It was still on Heyan'er Street, the most dilapidated street outside Wuchang. Near noon, Zhu Yunxi ignored the objections of his men, insisted on leaving Li Jinglong and He Guangyi, and casually found a restaurant.
As soon as we sat down and before the food was served, Hu Huan came over quietly and whispered in Zhu Yunxi's ear, "Smuggled from Wuchang to Xiangyang by water."
"Wuchang is the thoroughfare of nine provinces, and Xiangyang is an important town dividing the north and the south. In order to avoid taxes in Xiangyang, some businessmen used official ships to fish for sand as a guise, and took half the sand and half the cargo to Xiangyang by water."
"Shachuan has official documents from the government, but Xiangyang won't check them. This time, the tax evaded is not even a speck!"
Zhu Yunxi was sitting at the dining table, looking at the sails passing by on the river, and asked, "Who are the smugglers? Who's businessman is so bold as to smuggle in a government sand boat?"
"Uh..." Hu Guan muttered slightly, "The smugglers are just helping the smugglers!"
Zhu Yunxi laughed immediately!
Understand, this is a line specially designed to help others smuggle.
But his smile seemed a little cold, because this kind of smuggling activity must only be done by people with great connections in the government.
Moreover, it is far worse than merchant smuggling.
Just imagine, this is not something that can be done by one person, but many people are involved from top to bottom, and it is a line of interests.
"So, this is the reason why the Xu family's father and sister-in-law were waiting for the ship to sink, but the other ship refused to save it!" Zhu Yunxi sneered, "This is also the reason why they tried their best to cover it up and did not allow the people to complain!"
"Long live the Holy Ming!" Hu Guan whispered, "The ship sank and people died. Whether it is to fish out the ship or fish out the bodies, the Yangtze River Navy will be alarmed... This matter will definitely not be solved!
"
Zhu Yunxi narrowed his eyes, "Actually, there is another possibility! Could it be that when the ship sank, the civilians on the ship discovered the smuggling, so someone deliberately ignored it... and killed people to silence them?"
"Long live the Lord and see thousands of miles away!" Hu Guan said again, "It is definitely possible. But now, there is no proof!"
As he spoke, he paused and continued, "Last night, the people below started to investigate. The first people to investigate were the boss and supervisor of another unsinked sand ship that day. But surprisingly, this
Both..."
"Can you see people alive or dead?" Zhu Yunxi asked coldly.
"Yes!" Hu Guan whispered, "Not only can they not be found, but their family members can also not be found!"
As he said that, he looked at Zhu Yunxi's face and said, "It doesn't matter if they can't find it, as long as they can find the ship. Since they are using an official ship, they can just find someone from the Wuchang Shipping Department!"
"So Wei Chen found one of the people from the Shipbuilding Department and used some tricks to recruit them all!"
"There's another thing here. Why don't they use big ships? Because the big ships are rented out to help merchants transport goods!"
"Also, big ships are flat boats, which are difficult to carry in the cabin. Although small boats are small, they are bucket boats, which is convenient for hiding things!"
Zhu Yunxi stretched out his slender fingers and tapped on the table, "Supreme, who is involved?"
"Currently, the highest-level people involved in the case are Zhang Qian, the prefect of Wuchang, Qian Dayong, the head of the Shipping Department, and Wang Guangjing, the commander of the Military and Horse Department..." Hu Guan paused again as he spoke, "Time is running out, Xiangyang side
I haven't checked it yet, but in my opinion, it must be related, otherwise even a sand ship wouldn't be able to move so smoothly."
"Ha!" Zhu Yunxi sneered again, "It's not that it should be related, but it must be related!" After saying that, he looked at Hu Guan, "Does the Yangtze River Navy have anything to do with it?" m.gΟиЪ.ōΓＧ
"Return to Long Live Lord, Changhou is still very strict in running the army!" Hu Guan whispered.
It is not unusual for anything to happen in the local area, because it has been like this for thousands of years in all dynasties. The huge territory of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, is a complicated network of relationships when viewed from a different perspective.
Behind these webs, there are countless unclear interest relationships and unclear darkness.
Even the emperor was so angry that he tore these nets apart. But it didn't take long for a new net to be woven and blinded again.
The only thing that made Zhu Yunxi somewhat gratified was that none of the Huguang Dusi under Chang Sen was involved in these matters.
But think about it, in troubled times, warriors are naturally rampant. In peaceful times, civil servants in charge of civil affairs are popular.
And compared to military men, civilian officials have a natural advantage.
That is, they are close to being deeply embedded in the local power structure. Money and power hit it off, forming a huge force that is difficult to separate.
Moreover, this kind of power is hereditary!
"Here's the confession!" Hu Huan patted his sleeves.
"I won't read it!" Zhu Yunxi waved his hand and sighed, "I'm also angry after watching it!"
As he spoke, he sighed again, "Actually, I'm not very angry that the officials came forward to help with the smuggling. There weren't many things that were more unpleasant than this in the Ming Dynasty, right?"
"This matter is hidden from the court, but is it a secret locally? How can other officials not know? They just have nothing to do with it!"
"What makes me sad is the dozens of lives lost." Zhu Yunxi said with a sneer, "How many people do you need to say hello to cover this cover?"
"Among so many people from top to bottom, even if there are only one or two with a conscience, why would they hide it so hard and bully the people so miserably?"
"Even if they don't dare to offend their colleagues or disobey their superiors locally, wouldn't they dare to report secretly? Is the Institute of Integrity a decoration? Are the Imperial Guards a decoration?"
At this point, Zhu Yunxi frowned and sighed again, "There are also Huguang's left and right political figures, Yu Xin and Jin Chun. When they were in Beijing, it seemed that they were both rare talents, so I specially arranged for them to practice locally...
."
These two men came to Huguang to support the overall situation together with Huaiyuan Hou Changsen when they were dealing with the king of Chu.
Originally, they were all figures who were favored by Jian in the emperor's heart and had a bright future. But now, Zhu Yunxi had to re-examine them.
Hu Guan lowered his head, weighing it over and over in his mind, and then hesitantly said, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm going to say good things to them, and I don't have to say good things to them, but..."
"But what?"
"But these two adults, I'm afraid they really don't know the inside story!" Hu Guan said, "Wei Chen also asked such a question last night when he was interrogating the case!"
He paused again, observing Zhu Yunxi's face, "Hubei officialdom, because the two of them were transferred from Beijing, they are always on guard."
"The local officials will definitely not get too close to them." Hu Guan added, "They have no eyes, ears, or eyes. They don't know many things. It's not surprising!"
"Furthermore, these two adults are in the Chief Secretary's Office, and the affairs of the state government are not noticed by them!"
"Ha!" Zhu Yunxi smiled.
As an uncle, even if he becomes the leader of the shadows, he still has that naive streak in his heart.
If the emperor had said this to Mr. Park before, he would never have said anything.
But the reason why Zhu Yunxi trusted Hu Guan was because he had this naive spirit in his heart when faced with big issues of right and wrong.
"Your Majesty, what's next...?"
"If you do this, come over here!" Zhu Yunxi whispered.
