The entire Huai'an was sealed off due to the arrival of His Highness the First Prince.

More than half a month has passed and no news has been released.

The entire Southern Zhili officialdom was wary of the arrival of His Royal Highness, the eldest prince.

Something happened to the Yan family in Yancheng County. The group of salt merchants did not know that the person who was investigating them was the fifth prince at first. They thought he was a stupid young man who had just entered the Yushitai, so they teamed up with the pirates and arrested him.

After the little fool was arrested, he kept shouting that he was the current fifth prince, and asked them not to seek death and to let him go quickly.

At first they thought this silly young man was tricking them into letting him go.

But later, when the Jin Yiwei began to send out in large numbers to Huai'an to find people, they began to realize that they might have arrested the wrong person.

They tried to get the pirates to release her, but the pirates refused to do so and even tried to blackmail them.

The group of salt merchants had no choice but, under the instigation of the salt merchant named Du, they collectively submitted a letter to threaten the emperor and let them go.

The salt merchants in Jiangnan were all panicked when they heard what happened in Huai'an.

I don’t know what’s wrong with the minds of those people in Huai’an Prefecture. Who knows if they will be implicated?

After the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Li Zhao left Huai'an Prefecture and went to Nanjing.

No one knows what happened in Huai'an City.

However, Li Zhao stayed in Nanjing for more than ten days. It is said that he did nothing and stayed in Nanjing Liubu every day to check old files.

Officials invited him to attend banquets, but he refused.

Li Zhao was really scared after being tossed with vegetable oil that had been soaked in deer penis and bull penis.

Sometimes, the most terrifying thing in this world is not what Mencius said: "Toughing one's mind, straining one's muscles and bones, starving one's body and skin, and depleting one's body", but the endless desires.

He didn't want to make Song Qingyue sad just because of this physical desire.

Compared with this little patience, being separated from Song Qingyue is a more terrifying thing.

Li Zhao was not willing to take any risks.

In addition to checking the old files of the Six Ministries of Nanjing, he also summoned the Yingtian Prefecture Yin to listen to reports from the prefectures and counties in Southern Zhili.

Wang Shengtao, the president of the Jiangsu Salt Merchant Association, who had been listening to Xina's concubine singing a tune by the Pingjiang River in Suzhou, heard that the eldest prince had come to Nanjing, and was so frightened that he took a speedboat overnight to see him.

After submitting invitations for several days, I was finally summoned by His Highness the First Prince.

"The common people pay homage to His Highness!"

Wang Sheng stood on the battlefield and knelt down in obeisance.

I saw a very handsome young man sitting in the middle of the hall, carelessly playing with a clear blue round dragon and phoenix jade pendant in his hand.

Li Zhao felt very funny when he saw the big lump of fat lying on the ground. With a movement of his fingers, he hid the jade pendant in his sleeve and said with a smile: "Sit down when you are here. What are you doing lying down?"

"The common people don't dare!" Wang Shengtao was still lying on the ground and did not dare to stand up.

Li Zhao said with a smile: "It has been nearly ten years since we parted ways. Master Wang has not aged at all. He is still so energetic and... rich."

Wang Shengtao quickly apologized and smiled: "It's all thanks to His Highness's care."

Li Zhao asked people to watch tea, and did not talk about business at all. Instead, he said: "I heard that Master Wang has hired a stunning beauty in Suzhou. She is not only stunning in appearance, but also has a great singing voice. Master Wang is so lucky!"

"It's nothing more than complimenting each other and spreading lies among old friends!"

Cold sweat dripped from Wang Shengtao's dark temples, and he hurriedly denied it.

Li Zhao chuckled: "The former singer named Ming Feng in Prince Su's Mansion was the one you presented to your father. My father liked her very much. I don't know who is better than the one in charge of Wang Da's family, Feng Ming."

The two kept chatting over two cups of tea. Li Zhao only talked about trivial matters in his spare time, and Wang Shengtao became more and more restless.

He was the hidden stake planted by Prince Su's Mansion in the south of the Yangtze River, but since Prince Su went to the capital, he gradually escaped from the control of Prince Su's Mansion.

Wang Shengtao knew that it was time to settle the account.

But it's not his fault. At that time, he didn't know that Prince Su's Mansion had the ability to secretly raise an army of 100,000 people in the south, let alone that Prince Su's Mansion had such magical weapons.

If he knew, he would never change his family and help Duke Jing's government!

He wanted to make another meritorious deed, tell Li Zhao all the dirty things, and tell Li Zhao where the fifth prince was now, but he was afraid that he would be self-defeating and make Li Zhao think that he was with the Huai'an gang.

In fact, they were indeed in a group, and they were even related to that group of pirates, but the arrest of the fifth prince had nothing to do with him!

He was really wronged in this matter!

Li Zhao had been chatting with him for so long. Seeing that the fat man still didn't speak, Li Zhao's patience ran out and he picked up the tea cup to see the guest off: "Master Wang, it's getting late. I still have official duties to attend to. Let's

Let’s talk some other day?”

chat?

How to talk?

Whether they sit and talk, or go to the prison and hold a knife to talk, is not certain.

Wang Shengtao was so nervous that he even swayed when he stood up.

Li Zhao looked at him with a half-smile, one step at a time, and walked towards the door.

Walking to the threshold, Wang Shengtao raised his feet, put them down, lifted them up, and put them down again.

Li Zhao didn't say anything. He just held the teacup and sat there quietly, staring coldly. His fingertips were tapping on the table. The sound was so soft that it was almost inaudible, but each time it struck Master Wang's heart,

It left him almost breathless.

As he took a breath, he saw the fat man suddenly turning around, walking back to Li Zhao in a few steps, slamming his knees to the ground with a thud, hugging Li Zhao's thighs and crying: "Your Highness, the poor people plead guilty! The poor people plead guilty! Please, Your Highness

Be merciful and ask Your Highness to let the Cao Min family go! The Cao Min knows where the fifth prince is hidden! The Cao Min will take His Highness to find the fifth prince tonight!"

Li Zhao then put down his teacup: "What else?"

"The villain will take the initiative to make up for the salt tax that the Wang family has evaded over the years... No, double the amount!"

"Just your family?" Li Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The grassroots people here have records of Jiangsu salt merchants selling illegal salt. Although it is incomplete, it is pretty good. There is also a record of all the bribes accepted by Jiangsu border salt officials over the years!"

These things were kept by Wang Shengtao or used to blackmail officials, or to save his life in this situation.

But Li Zhao smiled, but was still dissatisfied: "Are you avoiding the important and taking the easy? You know what I want!"

Wang Shengtao swallowed his saliva and added: "And... they also tried to drive away the salt merchants from Fujian and Guangdong, controlled the canals and rivers to prevent them from passing through, colluded with the Nanjing government, and drove up the price of salt in the south of the Yangtze River."

"I see... It seems that Shopkeeper Wang still wants to meet the commander of our Jinyi Guards."

Wang Shengtao felt that he was almost forced into a desperate situation. He really had no retreat. The teeth in his mouth were almost broken. He lay on the ground and banged his head, trying to beg the eldest prince to be soft-hearted and not

Kill them all.

"Master Wang, you know, this is the father's will, no one can change it. Here is paper and pen, write down everything you know, the clearer the better, and try to atone for your sins. Maybe my father will look at the past.

If you work hard for Prince Su's Mansion, spare the lives of your family."

Wang Shengtao's forehead bled.

Lying on the ground and crying bitterly.

He shouldn't stay in Jiangnan with any luck.

As soon as King Su ascended the throne, he should have left behind all his wealth and taken his wife, children, and children to Nanyang.

Five days later, Li Zhao's secret document was delivered to the emperor.

The Dongyang navy cooperated with Jinyiwei and Dongchang to act together and almost wiped out all the officials from the Sixth Department of Nanjing.

The target of Li Zhao's trip to the south this time was not the salt merchants in Jiangnan, but the small imperial court in Nanjing.

A country does not need two courts.

It was okay for the treasury to spend some money to support redundant officials, but the large tracts of land occupied by the families of these officials were something the emperor could not tolerate.

Of course, what the emperor could not tolerate the most were the officials who fled south from the capital during the mutiny.

Most of these officials came to Jiangnan.

In the hands of the deposed prince, there was also the late emperor's inheritance edict.

It was a true testament without any flaws.

Jiangnan had money, soldiers, and a small spare court.

As long as the deposed prince makes a little effort, he can directly ascend the throne in Nanjing.

At that time, a large number of gentry, landowners and scholars who opposed the unified payment of grain by officials and gentry will gather around the deposed prince and fight against the northern court.

The emperor did not allow such a thing to happen. He would rather bear the infamy of a tyrant and kill Jiangnan into a river of blood, but also push forward the matter of "officials and gentry receiving food from one body".
Chapter completed!