Although the wages on the dock were meager, in just a few years, with the help of Zheng Hu, Zheng Long actually saved one or two taels of silver. He calculated that if he worked harder than Zheng Hu, he would be able to save one or two or three years. At that time, plus the one or two taels of silver prepared by the family, then there would be three taels, which should be enough for Tao Ying's bride price.

Unfortunately, there were unexpected events in the world. Two months ago, Zheng Dahai was working at the pier and unfortunately fell off the platform and was seriously injured. In order to treat him, the Zheng family not only spent all the savings in the family, but also owed a tael of foreign debt.

This emergencies are undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Zheng Long. He is now empty-handed, so what should he use to marry Tao Ying? Do you want her to wait for another five years?

Just when Zheng Long was in despair, more than 20 days ago, someone recruited workers at the dock, saying that he wanted to speed up the transportation of a batch of goods to Nanjing Prefecture, and would take food and accommodation back and forth, with a wage of two taels of silver, and once he was hired, he would pay the wages immediately.

Two taels of silver, which was a huge sum of money for the coolies on the dock, so the coolies signed up one after another. Zheng Long was lucky to be attracted by the recruiters. After pressing his handprint on the employment contract, he took two taels of silver on the spot.

Zheng Hu was one step late. When he arrived, the recruitment had ended. Including Zhao Long, a total of more than a dozen coolies were admitted, and they all got two taels of silver, which made the rest of them jealous.

With these two taels of silver, Zheng Long not only paid the outer account of the one tael of silver, but also was full of confidence in his future life. When he returned home in the evening, he specially bought some braised dishes to improve his life.

The middle-aged man in charge of recruiting workers had a pair of triangular eyes and said confidently that there were still several trips of goods to be transported from Yangzhou to Yangzhou Prefecture this year. As long as Zheng Long and the others did a good job, they would use them next time, which made Zheng Long and others cheer.

No one expected that the development of the situation exceeded everyone's expectations:

On the night when receiving the goods, the middle-aged man from Triangle took Zheng Long and his party to a remote small wharf outside Yangzhou City, where a cargo ship was parked.

According to the instructions of the middle-aged man in Triangle, Zheng Long and others unloaded the sacks on the boat to several carriages parked on the dock. Just as they were unloading halfway, the people from the Yangzhou Salt Tax Department suddenly appeared and surrounded the dock.

In the stunned eyes of Zheng Long and others, the leading salt official stabbed a sack with a knife, and the white things flowed out.

"Hmph, I'm very brave, I dare to sell salt privately." The tax officer reached out and grabbed a handful of the white thing, put it on his nose and smelled it. He snorted coldly, waved his hands at the soldiers beside him, "Take them all."

Although salt has withdrawn from the ranks of Dashun’s huge profits, since it implements state monopoly and is monopolized by the state, its profits are still very considerable compared to other commodities. Therefore, many merchants take risks and secretly resell private salt.

In order to maintain the economic order of the salt industry and avoid damage to national interests, Dashun still took severe crackdowns on private salt. Private salt dealers are often beheaded, and the lightest one is to stab the frontier.

At this time, Zheng Long and others discovered that the middle-aged man in the triangle eyes had long disappeared.

In this way, Zheng Long and others were arrested in the prison of the Yangzhou Salt Taxation Department. Because the cargo transportation documents with their handprints were found on the ship, they were both captured. So the Salt Taxation Department determined that they were private salt dealers, so they tortured them severely.

After some torture, Zheng Long and others were scolded and admitted that they secretly sold private salt.

After obtaining "sufficient evidence", the Yangzhou Salt Taxation Department ruled that Zheng Long and others would be beheaded and reported to the Nanjing Prefecture Salt Taxation Department. The Nanjing Prefecture Salt Taxation Department quickly approved and approved the beheading of the Yangzhou Salt Taxation Department.

The relatives of Zhao Long and others also went to Yangzhou Salt Tax Office to shout for justice, but the members of the Salt Tax Office ignored them at all, and told them in a stern manner that Zhao Long and others had a conviction, and asked them to wait to collect the bodies of Zhao Long and others.

After the approval of the Nanjing Prefecture Salt Tax Department, Zhao Long and others will be executed tomorrow and were dragged to the street for public inspection before the execution, so the previous scene on the dock was caused.

"So that's it." After understanding the whole story, Tan Zong nodded thoughtfully. He was almost certain that Zhao Long and others were framed.

Because according to convention, such beheading cases often take half a year to settle, but Zhao Long and others will be beheaded in just over twenty days. This speed shows a problem, that is, someone wants them to die.

But why did the other party frame Zhao Long and the others? They were just a group of coolies on the dock, and there were no enemies.

At this time, Tan Zong realized that no wonder Zheng Hu was so hostile to him, nor did he say that there would be no pie falling from the sky. It turned out that it was because Zhao Long was innocently involved in this private salt case.

"Young master, Tiedan'er will be executed tomorrow. He... will he still be saved?" Zheng Dahai stared at Tan Zong with a nervous look on his face.

"As long as the person is not dead, there is a way." Tan Zong smiled slightly when he heard this and answered confidently.

"No, Brother Huzi was beaten by Zhou Yi's people." At this moment, a young man suddenly ran in panic.

Zhou Yi is a rich young man in Yangzhou City. His family runs a silk shop. He is lustful and has everything to eat, drink, go for food, drink, and gambling.

Tao Ying was an embroidery girl in an embroidery farm. Zhou Yi’s silk shop had business dealings with Tao Ying’s embroidery shop. Before the New Year, Zhou Yi brought people to the embroidery shop to get a batch of customized embroidery. He accidentally saw Tao Ying, so he had the idea of ​​taking it for himself. He tangled with him from many parties, threatened and tempted him, and wanted to marry him as his fifth concubine, but he never succeeded.

If it were an ordinary family, Zhou Yi might have snatched people directly, but Tao Ying's identity was a bit special. His father and brother were both coolies at the wharf, and the coolies at the wharf were all from the Cao Gang. He was very afraid of the Cao Gang, so he did not dare to do anything randomly.

The Grand Canal brought prosperity of canal transportation, which naturally brought about interest disputes, thus giving birth to the Cao Gang. The Cao Gang controlled the private canal transportation and formulated relevant laws to ensure the order of canal transportation and strong strength.

Anyone who relies on water on the canal has more or less related to the Cao Gang.

After Zheng Long was imprisoned, Zhou Yi knew that the opportunity had come, so he went to the Tao family to propose marriages repeatedly. Anyway, Zheng Long was going to die, so Tao Ying couldn't never marry for life.

Today, Zhou Yi brought his family and gifts to the Tao family to propose marriage. Tao Ying gritted her teeth and decided to be Zhou Yi's concubine, but she asked for fifteen taels of silver as a bride price.

Zhou Yi was overjoyed after hearing this, and immediately took out fifteen taels of silver. Tao Ying brought ten taels of silver and went straight to the Zheng family. This was the only thing she did for Zheng Long and for the Zheng family.

When Zheng Hu rushed to the Tao family, Zhou Yi was about to take Tao Ying away. Anyway, Tao Ying was just a concubine and did not need a formal marriage. Moreover, he had been salivating at Tao Ying for a long time and wanted to carry Tao Ying to bed and ravage him now.

Zheng Hu handed the twenty taels of silver bill to Zhou Yi and told him that Tao Ying would not marry, but Zhou Yi was not willing to let Tao Ying go so easily, and wanted to take Tao Ying away on the grounds that the bride price had been paid, so the two sides had a conflict.

Although Zheng Hu was strong and strong, he had no choice but to fight with his fists. Zhou Yi's family rushed over and pressed him to the ground and beat him up.

When Tan Zong and Feng followed the young man who reported the news to the Tao family, they saw a noisy noise in front of the Tao family's door. A group of big men surrounded a tall and thin young man dressed in a brightly dressed up as a few kids. The tall and thin young man held Tao Ying, who was struggling desperately in his hands, and many people gathered around him to watch the fun.

"Tao Yong, your family has accepted my bride price. I must take your sister away today." Gao Yi, a tall and thin young man, looked around at the big man who was surrounding him and said to the current stout and medium-sized man.

"Try taking my sister away." Tao Yong's face darkened, he stared at Gao Yi coldly, and his fists couldn't help but clenched.

"The bride price has been returned to you." At this time, Zheng Hu, who was covered in blood and had a white cloth wrapped around his head, walked out of the Tao family's house and shouted at Gao Yi.

"When did you give it back to me?" Gao Yi smiled gloomyly and looked at Zheng Hu provocatively.

"Just just now, twenty taels, I handed it to you with my own hands?" Zheng Hu glared and said loudly.

"Twenty taels?" Gao Yi laughed loudly, reached out and took out a silver note of twenty taels from his body. He shook at Zheng Hu, with a sarcastic look on his face, "I have a silver note of twenty taels on my body. Are you saying it was given to me?"

"It's this one." Zheng Hu glanced at the silver note, nodded, and said righteously.

"Haha..." Gao Yi laughed loudly when he heard this, looked around at the people around him, and snorted coldly, "You are a stinky coolie and you can't earn twenty taels of silver in your entire life. You actually said that the silver bill was yours! Could it be that you picked it up? Or, did you steal it?"

As soon as Gao Yi said this, the people around him suddenly became turbulent and pointed at Zheng Hu and discussed it. Obviously, they did not believe that the twenty taels of silver bills belonged to Zheng Hu.

"You fart, this is... this is given to me by a young master." Zheng Hu was anxious when he saw this and argued loudly. He only realized that he didn't even know Tan Zong's name, so he could only replace it with "Young Master".

"Young Master?" Gao Yi looked disdainful when he heard this. "If it weren't for you lying, then the 'Young Master' you mentioned was a fool, and he gave you twenty taels of silver for no reason."

While speaking, Gao Yi especially increased the volume of the word "Young Master", which caused another commotion among the crowd around him. He thought what he said was reasonable, and his eyes looked at Zheng Hu were full of weirdness and suspicion.

"I...I..." Zheng Hu saw that the people around him didn't believe him, so he became anxious for a moment and stammered "I" for a long time but couldn't say a word.
Chapter completed!