"It's really quite noisy."
Wu Bangfu, the commander of the Jin Yiwei, bowed his head and softly echoed:
"Although dozens of people were killed, there were actually hundreds of them, half of them were unruly people and half of them were salt lords. The soldiers of the Beijing camp were also forced to mobilize a battalion to deal with the difficulty."
"In addition, Zhu Qinqi also recruited several groups of salt lords to enrich the salt soldiers..."
This is because Zhu Jing and the local civil and military officials were not gifted.
They mobilized the army privately and deceived local authorities, hoping to reduce their influence and preserve their official positions.
This is what Jinyiwei and Dongchang are for.
Of course, the emperor has great trust in Zhu Jing. What does five hundred soldiers and horses mean? As long as he does not rebel, he will not be punished with death.
"Where's Huaiyan?"
Zhu Yixi raised her eyelids and continued to ask.
"Most of the problems can be solved, but if the imperial envoy leaves, I'm afraid it will be bad."
"The benefits are too great and tempting!"
Sighing, Zhu Yixi found it difficult.
In fact, whether a court's rule is stable or not depends on how well it controls salt and iron.
Under the Kaizhong Law in the early Ming Dynasty, as long as you transported grain to the border, you could exchange for salt and obtain management rights. However, in the later period, the Salt Law had to be implemented to recognize the monopoly status of those salt merchants in exchange for tax relief.
Losing control of the salt policy meant financial bankruptcy and the end of the dynasty.
Similar situations have happened many times in history, and it is like a curse of the salt industry on imperial rule:
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao, who had failed many imperial examinations, worked with Wang Xianzhi to sell illicit salt. Within a few months, they gathered tens of thousands of people and dealt a fatal blow to the Tang Dynasty.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng was in the south of the Yangtze River, cutting off water transportation and cutting off canals. Many people in Yuandadu starved to death.
At sea, Fang Guozhen, who "has been selling salt on the sea for a long time", accurately attacked the empire's grain shipping system, burned official ships, and robbed grain. The once prosperous Yuan Dynasty shipping was forced to suspend operations amid numerous crises.
This is also the reason why the sea was banned in the early Ming Dynasty. Japanese pirates and pirates were making trouble, and the sea ban was equivalent to blocking them.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, salt lords became popular. Not only were they organized and armed, but as the times evolved, they also incorporated multiple identities such as party members, gangs, revolutionaries, etc., which was equivalent to an enhanced version of the salt lords at the end of the Tang and Yuan Dynasties.
For example, the great salt lord Xu Baoshan, nicknamed "Xu Tiger", has a private salt team of more than 10,000 people, and his sphere of influence extends from the Huaihe River to the line along the river.
Although he was later recruited by the court and transformed from a salt lord into an anti-smuggling leader, he quickly changed his mind during the revolutionary trend in the late Qing Dynasty, made great contributions to the recovery of Jiangsu, and became one of the gravediggers of the Qing Dynasty.
"A dynasty that has ruled for two to three hundred years must reform its salt policy many times. Why?"
“Because in the early stages of the reform of the Salt Law, the national salt profit revenue increased significantly, and then commercial and official beetles must collude to erode the salt profit, resulting in a sharp decrease in the national salt profit, so a new round of improvements had to be carried out.”
"However, improvement and improvement will make things cooler."
A series of self-questions and answers can wake people up in an instant.
Otherwise, it can be said that reading history makes people wise.
Standing up suddenly, Zhu Yixi realized the true meaning of salt politics.
Unless it reaches the information age overnight and strictly supervises salt production, so that the price of salt is as low as the price of cabbage, it will be difficult to put an end to it.
“Isn’t the salt-salting method already popular?”
"Your Majesty, everyone in the south is skilled in the method of drying salt. Because of this, Huaiyan salt is half of the salt administration..."
Zhu Yixi was silent.
The real sun-salting method is not just about drying sea water to obtain table salt.
Anyone with common sense knows that there are so many impurities in seawater that you will die if you eat too much.
The sun salt method is to use sun-dried seawater and salty mud to make salt brine through sun-drying and boiling. Finally, the brine is boiled in a stove to make salt.
There are more than a dozen processes, but the output is larger.
Travelers have no advantage in this regard.
"Let the briquettes do the cooking."
After a long time, Zhu Yixi ordered: "It's hard to find firewood and reeds, and you can't help but burn them, so use honeycomb briquettes to bake them."
“Starting from the Changlu Salt Field (Bohai Rim) first.”
Naturally, Wu Bangfu couldn't agree with these words.
He is a royal guard and is responsible for spying on information. He cannot interfere in political matters.
By the way, isn’t there a salt lake in the northwest? It also happens to expand the salt industry.
After some thoughts, the emperor calmed down a lot.
Of course, he no longer pays too much attention to the salt policy.
Seeing that the emperor was fine, Wu Bangfu withdrew.
After leaving the palace, he breathed a sigh of relief.
When I am always with you, I will carefully consider what I should listen to and what I should say, without making any mistakes.
Adhering to the principle that no information should be leaked after leaving the palace, Wu Bangfu served as the commander of the Jinyi Guards for several years, and his power increased day by day.
Got on the carriage and returned to the mansion.
Over the years, Jinyiwei has repeatedly made great achievements. Whether it is the spying in Nanjing, the four towns of Huaibei, the confrontation in Shandong, or the Korean War, the presence of Jinyiwei is inevitable.
It is precisely because of this that Wu Bangfu was promoted to earl at this winter solstice and had the earl's palace as a gift.
To the nobles, the Viscount and Baron's Mansions are simply larger courtyards, and only the Earl's Mansion can be considered a real noble residence.
There are many reasons for this. On the one hand, the lowest rank in the previous dynasty was earl. On the other hand, in the past few years, it was difficult for people below earl to be hereditary and they were not recognized as true nobles.
"Dad!" As soon as he arrived home, his sons came to greet him, their faces full of joy.
It was the first time in the Ming Dynasty that Jin Yiwei was granted the title of Bo.
"No need to flatter me."
Wu Bangfu had a sullen face and said in a deep voice: "It's better to focus more on books than anything else."
At this time, the atmosphere suddenly turned bad.
The eldest son could only say shamelessly: "Father, several uncle's houses were newly established nearby, so we sent some invitations. We are all waiting for you to make your decision."
"In addition, some princes also sent invitations. After all, we are all nobles from now on, and we have friendship with each other..."
"Friendship?" Wu Bangfu snorted coldly: "As long as I am still the commander of the Jinyi Guards, no one will dare to talk about friendship with me."
"Just give gifts according to the specifications, don't interact too much."
Wu Bangfu has a deep understanding of the sensitivity of identity.
Even though Jin Yiwei was harmless to humans and animals these years, he just hid his blade. As long as the emperor's idea came to his mind, he would still kill chickens and dogs against high-ranking officials.
Too lazy to pay attention to his home, Wu Bangfu returned to his study. A stack of secret letters was placed on the desk, with the seals intact.
Over the years, Jin Yiwei has had a clear division of labor with the outside world and Dongchang with the inside, and he has no objections.
After all, in this way, Jin Yiwei could easily perform meritorious service, and he was awarded the title of earl.
With no more foreign enemies to deal with, Jinyiwei is in an awkward position. He can't take the job of Dongchang and supervise all the officials in the capital, right?
Supervising local civil and military affairs is insufficient and thankless.
Therefore, he wondered how Jin Yiwei could stay in the emperor's heart.
