Chapter 39 Wei Zhongxian's Sentiment
At this time, the backyard of Suzhou government office had become Wei Zhongxian's guest residence, and the Suzhou prefect was very tactful and moved to his own villa in the city.

Wei Zhongxian was in the study room in the backyard that originally belonged to the Suzhou prefect, drinking tea and checking the account books of the Lianghuai Salt Field over the years.

But at this moment, the eunuch Li Yongzhen suddenly rushed in holding an envelope.

Wei Zhongxian frowned slightly and said unhappily, "Yongzhen, when will you change your impetuous temper? We are now redeeming ourselves from our crimes, so we need to be more cautious in doing things."

Li Yongzhen panted, put the envelope on Wei Zhongxian's desk, and said, "I apologize for my sins. It is because of the imperial edict that I am so anxious."

"What? A handwritten edict from His Majesty." Upon hearing that it was Chongzhen's handwritten edict, Wei Zhongxian immediately stood up, hurriedly held up Chongzhen's handwritten edict, bowed to the north, and then carefully opened the envelope.

"Minister, what did His Majesty say?" After Wei Zhongxian put away the handwritten letter, Li Yongzhen asked worriedly, "Is he not satisfied with the amount of 300,000 taels?"

"God has mercy on us. We dare not even touch a single cent. We have sent all of it to the capital!"

Wei Zhongxian laughed and said, "Don't worry, Yongzhen. His Majesty is not only very satisfied with our achievements in Jiangnan, but also instructed us to do a great job in Jiangnan!"

Thinking of the contents of the imperial edict, Wei Zhongxian was almost unable to suppress his excitement.

Since Tianqi's death, the scholars in Jiangnan have submitted countless impeachment memorials against him. He has long been itching to resent him and wanted to take the opportunity to take revenge, but he was worried that he would be impeached again and make Chongzhen unhappy, which would then be a waste of time.

But now with Chongzhen's handwritten edict, Wei Zhongxian could do whatever he wanted.

Li Yongzhen was also excited when he heard this: "Stop hanging me up, Mr. Factory Minister. What did His Majesty say?"

Wei Zhongxian directly threw the handwritten letter to Li Yongzhen, who immediately picked it up and read it.

In the handwritten edict, Chongzhen first affirmed that Wei Zhongxian had collected 300,000 taels of tax silver for the court in just one month, and encouraged Wei Zhongxian with a few words, promising that as long as he worked hard, the glory bestowed on him by the previous emperor would soon be restored.

At the same time, it was clearly stated that what the Ming Dynasty needed most now was silver. Whoever could get silver for the Ming Dynasty would be the Ming Dynasty's first meritorious minister. No matter what was done during this period, as long as it was not too outrageous, it would be forgiven.

This was tantamount to encouraging Wei Zhongxian to make great strides in Jiangnan without having to worry about going too far and being impeached by the Jiangnan literati. Chongzhen would bear all the pressure for Wei Zhongxian.

It was then emphasized that the salt merchants in Jiangnan should be Wei Zhongxian's primary target during this trip to Jiangnan.

He also reported Wang An's account to Wei Zhongxian.

But when he saw the figure of 13.8 million taels of silver, Li Yongzhen was shocked. "Wow, it turns out that the salt administration in the world can make so much money!"

"No wonder the salt merchants we saw during our visit to Jiangnan were only polite to the local officials on the surface, but actually seemed to be dismissive. It turns out that they have money from the imperial court!"

Wei Zhongxian sneered, "These Jiangnan salt merchants are as rich as a country. Our family has long known this, so when the late emperor was still in power, he sent tax inspectors to Jiangnan."

"But no one in the world responds to our efforts, and I don't know where to pour out my bitterness."

Seeing Wei Zhongxian's eyes turn red, as if he had suffered a great injustice, Li Yongzhen hurriedly comforted him, "Don't be sad, my official. Doesn't the emperor think highly of you now?"

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have sent you to Jiangnan to collect taxes." Wei Zhongxian finally stopped crying and said with a smile, "To be honest, when the emperor first ascended the throne, I felt that he would deal with me sooner or later."

"As expected, they attacked our family, right? At that time, Yongzhen and the others were also worried and frightened. Even Tian Ergeng directly..."

At this point, Wei Zhongxian sighed and said, "But I never dreamed that the emperor would use me again when I thought I was doomed."

"Your Majesty is so wise! Only eunuchs like us are His Majesty's most loyal servants! We must do our job in Suzhou beautifully for His Majesty, so that His Majesty will feel that his trust in us is not in vain!"

Li Yongzhen nodded, holding the imperial edict and said, "Then, Mr. Factory Minister, what should we do now? The four families of Zhang, Wang, Li and Zhao are so cunning and sly that they are not afraid of boiling water!"

"We've threatened them, bribed them, but there's really nothing we can do to them! And the men under my command just now reported that the cooks from Wu County and Changzhou County have already arrived in Suzhou Prefecture, and that cooks from Changshu, Kunshan and other places are on their way to Suzhou Prefecture."

"We estimate that there are tens of thousands of people. If this sparks a civil uprising, I'm afraid I won't be able to explain myself to His Majesty."

Unexpectedly, Wei Zhongxian, who had always been worried when he heard about the kitchen workers gathering, was not panicked this time. He even had a strange smile on his face.

Li Yongzhen was stunned when he saw this.

But Wei Zhongxian laughed and said, "What should we do? Didn't the emperor write it clearly in the imperial edict?"

Li Yongzhen then remembered that he had not finished reading the imperial edict in his hand, and hurriedly looked down.

Just a moment later, Li Yongzhen looked at Wei Zhongxian with horror.

"Factory...Factory Minister, are these ideas really from the Emperor?" Li Yongzhen muttered, "I think I am the most ruthless person in the world, and the most vicious person is the factory minister. I didn't expect that His Majesty is both vicious and..."

"Huh?" Wei Zhongxian glared.

Li Yongzhen quickly changed his words and said, "Smart... This is a brilliant plan! We must catch all these salt merchants in one fell swoop. Let's see how arrogant they will be in the future!"

“Hoo, hoo, hoo!” Wei Zhongxian laughed strangely a few times and said, “It is truly a holy ruler sent from heaven! There is hope for the revival of our Ming Dynasty! Your Majesty…”

Wei Zhongxian seemed to have a smile like Tianqi in his eyes. He said with red eyes: "I have lived up to your trust and will definitely assist His Royal Highness Prince Xin in restoring the Ming Dynasty."

Li Yongzhen on the side knew that Wei Zhongxian was thinking of Tianqi again, and pretended not to notice that Wei Zhongxian called Chongzhen Prince Xin.

After a while, Wei Zhongxian seemed to have had enough of reminiscing. He looked at Li Yongzhen and said, "Haha, immediately have the men disguise themselves as ordinary people and go to the kitchen households to get information. I want to see who is the biggest contributor to this matter!"

"Yes!" Li Yongzhen accepted the order.

Wei Zhongxian then made a series of arrangements, but what was special was that none of the orders directly targeted the salt merchants, as if he did not suspect the salt merchants at all.

(End of this chapter)