Pampered Poisonous Royal Wife Chapter 219

~ JIANGNAN SALT MERCHANTS FERTILIZER ~ 

“Alright!” Wei Qi and Cao Bing both nodded their heads in agreement. Since they were competent to reach this step and become the winners in a deep pool of salt tax in Jiangnan, they naturally had their own strategies and courage. If the First Prince really wanted to kill them, they would have to throw a huge rock at him. Even if they can’t break the First Prince’s and the Li family’s backbone, they would still have to broke a few of their bones! 

Wu Minzhi nodded his head heavily, “There is no other way. The First Prince has tried to rope us in so many times before. Judging from his attitude, he is more afraid of us and would not force us to the last step. Now, we should raise the silver taels as soon as possible to buy the salt and place the blame on the officials who bought the salt.”

“Yes, we will do it immediately.”

If the other small salt merchants wanted to collect all the silver, they would have to spend some effort. However, for them, it was just a slight headache. There were plenty of ways to deal with it.

Soon, Qi Ming received a letter from Mu Yunyao. “Mistress asked me to gather some of the properties that the salt merchants have sold?” After pondering for a moment, Qi Ming couldn’t help but secretly chuckle. The admiration he had for Mu Yunyao in his heart deepened. Miss’ foresight is really like a god!

Nowadays, the salt merchants must have sold their property in a hurry, and the prices must have been much lower than standard. Moreover, these salt merchants had very unusual properties in their hands. For example, the gardens under the salt merchants’ hands, it was even comparable to the Royal Gardens, which are somewhat different in terms of specifications and style. 

In Qi Ming’s hand was the silver banknote that Liu Liang had brought at Mu Yunyao’s orders. With that silver banknote, he bought the best gardens, land, storefront directly from them, and he had saved several hundred thousand taels of silver. 

The salt merchants finally managed to gather the fifteen million silver taels. Yue Wang estimated that it was about time, so he sent someone to inform them where he hides the salt.

In just a few short days, 15 million taels of silver had arrived, and Yue Wang could not help but feel excited.

Mu Yunyao counted the house deeds and land deeds in her hands. Her eyes similarly couldn’t stop a smile from appearing on them. After a while, she tidied up her things and locked them in the cupboard.

Jin Lan walked in slowly. “Miss, someone came by the door with a gift. He said that he is the subordinate of the governor of Liangjiang, Lord Li.”

Mu Yunyao’s smile faded slightly, “You say that I’ve been feeling unwell for the past two days and that it was inconvenient for me to see an outsider. Let that person go back wherever he came from.”

“Yes, Miss.” Two days ago, after the salt tax’s verification in Jingling City had ended, Li Yuanyi had no choice but to head towards Yangzhou City. Initially, he had wanted to come to Jin Xiu Garden to see Mu Yunyao, but he did not expect as soon as his dizziness was getting better, the rumors of sand replaced salt came out, which shocked half of his soul. 

If the rumors were true, then this matter would shake the entire Imperial Court and the public. Once it reached the ears of the Emperor, it would definitely arouse the Emperor’s anger. At that time, not even the Li family would be able to protect him. Thus, as soon as he heard the news, he hurriedly left for Yangzhou City.

On his way to Yangzhou City, he suddenly received a letter. The letter clearly stated how the officials who bought salt planned to use sand instead of salt to make huge profits. It also clearly stated the hiding location of the stolen salt. 

The letter was like a charcoal fire in his hand, which made him uneasy at all times. Once he disembarked at Yangzhou City, he directly dispatched his officers and soldiers to the hiding place mentioned in the letter. He had thought that it would be empty. But he never expected that he would actually find a large amount of salt in the warehouse. The officials of Yangzhou City have already become frightened. When they heard that Li Yuanyi had left the boat, they all went up to greet him. However, before they could even say a word, they saw him heading straight to the abandoned warehouse at the south dock of the city and found a large amount of salt inside. Many of the officials were all shaking so much that they couldn’t even stand properly.

Li Yuanyi looked at the mountain of salt, and his eyes were full of complex emotions. Finally, it turned into a total indifferent look, as he turned around and angrily shouted at Yangzhou City Salt Transport Envoy’s Su Tong, “Salt Transport Envoy, Su Tong, do you know your crime?”

Yangzhou City Salt Transport Envoy, Sun Tong, knelt down abruptly and asked, “Lord Li, may I ask what crime I have committed?”

“You took advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to check the salt tax, purchase a large amount of official salt, and also falsely claim that the salt ship sank on the Xijiang River on the way of transportation. You also put a large amount of sand on the ship as salt and hide the real salt here secretly, hoping to make a huge profit from it after the storm has passed. Fortunately, I got the news in advance, which did not make your plan succeed!”

“Lord Li, this official definitely wouldn’t dare to have such a thought. Lord Li, please investigate this clearly!”

“Hmph, I’ll immediately report this to the Imperial Court and report your actions to the Emperor. The Emperor will naturally send people from the Ministry of Justice to come and take you into the Capital to investigate thoroughly.” The salt movement made Sun Tong suddenly realize that Li Yuanyi wanted him to be the scapegoat. In this way, not only did he suppress the trouble of the salt tax in Jiangnan, but he also took credit for it. More importantly, his action was to save Jiangnan’s salt merchants. Also, he wants to help the First Prince gather up a large number of people. “Lord Li, you can’t just frame me like this. You have to take out the evidence!” 

“I will naturally investigate this matter thoroughly, and the evidence will also be brought to the Emperor. There is no need to speak any further with you! Someone, hold Sun Tong in custody!”

Soon, Li Yuanyi’s actions in Yangzhou City reached the salt merchants’ ears, and everyone immediately let out a breath of relief. Seeing that the First Prince did not plan to take them all out, so it could be considered the luckiest thing in the world. 

Li Yuanyi first escorted Sun Tong, the envoy of salt transportation, into the prison and arrested him with his subordinates. He wrote a memorial to report the matter to the Emperor while sending people to interrogate them overnight to obtain testimony.

During that time, Wu Minzhi came to the government office to ask to see Li Yuanyi. But, unfortunately, Li Yuanyi did not see him. After the imperial report entered the Capital, delivered to the Emperor soon, and the Emperor was furious after reading it. Fortunately, the salt recovered in time, so it did not cause too much loss. He then ordered Li Yuanyi to investigate the salt tax case in Yangzhou City thoroughly and made that the case was judged clearly. 

After receiving the imperial edict from the Emperor, Li Yuanyi heaved a sigh of relief. No matter who delivered the letter to him secretly, on the whole, it was a great help to him. It was an admirable contribution to his door for nothing!

He settled down for a while, thinking about how to force Sun Tong to bear the responsibility of salt transportation. From his subordinates’ report, he heard that Wu Minzhi, the salt merchant’s leader, had come and wanted to see him. Last time, he had been worrying about writing a memorial to the Emperor, but upon hearing Wu Minzhi’s request, he didn’t have the mood to see him. Now that things had come to an end, he could finally free himself and think about how to squeeze some oil from these salt merchants. After all, it is a well-known matter for the salt merchants in Jiangnan. If we don’t make a good deception, how can we live up to his hard work?

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