“I don’t want you to get cold. If you become sick, you won’t be allowed to hug Mingzhu,“ Zhao Jinge said with red eyes. This time, Jiang Zhen was okay, so his heart was relieved, and he could not control his emotions anymore.

Jiang Zhen quickly put on his clothes. “Jinge, I am fine.“

Zhou Maohe finally got rid of old lady Jiang, but his official clothes were in a mess. He ran to Jiang Zhen’s side, gave him a cold glare, and then called his people as they ran straight to Qingfeng House.

Regarding Qingfeng House, not to mention corruption, it was reported to have many things inside that could only be found inside the imperial palace. This could also make Jiang Zhen and Zheng Yi drink a pot!

Even though he has  changed his mind about Jiang Zhen, Zhou Maohe still felt that Zheng Yi and this man were not good people.

Zhou Maohe left quickly, while Jiang Zhen was surrounded by others  pulling Zhao Jinge outside. Jiang Zhen walked towards Zheng Yi. “Young Master Zheng, I’m afraid the imperial envoy is going to Qingfeng House.“

Before, someone made trouble in Qingfeng House. When Jiang Zhen first heard about it, he did not care much , but thinking about it, he figured out that the person who went to make trouble before was probably Zhou Maohe. And he might be going there again.

“Qingfeng House?“ Zheng Yi was stunned, but then immediately said, “Let the people here disperse, and then we will go to the Qingfeng House together to have a look.“

Jiang Zhen nodded and followed Zheng Yi onto the  carriage that was already prepared by Zheng Yi a long time ago, then the two of them went to the Qingfeng House together.

Zhao Jinge also wanted to follow them, but he still needed to pacify the people of Hexi, so he could only stay behind.

“Jiang Zhen, I’m afraid I’ve dragged you into this incident. I’m really sorry,“ Zheng Yi said When he got on the carriage.

“Young Master Zheng, no one would have expected such an unexpected accident. It is also not necessarily that its Young Master Zheng who implicated me. Maybe someone saw me in a bad light and bribed the Jiang family to do it,“ Jiang Zhen said. Many people thought that the silver on Jiang Chengxiang and old lady Jiang was something that they originally had, but he knew for sure that it was not so.

The Jiang family definitely could not have that much money anymore, so this silver was definitely given to them by someone else. However, this matter could be put aside for the moment and slowly investigated later.

“Do you think it could be Feng Jinyuan?“ Zheng Yi asked. Previously, Feng Jinyuan advised him to break his wrist.

“He is now attached to you, Young Master Zheng, so he would not be so fast to destroy you,“ Jiang Zhen said. At the beginning, Feng Jingyuan was slapped in the face by him, but he still went to his door, time after time to give him a gift and to make amends . . . Such a person would never do such a thing at this time.

“Then who could it be?“ Zheng Yi frowned. He had always been peaceful when making money and never crossed a line while doing business. Not to mention Jiang Zhen, who also knew how to take  measures!

“Wait until this is over and then  investigate slowly,“ Jiang Zhen said.

“Also . . . I am not sure how long this Lord Zhou will continue to cause  trouble.“ Zheng Yi could not help frowning while thinking of Zhou Maohe.

Relatively speaking, this Zhou Maohe was not a bad person, but he still did not like him because he was like this.

“Young Master Zheng, if he wants to make a scene, why don’t we give him a push?“ Jiang Zhen suddenly said.

“What?“ Zheng Yi was stunned.

Jiang Zhen did not say anything this time, but wrote the words, “private salt,“ on Zheng Yi’s hand.

He once had the idea of selling private salt. When he went out to buy seafood, he also saw how the Hongjiang salt farm pocketed the whole coastline and then sold private and official salt together.

There were sea merchants in Hexing Prefecture, but they all do business in the south because the influence of the Hongjiang salt farm was too large.

Hongjiang salt farm, relying on salt, had  long-established a huge interest group in the Hexing Prefecture and Wuzhong Prefecture, north of Hexing.

In Hexing Prefecture and Wuzhong Prefecture, there were countless wealthy salt merchants, including those big salt merchants, so the rich families in the south of the Yangtze River intervened.

Everyone has to eat salt, so people were  not allowed to sell salt privately. It was reasonable that the annual salt tax to be very high, but in fact, it was just the opposite.

Although the salt tax was still high in recent years, it has become lower and lower, so it was obvious that money has fattened all kinds of salt merchants in the end.

It has been more than three hundred years since the founding of Daqi, and many drawbacks have become more and more obvious. The central government had been short of money; otherwise, the empress dowager would not have come up with the idea of appointing some imperial businessmen to save money.

Under such circumstances, the empress dowager  wanted to rectify the salt affairs for a long time, but still has  not started on it. That was because no one dared to do anything about it, for the fear of being killed by those salt merchants in the end.

But at the moment . . . wasn’t there an upright and righteous imperial envoy?

“Jiang Zhen!“ Zheng Yi was startled to see Jiang Zhen draw out these two words. Jiang Zhen even dared to think about it!

Can ordinary people move this piece? Even his uncle, someone in the court, when mentioning this matter, only dared to say that he did not know. However, it was not necessarily a bad idea for Zhou Maohe to rectify salt affairs. He was afraid that only people like Zhou Maohe would dare to do such a thing.

“I can improve . . . and increase . . . production in the future,“ Jiang Zhen said. 

At this time period, people boiled salt, but in fact, salt could be sun-dried.

Zheng Yi’s heart missed a beat.

When Jiang Zhen first mentioned this matter, he did not understand why Jiang Zhen said this, but right then . . . Although the meaning of what Jiang Zhen said was unclear, he already understood.

Jiang Zhen intended to let Zhou Maohe break up the interest groups that gathered together because of salt and then get a piece of the pie.

“This . . . It’s too risky.“ 

“Young Master Zheng, the Zheng family now relies on the empress dowager, but what if His Majesty ascends the throne in the future?“ Jiang Zhen asked in a low voice.

“His Majesty is the empress dowager’s own . . .“

“Has there ever been less competition for power and profit between a mother and son and a father and son?“ Jiang Zhen asked.

Jiang Zhen had always felt that the Zheng family was not stable now.

Master Zheng was the only one in the Zheng family who was an official, not to mention that he walked on the same path as the empress dowager . . . If one day the empress dowager fell, what would the Zheng family do?

“But if you get involved in that . . .“

“As long as salt money is sent to the capital and the salt tax becomes higher and higher, will His Majesty still dislike the Zheng family?“ Jiang Zhen asked.

“Let me think.“ Zheng Yi took a deep breath, his heart was a little confused.

He had always known that Jiang Zhen was bold, but he had never thought that Jiang Zhen could be so bold. Hell, even he was moved.

If the Zheng family were to manage the salt business well, His Majesty’s private treasury would have money, the Ministry of Finance would also have money . . . Whether it was the empress dowager or His Majesty, they would not be willing to make a move against the Zheng family.

Of course, they also have to be careful, not like the group of people in the Hongjiang salt field, dazzled by their own interests and only knew how to steal more money for themselves.

Zheng Yi only felt that he thought for a short time when the carriage stopped; they arrived at Qingfeng House.

Qingfeng House had been surrounded by Zhou Maohe’s men, and he was about to enter.

Seeing Zheng Yin and Jiang Zhen arrive, Zhou Maohe immediately said, “You two came quickly! Afraid that I will find here, what is only available in the palace?“

Zhou Maohe looked like he was sure that there was something fishy inside, but Zheng Yi was rendered speechless for a moment.

He did not have the guts to put something only available in the palace inside Qingfeng House. This was simply feeding false information.

The main reason why Qingfeng House was so popular was that there were many novelties that people had never seen before. However, if Zhou Maohe wanted to search, he could go ahead and search.

Zheng Yi was very frank, “Lord Zhou, how could I, as a merchant, dare to touch things in the palace? Lord Zhou can just go in and investigate.“

Zhou Maohe coldly snorted and went inside as Zheng Yi added, “Lord Zhou, why don’t you let me follow, so I can introduce the situation inside to you?“

Zheng Yi and Jiang Zhen were just two people, so Zhou Maohe did not stop them. He then went inside together with them.

At this point in time, Qingfeng House used to be very busy, but this day was different.

When the imperial envoy came to Hecheng County, many businessmen ran  out to see the imperial envoy of the Daqi dynasty. Because of this, there were not many guests in Qingfeng House. At this moment, those guests blocked from going out, were all scared.

These days, even going out to have a meal and small gambling pleasure was not easy . They could not believe that, it even attracted the imperial envoy!

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

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