Zhu Youxiao can also understand that the eye-catching degree of going out with a first-line star and bringing a third-tier star is naturally incomparable.

Ignoring the gazes of these people, Zhu Youxiao walked directly into the Royal Academy with a smile on his face.

Although the scene in front of him is not what Zhu Youxiao wants, nor is it what he wants to see, it doesn't matter, he has to stay happy when he comes here today.

Things will be dealt with soon.

Although Zhu Youxiao's eyes did not look at these people, these people were all looking at Zhu Youxiao, and some people even began to look around, wondering what the identity of this person was?

It's just that no one knows Zhu Youxiao, and no one knows what Zhu Youxiao's identity is for a while.

In such a situation, the other party is unknown, it seems that the pomp is not small, and at first glance, the identity is unusual, so naturally no one ran up to find trouble.

Zhu Youxiao was also happy and took people to walk around the Royal Academy in Yangzhou.

Speaking of which, the environment of the Royal Academy in Yangzhou is very good, and it must have cost a lot of money when it was built.

But this should also be, after all, it was built by the salt merchants of Yangzhou. Who is the richest person in Daming?

That's them, the salt merchants. And this is the place they use to win people's hearts, so they naturally have to be willing to spend money. Although it is now returned to the imperial court, the territory and buildings are still theirs.

While walking forward, Zhu Youxiao looked at Wei Changsheng beside him and asked, "When the academy was reformed here, did anything happen?" Are they so willing to hand it over? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, they are very cooperative." Wei Changsheng hurriedly said.

Although Wei Changsheng didn't know why, he knew what His Majesty meant by asking, so he directly said the result.

However, Wei Changsheng really didn't have much say in this matter, he had just arrived in Yangzhou at that time, and he didn't know much about many things in Yangzhou.

Don't talk about the above things, Wei Changsheng hasn't figured out the following things yet. High-level matters are not something he can investigate at all, he only knows a little bit of the basic situation.

At that time, after the people from the imperial court came, these salt merchants in Yangzhou agreed very happily and directly dedicated the academy.

In fact, they are very cooperative, and they will help in the process of reform, no matter what the difficulties are; Even when there are no difficulties, they will take the initiative to find something to do, so that the reform of the college will be very smooth.

Wei Changsheng didn't feel anything at that time, after all, he was not in his position at that time.

But now it's different. After such a long time of training, coupled with having been in Yangzhou for so long, and knowing enough about the ups and downs of Yangzhou, Wei Changsheng has already smelled the unusual. There must be something in this that he didn't know.

Zhu Youxiao nodded and asked, "Then do you know who is in charge here?" ”

Wei Changsheng knew what the emperor was going to ask, and to put it bluntly, he was asking who among these salt merchants had the final say.

Wei Changsheng said: "Back to Your Majesty, there are three largest salt merchants on the ground of Yangzhou, one is the Wang family in Shanxi, and the ancestors are engaged in the salt business. ”

This Shanxi Wang family, Zhu Youxiao knows very well, in fact, it is the family of Wang Chonggu, the governor of the three sides. Their family has several brothers, and there are many officials, and they control the market in the entire trilateral region.

You must know that when the Ming Dynasty was founded, the people who garrisoned the troops in those places had to transport grain over. The court itself came with great loss and low efficiency, so it was handed over to the merchants.

At that time, there was a good policy, the merchants sent grain over and exchanged it for salt from the defenders; The merchant took the salt and brought it back to the local salt works to buy the salt and then sell it.

In this process, the imperial court got taxes, the soldiers at the border got grain, and the salt merchants got salt and made money, which belonged to a three-person win-win situation, which was the policy formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time.

But people are not greedy enough, and the salt merchants don't want to do this, and they are too tired to transport grain. So they thought of a second way, they made a large piece of land at the border pass, found someone to cultivate there, and harvested the grain directly every year to send it to the soldiers at the border pass, and then the merchants took the salt and led it to buy salt.

This led to a large increase in the population of the border gates and the development of the land. This was Shangtun at that time, and it worked very well.

But then the salt merchants were still not satisfied, it was a waste of time, and the profit was small. So they did another thing, to encourage the officials and the imperial court to buy salt directly with silver.

To put it bluntly, we don't care about the soldiers at the border gates, we don't give food to the border gates, and directly give the imperial court money.

These salt merchants directly converted the attributes of serving the imperial court into commercial attributes, and the salt merchants completely lay on the body of the country to suck blood, becoming a group of moths and making no contributions.

At that time, in order to achieve this goal, they bribed the officials, nobles and relatives of the imperial court to make them agree to this condition.

The person who came to agree to this matter was the famous Emperor Hongji, that is, Emperor Zhengde's father, the emperor known as Renjun.

In addition, these salt merchants also encouraged the emperor, saying that using silver to buy salt could increase taxes for the imperial court, but in fact, this money was deducted from the soldiers at the border gates, and the salt merchants took the lion's head and gave the court a small share.

In addition, the relatives were so serious that they took the salt into their own hands and then resold it to the salt merchants. Do nothing, take a lot of money.

Xun Qi went to agitate the emperor, to cry poor, to ask for salt, and then turned around and sold. It was from that time that the border gates were abolished, the salt merchants frantically sucked blood, the nobles and relatives were exploited, and the state finances were even more unable to make ends meet.

In the end, when the people in Shaanxi were in turmoil, the army there had no food to eat and rebelled directly.

If the original policy still exists, let people send grain over there, they will transfer grain from the south, not from the northwest.

Zhu Yuanzhang's policies have continuously strengthened communication, stabilized the grain market and borders, and even expanded the population of the borders. It's just that all of this has since been abandoned.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Youxiao naturally looked down on these salt merchants.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao thought about restoring Zhu Yuanzhang's old policy, but now he has no idea. These people are just killed, and the money making is better to do it yourself.

The Shanxi Wang family is the main target this time.

The Wang family is an official and has a monopoly on the market; Because they monopolized the market, they had money and thus reached out to the places where salt was produced. That is, the Jin merchants marched into the Lianghuai salt industry in a big way and took root in Yangzhou.

"Who else is there besides the Wang family?" Zhu Youxiao asked again.

"In addition to the Wang family, there is also the Chen family in Shaanxi. The two of them are in charge of the Jindi Business Gang, but in Yangzhou, their strength is not the strongest. The strongest is the Huizhou merchant gang. ”

Since the fifth year of Hongzhi, the imperial court allowed the use of silver money to buy and sell salt, and the Huizhou Shang State rose.

The Huang, Wang, and Wu ethnic groups in Huizhou have many people who have become rich in Yangzhou's salt industry, and they have hundreds of thousands or even millions of capitals, and they are famous at home and abroad for "salt ceremonies and wine in the world".

Although the merchants of Shanxi and Shaanxi also changed the border merchants to domestic businessmen, they went to Yangzhou to compete with the Hui people. But they were far away from their homeland, unable to do their best, and their status had to be subordinated to the Hui merchants.

In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, the imperial court implemented the outline law, and the Hui merchants occupied this profit even more. In the blink of an eye, after so many years, they have gained a firm foothold in Yangzhou, and no one can shake their position.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, a famous Hui businessman.

Huizhou merchants do not refer to the merchants of Anhui Province, but to the merchants of Huizhou, including She, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, Yi, Jixi six counties, that is, the ancient Xin'an County.

Huizhou is located in the "head of Wu and Chuwei", belongs to the marginal area, the mountains are high and the forests are dense, the terrain is changeable, and the development is late.

Before the Han Dynasty, the population was small, and at the end of the Jin Dynasty, the end of the Tang Dynasty, the end of the Song Dynasty and three waves of migration in Chinese history, a large number of people from the north migrated to Huizhou in southern Anhui.

What should I do if I have a large population and a lot of mountains and little land?

Going out to do business is a way out.

Under such circumstances, they chose to go out to do business, and with the spirit of hardship and hard work, they did a great business. If you look at their entrepreneurial history, it is also a song and a cry, and it is also a piece of blood and tears. In order to have a future, it was also hard work.

It's just that the dragon slayer eventually becomes an evil dragon, and after they become a capital, their position is different.

It may be better when you struggle, but once you become capital, then you will suck blood. This is the case with the current Hui merchants.

Of course, it is certainly much better if you don't dry the salt merchants. After all, there are a lot of transactions by Hui merchants, such as those who sit on Chengxintang paper, which began in the Tang Dynasty, and now it is not something that ordinary people can afford.

In addition, there are those who make lacquer, and there are those who make ink. Huizhou's ink is a must.

Such a businessman, Zhu Youxiao naturally won't do anything, but will encourage him. In the future, when going out to trade, these are the brands of luxury goods in the future, which will make money in the Great Chinese Cultural Circle.

Since the Tang Dynasty, a paper brand has been born, called Chengxintang, not to mention that the price is more than gold, it is almost the same.

Zhu Youxiao walked forward with his hands behind his back, listening to some of the things Wei Changsheng said.

However, Zhu Youxiao soon understood that in fact, it didn't make much sense for him to understand this, who should be cleaned up or who should be cleaned up, it was just a starting goal, taking a sequence, or drawing up a list.

As he walked, Zhu Youxiao remembered another thing.

He turned his head to look at Wei Changsheng and asked, "Who is the sponsor of this academy?" Hui Shang or Jin Shang? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, it's a Hui merchant. These people called themselves Confucian merchants, and they paid more attention to these things than the Jin merchants. Wei Changsheng said respectfully, his tone cautious.

Wei Changsheng knew that His Majesty was probably eyeing Hui Shang, which was not a good thing.

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