"Not as powerful as your supervisory censor."
Zheng Sen said enviously: "Wherever I go this time, there will be many opportunities to make achievements. I'm afraid you will be promoted."
"You are at the sixth level, and I am at the seventh level. No matter how high I am, I can't be as good as you." Huang Zongxi said angrily.
"By the way, as soon as that article in the communiqué came out, Beijing was shaken."
"How to say?"
"The communiqué is under the cabinet, and if it is used through its channels, overtly or covertly, to suppress political opponents, it will probably be another party dispute."
In Huang Zongxi's words, he was extremely worried about the expansion of cabinet power.
The cabinet is nominally the representative of the civil servants, and all scholars should support the cabinet.
In fact, the cabinet and the six ministries have always been in a state of unity of opposition. Either the west wind prevails over the east wind, or the east wind overpowers the west wind.
For example, when it comes to important personnel appointments, Jiu Qing Ting Tui and the Six Ministries have a great say.
In daily life, although the cabinet cannot directly interfere with the six ministries, it can directly supervise the internal operations of the six ministries through the six ministries, thereby making the six ministries obey the cabinet.
The most vivid comparison is the dispute between the governor of a province and the chief envoy.
There is no room for deviation in positions in the struggle for power.
The civil servants have always had a relationship of unity of opposites and have never been unanimous in dealing with the outside world.
"The six ministries dare to oppose the cabinet?" Zheng Sen laughed and said: "The cabinet naturally has the means to deal with people, why use the communiqué?"
"With the emperor looking down from above and colleagues supervising below, who dares to mess around?"
"That's true." Huang Zongxi suddenly realized.
After a feast of wine and meat, the two of them got drunk.
A few days later, under the pressure of public opinion and under the attention of the government and the public, the emperor ordered the Supervisory Council to organize a team to supervise the censors. Old officials were paired with young censors, and they were protected by royal guards. It can be said to be extremely dramatic.
Quite dramatic.
The censorship of the five provinces was vast and the team was extremely large, attracting the attention of the whole capital.
But secretly, the emperor extended his sharp knife to the salt class, the largest Huaiyan salt store.
As early as in Nanjing, the emperor reformed Huai salt from the previous Gang salt system to the Piao salt system.
Tsunayoshi, explained in today’s terms, is:
A system in which salt merchants are responsible for selecting places to sell salt. If the annual quota of salt is not sufficient, the salt class will be greatly affected.
The advantage of this is that it saves trouble. The court only needs to control production, but the disadvantages are also serious. The big salt merchants monopolize the salt sales channels.
The ticket salt system is different. It is no longer underwritten but sold by everyone through bidding.
As long as you buy salt, you can go to various places to sell salt, break the monopoly of salt merchants, and promote the sales of official salt.
In the past few years, the salt tax in the Commercial and Taxation Department has increased steadily, from the initial three million yuan to the current eight million yuan, of which Huaiyan salt accounts for half.
But as time goes by, its growth has become increasingly slow, and it seems to have reached a bottleneck and is difficult to improve.
However, Jin Yiwei investigated privately and found that the price of private salt and official salt in the Jiangnan area was still very different, with a difference of about 30%.
As a result, the scale of private salt is several times that of official salt, and everything goes into the pockets of others.
There is no way, this is the consequences of incomplete reform.
In order to do our best in the Northern Expedition, we could only change the general direction of the salt course, changing the general business outline into a salt ticket to raise money and grain faster.
The people are still the same, just on a different track.
There are many ills, and almost all of them have been inherited.
Along the way down the river, flood waves surged, and both sides of the canal were covered with forests, creating a bleak autumn scene that could be chanted.
It's a pity that Zhu Jing is a rough person.
Dressed in fish-white cotton-padded clothes, he looked like a young master, wandering the streets of Yangzhou with two or three followers.
After the establishment of Jiangsu Province, Yangzhou became its capital. The Yangzhou Prefecture, which had lost some of its power due to the canal, regained its strength and remained as prosperous as before.
The little snowflakes in winter have become a scenery in Yangzhou. The paper-thin layer of snow, which stays on the tiles for less than half a day, turns into snow water and flows directly from the eaves to the street.
So soon after Zhu Jing walked, the soles of her feet were already soaked.
The number of pedestrians on the road increased instead of decreasing. As the winter solstice approached, the city became increasingly lively, and there were countless wealthy slaves making grand purchases.
"Jiangnan is rich, and the salt merchants are the richest."
Zhu Jing looked at the Zhumen courtyards and couldn't help but shook her head and said nothing.
Although the ticket salt system broke the monopoly of salt merchants, the large salt merchants still accounted for half of the official salt sales thanks to their channels over the years and their strong economic strength.
The salt tax has changed a lot, but it is equivalent to not changing much.
Salt merchants still make money, they just make less money.
Therefore, if they make less money on the surface, they want to make it back from illegal salt.
After all, Huaiyan taxes four to five million silver yuan every year. Cao Li should be satisfied, right?
The court was satisfied, but the emperor was not.
"Salt merchants always try every means to make money. If they make less, they will lose money..."
Recalling the emperor's words before leaving, Zhu Jing hurriedly walked without a trace of nostalgia.
By the time he arrived at the restaurant's private room, Jinyiwei Qianhu Chuyuan had already been waiting for a long time.
The body is slightly thin, the eyebrows are quite round, the clothes are a good cotton coat, the complexion is fair, and he looks like a businessman.
Zhu Jing knew him, and he had hooked up with the Yuyuan Army and a large number of bandits in Shandong, thus gaining an advantage for the decisive battle.
Because of this, he was granted the title of Baron, promoted to the rank of Imperial Guard, and was stationed in Yingtian Mansion to supervise the situation in Jiangsu and Anhui.
"Qianhu of Jin Yiwei, Chu Yuan, have seen the imperial envoy!"
"Please get up." Zhu Jing hurriedly gave her a hand, and the two sat down politely.
Chu Yuan knew Zhu Jing well, and the Holy Scrolls were extremely popular. Now, serving as a special envoy was another good job to gain seniority and merit.
If this matter is done well, he can be promoted from the sixth level to the fifth level, or even cross over to the fifth level.
Guaiguai, the magistrate of the government in his twenties, responsible for thousands of households, is on the same level as himself.
"If Chu Qianhu gains anything from the Huaiyan matter that someone assigned by His Majesty this time, I will definitely ask the Holy One for your credit."
Zhu Jing looked enthusiastic.
Chu Principle handed over his hand with enthusiasm:
"The supply and marketing of Huai salt to Tian, Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Huguang and other six provinces and one place is needed by tens of millions of people..."
If it was during the Tianqi period, the number of Dingkou where these six provinces are located must have exceeded 100 million, and it cannot be underestimated now.
"What about the disadvantages of the salt class?" Zhu Jing said softly: "After hundreds of years of operation, there must be many disadvantages."
"After the Salt Law was passed, no salt existed. The shortcomings of the salt policy have to start with the salt field."
Let’s talk about the Huaibei Saltworks first. Its long-term disadvantages lie in Bagang.
After the salt is transported from the Binhai Saltworks, it has to pass through five dams. Each time it passes one, it must be weighed and repackaged. It is weighed once before the change and again after the change, so it is called Five Bars and Ten Dams. The pole is a bamboo pole, used to carry salt.
After customs clearance is completed, the big package can be finally loaded and transported to the designated sales location, which is called the 'shore'.
In the process of building five bars and ten dams, we were exploited at all levels and spent money everywhere. Each time we imported salt, we had to spend ten taels of silver. These money would eventually be added to the cost of salt transportation. When it officially fell into the hands of the common people, it would naturally cause The price of official salt is much higher than that of private salt.
This is why private salt is banned repeatedly.
