On the third day of August, Guangzhou City. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Shen Xi summoned all the officials of the Guangdong Salt Section Promotion Department as the official post of the temporary governor of the Yamen, and inquired about the introduction of salt in the summer of that year.

The salt introduction approved by the household department has been transferred from Jiangbei, and now it is in the yamen of the Guangdong Salt Division, although Shen Xi has the duty of supervising the local salt department, but has no actual jurisdiction over the distribution of salt introduction.

Guangdong Cheng announced that the political envoy Si Yamen was afraid that Shen Xi would not hesitate to attack the salt in order to raise military rations and materials, so he sent people to observe and supervise the matter.

After the salt in Guangdong was introduced to the local area in summer, the yamen at all levels related to the salt road at all levels strictly guarded against Shenxi, for fear that one would be exploited by Shenxi if he was not careful.

The Ming Dynasty has a total of two Huai, two Zhejiang, Changlu, Shandong, Fujian, Hedong six transport salt envoys, and Guangdong, Haibei, Sichuan, Heiyanjing, Baiyanjing, Anning Salt, Wujing and other seven salt section lifting divisions and Shaanxi Lingzhou salt division, as well as Liaodong decoction salt lifting division.

As the governor of the three provinces, Shen Xi can supervise the Guangdong Salt Lifting Division in Guangzhou Mansion and the Haibei Salt Lifting Division in Lianzhou Mansion, but it takes at least a month to go back and forth to the Haibei Salt Lifting Division, so he aimed at the nearest Guangdong Salt Lifting Division.

The yamen is near, so it's easy to start.

The name of the lifting division of the Guangdong Salt Class is Chen Huaijing, who was born from Wupin and Jinshi. Under Chen Huaijing, there is a person who is promoted from the sixth grade; The deputy lifted three people, from the seventh grade.

In addition to Chen Huaijing, the officials of the Guangdong Salt Lifting Division are all from lifting people, but the Salt Lifting Division is not someone who can enter if they want to, this is a rich and abundant yamen, and the officials at all levels are staring at it, and the Guangdong political envoy Yamen does not dare to blink for a moment, for fear that this money bag will leak, and even the household department of the imperial court is also concerned.

In the Ming Dynasty, a deputy of the Salt Division of the Salt Class from the Seven Grades of the Lifting of the Department of Lifting the Price was clearly marked, and those who were waiting for the release of the official had to spend at least two thousand taels of silver to buy a deputy of the Salt Class, which must also have a certain relationship between the court and the local political envoy Yamen.

As for how much oil and water is behind it, only they know.

"Lord Shen, I don't know why you summoned the officials and others to come?" Chen Huaijing was extremely humble in front of Shen Xi. Even if Chen Huaijing knew that Shen Xi did not have a good relationship with the political envoys, but Shen Xi was the governor of the Qin Dynasty and nominally led the military and political affairs of the three provinces, Chen Huaijing could not be disrespectful to Shen Xi.

Shen Xi looked around at the people present and smiled: "This official heard that the salt and salt introduction has arrived this summer, and he is responsible for supervising the local salt class in Guangdong, so I want to summon you to come and ask about the salt introduction." ”

Chen Huaijing was relieved and said with a smile: "Lord Shen may not know, the salt introduction is related to my Ming salt class, be cautious." The lifting department has always acted impartially, and every tax on salt is paid first and then salt, and there is never a penny in arrears, as evidenced by the accounts of the past years and the receipt of the household department...... Lord Shen, do you need to ask someone to invite someone to bring in the accounts of the past years and list them with you? ”

Shen Xi thought to himself, sure enough, they are all old foxes, you are all corrupt and bribery to make a fuss about the price of salt, not on the taxation of salt, even if you give me the accounts, what can I find out?

The salt introduction is approved by the household department, and the salt introduction is approved according to the number of stove households in each place, and each stove household is responsible for a certain amount of boiling salt in a year.

Stove households, like military households and artisan households, belong to the stove registration, and are not allowed to leave the nationality, and boil salt for generations to make a living. The government allocates firewood and grass to the mountains and forests for harvesting salt, and issues iron pots, prison plates, etc. for boiling salt, and sometimes also distributes rice or banknotes according to the number of salt production, so as to ensure the food ration supply of the stove households.

The raw salt produced by the stove households every year is called "positive salt" within the quota, and the part produced in addition, named "surplus salt", is also sold by the government, and the stove households are not allowed to sell it privately.

There is a record in the Ming Huidian that Hongwu stipulated: In addition to the positive salt, the stove household will be hanged if the surplus salt is taken out of the country and the goods are sold. The surplus salt was sent to the transportation department, and each small lead was given to the official rice for one stone.

A small amount of salt is 200 catties.

In addition to apportioning some harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes that are not recorded in the account books, such as firewood tax, cloudy day tax, high tide tax, etc., the most important thing is to make a fuss from these "surplus salt". Every year, the output of salt produced by the imperial court is underreported, so that the imperial court pays less for salt introduction, and then sells the excess salt to salt merchants through some fake salt, and the salt merchants take out the salt and transport it to other places for sale.

As for the excess salt, it was obtained through private teaching with the salt works.

In order to embezzle, there are many tricks between the yamen at all levels and the salt works.

As the saying goes, three years of Qing prefect 100,000 snowflake silver, the Ming Dynasty market economy is not active, copper less silver expensive, but a salt class to lift the division, three years can almost have 30,000 taels of silver, but it needs to pay tribute to the household department, the political envoy, the local state government and other functions of the yamen, but in any case 20,000 taels of silver is guaranteed. Without a tough relationship, you can't get into the salt class promotion division at all.

Shen Xi waved his hand and said: "This official is only a shallow learner, and he has never been good at settling accounts. I don't know how much salt the imperial court allocated to the Guangdong Salt Division this summer? ”

Chen Huaijing said: "Back to Lord Shen, summer is the peak season for salt production in the major salt farms under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Salt Division, and the imperial court has allocated a total of 83,400 large introductions, that is, 166,800 small introductions. My lord, do you want to send someone to check the amount of salt to be counted? ”

A total of 20 or 30 million catties of salt will be produced, and if you go to check, won't you be tired to death?

Shen Xi said: "If you count the matter of salt introduction, the official won't bother much, but I want to ask, how many people will be recruited by the Salt Section Promotion Division to transport salt?" ”

Chen Huaijing said with a smile: "My lord, the Salt Section Lifting Division usually does not need to supervise the transportation of salt, generally speaking...... It was handed over to the local gentry and wealthy households, and after they paid the salt tax, they took the salt and led it to the salt works to extract salt, and then distributed it to various places. Now is the time for Xia Yan to leave the warehouse, and the gentry from all over the country have gathered in Guangzhou. ”

What Chen Huaijing said is basically no different from what Shen Xi knew in the past and what he learned from his recent investigation.

The Salt Section Promotion Division said that the target of salt lifting was the local gentry and wealthy households, and because the government had always looked down on the merchants, it would not directly buy and sell salt to the merchants, but needed the merchants to use the local gentry who were related to the political envoy and the salt section as intermediaries, which was a series of dirty transactions.

The ex-factory price of a pound of salt is only a dozen Wen, the imperial court has levied enough taxes, and the household department has also gotten the salt class, so it stands to reason that it is already very expensive to transfer it out, and it is already very expensive for a catty of salt to be around 20 Wen, but now it is good, the price of a catty of salt is usually to 40 or 50 Wen, and in remote areas, it is even more than 60 or 70 Wen, which is something that ordinary people can afford?

Shen Xi couldn't forget the experience of eating wild vegetables when he was a child, and he felt that as long as there was enough salt in the wild vegetables and green onion soup, it was a supreme delicacy. There is nothing wrong with the salt class system in the Ming Dynasty, the problem lies in the corrupt officialdom, and the yamen related to the salt administration want to stretch out their hands, which leads to high salt prices and regards eating salt as a rare thing.

Shen Xi asked with a calm face: "Then before the summer salt is out of the warehouse, will the salt field release salt?" ”

Chen Huaijing originally had a smile on his face, but when he heard this, his smile suddenly froze, and then he came to his senses and hurriedly saluted: "Back to my lord, it is impossible." The salt along the coast of Guangdong is divided into summer and winter seasons, and the summer salt is transferred to the Guangdong Salt Division in mid-June. ”

Shen Xi nodded and said, "Then will there be stove households with private salt, for example, soaking salt water in clothes and taking it out of the salt field?" ”

Chen Huaijing's face became even more ugly at this time, and he hurriedly explained, "Lord Shen may be puzzled about the salt farm, this salt farm is close to the sea, I only heard that some people took a boat to go to sea at night, boiling salt and drying salt on the island, in order to smuggle and sell it, but I have never heard that the stove owner took the illicit salt out of the salt field, this is a crime to kill the head...... If the stove household wants to carry private salt, why not just use clothes to soak in the seawater? ”

"That's true."

The officials of the Salt Section Lifting Division next to him were busy helping.

There was a look of mockery on the faces of all the people, as if they were saying to Shen Xi, you earth leopard, you don't understand the affairs of our salt field and still ask nonsense, it is a capital crime to soak in salt water from the salt field, it is better to go to the sea water from the beach outside the salt field, it is convenient not to say, and you don't have to worry about being killed.

Shen Xi sneered, you guys really treat me as a "soil leopard"?

Do you not know the difference between the salt content in the salt pans in the salt pans and the salt content in the sea water outside? The seawater in the salt field has been dried several times, and the salt concentration is high, and the clothes are soaked and brought out of the salt field, and large pieces of salt crystals can be precipitated on the dried clothes. However, it is good to dye your clothes wet in ordinary seawater and have a little white spot after drying.

It is clear that you people connived at the entrainment of the stove households in those salt farms, and since the political envoy department, the salt department and the salt farm have been privately taught and accepted, you use fake salt to lure people to carry salt openly, so as to make huge profits!

Shen Xi thought for a moment and said, "This official sent people to the warehouse outside the city before and seized a large amount of illegal salt, but I don't know who did it?" ”

Chen Huaijing thought about it, a little dazed, and looked at his colleagues around him, but no one could say why. Chen Huaijing asked: "When did Lord Shen seize the private salt, why don't the officials and others know?" ”

Shen Xi said: "This official has seized illegal salt, do you need to say hello to the Salt Division?" It's also a coincidence, the time was about an hour ago, maybe the seizure of illicit salt is still going on at this time......"

As soon as Shen Xi's words fell, including Chen Huaijing, the officials of the Salt Class Lifting Division all stood up.

They didn't understand why Shen Xi called them, there was a sentence of interrogation, the question seemed to be an insider's words, but it was actually a layman asking an insider. Now they finally knew that Shen Xi was diverting the tiger from the mountain, and while summoning them, he sent people to seal up some warehouses inside and outside the city where illegal salt was stored.

Chen Huaijing said a little nervously: "Lord Shen, you can't come wantonly, there is a little stored official salt in the treasury of this city...... Fair and reasonable. ”

"Therefore, the official wants to ask you to go and inspect it to see if it is official salt or private salt...... Or is it old salt? Shen Xi stood up with a smile and said.

Chen Huaijing was extremely flustered at first, but after he figured it out, he calmed down.

Just from the appearance of the salt, it can not be seen whether it is official salt or private salt, as long as he does not admit the existence of those official salt and salt leads, and frames the traders for smuggling illegal salt, Shen Xi still has no way to deal with them. Chen Huaijing raised his sleeves and said, "Go and go, Lord Shen, please!" ”

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PS: The third update is here!

Tomorrow's fourth watch, the Son of Heaven begs for subscriptions, recommended tickets, rewards and monthly pass encouragement! (To be continued.) )