The prince clearly asked for money, and the salt merchants did not dare to take a step slower, so as not to displease this ruthless man and issue an extermination order.

But only gave less than two days to prepare, this is a debt collection, it is simply a rush!

No wonder those salt merchants who were afraid of death committed suicide early, now that they think about it, their eyes are really vicious, knowing that the prince will not give up, and die first as respect.

The salt merchants returned to their respective mansions and used various connections to raise money, and the crisis of the situation frightened their families into crying in the mansion every day.

The people of Yangzhou who learned the news were all applauded, and these dog-day salt merchants monopolized the salt industry, causing the price of salt to go against the sky, and they couldn't afford it for a long time.

Salt in the future will be two yuan a bag, a bag of salt is enough to eat a month, every family can afford to eat, go to a restaurant to eat, maybe will scold the chef for putting too much salt, and the throat hurts.

But in the Ming Dynasty, salt is a rare thing, ordinary people don't think about refined salt, that kind of green salt and salt can be bought at that time, but at this price, some places are more expensive than meat.

Compared with private salt, the official salt of the Ming Dynasty is not only of inferior quality, but also more expensive, and the people are not stupid, so they can only buy it from illegal salt dealers.

In the Ming Dynasty, smuggling salt is a felony, as the saying goes, Confucianism is a violation of the law, and chivalry is forbidden by force.

But those who dare to play smuggling and make money for a long time, except for outlaws, which one has no background? Wealthy businessmen, famous families, even armies and pirates, many of them went.

The collusion between officials and businessmen caused the salt to be drained or sold at a low price, and the tax revenue could not be raised.

Zhu Cihong doesn't care about these, whether it is sold as official salt or private salt, anyway, the official salt that goes out of the salt field every year is as high as more than 600 million catties, and the amount is fixed, and this salt tax must also be implemented.

The Outline Salt Law is to delegate power to salt merchants to sell salt, you play those bells and whistles, and change the way to evade taxes, Zhu Cihong does not eat this set, only recognizes salt tax, only recognizes silver.

Several Yangzhou general merchants who are responsible for the sales of the Lianghuai salt farm need to pay five years of tax arrears, accounting for more than half of the real salt tax in the Ming Dynasty, that is, more than 50 million taels of silver.

Usually, the people dare not speak out against the salt merchants, but at this time, when they saw that they touched the crown prince's mold, they all looked like they were gloating, waiting for the salt merchants to raise money to pay taxes.

In the bustling Dongguan Old Street of Yangzhou City, the Salt Chamber of Commerce from all over the country, such as the Shanxi Hall and the Huizhou Hall, gather here, and in the luxurious gatehouse, the merchants come and go endlessly, and the lines are in a hurry.

During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the advice of his advisers and implemented the new policy of "opening up salt", which opened up the government salt monopoly system that had been implemented for thousands of years, and the imperial court retreated from the people to advance and benefit the people.

At that time, the price of Huai salt was expensive, and as one of the nine sides, Shanxi merchants flocked to it, mastered the sale of salt, and was known as the earliest and most qualified among the major merchants in the country.

According to records, there are no less than 500 Shaanxi merchants who gathered in Yangzhou, and the famous ones include the Sanyuan Liang family, the Jingyang Zhang family, the Guo family, the Xi'an Shen family, and the Tongguan Zhang family.

During the Hongzhi period, the imperial court implemented the folding method, so that the Hui merchants near the two Huai flocked to Yangzhou to operate the salt industry, during this hundred years, the Qin and Jin merchants joined forces, and the Hui gang fought for nearly a hundred years, and finally the Hui merchants gradually overwhelmed the Shanxi merchants.

At present, several major general merchant seats in Yangzhou City are basically Qin, Jin and Hui tripartite people's clans, of which Hui merchants account for half of the seats, so that now when it comes to Yangzhou salt merchants, they only know that there is Hui, but they don't know Shanxi.

Just half a month ago, the salt merchants of Qin, Jin and Hui were still spitting at each other for this year's salt ratio, but today they are rarely buried together and borrowing money from each other!

"Brother Shen, I have offended my brother a lot in the past, and I still look at Haihan, I don't know if my brother has a lot of money......"

"Where is Brother Cheng, you are the president of our Salt Merchants Federation of Trade Unions, where do I dare to hold your grudge, my younger brother has continued to make money recently, I don't know ...... President Cheng"

“......”

After playing tricks with each other for a long time, one or two pieces of silver were not borrowed, and the chief businessman Cheng Zhiying was very helpless, seeing that it was dark, if he couldn't borrow any more silver, he was afraid that tomorrow's sun would be the last time he saw it in his life.

Fifty million taels of silver, and the several general merchants led by them must prepare at least more than three million taels each.

Although the family has millions of family assets, it includes the fields and properties under the family, so these must be paid to tax deductions?

Cheng Zhiying decided to go to his fellow countryman Zhang Dabiao to intercede, I heard that Zhang Dabiao, the president of the Merchants' Federation, is a celebrity around the prince, and his words should be able to start a role, and it is not bad to be able to make less friends.

Early in the morning of the second day, in a luxury restaurant in Yangzhou, Cheng Zhiying hosted a banquet for Zhang Dabiao.

Although there is a shortage of money at the moment, as a wealthy family, the life of a salt merchant must always maintain a basic pomp, otherwise how can there be face?

After three rounds of drinking, Cheng Zhiying rubbed his hands and said with a smile: "Brother Zhang, you and I are both fellow countrymen, and we have known each other for more than ten years, so I won't talk around the corner, I wonder if you can help us with a few good words in front of the crown prince?" ”

Zhang Dabiao came with the car, and along the way, he already knew that Zhu Cihong would do something to the salt merchants, and he was also very helpless, his side business was a salt merchant, and he was also one of the small and medium-sized salt merchants, and he had just made up the tax before coming......

It's just that Brother Cheng's big business is one of the general merchants, and the salt tax owed is too much, Zhang Dabiao is also very helpless, he said with a sad face: "Brother Cheng, it's not that I don't want to help, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is determined to rectify the salt industry, and I can't help it." ”

"Can Brother Zhang lend me a million silver for emergency use?"

Although it is taboo to borrow money early in the morning, Cheng Zhiying at this time can't take care of it so much, with expectations in her eyes.

Zhang Dabiao had long known that he would borrow money, so without saying a word, he took out a stack of silver tickets from his sleeve and said: "This is the silver ticket of Mingshang Bank, a total of 500,000 taels, and my Zhang has limited ability, so I can only take out so much." ”

Mingshang Bank is the money village that has just appeared in the Ming Dynasty in recent years, there are semicolons in major cities throughout the country, you can exchange silver tickets at any time, the reputation is excellent, nearly half of the merchants who do big business in Daming have accepted Mingshang Bank, and the salt merchants in Yangzhou are no exception.

Cheng Zhiying took the silver ticket, still full of sorrow, although the Cheng family has made a fortune in the salt industry over the years, but they have made a lot of money, and the usual expenses are also very large.

What the crown prince wants is cash, and it was sent to the prefect's yamen in the afternoon of this day, and now it is still a million taels of silver when it is full, how is this good?

Seeing the sad face of his fellow countryman, Zhang Dabiao proposed: "Brother Cheng, I have a way, you let you get together the silver taels in half a day." ”

"How?" Cheng Zhiying was in a hurry, and Cong hurriedly asked.

Zhang Dabiao pointed to the wide silver bill, and said with a smile: "This Mingshang Bank has a lending business, and I heard that the proprietor of Mingshang Bank, Mr. Wu, is in Yangzhou City......