flstandardbreds Chapter 161: From the governor to the prefect and county magistrate, all are rats
Chapter 161: From the governor to the prefect and county magistrate, all are rats
"Yes, Yuhang has a salt field. It is one of the richest places in the world."
"Then you don't understand, right? Officials in Yuhang are very valuable now. If you go there, how can you make your money back?"
"Then being the Yuhang Salt Ambassador is a tough job, isn't it?"
"Of course. I heard that Yuhang's deficit is as much as 500,000 taels!"
This time everyone took a deep breath.
The city of Yuhang alone suffered a loss of five hundred thousand taels of silver.
There were indeed big problems with Yuhang’s salt business.
In this way, the Yuhang Salt Administration Ambassador is not a popular person at all.
It's a thunder!
Now, everyone at the dinner was in a much better mood.
They all got drunk and then said goodbye to Huang Xiao.
The next day, Huang Xiao took a train to the port and boarded a boat.
He was going to land at Huajiang and then go to Yuhang Prefecture.
After a tiring journey, Huang Xiao finally arrived at Yuhang Prefecture.
Yuhang is a prosperous place in the world.
This place is not much worse than Kyoto.
Yuhang and Jiangnan are famous wealthy cities in the world, so they have always been the destinations that officials yearn for.
Even officials from Beijing would hold a grand banquet to celebrate when they heard that they could be transferred to Yuhang.
The current officialdom of the Great Zhou is no longer what it used to be.
The Zhejiang officialdom attaches particular importance to pomp and circumstance.
The Governor of Zhejiang led his men to personally welcome Huang Xiao.
"Master Huang!"
The Yuhang Governor was Huang Xiao's immediate superior, so Huang Xiao's attitude was very respectful.
The Yuhang Governor is in charge of Yuhang’s civil affairs and is the parent official of Yuhang.
The governor of Yuhang was named Wu Rui, who welcomed Huang Xiao very warmly.
"Master Huang, let me introduce you."
"These are the county magistrates and prefects under Yuhang. They all came to see you!"
Huang Xiao's heart skipped a beat, it looked like the person came with bad intentions.
These guys wanted to give me a warning.
Yuhang’s officialdom is truly rotten!
Huang Xiao cursed in his heart.
From this point of view, Yuhang's salt business might also be involved by Yuhang's governor Wu Rui.
Huang Xiao now had a headache.
The governor is his superior.
If even the governor is involved, the case will not be that easy to investigate!
But Huang Xiao also had a plan in mind.
This time he came to Yuhang, he had the support of His Majesty!
As long as he has the support of His Majesty, Huang Xiao believes that he can definitely get to the bottom of the salt administration scandal in Yuhang!
Huang Xiao was born a street thug and is quite capable.
He happily mingled with this group of colleagues, looking greedy and lustful.
Yuhang Governor Wu Rui was finally relieved.
It seems that Huang Xiao is also someone who can't resist temptation!
When Huang Xiao returned to his mansion, a man in black landed in his yard.
"Sir Huang, I am the leader of Yuhang West Factory. The factory master ordered me to assist you!"
At this time, another man dressed as a martial arts master stood up.
"I am the chief constable of the Six Gates of Yuhang, and the Ministry of Justice has also sent me to assist you, sir!"
Huang Xiao immediately smiled and said, "With you two here, there's no need to worry about not being able to clean up the Yuhang scandal!"
In the following days, Huang Xiao reported to the yamen during the day.
In the evening, he would leave office and go home on time to attend various banquets attended by Yuhang Governor Wu Rui.
Soon, he got to know all the wealthy and powerful people in Yuhang.
Salt is an important national treasure.
All the people need to eat salt.
Therefore, resources such as salt have always been controlled by the imperial court.
All salt wells and salt fields were controlled by the imperial court.
Each salt field divides the total amount of salt produced each year into many salt permits.
The local government sold these salt permits to salt merchants.
Salt merchants can buy salt with salt permits.
These salt merchants then sold the salt to the people.
For salt merchants, this deal must be profitable, so most of them would rush to buy salt permits.
However, the salt industry in Yuhang Prefecture suffered an unprecedented deficit.
In other words, the investment in salt production at Yuhang Salt Field was actually greater than the sales.
The salt from Yuhang Prefecture can no longer be sold at a good price.
Huang Xiao knew that there must be a big problem with the salt business in Yuhang Prefecture!
However, Huang Xiao accompanied the Governor Wu Rui to attend banquets hosted by various salt merchants.
These salt merchants are still very wealthy, which shows that selling salt is still profitable!
Moreover, Yuhang Prefecture was prosperous, with all industries thriving, and the people did not seem to be unable to afford salt.
There must be some private salt!
Huang Xiao also knew that throughout the Zhejiang region, salt administrations in various places had suffered losses to varying degrees.
This is a corruption case!
The salt administration in Zhejiang province is completely rotten.
On the day off, Huang Xiao brought his men to the restaurant in Yuhang Prefecture for dinner.
After having a full meal and a good drink, Huang Xiao called the shopkeeper to his private room.
"Boss, the food here is delicious!"
The shopkeeper nodded and bowed hurriedly, "Just eat as long as you are satisfied!"
Huang Xiao asked again: "But your dishes seem a bit salty, doesn't salt cost money?"
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Sir, do you think our salt tastes good?"
"The salt we make is actually the same as the official salt on the market."
Huang Xiao quickly grasped the question in the shopkeeper's words and asked, "Actually?"
The shopkeeper said softly: "Although my family uses private salt, this private salt is also made in the official salt city, and it is all top-quality salt."
Huang Xiao was shocked and asked, "The official salt factory is selling private salt? Why is that?"
The shopkeeper said, "It seems that you don't understand the business of the market. The government-run salt works also need to make a living!"
"Nowadays, salt merchants no longer buy salt permits."
"As long as you give some money to get through, you can get the salt ticket issued by the governor."
"With a salt ticket, you can go directly to the government-run salt field to get salt."
"When you go to the market to buy salt, if you ask for a low price, the shopkeeper will give you this kind of private salt."
"This is half the price of the official salt!"
"But I heard that this is profitable. The salt business of the imperial court makes a lot of money!"
Huang Xiao took a breath.
As expected, the entire governor's office is rotten to the core!
The salt affairs of Yuhang Prefecture were generally not covered up.
From the provincial governor to the prefects and county magistrates, to the salt merchants, and to the common people.
It seemed that they were all sucking the blood of the imperial court openly.
With the salt tickets, the provincial government office could earn more than 100,000 taels of silver every year.
Of course, all of this went into the pocket of Governor Wu Rui.
People can also buy cheaper salt.
It seems that only the court is unlucky.
Collecting evidence was not difficult at all. Huang Xiao directly sent people from the Western Factory to pretend to be salt dealers and quickly got the salt tickets.
"These worms!"
Huang Xiao wrote down all the situations in Zhejiang Prefecture in a memorial and reported it to Kyoto!
The next step is arrest.
The behavior of the provincial governor's office was most obvious.
But Huang Xiao did not have direct evidence of Wu Rui's fate.
If Wu Rui pushed it to his subordinate advisor, Huang Xiao would be unable to do anything to him.
So Huang Xiao decided to start with a county magistrate.