In the early morning of this day, a grand banquet was held in the Yanping Palace.

Everyone knew that this banquet was held for his brother-in-law, Zhu Mingzhong, the envoy of Jianghuai Jing. Although the two of them were called "successful and benevolent" at the time, their personalities were very different. As everyone's son, Zheng Chenggong loves to talk about pomp and circumstance, and he likes to be lively in everything.

Today, as the de facto owner of Nanjing, Zheng Chenggong is also full of ambition for his "brother-in-law" to go north, and of course he wants to show the world in such a posture: He Zheng Chenggong treats Zhu Ming Zhong well. not only married his own sister to him, but also held a feast for him.

But Zhu Mingzhong, who was born as a "traveling doctor in the rivers and lakes", has always been known for his frugal nature, he is not used to this kind of luxurious scene, and today's grand banquet is just a social entertainment for him.

When the banquet was over, Zhu Mingzhong hurriedly said goodbye to everyone.

At this time, the wharf has been arranged according to Zheng Chenggong, and a grand send-off honor guard has been set up. The wharf is full of colorful flags fluttering in the wind, drums are all ready, and the temporary archways are also one after another, and the guards with swords, guns, and armor are lined up one after another.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the multi-oared ship of the loyal army, and the twenty cannons on board all stick out of the muzzle. At this time, the battleship was waiting to set off so majestically, and on its mast, a huge handsome flag fluttered high, and a huge "Zhu" character, which could still be seen clearly even if it was separated from the inside and outside.

"After you arrive in Qinghe, you must remember to send a letter to your sister-in-law, do you know?"

When Zhu Mingzhong said goodbye to Zheng Chenggong and the others, on the other side, Mrs. Dong followed Zheng Ling's hand tightly and said with red eyes.

Although she is a sister in name, she has regarded Zheng Ling as a daughter over the years, and now she is marrying away like this, how can she not make her feel distressed.

"Well, sister-in-law, you can rest assured, my little sister must often write to you, besides, Qinghe is not far from Nanjing, if my little sister wants to be a sister-in-law, she just wants to come, besides, maybe in another year or two, when the Northern Expedition is successful and the imperial court is still the capital, then Mingzhong will also move back to Nanjing......"

For the little sister's words, Mrs. Dong just nodded, and in the end, she took her sister's hand again and whispered, which was nothing more than telling her some secrets for the eldest woman.

Finally, in the sound of the salute, the oarsman rowed the oars, and the big ship slowly sailed away from the dock, and Zhu Mingzhong, who was on the side of the gunwale, shook his fist at the dock, and his mood at this time could not be calm for a while.

The last time I left Nanjing, I was so "embarrassed".

And this time, when I left Nanjing, I was so proud.

Not only did Zheng Chenggong personally see him off, but officials of all sizes in Nanjing also came to see him off. Even the clan, thinking of the few clans who came to see him off, Zhu Mingzhong's heart couldn't help but think of another clan, a certain clan waiting for him in Yangzhou.

That person, is it the legendary Chongzhen?

Zhu Mingzhong didn't know about this, thinking of this, he almost naturally thought of another person - Shi Zhao. For Shi Lei's words, he didn't need to doubt it at all, after all, for Shi Lei, saying it was harmful and useless.

Now, Wang Shiyuan has arrived in Yangzhou, what should I do next?

Thinking of this, Zhu Mingzhong's brows locked slightly, and for a while, he actually felt that Wang Shiyuan seemed to be a little hot, after all, this person's identity is really tricky, and more importantly, how to prove that he is Zhu Cihuan?

This is the most important thing, if it can't be proved that he is Zhu Cihuan, then for the world, this Wang Shiyuan is just a person who Zhu Mingzhong took out to deceive the world and steal his name.

"Husband, what are you thinking?"

Coming to her husband's side, Zheng Ling looked at him and asked, with a smile on her face, since marrying him, he has given her a lot of freedom, at least no longer like in the past, like a caged bird.

"But are you still worried about the Qinglu? If the Qing captives go south, the eldest brother will definitely send troops to reinforce him. ”

Looking at Zheng Ling's clear gaze, for a moment, Zhu Mingzhong suddenly regretted it, regretting this family business, if one day, he broke with Zheng Chenggong, I am afraid that the saddest thing is the girl in front of him, after all, on one side is her eldest brother, and on the other side is her husband.

"It's another thing for the husband."

Facing Zheng Ling's concern, Zhu Mingzhong said half-truthfully.

"Jiangbei's defense does not need to be considered for the time being, but this official matter is not limited to defense, as we all know, the salt tax of Lianghuai can be said to be the root of Lianghuai, so I went to Yangzhou for the second time, and I had to consider the salt ...... of Yangzhou."

The half-truths and half-truths are the most deceptive, but this is not because of Zheng Ling's identity, but because of this matter Zhu Mingzhong needs to avoid almost everyone, after all, that person's identity is too special, if it is leaked, it is very likely to lead to the relationship with Nanjing that has just eased, and immediately fall into tension.

Regarding Zhu Mingzhong's answer, Zheng Ling naturally chose to believe it without doubt, after all, he was her husband, and she had no reason not to believe it at all.

All the way down the river multi-oared boat and the rowing of the oarsman, the boat speed is very fast, but two days of effort, the boat will be on Guazhou, just a few days ago, Guazhou, which guards the Grand Canal into the river, was handed over to Jiangbei by Zheng Chenggong, to some extent, here is almost equivalent to Zheng Ling's dowry, and then a group of people transferred to a small multi-oared boat here, all the way to Yangzhou.

Because the Grand Canal has begun to thaw, the city of Yangzhou has once again begun to be lively, those salt ships that have been overhauled for a winter, this will have been re-launched, only after the salt transportation yamen issued a salt ticket, the salt will be transported to various places.

Although the salt merchants in Jin Province were wiped out last year, the vacated market was immediately swallowed up by the salt merchants in Jiangnan and other places. Perhaps their strength is not as strong as the salt merchants of Jin Province, but this is only a matter of time, and in a few decades, these salt merchants from Jiangnan will be like the original salt merchants of Jin Province, and will be admired by the world. It is precisely because of this that these large and small salt merchants from Jiangnan will be grateful to the envoys, and even prepared a large wedding gift for them.

A gift of 2,000,000 taels!

In the face of the "filial piety" of the salt merchants, even Zhu Mingzhong, who is accustomed to seeing big money, at this time, he can't help but sigh at the wealth of the salt merchants.

"Silver is just a handful of salt!"

Sighing, Zhu Mingzhong looked at Zheng Xiaru in front of him, his tone was somewhat sighing, of course, there was some envy.

If you say that as a future person has the deepest impression of Jiangbei, I am afraid that it is the salt tax of Lianghuai, and the heyday of the salt industry in Lianghuai was in the Qianlong period in history. Zhu Mingzhong once read a piece of information that the annual salt consumption in the Qianlong and Huai periods was more than 150 million yuan, and each quotation was generally 300-400 catties. In the salt production area, the value of each quotation is 0.64 taels of silver, plus taxes and fees, a total value of 1.88 taels, and it can be sold for a high price of more than 10 taels of silver in some places in the mainland. If so, the two Huai salt merchants can earn more than 15 million taels of silver every year, and pay more than 6 million taels of salt tax, accounting for about 60% of the national salt tax. At that time, the income of the national land was about 26 million taels, and at its peak it was 33 million taels, and the number of salt classes accounted for about one-half.

This shows the importance of the two Huai salt taxes in "my Tatar Qing". It can also make people see the "potential" of the two Huai salt taxes. Although the huge population base in a hundred years is not available now, the current salt price is also much higher than that of the Qianlong period, and if it is properly managed, it will not be a problem to obtain three or four million taels of tax revenue from the Lianghuai salt farm.

The key question is how to collect it!

“…… With the popularization of windmill water diversion and salt drying technology, it is expected that after the two Huai salt farms have changed the method of drying salt this year, the total output of each salt can reach more than one million citations, and 100,000 quotations during the apocalypse, but because of the salt roads in Henan, especially Huguang and other places, it is expected that only 500,000 ......citations can be sold today at most."

Listening to Zheng Xiaru's report as a salt transport envoy, Zhu Mingzhong only pointed slightly, since the Ming Dynasty, this "salt official" has always been a coveted fat shortage for officials, and the same is true in Jiangbei now, but the reason why he was taken as a salt envoy is for another matter.

In order to sort out the salt tax, because he knew the salt tax, knew the salt merchants, and knew where to start.

"500,000 ......"

Looking at Zheng Xiaru, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"How much salt tax can be solved with these 500,000 citations?"

"Back to the meridian, about 1.5 million taels of ......"

Zheng Xiaru's tone was a little nervous, although in terms of tax and silver, the salt class of Yangyan is now higher than in the past, but there is still some gap from the requirements of the strategy, and as a salt transportation envoy, his assessment is naturally based on the salt class as the basic requirement.

"The salt class is urgently needed by the militaristic state, and the sales are the most important task of salt thinning, so the lower officials have formulated a stricter examination method to urge the official Shi Le to urge the salt class, and only after the approval of the strategy, it can be passed in Yangzhou......"

When listening to Zheng Xiaru's explanation of the examination method he formulated, Zhu Mingzhong's heart was somewhat disappointed, after all, his suggestions did not fundamentally solve the problem, did not fundamentally increase the salt tax, and it can be said that it was completely inconsistent with Zhu Mingzhong's hopes.

"Then this year, we can implement the method of "counting Ding plus quoting", and each introduction will add four yuan, so that this year's salt class can increase to about 1.8 million taels, more than half of the 1.2 million in the previous Qing Dynasty......"

Although he knew that even so, the salt class of 1.8 million taels would not necessarily satisfy Jingluo, but Zheng Xiaru had already tried his best, for him, in order to increase the salt class and meet the huge military expenditure in Jiangbei, he had exhausted all methods, except for these methods, he couldn't even think of any other way.

"Shisuke, are you sure that if you use these methods, you can recruit enough salt classes?"