Zhu Cihong looked at Qian Qianyi and smiled faintly, and agreed with his statement in his heart, it is necessary to support a group of people to come out, firstly, it can play a contrasting role, comparing those people who are rebelling against the court, not that the court wants to eliminate them, so there must be supportive people to speak out, and the formation of a court is the meaning of fighting criminals.

At this time, Qian Qianyi's usefulness came, after all, he knew which Jiangnan literati were available and which were not.

Any group of people, if you kill a group, you have to help a group, such as corrupt officials, businessmen, gentry, and nobles, all the same, if you die a group, you have to help up a group, and the person who helps up does not need how powerful he is, just need to be obedient.

"Where

is Jiang Ming now?" Zhu Cihong had an idea in his heart and planned to call Jiang Ming to Jiangnan, in the future, the main business place of the Longmen Chamber of Commerce is Jiangnan, and the salt and iron, tea, silk, and grain businesses here must be controlled in their own hands.

"Back to His Royal Highness, Jiang Ming reported some time ago that he is now in Jinan Mansion, Shandong, and has established Longmen Department Store there.

Sun Hao next to him said that when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince travels, everyone's work reports will be received by a special brocade guard in the capital, and then someone will be sent here.

"Send someone to Jinan Mansion to summon him to Nanjing.

Zhu Cihong remembered that after he let him monopolize the grain business in Shanxi, he went to Shandong to continue to do this, because he sent Liu Renliang to Shandong to train sailors, and then the sailors of the Ming Dynasty were temporarily based on the coastal areas of Shandong, so Shandong's grain market must also be in their own hands.

......

September of the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

Fifty miles outside the city of Yangzhou.

Zhu Cihong and his entourage of more than 300 people pretended to be a caravan and slowly rushed towards Yangzhou, and their first stop was Yangzhou City.

Yangzhou is a place where smuggling is more prevalent, because the transportation here is very developed, so there are many smuggling merchants here, especially salt and iron, all the salt merchants in Yangzhou have to transport the illegal salt from the Caoyun wharf here, and then distribute it to all parts of the south of the Yangtze River.

"The water shows the mountain and the eyebrows are far away, and the return is idle and leaning on the small pavilion window.

Zhu Cihong stepped out of the carriage, looked at Feng Ying around him, and sighed in his heart, Yangzhou in ancient times was really green mountains and distant waters, mixed trees and flowers, and a group of warblers and warblers flew wildly, this scenery made people feel refreshed and happy, no wonder there were so many poems written in Yangzhou.

"Your Highness, this Yangzhou is the entrance to the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, and there are even more unique mountains and rivers behind it.

Qian Qianyi came to Zhu Cihong's side and said with a smile.

"Li Ruolian.

Zhu Cihong walked, admiring the surrounding scenery all the way.

"In.

Li Ruolian said.

"Where are you pretending to be a salt merchant?"

Zhu Ci asked, now their identity is ordinary people, so all etiquette must be waived, this Xi must be cultivated in advance, otherwise subconsciously come to a sentence of Your Highness, courtier, then it will be a gang.

"It's a small vendor in Shuntianfu New Town.

Li Ruolian's authentic Beijing accent will not make people suspicious, so he said: "I have opened up a network in Yangzhou, and I spent a total of 100,000 taels of silver before I am qualified to enter the venue for dinner." "

That's what I said, saying that the business in the north is not easy to do, plus the recent Longmen Chamber of Commerce monopolized the salt, the price is pressed at fifty wen a catty, which is too little, and there are more monks and less meat, I heard that this area in the south of the Yangtze River has outstanding people, talents, many people, many opportunities, and salt is already three hundred wen a catty, so I want to develop here."

When Zhu Cihong heard this, he smiled and asked, "Do they believe it?" "

Is this the truth, isn't the salt north of Shandong now coming out of the Longmen Chamber of Commerce, the price of salt is indeed fifty wen a catty, and one hundred thousand taels of silver were smashed into it, and those people's eyes immediately lit up.

Li Ruolian showed the face of a profiteer, and said with a smile: "Plus I have a sycophant face, tsk, don't talk about them, even I admire them." "

Have you made an appointment for dinner?" said

Zhu Cihong with a smile.

"Set a good date, ten days later, there is a party in Yangzhou Peony Fang, I heard that it is the distribution meeting of Yangzhou salt, and the 100,000 taels are the admission stickers that I bought.

Li Ruolian took out an invitation from her bosom and handed it to Zhu Cihong for a look.

Zhu Cihong took the invitation and looked at it, in fact, he wrapped the entire peony workshop, and then entered with the invitation in hand, the post was written about the talented and beautiful woman, and the organizer's signature was not written, and it was impossible to know who the organizer was by relying on this post.

It was very cautious, he thought to himself.

At

this moment, a group of people, hundreds of people, all of whom were armed with weapons and fierce faces, suddenly poured out from a small forest in front of them.

One of them was the leader, wearing a black hat, a gray robe, a sword hanging from his waist, and a chivalrous dress, but as soon as he opened his mouth, this image was ruined, and his voice was a little rough, as if he deliberately didn't want people to hear his original voice: "This forest is planted by our bamboo gang, and the land you walk on is also paved by our bamboo gang, and the bridge you want to cross is also built by our lord!" "If you want to

pass by from here, you need to pay some tolls!"

Everyone looked at the group of people who suddenly rushed out in front of them, and they were all stunned in place, especially Zhu Cihong, who was only an hour away from Yangzhou.

It can be said that it was just outside Yangzhou City, but I didn't expect to encounter bandits who blocked the road and robbed?

Is it because the official document of the Criminal Department was not sent to Yangzhou, or did the Yangzhou prefect deliberately ignore it?

"What's the situation?"

Zhu Cihong's face turned black all of a sudden, and he asked Li Ruolian next to him: "What is the details of this group of people, have you found it?"

"This bamboo gang often blocks the road outside Yangzhou City to grab money, but it also abides by the rules, every caravan from other places to Yangzhou to do business, to pay a thousand taels of silver toll, never more than a penny, the goods do not touch you, and will not kill people indiscriminately.

Li Ruolian said and said: "The Yangzhou government knows about this bamboo gang, and there are also many businessmen from other places who went to the government to sue after entering the city, but this bamboo gang is still good."

"Moreover, it was also found that this bamboo gang often mixed with the officers and soldiers of Yangzhou's anti-private enterprises, and this anti-private was a subordinate yamen of the Yangzhou Salt Transportation Division, which specialized in arresting smuggled salt, and this is not only that, Yangzhou's illegal salt, sold to Shandong, Henan, and the transport personnel are this bamboo gang.

"Therefore, I suspect that this bamboo gang is very likely to collude with the government in Yangzhou City, or the salt gang, or it was raised by an official, or it was raised by a salt merchant, and this information was found, but I didn't get the account books of this group of people, so I didn't dare to startle the snakes, just wait for His Royal Highness to close the net, and then arrest people to search the account books."

Li Ruolian told the news found by Jinyiwei and his own opinions, all this information was collected and stored in a small courtyard in Nanjing, just waiting for His Highness to collect the net.

"No wonder the man with the hat spoke in a suppressed voice, this is for fear that others will recognize him, in short, the officials and businessmen in Yangzhou City have colluded, but I am not sure which side of the bamboo gang is, right?

Zhu Cihong said, and said: "I'm afraid this salt gang knows a lot of inside stories in Yangzhou City, tonight, you send someone to arrest the two hundred and five next to the hat man." This

person was standing next to him, carrying a big knife, dragging it like 2580,000, and he was so close to the hat man, obviously a high-level member of the Bamboo Gang.

"Understood.

A cruel smile appeared on the corner of Li Ruolian's mouth.

"They said they would ask for a thousand taels of silver, or they would not have given it.

At this time, Gao Wencai walked back after negotiating with the other party.

"Give it.

Zhu Cihong said.

When Gao Wencai heard this, he immediately stepped forward and threw ten bags of silver over.

On the other side, he took the money bag and weighed it, and the two hundred and five who were standing next to the man in the hat stepped forward and laughed: "You are the most happy caravan that Lao Tzu has ever seen to give money, haha!" "The caravan

of hundreds of people dare not resist, it's boring!"

"Come on!".

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