Zhu Cixiang was sitting in the restaurant, accompanied only by Shen Yunying, Hu Bao, and Yue Yang. The personal guards they brought with them were all disguised and scattered among the crowd on the street downstairs.

Not only did the Lianghuai salt transport envoys and the salt patrol censors accept bribes, they also collaborated with the Lianghuai garrison eunuchs to accept huge benefits from salt merchants, and moved the money that the salt merchants wanted to hand over to the state treasury back to their homes.

Corrupt officials even unscrupulously sold large amounts of official salt to merchants, and the merchants used their connections to smuggle it without paying any taxes, resulting in the loss of a large amount of official salt.

Zhu Cixiang knew this very well. On the one hand, he learned about it based on Jin Yiwei's intelligence, and on the other hand, he learned about it through the history of later generations.

When he came to Yangzhou this time, Zhu Cihong mainly wanted to see how rich the salt merchants in Yangzhou were. He did not interfere in some transactions in restaurants.

During the meal, guests whispered from time to time. Zhu Cihong listened carefully for a while and found that most of them were about the private life of the salt merchant.

For example, a certain salt merchant took a five-room concubine, and a certain salt merchant bought six thin horses. This was already the tenth thin horse he had bought in two months.

I heard that they all like fresh skinny horses. After buying this batch of skinny horses, the previous batch of skinny horses will be sold to brothels...

Salt merchants are all extremely wealthy. I heard that some salt merchants have gold bricks on their bedroom walls...

Zhu Cixiang was eating vegetables and drinking juice, and was also silently listening to the discussions of several people!

Salt merchants are indeed smarter than some wealthy merchants and aristocratic families. During the fierce tax resistance process, few of them participated in it, and therefore escaped disaster.

However, they will definitely not escape death this time. As for not resisting the tax, it may be related to their previous tax evasion, and they have a guilty conscience and are worried about being caught.

Hu Bao and Yue Yang heard the discussion on the side and thought that Emperor Shenwu must be very unhappy.

When they quietly looked at Emperor Shenwu, they found that Emperor Shenwu had a calm face and did not seem to be angry. The two of them were very puzzled...

Zhu Cihong didn't say a word and left the restaurant after dinner. He wanted to see how life was in Yanhu.

The largest salt field in the Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly the Lianghuai Salt Field in South Zhili. The production area includes the salt fields in Huainan and Huaibei.

Among them, the Huainan salt field has the oldest development history, and the Huaibei salt field has the largest production scale.

In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, after more than 100 years of practice, the imperial court adopted the salt method proposed by Yuan Shizhen, promoted the steel salt method, and implemented the salt industry monopoly.

The Gangsalt Method is to compile the salt quotations of each business office into an outline book, which is divided into ten guidelines. Each year, one guideline is used for accumulated quotations, and nine guidelines are used for current quotations.

Every year, a new quotation will be issued based on the number on the roll. Anyone with a name in the roll will be regarded as a nest copy.

No one with a name on the list was allowed to join. From then on, officials did not collect salt, and merchants traded directly with salt households.

The Salt Law gave salt merchants hereditary arbitrary power, and it was from this period that the salt merchants began to accumulate huge wealth.

For this reason, some Shanxi merchants went to the Huaihe and Huaihe areas to compete with Hui merchants for salt profits.

Direct transactions between merchants and salt households have certain benefits for salt collectors, as salt production is no longer subject to government supervision and control.

As long as you pay your salt tax on time, you can do whatever you want at your own time. You can develop your side business and produce more salt.

Salt never has to worry about sales. When there is more salt, businessmen will naturally come to buy it.

The purchase price is often higher than the original government discount.

If they catch up with the good market, the life of saltmen should be very happy.

However, when Zhu Cixi came to the place where the salt-making village was located, he found that it was completely different from what he had imagined.

The houses here are very dilapidated, and all the salt workers who come and go are still dilapidated, with disheveled faces, just like refugees.

Zhu Cixiang immediately realized that things were far from being as simple as imagined.

Seeing an aunt washing clothes by the pond, Zhu Cixiang stepped forward and asked with a smile:

"Auntie, the city of Yangzhou is so prosperous, why are the villages here so dilapidated?"

The aunt looked up and down Zhu Cihong and the others, and saw that they were rich people, so she frowned and said:

"It's good not to starve to death, but it's not like rich people like you..."

Zhu Cixiang shook his head secretly. It seemed that the people were not living as they pleased, and he felt a little resentful towards the rich!

"I heard that you produce salt here. We want to buy some salt in large quantities. I wonder if Auntie can introduce it?"

The aunt raised her eyebrows and asked tentatively:

"Are you a salt merchant?"

Zhu Cixi smiled and said:

"We are serious businessmen, trading legally. I can take over all the salt you produce here. How about four taels of silver per quotation?"

"Three two and one lead?"

After hearing this, the aunt stopped talking to Zhu Cixi and continued to wash clothes!

As a person from a salt-producing land, I don’t know anything about it.

According to the normal purchase price, a salt is only about 20 taels to 2 taels and 5 taels of silver.

The young man in front of me was given four taels at once. How could he be a serious businessman? He was just talking nonsense...

When Zhu Cixi came, he also had a general understanding of the salt industry's production chain and market conditions, and knew that the salt industry's production organization was divided into three levels: field, group, and kitchen.

The site management agency is also commonly known as the Salt Yamen, and officials are called Salt Affairs Ambassadors. Each salt farm, salt pond, and salt well has a Salt Affairs Department, which is a grassroots salt affairs agency.

The salt ambassador is an official of the eighth rank, in charge of the field, the production of ponds and wells, and the collection of salt taxes. He is under the jurisdiction of Yun Tong and deputy Yun, and is under the jurisdiction of Yun Envoy or Salt Law Road.

Tuan is a place where salt people live together. All kitchen households are gathered in a group, and gates are set up to prevent them from leaking private information. Many places along the coast are named after "Tuan".

The stove is the kitchen household. The person who sets up the stove to cook salt, and the stove ding is the one who burns the salt. The aunt's husband is the stove ding.

Although salt is not sold directly, people here basically know the prices given by salt merchants.

During the Wanli period, the court implemented the color-changing method. Although life was a bit harder, the government sent more people.

At that time, everyone could make do with it and still have some money left over at the end of the year.

Ever since the imperial court implemented this salt system and the big salt merchants took over the salt class, everything has changed.

The salt produced here can only be purchased by the Huang family. In the beginning, they would give a little more than one tael of silver to introduce the salt.

Unexpectedly, the offer got cheaper and cheaper later on, first it was reduced to one tael, and now it is only seven cents.

After the imperial court announced the imposition of commercial tax, someone from the Huang family came to inform them that from now on the Huang family would only pay seven cents per tax.

The wool comes from the sheep. After the imperial court levied commercial taxes, it was still the people at the bottom who paid the taxes.

Not only did the salt merchants suffer no losses, but they took the opportunity to exploit the kitchen households that made the salt...

Salt merchants buy salt very cheaply, but sell it very expensively. Kitchen households are basically unable to survive the squeeze.

In recent years, people have run away almost every year. When they heard that the Huang family had lowered the price of a pound of salt to seven cents, dozens of households fled at once.

Of course, these are just the thoughts in the aunt's mind, and Zhu Cixiang did not know about it at this time.

Zhu Cixi distributed land to farmers just to make their lives better. He did not expect that the lives of salt-producing kitchen households would be so difficult!

Seeing the aunt's disdainful look, he quietly gave Hu Bao a look.

Hu Bao immediately understood what the emperor meant and immediately took out five taels of silver and handed it to the aunt:

"Auntie, there are some things we want to know about. I hope you can tell us the truth. This is a reward!"

Seeing the silver, the aunt's eyes suddenly lit up, but she did not reach out to take it.

Her family could not save five taels of silver even after working for a year. Many kitchen households find it difficult to save five taels of silver in their lifetime.

The person who came to take action gave her five taels of silver. Things were definitely not as simple as they said. The aunt saw that Hu Bao's tone had softened a lot. She stopped her movements and said to Hu Bao:

"Although the money is good, I can't ask for it. Let me tell you what you want to know first. I will tell you what I know..."

Zhu Cixi nodded and asked with a smile:

"We want to know the amount of salt produced by your kitchen households and the purchase of salt merchants. I wonder if Auntie can tell the truth?"

While Zhu Cihong was talking, Hu Bao had already cleverly put the silver into the aunt's hand. The aunt looked at the money in her hand and whispered:

"I don't know the specifics very well. You can go to my house and ask the old man. She knows far better than I do."

Zhu Cixi smiled and nodded:

"Okay, sorry to bother you, please lead the way!"

The aunt quickly washed the old clothes in her hands, and then took Zhu Cixiang and the four of them home.

There are three thatched houses in the aunt's house, and an old man is chopping wood. This man should be the aunt's wife.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the old man stopped chopping wood and slowly raised his head. When he saw his wife coming back with four people, the old man was stunned and asked hurriedly:

"Cai'e, who are they?"

The aunt walked to a rope in front of the door, slowly put down the wooden basin in her hands, then quickly came to the uncle and whispered:

"These are some nice people. They said they are salt merchants from outside and want to know about the salt production here and the purchase price of the salt merchants..."

The aunt said, and showed the money in her hand to the uncle. When he saw the money in his wife's hand, the uncle immediately realized that this person was not an ordinary person, and hurriedly looked at Zhu Cizhong and the four others.

Finally, the uncle’s eyes fell on Hu Bao. He cupped his hands and smiled at Hu Bao:

"Thank you for the silver reward, noble man. It's inconvenient to talk outside. If you don't mind, please come to the old Khan's thatched cottage to talk!"

Hu Bao bowed his hands to the uncle and smiled slightly:

"You're welcome, sir. The silver reward was given by my young master. If you are willing, sir, let's go into the house and discuss it in detail!"
To be continued...