At the beginning of February of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, spring returned to the earth, and everything recovered.

The beginning of spring means that a new cycle has begun, which is the beginning of all things and the righteousness of all rebirth.

After the beginning of spring, spring ploughing began in various places, and Zhu Cihong went out of Nanjing again to inspect the Yangzhou Prefecture in Jiangbei to completely solve the problem of collecting less and less salt tax.

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, China's salt industry was quite developed, and for more than 2,000 years, the southeast coast has been one of the salt production centers.

The largest salt field in the Ming Dynasty is the two Huai salt fields in Nanzhili, and the production areas include Huainan and Huaibei salt fields, among which the Huainan salt field has the oldest development history and the Huaibei salt field has the largest production scale.

The Ming Dynasty continued the system of the Yuan Dynasty and set up two Huaidu Salt Envoys in the capital of Yangzhou, with three divisions, two approval offices, and thirty salt farms and salt divisions; Hongwu, more than 352,000 years of cooking classes, after the Hongzhi, changed to a small introduction of salt, the introduction of double.

Salt is one of the indispensable necessities for the human body to survive, and similar to the value of food, it is a hard currency in a backward commodity economy, which can be used as a circulation and exchange material.

Zhu Cihong had long set his sights on the salt industry, but he didn't dare to do it because the stakes were too great.

Now the nobles of the two capitals in the north and south, the gentry officials, landlords and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have been killed by him round after round, and the backers of those big salt merchants have long been cleaned up by him, and now if they want to engage in the salt industry, it is as simple as a strong man bullying orphans and widows.

Since ancient times, the salt tax has been one of the important taxes collected by various dynasties and generations, especially in the Ming Dynasty, where the tax rate was low, and the salt tax sometimes even accounted for half of the tax revenue.

After Zhu Cihong dealt with the matter of trade and sea trade, he immediately toured the north to inspect the production of sea salt in Lianghuai.

In the fifth year of Hongzhi, the imperial court reformed the salt tax, replaced the Kaizhong method with the Kaizhong folding method, and changed the investment and grain to the silver department, and then went directly to the salt field to support the salt, that is, to pay a certain amount of silver, you can receive the salt.

"Lead" is the salt production unit, a lead dismantling 300 catties, according to the rules is each lead into rice and a stone, first convert the salt into rice, and then convert it into silver according to the price of rice.

In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, after more than 100 years of folding color method, the imperial court adopted the salt method played by Yuan Shizhen, implemented the rigid salt method, and implemented the monopoly of the salt industry.

The rigid salt law is to compile the salt received by the merchants into a compendium, divided into ten outlines, each year with a compendium of the line, nine outlines of the current citation, every year according to the number of the number of new quotes, where the outline of the book is named, according to the nest book, the name of the outline is not allowed to join, from then on the official does not accept salt, merchants and salt households direct transactions.

The Gang Salt Law enabled the salt merchants to obtain hereditary arbitrary power, and the huge wealth of the salt merchants also began to accumulate from this period.

The direct trading between merchants and salt farmers has certain advantages for the salt merchants, and the salt production is no longer subject to the supervision and control of the government, as long as the salt tax is paid on time, they can do whatever they want, which can not only develop a side business, but also produce more salt.

Salt has never been worried about the market, after more salt, there will naturally be businessmen to come to buy, the purchase price is often a little higher than the original government folding, if you catch up with the good market, the life of the salt Ding should be very moist, and you can also do business or buy land as a small landlord when you make enough money.

Now a stone of rice in the Nanzhili area is more than two taels of silver, it stands to reason that a salt ding can earn more than 20 taels of silver a year, which is a very considerable income in the countryside at that time, at least to reach the well-off living standard.

However, Zhu Cihong, who went out on patrol in microservices, saw a place where a salt-making village was located, the houses were very dilapidated, and the salt lads who came and went were still dilapidated, with vegetables on their faces, like refugees.

Zhu Cihong immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, and the industrial chain of the salt industry may be far darker than imagined.

At Zhu Cihong's signal, Li Hu, the general of the Qianqing Palace Guard, stepped forward and grabbed an old man and asked, "Uncle, Yangzhou Mansion is so prosperous, why are you so poor?" ”

The old man looked Li Hu up and down, frowned, and said, "What did the young man say, the poor man dug your ancestral grave?" Can't live? ”

Zhu Cihong shook his head secretly, Li Tingbiao is the same as a personal essence, how could he give birth to such a guy who does not eat fireworks in the world.

He stepped forward and said, "My uncle misunderstood, my guard rarely comes out and can't speak, please forgive me." ”

"It's like words!" The old man's face softened, and he looked at Zhu Cihong again last time, and then said: "Look at your outfit, you should be a rich and noble son, what are you doing in my Yanghe group?" ”

"I heard that your Yanghe group produces salt, and we want to come and buy some salt, in large quantities."

The old man raised his eyebrows, a trace of fear appeared on his face, and asked tentatively, "Salt merchant?" ”

Zhu Cihong said with a smile: "Don't be nervous, I don't have to be nervous, we are serious businessmen, legal transactions, I will cover all the salt you produce, you can press three taels of silver this year, what do you think?" ”

"Three-two-one?" The old man couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this.

According to the normal purchase price, a salt is also in two taels to two taels of silver, and the son in front of him suddenly gave three taels, he was naturally very happy, this is a serious businessman, it is simply the God of Wealth!

The old man, who was originally grim, immediately changed his attitude, stretched out his hand sideways and said, "Son, please come with me, come to my house and sit down for a while, and I will invite the head of the group!" ”

When Zhu Cihong came, he also had a general understanding of the production chain and market of the salt industry, and knew that the salt industry production organization was divided into three levels: field, regiment and stove.

The field is the management organization, that is, the commonly known salt yamen, the officials are called the ambassadors of the salt department, and the salt department, salt department, salt department, is the grassroots salt organization.

The ambassador of the salt section is an official of the Zhengbapin, who is in charge of the production of fields, pools, wells, and the collection of salt taxes, and is under the jurisdiction of the Yun Tong and Yun Deputies, and is under the jurisdiction of the Yun Envoy or the Salt Law Road.

The regiment is the place where the salt people live, the households of each stove gather in a group, and set up a pass to prevent its leakage, and many place names along the coast are named after the "regiment".

The stove is the stove household, the person who sets up the stove to cook salt, the stove Ding is the salt burner, this old man should be the stove household, but judging by his behavior and temper, or the small leader of this village.

Before leaving, the old man turned around and asked, "Are you sure you want to wrap up the entire salt field of our group?" ”

"Sure!" Saying that, Zhu Cihong asked Li Hu to give the old man a deposit of one hundred taels of silver.

The old man took the heavy silver, couldn't help but be overjoyed, bent down and nodded in thanks, and asked the Hun family to dig out all the good wine that had been treasured at home for many years.

At this price, it will be a big deal, and your future life will not only be better, but you will also have some surplus.

In the courtyard a mile away, the old man knocked on the door.

"Who? Don't have a long mouth? ”

An impatient voice came from inside the courtyard, and then the door slowly opened.

The old man smiled and said, "Master Han, there is a big business!" ”

The old man approached and whispered a few words.

The middle-aged fat man known as Han Ye screamed: "Ding Laosan, you want to die, right?" Do you dare to change hands on the Wei family's business? If these salt merchants send people down, my little life may not be saved! ”

Old Man Ding approached and said in a low voice: "Master Han, I saw that several of this son's guards were wearing official boots......