The main hall of Yangzhou Yanzheng Yamen.

Prince Zhongshun, who looked exhausted, was sitting in the hall, looking at the pledge book in his hand with all his strength, and his face gradually darkened.

Jia Yun, who was standing aside, was also very tired, but he had responsibilities, so he could only stand behind King Zhongshun and wait for instructions.

Jia Yun and his party set out from the capital, riding horses all the way, and spent ten days finally arriving in Yangzhou.

Since I came to Jiangnan to raise money, I naturally wanted to be rich. The only rich people in Jiangnan were salt merchants.

Salt tax accounts for half of all taxes in the world. How can these salt merchants not be rich?

And the one who can control these salt merchants is naturally the Salt Administration Yamen.

Don't underestimate the Yanzheng Yamen. The chief official here is the Salt Inspector of Lianghuai and is a fifth-grade civil servant from Daqian.

Compared with the second-grade rank of the governor of Liangjiang and the second-grade rank of the governor of Jiangsu, the rank of fifth-grade rank is indeed not enough, but this is the history of the salt inspection in the Huaihe River.

Lianghuai refers to Taizhou, Huai'an, and Tongzhou. Salt inspection refers to patrolling the salt administration, and censor means supervising censor. The scope of responsibilities covers the Lianghuai area. These places are wealthy places, and the salt tax is much higher than other areas.

The total tax amount of the Lianghuai Salt Tax was basically maintained at 2.5 million taels, accounting for more than half of the imperial court.

This shows the importance of salt transportation between the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River.

For this reason, the position of Salt Inspector of the Huaihe River was usually held by someone who had the trust of the emperor.

Moreover, the salt patrol censor also has a special task, which is to supervise local officials. To put it bluntly, he is the emperor's spy. The salt patrol censors of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River can directly report their work to the emperor. Therefore, the local governor also has the salt patrol censor. I can only turn a blind eye and I can’t afford to offend him.

"It's really unreasonable. Who are you going to send this money to?"

King Zhongshun threw the donation book on several cases and cursed loudly.

Jia Yun, who was standing aside, saw King Zhongshun's angry look on his face, and already knew in his heart that it was not easy to get these salt merchants to willingly pay for it.

After calming down, Wang Zhongshun picked up the donation book again, threw it directly into Jia Yun's hands, and said gloomily: "Come and see how generous these salt merchants are."

Jia Yun understood and opened the pledge book and took a look. He didn't know what to do. He was shocked when he saw it. These rich people were really generous. The money donated by the salt merchants in the Huaihe River area was to provide relief to each disaster victim. It’s not even enough for a bowl of porridge, let alone the two million taels to make up for the gap. It’s not even a fraction.

As the saying goes, "the rich are stingy", this is so true that Jia Yun didn't know what to say, even if he was a facade, that was not how he acted.

Jia Yun was silent. If this matter was easy to handle, Emperor Chongming wouldn't need to send a prince to handle the errand.

Logically speaking, this matter can be easily handled. As long as Emperor Chongming issues an imperial edict, I don’t believe that these salt merchants dare to play tricks. But if the emperor issues the edict, isn’t this force? Why do you care about the face of the court...

After thinking carefully for a moment, Jia Yun said: "Your Majesty, please send an imperial envoy to summon the salt officials from Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers to bring the salt merchants to the Salt Administration Yamen. I believe that with the weight of the imperial envoy, the prince, these salt merchants can at least give some face."

After hearing the words, Prince Zhongshun pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "That's right, it's better than just waiting."

After saying this, King Zhongshun told the Xiaoshi of the Salt Government Yamen below: "Go down and write an edict to order the salt transportation historians of Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers to bring their subordinate salt merchants to the Salt Government Yamen to discuss donations."

Except for the salt inspection censor, the Yanzheng Yamen did not have any subordinate officials, and the rest were all clerks.

At this time, the chief official of the Yanzheng Yamen was Lin Daiyu's father, Lin Ruhai. However, Lin Ruhai suddenly fell ill a month ago and was no longer able to take charge. Therefore, there was no serious official in the Yanzheng Yamen.

A month ago, Jia Yun knew about Lin Ruhai's sudden illness. Emperor Chongming also sent the imperial physician to Yangzhou to treat Lin Ruhai, which was a great favor.

Originally, when imperial envoys came to the south of the Yangtze River on missions, salt officials from various places should wait at the Yanzheng Yamen.

However, Jia Yun and his party traveled lightly along the Huangfan District. Except for necessary rest, they never rested for a moment and arrived several days earlier than the scheduled arrival time.

The one who made such a decision was naturally King Zhongshun, and Jia Yun was not qualified to criticize him.

It has to be said that Jia Yun knew very little about King Zhongshun in The Red Mansion, so he didn't understand it very well. However, after this encounter, he realized that King Zhongshun was capable of managing household affairs, and he could control good horses with military force.

This rapid journey was too much for even Jia Yun, who had been in the military for a long time, but Prince Zhongshun, who was regarded as the prince, did not fall behind at all, which was really surprising.

If you think about it carefully, although Prince Zhongshun is rarely described in The Red Mansion, he was able to become a prince in just a few years. He was by no means just a compatriot of Emperor Chongming, and his ability cannot be ignored.

After hearing this, the clerk hurriedly went down to make arrangements, but King Zhongshun was also exhausted mentally and physically at this time, and he was afraid that this errand would be difficult to handle.

The matter came to an end for the time being. King Zhongshun seemed to have remembered something and turned his head to Jia Yun and said, "Isn't Lin Ruhai from Yanzheng Yamen your great-aunt?"

Jia Yun was stunned for a moment, then replied: "Your Majesty, that's right."

In terms of seniority, Lin Ruhai's wife Jia Min is Jia Yun's aunt, Lin Ruhai is Jia Yun's aunt, and Lin Daiyu is Jia Yun's aunt.

King Zhongshun nodded, and then said with emotion: "I haven't seen him for several years. I just happened to go to see how he is today. Jia Yun, you should go too!"

Since Lin Ruhai can sit on the Lianghuai Salt Patrol, it means that he is a confidant of Emperor Chongming, and it is natural for King Zhongshun to know him. Maybe he was a close friend before!

After saying this, King Zhongshun stood up and walked towards the inner hall, and Jia Yun followed him without saying a word.

The second entrance to the Yanzheng Yamen is modeled after the Yamen Office. You can see that the middle hall and the two rooms on the left and right are the places where various departments work and handle salt affairs.

Passing through the middle hall is the third entrance, which is the back house.

This is the residence of the salt patrol censor and his family. Salt soldiers are guarding everything, and outsiders are not allowed to enter.

The Yanzheng Yamen is not an ordinary Yamen. There are three hundred salt soldiers inside the Yanzheng Yamen who specialize in hunting down smuggled salt.

Salt is a necessity for the people, but the price of salt is extremely high, and it is not affordable for ordinary poor people.

Therefore, there is also a saying that "the grain farmers spend all year round is not enough to cover the price of salt."

Private salt is several times cheaper than official salt.

Faced with the unattainable price of salt, the poor have no choice but to eat less salt, or even no salt, or buy private salt.

Moreover, the cost of making private salt is relatively low and the benefits are huge. Naturally, many lawless elements take advantage of it and sell private salt.

Selling illicit salt has been a serious crime in all dynasties. The "Daqian Code" strictly prohibits the sale of illicit salt and stipulates that both buyers and sellers will be severely punished: "Those who sell illicit salt will be sent to the army with two thousand miles, and those who buy illicit salt will be punished with a hundred sticks."

One hundred boards, this is the rhythm of beating someone to death.

Those who dare to smuggle illegal salt are desperadoes with their heads in their waistbands.

Therefore, the salt soldiers have all seen the flesh and blood, so they are naturally brave.

At the third entrance, several salt soldiers were guarding the door, and there was another person who looked like a housekeeper. Jia Yun stepped forward and greeted: "Go and report that Jia Yunte, the Duke of Ningguo, is here to visit Aunt Lin."

The housekeeper was startled when he heard this, his expression improved slightly, and he hurriedly said: "It turns out to be the young master of the Jia family. I will report it right away."

…………

In the east wing of the inner house, inside Lin Ruhai's room.

For the past half month, the room has been filled with depression and sadness.

Lin Ruhai was lying on the bed with a pale face, and leaning against the bed was a thin girl who was crying silently, her slightly red and swollen eyes full of sadness.

This girl was naturally Lin Daiyu, the daughter of Yangzhou Salt Administration Lin Ruhai. Lin Ruhai was seriously ill and knew that he didn't have much time left, so he sent someone to bring his daughter back.

According to the rules, if you have no children to serve you before your death, you will become a lonely ghost after death...

Recently, Lin Ruhai's health has become worse and worse, and seeing that she has only a few days to live, how can Daiyu not feel sad?

Now she is feeling sad all day long and sheds tears...

Lin Daiyu was holding back her sorrow and serving Lin Ruhai to take medicine when she heard a "squeak" sound and a maid pushed in the door. She was wearing a thin cotton-padded jacket of elastic ink silk and only a blue satin vest outside. She looked lovely.

This person is none other than Lin Daiyu's personal maid Zijuan.

Zijuan walked in with a little joy in her expression and said hurriedly: "Girl, Butler Lin said that Uncle Yun from Dongfu has come to see me."

Lin Daiyu was stunned for a long time after hearing this, and then she understood who the person who came over was.

She frowned slightly and asked doubtfully: "It's him, why is he here?"

Zijuan said happily: "Girl, you don't know that one of the imperial envoys who came to the Yamen earlier was Uncle Yun. I heard from Butler Lin that he seemed to have come to see him after finishing some work. He is now waiting at the courtyard gate!"

"

The imperial envoy came to Yanzheng Yamen on an errand, and they, the people in the inner house, also heard about it, but Lin Ruhai was seriously ill, and they were women, so naturally they couldn't care about these things. They thought they would leave after completing their errands, but they never thought that these

There are also "acquaintances" among people.

Zicuckoo stepped forward to help Lin Daiyu up and coaxed: "Girl, please don't cry anymore. I'm auspicious and everything will be fine sooner or later. Uncle Yun from Dongfu is a "family member" and I have to meet him. But

Don't lose your etiquette.

Lin Daiyu nodded when she heard this. If he was a foreigner, it would be difficult to meet him, but if he was a "family member", he would really have to entertain him.

Zijuan picked up the silk handkerchief and helped Lin Daiyu wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"It's so pitiful that the girl has cried a lot since she returned to Yangzhou, and her body has become thinner and thinner. I hope that Uncle Yun from Dongfu can take care of her."
Chapter completed!