The Prodigal Son

With Wang Zhaojie's mouth pried open, the rest was easy.

After completing the interrogation of several key officials in Linhai, both Qin Yu and Lü Si were shocked by what they had seen.

The officialdom in Linhai is rotten to the core!

Throughout Linhai, if you include all those who receive government salaries, you probably couldn't find many people who haven't profited from smuggled salt!

No wonder Wang Zhaojie dared to discuss the issue of smuggled salt with them with such confidence.

If we want to completely eliminate smuggled salt, Linhai will inevitably descend into chaos!

Moreover, it is very likely to spread rapidly to Hai and Yuan states.

"What do we do now?"

Lu Si shook his head, looking at Qin Yu with a somewhat blank expression.

He dared not speak of other things, but he was very clear about the laws of Da Ning.

According to the Da Ning Law, anyone who purchases illegally made salt for personal consumption shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane! Those under the age of twelve, over the age of sixty, or those with disabilities shall be exempt from punishment!

Anyone who sells more than ten shi (a unit of dry measure) of smuggled salt shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane and three years in prison; anyone who sells more than one hundred shi shall be exiled to the army; anyone who sells more than one thousand shi shall be beheaded!

Anyone arrested while carrying a weapon, regardless of the amount of smuggled salt they have sold, will be executed!

Any official who profits from smuggled salt will be dismissed and have their profits confiscated, or their entire family will be executed!

If the imperial laws were strictly followed, more than 80% of the people in Hai and Yuan prefectures would likely be punished with caning.

As for officials of all ranks, it is estimated that at least 60% to 70% should be dismissed.

No wonder people don't have to blame others for their opinions!

Given the current situation, even if His Majesty were to come, he wouldn't dare to act entirely according to the court's laws!

Let alone His Majesty, even if the King of Hell himself came, he would have to show mercy!

Otherwise, Hai and Yuan prefectures would be in complete chaos.

"What else can we do? Let's issue a public notice to reassure the people!"

Qin Yu rubbed his head. "Go and call Ruan Zhi here!"

"Um."

Lu Si agreed and was about to go find Ruan Zhi when he suddenly stopped. "Wait, I suddenly thought of something."

"What's the problem?" Qin Yu looked up.

Lu Si smacked his lips, asking with a heart full of suspicion, "Saving a few coins, is it really that useful? A few coins can buy clothes for a family of six?"

It wasn't that he was unaware of the hardships faced by ordinary people; he knew that life wasn't very good for them.

However, in his eyes, it wasn't very good; at most, he could only eat meat once every month or two.

He truly hadn't expected that a mere few coins would be so important to an ordinary family.

"That's not strange at all."

Qin Yu casually replied, "After all, ordinary people don't wear fine silks and satins, so their clothes are relatively inexpensive."

"Is that so?"

Lu Si's eyes darted around, and he glared at Qin Yu through gritted teeth: "You bastard swindled so much money from me, shouldn't I be heartbroken?"

"This is a matter of mutual consent; we can't confuse the two."

Qin Yu waved his hand seriously and urged, "Alright, hurry up and call Ruan Zhi over!"

You heartless bastard!

Sooner or later, he'll have to pay it all back, with interest!

Lu Si cursed inwardly, and with resentment towards Qin Yu, he went to call Ruan Zhi.

Soon, Ruan Zhi came to Qin Yu.

"Draft a public notice to reassure the people immediately!"

Qin Yu quickly instructed, "Tell the people of Linhai that our crackdown on salt affairs is only to crack down on salt smugglers who collude with officials and merchants to bleed the people and the court dry. It will not affect the people's livelihood, so the people should not panic! Write it in simple terms, so that the people do not feel that the court is condoning the rampant smuggling of salt, but also do not cause too much panic among those who buy and sell small amounts of smuggled salt..."

Upon hearing Qin Yu's request, Ruan Zhi immediately looked troubled. "This... how should I write it?"

"That's your forte, I don't know." Qin Yu shook his head and smiled, immediately changing the subject, "By the way, did you notice anything wrong with those ledgers?"

"There's nothing wrong with the books, the problem is whether they match up with the various warehouses." Ruan Zhi was successfully misled by Qin Yu.

"Alright, you go ahead and get busy, I'll go find out more about the situation."

After saying that, Qin Yu immediately slipped away to avoid Ruan Zhi throwing the problem back at him.

It wasn't until Qin Yu had disappeared from sight that Ruan Zhi realized he hadn't answered her question yet!

He may have been fast, but he left the real problems to himself!

It should be easy to understand, but the meaning should not be explicitly stated!

Isn't this making things difficult for people?

Ruan Zhi had a headache. Seeing that Qin Yu was out of the question, she could only rack her brains to think of a solution.

Ruan Zhi had a headache, and Qin Yu wasn't much better off.

Now, all the main officials of Linhai County have been taken down by them, but the administration of government cannot be brought to a standstill!

We still need someone to do the work!

If no one does anything for three to five days, it won't have much of an impact.

But if the entire government system is paralyzed for a month or two, something bad is bound to happen!

The radish has been pulled out, but someone still needs to fill the hole!

Ugh!

We miscalculated!

When you set off from the imperial city, you should take a trip to the Confucian Temple and the Imperial Academy, and bring along thirty to fifty free oxen and horses to accompany you!

Now we can only cram at the last minute!

After pondering for a moment, Qin Yu summoned Qin Xiong and ordered, "Send someone into the city to inquire, focusing on people who are prestigious, have a good reputation, and are talented!"

The situation is more serious than they imagined.

As long as no major problems arise, he will not take any action against state officials for the time being.

First, stabilize the local situation, and then take action against the corrupt officials in the prefecture when the time is right!

Just as Qin Yu was lost in thought, Lü Sixing rushed in, shouting, "Wang Fan has been caught!"

"So what if they caught him? He's not some big shot!" Qin Yu said dismissively.

Now that Wang Zhaojie and the others have confessed everything, a minor character like Wang Fan is no longer important.

"You know nothing! That bastard Wang Zhaojie is still hiding something!"

Lu Sixing said angrily, "When he received news that we had attacked Fufeng County, he sent Wang Fan with men to eliminate their subordinates! When our men went to arrest Wang Fan, they also captured their subordinates..."

Lu Si became more and more excited as he spoke, his face beaming with joy.

This is such a pleasant surprise!

This saves them the trouble of going through all the trouble of capturing Wang Zhaojie and his associates!

If we can catch Wang Zhaojie and his associates, we can use those two to find out even more people!

By identifying individuals here, we can continuously identify even more people.

It's just like the chicken laying eggs, the egg hatching into a chicken, and the chicken laying more eggs.

Qin Yu was astonished and exclaimed, "This Wang Zhaojie is not only incredibly audacious, but also ruthless!"

"That bastard deliberately kept this a secret; he probably still wanted to live!"

Lu Si snorted and slapped Qin Yu on the shoulder again, grinning, "Luckily we didn't follow the normal procedure, otherwise they would have cut off this downstream connection!"

This bastard thinks that the law does not punish the masses, and that as long as he doesn't reveal who sent the killer, he still has a chance to live.

He didn't know whether to say Wang Zhaojie was too naive or too opportunistic.

If he only accepted some benefits, he might still have a chance to survive in a society where everyone is greedy.

How can you operate a saltworks illegally and still expect to survive?

Dream on!

"It's rare to see you so proactive. We're handing over the people we just caught to you for interrogation!"

Qin Yu smiled and glanced at Lü Si, "I'll take Wang Fan with me to check out the Dongpu Saltworks..."