Lin Yun returned to his mansion and saw Hu Xiangyi who had come to visit. Under the care of Lin Ruhai and Dong Xiong, this guy had been promoted to guerrilla status and commanded five hundred soldiers.

When Hu Xiangyi was inspecting private salt dealers a few days ago, he met Zhong Yi, who had mixed up with the salt gang. He learned from Zhong Yi that Lin Yun was back, so he took advantage of the Chinese New Year opportunity to come and meet him.

As soon as they met, Lin Yun asked Hu Xiangyi about the progress of the illegal salt investigation.

Hu Xiangyi said with a bitter face: "I am dissatisfied, young master. Since I followed General Dong and took office, I have only caught some small fish and shrimps, and not a single big private salt dealer."

"Then do you know the reason?"

Hu Xiangyi: "The main reason is that there are too many informants. Every time we receive the news and go out to arrest him, it seems that the news has been received by the other side. By the time we arrive at the destination, there is no sign of the salt dealer.

"

Lin Yun: "After you receive the news, wouldn't it be enough to gather all your soldiers together and prevent them from leaving the team without permission?"

Hu Xiangyi: "I have tried the method you mentioned, but it didn't work. There must be spies of private salt dealers around our military camp. As soon as we make any move, they will receive the news."

Lin Yun complained secretly in his heart, "These private salt dealers are almost turning into guerrillas."

He suddenly remembered and said, "You just said you met Zhong Yi, did he find anything?"

Hu Xiangyi took out a dirty yellow cloth strip from his arms and handed it to Lin Yundao: "This is what Zhong Yi asked the general to give to you."

Lin Yun took the cloth, stood up and walked into the study, took out a bottle of potion from the drawer, and smeared it on the cloth.

After a while, more than a dozen thin lines were seen on the cloth strip, each converging on a fulcrum, with the four words "Green Willow Villa" displayed on the fulcrum.

Lin Yun came out with a piece of cloth, handed it to Hu Xiangyi and said, "Do you know about this Green Willow Villa?"

Hu Xiangyi was shocked after seeing the strip of cloth. Originally, he was curious as to why Zhong Yi asked him to bring a piece of rag cloth to Lin Yun. It turned out that there was a secret message hidden in the strip of cloth.

Without any time to think about it, Hu Xiangyi took the cloth and looked at it carefully. He was very familiar with the waterway in Yangzhou, and he quickly understood that this was the water transportation route used by the salt farm to transport salt, and the destination was concentrated at Green Willow Villa.

Hu Xiangyi put down the cloth and said: "The general has heard that this Green Willow Villa is the property of the Bai family, a large salt merchant. It is located at the strategic location of the nineteen salt fields in Huainan and is specially used to store and transport official salt."

Lin Yun: "If it's just a transfer of official salt, Zhong Yi will definitely not send a message to me. Could it be that the private salt of the Bai family is pretending to be official salt and selling it here?"

Hu Xiangyi's eyes lit up when he heard this, "Young master, what you said is very possible. No wonder the general can't catch any important private salt dealers. It turns out that the biggest private salt dealers are the Bai family."

Lin Yun said with a headache: "It seems useless to know. The Bai family has salt. They can completely describe the private salt as official salt."

Hu Xiangyi: "There is still a way. After all, the quantity of the Bai family's salt is limited. When they concentrate on shipping, we will lead troops to make a surprise inspection. As long as the quantity of salt and the quantity of salt are found to be inconsistent, they will not be able to escape from trafficking in illegal salt."

culpability.”

"But how do you know when they will ship together?"

Hu Xiangyi said with a grimace: "It would be great if we could install a special agent within the salt merchant."

Lin Yun also fell into deep thought after hearing this. Although he asked Zhong Yi to infiltrate the salt gang, Zhong Yi was afraid that he would not be able to get the specific confidential information. If he wanted to remove the gang and solve the problem of the proliferation of illegal salt gangs, it would be absolutely impossible without intelligence support.

No way.

…

The two of them were thinking about it when they saw Xiao Mo leading Feng Ziying in from the outside.

Lin Yun hurriedly asked: "Ziying, did you find anything there?"

Feng Ziying glanced at Hu Xiangyi, unsure whether he could be trusted.

Lin Yun said hurriedly: "General Hu is one of our own, and he is responsible for investigating illegal salt dealers."

Feng Ziying: "I have found out clearly that although Lu Zhuoyuan is the president of the Salt Merchants Chamber of Commerce, it is said that he is a puppet supported by the Bai family and specializes in helping the Bai family."

Lin Yun: "Have you ever found out what the relationship between him and Mama Yin is?"

Feng Ziying shook her head and said: "I can't find out what relationship he has with Mama Yin on the surface. He only occasionally takes people to Meixiang Pavilion to drink and listen to the piano."

When Lin Yun heard this, he immediately became discouraged. Based on these specious information, if he wanted to attack a retired official, it would be no different than seeking death.

Hu Xiangyi took the piece of cloth and said to Lin Yun: "Sir, do you think it's strange that now is not the season for drying salt, so how can anyone transport salt to Green Willow Villa?"

Lin Yun was stunned when he heard this, and he quickly asked: "In which months of the year is the season for drying salt?"

Hu Xiangyi: "The best season for drying salt is from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice in the first half of every year, and the quality of the salt produced is also the best. The second half of the year starts from half July and ends in October. The Spring Festival is the off-season for salt production.

, it is almost impossible to ship large quantities of salt.”

Feng Ziying interjected from the side: "Maybe the salt merchants will store some of the salt and wait for shipment in the off-season so that they can sell it at a high price."

Hu Xiangyi shook his head and said: "Impossible. The official salt sold is all customized. It is impossible for salt merchants to blatantly hoard it and disrupt the salt market."

Lin Yun raised his hand and touched his chin, and said: "If something goes wrong, you need to be weird. There must be something weird about this."

After a pause, Lin Yun said again: "By the way, what did you mean when you said it was almost impossible?"

Hu Xiangyi: "What I mean by impossibility is that it is impossible for official salt to be transferred in large quantities during this season. If it is private salt, then it is impossible to tell."

An idea flashed through Lin Yun's mind, and he exclaimed in surprise: "I figured it out. They want to take advantage of the relaxation of inspections during the Spring Festival to secretly transfer the private salt in stock."

Feng Ziying said anxiously: "Then quickly ask Mr. Lin to send troops to surround this manor and give them a big hit."

Lin Yun said angrily: "There is no conclusive news. What if you sent troops to catch the wrong one? That is a big shot in the officialdom. If you make a mistake, we will have to live with it."

Hu Xiangyi: "Sir, do you want me to take a few people into Green Willow Villa to investigate?"

Lin Yun: "You can't go. It's up to Zhong Yi to find a solution for this matter. Try to contact him after you go back and see if he can do anything."

Hu Xiangyi: "Okay, I'll go back now and find a way to contact him."

Lin Yun warned: "You must not let outsiders interfere with this matter. You must handle it yourself."

"OK."

Feng Ziying: "Brother Lin, what can I do?"

Lin Yun: "Go and find out which part of the army is closest to Green Willow Villa and who the general is. Let me find out."

"Okay, I will check it out for you as soon as possible."
Chapter completed!