Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 139 Conspiracy
In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen was looking through the memorabilia of Hu Tinglu, the transfer envoy of the salt envoy of the two Huaihe Rivers, and Song Sizhang, the salt envoy of the two Huaihe Rivers. Make Lu Heng's.

This was all expected, Chongzhen threw the playbook aside after reading it.

The content of the memorial is very simple. It accuses Lu Heng of dereliction of duty and malfeasance, and ignored the sale of private salt across the border, resulting in a sharp drop in salt lessons in the Lianghuai Salt Fields, and the court suffered huge losses.

The two hinted in the memorandum that not only is there a large amount of salt in the salt warehouses of Lianghuai official salt, but there is also a large amount of salt in the hands of the salt cookers, and the amount is increasing by an astonishing amount every day.

Due to the backlog of salt that cannot be sold, there has been instability among the majority of kitchen households.If it continues like this, it cannot be ruled out that hundreds of thousands of kitchen households will take some drastic actions, and Nanjing will probably bear the brunt of it.

The memorandum of the two men used all the pretense of thinking about the imperial court, but the essence was that the new salt robbed the market that originally belonged to the relevant personnel related to salt interests in the Lianghuai River and Huaihe River, disrupted the normal order of salt transportation, and caused the transshipment envoys to go up and down. Salt merchants lost their income.

Due to the limitation of their vision, these people did not realize that this would be the beginning of their downfall, but simply thought that some nobles in the palace were unsightly, and they stretched out their hands to fish for them.

The kitchen households have been handed down from generation to generation. Since the prosperity of private salt, most of the poor and helpless kitchen households have lived a life without worrying about food and clothing.

Boiling salt is nothing more than replacing a burnt iron pot from time to time.The firewood for the fire is everywhere, and the seawater does not need to be purchased with money. As long as the labor and time are spent, the boiled salt is almost free.

And there is no need to worry about the sale of salt. As long as each family saves enough ten stones and pushes them to the purchase point set up by the salt merchant, they will naturally exchange them for yellow copper coins or broken silver or grain.

As for the official salt, you can just take some time to hand over some. No matter how much official salt you hand in, you can’t get a penny in exchange for it.

If the new salt pushes the Huai salt out of the market, the kitchen households will definitely feel strong dissatisfaction, and if the relevant stakeholders secretly send people to confuse them, a civil uprising will easily happen.If the imperial court is caught off guard, the bustling Jiangnan might be greatly affected.

At that time, no matter who is behind Xinyan, he will be criticized by thousands of people, and will be wiped out in the denunciation of courtiers.

Chongzhen believed that this group of people would do anything for personal gain.Because the interests involved are too great, and too many people are involved.

From high-ranking officials and nobles, wealthy merchants and wealthy businessmen, down to traffickers and pawns, officers and soldiers, everyone benefits from it.

Although the bulk of profits are controlled by a small number of interest groups.But they don't look ugly, and they know that the fingers are leaking a little to the civilian soldiers at the lower level, so that this chain can connect more people and form a bigger circle of interests.

He actually threatened the court with a civil uprising!Chongzhen sneered secretly.

Then kill the chickens to warn the monkeys, starting from Huai'an, take down the Huai'an Tijusi first, and eat some fat.Then squeeze southward little by little until the Lianghuai Saltworks are taken down.

The world knows that Lianghuai salt merchants are very rich, and there are quite a few officials who are jealous of their family's wealth. Many people try to use their power to obtain benefits from the salt merchants.

But the salt merchants in the Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers are extremely shrewd. They know that even if they have money, they cannot match the power of the officials. If they want to keep the cornucopia in their hands, they must first feed the officials.

So the salt merchants spontaneously formed an alliance and spent huge sums of money in bribes.

The main object of their bribery is not the chief official of the county government, but the book office officials in each yamen who hold real power.

The master of the iron-clad subordinates.According to the regulations of the imperial court, the chief officials of the prefectures and counties are appointed every three years, and at the most two terms, they will have to move their positions.Regardless of whether you are a Jinshi or a fellow Jinshi, you have only just gotten acquainted with the situation under the administration after you arrive at the place. Maybe some promising officials just want to make some achievements. After three years expire, they have to leave if there is no accident. people.

But those subordinate officials who have been handed down from generation to generation are all locals, and they are the real power figures who control one side. For example, the officials of the six houses, such as the household house and the punishment room, are all passed down for generations and connected with each other.The decrees and instructions of the imperial court and the prefects and counties must be carried out through these officials and their subordinates.

If the subordinate officials are dissatisfied with the ruling of the great master, as long as they use a little tricks, they will make the superior Jinshi master who only knows the four books and five classics but knows nothing about the world become ashamed.

For example, let’s talk about the collection of summer grain. The housekeepers are sternly demanding that the servants must complete the task of collecting summer grain this year with quality and quantity in front of the elders, and take summer grain collection as the top priority at present. It must be carried out to every household, and the court taxes must be paid in full and on time.This is related to the evaluation of the lord's political achievements by the Ministry of Officials. Everyone must work together to do their jobs well and live up to the great love of the lord.

In the evening, the yamen servants who lead the servants to collect grain will gather at the house of the housekeeper. , don’t be too embarrassing, everyone is from the village, if the persecution is too much, how will you talk when you meet in the future?

The final result is self-evident. The collection of summer grain was not done well. Due to the poor harvest, only half of the collection amount was completed.

Then the master Jinshi was furious, punished the relevant personnel by hitting the board, and threatened that if the completion was not completed, someone's position as an official would be lost and other threatening words.

That night, a fire broke out in the government granary, and almost all the collected grain was reduced to ashes. In the end, the elder who did not complete the task was rated as inferior by the officials, and he packed up his bedding and went back to his hometown in desperation.

After a long time, the chief officials of the prefectures and counties knew that these local households were the ones who were really in power, and any government order of theirs was inseparable from these evil officials who handled the details.Therefore, most of the chief officials have adopted the measures of turning a blind eye and closing their eyes. As long as the tasks assigned by the court can be completed on time, they should get a lot of benefits. You can play however you like.Wouldn't it be better for the officials and the officials and gentry to relax in the forest, recite poems and admire the moon, and be at ease?

The salt merchants have no shortage of New Year's Day gifts for the elders, and the gifts are very generous.For example, valuables such as famous calligraphy and paintings, antiques from the previous dynasty, gold and silver are relatively small.

But what was given to the secretary of the book office was real money.But whenever there are weddings, funerals, birthdays and birthdays in the families of subordinate officials, the salt merchants are generous, and they must sing the gift list loudly in front of the guests, so that the hosts will feel more face. Expand your influence and popularity.

At the same time, the salt merchants will also spend money to support poor scholars, and help each other by burning cold stoves, hoping that when the sponsored ones flourish in the future, their families will be able to follow suit.This kind of thing is very common in the Jiangnan area, and there have indeed been many successful cases.

As for some scholars who like to invite names under the banner, the expenses required for holding various poetry and literary meetings are also sponsored by salt merchants.

The combination of these measures produced a very good effect. In the south of the Yangtze River, the salt merchants had a very good reputation among the official scholars. The two sides took what they needed and gradually became closely connected.

The reason why Chongzhen wanted to slowly squeeze the interests of this group, instead of blatantly sending people to ransack the family and exterminate the family, was that he did not want to arouse great public indignation, cause instability in the situation in the south of the Yangtze River, and severely damage the court's taxation and water transportation.

If the south of the Yangtze River is in chaos, even if troops can be dispatched to suppress it, it will paralyze the imperial court, which is already heavily dependent on blood transfusions from the south, and completely rot the food-deficient north.

After winning the Huai'an Salt Lifting Division, this group will naturally smell the danger, which makes them, who have always despised and like to threaten the court, make irrational actions.Civil uprising is their favorite method, and it is also the most effective way to deal with the imperial court.They knew that the imperial court was most afraid of turmoil in the south of the Yangtze River. If it hadn't been for Chongzhen to come across, this kind of behavior would indeed have pinched the imperial court's lifeline.

Chongzhen just wanted to force them to launch a civil uprising.

Huai'an Mansion is next to Yangzhou Mansion, where salt merchants gather. Chen Qiyu sits in Huai'an and holds a heavy army. As long as the information is obtained accurately and quickly, the time when the civil uprising starts is the day when the participants are wiped out.

According to past practice, the salt merchant group would never have thought that the imperial court would send troops to suppress it.

There have always been civil uprisings, Jiangnan Shilin has a crusade against the imperial court, local officials with relevant interests have come to the book, demanding severe punishment for the mastermind behind the North-South Salt Movement, and the Ming Dynasty will be a picturesque Jiangnan.

Afterwards, when the emperor and his important ministers were in a panic, they would respond to the incident with compromises, and then the civil uprising quickly subsided, and everyone continued to drink and dance, but the North Salt disappeared completely, and everything returned to the original point.

Now that Chongzhen already knew the opponent's hole cards, all he needed to do was to grasp the timing and master messenger of the cards.

The goals of the salt merchants are too obvious, they just need to let Jin Yiwei keep an eye on the relevant personnel who have been active recently.Now we need to say hello to Chen Qiyu and let him make early preparations. As long as we have the information of Jin Yiwei, we don't need to mobilize too many officers and troops, and we can quickly put an end to this disaster by capturing the thief and the king.

After that, it will be settled after autumn.

Jin Yiwei appeared on the stage, and it was enough to arrest the officials and businessmen involved in the case. These people had no resistance and did not dare to openly confront the court.

The crime is to instigate civil uprisings against the imperial court and plot wrongdoing.Perhaps Jin Yiwei will find evidence of secret dealings with thieves from some people's homes.

As long as it is charged as a traitor, whoever dares to speak out for him will be punished as an accomplice.

Well, that's it.

As long as the Lianghuai Salt Envoy is taken down, all the Lianghuai Salt Farms can be taken over, and the kitchen households will become history.Some people are left to dry the salt, and the rest are allocated to confiscated fields, newly reclaimed land, or work in workshops, and it is enough to transform from stove households to farmers.

Of course, An Jiayin still sent it.After getting the money, the complaints from the people will be reduced. After a few years they adapt to the new status, the previous dissatisfaction will disappear long ago.

This time the house raid was another bumper harvest, and the Lianghuai Salt Envoy's yamen couldn't let it go.

Those middle- and lower-level officials may not have less wealth than the chief officials. They use their hands every day to put money that should belong to the court into their own pockets, and this time they should return it.

Salt merchants should be treated separately and cannot be implicated. There are only a few main messengers, and the others are coerced followers.

Just do the first few.

If anyone among the students jumps out, they should be expelled from their reputation, and it should be regarded as a wake-up call for the Donglin Party.

Don't think that Jiangnan belongs to you, this Ming Dynasty still belongs to the Zhu family, and the court has the final say.

　Thank you book friends for loving each other for half a lifetime.If the book is okay, you can recommend it for collection, if it is not good, you can vote against it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)