Xinshun 1730

Chapter 982 Decisive Victory Thousands of Miles Away ([-])

The emperor tacitly covered the real purpose of collecting salt in the Changlu Salt Field in the court. He angrily reprimanded the ministers for collecting salt in the court hall, and then deliberately started a war to make the saltpeter in the Changlu Salt Field into the jurisdiction of the salt administration. The plan was discussed in the court.

It can be said that a stone suddenly stirred up a thousand waves.

The army, especially the navy, strongly opposes the saltpeter industry being governed in the same way as the salt industry.

In the court hall, yin and yang said that the salt administration is really good, and the common people in charge have eaten bitter salt. Are they going to let the army also use bitter salt to pretend to be saltpeter?
The reformers of the salt government, who were planning to make a big vote, also firmly opposed the policies proposed by Changlu.

The more noisy the court was, the more no one noticed what the court was doing with the salt.

The emperor also complained in the court, saying that the court could not afford to collect salt.Now it costs money everywhere, the Huaihe River, the water workers, the canals, everywhere they need money, and now they have to collect the salt hoarded by the common people before it is distributed, as if his inner money is about to be unable to support it. .

But in fact, the money for collecting salt was not spent by the emperor at all. The interest was a bribe from the salt merchant, and the principal was a loan from the bank.

Apart from talking nonsense about this kind of matter, the whole court was busy with business and slapped their heads in the back.

There are too many problems involved in a single abandoned canal.

Then refine the refinement, refinement to the salt.

Then refine and refine, refine to just a finger of Henan salt.

When the canal was abandoned, the existing salt government system almost collapsed.

Henan is located in the Central Plains and is served by four major salt farms.

Henan has a large population, Shanxi salt, Shandong salt, Changlu salt, Huai salt, no one wants to give up this piece of fat.

I don't want to let it go, it's all about the food and clothing of the people who cook and sell salt in the four places, so what to do, they can only be divided up.Save one and eat four.

The abolition of the canal involves all aspects of the problem, just the Henan salt, so the salt area needs to be re-divided.

The original Shandong Salt District was okay, and the canal was abandoned.

Changluyan is directly finished. Although the canal is still navigable now, after cutting off the millions of taels of Caoyinhe ICBC every year, many places will be unnavigable for at most one or two years.

The Changlu salt here refers to legal salt.

The most convenient way to make up for the Changlu salt area is the salt from Yuncheng, Shanxi.

And to make Shanxi salt supplement means to increase the production of Shanxi salt area - the problem is, the production of Shanxi has increased, what should we do with Changlu salt?
Shanxi is very close to Henan, and Changlu is farther away. Without the canal, Shanxi salt actually has an advantage in price and quality.

However, Changlu is about to collapse now, and throw away another Changlu salt area, what will the people feed on?It is impossible to have money every year, just like now, go to Changlu to collect salt and save it?
Should Shanxi Salt make up for it temporarily?
Or is it directly ceding the Henan salt area in Changlu to Shanxi salt?
After the cession, what will happen to the Changlu area?How to solve the problem of Changlu boiled salt common people?
If it is not ceded, then in the current situation, military spending will have to be increased, and an anti-smuggling team of about a thousand people will be prepared to strictly investigate Shanxi salt. Who will pay for it?
This is just a small, very small "trivial incident" that occurred because the canal was abandoned, but it involved millions of people eating salt.

Small things like this, medium things, and big things abound.

There are discussions, changes, and changes in the court every day.

On the contrary, the matter of the imperial court collecting salt in Changlu did not attract much attention.

That is to say, some ministers gave a memorial to the emperor, thinking that the current method of collecting salt is not to save the poor, and it is impossible to form a custom in the future. I also ask your majesty to deepen the reform of the salt administration as soon as possible.

In the Changlu area where salt is harvested, the entire salt reform plan is proceeding in an orderly manner.

The purchased salt was packaged in several yards in the Changlu Salt District, and then shipped away by the newly established shipping company.

The ship of the shipping company unloaded at Jeju Island and unloaded a large amount of packaged salt to Jeju Island.

Here is the port base on the side of Dashun. It is also an important inspection and anti-smuggling port for North Korea, Japan, and Whale Sea, a small triangle trade. Target's business boomed monstrously.

The reason why these long reed salts are piled up here is also Liu Yu's two-handed preparation.

If the salt merchants want to play, then play with them to the end. It is very convenient to transport it to the mouth of the Yangtze River. The captain of Dashun can already run with his eyes closed.

If the salt merchants are afraid to play, the salt cannot be wasted, and they have to find a way to sell it and prepare to smuggle it to Japan.

Although Japan is surrounded by the sea, the level of salt production in Japan is indeed low. If the trade is open, the salt of Dashun can be easily sold in Japan.

Firstly, because of the rainy climate in Japan, it is not suitable for drying salt method.Secondly, it is also because Japan really does not know how to dry salt, and still boils salt.

The boiling salt method boils out the problem.

Ordinarily, with the opening of Japan's port, the development of the coal industry in Dashun could easily spread to Japan.

There are coal mines in the northern part of Kyushu Island, which is also a place that is very suitable for boiling salt. According to the development of economic laws, it should be Japan that took the opportunity of boiling salt to set off the dawn of the coal mining industry.

Japan's climate in the Little Ice Age has just ended. In fact, many mountains in Japan that have been cut down for timber during the Little Ice Age have been bald.

It is said that there is such a prerequisite - just like the development of the British glass manufacturing industry and the salt boiling industry, the increase in population and the lack of wood caused by shipbuilding and tree preservation, which stimulated the development of the coal industry, triggered the great development of the coal mining industry and steam The need to pump water - however, Japan had a problem with the "Corn Law" that was characteristic of Japan.

That is, the Japanese feudal lords had mountains.The mountains belonged to the feudal lords, and the timber mining on the mountains was exclusive.

We all use coal to cook salt, who the hell burns wood to cook salt?

If you don’t burn wood, how can you pay the contractor who specializes in wood?

Without money, how to maintain the life of feudal nobles?
The many differences between the two countries have led to one that promoted the great development of the coal mining industry and eventually the steam engine, and the other coal mining industry was directly crushed to death by various feudal lords as soon as it emerged.Of course, this is only a superficial difference. In essence, the introduction of the British Corn Laws proved that the feudal landlords all over the world were alike.

On the one hand, the climate of the Little Ice Age has just passed, and a large number of mountains have been cut down; on the other hand, coal cooking salt is banned, and salt cooking wood is monopolized. The price of this salt can be imagined.

Although there are various ways to do it because it is close to the sea, it is relatively more expensive than the salt in Dashun, especially the salt produced by sun-dried salt method must be much more expensive.

Liu Yu is only making two-handed preparations for hoarding salt here. In the future, he will hoard grain and rice here as a back-up warehouse to control the futures price of the Japanese rice club in the future. First, he will take the opportunity to build some warehouses on Jeju Island.

The main purpose is to ensure that the reform of the domestic salt administration will not cause the people to have no salt available, thus involving a series of salt reforms, Huaihe River, and canal issues.

In addition to salt, Jeju Island also hoarded some relatively cheap grains such as corn from Ezo and rye from Whale Sea.

A large number of hired workers who have just finished building the fortress are busy building storage. They don't know what the salt is for, nor do they know what the piled up so much crude grain is for.

…………

Not long after, on a large ship off the coast of Haizhou, Liu Yu was smiling and looking at several private salt dealers who were tied up.

Looking at the official uniforms on Liu Yu, these private salt dealers were already at a loss.

He said in his heart that he was just selling some private salt, and he would be sentenced to a few years at most, or his head would be lost in the worst case, so why was he kidnapped by such a big official?
Some were directly robbed in brothels by people rushing in; some were kidnapped halfway through contacting sales.

I thought they were just asking for money, or that the local salt sellers were retaliating against them.

But I didn't expect that after I was caught, I was put on a fast horse, I didn't know where I went to you, and I changed the ship, and now I finally met the right owner of the kidnapping. After hearing the other party's self-report, how can I not be confused?
Apart from the private salt dealers in the cabin, there were only Liu Yu, Shi Shiyong and two confidantes who guarded the safety.

Looking at the aura of these guards, these private salt dealers knew that the loss was not wronged. Even if they met on a narrow road, the salt dealers would not dare to fight the officers and soldiers, but if such officers and soldiers could not fight, they would lose their lives in vain. .

The most important thing is that these transactions are done by yourself. Although it is a crime, you don't need people of this level to approach and treat them?

When each of them wondered if they were involved in some major event or involved in some vortex, Liu Yu, who was smiling, spoke first.

"Don't be nervous. Isn't it just selling some private salt... This crime can be big, small, or even completely innocent. Now I ask you something, answer it carefully, maybe you are not only innocent, but the people around you I want chickens and dogs to ascend to heaven."

After that, he rolled his eyes around, looked at the person in the middle and asked, "You sell salt in Hubei and Henan, right? Where do you get your salt?"

"Sichuan salt? Lianghuai salt?"

Having said that, these private salt dealers didn't even bother to deny it, and admitted it openly: "Mr. Hui, what we sell is well salt."

Liu Yu nodded, and asked again: "Is it easy to sell?"

The private salt dealers thought this was the dignified prince who was going to sell private salt?I can't figure it out, or I dare not continue to think about it, so I can only tell the truth.

"Good sale."

"Well salt is pure and white, while Huai salt comes to Wuhan, it is inferior salt, because inferior salt is cheap."

"Furthermore, there are too many taxes on the Huaihe River, and it goes upstream. Sichuan salt flows downstream, which is due to the terrain, so the price is cheap."

Liu Yu asked again: "Then what is the sales scope of your gang?"

"Mr. Hui, our gang ran from Wuhan to Xinyang, Luoshan, Queshan, and Xincai. We ran all over this area."

This is basically the boundary of the Huaibei Salt Area.

Hearing this, Liu Yu couldn't help it, and said with a smile: "You smugglers are a big deal. I've heard that Sichuan salt invades the Huaihe River, and Sichuan salt invades the Huaihe River. I thought that we can only invade Huainan once, That is, those places in Hubei and Hunan. Together with you, have you invaded Xinyang?"

Hearing Liu Yu's words, the private salt dealer didn't know whether he was sincerely praising him or whether he was acting in a strange way. He didn't know how to speak for a while.

If it's a compliment, I don't understand why a high-ranking official would praise them, these smugglers?
If it's yin and yang, it doesn't seem necessary.Even decapitation is something that a state shepherd or county magistrate can do.

Although these people like myself are also selfish, they didn't directly lead a team to ambush the officers and soldiers like their counterparts in the south of the Yangtze River. How could it be worth such a big battle?I didn't hear that it would be Ling Chi to sell smuggled salt. Wouldn't it be beheaded at most?
(End of this chapter)