Lu Youwei bowed respectfully to Lu Bian, turned around and left.
Seeing Lu Youwei's back disappearing at the door, Lu Bian sighed and wanted to say something, but the 'Salt Girl' suddenly jumped in front of him and said: "Sir, the Hongnong Yang family sent to Fanyang County, the old man named Huang Shuren is supposed to
He said he would come to us again, but he hasn't come to visit recently, so he couldn't have fallen into Wang Junlin's hands, right?"
Lu Bian's expression condensed and he said: "It is possible, but this person falling into the hands of Wang Junlin will not have much impact on our Lu family. Even if the ins and outs of a thousand cavalry are known to Wang Junlin, there is no evidence that Wang Junlin will
You can’t do anything to us.”
Yan Nu nodded, remembered something, raised her eyebrows and said: "I always feel that with Li Zixiong's current status, the Yang family of Hongnong should not be able to control Yang Su after Yang Su's death, otherwise the emperor would have removed Li Zixiong from the position of general manager of Youzhou.
Replaced."
Lu Bian thought for a moment, his eyes flashed, his whole body was shocked, and he lost his voice: "You mean Yang Su is not dead yet?"
Yan Nu shook her head and said: "The Nu family just feels that this is a possibility. After all, Yang Su has achieved great success after pacifying Bingzhou and has been a powerful minister for so many years. With His Majesty's habits today, if he continues to live, not only will his own fate be difficult
It is expected that even the Hongnong Yang family may be implicated."
If Wang Junlin were here at this time, he would be shocked after hearing what Yan Nu said, and he would regard her as a formidable enemy. This woman just asked Yang Zixiong to send a thousand cavalry to cooperate with Lu to surround and kill him.
From this incident, it was actually guessed that Yang Su had faked his death, which was enough to show that this woman's mind was at the level of a monster.
Lu Bian was speechless for a long time. After a while, he sighed and said with some emotion: "Now it seems that Yang Su was forced by the emperor and Wang Junlin to fake his death."
After a pause, Lu Bian said: "I still feel that Wang Junlin shouldn't be so calm."
Yan Nu thought for a while and then responded calmly: "Wang Junlin naturally shouldn't be so calm, but after all, the Lu family is the most powerful family in the world today, and it is also a great Confucian family. It has a very high status among the scholars of the Sui Dynasty. The Lu family in the imperial court
There are many people who are officials, and they are related by marriage to many other aristocratic families. If Wang Junlin does not have a valid reason or evidence, even with the support of the emperor, he will not dare to follow our Lu family.
Then he took action."
…
…
"Sir, Fan Yang. The navy went out in full force early this morning and returned to the station this afternoon. Immediately afterwards, they reported to the imperial court eight hundred miles away, saying that they had wiped out all the five thousand pirates who invaded Fan Yang County a few days ago. And in
Prior to this, Dou Shihai, the lieutenant general of the navy, went to the Lu family's manor in Zhuo County the day before yesterday." Shen Guoer reported to Wang Junlin at the prefecture of Fanyang County.
"Is there no news about Xiaoyu yet?" Wang Junlin frowned, feeling a little worried about Nie Xiaoyu and his party.
Shen Guoer was also a little worried, with a frown on her face and shook her head: "Not yet."
Wang Junlin thought for a while and then said: "We can't wait for news. You can send someone back to find a boat to go to the sea and go to the Snake Island to have a look."
Shen Guoer looked solemn and said, "Guoer remembers it."
Wang Junlin asked again: "Isn't there any news from Youzhou?"
Shen Guoer said with an aggrieved face: "It's true that my master and senior Chunqiu Nu only thought about killing people and doing things, and never thought about sending people to deliver messages. Fortunately, I had thought of this a long time ago and sent people to You in advance.
The Lan Yiwei Mansion branch office in the state said that they just sent a message today, saying that the families of Lu Han and Guan Xiaotong have been rescued, and now they are waiting for my master and others to kill them when Li Zixiong sends people to kill them.
Rescue the more than 500 cavalry and bring them back."
Wang Junlin nodded and said, "Have you found any useful information yet?"
Shen Guoer thought for a moment and said: "Fanyang County is one of the largest sea salt producing areas in the Sui Dynasty, but the annual salt tax is less than 200,000 taels of silver. According to the information I found, the Lu family has a salt shop in The profit from selling private salt is no less than one million taels of silver every year, and this salt shop is not only owned by the Lu family. It is likely that many officials from Fanyang County are involved. I suspect that Fanyang and Navy Commander Dou Shihai are also involved. .”
A cold light flashed in Wang Junlin's eyes and he said, "Does General Ying Yanglang Xue Li have anything to do with this salt business?"
Shen Guoer said: "Based on the current information, Xue Li has no relationship with Yanxing, but whether there is any relationship will ultimately be further determined."
Wang Junlin snorted coldly.
, said: "We will vigorously investigate this salt bank. I want to know who in Fanyang County has taken money from this salt bank."
Shen Guoer said quickly: "Guoer understands what to do."
Wang Junlin took a slight breath and said, "Okay, Guo'er, go and do your work! Don't forget to send someone to find a way to go to the sea to explore Snake Island as soon as possible."
Shen Guo'er nodded and said, "Guo'er will make arrangements as soon as possible. If there is nothing else, sir, Guo'er will go down first."
…
…
The next day, Wang Junlin went to work at the county government. He walked in and sat down, then called over the official in charge of the salt tax.
The tax revenue in the county belongs to the general manager of the salt tax. It will take half a month for Du Ruhui to come from Changxiang County. The official who was called by Wang Junlin to be responsible for the salt tax is named Qian Zhengkuo. Wang Junlin remembers that this person came from him. During the meeting on the first day at work, he acted taciturn and cautious.
Wang Junlin glanced at Qian Zhengkuo, who was saluting him respectfully, motioned for him to exempt himself from the ceremony, and asked, "How much is the salt tax in this county now?"
Qian Zhengkuo blurted out without any thought: "Reporting to the Grand Administrator, since Your Majesty came to the throne, the annual salt tax in this county ranges from 200,000 taels of silver to 250,000 taels of silver."
Wang Junlin said calmly: "Why so few?"
Qian Zhengkuo thought for a moment, glanced at Wang Junlin carefully, and said: "At its peak, Fanyang County boiled the sea into salt, and could earn 500,000 shi a year!"
Wang Junlin did the math and found that more than five hundred thousand rock salt was a large amount. Converted into money, it was two million taels of silver. This should be the bulk of Fanyang County's finances. According to his plan, the next step is to take initial control. After moving to Fanyang County, he has to do a lot of things, and each of these things requires a lot of money. He can't use his own money to do a lot of official work! So if the county government doesn't have money financially, he can't do anything. If you can't do it, this is a very important thing.
But what Qian Zhengkuo said immediately made Wang Junlin's face become more and more gloomy. He seemed to hesitate slightly and said: "Sir, although Fanyang County has taken back the salt and iron to the government, the result is... every year The salt produced...is getting less and less year by year, and now there are only 100,000 shi..."