Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 33 Salt Method
The so-called openness is actually a kind of salt law. When it comes to Ming Dynasty's salt law, we have to talk about Daming's border policy.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to guard against the Mongols, military towns were set up on the Wanli border from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in the west. Four towns in Liaodong, Datong, Xuanfu, and Yansui were established at the earliest, and three towns in Ningxia, Gansu, and Jizhou were added later. During the Hongzhi period, two towns, Taiyuan and Guyuan, were added, which became the "Nine Frontier Towns".

The military town has been established, but there are cities and people that are not enough to be used. The so-called soldiers and horses go first before the food and grass are used. The most important thing is the food problem. If this problem is not solved, any defense will be a castle in the air.The establishment of the Ming Dynasty also caused a world of corruption. The country was established at the beginning, and a thousand wastes were waiting for prosperity. It is definitely not a simple problem to maintain the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses on the border. It is not to add too heavy a burden to the people after the troubled times.

In the third year of Hongwu, the minister Yang Xian proposed to Zhu Yuanzhang the proposal to pay for grain. To put it bluntly, the imperial court invited bids from the people according to the amount of military grain needed by the border towns. The merchants who won the bid transported grain to the border towns. Then the merchants take the salt with the salt lead, and then sell it in the designated area for profit.

This method was approved by Zhu Yuanzhang. It was first tested in Datong Town and soon spread to the whole country. It played a very good role. In fact, the Kaizhong system began in the Song Dynasty, but the salt in the Song Dynasty was not exchanged for grain. But to spend money to buy.

The advantage of the open-center system in the Ming Dynasty over the open-center system in the Song Dynasty is that it mobilized the enthusiasm of the people to deliver military rations. The disadvantage is that the profit was given to the salt merchants, which reduced the government's income. But in the early Ming Dynasty, the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages in general. .Therefore, "History of Ming Dynasty Shihuo Zhi" said: "There is a clear salt method, but there is no one who is good at opening."

The implementation of the open-center system provided strong support for the military operations of Ming Dynasty. Sun Tzu said: "Where one hundred thousand troops are deployed, and thousands of miles are marched, the expenses of the common people and the rewards of the public are worth a thousand dollars. There are 70 families who are not allowed to do anything."

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang made eight northern expeditions, and Chengzu Zhu Di made five northern expeditions, which greatly weakened the power of Mongolia and defended the border of Ming Dynasty.These wars consumed countless military rations, horses and horses, but did not cause the extreme situation of boiling public dissatisfaction as in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The credit for Kaizhong is unparalleled.The advantages of the open-center system go far beyond saving national power and people's power, and it also promotes the development of the border.

As soon as the opening-up system came out, in order to save the cost of food transportation, merchants recruited a large number of farmers to open up wasteland and cultivate land near the border, which enriched the border of the empire and had positive significance for the development of the country's border areas.

Shipping grain from Jiangnan and other places is too expensive. In order to save money, merchants simply reclaimed wasteland in the border areas, planted grain, and supplied the frontier army. How many grades.It's just that this policy was broken later. After all, salt is a lot of money. Who wouldn't be tempted by this money?

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, the family members of Jianlin officials and officials above the fourth rank are not allowed to make profits in Zhongyan. This is to restrict officials from making profits, otherwise they will be beheaded.

However, this policy gradually fell into disuse. In the Wanli period, Wang Chonggu, the governor of the three sides, and Zhang Siwei, the deputy minister of the cabinet, were all big salt merchants, and the entire salt administration was eaten up by these people.Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations have become waste paper. Of course, it is not these ministers who broke the regulations. It was the court, the emperor, who first started to break the rules.It is not known who started the emperor's award of Yanyin, but Zhu Houzhao knew that his father rewarded his mother's family with a lot of Yanyin. This behavior is called "occupation of the nest".

In addition to occupying the nest, another behavior is to over-issue, and the imperial court over-issues Yanyin. After all, Yanyin is food and money, which can be exchanged for it.

These practices have resulted in many merchants having nothing to offer but no salt to support, so they can only wait in the salt field to get salt, which is called "shouzhi".Due to the destruction of the open-centre system, the situation of lack of salt has intensified. In the last years of Chenghua, more than [-] million imported salt in the Lianghuai Salt Fields alone could not be withdrawn, and some even kept their expenditures for decades, which greatly discouraged the enthusiasm of merchants.Under such circumstances, there are fewer and fewer merchants doing Chinese salt business, and border food is also in crisis.

In fact, this kind of problem can also be solved. Exchanging salt according to the amount and vigorously cracking down on "occupation" are effective means. The key is not in policy, but in implementation. However, the Ming Dynasty adopted the worst method.

Zhu Houzhao also knew that this was the worst way. This policy was implemented in his father's time, and Ye Qi, then Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, proposed this policy.Nayin's method of receiving Yanyin was approved by his father, which is "opening the middle".From then on, merchants no longer needed to transport grain to the border, but only needed to pay silver taels to start the salt business.This method had an immediate effect. Within a year, the treasury increased its income by one million taels of silver.

This policy was still called good governance at this time, and Ye Qi was valued by his father because of it, but Zhu Houzhao knew that it was drinking poison to quench thirst.

Ye Qi's reform violated the original intention of the open middle school system. The open middle income for grain payment was to solve the problem of military rations, and the open middle income for Nayin to solve the problem of treasury revenue.More importantly, the Ming Dynasty put aside the issue of military rations for the sake of the immediate income of millions of silver, not to mention the chain reaction caused by the opening of the middle system.How much does it cost for the imperial court to purchase and transport military rations?
How much labor cost has been increased?How much will it slow down?How much corruption will there be?Although the income of one million taels of silver is increased in front of him, what about the future?What about the border?
From this time on, the combat power of the Ming Dynasty frontier army took a turn for the worse. Historically, when Emperor Zhengde came to power, he checked the land of the frontier army, and cleared and retreated more land. up.For this reason, Emperor Zhengde even came to Datong in person and stayed in Jizhou, but after his death, everything was overwhelmed and there was no hope.

It is hard to say that it has nothing to do with the Yanfa. This is something that affects the whole body, and it is a bad thing.

Who benefits from this matter?Of course they are salt merchants, who are behind these salt merchants?Of course, it is the gentry and bureaucratic group. They win over the relatives, give benefits, let the relatives speak, and then swallow the benefits behind their backs.In the past, it was necessary to grow grain, harvest grain, and even transport grain. Now it’s so simple, you just need to buy it with money. Where does the money come from?Selling salt is enough, the key is that they also evade taxes.

In this way, these people are of no benefit to the country, they just lie on top of the imperial government's exclusive salt administration to suck blood for profit, so Zhu Houzhao even wonders whether this Ye Qi's family is a salt merchant, or has a salt merchant behind him.

(End of this chapter)