Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 521
The reform of Yanzheng has lifted its glamorous coat, revealing the rotten truth inside.

Wei Kang, envoy of the Lianghuai salt transport, directly wrote a letter, saying: "There are dozens of Lianghuai salt farms, stretching for hundreds of miles. There are about [-] salt households on the list, but in reality, there are nearly [-]."

Except for those who reproduce and escape, the rest are refugees or poor people.

A large number of teachers, by virtue of their power, privately entrusted them to boil salt and then sell it to private salt merchants. Not only the price is low, but the quality is good, thus making a lot of wealth.

As a result, the official salt farms have insufficient official salt, while private salt is everywhere, resulting in a continuous loss of taxes.

As for Huai salt, in addition to the ticket salt method, there are also supporting salt method and salt field method.

Not to mention Yantian, turning boiled sea salt into sun-dried salt not only saves a lot of fuel, but also artificially builds the threshold.

Only by the sea, there is a pot and fuel, and salt can be boiled anytime and anywhere.

But the salt field is different. It needs high-quality beaches and a lot of money and manpower to build the salt field to form a scale effect.

In this way, the natural cost is relatively high, but it is profitable, and the huge expenditure can naturally eliminate most of it. Coupled with large-scale salt production, the price of salt will inevitably be reduced, making it difficult for private salt to survive.

After the implementation of the Salt Field Law, it is no longer that there are more people and more power than boiling salt, but a certain amount.

At this time, some salt households are recruited to work as salt workers to work on time to make salt, so as to receive monthly salary and completely close the loopholes in salt production.

"With this innovation alone, Tongzhou Prefecture added [-] new households, with a population of more than [-]; Yangzhou Prefecture added [-] households, with a population of [-]; A total of [-] households and more than [-] people have been added."

Yan Chongxin said like a few treasures, the joy on his face could not be concealed: "The Ministry of Household Affairs estimates that these people will reclaim 200,000 mu of wasteland and saline-alkali land, and add more taxes to northern Jiangsu."

"Yanhu has nothing and is not good at farming. The local government not only has to send people to teach, but also has to be exempted from tax for five years."

The emperor couldn't bear it, and immediately began to show mercy: "As for those saline-alkali lands, whether they are salt households or ordinary people, as long as they are cultivated, the imperial court will be exempted from tax for ten years."

"Your Majesty is so wise!" Several cabinet members immediately applauded, this is indeed a big deal.

In northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui, when the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin people confronted each other, the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River and flowed into the sea. Therefore, the Huaihe River no longer had a mouth for a long time, and had to divert to the Yangtze River at Sanjiangying.

As a result, the flood irrigation of the Yellow River caused a large amount of river water to accumulate and cannot be drained. Under the long-term sun and rain, millions of acres of saline-alkali land were formed.

As a result, the entire Huanghuai Plain has fallen into a long period of agricultural decline and has not recovered for nearly a thousand years.

Therefore, in history, Jiangnan Province became Anhui and Jiangsu. In fact, it was a combination of fat and thin. The wealthy southern Anhui took the northern Anhui, and the southern Jiangsu took the northern Jiangsu.

The recovery of saline-alkali land must be done slowly over a period of ten years without chemical fertilizers.

However, the positive side of the gentry has also been revealed. Since the small households and small self-cultivated farmers have no time and money to cultivate the land, only the rich and powerful gentry can.

"Your Majesty, although the Salt Field Law is good, it can only be implemented in the south. I'm afraid the Shandong Salt Field and Changlu Salt Field can only remain as before."

Zhao Shu directly poured cold water on it.

What he said was the truth, Shandong and Changlu are surrounded by the Bohai Sea for cooking, and the weather in the north is extremely bad, so they can only be boiled by salt households, and the salt fields must be difficult.

As a result, the Yantian method will not work, and manpower is scarce, and the Yanding method that follows it will certainly not work.

Even, he still has some words to say, Yantian is relatively harsh on the weather and terrain, even the south cannot implement it all.

"Although the Yantian method is not good, the Yanding method is feasible."

The emperor still emphasized: "Replacing the tax system with employment is far more straightforward than collecting salt, and does not leave any loopholes for those people."

To use a vivid metaphor, the previous salt households were equivalent to tenants, and most of the boiled salt was handed over to the imperial court, and the rest could only be purchased by the imperial court at a very low price.

However, after the Yanding Law, Yanhu is just a long-term worker of the landlord, with food and housing included, which is much easier in comparison.

After some discussions in the cabinet, they still felt that it was not possible because the cost of employment was too high.

Even if the salt is only three 40,000 people, calculated at five cents per month, it will cost nearly 200,000 silver dollars a year, and how much is the salt tax?Two million!

It's still the comfort of the previous no-cost business, although it was at the expense of the interests of Yanhu.

However, the emperor made up his mind and said bluntly: "Once the salt production system is produced, combined with the salt field and ticket salt, the annual salt tax will be more than 2 million? At least [-] million."

"At that time, this little money will be like a drop in the bucket, not worth mentioning."

The cabinet is also not willing to give an inch, knowing that the king's will cannot be violated, so he can only choose to compromise:

If Huaiyan's attempt goes well, it can be implemented nationwide.

In this way, the entry of Huaiyan has entered a period of deep reform.

However, when Jiangnan and other places were discussing the salt policy, You Shiwei, who was far away in Gansu, was facing the coming military disaster.

Li Zicheng surrendered Tumote's troops in the Qinghai area with difficulty, and the number of soldiers and horses gathered to [-].

But when he looked back, he found that his base Suzhou was occupied by the Ming army, and a Gansu province was established.

This made him extremely angry, and immediately threatened to send troops.

As for You Shiwei, who just entered Nianbo's guard for less than a month, he was really a little scared.

It is only a hundred miles away from Hehuang Valley and Xiningwei, and only three or four hundred miles away from Tumote's troops. It only takes two days for the cavalry to march in a hurry.

But he was not afraid of the army, but of lack of food.

That's right, when he led an army of [-] to the dilapidated Nianbo Guard, which had been abandoned for many years, he finally realized one thing. The grain road was too long and could easily be cut off.

The bad thing is that Li Zicheng has a lot of cavalry at this time. If the food road is cut off, the consequences will be disastrous.

So he thought about storing food as much as possible to prevent accidents.

In this strange area, the voice of the Ming court has not been heard for a long time, and the importance of food is constantly being raised.

But despite his repeated collections, he only took care of it for a month, which was far from enough.

"Control can require Shaanxi merchants to supply."

Jiang Guan suggested: "Only Shanxi merchants know the way, how to transport grain, and have enough grain to deliver."

"But the asking price is too high."

You Shiwei sighed: "From Fengxiang to this place, it is thousands of miles away, and the stone grain will cost three or four taels. We can't afford it, and we can't force it."

Who doesn't know that there are Shaanxi merchants standing behind the emperor, and even he had a close relationship with the Shaanxi merchants when he was guarding Yulin.

My own food transportation is even more idiotic, Shaanxi merchants want money, and civilian husbands are the most ruthless in food, so it is better to give up money!

Now that there is not enough money, and it is not possible to rob it, this is uncomfortable.

(End of this chapter)