After the corruption case in the Salt Transport Department concluded, Yang Zhenshan thought that the matter would no longer involve him. However, the very next day after he received the news, the Zhang family from Liao'an Prefecture came knocking at his door.
Inside the main hall of the Yang family's front court, Yang Zhenshan, looking at the trembling Zhang Maosheng, asked with a faint smile, "I wonder what brings the Family Head of the Zhang family here?"
This time, the Zhang family had truly bled a fortune, as not only had the deposits of all officials, big and small, at their Datong Bank been seized, but they also paid a fine of a million taels of silver.
Such fines, also known as dirty silver, represent illicit gains, simply understood to be the court feeling that salt merchants had earned too much, and hence taking some of it from the pockets of the salt merchants.
This might seem unreasonable, but in fact, these salt merchants were indeed involved in bribery.
