Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 747
"Rip off?"

Zhu Jing's expression changed: "Isn't this a sitting tiger?"

"Who says it's not?" Chu Yuan said in a deep voice: "Ten dams involve tens of thousands of villagers, and several counties, squires, subordinate officials, and county government are all involved, and they all count on the salt to be cheap."

"For a long time, even good people will become cunning people and oppose the court."

"Although the salt merchants are powerful, they can't reach the tens of thousands of villagers. I heard that these people are leak-proof salt merchants. They wield knives and guns one by one, and have established many village groups. They are extremely vicious. The salt merchants can only pay the road money... ..."

Hearing this, Zhu Jing suddenly thought of Xishan Coal Mine.

In the past, these coal mines were mined to heat the capital. After a few months, there was an endless stream of caravans, and they wanted to collect tolls.

It's about the capital, at the feet of the emperor, how can you allow presumptuousness?

There is no need for the Beijing camp to go out. The county government's patrol camp will disappear as soon as it is moved. However, in the past few years, there are still news of robbery in villages along the road from time to time.

This is still Shuntian Mansion, and in this territory of Jiangsu, the situation may be even more difficult to control.

The clan, yamen, and even the garrison may have their hands in it, and there is no way to start.

"It seems that these tens of thousands of people have become parasites?"

Zhu Jing sighed lightly.

"If you borrow troops from Yangzhou, it's feasible."

Seeing his appearance, Chu Yuan came up with a bad idea.

"Without His Majesty's oracle, soldiers and horses are not allowed to move."

Zhu Jing immediately vetoed the proposal, which was like courting death. Although the imperial envoy had this right, his political career might be over.

He suddenly felt the difficulty of Huaibei Salt Field, so he could only continue to ask: "What about Huainan Salt Field?"

"The Huainan Salt Field suffers from floating fees..."

It turns out that in addition to the salt tax paid every year, there will be another sum of money, a few 100,000 yuan a year, which will be used as public money, so that money generates money.

The envoy's money for the Yushi yamen patrolling Yan and Huaihe Rivers, as well as the salary and food paper for Yan Ding and Yunsi's secretary, Puji Hall, Yuying Hall, Academy, Free School, etc., which are used as nursing homes, all rely on their money.

In a sense, tens of thousands of people in the Lianghuai Salt Administration rely on this floating fee to live.

And sometimes, once the patrol salt censor has a big appetite, or the entertainment fee is too high, he will ask for an increase in the floating fee.

This money must be added to the official salt.

Therefore, the Ticket and Salt Law is just a framework reform. For example, after [-], there was a president, and the emperor was abolished. rule the country.

Zhu Jing heard about these and immediately sat on the wax.

Good guy, it's all a hornet's nest.

Chu Yu's words almost extinguished the fire in his heart.

The salt administration is indeed extremely difficult.

"The ticket-salt method is better than the gang-salt method."

Zhu Jing muttered, squinting her eyes and said, "The ones that hinder the sale of official salt are those bad policies that make the cost extremely high, while the price of private salt is low."

"That's right." Chu Yu nodded: "That's it. These maladministrations are like mountains, and the official salt can't breathe."

"I understand."

Suddenly, the corners of Zhu Jing's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a confident smile.

"Since these malpractices are difficult to solve, let's solve the private salt!"

"Without private salt, people can only buy official salt, and the salt class will naturally increase, right?"

"You, you also make sense." Chu Yu was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly realized.

This is another way!It is also a solution.

Zhu Jing found a way, and was naturally overjoyed, and then impatiently ordered people to greet the flags and plaques, and swaggered to the Xunyan Yamen.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was the Transshipment Salt Commissioner of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River that was actually in charge of the salt administration. It was equivalent to a military household, independent of the civil administration system, with its own land, yamen, and governance of the people.

Moreover, it also has salt soldiers in its hands, and the judiciary, civil affairs, and military power are integrated, so it is natural that there will be mud and sand.

Because of this, the inspecting salt censor was responsible for supervising the salt administration and rectifying illegal actions, and later obtained the right to investigate the affairs of the salt field and the right to assess the officials of the salt field. the governor.

The transshipment envoys worked hard in Taizhou, Huai'an, and Tongzhou, while the censor enjoyed the blessings in Yangzhou.

Ruan Zhao, the censor of salt inspection, was leisurely listening to the opera, when he heard that the imperial envoy had arrived at the Yamen, he immediately lost all three of his seven orifices, and hurried back to the Yamen.

"Minister, Ruan Zhao, the censor of salt inspection, respectfully welcome Sheng An!"

"Saint Gong'an!"

Only then did Zhu Jing take out the imperial edict.

I saw the words "Feng Tian Hao Ming" embroidered on the right side, and the words "Shaowu Five Years" embroidered on the left side.

Read it: "Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, the imperial edict said: Today, the Lianghuai Salt Administration has a lot of abuses, and it has not been reformed for a long time, so Zhu Jing is appointed as an 'imperial envoy to inspect the Lianghuai Salt Administration'..."

After hearing this, everyone in the yamen suddenly realized that this is a death talisman.

Compared with Xunyan Yushi, this is an imperial envoy in the true sense, that is, a special commissioner.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many imperial envoys, and the system was perfect. For example, the full name of the Dongchang eunuch was "the imperial envoy governor Dongchang official school eunuch";

Temporary assignments, like Zhu Jing, are responsible for investigating something in a certain place, and they will withdraw after the matter is completed.

Sitting down with a big knife and a golden horse, Zhu Jing assumed the posture of a warrior: "The Yan government is full of mistakes, and the court and the emperor are very dissatisfied, so I sent someone to come to the south of the Yangtze River, and you have to listen to me for everything, and there must be no mistakes. "

Bitter too——

All the officials could only bow their heads and obey orders, and Yushi Ruan Zhao was no exception.

Zhu Jing's first fire was on anti-smuggling.

He selected 500 people from thousands of salt troops, and they were on standby at any time to feed them well.

On the surface, it seems that these people are his confidantes, but in fact he is completely worried, because these people have long been infiltrated by smuggling salt merchants.

Secretly, relying on his status as an imperial envoy, Zhu Jing borrowed 100 people from the garrison outside Yangzhou City.

The soldiers under the command of the provincial generals are all dispatched from the Beijing camp and replaced every two or three years. Although the total number is only two to three thousand people, they are elite field soldiers, much better than those patrol battalions.

Jin Yiwei sent him a message, and finally seized the opportunity to capture dozens of salt boats at one time, more than ten large and small salt dealers, [-] illicit salt ([-] catties each), [-] shi, worth [-] The remaining two.

The market price of a lead salt is six taels or four cents, which is called "woben", plus three taels of tax silver and three taels of envoy (transportation) silver. The real value exceeds 6000 taels.

It doesn't look like much, but it's a smuggling job.

There are hundreds of such smugglings in Jiangnan every year, and the scale is even larger. The money lost in this way exceeds tens of millions of silver dollars.

"Get rich."

This is the voice of everyone.

In terms of money, Zhu Jing was not greedy either, half of it was given to the hard-working soldiers of the Beijing camp, and the other half went into the public treasury.

In the next few days, the anti-smuggling became more and more intense, so that the price of smuggled salt rose slightly, and unprecedented pressure hit.

ps: Yanzheng is too complicated to explain in one word, so I won’t go into details...

(End of this chapter)