The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 850 Another Major Case
"Your Majesty, Suyab is closer to Anxi, so it would be more convenient for Qin Qiong to come here."

Xiao Xia nodded. Li Jing recommended Qin Qiong's deputy general instead of his own subordinate, which was to avoid suspicion.

"Jia Wuben is a good man, kind and loyal. I can agree to appoint him as the governor of Rehai County. In addition, it is my arrangement for Xu Shiji to be appointed as the governor of Beiting County. Let the Ministry of Personnel approve these two appointments."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Is there anything else?

"Your Majesty, there is another important matter. In the first half of this year, the salt tax in the Jianghuai region dropped by 20%."

Xiao Xia's face immediately darkened. Salt tax is the most stable tax. Although Pingzhun Store also sells cheap coarse salt, few people buy it and it is almost unsellable. If the salt tax drops by 20%, there is only one possibility: someone is selling smuggled salt.

"Have the salt and iron monitoring teams found any leads?"

"The Salt and Iron Commissioner believes that someone is selling smuggled salt, but no clues have been found. Your Majesty, the situation is quite serious. I urge the Imperial Guard to open a case for investigation."

Liu Wenjing was also very anxious. Jianghuai has always relied on salt tax, and a sharp reduction of 20% in salt tax is unbearable for anyone!

Xiao Xia nodded slowly, "I will immediately arrange for the Imperial Guards to conduct a thorough investigation!"

Liu Wenjing took his leave, and Xiao Xia paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Currently, the household tax has been abolished, leaving only a small amount of land tax and commercial tax. Considering the need for recuperation, the land tax and commercial tax are also very low. At present, the court's income can only be supported by salt, wine, sugar and official trade. Among these, salt tax accounts for 70% of the total fiscal revenue. If there is a problem with the salt tax, it will be a devastating blow to the court.

Therefore, Xiao Xia never resorted to any means to deal with the salt tax issue; in fact, the entire family would be executed. That's why things have been peaceful for the past few years. But this year, someone has taken the risk again.

Twenty percent of the salt tax from Jianghuai—that's a huge amount! Xiao Xia slowly gritted his teeth. He didn't want to kill so cruelly, but since someone was forcing him, he wouldn't be blamed for being ruthless.

Xiao Xia immediately wrote a handwritten edict and sent it to the Liang County Inner Guard Office with utmost speed.

Half a month later, Shi Xiaozhen led 5,000 Imperial Guard cavalry to Jiangdu.

The Salt and Iron Bureau of the Great Sui Dynasty was located in Jiangdu. Currently, the Salt and Iron Bureau Director is Chen Hua. From the Xihai Salt Bureau to the Salt and Iron Bureau, and now to the Salt and Iron Bureau, Chen Hua has been in charge. Xiao Xia trusts him very much.

Chen Hua received Shi Xiaozhen, and the two sat down in the VIP room, where an attendant served tea.

Chen Hua sighed and said, "Our Salt and Iron Bureau also has an anti-smuggling office, but it can only investigate small cases of smuggled salt, groups of dozens or hundreds of people, without any problem. But this time the scope is too large, and we can't handle it."

"Could it be that Supervisor Chen knows who is manufacturing smuggled salt?"

Chen Hua shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s because the amount involved is too large. At least two million strings of cash in salt tax were lost in half a year. This is not the work of a small gang. I estimate that there are thousands of people involved in salt production. The commander can go to the coastal areas of eastern Zhejiang to investigate. The salt fields along the coast of Jiangdu are all official salt fields. There are many private salt fields in eastern Zhejiang. I estimate that the problem lies in the private salt fields.”

What is the difference between private salt fields and government-run salt fields?

"It doesn't matter whether the saltworks are government-run or privately-run, because they all have to be sold to the Salt and Iron Bureau in the end. So we also allow private individuals to run saltworks, which are then supervised by the Salt and Iron Bureau."

Shih Hsiao-chen nodded. "I understand. Could you please ask the Anti-Corruption Bureau to cooperate with our investigation?"

"of course can!"

The head of the Salt and Iron Inspection Bureau was Zhao Tieshan, who also came from the Imperial Guard. He was originally an Inner Guard officer, but he directly led 500 soldiers to join the Salt and Iron Bureau and established the Salt Inspection Bureau.

"This humble servant pays respects to the Commander!"

The other party was the head of the internal security force, so Zhao Tieshan dared not be negligent.

Shi Xiaozhen nodded and said, "I am investigating this case on the Emperor's orders. If Director Zhao has any leads, please tell me first."

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, we were investigating before, but the trail went cold halfway through, and we couldn't continue. I can only tell you what I know."

"Please say!"

Zhao Tieshan took out two bags of salt and placed them on the table. "Commander, please take a look. The bag on the left is official salt; it's fine-grained and white. The bag on the right is smuggled salt; it's yellowish and slightly coarser. Based on our judgment, the smuggled salt came from the salt fields in eastern Zhejiang." "Where did you find your smuggled salt?"

"We found him in a grocery store. He sold his goods for fifty coins per catty and his business was booming. We tracked him down, and he confessed to his supplier. When we found the supplier, we discovered that the merchant had been murdered, his house had been burned to the ground, and there were no clues left."

Shi Xiaozhen pondered for a moment and said, "Could the information have been leaked from within?"

Zhao Tieshan shook his head. "It might not be an inside job. It's also possible that they discovered us when we were arresting the grocers."

Seeing that he refused to admit to having an inside man, Shi Xiaozhen stopped arguing with him.

"Alright! Let's settle in first, then we'll think about our next move."

Five thousand men immediately settled in the military camp. Shi Xiaozhen summoned two deputy generals to discuss the matter. One deputy general was named Peng Yongming, and the other was named Luo Chao. Both of them were experienced veterans of the Imperial Guard and both held the rank of First-Class Tiger General.

Shi Xiaozhen said to the two deputy generals, "After listening to Zhao Wangshan's explanation today, I suspect that there is an inside agent within the Salt and Iron Bureau. Especially for such a big case, how could they not have bribed an inside agent within the Salt and Iron Bureau?"

Peng Yongming nodded. "The general is right. Zhao Tieshan is quite protective of his own and refuses to admit that there are problems within his own ranks. I guess he knows who it is."

Just then, a soldier came to report, "Zhao Tieshan, the Salt and Iron Commissioner, requests an audience!"

Sure enough, he came again. Shi Xiaozhen instructed, "Please let him in!"

Soon, Zhao Tieshan was led into the main tent, where he bowed and said, "This humble officer greets the Commander!"

Shi Xiaozhen asked with a smile, "Has Commander Zhao discovered any new clues?"

Zhao Tieshan said with a look of shame, "There are a few strange things that I forgot to tell the commander."

"Commander Zhao, please speak!"

“When I went to arrest the salt merchant, he died under suspicious circumstances and his house was burned to the ground. There were seven people who knew about it at the time. When I started the investigation, one of the clerks disappeared.”

"Does Magistrate Zhao suspect that this registrar is an inside man for salt smuggling?"

“I have no evidence, but his disappearance at this critical juncture is indeed very suspicious. It’s only been a month, and the clerk is still missing. His family members come to the office to cause trouble from time to time, demanding that we hand him over. It’s very annoying!”

Shi Xiaozhen pondered for a moment and then asked, "Could you tell me in detail the exact time his family came to cause trouble, and the details of the troublemakers?"

"Does the Commander-in-Chief suspect his family?"

Shi Xiaozhen smiled and said, "Whether there's a problem or not, we still need to investigate."

"Alright! I'll have one of my men tell the Commander-in-Chief later, as I'm not entirely sure myself."

Zhao Tieshan continued, "There's another suspicious matter. When we arrested the shopkeeper who sold smuggled salt, he mentioned one of his customers, a restaurant called Longshan Restaurant. I noticed that this restaurant only bought salt once in January, ten jin, and then there were no further purchase records. I think there are two possibilities: one, the dishes cooked with smuggled salt didn't taste good, so the restaurant stopped buying it; two, the restaurant bought smuggled salt from other channels."

Shi Xiaozhen asked with a smile, "Did Magistrate Zhao send anyone to investigate the restaurant's kitchen?"

"not yet!"

Zhao Tieshan gave a wry smile, "This subordinate is worried that the incident of the salt merchants being killed last time will happen again."

Zhao Tieshan knew perfectly well that there must be an inside agent among his men who had been bribed by the other side, and he dared not alert them.

Shi Xiaozhen smiled slightly and said, "Leave this to us!"

(End of this chapter)