Chapter 295 Talent

After hearing what Ning Qingqing said, Yang Mingcheng was stunned at first, and then his eyes lit up.

He knew that the Hengdao Sect was the largest underworld force in Jizhou, and one of the most powerful underworld forces in Liaodong.

However, he had no idea about the relationship between Ning Qingqing and Yu Qingyi.

But since Ning Qingqing said so, Yang Mingcheng still clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "Mingcheng greets auntie!"

"..."

Ning Qingqing froze.

He actually called me aunt!
This this this~~~
Ning Qingqing looked at Ji Hai beside her with a stiff expression, her charming face was as pale and stiff as if covered with frost.

"Brother, am I that old?"

She said that she and Yu Qingyi were sisters, and that Yang Mingcheng should call her aunt, but in fact she didn't really act like an aunt.

She just wanted to use this opportunity to bring the two sides closer together.

What a bullshit aunt. She and Yu Qingyi are not sisters, so where does the aunt come from?

However, she had no idea that Yang Mingcheng was a very honest person. Yang Mingcheng felt that she had saved him and was a sister to his mother, so calling her aunt was nothing.

The cold and handsome Ji Hai almost couldn't help laughing when he saw Ning Qingqing's look of disbelief.

"Ahem! Nephew Yang, let's talk inside!"

The word "nephew" was like a stab in the back, hurting Ning Qingqing's heart again.

However, Ji Hai's calling Yang Mingcheng "nephew" was not really taking advantage of Yang Mingcheng. He was older than Ning Qingqing and Yu Qingyi, and only six or seven years younger than Yang Zhengshan, so it was not an exaggeration to call Yang Mingcheng "nephew".

"Then here~~" Yang Mingcheng looked at the corpses on the street.

"Don't worry, I will arrange someone to deal with it. There is still a survivor over there, and I will personally find out about their origins!" A fierce look flashed in Ji Hai's eyes.

Committing a crime in the Hengdao Sect's inn, do you really think that the Hengdao Sect is easy to mess with?
Yang Mingcheng thought about it and decided that it would be better to leave this matter to the two seniors in front of him. This was the first time for him to do such a thing and he had no experience. It would be better to have the two seniors help him than to do it himself.

"Then I'll trouble you, senior!"

Ji Hai nodded slightly and took Yang Mingcheng back to the inn.

"Dear guests, they are just a bunch of petty thieves who don't have long eyes. They have been dealt with. You can rest assured!"

The innkeeper was comforting the guests. The bodies and bloodstains in the inn had been cleaned up, but there was still a little smell of blood in the air.

When the guests realized they were safe, they stayed in their rooms and continued to sleep.

Yang Zhengshan returned to his room and found that the tables and chairs that had been damaged in the fight had all been replaced with new ones, and even the broken windows had been sealed with window paper. Only the walls still had some marks.

"Sir, there are no other rooms in our shop. We have to ask you to stay here for one night!" said the shopkeeper politely.

If Ji Hai hadn't spoken, he would never have been so polite.

Yang Mingcheng was the one who provoked the inn, and the incident was caused by Yang Mingcheng. Logically, Yang Mingcheng should be responsible for all the losses of the inn, and he should chase Yang Mingcheng to demand compensation.

As for those men in black, no one is willing to collect debts from the dead, so they have to collect debts from the living. This is the rule of the underworld.

When two parties fight and damage store property, they will generally ask for compensation from the winner.

However, Yang Mingcheng didn't know all this. He just thought that Xinfu Inn was very elegant and the service was very thoughtful.

"No problem, please excuse me, shopkeeper!"

"Then I won't bother you anymore!"

The shopkeeper left, Yang Mingcheng put down the blood-stained spear, looked at the door, and then looked at the window.

He recalled the previous battle in his mind and summed up the mistakes made in the battle.

Although he performed very well just now, he still made mistakes in many places. After all, this was his first real combat.

"Dad said that every battle is worth careful consideration, and every battle is the most valuable experience!"

"I shouldn't have jumped out of the room just now. Although the room restricted my performance, it also restricted the enemy's attack. On the street, I was surrounded."

"Also, when I faced that muscular man just now, I should have been more proactive. I had several opportunities to kill him, but I didn't seize them!"

……

Yang Mingcheng summed up the gains and losses of the battle bit by bit. After all, it was his first time experiencing actual combat. Although he had often competed with others before, there was still a big gap between competition and actual combat.

A competition is about showing off your moves, while actual combat is a fight of life and death.

He was used to competitions, but not to the cruelty of life-and-death fights.

If he wasn't strong enough, he would have been killed by the sturdy man in black.

The next morning, Ji Hai came to Yang Mingcheng's room.

"Those people last night were very stubborn. We didn't find out their origins!" Ji Hai's face looked a little ugly.

Except for one who escaped, there was only one survivor among the men in black yesterday, and this survivor didn't say a word after being interrogated by him.

There are only two possibilities for such a person. One is that he is a mute, and the other is that he is a death warrior trained by a certain force.

Obviously the other party is not mute.

"Is that so?" Yang Mingcheng didn't know what to do. He was still confused and had no idea why the other party came to him.

"But judging from their accent, they should be from Shuntian Prefecture!" Ji Hai said the only useful information he got.

"Shuntian Prefecture! Then don't they come from Kyoto?" Yang Mingcheng asked.

Shuntian Prefecture is not big. In addition to Kyoto, there are two counties, Wanping and Dasheng.

"Yeah!" Ji Hai nodded slightly.

Yang Mingcheng frowned and thought about it, but he still couldn't think of anyone who wanted to kill him. Ji Hai thought more, the target of this group of people was very clear, that is Yang Mingcheng, as for the reason why they attacked Yang Mingcheng, it was probably an enemy of the Yang family.

He didn't know much about the Yang family, but he understood that the Yang family's enemies must be people in the court.

Once the imperial court is involved, martial arts sects like their Hengdao Sect should not be involved.

After the two chatted briefly, Yang Mingcheng expressed his gratitude to Ji Hai again, promised to reward him generously in the future, and then set off to leave Xinping Town.

Since someone wants to kill him, he naturally can't delay any longer. It is better to return to Tenglongwei as soon as possible.

……

Tenglongwei.

Yang Zhengshan was meeting a guest in the tea room. Besides him, Liu Zhe was also in the tea room, and the guest was Zheng Xiao from the Salt Transport Bureau.

Zheng Xiao came very suddenly. Yang Zhengshan had just written to him two days ago to inquire about allowing the Luo family to become salt merchants. Unexpectedly, Zheng Xiao came to Tenglongwei today.

Although Tenglongwei is not far from Liaoan Prefecture, Zheng Xiao should not leave the Salt Transport Office easily.

After the three of them exchanged pleasantries, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but ask, "How come Lord Zheng has time to come to my place?"

He was very curious about why Zheng Xiao came?

Logically speaking, there was no need for Zheng Xiao to come, because what Yang Zhengshan asked for was not a difficult task for him.

Yang Zhengshan asked for two things. The first was to let the Tenglongwei salt field sell salt in the name of the salt field under the jurisdiction of the Salt Transport Bureau. Now that Yang Zhengshan has obtained the approval of Emperor Chengping, the Salt Transport Bureau would not dare to disobey the emperor's will even if they were unwilling. Therefore, Zheng Xiao only needed to cooperate slightly in this matter.

The second thing was to make the Luo family a salt merchant. This was difficult for others, but it was still easy for Zheng Xiao, the Liaodong Salt Inspector.

Although the Inspector of Salt is only a seventh-rank official, he is a sword hanging over the head of the Salt Transport Bureau. If the Inspector of Salt is not taken care of, the entire Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau will have no peace.

Therefore, when the Salt Inspector made some small requests, the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau were still very willing to cooperate.

If it was just because of these two things, Zheng Xiao would not have needed to make this trip, and for the sake of Liu Yuanfu's face, he should also help Yang Zhengshan.

Zheng Xiao pondered for a moment, looked at Liu Zhe next to him, and sighed, "I came here this time to ask General Yang for help!"

"Help? What help?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"I would like to trouble General Yang to give me a team of soldiers to protect me!" Zheng Xiao said.

Yang Zhengshan narrowed his eyes and his expression suddenly became serious.

Liu Zhe next to him stopped pouring tea, looked up in surprise and looked at Zheng Xiao.

"Is Lord Zheng in danger?" Yang Zhengshan asked in a deep voice.

If Zheng Xiao's life is really in danger, then what this represents is no small matter.

The imperial censors who are on tour outside the capital are on duty on behalf of the emperor. Anyone who dares to harm the censors would be tantamount to rebellion.

Zheng Xiao nodded slightly and said, "I want to investigate whether Luo Fu, the Liaodong Salt Transport Commissioner, and Zhao Mingsheng, the former Salt Inspector, accepted bribes from salt merchants and secretly pre-sold salt permits!"

Yang Zhengshan and Liu Zhe looked at each other, both surprised.

It has become an unspoken rule for officials of the Salt Transport Bureau to accept bribes. In fact, their way of accepting bribes is very simple, that is, taking kickbacks.

Salt merchants needed salt permits to buy salt, and the Salt Transport Department was the one that distributed the salt permits. The officials of the Salt Transport Department allocated the salt permits based on the amount of kickbacks received from the salt merchants.
Officials received money for salt permits, and big salt merchants had money and connections and could bribe officials, thus forming a monopoly in the salt trade.

This is a very simple chain of interests.

These are all well-known things, and neither Yang Zhengshan nor Liu Zhe were surprised, but what does this private pre-sale of salt permits mean?
Yang Zhengshan asked the doubts in his mind.

Zheng Xiao gave a wry smile and began to explain.

The so-called private pre-sale of salt permits is actually very simple, which is to sell next year's salt permits this year.

In this way, the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau could not only receive kickbacks one year in advance, but also use the money from the sale of salt permits in advance.

Take the Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau for example. It could earn over one million taels of silver every year from the sale of salt permits. If it sold one year's salt permits in advance, it would mean that the Salt Transport Bureau could control over one million taels of silver.

The silver earned from selling salt permits this year will be handed over to the court, and next year's salt permits will be sold this year, so the silver will remain in the Salt Transport Bureau for a year. The Salt Transport Bureau can do whatever it wants with the silver, and put it in a money shop for lending, and a lot of silver can be collected in a year.

"Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng have already sold all the salt permits for next year! And now there is no silver in the Salt Transport Bureau's treasury!" Zheng Xiao said with some heaviness.

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and fell into deep thought.

Talent!
What a talent!

Pre-sale of salt permits, isn’t this futures trading?

Then use the money from the pre-sale of salt permits to make money.

There are risks in taking kickbacks, and people may accuse you of taking bribes, but the pre-sale of salt permits cannot be considered as embezzlement or bribery, it can only be considered as misappropriation of treasury silver.

When they needed to pay silver to the Ministry of Revenue, they no longer needed to take back the previous silver because they could sell next year's salt permits and hand them over to the Ministry of Revenue.

This is equivalent to the Salt Transport Bureau always having more than one million taels of silver lending out.

However, if you go to money houses or pawnshops to borrow money, most of the time you get back the money you have.

If all of this one million taels of silver were loaned out, it would double in one year.

Borrowing money to make money, wow, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but sigh at the cleverness of these two adults, Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng.

Look at the business they are doing. Damn, it feels like it’s more profitable than being a salt merchant.
Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but wonder whether the money from the Weisi Yamen should also be used to lend out?

Why the hell are they building a salt field?
Of course, he was just thinking about it. Misappropriating treasury funds was also a serious crime, and he didn't want to be punished.

This is where Luo Fu and Zhao Mingsheng are clever. You say that he misappropriated the treasury silver, but this amount of treasury silver should not have existed in the first place, because it was next year's treasury silver and did not belong to the Salt Transport Bureau this year.

Therefore, Zheng Xiao only said that the two people secretly pre-sold salt permits, but did not say that they privately misappropriated treasury silver.

(End of this chapter)