Turbulent Times Chapter 915: So little salt tax

Lu Youwei saluted Lu Bian respectfully, turned his head and left.

Looking at Lu Youwei's back disappearing at the door, Lu Bian sighed and wanted to say something, the 'Salt Girl' suddenly rushed in front of him and said: "Master, the Hongnong Yang family sent to Fanyang County, the man named Huang Shuren It is reasonable to say that the old man will come to see us, but he has not been to the door recently, so he has fallen into Wang Junlin's hands, right?"

Lu Bian's expression was concentrating, and he said, "It's possible, but this person's fall into Wang Junlin's hands has little impact on our Lu family. Wang Junlin can't do anything to us."

Yan Nu nodded, remembered something, frowned and said: "I always feel that with Li Zixiong's current status, the Hongnong Yang family should not be able to manipulate after Yang Su's death, otherwise the emperor would have sent Li Zixiong from Youzhou long ago." The position of the manager has been replaced."

Lu Bian thought for a while, his eyes flashed, his whole body was shocked, and he lost his voice: "You mean Yang Su is not dead yet?"

Yan Nu shook her head and said: "The slave family just feels that this is possible. After all, after Yang Su pacified Bingzhou at that time, he has already made great achievements and has been a powerful minister for so many years. With the habits of His Majesty today, if he continues to live, not only My own outcome is unpredictable, and even the Hongnong Yang family may be implicated."

If Wang Junlin was here at this time, he would be shocked when he heard Yan Nu's words, and would regard her as his enemy. This woman guessed that Yang Su's death was faked just because Yang asked Yang Zixiong to send a thousand cavalry to cooperate with Lu to surround and kill him.

Lu Bian was speechless for a long time. After a while, he sighed and said with some emotion: "It seems that Yang Su was forced by the emperor and Wang Junlin to feign death."

After a pause, Lu Bian said, "I still feel that Wang Junlin shouldn't be so calm."

Salt girl thought for a while and replied calmly: "Wang Junlin naturally shouldn't be so calm, but after all, the Lu family is the most powerful family in the world today, and it is also a great Confucian family. There are quite a few people who are officials in the upper and lower Lu family, and they are also related by marriage to many other aristocratic families, if Wang Junlin has no plausible reasons or evidence, even with the support of the emperor, he would not dare to take action against our Lu family."

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"My lord, Fan Yang. The navy came out in full force this morning, and returned to the station this afternoon. Immediately afterwards, they hurriedly reported their merits to the imperial court, saying that they had wiped out all the 5,000 pirates who invaded Fan Yang County a few days ago. And before that, Dou Shihai, the navy general, went to the Lu's Manor in Zhuo County the day before yesterday." Shen Guoer reported to Wang Junlin in the prefect's mansion of the prefecture in Fanyang County.

"Is there no news from Xiaoyu yet?" Wang Junlin frowned tightly, feeling a little worried about Nie Xiaoyu and his party.

Shen Guoer was also a little worried, frowning on her small face, she shook her head and said, "Not yet."

Wang Junlin pondered for a while, and said: "We can't wait for the news, you can send someone to find a boat to go to the Snake Island to have a look."

Shen Guoer looked solemn, and said, "Guoer remembered."

Wang Junlin asked again: "Is there no news from Youzhou?"

Shen Guoer said with a look of grievance: "My master and senior Chunqiu Nu are really serious. They only thought about killing people and doing things, and never thought of sending someone to pass the message. Fortunately, I thought of this a long time ago, and sent Someone told the sub-yamen of the Lanyiwei Mansion in Youzhou that they just sent a letter today, saying that the family members of Lu Han and Guan Xiaotong have been rescued, and now they are waiting for my master and the others to send people to kill them in Li Zixiong At that moment, I rescued the more than five hundred cavalrymen and brought them back."

Wang Junlin nodded and said, "Have you found any useful information?"

Shen Guoer thought for a while, and said: "Fanyang County was one of the largest sea salt production areas in the Sui Dynasty, but the annual salt tax is less than 200,000 taels of silver, and according to the information I inquired about, the Lu family has a The salt shop is selling private salt, and the annual profit is not less than one million taels of silver. Moreover, this salt shop is not only owned by the Lu family. It is likely that many officials from all over Fanyang County are involved. I suspect that Fan Yang. Sailor Dou Shihai is a member Not a lot."

A cold light flashed in Wang Junlin's eyes, and he said, "Does Ying Yanglang have anything to do with Xue Li and this salt shop?"

Shen Guo'er said: "Based on the current situation, Xue Li has nothing to do with the Salt Company, but whether there is any relationship has to be further determined."

Wang Junlin snorted coldly, and said: "Investigate this salt shop vigorously. I want to know who in Fanyang County distributes money from this salt shop."

Shen Guoer quickly said: "Guoer understands what to do."

Wang Junlin took a slight breath and said, "Okay, Guoer, go get busy! Don't forget to send someone to find a way to go to Snake Island as soon as possible to find out."

Shen Guoer nodded and said, "Guoer will make arrangements as soon as possible. If your lord has nothing to do, Guoer will go down first."

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The next day, when Wang Junlin went to work in the county mansion, he went in and sat down, and then called the officials in charge of the salt tax over.

The tax revenue in the county belongs to the head of tax affairs. It will take half a month for Du Ruhui to come from Changxiang County. The official called by Wang Junlin to be responsible for the salt tax is Qian Zhengkuo. Wang Junlin remembers this person He has been taciturn and cautious since the first day he went to work and had a meeting.

Wang Junlin glanced at Qian Zhengkuo who was saluting respectfully, motioned him to be exempt, and asked, "How much is the salt tax in this county now?"

Qian Zhengkuo didn't think about anything, so he blurted out: "Reporting to the prefect, since His Majesty ascended the throne, the county's annual salt tax ranges from 200,000 taels of silver to 250,000 taels of silver."

Wang Junlin said calmly, "Why are there so few?"

Qian Zhengkuo thought for a while, then took a careful look at Wang Junlin, and said, "At its peak, Fanyang County boiled the sea into salt, and could get 500,000 shi a year!"

Wang Junlin did the math, more than 500,000 rock salt is not a small amount, converted into money, it is two million taels of silver, this should be the financial head of Fanyang County, according to his plan, the next After taking control of Fanyang County in one step, he has to do a lot of things, and each of these things requires a lot of money. He can't use his own money to do a lot of official business! So if the county government has no money in finance, he can't do anything, which is a very important thing.

But what Qian Zhengkuo said next made Wang Junlin's face more and more gloomy. He seemed to hesitate a little and said, "My lord, although Fanyang County took the salt and iron into the government's possession, the result is ...the salt produced every year... is getting less and less every year, and now there are only one hundred thousand stones..."