Chapter 501
~ ONE MOUNTAIN IS HIGHER THAN ANOTHER ~
Yue Wang held Mu Yunyao’s hand and put it on his chest. “Yao’er, my selfishness is heavy. I clearly understand that this matter should not involve you, but I am unwilling to let you go just like that. If people who calculated us succeed in this scheme, I’m afraid we would lose our lives here. Would you regret it?”
Mu Yunyao couldn’t help but raise the corners of her lips as she tilted her head slightly. Her watery eyes unblinkingly stared at him. “If I regret it, would Fourth Master let me go?”
“Nope.”
“Then I will not regret it. Moreover, if people want to scheme against our lives, it depends on whether they have the ability to do so!”
Yue Wang couldn’t help but chuckle, and the starlight twinkled in his eyes. Every time he saw Mu Yunyao’s triumphant appearance, he felt proud from the bottom of his heart. “Who was sent to relieve the disaster this time?”
“His Royal Highness Yu Wang.”
“Second Imperial Brother… With him here, we have a better chance of winning.”
Mu Yunyao nodded and took out the embroidered satchel with the Yuanbao pattern from her sleeve. “Fourth Master, this was found in the cellar of the courtyard behind the behind Linjiang’s Goverment Office. What happened after you came here?”
Mu Yunyao still addressed Yue Wang as Fourth Master, but she no longer addressed him respectfully. Neither of them made it clear, but both of them felt that the title of Fourth Master held a special meaning to them.
Yue Wang’s eyes slightly darkened as he recounted his previous experiences, “Under my Imperial Father’s orders, I came here to investigate the case of the salt tax deficit. However upon arrival, I discovered that the salt tax accounts prepared by the salt transport envoy and the government offices authorities were flawless. Even the amount of tax silver was totally correct, and no trace of a deficit was found. Yet, I felt that the people guarding the tax silver warehouse were especially nervous. Afterward, when no one was looking, I stealthily returned to the warehouse and discovered the so-called tax silver was all made from clay mixed with iron sand. It was just that there was a layer of silver on the outside.”
“The two ingots of tax silver that I found in the pond at Linjiang Garden were taken out of the warehouse by Fourth Master?”
“Yes, many people are watching my every move in Jiangnan. Carrying two taels of silver with me was too eye-catching, so I marked them and placed it in Linjiang Garden. Linjiang Garden was built by Zhou Huai, a salt merchant in Linjiang city, in order to contact salt merchants around the country and please local officials. Many young men and women were raised inside Linjiang Garden and have been carefully trained to use bewitching methods to charm people’s hearts. I wonder how many of them have fallen because of this.”
Mu Yunyao raised her eyebrows slightly. “Fourth Master has the opportunity to hide the fake tax silver in Linjiang Garden. Wouldn’t it be the salt merchant also invited you to Linjiang Garden to entertain you well?”
Yue Wang was taken aback and then slowly smiled: “Yao’er, don’t worry. Regardless of whether it is my body or heart, I am loyal and devoted to you.”
Mu Yunyao pursed her lips and smiled as she secretly snorted in her heart. If Yue Wang had any other intentions, she would have had more lives in her hands.
“They wanted to curry favor with me using those methods, but after discovering that I was unfit to join, they secretly drugged me and locked me up in the cellar where you said. After being locked up, they thought I had no way out, so they relaxed their guard a little, allowing me to gather quite a bit of information. These salt merchants were scared stiff by the salt tax case in Yangzhou City, so they wanted to find a backer to support, and they set their sights on Jin Wang. Worried that Jin Wang disdained to accept them, they pulled him onto a boat first, so in the name of filial piety, they secretly sent salt tax silver to the Capital and handed it over to Jin Wang for use.”
Mu Yunyao suddenly understood in her heart, “No wonder Jin Wang spent so much money before. Since he obtained so much silver for free, naturally, he won’t feel bad.”
“When the salt merchants saw that Jin Wang had accepted them, they became more courageous. They wantonly sold private salt salt in Jiangnan, secretly raising the price of the salt, hoping to earn back the lost silver taels. It’s just that Jin Wang wasn’t the only one stared at this piece of fat of Jiangnan. A. After we let Ling Wang discover the movements of Jin Wang and the salt merchants through Qi Ming, he secretly tried to find a way to expose the matter. In addition, you and I reached out to touch Yang Lian, making the salt merchants even more flustered. So they came up with a fake salt tax account book and a fake salt tax silver.”
Mu Yunyao couldn’t help but sneer, “These people are really audacious.”
“The amount of salt tax silver involved was too enormous. If it were investigated by the Imperial Court, even if it would not be implicated in the nine clans, the three clans would not be able to escape.Anyway, they had already taken the risk once, and with Jin Wang’s strategies supporting them from behind, they felt even more fearless. At first, they just wanted to let the ship transporting salt tax silver sink on the river. After Ling Wang found out, he felt like making this matter bigger, and he made Linjiang City flooded. Later, when the case was revealed, Imperial Father would definitely be furious, and Jin Wang would be scolded by the people over the world.”
Mu Yunyao’s eyes were cold. “In order to blow up this matter and target Jin Wang, Ling Wang actually chose to ignore the lives of so many commoners on both sides of Linjiang City. His Royal Highness Ling Wang is truly cold-blooded.”
“I also didn’t expect that Eldest Imperial Brother would be the one to reverse the situation. However, compared to controlling people’s mind, Ling Wang was no match for Jin Wang. A spy had appeared beside him, and had informed Jin Wang about his plan and strategy. Jin Wang took the plan into his own hands and even had schemed against me. He wanted to use Ling Wang’s hand to kill me a and then smash the matter of him blowing up the river wall.”
Mu Yunyao thought about it carefully and was a little puzzled in her heart, “Fourth Master, according to what you said, it’s already been over twenty days since the river broke, but there’s still no news of Ling Wang and Jin Wang making a ruckus. There aren’t even any rumors spreading out ....”
“Because they couldn’t find any evidence against each other. When the riverbank was blown up, there were somthing wrong, and the river waters also were too fierce. Many of Ling Wang and Jin Wang’s men were killed and injured, catching them off guard.”
“This is such a big matter. Isn’t there any useful evidence left?”
Yue Wang smiled slightly. “Of course there is, but I hid it.”
Mu Yunyao stared blankly before opening her eyes wide, “Fourth Master hid it away?” Ling Wang and Jin Wang both lost, but they did not want theYue Wang to profit from this. It is truly a mountain higher than another.
“Well, I actually would like to thank you very much. Before this, you sent Liu Liang to deliver three letters. One of the letters explained your guess and told me to pay attention to the Linjiang riverbank. The other two letters imitated the handwriting of Ling Wang and Jin Wang, respectively, making it easier for me to get the letter from others. After knowing that the salt tax silver was counterfeit, I asked someone to investigate the salt merchant, who was attached to Jin Wang, while seeking out a craftsman who had forged the official silver. There’s a lot of official silver, so much clay and iron sand are needed. I started with private kilns in various places and found some clues, so I came to Yishui City overnight.”
“Could it be that those counterfeit tax silver came from Yishui City?”
“Well, because the matter is too urgent, I didn’t dare delay my arrival here. Using the letter you gave me, I traced an important physical evidence — a mold used to make counterfeit tax silver. This evidance is what Ling Wang has been looking for.”