My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

"It doesn't matter who he works for. What matters is whether he can do things."

After hearing what Yang Huaizhong said, Fan Jinxiong waved his hand.

"If it's like what you said, we have sold many things to various barbarians at the border over the years. For example, we have sold slaves to them, at least 400,000 stones of food and grass."

"If these things were brought to light, we wouldn't have enough heads to chop them off."

"But why can our heads be placed safely on our necks now? Because we are useful and we can make money."

"When Li Chengliang was here, he relied entirely on us for his supply of food and grass in Liaodong. He also asked us to sell the treasures and mountain goods his men collected."

"There are also places like Xuanfu, Datong, and Guangning. The border troops there have to rely on us for food and salt."

Lifting the teapot and filling another cup for everyone present, Fan Jinxiong continued.

"Whether it's an official or a palace, it's just two words, it doesn't matter. What they want is money and food. As long as we are useful, they are not afraid of being liquidated."

"Shopkeeper Fan is right."

At this time, Jin Liangyu picked up the teacup, took a sip and said.

"At this time, as long as we can show our value, we are not afraid."

"In a few days, you can talk to Liu Zhengyang again and see if you can meet the father-in-law behind him in person."

"Okay, then I'll go look for him tomorrow and find out more about him."

Hearing this, Yang Huaizhong nodded and said in a deep voice.

"Well, you try it out first. As long as he shows his favor, we can give him five hundred thousand taels of silver every year."

This is just using money to hit people.

Hearing this, Yang Huaizhong's expression couldn't help but change.

Although these eight families have rich family assets and a lot of profit from their business, they still have to provide money to all parties every year.

If this is to allocate another five hundred thousand taels to the palace every year, it means that every family is cutting off their flesh at this moment.

Shanxi merchants have a big problem.

"The problem lies in water transportation. The newly arrived Zhao Yukui puts state affairs first and transports grain as his main priority. He severely cracks down on the private cargo carried by the canal army. It is difficult for many of our things to be transported northward."

Looking at Yang Huaizhong who didn't understand, Fan Jinxiong sighed and told the reason.

"That's it, I understand."

Looking at the big shopkeeper, Yang Huaizhong deeply understood the heavy responsibility on his shoulders at this moment.

When the capital is bustling, Tianjin Mansion is also bustling at the moment.

To the east of the capital is Tongzhou. When the grain storage in Tongzhou is at its minimum, it is enough for the people of the capital to eat for a year.

Tianjin, on the other hand, has many water-transported grain warehouses, including one million warehouses.

After hearing that grain prices in the capital were rising, Yuan Ke immediately planned to transfer a batch of grain from Tianjin to Tongzhou to help stabilize grain prices there.

However, what surprised him was that after five days of transporting grain, the million warehouse could not transport any grain.

"My eyes are really opened. The million warehouse is out of food."

In the Tianjin Governor's Yamen, looking at the account book in his hand, Yuan Keli could not conceal his anger. At this moment, he could only feel that his hands were shaking for some reason.

"They dare to do anything with the grain. Is there anything else in the world that they dare not do?!"

"Master, please calm down first, don't get angry."

The master standing in the hall saw Yuan Keli turned blue with anger and quickly advised him.

"This matter is of great importance and concerns the Water Transport Yamen. Even if you want to investigate, you must first report it to His Majesty."

"I know."

Hearing this, Yuan Keli waved his hand and sat down on the chair with an angry face.

"The problem of water transportation is not a one-day problem. In the past thirty years, the number of grain transported northward has been declining. In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, it dropped to the point where it could no longer supply the capital's grain consumption."

"Your Majesty asked me to come to Tianjin. What is the purpose? He asked me to promise to prepare grain for Liaodong. But now the many granaries of Tianjin Guard are becoming empty. They can't even supply the rations of the people in the capital. How can we talk about supplying Liaodong."

"My boss is right, but this matter still needs to be dealt with at the Caoyun Yamen."

The master looked at Yuan Keli and shrugged helplessly.

"The water transportation is not good. According to my observation, the canal troops not only transported grain to the north, but also transported a lot of private goods."

“If we want to solve the problem of water transportation volume, we still need to solve the problem of private cargo first.”

"Which families do you mean?" After hearing this, Yuan Ke immediately thought of something, touched his beard and looked at the master.

"I'm afraid it will involve more."

The master cupped his hands and arrived helplessly.

"Local large households, officers of the Cao Army, government offices in the pass, and businessmen from all over the country all participated in this."

"The issue of water transportation has been around for a long time, but it has never been discussed at court. Do you think the officials in the government offices in Beijing really don't know about it?"

"It's okay to do private work, but you can't ignore national affairs."

Yuan Keli slammed the table and said angrily.

"Grind the ink for me. I will write a letter and ask Your Majesty to make a decision."

With that said, Yuan Keli was about to start writing the memorial, but saw his master still standing there.

"I think the owner is still focusing on the court's new salt policy."

"Why?"

Hearing this, Yuan Keli frowned.

Why did his master talk so much today?

"The salt farm in His Majesty's Palace now uses new management methods and salt production methods, and its output has greatly increased. And the imperial court has stipulated the salt sales officials and merchants in each government."

Speaking of this, the master's expression was a little strange.

The imperial court's new salt policy was really good governance.

Salt is produced from sea water and has to pass three passes until it reaches people's mouths.

The first pass is the salt field.

The salt produced by the salt households originally set by the Ming Dynasty was no longer enough for the people of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, private owners emerged among the people. These people rented or opened salt farms, hired salt workers, and fried salt day and night. It was quite hard, but they could not make much money.

The second pass is the salt merchant.

These people hold salt guides in their hands and travel around the official and private salt farms. They use the salt guides to the designated salt nests to collect salt, and then sell it to the designated "Yin Bank" for sale.

Since they often carry a large amount of private salt, they are also called private salt dealers.

The two passes above are filled with poor people.

One does the hard work of frying salt, and the other needs to run around to get salt.

But this third level is amazing. These people are called nest owners.

These people only do one thing, eat at home and eat at home.

They set up diversion banks at various Chaoguan wharves, purchased salt diversions from passing salt merchants, and sold salt.

At the same time, they set up dens around various salt farms to purchase salt from salt households and write off the salt quota.

These nest owners have the monopoly right over all the salt produced in the salt farm. Where did this power come from?

That was naturally the result of collusion between officials and businessmen.

The nest owners bought low and sold high, making a lot of money.

The officials behind them were also full of food.

"I heard that when Yuan Shizhen, the minister of household affairs, was in Lianghuai, he used the Baojia method to organize salt workers and let them inspect the salt fields and crack down on private salt dealers."

Looking at Yuan Keli with a strange expression, the master expressed his opinion.

"This is why the salt tax in Lianghuai has increased."

"Your Majesty will leave part of the profits of many salt fields, including the Changlu Salt Field, to your disposal. The problems with water transportation have been around for a long time and cannot be sorted out in a day or two."

"Now the imperial court's new salt policy stipulates that each government has a specialized merchant to sell salt. We hold salt in our hands, and we can definitely win over the salt merchants and kill these nest owners."

As he spoke, the master slid his hand on his neck and made a killing gesture.

"These people are quite capable in water transportation. If my boss wants to take action on water transportation, I think we can start with them."

"Makes sense."

After listening to the master's words, Yuan Keli nodded slowly.

This is to point out the point. (End of chapter)