Pampered Poisonous Royal Wife

Wu Minzhi winked at the salt merchant near the door, and the salt merchant got up immediately and followed Qi Ming's footsteps: "Mr. At the critical moment when the imperial court is checking the salt tax, there must be no conflicts inside!"

Qi Ming turned his head and glanced at all the salt merchants in the hall: "I wanted to sell a good one to save your life, but I didn't expect you to play tricks on me when the disaster was imminent. Anyway, I was not the one who panicked in the end, so you should do it yourself." .”

"Mr. Qi, don't be in a hurry. If you have something to say, come in and sit down." A few salt merchants stood up again and invited Qi Ming back into the room after talking.

Qi Ming picked up the teacup and took a sip, then put the teacup heavily on the table: "Now, Chief Wu, do you understand what I'm talking about?"

Wu Minzhi looked at Qi Ming, and finally he could only grit his teeth and nod: "I think what Mr. Qi said is that we secretly drove up the price of salt, which led to the recent increase in the price of salt, right?"

Qi Ming snorted coldly and slapped the table fiercely: "Wu Minzhi, what I'm talking about is not that you are driving up the price of salt secretly, but that you are so bold that you secretly conspired with the government to replace salt with sand to make up for the shortfall in your salt tax! "

Wu Minzhi's heart skipped a beat: "Mr. Qi, don't talk nonsense, this is a serious crime of ransacking the family!"

"Since you die without repentance, there is no need for me to say it," Qi Ming looked at the other salt merchants, "you can be buried with this good leader!"

"Mr. Qi, don't worry," some salt merchants couldn't hold back and said directly to Wu Minzhi, "Boss Wu, Mr. Qi can inform us in advance, presumably because he is with us and wants to save our lives. No more confusion."

Qi Ming turned his head and looked at Wu Minzhi with a half-smile, his eyes full of sarcasm.

Wu Minzhi sighed, and bowed to Qi Mingzuo: "Please forgive me, Mr. Qi, the matter is really involved, and I was so flustered for a while that I couldn't help it. I don't know where the master got this news from?"

"Someone wrote a secret letter about you secretly exchanging sediment for salt and sent it to Mr. Li, and the other party claimed to be able to produce sufficient evidence." Qi Ming shook his head, "This time, Mr. Li was ordered to verify Jiangnan Salt Tax, I thought it would be a good thing to sell, and let you remember the kindness of the Li family and the First Prince, who would have thought that you would be so bold as to cause such a big disaster."

"Mr. Qi, to be honest, if there is a way, we are not willing to do it. It is really too big a deficit in the salt tax, so we have no choice but to make up the deficit in the name of buying salt this time. Who would have thought Even something serious has happened, and I would like to ask Mr. Qi to advise us on what we should do so that Master Li can hold his hand high?"

Qi Ming sighed and said, "This matter is no longer just how Mr. Li sees it, there seems to be other people watching behind it, especially the person who wrote to Mr. Li to expose the matter of you exchanging mud for salt, what is the identity? If you have any clues, in order to prevent Mr. Li himself from getting involved, there is only one clear way for you now, and that is to make up for the shortfall in salt tax with silver taels as soon as possible."

Wu Minzhi frowned: "But Mr. Qi should also know that the news of the sinking of the official salt ship has spread, and now it can be said that everyone knows it. At this time, taking out silver to make up for the deficit, doesn't it mean that we Do you have ghosts in your heart?"

"I have already told you the way. As for whether to go or not, it depends on your own ideas. I have already brought the words. I think you should have something to discuss, so I will not keep you. If you have discussed it, you can Come directly to Chunfengyuan to find me."

A salt merchant was anxious, and was about to say something again, when he saw Wu Minzhi's eyes, he immediately stopped talking, and followed him back out.

After walking out of Chunfengyuan, Wu Minzhi signaled a guard to observe in the dark, and then returned to his mansion with all the salt merchants.

The atmosphere in the hall was extraordinarily dignified. After a while, everyone spoke one after another:

"Boss Wu, what should we do now?"

"Maybe that person with the same name can believe it?"

"Yeah, the road he pointed out to us is obviously not feasible right now, but he insists that it is a clear road. How should we go?"

Wu Minzhi raised his hand to signal for everyone to be quiet: "I carefully checked the seal on the post, and the seal of the governor of Liangjiang on it is indeed true, and I have already sent someone to investigate the identity of the same name, and I can vaguely find out that he has something to do with the First Prince's Mansion. In other words, it is very likely that Master Li came to Yangzhou City in advance to visit him."

"If this is the case, then we have to listen to him. After all, the person who came to check the salt tax this time is Lord Li, Governor of Liangjiang."

"Yeah, if I knew about it, I wouldn't feel sorry for those silver taels, and I would take it out early to make up for the shortfall, and there would be no troubles later." These salt merchants are worth tens of millions of taels, and each of them took out a few million. There is nothing wrong with the two, but I was too distressed before. In addition, I was safe and sound when I checked the salt tax a few years ago. .

"We can't make up for the shortfall now. We have already publicized the sinking of the ship. If we make up for it at this time, wouldn't we slap ourselves in the face?"

"Boss Wu, what do you think we should do?"

Wu Minzhi's eyes were dark: "If you think about it carefully, you will understand."

"Words of the same name?" Everyone looked at each other, and someone couldn't help repeating the words of the same name, "...there is only one way to understand, and that is to make up for the shortfall in salt tax with silver taels as soon as possible...There is only one way to understand...the way to understand... "

Someone couldn't help but suddenly realized: "There is only one open road, but there are many secret ones! Now we can't make up for the shortfall on the surface, which means that this road has been blocked, so the rest can only find a way in secret , Chief Wu, is my guess correct?"

"That's right." Wu Minzhi nodded in agreement, "The status of equal names is very likely to be true. What we should discuss now is how to satisfy him so that Master Li can hold his hand high."

All the salt merchants couldn't help but fell silent, thinking secretly in their hearts. In fact, they knew more or less well, and this is also the practice of checking the salt tax. Every time an imperial envoy is dispatched, they must send silver taels as a tribute, but how much silver taels should be given?

"Boss Wu, what do you think we should do?"

"Yes, Chief Wu please show me that you are now the leader of the salt merchants, and you have always had more ideas than us. We are now listening to you."

"Leader Wu, please make up your mind."

Wu Minzhi signaled everyone to calm down: "Actually, you all should understand in your heart that Mr. Li belongs to the lineage of the First Prince. In the past two years, the First Prince has repeatedly sent people to recruit us. But now, the situation in the capital is not clear. If we rashly seek refuge, we will just go Being someone else’s purse, so I haven’t expressed my attitude for a long time, but now the form is different, the clear path is blocked, but there are still one or two secret paths, we need to make up our minds together.”