Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1029 Injustice
But at this moment, it seems that this fork in the road is still early, but instead it is a scene of blooming flowers and blazing fire, as if Dashun is about to take on a new look.

Haizhou City was bustling with businessmen and ex-salt dealers from all walks of life, who were afraid that they would lose their seats if they arrived late.

This time the reform of the salt administration has filled many people with hope.

This kind of hope, or atmosphere, is indeed the energetic state of "reform".

As long as you have a few hundred taels of silver, you can enter the industry.

Even how did the first pot of gold of these several hundred taels of silver come from?

Everyone is eager to get rich, and everyone has the hope of getting rich.

This kind of "vitality" and "vigor" is indeed the smell of reform, which cannot be faked.

Now the farce in Funing ended with an even bigger farce at the court meeting, and Liu Yu nominally took a back seat in the matter of salt administration.

Instead of the governor of Jiangnan and the Lianghuai Salt Envoy, the emperor's new Lianghuai Salt Envoy and Jiangsu Jiedu Envoy was appointed to preside over this matter instead.

This arrangement is very interesting. Now everyone in the imperial court knows that there is no such thing as Jiangsu Province.

Since Liu Yu started to toss in Songjiang Mansion, he has been divided into Southern Jiangsu, Northern Jiangsu, Jinling, and a salt administration in Yangzhou and Haizhou.

Moreover, along with the fact that rice originated from Nanyang and southern Jiangsu became an important treasury for the emperor, the status of Jiangsu Jiedushi was quite embarrassing.

It is even embarrassing to say whether the current Jiedu envoy of Jiangsu is stationed in Jinling or going to northern Jiangsu.

Liu Yu didn't have many official titles, but he was in charge of "business with barbarians", "transportation of rice", and "business affairs in southern Jiangsu".

With these three, if you don't care about the salt, and then toss northern Jiangsu to reclaim wasteland, the Jiangsu Jiedushi will be the governor of Xuzhou and the governor of Jiangning.

It is said that the imperial court should send a governor who is also in charge of Anhui and Jiangsu, but the gold and silver involved in the two matters of Caomi and trade are already scary enough.

If there is another governor who supervises Anhui and Jiangsu, Liu Yu can't be allowed to do it, right?If it is done, it will be done, and the military, government, and finances of the entire Jiangnan will be caught, not to mention whether the emperor dares, even if the emperor dares, Liu Yu will not dare to accept it.

For someone else, it would not work to be the governor of the former southern Zhili, regardless of trade with barbarians, grain transportation, and business affairs.

It's not yet the time when two people need to sing rivalry, the emperor is still counting on Liu Yu to grab the money, so it's really unnecessary to get someone to go and talk to him in the ring at this time.

So this time, a very strange Lianghuai Salt Envoy was hired to handle such a big event.

The meaning is also very clear: Mr. Xingguo will help you get things done, and get close to each other. In the future, the two of you will have a division of labor. In the future, you can manage the salt administration. In fact, you don’t have to worry too much about the affairs of northern Jiangsu, and you don’t need to worry about the industry and commerce of southern Jiangsu. meddle.

This was an obvious arrangement. It was said that Liu Yu didn't care about the matter because the killing was too heavy, and he was just suppressing the place, but the newly transferred Lianghuai salt envoy knew it well.

If Liu Yu doesn't help, he is not a powerful Jiangnan governor, how can a small Jiangsu Jiedu envoy do a good job in the salt reform?

Salt is produced in Jiangsu, but not only sold in Jiangsu.

This matter has to be done well.

Because from the beginning of the emperor's surprise attack, it became similar to a state of war, where the emperor did "strategic guidance", instead of the emperor directly appointing officials to go out of the town to act cheaply.

Whether it is "personal conquest" or "strategic guidance", it is two-sided.

If he wins the battle, it will be the Northern Expedition of Yongle, King Qin breaks the formation, his prestige soars, and Xungui is in charge of the military uniform.It is definitely better than letting the frontier generals act cheaply, so as to avoid the emergence of arrogant soldiers or self-respecting soldiers. The emperor's personal conquest or strategic guidance is the basis for nobles to lead the army.

If you lose, it will be a civil fort, and the emperor will have to take the blame.In the future, there will be no nobles in charge of the army, and all kinds of contradictions accumulated before will explode.

If this matter is not done well, it will be to slap the emperor in the face.

It's not that no one wants to take advantage of the embarrassment of the emperor, so as not to grasp it too tightly in the future, and take such a big step in reform.

It's just that, although Liu Yu doesn't care about salt affairs in name, he just stays here.

But in the final analysis, he was still in charge, and he even brought soldiers here, and he just carried out a major case that shocked the world and killed hundreds of people.

Even if the counter-reformists want to make trouble, they can only do it secretly, and cannot do it in the open.

The two envoys of the Huaiyan government understood clearly that they were happy at first when they saw businessmen gathering in Haizhou for a few days.

I feel that what the people want is easy.

But soon, his complexion became ugly.

The new envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Administration is naturally a reformer of the salt administration in the court. Since the emperor wants to reform, it is impossible to send a conservative to reform.

But this reformist is the kind Liu Yu said, "When you encounter capital, you get confused, come up with ideas when you slap your head, and smoke opium directly when you have a headache".

Come with confidence.

After coming, I saw all the merchants coming, and I was still full of confidence.

Then, some people who have a deep understanding of the nature of grassroots businessmen asked a few questions to break the defense.

Desperate.

In fact, people didn't ask much, just asked two simple questions.

One: In theory, since salt quotations are changed to salt tickets, capital speaks, and people have money, why don’t people buy them?

But if you want to attract enough merchants and allow small merchants to participate in the future, you must reflect a fairness.

Fairness means that it is impossible to refuse the admission of big salt merchants to hoard tickets.

Unfair means that small and medium-sized businessmen have directly lost confidence, and co-authoring with the court is still playing the trick of "obviously and implicitly quoting", so what will be mixed in the future?

Two: Tickets cannot be released indefinitely.

The result of the unlimited release of salt tickets is that the market has completely collapsed. A total of 100 million catties of salt can be eaten.

Then, the salt industry market collapsed directly.Next year will be the general bankruptcy of salt producers, and the collapse of the salt industry.

Since it cannot be released indefinitely, it means that every ticket is worth money.

Then, new problems also arise.

For example, a small merchant is worth 100 taels of silver.

Then, in theory, he can only buy tickets for 20 taels of silver.

Because turnover, sales, and transportation are all money.

In the farthest place, it takes five or six hundred days to turn around, and the interest on loans is high.This means that the bowl can only be as big as it is, and one-fifth of the bowl can be eaten.

But the problem is that tickets are scarce.Because if you don't want the salt industry to collapse, you can't release votes indefinitely.

If it is not unlimited votes, then the so-called fairness can only use a method similar to lottery.

Then, why didn't he bet on all the 100 taels of silver, bet on his luck, and draw lots for himself, and then sell the 100 taels of tickets to others?
As long as there are few tickets, and there are many people buying tickets, and it must be fair, as far as possible, small merchants are also eligible to participate, then there will inevitably be a premium for tickets.

Can't the auction house?
No.

Because the Reform Party's idea of ​​this salt administration reform is to "let go".

Let go of those complicated inspections, let go of those powers that can be directly supervised, and make the salt merchants' transportation process as unobstructed as possible.

So, how to shoot?
Divide the sales area into towns as the smallest units, and then tickets from town A cannot go to town B?

This is called reform?

This is clearly still the salt method.

The idea of ​​the Piaoyan reformers is to remove some obstacles set by power and engage in marketization in the Huaibei salt area.Although they may not say the word, it doesn't mean they don't have similar thoughts.

Then, the entire Huaibei salt area is a large sales area, and people can come and go freely by ticket. How to auction?

After the auction, do you want to set the highest price for selling salt?

The imperial court must have the ability to set the highest price, and supervise it in place to ensure its implementation. If it has such organizational power, can it be beaten by private salt to the point where official salt almost collapses?

Because of incompetence, the private salt has destroyed the official salt, so reform is needed, and the prerequisite for the reform plan is that the court is capable and has a strong ruling power?

So, in the end, how to ensure that after the small traders get the tickets, they will not sell the salt themselves, but resell the tickets to others?

Or, how to guard against big businessmen and wealthy businessmen, and directly hire people to draw tickets together?Then stock up and sell?
This is just a small problem of the two simplest practices in the salt administration reform.

I don't have the nerve to ask about other dirtier things.

These two problems that caused Lianghuai Salt Envoy to be overwhelmed made him understand that this should be Liu Yu's reminder to him.

This must be thanks to Liu Yu.

Asking before doing something feels like a slap in the face, but it actually helps a lot.

And if something happens after doing business, the current face is preserved, but the future face, face and future will be lost.

"Duke, these merchants are really cunning. The officials understand why His Majesty wants the Duke to supervise everything in southern Jiangsu."

"The temple is so high, it's really hard to imagine that the things inside are so complicated. I'm really talking about it on paper."

"Business and business are very different."

Lianghuai Salt Envoy very euphemistically expressed that he, the Jiangsu Jiedu Envoy, would never take care of business and industry in the future. Liu Yu didn't really care about this, but he really had some feelings for the reformers on the court side. Speechless.

"Master Lin, regarding the reform of the salt administration, to be honest, from the outside, we think we are both reformers. In fact, we are not the same. I am changing the direction of production and transportation; you are changing the direction of sales."

"Actually, these things can't be solved. I can't help it either."

"Don't say I can't do anything about it, just these two simplest questions, and similar things, even after a hundred years, they may still cause people to worry about it."

"So, if it can't be solved, why should it be solved?"

Lianghuai Salt Envoy was shocked and said: "No solution? I didn't think much before I was dismissed, but now I just listened to it and I'm already in a cold sweat. In this way, in three to five years, I'm afraid that big businessmen from all over the world will come and hire people to participate. Compete for votes, hoarding salt tickets for salt."

Liu Yu laughed, nodded and said, "You're right. It's true. But I said, the only way to solve this matter is to rely on one day, the road will lead to the East China Sea and go to the Western Regions, otherwise there will be no solution. "

The Lianghuai Salt Envoy smiled wryly, thinking, isn't this nonsense?But what kind of roads are so criss-crossed that they can start from the East China Sea on the first day of the new year and arrive at Yumen Pass at the end of the month?
"Master Lin, don't smile bitterly. Although this matter cannot be resolved, why must it be resolved? If you think about solving these matters, at least you are thinking in the wrong direction on this matter."

"Please enlighten me."

Liu Yu said with a smile: "The key to this matter lies in one sentence. 'Guarantee that some suitable people can get the right tickets', and let them toss the rest. Follow the story of the Liang family's imperial examination to keep the basic market That's it."

"I'll talk about the future. If it can last for a few years, let's fix it."

The envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Administration tasted the words "Let the right people get the right tickets", and he was not very happy.

The starting point of his support for the reform is not only to protect the salt tax of the imperial court, but also to let the people eat cheap salt, and he also hopes to reflect the word "fairness" a little bit in his heart.

Now that Liu Yu said that, it was clearly unfair.Isn't this a clear ticket, a hidden quotation?
Seeing that he was silent, Liu Yu just smiled, thinking that these two problems are causing you a lot of trouble?If you change it as you think, there will be more headaches in the future.

"This matter, I personally think, should be done like this..."

(End of this chapter)