The atmosphere in the capital became strange. The Crown Prince, Yinzhi, and Yinsi were mutually restraining each other. The Crown Prince had completely lost hope. However, his remaining power was enough to give him a foothold.
Far to the south, after Yin finished dealing with all his affairs, he received an imperial edict from Emperor Kangxi. After handing over his duties to the newly appointed prefect, the group slowly set off.
Yinxiang and Yin were given a rare opportunity to perform their duties diligently, while the twins were confined to the study by Yin, where their tutors continued to teach them.
"Fourth Prince, we just came from Zhili, are we going straight to Suzhou and Hangzhou?" Qingyan asked Yin.
"Of course we'll go straight to Suzhou and Hangzhou. As you can see, the crisis outside is quite significant, and we must be patient at all times." Yin nodded. To be honest, Yin was quite conflicted. The officialdom in the south had become much cleaner, and it was much better than before.
On the way, the people all wore happy smiles. This area was still within the jurisdiction of Zhili Province. Without Yin Dunbi's exploitation, everyone's lives had improved considerably.
In particular, small business owners have paid significantly less tax, and many people have started doing business again, hoping to supplement their household income through this method.
As evening approached, the group couldn't find a nearby village to rest in, so they camped out in the woods.
The guards set up a perimeter of five kilometers and chose a spot with a natural cliff as a shelter for resting.
The two couples, Yin and Yin, along with Yinxiang and Yin, sat around the campfire, looking at the whole roasted lamb, and no one said a word.
The children, having had dinner and gone to bed early after a long day of travel, sat around the campfire, their minds uneasy.
"Eldest brother, fourth brother, where are we going this time?" Yinxiang and Yinren were very interested and quickly asked their two elder brothers.
“Yes, what did Father ask us to come out to see?” Yin followed closely behind.
Yin and Yin exchanged a glance. They had traveled some distance from the capital and then directly revealed Kangxi's secret edict.
Emperor Kangxi wanted his four brothers to go to Yangzhou to investigate the salt route.
The cleanup of the officialdom in the south has been mostly completed, but the salt administration has yet to be dealt with. The Cao family and Li Xu are both on the fringes, and the person who truly controls it has not yet been identified.
Yin remembered the suffering he had endured back then. The salt merchants used real gold and silver to bribe people, so many people suffered losses. He had gone through investigations during the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng, but he had only grasped half of the information.
"What?!" Yinxiang was surprised to hear Kangxi's secret order. "Brother, haven't we already taken Cao Yin and Li Xu under control? Wouldn't it be enough to start with them? Why do we need to come here specifically to investigate?"
"These two are useless; they only know a little bit," Yin said directly.
Qingyan was stunned. So these two only knew the basics?
"Brother, are you talking nonsense? These two are the most powerful people in the south." Yinxiang stared wide-eyed, asking incredulously.
"No, Fourth Brother, you tell Thirteen." Yin didn't want them to interfere in the salt trade. This matter was like a tangled mess; whoever got involved would suffer.
"Father Emperor sent word that he only has a third of the information about the salt route, and the real mastermind behind it has not yet been uncovered," Yin said helplessly to his two younger brothers.
The salt merchants of Huai Salt were very shrewd and very united. If you touched their interests, they would definitely not let you off easily.
"Little darling, how much do you know about the salt merchants of Huai Salt?" Yin asked Qingyan.
They had very little information to investigate. Many salt merchants were very low-key, and even Emperor Kangxi was unaware of their names. The only ones Emperor Kangxi could actually investigate were the imperial merchants.
"This is the information. These are the most important ones. The managers here have been secretly investigated. They have long-term private rooms at the Yuelai Inn, and each room is decorated extremely luxuriously. It's no exaggeration to say that they're practically burying people in silver." Qingyan's clear voice rang out.
Apart from the chirping of insects, the only sounds were the clatter of armor from the patrolling guards. The princes quieted down and listened carefully to Qingyan's analysis.
The salt merchants of Lianghuai were all organized into their own groups. When it came to dealing with government officials, the business was only handled by the salt merchants on the surface. The real big shots were hidden behind the scenes.
"Wait, Fourth Sister-in-law, are you saying that the salt merchants we saw were actually just small fry?" Yinxiang couldn't believe his ears.
During his several trips to the south of the Yangtze River, Yinxiang witnessed the wealth and power of the salt merchants. Unexpectedly, these people turned out to be small fry.
The true leaders of the salt merchants must have been incredibly wealthy, perhaps even more so than a nation.
“Yes, they were small fry among the salt merchants. Sisi, do you remember when we were kids, there was a rumor that someone used gold leaves to pave a golden river on the Qinhuai River in order to win the smile of the most beautiful courtesan on the river?” Qingyan was interested in this.
Yinhe nodded. Kangxi had heard a little about that incident and even asked several of the older princes to calculate how many gold leaves would be needed to achieve this.
Later, they calculated the amount of gold needed, which Yin still remembers to this day: several hundred thousand taels of gold.
"Actually, it's true. The person who spent a fortune to win a beautiful woman's smile was just a middling salt merchant." Qingyan remembered being shocked when she received the news, and even clamoring to become a salt merchant herself.
When Fei Yanggu found out, he gave her a severe scolding, which was one of the few times Fei Yanggu got angry.
"Your father-in-law scolded you, could it be because of this?" Yin remembered that Fei Yanggu never raised his voice to Qingyan, but that time he was really angry.
"I did some private investigation back then and found out that the salt merchants were making a lot of money, so I said I wanted to become a salt merchant. My father was furious." Qingyan still remembers Fei Yanggu's furious expression many years later.
Yin was stunned. Qingyan, this little money-grubber, was already thinking about making money at such a young age.
"Fourth Sister-in-law, you're incredibly bold." Yinxiang and Yinren admired Qingyan for managing to investigate this matter without Kangxi's knowledge.
"Father Emperor specifically asked Father-in-law to go back and talk to you. During that investigation, you touched on some things that made the salt merchants very wary. However, after Father-in-law talked to you, you completely stopped investigating. The salt merchants waited for half a year before they could resume their normal lives." Yin was a participant in the matter, so he directly informed Qingyan.
She patted her chest, feeling a sense of relief, as if she had survived a disaster.
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