Seeing the hustle and bustle in the manor and the red faces of many village elders, the Yancheng County Magistrate worriedly approached the Yancheng Supervisor and whispered:
"Sir, not long after Marquis Zhongjing arrived in Yancheng, we received news that Marquis Yangzhou was in custody."
"Now, Marquis Zhongjing ignores his official status, bypasses us, and directly entertains common people and merchants. Is there a trap in this?"
Before going to the banquet, they received the news that the Marquis of Yangzhou had been arrested, and they almost died of fright.
Even the officials like them were elected to Yancheng by the Judgment Court, which was the result of Yangzhou Marquis' manipulation. If Yangzhou Marquis fell, none of them would be able to escape.
The head of the Yancheng Supervisory Office glanced at him sideways and scolded him in a low voice:
"What are you afraid of? I'm still saying the same thing. As long as the salt farm is not built, Cao Bin, Han Jiang and others will have some scruples."
"The Marquis of Yangzhou is not stupid. He is powerful and has an iron book to protect his life. How could he give in so easily?"
"What we have to do now is to delay. Some adults in the court are more afraid of something happening to the Marquis of Yangzhou than we are. As long as they take action, the Marquis of Yangzhou will not be defeated."
After saying that, he looked at the people attending the banquet and said disdainfully:
"To win over the people to cooperate? Cao Bin comes from a wealthy background and doesn't understand the suffering of the world."
"Those little people know the pros and cons better than you and I, and understand the suffering of the salt people better. How could they be willing to sacrifice their lives for him just because of a banquet?"
"Furthermore, what matters in this world is between officials and gentry, and what does it have to do with ordinary people?"
As the saying goes, the three major hardships in life are boiling salt, forging iron, and grinding tofu.
The current situation of the salt people of the Song Dynasty is that they do the hardest work, contribute the most taxes, and live the poorest life.
The more the court paid attention to the salt field, the more harshly the salt people were exploited. Therefore, after the Marquis of Yangzhou encouraged the original salt people to defect, no other people were willing to become salt people.
Now in the entire salt-producing area of Huaidong, officials, salt merchants, and ordinary people are all resisting the imperial government's work to rebuild the salt fields. They are like iron buckets that cannot be poured with water.
If the imperial court wanted to reorganize the salt affairs, it would either use force to completely shuffle Huaidong, or it would compromise with the local salt merchants.
Moreover, he believed that the imperial court did not dare to choose force. On the one hand, it would suffer huge financial losses. Once a civil uprising broke out, the situation would become even more difficult to deal with.
This was one of the reasons why Han Jiang had so many scruples before.
Having said this, the head of Yancheng Supervision looked to the left and right, and his voice became more subtle:
"Although we cannot disobey Cao Bin on the surface, privately, he is just a dragon crossing the river."
"But just in case, I have notified the green forest experts sent by the Marquis of Yangzhou and others. If anything goes wrong, his banquet will be disrupted immediately."
"Now there are so many people participating, it's a mixed bag, and he can't guard against it."
Seeing his confidence, the Yancheng County Magistrate immediately felt much more relaxed and hurriedly smiled and said:
"Your Excellency has made careful arrangements, so I can rest assured..."
While they were talking in a low voice, Cao Bin, waving his folding fan, walked out of the backyard surrounded by his entourage. Seeing this, everyone hurriedly bowed and saluted:
"I'll wait to see the Marquis!"
Cao Bin closed the folding fan in his hand, raised his hands, and laughed:
"Dear elders, please rise. Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. I am hosting a family banquet for you. No need to be too polite. The key is to eat well and drink well. Please sit down."
When everyone saw that he himself was not seated, how could he dare to sit down? I could only look at his figure helplessly.
Seeing this, Cao Bin smiled and said:
"It seems that you all know that eating people is short-tongued, and you want me to make demands. In this case, I will be rude."
When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but roll their eyes. Is this why we didn't sit down?
Especially some elders in the village, who wanted to enjoy the feast of the powerful family, suddenly stopped smiling when they heard this. It seems that the food of Lord Cao is not so easy to eat.
The Yancheng Supervisor and others breathed a long sigh of relief. They didn't expect Cao Bin to be so aggressive. It's just a matter of coercion and inducement. What can be accomplished with such a straightforward approach?
Cao Bin ignored their thoughts and continued:
"I came to Yancheng to do only three things. Fair, fair, so damn fair."
"Therefore, I now issue three orders!"
"First, rebuild the salt field under the military system. All the people who cook salt will be paid according to the military salary. Five hundred coins a month, the more work you do, the more you will get."
"Second, all officials of the salt field, big and small, are selected and promoted from among the salt people, and the highest rank can be officials of the ninth rank."
"Third, the prefectures and counties are designated as exclusive businesses. I designate salt merchants to sell salt, and other merchants are not allowed to intervene."
As he spoke, he pointed at the head of the Wu family and said:
"The Wu family is responsible for the Yangzhou salt products, and other merchants who dare to buy and sell without permission will be severely punished!"
As the head of the Third Department, he has much greater power than Han Jiang. He can make the final decision temporarily on regional restructuring.
It is said that the common people have no united front value, but to him, officials have no united front value. Officials will not rebel, but the Yan people are the hardest hit area by the rebellion.
In fact, since the implementation of the salt official camp in the Song Dynasty, there have been huge hidden dangers, because the rebellion of the salt people has led to the collapse of the dynasty. Zhang Shicheng in the late Yuan Dynasty is a typical example.
Therefore, if we want to keep the salt affairs stable for a long time, we should not treat the salt people too badly and ask the salt officials and salt merchants to take all the money.
As for the state and county monopoly, it is just his strategy to divide the salt merchants, and many restrictions will be added in the future.
After saying that, he walked directly to the main seat and sat down, smiling:
"I've finished talking. Let's eat. The head of the Wu family comes and sits next to me!"
It was only then that everyone realized what was going on and were in an uproar.
In the Song Dynasty, the treatment of sergeants was notoriously good. As long as they were paid in full, five hundred coins would be enough for a family of three in Bianliang City for one month, let alone Huaidong?
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many bandits talking about "killing people, setting fires, and being recruited".
The director of the Yancheng Supervision did not expect that Cao Bin's methods would be so brutal. He did not care about the influence of the court and directly restructured the salt administration to win over salt people and even salt merchants with benefits.
He looked at the head of the Wu family in surprise, wondering if this person could still be trusted.
When the head of the Wu family saw many salt merchants and gentry looking at him with angry eyes, he shrank his fat head, feeling frightened and frightened in his heart, mixed with ignorant joy.
He was just someone introduced by everyone to test Cao Bin, but he didn't expect that Cao Bin would give him such a big benefit. Since Yangzhou's salt specialty is a specialty, will there be less opportunities to make money in the future?
Just when he was hesitating, he heard Cao Bin say:
"Why, the head of the Wu family doesn't want to have dinner with me?"
The head of the Wu family looked at the Yancheng Supervisor with a gloomy face and eyes full of daggers, and then at Cao Bin. He gritted his teeth, took out a wad of salt banknotes from his arms, bowed and held it in front of Cao Bin and said:
"Master Marquis, Mr. Wu is deeply grateful to the imperial court and is willing to dedicate these 35,000 stone salt notes to the imperial court."
The paper value of more than 30,000 rock salt banknotes was about 200,000 guan. He gave it up directly and felt terrible pain in his heart. But now, he had no way out and continued:
"Master Hou, I still want to report that someone deliberately caused a murder and destroyed the reconstruction of the salt field..."
Just as he was speaking, he heard three tiny blasts of sound coming from the air suddenly, shooting straight towards his back.
At the same time, a sharp laugh sounded from the crowd:
"Those who disobey the Salt God and act as court hawks will surely die!"
Seeing this, a smile suddenly appeared in the eyes of the Yancheng Supervisor. He had seen the methods of those heroes. Although Cao Bin was able to suppress people, could he still control them?
As a local force, their power is intricate and intertwined, and the most indispensable thing is secret means.
They did not dare to kill Cao Bin, otherwise they would be surrounded and suppressed by the imperial army. However, they could kill the traitor named Wu, and they could also destroy the reconstruction of the salt field from all aspects.
Just as he was thinking about it, he saw someone suddenly jump out from behind Cao Bin and shouted angrily:
"Which disciple dares to pretend to be a ghost in front of me, Xia Suiliang of Penglai Island, and seek death!"
