Ming Zuo

Chapter 364 Who sings sorrow for the common people

In the Ming Dynasty, Shandong was a major province of salt industry, with a total of nineteen large and small salt farms.

Among them, the Dagu River Salt Field doesn't even have a name.

One of the reasons is that the natural conditions are not good, which is not as good as other places.The most important reason is that the traffic conditions here are too poor.

The salt produced was not easy to transport out, and the transportation cost was high, so the Dagu River Salt Field has not had much development.

And this kind of salt field, which the court didn't pay much attention to, naturally became the best place for illegal profit.

Anyway, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and the imperial court can't take care of them. The officials and powerful people surrounding the salt field act recklessly, and the squeezed salt households and kitchen households are worse than death.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had very strict control over kitchen households, but the preferential treatment they gave was also very good.

Not only are the stove households provided with pastures for woodcutter harvesting, but the arable land is also allowed to be cultivated, and the stove households are exempted from chores, and they will be given a stone for the labor cost of rice and salt for their own use.

Later, the disadvantages of this method became apparent, and the imperial court made reforms.

Instead of collecting salt in kind from the kitchen households, it has been changed to collect salt lessons from the kitchen households in the form of discounting color and silver.

From an economic point of view, of course, this method has many benefits, and it also reduces the cost of the court.

However, the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty allowed the officials to do their best and embezzled countless benefits.And the kitchen households have become the most miserable people.

The transshipment department does not collect physical salt, but changes it to cash.However, the kitchen households had no cash in hand, so they had to sell the salt first in exchange for money.

And often at this time, the salt merchants and salt gangs who bought it will collude with officials to lower prices and exploit the stove households.

The government is in a hurry to force the salt class, and the kitchen households will be punished if they fail to pay the salt on time.In desperation, the hard-earned salt could only be squeezed by salt merchants and salt gangs, and sold at a low price.

Once the salt tax is paid, the kitchen households have no extra income in their hands, and they become more and more poor.

"In the past, when the officials of the Transshipment Department were here, although life was hard, they could still hold on. Last time the Bailian monster made trouble, the officials were frightened and all ran away. This place was occupied by the Salt Gang. This gang The beasts are very fierce, saying that the salt field will be theirs from now on. They also took out the official documents of the transshipment company and took advantage of it. Take it away, and don't give us wages."

People like Chen Jie are just complaining about the hardships of life.But when Fu Yusun heard this, he immediately cleared the door.

Apparently, the officials of the Transshipment Department were frightened by the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect, and they fled for fear of dying in this remote place.

But the court's salt course must be completed.

What should I do?

The officials thought of a way.

If the salt farms are handed over to the salt merchants, salt gangs and other tycoons, they only need to give enough salt lessons every year to make them easy to deal with.

So the salt field fell into the hands of Hao Qiang.

In order to maximize their profits, these tyrants don't care about the life and death of the stove households.Only by directly snatching and doing no-cost business can you earn more.

As for killing the stove...

It is not easy to find three-legged toads, but are there still few people with two legs?

Fu Yusun was furious when he learned of the trickery, obviously he didn't expect that there would be such an evil thing right under his nose.

Now that he is in charge of the party, and he is Zuo Menggeng's secretary, as long as he does well, he will have a bright future.On the Jiaozhou Bay side, the salt field is an important source of income.

"Brother Chen is sick..."

But Chen Jie's wife said something.

"What's the matter? Our masters went to argue with Wu Boss, but Wu Boss played cruelly and injured our masters."

Fu Yusun signaled to Huang Zong to record and ask in detail.

"Who is Boss Wu?"

Seeing that Chen Jie and his wife were hesitating to speak, obviously worried, Fu Yusun encouraged them.

"I want my brother to understand that from now on, the Dagu River Salt Field will be managed by me in Lingshan Town. I have the final say on your livelihood."

Chen Jie was stunned, and couldn't help asking: "Does your lord have official documents from the court? Then...then Boss Wu has official documents."

This is also the reason why the stove households are helpless.

The Salt Gang is now legally managing the salt farms, and they dared to resist, which was like a rebellion.

Fu Yusun sneered, revealing his murderous aura.

"There are no official documents, but there are [-] troops. Brother, tell me, is the official document or the army effective?"

Chen Jie was also well-informed, so he just shook his head.

"My lord, let's break the sky, the court has the final say. When the adults from the Transit Department come back, it will be useless."

Fu Yusun said very seriously: "Don't worry, brother, the people from the Transit Department won't be able to come back."

Chen Jie and his wife looked at each other, not understanding why he was so determined.

Fu Yusun also knew that it would be useless to talk to Chen Jie any more, the most urgent task was to solve the salt gang.

However, this Chen Jie has a high reputation among the kitchen households, and he will be able to use it in the reconstruction of the saltworks in the future.

Thinking of this, he told Huang Zonghui and Cheng Xiaoer: "Go back to Lingshan Town and invite a few doctors to come over to treat Brother Chen. Another batch of grain will be dispatched to let the kitchen households survive this period. "

Hearing that Fu Yusun was going to treat his wounds and deliver food, Chen Jie was very excited.

"My lord, my lord, are you really here to save us?"

Fu Yusun did not answer directly, but pointed to the damaged shanty and said: "Your house is soaked in water, and there are air leaks everywhere. It will be winter in a few days, and you may freeze to death. Don't worry about anything else. When the rain stops, give it to me first." Find a good piece of land and build a house."

Build a house back?
Chen Jie fell to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Master Qingtian...why did you come here? We...our kitchen households are saved!"

In the fine rustling rain, the whimpering outside the house gradually turned into continuous wailing.

Fu Yusun turned around and opened the door, only to see that in the rain outside, thousands of kitchen households were all crying.Obviously, they also heard what was said in the room.

In the cold rainy day, these kitchen households were covered in colorless single clothes, and stepped barefoot in the sewage. Compared with their frozen bruised bodies, perhaps their hearts were more numb.

And the arrival of Fu Yusun broke the hard shell of their hearts that had been solidified and petrified.

Fu Yusun didn't go in either, and just stood at the door, speaking loudly so that everyone inside and outside the room could hear.

"You guys, take a good look at my face today. My name is Fu Yusun, and I am the mayor of Lingshan Town. From now on, the Dagu River Salt Field will also be under my management."

The kitchen households all stared wide-eyed, as if they wanted to imprint the appearance of this young official in their hearts.Believe in this life, until the day they die, they will not forget.

Fu Yusun's voice broke through the rain curtain and became louder and louder.

"People have to eat salt to live. If you don't eat salt, you will have no strength and can't do anything. That's why the court attaches so much importance to salt, and salt is so in demand. Since salt is so good, why can't our kitchen households get by?" Have a good life? Is it because we are not willing to do it? Is it because we are not able to endure hardship? Neither. It is caused by this fucking world. I am here today, everyone listen, I will let us do it next things, talk about it."

It was a matter of everyone's life and death, and the kitchen households were all so nervous that they couldn't even blink their eyes.

Fu Yusun took a breath, cleared his mind, and said the plan one by one.

"In the past six months, the big guys have been out of money and food. If they continue to suffer, they will probably starve to death, so I asked someone to adjust the grain. People are iron, and rice is steel. If you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry. Wait for the food to be allocated. Now, I will send it to the big guys first. It is not enough to eat, can this kind of broken shed still live in? The town will spend money to find a good high-lying land near here, and build a brick house for you."

An old man in the kitchen was both happy and worried, choked up and said: "My lord, we are poor and only have a handful of bones and sticks left, and we can't live in a good house."

"No ambition!"

Fu Yusun gave a loud shout and pointed to the Yantian that was right in front of him.

"We are guarding the salt fields, are we afraid of running out of money? The money and grain for building the house will be paid out first by the town. Don't ask the big guys to pay back. In the future, we will make salt well and sell more money. The town will have income, and the money for building the house is still a small amount." Shit?"

The kitchen households burst into tears and laughed, never expecting that this official lord would be so responsible and take poor people like them seriously.

It can be clearly seen that the originally lifeless salt field has burst into a different vitality.

Fu Yusun stood on the threshold, seeing all this clearly.

He knew that the salt field was saved.

(End of this chapter)