The famous book tour starting from the Red House

Chapter 78 Make up your mind
The hall was quiet for a long time before Emperor Jiading heard the words of the Supreme Emperor again, "Do you think the method of Mu Xiaozi on the secret book is feasible?"

Emperor Jiading was overjoyed, and replied, "My ministers think it's worth a try. The imperial court established a salt administration department to control the salt roads across the country, and then set up subordinate agencies in various places. From now on, the salt produced by the salt field will be unified by the imperial court according to the needs of various places. Deployed to various places." After thinking for a while, he added,

"Although after the salt has arrived in various places, if there is a wrong idea in the locality, there will still be private salt dealers. But it saves those big salt merchants from driving up the price in the middle, so that the common people can eat cheap salt, and the court It can also receive more salt tax, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.”

The Supreme Emperor nodded after listening, "This method is not bad, but it requires more manpower and material resources."

Emperor Jiading persuaded, "Compared with the extra salt tax that the imperial court can charge, what is this manpower and material resources?"

Hearing the emperor's words, and thinking about the extra income of at least [-] million taels a year, the Supreme Emperor's heart became active, and he couldn't help but start to think about how much should be allocated to his internal treasury. After a while, he made up his mind, "Okay, I'm sure." But after this is done, an extra two million taels will be allocated to my internal treasury every year."

When Emperor Jiading heard that the Supreme Emperor let go, he was overjoyed at first, and then stagnated. Adding the previous one million taels to his heart, it was three million taels.But he still gritted his teeth and said, "My son respects his life."

Seeing the emperor's promise, the Supreme Emperor also showed a smile on his face, and said, "You remember that haste makes waste, and who are you going to let the Yanzheng be in charge of?"

Emperor Jiading also had some headaches, "This matter is also a bit embarrassing for the minister. If it is put under the household department, it will become a place for those people to get their hands on it after a long time." Seeing that the Supreme Emperor seemed to have a plan in mind, he hurriedly leaned over to ask for advice. "Also ask Father for advice."

"Do you think about who were the closest people in the past?"

Emperor Jiading was stunned, and thought to himself, could it be those brothers, he killed the idea as soon as it came up.Suddenly he caught sight of Dai Quan who was standing behind the Supreme Emperor, he understood somewhat, and couldn't help hesitating, "Father, these people are greedy by nature, and I'm afraid they will run amok wherever they go."

The Supreme Emperor shook his head and said, "You, remember that nothing is perfect in this world. Let me ask you, if you let those civil servants manage it, and then become a household department again, what should you do?"

Emperor Jiading knew what the Supreme Emperor meant. The eunuchs were the royal family slaves. If something happened to them or they were too greedy, the royal family could dispose of them at will.But civil servants are not the case. You can deal with a batch without any problem. How can you continue to deal with batches one after another? I am afraid that you will offend scholars all over the world.Although he didn't like eunuchs very much, when he thought of such a large amount of money, if it was handed over to the Ministry of Accounts, he would not feel at ease after all. Thinking about the bad debts of the Ministry of Accounts, he made up his mind to choose the lesser of expediency.So he bowed to the Supreme Emperor, "I thank you, Father, for your teaching."

"It's good that you understand. That's all right, you can go to work."

"Yes, my son is leaving." Emperor Jiading turned and walked out of the hall. Just as he reached the door, the voice of the Supreme Emperor suddenly came from behind, "Remember to tell the Mu family that everything is done in moderation and not too extreme."

Emperor Jiading paused, he understood that the words were actually spoken to him by the Supreme Emperor.He took a breath, then turned around and bowed his head as if nothing had happened, "Remember, I will pass this message on to him when I go back." After speaking, he waited for a while, and did not hear the Supreme Emperor speak again, so he got up leave again.

……

Within Yangzhou Xingyuan.

Mu Xu didn't go out today, being bored, he simply taught Yinglian how to play Go.

Since Yinglian met her mother, her whole person has become cheerful. Although she is still a little confused from time to time, she no longer has the feeling of being cautious and afraid of doing something wrong.

Seeing her like this, Mu Xu also felt in a good mood, and he explained the rules of Go one by one.Let her play the black chess first, and let her play the white chess second.

Yinglian was a quick learner, and after the two of them had been together for more than an hour, she already looked good.Every time she ate a Mu Xu's white rice, she was so excited, her face was flushed, she looked really cute.

The two were having fun when a maid came in to report, "My lord, Master Liu brought a person to see me."

"Yes, I got it. I ordered them to be taken to the study to wait." Mu Xu stood up and stretched, seeing Yinglian's expression still unfinished, couldn't help laughing, "Okay, I will accompany you when I have time." I'll give you this pair of jade chess, and I'll find some more chess books for you later, and you can figure it out by yourself in private."

Yinglian shook her head like a rattle when she heard it, and she repeatedly refused, "I don't want such a valuable thing, just give me a few chess books."

"Okay, I'll give it to you if I say it. It's not like you haven't seen me these days. Did you get anything for me?"

Yinglian thinks so too, recently those officials and salt merchants have been running to Xingyuan all day long, buying gold, silver and jewellery, antique calligraphy and paintings, and even sending them to women.Thinking of those bewitching and enchanting women, Yinglian felt rejoiced for a while, fortunately Shizi is not lustful.Although they accepted them in person, they turned around and gave them to his subordinates. Only Liu Xianglian confiscated them, and even Han Qi, who looked so serious on weekdays, honestly accepted two of them.As for Xue Pan and Jia Lian, both of them were very grateful, and they all left the rest of the women.Thinking of Xue Pan's appearance, she felt grateful to Aunt Xue and Baochai in her heart. If they hadn't forcibly stopped him at the beginning, she might...

Mu Xu naturally didn't know that Yinglian had thought so much in just such a short while.After saying a few more casual words, he got up and left towards the study.

When I got to the study, I saw Liu Xianglian and a middle-aged man sitting there talking.Seeing him come in, both of them got up to salute.

Mu Xu excused the two of them, and looked at the middle-aged man, only to see that he was slightly fat, wearing a brown uniform.There is a little beard growing on the chin, and a pair of shrewd small eyes on the round face, which is quite pleasant to look at.

Liu Xianglian stepped forward to introduce to Mu Xu, "My lord, this is Master Huang Yishan, the head of the Huang family."

"Well, you all sit down and talk." Mu Xu waved his hand, and he said to Huang Yishan after the two sat down, "Mr. Huang can come to see me in person, presumably because he agreed to cooperate with us?"

Huang Yishan got up and bowed to Mu Xu again, and then said with a wry smile, "The villain has no choice, although now in order to fight against the government, the eight of us choose to stand together, but afterwards these people must attack my family. They won't stop until they swallow our family flesh and blood."

Having said that, he knelt down in front of Mu Xu with a plop, "As long as the lord can save my Huang family from suffering, the villain is willing to donate half of the family's wealth and four million taels of silver to the lord. Don't dare to betray."

Hearing that it was four million taels when he opened his mouth, Liu Xianglian was stunned by the shock.Mu Xu was also quite surprised. Although he knew that these salt merchants were all wealthy, he never expected to be so rich. You must know that last year, the entire treasury of Chu State only received more than [-] million taels.

Let's just assume that half of what he said is true, which means that their family has a fortune of eight million.Mu Xu had asked someone to investigate the details of Huang's family before, and his family was just a merchant in Fujian in the earliest days.Because he is from the same hometown as Wang Zhixin, the former Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, he became one of the eight major salt merchants in Yangzhou ten years ago with the help of Wang Zhixin's promotion over the years.

I have only been a big salt merchant for ten years, and I have accumulated so much money. You must know that most of the money of these salt merchants is used to honor their respective backers, and to manage various officials who are fighting for autumn.If you can see the whole picture at a glance, you can think about how much money he has handled over the years to save this fortune.

Among the eight families, the Huang family was the latest and not the largest.Thinking that the remaining few families had much more money than Huang's, he did some calculations in his mind, and the results made Mu Xu speechless.He completely let go of his contempt for these people, but he knows that there is a word, money can pass through the gods.

He secretly made up his mind, either not to do it, or to give these people a thunderous blow, not to give them a chance to breathe, lest these people choose to die.

　I drank too much last night and had a terrible headache. It took me a long time to write out today's chapter [-]. Thanks to the hard work, everyone voted for it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)