Prince Si Ning was Li Xun's father. If he really wanted to know something, he could ask the guards of the mansion who guarded Li Xun. There was no need to send people here to inquire. It was impossible for him to do something bad. Of course, no one would believe the words of the captive.
After a round of interrogation, the captive finally couldn't bear it and told everything he knew.
After hearing this, the guards were relieved. It turned out that the captive wasn't targeting the master. It was just a coincidence. There was a place that produced marble on the other side of Lake Tai. In the beginning, there was an account book in the government office. Later, for some reason, the account book was gone. The book in the government office only had the words "marble" written on it.
As for what kind of stone it was, it couldn't be seen from the book. This stone could be sold for money. There were also copper ores, but the account book only had the words "ore" written on it.
The common people didn't know that there was no account book in the government office, so it was impossible for them to report it. In the past, even if they reported it, they had to go to the county first. Needless to say, the consequences were obvious.
Marble and copper ores weren't processed locally. They were all transported away. The captive didn't know where they were transported to, so it was very mysterious.
Since they didn't want the government office to know, they had to transport them secretly. After Zhang Zhong arrived in Shuzhou, he did this with the two mines.
Tonight, they were going to transport them, but they were discovered. The captive didn't know much. He only knew that there was someone in the capital behind this matter. As for who it was, he didn't know. Some said it was a prince, some said it was a county prince, and some said it was a big aristocratic family.
Anyway, the person who was caught heard it from others, so after being caught, he casually said a prince to scare people. In the end, he could have said anyone, but he had to say Prince Si Ning.
After the guards got this information, they immediately passed it to Zhang Zhong. When Zhang Zhong heard that someone was selling marble and copper ores, he was shocked and hurriedly ordered people to catch the transport team.
However, when the guards rushed over, they found that everyone had run away, leaving only dozens of cars with goods parked there. The traces on the ground were very messy. In addition, it was night, so they couldn't track them at all.
That was not right. How did they know? He returned and continued to interrogate the captured people. Only then did he understand that the people who transported the goods were very careful. Every scout sent out had to return within a specified time. If there was no news after half an hour, it meant that there was a problem. They would rather make a wrong judgment than take the risk.
After this person exceeded the time limit, the people there realized that something was wrong. They sent another rider to approach carefully. When they saw the light of the torches, they immediately went back to report. In the end, they all ran away, leaving behind only goods worth 6,000 strings of coins.
Everything was inferred from the words of those who were captured.
At this time, Zhang Zhong nodded and said in realization, "I understand, I understand now. No wonder the local tax revenue is getting lower and lower. Most of it has been shipped away and sold elsewhere. Investigate, I don't care who is behind this, as long as I find it, I will investigate. Send someone back to inform Xiao Bao and Cuckoo, and then send more people over. I will go check out the place that produces the marble and copper ores."
After giving the order, Zhang Zhong returned to the tent to sleep. The guards arranged their patrol shifts one by one, not daring to be careless.
In fact, Zhang Zhong wanted to go over and see how the stone was mined, but when he came out, his son and daughter-in-law told him not to rush over if there was danger, and to wait for more people to arrive. It was okay to be safe, but he could not put himself in danger.
Zhang Zhong was very obedient. The whole family could not do without him. He did not know what would happen if he really chased to the place. If hundreds of people surrounded and attacked him, the family would be finished.
*****
It took a day to get here, but it did not take too much time for the people who went back to report. They took turns to ride three horses, and it only took them three hours to get back to the mansion.
At this time, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan were still awake. The two of them were making a generator, which was made of copper coins wrapped around magnets. Other than being able to light up a light bulb, it could also be used to electrolyze something. The simplest way was to electrolyze water. Once it was formed, it could provide oxygen to the hospital. It could be used to save people at critical times.
This work was not easy to do. They did not know how to control the density and power of the coil, so they could only make one to see if it would work.
After wrapping one, before they could test it, the guard came back. After explaining the matter, Zhang Xiaobao arranged for more people to go over. He looked at the generator on the table and lost interest for a moment.
Wang Juan guessed for a while but could not guess, so she could only ask Zhang Xiaobao, who was also in deep thought, "Xiao Bao, which prince do you think it is?"
Zhang Xiaobao looked up at Wang Juan and said, "It's not any of the princes. The princes and the legitimate imperial grandson are all under Li Longji's watch. Who would dare to play tricks at this time? Do they not want to live anymore? It's probably a certain aristocratic family, or several aristocratic families. Otherwise, it could be a certain prince.
If that's the case, it's not impossible for the princes and aristocratic families to work together. Who knows? When we catch them, we'll ask them. We'll do what we need to do. At worst, we'll hand the matter over to Li Longji and let him handle it personally. "
"Then aren't you afraid that Li Longji will really complain about us when he faces his own son?" Wang Juan asked worriedly.
"This matter needs to be told to him secretly. You can't let him know openly. The imperial family also needs to maintain their reputation. I finally understand why they stopped after failing this time. The reason they stopped causing trouble for my father was because my father did not discover this secret.
They thought that by providing my father with more rent this year, my father would be careless. Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. My father insisted on going there for a stroll, so he met them.
My guess is that in the beginning, there was a lot of tax due to the discovery of marble, as well as copper. In the beginning, there wasn't much mining, so the tax collected was higher than usual, and people didn't pay too much attention to it.
At that time, the official probably didn't want to be greedy, or maybe he was being careful and sold this matter to someone else. When he received the benefits and was promoted, the new official began to be controlled by others. After all, a single official didn't have enough manpower and couldn't do too much. Moreover, the accounts didn't show any good results. How much could a single stone be worth? "
As Zhang Xiaobao spoke, he used a pen to draw a schematic diagram for Wang Juan. There were many diagrams for various aspects, and there were also some that were unclear and were marked with question marks.
Wang Juan picked up the pen and ticked off the diagram. "Then why did they have to lower the rent? Could it be that they were unwilling to part with that little bit of money to sell marble and copper? If I were them, I would make the rent equal. "
Wang Juan felt that the person behind the scenes was stupid. Did they really think that it would be fine if they paid less rent? What happened now? He was being targeted, wasn't he? Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent Xiaobao's father over just to deal with him.
Zhang Xiaobao looked at the diagram and tapped his hand on the table. After a while, he said, "There are several possibilities. The first is that the person who did this is really stupid. Basically, this situation is not easy to occur.
The second possibility is that they are in urgent need of money and really can't give it. They want to wait until this period of time. Before the secret is exposed, they think it is very safe. The whole of Shuzhou has been bought. What can a provincial governor do? How many provincial governors will have nothing to do like my father?
First, when they take office, they will threaten them and then compromise. For example, what happened to my father. Naturally, it will be easy to deal with. Anyway, most people don't know about the two mines. They only think that they are producing stones. For example, my father, they will give him some face first. This year, the rent tax is higher, so everything will be easy to deal with. "
"I know. Normally, they should take out the profit of the two mines and say that there are more stones in the stone mine. This year is good, and then they will give your father an explanation. But we started to help the local development as soon as we came. In this way, the rent tax will be higher. They don't need to take out money at all.
They have a little idea and secretly transport the stones. As long as we don't find out, they can continue to make money. It seems that we are really the nemesis of bad people. Life, it is life. "
When Zhang Xiaobao mentioned it, Wang Juan was able to analyze a portion of the content.
Zhang Xiaobao laughed twice, "Of course. Isn't this the work of the Special Second Department? There are only those who don't want to catch and those who can't. There is no one who can't catch and those who can't. In fact, it's all our fault. We have to be good people. Now we are in trouble. It turns out that there are more bad people than good people.
Also, the third point is that there are many forces sharing the profit. Although the rent tax is only a few tens of thousands of strings of coins, it is enough for the subordinates of each force to spend. No one wants to earn less. In the end, the rent tax is not going up.
The fourth point is that the profit is too big. For example, the copper ore has a high copper content. In the past, they could always dig out a lot of waste stones. Now, it is all good copper ore. The waste stones are sold less, so the rent tax is less. They don't want to give up this part of the profit. Anyway, the account is a stone producer.
There can be more or less stones. To them, the one who should be complaining the most is the Provincial Governor who raised the rent tax. If he didn't raise the rent tax, how could there be such a troublesome matter? "
Zhang Xiaobao could understand their feelings. Who didn't want money? However, he couldn't pretend that he didn't see it just because he understood. If it were another Emperor, he might be able to turn a blind eye. Wasn't it just a rent tax? His family could improve the living standards of the local people and satisfy the desires of the imperial court.
However, the current Emperor was Li Longji. Zhang Xiaobao had no choice but to offend people when he knew that he could. Offending others was better than offending Li Longji.
Then what he had to do now was to turn a blind eye. It would be easier to aim and see who would be the unlucky one. In the current situation, it definitely wouldn't be his family that would be unlucky.
As he thought about it, Zhang Xiaobao's hand stopped knocking on the table and changed to knocking on his face. When Wang Juan saw this, she understood. Zhang Xiaobao was going to scheme against someone again.
Wang Juan once again felt sad for Zhang Xiaobao's opponent. Couldn't he have endured for two years? Why did he have to commit a crime against the wind? Moreover, he used such a lowly method. If one walked by the river often, how could one's shoes not get wet? Not to mention that he had met Zhang Xiaobao's father today, even if he hadn't met him, he wouldn't have been able to escape.
The Zhang family's inner courtyard had already been distributed to various places. With so many inner courtyards, how could they not have discovered the situation? They would definitely be caught in two years. There was no escaping.
"Xiao Bao, I'm thinking now. What will happen in the process of the struggle?" Wang Juan seemed very excited. She loved to see Zhang Xiaobao make a move. As long as Zhang Xiaobao made a move, the other party would definitely not be able to resist.
"For the time being, nothing will happen. When our people go there, they will find that the place is already empty. Moreover, the mine can't be dug anymore. It's all been filled up. If it were me, I would even open a paddy field there and buy seedlings from elsewhere to plant. Then, I would never show up again."
Zhang Xiaobao was familiar with this kind of thing. To be precise, he had done it many times in the past.
Wang Juan thought about it and felt that it made sense. She asked again, "Then they can just avoid it, but don't tell me they don't want the mine?"
"Why don't they want it? If it's really like what I said, they are now farming. Don't tell me you dare to dig it up? Isn't it just soil, water, and rice seedlings? You can do it with money. If you want to dig it up, there will be many people coming to stop you. There will also be officials who will not agree. There will even be impeachment memorials from the imperial court.
Even if your roots are deep and you are not afraid of the people, before you can dig it up, someone will report to the imperial court in advance that they found a marble mine and copper mine. They will also estimate the output. These things can be estimated more or less. If it is estimated more, then how much do you think my father should pay for this year's tax?
That mine is filled up with stones. How much effort would it take to dig in? It is completely different from the estimation. Would my father submit a memorial? If he submitted a memorial saying that the copper mine and marble mine had to be cleared first, then the imperial court would definitely agree.
Then what? We would be foolishly digging. After digging for a while, we would suddenly find out that someone else had dug in before. The news would spread like wildfire in Great Tang. The most appropriate way to describe it is that my father told the imperial court to clear the mine first for his own personal gain while he continued to mine.
My father would immediately say that he has wronged the emperor and the people. He might not be beheaded for the crime of deceiving the emperor. After all, my family is in the right. There is no need for him to go to Lingnan. Even if he goes there, he can't let my father go to Lu Zhou. I think Li Longji will send my father to Sichuan for the sake of his reputation.
If there is a chance in the future, it will be fine. However, now is definitely not the time. Therefore, this matter won't be resolved in the short term. Let's wait. "
Zhang Xiaobao explained his plan to deal with this situation. If it were him, he would have done the same. He was not bluffing at all.
Wang Juan listened to Zhang Xiaobao's speculation. Or rather, she was convinced by Zhang Xiaobao's plan. It was not good to be too smart.
Although she knew, she was still unwilling to accept this. Why did she have to be treated like this in the past? Just as he was feeling vexed, he suddenly recalled that everything that had just happened was Zhang Xiaobao's own conjecture. Regardless of whether the other party could come up with the same idea or not, just the fact that Zhang Xiaobao was able to figure it out meant that he had a way to deal with it.
"Xiao Bao, don't tell me that you don't have a solution and can only wait. That's embarrassing. How can you call yourself an international swindler?"
"How is that embarrassing? You're from the Special Second Division. Do you have a solution? Just wait. I really hope that they are farming. Farming is good. They can set up an experimental field and send people 24 hours a day to check the changes in the crops. "
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