Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 119 Returning Home and the Emperor Visiting Yangzhou

The winter sun shines on the entire green and verdant south of the Yangtze River like a layer of gold foil.

The sparkling Hongze Lake area is full of officers and soldiers of the Guards returning home together, and their faces can not help but be filled with joy for the coming Chinese New Year.

Some were planning to go to Huai’an Mansion to buy some new year’s goods for their return home, some couldn’t wait to board the boat and go home, and some threatened to go to Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places for a visit.

Yan Yingyuan also led his horse, and went to Jiangyin with fellow villagers Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun.

Today's Yan Yingyuan was selected into the scholar camp from the very beginning.

Although he is not as sharp-edged as young talents such as Gu Yanwu, he is low-key, but he is also popular among scholars with his calm and introverted personality and unique leadership ability. A general in the First Class Battalion, the official worshiped as the sixth-rank Zhaoxin Xiaowei Sanguan.

Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun have also served as the captains of the Type A infantry battalion in the Second Army and the Third Army respectively, and their official worship is the sixth-rank Zhongxian Xiaowei Sanguan.

The three of them could be regarded as entering the ranks this time, and they could also be regarded as returning home after a good job. Yan Yingyuan led the horse and wiped the steel knife in his hand.

Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun held Chongzhen [-]-style flintlock guns like beauties in their arms, and they did not dare to let go.

According to the requirements of Zhou Yuji, who was in charge of cavalry training, the officers and soldiers of the cavalry battalion had to take their horses with them, and they had to stay with them like their newly married wives.

The same is true for Yan Yingyuan today. Every time he goes to a town, he can't forget to buy some beans for his maroon horse.

Even Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun wanted to ride, but he refused to agree.

"Brother Yan, we're going to Yangzhou soon, and it's rare to pass by now. Why don't we go to the city for a day before returning to Jiangyin. I heard that there are many beauties in Yangzhou city, and Yangzhou thin horses are a specialty."

As Chen Mingyu said, he took out the silver dollars in his pocket: "This time, His Majesty sent us so much silver. If you don't take it out and spend it, wouldn't it be a waste to keep it for nothing?"

"No, you and I are both officers of the Guards Army now, and we are charged with the heavy responsibility of recovering the northern capital. We need to be more upright, and we must not be as reckless as before!"

After Yan Yingyuan said that, he went to sit down at the roadside tea booth and ordered a bowl of tea to quench his thirst.

Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun came over to pull Yan Yingyuan up, and they were about to go to Yangzhou City: "Let's go, Brother Yan, let's not go looking for Yangzhou skinny horses, we just listen to the music, can't you listen to the music, I heard that Li Xiangjun is now living in Yangzhou , you must listen to this man's song!"

Yan Yingyuan couldn't escape, so he had to enter the city.

Zhu Youjian also entered Yangzhou City at this time, but he did not enter the city because of Li Xiangjun, but because he wanted to visit the salt merchants in Yangzhou.

Since the two Huaihe salt transport envoys and patrol salt censors are all here, Yangzhou has been a gathering place for salt merchants since the early Ming Dynasty, especially after Ye Qi, the minister of the Ministry of household affairs in the Hongzhi period, changed the Sino-French Naliang branch salt to Nayin branch salt Therefore, salt merchants no longer need to travel back and forth from the border town to the salt production area, and they do not need to shop in the border town to collect food. Most of the Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants live in Yangzhou, so it is easier to get in touch with the salt inspectors. Chance.

Zhu Youjian has stated that the imperial court monopolizes salt and iron, but this has little effect on salt merchants. After all, salt and iron were originally sold by salt merchants on behalf of the imperial court.

For Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, what he needs to be concerned about now is how much tax the salt merchants can provide to the court, and whether the current salt introduction system has a bad impact on the people's use of salt.

Of course, Zhu Youjian was only passing through Yangzhou at this time, and he didn't intend to go to war to withdraw the salt introduction system.

But he has always wanted to let the court decide the price of salt.

Zhu Youjian also knew that the quality of official salt was lower than that of private salt, and the price was high, so that people generally could not eat good salt, and could only buy it from private salt dealers.

The court's salt tax was also greatly affected by this, and even the collusion between officials and businessmen led to the loss of salt diversion or sale at low prices.

Zhu Youjian thought about whether to withdraw the salt introduction system, produce it by the imperial court and sell it to merchants at a low price in wholesale, and then retail it to the people all over the world.

That is to say, the imperial court controls the pricing and production rights, and at the same time reduces the profitable value of daily necessities such as salt. Once the price of official salt is extremely low, there is no room for smuggling salt.

The rent-seeking space for official salt is also reduced. After all, there is not much difference in price and cost between adulterated salt and qualified salt.

However, in this way, it means that the profits obtained by the imperial court through controlling the salt industry are likely to decrease, and at the same time, it also hits the interests of salt smuggling groups.

In Ming Dynasty, salt smuggling was a felony. As the saying goes, Confucianism violates the law with literature, and chivalry violates the law with martial arts.

Those who dare to smuggle salt are not ordinary people with simple backgrounds. Except for desperadoes, most of them are wealthy businessmen, famous families, even the army and pirates.

If Zhu Youjian curbs the living space of salt smuggling and cancels salt smuggling, it will touch the interests of almost the entire upper class of society, even including his own interests.

It can be said that Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian was the biggest salt dealer in the Ming Empire.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian has not yet figured out how to move the big cake of the salt industry.

In order to avoid inciting conflicts among the internal ruling groups, although Zhu Youjian reiterated that salt and iron should be monopolized by the imperial court after arriving in Nanjing, he did not say how to sell them, nor did he say that the salt introduction system would be abolished, nor would he take back the pricing power of salt.

However, after Zhu Youjian arrived in Nanjing, a series of reforms in taxation and money laws still made the salt merchants vigilant, and they all felt that His Majesty would not let the fertile land of the salt industry go.

Will the salt introduction be opened next year, what is the salt tax collection method, how the court plans to sell salt, how the salt merchants will play, and whether private salt will have a big impact.

These have become the questions on the minds of Yangzhou salt merchants.

However, Zhu Youjian has been practicing Tai Chi and did not give a clear answer.

So much so that these salt merchants dare not act lightly. Even when Zhu Youjian attacked the Donglin Party and reformed taxation and money laws some time ago, these Yangzhou salt merchants with honorary relatives, bureaucrats, and clan backgrounds kept silent. Afraid of offending Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, he retaliated against them through the reform of the salt industry.

"Right now, the salt merchants in Yangzhou are all concerned about whether there will be any big moves in the salt industry next year. The Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy and the Salt Patrol Censor have also asked the minister many times, but the minister did not give a clear answer. Everything is just like your majesty. Instructions, everything is waiting for the court's order, and now I hear that His Majesty is passing by Yangzhou, and I am looking forward to it."

When Li Mingrui, governor of Huaiyang, was sitting in Zhu Youjian's dragon chariot and talking, he could already hear the sound of gongs and drums outside Yangzhou city, the sound of firecrackers, and suddenly there were shouts of long live.

Li Mingrui couldn't help but have black lines all over his face: "Your Majesty, forgive me, I have already told the Yandao Yamen to tell them not to make a big fuss and disturb the people, but I didn't expect it to be avoided."

　Originally, the outline of hundreds of thousands of words was very clear, but I accidentally let the protagonist enter Yangzhou City, but I am not good at this kind of plot in the prosperous place of smoke and willows.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)