I heard that assassins would kill you every two days. I had to hold a knife in my arms every night and turn a blind eye, for fear that the assassin would touch me at night and kill me with a knife.

Although Zhao Zongquan lost his beloved son, he did not involve the officials who accompanied him, and he did not hesitate to reward the meritorious officials. Such a generous behavior attracted a lot of praise from the officials. Some officials who originally remained neutral

, and therefore fell towards Zhao Zongquan.

The increasingly fierce dispute between the emperor and the empress in the court temporarily came to an end due to Emperor Zhao Zongquan's concession. Empress Dowager Cao had more and more power in her hands and intervened more and more in everything in the court.

After Wang Zhong was promoted to Salt and Iron Envoy, instead of relaxing, he became even busier. Because of the salt affairs case, even Wang Zhong's predecessor was implicated, not to mention the rest of the small fish and shrimps.

Wang Zhong took charge of the Salt and Iron Department and began drastic reforms in the Salt and Iron Department. The dozen students who had followed Wang Zhong to Quanzhou also joined the Salt and Iron Department one after another. They dissolved the coarse salt, filtered it, and then distilled and crystallized it.

The method to achieve the purification effect has also been rapidly spread to various salt farms across the country.

Within the Fujian, Lianghuai, and Jingdong roads, Wang Zhong expects to build 480 more salt drying plants within three years, raising the production of sea salt to another level.

The most important thing is that under the leadership of Wang Zhong, the Salt and Iron Department began to control the price of salt. The salt merchants in Huaihe, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places had just been cleaned up. The prestige of the imperial court was rising, but within a few months, the market was once in chaos.

Salt prices were brought under control immediately.

Not long after the method of purifying coarse salt became popular in various places, the Salt and Iron Department issued a series of policies to classify various types of salt produced across the country, classify them into grades, and set prices.

The finest fine salt is the fine well salt produced in Sichuan. It is as fine as dust and as white as snow. The price of a pound is as high as 500 Wen.

Among the coarse salts, sea salt is the most popular. Sea salt is coarse and tastes far inferior to well salt and lake salt. Therefore, even the best quality sea salt costs only fifty cents per pound. The price of inferior quality sea salt is much lower than that of well salt and lake salt.

Also lower.

Wang Zhong did not take the initiative to crack down on those private salt dealers, nor did he have time to play any chasing and interception games with them. All Wang Zhong did was to lower the price of official salt, increase the annual salt production, stabilize the salt price, and allow ordinary people to I can also afford salt.

In addition to salt affairs, the Salt and Iron Department also manages all matters related to the mining and smelting of iron ore across the country. This is the origin of the word salt and iron.

While Wang Zhongmen was concentrating on his career in the Salt and Iron Department, the situation in the DPRK also underwent tremendous changes.

With the death of Zhao Ceying, Gu Er stayed at home to pay homage to his late father. Emperor Zhao Zongquan seemed to have lost his arms, and only Shen Congxing was left by his side. Although he still had the support of Han Zhang, the reputation accumulated by Emperor Jiayou for more than 40 years could not be eliminated. It's not like he can overcome it in just a few years.

Zhao Zongquan changed his previous attitude and stopped tit-for-tat with the Queen Mother Cao. Instead, he asked the Queen Mother Cao about everything. Regardless of whether the court affairs were big or small, the Queen Mother Cao's opinions were subject to it. Together with Queen Shen and his wife, they spent every day in the morning and evening. Treat Empress Dowager Cao as filial as her biological mother.
Chapter completed!