After the "accidental encounter" between Shen Yongmao and Gao Pragmatic, the situation in the court slightly eased in the next few days, and the emperor also had some reaction to this, and responded in a belated impeachment report from the south: "Old things have long been settled. There is no need to discuss it further. Kuang Hairui is in charge of Nancha, and you are now gathering for impeachment. What do you mean?"
After all, there was not only one Nanjing in the south of the Yangtze River. Some memorials arrived earlier and some arrived later. This was just an ordinary thing. It just happened that the two factions in the capital had reached a tacit understanding, but his memorial came up, so as not to be ignored by the emperor. Such a warning.
The warning was not bad, at least it did not anger the emperor and lead to him being dismissed from office. Speaking of which, it was thanks to Shen Shixing's speed in seeking peace that the emperor did not react much due to his high pragmatism. Considering that the government needed to be stable, he did not use thunderous wrath.
Since the government is stable, there is no need to delay the reward. Both the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household are headed by the Practical School, so it is easier for the two parties to negotiate rewards. However, Liang Menglong is still a little unhappy about Li Chengliang's issue.
Liang Menglong believed that even if the imperial court was extremely tolerant towards its ministers, and Li Chengliang did have a nobleman named Ning Yuanbo, no matter how tolerant he was, he could not ignore rewards and punishments.
What is the nature of the private sale of gunpowder to Chahar? At the very least, he is an enemy! For such a big mistake, even if he is an honorable minister, he can only be punished lightly at most, but he can never go unpunished, let alone deliberately cover it up for him.
Logically speaking, Liang Menglong's point of view is completely correct, and Gao Pragmatic also agrees. A country cannot lack institutionalized rewards and punishments, otherwise chaos will sooner or later occur.
However, etiquette has authority and matters have priorities. Now is not the right time to punish Li Chengliang. This will cause the court to be instantly out of order, and some of the steps that Gao Pragmatic has already set will be unexpectedly disrupted. What kind of variables this will cause, even people like Gao Pragmatic, who are good at analysis and deduction, can't be sure.
Anyone who is good at analyzing and deducing and controlling the situation for a long time will definitely not be able to tolerate the development of things getting out of control. The same goes for Gao Pragmatic, so he proposed a compromise plan.
The main meaning of this plan is that the reward will remain as usual, and Li Chengliang's actions will not be investigated for the time being, but the Ministry of War will not publicly find him innocent. Gao pragmatically sent people to quietly collect evidence, trying to find out the matter and obtain enough evidence. When the situation of the court changes in the future, he would choose a suitable opportunity to settle accounts with Li Chengliang.
People who can't bear an overnight feud are not suitable for office. Anyone "within the system", regardless of his status, will definitely have someone or something that can make him endure temporarily. Wishful grudges are usually only suitable for desperadoes, while settling accounts after the fall is a routine operation for officials.
Liang Menglong also understood this truth, so after Gao Pingshi explained his words, although he was unwilling to do so, he finally agreed.
The final result was that Cao Yun's position remained unchanged but he was promoted to one rank, and was appointed as the Governor of the Right Army Governor's Mansion. He was rewarded with thirty taels of silver and given a red silk flying fish suit. Ma Chengxun "contained meritorious service" and was promoted to the capital guard. (Shanxi Xingdu Command and Envoy Division) all commanded Tongzhi, and were rewarded with 10 taels of silver; Zhang Wanbang defeated the enemy head-on, and added his own guard (Datong Yanghe Wei) to command the envoy, and was rewarded with 20 taels of silver... A group of people waited regardless of whether it was official or not In the battle, almost everyone who participated in the expedition was successful and received rewards.
As for the lieutenants of the army, of course it depends on the number of ranks. However, in accordance with Gao Pragmatic's original principle of leading troops, the merits reported by Cao Yun this time were not based solely on the level of beheading of a person, but on the basis of low-level combat units (such as the Little Yuanyang Formation, which is actually a "squad"). .
As a result, there is no need for individuals to "create wealth", but the wealth is distributed to more people. As for the specific rewards for each small combat unit, a system introduced by Gao Pragmatic back then was also promoted by Cao Yun, that is, secret voting within the unit.
The specific method is that each person uses a copper coin as a seal, and the people on the distributed list are stamped with one to five copper coin stamps respectively. In the end, those with more stamps have higher merits, and those with fewer stamps have lower merits. All the ballot forms are put in on the spot. A ballot box. After the voting is completed, superior officers will open the boxes in person and count the votes in public, and they are not allowed to let the ballot boxes out of sight during the process.
This method is generally fair. Although in some cases it may result in some people with good interpersonal relationships getting more "copper coins", Gao Pragmatic believes that this is understandable and tolerable: since he has good interpersonal relationships, it means that everyone If you are willing to listen to him, it is normal for him to get more credit. After all... this is also a kind of prestige.
Cao Yu now considers himself a direct descendant of Gao Pragmatism, and of course he will closely follow the system created by Gao Pragmatism, so the reward this time will also be handled in this way.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic will not ask about these details. His main responsibility is to transfer money... oh, transfer money. Fortunately, Liaodong's salt tax has increased this year. Although the reward is not low this time, it can still be dealt with.
By the way, this year's salt tax in Liaodong is actually paid by Gao Pragmatic and the emperor, and it all comes from the Liaonan salt field. The Gao pragmatic people always paid "heavy taxes" to prove their innocence, but the emperor, because he was not required to tell the truth, also paid the Gao pragmatic ratio. This also led to a result that made the emperor very dissatisfied.
It's not that he was dissatisfied with paying more taxes following Gao Pragmatic, but that the salt tax paid by the Liaodong Salt Farm this year actually reached 70% of Yangzhou's, which in the emperor's eyes was simply a mockery.
When did the scale of Liaodong Salt Farm reach 70% in Yangzhou? Huaiyang was the gathering place for salt merchants and the largest salt field in the world. Even though the highly pragmatic Liaodong salt field expanded rapidly, the scale of the Yangzhou salt field was at least three to four times that of Liaodong. Even if Liaodong pays a high amount, it should not be this ratio, so it is obvious that there is something fishy in the Huaiyang salt tax, a big fishy thing.
However, Gao Pragmatic did not express his position on this matter. Although the emperor was angry, he did not know where to intervene. It is not impossible to use the "report card" of the Liaodong salt field to blame the Lianghuaidu Salt Transfer Department and even the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, but Zhu Yijun knew that it would not be of any use. Although the relevant people in charge would definitely plead guilty, they would definitely The memorial cited a lot of reasons to show that they could only receive so much.
One of the reasons why Gao Pragmatic wants to penetrate Nanjing is to take back the Ministry of Revenue's management rights over the salt industry. It's not that he particularly loves to seize power, but he knows that without him to reform, the salt affairs problem of the Ming Dynasty would not be improved at all.
Now that he is the Minister of Household Affairs, in the long run, it is impossible to rely on his family to pay taxes to keep the imperial court alive. The fundamental problems must be solved before the Ming Dynasty can recover. In the short term, only by increasing state treasury revenue can we avoid causing another rebellion in the northwest in the past few years when we are extremely short of money.
As we all know, in the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the control over the production and sales of the salt industry, there were Metropolitan Salt Transfer Departments and Salt Class Promotion Departments across the country. Each department had a relatively fixed scope of salt sales and published them on copper plates, which could not be changed without authorization.
Among the various salt-producing areas, the Lianghuai Salt Area ranks first in the country due to its large output, dense population, developed economy and convenient transportation. Therefore, small changes within it may have a serious impact on the situation of the entire country.
The imperial court also appointed officials to the Lianghuai Salt Region very frequently. This was not only because of the important position of the Lianghuai River in the national finance, but also showed that the marketing of Huaiyan salt in this region was not easy and often required the court's intervention. Thanks to his third uncle Zhang Sijiao's long-term stay in Yangzhou, Gao pragmatically understood that among the many factors affecting the salt trade in the Huaihe River, the most important and direct one was the prevalence of illegal salt sales.
What is private salt? Jing Xueqian, a salt affairs expert at the beginning of the Republic of China, once said: "What is private? For officials. What is official and what is private? No one knows, no one knows: if there is tax, it is official, if there is no tax, it is private."
In other words, illegal salt is salt that is not produced, transported and sold in accordance with national laws and regulations, especially salt that is not taxed and therefore cannot provide statutory fiscal and tax revenue to the country.
There was no distinction between official and private salt in the first place, but since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the official management of salt and iron, there has been so-called private salt from the perspective of the government.
After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the problem of illicit salt gradually became prominent and became a problem that subsequent dynasties could not get rid of. The trend of people selling illicit salt became more and more intense.
For example, Huang Chao, the leader of the rebel army in the late Tang Dynasty, engaged in smuggling; in the Song Dynasty, in Qianzhou in Jiangxi and Tingzhou in Fujian, "many people stole and sold Guangnan salt for profit". He is a thief"; at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng "stealed Wuhui as a salt disciple, and started a small business as a peddler. Although the world was peaceful, it was not extinct."
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang strictly implemented the law prohibiting smuggling and stipulated that "those who carry burdens will be sent to the army with a hundred sticks." Therefore, large-scale private smuggling activities among the people have been somewhat restrained.
However, after Xuande, "the salt ban was slightly relaxed, and there were more private traders." For example, in the tenth year of Xuande, he reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs: "The price of salt in the Huaihe River is low, and there are few merchants. This is all because they are located in the home of a powerful military and defensive power." , indulged in the slave labor, obstructed the salt law, went out privately to sell, often hundreds of ships. They held weapons hostage and plundered wherever they went."
In the first year of Zhengtong, the imperial court appointed He Wenyuan, the right minister of the Ministry of Justice, Wang Zuo, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Zhu Yuyan, the right deputy of the Imperial Procuratorate, to supervise the salt courses of Lianghuai, Changlu, and Liangzhe, respectively. It was also because "Lianghuai, The salt transportation envoys of Changlu and Liangzhe Provinces and the officials of various salt departments did not abide by the constitution, committed corruption, and allowed kitchen households to fry private goods; There are those who secretly sell the goods, some pretend to be rich and powerful, and there are those who sell them along the way; there are even those who gather ships according to their disciples, arrange weapons, and commit evil acts."
It can be seen from these two cases that as early as the Zhengtong period, the problem of illegal salt had been widespread across the country, and the prevalence of illegal salt had posed a threat to the imperial court's official salt sales system.
Although the Ming court was well aware of the prevalence of illegal salt sales, it had no effective countermeasures. In December of the third year of Zhengtong, the imperial court had to order the censor to inspect the salt courses in Lianghuai and Zhejiang. Previously, "Yin Boring, the censor, was ordered to go to Yangzhou Prefecture to supervise the salt courses in Lianghuai, but he was summoned back, and the smugglers and transportation officials were ordered to cook privately." The disadvantages of overcoming expropriation outweigh the benefits.”
Because of this, the post of Salt Patrol Censor gradually became a permanent official position from a temporary appointment by the imperial court, and was "replaced according to patrol regulations." In addition, in connection with these two cases of the court appointing officials, it can be seen that the court had at least appointed He Wenyuan and Yin Boring to supervise the Lianghuai Salt Class three years before Zhengtong. However, the problem has not been solved, and supervision still needs to be continued.
Based on this, Gao Pragmatic can make two speculations. One is that the private salt in the Huaihe River has been piling up for a long time and cannot be solved overnight. The second is that none of the officials sent in the early stage were able to complete the task, and some of them may be suspected of deliberately condoning the development of private salt. .
However, judging from historical data, it is less feasible that in the early orthodox years when official governance was still good, multiple censors continuously violated the wishes of the court and deliberately acted for selfish ends, so the first speculation is more likely.
The seriousness and persistence of the private salt problem in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River has posed a serious threat to the imperial government's fiscal revenue and further affected the border defense reserves. Therefore, the imperial court repeatedly stated the ban on illegal salt in the 12th year of Zhengtai, the third year of Jingtai, and the third year of Chenghua. However, it still failed to achieve good results, and illegal salt sales continued to intensify.
Especially after the Salt Law was severely damaged in the second year of Chenghua, many private salts were sold across the border, and official salt was not added, and the Salt Law was abolished, causing many disadvantages. According to Gao Pragmatic's verification, there were mainly two types of private salt in the Lianghuai Salt District at that time.
One is Huai private salt, which is private salt flowing directly from the Lianghuai salt area. Part of this is that kitchen households secretly sell the remaining salt in their hands to private traders or salt lords, who then sell it under the guise of official seals.
Although the imperial court at that time provided for the purchase of surplus salt, the kitchen households in remote areas were often not favored by salt merchants and were rarely willing to go all the way to collect it. In this case, the only option was to sell to private traders or salt lords.
On the other hand, after the implementation of the system of collecting silver for salt lessons, kitchen households who paid the salt tax had to sell salt in exchange for silver, which led to an increase in private frying and selling. Especially in years of disaster, kitchen households are often "struggled with food and clothing, so they steal and sell salt to meet emergencies." - See what this looks like? That's right, just like the poor people who were forced to sell grain to pay taxes after Zhang Juzheng forcibly promoted the whip method in Shaanxi and other places.
However, Gao Pragmatic knew in his heart that Zaohu's private decoction and sales were not for the purpose of deliberately confronting the imperial salt law, but more often as a last resort. Moreover, because the scale of their smuggling was small and the quantity of each transaction was not large, In fact, the impact on the salt law was not very strong, and it only appeared in coastal salt fields and surrounding areas.
The other part is the outflow of official salt. For example, in the third year of Chenghua's reign, the Criminal Division reported to Zuo Xian: "Since the Yizheng arrived in Nanjing, along the river, from Wuhu to Huguang, Jiangxi and other places, there were saltmen driving large ships covering the ocean and plundering wantonly. Although there were patrols along the river, Officers such as generals and generals often indulge themselves because of their wealth." This is an example of a salt owl forming a gang to rob officials of salt.
Another example is that in the second year of Jiajing, "Eunuch Li Tan was traveling between Huaiyang and Huaiyang, and he was selling private salt in his boat. Cheng Jinggui, who was patrolling the salt inspection, led his soldiers to search for it." This is an example of eunuchs participating in smuggling.
In addition, in the memorial to the Ministry of Household Affairs in the tenth year of Xuande's reign mentioned just now, there is also a saying that "the family of a powerful military and guard condoned servants, obstructed the salt law, and started selling hundreds of ships without permission." This is an example of smuggling by local powerful men and military guards.
From this point of view, although the participants in the private sale of Huai salt are complex and the sources of private salt are different, they are all confrontations against the imperial salt policy outside of national law. They are the most serious in nature and occur in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In an economically important area, the impact on the Salt Law will naturally be more severe.
The second type of private salt is neighboring salt, that is, private salt from adjacent salt areas flowing into the Lianghuai salt area. Compared with the private sale of Huaiyan salt, Neighbor Private Sales far outperforms in terms of quantity and duration.
From a geographical point of view, the Lianghuai Salt District is located in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the price of Huaiyan Salt is higher than that of neighboring salt districts (because the marketing area is rich). Therefore, all sides of Huai District are invaded by private salt from neighboring districts.
Gao Pragmatic found that as early as the third year of Jingtai when the salt ban was announced, the Ministry of Household Affairs stated in a memorial: "In recent years, private salt has been prevalent, and there are many traders. The official salt price is low, but there are few official salt collectors. And as in Guangdong Haibei Erti was the place where the salt trade was carried out, and it meandered north and ended at Nanxiong. Today it even reaches Meiling, Yangjiaoshui and other places and crosses to Jiangxi and Huguang. Hedong and Shaanxi Yunsi's salt trade land is meandering south and ends at Nanyang. Today As far as Tongguan, Neixiang and other places, and beyond to Huguang and Xiangyang."
However, the Lianghuai salt area is not only affected by Guangdong Haibei salt and Hedong salt. In Jiangxi, after Nan'an, Ganzhou, and Ji'an switched to Guangyan salt, "Guangyan salt flowed down the river, and its momentum was very convenient, so it was soaked in In the counties of Yuan, Lin, Fu, and Rui, there are only a limited number of wise practitioners, but an infinite number of private traders."
In Huguang, in the west of Huai District, there is "Sichuan salt", which is often smuggled in Jingxiang counties. The Shu salt is more exquisite than the Huai salt. Even though it is strictly prohibited, it cannot be stopped."
On the Yangzhou Canal line, "the ships coming from the north usually carry illegal salt, but the ships returning with empty grains are even more so. There are hundreds of boats sailing through the pass. If there is a search for information, stilts are set on fire, and the crowd resists arrest, there is nothing to be done." Drink up."
Therefore, the neighboring countries that flowed into the Huaihe River area were not only large in area and large in number, but also as serious as the gangsters. They had become widespread, and the salt courses of the imperial court were also greatly affected by this.
How much impact does it have? Taking Jiangxi as an example, Gao Pingshi found the file: "First, Jiangxi Province sent 390,000 yuan of Huaiyan salt, and then Ganzhou, Nan'an, and Ji'an switched to Guangyan, but Nanchang and other nine prefectures still used Huaiyan 2 170,000 citations. Now that smuggling is prevalent, light boats and swift oars gather wherever they are.
For example, the three prefectures of Yuanzhou, Linjiang, and Ruizhou all ate Guangyan salt privately; the three prefectures of Fuzhou, Jianchang, and Guangxin ate Fu salt privately (Guangxin Prefecture belonged to the salt land of the two Zhejiang provinces, not the Huai District). Therefore, Huaiyan only produced 160,000 copies. Within a few years, the national economy was in dire straits.
Governor Masen Shangshuji Chen asked him to build bridges and gates with Xiajiang County to block the private salt roads of Guang and Fu, and still restore the original amount of Huai salt. It increased slightly to 470,000 quotes. "
Neighbors invaded the Huaihe District privately, which not only usurped the court's salt tax, but also made it difficult for Huaiyan salt to sell well. The Huaihe District was also related to the Nine-Border Reserve, which was obviously a thorn in the side of the court.
Although the imperial court divided part of the Huai River area into other salt areas, the Huai salt area often took a step back and its neighbors were increasingly forced in. For example, in Jiangxi, "without the three prefectures, the whole province will be choked, and the whole Huaihe River will be sick." Therefore, "if the three prefectures are gone, Huaiyan salt will not be able to compete with Guangzhou."
The result of Huaiyan's failure to compete with Guangzhou was that the national economy was in dire straits, border wages could not be guaranteed, and national security was greatly threatened. If it hadn't been for the increase in port revenue after the Gao Gong reform, the Ming army would not have been able to change its uniforms in these years.
But illegal salt trading is so rampant, is it right to allow it to spread? Since Gao Pragmatic has become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, there is no room for him to be filled with mud and sand! It is the right time to take advantage of Nancha's power to seize the power to supervise salt.
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