Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

When Yang Zhengshan returned to the mansion in the afternoon, Ji Hai had already left Chongshan Pass.

This guy came and went in a hurry, very much like a martial artist.

Of course, he brought five carts of wine and drinks when he left.

In the mansion, Yang Mingcheng told Yang Zhengshan about what he saw Ji Hai today, "Dad, why did you ask Senior Ji to come to Chongshan Pass?"

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and smiled, "If I'm not mistaken, Ji Zhen is probably already in the innate realm!"

"Ah!" Yang Mingcheng was shocked.

"That can't be, Senior Ji is eighty years old now!"

Yang Mingcheng is no longer a Wuxia Amon. His cultivation has reached the eighth level of the acquired realm, and he has begun to practice Yimu Changchun Gong. His understanding of the innate realm is far beyond the past.

It is not easy for an acquired warrior to break through to the innate realm. Generally speaking, the older you are, the smaller the chance of breaking through.

Aging, exhaustion of qi and blood, and mental decline will all affect the progress of cultivation.

The peak period of a post-natal warrior is in his forties. After the age of fifty, his strength will decline and it will be difficult to make further progress.

Although half-step innate can alleviate the difficulties caused by physical aging to a certain extent, it cannot reverse the birth, aging, illness and death.

It is almost impossible to step into the threshold of innateness at the age of eighty.

"If it were someone else, it might be difficult, but for Ji Zhen, there is still a chance!"

Yang Zhengshan explained: "Ji Zhen has been famous for a long time. He was already a post-natal ninth-level warrior in his forties. Although his body has been declining over the years, his decades of foundation are not comparable to ordinary warriors."

"And don't forget that Hengdaomen has obtained a lot of Baicao Brew from us over the years!"

Lingquan water does not have the effect of reversing birth, aging, illness and death, but Lingquan water can enhance physical fitness, improve potential, and can greatly delay the aging of the body.

Since Ji Hai saved Yang Mingcheng, the Yang family would send a festival gift to Hengdaomen every year, and every festival gift would include Baicao Brew and Donglingchun.

As early as several years ago, Ji Hai went to Tenglongwei to ask Yang Zhengshan for Baicao Brew.

In the past few years, Ji Zhen drank no less than a hundred jars of Baicao Brew.

With the nourishment of so many spiritual springs, plus Ji Zhen's own foundation, breaking through to the Xiantian realm is no longer out of reach.

Yang Mingcheng listened to Yang Zhengshan's explanation and showed a look of realization.

"So that's it!"

"When can Dad break through the Xiantian realm?"

He looked at Yang Zhengshan expectantly.

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and smiled, but said: "This is not something you should worry about!"

Except for Yu Qingyi, no one else knew about his breakthrough.

The reason why Yu Qingyi knew was because Yang Zhengshan gave Sanhuangli to Yu Qingyi. If he didn't tell Yu Qingyi that he had broken through, Yu Qingyi would not take Sanhuangli.

As for the others, it's not that Yang Zhengshan didn't trust his family, but he was just afraid that they would let it slip.

"You should practice well and strive to break through to the Xiantian realm as soon as possible!"

Yang Zhengshan patted Yang Mingcheng on the shoulder, then left the main hall and went back to the main courtyard.

Yang Mingcheng scratched his head, feeling a little depressed.

It is really difficult to reach the Xiantian realm.

Let alone the Xiantian realm, he now feels very far away from the ninth level of the acquired realm.

The higher the cultivation level, the harder it is to advance. Even if Yang Mingcheng drank countless spiritual spring water, he still had no confidence in becoming a Xiantian warrior.

…

In the imperial study room of the Kyoto Imperial City.

The Minister of Justice Wei Rong and the Minister of the Dali Temple Yan Ruishu stood in front of the desk.

Emperor Yanping rubbed his eyebrows and said, "I just got the news that Zhao Yunxing was killed a few days ago!"

Wei Rong and Yan Ruishu met each other and frowned.

Zhao Yunxing was a second-rank official of the court. Although he was not an important official of the court, he was also a frontier official.

A second-rank official was killed!

No matter what the reason is, no matter what the hidden secrets are, the court must get to the bottom of it.

"You have also read An Ruhui's memorial!"

"Liaoyuan and Pingyuan are suffering from severe droughts. The court must not allow the two provinces to be in chaos because of this!"

"And Pingyuan officials and businessmen are colluding with each other to plot rebellion. I will never allow this to happen!"

"I have only one request, to find out the case as soon as possible, whether it is the murder of Zhao Yunxing or the collusion between officials and businessmen to plot rebellion, it must be found out as soon as possible!"

Emperor Yanping looked up at the two of them, "How long will it take you to find out?"

This matter cannot be delayed. The longer it is delayed, the more disadvantageous it will be for the court.

"Your Majesty, even if we mobilize people to Pingyuan now, it will take at least a month to find out!" Wei Rong said solemnly.

For a major case like this, the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple naturally need to jointly handle the case.

Although there are many experts in investigating cases in the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, it must take a lot of time to go back and forth.

"One month!" Emperor Yanping frowned.

It is already July, and the drought in Liaodong is already very serious.

Crops in many places have died, and many people are facing the reality of having no harvest this year.

With no harvest, food prices are soaring.

The people are in a panic.

As time goes by, Liaoyuan and Pingyuan will become a huge powder keg. It only takes a little spark to cause a terrible turmoil in the two provinces.

Lack of food is only one of the problems, and water shortage is the most fatal.

Yan Ruishu said, "Your Majesty, can you ask the Secret Guard to help?"

Emperor Yanping shook his head slightly, "Pingyuan is not the focus of the Secret Guard's monitoring. They can only provide you with some evidence, but they can't help too much!"

The Secret Guard is not omnipotent.

The Secret Guard's monitoring focuses on the capital and the border towns. Although there are shadows of the Secret Guard in each state and prefecture, the Secret Guard will not focus on monitoring local officials.

For example, the governor, the censor, the commander-in-chief, etc., only a few people are deployed to monitor.

As for officials such as prefects and prefects, they are not worth the Secret Guard's monitoring.

Emperor Yanping thought for a moment before saying, "You go to investigate the case first. I will discuss with the cabinet and arrange a governor to go to Liaodong to be responsible for disaster relief!"

The case needs to be investigated, and the disaster needs to be relieved.

Compared to disaster relief, investigating the case is secondary.

"Old minister obeys the order!" Wei Rong and Yan Ruishu left the study after receiving the order.

And after they left, Emperor Yanping took out Yang Zhengshan's letter again.

Emperor Yanping thought Yang Zhengshan's proposal to add the Imperial Merchants Department to the court was very good.

However, compared with Yang Zhengshan, Emperor Yanping thought more deeply. Emperor Yanping not only wanted to bring the glass industry under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Merchants Department, but also wanted to bring the salt and iron business under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Merchants Department.

Especially the salt industry. The salt industry in Dayong has long been corrupt. It should be the most profitable industry in the court, but now it can only provide a small amount of salt tax for the court.

If there was no comparison, Emperor Yanping would not have paid attention to the salt business so quickly, but the situation of the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office forced him to question the entire Dayong salt industry.

The reason is very simple. The salt price in Liaodong is the lowest in the whole Dayong, but the salt tax in Liaodong is the highest in the whole Dayong.

The reason for this is that the corruption case of the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office, a major case, swept away a large number of corrupt officials and salt merchants, and Zheng Xiao has been in charge of the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office for these years, so that the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office has always maintained a relatively clean environment.

This is why the salt tax of the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office has been increasing.

After learning about the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner's Office, Emperor Yanping also became interested in the salt industry in other places.

And now Yang Zhengshan's proposal to set up an additional Imperial Merchants Office seems to be able to manage the salt industry.

However, this is not an easy task and needs to be done slowly.

Emperor Yanping pondered for a moment and said to Nansheng: "Let someone copy some of the contents of the Imperial Merchants Office above, so that I can use them later!"

The establishment of the Imperial Merchants Office must be communicated with the cabinet first. As for bringing the salt industry under the management of the Imperial Merchants Office, there is no need to think about it in the short term.

Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish!

Now Emperor Yanping has understood the difficulty of governing a country.

Nansheng stepped forward to take the letter and said: "Your Majesty, the spies in the imperial city have been almost cleared. Do you want to continue digging deeper?"

"No need, the people in front of the emperor will be more cautious in the future." Emperor Yanping waved his hand indifferently.

The spies are naturally the spies buried in the imperial city by various forces in the court.

Since Nan Sheng became the commander of the Imperial Guards, he has been searching for eunuchs and maids in the Imperial City. In less than a month, he has arrested as many as 400 eunuchs and maids.

"Yes!" Nan Sheng responded.

"By the way, are there any people from Marquis Jing'an?" Emperor Yanping suddenly asked.

Nan Sheng's eyes turned slightly, but he lowered his head and said, "No."

"Really?" Emperor Yanping was surprised.

"I dare not deceive your majesty!" Nan Sheng said with his head down.

Emperor Yanping nodded with satisfaction, not knowing whether he was satisfied with Nan Sheng's attitude or that Yang Zhengshan did not plant people in the Imperial City.

Nan Sheng did not find Yang Zhengshan's people, otherwise he would never conceal it.

As for why he did not find Yang Zhengshan's people, it was actually very simple. The people Wu Zheng recruited in the Imperial City were not eunuchs and maids, but soldiers on duty to guard the palace.

After all, Yang Zhengshan didn't want to monitor Emperor Yanping, nor did he want to find out any secret information. He just wanted to find out the news in the court.

The news in the court is secret, and ordinary people can't get in touch with it. But if you don't keep it secret, it's impossible. After the morning court, all kinds of news will be spread from the imperial city.

You don't have to be in front of the emperor to find out these news. As long as you are in the imperial city, you can hear some of them.

You don't even need a high status. Some ordinary soldiers can know.

On weekdays, when they are not on missions, the soldiers of the imperial army can tell you what happened in the court by chatting in the barracks.

Some gossipers can even talk about the affairs of the harem.

In short, the soldiers of the imperial army are no different from the aunts at the village head. They have a strong ability to collect information in the imperial city.

It is precisely because of this that Wu Zheng took the initiative to make friends with many soldiers of the imperial army.

Nan Sheng also investigated the soldiers of his personal army, but he focused on the middle and high-level military officers, and would not investigate a group of ordinary soldiers at all.

So this time Yang Zhengshan was lucky to escape.

…

Because Emperor Yanping attached great importance to the drought in Liaodong, the court acted quickly this time.

On the third day of July, the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple jointly sent people to Pingyuan Province to investigate the murder of Zhao Yunxing and the collusion between officials and businessmen.

On the sixth day of July, after the court discussion, Zhong Huamin, the Shaoqing of the Guanglu Temple and the Censor of Pingyuan Road, was ordered to go to Pingyuan to investigate the disaster.

Luo Ren, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was ordered to serve as the right deputy censor of the Censorate and the governor of Liaodong disaster relief affairs.

He also ordered Taicang to allocate 300,000 taels of silver and 1 million shi of grain to relieve the severe drought in Liaodong.

At Chongshan Pass, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but let out a long sigh after receiving the news.

Although the court didn't have much money and grain for disaster relief, as long as the court paid attention to the drought in Liaodong, it would be a great thing for the people of Liaodong.

The money and grain for disaster relief from the court was actually only a part of it. The most important thing was the official warehouses of each prefecture, state and county. As long as the court was willing to provide disaster relief, the local governments could use the official warehouses to provide relief to the victims. This was the key to disaster relief.

Otherwise, if the court only relied on transporting grain from Taicang in Kyoto to Liaodong, by the time the grain was transported, most of the people in Liaodong would have starved to death.

Since the court had already started disaster relief, Chongshan Town should also be prepared to accept refugees.