In the warehouse in the back yard.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Fang Wen taking out a small cloth package from a pile of cotton trousers and jackets.

When the package was opened, inside was a brass cylinder about a foot long, which looked like Li Mingyue's silver water cup.

Zhao Hao is now considered a cultured person, so he naturally recognizes that it is the paper tube used by literati to store manuscripts, calligraphy and paintings.

The men in Caijia Lane are all soldiers, so this thing certainly has nothing to do with them.

"Why didn't you discover it earlier?" Zhao Hao asked.

Gao Wu and Cai Ming looked at each other.

"Sir, these are the cotton trousers and jackets we wore when we left Jinling. They are too thin when we arrived in Shandong." Cai Ming answered again:

"The young master changed all of us into thick winter clothes in Linqing. The brothers had all been through hard times, and these cotton trousers and jackets were still new, so we packed them all up and prepared to wear them in the spring... and never opened them."

"Um."

While stroking the exquisitely crafted copper cylinder, Zhao Hao closed his eyes slightly and recalled what happened that day.

He remembered that Tongzhou Wuji gave them two luggage carts, one for his father, son, master and apprentice, and the other for the men from Caijia Lane. The first cart was full of valuables, so it followed behind Zhao Hao and his carriage. At that time, it was surrounded by the men from Caijia Lane, so the other party had no chance to touch it.

But the latter carriage followed at the end, completely unprotected.

It was probably the knight who was being chased. Seeing that he could not escape, he inserted the copper tube into the pile of cotton pants and jackets at the moment when the two sides crossed...

Zhao Hao slowly opened his eyes and his gaze fell back on the bronze cylinder.

Then he said to the three people in a deep voice: "You didn't find anything today. No matter who asks you, you must say this."

"Yes!" The three of them responded hurriedly.

They all have brains, so they naturally know that what the other party is looking for by sending out assassins is definitely of great importance.

If one thing is not handled properly, it will kill everyone.

~~

Zhao Hao ordered Gao Wu to be on high alert tonight to prevent the other party from making a comeback.

Although he knew that the possibility was not high, after all, the Forbidden City was less than two miles away, and no one would have the courage to make a big fuss.

But it’s better to be cautious. Even a desperate dog will jump over the wall, right?

Then he returned to his room, closed the door, sat cross-legged on the kang, placed the copper tube upright on the kang table, and stared at it for a full cup of tea.

Should I watch it or not?

Finally, he decided to watch it. After all, if he told people he hadn't watched it, they wouldn't believe him.

To put it bluntly, even if we die, don't we at least be clear-headed?

Thinking of this, Zhao Hao reached out and grabbed the copper cylinder, shaking it to listen to the movement inside.

He was relieved when he heard the rustling sound of paper, which meant that there was no poison liquid or poison powder inside...

He carefully checked the copper cylinder again to make sure that there was no mechanism that would fire when touched.

The boy, poisoned by the TV drama, covered his mouth and nose with gauze, put on leather gloves, and finally gritted his teeth and unscrewed the lid of the copper cylinder.

Then he poured out two booklets and a golden, strange-shaped seal inlaid with several gems of different colors.

Zhao Hao first felt the weight of the seal and found that it was actually made of pure gold. Looking at its luster, it must have been cast for some time.

There were five gems inlaid on the seal handle: red, green, blue, yellow and black. Each one was only the size of a little fingernail and they were arranged in the shape of a five-pointed star.

Looking again, he saw that the seal surface had been stained red by the ink, obviously it was in use. Then he identified the words on the seal.

"The… national… emblem… of the… Song Dynasty… and the… royal… seal."

"Was there a King Hui in the Song Dynasty? I only heard of Huizong..." Zhao Hao muttered, threw the inexplicable seal aside, and then flipped through the first booklet while wearing gloves.

On the cover was written 'The Purchase Account of Silk and Cloth in the 45th Year of the Jiajing Reign'. When I opened it, I saw that it was exactly the same as the account book of the shop at that time, with all the information of how much of a certain item was purchased from a certain place on a certain date in a certain year.

But this thing that looks like an ordinary account book made Zhao Hao's face turn green.

For example, in early February the account book recorded:

On the first day of the first lunar month, 3,320 rolls of plain silk and 1,100 balls of white silk were shipped from Jiulong Mountain...to Japan.

On the third day of the first lunar month, 1,700 balls of white silk, 3,000 rolls of large-patterned gauze, 2,000 rolls of medium-patterned gauze, and 1,000 rolls of gauze were shipped from Guishan to Japan.

On the fifth day, two thousand balls of red silk, six hundred rolls of plain silk, and one thousand three hundred and ten rolls of flowered silk were presented from Xiaowuzi Mountain...to Luzon.

On the sixth day, 1,500 rolls of flowered silk, 600 balls of white silk, and 500 balls of colored silk were sent from Taohua Mountain to Jeju.

On the eighth day, five thousand rolls of raw cloth and five thousand rolls of dyed cloth were shipped from Yiyue Mountain to Japan.

On the tenth day, 1,000 rolls of white crepe and 510 rolls of colored satin were imported from Dazhu Mountain...and sent to Japan.

~~

Except for the two batches of goods sent on the fifth and sixth day of the Lunar New Year to Luzon and Jeju respectively, the rest of the goods in early February were sent to Japan.

Regardless of whether it was going to Luzon or Japan, in the 45th year of Jiajing, it was all smuggling!

Zhao Hao made a rough calculation and thought, my goodness, in just ten days, they smuggled goods worth more than 200,000 taels of silver. It would take at least 100 Tang Dynasty ships to carry it all, right?

And February is a low season. In this year, I am afraid that tens of millions of taels of silver worth of goods will be smuggled? This is just the textile business...

Needless to say, these mountain names are used to refer to suppliers.

In fact, at this point, Zhao Hao's face just turned green.

But when he turned to another thin booklet, he suddenly felt unwell...

It turned out to be the payment record book of this super smuggler, which clearly listed the destination of every payment.

Including payment time, payment amount, payment bank, payer's account and payee's account...

Although most of the payees were aliases, the ticket number names such as Wanyuanhao Songjiang Branch, Hengtongji Hangzhou Branch, and Wanyuanhao Wuxi Branch were all real names.

As long as the government takes this account book and compares it with the accounts of those money houses, it will be easy to trace the true flow of these huge sums of money from those pseudonymous accounts.

After all, it is safer to keep the money in your own account. Letting the agent handle the transfer is just to cover up the truth, and it will eventually be returned to the real owner.

~~

Zhao Hao suddenly took off the gauze that served as a mask and gasped heavily.

"This is a big trouble..."

He was absolutely sure that this was undoubtedly a merchant's account book!

Although it is only a very small part of the accounts.

But Zhao Hao believed that as long as the imperial court was willing to investigate, it would be easy to find out those who colluded with maritime merchants to engage in smuggling from these two purchase and payment accounts.

Then we can uproot the entire smuggling network in the southeast...

The imperial court was so poor that it could barely make ends meet and had to spend money beyond its budget.

Otherwise, they would not have ignored Taizu's instructions and continued to open up the sea for trade.

Isn't it just because of poverty?

If Emperor Longqing knew that tens of millions, no, hundreds of millions of taels of silver were flowing into the Ming Dynasty from places unknown to him...

Zhao Hao seemed to see the scene of bloody storm and numerous heads of people on the southeast coast.

And it must also include the heads of his master, apprentice, and father and son...

Shocked by this horrifying scene, Zhao Hao was completely scared.

He decided to pretend he had never seen it.

ps. The guaranteed first update is here, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~~