I embezzled 100,000 taels at the beginning, and the empress begged me to be more greedy

These days, Jiang Zuo has been quite free, either drinking tea or playing chess, enjoying a leisurely and elegant time.

Since the empress wanted to lock him up, he would definitely enjoy this leisure time.

Chen Qingyun slowly walked to Jiang Zuo's side, sat down, and asked, "Jiang Zuo, how are you reflecting on this?"

"Oh, I regret it now."

"Just know that you regret it."

Chen Qingyun felt a little comforted.

The situation in Mobei is becoming more and more complicated, and he needs Jiang Zuo to step in to resolve it.

It would be great if he was willing to lead his elite Anding Army and take those weapons to attack the Northern Barbarians.

If he could pacify the north, Chen Qingyun would no longer care about the crime of smuggling armor in Jiangzuo.

"I really regret now, why did I only sell a set of armor for ten taels? I should have added two taels, and the crossbow should have been sold for another two taels."

Chen Qingyun: “…”

The empress was speechless. Does this mean that you, Jiang Zuo, have no intention of repenting at all?

Damn it!

"How much armor did you sell to the Mobei people? Isn't this harming the soldiers of our Great Yan Kingdom?"

Chen Qingyun tried his best to suppress his inner anger and questioned Jiang Zuo.

Jiang Zuo said: "It's not that serious. We seem to have only sold a few hundred in Anding County. Some time ago, Di Zhen said he wanted to buy a thousand, but there has been no response since then. I guess he must have lied to me..."

"several hundred?"

Upon hearing this number, Chen Qingyun's brows immediately frowned.

But in the secret letter from the Ninth Prince, it was said that there were more than 3,000 pairs, or even more?

Three thousand are just the number that were discovered. I wonder how many more are in the hands of the Northern Barbarian Army...

"Have you sold these to the Mobei people before?"

Chen Qingyun had some doubts.

Jiang Zuo shook his head and said, "Absolutely not. I just started selling a little bit, and what I sold were basically obsolete equipment. Those armor-piercing helmets can't stop our Anding County's flintlock rifles, and they may not even be able to stop the longbows."

Chen Qingyun stared into Jiang Zuo's eyes, and could tell from his eyes that what Jiang Zuo said was absolutely true.

So, those 3,000 pieces of armor were not actually sold by Jiang Zuo?

The Ninth Prince's secret letter also mentioned that those armors could not have been captured by the Northern Barbarians, so they could only have been purchased from the State of Yan.

Since it’s not Jiang Zuo, then it must be someone else.

There are definitely people smuggling in Dayan!

Jiang Zuo is blatant, while some people are pretending to obey and secretly deceiving their superiors and subordinates.

Chen Qingyun came to a terrible conclusion.

Could it be...

Chen Qingyun didn't dare to believe his own inference, so he could only put the matter aside for the time being and send out the Thousand Cavalry Division to investigate thoroughly later.

These important matters concern the foundation of the Great Yan State and cannot be taken lightly.

While they were chatting, Yang Feng came to ask for a meeting.

"Sir, Di Zhen has brought a new batch of slaves here and wants to see you, Sir Jiang. I wonder if you can go out now."

Di Zhen asked.

"Again? What a pity, I can't leave without the emperor's order."

Jiang Zuo was quite helpless.

"What slaves? What are you talking about?"

Chen Qingyun didn't understand at all.

"Oh, they were caught in Mobei."

Jiang Zuo said in a calm tone.

"Mobei?"

After hearing this, Chen Qingyun immediately became interested.

"Why don't you take me out to see it, too."

Chen Qingyun asked curiously.

Jiang Zuo said: "Siyue, you want to go and see it too? But there is no way, I can't go."

"Since this is an important matter, how can I not go? Go change your clothes first. I'll go outside and help you lead them away."

Chen Qingyun said.

Although Jiang Zuo was confused, he did as he was told and went back to his room to change his clothes.

Taking advantage of this gap, Chen Qingyun secretly ordered the Qianqi Division to let Jiang Zuo leave the mansion.

Without being stopped by the Thousand Cavalry Division, Jiang Zuo successfully arrived at the city gate and met Di Zhen and the captives he and his group brought with them.

This time there were more than 500 people.

These captives were all tall and strong men, with shackles on their hands and feet.

"Are these slaves all from the Mobei tribe?"

Chen Qingyun asked doubtfully.

Jiang Zuo explained: "This is called labor. Slaves sound so bad. I used five taels of silver to buy them from them. As soon as I said that, they were eager to send labor to Anding County. Now, the labor vacancies in Anding County are filled by them."

Chen Qingyun was extremely shocked at this moment.

You, Jiang Zuo, are really ruthless for openly buying and selling slaves!

The empress originally thought she was cruel enough, but she didn't expect that Jiang Zuo was even more terrifying.

"Does he want the tribes in Mobei to kill each other and snatch slaves?"

Chen Qingyun quickly came to a conclusion.

"You're doing this, isn't it a bit..."

Chen Qingyun frowned slightly.

Jiang Zuo explained calmly: "Even if they take women and children away, I will not treat them unfairly. My purpose is to disintegrate them internally."

"What a great way to sow discord!"

Chen Qingyun suddenly realized what was happening.

It seems that she had misunderstood Jiang Zuo before!

"What did you buy these slaves for?"

Chen Qingyun was puzzled.

Jiang Zuo said: "Of course we should go to the iron ore and salt mines. These workers are strong and fit, and are most suitable for mining."

"Can you take me to see it?"

Chen Qingyun asked.

"Siyue, your interests are really quite peculiar."

Jiang Zuo smiled and brought Chen Qingyun to the salt mine.

"Everyone on this side is new here from Mobei."

Jiang Zuo introduced.

As soon as Chen Qingyun saw the group of workers for the first time, he was stunned.

"You call this a slave?"

Most of them are strong men, all of them are energetic and work hard.

There weren't even many yamen runners supervising them, and they were completely left to work on their own.

These are all barbarians from the grassland. Isn’t Jiang Zuo afraid that they will rebel?

Jiang Zuo was certainly not afraid, and was not even harsh on these laborers.

The annual salary of these laborers was only three taels of silver.

But for these people in Mobei, it is a huge sum of money.

Before this, they were all nomadic herdsmen. The tribes were at war all year round and they had to go to the battlefield from time to time, and going to the battlefield meant risking their lives.

We work so hard just to have good food and good clothes.

Now, in Anding County, they not only have three meals a day, but also get paid.

Apart from the fact that mining is a bit hard, there doesn't seem to be anything bad about it.

Among this group of people, many don't want to go back to the grassland at all.

For ordinary people like them, staying alive is the most important thing.

For Jiangzuo, the emergence of these workers has greatly improved the production capacity in Anding County.

Due to the success of the disaster relief work some time ago, almost all the victims in Anding County have returned home, and there is no extra labor in the vicinity.

You know, few people in Anding County are willing to do such hard work as working in the mines, because there are other jobs in Anding County that are easier and more profitable.

The wages for an ordinary Yan citizen who was absent from work was twenty taels of silver a year, but these laborers who were captured from the grassland received three taels of silver a year plus a head fee of five taels of silver.

With this calculation, Jiang Zuo is making huge profit!