Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 503 Murderous Intent

Upon hearing this, Yang Zengqin lowered his head and said nothing. If anything was really found out, the evidence would be in front of him.

Why would Li An talk so much nonsense to him?

Yang Zengqin has been an official for more than ten years and is a seasoned veteran, so he still has some judgment.

It is impossible to be fooled by a few words from Ang Lee.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Li An could guess what he was thinking, and said calmly: "Yes, what we have found now are just some clues, but no real evidence. But since there are clues, it is only a matter of time before we find real evidence.

You are just waiting for someone to stop the thorough investigation of the salt business. But even if the thorough investigation of the salt business is really stopped, do you think those of you who have already found problems can get away with it?"

"I don't understand what Li Hanlin is talking about." Yang Zengqin shook his head.

"No, you understand. You understand very well." Li An sneered, "You are just afraid that if you tell it, you and your family will be retaliated. The Song Dynasty does not kill civil servants. Even if they really find problems, they will just exile them. Because you didn't say anything, whether those people want to appease you or do it for others to see, they will definitely take care of you and your family, and your life will not be difficult."

Zhao Ceying's face changed slightly when he heard this behind the screen. He also thought of what Li An said before.

But he didn't expect that this was actually related to not killing civil servants.

If you think about it carefully, what Ang Lee said is not wrong.

Although killing cannot really scare everyone, not killing will not be able to scare them at all.

Ask yourself, if he were Yang Zengqin, he would not say anything either.

There is really not much difference in the results whether you say it or not.

"Yes, the Song Dynasty does not kill civil servants. The previous emperor was merciful and never killed a civil servant. It has become an ancestral rule for the emperor and is difficult to change. If the emperor wants to wield the butcher knife now, regardless of whether it is related to the salt administration, all civil servants will strongly stop it because it concerns themselves."

"I am also a civil servant, and I am also worried that once the government opens its butcher knife, it may be easy to kill people, and I may be one of them. Even if I am not there, my descendants may be killed for some reason when they become officials in the future. Everyone has selfish desires, and I don't want the government to kill civil servants."

"But we can't kill them openly, but it's not that we can't kill them. It's very easy to kill someone. It's not too easy to send them to exile, or to keep changing the place of exile and let them die on the road. As for their families, just send them to the Music Bureau, and they will be slaves forever. Lord Yang, do you think His Royal Highness Prince Huan can do what I said?" Li An looked at Yang Zengqin with a smile.

"How dare you do such a thing?"

Yang Zengqin's expression finally changed, and he shouted angrily: "You also said that you are a civil servant. Aren't you afraid that this kind of thing will happen to your descendants?"

"I'm afraid! But I want this world to be better. I'd rather be a dog in peacetime than a man in troubled times. The Liao Kingdom occupies the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. There is no strategic location to defend in the north, and there is also Western Xia in the northwest. Although there is no war now, who can predict the future? The Song Dynasty is facing internal and external troubles. If the internal troubles are not resolved, how can we resist the external troubles? If there is chaos in the world in the future, do you think the Liao Kingdom or Western Xia will care about not punishing doctors?" Li An said coldly.

What Li An said was actually quite outrageous, and Zhao Ceying was still listening behind the screen.

But he just couldn't help but say it. Didn't the Song Dynasty have a chance to destroy the Liao Dynasty and Western Xia?

Yes, and quite a few.

Not to mention the distant future, there will be a good opportunity in the future.

When Jin conquered Liao, even if Jin did not destroy Liao and Jin together, there was still a good chance for Jin to seize the opportunity to retake the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

If the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were recaptured, how could the Jingkang Shame have happened?
If the Jin Kingdom had been driven to the grassland, it would not even be certain whether there would be a Genghis Khan in the future.

The rise of the Jin Dynasty and Mongolia, in the final analysis, was due to the fact that the Liao and Jin dynasties occupied large cities in the north, had fixed territories, paid less attention to the grasslands, and their control was reduced, which provided opportunities.

Ang Lee is not a blindly loyal person. If a family or a country is destroyed, it will be destroyed.

But it cannot be destroyed by foreigners.

The Han people fought for the world and valued the people's will and righteousness. Even though the people lived worse off than dogs in troubled times, they were still relatively stable after getting through the initial chaotic period.

After all, the people are their capital for dominating the world.

But the foreign races are different. There are fewer people in the foreign race, so in order to better rule, mass killing is inevitable.

In their eyes, the Han people are just two-legged sheep. Who would care about the life or death of the sheep?
"I am not saying this to threaten you or to scare you. If you don't want to say it, I will advise His Highness in this way. Do you think His Highness will do this?" Li An said coldly.

Yang Zengqin's face turned pale. What Li An said before was indeed what he was thinking.

But if it really happened as Ang Lee said, he would still be doomed.

He shuddered at the thought that after his death, his family would be sent to the Jiaofang Bureau and become slaves.

As for whether Zhao Ceying would do so, Yang Zengqin thought about it carefully and felt that it was very likely.

Because Zhao Ceying was the chief official in charge of the thorough investigation of the salt affairs, there was no progress in the affairs, which dealt a heavy blow to Zhao Ceying's prestige.

It is not impossible that Zhao Ceying did such a thing when he was angry.

Once he dies, no one will care about the life or death of his family.

Li An didn't disturb him and waited quietly.

Yang Zengqin was silent for a long time, and then he said in a hoarse voice: "I know only a limited amount. Even if I tell it, the outcome will not be much better, and may even be more miserable. Why does Li Hanlin have to force me like this?"

"you are wrong!"

Li An said calmly: "This time the government sent His Royal Highness Prince Huan to investigate the salt business, which has already shown its determination. As long as you say it, we can follow the clues and investigate further. By then, we will have uprooted everything. Who can retaliate against you?"

"Moreover, there were dozens of people arrested with you. If you didn't tell others, they would tell others. If there were too many people telling others, how could you take revenge? And if someone really escaped, they wouldn't have time to hide, so how could you dare to take revenge?"

"Ziqian is right!"

Zhao Ceying walked out from behind the screen.

"Your Highness!"

Li An and Yang Zengqin saluted quickly.

Zhao Ceying waved his hand, came to the main seat and sat down, saying: "Yang Zengqin, as long as you tell me, I promise to give you a lighter sentence and not implicate your family. But if you don't tell me, I also heard what Ziqian said before."

Zhao Ceying did not say that he would do what Li An said, but he said that he heard it, and the meaning was self-evident.

The last line of defense in Yang Zengqin's heart was broken, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I am willing to say it!"

"Ziqian, record it!" Zhao Ceying ordered.

"Yes!"

There were pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the table. Li An responded, ground ink and picked up the pen, waiting for Yang Zengqin to speak.

Yang Zengqin accepted his fate at this point and told everyone he knew.

They do conceal some of their production by falsifying the number of rainy days.

In addition, the process was accelerated and more salt ponds were opened.

When they learned that Zhao Ceying was coming to Yancheng County, they had already filled in the extra salt ponds.

The actual monthly salt production of the salt field managed by Yang Zengqin was at least 50% to 60% more than what was recorded in the account books.

The other salt fields are almost the same as his.

The salt obtained will be brought by salt merchants and taken away.

The salt permits in the hands of salt merchants were all purchased from the imperial court.

However, if salt merchants wanted to use salt permits to withdraw salt from the Zhenzhou Salt Depot, they had to first buy 70% of the private salt listed on the salt permits.

Otherwise, Zhenzhou Salt Depot will find all kinds of excuses to shirk responsibility.

In this way, even if the salt merchants did not want to participate, they had no choice.

In fact, no salt merchant would choose not to participate. Merchants are all profit-seeking. Private salt is only 70% of the price of official salt. They would only think it is too little. How could they refuse it?

Yang Zengqin did not expose many officials. He also knew that most of the officials in the Huainan Salt Administration were involved, but there were only a few officials who had contact with him.

He didn't even have much contact with the officials who were in charge of the salt fields in Yancheng County.

Because someone had told him that they were not allowed to have private contact.

In addition, Yang Zengqin also identified several salt merchants who had been supplying salt to him.

"It's so heartbreaking!"

The more Zhao Ceying listened, the uglier his expression became. After listening, he cursed to vent his anger and said, "I don't believe it. You don't have any evidence against these people!"

"Yes, there is a secret room under the bed in my bedroom. It contains the benefits I have gained over the years, as well as an account book. The account book records the specific amount of smuggled salt taken away by the salt merchants each time, including the amount of money that Lord Xiong sends me every month." Yang Zengqin said.

The Mr. Xiong he was referring to was the official who managed all the salt fields in Yancheng County, and also his superior.

"I will do what I promised you before. Come, take him down first!" Zhao Ceying shouted.

The soldiers outside the door heard the noise and came in, taking Yang Zengqin away.

"Ziqian, I didn't expect you to be so good at interrogating prisoners." Zhao Ceying said with a smile.

Although Zhao Ceying was very angry after listening to Yang Zengqin's story, he was still in a good mood because of such great progress.

"I'm glad that Your Highness doesn't blame me. I just wanted to scare him, but I didn't expect it to really work." Li An said.

"hehe."

Zhao Ceying looked at Li An meaningfully. How could he not tell whether what Li An had just said was a bluff or not?

However, he did not expose Li An, and said: "I will personally lead people to Yang Zengqin's house to search for evidence, and then arrest people according to what he said. You continue to interrogate and see if you can scare a few more people into confessing."

Yang Zengqin didn't give out many people, and he wanted to see if others could provide more evidence and give out more people.

"Yes!" Li An replied.

After Zhao Ceying left, Li An asked someone to bring someone to continue the interrogation. He followed the same method and interrogated all the detained officials.

This trick is not always useful. If those people involved are timid and feel uneasy every day, they would have been scared to death by themselves long ago.

What Ang Lee said may not be false, but it may not be true either.

Of course it is impossible for them to confess everything just by being threatened.

Among the thirty or so people, including Yang Zengqin, only five confessed.

Among the other four, only one kept evidence like Yang Zengqin, the others did not.

Even so, it is great progress.

Zhao Ceying sent people to arrest all the officials and salt merchants involved based on the confessions and evidence.

For a time, the entire Yanchang County was in panic and the news spread quickly.

…………

Yangzhou
When Wen Duo learned the news, he lost his grip on the teacup and it fell to the ground, splashing some tea all over his body.

The maidservant who was serving nearby hurried forward with a handkerchief, squatted down and helped him clean his clothes.

"Go away!"

Wen Duo came to his senses, kicked the maid away, and shouted angrily: "Get out!"

The maid serving in the room quickly retreated.

"Go and find Xue Qing for me!" Wen Duo ordered.

"Yes!" Xiao Si, who reported the news, hurried out.

When Xue Qing arrived, the fallen teacups had not been cleaned up.

Wen Duo walked around the room with a grim look on his face. He sat down only when he saw Xue Qing coming over.

"Ming sir!" Xue Qing saluted.

"It's all your fault. We agreed to expose one salt merchant so that the others would see what would happen to them. But they took the risk and assassinated King Huan. But you chose to create trouble and plot against Gu Tingye. Now that Gu Tingye is fine, we are in big trouble!" Wen Duo shouted coldly.

According to the original plan, a salt merchant was to be sent to King Huan.

Few of those salt merchants are good people, and many of them have lost their lives.

They are not civil servants. If they are caught and confess to what they have done, they will be put to death whether they confess or not.

When the police come to arrest someone, he will definitely fight to the death.

But how could the salt merchants be a match for the imperial guards? Their end was bound to be miserable.

When the other salt merchants see what happened to that salt merchant, they will inevitably feel grief for him.

If they didn't want to end up like that salt merchant, they had to either flee or assassinate King Huan.

It would certainly be impossible to succeed in assassinating King Huan, but it would restrict King Huan's actions.

It is even possible that the emperor was worried about the safety of King Huan and called him back to have someone else investigate.

Whatever the result, he would be happy to see.

As a result, Xue Qing wanted to plot against Gu Tingye, but it was the Cheng family that was exposed.

The Cheng family has a powerful backer, so how could he dare to let anything happen to the Cheng family?

This results in a significant reduction in the final effect.

Xue Qing cursed in his heart, thinking that he had indeed acted on his own initiative in this matter. However, when Wen Duo found out about it, he praised him highly.

Now that something has happened, it's all his fault.

However, Xue Qing did not dare to show it, and could only smile and say: "Don't worry, my lord. I think the current situation is even better."

"What's good about that? The investigation will soon lead back to me." Wen Duo said coldly.

"My Lord, please listen to me first."

Xue Qing said, "I have also heard about this. The officials in Yancheng County have reported that His Royal Highness Prince Huan has arrested many officials and salt merchants."

"The officials who were arrested before actually didn't know much. The trouble is with those who were arrested later. But they won't confess for a while. On the contrary, the salt merchants will die if they speak up or not. Those salt merchants who have not been arrested will also be in a panic."

"If we instigate them secretly, someone will naturally take the risk."

"The reason why I said now is a better time is because King Huan has arrested too many people. King Huan does not trust the local government officials and soldiers, and the people guarding are all the accompanying imperial guards. In addition, there are also many left in Yangzhou, and Gu Tingye also brought some to find the whereabouts of the Cheng family."

"This is the time when King Huan's defenses against counterfeiting are the most lax. If the salt merchants unite, they may have a chance."

"You're crazy!" Wen Duo lowered his voice and said, "Do you know what the consequences would be if something happened to King Huan?"

"Mingsir, it wasn't us who did it, so we don't need to bear the consequences, no matter how serious they are." Xue Qing said in a low voice.

(End of this chapter)