The daughter of a general is reborn to save the whole family of the marquis

The bandits near Xining Mountain were wiped out, and when the news spread, the people were excited.

"I heard that the bandits there have been rampant because the Minister of War, Mr. Liu, has colluded with them."

"I was originally wondering how such an outrageous thing could happen under the emperor's feet! It turns out that there are officials protecting him. I wonder how much money Lord Liu got from this!"

"Lord Liu looks quite plain in Shengjing City, but he has mansions in many places outside Shengjing City, and there are a lot of gold, silver, jewelry and beauties in the mansions."

"I also heard that his children are spread all over the country, and they may be more than the emperor's children."

While the people were discussing this matter, Liu Tuo went to the palace to apologize to the emperor.

The emperor had been unhappy about the fact that bandits had not been eliminated near Xining Mountain. Now that they had been eliminated, he was in a very good mood.

Liu Tuo made great contributions today.

He thought Liu Tuo came to the palace to report the situation and ask for reward. When he was about to ask him what reward he wanted, Liu Tuo knelt down and begged for mercy.

"I was afraid of poverty when I was young, so I was obsessed with money and lost myself in the gold, silver and jewelry sent by the bandits. I secretly protected the Xining Mountain bandits for many years..."

After hearing Liu Tuo's words, the emperor finally understood the real reason why banditry had been rampant near Xining Mountain for many years and had never been eliminated.

The emperor was furious on the spot!

Liu Tuo only realized belatedly that the emperor was unaware of what he had done in the past.

He! Was blown up by the girl from the Chu family!

By the time he realized this, it was too late and he felt his head hanging under the executioner's knife.

The emperor immediately ordered a thorough investigation into the silver he had received from the bandits over the years, as well as the number of houses, fields, beauties, etc. in various places.

In the end, it was discovered that the amount was shocking, as high as several million taels of silver, and countless people had died tragically at the hands of the bandits, all because he, as an official, had facilitated the bandits.

In the end, the emperor's punishment for Liu Tuo was to behead him!

Because he finally led the troops to wipe out the bandits - although it was Chu Heyi who proposed the strategy to wipe out the bandits, he still had some credit, so his clansmen were spared the death penalty and the entire clan was exiled.

After the news spread, the people felt very happy!

At the same time, Chu Heyi's reputation became known among the people.

Everyone was discussing how she knew that Liu Tuo was in collusion with the bandits, and how she, a girl, came up with a strategy to lure the bandits out and cut off their retreat.

Chu Heyi, who was praised by others, was now busy leading people to build a mansion for her.

After the bandits were wiped out, the emperor asked her what reward she wanted. She suggested that the bandits help her build a mansion so that she wouldn't have to spend money to hire anyone else.

The emperor agreed. After all, if so many people were sent to prison, they would have to be fed, which would be a waste of food.

However, building a mansion for Chu Heyi would, on the one hand, save the court from having to pay to support them, and on the other hand, digging mountains was very hard work, and it could be used as an excuse to punish them.

So the mountain excavation operation started in full swing.

In order to intimidate these bandits, Chu Heyi hired hundreds of guards to supervise them, and of course they also had to tie their feet with chains.

These were extremely vicious people. Chu Heyi made them do the hardest work, while also being strictly on guard against their counterattack.

At the beginning, several leaders were furious and uncooperative, but they became obedient after being beaten a few times. After working hard to dig the mountain for several days, their anger was worn away by their sweat.

Because most of the people in Xining Mountain are men, in order to facilitate management, Chu Heyi selected two powerful ones from the guards of Zhenbei Marquis Mansion to follow him, and also inspected the situation in the mountain.

That afternoon, Chu Heyi was sitting in a makeshift shed drinking tea when his bodyguard A'man ran over with a strange look on his face.

Chu Heyi looked at his expression and guessed in his heart that after so many days of digging in Xining Mountain, there should be some results.

Chu Heyi asked the people around her to guard outside the shed, leaving her alone sitting inside.

"Miss, the boss's team dug up something. I brought it to you. Please take a look."

After Ah Man came in, he took the stone out of the cloth bag, squatted in front of Chu Heyi, and handed the stone to him with both hands.

"Miss, you may not know, but I recognize it. This is iron ore."

Ah Man was very excited, as if he was the one who got rich: "Under the whole world, the most profitable merchants are salt and iron merchants. Miss, with this iron ore mountain, you will get rich."

Chu Heyi took a sip of tea and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He knew that A'man had a family working for an iron ore merchant, and that A'man had been exposed to this thing, so he brought him here specially.

Nowadays, salt and iron still belong to private individuals, not the imperial court. Whoever digs it up owns it, and all they need to do is pay taxes.

"Do you know anyone who can smelt iron? I need you to find such a team to smelt the iron."

With these irons, there is no need to worry about not having enough stirrups and horseshoes.

Chu Heyi knew that soon salt and iron would belong to the imperial court, and privately smelting iron or salt would be a serious crime with the entire family's property confiscated or even beheaded.

In his previous life, Chu Runxue proposed to the emperor that salt and iron belonged to the imperial court and no private individuals were allowed to operate them. The emperor accepted the proposal, and since then, the national treasury has become more prosperous.

After that, the use of iron in any place had to be approved by the court. Chu Runxue made a huge contribution to the enrichment of the national treasury, so she could get the most iron to arm the northern soldiers.

The Chu family no longer had any room to fight back. Their living space was completely squeezed, and they could only flee.

"Miss... let me be responsible for this matter?" Ah Man felt stunned and surprised as if he was hit by a pie.

He is just one of the hundreds of guards of the Chu family, and he is about to rise to prominence with Miss Heyi. How can he not be excited?

"Yes, you will be in charge of this matter, but you must do it in secret and not let outsiders know. The people you find must be tight-lipped."

Chu Heyi's expression was serious, and Ah Man knew that this was a very important matter, so he nodded solemnly.

"I will definitely do whatever the lady asks me to do."

Chu Heyi smiled faintly: "When this is done, I will reward you handsomely."

"Yes, Miss!" Ah Man suddenly felt full of strength. At this moment, he didn't know that the reward could be so generous!

Soon, the number of people who were assigned to "build a mansion" for Chu Heyi dropped from hundreds to dozens.

Chu Heyi's statement to the public was: "I haven't figured out how to build it yet. I'll leave some people to take care of the mountain first. Once the mansion is designed, I'll hire more people to start construction."

The people who had no work left dejectedly.

The rest of the people, led by Ah Man and another guard Ah Chi, began to dig iron ore and smelt iron. They used the smelted iron to make stirrups and horse hooves, which were then transported to Changqing City.

Truth will eventually come to light, and before long, Chu Runxue learned the truth about the "construction of a mansion" in Xining Mountain.

……

"Note: Before Emperor Wu of Han, salt and iron were not the exclusive business of the imperial court."