From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 547

Even after leaving the black market, Guan Caixi's mood did not improve. She looked depressed and lowered her head, not knowing what she was thinking.

Zhuang Xuansu, who came back with a scale, asked in confusion: "You are not going to buy salt? What are you going to do now?"

Zhou Yuan said: "If you can't buy salt, just sell it. You ask the local branch of the Internal Court to find 100 kilograms of salt, and we will carry it to sell in the mountains and villages."

What does this mean?

Zhuang Xuansu didn't know what Zhou Yuan wanted to do, but she didn't dare to ask.

At least she could see that Zhou Yuan was not in a good mood.

As Zhuang Xuansu left again, Zhou Yuan came to a tea shed, ordered a few bowls of tea, and sat down at ease.

He whispered, "Don't let Bao Shanru know about selling salt. Saint sister, go and clean up the rats behind. It's annoying to have them following you all the time."

Li Yu'an nodded and whispered, "It'll be done in half a minute."

An expert like her should not be unable to tell who is following her after being followed for so long.

Only then did Zhou Yuan look at Guan Caixi and said with a smile, "What's wrong? If you don't want to follow us to sell salt, just go back to Bao Shanru's mansion."

Guan Caixi said, "Don't bother me."

She didn't know what was wrong with her. She was in a bad mood anyway, and she couldn't be happy anyway.

Was she really feeling sad for the common people?

She had thought about it before, but she quickly denied it.

With a conflicted mood, she took a sip of tea. When she swallowed it, she found that the tea was extremely unpalatable, like a potion that had been boiled for half a year, which was really disgusting.

She pushed the tea bowl away in a huff, lowered her head and continued to sulk.

Zhou Yuan was too lazy to pay attention to her, just thinking about the next plan.

Li Yu'an came back soon, sat down, took a sip of tea, and said: "I'm thinking about a question."

Zhou Yuan said: "What question?"

Li Yu'an said: "Bao Shanru can't guess our origins, but the Governor of Shandong and the Governor of the Canal are upright second-rank frontier officials. They should know the news of the court and guess our whereabouts immediately."

Zhou Yuan was silent for a moment before saying: "I'm also thinking about this question, but I don't think it's likely."

"They may know that we are visiting incognito, and they also know that I am taking a boat down the canal, but they may not know that I got off the boat in Jining."

"I made this decision at the last minute, I I didn't guess it, and they shouldn't guess it either."

Li Yu'an smiled and said, "What I mean is that the imperial envoy went south to investigate the case and inspected the salt, and the Shen family happened to appear to sell salt. This coincidence would make the other party alert."

Zhou Yuan said, "Yes, there is such a possibility, but it is undeniable that they are standing too high. Years of success and money have made them lose their sensitivity in this regard."

"You know, this is definitely not the first time they have faced the imperial envoy. They have passed it so many times before. This time their defense may not be so high."

Li Yu'an nodded and said, "So now we can't actually judge the thoughts of the two big men, but Try your luck? "

Zhou Yuan frowned, organized his words, and said: "No, it's not luck. There is still a great possibility that we can meet them and reach an agreement. After all... money is important."

"Our stepping stone is a full 200,000 taels of silver notes, which is equivalent to their salary for more than ten years!"

Li Yu'an said: "What if we can't meet them?"

Zhou Yuan thought for a while, and then said in a deep voice: "If we can't meet them, it means that we will face greater danger."

"Virgin sister, I have already prepared myself mentally. This time when we go south, we will encounter a counterattack from the dark side of the entire court."

"The interception on the river, those are just It's just a small scene. "

Li Yu'an narrowed her eyes and said, "A small scene? To be honest, even if a normal imperial envoy didn't die from the poison in the porridge, he would have been killed by the enemy on the river."

"It's really too difficult to investigate the case in Jiangnan. You have the entire Inner Court Division, your own intelligence system, and a world-class warrior protecting you, so you can get to this point."

"No, that's not all. You can also take out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver notes to assist in the investigation. This is not the strength that other imperial envoys have."

Zhou Yuan deeply agreed. Now that his power has grown to this extent, he doesn't even have the confidence to uncover the shady dealings. Jiangnan is really too difficult.

In comparison, other imperial envoys really have no way.

It must be said that the Inner Court Division is indeed powerful. If they say they need a hundred kilograms of salt, they will carry it directly.

The two porters are very strong and excited, and they obviously received higher wages.

Zhou Yuan said, "Let's go and find a village to sell salt along the map."Everyone didn't know the reason, so they followed the porters who knew the way and drove the carriage out of the city.

They first came to a small village about eight miles away from Yanzhou City. After getting off the carriage and walking into the village, Zhou Yuan started shouting.

"Salt for sale! Twelve cents a pound!"

"Twelve cents a pound! All good salt!"

He shouted at the top of his voice, and heads really popped out from these broken tile houses and rotten huts.

But no one responded.

Zhou Yuan shouted for a few times before a brave middle-aged man came over and shouted, "You said twelve cents a pound? What kind of salt is that?"

What salt? It must be sea salt!

No, the other party didn't seem to be asking this.

Zhou Yuan narrowed his eyes and said, "You will know if you come and take a look!"

The strong man came over, took a look at the salt in the basket, and immediately widened his eyes. He murmured, "Can I taste it?"

Zhou Yuan said, "Yes!"

He quickly picked up a piece of salt the size of a fingernail, gently pinched a little, and put it in his mouth.

His eyes lit up immediately, and he hurriedly said: "Buy! Let's buy! Is it really twelve cents?"

Zhou Yuan smiled and said: "Yes, twelve cents a pound, definitely not less."

"Okay... wait for me, sir, I'll go call people right away!"

This man seemed to have encountered a great event, and he shouted at the top of his voice: "Come out and buy salt! It's really twelve cents! It's good salt!"

While shouting, he ran towards the village: "Third uncle! Let the villagers come to buy salt!"

Zhuang Xuansu said: "Maybe you don't know, generally speaking, only official salt will sell so cheaply. Of course, it will be more expensive in recent years, probably twenty cents."

"And official salt is often mixed with mud and sand, and the quality is not good and it is weighed."

"The salt I found for you is directly taken from a local rich man's house. It is all good salt without any adulteration."

"This kind of salt sells for twelve cents, which is almost like a bodhisattva descending to the earth for them."

Zhou Yuan did not speak, because he had seen people coming from every household.

Some were leaning on crutches, some were hunched over, some were pale and skinny, and they looked haggard. They were no better than refugees.

Some even fell to the ground and needed help. They came over trembling.

Guan Caixi frowned and couldn't help saying, "Why do they all look sick? There are not many normal people."

Zhou Yuan said indifferently, "Why do people have to eat salt? Is it because of the so-called 'taste'? It's not just that."

"Not eating salt for a long time will make people weak in the limbs, edema in the body, and even poor digestion and appetite, and people will naturally become thin and emaciated."

"In severe cases, people will faint and have blurred vision..."

At this point, he paused slightly, and then said in a deep voice, "These villagers are obviously symptoms of not eating salt for a long time."

Guan Caixi lowered his head and said nothing.

Zhuang Xuansu called out, "Fellow villagers, please don't push. Line up one by one."

"I want half a catty! Half a catty!"

"I want one catty!"

"I want two catties!"

How could they line up? They rushed over like crazy as if they had found a treasure.

But they took out the money very slowly. They wrapped it layer by layer, and finally took out the copper coins one by one, counted them several times, and then handed them over carefully.

"Then... Master... can I exchange grain for salt?"

An old woman asked, looking scared.

Zhou Yuan said, "Yes, we accept barter, as long as the value is appropriate."

So everyone went crazy.

"I have wheat, wheat."

"I have steamed buns, I have white flour."

All of them shouted one by one. As you can imagine, most of them couldn't come up with enough money.

Guan Caixi couldn't bear it anymore and couldn't help but said, "No matter how much you buy, we will sell it, without limiting the quantity."

She remembered clearly that the black market only allowed the purchase of two kilograms at most.

"Then I'll buy one kilogram!"

"I'll buy one and a half kilograms!"

Someone immediately responded.

Guan Caixi felt it was unreasonable and was about to continue to emphasize, but was pulled by Zhuang Xuansu's sleeve.

"Caixi... don't say it... buying one or two kilograms is already their limit."

"They can't afford more."

Guan Caixi opened her mouth and felt her nose sour, but she held it back.

She didn't say anything, but just returned to the carriage silently.

It was not until this time that he heard Zhou Yuan sigh outside: "The world has been suffering from salt for a long time."