Tang Yi spent almost ten days to arrive in Huai'an, but he did not rush to go to the city to meet the officials or find the bad luck of his old enemy Yan Maoqing, but waited for the arrival of several partners.

Several fast horses galloped in front of Tang Yi in a blink of an eye. A tall middle-aged man jumped off the horse and walked excitedly to Tang Yi.

"Small greet you, sir."

"Brother Zhu, are you so sad?" Tang Yi pretended to be angry. The person who came scratched his head, smiled, and stood on Tang Yi's right without saying much.

The other two walked over quickly and paid a visit to the grand ceremony, "Student Jiang Zhou (Chen Keyuan), pay homage to the master."

"Get up quickly." Tang Yi was also happy and pulled them up.

These three were Tang Yi's staff when he was in the south. Because he guessed that he was a free agent in Beijing, he was not so arrogant. There was still a lot of things in the south, so he left Zhu Xian and the others in the south to help deal with the matter.

This time, when he went south to deal with salt affairs, he had to face the strict party and the complicated salt merchants in the two Huai Rivers. Tang Yi knew it would be no easy task. As the saying goes, three cobblers were better than Zhuge Liang. Before he left, he sent someone to deliver letters to Zhu Xian and the others and immediately went north to meet.

Finally, before entering Huai'an, all three of them arrived. After everyone greeted each other, Tang Yi suddenly noticed. There was another one behind him, who was smiling and Tang Yi knew him.

"Mr. Lumen, I am polite to be born late."

This person is Mao Kun. He and Hu Zongxian were in the same subject. Later, they were dismissed from office and lived in vain. When Tang Shen was practicing the local charity, Mao Kun worked as an aide to his father, and later Mao Kun also helped Tang Yi provide advice.

Tang Shen treats Mao Kun with his rituals as a junior, and Tang Yi is even more so. He firmly believes that being in the inner world is more important than face.

A wise man like Mao Kun is actually fragile and sensitive in his heart after his career is cut off. If he is not careful, he may hit their pain and his original intimate relationship will collapse. Similarly, give them enough respect to them and let them use their talents. If a scholar dies for his confidant, they can really work hard.

It is obvious that Tang Yi's sincere attitude moved Mao Kun very much. He was just Bai Ding who lost his post and dismissed, but Tang Yi is a popular fourth-rank official with a bright future.

It is really rare to be so polite.

In fact, as the overall situation of the anti-Japanese war has arrived, it will be no more to stay in the southeast, and Mao Kun needs a bigger stage.

Although he cannot make a comeback and plays the lead role on stage, it does not prevent him from playing a famous role behind the scenes!

For literati, being an emperor is not the highest honor, and becoming an imperial teacher is truly capable. There are not many people who are worthy of assistance and can get along with each other. Tang Yi is the best one.

Forget it, since you want to be a subordinate for others, you have to show some real skills.

Mao Kun smiled slightly, "Mr. Tang, are you worried about Lianghuai affairs?"

Tang Yi nodded quickly, "It's really a mess, there's no accurate picture, I dare not enter Huai'an, I can't learn from Yan Maoqing!"

"Hahaha, then let me give you a reassurance!"

Mao Kun was very confident. Tang Yi knew that he was not a bragging person. He hurriedly invited all four of them to the study where he stayed and poured them into tea himself. Mao Kun began to talk endlessly...

The source of everything lies in the Kaizhong Law set by Zhu Yuanzhang. Before the Ming Dynasty, the monopoly system of salt was like this. The government organized the people to cook salt, then purchased salt, paid wages, and sold it to merchants at a high price. The merchants transported it to various salt areas for sale, and the government obtained the income from salt and then distributed it.

Simple and clear.

However, in the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born with a poor child, this trick was still very troublesome, and he came up with a better solution.

That is, let the merchants transport grain to Jiubian in exchange for salt gua, and then go to the salt transportation department everywhere to collect salt for sale.

The advantage of opening the Chinese and French is obvious, which is that it makes up for the insufficient food and salary of border defenses, and the court also reduces the trouble of selling salt distribution.

Just thinking carefully that the so-called opening of China and France is like most of Zhu Yuanzhang's economic policies, which saves a small amount of money, spends a lot of money, picks up sesame seeds, and loses watermelons. It is a typical small peasant thinking. Just thinking about saving trouble, it has laid the root of disaster for future generations.

Because of the design of Kai-China and France, the government has changed from a direct participant in the salt trade to a producer responsible for supply, thus losing the ability to control the huge salt sales revenue and handing over the gold flow.

Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude was similar to that of finance. He believed that concentrating finance in the Ministry of Revenue and allocating it to various places was to take off his pants and fart. All places kept enough money needed and handed over the remaining money to the court.

When the country was in a state of depression, there was no big problem, and later the expenditure became increasingly large. The finances were short of money, which was the disadvantage of neglecting macro-mediation.

On the issue of salt administration, the Ming court also had the mistake of giving up macro-mediation and forcibly connecting the border guards and the salt administration, which had a series of serious consequences.

First of all, salt production is a stable and continuous process. The number of stoves, how much construction starts every day, and how much salt is produced are basically determined.

However, the food and wages on Jiubian were a serious fluctuating thing. With the war, the food and wages needed suddenly increased, and Jiubian would open a large amount of salt inlets to exchange for food. However, the transportation capacity of merchants was limited. In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of merchants, the price of salt inlets was lowered. At the beginning, one salt inlet had to cool down one stone, and even five or six stones were needed near the distance. During the Yongle period, whenever it was urgently needed, it would be possible to exchange for a turbulent one stone in just a few buckets.

The result of the sharp shrinkage of salt is that the salt is excessive. Some merchants get salt and go to the salt farm to collect salt, but there is no salt at all. They even have to wait for a few years.

After arriving in Hongzhi, the court had to limit the annual salt prick to a certain amount.

Because border wars are accidental and discontinuous, the demand for food increased greatly during the war, resulting in excessive salt spikes. In normal times, the need for food and grass is reduced, and the salt spikes are reduced again, which has a huge impact on salt merchants and stove owners.

In order to maintain the salt market, the court had to adopt the strategy of changing the application of grain to the application of silver. Compared with heavy food, silver was obviously much more efficient and convenient. The problem also arises. Due to the incurred silver instead of grain, the supply of grain on Jiubian was insufficient, and the original military household system could not be maintained, and the military expenditure of the court increased sharply every year.

However, due to the power of the ancestral system, no one dared to overthrow the Chinese law and could only be a pasting craftsman, sewing and repairing the surface.

Unfortunately, opening the China-French not only affected the stability of the Nine Borders, but also had a bad impact on the stove owners. Due to the fluctuations in salt demand, the income of the stove owners is not stable.

In the past, the imperial courts sold salt to pay wages to the people.

The opening of China by this dynasty caused the Salt Transportation Department to have no money to pay. It was fine at the beginning of the country, so special personnel distributed treasure money to the stove households. At that time, the treasure money was still valuable and the stove households could maintain their lives.

However, as the treasure banknote turned into a piece of waste paper, the court was reluctant to give the stove households money, and more and more stove households went bankrupt and fled. The situation was similar to the military households on the Jiubian...

But unlike the border, the production of salt is profitable. At this time, another group of people rose up.

It is the so-called wealthy stove households, and they produce more and more salt and the amount is getting bigger and bigger.

Become the real king of manipulating salt production!

The Salt Transportation Department has fewer and fewer official stove households, unable to supply the needs of merchants, but they cannot refuse to give salt. Therefore, the court had to allow salt merchants to purchase excess salt from wealthy stove households.

This is the so-called "buying and replenishing salt". To put it bluntly, it means that the court compromised in disguise and recognized the existence of private salt.

Once the evil example is launched, the salt administration, which is already full of holes, is even more difficult to maintain, and it is not surprising that the annual salt tax revenue is getting smaller and smaller...

After drinking three pots of tea, Mao Kun finished his experience of many years of research. Tang Yi suddenly felt that he benefited a lot.

In the past, when talking about salt administration, he simply believed that the salt merchants were insatiable and greedy for taxes that should belong to the court.

It was not until this moment that he was awake that the root cause of not being able to collect taxes was still in the ancestral system or in the court.

It is understandable that businessmen are pursuing profits. You can’t expect them to lose money to do business!

Mao Kun smiled slightly: "Sir, do you understand who Yan Maoqing has offended?"

Tang Yi nodded vigorously, "Mr. Lumen's great arguments will make me see the sun! The salt merchants are divided into two large pieces, some of which are tycoons with a wealthy restaurant with a wealthy restaurant that is ignored by most people, or are unwilling to face them, are those merchants who originally made a living by cooking salt, but after several generations of development, they have become wealthy restaurants."

"Sir, it's a sharp pain!" Mao Kun sighed: "Yan Maoqing wants to adjust the salt sales area. The higher the price, in fact, he handed over the entire salt boiling, transportation, and sales to the giants. And those wealthy stove owners will inevitably be impacted, and it is not surprising that they instigated their stove owners to cause trouble."

Tang Yi deeply agreed that the power of wealthy stove households is not bad. It can be seen from the increase in population in the Ming Dynasty, the rapid decline in official salt production, and the lack of salt on the market.

According to simple mathematical estimates, these wealthy stove owners and salt merchants related to them control almost 80% of the actual salt output.

But their identities are very embarrassing. They are gray people. Strictly speaking, they are all selling private salt.

"By the way, Mr. Lumen, just because they are causing trouble, there will be a shortage of salt and prices soaring soaring, right?"

"The adults are wise. In addition to them, there are many small and medium-sized salt merchants who are unwilling to be stolen from their interests and fight back. In addition, there is a group of people..." Mao Kun pondered.

Tang Yi hurriedly asked: "Sir, please make clear."

"And it's also transportation!"

Mao Kun smiled meaningfully and said, "Sir, you have many experts who are catching fish in troubled waters!"

"ah!"

Tang Yi's face suddenly changed. When Yin Shidan mentioned it to him, Tang Yi only thought it was him alone.

Unexpectedly, some people who were traveling in the traffic were involved, which was beyond Tang Yi's expectations, but after thinking about it carefully, there was nothing strange.

A family is big and a big business, just like Yan Song may not know everything about his work. After all, he is a person in the officialdom. How could he tell all the plans of the businessmen below him?

But if you hide it from me, don’t think I will take the blame!

Tang Yi thought angrily that at this moment, Tang Hezheng hurriedly ran in, "Senior Brother, Wu Tiancheng is asking for a meeting." (~^~)
Chapter completed!