Ming Zuo

Chapter 796 Flood Disaster Management
Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the franchise of salt and iron has been practiced on the land of China for thousands of years.

The dynasties of the past dynasties seized a lot of wealth and maintained the operation of the dynasties precisely by controlling the two strategic resources of salt and iron.

Without Zuo Menggeng's intervention, this system would have continued until the twenty-first century to complete its mission.

There are various reasons for the continued monopoly of salt and iron.

But to put it bluntly, it is nothing more than interests.

Salt and iron are important materials that are indispensable for production and life in the world, so they naturally have a huge market, forming a trade that guarantees harvest during drought and flood.

It is impossible to count how much wealth the dynasties of the past dynasties obtained by controlling these two materials.

In feudal society, the most important means of production was land.

Salt became an important source of profit outside the land.

Therefore, in order to complete the control of society, each dynasty held the salt tightly in their hands.

Without salt, it will affect people's daily life and health.Mastering this is equivalent to mastering the people.

To put it bluntly, the salt and iron monopoly system in feudal society, like policies such as household registration and Baojia, is a kind of personal restraint and management of ordinary people.

In addition, the backwardness of productivity has caused the output of table salt to lag behind market demand.

If you don't hold the salt firmly in your hands, the market will definitely become chaotic, which will cause national and social unrest.

Why does Shandong want to liberalize the salt monopoly?
Don't Zuo Menggeng and the officials know the powerful relationship?

Of course they know, but they have to.

First of all, although it was very quick to quell the rebellion of the Lianghuai salt merchants, it also brought a lot of side effects.

Shandong's murderous approach really scared the rest of the businessmen.

If this problem is not solved, it will greatly affect the subsequent business development.

Shandong is based on commerce and absolutely does not allow problems in the commercial field.

Under such circumstances, only by showing enough benefits can the businessmen strengthen their confidence in the Shandong regime, and thus choose to support Shandong and become a fan of Shandong.

The transformation of Huizhou merchants is the proof.

When they first met Zuo Menggeng, they were all like quails, cautious and cautious, for fear of dying.

When they learned that Shandong would release the salt monopoly and allow them to participate in shares and operate, they immediately became enthusiastic.

When he looked at Shandong again, he seemed extremely cordial.

Secondly, before the reorganization of the Lianghuai saltworks, the salt industry reform in Shandong had already been completed.

All the saltworks in Shandong are grouped under the name of Shandong Salt Industry Company, and are operated by market methods.

Looking at it in two or three years, there is no harm in doing so.

The purely market-oriented mode of operation has greatly enhanced the enthusiasm of businessmen and stimulated the enthusiasm of workers.

Various new salt-making methods emerged in Shandong, which greatly increased the output of table salt.

There are a few workers who have improved the production and quality of salt, and all of them have won the honorary title of master craftsman.

The government was liberated from specific salt production and only focused on supervision, which greatly saved administrative costs. On the contrary, the salt tax was also increased by a large margin.

With this precedent, Shandong dared to take action against Lianghuai Saltworks.

The news of the liberalization of the salt industry caused a tsunami and general shock. Not only the Lianghuai area, but people from Songjiang Prefecture rushed over after hearing the news, wanting to get a share of the pie.

In this regard, Zuo Menggeng's instruction is that no one will be rejected.

As long as these businessmen come up with real money and have sufficient qualifications, they can be absorbed as shareholders.

In just half a month, the newly established Lianghuai Salt Industry Company has accumulated more than half a million taels of capital.

With this money, the corresponding reforms will definitely go smoothly.

The headquarters of the new salt industry company is located in the original Shanshan Guild Hall, and a total of [-] board members have been elected.

The largest shareholder, of course, is the local government.

Chen Jie was appointed as the general manager of Lianghuai Salt Industry Co., Ltd., responsible for daily management and operation.

This appointment may seem ordinary, but it is actually a promotion.

Chen Jie's status was already on an equal footing with ordinary city officials, and he was directly responsible to the cabinet.

After stabilizing the situation in Yangzhou, Zuo Menggeng began to tour around the Huaihe River and Huaihe River.

What worries him the most is still flooding.

Standing on Fan Gongdi, looking at the surrounding terrain, Zuo Menggeng was worried.

"If the Lixiahe area is not remodeled, the harm will be even greater in the future."

The so-called Lixia River refers to the vast area between Huai'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Yancheng and other places.

The canal between the Jianghuai River is called the Li Canal, also known as the Li River.

This section of the canal is parallel to Fangong Dike.

On the east side of Fangong Dike, there is a Chuanchang River, also called Xiahe.

The vast area between Lihe River and Xiahe River is called Lixia River.

Lixiahe is a famous depression.

To the south of it is the Tongyang Canal and the high sandy land along the river; to the west is the canal that was the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty and the towering embankment of the canal; to the north is the Yellow River, which is more than five meters higher than the Lixia River; Much higher than Lixiahe.

In this way, once the Huaihe River floods, it will be a natural flood discharge area.

The local people have suffered from floods for hundreds of years. They are impoverished and life is worse than death.

Such a large area cannot be developed due to the hazards of floods. Anyone who sees it will feel extremely sorry.The property damage caused is also unacceptable.

Zuo Menggeng looked at Xue Fengzuo.

"Is there a solution?"

Xue Fengzuo did not disappoint him.

"Have."

Historically, when floods occurred in the Lianghuai area, there were two solutions.

One is to direct the flood water to the Yangtze River through the water network in the Lixia River area.

Another is to open the sluice on the Fangong dike, discharge the water into the salt field, and vent it into the sea.

The former method had little effect, and the latter method was useless because of the opposition of salt industry officials and salt merchants, which caused the flooding of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River to become a problem.

The method Xue Fengzuo came up with was to concentrate manpower and manually excavate a large flood discharge channel inside the salt field, leading directly to the sea.

When the flood occurs again, open the gate on the Fangong Dike to allow the flood to flow into the sea through the flood channel.In this way, the flooding in the Lixiahe area should be minimized.

Just doing so will inevitably divide the saltworks and cause many salt ponds to be abandoned.

Don't even think about this plan in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to do it.

But in the hands of Shandong, there is no obstacle.

Because the traditional forces that originally controlled the Lianghuai saltworks have been swept away, Shandong has just taken over, and no established interest groups have yet been formed.

No one's interests are damaged, so naturally no one opposes it.

"The only trouble is manpower. If you want to dig such a flood channel, it is impossible to complete it before the rainy season without tens of thousands of labor."

What Xue Fengzuo finds difficult is much easier for Zuo Menggeng.

"This time the two Huaihe Rivers were attacked, and there were many prisoners and criminals. I handed over all the people to you, and it is enough to drive them to work, and it also saves wages."

Xue Fengzuo was overjoyed to learn that there was enough manpower.

He doesn't care how many prisoners and criminals will die under these strong labors.

(End of this chapter)