Wang Wanchun, who brought 50,000 taels of gold, was still a step late, and he was not the first salt merchant to rush to Daming Temple to meet. The other three of the four major salt merchants of the Hui Gang, Shen Hanshuang of the Xiuning Shen family, Wang Baichuan of the Wang family of Shexian County, and Li Sanbao of the Li family of Jixi, all brought a cart of gold and silver to meet outside the Daming Temple. No, not to see, but to sin!

There must be sin! How can the annual income of the Lianghuai salt industry be tens of millions, and only give hundreds of thousands to Emperor Chongzhen, how can there be no crime? Even if they weren't involved in the rebellion of the southeast nobles, they would be extremely evil!

As for whether to spare or not, it depends on their performance.

"Master Chitose," Huang Xiaobao walked up to Zhu Cihong, who was watching the recital, with a smile, "The four great salts of the Hui Gang are all kneeling outside!" They all brought gold and silver, just to ask for a thousand years of appreciation. ”

"Oh." Zhu Cihong nodded, "Take them to Pingshan Hall, and then call Senior Brother and Shen Tingyang." ”

Pingshan Hall is on the west side of Daxiong Hall of Daming Temple, it is built when Ouyang Xiu of the Northern Song Dynasty was appointed to know Yangzhou affairs, the flowers and trees in front of the hall are sparse, the courtyard is quiet, the mountains in the south of the Yangtze River are overlooked by the railing, it is just level with the line of sight, so it is called "Pingshan Hall".

When the Four Great Hui Gang Yan Zong and Ji Kun were brought by Huang Xiaobao, Zhu Cihong was talking with Zheng Sen and Shen Tingyang in Pingshan Hall.

Shen Tingyang went south by sea from Dengzhou. Because it was still summer when Zhu Cihong left Dengzhou, the wind was blowing north on the sea. Therefore, Shen Tingyang's sand boat eats headwinds, and it is inconvenient to go south.

In addition, Boss Shen's fleet was self-financed - Zhu Cihong granted the Haisha Gang the privilege of managing Beiyang maritime affairs, allowing them to operate the Beiyang maritime trade and levy a ship tax (also known as a protection fee).

He also made Shen Daboss the governor of Beiyang Trade and Military Affairs and in charge of the Beiyang Naval Division, and handed over Dengzhou Water City to Shen Tingyang as the old camp of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Therefore, Shen Tingyang did not go south with Zhu Cihong, but stayed in the Yamen, the governor of Beiyang, in Dengzhou to deal with Beiyang affairs. During this period, he also sent a fleet to North Korea and asked Li Liang, the king of the Li Dynasty, for thousands of catties of ginseng, thousands of animal skins and 100,000 stone of white rice as "protection money" - not for nothing, nor for tribute, but to protect the maritime frontier of Korea from being harassed by the Japanese invaders.

What the? Now there are no more pirates?

Hehe, if Li Liang refuses Shen Tingyang's request, it is guaranteed that there will be Japanese robbers who will come to the door, and all of them are murderous real Japanese robbers......

"Hahaha, well done! That's how it should be! I can't always be the wrongdoer, I have to let the North Koreans shed some blood, without our protection, they can't let the Japanese rob it all...... If you need a wolf, I will borrow some with my brother, and his family has a wolf! Big brother, isn't it? ”

Zheng Sen smiled awkwardly: "Your Royal Highness, there are not many widows in my family, there are really few...... When I returned, I wrote to my father and told him to drive them away! ”

"Don't," Zhu Cihong waved his hand, "The palace knows the situation of your family, and without the help of the Japanese invaders, can your family's men and horses go ashore?" ”

Interlaced like a mountain! The Zheng family is a pirate who has accumulated years of experience, and it is no problem to run rampant on the sea. But it's really not good to go ashore, in history, Zheng Sen worked hard to rectify after he became the family, and also established the Iron Man Army, which can be regarded as having a little land combat ability.

But now Zheng Zhilong, an old pirate, is still in charge, and he has no intention of fighting a land war at all. Just hire a few Japanese thugs to charge into battle, and the number is not too many, only a few hundred.

Zhu Cihong smiled: "Let's talk about this matter after Ling Zun comes...... When the time comes, we will have to ask him to help hire more Japanese pirates, the North Koreans need Japanese pirates! ”

Zheng Sen was stunned, "Didn't the king of North Korea give ginseng, animal skins, and white rice......"

Zhu Cihong said with a smile: "With the Japanese Kou, he will give more!" Moreover, Dong Yu is the suzerain of Korea! Shouldn't a few thousand Tartars be sent to protect North Korea? ”

"Tartars to protect North Korea? Will they be so good? ”

"Yes, definitely!" Zhu Cihong said, "The king of Korea will cry and beg, and he can always ask for a little, even if he asks for 1,000 tartars, we will face 1,000 fewer tartars!" Senior brother, do you think the Wako are useful now? ”

"His Royal Highness Senior Brother is clever!" Zheng Sen cocked his thumb and complimented, "Brother Wei understands, he must ask my father to hire more widows to help Governor Shen." ”

When Zhu Cihong was breaking his fingers and explaining to Zheng Sen how to use the Japanese Kou, four salt merchants with sweat beads on their faces were brought in.

They all knew Shen Tingyang, and when they saw him in a python robe and black yarn, he looked proud, he was really envious!

The Shen family of the Shachuan Gang is about to be developed, and they must be well stammered when they turn around...... If only they could go back and continue to be salt merchants!

In addition, the young man who was teaching Shen Tingyang how to do things was really His Royal Highness the Prince of the Ming Dynasty? It doesn't look very powerful!

"When you see the prince, don't you kowtow?" Huang Xiaobao saw that the four salt merchants were stunned, so he had to open his mouth to remind.

The four salt presidents woke up like a dream, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to Zhu Cihong.

Zhu Cihong looked at the four salt merchants with a straight face, and suddenly snorted: "You are the four salt lords who colluded with Zhu Guobi and Huang Shu to rebel!" Someone's coming......"

"No!"

"Wronged!"

"We are good salt merchants......

"We did not collude with Zhu Guobi and Huang Shu ......"

The four salt merchants were almost frightened, but Ji Kun was calmer and said loudly: "Master Chitose, the four of them are all the head of the Hui Gang Salt, and they are not all the way to the head of Shanxi Salt." ”

"Really? So what are they doing here at Hongu? Zhu Cihong continued to keep a straight face.

"Back to Chitose Lord, they are here to pay salt tax to Chitose Lord."

"Salt tax?" Zhu Cihong snorted, "No need...... There is no shortage of these money in this palace, so let's go back. ”

When the four salt merchants heard this, they were in a hurry, and hurriedly kowtowed and begged.

"Chitose Lord is gracious, let us pay the taxes!"

"Chitose Lord, the old man knows that he is wrong, and he will not dare to evade taxes in the future......"

"Chitose Lord, you must pay more taxes after you are old!"

"Chitose Lord, it's okay......"

Fortunately, Emperor Chongzhen is not here, otherwise he would have been stunned.

It turns out that the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty like to pay taxes so much! If you don't let you pay taxes, you have to bow your head and beg! If you knew this, don't pay the peasants three salaries, just go to the salt merchants to collect taxes?

"No, no." Zhu Cihong shook his head again and again, "The will has been made, how can it be taken back?" ”

Really don't charge it? What can I do?

The four salt generals were dumbfounded, they knew that what they had to pay now was not taxes, but life money! If this money is not handed over, Zhu Cihong will not kill them, and the dirty officials who eat people and do not spit out bones will have to eat them and wipe them clean.

"Your Royal Highness," Zheng Sen spoke at this time, "Now that the imperial court is using money, since the salt merchants in Yangzhou are interested in repaying the service, you might as well accept it." ”

Shen Tingyang also said: "The salt tax has been the largest commercial tax since ancient times, and there were one or two million yuan in the Song Dynasty, and in the early years of this dynasty, when the Chinese law was opened, it was also able to raise millions of stone grain for the nine sides...... If the imperial court wants to recruit troops for the Northern Expedition and recover the lost territory, it still needs a salt tax. ”

"But the will has been made!" Zhu Cihong still shook his head, "This palace is about credit." ”

"Your Royal Highness," Zheng Sen said, "the decree only says that the salt law will be abolished and the salt government will be abolished, but it will not say that the monopoly will be stopped." ”

"Without the salt law and salt administration, how can we monopolize it?"

Zheng Sen said: "You can follow the example of the eastern, southern, and northern ocean maritime affairs, and issue contracts to merchants to monopolize. There are a total of 30 salt farms in Huaiyang and Yang, which can be contracted to the four major general merchants to operate...... The officials and soldiers of the salt administration were also called the four major salt merchants. In the future, the salt industry was still monopolized, but there was no salt administration and no salt law. The imperial court only needs to collect money, the price of salt in the market, and the quality of salt. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded lightly, "This is a good way!" ”

In fact, this method was originally thought of by Zhu Cihong, can it be bad?

"How much can you give?" Zhu Cihong asked a few salt presidents with a calm face.

"Five, five......" Wang Wanchun said while observing his words, and when he saw Zhu Cihong's brows furrowed, he hurriedly changed his words, "Six, six million taels!" As long as the policy of salt monopoly remains unchanged, I can give six million taels of silver to the imperial court in a year! ”