On the first day of October, although it has not yet reached the beginning of winter, a cold snap hit and the temperature plummeted. x. There is already a feeling of winter cold.

In the Lu Mansion in Yangzhou, Lu Jie sat in the room and asked his son in front of him: "Shaowen, are the salt farms ready?" ”

"Ready, it's time to take care of everything." Lu Shaowen replied.

"How many citations are there this time?"

Lu Shaowen replied: "A thousand citations." ”

"How many pounds did you lift?"

Lu Shaowen replied: "Ten thousand catties." ”

"What about the checkpoints?"

"It's still the old rule, the money is ready." Lu Shaowen said.

Looking at the officials, they may be confused when they see this, what are the two of them talking about when they ask and answer?

At this point, it is necessary to talk about the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty. Salt is a necessity for the people's life and an important source of tax revenue for the imperial court. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the government encouraged private individuals to transport grain to the frontier and hand it over to the military treasury, and then received a salt voucher consistent with the amount of grain paid, went to the salt-producing areas controlled by the government to receive the corresponding amount of salt, and gave a sales permit.

In the fifth year of Hongzhi, it was changed to the method of accepting silver in salt, and as long as a certain amount of silver was paid to the government, the corresponding amount of salt was received. Then go to the salt factory designated by the government to receive the corresponding amount of salt, and sell it at the designated place.

The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the management of the salt industry, and in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the six major salt areas of Lianghuai, Liangzhejiang, Changlu, Shandong, Hedong and Fujian set up the Salt Envoy Department (referred to as the "Transport Division", and the chief was the Salt Envoy, referred to as the "Transport Envoy"), and in other salt-producing areas, there were seven salt divisions and other yamen responsible for managing the salt production and marketing affairs of each salt farm. The salt industry departments such as the transportation department are under the jurisdiction of the household department and are not subject to the control of the local government. In addition, the Ming Dynasty implemented a salt monopoly system to obtain salt profits, and used the "Kaizhong Law" to supplement military needs. In addition, the salt industry is lucrative, and the production and marketing links are controlled in the hands of one institution, and in the absence of supervision, the salt system in various places has fallen into corruption, and the collusion between officials and businessmen has led to the flood of private salt.

According to records, the government purchased the salt from the stove households very cheaply, and often two or three hundred wen could buy 100 catties of salt. Then it was sold to salt merchants everywhere at a price dozens of times, and the salt merchants sold it to ordinary people at least twice the profit. In this way, the price of salt rose from two or three wen a catty to one hundred and forty or fifty wen a catty, so salt was an absolute luxury in the Ming Dynasty, but the people could not afford not to eat salt.

With such a high profit in the production and marketing of salt, it will naturally lead to the flood of illegal salt. The collusion between officials and businessmen is one aspect that has led to the proliferation of illicit salt, and the other aspect is that the owners who cook salt and the smuggled salt dealers have also reached an agreement of interests, and they have also begun to quietly sell illicit salt.

Because the income of the stove household is meager, they can only barely support their families by boiling salt all year round.

Forced by life, the stove households began to boil and dry salt privately, and then secretly sold the salt to private smuggler salt dealers, who then quietly transported it to the mainland to sell it for huge profits. The stove was sold to the smuggler for a price, but the price doubled. Salt dealers are even more profitable, often more than ten times more profitable. So much so that in the early years of Chenghua, some powerful smuggling salt dealers developed into salt lords, openly armed to sell illicit salt, even for profit

Yi directly and the officers and soldiers fired.

After the Chenghua year, the Imperial Court sent the Imperial History to inspect the salt and began to meddle in the management of salt affairs, and supervised the salt affairs with the imperial history.

The meaning of this dialogue between Lu Jie and his son is actually to discuss the smuggling and selling of salt, which is a typical collusion between officials and businessmen to sell illicit salt. First of all, the Lu family went to the Yamen of the Yunsi Division to receive 1,000 catties of salt, and according to the regulations, they could only receive 3,000 catties of official salt. However, after buying off the relevant officials of the salt factory, they can receive 10,000 catties of official salt, so that if they buy the inspectors and officers and soldiers of the Yamen of the Transportation Department in various transportation arteries, they can smoothly transport these salts to various places for sale and sale, and the tax revenue of these 7,000 catties of salt is lost in vain, while the officials and salt merchants make huge profits from it.

While the father and son were talking, a family member came over to report: "Master, young master." Our people inquired that the Juzhou government had bought a large amount of grain from Nantong, Yangzhou, Suzhou and other places, and it was now being loaded and shipped away. ”

After hearing this, Lu Jie's face immediately showed excitement, and he hurriedly asked, "Oh? Are the sources reliable? ”

"Reliable, they bought a lot this time, it was enough to load twenty ships, and it is estimated that there are at least two hundred thousand stones." The family replied.

Lu Jie asked again: "Where is their ship parked now?" ”

"It's at the canal wharf in Yangzhou."

Lu Shaowen said excitedly: "Father, the opportunity has come." Let's do it tonight! ”

Lu Jie calmed down now, and he waved his hand to let the family retreat first. Then he twisted his beard and thought about it. After a while, he said slowly: "Don't worry, you can't do it in Yangzhou, it's too close to us." ”

"Where does Father think it's appropriate?"

Lu Jie twisted his beard and said, "Huai'an, you go to Huai'an today, find Yue Tongzhi from the Yamen of the Huai'an Branch, bring more silver taels, and do what we have discussed." Come back as soon as the matter is done, and don't linger in Huai'an, lest they catch the handle. ”

Lu Shaowen happily agreed and said, "Father, you just wait at home to watch a good show." With that, he got up and left.

On the morning of the fifth day of October, Huai'an Canal Wharf.

Juzhou Tongzhi Zhuang Wenxuan walked out of the cabin, glanced at the curling smoke of the neighboring ship, and stretched his waist. This time, he came to Jiangnan to buy a total of 200,000 stone of grain, which was very important, and Liang Wensheng arranged for him and the secretary Ji Jiude to personally escort it.

Fortunately, nothing happened from the purchase, loading to anchoring. From here, go north along the canal, and then go to Luoma Lake, and the boat is divided into two roads, one is Ji Si Yi along the Yi River to the north to Yishui, and the other is along the Shu River north to Juzhou. In this way, it will take another six or seven days to arrive, and his escort mission will be completed.

Just as Zhuang Wenxuan was about to give the order to lift the anchor and sail the boat, a group of soldiers suddenly ran to the wharf, and one of the leaders rushed to the boat and shouted: "We are from the Huai'an Branch of the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division, and someone has reported that someone on the wharf is smuggling salt, and we will search them one by one, and all ships are not allowed to sail." Waiting for inspection! ”

This kind of inspection has been passed several times along the way. They were official ships that came to transport grain, and they were not profiteers who sold illicit salt, so Zhuang Wenxuan didn't take it seriously and was ready to wait for them to be inspected before sailing.

Subsequently, a group of officers and men walked up to the fleet led by Zhuang Wenxuan and began to inspect. The two Huai are the three officials who transfer the salt division, and now Zhuang Wenxuan's fleet is under their control

Within their jurisdiction, it is their duty to search for illicit salt, and as officials, they naturally have to cooperate with the inspection. It is because he can only deal with it carefully and tell him with good words.

So he said to the Qianhu who led the team: "Lord Qianhu, we are the grain ship of the Juzhou Prefecture, and we have no private salt. ”

The Qianhu lightly glanced at Zhuang Wenxuan from the corner of his eyes, and saw that he was wearing a green robe official robe, this kind of sesame mung bean magistrate, he had seen a lot. Their Yansi Yamen is directly under the Ministry of Households, so naturally they will not take these local petty officials seriously, and he came prepared today, so naturally he will not be polite.

The Qianhu glanced at Zhuang Wenxuan coldly again, and said arrogantly: "I won't know if there is any private salt in this until I have checked it." We can't relax our inspections just because it's an official ship! ”

Then he turned to the officers and soldiers who were inspecting and shouted: "Check carefully!" ”

Zhuang Wenxuan saw the cold eyes of the thousand households, and his heart sank. In the past inspections, although those officers and men were arrogant, they were not cold, let alone carefully inspected, but only routine inspections, and just made a show and passed. But today's situation is wrong, and Zhuang Wenxuan has some faint uneasiness in his heart.

At this time, officers and soldiers came to report one after another.

"My lord, there's a packet of salt here!"

"My lord, I found a pack here, too!"

"My lord, there are also on this boat!"

Zhuang Wenxuan heard the report of the official descendants, and his head buzzed. What he had feared finally happened. But he couldn't figure out why table salt was found on their ship? The first few inspections, nothing was found, why did illegal salt appear after a night of docking here? It's framed! Someone must have framed it! But who is framing me?

At this point, he couldn't help but think about it. I listened to the order of the thousand households: "Sure enough, it is carrying private salt, someone will detain the boat for me, take people, and everyone on the boat will take it down!" ”

Zhuang Wenxuan hurriedly stopped and said: "Lord Qianhu, you are mistaken, this must be framed by someone." We are an official ship, how can we carry smuggled salt? ”

The thousand households shouted awe-inspiringly: "Hmph, there have been more officials with private salt these years, and what we are investigating is you corrupt officials and corrupt officials!" Come on, take them all! ”

At this time, the officers and men rushed up, and without their own reasoning, they detained all the personnel on board and brought them ashore.

Zhuang Wenxuan was also a little panicked at this time, selling illicit salt was a big crime to kill his head, and he didn't believe that any of them would carry illicit salt. Now a total of three packs of illicit salt have been found, each bag of salt weighs 50 catties, and the three packs of salt are only half of the salt, which is not worth eight taels of silver, even if it is put to the salt merchant for retail, it is only sold for a dozen taels of silver. For a dozen taels of silver, put your life on the line? Even a fool wouldn't do that.

As soon as Zhuang Wenxuan was about to argue, the Qianhu interrupted him and said, "If you have anything to say, you go to the Yamen of the Yansi Division to talk to Lord Yue." Now come with us obediently! ”

Zhuang Wenxuan had no choice but to humbly say at this time: "Then you have to put one back to report to our Lord Zhizhou, right?" ”

"You don't have to worry about this, the Yansi Yamen will have a text. You Zhizhou adults are waiting to hear the ginseng! After saying that, the Qianhu was like a general returning from a great victory on the battlefield, and shouted majestically to his subordinates: "Take them all away!" ”

At this time, Lu Shaowen, who was standing not far away, saw the dozens of people escorted down from the boat, and a smug smile appeared on his face......

(End of chapter)

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

Still looking for "Ming Little People" for free?

Baidu direct search: "easy" is very simple!

( = )