At this time, Li Zhong began to report the latest news.

"Letter from Li Mu," Li Zhong reported slowly: "The cavalry who entered the grassland sent a message that they had been patrolling the grassland for nearly a month and had not encountered the main force of the Qing army. Although the Mongol tribes made some changes, there was no real movement, so the cavalry did not engage in fierce battles with the Mongol tribes. It has been decided to return by the same route on the 8th of September. ”

Although the cavalry had already engaged the cavalry at this time, the news had not yet arrived. They delivered the message and could only rely on the cavalry to deliver the message. The Mongols on the steppe are not their allies and subjects, and all of them have good archery skills, and they use carrier pigeons to transmit messages, and there is a chance that they will be shot down, so sending people to deliver letters has become the only means. Moreover, there must be no fewer people to deliver letters, and if there are less, I am afraid that they will not be able to deliver them. Therefore, after the cavalry entered the grassland, they fought completely autonomously and rarely had contact with the Guannai.

Li Yan smiled slightly and said, "That's fine." Since the Qing army did not dare to fight, it would continue a few more times in the future, and I believe that most of the Mongolian tribes would choose to cooperate with us. ”

Li Zhong also nodded, and then continued: "Also, this time the merchants exchanged a lot of horses, estimated at more than 20,000 horses, and they must prepare the silver to be purchased." ”

Li Yan nodded, and immediately asked, "How many silver taels does the Yan Administration Division have now?" ”

"The large and small salt fields, by the end of August, had a total of 3.1 million taels. Of these, 1 million taels have been sent to the mint, another 500,000 taels have been allocated to the Department of Commerce and Trade, and the rest are stored in various places for safekeeping. Li Zhong reported: "However, it is unlikely that there will be much more in the future, and after entering August, the big salt merchants will hardly stop hoarding salt." ”

Li Yan said with satisfaction: "This is also good, there are more than three million taels of income." Coupled with the original inventory of more than four million taels, and there will be tax income in the future, it should be about the same as if the silver coins were circulated. ”

After Li Yan took control of the salt farms in various places, he first rectified the management of the salt farms and improved the production efficiency of the salt works. At the same time, the sale to the outside world was suspended, and the official salt sales points established in various places were directly supplied. It was only after the local sales points had two months of salt in stock that they began to ship to the salt merchants.

At first, the salt merchants did not understand Li Yan's routine, thinking that it was just the officials of the new dynasty who wanted to use this method to get some benefits from them. But after they had sent out a large amount of money, the officials did not even receive any advice, and it was not until June that they began to be able to pick up goods from the salt works.

Although the salt quotation of the previous dynasty was not invalidated, it could only be extracted according to the face value, and the rest was purchased in cash. However, every 100 catties of salt, including taxes and fees, is only three taels of silver, which is not expensive than the previous dynasty. However, there are also differences, each lead is fixed at 100 catties, and there is no general outline, as long as you pay money, anyone can lift salt. And there is another one, there is no restriction on the sales area, you can sell where you want.

At this time, the big salt merchants did not dare to wait and see, so they hurriedly took out the silver, and each salt factory sent people over, and tried to buy as much salt as possible. They can't do this if they don't do it, in the past, they were the general distributors, and only they could take the salt from the imperial court, and then sell it downward. But now, a quote is only 100 catties, three taels of silver, and there is no restriction on the sales area, that is, even a broken settlement can be bought and sold, this is not to break their monopoly rights.

After these big salt merchants hurriedly bought a lot of salt, they found that all counties in the north already had officials selling salt, and almost all the counties and towns outside the city had them, and each catty of salt was only about 30 wen. In other words, the millions of catties of salt they hold in their hands can only be sold in remote areas, so that it is possible not to lose money. Of course, there is another way, and that is to take some risks and sell in the south.

The reason why they exchanged salt for table salt was because in the previous dynasty, the imperial court issued salt indiscriminately, and less salt led more. Now that the conditions are so favorable, they are afraid that there will be no salt at that time, but they will smash the salt in their hands. At this time, they knew that they had been deceived, but they had already spent millions of taels.

If it was in the Ming Dynasty, they would definitely use their connections to let the ministers of the court and the central government operate, whether it was to impeach officials or question the law, they would always mess up this rule that did not allow them to make money. But now, they have nothing to do, the officials of the previous dynasty are not reused, and the officials of the new dynasty are all masters who only collect money and do nothing, so they have nowhere to vent their anger.

Li Zhong also smiled and said, "I have to add 600,000 taels." In the past six months, officials in various localities took the initiative to hand over bribes, and the salt merchants alone paid bribes of nearly 400,000 taels. ”

"Money is moving." Li Yan suddenly said worriedly: "It is necessary to strengthen the supervision of various places, and we must not let the officials fall." ”

Li Zhong still smiled and said happily: "Nearly two hundred officials have been dealt with, most of them are officials of the county government. Among them, only 20% were found by the Supervision Department and the Security Department, and the rest were reported by local citizens. Those who have meritorious names don't look down on the officials of the county government at all, so they stare at the officials with two eyes to find fault with the officials. Whether it is corruption or abuse of power for personal gain, it will report when it is oppressed, which is more efficient than the Supervision Department and the Intelligence Department. ”

Li Yan also laughed. said: "There must be a group of such people, always keeping an eye on the officials, so that the officials cannot abuse the power in their hands for personal gain and cruelty to the people." ”

But Li Yan's smile disappeared immediately, replaced by a worried look: "However, I'm afraid that these people won't be able to hold on for a long time." They are all smart people, and sooner or later they will let go of some dissatisfaction in their hearts and instead speak with the officials. After all, with the same heart as the official family, you can get much more benefits. ”

Li Zhong also said helplessly: "This kind of thing, all dynasties and dynasties, there is no good way. It is still necessary to educate the officials to know honesty and shame and distinguish between good and evil. ”

Li Yan sighed and asked, "Is there any other news?" ”

"Nanming Governor Shi Kefa died in Leping." Li Zhong continued to report: "There were only more than 100 people around him, and they died outside the city. ”

Li Yan said in disbelief: "How is it possible? And what about his troops? Why go out of town? ”

Li Zhong shook his head and sighed: "Poor man." Li Zicheng besieged the city and persuaded him to surrender, but Shi Kefa was unmoved, but the 3,000 officers and soldiers under him surrendered. However, in the end, there are still people who know loyalty, and there are more than 100 people who have not surrendered. However, the people in the city were worried that Shi Kefa's alleged death battle would affect the pond fish, so the whole city knelt down and begged Shi Kefa to spare his life. Shi Kefa had no choice but to go out of the city to meet the battle, and it is said that he also stabbed a few intruders. Li Zicheng was also quite moved, so he was buried outside Leping City. ”

"Integrity, compassion, loyalty, all have it. It's a pity, this is a troubled era where swords and guns dominate. Li Yan whispered to himself regretfully.

Li Zhong waited for a while and continued: "Also, there is a new trend in Jiangnan, which needs to be paid attention to. ”

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