Today's big move, before Ixan went to Anhui, Guan Zhuofan surrendered, and the relevant people of the Xuan Army had already been planning intensively in secret. However, how Ixsang was going to deal with Li Shizhong, before he arrived in the port, the governor of Anhui Yamen did not receive a trace of rumors. Xuanjun knew that Li Shizhong had a lot of hands and eyes in Anqing, and even the governor had his inside line in the yamen, cut off his head, and asked Anhui for help, but he was afraid that there would be more than enough success and more failure.

After completing the task of "lobbying" Yinghan to hand over Li Zongshou and Song Zunbang, the Anhui intelligence group of the Military Adjustment Office did not withdraw to Beijing and continued to stay there to "lurk," but only changed the "work target" -- Li Shizhong. The information about Li Shizhong and his henchmen was basically provided by this group, including the residences and whereabouts of Han Ronghan, Gao Hualin, Luo Sheng, and You Xianda, and so on.

At the beginning of the afternoon, as soon as Li Shizhong entered the governor's yamen, the "standard soldiers" who took his family and henchmen were dispatched, and the governor's yamen was relaxed outside and inside. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Li Shizhong entered the table, and the governor's yamen immediately cut off internal and external access, and not even a single mouse was allowed to enter or exit.

Han Ronghan, Gao Hualin, Luo Sheng, and You Xianda have long been targeted by the Military Adjustment Department. As soon as the two o'clock in the afternoon arrived, the action team that had been ambushed in advance immediately set out to take down the four of them one by one. In order to prevent the four Xiaoju rebellions of Han, Gao, Luo, and You, the action team all brought the "official business" of the governor and the admiral, but none of them really came in handy. The Western-uniformed "Admiral's Personal Soldiers" squad then appeared. Han, Gao, Luo, and You, whether they are themselves or their subordinates. None dared to resist.

If it is only to kill one Li Shizhong, there is no need to be so troublesome, but if you want to have the greatest deterrent effect, this Hongmen feast is indispensable: not only to deter Li Shizhong's henchmen - this is to avoid future troubles; It is even more necessary to deter the whole of Anhui and even the Liangjiang River, especially in northern Jiangsu--this is to warm up for the next rectification of salt affairs.

Yes, Ixan said "starting tomorrow." The imperial court is going to vigorously rectify the salt affairs of the two Huai provinces", which is by no means a lie and intimidation.

Salt affairs to China -- mainly salt affairs in the two Huai provinces. Thorough reform is Guan Zhuofan's consistent ideal.

On this road, how many thorns and bumps, as a traverser. Guan Zhuofan is clear. However, it is precisely because of his identity as a traverser that Guan Zhuofan is also clear: this road must be completely completed!

This is because salt is so important to China.

How important is it?

What about the two of them? What is the status?

Let's take the Qianlong Dynasty as an example.

At that time, the two Huai salt classes paid more than 6 million taels of salt taxes every year, accounting for 60% of the national salt taxes.

What is this concept?

Fiscal revenue of the central government of the Qing Dynasty. It mainly includes three parts: land tax, salt tax, and customs duty. At that time, the annual income of the whole country was about 26 million taels. In other words. The salt tax accounts for half of the land tax, and the salt tax accounts for more than half of the national salt tax.

The salt tax was only the "positive item" of the imperial court's income from salt affairs. In addition to this, the country has every time there is a heavy military operation, or a natural disaster. or river defense work, or parade celebrations. The salt merchant repaid the donation. Note that these "donations and reimbursements" are not to give if you want to give, not to give if you want to give, nor to give as much as you want, this is a set of "unspoken rules". If you don't give, or don't give enough, don't eat the salt merchant's bowl of rice in the future.

It is difficult to examine in detail the amount of "donations and reimbursements" of the salt merchants, but the results of the two Huai salt merchants alone, calculated by the entire Qianlong Dynasty, amounted to 40 million taels -- this is still the result of "incomplete statistics."

"The two Huai years class, half of the rent on the same day, the profit and loss are fictitious, and the national economy is moving", not a word is fictitious.

The prosperity of the salt government in the Qing Dynasty reached its peak in the Qianlong Dynasty; After that, together with the national situation, the situation deteriorated, and in the early years of the Daoguang Dynasty, it was already a mess. The salt merchants are in difficulty, the smugglers are rampant, the class is not moving forward, the deficit is huge, and there is no way to fill the gaps, and it has basically reached the point where "the mountains and rivers are exhausted and cannot be cleaned up". Among them, the two Huai salt affairs are particularly unbearable, and they are almost terminally ill.

Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang at that time, changed the law in a big way, and changed the salt system to the ticket salt system, which seemed to be quite effective, but-

Regarding Tao Shu's change, Guan Zhuofan has his own opinions; In the end, how to rectify the salt business, Guan Zhuofan also has his own set of regulations. These will be described in detail later, so I will not press the table at this time.

Let's first talk about Guan Zhuofan's idea that never existed before and was born after the crossing. Understanding his thoughts, we will better understand why he spent great efforts and made great determination to rectify China's salt affairs, and even, it is a bit of a "although tens of millions of people have gone to me".

Before the crossing, Guan Zhuofan believed that the gap between China and the West at the end of the Qing Dynasty was "all-round". This view is not bad, but after crossing over, Guan Zhuofan slowly found that this so-called "all-round" is still exquisite: in this era, the gap between China and the West is mainly in science and technology, system, and culture; But in a way, China has not been significantly distanced by the West, and this is wealth in the monetary sense.

That is, China is still "rich".

At the beginning of the crossing, Guan Zhuofan suffered from such a dilemma: if China wants to rejuvenate, re-rise, and transform into a modern and even modern country, it must first complete industrialization. But where does the primitive accumulation necessary for industrialization come from?

There are no more than two sources of primitive accumulation, one is the open fire and goes out to rob others; One is to squeeze yourself behind closed doors.

Go out to grab -- When Guan Zhuofan was in the United States, he was quick to grab a handful, which can be regarded as the first "primitive accumulation." However, Guan Zhuofan knows that this is not enough, at most it can only be regarded as "start-up capital". Moreover, this money is more or less his "private money", and he has to use it to "take it personally" in case of emergency, and he cannot invest in domestic industrialization without a single child.

Twisting, millions of silver in the account, small meaning, wet and crushed.

When I hit Japan, I grabbed it again. The harvest, of course, is not as fruitful as the United States. Well, it's not as good as it could be.

Anyway, no, enough, use.

In a short period of time, there is no chance to go out and grab it again.

What about other sources of income?

Rockefeller, Morgan, Nobel, etc., are still in the "cultivation period", and it is not easy to kill chickens and take eggs.

The same is true for my land and real estate in the United States: in the "Gilded Age" of the United States, real estate will soar, and it is far from the time for a large number of listings.

South Africa's gold and diamond mines have just begun to be drilled.

Okay, I've counted my fingers, and it seems that I have to squeeze myself.

Speaking of this, Guan Zhuofan is weak-hearted. There's no way he's going to "tighten his belt" like TG does. That kind of dry method requires a strong ability to organize and mobilize, and an equally strong ability to control the grassroots, these two golden fingers, Guan Zhuofan can't open at this stage.

Moreover, more importantly, if Guan Zhuofan wants to play "agriculture to support industry", he must first snatch the peasants and land from the gentry -- this is even more difficult for him to do, dare to do, and should do at this stage.

However, my original accumulation is not enough, what should I do?

Fortunately, China is still "rich".

In this era, the status of precious metals as the main currency is still unshakable, virtual wealth is still very limited, and the East and the West have not yet opened a real gap in monetary wealth. The vast amounts of silver owned by all strata of Chinese society, from the government to the private sector, remain the bedrock of wealth.

This "rich" is also relative to the "rich" of the first industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution, compared with the second and third industrial revolutions in later generations, is still a relatively primitive technological revolution after all, and the intensity of capital is far from being comparable with the two industrial revolutions in later generations.

In other words, without large-scale redistribution of wealth, it is still possible for Guan Zhuofan to raise a considerable part of the primitive accumulation required for industrialization.

So, how to bring "all strata of Chinese society ...... "without the premise of large-scale redistribution of wealth" possession of a huge amount of silver", concentrated in their own hands?

One is open source, the other is throttled.

Tariffs, cents of gold, are considered open source - this is directly reaching out to take it; The establishment of telegraphs, postal routes, and new industrial and mining industries can also be regarded as open source -- this is the exchange of new services and new products for silver in the hands of the Chinese people.

Throttling is to "avoid floating" and reduce unnecessary expenses.

The space here is scary.

Guan Zhuofan repaired the Summer Palace for the royal sister, and the budget was 3.5 million taels, and if it was wider, it was 4 million taels. Judging from the current progress of the project, the total cost will not exceed the budget, and the four million taels will come to an end.

However, in this garden, Guan Zhuofan once privately asked someone from the Internal Affairs Office to make a price, but the other party did not have an accurate number of dead or alive, only said that it was roughly "between one or two million".

Guan Zhuofan understands that "between one and two million" means, "at least twenty million taels".

In fact, if you really take it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to repair it, it will be 100 percent overspending, that is, you can't beat 20 million taels.

Eighty percent of the cost of the project went into private pockets.

No way!

Salt is also considered "open source", but its special feature is that this financial source is not newly opened, it was originally there, but later the source was congested, and the silver was getting less and less.

After a big circle, we should be able to see the importance of rectifying the salt affairs for Guan Zhuofan: if it succeeds, only two Huai and one place, the annual increase in salt tax will be millions of taels. Figuratively speaking, this money is enough to build one more Summer Palace every year, or to fight a local war of considerable scale -- Zuo Zongtang's expedition to the west, which costs only 3.5 million taels a year.

This money, not a one-shot deal, is available every year, and China's industrialization will be a very stable source of primitive accumulation.

*(To be continued) R580