back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 63 Unscrupulous businessman (recommended for collection)

(Thank you book friend Dxe for your inexplicable distress, a58392428, I am Zhang Xiaobai, Moro Rose, and Xiaozhu eats potatoes for the rewards, the rankings are in no particular order)

Lu Chengqi, who was in a good mood, returned to the Chuigong Hall, and before the chair was warmed up, and he was still happy, he received a secret report from the Supervision Department.Today's Supervision Department can be said to be Lu Chengqi's eyes and ears, monitoring all officials, inquiring about news, and has even sneaked into the enemy's country, using the codebook "invented" by Lu Chengqi to transmit information.

The branches of the Supervision Department are all over Dashun Prefecture, and all the officials hate them to the bone, but the common people respect them.They are mainly responsible for collecting illegal things from the people. They choose whether to let the Ministry of Criminal Justice arrest the person or tell Lu Chengqi directly, and let Lu Chengqi make the decision.

As for today's news, it is obvious that the Ministry of Criminal Justice is undecided. The reason is that this time the opponent is not an official, but a businessman, some unscrupulous businessman.

It turns out that the salt industry in Dashun is very scarce. Only well salt is refined salt, and sea salt is coarse salt, which is yellow and large. Poor people can only eat coarse salt.However, the supply of coarse salt is not open, because cooking sea salt still needs government approval.During the Dashun Dynasty, salt was officially sold, and then contracted to salt merchants, and then it was waiting to collect taxes.This allowed the salt merchants to form a monopoly, and the price of salt continued to rise, causing complaints from the people.

Of course, there are also some who sell private salt, but that is a drop in the bucket, and it can't do anything.Tea, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tea, what is missing here is salt.If a person does not eat salt for a long time, loss of appetite and weakness of limbs are mild symptoms. In severe cases, symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and muscle spasms may also appear.This is contrary to Lu Chengqi's wish. He hopes that the Han people will be bloody, but they can't even eat salt, so what about being brave?
In fact, people who produce well salt do not have much income. The real big head is monopolized by well salt merchants.These salt merchants lived with exotic goods, and gradually raised the price of salt, which caused complaints from the people.

Moreover, these unscrupulous businessmen sold a large amount of well salt to the Liao Kingdom to obtain greater profits when the people of Dashun could not eat salt.If Dashun and Liao are not in hostile relationship, there is nothing wrong with doing so.It is in nature for a businessman to seek profit.But Dashun and Liao Kingdom are enemy countries. Our own people can't eat salt, but they are sold to the enemy country. Isn't this amplifying our weakness to the enemy?
Lu Chengqi hated such a traitorous businessman to the bone.They only for their own interests, but forget the interests of their own country.They will not understand the truth that if the country does not survive, they will also suffer.His eyes were only fixed on Qian Yan, and he couldn't see far away.

The best way to deal with this kind of people and this kind of monopoly is to break the monopoly yourself.The reason why they didn't dare to break the monopoly before is that the salt tax revenue is the bulk of the country's tax revenue, which accounts for about 500 million yuan a year.But now that Lu Chengqi has started the business tax collection, he no longer cares about the 500 million yuan. In this case, it is better to let it benefit the people.

In addition, the unscrupulous businessmen also sold wrought iron and iron ore to the Liao Kingdom. Lu Chengqi hated it so much that his teeth itch. He personally ordered that if these unscrupulous businessmen were caught, they would be severely punished.

The following day, an imperial decree was recorded in the "Dashun People's Daily": "Zhi said: I heard that the price of salt in Dashun has been rising, and many people have no access to salt. I am very worried. Therefore, after careful consideration, I decided to release The table salt monopoly is opened, and private merchants can also sell it. If you want to engage in the production of sea salt, you can go to the office of the Ministry of Industry to ask for technology, and the office of the Ministry of Industry should not be embarrassed. Hongxiang three years April [-]th."

At this time, the influence of "Dashun People's Daily" has covered the whole of Dashun. Even if you are an official, you don't need to read the mansion newspaper, but "Dashun People's Daily" must be read.Because the "Dashun Min Bao" has a special interpretation of the Di Bao, the local officials don't have to try to guess what the above wants to do.With such a convenient newspaper, do you still want to read the Di Bao?
"Dashun People's Daily" now has an issue every two days. The newspaper that has just been released can reach the farthest border in three days at the latest.As soon as this issue of "Dashun Min Bao" came out, the whole country was in a state of excitement.Because "Dashun Minbao" not only recorded Lu Chengqi's imperial decree, but also attached the process flow of the salt farm.Only those who are fluent in writing can understand it.But in practice, someone needs guidance.

Under Lu Chengqi's repeated expansions, the yamen of the Ministry of Industry has now become the yamen with the most officials in the Dashun Dynasty.At this time, special official documents were also passed on to the yamen of the Ministry of Industry in each state capital through post roads.All of a sudden, there was an endless stream of businessmen looking for solutions. Who made the coastline of Dashun so long that salt can be dried anywhere?

It has to be said that Lu Chengqi's move was too ruthless, and directly stunned those well salt merchants who kept raising the price of salt. They have a keen sense of smell, so how could they not know that Lu Chengqi was going to take them?As the saying goes, when the emperor was angry, he laid down millions of corpses.How can ordinary people fight against the entire imperial court?Those unscrupulous businessmen suddenly felt panic all day long, fearing that their private sales of well salt to the Liao Kingdom would be exposed.Take money to please local officials, but how dare those local officials accept it?As soon as you stretch out your hand, you will be in the supervisory prison tomorrow.The more this is the case, the more these unscrupulous businessmen feel that there is no end.

But Lu Chengqi was not in the mood to attack them, and he did this only for the people of the Dashun Dynasty.What he really cares about is that many unscrupulous businessmen who sold refined iron and wrought iron to the Liao Kingdom have been arrested in the supervisory prison, although they are stubborn and refuse to admit it.But the Supervision Department has plenty of ways to get them to speak up. After all, the Supervision Department is not a kind person.

After such a turmoil, some unscrupulous merchants were secretly beaten, and most of the channels for salt and iron to flow into the Liao Kingdom were cut off. After a long time, the Khitan people of the Liao Kingdom may not be able to sit still and want to make trouble.

A sneer appeared on the corner of Lu Chengqi's mouth, and he thought: "In the first half of the year, I have a musketeer team, so I'm still afraid of your cavalry? Maybe by then, I'll even have cannons! How can I get this kind of salt and iron strategic material so easily? Dream! Go ask the Uyghurs and see how much they can give you!" Although the Uyghurs are attached to the Khitan, their production of salt and iron is not too rich, and they can't supply it themselves. How can they give the Khitans so much?With this move, Lu Chengqi thought he hit the Khitan people seven inches above the bottom.In fact, Lu Chengqi didn't know that the Khitan people could also smelt iron. At most, it was just a quality problem, not a big deal.Even salt can be obtained from the Uighurs, and it is not difficult.It's a big deal to do business with Koreans, and they don't have any major conflicts of interest anyway.

When it comes to the reaction of the people to the sun-dried salt, it is too intense, especially the wealthy businessmen, who have already put it into action and bought a large area of ​​open land by the sea.The sun-dried salt method is actually very simple, that is, to use the sun to evaporate the water in the seawater to obtain sea salt.However, the requirements for the climate of the salt field are quite high. It needs to be located in an area with a mild climate and sufficient sunlight. It also needs a large flat beach to build a salt field.

Salt fields are generally divided into two parts, the evaporation pond and the crystallization pond.First introduce seawater into the evaporation pool, and when the water is evaporated to a certain extent by the sun, it is then poured into the crystallization pool and continued to be exposed to the sun, the seawater will become a saturated solution of table salt, and the table salt will gradually be precipitated after being exposed to the sun.This is kosher salt.

Coarse salt is dissolved in water, filtered, and evaporated, and some impurities will be filtered out; at this moment, these salts are dissolved in water, filtered and evaporated again, and after two times, the impurities have been removed in sevens and eighties.At this time, dissolve it in water again, add edible alkali, stir, filter and evaporate after crystallization, and you can get refined salt.

Refined salt is sold to wealthy families, while coarse salt is eaten by poor families.In fact, coarse salt contains more trace elements needed by the human body, but those wealthy people are not used to eating it.

If after a month or two, the salt farms have salt output and flow into the market, then the salt price will definitely drop again and again with the intervention of many competitors.The result that Lu Chengqi wants to get is this, so that everyone can afford to eat salt.

(End of this chapter)