Zhu Houzhao compared the two lists, and immediately smiled, in these two lists, half of the people on the cabinet list can be found on the list given to him by Zhang Heling, and the remaining half is not, what does this mean?

Of course, it was the cabinet that balanced the list and left half of the nobles led by Zhang Heling, and at this time, they didn't want to completely tear their faces.

Zhu Houzhao handed the list to his father, and then said with a smile: "There's no problem, it looks good like this, just follow the cabinet list!" ”

Zhu Youzhu was slightly stunned, then stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Yes, yes, the emperor has grown up." That's good, you can't use everything, you have to learn to leave three points of leeway, and that's a good job. I will send this list immediately, and the Salt and Iron Division will handle it accordingly. Saying that, Zhu Youzhu glanced at his son again with appreciation.

smiled lightly, Zhu Houzhao nodded and didn't care, but sneered in his heart, come on, the more come, the better, just afraid that Xungui's side will not be enough to pit.

Although the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are not conspicuous, the wealth of the merchants of the Ming Dynasty is definitely beyond the reach of many people.

The merchants of the Ming Dynasty took the township as the party, and this is how the word township party came from, they joined forces to do business, they consolidated their strength together, and jointly launched their own endorsement party in the imperial court, that is, the source of the Qizhejiang Chu Party and the Donglin Party. How rich are these people? A business with hundreds of thousands of taels can only be regarded as a small meaning, and a large business of millions of taels can be regarded as a medium meaning.

The salt merchants in Yangzhou, led by the Jin merchants, were able to mobilize millions of taels of working capital, and in this era when the main assets were the land and shop households, they were able to mobilize millions of taels of silver to invest in a business, and these people were very rich.

The smuggling merchants along the coast are also rich people, and they can change rice into mulberry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Zhu Houzhao is just to make money, so naturally the more the better, these attention must be after the salt field is in hand, with salt, it is not how to make money, if not, increase the price! But Zhu Houzhao will let them know what flowers are and why they are so red. When the time comes, these people will have no place to cry, come, obediently take out the money.

"Father, rest assured, sons know what to do." Zhu Houzhao said to his father with a smile, and his heart was very stable.

Leaving the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houzhao directly instructed Liu Jin: "Send someone to the Shouning Marquis Mansion and hand this over to Shouning Marquis." Saying that, Zhu Houzhao handed Liu Jin two documents, these two documents were written by Zhu Houzhao, one was about the salt administration, and the other was the secret folding system of the official general political envoy.

Liu Jin nodded, respectfully accepted the paperwork handed over by Zhu Houzhao, turned around and walked outside.

After doing these things, Zhu Houzhao can finally breathe a sigh of relief, the iron furnace over there has come to an end, and there are many R&D personnel left there, and Zhu Houzhao can start his own steel mill. The first thing to do is to build a blast furnace, this thing can often succeed if you try, and Zhu Houzhao is ready to throw money at it.

Zhu Houzhao believes that the old craftsmen of the War Bureau, the blast furnace steelmaking in this era may not be able to refine any high-quality steel, but it can greatly increase the output.

This is actually enough for Zhu Houzhao, in Zhu Houzhao's opinion, whether it is plate armor or the current armor of the Ming Dynasty, it is actually surplus in terms of defensive power. However, due to the production process and raw materials, large-scale mass production is not possible. Da Ming good armor, such as the set he wears for himself, is the top protection.

But the problem is, without money, can you equip the whole army with such good armor? You have to know how many excellent equipment in history has not been assembled in the whole army, and why?

It's simple, it's too expensive, it's cost-effective, what kind of equipment does the army need? Low cost, superior performance, can be mass-produced, and easy to repair, which is what is needed for large-scale armaments. For example, the AK series of the former Soviet Union is a model under this concept. Subject to the current conditions, Zhu Houzhao felt that plate armor was the best choice.

First of all, it is easy to manufacture, and it can be stamped directly by hydraulic power, which does not need to be as time-consuming and laborious as fish scale armor, and even saves time and effort than leather armor.

This reduced the cost of production, the prerequisites for large-scale equipment, and secondly, the lightweight, which at the same weight he was able to provide the best defense, which was conducive to cavalry charges.

The production cost is low, the manufacturing is fast, and the protection is good, if you don't choose it, what do you choose? Originally, plate armor was to shine in history, but unfortunately, when the stamping and forging technology in the water appeared, when plate armor could be installed on a large scale, muskets also developed rapidly, and plate armor was swept into the garbage heap of history before it bloomed.

Zhu Houzhao didn't want to use firearms to solve the problem, but the grassland is so big, it has to be a cavalry to save worry and effort, and the research and manufacturing of plate armor is much less difficult than a gun.

It's a big deal to wait until the gun is made, let's change the cavalry to the musket cavalry, that thing should be quite powerful.

There are a lot of ideas, but the reality is that it needs to be done step by step, steelmaking is the foundation, starting with steelmaking, so Zhu Houzhao explained the matter and left the palace, because today is the day when the salt merchants photographed the salt works. Under such a beautiful weather, Zhu Houzhao was ready to go to see the excitement, of course, mainly to see his money.

Leaving the palace, Zhu Houzhao took his entourage to the Yamen of the Salt and Iron Division, and in order to appear solemn, this time the auction was held in the Yamen.

Zhu Houzhao also changed his clothes, and mixed in the team with an invitation card in his hand, this invitation is said to be an invitation, but it is actually a salt access qualification certificate, to put it bluntly, you are qualified to come here to suffer this knife, although you know that this is going to be cheated for money, but you are still willing to be pitted.

Tapping the invitation card in his hand, Zhu Houzhao hurriedly walked to the inside of the yamen, patrolling with a smile on his face, and soon Zhu Houzhao found out that some people looked at the invitations in their hands and were all envious, obviously these people did not have invitations, this is here to see the excitement. Or if you want to see if there is anything cheap to pick up, Zhu Houzhao can only say to them, you think too much.

The rest of the people, that is, those who have invitations in their hands, their eyes are more complicated, with happiness, arrogance, and unconcealable distress.

A group of people stood in the courtyard waiting, the people who shouted five and drank six on weekdays, let alone shouting five and drinking six when they arrived here, they didn't even have time to enter the house to drink tea and wait, let alone drinking tea and waiting, they didn't have the qualifications to enter the house, so they could only stand in the courtyard and wait. Although everyone was angry, no one dared to say anything.

As the saying goes, the harder it is to get, the more it is cherished, and these people know too well how they got into it.

This is how much favor is spent, how much money is spent, if this is made here and driven out, then all the money will be spent in vain.

Zhu Houzhao put his hands behind his back and looked at the crowd, and soon found that these people were gathered, Jin merchants, Zhejiang merchants, Hui merchants, etc., it is difficult to say that they are distinct, but they are not much worse. Obviously, when everyone's interests are aligned, local huddles naturally appear. Zhu Houzhao knew that the fiercest competition must be Lianghuai and Changlu.

Jin merchants, Hui merchants and Zhejiang merchants, none of them wanted to give up these two salt farms, Jin merchants were driven out in Yangzhou, and there was a great sense of being replaced by Zhejiang merchants and Hui merchants, and now they officially have the opportunity to make a comeback. Hui merchants and Zhejiang merchants definitely don't want to give up their interests, the two Huai salt farms are at their doorstep, how can they be willing to let go.

On the contrary, it is the Guangdong salt field, which must be the territory of Fujian merchants, and it is not easy for others to intervene in it.

However, there is also a question here, that is, whether other salt merchants also want to go north, for example, the Fujian Chamber of Commerce will not want to get involved in Yangzhou, anyway, they are not far from Yangzhou.

It's hilarious!

It's good to be lively!

Zhu Houzhao is different from other businessmen, he is very happy at this time, because he knows that these people are his big fish!

After a short time, an official from the Salt and Iron Division walked in from inside, this is a thin civil official in his thirties, looking at the official uniform should be five grades, his eyes swept down, and then he said: "Everyone, the time is up, please come with me!" As he spoke, he turned around and led the way, and everyone did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly followed.

The expression on Zhu Houzhao's face was also indifferent, and he followed at the end without pressure, shaking the invitation card in his hand, and looking ready to do a big job.

The group soon came to a room at the back, where chairs had already been prepared, and there was no table in front of the chairs, and each chair was numbered, and the number was the same as the wooden sign of the aura before the merchants entered the door. Zhu Houzhao quickly found his seat, sat down and waited to watch the excitement.

Not long after everyone sat down, a young man came to the stage, only to see him arch his hand with a smile, and then said: "Everyone, under the money fight, today's salt field auction is presided over by Zaixia!" ”

"The first thing we auction is the Guangdong Salt Farm!" Qian Guangdou said and asked people to hang up a map, and then said: "There are a total of thirteen large and small salt farms in Guangdong Salt Farm, we all have information here, you can take a look!" As he spoke, he gestured to the side, and many people began to go down and hand out something similar to a leaflet.

On one side of each person, there are thirteen sheets, each with a small map on it, and then a text introduction next to it.

The specific location, size, and annual salt production are written on the text introduction, of course, the output is all up-to-date, since Zhu Houzhao promoted the new salt production method and system in Lianghuai, the salt and iron division has been busy with this matter for most of the year, and at the same time, the various salt farms have been investigated and registered in detail.

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