Zhu Hongsan's newly established Salt Affairs Department is similar to the later Salt Bureau, which does not directly manage the production and transportation of salt, but is only responsible for the taxation of salt and the crackdown on the sale of illegal salt, that is, illegal salt. Salt is indispensable to the human body, and at least ten catties of salt are needed per person to ensure that they are alive, so the amount of private salt is extremely large every year, and the state loses millions of silver dollars in taxes every year.

After Zhu Hongsan's new policy, all the salt originally controlled by the state was released, and the six major salt farms in Lianghuai were sold to individuals, so that the price of salt would drop immediately, which could be regarded as relieving some of the burden on the people. Although the price of salt has fallen, but because the state has intensified the crackdown on private salt, the annual salt tax has become more than before, the salt tax has collected up to 2.09 million taels of silver during the Wanli period, and 3.1 million silver dollars have been collected in the 10th year of Shenwu after the salt is released, far exceeding the best years of the previous Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the increase in the salt tax does not mean that the burden on the people is heavy, the official statistics of the country during the Wanli period are about 60 million people, but later generations estimate that there should be hundreds of millions of people, according to the annual need of 10 catties of salt per person, the salt tax in the Wanli period should be about 13 million, why is there only 2 million left in the hands of the state in the end? Those who are familiar with Chinese officialdom know that all this money ends up in the pockets of officials at all levels.

Zhu Hongsan, like his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, is a miser who plucks his feathers, how can he watch the taxes in his hands flow into the pockets of officials? Therefore, after occupying the whole country, he found a person who beheaded the two Huai salt industry officials of the former Ming and Manchu Qing dynasties, confiscated all their family property, and those big salt merchants who evaded taxes also went to prison one after another, and made them vomit out nine-tenths of their illegal gains through various means.

After cleaning up these salt rats, Zhu Hongsan established a new salt department under the Central Ministry of Taxation, which was not only responsible for the taxation of the major salt works, but also responsible for the salt industry anti-smuggling teams in various provinces. Therefore, the salt affairs department looks at the status is not obvious, and the chief official is only a five-rank langzhong, but he has great power in his hands. The anti-smuggling teams in all provinces of the country, plus the tax collection ambassadors of the major salt works, totaled seven or eight thousand people, and these people were all under the direct management of the salt affairs secretary, so such an important official naturally had to be appointed by the emperor himself.

Yong'an Prefecture is located in the Beibu Gulf, and there are several salt farms outside the city, so Ma Shaoguang naturally understands how important the Salt Department is. When he came to Beijing this time, Ma Shaoguang thought that he was going to take up some idle positions, but he didn't think that it was such an important department, and he was stunned for a while after listening to Fu Wenlong.

Fu Wenlong saw that Ma Shaoguang didn't speak, and thought that he was happy to forget, Fu Wenlong continued: "Ziheng, this time you will be transferred back to Beijing naturally with Fang Shutian's recommendation, but don't forget that the final decision is the emperor, and the only one who can speak for you is the imperial concubine in the palace!" ”

There is no queen in Zhu Hongsan's harem, and there is only one imperial concubine, that is, Ma Shaoguang's sister Ma Ruyan, as an elder sister, it is reasonable to ask for an official position for her younger brother.

But Ma Shaoguang couldn't help frowning when he heard Fu Wenlong say this: "Father-in-law, the son-in-law went to meet his father on the way here, and the father asked the son-in-law to be honest, so the son-in-law didn't want to get involved in those things in the harem." ”

Ma Shaoguang is not a fool, as soon as he heard what his sister said for himself, and today King Qin personally went to the dock to greet him, he immediately thought of what the reason was. It's nothing more than that my sister hopes that she can help King Qin and compete with the crown prince for that position.

Fu Wenlong sighed when he heard Ma Shaoguang say this: "Ziheng, how can you have the same tone as your father?" Now it is different from before, Ma Mingyuan's position in the East Palace of the Prime Minister is shaky, and Tong Yangjia is eyeing him on the side, the prince is likely to be unlucky. At this time, you are still thinking about supporting your heirs and not looking back, are you and your father a little stupid? ”

Ma Mingyuan's resignation seems to be just a normal personnel change on the surface, but there can be hidden from these old fritters in the DPRK, Ma Mingyuan's loss of power means that the prince's position is unstable, so several bigwigs in the DPRK and China have begun to plan for themselves for various purposes.

Fu Wenlong's position in the cabinet is very embarrassing, he is a member of the Chu Party, but he is not from Huguang, and he is not the strategist who has followed Zhu Hongsan for the longest time. Fu Wenlong's hometown is in Nanzhili, and he is an official in Guangdong, but he was coerced by Zhu Hongsan to join halfway.

Although Fu Wenlong is now a cabinet elder and his ranking is not low, he may not have as much status as Chen Zilong in the emperor's heart. This matter can be seen in the knighthood a few years ago, although Chen Zilong is still unhappy when he is crowned an earl, but this is already much stronger than Fu Wenlong.

At that time, Fu Wenlong, as a pavilion elder, had not won a thousand hereditary households, let alone a knighthood, which meant that he had no status in the emperor's heart.

At this time, if the prince's position is stable, and the prince will be undisputed after the emperor's death, then Fu Wenlong is estimated to be honest, and the country will give you a decent treatment, and then go home to retire and wait for death. But now that the crown prince's position is unstable, various forces in the DPRK and China have raised their heads, which makes Fu Wenlong begin to have some other ideas.

Fu Wenlong calculated that he had no contact with the emperor's adult princes, and the only one who still had some contact was King Qin. The most important thing is that although King Qin has a powerful grandfather Ma Jiyuan, Ma Jiyuan is a princeling. If Fu Wenlong falls to the King of Qin, in case the King of Qin inherits the throne, although he can't clean up his own grandfather, Ma Jiyuan is estimated to be at home to support the elderly. And Fu Wenlong himself is now the elder of the pavilion, plus the skill of Conglong, that Shoufu must be himself.

Although Fu Wenlong and Ma Jiyuan are classmates, Fu Wenlong is several years younger than Ma Jiyuan, if he cultivates himself and exercises well, he is likely to live longer than the emperor, anyway, there are few emperors in the Ming Dynasty who live long. If you live a long time, it is possible to be the first assistant, and this temptation is simply too big for Wenlong. So Fu Wenlong, who didn't have contact with those classmates in the second year of the Apocalypse, has now begun to participate in a poetry party or something, and has begun to contact these classmates.

When Fu Wenlong learned from Fang Fengnian that his son-in-law was going to enter Beijing to take up an important position, he immediately knew that this was an opportunity for him and an opportunity for him to get close to the King of Qin, so Fu Wenlong only said what he said just now after seeing Ma Shaoguang.

But after Fu Wenlong finished speaking, he saw that Ma Shaoguang was not enthusiastic, and couldn't help asking, "What?" Ziheng, do you have any concerns in your heart? ”

"Father-in-law, the son-in-law really doesn't want to wade into this troubled water, and the son-in-law doesn't want to be this official, and the son-in-law wants to resign and return to his hometown!"

Fu Wenlong was taken aback when he heard Ma Shaoguang say this, what should you do if you resign from the old man? How can the old man talk to King Qin? Fu Wenlong knew that this son-in-law was gentle and elegant on the surface, but in fact, he was very stubborn like his father in his heart.

Fu Wenlong was afraid that his words would hurt Ma Shaoguang's heart, so he suppressed his anger and asked softly: "Virtuous son-in-law, what's the matter?" But what is the dissatisfaction in your heart? If you are dissatisfied, raise it, and the old man will solve it for you! "What Fu Wenlong said is not bragging, he is now in charge of the Ministry of Officials, and the things he can't do are not that there are none, but there are very few.

Ma Shaoguang gritted his teeth when he heard Fu Wenlong say this: "Father-in-law, the son-in-law feels that the emperor is not as good as Renjun, the mother-in-law and wife died in Xinyang, and the son-in-law is very cold, so he doesn't want to be this official!" ”

Ma Shaoguang's meaning is very simple, that is, Zhu Hongsan is not a good thing at first glance, in order to escape and reduce the burden of his wife and wife were killed, Ma Shaoguang really couldn't turn this knot in his heart, so he thought of resigning.

Fu Wenlong and Ma Jiyuan are classmates, in-laws, and good friends, so they naturally know about the bad things that Ma Jiyuan did in Xinyang back then. But now that time has passed, Zhu Hongsan has seized the world and become the emperor, China has a tradition of being a venerable one, Zhu Hongsan succeeded in those dirty things back then, all of them were correct, and killing people had to be killed for the sake of the overall situation.

That's what Fu Wenlong said, after hearing Ma Shaoguang's resentment, he hurriedly defended Zhu Hong's three points and said: "Ziheng, don't say that, His Majesty the Emperor did have something wrong back then, but it depends on the situation at that time!" At that time, there were more than 300,000 rogues outside Xinyang City, and there were only tens of thousands of defenders in the city. And although the emperor killed your daughter, but your father, your son, and your younger brother were all saved by the emperor, isn't it important to save your life? ”

Fu Wenlong is right, your mother and your wife were killed by Zhu Hongsan back then, but it was a last resort, why didn't you say that the emperor also saved the lives of all the men in your family? And the emperor immediately appointed your father and son to the important task after arriving in Wuchang, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he made your father the first assistant, this kind of great grace is no worse than the grace of saving lives!

What Fu Wenlong said is also the reason why Ma Shaoguang is distressed, if Zhu Hongsan is really a tyrant, then Ma Shaoguang would have resigned a long time ago. But Zhu Hong's character is not good, but governing the country is a good hand, not to mention the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, and now the whole of China is slowly recovering under Zhu Hongsan's iron-fisted governance, which is indeed an indistinguishable fact.

Ming Jun is in the court, governing the country well, and has a great life-saving grace to his whole family, but this Ming Jun killed his relatives in order to save himself! Ma Shaoguang is deeply educated by Confucianism, and he also has the great ideal of serving the country and the people in his heart, but while serving the emperor, he also has a sense of guilt in his heart that he is sorry for his wife, so Ma Shaoguang has spent more than ten years in his inner torment.

Probably all the old fathers-in-law don't like their sons-in-law, Fu Wenlong was angry when he saw Ma Shaoguang's dejected appearance, Fu Wenlong scolded: "Ziheng, look at what you have become now?" You must know that the old man will not marry his daughter to you back then! This is Fu Wenlong's sincere words, his second daughter is a descendant, according to his identity, he will never marry his daughter to a widower, in addition to his friendship with Ma Jiyuan, he is even more optimistic about Ma Shaoguang's future.