Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 37 Operation
Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Zhu Youtang felt a little embarrassed immediately. He has done this a lot. Every year, there are a lot of salt rewards for honorable officials and clans, especially for his wife's house last time. One time, it was a reward of 15 to [-], which was not taken seriously at first, but now hearing what my son said, there is a big problem here.

Although this matter is simple to say, it is for future generations. In this era, these things are still ahead of the times.

"There are actually many benefits of opening sodium grains!" Zhu Houzhao didn't stop when he saw his father's appearance, but gritted his teeth and continued.

"Naliang Kaizhong was changed to Nayin Kaizhong. Yanyin represents money. Anyone who holds Yanyin in their hands, these Yanyin represent money. Whether it is a honorable relative or an official, as long as they have Yanyin in their hands Merchants are willing to pay a lot of money to buy it, and of course, nobles and relatives must ensure that these people’s salt can come up with salt.”

"It's also good for the imperial court. The super-sent Yanyin can be exchanged for money directly, so simple."

The more Zhu Houzhao talked about the benefits of Nayin Kaizhong, the darker Zhu Youtang's face became. What is the benefit of this?This is clearly an opportunity for honorable relatives and officials to harm their public interests.

As for the imperial court’s over-issued salt quotations, there is obviously a limit to this over-issue. Once there are too many over-issued salt quotations, the salt quotations will become less and less valuable. There is no precedent in Ming Dynasty, and the earliest precedent is the precious banknotes of Ming Dynasty.The original treasure banknotes are good things, and they have not depreciated so much. It is not because of over-issued treasure banknotes that they have now completely become waste paper.

Just as Zhu Youtang was about to open his mouth to ask something, he suddenly saw his son smiling, and was a little confused.

"Father, my ministers want to do the salt business!" Zhu Houzhao said, turning his head to look at Zhu Youtang: "As long as you hold the salt field, make sure that no one else can extract salt from the salt field, and then buy super fat in the market." Er Chen believes that the price will not be very high, and both relatives and merchants are willing to sell it."

"It doesn't need to be much, as long as you hold a few big salt fields in Daming, Erchen will be the biggest salt merchant in Daming. How much money will Erchen have by then?"

"Others have salt in their hands, but they can't bring out the salt. At that time, the salt of the entire Ming Dynasty will be at the discretion of my son."

Zhu Youtang looked at his son, finally got angry this time, patted the table and said: "Nonsense!"

Zhu Houzhao shook his head: "I think it's feasible. As long as you take down the transfer envoy of Yangzhou and the steward of the saltworks, it's not too difficult. Use power to suppress them, use force to lure them, and you can do everything. With the salt field to clear the way, the son-in-law can earn a lot of money, and at the same time use the silver to clear the way in the officialdom."

"Not to mention other places, the entire Jiangnan officialdom, I am confident that within five years, I will be full of my servants."

"At that time, no matter whether it is training or buying with money, the son-in-law will be able to insert himself into the center of the court, and even the cabinet."

After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Zhu Youtang felt chills all over his body, his face changed drastically, and the way he looked at his son became very strange.Staring at Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Youtang didn't speak for a long time.

Zhu Houzhao looked at his father with a wry smile. In fact, the later generations of the Donglin Party and other Qi, Zhejiang and Chu parties did this, binding economic interests, and then invincible in the officialdom.To put it bluntly, the cronies of these people are actually behind commercial interests, and what everyone is playing is capital.

Why is the Donglin Party strong, because behind him is the capital of the entire Jiangnan, why the court can't do anything about them?How much is the court, how much are they?

After arriving in Wanli, the big merchants of Ming Dynasty, mobilizing several million taels is not considered a big deal, it can only be regarded as a routine operation.What about the imperial court?Burning tens of millions of taels in Liaodong every year is already stretched.We must know that after Yongzheng's reform, the salt class in the Qing Dynasty was 600 million taels a year. How much is that?
So what if a salt class is all burned in Liaodong?There are also land taxes and commercial taxes. It is ridiculous that such a large country burns more than 1000 million taels a year and then burns down.

Zhu Houzhao brought a cup of tea to his father, and then said with a smile: "Father, there are more than one smart person in this world, and I don't need to check to know that someone has already done this. Not to mention other things, people from all provinces How many people do this, the governor, the senior officials in the court? You can find out if there is any salt merchant in their house."

"The nobles and relatives intervene for money. For example, uncle's family. If he has money, he can at most build more gardens and marry more women. It's nothing."

"But what about the officials in the court? What about the officials below?" Zhu Houzhao sighed and said, "You don't have to think about it!"

Of course Zhu Youtang knew that he didn't have to think about it, but he still felt that it was impossible. What his son said was too alarmist. Could it be that all the officials in the world were like this?They are all scholars, where have all the books of sages gone?This matter should never be like this, it shouldn't be!
"Father, you don't need to check other people, you go check the Ye family!" Seeing that his father didn't believe it, Zhu Houzhao added on the sidelines.

Why Zhu Houzhao is so sure, because later on these people did it like this. There was a Wang Chonggu from the Shanxi merchants, the governor of the three sides, and a member of the imperial court. His family was a big salt merchant, the top figure of the Shanxi merchants.Zhang Siwei, the chief assistant of the cabinet, did the same. He was the second assistant when Zhang Juzheng was in charge.

After Zhang Juzheng's death, he followed Emperor Wanli to sweep away the New Party, and his family was also the leading figure of Shanxi merchants, a big salt merchant in Shanxi.

Apart from these two people, how many members of the Qi, Zhejiang and Chu parties have reached out to the Yanzheng, and how many members of the imperial court are rich in their families?Talk more about Yan Song's greed, Yan Song is a big treacherous minister, but after Xu Jie fell, how much land was his family?What is the wealth?If it wasn't for Hai Rui, everyone would still regard Xu Jie as a good official!

If it wasn't for Zhang Juzheng's student Xu Jie, would Xu Jie's fate be better?Zhu Houzhao can tell from these people that none of them are good.

All of these people have become cabinet bachelors, and they are all the best in reading sage books, but in the end?The first upright official in the Ming Dynasty was Hai Rui, who came from a family background. Although Hai Rui was not perfect in many aspects, he was dedicated to serving the country and adhering to poverty. Many people may say that an upright official is not as good as a corrupt official. Zhu Houzhao heard this sentence There are only two answers: huh!

Whether an official can do things has nothing to do with whether he is an honest official or a corrupt official, but only related to his ability, which can be divided into capable officials and mediocre officials.

Corrupt officials and honest officials are two opposite words. It is ridiculous to confuse these four words. Corrupt officials are not necessarily mediocre officials, and honest officials are not necessarily capable. These are two different things.What if it is clean and capable?Maybe it is rare in the world, but shouldn't we work hard in this direction?No matter how capable he is, the harm caused by corrupt officials cannot be ignored, because what he corrupts is the clothes of the people and the food in the mouths of the people.

(End of this chapter)