Daming: I help my wife be the empress

The reason why Xu Zhihu delayed his return to Nanjing until a few days ago was to dispose of the property of the smuggling, collaborating and traitorous Shanxi merchants.

The reason why the word "disposal" is used is because it involves the cooperation of multiple departments, and there are many processes, and it is not as simple as being searched and escorted by Jin Yiwei.

What's more, with so much gold and silver, it's not safe to rely on Jin Yiwei's escort alone.

Therefore, as early as February, Zhu Yu sent a battalion from the Second Town of the Imperial Guard Army to Shanxi.

Now the Praetorian Guards are full of flintlock guns, wearing new cloth face armor, steel helmets, steel knives, and grenades.

In the past, the cloth face armor of the Ming army, even if it was an excellent work, was nothing more than an iron plate inside.Today's new cloth face armor is an inner armor steel sheet - the defense is comparable to plate armor, but it is lighter than the previous cloth face armor, and the cloth face is also made of special fabrics, almost comparable to the bulletproof and stab-proof clothing of later generations .

In addition, each battalion of the imperial guards is equipped with fifty steel tiger squatting cannons (also known as small steel cannons) and ten bright cannons (steel red barbarian cannons).

With such equipment configuration, one battalion is enough to fight against one or several towns of the garrison.

What's more, now that the large groups of bandits and bandits in the Ming Dynasty have been pacified, and even the landlords' armed forces with the rebel army have been either incorporated or disbanded, there are still some small groups of bandits hiding in various valleys that are difficult for large armies to clear.

In other words, the interior of Daming is generally at peace.Therefore, this battalion escorted and searched Shanxi merchants to get huge billions of money, which is completely enough.

Because during the inspection process, it was jointly carried out by the Fusi of Nanzhen and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and also supervised by the army of the local Shanghuang Degong.Some fixed assets are handed over to the State-owned Assets Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce.

Therefore, from February to March, the amount of property seized by Shanxi merchants was not counted.

Afterwards, the imperial guards and Jin Yiwei escorted the gold, silver, jewelry and other belongings back to Beijing. Due to the large number of vehicles, it took about two months to arrive in Nanjing.

···
"I see you, Your Majesty!"

"Flat body."

After the ceremony, Zhu Wei said to Xu Zhihu: "You have been in charge of investigating the 'smuggling and collaborating with Shanxi merchants' for several months, and you have just returned home. You should be allowed to rest for a while. However, the state affairs are urgent, so I can only let you take more care of them. "

Xu Zhihu hurriedly said: "I dare not take on the responsibility of this minister."

Xu Zhihu made a great contribution by running a Shanxi merchant smuggling group dominated by eight major families, and was promoted from a thousand households to a town governor (from the fourth rank).

Of course, Li Zhenwu and Gao Shengqi were also promoted to conductors (fourth grade) with their hard work before, and they are still Xu Zhihu's superiors.

As for the other Jinyiwei who made contributions in the Shanxi Merchants case, they also received promotions and rewards.

Aunt Zhu gave Xu Zhihu a word of comfort, and then got to the point, saying, "Beside you, one is Lin Jiading, Deputy Envoy of Guangdong Tixue (Xuezheng), and the other is Liu Zhongzao, Deputy Deputy of Pedestrian Right Division."

Following Aimi Zhu's words, two middle-aged officials in their early forties bowed their hands to Xu Zhihu one after another.

Xu Zhihu also bowed his hand in return.

Although the Jinyiwei in the Zhaowu Dynasty also had a great deterrent effect, they have not had a bad reputation so far, but they have made a lot of credit.Besides, this is in front of the saint, so the two civil servants will naturally not be rude.

"The reason for summoning the three of you this time is for the Salt Administration." Zhu Yu finally revealed the purpose of the summons, "The importance of the Salt Administration, I don't need to talk about it, the three of you should know.

However, the Yan government began to deteriorate very early in my dynasty - it should have become a great source of wealth for my Ming Dynasty while facilitating people's lives.

But now the silver taels provided by the salt class are not only greatly insufficient, but the price of salt among the people is also inflated, and there is a lot of low-quality salt.There are also private salts running rampant, taking the benefits of the country to enrich private individuals.

At the beginning of my ascension, I was busy with various affairs and had no time to take care of it.Now that the country is gradually stabilizing and everything is settled, it is only then that he frees up his hands to solve the problem of salt administration. "

After hearing what Aimee Zhu said, all three of them showed awe.

For the feudal dynasties of all dynasties, salt administration has always been the most important thing.Because the income from salt lessons often accounted for a large proportion of the feudal dynasty's annual revenue, even as much as more than [-]%.

The same is true for Daming.

If the salt government is corrupt, it will often cause problems in the country's finances.Therefore, salt administration has always been a major event in the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that the salt administration issue involves many interests, and it is by no means so easy to solve.Although Lin Jiading and Liu Zhongzao also boasted that they had some talents and aspirations to help the community, they dared not lightly get involved in this matter.

Therefore, both of them had an idea in their hearts: If His Majesty has no solution, or the solution is not feasible, they must advise His Majesty to take it easy, and don't be in a hurry, even the situation in front of them will be ruined.

It should be noted that if there is a major problem with the salt administration, it will not only cause the country to lose income, but it will even make many people unable to eat salt, which will trigger civil uprisings.

Both Liu Zhongzao and Lin Jiading were from Fujian, and both were born in the 33rd year of Wanli (1605), but he was from Fu’an, while Lin Jiading was from Putian.

Lin Jiading was a Jinshi in the third year of Chongzhen, and a Jinshi in the seventh year of Chongzhen; Liu Zhongzao was a Jinshi in the seventh year of Chongzhen, and a Jinshi in the 13th year of Chongzhen.

A few years later, Liu Zhongzao distrusted the decision of the court center and even the emperor less than Lin Jiading—it was because Chongzhen and his court center made too many nonsense decisions.

In addition, Liu Zhongzao had a more upright temper, so he immediately asked: "Your Majesty wants to rectify the salt departments in various places?"

The Ming Dynasty's salt policy was inherited from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the salt department was initially divided into two categories.

One is to set up five capital transfer salt envoy divisions in Lianghuai, Liangzhe, Changlu, Shandong, and Hedong, under which there are [-] capital transfer salt envoy divisions.

The second is to set up salt class promotion departments in seven salt-producing and fried salt areas including Sichuan, Fujian, Liaodong, and Guangdong.

There is no relationship between the two, but the official rank of the former is generally two grades higher than that of the latter.

And both belong directly to the Ministry of Household Affairs.

However, in the Zhengtong period, this set of salt government system was corrupted to the point where it was difficult to deal with it.Zhu Yuanzhang's "opening of China" law has been difficult to carry out smoothly, and even exists in name only.

As a last resort, the imperial court had no choice but to start assigning central and secondary senior officials such as assistant ministers and deputy capital imperial envoys to the localities to inspect the salt administration.

Because the assistant minister and the deputy capital imperial envoy belonged to the high-ranking officials of the Ministry, these officials were called "Xunyan Ministry".

This set of policies of high-ranking central officials inspecting local areas has indeed had some effect, and it has improved the Ming Dynasty's salt administration.

However, senior officials of the ministry cannot always be in the local area, right?There is still work in their department.Besides, if he is allowed to patrol the salt specifically, what is the difference from the officials of the Department of Transshipment of Salt?
So in the Jingtai period, the method of governor and salt administration was proposed.

In the beginning, there were indeed a group of governors who were able to take charge of the salt administration and made political achievements.

But not every governor is so capable - the governor is already busy enough to manage the military and political affairs of a province, but he has to manage the salt administration, and the whole person has to be busy like a spinning top.Or if you can take care of the salt administration, you can't take care of military and political affairs, which is always difficult to be comprehensive.

In order to solve this problem, during the Chenghua period, the Ming court specially sent imperial envoys with the title of Imperial Envoy of the Capital or Deputy Imperial Envoy to specialize in the administration of salt in one or several places.

Because these high-ranking imperial envoys have the power to act cheaply in salt administration, it can be said that they have great powers and responsibilities. Therefore, during the Longqing period, such officials were also called "prime ministers".

During the reign of Tianqi and Chongzhen, due to frequent foreign and internal strife, the imperial court had a huge gap in money and food. Especially during the reign of Chongzhen, military expenditures became a bottomless pit.

And in order to ensure the income of the salt class, more powers are given to dispatched officials.

For example, in the 16th year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen directly promoted Huang Jiarui (a Jinshi in the seventh year of Chongzhen) as the imperial envoy of Youqian Capital to supervise the salt affairs of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River-this dispatch is actually almost the same as the governor.

Most of the high-ranking officials dispatched by the imperial center can play a certain positive role, but the closer to the end of the dynasty, the more limited their role will be.

Not only because of the decline of imperial authority and local control, but also because the structure of interest groups related to the local salt industry is becoming stronger and more difficult to break through.

In this way, even if the high-ranking central officials come down, it will be difficult to gain much.

As for the fundamental problem of the corruption of the salt government, the Ming court never thought about it from the very beginning, or dared not to solve it.

Although Zhu Wei's succession to the throne can be regarded as the establishment of half a new dynasty, the actual salt industry system south of the Yellow River has not been greatly damaged, which means that there are deep-rooted problems and it is difficult to solve them.

Therefore, in Liu Zhongzao's mind, Zhu Yu's plan to rectify the salt departments in various places at once is already a big deal.

If this is the case, he will definitely persuade Aunt Zhu to be cautious.

Faced with Liu Zhongzao's question, Auntie Zhu chuckled lightly, and said, "Rectify? My Great Ming Salt Administration is no longer worth rectifying."

Hearing this, Liu Zhongzao, Lin Jiading and even Xu Zhihu couldn't help being taken aback, thinking: What does Your Majesty mean by this?