There is a term called vested interests.
Who has suffered the most in these years?
The first is the Chao family, the second is the Baili family, and the third is the Ye family!
The Chao family was almost wiped out!
As the royal family, most of the royal children like Prince An were sidelined and became wealthy idlers without real power! After returning to the palace, Prince An has never come to see Baili Tang.
The Ye family is better off, at least they still have hundreds of thousands of soldiers! But Marshal Ye Chao only has one daughter left... If Lin Jiahao marries Ye Hongxue...
Over the past few years, the Lin family's military has expanded from a hundred thousand troops to the current three hundred thousand! The noble status of Empress Dowager Lin and General Lin goes without saying. The Lin family also controls salt and countless other industries!
Who is spreading rumors about Baili Tang like crazy?
Baili Tang's spies have already found out that it was the Lin family who was behind this. Only the Lin family has the ability to do this!
Even if the Lin family is innocent, as an emperor, Baili Tang cannot allow the Lin family to continue to grow stronger - how can he allow others to snore beside his bed!
Therefore, no matter whether the Lin family is innocent or not, Baili Tang will take action against them!
Besides, the Lin family wasn't a good family to begin with! So he had no guilt at all!
Then again, didn't Chao Hong, Ye Chao, Ye Hongxue and the others ever suspect that all of this was actually manipulated by the Lin family behind the scenes?
Of course I would be suspicious, but unfortunately there is no evidence and the Lin family is too big.
Besides, the one who issued the decree is you, Baili Tang...
The largest restaurant in Beijing is Wangjinglou.
Just hearing the name sounds very domineering. This is one of the many industries of the Lin family in the capital, and it is the kind that makes a fortune every day.
To use a simple analogy: the same pot of wine sells for half a tael of silver in other restaurants, but it will sell for two taels of silver in Wangjinglou!
Wangjing Tower has four floors, and each floor caters to different guests. The top floor, in particular, is inaccessible no matter how much money you have.
At this time, a man and a woman, two guests, slowly walked up to the fourth floor under the envious gaze of the crowd. The shopkeeper even greeted them personally as if he were meeting an ancestor.
"Do you know who this woman is?"
"Who is it? When has such a beautiful woman appeared in the capital?"
"Marshal Ye Chao's only daughter, Ye Hongxue! The one who forced His Majesty to sell roast duck! It's only because His Majesty is kindhearted that he considers the Ye family's soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country over the years. Otherwise, this one reason alone would be enough to chop her head off several times!"
"So it was her! She's not staying home right now, coming up with that second line, and even disregarding propriety and shame to go out with other men..."
"This woman doesn't take His Majesty's words seriously at all. She relies on the Ye family's past favors to the country... In fact, the uncle's family is the worst off. The Chao family is left with only a foolish daughter."
"Your Majesty is the one who suffered the most, right? Not only was your beloved queen framed and died in childbirth, but your once noble little prince was also imprisoned in the cold palace... and the only nanny who cared for the little prince was drowned in a pond."
"It's not just that. The little prince came out of the cold palace to look for a nanny, and was even pushed into a pond..."
"These people are so lawless!"
People who practice martial arts have better hearing than ordinary people.
Ye Hongxue and the man who invited her, Lin Jiahao, heard the conversation between the two people downstairs when they went upstairs.
Ye Hongxue pointed out, "How did they know about this morning's court so quickly?" Without being summoned, Ye Hongxue didn't need to attend court. Her father, if not stationed at the garrison, was always required to attend court. She had heard all this from her father. It seemed someone was spreading rumors.
Lin Jiahao smiled and shook his head: "I rarely care about these things. What do you like to eat?"
"Whatever. You're the young master, so you're the boss."
In reality, Ye Hongxue was waiting for some stinky tofu. She had asked Xiaojiao to buy some. She had tried it a few days ago and was hooked—the more she ate, the better it tasted.
No wonder that day, the tyrant emperor went to buy stinky tofu after earning four cents from chopping wood.
Thinking of this, Ye Hongxue couldn't help but laugh, like a shy little girl. Lin Jiahao, who was watching beside her, was a little stunned. Usually, Ye Hongxue was very serious.
Xiao Jiao, who was buying stinky tofu, also heard a lot of discussion:
"I heard that the imperial court is going to increase taxes again?"
"Another tax increase? Are we ordinary people going to be left with no chance of survival? One pound of salt now requires fifty pounds of millet! Why has the price of salt suddenly doubled? Without salt, how can we have the energy to work?"
"You don't know this. Our salt is firmly controlled by the government. To be more precise, it's controlled by the Lin family! Fortunately, I heard that when His Majesty was in the southern coast, he shipped a large ship back to the capital. He will sell it to us at the price of 25 catties of millet!"
This is true!
The salt in Dongyun County has been dried all the time and has also been transported to the capital!
These are the people who were left homeless by the typhoon. They also worked with local craftsmen to produce threshing machines and build Royal Building No. 2!
Don't think that these things will be delayed just because Baili Tang has returned to Beijing. He instructed the local officials to supervise the work. Before Baili Tang returned to Beijing, he secretly met with these officials to talk.
I know everything you've done. I can turn a blind eye and let bygones be bygones. Now I'm giving you a chance to perform well.
Otherwise, "Cobra" will be waiting for you!
However, these were all Zhang Dongzheng's ideas. At the time, Baili Tang really couldn't do everything. His original idea was to dry tens of thousands of pounds of salt at once and then ship it back.
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