A few days later, Linglong Pavilion delivered dozens of waist tokens for entering the Hu family. That night, Yin ordered Bayan to secretly lead men into the Hu family and search for account books in several secret rooms.

As dawn approached, Bayan and the others returned. Qingyan noticed that one of them was injured, while the rest were just mentally exhausted.

"How did you get injured?" Yin asked, looking at Bayan.

"Your Majesty, the injury was caused by a trap in a secret chamber. The Hu family mansion is poorly guarded, and their account books are incomplete. I have already placed two spies in the Hu family mansion. It will take at most four days to uncover all the secret chambers," Bayan reported to Yin.

In front of Qingyan were piles of account books. She was slightly taken aback. The handwriting on these account books was different, so it seemed that they were used to record things each time.

The ledger contained a number of names of officials from the south, including the prefects of Yangzhou who were among the first few on the list. These people had indeed accepted bribes from the salt merchants.

The Cao and Li families were among those implicated, and even many princes from beyond the Great Wall were drawn into the mess.

"Sisi, if we really start cleaning up now, it might really cause a major disaster." Qingyan quickly closed the ledgers, having only glanced at one book.

Qingyan's back was already breaking out in a cold sweat. If someone else had taken these account books, he was probably really doomed.

"Little darling, it's gotten to this point?" Yin asked curiously, knowing that Qingyan would never speak carelessly.

Qingyan handed the account book to Yin, telling him to take a good look at it himself.

He looked at the ledger suspiciously, and the ledger made Yin's face turn pale.

As expected, the Emperor's intuition was correct. If they acted rashly, they might all perish in Jiangnan.

"Su Peisheng, go and invite everyone here." Yin dared not make the decision himself.

Seeing Yin's appearance, Qingyan reached out and patted Yin's hand, hoping that Yin could calm down.

"Little darling, this time we might really be going to break the sky!" Yin smiled bitterly.

When he left the capital, Yinzhi thought that Kangxi's order was a bit of an overreaction. Now, he was glad that he had obeyed Kangxi's arrangements. Indeed, the old fox was still the wisest.

"Fourth brother, what happened?" Yin walked into the hall, and seeing that Yin's face was very ugly, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"Brother, you've seen these account books. What are your thoughts?" Yin handed the elder over to Yin, letting him look at them himself.

Yin, Yinxiang, and Yin each had an account book. Looking at the entries in their book, they were utterly bewildered. This...

"Fourth Brother, I think this is a big problem. If possible, shouldn't we talk to Father Emperor first?" Yinxiang was really at a loss. His brothers couldn't even handle it, so what else could they do?

“It should be written. This matter is quite serious. It would be best if Father Emperor personally sent someone over. No matter who says it, it will be aimed at the Crown Prince,” Yinhe agreed with Yinxiang.

The three ledgers recorded the largest amount of revenue received by Lingpu. Everyone knew that Lingpu was solely there to amass wealth for the Crown Prince.

"Father has deposed the Crown Prince. If we hand over this account book now, what do you think the censors will say?" Yin hesitated for a long time, worried that if it were really submitted, they might be finished.

Yin was stunned. What Yin said was right. Kangxi was definitely not someone who would allow anyone to slander the Crown Prince.

Although Emperor Kangxi abolished the position of Crown Prince, he still regarded the Crown Prince as his son and believed that the Crown Prince was not capable of shouldering this heavy responsibility.

"Then what should we do?" Yin asked, looking at Yin.

"We can only seal them all up and have Bayan say that they were just delivered to the courtyard and haven't been completely unsealed yet." Yin was glad that Bayan was sent this time, and the account books were still sealed on the outside.

"Those things being packed in the courtyard, are they all account books?" Yin suddenly realized.

"Su Peisheng, secretly give these account books to Bayan and have him pass them on directly to Tulichen." Yin thought that Kangxi must have sent Tulichen, after all, Tulichen was the best at investigating information.

"This servant will go right away!" Su Peisheng quickly took the account book and left.

The hall fell silent instantly, and no one uttered another word.

"Fourth brother, how do you plan to make your move?" Yin looked at Yin, none of the brothers had a good idea.

"Brother, I think we should wait for Father's orders." Yin smiled bitterly. What had he been doing for so long?

Yin looked at Yin. When it came to business, Yin was really smart, but when it came to the court, he was quite muddle-headed.

"Yes, we await Father's orders. Ninth Brother, how's your investigation going these past few days?" Yin instructed Yin to use the shops to quickly investigate the salt situation.

All of Qingyan's shops were closely watched by the salt merchants, so Yin's few small shops could come in handy.

"Fourth Brother, thank goodness you warned me beforehand and didn't use a shop under my name." Yin patted his chest, feeling very fortunate to have heard Yin's words.

Yin looked at Yin suspiciously. What had happened now?

“Before, I said that I should find out more methods by using my own shop to investigate. Who would have thought that the people who went there before she was listed on the stock exchange would not find any information at all. On the contrary, the small and inconspicuous shopkeepers gave him a lot of information.”

After keeping a low profile for a while, the salt merchants found that no one was making a move, so they started to stir things up again, shipping goods as usual. However, most of those goods were supplied by the government.

Some junior managers in the salt administration took advantage of their positions to sell salt permits, which were issued by the imperial court.

If these salt starters were misused by someone with ulterior motives, they could truly disrupt the security of the Qing Dynasty.

"Fourth Brother, take a look. These salt permits, aren't they... issued by the Ministry of Revenue?" Yin specially asked the managers to get a few salt permits, which had come from the salt merchants and the junior managers.

"The salt permits obtained by the salt merchants?" Yin looked at the salt permits and found that they came from different merchants or from the salt administration office.

Yin quickly nodded: "They were obtained from different places, but they all cost a lot of money to acquire."

Yin and Yin exchanged a glance. The annual salt permits were not distributed among the merchants. Only salt merchants who had performed exceptionally well in the previous year were entitled to receive the salt permits in advance.

"Fourth Brother, I feel things are a bit 'chaotic.' Should we give these salt starters to Father Emperor as evidence?" Yin asked, looking at Yin. "If it's needed, we need to hurry. In two months, we'll need to use the salt starters to extract salt. To avoid alerting those people, I have to use them."