Start with Baihuguan

Chapter 222 Does Jin Yiwei need a reason to arrest someone? 【order】

Hu Xi was sitting with Su Xiang talking in a low voice at this time, that is, he would only look up when someone came in.

Of course, as two people, except for very few people, they don't have to stand up to greet them in person, and more people come to greet them.

It's just a cup of tea. In this restaurant, more than a dozen wealthy businessmen in the prefecture of Xi'an have already gathered.

These wealthy businessmen can be regarded as the top tycoons in the prefecture of Xi'an on weekdays, and they all have support behind them. Even many officials have to be careful when they meet these people.

But to be able to gather these people together this time, to be honest, in this Xi'an mansion, there is really no one who has such ability.

After all, even the chief executive who is the top leader can't keep his word. In the officialdom, there are some officials who don't sell the chief executive's face.

So it was Li Huan's status as an imperial envoy, no matter what these tycoons thought in their hearts, no one would dare to ignore Li Huan's invitation as an imperial envoy.

Of course, after coming and going, I don’t know what these people think in their hearts.

At this moment, a voice was heard from the entrance of Tianfanglou: "The Imperial Envoy has arrived!"

Hearing this sound, there was a clatter, and all the rich merchants who were sitting there got up and looked towards the door.

A figure appeared in sight, it was not Li Huan or anyone else.

Li Huan was not wearing an official uniform, but a black uniform, but the black clothes on Li Huan made Li Huan quite heroic and noble.

Even if they don't know Li Huan's status as an imperial envoy, and only look at the aura exuded by Li Huan, few people dare to underestimate Li Huan.

Hu Xi, Wei Kun, and Su Xiang's eyes lit up when they saw Li Huan. Although they said that they had met Li Huan from a distance before, this was really the first time they really wanted to talk face to face.

Headed by a few people, a group of people quickly stepped forward to salute Li Huan and said: "Caomin wait to see you."

There was a faint smile on Li Huan's face, his eyes swept over the crowd, he nodded slightly and said with a smile: "You don't need to be too polite, you can come here this time, it's to give face to me."

Seeing that Li Huan was so polite, everyone dared not speak up.

Li Huan sat on the first seat, and then said to everyone: "Everyone sit down and talk."

If it was said that many people were still quite nervous, then with Li Huan's arrival and the kind attitude shown by Li Huan, many people were secretly relieved.

It seems that the rumors they have heard about Li Huan are just rumors. The rumors are really unbelievable. Who said that Li Huan is unreasonable and murderous? If it is true, who will explain it to them? Who is the young man who doesn't seem to be so unreasonable.

Hu Xi chuckled, cupped his hands to Li Huan and said, "Cao Min and others did not expect to be valued by the Imperial Envoy. It is our honor to specially invite me here. I have specially prepared some small gifts, and please accept them."

Wei Kun, Su Xiang and the others also nodded with a smile and said, "Your Imperial Envoy came from a long way. I hope you will like a little kindness from us."

Li Huan frowned. To be honest, he really didn't know about it.

At the same time, Qian Ning came over with a gift list, and presented it to Li Huan respectfully, "My lord, this is the gift list."

Li Huan took the gift list, glanced over, and looked at Li Huan sent by the rich merchants recorded on the gift list, and couldn't help but marvel at it.

He can only lament that these people really have really big arms, if they don't make a move, it's fine, but when they make a move, they really rush to knock people down.

There are rare treasures worth tens of thousands of taels, and even real gold and silver. A simple estimate of this gift list is probably tens of thousands of taels.

When Li Huan was looking at the gift list, Su Xiang, Wei Kun, Hu Xi and others were also secretly observing Li Huan's reaction.

They had communicated with each other before, so they naturally knew what gifts each family gave Li Huan, so although they didn't know the gifts everyone gave, they were able to estimate some.

They wanted to see how Li Huan would react to a gift worth hundreds of thousands.

You must know that Feng Qin, the inspector censor sent by the imperial court, and a group of officials from the third department, they only spent 10,000+ taels of silver to settle it all.

Now this imperial envoy may have an unusual status, but in the face of so much gold and silver wealth, he should be content after thinking about it.

It's a pity that Li Huan's face was calm, so they couldn't see what Li Huan was thinking.

Just when these people were secretly guessing what Li Huan was thinking, Li Huan raised his head, handed the gift list to Qian Ning and said, "Order to put everything away."

In response, Qian Ning put away the gift list and withdrew.But at this moment, Li Huan looked at the crowd with a smile on his face and said, "Li Mou really deserves such a great gift from all of you."

Hearing what Li Huan said, everyone was overjoyed, which meant that Li Huan had taken things under his control.

As the saying goes, people can eat people with short mouths and short hands, if Li Huan really doesn't accept their gifts, then they will definitely feel uneasy.

But now that Li Huan has accepted the gift from them, doesn't that mean that everyone will be his own in the future.

Thinking of this, Su Xiang couldn't hide the smile on his face and said: "I don't know if the imperial envoy called us here, but do you have any orders?"

That said, but in the minds of Su Xiang and the others, the reason why Li Huan, the new imperial envoy, summoned them here was obviously because he wanted to get a fortune out of their hands. After all, they had seen such things over the years too much.

Just like every senior official such as chief envoy and procuratorate in Shaanxi takes office, they will usually invite them to meet in private.

It is said to appease the local tyrants and understand the people's livelihood, but what the real purpose is, everyone knows each other well.

The newly appointed officials took the opportunity to receive gifts, and the gentry also took the opportunity to give gifts, leaving a good impression in front of these high-ranking officials, and everyone took what they needed.

Therefore, just looking at Su Xiang's indifferent appearance, one can tell that Su Xiang thinks that Li Huan summoned them this time with the same purpose as those officials.

When Li Huan heard the words, his expression straightened, and he said slowly: "Speaking of which, the Japanese official called you here today, and I really have something to discuss with you."

Many people were taken aback when they heard the words, and subconsciously looked at Li Huan.

It's just that at this moment Li Huan's expression was serious, with a bit of authority, so that Hu Xi, Su Xiang and others seemed to be infected by Li Huan, and their expressions became solemn.

For some reason, looking at Li Huan's solemn appearance, some people felt a little bad in their hearts.

Wei Kun, Su Xiang, Hu Xi and the others looked at each other, and Wei Kun cupped his hands and said: "If you have any orders from the lord, just say it bluntly. If the grass people can do it, they will definitely go all out."

Li Huan picked up the tea, took a sip of it, glanced at everyone and said: "Everyone, Li looks at the price of food, salt and other materials in the prefecture. Food items are related to people's livelihood, and the price of goods in the city is so high, but there are suspicions of driving up prices and disrupting people's livelihood..."

Everyone's face changed drastically when they heard the words, Wei Kun even took a deep breath, and said to Li Huan with a look of grievance on his face: "Your Excellency, you are wronged. The crimes of driving up prices and disturbing people's livelihood are such serious crimes that the grassroots cannot bear it."

Su Xiang, Hu Xi and others frowned even more.

Li Huan looked at the crowd calmly, without opening his mouth, while Su Xiang coughed lightly and said to Li Huan: "My lord, the disaster in Shaanxi, the shortage of food, the shortage of supply and the skyrocketing price of food, this is human nature, not me. Wait for price gouging."

"Yes, yes, please be enlightened, my lord."

All the rich merchants looked at Li Huan with great grievances.

Just like Hu Xi said to Li Huan at this moment: "If we hadn't worked hard to maintain the food supply in the city, I am afraid that countless people in the city would have starved to death. My lord said that, it is really cold for me to wait for a loyal man who serves the country Heart."

Li Huan couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

Seeing Li Huan laughing, Hu Xi showed a bit of panic and nervousness on his face, but Li Huan could see it clearly. The eyes of the few people were extremely calm, and they didn't have the panic they showed at all.

If you think about it, the mall is intriguing, and if you can become a wealthy businessman, how can you be intimidated by Li Huan's few words.

Even if Li Huan is an imperial envoy, so what, Qianglong still doesn't overwhelm the local snakes, and they are the local snakes in Xi'an Mansion.

To be honest, most people really don't have much respect for Li Huan.

Besides, they don't have roots, don't they? Not to mention that many officials in the officialdom in Shaanxi are friendly with them, and even those in the imperial court, they are not without their backers.

If you don't have some background, do you really think you can keep a family business of millions?
As Li Huan's laughter stopped, although Li Huan still had a smile on his face, in the eyes of everyone, that smile gave people a kind of unkindness.

Li Huan said slowly: "You are the role models of all walks of life in Xi'an Prefecture, so I hope you can take the lead in reducing prices to help the imperial court stabilize prices and reassure the people."

Li Huan said again: "If you can help the court to stabilize prices and stabilize people's hearts, I will definitely play it to the emperor and reach the heavens."

The expressions of the crowd changed after hearing the words.

At this moment, Li Huan got up and strode towards the entrance of Tianfanglou.

Everyone noticed Li Huan's actions and couldn't help being stunned. They looked at Li Huan in astonishment. Didn't they say that they were invited to a banquet? They didn't see the food and drink. Li Huan is leaving soon. What does this mean?
Thinking of Li Huan's words just now, there was a vague meaning of threatening them. For example, Hu Xi, Su Xiang, and Wei Kun looked at Li Huan's back, their eyes became sharper.

Walking to the door, Li Huan suddenly stopped and looked back at the crowd and said, "I hope you don't let me down!"

As Li Huan left, he soon saw a group of Jinyi guards guarding the door following Li Huan, and in the blink of an eye, there were only a group of gentry invited by Li Huan left in the square building.

The hall was quiet, and suddenly there was a bang, and a gentry slapped the table with a slap, and said with a cold snort: "What is this? Threatening us, let us lay down!" An ultimatum."

Several people looked over, and the person who spoke was Liao Rong, the elder of the Liao family. Because of the relationship with the Prince Qin's Mansion, the Liao family was involved in all aspects of Xi'an Mansion, whether it was food, salt, tea or other industries, they could not compete with Su Xiang. , Wei Kun and others.

But among the people present, no one would underestimate the other party.

With their backing to Prince Qin's Mansion, the backing is stronger than anyone else. In just ten years, the small Liao family has grown into a behemoth.

Others may be concerned about Li Huan's identity, but Liao Rong is not afraid at all. The Liao family came here to give face to Li Huan, an imperial envoy. They may not send people to come yet.

Hu Xi coughed lightly, glanced at Liao Rong and said, "Brother Liao, the meaning of the imperial envoy just now is very clear. It is nothing more than hoping that we can suppress the prices of food, salt and other materials that are related to people's livelihood..."

Liao Rongdang immediately said: "Fart, he will suppress it if he says it. If he says a word, we will benefit from tens of millions of taels. Who does he think he is, let alone an imperial envoy, he is the emperor! Here we go, we will set the price as we want.”

Speaking of which, Liao Rong sneered: "The food, salt and other materials are in our hands. We can increase the price as we want. Why should he dictate?"

"That's right, Brother Liao's words are reasonable. Anyway, I, Jiang Zhengye, have left my words here. Unless Jiang is dead, I don't want my father to lower the price when the king of heaven comes."

A rich man in his forties shouted with excitement on his face.

"Yes, we don't steal or rob. Why should he ask us to lower the price? What's wrong with the high prices? It doesn't matter to us if the people in the city can't afford salt and food. If they don't have money, they starve to death. If they want us to lower the price, don't even think about it! "

All of a sudden, the crowd was raging, and almost everyone had the same attitude, that is, they would kill them without lowering the price.

Soon everyone's eyes turned to Su Xiang, Wei Kun, and Hu Xi.

Together, Su Xiang and the others control almost half of the salt and grain supply in Fucheng, Xi'an Prefecture. As long as they are willing, they can raise the price of grain and salt in Fucheng at any time.

In addition, Su Xiang and the others were vaguely their leaders, so everyone looked at Su Xiang and the others just to see their attitude.

Su Xiang and the others looked at each other.

I saw Wei Kun stroked his beard, stood up with a serious face, and said with a faint evil spirit on his body: "Everyone said that it is true, our food, salt, tea and other supplies are not blown by strong winds. Why should he If Li Huan wants us to lower the price, we have to listen to him. If he dares to influence us to make money, then he is our enemy.”

How can Wei Kun, who has almost monopolized most of the salt supply in Shaanxi, be the easy one? As a big salt merchant, Wei Kun has thousands of thugs and salt miners alone, and his hands are contaminated. I am afraid that there are no fewer than dozens or hundreds of lives.

It's not just Wei Kun, a big salt merchant, such as Su Xiang and Hu Xi, who are involved in large-scale grain transactions. Which of their subordinates has not kept a group of desperadoes.

Hearing this, Jiang Zhengye clasped his hands to Wei Kun with a look of joy on his face, "Master Wei, tell us what we should do, everyone will listen to you."

As he said that, a murderous intent flashed in Jiang Zhengye's eyes, and he lowered his voice, "Should the big guy send someone to kill that shit imperial envoy?"

A light flashed in the eyes of many people upon hearing this, this idea sounds good.

Send someone to kill Li Huan quietly. With their connections, they can easily settle the matter with the government. At that time, they will put Li Huan's death on the refugees.

With a light cough, Wei Kun glanced at the crowd and said: "Everyone, it is the emperor's imperial envoy after all, just for the sake of your lords, it is not good for us to kill the imperial envoy just like that, let's take a look first, let's look first and then talk." .”

Liao Rong glanced at Wei Kun with a sneer and said with a sneer: "When did you become so timid, Wei Kun, so what about the imperial envoy, as long as you do it without anyone noticing, there is nothing terrible. It's just killing officials, don't tell me, you didn't killed..."

Wei Kun's face turned cold when he heard Liao Rong's words, and he stared at Liao Rong with a sharp look in his eyes and said, "Liao Rong, you must speak with evidence. Wei has always been law-abiding, and you are so innocent..."

Liao Rong waved his hand and said, "Okay, since you, Wei Kun, have a look before we talk, let's take a look first."

Speaking of which, Liao Rong got up and said: "Everyone, didn't he, Li Huan, want us to lower the price? Then tomorrow, the grain store belonging to my Liao family will increase the price by a hundred yuan per bucket of grain. I want to see what Li Huan can do to me!"

Watching Liao Rong stride away.

Some people couldn't help sighing with both envy and disdain: "It's really fucking cheap for the Liao family, backed by such a big backer as the Qin Palace, his Liao family has not only been lying on the Qin Palace to suck blood all these years, but also relying on it. With the momentum of Prince Qin's mansion expanding wildly, the intestines are full of food, and the mouth is full of oil..."

At this moment, Jiang Zhengye stroked his beard and said: "Everyone, after the old man decides to increase the price of the Liao family tomorrow, he will also increase the price of the salt sold in the store by [-]%."

Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard the words, and some people clapped their hands and praised: "Okay, as the saying goes, if the Liao family takes the lead, even if Li Huan wants to make trouble, he will only find trouble with the Liao family. Besides. He, Li Huan really thought that he was just an imperial envoy, and he could force us to lower the price with empty words, and he thought we were nothing, and if he didn't fight back, he really thought we were afraid of him."

"You're right, let him know who owns this Xi'an Mansion and who has the final say."

"Hehe, it's not that we look down on Li Huan. The big guys unite. The lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Xi'an Prefecture are not a matter of our word. It really makes us anxious. Everyone closes their doors and stores, or it will take three to five days. Hundreds of thousands of people in Xi'an Prefecture will be short of food and salt."

Stroking his beard, the man's eyes were full of sternness and said: "At that time, let's say that he, the imperial envoy Li Huan, forced us to close the shop and see how he bears the anger of hundreds of thousands of people."

Su Xiang, Wei Kun, Hu Xi and others sat there calmly, with smiles on their faces.

Wei Kun chuckled lightly and said: "Isn't it just an imperial envoy? The hundreds of thousands of people in Xi'an Prefecture are our greatest support, so you have nothing to worry about."

For a moment, everyone was in a good mood, even if some people were worried that Li Huan would make trouble for them, they all felt at ease now.

Yes, they only need one word to set off a turmoil in Xi'an Mansion, so what about the imperial envoys, they really angered hundreds of thousands of people, without them, the emperor would have beheaded the imperial envoys to quell public grievances.

But it is said that Li Huan returned to the yamen of the Jinyiwei Thousand Households with the gifts from these wealthy merchants.

There are more than a dozen large boxes filled with gold and silver items, white and golden, really dazzling, even those guards in brocade clothes who follow Li Huan are used to seeing too many gold and silver items. Looking at the belongings in the box, he couldn't help sighing for a while.

Chen Yao said to Li Huan: "Don't even mention it, these people are really rich, and any gifts they give are worth tens of thousands."

Qian Ning on the side coughed lightly and said, "What is this? It is said that Su Xiang, a big grain merchant, directly gave 10 taels of silver, a separate courtyard, and several top beauties from Jiangnan to the new chief executive. Cheng Tai."

Hearing this, Chen Yao couldn't help saying: "Damn, Cheng Tai is really daring, my lord, when are we going to raid his house?"

Li Huan glanced at Chen Yao indifferently and said, "Where are Guan Zheng, Ren Ping and the others now?"

Seeing that Li Huan asked about the news about the Zhenwei camp brought by Guan Zheng and Ren Ping, Chen Yao said with a straight face: "My lord, according to the news not long ago, the two commanders have entered the boundary of Xi'an prefecture, and they can reach this prefecture within three days at most. .”

Li Huan nodded slightly, a smile flashed in his eyes and said: "Do you think Hu Xi, Su Xiang, and Wei Kun will listen to my words and take the initiative to stabilize food prices?"

Qian Ningdang shook his head and said, "It's absolutely impossible."

Du Guang said calmly: "Businessmen value profits the most. How is it possible to want them to give up their immediate interests?"

Chen Yao scratched his head and said: "In my opinion, don't say that your lord, the imperial envoy, is probably the one who invited the emperor's imperial decree, and it is impossible for them to lower the price on their own initiative."

Li Huan nodded slightly and said, "Yes, it's normal if they don't lower the price. If they really lowered the price, it would be a strange thing."

Chen Yao asked curiously, "Since your lord knows that they can't lower the price, why do you want to see them today? Isn't this a useless effort?"

Qian Ning, Du Guang, Cao Yu and others also looked at Li Huan with puzzled expressions.

They could all see the nature of those merchants, and Li Huan could obviously see it too, but under such circumstances, Li Huan still summoned these wealthy merchants, no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a waste of effort.

Maybe those merchants are still laughing at Li Huan behind his back at this moment.

But they have been with Li Huan for a long time, and they know better than anyone else that Li Huan will never target indiscriminately, so this time when Li Huan met those wealthy businessmen, he must have some intentions.

Li Huan smiled lightly, and a murderous intent flashed in his eyes and said: "God has the virtue of being good at life, I just don't want to punish you for not teaching, what if some of these people listen to my words and take the initiative to cooperate with the price reduction?" .”

Qian Ning's heart tightened when he heard the words, he could only feel the breath of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood rushing towards his face, he couldn't help but said: "My lord, we should arrest people if we can't go up, we have to have evidence."

Hearing this, Li Huan glanced at Qian Ning indifferently, with a slight smile on his lips, with his hands behind his back, his eyes were full of aloofness, and he said, "When does Jin Yiwei need a reason for taking people!"

Chen Yao's eyes lit up when he heard the words, and he said excitedly: "Yes, our Jin Yiwei never needs a reason to arrest people, we arrest people first."

However, Qian Ning frowned, with a worried look on his face, and said, "Didn't your lord say earlier that you can't arrest people without evidence?"

Li Huan said lightly: "What I'm saying is that officials like Cheng Tai and Wu Wei cannot be arrested without evidence. After all, Shaanxi still needs these officials to stabilize the situation, but they are just a group of local wealthy businessmen. If they are arrested, they will be arrested." No. Why does Li want to accommodate a group of profiteers who are making a lot of money for the country."

[I've been a little stuck these two days, the update is not good, sorry! 】

(End of this chapter)