Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 232 Guidance
Under Feng Quan's questioning, Zhu Minfan told him about the Liu family in Pingyang.

There is nothing that cannot be said about the Liu family's affairs with Liu Shancheng. This matter has been settled long ago, and the case in Pingyang Prefecture was reported to the Ministry of Justice through the local government that year, and the Ministry of Justice also closed the case.

After the Liu family fell, the Liu family's millions of wealth were divided up completely. As a member of the interest group, Zhu Minfan naturally made a lot of money. However, the real instigator Zhu Shenzhui only got a little bit of the money.

But in front of Feng Quan, Zhu Minfan naturally would not tell him the truth of the matter. He only told him the situations that were on the surface. As for him wanting to investigate the Liu family's case, it was very easy. The prefectural government had the case files, which were well-prepared and had the approval of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, the Liu family had been finished long ago, so no matter how he investigated, he would not find any problems.

After talking about the Liu family case, I said that after the Liu family got into trouble, their property was returned to the court, and the real estate and shops were sold directly by the government. When Zhu Shenzhui learned about this, because the royal family had a hard time and their salaries had not been reduced, Zhu Shenzhui felt that this was not going to work. If he continued to rely solely on the salary, his life would become more and more difficult. He had no choice but to find me to borrow money and proposed to take this opportunity to buy a shop from the Liu family as an asset.

They were all relatives, and Zhu Shencui had a high seniority in the royal family and had a good relationship with Zhu Minfan. After listening to his request, Zhu Minfan lent him some silver and made a call to the prefectural government. Only then did he buy the Liu family's shop and thus had an industry.

However, Zhu Shenzhui later cooperated with the Kang family and became the owner of Hengtong by investing in the store. Zhu Minfan did not pay attention to this. But even so, it was very common. Among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants have always been the lowest class. If a merchant does not have a background, he will not be able to survive. The Kang family has been doing business in Pingyang for many years, and people in Pingyang for generations know about it. It's just that the Kang family before Kang Youfu was just an ordinary business, so no one paid too much attention to it.

But after Kang Youfu took over, this man had a talent for business and had a good relationship with Zhu Shenzhui. Then, Zhu Shenzhui used his reputation as a royal family member to establish a Hengtong Trading Company. Wasn't it normal for him to run the company for Zhu Shenzhui?

This is nothing more than taking a fancy to Zhu Shenzhui's title as a royal family member, and using this title to do business. This kind of operation is a routine operation, and the court has never prohibited it. Moreover, let alone royal family members, even these civil officials and scholars are the same. Not to mention being an official, even if they are scholars or juren, the court has a tax exemption policy for people with meritorious service, so there are many cases where folks and friends invest in land in order to avoid taxes. This principle is no different from Kang Youfu's establishment of Hengtong through Zhu Shenzhui's royal family status.

"So, there is no problem with Hengtong Trading Company?" Feng Quan asked with a turn of his eyes.

"What's the problem? It's just an ordinary trading company, Lord Feng. I don't understand what on earth you are going to do in Pingyang this time, but I can guarantee that Hengtong is just an ordinary trading company." Zhu Minfan said somewhat displeased.

Feng Quan thought for a moment, then asked, "Was this the only business of the Liu family before? What about the other businesses? Who owns them now?"

Zhu Minfan's face instantly turned ugly when he heard this. He didn't know the real purpose of Feng Quan's coming. He just got a message from Prince Jin's Mansion asking him to cooperate. Now he asked this question. Could it be that Feng Quan came to Pingyang to investigate the Liu family case? But the Liu family case had been closed for a long time, so why did it come up again?
Moreover, after the Liu family fell, many of their properties were divided up, and Zhu Minfan took a lot of them. If he continued to investigate, wouldn't it be like digging up his own affairs? What if Feng Quan kept staring at this matter and it finally burned him? He returned to Beijing and reported that he, as the leader of the royal family of Pingyang Prefecture, colluded with local officials to frame merchants and swallow up their properties. This crime would be a serious one.

"Master Feng, are you going to investigate the Liu family's case?"

Feng Quan smiled and said, "I am just asking. Why is it that the general is not in a position to talk about this matter?"

"What's the inconvenience? The Liu family case was a hot topic back then, and the whole Pingyang Prefecture knew about it." Zhu Minfan said lightly, but his mind was spinning rapidly: "This case is very simple, and the government has already made a conclusion. If Lord Feng wants to know, he can go directly to the prefectural government to read the files, or go to the Ministry of Justice to check after returning to Beijing. As for the specific details, I can't know them. It's true that I am a general who assists the country, but the royal family has its own rules. The royal family has never been allowed to interfere in local affairs. How to judge the case is the responsibility of the government. How can I, a royal family, have this qualification?"

"As for the matter of the Liu family's property that Lord Feng asked about, you have to go to the government to inquire about how the Liu family's property was handled. I remember that not only Pingyang Prefecture and the Provincial Administration Office, but also the Governor's Office had records. Oh, right! There is one thing I almost forgot. Didn't Lord Feng come from the capital? Several old gentlemen in the court also know about this matter. I heard that in the palace..."

Having said that, Zhu Minfan looked at the other party meaningfully and stopped talking.

These words were like cold water, and Feng Quan, who was very interested in the Liu family case just now, was completely chilled. Although he had never been a local official and had always worked in the Hanlin Academy, you should know that Feng Quan's father was the governor, and he still had some understanding of some local situations. Zhu Minfan's words seemed ordinary, but in fact he was secretly warning him that the Liu family case was very complicated, not only in Pingyang, but also involved the officialdom of the entire Shanxi Province. Even the bigwigs in the capital had taken action, including the now popular Wei Zhongxian...

The Liu family's million-dollar property was eventually sold, and it was hard to find out who had taken over the property. It's not that it's hard to find out, but the key is whether you dare to find out. What if you find something wrong? Can you, a small official of the seventh-rank Hanlin Academy, compete with so many people? Even if you have the emperor as your backer, Feng Quan won't have the courage.

Helplessly, Feng Quan could only give up the idea of ​​starting the investigation from the Liu family case and went back to the old path. He asked Zhu Shenzhui why he bought the Liu family's shop with money. Zhu Minfan knew about it and told him that it was a salt shop.

When he heard the word "salt shop", Feng Quan's eyes suddenly lit up. A salt shop is not an ordinary shop, especially since Shanxi salt is produced there. There are many tricks in a salt shop. If he could find evidence of Zhu Shencui smuggling salt through the salt shop, then his trip to Shanxi would not be in vain.

After thanking Zhu Minfan, Feng Quan left excitedly. He and his men were going to start from the salt shop in Hengtong to investigate Zhu Shenzhui's problems. Zhu Shenzhui didn't know about this. After leaving the general's mansion, he looked calm and at ease. He originally thought that he would be in big trouble this time, but after meeting Feng Quan and dealing with him directly, Zhu Shenzhui's uneasy heart was relieved.

Hengtong had already made arrangements, and trade with Mongolia had been suspended. Even the caravan members were sent directly to the grassland, and no one was left in Pingyang Prefecture.

In this case, it would be impossible for Feng Quan to find evidence of his smuggling with Mongolia from Hengtong, unless Feng Quan started from two places, one was to go directly to the grassland and check from the Mongolians, and the other was to go to the border and check through the military.

The former was impossible. Even if Feng Quan had the guts, he would not have gone to Mongolia to investigate. It would have been fine if he had stayed in the Ming Dynasty, but who would care if he went to the grassland? He might have been hacked to death by the Mongols on the grassland as soon as he left the Great Wall. Only a fool would do that.

As for the military checking through the border, it is nonsense. There are so many cases of smuggling of materials out of Shanxi that it can be said that there is no large-scale business in Shanxi that does not do so. The border troops rely on the smuggling of merchants to accept bribes and open the door to convenience. This has long been an unspoken rule, but if you check it, no one will admit it. After all, this fact is too big. Once admitted, not only the entire border army towns, but also the businesses in Shanxi will be involved. No one can afford the consequences.

Zhu Shenzhui's only loophole was the private salt trafficking, relying on the Zhongkai Law to obtain salt permits, and then smuggling private salt to make huge profits. However, Zhu Shenzhui was very clear about this loophole, but he did not order a stop, but only reduced part of it. Until Feng Quan came to Shanxi, Hengtong Commercial Bank's private salt smuggling continued.

It's not that Zhu Shenzhu forgot about this loophole, but he did it on purpose. Because he knew very well that it would be bad if Feng Quan couldn't find anything. It's better to do too much than too little. Since he has someone here, he has to let him find something, right? If there is no problem at all, it would be too deliberate, so Zhu Shenzhu deliberately set up this loophole.

Zhu Shencui was invited to the general's mansion today. Zhu Shencui had received news from the capital the day before that Zhang Xijun was indeed powerful. He told Emperor Tianqi through a secret letter that he had sent people to Shanxi to secretly investigate him.

The reason why he knew this clearly was because he learned it through Wei Liangqing. After all, when Feng Quan came, Emperor Tianqi did not inform the government for the sake of confidentiality, nor did he mobilize the Jinyiwei. Instead, he asked Wei Zhongxian to send the guards from the East Factory to accompany him.

The East Factory was controlled by Wei Zhongxian. As Wei Zhongxian's only nephew, Wei Liangqing naturally treated the East Factory as his own home. Zhang Xijun deliberately got the news through Wei Liangqing. After learning about this, he sent a secret letter to Zhu Shenzhui. After receiving the secret letter, Zhu Shenzhui had already made preparations.

Now Zhu Shencui is eager for Feng Quan to investigate the smuggled salt. Even if he has not thought of this, Zhu Shencui will remind him in other ways.

As expected, on the second day after Zhu Shencui returned from the General's Mansion, there was movement from Feng Quan's side. Feng Quan took people to investigate the salt shop in Hengtong. Not only did he investigate in Pingyang, he also sent people to Jiezhou. It seemed that he wanted to start the investigation from the salt wells in Jiezhou, and then step by step find out the scale of Hengtong's illegal salt trafficking and catch Zhu Shencui.

(End of this chapter)