The Untouchable Daiyu of the Red Chamber

The time has indeed come.

Because of an accident in the iron net mountain paddock, although Emperor Taizong downplayed the major incident, he would inevitably draw his attention back to the internal struggles of his sons.When the attention of those in power is drawn back, it is the best time to apply eye medicine.

In a timely manner, Lin Ruhai copied the evidence about the private salt case that had been found in several secret papers and sent it to the capital quickly.Although it was a secret letter, he did not send another messenger, and directly used the official scouts to rush to Beijing at [-] li.

This time, Lin Ruhai is not afraid that Zhen Yingjia will send people to intercept him, and he will move his whole body if the Iron Net Mountain incident happens, Emperor Taizong will definitely keep an eye on Jiangnan. He dared to stop him, but it was just adding a crime for the second prince.

But in order to prevent Zhen Yingjia from taking risks, Lin Ruhai sent more than one letter, the same secret letter, one after another.

Zhen Yingjia's infiltration into Jiangnan's officialdom was indeed very deep. At the beginning, she was blocked by Zhen Yingjia after two secret maneuvers. When she was blocked by the third one, Zhen Yingjia herself felt surprised. This Lin Ruhai has always been treacherous and cunning. , Repeatedly doing useless work.

Therefore, Zhen Yingjia began to discuss with Luo Fushan.

When Luo Fushan heard this, cold sweat flowed down, and he said: "Master, intercepting Yushi Mizhe is an accomplice to treason. This Lin Ruhai deliberately lured the master to intercept him so that he could be killed. The master thinks, if these things end up If he didn't suppress it, and if there were several secret books in a row by the officials and officials, how would the saint be furious?

Now that the matter has come to an end, the master might as well destroy all the evidence that can be destroyed, and the scapegoat that can be pushed out, and leave the rest to the second prince and empress, and the master will not cause trouble to the second prince anymore. "

Zhen Yingjia said angrily: "Where have we come to this field!" Then he threw the intercepted secret book in front of Luo Fushan: "Look at what is written on it, if it is really handed over to the emperor, how can we survive!"

At the level of Dou Dao, even if Luo Fushan didn't read the secret book, he knew that the book must be written in a blunt manner.But as a counselor, Luo Fushan still wanted to persuade, so Luo Fushan continued: "The master thinks that Lin Ruhai only has the ability to deliver secret documents? If he uses the open thread of the post station to draw the master's attention, secretly Send someone to deliver the secret package to Beijing, what should the master do?

Besides, each of the urgent secret documents for eight hundred miles is recorded. After Lin Ruhai voted at the post station, the post station also has a receipt. It is clear how many secret documents Lin Ruhai delivered. How do you deal with the prince?

Participating in the private salt case is at most just corruption, and if it is intercepted and confirmed, it is treason.The master thinks, among the many princes under His Majesty's knees, who has not been contaminated with corruption?But treason is different.The guards of the Ninth Prince collided with the saint on Iron Net Mountain, if the Second Prince seized this point to lure the Ninth Prince to plot against him, he might not be able to escape. "

The Ninth Prince would throw out evidence of Zhen Yingjia's crime of selling smuggled salt to surround Wei and rescue Zhao, and the Second Prince would arrest the Ninth Prince and beat him, so it is reasonable to try to surround Wei and rescue Zhao.

Zhen Yingjia heard that there was still a chance to get out of trouble, so she calmed down a little, and asked: "If you don't stop, you have been blocked twice, what should you do now?"

Luo Fushan didn't even bother to shake his folding fan, so he wiped the fine sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and said, "Return the intercepted fold back to the station, and let the scouts send it to Beijing. The master also quickly sketched a confession fold and handed it to Beijing. , painstakingly complained about the lack of strictness in the government, being deceived by others, and writing about the determination to reform. It must be written with sincerity. In this way, even if the crime of living is inevitable, the crime of death is inevitable."

Zhen Yingjia originally thought that if the salt smuggling case could not be suppressed, she would surely die, so she wanted to fight to the death.He really didn't want to be soft, but after hearing the words that capital punishment can be avoided, he finally felt that even if he suffered a little, it would be better to live.So according to what Luo Fushan said, the scapegoat was pushed out, and a pleading note was handed over.

Even though Zhen Yingjia listened to Luo Fushan's persuasion, she was still indignant, and threw down the teacup with an angry expression on her face: "I only wish I didn't kill that bastard from the Lin family last time!"

In this way, no one intercepted the secret package that Lin Ruhai handed out from the third one, and Zhen Yingjia threw the first two back to the post station, and sent them to Beijing one after another.

Zhen Yingjia might not be afraid if it was just someone impeaching the case of private salt, but last year, a inspector who inspected salt was killed violently; , and Lin Ruhai's memorial was handed over to the emperor, Zhen Yingjia was really afraid.That's why Zhen Yingjia made the unwise move to intercept the secret book before.

The Zhen family in Jiangnan is so grand, Lin Ruhai has been in Jiangnan for less than a year, and has already driven Zhen Yingjia into a desperate situation.

After Lin Ruhai handed over the secret booklet, there was no obstruction, and the whole journey was rushed to the capital, but it was placed in front of the eunuch Bingbi on the third day.

Concubine Zhen Gui has been in charge of the Sixth Palace for many years, and she is planning a first-class and important event for the second prince. Naturally, every place in the palace is either placed or bought, and everyone has her own people.

Speaking of which, the Zhen family is so courageous that they are still in the same line.Before Zhen Yingjia blocked the secret book, this time Zhen Guifei also wanted to block it.The eunuch Bingbi has an important duty, which is to screen the emperor's memorials, select the irrelevant ones, and only pass the important ones to the emperor.

This was originally an excellent way to improve the efficiency of the emperor's work. After all, the Ninth Five-Year Lord is also a human being, and his energy is always limited.But with such rules in place, there are loopholes to exploit.The invisible power of the eunuch Bingbi has also become enormous.

Of course, no one can intercept the secret report of the [-]-mile rush. Once discovered, it will be punished according to the theory of treason, and the nine clans will be punished.

Concubine Zhen Gui, who panicked, really gave an order to the eunuch who used to hold a pen. When the eunuch heard this, he knelt down and cried: "Madam, although I am just an eunuch, I still have parents, children and nephews. Madam, please forgive me." Me!" After finishing speaking, he kowtowed.

Concubine Zhen was about to get angry when her cronies came in and whispered something in Concubine Zhen's ear. Concubine Zhen was so shocked that she forgot to get angry, she fell down on the Arhat couch and waved her hands to let the cronies Both the eunuch and the eunuch Bingbi withdrew.

The eunuch Bingbi escaped like a narrow escape, Concubine Zhen smiled bitterly when she saw that the person who had always shown her loyalty in front of her had exited her palace as if fleeing.

Just now when the confidant came in, he said: "The secret report of Yangzhou's patrol salt censor has arrived again."

Concubine Zhen Gui came back to her senses and realized that there was nothing she could do.To be a noble concubine who can assist the Sixth Palace, the IQ that Zhen Guifei should have is still online, knowing that if there is a second secret, there will be a third.I have placed people among the Bingbi eunuchs, but most of the Bingbi eunuchs are still loyal to the emperor, and what's more, some are biased towards the prince.

It is a huge risk for one of his own people to steal a secret booklet, if Lin Ruhai's booklets come one after another, he will definitely not be able to stop it.Furthermore, if a certain way fell into the hands of the people in the East Palace, they would rush to present it to the imperial court.

Concubine Zhen Gui saw the situation clearly and had to fall ill very timely.

In this way, the secret book was presented to Emperor Taizong's dragon case.

After scanning ten lines at a glance, Taizong thought he had read it wrong, so he read it again carefully. "It's unreasonable!" Taizong slapped the folder on the dragon table, and a few drops of tea splashed on the table from the tea bowl. Dai Quan hurriedly bowed and removed the folder next to the tea bowl, and persuaded: "The emperor calm down, Ning Yuan is going Said that you should not get angry, the emperor should take good care of his own body."

Hearing the words "inappropriate to get angry", Emperor Taizong gasped for a few breaths, finally managed to calm down his anger, and said after a while: "I think they are just looking at me not to be angry, and they deliberately want to piss me off so that they can replace me!"

As soon as these words came out, Dai Quan was so frightened that he immediately knelt down, and said: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty is in the prime of life, the country is peaceful and the people are peaceful, and the people of the whole country only hope that the Emperor will be healthy and prosperous."

Emperor Taizong sneered, "You don't need to coax me with these words. You probably sincerely hope that I will live a few more years, but some people may not." Although Taizong also knew that these words were empty words, people always like to listen to them Yes, the anger has subsided a little.He also ordered Dai Quan to pass on Prime Minister Wen, Minister of Officials, Minister of Punishment, Minister of Household, Minister of Rites, Yushi Zuodu, and Minister of Dali Temple.

Dai Quanying came out and ordered a few smart and reliable servants, each of whom went to pass on the message. After finishing the order, he went back to the upper study and waited on him.During the transmission of the message, Dai Quan was still thinking that the emperor was really angry this time, and in a fit of anger not only passed on Prime Minister Wen and the top officials of the three divisions, but also passed on the officials from the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households and the Minister of Rites.The emperor is not only going to deal with the private salt fraud case, but also to send the prince down.

Dai Quan was an old man by Emperor Taizong's side, so he could naturally see the advantages and disadvantages of this, but he could become Emperor Taizong's confidant, and he also knew what to say, so he just passed on words honestly, even the redundant expressions and There is no action.

Although the private salt case is complicated, it is not difficult to determine right from wrong. The difficulty in handling it lies in the balance between inside and outside the court.Not to mention that it affects the whole body, if the treatment is too strict, it will easily form a power vacuum in the south of the Yangtze River and cause chaos in local officials; A group of important ministers discussed that the illegal salt fraud case must be thoroughly investigated to the end, but the officials in the south of the Yangtze River cannot be dismissed and investigated for everything related to the illegal salt fraud case.Otherwise, there will be troubles in the south of the Yangtze River.

Emperor Taizong listened to the results of the arguments of all the important officials, and said with a cold snort, "You all agree with that Lin Hai!" Then he threw out Lin Ruhai's other two memorials.

One is to ask for an increase in the share of salt imports; the other is to ask the imperial court to send more local garrisons to replace local officials and prevent civil unrest.The first point is easy to say, it is the duty of inspecting salt censors; as for the second point, although Lin Ruhai's analysis is penetrating, but the tone is very modest, it is just admonishment.

Prime Minister Wen is Lin Ruhai's teacher, after reading Lin Ruhai's memorial, he said with a calm face: "Master Lin has been the magistrate in Jiujiang for seven years, and now he has been an official in Yangzhou for nearly a year. I'm more familiar with the situation in the south of the Yangtze River, so I'm sure I won't be aimless." Prime Minister Wen's expression didn't mean he had any objection to Lin Ruhai, but he was always serious and always had this serious expression.

Emperor Taizong originally wanted to cultivate Lin Ruhai. Now that Lin Ruhai has improved after being released overseas for seven years, the advice he gave is very practical. The words were almost the same, so they arranged for a few days, sorted out the regulations, and planned to transfer a few officials to Jiangnan to gradually replace the existing system of officials in Jiangnan to avoid local shutdowns.

The land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River not only pays half of the country's taxes, but also produces a lot of military rations. Jiangnan must not be chaotic.

In addition, he ordered the Metropolitan Procuratorate to lead people south to investigate the case.

Knowing that Emperor Taizong wanted to investigate the private salt case, Concubine Zhen Gui and the Second Prince would naturally take action. Although they did not shake Emperor Taizong's determination, they delayed the progress for a few days.

After this delay, Liu Xing's family went to Beijing.According to Lin Ruhai's entrustment, Liu Xing sent Su Lan to Prime Minister Wen's residence.Now the emperor is investigating the private salt case, and learned that Su Lan is the only daughter left behind by Su Hanshan, the previous salt censor, Prime Minister Wen did not dare to delay, settled Su Lan, and handed over the sign to enter the Qianqing Palace on the same day.

Su Hanshan was originally an official favored by Emperor Taizong, otherwise he would not have entrusted him with the important task of patrolling salt and censorship. Su Hanshan donated his family wealth in advance, and then died suddenly in office. Taizong even rewarded Su Lan for this.Hearing that Su Lan was going to Beijing, he ordered Dai Quan to go to Prime Minister Wen's mansion to pick him up.

Concubine Zhen and the second prince's mother and son almost regretted it when they heard that Su Lan had gone to Beijing.

Originally, both the mother and the son knew that this time the tussle was too serious, and it was impossible to get out of the whole body, but they couldn't let people uproot the power of Jiangnan that they had been running for many years, and hurt the foundation of the second prince's family .

Therefore, the mother and son used a lot of accumulated contacts to delay the progress of the imperial court's investigation and handling of the illegal salt case. Unexpectedly, the result of the delay was to welcome Su Lan to Beijing.Regardless of whether Su Lan has any evidence in hand, Su Lan's identity as the only daughter of Su Hanshan will arouse the anger of Emperor Taizong.

Concubine Zhen's mother and son did not guard against Su Lan. For this reason, the mother and son also kept a close eye on the Rongguo Mansion, the Lin family, Lin Ruhai Tongke, Su Hanshan's old friend, etc.; but it never occurred to him that Su Lan was sent directly to Prime Minister Wen's mansion by a doctor. , and entered the palace to face the holy that day.

Caught off guard!When Concubine Zhen got the news, Su Lan had already arrived at the upper study.At this time, even if Concubine Zhen Gui had the courage to do anything, she only sent her confidants to pass the news out of the palace, telling the Second Prince to deal with it carefully.

Because the second prince had already opened the mansion, he got the news later than Concubine Zhen, so he was even more helpless.I can only secretly pray that Su Lan has no evidence in hand; other than that, I hope that Zhen Yingjia will finish things cleanly and completely clear herself up.

Not long after Su Lan entered Beijing, the court's regulations for handling the case came down.

The governor of Liangjiang, the governor of Jiangnan and other important positions have not been moved for the time being, and the court has released rumors that meritorious deeds can be punished, so as to temporarily stabilize the situation in Jiangnan; important positions such as the prefect of Yangzhou and the prefect of Yingtianfu have been replaced one after another; Citing the advice of the quota, Lin Ruhai will consider the increase in the amount as appropriate, and report it to the Ministry of Accounts for the record.

For private salt dealers, severe punishment will not be neglected; local officials who provide protection for private salt dealers will never tolerate it.However, we must also beware of local officials deliberately lazy in administration before the imperial court appoints new officials to take office, causing local shutdowns.

The imperial court's handling is not too radical, but anyone who understands it knows that the second prince's family has suffered a serious setback.Some wealthy nobles in the capital are faintly showing signs of standing in line again.

And in Yangzhou, Lin Ruhai was also so busy that he left early and returned late, almost never seeing anyone.

Because of the accident in Iron Net Mountain Siege, Lin Ruhai expected that the handling of the salt smuggling case would be expedited, so there was a lot of preparatory work.The first is to stabilize the situation in Yangzhou, and no one is allowed to provoke trouble.At this time, the transportation was inconvenient, and there were not many scholars, so it was easy to spread rumors and difficult to refute them, and because of the lack of a large number of private salt dealers, the supply of salt on the market was somewhat in short supply.

Speaking of this, Lin Ruhai gritted his teeth with hatred.

Salt is related to people's livelihood, whether it is high-ranking officials or ordinary people, it is indispensable every day, but the cost is relatively stable.For example, if there are ten people, no matter how rich or poor they are, the amount of salt they eat in a year will not vary greatly.The rich will wear gold and silver, but they will not eat two catties of salt a year just because they have more money.

If the total population of a place does not change much, then the total amount of salt required is not much different.It is also based on this that when the imperial court specialized in table salt, it stipulated the share of salt imports in various places, and any change in the share of official salt salt imports required the approval of the imperial court.This was originally to protect the common people from buying official salt, but it also made people take advantage of the rules to take advantage of loopholes.

Zhen Yingjia has been entrenched in the south of the Yangtze River for a very long time, reducing the share of official salt and salt imports every year. It was not obvious in those years, but the reduction year after year is still a lot. The share of official salt is no longer enough to supply the daily needs of local people.People cannot do without salt in their daily life, and the supply of official salt in the market is insufficient, so they can only buy private salt at high prices.

The reason why the private salt business is extremely profitable is that the government deliberately creates such a supply gap and artificially creates a demand-side market.Otherwise, the seawater is inexhaustible, so how can we not buy official salt on the market.

Since Su Hanshan started to investigate the private salt case last year, Zhen Yingjia has gradually closed down the private salt business in his hands. After Lin Ruhai took office, the big private salt dealers got wind of it, and many of them stopped, but the already tightened salt The share of lead has not increased, and there are faint signs of salt shortage in the market.

As long as a family saves a catty and a half catty of salt, it will be enough for a period of time, and it will not be obvious at the beginning.However, the rumors have been tight in the past few months, and some official salt shops have begun to run out of stock.At this time, the imperial court has not yet approved the increase in the share of salt, and if someone spreads rumors about the lack of salt, it may cause panic buying.Once the price of official salt also rises, people's livelihood will be in chaos.

The first thing Lin Ruhai has to do now is to call the salt merchants together for a meeting, ask about the reserves in the hands of each salt merchant, and arrange the distribution plan before the decree comes down, so as to stabilize the market.

To prevent someone from taking the opportunity to cause trouble, it is necessary to ensure that the supply of salt is everywhere.This limited reserve depends on whether the salt merchants are willing to cooperate with the local government affairs and put it on the market at a low price. It is not easy to work as a salt merchant, not to mention rushing for time.

Lin Ruhai was so busy that she forgot Daiyu's birthday.

Daiyu didn't think anything of it, since she was already in the Rongguo Mansion and her mother was filial, so no one would celebrate her birthday.Zijuan went to the kitchen to order even a bowl of Sushou noodles.At this moment, the prince's uncle survived the political siege at Iron Net Mountain safely. His father, mother, and younger brother are all alive and well, and it doesn't matter if they celebrate their birthday.

But Jia Min remembered Daiyu's birthday, seeing that it was already the seventh day of February, and Lin Ruhai hadn't remembered Daiyu's birthday, so she scolded Lin Ruhai for a few words.Although Lin Ruhai was too busy to touch the ground, he finally gave Daiyu an excellent Shoushan Stone that he kept, and promised to make up for Daiyu's birthday after being busy for a while.

Who knew that Daiyu's birthday hadn't come yet, so she heard that there was a commotion in Suzhou City, and people died because of buying salt.