The imperial court had a total of six offices. In addition to the five places mentioned by Xu He, there was also the Lianghuaidu Salt Transportation Department. The Lianghuaidu Salt Transportation Department was located in Yangzhou. The imperial court had Regulation officials were not allowed to serve in their hometown, so Xu He skipped the two Huaihe Rivers and asked about the other five places.
Ge Youli, whose whole family was killed before, was the judge of the Salt Transport Department of Lianghuaidu. However, because he was a member of Qin Yan, the Ministry of Personnel did not send any transport envoys, Tongzhi, or deputy envoys to Lianghuai for two years, resulting in Ge Youli is actually the top leader of Yansi Yamen.
Xu Dai suppressed his displeasure and said coldly: "It should be Shandong Salt Division."
Xu He nodded and continued to ask: "Is this news from Beijing? Is it the uncle's friend who is an official in the court who is helping me?"
When Xu Dai heard this, he felt even more disgusted with Xu He. He had lived under the wings of his father Xu Fan and eldest brother Xu Song all his life. In the year of his destiny, he finally got a chance to "flex his muscles". This The younger members of the clan even guessed that the eldest brother was helping, which hurt Xu Dai's pride.
"No!" Xu Dai continued with an unkind expression: "This is closely related to the two things I am going to talk about. I haven't finished speaking, so don't interrupt!"
Xu He smiled nonchalantly, touched his nose and sat down as if he was listening.
Xu Dai organized the words and said: "Actually, this matter was told to me by the palace minister, Eunuch Bingbi, Youxiao."
"What? Eunuch!"
"When did the eunuchs have the final say in the official positions of the imperial court?"
"Having a relationship with the eunuch, this official..."
"How can we, the Xu family's heir of poetry and etiquette, communicate with an eunuch..."
There are two conditions for being a senior clan elder: one is a person who has read books and knows etiquette, and the other is one who is highly respected in the clan.
Since everyone is a scholar, they naturally know that collusion between civil servants and eunuchs will be looked down upon by scholars.
Xu Luan was furious when he heard this: "It's ridiculous, how can we communicate with eunuchs? We are just getting what we need!"
When the elders heard this, they didn't buy it. Although they didn't react as fiercely as before, their expressions had become ambiguous.
When Xu Dai saw this, the surprise he had just received when he got the promise was long gone. He also guessed that there would be objections among the tribesmen, but he did not expect that these people would react so loudly.
After thinking for a while, he said to everyone: "Actually, everyone, please be patient. This opportunity is not beneficial to me alone, but to the benefit of the whole clan. As long as I agree to one thing, Eunuch You, not only will I be an official in the future, but also the clan will benefit." There are still 100,000 tons of salt available for sale every year!"
One hundred thousand quotes...
The clan elders were all shocked when they heard this number.
There are 30 salt fields in the Huaihe River, and the annual sales are about 350,000 salts. The Xu family can eat 100,000 salts at once, which is simply an astronomical figure.
The Shen family in Songjiang is known as Shen Ban City, and they monopolize most of Songjiang's cloth and textile industry. More than half of the people in Songjiang City depend on the Shen family for their livelihood. Is this awesome?
But compared with buying salt directly from the salt farm, the money comes in too slowly, because people can sew and mend their clothes, but they have to eat salt with every meal.
With one hundred thousand taels of salt, even if it was a small sum, the Xu family could earn more than 10,000 taels after tax deduction this year.
The Xu family is not a century-old family, and there are not many people. After the big head is divided among the people present, the lives of the remaining clan members can also improve.
So after hearing the news, everyone was excited.
"This is a good thing!"
"Then why are you hesitating?"
"Hurry up and agree to it. If it's too late and someone takes it, it's too late to regret it!"
Xu He saw that just now this group of people were still strongly opposed and maintained the bottom line of a scholar. But as soon as they heard about the benefits, this group of people instantly threw away those so-called bottom lines.
Just when everyone was excited about being hit by such a big piece of cake, Xu He sneered and said: "Second uncle, I'm afraid things are not that simple, right? Don't the people in the palace have any requirements?"
Xu Dai glanced at him and said calmly: "Of course there is. First, my Xu family wants to persuade the Lianghuai Salt Farm, especially the familiar kitchen households in the Jiangbei Salt Farm, to let them sell all their private salt at low prices. Give it to the palace! No more selling it to private salt dealers."
As soon as these words came out, the people who were excited just now fell silent instantly.
This sentence may seem simple, but asking those sturdy and united kitchen households to transfer their interests cannot be done even with the influence of their Xu family in Jiangbei.
"This, this is not good~~~~, if we ask them to lower the price, they can lower the price?" One of the clan elders hesitated.
Xu Luan had long been dissatisfied with these people's tendency to give in when faced with difficulties, so he said: "If they don't sell salt at a low price, then the reed fields controlled by our Xu family will not provide them with reeds. It will be gone." Luwei, these stinky people can’t even make a penny!”
The clan elders looked at each other in confusion after hearing this, feeling something was wrong in their hearts. They looked at me, and I looked at you. After a while, someone timidly said: "What if those people get together to make trouble? There was a bandit incident in Jiangyanpu a while ago. , many bandits come from Zaohu, these people are extremely tough and not easy to mess with!"
Xu Dai coughed lightly and said, "What's the difficulty? At worst, we can negotiate with them when the time comes and our Xu family's reeds can be sold to those kitchen households at a cheaper price!"
When everyone thought about it, it seemed to make sense. Then they thought about the annual profit of 100,000 yuan from salt introduction. Isn't that much faster than making money by planting some reeds?
Thinking of this, they nodded repeatedly: "Okay, it doesn't matter whether you make money or not, the key is not to affect your future, Chang Yue!"
"That's right, that's right, this salt judge is a fat guy!"
"Chang Yue, when you go to Shandong to take up your post, you will bring that useless guy from my family to see the world!"
Just when the atmosphere was relaxed again, Xu He's untimely voice sounded again: "Second uncle, my nephew wants to ask, a few days ago, you went to Shandong to serve as an official, and you were required to serve as an official. How can he be a palace eunuch?" Do you dare to promise you this official position?"
"That's ridiculous, what do you, a junior, know? The eunuchs in the palace are all His Majesty's closest friends. They just say a word and His Majesty issues a decree." One of the clan elders glared at Xu He.
Xu He sneered in his heart. The imperial court had to follow formal procedures when appointing officials. Even the emperor could not go beyond the cabinet and issue a decree to remove someone.
When encountering this kind of thing, the cabinet has the power to declare, that is, to push back the emperor's will, and it will not be listened to if it is not listened to.
This elder has obviously watched too many dramas and thinks that the emperor can do whatever he wants.
But Xu Dai understood what Xu He meant. After pondering for a moment, he finally revealed a shocking secret: "Your Majesty intends to set up guard eunuchs in the six major salt areas. On the one hand, he will supervise the salt tax, and on the other hand, he will keep private salt in his own hands." What I mean in my hand is that Lianghuai is a pilot project. As long as I complete this matter, the guarding eunuch will have the right to submit a report and appoint a salt judge!"
Everyone was in an uproar upon hearing this, and the atmosphere that had just been peaceful became tense again.
Xu He sneered and said: "To be an official in the country, the first step is to promote non-commissioned officers as the right way. The second step is to appoint people and staff and wait for appointments. The third step is to be Yin officials, and the third step is to directly promote officials to officials. But after so many years, I still I have never heard of anyone being promoted to an official position by a eunuch!"
"You..." Xu He's words stung Xu Dai's embarrassment, and he suddenly became furious: "You are so presumptuous!"
Seeing this, Xu Luan was beating the drum and said: "Dad, I think this Xu He just doesn't want you to be good. How can a member of his own family be an official? His family is so weird? What am I talking about? The uncle treats him as a nephew, but he is I’m so angry at the back of my head that I don’t wish us well at all!”
Hearing this, Xu Dai's anger was completely ignited. He almost roared and said to Xu He: "Get out of here, get out!"
Seeing that his father and son did not listen to the advice, Xu He said in his heart that he had already exhausted his benevolence and righteousness, but the other party was still stubborn and even said bad words to each other, so he bowed his hands and said, "This is what Xu He said. You can listen or not, it's up to you!"
After saying that, he flicked his sleeves and walked out of Kong Huaitang.
When he walked to the door, he could still hear Xu Luan behind him saying: "Dad, look at this Xu He, he doesn't take you and the clan elders seriously at all!"
"Yes, this Xu He thinks that it is great to be a child since he is the head of both cases. This kind of person is the last thing an old man can see!"
"One hundred thousand citations of salt, I think this can be done!"
"What happened to the eunuch? He is also a close relative of the Emperor!"
"That's right, Chang Yue, don't be as knowledgeable as a junior. Everyone supports you in this matter!"
