Zhu Houzhao decided to make an order to win the favor, and at the same time, Wang Qiong quickly entered Beijing to reform the salt administration.

Wang Qiong naturally did not dare to disobey Zhu Houzhao's will, and was very happy in her heart, secretly thinking that His Majesty the Emperor was still unwilling to be at the mercy of civil officials, and he could also be said to be inviolable since then, and he no longer had to worry about being attacked.

However, after other civil officials of the imperial court learned that Zhu Houzhao had ordered to win the favor, they directly exploded the pot and discussed the matter one after another.

The civil officials were naturally extremely disappointed and indignant at the behavior of Emperor Zhu Houzhao and Wang Qiong returning to their hometowns without hanging their crowns.

But the civil officials are now learning to be obedient, knowing that there is no good end for disobeying the emperor Zhu Houzhao, so they only scolded Wang Qiong one after another, some said that Wang Qiong was unfilial, some said that Wang Qiong loved power, and some said that Wang Qiong secretly instigated the emperor to decree to seize love.

Of course, the real reason for the disappointment of these civil officials is naturally not that Wang Qiong did not return to his hometown to worry about filial piety, but that he could not stop the pace of the imperial court's reform of salt administration.

"Lord Ye! The student also gave the silver, and also let Wang Qiong's father disappear according to your instructions, but why did this Wang Qiong still enter Beijing, and now the household department has begun to order to stop paying silver and taking salt! It seems that we are really asking for food and salt! ”

Duan Guisheng, a member of Yangzhou, found Taichang Temple and complained, his family is a big salt merchant in Huaiyang, and he has stayed in the capital since last year, intending to collude with officials and prevent the imperial court from reforming the salt policy, but he didn't expect that the money made these courtiers collect a lot, and even had to do murder, but in the end it didn't stop the pace of the imperial court to change the salt policy.

Ye Zhen himself is also very depressed, his own family is also a big salt merchant in Huaiyang, and relying on the national policy that his father changed when he was the head of the household department, he has now become a wealthy family in the world, and even knows how much loss he will have to his family if the imperial court salt policy is changed back to collecting grain and taking salt.

"I can't do it either! Your Majesty wants to seize love, and he Wang Qiong loves power, and no one can do anything with them! Even if the official is impeached, with the methods of His Majesty the Emperor today, he will be killed at least and the family will be wiped out! This matter is at this point now, I can only accept it", Ye Zhen could only say so, but he also received a lot of silver from these salt merchants, thinking that even if the imperial court's reform of salt politics caused damage to his family, he would have no loss.

"But isn't all this money spent in vain!" This Guisheng couldn't help but stomp his feet.

"How can there be a white flower, the ministers of the DPRK and China have received a lot of filial piety from us salt merchants over the years, even if they can't stop His Majesty from reforming the salt policy now, but for this long-term filial piety, they will also find a way to change the current salt policy back in the future, people have no possibility of longevity, how can the emperor not be like this, and when the new emperor ascends the throne in the future, everything has to be considered in the long run!"

Ye Zhen said something meaningful.

Duan Guisheng couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, and asked with some horror, "Lord Ye, what do you mean?" ”

Duan Guisheng didn't say the word "killing the king", but only said in a lower voice: "This is the crime of the Ten Clans!" ”

Ye Zhen's face became serious: "This official didn't say that he wanted to do such a rebellious thing!" Besides, now that the palace is very strictly controlled, His Majesty's diet is checked at all levels, how dare you do such a thing! ”

Hearing Ye Zhen say this, Duan Guisheng breathed a sigh of relief.

……

After Wang Qiong entered Beijing, he immediately reformed the salt administration, and Zhu Houzhao naturally approved it immediately.

As a result, from the sixth year of Zhengde, the Daming Salt Policy opened the Chinese law again to the system of "taking grain and taking salt", but it was still different from the previous "taking grain and taking salt" opening method.

First of all, the emperor issued an edict strictly prohibiting the powerful from asking for salt quotations, and granted the household department the right to reject the requests of later kings and even magnates to ask for salt quotations, so as to avoid undermining the salt policy.

Second, the government should raise the price of salt from salt farmers in order to increase their incomes and encourage innovation in salt production technology.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict encouraging businessmen to recruit people to settle fields on the border, and adopted a contract system to levy taxes on people's land and exempt border people from forced labor.

Merchants all over the world felt very uncomfortable when they heard this, but for the benefit of the salt industry, they could only start transporting grain to the border, and at the same time recruiting displaced people to the border town of Tuntian.

Although the imperial court reduced the annual salt tax revenue of more than one million taels, it reduced the expenditure of military rations by millions of taels, and according to the report of the governors of the border towns, from the sixth year of Zhengde, the number of people in the border towns began to increase, and the Hetao was no longer deserted, and market towns and villages appeared one after another for a time.

Moreover, the income of the imperial treasury has not decreased in fact, and Yulin City has produced nearly 10,000 taels of gold and more than 100,000 taels of silver for the Yulin mine since the fourth year of Zhengde, as well as countless iron ore and copper mines, of which gold and silver are directly escorted into Beijing and directly become treasury income, and iron and copper mines are sold by Yulin Mining itself.

The income tax silver delivered to the central court alone amounted to more than 60,000 taels, plus other taxes totaling no less than 100,000 taels.

In other words, the development of Yulin City alone has increased the imperial court's income by more than 300,000 taels.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think to himself that if another ten or even one hundred Yulin Cities were built, the income of the Ming treasury would only be able to increase the income of three million or even thirty million taels, and then there would be abundant funds to develop education.

But although the ideal is very full, but the reality is very skinny, the cost of building another Yulin City is not low, first of all, immigrants, secondly, food must be supplied in the early stage, and basically it will take at least a few years before there will be taxes.

The reason why Yulin City quickly realized that there were enough taxes and minerals to supply the imperial court was because a large number of war criminals captured by the tribe of the Little Prince provided Yulin City with sufficient labor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had to admit that the Ming Dynasty still had a long way to go if it wanted to realize the primitive accumulation of capital, and at least for the time being, it had to develop trade first, not only border trade, but also sea trade.

In Zhu Houzhao's view, this is undoubtedly the best time to trade with the Tatar tribes, control the Tatar tribes through economic trade, and even help the Tatar tribal leaders maintain their dominance within their tribes.

Zhu Houzhao decreed that the Tatar tribes were allowed to conduct border trade with the Ming Dynasty, that is, to open the border trade, but they needed to be taxed by the imperial court, and they must have the entry and exit certificate of the Ming City Bosi to enter the border towns for trade, and smuggling was prohibited.

However, trade needs to levy a certain tariff, which is uniformly levied by the newly established Daming City Shipping Division, and the tax is paid uniformly when receiving the certificate, that is, the tax can be paid before obtaining the qualification for customs trade.

The City Ship Division is no stranger to the people of the Ming Dynasty, but they are surprised why the City Ship Division was set up in the border town, because according to the understanding of people in this era, the City Ship Division is generally set up along the coast.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the people of this era did not know about customs, so he could also understand the surprise of these people, and in later generations, customs were not just set up at sea.

To be precise, the newly established city shipping department of the Ming Dynasty is the same as the customs of later generations to manage the entry and exit trade, but the world's main trade is generally sea trade, so it is literally related to the sea.

Under Zhu Houzhao's several explanations, the officials of the cabinet and the household department basically understood the meaning of Zhu Houzhao's mouth about the city and the department, and also realized that the newly established city department was not a simple organization, and its financial revenue may be no less than that of the salt administration yamen.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao knew that once the border trade was opened, the smuggling activities of businessmen who were most likely to affect the income of border trade and the management and security of border towns would be the most likely to do so.

Economically, smuggling affects national revenue, and the border town trade maintained by the empire with strong defense forces is not beneficial to the country, which is why the imperial court repeatedly banned border trade, after all, smuggling is not forbidden, and border trade is not conducive to military defense.

From a political and military point of view, smuggling is not conducive to the Ming Dynasty's economic control of the different tribes outside the border towns, and the Great Wall built with countless real money is not only to defend against foreign enemies, but more importantly, the regular places of trade in the border towns are fixed at several points to facilitate the control of the imperial court.

If smuggling is rampant, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty will lose this role, and it will also be a waste of the cost of building the Great Wall.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao directly ordered the governors and political secretaries of the border towns to transfer the border troops to set up a city shipping department, set up an anti-smuggling police bureau, and transfer the border troops to become anti-smuggling inspectors, who are specifically responsible for cracking down on smuggling.

Now in the Ming Dynasty, no one dares to disobey Zhu Houzhao.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao also carried out these edicts.

Although the fight against smuggling would affect the interests of the magnates, the failure of the rebellion of King Anhua also made the magnates realize once again how inopportune it was to rebel at this time.

But speaking of the rebellion, what Zhu Houzhao didn't expect was that because of the implementation of the examination law, the local government had to increase the collection of taxes, which also provoked popular uprisings in some places.

In southern Jiangxi and northern Sichuan, the two places were the first to provoke the popular uprising, and some imperial historians also used this to suggest that the imperial court should depose the examination law.

"Your Majesty! The examination law is too strict, only seeking the result without asking the cause, prompting the official to have no love for the people, if he is not deposed, it will make the urging aggravated, today Gannan and Sichuan are reversed, and it is difficult for him to guarantee that other places will not be opposed! Therefore, the minister asked His Majesty to abolish the examination to relieve the pressure of the officials and the people, and to rule by inaction! ”

The official of the department, Xie Ne, wrote in the song.

"The test law cannot be abolished! The root cause of the local people's revolt was not the creation of the examination law, but the harm of the officials and the township officials, who calculated the taxes that should have been paid to the landless people, but let the landed people become landless people on the fish scale book, thus causing the landless people's taxes to increase, and the landed people evaded the taxes instead! It also caused a lot of tax losses due to contributions! ”

"Therefore, the minister suggested that from the sixth year of Zhengde, the local government should be ordered to clear the acres of land, led by the governor-general, and the inspector should be led by the imperial history, and at the same time the edict was strictly forbidden to be sacrificed as slaves, and the gentry were nervous about keeping slaves!"

Now there is no need for Zhu Houzhao to stand up and oppose it, and a civil official with bureaucratic capitalist overtones, Jiao Fang, the first assistant to the cabinet, took the initiative to raise objections.

As a shareholder of the Royal Bank, Jiao Fang, who took the dividends of the Royal Bank and used political convenience to carry out commercial activities in the pioneer of Yulin City, made a lot of money.

He knew that in order for the Ministry to be able to repay the loans of the Royal Bank, and to make dividends for his own holders of the Royal Bank, the Ministry would have to continue to increase the revenue of the treasury, which would have to be increased by agricultural income.

Qingzhang acres of land is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to increase the revenue of the national treasury, in addition to increasing commercial taxes, so Jiao Fang took this opportunity to mention it at this time.

At the same time, Jiao Fang also proposed a ban on sacrifice and the breeding of slaves.

In addition to maintaining the stable income of the Ming court, it was also to avoid a large number of people being annexed by the gentry and powerful people, and to avoid making the court have no recruits and usable people.

And he, Jiao Fang, a capitalist who was transformed by Zhu Houzhao, also avoided having no available labor, after all, his Jiao family already had a large number of industries outside the Saiwai and needed to hire a large number of migrant workers, and driving ordinary people out of the gentry's manor was undoubtedly beneficial to him and the imperial court.

"I agree with what Jiao Qing said!"

Zhu Houzhao is no stranger to Qingzhang Tianmu, he knows that Zhang Juzheng in history made a Qingzhang Tianmu during the Wanli period, although the time is not long, but it also brought Wanli enough financial resources to support the three major expeditions.

It can be seen that Qingzhang Tianmu can add a lot of income to the empire, but it is also a heavy blow to the gentry group, otherwise Zhang Juzheng would not have been retaliated against so hard by the civil officials, and the whole family was starved to death by a certain criminal department servant who was in charge of raiding the house.

At this time, Jiao Fang suddenly proposed to clear the acres of land, although his heart may not be as selfless as Zhang Juzheng, but he does have a public heart, after all, this is very offensive.

Fortunately, unlike Zhang Juzheng in history, Zhang Juzheng did not get the support of the imperial power but only used the imperial power, but now Jiao Fang has the support of his own emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believes that this time the Qingzhang field should be more thorough than the Qingzhang field Mu made by Zhang Juzheng in history, and Zhu Houzhao thought that it was best to institutionalize this and clear the Zhang every few years, so that the Ming rulers could know the true situation of the distribution of Daming fields at any time.

Regarding the civil uprising and riots, although the civil officials used this to attack the law, and forced the officials of the benevolent government to become cool officials, which led to the civil uprising, Zhu Houzhao naturally would not be fooled, and said directly:

"The examination law is a good policy to depose the officials who neglect the government, how can it be abandoned, the Ming agricultural tax is levied only thirty to one, and it must be exempted in disaster years, and at this time, the civil revolt is not to increase the burden of the people by the examination law, but the local fire consumption and the corruption of the officials!"

As soon as the civil officials saw that they couldn't easily fool Emperor Zhu Houzhao, and even let the emperor pay attention to the fire, they were dumbfounded and didn't dare to speak.

Because the civil officials in Beijing, no matter how high or low, rely on the local officials' tribute and filial piety to maintain a luxurious life, and the silver of the local officials' filial piety does not come from the fire consumption imposed by the local officials.

Therefore, the civil servants did not dare to mention the abolition of the examination law.

Of course, the civil officials did not want the civil rebellion to exist forever, as the rulers, like the emperor, they all hoped that the people would be obedient people who could be exploited at will, so the civil officials also honestly began to think about how to quell the civil rebellion.

Civil servants have experience in this area.

Cao Yuan, the left attendant of the military department, first suggested that the people in the areas where the people revolted should be exempted from taxes, so that the people could not bear the weight of taxes and obey the thieves, so that the thieves had no foundation for growth, and at the same time implemented the policy of suppressing and appeasing the people.

Zhu Houzhao also agreed with his strategy, and ordered Cao Yuan to lead the left deputy capital of the imperial history of Gannan to quell the rebellion, and also proposed to relieve the people's distress, fight corruption, and focus on the strategy of pacification, Xiao Xuan, the capital of the imperial history, was also appointed by Zhu Houzhao as the left deputy capital of the imperial history of the governor of Sichuan to quell the rebellion, and at the same time issued an edict to exempt the two places from taxes for three years.

At the end of the sixth year of Zhengde, both rebellions were put down.

Although the rebellion was easily put down, Zhu Houzhao knew that it would be impossible to avoid a peasant uprising if the problem of official coercion and popular rebellion was not fundamentally resolved.

In order to fundamentally solve this problem, we must first crack down on the phenomenon of officials and local gentry manipulating the localities and making the distribution of taxes irrational.

Every few years, although it is inevitable that the land will gradually be concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, it can also avoid the people who have to pay taxes after losing land or even pay heavy taxes after being manipulated by officials and local gentry and rebel.

Therefore, at the court meeting in March of the sixth year of Zhengde, Wang Qiong, the head of the cabinet, was instructed by Jiao Fang, the first assistant of the cabinet, and formally proposed to implement the policy of clearing the fields and acres in March of the sixth year of Zhengde, and suggested that the imperial court should clear the zhang once every five years and establish it as a system, and the dynasty of later generations must abide by this policy.

At the same time, Yang Yiqing, who succeeded him as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was instructed by Jiao Fang, the first assistant of the cabinet, and proposed to abide by the constitution and the laws of the ancestors and protect the basic human rights of the people of the Ming Dynasty.