Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 167 Meeting Liu Xuewen

The official family asked the princes of King Yong and King Yan to follow Liu Xuewen as deputy imperial envoys. Many people speculated that it was a test for the two.

King Yong and King Yan naturally guessed this, and before leaving, they gave many instructions to behave well after they arrived.

We traveled day and night, and the boat never stopped except to replenish food and water.

Entering the border of Jiangnan, one night while sailing, we bumped into a small boat transporting smuggled salt.

They were traveling on a large ship, the kind of small boat used to transport smuggled salt that would capsize upon impact.

At that time, Zhao Tong was bored and saw this scene on the deck.

He quickly ordered people to go down and rescue people.

It goes without saying that people who transport illegal salt at night are watery. After falling into the water, apart from a moment of panic, they quickly surfaced.

Because Zhao Tong ordered to rescue people, the fire was bright on the boat. These people saw that the boat was full of officers and soldiers, and they dared not stay.

By the time the people sent by Zhao Tong came down, those people had already wandered away.

The search and rescue personnel searched for a person but could not find any body.

Zhao Tong felt it was very strange, so he asked people to inquire secretly when he was replenishing food at the shore.

It is not a secret among the people that there are boats carrying illegal salt on the canal at night.

For the common people, they are even more willing to see the existence of private salt.

Salt is very expensive, but private salt is much cheaper than official salt.

But the common people all know how powerful the Salt Gang is, and they are very taboo about this matter.

Zhao Tong sent people to inquire secretly, and actually found out some things.

Zhao Tong was very excited when he learned that private salt was rampant in the south of the Yangtze River and salt gangs were rampant.

Before coming to Yangzhou, his father's staff, including himself, felt that due to the temperament of the official family, they wanted to keep the affairs in Yangzhou under wraps and did not want to cause too much trouble.

In order to cater to the wishes of the officials, it was natural to cover up this matter.

Zhao Tong only needs to express his position at the appropriate time this time.

However, Zhao Tong was very ambitious. According to his original intention, he wanted to make this matter a big deal, and then punish him severely and kill him as a warning to others.

But in order to please the officials, he had to make decisions that went against his own ideas.

It made him feel very aggrieved.

Now that he has discovered the secret salt matter, if he can find out the matter and report it to the officials, he will naturally be able to please the officials and gain points for his father.

As for the examination fraud in Yangzhou County, he was too lazy to take care of it.

I tried to persuade him several times during my high school journey, not wanting Zhao Tong to investigate the illegal salt scandal.

Zhao Tong didn't know, but he knew something about this matter.

What's more, Zhao Tong can find out about the Salt Gang by asking people to investigate in secret. It can be seen that the news about the Salt Gang is not particularly secretive.

But there was no news about the Salt Gang in Bianjing, and the officials didn't know anything about it.

What does this mean?

It shows that there is a huge interest group behind the Salt Gang, and it can even deceive the officials.

However, Zhao Tong did not listen to the advice at all and wanted to investigate the matter about the Salt Gang.

Even after getting off the ship, on the way to Yangzhou, he sent a few accompanying followers to check for news about the Salt Gang.

Zhao Tong felt that Yangzhou was an important city in the south of the Yangtze River and was near the canal, so the Salt Gang must be very active here.

Just before the servants came to report to Gu Yi for an audience, the high school was already trying to persuade Zhao Tong.

Now seeing that Zhao Tong was still obsessed with investigating the Salt Gang, Gao Gao gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, since the Salt Gang is so rampant and the officials are not aware of it at all, haven't you ever thought about how deep the water is?"

Zhao Tong waved his hand and said: "I understand what you mean. There must be many officials involved, but the more this happens, the more I have to investigate. Although my father has a loud voice now, he has a slight advantage. But King Yan cannot be underestimated. Look, if we delay it for too long, the consequences will be huge. If I can find out what happened to the Salt Gang, I will definitely be able to settle the matter in one fell swoop."

"Your Highness, if you want to hide it from the officials, you can't rely on these local officials. Even many people who support the prince are involved. Once you do this, I am afraid that not only will you not be able to help the prince, but you will even harm him. My lord." Gao Gao said.

Since becoming Zhao Tong's staff, he found that Zhao Tong was very smart, but sometimes Zhao Tong was too idealistic and did not look at problems far enough.

"This..." Zhao Tong was stunned.

He had previously been so absorbed in investigating the benefits of the Salt Gang that he had ignored the consequences.

When I heard what the high school said, I calmed down.

After a long silence, Zhao Tong looked at the high school and said, "Then why didn't you remind me before?"

Gao Gao smiled bitterly and said: "I really don't want to mention such dark things to His Highness."

Zhao Tong wanted to investigate the Salt Gang. Although he wanted to please the officials, his original intention was also for the imperial court.

Although Zhao Tong is sometimes too idealistic, he is a very ambitious person.

I really couldn't bear to tell him these dirty and dark things in high school.

"Haha."

Zhao Tong suddenly laughed.

"Your Highness, are you okay?" Gao Gao looked at Zhao Tong worriedly.

"I am fine."

Zhao Tong waved his hand and said: "Are you saying that the officials really don't know about the existence of the Salt Gang? Maybe the officials know it, but they are just unwilling to expose it because it involves too much?"

"This..." Gao Gao was stunned and didn't know how to answer for a while.

"hehe."

Zhao Tong laughed at himself: "You show that you know that these moths are sucking the blood of the imperial court, but you still pretend to be ignorant. What's the point of being an emperor?"

"Your Highness, be careful what you say!"

Gao Gao's expression changed and he quickly reminded him.

"Now I suddenly don't want my father to compete for the position of crown prince. If my father becomes emperor in the future and waits for me to inherit the throne, will I want to be like the officials, knowing that I know but pretending to be ignorant? No, no. He doesn't seek political advice for his position, so I suddenly felt that being an idle county prince would be quite good." Zhao Tong said with some frustration.

"Your Highness, how can you think so? If Your Highness wants to change all this, he must have power in his hands." Gao Gao said.

"What about the officials? He was already the emperor and implemented the New Deal. Wasn't he forced to demote Xianggong Fan in the end?" Zhao Tong said.

"Your Highness, have you ever thought about it, if King Yan wins the throne, can he let King Yong and His Highness go? Since ancient times, how many of those who failed in the fight for the crown ended well?" Gao Gao said.

Zhao Tong was silent after hearing this, and then said after a long time: "You are right, in order to survive, I can't give up like this. What's more, I haven't worked hard yet, who knows what the result will be."

"Your Highness is right to think so."

Gao Gao said happily: "The failure of the official reform does not mean that His Highness will also fail in the future. As long as His Highness becomes the emperor and plans for it slowly, it may not be impossible to achieve what the official has not accomplished."

"You're right."

Zhao Tong rekindled his fighting spirit and said, "Have someone check that Li An and see what relationship he has with Zhao Xian."

"Yes." Gao Gao responded.

……

When Zhao Tong asked someone to check Li An, he didn't know that Li An was in a yard not far from him.

At the banquet, Liu Xuewen didn't bother to talk to Li An.

However, after the banquet, Liu Xuewen's senior attendant found him and told him that Liu Xuewen asked him to go to the inn.

Li An came out of Linjiang Tower, asked someone to go back and tell his parents, and then went to the inn.

As soon as Gu Yi and the others left, Li An's carriage arrived.

After being informed, he was taken inside.

"The student has met the teacher."

Arriving at the main hall, Liu Xuewen was sitting at the head table reading a book.

Liu Xuewen put down his book, showed a smile, and said, "Sit down and talk."