Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1072 The Afterimage of the Evil Dragon ([-])

These swindlers and gentry remembered what Liu Yu said back then.

He only wants to waste salt to cultivate wasteland, and he doesn't want to care about the messy things like squandering property rights.

When Liu Yu said this at the beginning, it was to express his attitude.

But now that the trouble has become like this, these swindlers are really afraid that they will not be able to end it.

Because, they were afraid that Liu Yu was really in a hurry, and there was an even bigger crime waiting on top of their heads.

[The crime of stealing and selling official land]

This crime is much bigger than frying salt without permission, but under normal circumstances, local officials in various places are fighting with each other, and they dare not deal with it according to the law, for fear of causing major troubles.

The ownership of the grassy land was neither in the hands of the salt households nor in the hands of the dangling merchants from the beginning to the end.

It is not injustice at all to make a private transaction and directly name it as a crime of stealing and selling official land.

Of course the magistrates didn't dare to act in accordance with the law. If they dared to act, they would not be able to sit still. If there was any disturbance, they would have to leave.

But these swindlers felt that Liu Yu was different.

He still has an army in his hand, and he has already said that he only needs to waste salt to cultivate wasteland, and thinks that the waste of property rights is purely a mess of chicken feathers and leeks.

I'm afraid that the quarrels and quarrels will actually annoy the Duke who was beaten on the battlefield, and he will directly lead troops to forcibly close the fields.

Steal and sell official land, confiscate family property according to the law, and return the land to the official.

Of course, buying and selling are all crimes of stealing and selling official land.

But those swindlers already have nothing, and at worst they will be thrown into exile in Nanyang plantations.

If the swindlers who bought fields like myself confiscated their property and returned the land to the government, they would be about to cry without tears.

As for whether Liu Yu dared to do this, now it seems that the merchants are worried that they really dare.

Just now Huaibei killed a lot of people, if it really provoked them, they would forcibly enforce the national law, take back the state-owned property rights, and announce that all the previous transactions had violated the crime of stealing and selling official land, and all the dealers would be arrested. It seems that it is not impossible for those salt households to have a little sweetness.

What made the merchants even more uncomfortable was that a large number of students were pouring in now.

Both those who support land reclamation and those who oppose land reclamation are writing essays frantically.

They are all using the relationships and resources behind them to incite emotions, and describe the lives of these salt households with spring and autumn brushwork.

The life in Yando is going back and forth between peace and happiness and hell.

The salt households described by the reclamation school feel that they are going to die tomorrow, but if they have some skills, they definitely don't want to mow the grass and boil the ashes of the salt stall.

The Yanhu people described by the anti-land reclamation school are full of hope for life, but they are dissatisfied with the exploitation of merchants.

The students were making more and more trouble, and these swindlers felt that the taste was getting worse and worse.

Now, no matter whether it is those who support land reclamation or those who are against land reclamation, the spearheads are gradually pointing at them, market dealers.

Those who support wasteland reclamation say that these shopkeepers violate the laws of the country, and they should directly confiscate all the land in accordance with the crime of stealing and selling official land, and the state will directly lease it to wasteland reclamation companies to directly reclaim wasteland.

Those who oppose land reclamation also say that these sloppy merchants are rich and unkind, and use all means to embezzle the grasslands, so that the life of the salt households is miserable. They should take back all the grasslands of these swindlers, divide the grasslands equally, and cook salt with a fixed identity. Non-stove households are not allowed to mess around.

Anyway, there is no argument that supports the swindlers to take the money and leave.

Moreover, the attitude and rumors among the market place are quite unfavorable to these dealers.

There are rumors that these dealers wanted to sell grass dumps from the very beginning, and deliberately encouraged the salt in their grass dumps to make trouble in order to increase prices.At that time, Yanding will be the ones making trouble, and they will be the ones taking the money.

There are also rumors that these dealers cheated the land reclamation company, because the people in the land reclamation company didn't know how complicated the salt grass land was, and they gave money when they saw the contract.As a result, Yan Ding is now making a fuss, and the land reclamation company demands that these merchants refund the money, but the merchants refuse to refund the money.

Such rumors have their own basis for spreading rumors, and it is obvious that merchants squeeze salt and salt households.

But these shopkeepers themselves also have "difficulties". It is obvious that Liu Yu frightened them and charged them with "private frying".

Now the students from Yangzhou are also pointing their fingers at them.

Marketers know that they have obviously been abandoned by those merchants and general contractors in Yangzhou, and now they have become the target of public criticism.

Liu Yu, the only one who stated that he would act according to the contract, in the view of the dealer, probably just because he thought it was more convenient, and the contracts could be piled up so as to avoid so many troubles. After all, he said that his purpose was to waste salt and cultivate wasteland.

Who knows that when the time comes, there will be a lot of turmoil. Can this person ignore his past attitude and directly choose the army to enter the field and return to the official?
Now both sides are holding high the banner of "Dayi", pretending to care about the living conditions of Yanhu.

Although they are all pretending to care, under this kind of pretense, people on both sides feel that it is most reasonable to let the merchants bleed.

There are two types of dealers today.

The so-called market merchants are responsible for collecting salt from salt households, and then trading with salt merchants in Yangzhou.

After 45 years of Wanli, the government completely withdrew from the salt industry, letting go of everything from production to official warehouses to transshipment.

Some merchants did not occupy the grassland, they just occupied the salt-producing area.All salt produced in Yanhu can only be traded in fixed places.

The way they make money is not that troublesome, and it's not worthwhile to occupy the grass or something.

A bucket of 230 catties of salt is made, and a bucket of 200 catties is made by oneself. The salt merchants come to sell salt, fill the bucket, and say that the bucket is [-] catties.Do not sell?Don't sell and drink northwest wind?Going to other places to sell is selling illegal salt. If you dare to sell illegal salt today, you will be arrested tomorrow.

If you do it casually, you can get about 10% of the salt for nothing, and if you sell it casually, isn't that a lot of money?
There are also some merchants who invaded the grassland.

Relying on loans to salt households, etc., quickly bankrupt the salt households, and then take the grass yards into their own possession, and then hire some cheap salt workers to cook private salt, relying on the bankrupt salt households who depend on them to complete the official output .

Now the main trouble is the latter.

The former is actually easy to say, because many dealers have come to Liu Yu long ago, expressing their hope to surrender.

Because whether it is to restore the original salt farms in Yanhu, the official salt collection policy, or the policy of setting up large-scale sun-dried salt farms in Huaibei.

The existence of these market players is not very meaningful.

Maybe they will wait and see at the beginning. After Yangzhou abandons the car to protect the handsome, and proposes the policy of equalizing the grass and controlling the people's permanent production, these dealers will understand that they are abandoned.

As long as Huainan still produces salt, Yangzhou can still make money by attracting businessmen.

But if the imperial court collects salt into the official warehouse and controls the production of salt, what is the value of that business?Or if the imperial court set up a large-scale salt farm, should they take off their pants and fart, and then let these merchants sell it again?
Therefore, these merchants have secretly communicated with Liu Yu, firstly, hoping to leave some shares for them when the salt farm is established;

In the past, they could rely on their own capital, thinking that their capital was rich, and the imperial court had no money to collect salt officially, and the annual turnover was several million taels of silver.

So many times the imperial court turned a blind eye to what they did.

The situation is very different now. There are many forces who can replace them. If they don't retreat quickly at this time, why don't they stay and wait to die with Yangzhou Merchants?
It's just that, just like those merchants who invaded the grasslands, they were also pushed to the forefront this time.

Now everyone is pretending to care about the living conditions of Yanhu, so who is responsible for the miserable living conditions of Yanhu?

Originally, Yangzhou was planning to abandon the army and protect the commander.Furthermore, no matter whether it is for equal distribution of grassland or land reclamation, there is a prerequisite that the living conditions of Yanhu households are worrying, and changes must be made.

Anyway, it is impossible to find the wonderful salt policy of the imperial court, after all, it is separated by several layers; there are also no merchants and transporters, and they do not directly trade with salt households.

It's hard to say that there is a problem with the imperial court's policy, so it can only fall on the merchants in the end.

Of course it was not wronged at all.

It is not a lie that the salt is collected in large barrels larger than the specifications, and the salt produced by the salt households is seized free of charge.

It is not false to lend usury to salt households, and directly mortgage the salt at a low price as interest when selling salt.

It is not a lie to occupy unowned grasslands and prohibit salt households from mowing grass.

The dealers were afraid, so they took pictures, and Yangzhou dressed up Yangzhou's merchants as a white lotus flower, and returned all the problems of the reform of the salt administration to the dealers.

Finally, I came to a conclusion: as long as the grasslands are divided equally, and the imperial court directly collects salt to replace the market merchants, then the Huainan Salt Industry does not need to reform the salt introduction system at all.

And the merchants can serve as outlets for the anger of salt households and common people.

It can be regarded as an explanation to the court.

These dealers felt the huge public opinion that could be instigated and their own crisis, and finally learned to cut their tails to survive.

Continue to tail, look at this posture, hundreds of students will definitely eat people like themselves.And everyone has shit on their ass, who can stand up to the investigation by cheating, defrauding loans, and selling private salt.

Some merchants tried their best, and after seeing Liu Yu, they offered to propose, "I can't bear to have no jobs in Yanhu, and I would like to give up some of the weeds and let them buy them back."

…………

At the same time, Lin Min, the Jiedu envoy of Jiangsu, was reading the articles written by the students who were doing the exams, shaking his head while reading.

Especially when I saw "Yihuainan Salt Reclamation" which carried their demands, I couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In this "Discussion on Huainan Salt Reclamation", all the problems of Huainan's salt administration are attributed to the existence of merchants.

Why are there fewer and fewer official salt national classes, while private salt is so rampant?Where did all those private salts come from?
Because the merchants squeezed the salt households, if the salt households did not secretly sell their salt, they would not be able to survive.

The merchants lowered the price, and the salt merchants mixed sand into the salt, anyway, they only looked at the barrel.

The official salt is low-quality, while the good salt cooked by the salt households is in the smuggling circle.

Moreover, if the salt from the salt households is not sold secretly, they will be exploited to death by merchants, so illegal salt has been banned repeatedly.

Why is life in Yanhu so miserable?Because those merchants squeezed salt households, various examples were cited.

Then, draw a conclusion from this:
As long as the merchants are banned, the Huainan Salt Administration can completely return to its peak state.

First of all, it is necessary to take back all the grasslands occupied by market operators.

Secondly, count all the salt dices and salt households to ensure that every person who cooks salt has his own grass yard.

After it is determined, follow the example of the enfeoffment system and let Caodang always belong to a certain salt household.

Then divide many salt fields, and the imperial court builds warehouses in each salt field.

In order to prevent these salt households from being exploited by merchants, the imperial court should take the initiative to undertake the task of collecting salt, and at the same time provide a certain amount of rice and grain to the salt households to ensure that the livelihood of the salt households will not be affected by food price fluctuations.

After guaranteeing a certain amount of rice in exchange for salt, the rest will be paid in silver.

All those who came to the salt area to carry salt without permission, once caught, were all hanged.

Yanhu's salt can only be sold to the imperial court. If it is caught and sold to others, those who also buy salt will be guilty of the same crime and hanged.

The imperial court set up small loans for salt households in various salt farms. With low or no interest, when the livelihood of the salt households was difficult, the salt households were temporarily lent grain and rice, and the salt households repaid them with salt afterwards.

Taking ten households as one guarantee, ten guarantees as one major guarantee, and five major guarantees as one township, set up township schools to educate salt households so that their neighbors can live in harmony and avoid disputes.

Based on a township, eleven of the income from each sale of salt will be placed in the village warehouse to prepare for a famine, or to be used as a teacher in the township.

All Bao and townships are ordered to monitor each other, and those who sell private salt must be reported.

He also ordered the imperial court to control the price of salt so that the salt households would not be rich and mischievous, nor should the salt households be poor without rice.

In this way, within five years, private salt will die, and official salt will be free.

Within ten years, the neighbors will be harmonious and the education will be successful.

In 20 years, the countryside will be peaceful and happy, and it can be said to be well-off.

The common people enjoy their work and have no desire to be rich or poor; merchants are not allowed to take over, and salt households are not in danger of being ruined.

After reading it, Lin Min felt that the Huainan Salt Method was really 400 years late.

It’s not that this set of things has never been tried before, and practice has proved that it collapsed after less than 20 years.In fact, neither neighbors are harmonious and successful in education, nor are there rural peace and happiness that can be called a well-off society.

Moreover, there is no way to issue banknotes in this dynasty, and the tax in kind has been cancelled. The only thing they can control is silver. This is real money, and it cannot be printed casually like banknotes.

After 400 years, when these students think of Yanzheng, they can only think in this way, and it really makes Lin Min not know what to say.

He saw with his own eyes the efficiency of the Huaibei Salt Farm, as well as the steam engine that pumped brine all day long.

However, these students studying in Yangzhou Academy are still fantasizing about building a prosperous world in their hearts.

Even Xu Guangqi, who was a hundred years ago, didn't feel that he had to go back, but proposed to reclaim wasteland and dry salt. In the past 100 years, the perfect method that these students can think of is to go back.

But go back... Lin Min thought to himself, you have asked those salt households, is this what they want?
But this article is still a big one, which is relatively reliable.

The rest are far more unreliable than this.

But all these reliable and unreliable proposals and requests for salt administration reform have a common characteristic: the salt inheritance system and the general contractor system are not the reasons for the problems in the salt administration.The reason is that there are merchants in the market, and all the problems in Huainan can be solved by eliminating the merchants.

Neither land reclamation nor waste salt is used.

(End of this chapter)