The reason has a lot to do with the implementation of the two tax laws.

The two tax laws stipulate the tax amounts of each bureau and state, but they are relatively simple and crude, which is the benchmark for the year with the highest tax amount in the Dali period. The same is true for salt profit. Since Liu Yan's peak of Huihuang was 6 million guan a year in the entire southeast, then this is the standard after that. The Tang government gave the quota of 6 million guan to various salt and iron fields. For example, the Hangzhou Salt Farm is 360,000 guan a year, and the Suzhou Salt Farm is 1.05 million guan a year. This is the "salt course" of the officials of the field. Whether it can meet or exceed this quota becomes the only standard for the officials of the school.

In this case, in order to complete the quota of salt profits rations, each hospital must show its magical powers. This is the so-called "strike competition".

But after Liu Yan, it was actually difficult for the salt course to reach another 6 million stakes.

Why? It’s very simple. Money shortage is an important factor, while the price reduction of fabric is another important factor.

After the emperor ascended the throne, most parts of the Tang Empire have recovered from the trauma of war. Rice and grain have been abundant year by year, cloth weaving has also steadily rebounded, and the number of people and households has also continued to grow: the price of rice is getting cheaper, and the same is true for cloth.

In the past or two years, the cloth from southeastern Jianghuai, a piece of medium-quality one actually costs only a consistent amount of money.

But the salt merchants still used the price of "one piece of cloth and four stakes of coins" from the government, and combined with the discount of false estimation, they used the price difference to make a big profit.

In short, the cloth sold by the salt merchant was a four-spin (virtual), and the original shape was revealed when handed to the court. It was a one-spin (real), one-spin (real), one-spin (real), one-spin (real), which caused serious shrinkage of salt profit.

So is it okay to cancel the false estimation method and require the actual market price to sell salt to salt merchants?

The answer is no, because this will make salt merchants feel that it is unprofitable. Once it is unprofitable, they will no longer come to question salt. In this way, no matter how much salt is released in the government's pavilions and fields, it is useless: salt can only be profitable if it is purchased by merchants and sold to the people for consumption.

If the salt merchants don’t come, they will not be able to complete the “salt class” for the salt and iron officials. Then what awaits them will not be promotion, but will be severe punishment from the court.

Therefore, at this time, the initiative in the game was not in the hands of officials, but in the hands of salt merchants.

The earliest method that the salt and iron organization came up with was to increase the price of salt. When the emperor launched a war against Heshuofang Town, he increased the price of salt from 110 cents per bucket to 200 cents, hoping to use it to plunder more profits.

But reality slapped them in the face. The price of salt rises, and the market price will inevitably rise accordingly (the increase is 300 citrus per bucket or even higher). In short, the burden will eventually be transferred to the people. However, the magical thing is that after the price of salt soars in the short term, it will soon fall again: the people will automatically reduce their desires before high prices. This is the unchanging truth of ancient and modern times. People become "Buddhist" in eating salt. Either they eat food and rice lightly or simply buy private salt. The price of salt can only fall back after it touches the ceiling.

In this way, the salt and iron mechanism still cannot complete the "six million trump card" quota.

Finally, when Bao Ji was the Biandong Transportation Commander, he came up with a solution, which was what Lu Zhi said, "use light goods to make a lot of money." Bao Ji raised the price of salt to a dou of 350 meter, but it was impossible to sell the money. These numbers were just deceiving superiors and trying to complete the salt class. The actual situation was that Bao Ji and the salt merchants reached a tacit understanding: in addition to the cloth, the salt merchants took out more "light goods" to deal with salt, that is, the various things such as tortoiseshell, lacquerware, porcelain, etc. placed in front of the emperor, and deliberately raised the price of these light goods in the account book until they were pieced together a total of 6 million chunks.

This created a strange phenomenon in Gao Yue's mouth: the price of the Salt Court is 350 cents per bull, but the price sold to the people on the market is 200 cents per bull, but the salt merchants still earn a lot of money, because most of the 350 cents are filled with light goods.

Then these so-called light goods were shipped all the way to the capital.

In fact, where is the light goods worth the money? If you really resell the salt profit of 6 million guan, the actual income is often no more than 3 million guan.

This year is even worse.

"There are also salt farms along the coast of Pinglu Army, and 1.5 million shi of salt are boiled every year. According to the information obtained by the court, Li Na and Tianxu instructed the merchants of the town to lower the surplus salt and sell the surplus salt into the southeast Jianghuai area, which greatly reduced the local salt prices. The salt merchants asked the various hospitals to lower the stake. In order to complete the salt course, the various hospitals did not dare to lower the stake. So the salt merchants secretly forced the stake to use this kind of earth silk as a 'light commodity' stake to salt." At this time, Gao Yue held up the fragments of Huaixi local silk and said, "I am afraid that this piece of earth silk is not worth even 500 stakes. It actually marked two stakes of 200 stakes, which deceived Your Majesty, and made the salt law corrupt."

"This earthen silk was woven by the Cai people in Huaixi Wu Shaocheng, especially bad. I originally wanted to use it as market money to pay for the Uighurs, but now it seems that even the Uighurs can't deceive them. I believe that Huaixi Town also colluded with the group of salt merchants in the southeast and deliberately dumped the earthen silk to them for salt." The emperor was furious after taking Gao Yue's words.

This is Li Yuanping's trick.

"After I pacify Qiang, I must destroy Huaixi!" The emperor's fist hit the long table hard, and the tortoiseshell and lacquerware were shaken and fell to the floor.

"Even so, when Yanli was transported to the capital along the canal, it was blackmailed by the ponds of various towns, which reduced the consumption even more."

"Xuanwu and other towns are all birds of a feather. I don't want to see that Dou Huacai's magic remains until now!" The emperor was on fire.

"Your Majesty, please calm down your anger." Before Lu Zhi and Jia Dan could speak, Gao Yue wanted to step forward and give advice to the emperor first. "Since Xingyuan, Fengxiang, Xichuan, and Dongchuan were approved by His Majesty to implement the Jingjie Law, the income from taxes and rice was greatly increased. Ministers, Wei Gao, Liu Changqing (now promoted to Bakui Observation Envoy), Xie Facheng (the military envoy of Dongchuan, Du Huangshang entered the court as prime minister, and stayed for Dongchuan) was willing to give the additional 700,000 jin of coins and 900,000 shi of rice that he had earned this year to the court to serve as the military use of Pingqiang."

Hearing this, the emperor was so moved that tears flashed in his eyes, and the words "Love your son-in-law" almost blurted out.

In addition, Du Huangshang also came forward to make suggestions: "Xingyuan and Fengxiang cotton weaving Daxing. Now, the soldiers' clothes and gifts of soldiers have been changed to cotton. The demand for Southeast cloth is no longer as strong as that of the Daizong Dynasty. Therefore, Liu Yan's former false estimate can be abolished."

"Not only should we stop abolishing the abolition, we also have to innovate the salt law and the transportation law. However, this is also the matter of the post-Push Qiang, and it is in line with the pacification of Caizhou in Huaixi. All the ministers can make a long-term plan." This time the emperor was clear-headed and the decision he made was reasonable.

Lu Zhi also added: "Although the salt law in the southeast is corrupt, taxable rice and grain is still the place where the imperial court relied on it. I suggest that the three observers of Xuanshe, western Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang be merged to rebuild the Zhenhai Army's tooth flag, so Han Hui, the younger brother of Han Jingong, unified it, and shocked Li Na, Liu Shining, Wu Shaocheng and other young people from the southeast."

"But!" The emperor had made up his mind at this time and wanted to confront Kanto immediately. Otherwise, who is the world in the Shenzhou territory now?
Chapter completed!