Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 749
"It's really noisy."

The Commander of Jin Yiwei, Wu Bangfu, bowed his head and echoed softly:

"Although dozens of people were beheaded, there were actually hundreds of people, half of them were troublemakers, and half of them were salt lords. The soldiers of the Beijing camp were also forced to mobilize a battalion to deal with the difficulties."

"In addition, Zhu Qinchai also recruited several groups of salt lords to enrich the team of salt soldiers..."

This is what Zhu Jing and the local civil and military did not report.

The army was mobilized privately, and the local government deceived the top and the bottom, hoping to reduce the influence and keep the official position.

This is what Jinyiwei and Dongchang are for.

Of course, for Zhu Jing, the emperor trusted him very much, so what are five hundred soldiers and horses?As long as he does not rebel, there will be no death penalty.

"Where's Huaiyan?"

Zhu Yixi raised her eyelids and continued to ask.

"Most of the ills can be solved, but if the imperial envoy leaves, I'm afraid it will be bad."

"The benefits are too great to tempt people's hearts!"

Sighing, Zhu Yixi felt troubled about it.

In fact, the stability of a court's rule depends on how well he controls the salt and iron.

In the early Ming Dynasty, as long as the grain was transported to the border, they could exchange for salt imports and obtain management rights. However, in the later period, they had to implement the Salt Law and recognize the monopoly position of those salt merchants in exchange for tax relief.

The loss of control over the salt government meant financial bankruptcy and the end of the dynasty.

Similar situations have played out many times in history, and it seems to be a curse of the salt industry on imperial rule:
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao, who had failed many times in the imperial examinations, joined hands with Wang Xianzhi to smuggle salt. Within a few months, they gathered tens of thousands of people, which dealt a fatal blow to the Tang Dynasty.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng was in the south of the Yangtze River, cutting off water transportation and cutting off the canal.Many people in Yuandadu starved to death.

At sea, Fang Guozhen, who "sells salt on the floating seas for a living", precisely attacked the empire's grain shipping system, burned official ships, and robbed grain.

This is also the reason why the sea was banned in the early Ming Dynasty. When Japanese pirates and pirates came around, banning the sea was tantamount to blocking them.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the salt lords prevailed, not only ganged and armed, but also with the development of the times, they incorporated various identities such as parties, gangs, revolutionaries, etc., which is equivalent to the enhanced version of the salt lords in the late Tang and Yuan Dynasties.

For example, Xu Baoshan, a great salt lord nicknamed "Xu Tiger", has a private salt team of more than [-] people, and his sphere of influence is from the Huaihe River to the Yanjiang River.

Although he was later recruited by the imperial court and turned from a salt lord into a private anti-private leader, he quickly turned around in the revolutionary tide in the late Qing Dynasty, made great contributions to the restoration of Jiangsu, and became one of the gravediggers of the Qing Dynasty.

"A dynasty that has ruled for 300 years must reform the salt administration many times. Why?"

"Because in the early stage of the reform of the salt law, the country's salt profit income increased greatly, and then the merchants and officials must have colluded to erode the salt profit, resulting in a sharp drop in the national salt profit, so a new round of improvement had to be carried out."

"However, improving and improving, the more you change, the cooler you get."

A question and answer to himself, let people wake up in an instant.

In other words, reading history makes people wise.

Standing up abruptly, Zhu Yixi realized the true meaning of salt administration.

Unless he arrives in the information age overnight, strictly supervises the salt production, and lowers the price of salt to the price of cabbage, otherwise it will be difficult to stop it.

"Has the sun-salt method become popular?"

"His Majesty, everyone in the south is proficient in drying salt. Because of this, Huaiyan is the half of the salt government..."

Zhu Yixi was silent.

The real method of sun-drying salt does not mean that salt can be obtained by drying seawater.

Anyone who understands common sense knows that there are a lot of impurities in seawater, and if you eat too much, you will die.

The sun-salted method is to make brine from dried seawater and salty mud by sun-drying, boiling, etc., and finally boil the brine to make salt.

There are more than a dozen processes, but the output is relatively large.

Travelers have no advantage in this regard.

"Let the briquettes do the cooking."

After a long time, Zhu Yixi ordered: "Firewood and reeds are hard to find, and you can't help but burn them, so use briquettes to burn them."

"Start with the Changlu Salt Field (the Bohai Rim)."

Naturally, Wu Bangfu couldn't agree with what he said.

He is Jin Yiwei, responsible for spying on news, and he cannot interfere in political matters.

By the way, isn't there a salt lake in the northwest?It also happened to expand the salt industry.

After some thoughts, the emperor calmed down a lot.

Of course, he no longer paid too much attention to the salt administration.

Seeing that the emperor was fine, Wu Bangfu withdrew.

After leaving the palace, he breathed a sigh of relief.

In front of Chang Banjun, what should be listened to and what should be said should be carefully studied, and there should be no mistakes.

Adhering to the principle that no news can be leaked after leaving the palace, Wu Bangfu has been serving as the commander of Jinyiwei for several years, and his power is increasing day by day.

He got into the carriage and returned to the mansion.

Over the years, Jin Yiwei has repeatedly made great achievements. Whether it is the spying in Nanjing, the four towns in Huaibei, the confrontation in Shandong, or the Korean War, the figure of Captain Jin Yi cannot be avoided.

It is precisely because of this that Wu Bangfu was promoted to the earl during the winter solstice this year, and he has the gifted earl's mansion.

For nobles, the viscount's and baron's mansions are basically a larger courtyard, and only the earl's mansion is a real noble mansion.

There are many reasons for this. On the one hand, it comes from the fact that the lowest in the previous dynasty was an earl, and on the other hand, in the past few years, because the earl is not hereditary, it is not recognized as a true nobleman.

"Father!" As soon as they arrived at home, the sons greeted him with joyful faces.

It was the first time in the Ming Dynasty that Jin Yiwei was granted the title of uncle.

"No need to flatter me."

With a sullen face, Wu Bangfu said in a deep voice, "It's better to put more thought into books than anything else."

Now, the atmosphere suddenly turned bad.

The eldest son could only say cheekily: "Father, there are several new uncle's houses nearby, so they sent some invitations here, and we are all waiting for your decision."

"In addition, some princes also handed over invitations. After all, they will be nobles in the future, and they will have friendship with each other..."

"Friendship?" Wu Bangfu snorted coldly: "As long as I am still serving as the commander of Jinyiwei, no one dares to talk about friendship with me."

"Give gifts according to the specifications, don't make too many contacts."

Wu Bangfu has a deep understanding of the sensitivity of identity.

Regardless of the fact that Jin Yiwei has been harmless to humans and animals all these years, but only hides the blade, as long as the emperor has his mind, he will still kill chickens and dogs to high-ranking officials.

Too lazy to pay attention to the home, Wu Bangfu returned to the study, and a stack of secret letters was placed on the desk, and the seals were intact.

Over the years, Jinyiwei has made a clear division of labor between Jinyiwei and Dongchang, and he has no objection.

After all, in this way, it is easy for Jin Yiwei to make meritorious service, and he was awarded the earl for this.

With no foreign enemy in charge, Jin Yiwei will be embarrassed. He can't take the job of the East Factory and supervise the officials in the capital, right?

Supervising local civil and military officials lacks energy and is thankless.

Therefore, he wondered how Jin Yiwei should be so simple in the emperor's heart.

(End of this chapter)