Kowloon wins

Chapter 253 The Essentials of Salt Affairs ([-])

"Qing Bei Le, the little girl's dance is still immature, so I am laughing at you."

I don't know how much time has passed, the music fades away, and the dancing elves slowly solidify into a statue, but Hong Qing still hasn't woken up from the artistic conception of Cao Shuang'er's performance. The smile in the room suddenly became stronger, and he humbly said with a smile.

"Girl Shuang'er's dancing skills are outstanding, which Ben Baylor has never seen before, good!"

After what Cao Yin said, Hong Qing woke up from the confusion, but her face blushed involuntarily, and she hurriedly called out to cover up, but her heart couldn't help but fluttered, she didn't understand How could I lose my composure today? You must know that Hong Qing has seen many beauties of all kinds over the years. Not to mention, the beauties in her small yard are not young or old. I was blinded by it, but it was inevitable in my heart.

"Come here, Shuang'er, and fill a bottle of wine for Qing Bei Le."

Seeing Hong Qing's face flushed slightly, Cao Yin felt a little more complacent, but he didn't dare to tease Hong Qing again, but waved his hand, calling Cao Shuang'er, who was dripping with sweat, to come closer, and ordered with a smile.

"Yes, Amma."

Cao Shuang'er obediently responded, walked gracefully to Hong Qing's side, stretched out her plain hand, gently picked up the wine pot, filled the wine bottle in front of Hong Qing, then cupped it with both hands, lowered her head, looking shy The form was handed to Hong Qing, Wu Ren said softly: "Please drink a full bottle, my little prince."

"Lady Lao Shuang'er is here."

Looking at the shy and charming little face in front of her, Hong Qing couldn't help feeling flustered even though she was calm by nature. She thanked vaguely and hurriedly reached out to pick up the wine bottle in Cao Shuang'er's hand. Touching Cao Shuang'er's Qianqian fingers, she felt a slippery feeling, and her already chaotic heart couldn't help but swayed, the wine bottle shook lightly, and the wine almost spilled out.

"oops."

Although it was only a light touch with her fingers, Cao Shuang'er felt as if she had been electrocuted. She was in a trance, and she couldn't help calling out softly. Unable to bear it, he twisted his waist and disappeared like a frightened deer.

"..."

As soon as Cao Shuang'er escaped like this, Hong Qing was immediately dumbfounded, holding the wine bottle in embarrassment, neither drinking nor putting it down, a sense of loss came to her heart involuntarily, and she was really a little crazy for a while.

"The little girl has no shape, please ask Qing Baylor Haihan to have one."

Cao Yin went to great lengths to make such a fuss, even offending Ba Xi again, in order to create the effect of the scene in front of him. Of course, Cao Yin was not in a hurry to marry his daughter to Hong Qing, but what he wanted was It is to let the two get in touch, and it is best to have a good impression of each other. In this way, Cao Yin can be in a favorable position where he can attack and retreat. If the third master really gains power in the future, the Cao family can If you can't hug a thick leg, Cao Yin doesn't need to marry his daughter to Hong Qing. In the worst case, it doesn't matter. Seeing Hong Qing's reaction like this, Cao Yin is very scheming. A sense of self-satisfaction, but he didn't dare to be too explicit, so he just apologized with a smile.

"It's okay, Ben Baylor is a bit too strong to drink, so let's stop here first."

Even though he had already guessed what Cao Yin was planning in advance, Hong Qing still couldn't help but feel a little unhappy, but he himself couldn't tell where the unhappiness came from, so he drank the wine in the bottle in one gulp Go down, then put the wine bottle on the table, waved his hands, and gave an order in an unquestionable tone.

"Okay then, please ask Qing Baylor to move, and have tea in the study?"

Since Hong Qing didn't want to drink anymore, Cao Yin didn't dare to force her, so she hurriedly got up and asked for instructions carelessly.

"That's fine, Mr. Cao please!"

Hongqing went to the south of the Yangtze River this time for the salt affairs, and her destination was Yangzhou. As for Jinling, she was just passing by, so she couldn't stay for long, she had to leave in two days at most, and she really couldn't afford to delay. Since I am happy to have a private talk with Cao Yin, and have a general understanding of the current situation of the salt affairs, I will not refuse Cao Yin's proposal, so I readily nodded and agreed, stood up, and walked towards Cao Yin while laughing. In the study room not far away, after the land was obtained and the guests and hosts were seated, all the servants of Cao's mansion served the freshly brewed fragrant tea, and then they all left the room, leaving only the host and guest to play the duet.

"Master Cao should know that Ben Bayle led the decree to go out of Beijing this time to rectify the salt affairs. Since Master Cao has served two consecutive terms as the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy, he is no stranger to salt affairs. I don't know if there is anyone who can teach me?"

Hong Qing was in a restless mood at this moment, and really lost the interest in being with Cao Yinxu and Wei Snake. As soon as Bu sat down, he was not very polite. He picked up the tea bowl, took a sip, and then directly cut to the point.

"I don't know how much Baylor knows about the salt business?"

Seeing Hong Qing's solemn expression, Cao Yin didn't dare to take it lightly. After pondering for a while, he didn't dare to give Hong Qing any advice, but asked cautiously.

"I know a thing or two, but I dare not say I am familiar with it. Well, let's just say, Ben Baylor has read some literature before coming here. He only knows that salt merchants are divided into four categories: nest merchants, transport merchants, field merchants, and general merchants. , especially the general merchants, but there are no more than four general merchants on the ground in these two Huaihe Rivers, followed by market merchants and nest merchants, which are only thirty, but there are many transport merchants, as many as sixty. There are good and bad among them, and it is difficult for those who don't know the inside story to know the truth. Mr. Cao has been a salt transport envoy for a long time, so he must be aware of the strangeness, so please don't hesitate to enlighten me."

Although Hongqing knew that the salt affairs were the foundation of the imperial court's taxes, he paid little attention to them. It was after Mu Ning and others were framed and imprisoned that Hongqing had the idea of ​​learning about the salt affairs. Due to the limited channels, I couldn't understand it very deeply. Even if I transferred some discs from the household department in the name of the imperial decree before departure, I still didn't get much. It can't help but be a little impressive.

"Qing Beile is quite right. Of course, there are only four types of salt merchants. Although the general merchants are important, they are controllable and rarely engage in illegal salt trafficking. No matter whether Liu, Dong, Sun, or Wang It is an indisputable fact that the big general merchant is rich and rich, and he is closely related to the officialdom. He can make a fortune just by sitting down, and he will not risk his head. This one, a lower official can be a guarantee, fine. If Baylor wants to investigate the case, he can use these four companies for help. As for the merchants, they only sell salt and don't care about the rest. The possibility of participating in the private salt matter is not very high. If you want to know the news, you can only know the root cause from here; as for the nest merchants, just put salt to attract them, relying on the grace of their ancestors, even though they can make huge profits, they have no strength to participate in illegal salt activities, and it’s no big deal The source of the information channel should be ignored, but the carrier must be treated with caution."

After all, Cao Yin was a veteran who had served two terms as envoys for transporting salt between the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River, so when he talked about the matter of salt affairs, he was really eloquent, and Hong Qing nodded repeatedly.

"Hearing Mr. Cao's explanation, Ben Baylor was deeply enlightened. However, Ben Bayle heard that the general merchant is only the most powerful among the merchants. The rest of the merchants are all under the name of the general merchant. In general, things have to be controlled by the general merchant, if there is no connivance by the general merchant, the merchants below may not dare to do anything wrong?"

Although she nodded repeatedly, Hongqing obviously didn't agree with Cao Yin's opinion, she just didn't interrupt Cao Yin's words out of politeness, and didn't point out the crux of the problem until after she finished speaking.

"This..., huh, what Qing Baylor said is true, it's just, it's just..."

Cao Yin originally thought that Hong Qing had never been in contact with salt affairs, so he probably didn’t know much about it, but he didn’t expect that Hongqing would hit the key points of salt affairs all at once, and he was really embarrassed for a while. , He hesitated for a while, but didn't say why.

"Does Master Cao have any unspeakable secrets?"

Hongqing couldn't believe that Cao Yinhui, who had served two terms as the envoy of salt transportation between the Huaihe River and Huaihe River, would really turn a blind eye to the key points of the salt affairs. When he saw his eyes dodging, he couldn't help but feel a little unhappy, so he frowned slightly and asked impolitely. One sentence.

"Forget it, since Qing Baylor must ask, then the officials will just say it. The Liu family is the most powerful among the four general merchants, followed by Dong, Sun, and Wang. Among them, Liu and Dong are the most powerful. In-laws are friends for generations, but the Sun and Wang families have always been good friends. Although the four major general merchants have their own territories, the relationship between them is intricate, and the grievances and grievances are difficult to understand. If you move, the consequences may be difficult to predict, so the lower officials secretly think that you have to be more careful, if it is a business, you might as well start with the transporter."

Although Cao Yin is not a clean official, he is by no means a corrupt official. In fact, Cao Yin's official reputation in Jiangnan is still very good. If he really wanted to make money, he would have already been rich enough to rival the country, and he would not be almost driven to a dead end because he owed 60 taels of silver. It has something to do with it, but it is really for Hongqing's sake, lest Hongqing's youthful nature will cause him to act recklessly. Frustrated, secondly, he was also afraid that he would not be able to explain to the old man, so he avoided the seriousness and said it lightly. Unfortunately, Hong Qing didn't seem to be very willing to accept such kindness, so Cao Yin had no choice but to reveal it secretly Because of the strangeness, he planned another seemingly passable way for Hongqing to do things—grasp the small and zoom in!
"Um……"

Hong Qing is such a shrewd person, she knew the true meaning of what Cao Yin said as soon as she heard it, even though she didn't quite agree with it, she didn't directly refute it, she just let out a soft voice, with a hint of gleam in her eyes It is flashing, obviously the heart is not as peaceful as it appears on the surface.

(End of this chapter)