Chapter 312 Your biggest mistake is that you shouldn’t be ambitious!
One year’s salary deduction!
This was the punishment imposed by the Central Military Governor's Office on Yang Zhengshan for leading troops out of the country without permission.

However, Yang Zhengshan felt that this must be the emperor's intention.

Yang Zhengshan felt relieved but also a little resentful at the result.

He was relieved because the punishment was not severe, just one year's salary, which was really nothing to him. The Yang family no longer relied on his salary to make a living, and a fine of one year's salary would not affect the daily life of the Yang family.

As for resentment, how can a worker not feel resentful if his salary for a year is deducted?
"The old emperor is not a human being!"

"It would be fine if you fined your son's salary, but why did you fine me?"

"I did this without any selfish motives, but you actually fined me my salary. You really can't tell right from wrong!"

Of course, Yang Zhengshan only muttered these words in his heart, he didn't dare say them out loud.

There is no way. The emperor is the boss and we can’t afford to offend him.

Soon, Yang Zhengshan put the punishment and the resentment in his heart behind him, and he continued to work hard on the construction of Tenglongwei.

A few days later, his memorial was sent to Kyoto again.

In the imperial study of the imperial city.

Emperor Chengping leaned on a bright yellow couch, Prince Xin knelt in front of him, and Eunuch Chen and several young eunuchs stood beside him, not daring to breathe.

Prince Xin had been kneeling for an hour, his body was trembling slightly, and his forehead was covered with beads of sweat. He was not tired or frightened.

Emperor Chengping looked at the memorial in his hand without saying a word and ignored Prince Xin.

It was not until he turned to Yang Zhengshan's memorial that his expression changed. It was not because of the content of the memorial, as he had not yet read it carefully, but because when he saw Yang Zhengshan's name, he thought of this good-for-nothing son in front of him.

Emperor Chengping raised his eyelids and asked calmly, "Do you know why I asked you to kneel here?"

Upon hearing this, Prince Xin quickly lowered himself and said, "I don't know!"

Seeing him like this, Emperor Chengping became furious and picked up the memorial on the desk and threw it at him.

"I don't know, useless piece of trash, what else do you know?"

With a loud bang, the memorial hit Prince Xin's head and forehead.

Eunuch Chen next to him reached out to take it, but stopped.

"Instead of killing Luo Fu, your people became prisoners!"

"Haha, you are really capable. You actually dare to send someone to kill Luo Fu!"

"If you had killed Luo Fu, I would have looked up to you, but what was the result?"

"Not only did he not kill the person, but he also handed his own evidence to the door!"

"Disgraceful trash!"

Emperor Taiping was really angry.

As an emperor, he doesn't care about good or evil, benevolence, righteousness, or morality. He only cares about imperial power and interests.

As his sons, he also hopes that they will all be good kids.

A good baby cannot sit on the throne, and even if he does, he cannot sit on it steadily.

Prince Xin wants to kill Luo Fu, that’s nothing!
If he were in the position of Prince Xin, he would not only kill Luo Fu, but also kill all those who knew about it, including Zheng Xiao and Yang Zhengshan. Anyone who was involved and might affect him would be killed.

But he would never act so rashly, nor would he send people around him to do such a thing.

He is not ruthless enough and his actions are not careful enough. This is Emperor Chengping's evaluation of Prince Xin.

"I know I was wrong, and I beg for punishment, father!" Prince Xin touched the ground with his forehead, not daring to look up or say a word of rebuttal.

"I know I'm wrong, haha~ Your biggest mistake is that you shouldn't have been ambitious!"

Emperor Chengping looked at Prince Xin coldly.

Prince Xin was completely panicked, "Father!"

Emperor Chengping interrupted him and said, "Pack up and go to your fiefdom. Be a good prince and never come back to Kyoto in your life!"

Prince Xin's face suddenly turned pale.

Become a vassal!

Far away from Kyoto, he never had another chance.

And Emperor Chengping also completely gave up on him!
"Father! I know I was wrong!" Prince Xin begged crying.

"Get out!" Emperor Chengping roared hoarsely.

Upon seeing this, Eunuch Chen stepped forward and said, "Your Highness Prince Xin, please step down first!"

As he spoke, he winked at the eunuchs beside him, who immediately stepped forward and half-supported and half-dragged Prince Xin out of the imperial study.

After Prince Xin left, Eunuch Chen immediately served tea to Emperor Chengping, "Your Majesty, please calm down and take care of the emperor's health!"

Emperor Chengping took a deep breath, took the tea and took a sip, and it took him a while to recover.

He pointed at the messy memorials on the ground and said, "Bring those over here!"

Eunuch Chen quickly picked up the memorials on the ground and placed them neatly on the desk.

Emperor Chengping found Yang Zhengshan's memorial from among them and read its contents carefully.

I was so angry just now that I threw the memorial away without even reading it carefully.

"Sailor?"

"Sea trade!"

After reading the contents of the memorial, Emperor Chengping frowned slightly.

Yang Zhengshan did not hide his idea of ​​developing maritime trade, but wrote all his ideas in the memorial. However, he understood that if he only talked about maritime trade, the emperor would most likely not agree, so he used the establishment of a navy as an excuse.

As for whether Emperor Chengping would agree to Tenglongwei establishing a navy, Yang Zhengshan was still somewhat confident.

This confidence comes from the fact that Prince Qing secretly has a maritime trade fleet.

Just as Yang Zhengshan thought, when Emperor Chengping saw that Yang Zhengshan wanted to build a navy, the first thing he thought of was Prince Qing's maritime trade fleet. "Does Prince Qing have a large fleet?" Emperor Chengping asked Eunuch Chen.

Eunuch Chen quickly replied, "Yes, according to the investigation of the Secret Guard, Prince Qing started to build a fleet eight years ago. Now this fleet has more than 80 large and small ships!"

Over the years, the Secret Guards have been keeping an eye on Prince Qing and have even stepped up surveillance on him several times. Unfortunately, Prince Qing is very careful and does everything just right.

Take the fleet issue for example. Normally, princes and dukes are not allowed to do business, let alone maritime trade. Even ordinary business is not allowed.

But rules are just rules, and some rules have long been broken by default. Now all the princes in Darong are engaged in business, and it is not easy for Emperor Chengping to punish Prince Qing for business matters.

"Hasn't the Secret Guard figured out where Prince Qing's fleet is going?" Emperor Chengping continued to ask.

Eunuch Chen shook his head slightly. "According to the investigation of the Secret Guard, in recent years, the fleet of Prince Qing has frequently traveled between the Lisheng Dynasty and the Desheng Dynasty. On the surface, it is mainly for trade, but secretly there are many things hidden."

"The Secret Guards have speculated that Prince Qing may have a base overseas, but the Secret Guards have never been able to infiltrate Prince Qing's fleet, so this speculation has never been verified!"

Emperor Chengping silently put down the memorial in his hand. He could not help but praise Prince Qing for his prudence and thoroughness.

Everything that Prince Qing revealed on the surface was so perfect that he couldn't find a suitable reason.

Sometimes he really wanted to take down Prince Qing at all costs.

Unfortunately, he could not make up his mind.

"Tenglong Guard wants to establish a navy. What do you think?" Emperor Chengping was silent for a moment, then asked.

His focus was on the navy, and he didn't care at all about Yang Zhengshan's desire to engage in maritime trade.

"I dare not speak nonsense!" Eunuch Chen said with his head down.

"Old thing, just say what I tell you to say!" Emperor Chengping said impatiently.

Eunuch Chen thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "I think we can ask Tenglong Vanguard to build a navy!"

"Tenglong Vanguard!" Emperor Chengping rubbed the memorial on the table, "Who will be the commander of Tenglong Vanguard?"

Tenglongwei, Tenglong avant-garde, one more word has a different meaning.

In fact, there is no Tenglong Vanguard now, only Tenglong Guard. The so-called Tenglong front, back, left and right guards do not have an organizational structure, but are just internal divisions of the Tenglong Guard.

If there is one more Tenglong Vanguard, some military households will be separated from the Tenglong Guard and added to the Tenglong Vanguard, and the Tenglong Vanguard will also establish a commander and a guard office.

This is equivalent to two yamen and two leadership teams at the same level.

"General Yang can take on the role temporarily!" said Eunuch Chen.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chengping showed a faint smile on his face.

This idea was very much to his liking.

"Then let's do it!"

After saying this, he wrote a "yes" on the memorial.

Eunuch Chen immediately stepped forward and took the memorial, "I will now convey your majesty's intention to Duke Ning!"

"Ok!"

Emperor Chengping nodded and picked up another memorial to read.

……

At the end of July, the Liaodong Salt Transport Bureau corruption case was closed.

Luo Fu, the salt transport envoy of Liaodong, Tang Bo, the provincial governor of Liaoan, Xu Huazhen, the vanguard commander of Liaoan, and Zhao Mingsheng, the former imperial censor of Liaodong salt, were all executed after their homes were confiscated.

More than 30 officials from several government offices, including the Liaoyuan Provincial Administration Office, the Capital Military Command Office, the Censorate, the Liaodong Salt Transport Office, and the Liaoan Prefectural Office, were implicated and were dismissed or demoted.

Eight other large and small salt merchants had their properties raided, and more than ten salt merchants had their dirty silver confiscated.

After this case, the Liaodong salt administration and salt industry were almost on the verge of collapse.

The other government offices were fine, but the Salt Transport Office was almost wiped out.

From the salt transport commissioner to the salt field official, almost no one was spared.

In this regard, Yang Zhengshan can only say that snakes and rats are of the same nest.

However, these are the affairs of the Salt Transport Bureau, and he has no control over the Salt Transport Bureau. Compared with the handling of the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau, he is more concerned about the handling of the salt merchants.

The eight salt merchants had their properties confiscated, which meant that a large market was vacated in the Liaodong region, which meant that new salt merchants would occupy these markets, and that the Tenglongwei Salt Field could sell more salt.

The turmoil in the salt trade is undoubtedly an opportunity.

After learning about the situation in Liao'an Prefecture, Yang Zhengshan immediately wrote a letter to Luo Shang, asking him to go to Liao'an Prefecture to check out the situation and see if he could take the opportunity to occupy a larger salt market.

However, this matter still requires Zheng Xiao's consent. After the collapse of the Salt Transport Bureau, the salt administration in Liaodong can almost be said to be dominated by Zheng Xiao.

If the Luo family wants to occupy a larger market, they cannot do without Zheng Xiao’s support.

But Yang Zhengshan did not write a letter to Zheng Xiao, nor did he speak on behalf of the Luo family.

How can I explain this?

Yang Zhengshan is not a businessman. The reason he intervened in the salt trade was to increase income for Tenglongwei, not to make money.

If the Luo family occupied a larger market, Tenglongwei's salt field would definitely not be able to meet their needs, so the Luo family would buy salt from other salt fields.

Since the salt is purchased from other salt fields, it has nothing to do with Tenglongwei.

Moreover, the Tenglongwei salt field can be expanded, but it cannot be expanded indefinitely.

Tenglongwei can make money through the salt fields, but it cannot occupy a large share of the salt market in Liaodong.

The reason is very simple. There are still countless salt farmers in Liaodong region who make a living by boiling and drying salt. If Tenglongwei occupies too much market share, many salt farmers will lose their livelihoods.

Therefore, Yang Zhengshan’s idea was that the Tenglongwei Salt Field could only occupy the salt market in the three prefectures at most, and no more.

But in this case, the Luo family occupied other markets, and buying salt from other salt fields became the Luo family's own business, so Yang Zhengshan did not intervene, but just reminded Luo Shang.

(End of this chapter)