours, one pool of salt may be produced less per month. With so many salt pools, the amount lost is not a small amount," Zhao Ceying frowned.

"I have also roughly calculated that this is indeed a solution, but illegal salt is rampant. If only one more pool of salt is produced in each salt pond per month, the amount is too small. There must be other means!" Li An said.

"Hmm!" Zhao Ceying thought about it carefully, nodded in agreement, and said, "So, there is indeed something wrong with the salt field we went to today."

"I have thought about it carefully and it is very likely that they will make a fuss about the rain," said Li An.

Sun-dried salt can be dried even without sunlight, it just takes a little more time.

But it certainly won’t work if it rains.

Therefore, it is also necessary to record the fact that the salt field cannot dry salt due to rain.

There is no way to cheat on how long it takes to dry a pond of salt.

It's not that there is no room for falsification, it's just that the space is too small.

In recent years, the salt revenue of the Song Dynasty has dropped by 30% to 40%. This is revenue, not salt sales.

And this reduction refers to the decades during the previous emperor's reign.

In fact, the Song Dynasty added taxes to the price of salt, and the price of salt increased every year.

Even so, salt revenue has decreased by 30 to 40 percent, which means that salt sales have more than halved compared to decades ago.

By this calculation, if all the private salt came from the Lianghuai Salt Fields, then the output of all the salt fields in Lianghuai reported to the court each year should be only half of the normal output.

These means alone are not enough for them to hide so much salt.

Zhao Ceying also knew this. He paused for a moment and said, "We are exhausted from the long journey. Let's rest at the post station this afternoon. I will continue to go to the salt field with Minister Xia tomorrow. At the same time, I will ask the salt field to send all the account books of recent years. When the time comes, Ziqian, see if you can find any problems."

"Yes!" Li An replied.

…………

Following Zhao Ceying's instructions, Gu Tingye directly raided the Cheng family, a salt merchant in Tongzhou.

The Cheng family did not live in the city, but built a large mansion in a farm more than ten miles east of the city.

However, the Cheng family hired many servants to guard the house, and the entire house was run like a fortress.

It took Gu Tingye a lot of effort to break into the Cheng family mansion.

Just as they captured Cheng's family, the troops from Tongzhou arrived.

After some negotiations, the Tongzhou troops retreated. When Gu Tingye went in to arrest the people, he found that they had already escaped through the secret passage.

The exit of the secret passage was just by the river not far from the village. When Gu Tingye and his men chased after them, the person had already escaped.

Gu Tingye searched for a long time but couldn't find anyone, so he could only send someone back to Yangzhou to report the news.

But he learned that Zhao Ceying had already taken people to the Lianghuai Salt Field.

Gu Tingye hesitated for a while and rushed to the Lianghuai Salt Field in person.

…………

"Mingsir, the Cheng family has already escaped." Xue Qing said with a smile.

"Oh?"

Wen Duo put down the teacup, asked Xue Qing to sit down, and asked, "Is the Cheng family okay?"

"It's okay. The troops arrived just in time. We delayed them for a while and the people have already escaped." Xue Qing said.

"Haha, that's good." Wen Duo smiled and said, "I didn't want to choose the Cheng family originally, but this is good. The Cheng family has some connections with the big shots in Bianjing. Now that something has happened, Bianjing will be anxious when they find out. Those salt merchants also know about this relationship. His Royal Highness Prince Huan has even touched the Cheng family. They should also think about whether they can still sit still."

According to their original idea, the Cheng family was not the one they chose.

Later, because he wanted to use the identities of the Bai brothers to make Zhao Ceying suspicious of Gu Tingye, he had no choice but to do so.

But it’s better this way. The Cheng family has connections with the officials in Bian Jing. Let’s see if Bian Jing is in a hurry or not.

Moreover, among all the salt merchants in Jiangnan, the Cheng family had the strongest connections. King Huan took action against the Cheng family without any hesitation, and those salt merchants should have been unable to sit still.

Salt merchants are profit-driven, and for them, investigating salt affairs would only temporarily delay their ability to make money.

After the salt administration is investigated, a new group of officials will be replaced. They will still be salt merchants and make the same money.

Now let’s see if they can still hold on!

"I hope nothing happens in Yancheng?" Wen Duo asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, my lord. I've already told you. There will be no problem in the short term." Xue Qing said with a smile.

"That's good, let's wait and see." Wen Duo laughed.

…………

"Empress Dowager, Concubine Liu is here." Eunuch Zhu bowed.

The queen mother, who was dozing off, opened her eyes and sat up.

After a while, Concubine Liu came in, followed by a palace maid holding a child.

"Your servant pays respects to the Empress Dowager!" Concubine Liu bowed.

"No need to be so polite, just let me hold Yong'er in my arms." The Queen Mother said with a smile.

"Yes!"

Concubine Liu took the child from the palace maid and handed it to the empress dowager.

Prince Yong was still in swaddling clothes and could not speak yet. The Queen Mother held him in her arms and teased him for a while, making him giggle.

The Queen Mother looked at Prince Yong and smiled happily, and her smile was also very bright.

"Recently, many officials have written to the emperor, saying that Prince Huan has conducted a thorough investigation into the salt business but has yet to uncover any clues. They want the emperor to summon Prince Huan. This is giving the emperor a headache." Concubine Liu glanced at the empress dowager and said.

The Queen Mother's expression did not change when she heard this. She teased the child while saying, "The harem is not allowed to interfere in government affairs. I have already withdrawn from the political system and I am too lazy to worry about these things. You should stop asking about these things."

"I haven't asked about it, but this matter has caused a lot of uproar and people in the palace are talking about it," said Concubine Liu.

"Haha, it's just nonsense. The emperor asked Prince Huan to investigate the salt affairs in order to let Prince Huan gain merit. I'm afraid he will be crowned as the crown prince when he comes back this time. How can we possibly stop it?" The queen mother shook her head.

When Concubine Liu heard this, a gloom flashed in her eyes.

As a mother, she naturally wanted her son to sit in that position.

It would be fine if there was no opportunity, but after the emperor ascended the throne, he did not appoint a crown prince. Many people speculated that the emperor did not favor King Huan.

When she heard this, she began to think about it. In addition, the emperor had scolded Empress Shen because of the Shen Congxing incident some time ago.

Since that day, I have never been to Queen Shen's place.

This made Concubine Liu feel more and more that her son had a chance.

However, in the past few days, a piece of news suddenly came out in Bianjing City, saying that the government asked Prince Huan to conduct a thorough investigation of the salt affairs in order to pave the way for the enthronement of the crown prince.

(End of this chapter)