The so-called opening in the fold of color, in fact, is a kind of salt law, when it comes to the salt law of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible not to say the border policy of the Ming Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in order to guard against the Mongols, set up military towns on the border of 10,000 miles from Shanhaiguan in the east and Jiayuguan in the west, and set up four towns of Liaodong, Datong, Xuanfu and Yansui at the earliest, and later added Ningxia, Gansu and Jizhou three towns, and then added Taiyuan and Guyuan two towns during the Hongzhi period, which is "an important town on the nine sides".

The military town has been established, but there are people in the city who are not enough to use, the so-called soldiers and horses have not moved the grain and grass first, the most important thing is the food problem, this problem is not solved, any defense is in the air. The establishment of the Ming Dynasty is also a world erosion, the beginning of the dynasty, a hundred wastes to be revived, want to maintain the border of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to eat horses and feed, is definitely not a simple problem, and at the beginning of the founding of the country to give the people to recuperate, not to add too heavy a burden to the people after the troubled times.

In the third year of Hongwu, the minister Yang Xian put forward a proposal to Zhu Yuanzhang to open the grain, to put it bluntly, the imperial court according to the number of military rations needed by the border towns in the private bidding, the winning merchants to the border military towns to transport grain, the grain to the merchants after the grain was transported, the imperial court issued salt to the merchants, and then the merchants led the salt with salt, and then sold in the designated area to make a profit.

This method was approved by Zhu Yuanzhang, first piloted in Datong Town, and soon spread to the whole country, which played a very good role, in fact, the system of opening was the beginning of the Song Dynasty, but the salt introduction of the Song Dynasty was not exchanged for grain, but to spend money to buy.

The superiority of the Ming Dynasty over the Song Dynasty was that it mobilized the enthusiasm of the people to transport military rations, and the disadvantage was that the profits were given to salt merchants and the government's revenue was reduced, but in the early Ming Dynasty, on the whole, the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages. Therefore, "History of the Ming Dynasty: Food and Goods" said: "There is a Ming salt method, and you are not good at opening it." ”

The implementation of the open system provided strong support for the military operations of the Ming Dynasty, Sun Tzu said: "Where the Xing division is 100,000, the expedition is thousands of miles, the people's expenses, the public's dedication, and the cost of thousands of dollars." Outside and inside the commotion, neglect the road, and do not allow trouble, 700,000 families. ”

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang made eight northern expeditions, and Chengzu Zhu Di made five northern expeditions, which greatly weakened the power of Mongolia and defended the Ming border. These wars cost countless military rations, horses and grass, but they did not cause such an extreme situation of boiling public resentment during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the credit of Kaizhong is unparalleled. The advantages of the system are far more than saving national and people's strength, and it has also promoted the development of the border.

In order to save the cost of grain transportation, merchants recruited a large number of peasants to open up wasteland near the border, enriching the imperial border, which was of positive significance to the development of the country's border areas.

In order to save money, merchants simply reclaimed wasteland in the border land, planted grain, and supplied the border army. It's just that this policy was later broken, after all, salt is a lot of silver, who doesn't want to see this money?

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, the families of prison officials and officials above the fourth grade are not allowed to make profits in China, which is to restrict officials from making profits from it, otherwise they will be killed.

However, this policy was gradually abandoned, and in the Wanli period, Wang Chonggu, the governor of the three sides, and Zhang Siwei, the second assistant of the cabinet, were all big salt merchants, and the entire salt administration was eaten by these people. Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations have become waste paper, of course, it is not these ministers who have bad regulations, it is the imperial court and the emperor who are the first to start breaking the rules. It is not known who started the emperor's reward for salt, but Zhu Houzhao knew that his father rewarded his mother's family with a lot of salt, which is called "occupying the nest".

In addition to occupying the nest, another kind of behavior is over-issuance, and the imperial court over-issuance of salt, after all, salt is food, that is, money, and it can be exchanged if you take it out.

As a result of these practices, many merchants have no salt to support but can only wait in the salt field to get salt, which is called "Shouzhi". In the last years of Chenghua, there were more than 5 million salt inductions in the two Huai salt farms alone that could not be withdrawn, and there were even cases of guarding the support for decades, which greatly hit the enthusiasm of the merchants. In this case, there are fewer and fewer businessmen who open the salt business, and the border grain has also encountered a crisis.

In fact, this kind of problem can also be solved, according to the amount of salt exchange, vigorously crack down on "occupy the nest" are effective means, the key is not in the policy, but in the implementation, but the Ming Dynasty took a worst way.

This worst method Zhu Houzhao also knew that this policy was implemented in his father's time, and it was Ye Qi who proposed this policy at that time. The method of receiving salt quotation by Nayin was approved by his father, which is "opening the middle of the fold". From then on, merchants no longer needed to transport grain to the border, but only needed to pay silver taels to do salt business. This method had an immediate effect, and within a year, the treasury increased its revenue by one million taels of silver.

This policy was still called good governance at this time, and Ye Qi was valued by his father because of this, but Zhu Houzhao knew that this was drinking to quench his thirst.

Ye Qi's reform of the law violated the original intention of the system of opening up the middle of the country, and the problem of military rations was solved by the opening of grain and the problem of treasury revenue. More importantly, for the sake of the immediate income of one million silver, the Ming Dynasty left the issue of military rations behind, not to mention the chain reaction of the peasants caused by the opening of the Chinese system. How much does it cost for the imperial court to purchase military rations and transport them?

How much manpower has been increased? How much will it slow down? How much corruption will there be? Although the income of one million taels of silver has increased in the present, what about the future? What about the border?

From this time on, the combat power of the Ming border army took a sharp turn, and the Zhengde Emperor ascended the throne in history, checked the land of the border army, cleared and occupied more fields, and engaged in prosperity, but this policy did not adhere to the end, because the Zhengde Emperor died. For this reason, Emperor Zhengde even came to Datong in person and lived in Jizhou, but after his death, everything was overwhelmed and there was no hope.

The combat strength of the Daming border army has taken a sharp turn, and it is difficult to say that it has nothing to do with the salt law, this is a matter that affects the whole body, and it is a bad thing.

Who is benefiting from this? Of course, it's the salt merchants, but who are the salt merchants? Of course, it is the gentry bureaucracy, who co-opts the relatives, gives benefits, makes the relatives speak, and then swallows the benefits behind their backs. In the past, you had to grow grain, collect grain, and even transport grain, but now it's so simple, just buy it with silver, where does the money come from? Just sell salt, the point is that they also evade taxes.

In this way, these people are not beneficial to the country, they are just lying on the salt government of the imperial court to suck blood and make profits, so Zhu Houzhao even doubts whether this Ye Qi family is a salt merchant, or there is a salt merchant behind it.