Let the sunset go down, the afterglow is like blood, and the sky is full of red, even the gentle river water is also dyed red by the sunset, this red river, with the boatman rowing the boat by the bow of the salt boat, cut a water wave, the water wave with the sparkling waves to the shore.

Under the hundred-year-old giant willows on the embankment on both sides of the Grand Canal, the old farmer walked with a cigarette pouch in his mouth, and when he looked towards the canal with the ox, he saw a row of salt boats passing in the canal, he just glanced at it casually, and then he held the cigarette bag and pot and led the old cow, and walked along the willow shade in the direction of home.

"The end of the Sui Dynasty is this river, and so far thousands of miles have been relied on for the ......"

Standing on the bow of the boat, looking at the Grand Canal, Zhu Mingzhong, who felt for a while, couldn't help but chant this "Nostalgia" by Pi Rixiu. The boat he was on now was not the usual sampan in the river, but a boat carrying salt, which was slightly smaller than an ordinary boat, but like the boat, it had a bamboo canopy to protect it from the wind and rain, and now dozens of soldiers of the loyal army were hiding from each boat.

"Why did the military gate, leave that Zheng Xiaru, people like that, Yangzhou is everywhere!"

Shi Lei looked at the military gate with some puzzlement, until now, he had no way to understand why the military gate left Zheng Xiaru.

"Because he's a businessman!"

After saying this sentence without thinking, Zhu Mingzhong quietly looked at the thousand-year-old canal before continuing.

Among the people who came to Zhu, there were scholars and generals, but there was no businessman like him. Not to mention the future, if you want to rectify the salt business in the future, you have to have a businessman like him to participate in it! ”

This is the reason why Zhu Mingzhong left Zheng Xiaru behind, and even did not hesitate to allow him to be rich for generations - he needed an ambitious businessman to help him straighten out the two Huai salt affairs.

"Sishi, you were an official in the Chongzhen Dynasty, you naturally know that the court at that time was inexplicably poor and poor, this war is still money in the final analysis, the army has no pay to disperse, soldiers join the army, in order to support the family, for the sake of military salary, if you only need to find a piece of wasteland outside the city to make a living, you can reclaim the wasteland and farm, why take the risk to join the army?"

Thinking of coming to this era, even in the densely populated southern Jiangsu in later generations, after going out of the city, it is a wasteland everywhere as far as the eye can see, on the way to the march, when passing through the village, the whole village is like a ghost realm, no one is seen, after pushing the door open, there are still some bones in the cobwebs full of houses, and the slaughter of the Qing army when it entered the customs almost turned the entire Jiangnan into a red land. Even after more than ten years, the vitality of Jiangnan has not been restored, as for the so-called wasteland, it is all because no one cultivates the wasteland, even if the ripe wasteland is everywhere, no one cultivates it. Now the situation in this world is that there are more people than the earth! If it weren't for the "generous salary" of the loyal and righteous army, it would have been able to recruit nearly 20,000 soldiers.

"The military salary of the loyal and righteous army is one or two or five than the soldiers of the Qing Qing Green Battalion, and the horse soldiers are two or two, less than half of the taels, and more than one tael, but we don't pay for rice grain, this will wait for the Qinghe River in the future, the grain will be captured, and the grain will be sufficient, and a part of the rice grain can be used to replace the military salary, so that some military salaries can be saved, and there will always be less silver."

If you don't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt are expensive, this military salary of tens of thousands of taels per month has made Changzhou complain for a long time, although a lot of it was seized in Jiangyin, and there are also local "salaries". But it's nothing compared to the expense. After all, 20,000 loyal and righteous soldiers, a month's military salary will need 60,000 taels, plus military food and grass, at most three or four months later, the silver that was obtained in Jiangyin and other places will be exhausted.

It may not even last that long.

"In the first battle of Nanjing, the casualties of my loyal and righteous army can be described as heavy, but the pension needs hundreds of thousands of taels, fortunately, Qian Lei has come up with a way to receive the pension on a monthly basis, otherwise, not to mention anything else, but it is this silver, which can make our family ...... exhausted."

In the bloody battle of Tongjimen, in addition to a large number of casualties for the loyal and righteous army, the compensation of the fallen officers and soldiers alone almost exhausted the little family funds that had been accumulated with great difficulty.

If it weren't for Qian Lei, who was in charge of the Military Salary Bureau in Changzhou, he couldn't get any money in the face of hundreds of thousands of taels of pensions, so he found a way to withdraw the pension on a monthly basis to avoid wasting the pension and making the martyr's family fall into poverty. Otherwise, the hundreds of thousands of pensions will not be paid, and the morale of the army will naturally be dispersed at that time.

From ancient times to the present, this silver has always been the most important. Without silver, there would be no Loyal Army.

"Military Gate, the salary of the loyal and righteous army is actually too high, plus there is no need to bring your own weapons, it is nearly twice as high as that of the Qing army."

Shi Lei is not the first person to say this, in fact, in Nanjing, there are many people who say that the salary of the loyal and righteous army is too high, and there is a suspicion of being a coquettish soldier, and Zhu Mingzhong has always laughed at this.

“…… If there was no generous salary set with Jiangyin at the beginning, how could there be the courage of the loyal and righteous army later? ”

Although the generous salary of the army may bring some problems, Zhu Mingzhong knows very well that there is no mobilization that is more direct and effective than the generous salary. Grab the food! "Snatching a woman" is no different, simple and crude, but extremely effective!

"But what is the price of a good salary? It means huge military spending, so it's open source, and where does the source come from? ”

Looking at the salt ships transporting troops in front of him, Zhu Mingzhong said with a smile.

"For the salt merchants in Yangzhou, wealth is nothing more than a handful of salt! The two Huai salt farms, millions of stones are produced every year, but the officials only get the salt tax but only a few millions, these two Huai salt profits are controlled by salt merchants, I want to train troops in Jiangbei to the Northern Expedition, and how can I sit back and watch the salt profits fall into the hands of private individuals? ”

Zhu Mingzhong naturally knows very well that the salt industry of Lianghuai provided a quarter of the world's tax revenue in its heyday, and it can even be said that for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the salt tax was its lifeblood, which ran through the entire Manchu Qing Dynasty.

For Zhu Mingzhong, who has been suffering from a shortage of money and owes hundreds of thousands of taels of pensions to the families of martyrs and disabled officers and soldiers, how can he sit idly by and ignore such a huge amount of money as the Lianghuai salt tax? And how can you turn a blind eye?

With a cold smile, looking at the Grand Canal, Zhu Mingzhong said softly.

"Originally, before going to Yangzhou, I was still thinking about how to clean up the salt business, so that I could make the best use of the salt profits, train the troops with the salt profits, and if I want to take the salt profits, I have to beat the salt merchants, after all, the current situation is that the world's salt profits are salt merchants, and it is not so easy to beat them, these salt merchants have been controlling the salt affairs for hundreds of years, and now the salt merchants have even reached the point where it is difficult to return, if you want to cut off the hands of the salt merchants, you must have someone who understands the links, Otherwise, it will be difficult to handle this matter, as for now......"

Smiling coldly, looking at the flag representing the salt merchant planted on the salt ship, Zhu Mingzhong, who only felt like a person sleepy and sent a pillow, said with a smile.

"Since Zheng Xia dares to risk killing his head to talk to me about this business, then I will give him a bigger business, he wants to be rich, I will promise him to be rich for generations, as long as he can help me destroy this Yangzhou salt merchant, so that all the salt profits will be returned to me, and not in private hands, so that I can train calmly? What is the harm in allowing him to be rich for generations? ”

As soon as the military gate explained this, Shi Lei immediately understood, he made it for a long time, just for the silver, he was already in the brocade guard, although he had been in business for many years, but his personality was still gloomy, and he said after a while.

"If the military gate wants silver, it's not easy?"

Thinking of the appearance of Jingshi City after the destruction of the city, Shi Lei's thin lips raised slightly,

"Most of the salt merchants in Yangzhou are Shaanxi and Jin merchants, and the Jin merchants are more or less connected with the so-called eight imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty, and it seems that after he enters Yangzhou in the future, the military gate can be in the name of colluding with the Qing captives, and they will all be imprisoned and their family property will be copied, and the wealth of Yangzhou salt merchants will be copied for millions of taels!"

Shi Lei's suggestion made Zhu Mingzhong's eyebrows raise slightly, he is no stranger to copying his home, when he was in Jiangyin, he had copied Yan Chongnian's old thing's home, although he only copied tens of thousands of taels of silver, but if he added his houses and fields inside and outside Jiangyin City, it was also worth hundreds of thousands of taels.

If there was no original copying of the Yan family's family business. I'm afraid that the little money I had had already spent has already been spent. If you want to make money, you still have to raid your home!

It's good to raid your home!

Zhu Mingzhong, who had tasted the sweetness of copying his family, naturally did not say anything against it, he first pondered for a moment, and then said.

"If you want to raid their home, you have to fabricate charges and collude with them...... Although this charge is good, if there is no real evidence, how can it be convincing? Their money is easy to grab, but it is also hot! After all, we're not rogues or captives! If you copy people's businesses at will, it will cause panic among the people, and maybe Nanjing will be held accountable! ”

Although he has left Nanjing, as an official and soldier, the laws of this country must always be observed. And this is the difference between the Ming army and the Qing army, the Qing army can directly supplement the military salary with looting, but the Ming army cannot!

If he really did it, then Zheng Chenggong was there. Naturally, there is a name to punish yourself. If you want to copy your home, you must have a clear eye, and you must be famous!

In this way, we can block the mouths of the world! So that the world will be speechless!

"Don't worry, this matter, just hand it over to the standard!"

A cold color flashed in his eyes, and Shi Lei said calmly, for some things, he is an expert himself, but he has no room to play.

"Junmen, you say, the one surnamed Zheng, can he really do that?"

Shi Lei's question made Zhu Mingzhong smile slightly, and after a while, he sighed lightly.

"I'm worried about another thing than that......"