In the Ming Dynasty, Shandong was a major province in the salt industry, with a total of nineteen large and small salt fields.
Among them, the Dagu River Salt Farm is not even ranked.
One of the reasons is that the natural conditions are not as good as elsewhere. The most important reason is that the traffic conditions here are too poor.
The salt produced was not lucky enough to be exported, and the transportation cost was high, so the Dagu River Salt Farm has not made much progress.
And this kind of salt field, which the court did not pay attention to, naturally became the best place to make illegal profits.
Anyway, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and the court cannot take care of it. The officials and powerful people surrounding the salt field act recklessly, and the oppressed salt and stove households are worse than dead.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had very strict control over kitchen households, but the preferential treatment given to them was also very good.
Not only were the kitchen households provided with pasture for woodcutting, and arable land was allowed to be cultivated, but the kitchen households were also exempted from chores, and a stone of rice, grain, and salt for their own use was provided.
Later, the shortcomings of this method became apparent, and the court made reforms.
Instead of collecting physical salt from kitchen households, salt lessons were collected from kitchen households by folding color and silver.
From an economic point of view, this method certainly has many benefits, and it also reduces the cost of the court.
However, the corrupt administration of the Ming Dynasty allowed officials to use their hands to steal countless benefits. The kitchen households have become the most miserable people.
The Transshipment Department does not collect salt in kind, but instead collects it in money. But the kitchen households had no cash in hand, so they had to sell the salt they produced in order to get money.
Often at this time, the purchasing salt merchants and salt gangs will collude with officials to lower prices and exploit kitchen households.
The government is very urgent in forcing salt lessons, and households who do not pay on time will be punished. In desperation, the salt that was produced with so much hard work could only endure the oppression of salt merchants and salt gangs and was sold at a low price.
Once the salt tax was paid, the kitchen households had no extra income at all and became even more impoverished.
"In the past, when the officials of the Transportation Department were here, although life was hard, they could still support themselves. The last time the White Lotus Demon caused trouble, the officials were frightened and they all ran away. This place was occupied by the Salt Gang. This gang The beasts were very ferocious and said that the salt farm would be theirs from now on. They also took out the official documents from the forwarding company and took advantage of it. We, the kitchen households, had nothing to do. All the salt produced now has been stolen by the salt gang. Take it away without paying us wages."
People like Chen Jie are just complaining about the hardship of life. But when Fu Yusun heard this, he immediately cleared the door.
Apparently the officials of the Transportation Department were frightened by the White Lotus Sect's rebellion and fled for fear of dying in this remote place in the countryside.
But the court's salt lesson must be completed.
So what to do?
These officials thought of a way.
Leave the salt farm to salt merchants, salt gangs and other powerful people to take care of it. You only need to give them enough salt lessons every year to make it easy for them to do business.
So the salt field fell into the hands of powerful people.
In order to maximize their profits, this group of powerful people will not care about the life and death of the kitchen households. Only by directly grabbing and doing business without capital can you earn more.
As for forcing Zaohu to death...
It’s hard to find toads with three legs, but are there few people with two legs?
Fu Yusun was furious when he learned about the intrigue. He obviously did not expect that such evil things would happen right under his nose.
Now that he is in charge of the government, and he is a secretary from Zuo Mengeng, as long as he does his job well, he will have a bright future. On the Jiaozhou Bay side, the salt farm is an important source of income.
"Brother Chen, this disease..."
Chen Jie's wife said something.
"What's the matter? Our boss went to argue with Boss Wu, but Boss Wu acted cruelly and injured our boss."
Fu Yusun motioned to Huang Zonghui to take notes and inquire in detail.
"Who is Boss Wu?"
Seeing that Chen Jie and his wife were hesitant to speak and obviously worried, Fu Yusun encouraged them.
"So that I can make my brother understand that from now on, the Dagu River Salt Field will be managed by me, Lingshan Town. I have the final say in your livelihood."
Chen Jie was stunned and couldn't help but ask: "Do you have any official documents from the court? Then... then Mr. Wu has official documents."
This is why the kitchen households are helpless.
The salt gang now manages the salt farm legally, and they dare to resist, which is tantamount to rebellion.
Fu Yusun sneered, his murderous intent clearly revealed.
"There is no official document, but there are eight thousand troops. Brother, tell me, which one is more effective, the official document, or the army?"
Chen Jie was considered well-informed and just shook his head.
"Sir, it's not the imperial court that has the final say when we go to break the sky. When the adults from the Transportation Department come back, it will all be in vain."
Fu Yusun said very seriously: "Don't worry, brother, the people from the transportation department won't be able to come back."
Chen Jie and his wife looked at each other, wondering why he was so sure.
Fu Yusun also knew that no matter how much he talked to Chen Jie, it would be useless. The top priority was to deal with the Salt Gang.
However, Chen Jie has a high reputation among kitchen households and will be used to renovate the salt farm in the future.
Thinking of this, he told Huang Zonghui and Cheng Xiaoer: "Go back to Lingshan Town and ask a few doctors to come over to diagnose and treat Brother Chen. In addition, bring over a batch of grain to help the kitchen households survive this period." "
Chen Jie was very excited when he heard that Fu Yusun wanted to treat his injuries and deliver food.
"My lord, my lord, are you really here to save us?"
Fu Yusun did not answer directly, but pointed to the damaged shanty and said: "Your house is soaked in water, and there is air leakage everywhere. It will be winter in a while, and you may freeze to death. Don't worry about anything else. Wait for the rain to stop. You find a good piece of land and build a house."
And build a house?
Chen Jie fell to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly.
"Master Qingtian... why did you come here? We... our kitchen households can be saved!"
In the soft rain, the whimpering outside the house gradually turned into a continuous howl.
Fu Yusun turned around and opened the door. Only then did he see that thousands of kitchen households were crying in the rain outside. Apparently, they heard what was said in the house.
In the freezing rainy weather, these kitchen households were covered in a single piece of colorless clothing and stepped barefoot in the sewage. Compared to their bruised and cold bodies, perhaps their hearts were more numb.
And the arrival of Fu Yusun broke the hard shell of their originally solidified and petrified hearts.
Fu Yusun didn't go in either. He just stood at the door and spoke loudly so that people in the room and people outside the room could hear.
"You guys, please recognize my face now. My name is Fu Yusun, and I am now the mayor of Lingshan Town. From now on, the Dagu River Salt Farm will also be under my control."
The kitchen households all widened their eyes, as if they wanted to imprint the appearance of this young official in their hearts. I believe that in this life, they will not forget it until the day they die.
Fu Yusun's voice broke through the rain curtain and became louder and louder.
"If you live, you must eat salt. If you don't eat salt, you will have no strength, and you can't do anything. That's why the court takes salt so seriously, and salt is in such short supply. Since salt is so good, why can't we kitchen households survive? Have a good life? Is it because we, the kitchen households, are unwilling to work? Is it that we, the kitchen households, cannot bear hardships? None of this. It is the fault of this world. Here today, everyone is listening, I will tell you what we are going to do next Let’s talk about it.”
It was a matter of life and death for everyone, and all the kitchen households were so nervous that they didn't even want to blink.
Fu Yusun took a breath, cleared his thoughts, and spelled out his plans one by one.
"In the past six months, everyone has been without money and food. If we continue to suffer, we will probably starve to death, so I asked people to prepare food. People are iron, and food is steel. If you don't eat one meal, you will be hungry. Wait for the food to come I’ll give it to the big guys first. If you’re full and your stomach is not enough, can people live in this shabby shack? The town will spend money to find a good, high-lying land near here and build brick houses for you.”
An old man in the kitchen was happy and worried at the same time. He choked and said: "Sir, we are so poor that we only have a handful of bones and sticks. We cannot afford to live in a good house."
"No ambition!"
Fu Yu and Sun Duan shouted and pointed at the salt field in front of them.
"We are guarding the salt fields, are we afraid of running out of money? The money for building a house will go out to the town first. Don't ask the big guys to pay it back. From now on, we will make salt well and sell more money. The town will have income, and the money to build a house will be considered Shit?"
The kitchen households burst into tears and laughed, never expecting that this official was so responsible and would take poor people like them seriously.
It is obvious that the originally lifeless salt field has burst out with a different kind of vitality.
Fu Yusun stood on the threshold and saw everything clearly.
He knew that the salt farm could be saved.
