Please ask for the guaranteed monthly pass in your hands, Da Luo Luo and Xiao Lori immediately said goodbye.

"Brother Ji, do you propose that the king rectify the salt industry, do you want to protect the Cao family in She County?"

In a four-wheeled carriage that was rapidly departing Shanghai, two people were talking in low voices. The person who asked the question was Zhu Jishi's military advisor, Luo Zenan, the head of the imperial study. And the person who answered was Zuo Zongtang, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty.

"Lin Muweng and Pan Zhi have taken care of it, and they can be guaranteed...... Let's keep it safe. ”

Zuo Zongtang's words seem to be diametrically opposed to the suggestion he made in front of Zhu Jishi just now. But in Luo Zenan's view, it's the same thing - the whole is the guarantee, and the guarantee is the whole! The relationship between the two Huai salt merchants and the Manchu Dynasty, as well as their monopoly of the salt industry, would bring them misfortune. And the Cao family, which is the head of the two Huai salt merchants, is the first to bear the brunt. Looking at how Zhu Jishi is now rectifying the Liangjiang Qianzhuang industry, he knows that the Cao family will definitely not be able to escape!

However, to what extent and by whom to rectify it is very knowledgeable.

"Wang Shang is benevolent, sympathetic to the businessman, and has Lin Muweng's face, shouldn't the Cao family in She County have a big disaster?" Luo Zenan shook the paper fan and thought.

"Huh...... It's hard to say, it's hard to say. Whether there is a catastrophe or not depends on whether the Cao family knows how to advance or retreat! Zuo Zongtang disagreed.

Luo Zenan was a little surprised, shook his head and said: "No, the king has always treated merchants well, and when he was in Guangdong, he also allowed the Thirteen Lines to hack the dark stocks of the Northern Qing magnates." Now I won't embarrass the Cao family......"

"Embarrassing for sure!"

Zuo Zongtang turned his head to look at Luo Zenan, and suddenly smiled bitterly: "Brother Luo Shan, have you seen what the salt you eat every day looks like?" ”

"The salt you eat every day?" Luo Zenan was stunned, "I've seen it." I'm not older than the deep palace. How can you not know what the salt looks like? ”

Zuo Zongtang laughed when he heard this: "Luo Shan." You are now the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty, what does this salt look like for a long time, haven't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't have said it. ”

"Brother Ji Gao means ......"

"In the first year of the restoration, Wang Shanglan Fangxing invested 1 million silver dollars in Qiongzhou Mansion to build a large-scale Sanya salt farm, using Western methods to build a salt field and refine refined salt. The obtained salt is of very high purity, free of impurities, and white as jade, fine as powder. Moreover, the production cost of this Lanfang salt is much lower than that of Huai salt and Sichuan salt. Has Brother Luo Shan ever seen such salt? ”

Luo Zenan shook his head: "Could it be that the salt on the surface of Shanghai is all ...... now?"

"There isn't much Lanfang salt on the surface in Shanghai. However, the salt that is eaten is this kind of orchid salt. At present, in the markets of Guangdong, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, Lanfang salt has appeared in large quantities, and it is only a dozen or twenty small copper dollars per catty, which is much cheaper than Huai salt and Sichuan salt. Moreover, the appearance and taste are much better than Huai salt, Sichuan salt and ordinary private salt. ”

Hearing this, where would Luo Zenan not understand.

There is a distinction between official and private salt, which is mainly related to the salt tax. The so-called salt tax is actually a disguised poll tax, because salt is a necessity and the source of production is relatively easy to control. Therefore, it has become an important source of wealth for all dynasties. Before the Great Rebellion in 1847, the salt tax of the Daoguang Dynasty was about 12 million taels per year. The sales of official salt are not accurately counted, and it is estimated to be around 500 million catties. In other words, each catty of official salt in the Ping Army includes three or four copper coins, which is not a heavy tax at all, and the space left for private salt sales is very limited. However, the actual situation is far from the case, the Qing Dynasty salt tax collection is very complicated, and there are many miscellaneous factions, taking the official salt from the two Huai to Hankou in the Daoguang period as an example, the main lesson of a salt introduction (200 catties - 400 catties) is one tael and one money and seven cents of silver, plus various miscellaneous courses have reached twelve taels of silver, in addition to paying the floating fee of the salt administration yamen to feed a huge number of salt administration personnel. In addition, salt merchants also have to bear a variety of donations and bribes. And these excesses and miscellaneous taxes and the expenses of donations and bribes are all wool from the sheep. The price of a pound of official salt on the market is often as high as 60 to 70 yuan, while the price of private salt is less than half.

The emergence of high-quality and low-cost Lanfang salt must mean that Zhu Ming's salt policy will undergo major reforms, and it is even possible to make Lanfang salt the only official salt, no, it should be the only table salt......

After a period of silence, Luo Zenan spoke again: "Does the king know how extensive the involvement of the Yan Zheng is? ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head: "You still don't know the way of the king's work?" The wider the involvement, the more he has to cut through the mess quickly and then start a new situation...... This is true of commercial taxation, and the same is true of the monetary business. This salt industry, I'm afraid it will be no exception. ”

The two of them sighed softly.

At this moment, Shanghai is in the back garden, Zhu Jishi is walking slowly with his hands behind his back, and Li Hongzhang and Hong Xuanjiao, who are about to travel far away, seem to be chatting with him, but in fact, they are teaching the opportunity - the two of them have a heavy responsibility for their trip to Luoyang, on the one hand, they want to spy on the factional struggle within the kingdom of heaven; On the one hand, it is also necessary to consider the intensity of "flood relief" as appropriate. You can't let Hong Xiuquan buy Zhu Ming's guns and cannons, and then fight against the Ming army.

Not far away, Wang Yunjiao led a man in his thirties who looked like a businessman was waiting solemnly. That man was Zhou Lichun, the head of the Jinyi Wei Investigation Factory in Liangjiang.

Previously, because of the Lixinzhuang incident, Zhou Lichun hid in the shadows, but he still monitored every move of all parties through Jinyiwei's intelligence network in Liangjiang. The two rivers were not captured through a bloody battle, so the original intertwined relations and entanglements of interests between the parties were almost preserved intact. The situation was much more complicated than Zhu Ming's original territory in the five provinces, and the Jinyi Wei Investigation Factory had to be carefully monitored. Today, Zhou Lichun came to report to Zhu Jishi.

"Xuanjiao, although you are a lonely concubine, but the trip to Luoyang is mainly based on Li Qing, you have to listen to his arrangement, and you can't make claims...... Li Qing, there are many rules in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the situation is complicated, so you must be more careful. ”

Seeing the arrival of Wang Yunjiao and Zhou Lichun, Zhu Jishi explained a few words later, and ended the conversation with Li Hongzhang and Hong Xuanjiao. As soon as the two left, Zhou Lichun walked up to Zhu Jishi and bowed.

"Minister, Zhou Lichun, the secretary of the brocade guard, respectfully invites St. Ann."

"Zhou Qing is flat." Zhu Jishi was not interested in greeting a brocade-clothed guard, so he went straight to the topic and said, "The people of the Cao family, the Pan family, and the Lin family are all okay?" ”

"They're pretty good, but ...... The people of the Cao Gang are not very peaceful. ”

"Cao ...... Help? Zhu Jishi's brows furrowed, "Zhou Qing, you are from the rivers and lakes, and you always have some friendship with these gang bosses, right?" ”

"The friendship is not deep, the minister is a disciple of the Heaven and Earth Society, and he takes it as his responsibility to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, but they are helping the Qing Dynasty."

Zhou Lichun paused, and then said: "Although this Cao Gang has some connections with the Heaven and Earth Society, after all, it relies on transporting grain for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to eat, and it can't be done if you don't want to help the Qing Dynasty...... Legend has it that the Cao Gang started in the early years of Yongzheng, created by the three patriarchs of Weng, Qian and Pan, with the south grain and north transportation as the industry, taking the waterway Cao Yun, from Hangzhou to Tongzhou, established seventy-two and a half wharves, set up one hundred and twenty-eight and a half gangs. In its heyday, millions of stones of grain were transported every year, and hundreds of thousands of people were helped, and the power of the two rivers was still above that of our Heaven and Earth Society. ”

"Hundreds of thousands of gangs make a living by transporting food?" Zhu Jishi calculated in his heart and felt that something was wrong, the Manchu Dynasty's Cao Yun only transported millions of stone of grain a year, and hundreds of thousands of people were needed?

"Where can I be?" Zhou Lichun said with a smile, "The Cao Gang claims to have nine thousand ships, where can there be so many ships for millions of stone grains?" In fact, this Cao gang is a gang that relies on the canal to do shipping and trading, and there are their trades all over the canal, and they are extremely powerful, and they can be regarded as both black and white. Legend has it that Emperor Qianlong suffered losses at their hands on the way to the south, so he changed the suppression to co-optation, and also gave them the Dharma Protector Dragon Stick. ”

"......I see," Zhu Jishi nodded, "Now that the north and the south are fighting and the fortune is cut off, these hundreds of thousands of gangs have lost their money, and they must hate the lonely king, right?" ”

Saying this, Zhu Jishi said in his heart: "I originally thought that the gentry and wealthy merchants were the biggest obstacle to my control of the two rivers, but I didn't expect a Cao gang to emerge...... This lumpenproletarian is indeed the biggest trouble for those in power. (To be continued......)