A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 491 The fire dragon burned the warehouse and the barbarians looted it

After Wang Che's order was issued, the entire Yancheng felt as if the sky had collapsed. The homes of a large number of nobles, officials, and businessmen were surrounded by soldiers, and then everyone was locked up and taken to prison.

These people's yards, properties, fields, and shops were all seized, and the servants were dismissed after confirmation. Throughout the city, all the nobles, officials, and businessmen were trembling, fearing that when they got up the next morning, they would be surrounded by Daqian soldiers outside their doors.

As for escaping secretly? That is a serious crime, not to mention that the city gate is guarded and there is no way to get out.

Yancheng was prosperous because of salt. Now there are a large number of salt merchants in the city, and all the salt merchants involved have to have their homes confiscated and exiled. Some of these salt merchants have been selling sea salt for several generations or even more than ten generations and have accumulated huge wealth. However, they are still greedy and collude with officials to sell private salt.

Except for a few of these salt merchants who were executed, the rest were all exiled to Ryukyu Island or Fuso Island.

The people of Yancheng were very happy to see those high-ranking officials, nobles, and businessmen in the past being locked up and imprisoned one by one, and their homes ransacked. After all, these people have become somewhat unscrupulous after colluding with each other.

The imperial court made a big move this time. The total number of people whose homes were confiscated and exiled in Yancheng was close to [-].

A large number of official positions are vacant, and half of the salt merchants in the city are gone this time. The remaining salt merchants are looking for connections one after another to win over the vacant shares.

At the same time, Tingwei continued to investigate, and even many distinguished officials in Huai'an were captured. The whole of Huai'an was in panic. But fortunately, this storm went away quickly, and the court was not too involved.

But this time, a lot of things were obtained from the house raid. It has to be said that the wealth of salt merchants is rare in the world. Yancheng salt merchants have accumulated a lot of wealth. This time, more than two million silver coins were confiscated from just the salt merchants, and there were countless other houses, manors, and shops.

The wealth confiscated from the homes of officials who colluded with salt merchants in the salt field was even worse. The court finally confiscated more than four million silver dollars.

Wang Che was also shocked after seeing the figure of more than six million silver dollars in the memorial. This number is already more than what was seized in major Guanzhong cases.

"Jiang Jie, you said they are already so rich, why do they still do these illegal things to make profits?" Wang Che stood on the tower of Jinling City and looked into the distance.

"Your Majesty, people die for money and birds die for food. These people deserve to die!" the attendant behind him said respectfully.

"Birds die for food. If they don't eat, they will die. Even when they are full, those people's greed has no limit. They are indeed worthy of death!" Wang Che turned around and said.

After Wang Che saw the results of the disposal, he agreed to approve it. Next, Wang Che summoned the accompanying ministers to start dealing with the aftermath of the salt farm incident.

Although the salt farms and salt dealers have been dealt with, the people cannot have any problems using salt, and this is also related to the country's finances.

For the private salt farms discovered this time, the court planned to re-establish several salt farms. The problem of one dominant family in Yancheng Salt Farm made the court feel that corruption was too easy to occur here. It would be better to separate the saltworks and compete with each other.

At the same time, in order to prevent the problem of government-business collusion from happening again in the salt field, Wang Che ordered a group of salt merchants to be added in addition to the original salt merchants. And replaced every three years. It is no longer the hereditary system it used to be. How much salt the salt field can produce in a year can basically be roughly estimated, and then the court divides the salt into salt. Each portion of salt is introduced into two hundred kilograms of table salt, which is then sold.

Salt merchants take the salt to lure money to the saltworks to buy salt, and then sell the salt to other places. In this way, the court basically knew how much salt was sold in a year.

At the same time, almost at the beginning of the year, the money will be sent from the hands of salt merchants.

In addition, after the salt farm completes the amount of salt introduced every year, there will definitely be extra salt, which can be used as a reward for salt farm officials and salt workers. With these rewards, salt workers and officials in the salt field will also work hard to make salt.

The salt intake of saltworks cannot be reduced. With the growth of population, the demand for salt will increase every year, so the output of saltworks also needs to increase. The imperial court would send people to the salt field for inspection every year and calculate the output of the salt field. Basically, this year's output cannot be lower than last year.

The salt quota issued by the imperial court has sales areas. In order to prevent salt merchants from bidding against each other, cross-border sales are prohibited. This is also to ensure the profits of salt merchants and to crack down on illegal salt sales.

This time the salt tax was reduced by the court because there was too much private salt, and officials and businessmen colluded to sell private salt. Because there is no need to pay taxes on private salt and the price is low, people will naturally choose low-priced private salt. After all, it was up to Wang Che to choose, and he also chose the cheaper private salt.

After some discussions with the ministers, Wang Che formulated a relatively complete salt introduction system. Of course, he also knows that this salt introduction system is not perfect and has loopholes, but it is enough for now. As for modifications when problems arise in the future, things will change over time, so how can those systems remain unchanged?

If a problem arises, let future generations improve and modify it. He is not King Haotianwen, who can make a system that will not change forever.

Soon the salt introduction system was negotiated by the court, but Wang Che was hesitant about whether to implement it. In addition to the Yancheng salt field, there are bound to be many problems in other salt fields. Implementing salt diversion at this time is likely to cause problems.

After Wang Che finally thought about it, he decided to directly order Tingwei, Yushi doctor, and Xiuyi envoy to come forward to investigate the illegal activities in the salt fields in various places.

After this edict was issued, several other salt farms in the world immediately felt that something was not good, but before they could think of any way to deal with it, the imperial court had already sent people.

The imperial court sent people to conduct a thorough investigation and found that these people had no ability to resist, and if they did not resist, they would be dead. Faced with this situation, how can a person who is forced into a corner be willing to surrender?

Soon, the court received news that a fire from the sky fell at night and the salt farm caught fire. Under the raging fire dragon, all the accounts of the salt farm were burned. At the same time, the salt supervisor of the salt farm committed suicide out of fear of crime.

The Bashu Salt Farm was even attacked by Nanbarbarians. The salt farm suffered heavy casualties, tens of thousands of stone wells were raped, and even the salt wells were destroyed. Wang Che was furious when he heard the news. He never expected that those local officials and powerful people would be so bold. Do you really think he is a fool for doing this?

He directly ordered the Jinyang garrison to dispatch to Jiezhou to take over the Jiezhou Salt Pond, and ordered that all Jiezhou officialdom be captured.

The Chengdu Governor's Office was ordered to dispatch a large army to take over Bazhong Jingyan. At the same time, another part of the army went south to participate in the attack and annihilation of the Nanman.

(End of this chapter)