Xinshun 1730

Chapter 976 Suspicion Chain
Since they don't believe in Wu Jingzi's intentions at all, or don't believe in practice and chivalry such as Yu Rang, the situation of the salt merchants is even more difficult.

Originally, it was only necessary to fight wits and courage with the imperial court.

Now, beware of "backyard fire".In particular, beware of Liu Yu's promotion of the "capital verification and ticket purchase" system in the name of reform, allowing the capital groups of Songjiang Prefecture to rush into the salt industry.

Historically, it is difficult to calculate how much money these Yangzhou salt dealers made in Manqing.But the most common and conservative estimate is 50 years, 2.5 million taels to 4 million taels of silver, pure profit.

It goes without saying how profitable the salt industry is.Such a big piece of fat, originally only they could eat it, but now there is a group of people watching it, how difficult the situation is...

Without the method proposed by Wu Jingzi, these people can only adopt the method they are most familiar with.

They don't even have the ability to try to change their methods, and they can only use their past skills in the fields they are familiar with.

…………

"The Duke of the State doesn't know. The world says that the official salt is very expensive nowadays, and it's all because of the big contractors. It's not the case."

"People in the world are so stupid, they only know one thing, but they don't know the other thing."

Not long after, in Haizhou City, a well-known lobbyist from Yangzhou came to meet Liu Yu with the meaning and meaning of the salt merchants.

Keeping pace with the times, they brought a gorgeous wooden box, which contained silver exchange notes and banknotes exchanged from the Bank of Songjiang Prefecture, said to be Yangzhou dim sum.Neither jewels nor wonders were sent.

After Liu Yu said with a smile that Yangzhou Dim Sum is actually quite delicious, the lobbyist started talking.

Such a set of rhetoric came up, which is actually a standard trial bribery method.If Liu Yu didn't answer directly and told him to leave, it would be a show of attitude.

Similarly, if Liu Yu continues to let him speak, it means there is something going on.

After the salt merchants rejected the method proposed by Wu Jingzi, and they had to beware of the Songjiang consortium's meddling in the salt industry, the method they came up with finally pinned all their hopes on their judgment-that is, the emperor wanted more money, but The Huaihe River had to be built once before, and the emperor was a little embarrassed, so he deliberately asked Liu Yu to scare them.

Actually, Liu Yu was begging for the emperor.

Well, if you want to think this way, the key to the matter is not reason.

but steps.

Whether the reasoning is really reasonable or not is of little significance.

The point is, just pretend to be a truth, just make it a step.

That's why I chose to come up and talked about the key issues of salt government reform.

Liu Yu didn't just tell him to leave, but also said with a smile that it was good for Yangzhou to worry, which gave the lobbyist hope.

After the lobbyist finished speaking and didn't know what to do, Liu Yu lightly twirled the beard he had grown so that he would not look like the eunuch of Dongchang, and said slowly: "This salt government matter is related to the state's finances. If the state has no money, then How to stabilize the frontier? Relieve floods and droughts?"

"Nowadays, there is a flood of private salt. Everyone knows that the general merchant system has made official salt more expensive. Official salt is expensive and private salt is cheap. Is there any other reason for this flood of private salt?"

The lobbyist hurriedly laughed and said, "Duke, to be honest, how can I say this..."

"Yes."

"Not at all."

"Yes, the general contractor did get the subcontractors to pay, and that's true if you say so."

"But if you want to say no, you can't just look at the surface. Su Ziyan: You can see it as a mountain and a peak, and the distance and height are different. You don't know the true face of Mount Lu, just because you are in this mountain. On the other hand, if you don't enter this mountain, how can Know the true face?"

"The villain is bold, please try to speak for the country."

Liu Yu coughed lightly and didn't speak, just drinking tea slowly.

Seeing this, the lobbyist hurriedly said: "Indeed, the general contractor is indeed asking the sub-contractors for money, and the reason is as the Duke of the State said at the banquet that day: to reward bonuses for arresting smuggled salt in various prefectures and counties." In name."

"However, the Duke may wish to think this way. If it is not for the benefit of rewarding bonuses, are the prefectures and counties willing to make efforts to arrest smuggled salt?"

"Those peddlers only looked at the general contractor asking them to pay and accept, and they made irresponsible remarks and complained about others."

"However, if we don't work hard to check the illegal salt, who will they sell the official salt to? When they sell the salt, they think it's easy to sell, so they see the general merchant with the salt in his hand and feel jealous. If the salt is not easy to sell , will they still be so jealous?"

"But their salt is easy to sell, isn't it because they paid for the illegal salt investigation?"

"The villain dares to make an analogy, if it is like a national tax collection. The people think, why should they collect their money? But they don't think about it, if the country does not collect taxes, how can we protect the stability of the frontier? How can we keep the world peaceful? Isn't it the same reason?"

"The holy dynasty started with the righteous army, ended the troubled times, and restored the world. It is the holy dynasty that governs the world with righteousness, and the plaques in the forbidden palaces have the words of loving the people. I can't bear to increase taxes on the people, and all the prefectures have no money to fight smuggling."

"Salt merchants pay money, make bonus rewards, and strictly investigate illegal salt."

"To put it mildly, it is to protect the interests of small traders so that they do not lose money."

"On a larger scale, it is also for the court to sell more official salt, so that more salt taxes can be imposed."

Liu Yu thought nonsense, there are not many national taxes, but there are not many local taxes.Besides, that's all the general contractor wants for money?This is really a standard pile of beans in a pile of shit, saying that this is a pile of beans.

However, he was not as direct as before, but slowly said: "As you said, these general contractors are not only innocent, but also meritorious?"

"The villain dare not. If there is a problem, the Duke of the Ming Dynasty and the court's eyes are like torches, so naturally he will not be wrong. Indeed, there are some problems. However, when the water is clear, there will be no fish. Besides, people are not sages and sages who can be right? If mistakes can be corrected, there is nothing good about it.”

The original words in Zuo Zhuan are not like this, but because Dashun has to avoid taboo after all. Although the name was changed later, the four words "changed after passing" are a bit involved, so literati try to avoid it as much as possible.

Seeing that Liu Yu had no objection, the lobbyist said, "You know, the Lord, this vote law was really out of helplessness, and it was only tried out before? Like Fujian and other places, because of weak control, there is a flood of sun-dried salt. I don’t know how much salt has been released, and I don’t know how much smuggling will be seized.”

"In the beginning, it was calculated according to the area of ​​the salt field, but later it was found that this is not feasible at all, and the calculation is not accurate."

"In the end, we had to use the ticket method as a last resort."

"It can be seen that this ticket law is nothing new. It's just that in the previous dynasty, or even earlier, although there was a ticket law, it was only used because it couldn't be controlled."

"But what is the result? The result is that the salt of Fujian and Guangdong is advancing northward every day. 30 years ago, it was still in northern Fujian, but now it has reached northern Hunan and central Jiangxi."

"For every extra person who buys private salt, the imperial court will receive a few less coins. And these few coins, when hit, are like a lead bullet or a cannon ball."

"How can governing the country be like those rotten Confucians say? How can it not matter what the previous court learned? This salt tax is the top priority of the country. If the vote is changed, I am afraid that private salt will flood and the salt law will be corrupted, so that the country will have no money to use."

"As for the salt tax that I want to collect, the villain thinks that it should be exerted in three places."

"First, we need to control the salt farms. Cancel the salt drying laws in Changlu, Fujian, Guangdong and other places. People everywhere, like the story in the early Ming Dynasty, boil salt with stoves, and do not dry salt."

"In this way, as long as the firewood and salt pots are under control, there will be less private salt. The imperial court can restore the lands of Jiangxi and Hunan that lost their official salt."

"Secondly, increase the tax on cooking firewood in the salt fields of Sichuan. People in Shu are blessed with the advantage of using the atmosphere of the earth to cook their salt, and they don't waste firewood. Therefore, the price of salt in Sichuan is cheap, and they often cross the border."

"Raise the firewood tax for Shu salt, and the imperial court can recover the lost salt land of Chu."

"Thirdly, the most important thing is to suppress smuggling. Re-investigate and re-sentence!"

"The reason why official salt is difficult to sell is because there are too many private sellers. The reason why there are many private sellers is that the salt in Shu, Fujian, Changlu and other places is mostly dried salt, and the price is cheap."

"So, treating the salt of Shu, Fujian, and Changlu is the root cause."

"The strict investigation of private salt is to treat the symptoms."

"These three methods are used together to treat the symptoms and the root cause, so why worry about the poor sales of official salt?"

"If the official salt is free, the court tax will be high."

"The imperial court has a lot of taxes, and they can give more money to check private affairs."

"The stricter the censorship, the more official salt, which in turn promotes the censorship."

"Such a cycle is the real means of salt and iron!"

The truth made Liu Yu laugh, and couldn't help it in his heart, he laughed loudly and said: "Fuck, how about restoring the well fields, opening the Zhou ceremony, collecting all the gold and iron in the world, and making the people reuse the bluestone Leisi, okay?" what?"

While laughing, I was thinking in my heart, is it really a habit formed by the slogan of Fu Jingtian Zhouli back to the rule of three generations?Always thinking about running back when reforming?

The lobbyist saw Liu Yu laughing and cursing, but he didn't panic. He didn't expect that someone would really adopt his words, but he just wanted to draw out that step.

Liu Yu laughed and said, "You guys, you made a mistake."

"First of all, the reform of the salt administration was not proposed by the official. It was proposed by the court ministers. His Majesty just sent me to investigate. Can it be changed? What are the pros and cons of the change?"

"Secondly, Fujian and Shu... I can't control it. His Majesty sent me here to inspect the salt affairs in Lianghuai. What I want to hear is the method of Lianghuai."

"Finally, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were many years of wars, the Mongolian Yuan was destroyed, the people's livelihood was poor, and many people died. At that time, it was reasonable to practice its system. To adapt, if the number of days changes but people don’t know how to change, then the world will perish. What does it mean to be born in response to the times? Change to match the time of the day, this is the true destiny of the dynasty.”

"It's like a baby. When you are ten years old, you still want to stuff him into a one-year-old swaddle. This is a lie that disrupts the society! Today I don't care about you, and I will be careful in the future."

After the warning, Liu Yu said again: "Whether the law is to be reformed or not depends not on the change, but on why it is changed? Now, private salts are flooding and official salts are not smooth. This is the situation. How to change is another way of thinking. You don't want to change." Tell me such a reason, such a reason.”

"I just want to ask, what are you going to do? Just talk about Lianghuai salt, do you have the means to ensure that the court's salt tax is increasing day by day, and private salt is suppressed? If so, you can say it."

"You can't say that there is no way, or try to give some ways to retreat, and then you can only curse the reform in a whisper, half slander and half elegy."

"You can come up with methods, as long as you can achieve the result of cracking down on illegal salt and increasing salt taxes, you can also change it according to your ideas."

"Right, change is a consensus now, and it cannot be changed."

"How to change is the key."

"You always think about staying the same, staying the same, or changing the Sichuan salt, Guangdong salt, and Fujian salt. You are clearly going in the wrong direction. Don't you understand the truth?"

"Today I would like to send you a sentence: How to change is one problem; whether to change or not to change is another problem. One can be solved, and the other cannot be changed."

"Now that the bill and salt law is here, the supporters have made it clear that if it is implemented in Huaibei and Huainan, the salt tax will be increased by 50 taels a year, and there will be no disadvantages of salt merchants defaulting on arrears."

(End of this chapter)