Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

One year's salary fine!

This is the punishment imposed by the Central Military Governor's Office on Yang Zhengshan for leading troops out of the country without permission.

However, Yang Zhengshan felt that this must be the intention of the old emperor.

For such a result, Yang Zhengshan felt relieved and a little resentful.

He was relieved because the punishment was not heavy, just one year's salary, which was really nothing to him. The Yang family did not rely on his salary to make a living now, and a year's salary fine would not affect the daily life of the Yang family.

As for resentment, how could a worker not have resentment after having his salary deducted for a year?

"The old emperor is not a human being!"

"It's okay for you to fine your son's salary, but why do you have to fine me?"

"I did this without any selfish motives, but you actually fined my salary. It's really wrong to distinguish right from wrong!"

Of course, Yang Zhengshan only muttered these words in his heart, and he didn't dare to say them out loud.

There is no way, the old emperor is the biggest, we can't afford to provoke him.

Soon, Yang Zhengshan put the punishment and the resentment in his heart behind his mind, and he continued to work hard for the construction of Tenglongwei.

A few days later, his memorial was sent to Kyoto again.

In the imperial study of the imperial city.

Emperor Chengping leaned on the bright yellow soft couch, Prince Xin knelt in front of him, and Eunuch Chen and several young eunuchs stood beside him without daring to breathe.

Prince Xin had been kneeling for an hour, his body trembling slightly, and his forehead was covered with beads of sweat, not because of tiredness or fear.

Emperor Chengping looked at the memorial in his hand without saying a word, and ignored Prince Xin.

Until he turned to Yang Zhengshan's memorial, his expression changed, not because of the content of the memorial, he had not read the memorial carefully, but because when he saw Yang Zhengshan's name, he thought of this useless son in front of him.

Emperor Chengping raised his eyelids and asked calmly, "Do you know why I asked you to kneel here?"

Prince Xin heard this and quickly bowed his head, "I don't know!"

Seeing him like this, Emperor Chengping was furious and picked up the memorial on the table and threw it at him.

"I don't know, useless trash, what else do you know?"

The memorial hit Prince Xin's head and forehead.

Eunuch Chen next to him reached out to take it, but stopped.

"Your people didn't kill Luo Fu, but became prisoners!"

"Haha, you are really capable. You dare to send people to kill Luo Fu!"

"If you killed Luo Fu, I would still look up to you, but what was the result?"

"You didn't kill him, and you also sent your handle to the door!"

"Shameful trash!"

Emperor Chengping was really angry.

As an emperor, he didn't care about good and evil, morality, and morality. He only cared about imperial power and interests.

As for his sons, he also hoped that they were all good babies.

A good boy can't sit on the throne, and even if he sits on it, he can't sit firmly.

Prince Xin wants to kill Luo Fu, this is nothing!

If he were in the position of Prince Xin, he would not only kill Luo Fu, but also kill all the insiders, including Zheng Xiao, Yang Zhengshan, and all those who are involved and may affect him.

But he would never act so rashly, nor would he send people around him to do such things.

Not being ruthless enough, not being thorough enough, this is Emperor Chengping's evaluation of Prince Xin.

"I know my mistakes, please punish me, father!" Prince Xin touched the ground with his forehead, and didn't dare to look up at all, nor did he dare to say a word of rebuttal.

"I know my mistakes, haha~ Your biggest mistake is that you shouldn't have ambitions!"

Emperor Chengping looked at Prince Xin coldly.

Prince Xin was completely panicked, "Father!"

Emperor Chengping interrupted him, "Pack up and go to the vassal, be a prince honestly, and don't go back to Kyoto in this life!"

Prince Xin's face turned pale.

Go to the vassal!

Far away from Kyoto, he has no chance anymore.

And Emperor Chengping has completely given up on him!

"Father! I know I was wrong!" Prince Xin cried and begged.

"Get out!" Emperor Chengping roared hoarsely.

Seeing this, Eunuch Chen hurried forward, "Your Highness Prince Xin, please leave first!"

As he said that, he winked at the eunuchs next to him, and the eunuchs immediately stepped forward and half-supported and half-dragged Prince Xin out of the imperial study.

After Prince Xin left, Eunuch Chen immediately served tea to Emperor Chengping, "Your Majesty, calm down, please take the emperor's health first!"

Emperor Chengping took a deep breath, took the tea and sipped it lightly, and it took a long time for his breath to recover.

He pointed to the messy memorials on the ground, "Bring those over!"

Eunuch Chen quickly picked up the memorials on the ground and placed them neatly on the table.

Emperor Chengping found Yang Zhengshan's memorial from it and read the contents of the memorial carefully.

I was so angry that I threw the memorial without even reading it carefully.

"Navy?"

"Maritime trade!"

After reading the memorial, Emperor Chengping frowned slightly.

Yang Zhengshan did not hide his idea of ​​developing maritime trade, but wrote all his ideas in the memorial. However, he knew that if he only talked about maritime trade, the old emperor would probably not agree, so he used the establishment of a navy as an excuse.

As for whether Emperor Chengping would agree to Tenglongwei's establishment of a navy, Yang Zhengshan was still somewhat confident.

This confidence came from the fact that Prince Qing secretly had a maritime trade fleet.

As Yang Zhengshan thought, when Emperor Chengping saw that Yang Zhengshan wanted to build a navy, the first thing he thought of was Prince Qing's maritime trade fleet.

"Does Prince Qing have a large fleet?" Emperor Chengping asked Eunuch Chen.

Eunuch Chen quickly replied: "Yes, according to the investigation of the Secret Guard, Prince Qing started to build a fleet eight years ago, and now this fleet has more than 80 ships of various sizes!"

The Secret Guard has been keeping an eye on Prince Qing for many years, and has even strengthened the monitoring of Prince Qing many times. Unfortunately, Prince Qing is very careful and does everything just right.

Take the fleet as an example. It stands to reason that princes and dukes cannot do business, let alone maritime trade, even ordinary business is not allowed.

But rules are just rules, and some rules have long been broken by default. Now the princes of the entire Darong are doing business, and Emperor Chengping can't punish Prince Qing for doing business.

"Has the Secret Guard not found out where Prince Qing's fleet is going?" Emperor Chengping continued to ask.

Eunuch Chen shook his head slightly, "According to the investigation of the Secret Guard, in recent years, the fleet of Prince Qing has been frequently traveling between the Lisheng Dynasty and the Desheng Dynasty. On the surface, it is mainly engaged in trade, but there are still many things hidden in secret."

"The Secret Guard has speculated that Prince Qing may have a station overseas, but the Secret Guard has not been able to infiltrate Prince Qing's fleet, so this speculation has never been verified!"

Emperor Chengping silently put down the memorial in his hand. He had to praise Prince Qing for his prudence and thoroughness.

The things that Prince Qing revealed on the surface were so just right that he couldn't find a suitable reason.

Sometimes he really wanted to take down Prince Qing at all costs.

It's a pity that he couldn't make up his mind.

"Tenglong Guard wants to establish a navy, what do you think?" Emperor Chengping was silent for a while, then asked.

He focused on the navy and didn't care about Yang Zhengshan's desire to engage in maritime trade at all.

"I dare not speak nonsense!" Eunuch Chen said with his head down.

"Old thing, just say it when you are told to!" Emperor Chengping said impatiently.

Eunuch Chen thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "I think we can let Tenglong Vanguard build a navy!"

"Tenglong Vanguard!" Emperor Chengping rubbed the memorial on the table, "Who will be the commander of Tenglong Vanguard!"

Tenglong Guard, Tenglong Vanguard, one more word has a different meaning.

In fact, there is no Tenglong Vanguard now, only Tenglong Guard. The so-called Tenglong front, back, left, and right guards are not organized, but are just the internal divisions of Tenglong Guard.

If there is one more Tenglong Vanguard, a part of the military households will be separated from Tenglong Guard and added to Tenglong Vanguard, and Tenglong Vanguard will also set up a commander and a guard office.

This is equivalent to two offices, two sets of equal leadership teams.

"General Yang can take up the position temporarily!" said Eunuch Chen.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chengping smiled faintly.

This idea is very much in line with his mind.

"Then let's do it!"

After that, he approved the memorial.

Eunuch Chen immediately stepped forward to take the memorial, "I will pass on your Majesty's intention to Duke Ningguo!"

"Yes!"

Emperor Chengping nodded and picked up another memorial to read.

...

At the end of July, the corruption case of Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau was closed.

The four people, Luo Fu, the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner, Tang Bo, the Liaoan Censor, Xu Huazhen, the Liaoan Vanguard Commander, and Zhao Mingsheng, the former Liaodong Salt Inspector, were confiscated and executed.

More than 30 officials from Liaoyuan Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, the Commander's Office, the Censor's Office, the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office, the Liaoan Prefectural Office, and other offices were implicated and dismissed or demoted.

Eight other salt merchants were confiscated, and more than ten salt merchants had their dirty silver confiscated.

After this case, the Liaodong Salt Administration and Salt Industry almost collapsed.

Other offices were fine, but the Salt Transport Commissioner's Office was almost wiped out.

From the salt transport envoy to the salt field official, almost no one was spared.

Yang Zhengshan could only say that it was a nest of snakes and rats.

However, these were all matters of the Salt Transport Department, and he had no control over the Salt Transport Department. Compared with the handling of the officials of the Salt Transport Department, he was more concerned about the handling of the salt merchants.

The eight salt merchants were confiscated, which meant that a large market was vacated in Liaodong, which meant that new salt merchants would occupy these markets in the future, and that Tenglongwei Salt Field could sell more salt.

The turmoil in the salt trade this time was undoubtedly an opportunity.

After learning about the situation in Liao'an Prefecture, Yang Zhengshan immediately wrote a letter to Luo Shang, asking him to go to Liao'an Prefecture to see the situation and try to take the opportunity to occupy a larger salt market.

However, this matter still requires Zheng Xiao's consent. After the collapse of the Salt Transport Department, the salt policy in Liaodong can almost be said to be dominated by Zheng Xiao.

If the Luo family wants to occupy a larger market, they cannot do without Zheng Xiao's support.

But Yang Zhengshan did not write a letter to Zheng Xiao, and did not speak for the Luo family.

How to say this!

Yang Zhengshan is not a businessman. The reason why he intervened in the salt trade was to increase the income for Tenglongwei, not to make money.

If the Luo family occupied a larger market, Tenglongwei's salt field would definitely not be able to meet the demand, so the Luo family would buy salt from other salt fields.

Since they bought salt from other salt fields, it had nothing to do with Tenglongwei.

Moreover, Tenglongwei's salt field could be expanded, but it could not be expanded indefinitely.

Tenglongwei could make money through the salt field, but it could not occupy too much share in the salt market in Liaodong.

The reason was simple. There were still countless households in Liaodong who made a living by boiling and drying salt. If Tenglongwei occupied too much share, many households would lose their livelihoods.

So Yang Zhengshan's idea was that the Tenglongwei salt field could occupy the salt market of the three prefectures at most, and no more.

But in this way, the Luo family occupied other markets and bought salt from other salt fields, which became the Luo family's own business, so Yang Zhengshan did not intervene, but only reminded Luo Shang.