Winter solstice, noon gate.

The officials of Guanglu Temple had been waiting there for a long time, and the officials of Guanglu Temple opened their voices and shouted: "In order to be thrifty, Your Majesty will exempt the winter solstice banquet, and instead give the ministers half a catty of dried chili peppers, two catties of peanuts, and ten catties of sweet potatoes!" ”

Peanuts, sweet potatoes, and corn have been gradually promoted in Gyeonggi, but it will take another two or three years for them to become fully popular.

Among them, peanuts are the most popular, this thing can be used as a side dish, and a plate of fried peanuts can drink two large pots. But the price is still a bit expensive, last year only the rich families could afford to eat, this year more and more farmers grow peanuts, and the well-off families can occasionally buy wine.

As for the chili peppers, they belonged to Huangzhuang's specialties at the beginning, and Wang Yuan's Zhuangtian also planted some of them.

After two or three years of spreading, the planting range is still very small, and those who like it love it to the bone, and those who don't like it are disdainful at all.

Until the beginning of this year, Tian Qiu, the right Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, ate a plate of cold dishes at Wang Shangshu's house, and almost swallowed his tongue at that time. Tian Qiu immediately asked for the recipe for this dish, and then bought dried chili peppers at a high price, and after several treats, "oil and spicy seeds" had spread all over Beijing officialdom.

The nobles let the tenant farmers grow chili peppers, and "oil and spicy seeds" became the aristocratic seasoning, and the price of chili peppers was once comparable to spices!

The miscellaneous officials of Guanglu Temple led the servants to carry the reward items, and the civil and military officials lined up to claim peppers, peanuts and sweet potatoes. The petty officials were very happy, most of them had no land in the capital, and if they wanted to eat chili peppers, they had to buy them at a high price, but this time the emperor rewarded them with half a catty.

You can even split some chili seeds and sell them, because there are people in the market who want to buy them. It is estimated that the price will plummet next year, because more and more chili peppers are planted, and the appearance of "oil and spicy seeds" in restaurants is just around the corner.

"Zhongyuan, you have a good mouth again." Zheng Yipeng said funny.

Tang Xun said: "Koufu has to wait for next year, from the date of New Year's Day, all officials in the world will be raised by three levels. At that time, there are many chili peppers, and maybe you can put a big spoonful of oil and spicy seeds every day for dinner. ”

Zheng Yipeng laughed: "Hahahaha, Zhong Yuan's ambitions are high. ”

Tang Xun and Zheng Yipeng, the same branch of Jinshi, the same branch of Jishi, and they are also roommates. Although one is Wang Yuan's friend and the other is Yang Shen's friend, their personal relationship has always been good.

Tang Xun said: "If the people of the whole country can eat oil and spicy seeds every day, then the world will definitely be under great control." ”

Both of them now rent a private house and can't afford to hire maids and servants, but there are always followers.

Throwing the reward to his followers, Zheng Yipeng said in a low voice: "After the beginning of spring, I may be released." ”

"Patrol the Imperial History?" Tang Xun asked.

Zheng Yipeng nodded and said, "Eight or nine is not far from ten." ”

Tang Xun hugged his fists and smiled: "Congratulations to Brother Jiuwan!" ”

Zheng Yipeng said: "Don't be in a hurry to congratulate me, Brother Zhong Yuan is probably going to be released." ”

"The new salt law?" Tang Xun asked.

Zheng Yipeng said: "Sixty percent of the imperial history of the DPRK and the central government must be sent to the local area to patrol and investigate the implementation of the new salt affairs. ”

"The salt government version of the paving into the mu" is not so easy to do, even if you come up with the method of fighting officials with officials, there are still countless loopholes that can be drilled.

During the Zhengde period, there was no "official salt shop", and the entire sales process was divided into three parts.

The first part: After the domestic merchants got the salt introduction, they went to the Metropolitan Salt Transportation Division to buy salt, and transferred it to the salt transportation divisions of various provinces through the water merchants, and the legal salt trafficking activities of the salt merchants came to an end.

Part 2: The prefecture and county fill in the number of household registrations within their jurisdiction, obtain the salt quota according to the population, and organize their own manpower to transport the salt back from the provincial salt transportation department.

Part 3: The governor of Lijia organized people to go to the prefecture and county to transport salt, and brought it back to their respective Lijia to sell it to the people.

The final tax is also paid according to the population, and the governor of Lijia is responsible for urging the tax, and it is handed over to the prefecture and county level, and the governor of the prefecture and county is then handed over to the provincial salt tax yamen. This kind of salt tax according to the population, called "salt banknote class" and "salt banknote silver", was still used until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and it was changed to collect taxes by catties in the last years of Qianlong.

Is it rough or not? It's too rough!

actually asked the governor of Lijia to distribute official salt, and gave it a quota according to the population, didn't he force the people to buy private salt? If you don't buy private salt, the official salt quota is simply not enough to eat!

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, more than two-thirds of the salt eaten by the common people in the country was private salt, and they did not have to pay taxes to the imperial court.

The court officials naturally knew that the prefect of Lijia was unreliable, so in the Wanli period, there was another "official salt shop".

The people of the county can only buy salt in the official salt shop, which makes it inconvenient for the people to buy salt, because many farmers do not go to the city for a lifetime; The second is to transfer the profits to the official salt merchants, and the chief of Lijia is still leisurely, and the merchants don't care whether the people live or die. The official salt merchants of the official salt shop used shoddy quality and raised the price of salt, forcing the common people to buy only private salt, and at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was even a situation where the official salt shop forced the people to rebel.

However, if the official salt shop is not set up, it will not work, and the Lijia chief is too difficult to manage, so Wang Yuan has to be forced to set it up this time.

In order to avoid monopoly, each prefecture and county must have at least 10 official salt shops, and the owners of each shop are not allowed to have relatives within five suits, and no one is allowed to be an official within three generations. According to the imperial history, this is the main inspection this time, once the cheater is found, he will be directly put into the cheap register, and those who have meritorious fame will be deprived of their fame!

The business license of the official salt shop is renewed once every ten years, and the license is changed by the patrol according to the unified organization of the imperial history. If a problem is found once, the patrol involved will be demoted to one level according to the imperial history; If the problem is found twice, the inspector involved will be directly dismissed!

As for the "salt and silver", no longer let the soap officials force the people to hand it in.

The state and county go to the provincial salt transportation department to get the goods, and there is no quota limit in the future, and you can buy it with money. The provincial salt department will calculate the amount of tax on the number of goods, and the "salt banknote and silver" will be directly calculated in the price of salt. The provincial-level salt transportation department, the provincial-level salt department, and the state and county officials supervise each other, and each has its own interests, and it is very difficult for the three parties to collude.

I'm afraid, the provincial salt transportation department will not send the goods, and quietly sell it as private salt - this is the most important joint point, once the provincial salt transportation department restricts the supply, Wang Yuan's reform will completely fail.

Therefore, the patrol of the imperial history has to stare at the salt transportation division, and the state and county magistrates are the eyeliner of the imperial history. Because the governor and the county have interests in it, if the salt transportation department does not send the goods and quietly sells them privately, they will definitely take the initiative to report to the patrol according to the imperial history.

In the future, according to the achievements of the imperial history, the inspection of local salt affairs will be the mainstay.

Wang Yuan even wanted to set up a patrol imperial history in charge of salt affairs, which did not overlap with the responsibilities of the salt patrol department. The former inspected the salt affairs of the state and county, staring at the terminal; The latter inspected the salt work of the salt works, staring at the starting point.

No system is perfect, and Wang Yuan can only try to divide interest groups and let them supervise each other for the sake of interests. At the same time, it has also strengthened inspections by the central authorities, and has always held its sword high to keep corruption within an acceptable range.

In addition, in order to facilitate the people to buy salt in the city, carrying less than five catties of salt is not considered smuggling - you can drill the leak if you want, and organize 200 people to transport 1,000 catties of illegal salt, which is completely reasonable and legal, it depends on whether you can return to the capital!

After a few days of intensive discussions, the cabinet accepted Wang Yuan's suggestion and set up a salt patrol with the ministry.

The patrol of the salt road, the rank of the Biti study road, is served by a deputy envoy of the inspection, specializing in the management of state and county salt affairs.

There is only an office for the inspection of the salt road, and there is no inspection agency, and the inspection affairs are carried out by the central government as a full-time patrol according to the imperial history. Once a problem is discovered, the inspection of the salt road will be reported to the provincial prosecutors, and personnel will be organized to investigate. If the inspector cannot handle it properly, the patrol can directly report to the central government, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Criminal Department, and the Dali Temple will organize the three divisions to jointly handle the case.

Anyway, Wang Yuan frantically divided local interest groups and frantically put ropes around the necks of these people.

This reform alone can generate at least four or five hundred thousand taels of revenue for the central government every year. For the state, county, government, and government departments of the whole country, the total revenue generated is at least 2 million taels -- the state, county, government, and government departments had no money to take before, and in the future, they will be collected for nothing, and the central government is increasing taxes on the basis of the past.

This is only the tax silver for the terminal sale of salt, and the tax silver for the private sale of surplus salt is not included. In the past, surplus salt had to be sold to the government, but in fact, most of it was smuggled, and the central government could not collect taxes at all, and this part of the tax revenue was at least several million taels. Even if there is still smuggling, even if they still join hands with corruption, they can still leave two or three million taels left for the central government.

The above two reforms have not even started to deal with the tax revenue when the salt is shipped, and that thing will have to wait until the emperor dies to change it.

In the winter, the imperial court issued a new salt law and announced the increase in the salaries of officials.

The world was shaken!