"Da Sinong, brother, I went to your house to look for you, but they said you haven't come back yet, so I had to come to the ministry to look for you. I came to you for nothing else, just I have a few friends who are anxiously waiting for you to send the salt lead from the Ministry of Revenue to be transferred to the Si Yamen to pick up the salt. Can you give me a favor and send the salt lead to them immediately? Anyway, the opening law has not been officially promulgated yet. No, I will definitely treat you to a meal and drinks afterwards!"
As soon as Dingguo Gong Xu Xi came to the Ministry of Hubu, he spoke to Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu, as a brother, and what he said was directly related to Yanyin.
"Dong Guo! You are late. Unfortunately, all the salt has been sent to the border town. Now there is no salt in the Ministry of Revenue! Please come back."
Bi Ziyan rejected Xu Xi directly and put the tea on the table to express his intention to see off the guests.
Xu Xi was stunned for a second, then stood up in disappointment, and shouted angrily: "You!"
Bi Ziyan ignored him, just picked up the tea cup, lowered his head and continued drinking tea.
Xu Xi wanted to say a few harsh words, but he was worried that his harsh words would reach the emperor's ears. In the end, he could only hold back his displeasure, threw up his sleeves and left here.
Next, not only Xu Xi, the Duke of Dingguo, was rejected, but also other salt merchants with background were rejected by Bi Ziyan and did not get the salt.
"The 3,000 Hedong salt imports are directly allocated to Qin Liangyu, Prime Minister of Jiliao, and the 5,000 Huaiyang salt imports are allocated to Liaodong Yuan Jinglue, so that they can remember to send a reply and confirm when the time comes. In addition, all these salt imports to border towns will be made public. Submit the inscription to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to publish it through Di Bao and Huang Ming Bao. Then, tell all salt merchants who need salt to read it in Di Bao or Huang Ming Bao. How much salt are there in each border town? Is it sufficient? Then decide where to go to trade villages, and don’t ask the princes and nobles to come to the Ministry of Revenue to ask for salt!”
At this time, Bi Ziyan gave these instructions to his officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The salt merchants were completely desperate because of this.
"It seems that the imperial court is really serious about it! It will force us salt merchants to transport grain to the border towns, or force us to go to the border towns and merchant villages!"
"Yes! Who can afford the freight to transport grain to the border town? To transport one stone of grain to the border town, an additional three to five stone of grain must be sent. In order to save itself the loss of grain transportation, the imperial court went too far! It abused our salt so much business!"
"It stands to reason that the Ministry of Household Affairs can reject such an order that burdens the people and business. Even if it is rejected without knowing it, it can secretly do things that are contrary to the court's will in other ways, such as secretly sending salt to us. But now this household The ministry is unable to bring in oil and salt, especially when Bi Ziyan, the current minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, withheld the salt in advance without telling him about it, and even gave it to the officials of the border town in advance!"
"Alas! The good times for us salt merchants since the Hongzhi Dynasty have come to an end. We should move our homes in Yangzhou back to Shanxi and go to farm in Bianzhen! It can't be done. If we don't do this salt business anymore, what will we eat?"
Therefore, a group of salt merchants complained privately about the current salt policy reform.
Historically, Ye Qi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue in the Hongzhi Dynasty, reformed the Chinese law, so that salt merchants did not have to transport grain to the border towns to exchange for salt. Instead, they only needed to take money to the Ministry of Revenue to exchange for salt. After that, the salt merchants no longer had to go to the border towns to exchange for salt. As a result, a large number of inward migrations began, from border towns such as Shanxi, Liaodong, and Shaanxi to Yangzhou and Huai'an, resulting in a large reduction in the number of Han people in the border towns, and even the Hetao was lost as a result.
But now, because of the support of the Ministry of Revenue, the emperor's plan to restore the Kaizhong method has begun to be implemented.
Therefore, salt merchants like them began to have to move north one after another.
In fact, at this time in Jiubianbian Town, a large number of abandoned fields had begun to be reclaimed by some salt merchants who took the initiative to accept the results of the reform.
There are even salt merchants outside the Great Wall who bought some abandoned farmland near the Great Wall from some Mongolian tribes. For example, some fields in the Hetao that were originally grain-producing areas were bought by some salt merchants. Reclamation.
After all, these cultivated fields are of little value to the Mongolian nomads, so the price is relatively low.
And for this reason, before the imperial court confiscated the Hetao, Han merchants had begun to enter the Hetao area that was lost during the Hongzhi Dynasty.
…
"Immediately approve the petition submitted by the Ministry of Household Affairs to establish a government-operated salt bureau. The salt industry really needs the intervention of government-operated salt merchants, otherwise it will easily lead to an increase in salt prices. In addition, a decree is sent to the censors of all provinces. Together with the Salt Patrol Censor, be sure to strictly check the quality of official salt. Once the Dongchang is found to have neglected its duties, it will not be lenient! The Ministry of Revenue requested that the salt allotment to border towns be publicized, and the publicity was published in "Di Bao" and The "Huang Ming Bao" also approved it. This is a good method, which not only facilitates the allocation of military rations in various border towns, but also curbs corruption in the household department. Bi Ziyan is a practical person. According to the cabinet's decree, he was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao. !”
Political Hall.
On the way to Beijing, Zhu Youxiao determined to restore the system of opening up the law before the Hongzhi Dynasty and issued the decree. However, he did not expect that the Ministry of Revenue would start to implement it so quickly and also put forward good implementation suggestions. .
This made him, the emperor, feel a lot more comfortable, and he found that his civil servants were now willing to implement his reforms, especially after he expressed his attitude of never backing down, so that this time the system of opening up the Chinese law could be implemented. So fast.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was in a good mood, so he directly gave Bi Ziyan an honorary title.
"According to the order!"
Fang Congzhe responded and took the initiative to say: "Your Majesty! Now that Kaizhongfa has returned to the system before Xiaomiao, the court will save a lot of military supplies in the future, but now the national treasury is already very full, so I Please tell me, how should these saved military supplies be arranged?"
"After restoring the previous Kaizhong method, the number of businesses in border towns will increase, and the number of merchants and people in border towns will also increase, and some people will need roads to make military and border trade activities in border towns more convenient. Therefore, the savings Military supplies are still used in border towns and for the construction of official roads, first of all, the official roads from the capital to Shanhaiguan, Xuanfu, and Datong, which must be built into four carriages side by side!"
After Zhu Youxiao said this, he said: "I will give the order to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and let the Ministry of Household Affairs discuss how much money and food can be saved for military supplies and used to build official roads! Also, let people immediately buy salt stored by merchants in border towns. Businessmen are promoting corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, newly developed crops developed by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences that are beneficial to northern cultivation.”
"According to the order!"
Fang Congzhe replied.
Zhu Youxiao nodded for this. He asked the Ministry of Revenue to use the saved military supplies to build an official road to the border town. In fact, there was another reason, that is, he still planned to wait until the conditions were mature in the future to let all the Ming Empire Government or private transactions were settled in currency, which made it easier to control the empire's economy. In this case, the court would still need to transport grain to border towns in the future, and if there was already convenient transportation by then, it would naturally save a lot of losses in transporting grain. .
…
While Zhu Youxiao and his ministers continued to reform the Ming Dynasty, the factory guards were also severely interrogating the assassins of the emperor such as De Gelei.
"ah!"
As a whip dipped in salt water fell on Degelei and Yuetuo, who had been beaten with wounds all over their bodies, the two screamed in pain again.
At this moment, Xu Xianchun, who was responsible for interrogating them, said to a guard in Jinyi who could speak Manchu: "Continue to ask which Han people colluded with them and helped them come to the capital!"
"yes!"
The Jin Yiwei replied and quickly asked about De Gelei and Yue Tuo.
Yue Tuo spat first and said, "Dream!"
Xu Xianchun said with a cold face: "Torture again! Play the pipa and serve!"
So, the factory guard took a knife and vigorously moved the ribs of Yue Tuo and Dege with the tip of the knife.
The two of them were sweating profusely from the pain and screamed even more fiercely.
"It hurts!"
"it hurts!"
Dege therefore had to wave his hand.
Only then did Xu Xianchun make the people stop and asked the Jin Yiwei to continue asking.
The Dege said in Manchu: "I have a condition! If you want to know who is colluding with us, you must first tell me, yes, who it is, who told you that we will come to assassinate your emperor!" "
Xu Xianchun therefore looked back at Wei Zhongxian and Tian Ergeng.
Just as Tian Ergeng was about to stand up, Wei Zhongxian smiled and said, "It's your Sibeile!"
After saying that, Wei Zhongxian looked at Tian Ergen and asked, "What does it seem to be called Huang Taiji?"
Tian Ergeng nodded hurriedly: "That's right! It's Huang Taiji! Your fourth beile Huang Taiji, this person has already intended to submit to the imperial court!
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