Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 270 The real breakthrough! (Moving completed, update resumed)
All the salt was transported by the Salt Transport Commissioner's Office.

This is the office of Zhejiang Salt Transport Bureau.

Xia Zhibai had been in Yuhang, Zhejiang for two days, but Li Benmo still hadn't submitted the list.

At this moment, in the Transport Department.

All officials from the Salt Transport Bureau were present to discuss the final list to be submitted.

In the lobby.

Li Benmo sat on the main seat, his slightly plump body moving slowly, his eyes slightly closed, emitting a gloomy look.

Li Benmo said, "Everyone is here."

"It has been two days since the imperial envoy Xia Zhibai arrived."

"Although he has not urged us to submit the list in the past few days, he has been visiting officials from the Chief Secretary and has found a larger house in the city to hold this meeting. Xia Zhibai is determined to hold these two meetings."

"By now."

“This list can only be handed in.”

"What do you think about this?"

Li Benmo looked down indifferently, with little expression on his face, and no sign of joy or anger.

This matter had actually been decided a long time ago. Now it was just a matter of going through the process and making the final confirmation. He couldn't guarantee the situation of other provincial governors, but he could still make a decision on the situation of Zhejiang Provincial Governor.

The salt transport manager looked at his colleagues and saw that no one spoke. He smiled and said, "Master Li, it's already this late. Do you still need to confirm it?"

"do not worry."

"We have long followed your instructions and sought the advice of those people, and they all agreed."

"This time, we will give Xia Zhibai enough face!"

Salt transport manager Zhang Tong had a wide smile on his face, and his eyes were narrowed into slits.

Li Benmo glanced at Zhang Tong, nodded slightly, and said, "I want you to confirm the opinions of those people, such as Shi Linxian, the commander of Mingzhou Guards, Zhang Zhihua, the governor of Quzhou Prefecture, and others. I don't want them to agree to something and then turn around and deny it."

"These warriors are the most unethical!"

Li Benmo looked disdainful.

Zhang Tong smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. It's all settled."

"They also know that Xia Zhibai is a difficult person, so why would they care too much about this? Moreover, although the number of names we handed over is not small, it is not a large scale. If we can use this to shut Xia Zhibai up and let Xia Zhibai and his group finish their mission earlier, then everyone will be happy."

Li Benmo nodded.

He picked up a booklet beside him with a half-smile, stretched out two fingers, flipped through it casually, and said, "Then send it up."

"The Chief Secretary doesn't want to get into trouble, so why would the Salt Transport Bureau want to get into trouble?"

"Spending money to ward off disasters is still a good thing."

Zhang Tong sneered, the flesh on his face trembling, and said rather sinisterly: "This is mainly because I don't want to get entangled with Xia Zhibai for too long. This man is a lunatic and does things without thinking. At the banquet, I thought he was just saying it casually when he said he would send the record to the court."

"result."

"This kid really delivered it."

"But if he hadn't made such a fuss, Lin Xian, Zhang Zhihua and the others wouldn't have been scared, and it wouldn't have been so easy for us to get the list ready."

"That's not bad for us."

Li Benmo snorted coldly and did not comment.

Xia Zhibai just moved his lips, and what they handed over was real money.

Moreover, under the attack of this mad dog Xia Zhibai, all the major provincial governments in the south reached a consensus that they would rather lose more money than not send Xia Zhibai away. Xia Zhibai has always been an unstable factor in the south, especially since he would report everything that happened in the local area every day.

It even made the officials' scalps tingle.

I don't want to have any contact with Xia Zhibai at all.

They are sincere this time.

Almost all the salt companies of Zhejiang Provincial Government, big and small, were included in it.

Li Benmo closed his eyes slightly, stood up slowly, and said sinisterly: "Remember to control the people in the city and make them keep their mouths shut. They should know what to say and what not to say."

"If things go wrong."

"This is not something you and I can afford."

Zhang Tong felt a chill on his back, and nodded seriously: "Don't worry, everything has been arranged. Xia Zhibai has only been in Yuhang for a few days, how much can he know? I'm afraid he still thinks that we will fool around on the list."

"Little do people know that we are not fooling around at all and are full of sincerity."

"Not only the list, but also the placement of the cooks, as well as the salt production and sales account books of each salt factory, have been properly arranged to ensure that Xia Zhibai will not find any problems."

"I can't find any reason to do so!"

Zhang Tong looked very confident. They had spent a lot of money to deal with Xia Zhibai this time. Not only did they make Lin Xian and others spit out the meat in their mouths, they also asked the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau to go through all the local account books. No matter whether it was the roster or the account books, there was no problem at all.

It's impossible to see the problem.

Because these data are real.

The only problem is that the list is incomplete.

But Xia Zhibai had just arrived and had not even visited Yuhang. How could he know the situation of Zhejiang Provincial Government?
As long as they handled it properly, Xia Zhibai would solve the problem of going south, and naturally he would have no excuse or reason to stay any longer. He would naturally have to go north back to Beijing, and by that time, all the troubles would be over.

Li Benmo put his hands behind his back, his back slightly hunched, and looked up to the sky, saying, "I always have a bad feeling."

"I feel that Xia Zhibai is not that simple."

"This person gave me a very dangerous feeling, as if he was well prepared."

Zhang Tong curled his lips and said disdainfully, "Prepared? What can he prepare? Aren't all his little tricks and actions clearly stated? If he hadn't handled this matter so smoothly, why would we have given in so much?"

"He should be content."

Li Benmo shook his head and said nothing more about the matter.

Many things had been decided long ago, but Xia Zhibai's arrogant behavior disrupted their original plan. However, after a day or two of adjustment, everything was ready. They were not a group of short-sighted people, and they had already discussed various countermeasures long before Xia Zhibai came.

We are still implementing the countermeasures.

Li Benmo turned around and warned carefully: "Tell the officials in the government office to behave themselves recently. When they see Xia Zhibai and his group from Yingtian Prefecture, they should be polite. If anyone dares to make trouble, I will skin him alive myself!"

Li Benmo also uttered a harsh word.

Zhang Tong nodded repeatedly.

He also knew why Li Benmo was so nervous, because this list was not so easy to obtain. If what they wanted to plan failed, the anger of the officials of the Zhejiang Provincial Government would be enough to engulf them.

This is not a matter of a few thousand taels of silver.

It is a stable business worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of silver. Li Benmo waved his hand and said impatiently: "Send it over, and be nice."

Watching Zhang Tong and other officials leave, Li Benmo paced back and forth in the lobby. He felt a little uneasy the whole time, as if he had missed something. However, he thought about it many times and really couldn't remember what he had missed.

Xia Zhibai's every move was under their surveillance.

They even knew exactly what Xia Zhibai and the officials he brought with him said and did in their daily lives. It could be said that they knew what Xia Zhibai did in a day better than he did. He could now say with certainty that Xia Zhibai had not received any definite information and had no grasp of the real situation.

Everything went as they expected.

But he always felt a little uneasy in his heart. This feeling was strange and disturbing.

the other side.

Xia Zhibai and his group are now staying in a temporary official residence.

After Xia Zhibai issued the ultimatum, officials have submitted lists of salt factories in southern provinces over the past two days.

Hua Lun and others became busy as a result. They began to audit the production and sales quantities of the salt factory, as well as the quantities reported to the Salt Transport Bureau and the Provincial Government. The calculation of the quantities was very tedious and tiring. Hua Lun and others would lie down on the desks as soon as they woke up every day.

Xia Zhibai can't help with this kind of thing.

Data auditing has always been tedious and troublesome.

Especially now, you can’t pull up a table with one click, nor can you scan and read data. It all depends on calculating one by one.

Although Hua Lun and others are very concerned, Xia Zhibai does not think that they can find out anything.

If it were before, when Hua Lun was not well-known, some officials might try to fool around, but after the Guo Huan case, Hua Lun had already become famous. If he had not been too young, he would have been entrusted with important tasks by Zhu Yuanzhang. Even if he was intentionally suppressed, his official position was still not low.

As the 'culprit' who handled the Guo Huan case and even triggered the Guo Huan case at the official level, Hua Lun's ability to keep accounts is known to the world.

No matter how confident the southern officials are, how dare they falsify the accounts?
The risk is too high.

Not a good deal at all.

If it is discovered, it will be more trouble than gain.

Compared with Hua Lun and Lian Zining's settlement of accounts, Jie Min and Ding Zhifang were obviously more pragmatic. They took some time to walk around Yuhang City, asked the city residents their opinions on what had happened in the city over the past six months, and tried to understand the actual situation of the local salt factory.

The effect is just average.

Compared with the busy Hua Lun and others, Xia Zhibai seemed very relaxed.

Every day he looked at the list sent by the salt transport bureaus in various places, and then looked at the salt factories on it, sorted out the general data, and had a preliminary understanding of the data. Based on this, he had a general understanding of the situation of salt production in the south.

I also realized that the South seemed to be taking drastic measures this time.

In fact, they were repairing the plank road in the open while secretly marching through Chencang.

I want to play the game of Escape Plan.

Hua Lun walked around for a few seconds, looking a little tired, and looked at Xia Zhibai with a bit of resentment. They were so tired here, but Xia Zhibai seemed to be fine. He just looked at the rough data all day and didn't move anymore.

Hua Lun walked in and shook his head, saying, "I have calculated the data sent by the Salt Transport Bureaus in Fujian and Guangdong these two days. There is no problem with the data. It also matches the data sent to the court by the provincial and municipal governments. The information they sent is probably true."

"You seem to have guessed wrong!"

Xia Zhibai smiled and nodded, and said calmly: "I don't think so."

“Data is indeed very intuitive, but if you don’t have a complete grasp of it, it can be misleading.”

Hua Lun frowned: "Incomplete data?"

Xia Zhibai nodded and said, "The data you calculated were all carefully designed and submitted by them, so there will be no problem. But what about those that were not submitted? And what about those that they deliberately hid?"

"How do you know there's nothing wrong?"

"You are indeed considered a computing expert in the outside world, but you only know the simplest calculation methods and don't understand the meaning of the data."

“It’s useless to look at a single account.”

"We need to compare them. When we look at salt production, we can't just look at the salt. We also need to look at how much iron and steam engines the court provided. We also need to look at the taxes that the localities paid to the court. We can't just count the taxes that the localities paid, but we should look at the total amount."

"if."

"I secretly hid the largest salt factory?"

"As the saying goes, all businessmen are dishonest. As long as they are doing business, they will find ways to evade taxes. Even if the business tax in the Ming Dynasty is very low, in the eyes of businessmen, it is still taking money out of their pockets. They are not even willing to pay this little tax."

"So the salt factories in various places stole a little, and then they stole a little. All in all, it amounted to a considerable amount."

"If it is carefully designed, these taxes that have not been hidden may not be able to be consistent with the taxes paid by all the salt factories in the current accounts. In this way, there will be no problem with the accounts. The problem is that several salt factories that were originally in the accounts have disappeared."

"The taxes they should have paid were 'divided' by other salt factories."

"That portion is what other salt factories should have paid."

"In this way, these salt factories are out of the control of the imperial court."

Hear the words.

Hua Lun's face changed slightly.

He looked at Xia Zhibai in disbelief and said in shock: "How is this possible? Who would dare to do such a daring thing? And that's a salt factory, it occupies a large area and is right under people's noses, how could it be hidden?"

Xia Zhibai said: "As long as you want to hide, what can't be hidden?"

“This is the South.”

"You are well aware of the power of the clans in the south."

"As long as the officials above are united in their efforts to cover up the matter, the court will be easily fooled unless it is determined to conduct a thorough investigation."

"I've looked at the accounts you calculated, and there's a lot of data missing. The most critical data, such as coal consumption and supply, the amount of iron allocated by the court, and the specific number of salt factory stoves, are not in the account book. You're only looking at an account book that I want you to see."

“The water is deep in the south.”

"While I was trying to muddy the waters, they were also waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of it and make a big profit."

“Everyone has their own thoughts.”

Hua Lun's face suddenly darkened, and he asked coldly, "What do you want to do?"

Xia Zhibai smiled and said, "Of course I'm playing along. They thought they could fool them by making such an 'accurate' account book. Why shouldn't I help them? Hua Lun, you always tend to overlook some actual situations sometimes."

"I'm not dealing with the government this time."

"It's the merchants and the cooks!"

"Officials have the same interests and can be easily bribed."

"But the interests of merchants and kitchen owners may not necessarily be the same."

“They are the real breakthrough!”

(End of this chapter)