"Originally, these merchants were engaged in ordinary trading, transshipment, shops and some emblem paper and the like." Yang Lian continued: "But during the Chenghua period, the salt policy of the imperial court was very bad, and these merchants set their sights on the salt farms, but in the grain payment and opening implemented by the imperial court, these merchants did not gain much. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youjiao's face became a little ugly, and he felt even more in his heart.

"These businessmen advertise Confucian merchants on weekdays, and the great Confucian Zhu Xi is a native of Huizhou, and his maternal grandfather used to be called Zhu Banzhou, which means the entire Huizhou industry, and half of it is Zhu Xi's maternal grandfather's. In Huizhou, merchants and scholars were inseparable, and businessmen built schools and contributed money to subsidize poor students to study. ”

At the same time, he also encouraged his own clan to study, and even sponsored people in entire villages and towns to study and take the imperial examination. Those who are successful in studying will become officials, and those who are not successful will be in business, so the merchants in Huizhou are all Confucian merchants. ”

Zhu Houzhao raised his head and looked at his father when he heard this, obviously these are not what his father wants to hear. These things don't sound like much at first glance, they seem to be good, rich businessmen repay the township, and they do good things, but when you think about it, the horrors in this place can scare people to death.

You must know that Confucianism is anti-business, and the people who shout in their mouths are farmers and businessmen, and businessmen are the lowest.

But what are they doing now? Batch training, if you succeed, you will become an official, and if you don't succeed, you will go into business, what is this? Where did you put the emphasis on agriculture and the suppression of business? Could it be that you can tell the emperor all these things? But that's not what you do in private, isn't that farting?

When talking about subsidizing your studies, you must know that this is not the Hope Project, you take other people's money, and they provide you with education, and at the same time find you teachers, and even marry you, under such a social system, they tie you tightly. What do you do when you become an official? Of course, you have to repay, but how?

One of their words is estimated to be better than the emperor's holy decree, is it scary enough? This is a seizure of power from the state.

Zhu Youzhu glanced at his son, and the expression on his face became ugly, which was much more terrifying than forming a party for personal gain. The key is to let their sons say it right, someone is really doing this, it's a big deal. After thinking about it, Zhu Youzhu said to Yang Lian again: "Continue to talk about salt!" ”

"Yes, Emperor!" Zhu Youzhu agreed, and then hurriedly said: "Since the imperial court opened the silver, these Hui merchants began to deal in salt. ”

"Because they are backed by the Lianghuai Salt Farm, they have been operating for so many years, and they all say that they are also taking the salt to extract salt, and they can bring it out, and even the salt from decades ago can be exchanged for them. Other salt merchants had to wait in line, and other salt merchants mentioned salt, and it was difficult to get it out. ”

"In the whole Shanyang Huai'an, it is all their people, and if they want to take the canal to transport salt, it is impossible without their consent."

"They wantonly bought salt and sold salt, and now, the entire Lianghuai salt field is already their world."

Zhu Youzhu looked at his son again, this is the same as what he said, you must know that this son of his own said this at the beginning, and he was ready to do so. Bribe officials, hold the salt works, then hold the entire Ming salt industry, and then further cultivate and bribe officials to swallow the entire Jiangnan in one gulp.

After swallowing Jiangnan, he bribed and cultivated big people, and tried to train big people to the center of the imperial court, and even the cabinet, how ambitious he was.

The problem now is that what the son said is true, right, someone is really doing this, Zhu Youzhang's face is terrifying.

In fact, Zhu Youzhang's idea is not right, it's not that someone is doing this, it's everyone doing this, otherwise there would be no later party struggle. Everyone relied on their own capital, and they were all doing this, and after they arrived at the center, their interests were different, so they broke their heads.

Of course, it is not always fighting, and there are common interests, such as exemption from commercial taxes, exemption from mining taxes, hiding land, consolidating tax exemptions for scholars, and so on.

Although these people are fighting fiercely, they are fighting for personal interests, and there is no benefit to the court and the emperor at all. Because of the relationship of consistent interests, no matter who comes to power among these people, they do the same thing, and they are not good to the emperor or the court at all, do you say that they are angry? In such a situation, what should the emperor do?

Of course, they choose to be obedient and willing to spend money on themselves, who are these people? Eunuchs, of course!

With eunuchs as the leader, a large number of officials were co-opted, and then a eunuch party was established to maintain its own position, which was the historical background of the birth of Wei Zhongxian's eunuch party.

If there are no eunuchs, there is no eunuch party, the Donglin party will do this, and the Qi, Zhejiang, and Chu parties will do the same, and the specific difference will not be very big. It's just that some people are not so greedy and willing to give out a part of their interests to protect the country, while others are simply greedy for profit, and if the country dies, it will die, and surrender will be.

The Jin merchants were beaten by the Hui merchants and couldn't hold their heads up, and they couldn't do anything with salt, what did they do? Directly play smuggling, relying on the geographical location to get out of the jam.

After the entry of Houjin, the eight Jin merchants became the eight imperial merchants, of course, the Hui merchants were not vegetarians, and there were also red-top merchants like Hu Xueyan. It's just that the Qing Dynasty is the master of the Manchus, and it is impossible to hollow out the Qing Dynasty like the Ming Dynasty, people will carry knives to kill people, and the Manchu and Han are born to be checks and balances.

Zhu Youzhu was silent for a long time without speaking, and only after a long time did he sigh lightly, and then turned his head to look at his son.

Zhu Youzhu really couldn't understand what his son's little brain was in, how could he think of so many things, he didn't expect these things. Now that the results of the investigation are out, these people are doing what their son says, and after Nayin Kaizhong, they really did what their son said.

"What about the Ye family?" Zhu Youzhu looked at Yang Lian and asked with the last bit of expectation in his heart.

"Back to the emperor, there are a total of nineteen salt farms in the two Huai salt fields, distributed in Huaibei and Huainan, and among these nineteen salt fields, the Ye family accounts for seven." Yang Lian said without thinking about it.

The atmosphere in the hall was quiet again, and the needles could be heard, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't bear to look at his father's expression. However, Zhu Houzhao still raised his head and looked over, he was really afraid that his father would be angry. Seeing that although Zhu Youzhang's face was very dark, he didn't seem to have any big problems, Zhu Houzhao breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao doesn't need to guess to know, because this is a routine operation in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, which is not surprising at all.

"Alright, I'm a little tired, let's do this first!" After saying this, Zhu Youzhu stood up, turned around and walked towards the back.