"Huh......" Yang Gengchang sighed, and finally arranged the matter of this brocade guard. The knife that cuts the salt merchant does not know whether it is good or bad.

Two days ago, Xu Guangqi vomited blood in the Qianqing Palace, and Yang Gai felt very indebted and prepared to leave the palace to see Xu Guangqi.

"Companion, let's go to Master Xu's house, Master Xu vomited blood because of my overwork, I should go and visit."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Well, don't go openly, let's change our clothes and go to see it secretly, just like when we went out of the palace before." Yang Reform decided to go to see Xu Guangqi in civilian clothes, and Yang Reform felt very guilty about this respectable old man.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Chengen replied again.

…… A group of people, Yang Reform is the young master, Wang Chengen is the housekeeper, followed by a few small servants, family members, and there are some big men around from time to time. went to the street like this, and went straight to Xu Guangqi's home.

Xu Guangqi's home was not far from the imperial city, and he went out of the palace gate and arrived soon. Wang Chengen called a family member to call the door, and after a while, the middle door of Xu Guangqi's house was opened to welcome the arrival of the "distinguished guest".

Yang Gengai paid attention to it, and he didn't see a few things like carriages and sedan chairs in front of the door! In other words, Xu Guangqi was sick, and no one came to see him.

Yang Gai glanced at the slippery door, and thought about entering the door. went straight through the inner hall and went to Xu Guangqi's bed.

...... "Master Xu, don't get up, take good care of your body, I still want Master Xu to recover as soon as possible, so that I can give advice to me, and lie down quickly." Yang Gengai looked at Xu Guangqi, who was struggling to get up and salute, and hurriedly greeted him.

"Then the old minister is rude." Xu Guangqi lay down again.

Looking at Xu Guangqi, his hair was already gray, his face was a little sickly white, and he looked old, Yang Gai felt very guilty in his heart. If it weren't for the fact that I was useless and picked at random, this kind of thing would not have happened.

"Alas...... It's all bad for me, I shouldn't lose my temper, pick on the son, and even the master is tired. ”

"Your Majesty doesn't have to blame himself, they are all ministers, they shouldn't talk to the emperor about the salt class, and they blame the old minister for being in poor health, alas...... People are old. As soon as Xu Guangqi saw the emperor, he couldn't stop blaming himself, saying that he was not good and should not mention the salt class to the emperor.

"Alas...... Master Xu, don't blame yourself, I should be blamed for this......"

"The emperor can't blame himself like this, and don't give up on himself, the Ming Dynasty is indispensable to the emperor, and the people can't be without the emperor, and please cheer up...... the emperor must cheer up" Xu Guangqi nagged again, telling the emperor not to give up on himself, this Ming Dynasty is about to die, the emperor doesn't care about anything, this Ming Dynasty, but it's really over, this change of dynasty has always been a catastrophe for the people.

"Alas...... In this matter, I know that it is not good for me, I will cheer up, and I will never pick on the child again, and I will not shirk the burden that I should bear. ”

"That's good, that's good." Xu Guangqi saw that the emperor had cheered up, and finally put his mind at ease.

Yang Gengai thought for a while, and then said: "Big companion, clean up all the surroundings of this house, I have something important to talk to Master Xu, I don't want anyone to hear it, understand?" Yang Gengai decided to talk to Xu Guangqi about cutting the salt merchant and see his opinion. This old man, who dares to expose the shady scenes of the salt class, must have a very in-depth understanding of the salt industry and can give himself a lot of advice.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Chengen went out. The surroundings of the house were soon surrounded by some big men. No one is allowed to approach.

Xu Guangqi was puzzled, what is important about the emperor?

"Your Majesty, what's the matter? To be so secret? ”

"Hehe, Master Xu, this matter is also related to salt, and I will not let go of those salt rats easily, including those salt merchants. I have already made up my mind to fight well with those salt merchants and salt rats in the salt industry, and I will not hesitate to kill them. ”

As soon as Xu Guangqi heard that the emperor was going to fight with the salt merchants, his heart fell again. Lying on the bed, he encouraged him to support himself, and said anxiously: "Your Majesty, the matter of the salt class is not trivial, Your Majesty listens to the words of the old minister, don't act rashly." "Xu Guangqi knows a lot about the shady scenes in the salt industry, this royal family and nobles, the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty, I don't know how many people's interests are involved, the emperor wants to fight with them, I'm afraid it's a little tender!

Yang Gengai hurriedly helped Xu Guangqi to lie down, and said, "Hehe, Master Xu, don't worry, I have already made arrangements for this matter." Yang Gengai is ready to talk to Xu Guangqi about his layout and listen to his opinions.

"What is Your Majesty's arrangement?" Xu Guangqi was very anxious, and he naturally knew the inside story of those officialdoms, for fear that the emperor would suffer a loss, and in this way, the situation would be even more uncontrollable.

"I am going to abolish this salt tax in the name of amnesty for the world for a period ......of time, and there will be no such thing as a salt tax in the world, so that the world can freely produce salt and sell salt freely."

Xu Guangqi gasped, this matter is not trivial, it is really big, this is going to offend the salt merchants, the people who rely on the salt industry in the officialdom to make profits! The bottom of the kettle is simply drawn, those royal relatives and nobles, hundreds of officials and officials, I am afraid that they all have the intention of changing someone to be the emperor! Xu Guangqi originally planned to re-introduce the salt class and propose to reopen the Chinese and French countries, but he just wanted to get more money, but he did not have the courage of the emperor to push it all to the salt industry. This idea of the emperor is really against the sky!

"Your Majesty, this matter is not trivial, Your Majesty is like this, can there be a countermeasure?" Xu Guangqi thought about it for a while, and felt that since the emperor dared to say this, he must have been prepared, so he asked the emperor what he was going to do. The emperor is not an idiot either, there must be a reason and a countermeasure for saying this.

"Master Xu, that's the case, I have prepared a secret weapon, that is, dried salt, this dried salt, can make salt on a large scale, the cost is very low, I am ready to end the salt policy, to the entire Ming Dynasty large-scale dumping of this cheap salt, defeat those salt merchants, unified the salt industry of the Ming Dynasty, the price of salt, is not I have the final say? Isn't this an annual profit more than a million taels a year? Coming fast? Coming in a hurry? Isn't it better than being angry with those salt merchants and salt rats? ”

"Your Majesty means drying salt?" When Xu Guangqi heard the word "salt", his eyes lit up and he asked with concern.

"Exactly, I'm going to dry the salt, on a large scale." Yang Reform was curious, looking at Xu Guangqi's appearance, it seemed that he was not interested in how to deal with this salt merchant and how to deal with salt rats, nor did he criticize, but he was interested in this "salt drying".

"Doesn't Master Xu also know what salt is?" Yang Gengai remembers reading a lot of novels, in the late Ming Dynasty, they all started with the salt industry, and they all used the technology of drying salt. Could it be that this is really unreliable to rely on time-traveling novels to do things? Yang Reform has already experienced several unreliable things in time-traveling novels.

"Drying salt, hehe, how can the old minister not know? Lao Chen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, has personally experimented with how to dry salt, and success, of course know this large-scale salt making technique, otherwise, Lao Chen has no preparation, how can he mention the salt class to His Majesty for no reason? When I wanted to make it clear, but His Majesty left suddenly, there was no chance, the second time, I was going to say, but the old minister was not angry, vomiting blood and falling into a coma. Xu Guangqi had a radiant look, mixed with a sickly face, with this strange look.

This...... Yang Reform was very surprised and embarrassed, what's the matter, Xu Guangqi has personally dried salt? Could it be that this Xu Guangqi is a traverser? Learned to use Baidu search? Could it be that the time-traveling novels I have read are unreliable? Ahh

"This ...... Master Xu, but is that true? "Yang Reform was super unexpected, and he also went back to Baidu to find out how to dry salt, and got the technology for a long time, but he didn't expect that this Ming Dynasty, his master, had personally dried salt, and achieved success, doesn't that mean that the technology of drying salt in the Ming Dynasty has already existed? What kind of dried salt do you rely on to dump salt on a large scale, which is simply unreliable? Yang Reform was completely in tears, self-righteous and took it for granted, but he didn't expect that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was already this technology for drying salt, and it had been promoted.

Faint to death~~! Yang Gai shouted in his heart that he was wronged, he blamed himself, he had read too many travel novels, and many travel novels were made by drying salt in the late Ming Dynasty! Why is it your turn to dry salt, and the people of the Ming Dynasty will already dry salt? God is unfair! Yang reformed and fainted.

"How can there be a fake? Your Majesty, the old minister in the early years in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, specially experimented with how to dry salt, it is completely feasible, and has been promoted, but the effect is not good, so I have to do it, this time and Your Majesty re-mentioned the salt class, is to promote this law, reduce the cost of salt production, so as to collect more salt tax for the imperial court, in case His Majesty urgently needs. Xu Guangqi said with a sigh on his face, and he seemed very uncomfortable and sad about the resistance he encountered in experimenting with salt drying technology and promoting salt drying technology.

"......@#¥%......&" The Khan in Yang Reform's heart, the Khan of Genghis Khan, scolded the unreliable travel novel, what can I do? The matter of cutting salt merchants by himself has been arranged, and now that there is such an oolong, how should it end? Could it be that he said to Fang Hongzan: "Brother, my brother thought about this matter wrongly, so he paused it and stopped doing it." "This is called Yang Reform, how can this Emperor Chongzhen say it?

Tears ran, Yang Reform ran into tears completely: "Master Xu, why didn't you say it earlier?" With this technology of drying salt, I don't arrange it so anymore, I am going to use the new technology of drying salt to defeat those salt merchants, and now it seems that the blind man lights the lamp in vain! Yang was completely speechless. What can I do? This time, the joke is too big, and I really wasted a lot of expressions!

"Your Majesty, what does it mean that a blind man lights a lamp in vain? Does Your Majesty think that those salt merchants will use this dried salt method to make salt? Lao Chen tried his best to promote it in his early years, but the effect was nothing, and those salt merchants did not use this method to make salt at all. Your Majesty wants to use a new method of salt production to crack down on salt merchants, why not? Xu Guangqi lay on the bed and said in an unkind voice, seemingly dissatisfied with those salt merchants.

What the? Now that the salt drying method has been invented, why not use it? Yang Gai was puzzled, remembering that in addition to drying salt, this salt is boiling salt, which is obviously more thankless than drying salt, since there is already a new method of salt making, why not use a new method? Yang reformed strangely.

"Master Xu, then why don't I use the salt drying method in the Ming Dynasty?" Yang Reform was completely puzzled.

"Your Majesty, the twists and turns in it, not a person in the bureau, will not know, fortunately, the old minister grew up by the sea, and he knows very well about this salt industry, how to boil salt, how to dry salt, the old minister has seen or experienced it with his own eyes, so he has an understanding of this salt policy, and he dares to mention the salt class to His Majesty......"

Yang Gengai listened to Xu Guangqi talk about his experience, and he felt that Xu Guangqi's experience was really rich! Practice is the best representative of true knowledge! actually dried salt himself, which must be a rare "monster" in the eyes of traditional scholars in the late Ming Dynasty. Living by the sea? Yang Gengai remembered that Xu Guangqi's life trajectory was born in Shanghai. Yes, it's Shanghai now, well, it's a good place, the economic capital of the 20th century, the 21st century!

Yang Reform is drooling again, why can't Shanghai become an economic capital at the end of the Ming Dynasty? If it becomes the economic capital of the Ming Dynasty, I don't know how much tax I collect every year.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty?" Xu Guangqi obviously found that the emperor was absent-minded, so he had to remind the emperor with words.

"Uh~~ uh, what's wrong, what's wrong? Master Xu said where is it? Yang Gai woke up from the "dream". I was very embarrassed, I thought about Shanghai in the 21st century, and I didn't realize that I was still in the late Ming Dynasty, and I was still listening to Xu Guangqi's story.

Xu Guangqi is very embarrassed, this emperor really likes to wander too much, if he reads, it must be the fate of a doomed talent, fortunately he is the emperor, he doesn't need to study, he doesn't need to take exams, otherwise, in this life, there is no future.

Xu Guangqi had no choice but to come back and explain the twists and turns of the salt industry to the emperor.

“…… Your Majesty, in our dynasty, there are more salt than two Huai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts, accounting for more than half of the salt production of our dynasty, as for why we refuse to use the method of drying salt, in fact, it is also simple, the imperial court controls the tools for salt production, and controls the salt industry. Xu Guangqi lay on the bed, with a sickly white face, and explained to the emperor the twists and turns of the salt industry.

"Then why is it that the tools that control salt production control the salt industry? This dried salt is obviously more advanced than boiled salt, the production cost is lower, and you can make more money! "Yang Reform wondered, the laws of the economy don't work here? I can't understand the twists and turns.

“…… Hey, Your Majesty, this pot of boiling salt, Your Majesty must have never seen it, the pot of salt is made of iron, the shape of the pot is like a plate, this iron plate, the diameter is more than a foot high, the iron plate is composed of several iron blades, between each iron leaf, with marinade, never leak, there are more than a dozen stoves under the stove to burn the fire, this pot weighs thousands of catties, a lot of iron needs to be used, how can ordinary stove households afford it? In addition, the 'group frying method' was also organized, that is, several stove households burned a pot of iron together, in order to control the salt production of the stove households, these pot iron can only be purchased by the government, and can only be made with the permission of the imperial court, so that the tools for salt production are mastered, and the output of salt is mastered. ”

Xu Guangqi was pale, with a hint of red on his sickly face, and he explained to the emperor how the imperial court controlled the salt industry.

It was also the first time that Yang Reform had heard of such a "perverted" method, and he was very disdainful in his heart. Said: "Control is to control the salt industry, but this production method is very backward!" Moreover, it is the imperial court, the government controls the salt industry, not me, it is not me who controls the salt industry, this salt class is only one million taels of silver a year! ”

Yang Gengai scratched his head, is it a dime to control the salt industry so tightly and painstakingly? Well, it looks like a million taels of relationship! But is a million taels a lot? Compared with the actual salt class, it has to be multiplied by more than twenty-five. Therefore, such a strict control of the salt industry actually has nothing to do with themselves, others are just using their own imperial power to seek greater benefits, and they share a little leftover soup for themselves every year.

"Alas...... His Majesty said that the production method is backward, it is true, think of this pot of iron, more than a dozen stoves to burn fire, need to chop hundreds of catties of firewood and grass, or even thousands of catties, each pot also needs to pick dozens of loads of seawater, need several stove households to work together, work at night, but can boil two hundred catties of salt, and dry salt, one person's power, can dry more than 200 catties a day, no need to chop wood, no need to carry water, no need to pot iron, save I don't know how many extraordinary...... "Xu Guangqi's experience is obviously quite rich, and he is also a pragmatic official, and he knows these data well, The pros and cons of this salt industry are very clear.

"In this case, that is to say, this dried salt, in my dynasty, has not yet been popularized on a large scale? Now the means of salt production is still boiling salt, right? Yang Reform heard a little hope, Yang Reform just started to listen to Xu Guangguang Qi said that he had promoted this salt, and thought that the Ming Dynasty had used this salt technology on a large scale, so he still wanted to use salt to defeat the salt, and he felt that his plan was like a joke, and now he understands that the main production area of salt in the Ming Dynasty is still boiled salt, that is to say, this salt can actually be used.

"Your Majesty, indeed, it is still mainly boiled salt as the main means of salt production, boiling salt was appointed by Emperor Taizu, at that time, in order to unify the standard of salt tax, to facilitate the collection of taxes, and the salt is not very perfect, so boiled salt is used...... Now it is different, after continuous improvement, the taste of the salt produced by the method of drying salt is comparable to that of boiled salt, there is no difference, and even slightly stronger than boiled salt, so it is completely feasible to use practical salt. Your Majesty is now short of money in the treasury, and if you want to resist foreign invasions, provide disaster relief, and appease the people of the world, how can you do without money? Increasing taxes in the field tax will definitely hurt the vitality of the country, and it is not a long-term strategy! Therefore, Your Majesty must make a fuss about the salt tax, the salt tax is already related to the life and death of my Ming Dynasty! ”

Xu Guangqi worriedly explained to Yang Reform the historical origin of boiling salt and drying salt, and explained the relationship between the salt tax and the imperial court, and the salt tax was already related to the life and death of the Ming Dynasty.

Yang Gengai couldn't help nodding his head, and admired Xu Guangqi's vision very much, this Ming Dynasty was always making a fuss about the field tax, constantly raising taxes, avoiding better taxes - salt tax, the result was more man-made rebellion, peasant uprisings and killings, foreign invasion had no way, and finally led to the destruction of the country. Xu Guangqi is not wrong, if he can't collect more salt taxes, in history, Chongzhen died of resentment, and the Ming Dynasty was finished like this.

"Master Xu said that salt drying has existed in ancient times?" Yang Reform is very strange, this salt is not invented by the Ming Dynasty, listen to Xu Guangqi's tone, or invented in ancient times, this salt in Yang Reform's mind, has always been a weapon for travelers, and now it has become the ancient existence of the Ming Dynasty, this, it seems, how embarrassing! Through the novel, it's really unreliable!

"Yes! Your Majesty, this salt, according to records, has been available as early as the Song Dynasty, which was created by Chen Yinggong, a native of the Northern Song Dynasty, and has been very perfect in our dynasty. Xu Guangqi explained.

The Song Dynasty had it? This one? At the beginning of Yang reform, he was also ready to get a person to pretend to invent the salt drying method, and then give a patent, and then, restrict other salt merchants from using the salt drying method, so that they could use dumping to impact the traditional salt merchants and control the national salt market in one fell swoop. How good is that?

Xu Guangqi saw that the emperor's face was calm and uncertain, as if he was thinking about something, and asked, "Your Majesty, why are you thinking so hard?" ”

Yang Reform said what he planned in his heart, and saw what Xu Guangqi could do.

"Master Xu, I originally planned to find someone to invent this salt drying method, and then give a patent to not allow other salt merchants to use the salt drying method, but I didn't expect that now, this salt drying method has existed since ancient times, and I am now struggling with this."

As soon as Yang Reform said this, Xu Guangqi looked at Yang Reform with a strange gaze, and then asked: "Your Majesty's patent, the old minister has heard of it, Fu Mingde, the eunuch of the War Bureau, and a few craftsmen who make what kind of grenades have patent money, and Your Majesty allows them to make a profit from every grenade they make?" And the person who invented the flintlock musket, Bi Maokang, it is said that His Majesty also promised him a patent? Specializing in muskets? ”

"Master Xu is good at remembering his surname, yes, I have promised them a patent, the so-called patent, I think so, whoever invents something new, a new object, as long as it is beneficial to the court, beneficial to the community, and can benefit the people, I will allow him to enjoy the 'patent', have the exclusive right to use, prohibit others from using the 'patent', to use his 'patent', all need to be approved by him, and a certain patent fee must be paid, so as to encourage more and better methods and objects to benefit the people of the world."

Yang Reform is not a saint, a good person, a boiled person, this patent is dedicated to benefiting himself and restraining others, he wants to use the patent to restrict those salt merchants who are still using boiled salt, and then use the salt to defeat them and unify the national market, including what sweet potato vermicelli in the future, these all need the protection of "patents". At the beginning, I didn't think about so many uses, at that time, I just wanted to stimulate the craftsmen's enthusiasm for invention and creativity, and now it seems that this step of his "idle chess" has played a big role, and Yang Reform is secretly proud, thanks to the "patent" education in the 21st century.

(To be continued)