The Prodigal Son

Qin Yu and Zhu Songlan chatted all the way.

After this conversation, Qin Yu couldn't help but admire Zhu Songlan.

Knowledgeable, visionary, and not bookish.

Moreover, their values ​​are very positive!

No wonder Yang Jichun held him in such high regard.

It seems I really did stumble upon a treasure by accident!

As for whether this person will stay in Linhai as an official or be transferred back to the imperial court, that depends on Zhao Luan's arrangements.

Upon returning to the prefectural governor's residence, Qin Yu received the news as soon as he entered.

The people from the Treasure Mirror Bureau have come looking for us!

Qin Yu didn't have time to chat with Zhu Songlan and the others; he immediately met with the people from the Baojing Division.

"This humble servant, Ding Che, greets Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy."

Ding Che was dressed in coarse cloth clothes, wearing a straw hat and a raincoat, and his face was deliberately made dirty.

He looked just like an ordinary fisherman.

Qin Yu nodded slightly, then asked, "Where is Pei Du?"

Ding Che replied, "Brother Pei should be in Haizhou right now. There are thirty of us brothers in Yuanzhou. After receiving the news that you had arrived in Linhai, I sent someone to deliver the message to Brother Pei."

"very good!"

Qin Yu gave him an approving look. "Have you found anything useful these past few days?"

"We found quite a few."

Ding Che said solemnly, "Throughout Yuanzhou, the illegal salt trade is rampant in every county and prefecture, especially in areas near the coast! Every official salt field has interceptions and embezzlements. Of the six or seven officials we secretly investigated, not one of them was clean..."

When the situation in Yuanzhou was mentioned, Ding Che's expression gradually became serious.

Everyone knew that Yuanzhou was rife with illegal salt trade, including them.

Without a thorough investigation, they had no idea that smuggled salt had become so rampant, nor that the collusion between officials and businessmen was so serious.

Currently, they have uncovered three illegal saltworks.

One of them was in a county under Linhai, and the other two private salt fields were in Langjun, south of Linhai.

Of the three illegal salt fields, two were illegally occupied by officials and businessmen who colluded to seize salt flats and build salt fields on the flats.

Another one was a former official salt field of the imperial court. Local officials reported that the salt field had been destroyed by the tsunami, but the salt field was still producing salt every day.

As for the collusion between officials and merchants, and the blatant interception of medium and high-grade salt from the imperial salt fields, it was an open secret in various regions.

These people used a variety of methods to collude with businessmen to profit from salt.

Smuggling salt by official ships, officials and soldiers helping salt smugglers cover for them, and disguising salt as other goods were all relatively restrained practices.

The salt fields operated on a dual-track system: during the day, the official salt fields produced salt for the government, while at night they produced salt for salt smugglers.

The most outrageous case of concealing production was a medium-sized salt field that produced ten shi (a unit of dry measure) of salt but only dared to put seven shi into storage!

Furthermore, salt officials would not cancel the salt certificates held by salt merchants, allowing them to use the certificates for multiple purposes.

Officials and salt smugglers used every method they could think of, and even those they couldn't.

This is only what they have found in the past few days; who knows how much more they haven't found yet.

After hearing Ding Che's words, Qin Yu felt a sense of shock once again.

This is fucking insane!

Do these people really think the imperial court wouldn't dare investigate them?

Just like with Xiao Huang, if you do it secretly and don't make a big fuss, some things will just pass.

But if you play like Wanzi, aren't you just forcing the higher-ups to take action?

After a long pause, Qin Yu asked again, "Have you found any major salt smugglers?"

"The biggest salt smuggler uncovered so far is Gan Dacheng!"

Ding Che replied, "This man was originally a pirate. A few years ago, he became the county magistrate of Jiankou by buying his way into office. He not only openly seized the salt flats, but also gathered hundreds of Jianghu people. He is the veritable local emperor of Jiankou. No one in the area dares to offend him. Even the county magistrate of Jiankou listens to him."

"No one dares to offend them?"

A cold glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes, and he grinned, revealing a set of gleaming white teeth. "Next, we'll start with Gan Dacheng!"

He just loves digging for big fish!

There are too many small fish, I'm too lazy to waste time on them!

Once the big fish is dug out, follow the trail and the smaller fish will naturally come out.

Only these big fish can come into contact with even bigger fish!

Having made up his mind, Qin Yu immediately instructed Lü Si to hand over Ma Laoqi's portrait to Ding Che, "Take ten men and head to Caoba Town in Fangzhou at top speed to lie in wait, capture this Ma Laoqi, and investigate his connections!"

"yes!"

Ding Che accepted the order.

After seeing Ding Che off, Qin Yu immediately ordered people to investigate the past of the people he had brought back from the salt field.

First, determine whether they were truly framed, then consider the next steps.

As for the salt inspectors brought back from the salt fields, Qin Yu directly handed them over to Lü Si, who had fallen in love with interrogation work, for interrogation.

As expected of the son of the Minister of Justice, Lü Si arrived with the interrogation results just as they were about to have lunch.

"You're moving a bit too fast!"

Qin Yu smiled as he accepted the confession handed to him by Lü Si. "So, you're planning to take over your father's job?"

Lu Si curled his lip, nostrils flaring, and said, "It's just a piece of trash, how long will it take?"

"You're panting, you fucking pretending?"

Qin Yu made a joke and picked up the confession to examine it.

The salt inspector's confession basically matched the confessions of Wang Zhaojie and his group.

He himself didn't actually receive much money.

He and his men together only took 20-30% of the profits; the rest were divided up by Wang Zhaojie and others.

As for whether Wang Zhaojie and his group shared the spoils with others, he didn't know.

After reading it, Qin Yu handed the confession to Ruan Zhi for safekeeping.

"By the way, didn't you bring a big one back? Where is he?"

Lu Si looked around, but Zhu Songlan was nowhere to be seen.

"Why……"

His question puzzled Qin Yu as well. "Yang Jichun seemed to have gone to call him earlier, it must have been a while ago, why are they nowhere to be seen?"

"Go take a look!"

Lu Si rolled up his sleeves, his eyes flashing with a fierce light: "I heard that this bastard even insulted my aunt. I'm going to teach him a lesson today!"

"I'll teach your grandpa a lesson!"

Qin Yu gave him a light kick. "He's very useful. If you hurt him, I'll leave all his work to you!"

"I won't break it, okay?"

Lu Si snorted and looked at Qin Yu with dissatisfaction, "Your aunt is so good to you, and you don't even know how to stand up for her! You're such an ingrate!"

"I……"

Qin Yu's face twitched slightly; he really wanted to beat this bastard to death.

This is not a matter at all, okay?

Are insulting the Empress Dowager the same as criticizing current affairs and pointing the finger at the Empress Dowager?

If he had truly insulted the Empress Dowager without any basis, there would be no way he could have gotten seventh place in the imperial examination!

Forget it, I'm too lazy to explain to this guy. I'll go see what Yang Jichun and Zhu Songlan are up to.

Could it be that these two, after being separated for so long, will reunite and get together again?

Qin Yu had a wicked thought.

Soon, Qin Yu led Lü Si to the room where Zhu Songlan was writing.

As they approached, they heard a heated argument coming from inside the house.

"Completely merging salt administration with local government affairs will inevitably breed more corruption!"

"Now that the two are separated, does that mean corruption is no longer a serious problem?"

"This is a way for the imperial court to save expenses by allowing some local officials to concurrently serve as salt officials. Once the imperial court's finances are more abundant in the future, the two positions will be completely separated, and no local official will be allowed to concurrently serve as salt officials anymore. Then this problem will be solved!"

"That's just wishful thinking! Even if local officials no longer concurrently hold the position of salt commissioner, does that mean salt commissioners and local officials can't collude for profit? This is a matter of human nature! The court is simply increasing the number of officials, which not only fails to achieve its intended purpose but also creates redundancy and increases the burden on the people!"

"You only see the bad side, not the good side!"

"I know the good points you're making! It's nothing more than local officials and salt officials supervising each other, but human nature is greedy! As long as there are shared interests, any form of supervision can become a mere formality! Rather than that, it would be better to merge the two, reducing the number of officials and expenses!"

"You only have such extreme ideas because the current salt administration problem is so serious! Once it's rectified, won't things be fine? I don't believe that all salt officials would collude with local officials..."