Chapter 173 Return to Beijing (Please Vote for Me!!!)

Zhao Yingce came to the interrogation room and was slightly surprised when he saw Lu Xiucai looking helpless. He thought that the Manichaeans should be the kind of vicious desperadoes.

After Zhao Yingce sat down, Qin Hao said to Lu Xiucai: "Lv Xiucai, please."

Lu Xiucai slowly put down the tea cup and said quietly: "In the first year of Jiayou, I failed the provincial examination again, and my mother at home also passed away due to years of hard work. During my mourning period, a wandering monk came to talk to me. At first I saw him He was very knowledgeable, so I deliberately made friends with him. It was not until three years later that I found out that the other person was actually a Manichaean elder."

Qin Hao was not surprised. Religions often use this method to control people. They start by being kind to people, and then after gaining your trust, they begin to spread their ideas.

There are two most difficult things in this world, one is to put your money in my pocket, and the other is to put my thoughts into your head.

Religion is precisely the best among the latter. In fact, the same is true for Confucianism and Taoism. However, the teachings of Manichaeism are extremely extreme and can easily lead people to destruction.

Lu Xiucai took another sip of tea and moistened his dry throat: "In the fourth year of Jiayou's reign, I became the leader of Manichaeism in the Jinling area. At that time, Manichaeism activities required a lot of funds, so I proposed to do something In addition to the Yuehua Building, there are also gambling stalls, silk shops, and dyeing shops. Most of these industries are affiliated with the names of some nobles in Jinling City, which saves a lot of trouble."

"In the sixth year of Jiayou's reign, I was promoted to the position of Protector of Manichaeism due to my merits in business, and took charge of all affairs of Jinling. During this period, we also attracted and bribed a group of Jinling officials and nobles, but before anything happened, I did not let him They knew about Manichaeism.”

Zhao Yingce sneered and said: "So you are a business genius. Why didn't you just do business to make a living? Why did you join such a cult and live in fear?"

Lu Xiucai was choked and speechless.

Qin Hao said: "Who is your superior? We usually communicate like this. How did you deliver the finances you collected for Manichaeism? In addition, make a list of all Manichaeism members in Jinling City."

Lu Xiucai breathed a sigh of relief: "My superior is the monk who introduced me to the religion. This person is extremely mysterious. I don't know his true identity. I only know his name: Xuan Kong. He usually sends people to contact me. If there is an emergency, I will light three incense sticks, two long and one short, in front of my mother’s memorial tablet in Putuo Temple outside the city. As for the finances collected, they are all transported directly to Yangzhou via merchant ships. Someone will take over there, but I don’t know who it is. knew."

"That's all?" Qin Hao stared at Lu Xiucai with sharp eyes.

Lu Xiucai was frightened by Qin Hao and suddenly panicked: "That's all I know, Lord Marquis, everything I said is true."

Zhao Yingce whispered: "Why don't you go to jail?"

Qin Hao shook his head: "The people from the Imperial City Department are coming soon, so we'd better leave the people to them. We don't need to do this kind of dirty work."

Zhao Yingce thought so, so he asked Lu Xiucai to prepare a list of names.

After seeing the list, Zhao Yingce broke into a cold sweat on his forehead. There were actually hundreds of Manichaean core believers in Jinling City, and many of them had public offices in the imperial court. The highest position had reached the rank of regimental trainer. …

If Manichaeism develops for more than ten or twenty years and encounters turmoil in the government, it may really be possible for it to be exploited.

"Take him down." Qin Hao waved his hand, and two soldiers lifted Lu Xiucai up.

Lu Xiucai struggled and shouted: "Master Hou, please give me a pleasure, I have told you everything I know!"

Qin Hao reminded Cui Zhi: "Watch him carefully, don't let him die."

"promise."

Zhao Yingce held the list, his face uncertain under the candlelight. He stood up after a while and said to Qin Hao: "Zihan, please take the person first, so as not to have a long night and have too many dreams."

That night, the entire Jinling City's four gates were tightly closed, and no one was allowed to enter or exit. Officers and soldiers attacked in all directions, holding torches like fire dragons, lighting up the night sky of the entire Jinling City as if it were daytime.

Hundreds of people were arrested overnight. Except for a few alert Manichaeans who escaped early, the rest were all arrested. Through interrogation of them, some hidden Manichaeans were revealed, and the number already reached hundreds. .

Such a large workload is also a trouble for interrogation. Qin Hao does not have that many interrogators, so he can only hold them in isolation.

Fortunately, two days later, Liu Jinzhong from the Imperial City Department came, and Qin Hao was happy to have his time at ease, leaving the interrogation directly to him.

Of course, this was not good news for Lu Xiucai and the others. Lu Xiucai was as wronged as a child. He said everything, but Liu Jinzhong still gave him all the punishment.

In Liu Jinzhong's words, he doesn't believe in prisoners who confess without being punished, at least not completely.

After interrogation, Liu Jinzhong actually found out some information that Qin Hao had not discovered. For example, there was a shadow of Manichaeism behind King Yan's rebellion.

According to the idea of ​​Manichaeism, the rebellion of King Yan was to be wiped out. It would be best for King Yan to kill Emperor Renzong, which would trigger a rebellion among the clan kings and cause the entire Song Dynasty to fall apart. Finally, Manichaeism took advantage of the situation and rose up.

It's just that Manichaeism didn't expect that Zhao Zongquan suddenly appeared, quickly put out the rebellion, and gained the recognition of Emperor Renzong, becoming a new generation of kings.

In the Imperial City of Bianjing, Zhao Zongquan broke into a cold sweat after seeing Liu Jinzhong's secret letter. This meant that he was lucky, otherwise the world would be in chaos and he would have no chance of succeeding.

"Manichaeism must be eradicated!" This secret letter further strengthened Zhao Zongquan's belief in eradicating Manichaeism.

That night, Zhao Zongquan came to the palace of Empress Dowager Cao and handed the secret letter to Empress Dowager Cao.

Empress Dowager Cao couldn't help but be shocked when she saw this, especially when she mentioned in the secret letter that someone in the Cao family branch was involved with Manichaeism.

"What do the officials want the Ai family to do?" Empress Dowager Cao looked at the secret letter in a daze and said quietly after a long while.

Zhao Zongquan knelt on the ground and said sincerely: "If Manichaeism is not eliminated for one day, it will be a huge threat to the country and the country. I implore the queen mother and her ministers to work together to protect the country of the Song Dynasty!"

Empress Dowager Cao also knew that the advantage was not on her side now, so it was pretty good that Zhao Zongquan could give her a step down at this time.

"Okay, then let's do whatever the officials want."

Of course, cooperation is cooperation, and the salt tax reform must continue. However, Zhao Zongquan also saved some face for the Cao family and introduced the salt from Jiangnan West Road and Jiannan Road to the Cao family so that they could continue to operate. …

As for other Yanyin, they followed Qin Hao's method and cooperated with nobles in various places. Not only were they able to return tax revenue to the national treasury, but they also helped Zhao Zongquan establish contacts with local nobles.

As for the Manichaean matter, it was left directly to Liu Jinzhong. Qin Hao did not interfere, but concentrated on the salt tax reform.

After traveling through most of the Song Dynasty for more than a year, we finally formulated a complete salt introduction system integrating salt production, transportation and sales.

To put it simply, it is a monopoly sale, and the salt farm produces according to the quantity of salt introduced. This eliminates most of the purchase channels for private salt.

In the past, the proliferation of illicit salt was mainly due to the collusion between salt farm owners and private salt dealers. The more salt they produced, the more salt they produced would be sold to the private salt dealers for huge profits. In order to produce more salt, the salt farm owners would try their best to squeeze the salt farm coolies. , and even take care of human life.

Zhao Yingce was a little worried at first, whether the absence of private salt would make the common people unable to afford official salt.

Qin Hao took him to the market for a walk. The price of official salt was indeed more expensive, but in fact the price of private salt was not much cheaper. After all, the transportation and sales costs of salt were the same. The only advantage of private salt was The advantage is that you don’t have to pay taxes.

But in fact, there are a lot of things that private salt dealers need to take care of. After all, the majority of the profits have been made by corrupt officials. Those private salt dealers who face the risk of being beheaded are definitely not philanthropic, so many times Private salt is actually about 10% cheaper than official salt.

The reason why the price of official salt was high before was mainly because the Cao family sold private salt for profit and priced it too high. However, Qin Hao reset the price of official salt and increased the quantity of salt. Generally speaking, official salt is enough to satisfy the market. need.

Of course, as long as illegal salt sales are profitable, some people will take desperate risks. This cannot be prohibited by an administrative order.

Even in later generations, the ways to make money quickly were written in the criminal law, so Qin Hao could only strengthen the investigation and punishment of illegal salt at the port terminal.

Over the past year or so, Qin Hao and Zhao Yingce have become more and more cooperative with each other. Usually, Qin Hao is the bad guy and Zhao Yingce is the bad guy. This has also earned Zhao Yingce the reputation of the "Wise King".

Jinling, which was the first to implement salt tax reform, also handed in a satisfactory answer in the past year, turning in a salt tax of 400,000 guan, which was four times higher than before. According to estimates, The salt tax alone can bring more than 10 million yuan in tax revenue to the national treasury, and Sheng Wei has also become a celebrity in front of Zhao Yingce.

On the way back to Bianjing, Zhao Yingce said to Qin Hao with emotion: "If it weren't for Zihan on this trip, such a complicated situation would be like a mess, and I can't even figure it out."

Qin Hao smiled and shook his head: "Why should His Highness, King Huan, be so humble? If His Highness, King Huan, were not here, how could I have instigated those nobles?"

This is true. Although Qin Hao is the founder of the country, his foundation is still shallow. If he comes alone, those nobles may not betray his face. And as King Huan is the candidate for the future crown prince, those nobles are naturally eager to grab it. Once you establish a relationship with him, many things will be solved easily.

After more than a year, I returned to Bianjing again. …

There is one good thing about ancient society. Not to mention one year, but ten or a hundred years, many places are still the same. Qin Hao can't even notice the passage of time.

Until on the pier, a little kid rushed towards him, threw himself into his arms, and shouted sweetly: "Daddy."

Qin Hao picked up his daughter with emotion. When he left her, the girl was only one and a half years old and had difficulty walking. Now she can run and jump.

"Sister Lan, do you miss daddy?" Qin Hao kissed his daughter on the face.

Perhaps it was the stubble on Qin Hao's face that hurt the little girl, so she turned her head to avoid it and giggled.

"Think about it."

"Where are you thinking?"

"Thinking about it here." The little girl patted her chest with her chubby little hands.

Qin Hao laughed and felt tired of his daughter again.

Yu Yanran couldn't stand it anymore, so she walked forward with her son in her arms and complained: "You only have eyes for your daughter."

When Qin Hao saw his son looking at him timidly, he also squatted down and picked him up.

"Brother Ming, do you miss daddy?"

Brother Ming nodded vigorously, which made Yu Yanran feel a little depressed. This child was good at everything, but his mouth was not sweet enough, and he was not as eloquent as a girl.

"Haha, Zihan has a son and a daughter. It's so gratifying and congratulatory. It makes others envious." Zhao Yingce said with a smile.

Yu Yanran quickly greeted Zhao Yingce.

"Mrs. Yu doesn't need to be polite. We are all our own people. From now on, we will bring the children to visit the palace more often. Sister Lan is so smart and smart. The princess will definitely like her when she sees her." Zhao Yingce waved his hand and said with a smile.

Qin Hao looked at Zhao Yingce with some vigilance: "His Royal Highness King Huan, please agree first that my daughter may not marry as a baby."

Yu Yanran secretly tugged on Qin Hao's sleeve. This was His Highness Prince Huan, the future crown prince. His son might also be an official in the future. If a marriage could be achieved, the Qin family would become relatives of the emperor in the future.

Hearing this, Zhao Yingce laughed and scolded: "I don't know how many people want to marry my Quan brother, but you still dislike them."

Qin Hao smiled faintly and looked at his daughter's chubby little face: "My daughter does not seek to have a prominent status, but she seeks to be a husband and wife who are of the same mind and stay together till the end of their lives."

Yu Yanran's eyes were slightly red. This was what she had been thinking when she was a girl. However, the environment at home at that time did not allow her to expect too much. If she had not married Qin Hao, how could she be where she is today?

Afterwards, Qin Hao and Zhao Yingce went to the palace to recover, while Yu Yanran returned to Jinghaihou Mansion with her children and Qin Hao's luggage.

Inside the palace.

Zhao Zongquan saw Qin Hao and praised him highly: "Qin Aiqing is indeed a capable minister. In just over a year, the salt tax reform has begun to take effect, which is really indispensable."

Qin Hao bowed slightly: "This matter is not the result of Wei Chen alone. If it were not for the support of the official family and His Highness King Huan, it would not have such an effect."

"Haha, King Huan performed well." As a father, Zhao Zongquan felt somewhat proud when he heard someone praise his son.

Zhao Zongquan did not promote Qin Hao this time. After all, he was already in the second rank. If he were promoted at this age, he would not be rewarded if he made meritorious service in the future. …

Therefore, after Qin Hao returned home, the imperial edict came down immediately, and he rewarded some rare treasures and two imperial villages. In addition, the biggest reward was that Yu Yanran's imperial edict was upgraded to the second grade. In terms of grade, , she is now half a level higher than Qin Hao.

When Yu Yanran received the imperial edict, she looked like she was dreaming.

"Am I now a second-grade imperial concubine?"

She is only in her twenties now. You must know that Xiao Qin's life was only given to her after the death of Marquis Ning Yuan.

After being stunned for a while, when she turned back, she found that Qin Hao had returned to the front hall with his son and daughter in his arms.

Sister Lan hugged Qin Hao's thigh and sat up on the seesaw. This was also their favorite game before, but Sister Lan was still young at that time, and now Qin Hao's legs are a little sore after sitting for a while.

Seeing this, Yu Yanran quickly pulled her daughter off: "Your father just came back today, can't you just rest for a while?"

Sister Lan pursed her lips, looking aggrieved. Qin Hao picked her up with some distress: "Okay, my child hasn't seen me for too long and misses me. Please stay with her for a while and stop nagging me."

"Humph, just pamper her. If she becomes pampered, her husband's family will dare to ask for her in the future!" Yu Yanran said unconvinced.

Qin Hao said proudly: "There will be so many people vying for my daughter when the time comes, don't you believe we can make a bet?"

"Humph, I'm too lazy to pay attention to you. Go and wash up quickly. The hot water is ready." Yu Yanran curled her lips. How could she really hope that her daughter would not get married?

In the room, Qin Hao was halfway through taking a shower when Yu Yanran came in and picked up a towel to wipe Qin Hao's back.

Qin Hao grabbed Yu Yanran's still smooth hand and said with a wicked smile, "How about we wash it together?"

Yu Yanran rolled her eyes angrily: "Don't make trouble, look at how dark the water is."

"Okay, how dare you despise your husband and ask for a beating."

With that said, Qin Hao stood up from the barrel, wiped his body briefly, and then hugged Yu Yanran horizontally.

After some sex, Qin Hao and Yu Yanran hugged each other and fell asleep.

Qin Hao slept soundly this time, and the next morning came in the blink of an eye.

Qin Hao opened his eyes and found Yu Yanran looking at him with distressed eyes. Qin Hao gently held her in his arms and asked softly: "What's wrong?"

"It must be hard for your husband to be outside, right?"

Qin Hao smiled and shook his head: "It's a bit hard, but it's far behind compared to going to sea."

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little sad, Qin Hao rolled his eyes and said with a bad smile: "This time in Jiangnan, your husband and I have visited the brothel several times. Tsk tsk, he is really thin and fat."

Yu Yanran looked at Qin Hao jokingly, and then asked delicately: "Oh? Then why doesn't your husband bring me back?"

Well, having been seen through, Qin Hao said softly: "Actually, I have seen those courtesans before, and they are not as beautiful as Madam."

"Pfft." Yu Yanran was touched and funny at the same time.

"A man is always good at making people happy, but I heard that Yangzhou's thin horse has the appearance of a moon-shy flower. How can I compare?"

Qin Hao kissed Yu Yanran on the face: "But I just don't think they are as good-looking as my wife."

Yu Yanran's pretty face turned red. Even though she was already a mother of two children, she still couldn't help but feel dry after hearing such loving words.

Just when Qin Hao was about to do some morning exercises, suddenly the door was pushed open and Sister Lan ran to the bed with her short legs.

"Dad, mother."

Well, Qin Hao was instantly discouraged, and Yu Yanran couldn't help but laugh out loud with gloating.

There was no other choice but to coax the child out, change clothes and get up.

Not long after Qin Hao got up, the Qin Liu family's nanny came to ask Qin Hao to come over for dinner.

Qin Hao simply took Yu Yanran and the two little guys to have a meal, but when he arrived, he found that Xiao Qin and Gu Tingwei were also there.