Fang Yuan dealt with the Haisha Gang who smuggled smuggled salt, and then it was the turn of the Shanshan Merchant Gang and the Hui Merchant Gang to cry poor all day long, shouting about the loss-making Huaiyan Salt Merchants.

He met with Wu Dashan and Jiang Yan in Yangzhou Mansion.

Fang Yuan acted resolutely, and in less than half a month, he exterminated the Haisha Gang that had been entrenched in Zhenjiang Mansion for many years, and even took Zhenjiang Mansion into his pocket. Wu Dashan and Jiang Yan were trembling when they saw it, so they could only come to the door respectfully and accept Fang Yuan's teaching.

Fang Yuan said straight to the point, "Two big bosses, before I asked the Ming Dynasty about the loss of the flow of salt tax, you pushed to smuggle smuggled salt, and now I have suppressed the largest illegal salt and salt gang, and strengthened the monitoring of the canal and the waterway of the Yangtze River in Jingkou, what else do you have to say?" ”

Wu Dashan said hesitantly, "Fang Junmen is really decisive, loves the people like a son, and sympathizes with the difficulties of doing business for us. ”

Wu Dashan's attitude could not be more obvious, the strategy of the Shanshan merchant gang has changed, and it has changed to cooperate with Fang Yuan, strive to obtain Fang Yuan's policy support, and attack the market share of the Hui merchant gang.

If Jiang Yan and Fang Yuan were again pushing back and forth, Fang Yuan would abandon the Hui Merchants Gang in anger and support the Shanxi Merchants Gang instead, and the Hui Merchants Gang, and even the Hui Merchants Jiang clan would operate in Yangzhou Mansion for one day, and the foundation of the two hundred years would be destroyed in one fell swoop.

Jiang Yan reluctantly echoed and said, "Fang Junmen, the loss of salt tax involves a wide range of things, and it is definitely not something that a Hui merchant gang, or even a Huai salt merchant can control!" ”

Fang Yuan knew where his concerns were, how could the two Huaiyan Salt Gang dare to shake the vested interests of the magnates and high-ranking officials in Beijing and Nanjing, and they didn't know how they died.

Fang Yuan said in a deep voice, "Behind the profits of official salt, there are still a bunch of powerful and high-ranking officials, right?" ”

Jiang Yan did not deny it, it was a tacit acquiescence to him.

Fang Yuan said lightly, "This time I came to the Shanxi Merchant Gang and the Hui Merchant Gang to discuss the reform of the Salt Politics and the New Deal. ”

Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Shanshan merchant gang has been treated unfairly by the Jiangnan government, from the opening of the Chinese law to the folding color law, forced by the Hui merchant gang to breathless, and the power has shrunk repeatedly.

Fang Yuan was willing to implement the new salt policy, and Wu Dashan, the representative of the Shanxi Merchant Gang, nodded again and again when he heard this, he was really right to his appetite, and he was busy cheering loudly, "Okay!" Fang Junmen's new salt policy has been changed well, and it should have been changed a long time ago! ”

The Hui merchants and merchants who had the upper hand were unwilling to reform in their hearts, but they must not oppose Fang Yuan, who held the military and political power, Jiang Yan asked tentatively, "How does Fang Junmen want to change the salt policy?" ”

Fang Yuan said slowly, "I advocate simplicity and efficiency in doing things. There are only two measures to reform the salt administration, one is that all the existing salt introductions are invalid, and the future salt introductions must be stamped with the special seal of the military gate, but all salt quotations without this special seal will be regarded as smuggling and smuggling salt; Second, the sale of official salt is subject to price limit. ”

The two measures he understated were to bring all the distribution of salt under control and put an end to favoritism.

This new salt policy is to completely disrupt the distribution pattern of the old salt policy order, and for Huai salt merchants, it is also a painful toss, especially the limited price sales.

Jiang Yan was embarrassed and said, "Fang Junmen, Huai Yan Salt is issued by the Nanjing Household Department, if it is changed to Fang Junmen to be in charge, I am afraid that the Nanjing Household Department will not be able to pass it!" ”

Fang Yuan sneered and said, "This military gate is the governor of the ten prefectures ordered by His Majesty, and he only obeys His Majesty's orders. Even the household department of the capital can't manage the army, and it needs Nanjing to manage it? If the Huizhou merchants want to listen to Nanjing's orders, they can move the industries of the Huizhou merchants to Nanjing! This army will not block it. ”

The production place of Huai salt is in Yangzhou Mansion, Huai'an Mansion, and the Hui merchant industry moved to Nanjing and had no use.

Some cold sweat oozed from Jiang Yan's forehead, Fang Yuan's move was clearly to force the Hui merchants to stand in line. If the Hui merchant gang dared to obey Nanjing's decree, Fang Yuan would inevitably support the Shanxi merchant gang to attack the Hui merchant salt merchant's sphere of influence, and even drive the entire Hui merchant gang out of the ten prefectures under its jurisdiction, which was also a high probability event.

The ten prefectures under Fang Yuan's jurisdiction are already the richest ten prefectures in the world, and if the market of these ten prefectures is lost, it can be said to be a fatal blow to the Hui merchant gang.

Wu Dashan has the refreshment of the northern man, and said loudly, "The new deal of salt is supported by my Shanxi merchant gang, but it is this limited price sale, although the price of salt is sold by our salt merchants, it is not something we can control!" It is related to the price of salt, the cost of transportation, and the exploitation of powerful and high-ranking officials. Especially the layers of exploitation, it can be described as miserable. If Fang Junmen can solve the distribution of interests of the powerful and high-ranking officials, I don't know if he is willing to reduce the price of the Hui Merchants Gang, but I am willing to reduce the price of the Shanxi Business Gang to support Fang Junmen's new policy. ”

What he said was indeed the reason for the high price of official salt, and it could be regarded as a heart-to-heart conversation with Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan's gaze surveyed the two of them back and forth, and said in a deep voice, "This military sect will tell you the truth!" Any powerful and high-ranking official is not even a fart here in this military gate. This military gate is to break down in the south of the Yangtze River, and the old corrupt and complicated order will all be lost, and a set of relatively clean and efficient order will be rebuilt, understand? ! ”

"This new order is not to deprive you of your money, beautiful wives and concubines, and ten thousand acres of fertile land. As long as you wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan support the new policy of your own military gate, your vested interests will only increase, not less. It's just that the silver that was looted by the emperor's relatives and corrupt officials before is now transferred to our original hands, understand?! ”

"I hope you rich businessmen in Jiangnan can see the situation clearly, you are just doing business and seeking money, as long as you do your duty, don't be too greedy, no matter who wins or loses in political and military struggles, it has nothing to do with you, understand?!"

The stakes are very high, and it involves political struggles, and the Jiang family cannot represent the entire Hui merchant gang, so Jiang Yan can only choose to keep silent.

Wu Dashan was only concerned about whether the merchant gang was profitable, so he asked, "Fang Junmen, tell me how to collect the salt tax in your new policy, and what is the price of salt at the limit price!" ”

Fang Yuan secretly calculated that Daming produced 2 million taels of salt every year, which was 600 million catties. The salt tax is only about 2.5 million taels, and in fact, only 4 wen per catty of salt tax is collected, while the salt tax per catty of salt in the previous Song Dynasty was at least 30 wen or more, and in the Qing Dynasty after that, it was about 20 wen per catty.

In other words, the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty was the lowest, but the salt price was the highest, which shows that the key to the high salt price was not in the salt tax, but in the corruption link in the middle. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, officials were more than five times more corrupt than those of the Song and Qing dynasties.

Fang Yuan inspected the two of them and said slowly, "Salt citation, 2.5 taels of silver/citation; The price of salt is not higher than 150 wen per catty. ”

He doubled the price of salt, and received 5 million silver per year for the Huai salt tax, which was the same as the 6 million taels of silver in the Qing Dynasty. The price of official salt is based on the price of private salt, the underwriting price of private salt is 100 Wen/jin, and the retail price is about 150 Wen/jin.

Jiang Yan was embarrassed and said, "This, if the price of official salt is this, we will lose all our money." ”

Fang Yuannu said, "No matter how many links in the sales of official salt are distributing profits, and how many officials are eating silver, it cannot be higher than the price of private salt." Because there are many underwriting links for smuggling smuggled salt, and there are sufficient profits in each link, otherwise there will never be a head to smuggle smuggled salt. If the corruption of official salt is darker than that of the Haisha Gang to make money, it is a blatant robbery of the people! ”

He scolded Jiang Yan sharply, and eased his tone slightly, "It's still the same sentence, salt, you come to sell it; Corruption, our original rule. ”

At this moment, Wu Dashan and Jiang Yan were silent. They were a hundred-year-old salt selling family, and they already knew the price and profits of salt well, and after a little calculation in their hearts, they knew that Fang Yuan's plan would cause huge profit losses for the two merchant gangs.

The fortresses must be breached one by one, and the cooperation degree of Wu Dashan of the Shanxi Merchant Gang is obviously much higher than that of the Hui Merchant Gang.

Fang Yuan used a big stick in his left hand, and he had to give the carrot with his right hand.

He looked at Wu Dashan and said unhurriedly, "The sale of Shanxi merchants to help war horses and feed for salt can be discussed, and I will arrange for Jing Jie and Chigutai to discuss with you in detail on specific matters." ”

Wu Dashan's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "Fang Junmen really agreed?" ”

Fang Yuan nodded, but he saw that Jiang Yan's face was as ugly as it was, in his opinion, Fang Yuan was obviously favoring the Shanxi Merchant Gang and attacking the Hui Merchant Gang, how could this be discussed?

Fang Yuan said to Jiang Yan again, "Boss Jiang, the sales of Huaiyan Salt District are in the north, and the official salt in Jiangnan is supplied by Zhejiang Salt District, right!" ”

Jiang Yan was very dissatisfied with Fang Yuan's favoritism, and responded without saltiness, "Yes." ”

Fang Yuan also said, "In the future, the salt of Songjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, Yangzhou, and Zhenjiang under the jurisdiction of this military gate will be jointly supplied by the Hui Merchants Gang and the Shanxi Merchant Gang, and both sides will account for half of it. ”

As soon as he said this, Wu Dashan and Jiang Yan were suddenly startled, and they couldn't hold back the ecstasy in their hearts, these five prefectures can be said to be the richest five prefectures, and the population base is much larger than that of other state capitals, and the amount of salt used is the best in the world. Before, the two merchants could only watch this piece of fat fall into the pockets of Zhejiang salt merchants, but now Fang Yuan allocated the salt supply of Wufu to the Huaiyan Salt District, which can be said to be a Wangwang gift package.

Jiang Yan took a few deep breaths and asked, "Isn't Fang Junmen joking?" ”

A smile rose at the corner of Fang Yuan's mouth, "When did the promise of this military sect not materialize?" As I said earlier, as long as you support your own military, your vested interests will only increase. ”

It was obviously more profitable to follow Fang Yuan, Jiang Yan couldn't wait to immediately hold Fang Yuan's promise to kiss the two of them and smile happily, "The Hui Merchants Gang is willing to fully support Fang Junmen's new salt policy!" ”

Wu Dashan also arched his hand and said, "The Shanxi Merchant Gang is also willing to fully support Fang Junmen's new salt policy!" ”