The famous book tour starting from the Red House

Chapter 73 The Current Situation of the Salt Road
Seeing him like this, Mu Xu quickly comforted him, "My condolences to Uncle Lin, the deceased is dead. Now you have to keep your useful body, and you will have to avenge the revenge of Aunt Jia and Shidi."

"That's right, that's exactly what I thought, that's why I sent Yu'er away, and I took refuge in the present, just to break the boat and fight with these people forever, but I didn't want to but almost killed her." Speaking of this, he looked gratefully. Looking at Mu Xu, "If my nephew hadn't told me the truth today, and if my nephew hadn't engaged to Yu'er, her future would be worrying."

Mu Xu thought to himself, it was more than worrying, he was directly forced to death.In his mouth, he continued to persuade, "Since Uncle Lin knows that Sister Lin is still in Rongguo Mansion, he shouldn't have such thoughts of committing suicide."

Lin Ruhai nodded, "Don't worry, now that I know Yu'er's situation, I won't think so." After speaking, he asked again, "Since Rong Mansion is in such a situation, is Jia Lian trustworthy?"

Mu Xu smiled and told the recent situation of the two houses in Rongguo Mansion.Lin Ruhai couldn't help frowning when he heard this, "Although I knew before that the old lady of Jia's family favored the younger son, this is too absurd."

Hearing that he didn't even call his mother-in-law anymore, Mu Xu understood that he blamed Jia's mother too, so he couldn't help laughing secretly.He sighed again, "I think how prosperous the Rong Mansion was when my father-in-law was alive, but now..."

Hearing his sigh, Mu Xu didn't know what to say, so he could only respond in silence.Fortunately, Lin Ruhai quickly adjusted his mood and talked about business.

"My virtuous nephew is under the emperor's mandate this time. I wonder if His Majesty has any explanation?"

Mu Xu said helplessly, "Your Majesty only told me to do things cheaply, and I am also having a headache now. I wonder if Uncle has any advice?"

Lin Ruhai smiled wryly, "Where can I talk about advice, I am also a mess now."

"Then how corrupted is the salt road?" Mu Xu looked at him like this, and was eager to know the real situation now.

Lin Ruhai did not hide anything and told the current situation of Yandao one by one.

In the early Tang Dynasty, salt was sold freely. Naturally, there were no private salt and private salt dealers at that time.After the Anshi Rebellion, in order to raise military expenses, Fifth Qi implemented the law of asking for salt.That is to organize the salt households that produce salt, and the imperial court buys the salt they produce at a low price, and then adds the salt tax to the selling price, sells it to the salt merchants, and they freely sell it to the people.At the same time, the common people were prohibited from producing salt by themselves.Therefore, the price of salt has increased more than ten times from 10 yuan a bucket in an instant, and it takes at least 100 yuan to buy a bucket.

After arriving in this dynasty, in order to prevent the people from eating salt, the imperial court imposed restrictions on the selling price of salt merchants.As a result, the profits of these salt merchants were suppressed, and these people chose to take risks in order to earn more money.Deliberately hoarding salt, controlling the shipment of salt, causing a shortage of salt, and then organizing private salt dealers to sell it at a high price.

What happened this time was because these salt merchants suddenly hoarded a large amount of salt, but they were unwilling to let the salt flow out.If things go on like this, if the people have no salt to eat, it will definitely cause chaos.

After listening to his introduction, Mu Xu asked, "In other words, the key to this matter is to let these salt merchants sell the hoarded salt so that the people can eat salt, right?"

Lin Ruhai nodded, "Yes, but these salt merchants are now collectively resisting the imperial court's orders."

Mu Xu thought for a while, and made a stroke gesture with his hand, "Why don't we make an example to others?"

Lin Ruhai pointed to his injury, "I thought the same way before, but now I'm in this situation." Afraid that Mu Xu would be young and impulsive, he reminded, "Besides, there are big figures standing behind these people, so it's not easy to attack them." It is said to be a salt merchant in Yangzhou, but among the eight largest salt merchants today, only one Zhao family is a local, and the rest are from far and wide."

"Then it's better to let go of the salt field and provide salt to those small salt merchants so that they can sell the salt, so that they won't be afraid of hoarding salt."

Lin Ruhai shook his head, "This method won't work. Firstly, those salt farms are mostly infiltrated and controlled by those big salt merchants, so there is not so much salt for those small salt merchants."

"Secondly, let's not say that those small salt merchants are subject to those big salt merchants. Even if they want to flow salt to various places, they can't do it. The private salt dealers in the hands of the eight major salt merchants are all desperadoes. It is easy for others to transport the salt to various places to rob them of their food."

Hearing what he said, Mu Xu also understood the problem. He asked, "What about the imperial court's salt workers? The imperial court ordered them to crack down on private salt, so they just sit back and watch these people become bigger?"

"At the beginning of this dynasty, these Yan Ding's fighting power was not bad, so let's not mention it now. Besides, over the years, these Yan Ding have been recruited locally. You can imagine how many people out of the five thousand Yan Ding are like those The salt merchant secretly passed the song."

After listening to him, Mu Xu asked, "Which yamen manages these salts now?"

"It used to belong to the Yamen of the Yanke Division before, but later the imperial court abolished the Yanke Division and merged with Yangzhou Wei."

Mu Xu understood that he already had a general idea in his mind, but he still had to think carefully.

Seeing him pondering for a long time, Lin Ruhai thought that he had nothing to do for a while, so he persuaded him, "Don't worry, when I recover from my injury, I will discuss with those salt merchants a solution that everyone can accept."

Mu Xu didn't tell him what he thought, but said, "Uncle Lin, can you get me a copy of the materials of the Eight Great Salt Merchants and the Yangzhou Guard Office. By the way, I will also find some skilled salt farmers in the salt field for me. "

Hearing what he said, although Lin Ruhai wondered why he was looking for Yanhu, he still nodded and agreed, "I'll get someone to sort it out later, and send it to the imperial envoy's office." Then he murmured, "As for Yanhu, I will send someone to find a way to find it." Come a few."

Mu Xu thanked him naturally.

Seeing that it was already noon, Lin Ruhai ordered the book boy at the door to come in, "Go and ask Steward Lin to prepare a banquet, and then invite Young Master Biao to the flower hall for the banquet."

When the book boy went out, Lin Ruhai invited Mu Xu to go with him. Seeing that he was injured, Mu Xu quickly refused, but he refused. Mu Xu had no choice but to support him, and they went to the flower hall of the Lin residence together.

Under his guidance, the two came to the flower hall, where Jia Lian was already waiting. Seeing them coming in, she quickly got up and supported Lin Ruhai on the other side, and together with Mu Xu helped him to the upper seat, the two sat down.

After lunch in the Lin Mansion, Mu Xu took Jia Lian to leave. Lin Ruhai was unable to move, so he had to order the housekeeper Lin Quan to send the two of them out of the Lin Mansion.Just as he was about to go out, Mu Xu patted his forehead, only to remember that there was still Daiyu entrusting his letter and sachet. He had talked too much today, so he forgot it for a while, and then turned around. I handed the pouch to him, and then I took my leave again.

Back at the imperial envoy's office, Mu Xu told Jia Lian not to follow, and went to the backyard alone, wanting to see if Xiangling's mother had arrived.When I was walking to the foot of a rockery, a fan came to report that Liu Xianglian had arrived.

Mu Xu was overjoyed when he heard that, he was just wanting to know about the situation in Jiangnan, now that Liu Xianglian had arrived, it relieved his urgent need, so he immediately ordered her to be invited to the study, and he himself went to the study first.

He arrived in the study only a moment later, Liu Xianglian arrived, and the two had not seen each other for several months, and now they are very happy to see each other again.

Mu Xu asked Liu Xianglian to sit down, and the two of them talked about their farewell, and Liu Xianglian was going to tell him in detail what happened after he arrived in the south of the Yangtze River.

Mu Xu had already understood the current situation of Xiuyiwei in Jiangnan in the letter, but what he wanted to know most now was the official situation in Jiangnan.He poured two cups of tea, and handed one of them to Liu Xianglian, "Leaving aside the matter of the embroidered clothes and guards, brother Liu will talk about the affairs of the Jiangnan officialdom. For example, you know about the Zhen family and the salt merchants in Yangzhou."

Liu Xianglian took the tea, thanked Mu Xu first, and sighed after thinking for a while, "I didn't know how powerful the Zhen family is here until I came to Jiangnan, especially after Jinling. Because of Mrs. Fengsheng, the Zhen family is here Jinling can be said to be rampant. Especially after the Taishang Emperor went to Jiangnan four times, he lived in the Zhen family, and the Zhen family was even more prosperous in Jiangnan, and countless officials in Jiangnan worshiped under the current head of the Zhen family, Zhen Yingjia."

Mu Xu had heard about this before, so he wasn't too surprised. Thinking of the official amulet mentioned in the original book, he couldn't help being curious, "I heard that there is an official amulet in Jinling, is it true?"

Liu Xianglian was taken aback, and replied, "Your Excellency, this is the old Huangli. There was indeed such a saying in the past. It is said that it is Jia Shi Wang Xue's four families. But now the Wang family still has some power in Jinling, and the other three families are in Jinling. Although it is still untouchable in the eyes of the common people, it is just that in the eyes of those big families."

(End of this chapter)