Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1050

Lin Min's request, as well as the turmoil that the reforms said in advance, made the emperor take this opportunity to ask: "My dear friends, in your opinion, the reforms of Yanzheng, Huainan, Huaibei, and Southern Jiangsu , how can it be considered a success?"

This question is quite difficult to answer.

Those who oppose the reform really have nothing to say.

If they talk about taxes, wealth, and finances, which are visible on the surface, they don't want to mention them.Mentioning this is no different from admitting defeat.

As for empty talk about righteousness, because of the changes and reflections and criticisms at the end of the previous dynasty, it cannot be just empty talk.Talk too much, and be ridiculed.

Liu Yu's ability to make money can be seen from the inside.If you use strange means, you can get money.

If you expect him to make the people miserable, it will be difficult.With the rise of shipping, the refugees in Jiangsu have not waited for the riots. They were first given relief and then thrown to Nanyang. There was no chance at all.

As long as there is money, the navy is obedient, Nanyang is in hand, the naval guns can roar, and Jiangsu's shipping is so convenient, how can there be large-scale famine refugees?

People eat salt price reduction?

This can't even be mentioned.

How does that count as success?

How can it be considered a failure?

One of the main reasons for those who opposed the reform in the court was to oppose Liu Yu presiding over the reform.

Liu Yu's attack was too dark.

He really dared to promote the [-]th tax and check the acres of land.

Sunan has been tossed about by him. If this spreads to the whole Jiangsu, I can't imagine it in the future.

What if the emperor really loses his mind, doesn't keep his promise, and really wants to spread the reform throughout the country?

The place where I hate it so much is that once the canal is abandoned, the burden on the people will be greatly reduced, making many reforms possible.

Anyone who is not a fool in the court knows that if he wants to control the river, he must waste the water.

Those who don't know are pretending not to know.

And if you know it, it is very clear that the canal has been abandoned, and the expenditures such as river management, private tax apportionment, labor, etc. will be reduced on a large scale.

Everyone in the court knows that the court's taxation has never been the source of the people's suffering.

Those miscellaneous taxes, miscellaneous servants, apportionments, and landlord's rent are.

If Liu Yu really did the trick, under the current conditions, Jiangsu would not be prone to major incidents.

Whether the reform is good or bad, there must be a standard.

With standards, proponents say reforms will be good; opponents say reforms will be bad.

This is not empty talk.

But what is the standard?
Supporting reformists does not require words.

Opponents of reform do not know what to say.

After a long silence, the emperor said: "Forget it, the salt administration has a lot to do with it. Although Duke Xingguo has always had a lot of means in economics, it is not a trivial matter after all."

"Since you think Jiangxi can't do this salt government reform, it must be even more so in Anhui and Jiangsu."

"Since that's the case, how about Hubei?"

"Hubei is far away from the market and has a large population. If Hubei can benefit the people and tax the country, then there is really no point in discussing and arguing about this matter."

"What do you think?"

Liu Yu was self-sufficient, and said with some yin and yang that if he was set in Jiangsu and Anhui, he still felt that he would not be able to win by force.

The emperor advances by retreating, and now that he has retreated here, the rest of the opponents of reform really have nothing to say.

Here, those who really know the truth, such as the emperor, know the reason for his false retreat, which is to believe that Hubei will definitely win the first battle.

Now take a step back, as long as Hubei wins the first battle, not only will the court no longer be able to oppose it, but the original big salt merchants will also be severely damaged. By then, the entire Huainan salt reform will be a matter of course.

The emperor looked at the rest of the ministers, and the ministers who opposed the salt reform could only agree at this time, and they had already been disgraced by Liu Yu to the point that "the victory elsewhere is unwarranted". If they continue to fight, they will really be humiliating themselves .

Although it seemed that he didn't answer what Lin Min said just now, he actually made it very clear.

If the pilot reforms in Hubei are successful, then the entire Huainan salt administration will have to undergo major changes.And when the time comes, Liu Yu will naturally be taken out of the town to be responsible, Lin Min will be his deputy, and Liu Yu will be responsible.

If the reform in Hubei is unsuccessful, then the salt reform in Huainan will come to an end.After the Huaiyan Salt Reform is over, land reclamation and so on will no longer exist.Then the things that Lin Min was worried about would not happen.

However, Lin Min, who was worried that the Huainan salt reform would be too drastic and would lead to big troubles, now played again: "Your Majesty, I think that governing the country should not be complacent."

"I think that the reform of salt to reclaim wasteland will benefit the country and the people. I am just worried that the Duke's methods will be rough and radical."

"But I also object to not changing it at all. I have witnessed the art of producing salt in the Dashai Salt Field, and I have also studied Xu Guangqi's reclamation book..."

"I think that even if Hubei fails, it should continue to reform..."

The emperor was expressionless. After listening to Lin Min's Chen Zou, he thought to himself that this is really a useful person.But if you don't know the secrets, how do you know that Liu Yu has already won in Hubei?
How can I not know the methods of salt merchants?However, no matter how high the means are, they are still the same after all.

It is nothing more than sinking ships, setting fire to warehouses, creating panic, soaring salt prices, buying and hoarding for subsequent purchases, etc.

Can you play other tricks?
Not enough to worry about.

"Lin Qing has the community in his heart, and I am very relieved. But this matter has been decided, and there is no need to discuss it again."

"Since I can't come up with a reason to oppose the reform, and the benefits of the reform, such as the national tax, are not recognized by the opponents, I have no choice."

"Arguing and arguing, what are you arguing about in the end? What is right and what is wrong, this kind of debate should be in the academy, not in the court."

"You said it was right to increase revenue from the treasury; but he said benevolence, righteousness and morality are right, and increasing revenue from the treasury cannot be used as a criterion for governing the country."

"Then how do you talk about it?"

"Since we can't talk about it, it's better to take a step back and follow the example of the calendar dispute between Western missionaries and scholar-bureaucrats in this dynasty. Everyone agrees, so we are willing to bet and admit defeat."

"Disperse!"

The emperor seemed to be holding back a fire, angrily announcing the disbandment of the court.

But in fact, as soon as he turned around, the look of suffocation on his face dissipated.

Then he made a very weird request to the valet.

"Go find a dice or something like that."

Although the valet was very puzzled, he went to do it immediately.

Soon, in the place where the emperor worked, there was an extra set of elaborate and expensive gambling equipment on the table.

The emperor did not review the memorial, but played with the dice cup for a while, waiting until someone came to see him.

He didn't put away the gambling equipment either, just put it on the table.

Shi Shiyong, who came to see him, did not dare to look up at the emperor after bowing down. Naturally, he did not know the set of gambling equipment in front of the emperor.

He was summoned by the emperor, and he knew that he must be asking about salt.

"What's the situation in Hubei? Have you figured it out?"

Shi Shiyong hurriedly said: "Returning to Your Majesty, I have basically figured it out. Half of the private salt in Hubei came from copper ships."

"Smuggling in copper boats, going down the river, and selling them all over Hubei."

"Except for smuggling of copper boats, well salt in various parts of Kuizhou can only be strictly inspected by the government. But local officials think that strict inspection will lead to people's unemployment, and secondly, it will be beneficial, so there is not much investigation. strict."

"Mr. Xingguo told me to wait for private salt dealers, and I found many of them. These private salt dealers can be reached anywhere in Hubei. The roads are smooth and there are no obstacles."

"Salt in Hubei is quite expensive, and smuggling is rampant. Although [-]% to [-]% of the salt quotations can be sold today, the children's army has secretly investigated many ways, and the quotations may not be true. If the quotations are counted at all, the sales of official salt may only be [-]%."

The emperor thought about it, and then asked: "You have also seen the Huaibei Salt Field with your own eyes, how do you feel?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, it's really terrifying, and it's really hard to tell. There are no fewer than fifteen or six pools in a salt field. This is indeed not something that small households can afford. But it produces a lot of salt. No matter what Whether it is cost or output, it is really beyond the reach of Huainan Yanhu.”

"Moreover, as long as there is additional investment, the production can be increased very soon. Those investors are also looking forward to increasing production. The imperial court controls the acquisition, and there are records of how much salt the pond can produce."

Speaking of what he had seen and heard about the Huaibei Saltworks, Shi Shiyong had to talk about some things about the Huainan Saltworks.

"The minister sent people to secretly investigate in Huainan, and only then did he know about the chaos of private salt."

"Market merchants who have contracted the land send sentries along the way to light cigarettes during the day and set fires at night to pass on signals."

"If the inspector came, he just left the city, and the other side already knew about it, so he made preparations early. The inspector also turned a blind eye, but after all, he seemed selfless on the surface, so that's all."

"Evading the salt tax in the market, even though the salt is much more expensive than the Huaibei method, it is still cheaper in Huainan."

"Small salt households are miserable, and they either sell themselves to join big merchants, or they want to flee because of lending wages and so on. The profiteers are those charter merchants who have the capital to buy firewood and the market to sell salt privately."

"The minister also specially went to secretly check some salt households and asked them if they would like to reclaim wasteland. They were all willing, but suffered from the imperial court's ban on reclamation, and they had special grass patrols and forest patrols."

The emperor needs to understand the following situation from various channels, and Shi Shiyong's answer is basically the same as the answer from other channels, so he nodded with satisfaction.

Today is a big bait, waiting for others to take the bait.

He even dared to abolish the canal and resisted all opinions, so why didn't he dare to make a decision on this matter?
It is nothing more than a glimmer of hope for those big salt merchants.

Now that it has become like this, Hubei has become a casino that is directly related to whether the salt administration will be comprehensively reformed in the future.

Both parties will be pressed in with all their capital.

The more capital on the opposite side is pressed, the more the emperor earns.

Otherwise, it would have a bad reputation for ransacking the house or something.Liu Yu wanted to win all the capital that those people had suppressed, and also saved the emperor from being a tyrant who ransacked his home.

This seemingly hopeful hope, the emperor was sure that the other side had no chance at all.

Besides... he still has the right to turn the tables and not gamble when he is about to lose.

Thinking of this, the emperor picked up the dice cup, shook it a few times, and asked complacently: "Since you are always in the market, you must be good at gambling. Let me ask you, if you want to win, the most important thing is what?"

Shi Shiyong was stunned for a moment, then replied: "I think it's nothing more than the same."

"First, the means must be high. Needless to say."

"Secondly, the capital must be sufficient. If the capital is insufficient, the courage will be lacking. If you have not gambled, you will lose three points first."

Unexpectedly, the emperor laughed and said, "You are wrong! If you want to win, the most important thing is to be the banker."

Amidst the laughter, the emperor thought to himself, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you have, you put all your money into it and throw the biggest one.I am the dealer, after you open the game, I will change the rules, say the biggest loser, how do you win?

(End of this chapter)