Xinshun 1730

Chapter 981 Decisive Victory A Thousand Miles Away ([-])

The canal was abolished, which was the basis for the emperor to be able to clean up the canal gang.

But for the emperor to directly mobilize the garrison garrison in the Western Regions and use the spy organization Boyer Army to arrest them, it is out of consideration of two other factors.

One is now.

One is the future.

Considering now, it means that the canal was abandoned and a large number of people lost their jobs.

The imperial court can accommodate some people, but the rest of them cannot be satisfied. For example, gangs transporting smuggled salt, this kind of hidden profit, can the imperial court's placement satisfy these people?
Not afraid of trouble.

The fear is organized riots.

Even if the court doesn't care about these water workers, if there is a real incident, if no one organizes it, it will be fate of spinning and extinguishing.

But if there is an organization like Wuweijiao, it will be different.

Therefore, instead of waiting for these people to organize and revolt, it is better to act first.

Grab a group of backbones, and force the remaining ones to rebel. Anyway, the imperial court is not afraid of the canal being corrupted now.

If the canal is still used, it will shake the world.

If you don't use the canal, it will be called a civil uprising at most, and there are more and more civil uprisings of this scale every year.

Considering the future, it means that a large number of waterworkers have been divided into two parts.

Some of them were recruited into the "Xiang Army" to serve as special engineering troops and build water conservancy projects.

In the other part, the river transport has been abolished and the sea transport has risen, which will definitely flood Tianjin and Shanghai spontaneously. These are the two most important ports in the north and south after the rise of sea transport under the current situation.

For those who entered the Xiang Army, the high-ranking believers inside should be found out to prevent preaching in the army.

As for those who go to Tianjin and Shanghai, it is even more necessary to dismantle the organization of the Wuwei Sect, because Tianjin and Shanghai are already the money bags and rice warehouses of the imperial court.

Tianjin is related to the transfer of materials in the south of the Yangtze River.

Songjiang is related to Jiangnan finance and taxation.

After the canal was abolished, the imperial court could not allow the gang culture created by this kind of water transportation to take root in Tianjin and Songjiang Prefecture.

Dashun's methods are so violent, and the reason why a large number of death sentences are imposed is also because it is really difficult to deal with: exile to Nanyang, let them take root in Nanyang?Besides, he didn't have the money to go into exile, so he simply killed him.

Now, a few months have passed since the turmoil that caused many places on both sides of the canal to cry loudly, and many people wore mourning.

Many people in Changlu Salt Field were not followers of Wuwei Sect at all, but they were full of complaints against the imperial court. If there were a lot of complaints, they were regarded as good citizens. Most of them hated the imperial court to the bone, and even made up a lot of jokes to satirize the emperor.

Without him.

Interest dictates.

The canal was abandoned, the most important smuggling channel of Changlu salt was cut off, and life became difficult, which is visible to the naked eye.

Salt merchants have superb means, lower prices, lend money, and rely on selling regular salt, it is impossible to survive.

People who dry salt can only rely on selling private salt in large quantities to obtain their daily necessities.

Salt merchants are limited in their collection of salt, and even many salt merchants are actually closely related to private salt dealers.

The canal was abolished, cutting off the smuggling route of smuggling salt, which is equivalent to directly cutting off the road to the market.

As a result, not only the original "private salt" share was backlogged.

Even the previous share of "official salt" is also decreasing, because the share of salt merchants who sell private salt in the public name has also been cut off.

Changlu Salt Field has its particularity.

And this particularity can be traced back to the military reform that occurred in Dashun a few years ago and the development of the glass manufacturing industry.

After the military reform of Dashun, the comprehensive use of firearms and the pure formation of flintlock bayonets, the demand for saltpeter surged every year.

However, Dashun did not win India, nor did it have sodium nitrate in South America. How to deal with the large amount of saltpeter?

There are contiguous saline-alkali lands in the Changlu Salt Field, and these saline-alkali lands can be traced back to the time when the Yellow River had not been diverted.Whenever the day is good, salt nitrate will be precipitated in these saline-alkali lands.

In order to solve the problem of saltpeter, Dashun encourages the boiling of saltpeter, in order to purchase these soil saltpeter, collect them and then refine and purify them.

Where the salt can really be dried, there is no way to boil the nitrate.

Those who boil nitrate are not in the barren land of the orthodox salt-producing areas.

But...the by-product of boiling nitrate contains salt.

Along with Dashun's thirst for saltpeter and the demand for war materials, the method of boiling saltpeter quickly became popular in Gyeonggi, Henan, and Hebei.

A large number of saltpeter dealers collect saltpeter everywhere and sell it to the government.

Problems also arise.

Those who are in charge of saltpeter are in charge of military supplies.

These people don't care about salt.

And those who manage salt don't care about military supplies.

These people don't care about saltpeter.

As a result, a large amount of by-products of boiled nitrate flowed into the folk.

Let’s say it’s salt... I’m not sure how much sodium chloride is in it. It’s bitter and astringent, but I can’t say it’s not. It’s bitter, but at least it’s better than tasteless.

Let’s say it’s not salt... There are too many poor people. After the popularization of the method of boiling nitrate, many people even make full use of the nitrate in the toilet.From a tax point of view, this is definitely private salt.

That set of salt introduction policy made the middlemen earn too much difference, and the official salt was too expensive.

The standard of living of the people in Dashun was actually not as good as that of the slaves in North America.Although this nitrate salt is bitter, it is better than cheap.

And the government can't catch it, because the regular salt-producing areas can't boil nitrate, and the place where nitrate is boiled must be out of the control of those in the salt area.

A large number of hawkers carry the bitter salt boiled with saltpeter and sell it everywhere.

The bottom market is basically occupied by this kind of saltpeter-based bitter salt, and because those who cook this salt and those who buy this kind of salt are all areas under the weak rule of the imperial court: one is barren saline-alkali land that is not even considered a regular salt farm, and the other is The vast countryside.

Could it be that the imperial court organized a patrol team to go from village to village to pick up a shoulder pole and hang two dung baskets to sell bitter salt in the streets and alleys?With this level of control at the grassroots level, we won't be so confused that we have to go to the Netherlands to borrow money to build the Huaihe River.

Therefore, after the Dashun military reform in Changlu Salt Field, the sales volume of official salt decreased every year.

What supports Changlu's saltworks to look prosperous?

Water transport smuggling.

Once the waste river was abandoned, it gave up its original shape almost instantly.

A lot of official salt that was theoretically sold in the Changlu Salt District was actually smuggled to other places along the canal.

Because the price of official salt here is lower than that of Huainan salt.

In Changlu, the method of drying salt is mostly, while in Huainan, salt is boiled. One relies on the sun and the other relies on fire. Burning firewood is also costly, and the cost is extremely high. Firewood is not free.

The response of the court has always been slow.

Ask a court official about the relationship between the military reform and Changluyan, and they definitely don't know.

Moreover, Changlu official salt was smuggled in large quantities, so that the nominal salt tax did not drop too much.

The imperial court knew that the water transport must carry private salt.

However, I don't know how much I have carried.

Given this particularity, it is conceivable how much hatred these salt-drying people would have for the abandoned canal.

Although it seems that the imperial court can innocently say that it is unscrupulous salt merchants who make the people who cook salt poor, and lend money at low prices.

But the question is, who caused these salt merchants?
A while ago, the imperial court was arresting people who did not teach everywhere. The people in Sunyan may not know the impact of the canal policy, but what is their intuitive feeling?

It was the person who came here to collect salt and give them a way to survive, but was arrested by the court.

As for them being religious?Is it a private salt dealer?Is it a gang member?
For those people, it has nothing to do with them.

What is related to them is that these people are their food and clothing parents, and then they were captured and executed by the brutal court.

Although Liu Yu's direction for the reform of the salt administration is to turn the lord into selfishness.

But these gangs carrying private salt are not the "owls" in the circle he designated, because they are also second-hand dealers and are not responsible for sales.

And the "xiaoxiao" that Liu Yuyan can turn into a full-time employee is not a second-hand dealer, but a group of people who have a market and a market.

This is like the Dutch East India Company. If it was just a second-hand dealer, I am afraid that the grave will be three feet away now.However, since it has its own market and sales channels, as well as smuggling channels, it will be revived instantly and become the most perfect partner.

These smugglers who smuggle salt in the canal are not qualified to be converted into full-time smugglers. They are worthless smugglers.

Officially, it is worthless.

But for the people in the Changlu Salt District, they are like their parents.

It seems that the public opinion is raging.

However, soon, the court's policy made the people who had scolded the court's cruelty and the emperor's foolishness before recall the court's goodness in unison...

The imperial court set up salt warehouses in various parts of the Changlu salt area, and began to purchase the salt hoarded by the people who boiled salt.

The name is: Your Majesty is benevolent, remembers the suffering of the common people, and understands the difficulties of the common people.Therefore, in the past, the private salt that was exposed to the sun in various salt fields is not to blame.Next year we will carry out strict investigations. This year, for the livelihood of the common people, we will buy unlimited salt from each family for one month. Everyone knows.

Moreover, the silver was given directly, not the copper coins obtained by the salt merchants.Copper coins are transferred to silver, and silver is transferred to copper coins. This is another layer of exploitation by salt merchants.

The people are very real. Seeing that the imperial court introduced the policy of collecting salt, which alleviated their urgent needs, they all immediately changed from the previous denunciation of the treacherous court officials in power, and the appointment of the traitor Xing Guogong to abandon the canal to cut off the people's livelihood; to lament the emperor's grace The grandeur, the emperor's sage, the legacy of Yao and Shun, and the virtue of civil and military.

I was also afraid that there would be too much private salt and the imperial court would not be able to eat it. As soon as the news came out, men, women and children immediately joined the battle. I wished I could transport all the salt accumulated in my home to the designated negotiating place for silver in an instant. I was afraid that the imperial court would not accept it if it was too late. up.

After changing the silver, he hurried to buy the "parity rice" from the imperial court.

The imperial court mobilized some rice from the Songjiang Mansion and sold it at a low price: in order to prevent a temporary surplus of money, profiteers might take the opportunity to increase the price of food rapidly.

Compared with profiteers, it must be cheap, but in fact, these Siamese rice still have a profit of [-] to [-]%, and a lot of money has been recovered.

In less than half a month, the salt hoarded in storage had already shocked the court.

It's a simple inference:

If the salt cannot be sold normally, these people would not be able to idle so much salt. Obviously, this is the output in normal years, but because the smuggling of water transport was abolished this year, there was a backlog.

And we can see that all the salt was eaten.

Therefore, it can be proved that collecting so much hoarded salt now means that the imperial court loses so much salt tax for hoarded salt every year.

The salt reform that originally only affected Huainan and Huaibei may also affect other places.

However, the salt merchants and salt officials in the Gyeonggi area reacted extremely quickly when this was a matter of interest.

They immediately seized a little bit of attack and killed Changlu. The reason for the poor sales of official salt has nothing to do with the salt introduction system, and it is entirely caused by the by-product of boiling nitrate after the military reform.To solve the problem of official salt in Changlu, the best way is to let the person in charge of salt control the nitrate together. The nitrate will be used for the salt production. Unified acquisition.

(End of this chapter)