"Brother Shi Mao, today's Ming Dynasty is like a decaying high-rise pavilion, which may collapse at any time, if you want to save it, only by demolishing the decaying place and replacing it with new materials can it be reborn. However, this process should not be too urgent, and if it is too urgent, it will inevitably be resisted by the corrupt forces. The biggest contradiction is financial depletion, if Brother Shi Mao wants to make a career, he can start by making money. Zhao Yan said to Chen Zhongsheng.

"How to make money, can you teach me to be strong?" Chen Zhongsheng humbly asked.

Since the decision was made, Chen Zhongsheng visited Zhao Yan again, and exchanged some heart-to-heart exchanges about the malpractices of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Yan also talked about things, his opinions are very sharp, not only sharp insights, but also solutions to the problem, but these methods are not something he can implement.

"The so-called wealth is nothing more than the five items of land endowment, business endowment, salt industry, tea industry, and market ship. In terms of field endowment, the younger brother as a military general, can only touch the displaced people in the field, Dengzhou still has many landlords, homesteaders, if you want to increase the income of the field endowment, you must first rectify the wardens, and then increase the field endowment. However, the premise of increasing the land endowment is to repair the water conservancy of the whole territory of Dengzhou to ensure that the production can be improved, and at the same time, the repair of water conservancy can also improve the ability to resist disasters. ”

"If you raise the field endowment, you will inevitably be impeached by the officials, this fact is difficult." Chen Zhongsheng sighed.

"If Brother Shi Mao really wants to make some achievements, how can he be so timid? It's just a speech official, and now that the imperial court's finances are depleted, as long as Brother Shi Mao can make a doubling performance in Dengzhou, the saint will not blame him. Zhao Yan said excitedly.

"Yes, yes." Chen Zhongsheng was provoked by this and immediately bowed his head.

"In terms of land endowment, we must first rectify the wardens and repair the water conservancy, and then we must re-measure the acres of land, and at the same time, when collecting the field endowment, we must not levy silver, but should directly collect grain, so as not to seek the benefits of the people from the grain merchants." Zhao Yan continued.

"What to do with the requisitioned grain?" Chen Zhongsheng asked.

"You can go up to the saint and transport these grains to Jingshi. If the saint does not allow it, the younger brother's trading house can buy it at a fair price. Zhao Yan said.

"How should the business endowment be changed?" Chen Zhongsheng nodded and asked.

"At the beginning of Taizu's establishment, most of the world's silver money was plundered by Mongolia, and there was no commercial endowment to collect, and the thirty tax was indeed applicable at that time. But now, the Ming Dynasty is prosperous, but there is not even a thirty tax, which makes the world's businessmen get huge profits, and at the same time accelerates land annexation. If you want to reform the business endowment, the warden Qingming is the first priority, and then set up cards to collect taxes, but they cannot be recovered, and bills can be issued to past traders. ”

"In terms of salt industry and tea industry, it was originally a monopoly of the imperial court, and the Song Dynasty thought that it was the pillar of finance, with an annual income of tens of millions, but my Ming salt industry was unable to make ends meet, but owed tens of millions of taels to those salt merchants every year, and tea was not levied more than 100,000 taels a year. If Brother Shi Mao wants to make money, he first needs to strictly rectify the salt and tea, and the results are also the fastest. ”

"One of the city ships, the younger brother has already started to trade, and bought some warships, according to the existing market ship system of the Ming Dynasty, an additional ten times the levy."

…… Zhao Yan and Chen Zhongsheng repeatedly discussed the details of increasing taxes for nearly three hours, and Zhao Yan gave suggestions on all the details, and Chen Zhongsheng left.

Tian Fu, Shang Fu, salt industry, tea, and market ships, except for Zhao Yan, who plans to do it himself, how Chen Zhongsheng changes the rest of the aspects, as long as it is reasonable, he will abide by it.

Zhao Yan naturally plans to levy heavy taxes on the huge profits of sea trade, but most of them are planned to be collected in his own pocket, leaving only a small part to be paid.

In terms of the salt industry, Zhao Yan sold salt to the government at a price of one or five cents per load of salt, and the government sold it to the people of Dengzhou at a retail price of three taels of silver per load.

As for the funds needed for the reform, Zhao Yan can lend Chen Zhongsheng only need to repay it from his land and business endowments, that is, reduce or exempt.

After Chen Zhongsheng left, he immediately began to rectify the officials in Dengzhou, and a storm of corruption was about to begin. In terms of rectifying the wardens, the first thing to do was to increase the salaries of the low-level wardens, and the silver money in this regard was borrowed from Zhao Yan first. At the same time, all miscellaneous taxes in various parts of Dengzhou were abolished, and a supervisory body was set up to punish corrupt officials. If there is a vacancy in the warden, Zhao Yan will help train the personnel.

…… In mid-September, the fleet that had gone to the Tsubato trade finally returned, and the entire fleet, and even the four Fubunes that were warships, were loaded with cargo.

When the flotilla arrived in Qingdao, it immediately began to unload.

Wen Bangliang immediately came to report on the course of this trade, which exported nearly 3 million taels of goods to Yueben, and made a total profit of 5.4 million taels in Yueben.

"The goods brought back this time totaled two million taels of silver, as well as two million taels of this goods, and the guild hall left one million taels as funds for the preparation of the goods." Wen Bangliang submitted the list of goods shipped back this time.

In many novels, it is written that it is profitable to ship gold back from overseas, but in fact this is not the case, but it is profitable to export gold from China.

Nowadays, the gold and silver ratio of Daming is 1:8, while the overseas gold and silver ratio is generally more than 1:10, which means that foreigners can use cheap silver to exchange more gold in Daming, and then use these gold to exchange for more silver, and then exchange it for more gold.

For example, the Ming Dynasty trafficked gold to the capital, and the profit was generally 44.4% (the Chinese commodity data of the Portuguese merchant ship to the capital), nearly half of the profit, and the small size and large value of gold have always been the preferred target for export.

In fact, there is not much gold in the Ming Dynasty, although silver has 1/3 of the world's total, but the gross domestic product is very high, which will cause such a phenomenon.

So this time the fleet returned not to bring back gold, but only two million taels of silver. At the same time, the current transportation capacity is not enough, and only 50,000 catties of brass for casting cannons have been shipped back.

"Okay." Zhao Yan clapped his hands happily and said, with this income, there is no need to worry about military spending, and the Ordnance Bureau can start building the equipment of the 100,000 second-line troops. Although those second-line troops are second-line, their equipment is the same as that of first-line troops, but the treatment is different.

"It's not a problem to prepare the goods here in Denglai, but how fast is the preparation of the goods in this hall?" Zhao Yan asked.

"The preparation speed of the goods in this area is also very fast, if you can't prepare the goods with high profits for a while, you can directly ship back the brass." Wen Bangliang said, "It only takes five days to get to the book, and it only takes five days to return, and it only takes about ten days to go back and forth, if the wind is not good, it will take up to seventeen or eight days to go back and forth, and if it is a flying clipper, it can go back and forth once in seven days at most." We have more advantages in Shandong than Fujian and Dongfan. ”

Dongfan is Taiwan, from Fujian, Taiwan to Yueben, sailing ships must sail for more than half a month, or downwind, if it is a headwind, even more than a month.

Although the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong have a guild hall in Yueben, they obviously waste a long time on preparing goods, so the efficiency is far from being comparable to that of Denglai.

"By the end of this year, the fleet should be able to make three or four round-trips, and each time it can earn at least two million taels or more." Wen Bangliang estimated.

At present, the transportation capacity of the fleet is only 2,000 tons, and only 500,000 taels of silver can be brought back at a time (the value after being transported to the Ming Dynasty), and if you want to pursue trade efficiency, brass must be the main cargo transported back each time.

The main goods that Denglai exported to Yueben were cotton cloth and glass mirror weapons, which could transport nearly one million taels of goods at a time.

The profits of these goods are very high, especially glass mirrors and military weapons, and the profits are more than ten times. Cotton also has about three times the profit.

However, after all, there is a limit to the sales of glass mirrors, and the weapons are directly exchanged for brass, saltpeter, and sulfur, which is a test of transportation capacity, and it must be transported back to be regarded as income, so it can only earn two million taels at a time.

The 2 million taels of goods shipped back by sea trade this time can be at least 4 million taels, plus the 2 million taels on hand, and 7 million taels will be earned.

It is conservatively estimated that about 6 million taels can be recorded at the end of the year, which means that this year's sea trade alone can be recorded in the account of tens of millions of taels, which makes Zhao Yan unhappy.

After being happy, he immediately asked Zhao Quan to release the 2 million taels of goods as soon as possible, and then asked the fleet to speed up the loading of goods and supplies, and continue to the Yueben trade.

In addition to the unexpectedly huge profits obtained by the sea trade, the salt industry has also sold 4.03 million quintals of sea salt by mid-September, accounting for 4.6 million taels, deducting labor and transportation costs, the net profit reached 4 million taels, and by the end of the year, the net profit is estimated to rise to 5 million taels.

With the sale of salt from Shandong, the market for Huai salt has been greatly impacted, and the number of people in the mercenary camp has expanded to more than 4,000 people.

The soldiers of the mercenary battalion were very popular with the salt sellers, and these professional soldiers were so strong that few bandits and their peers could take advantage of them.

The soldiers of these mercenary battalions are all trained and strong, and it is very easy to transform them into an army.

The soldiers of these mercenary battalions are led by two or three veterans, and under the leadership of these veterans, the soldiers of the mercenary battalion often face more than ten times the number of bandits and salt gangs, and they have both tactics and courage, and so far, not a single mercenary team has failed.

If they encounter bandits, these mercenaries will even kill the bandits' villages, capture the money in the bandits' villages, and arrest those bandits back to labor camps.

If the salt sellers meet on a narrow road, these mercenaries will directly cut each other, and then sprinkle salt on the corpse and fly away.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, such cases were discovered by the officials in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and all the deaths were salt dealers who sold illicit salt, and most of them were salt dealers who bought Huai salt.

For the salt merchants, Chongzhen's eight years were not easy.

Everyone must be afraid not to be targeted by those Shandong salt merchants, otherwise there will only be a way for the salt goods to be robbed, and if they die, they will die, and the government will never ask, and the government will naturally not ask about the life or death of these smuggling salt dealers.

The two Huai salt merchants mainly shipped by water, and did not undertake local trafficking, so the direct impact would be smaller, but the indirect impact was very large for them.

After their freight arrives in the locality, it is no longer sellable in many places. Because the local salt dealers were either replaced, or they went to Shandong to buy salt.

Many of the fixed customers of the two Huai salt merchants no longer dare to buy Huai salt, and buying Huai salt is life-threatening, and if they are rerouted to Shandong to buy salt, as long as they hire some men and horses of the Denglai General Army, they will not be attacked again, and they will even be safer than before.

Shandong salt is very strong into the market, Huaiyan in Chongzhen eight years, lost nearly 1/5 of the market, and other salt-producing areas, also affected to varying degrees.

Most of the sea salt produced by Zhao Yan in Laizhou Bay was actually bought by foreign salt merchants, and although many local salt merchants in Shandong were involved in selling salt, they only accounted for about 30% of the share.

On September 16 of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Yangzhou made Wang Shoudao to impeach Zhao Yan, the general soldier of Shandong. On the 17th, Li Zhixian, the Huaiyang Yushitai, impeached Zhao Yan, the general soldier of Shandong. On the eighteenth, Zhang Fengyi, the right imperial historian of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the right attendant of the military department, impeached Zhao Yan, the chief soldier of Denglai...... What they impeached was Zhao Yan's trafficking of illicit salt, and Zhang Fengyi also listed his three major crimes and seven evil deeds. For some reason, these people seemed to have planned it, and they actually attacked together.

Zhu Youzhen had a very good impression of Zhao Yan, so he did not have a clear emotional tendency for the impeachment of these people for a while, but he was very suspicious, and repeatedly redefined Zhao Yan's impression in the saliva of the ministers.

The salt tax on the salt monopoly has always been included in the internal treasury and belongs to the emperor's private treasury. In this regard, Zhu Youzhen has also heard of private salt, but Zhu Youzhen, who has never left Beijing, has only a general concept of many things.

Until the 19th day, Sun Yaoguang, the prefect of Laizhou, impeached Zhao Yan for doing small salt in Denglai, privately drying salt, forcibly occupying fields and other crimes. And said: Zhao Yannian, the general soldier of Denglai, sold no less than two or three million quintals of smuggled salt, and his monthly income was no less than tens of thousands of gold. At the same time, the two Huai salt transport envoys were also sparse, because Zhao Yan sold illegal salt, and the salt tax was sharply reduced by half.

The so-called salt tax has been cut by half, that is nonsense, Zhao Yan is selling private salt, and the run is also the market of private salt, what does it have to do with official salt?

It is clearly taking the opportunity to embezzle, plus slander. However, Zhu Youzhen didn't know that Zhu Youzhen was angry on the spot, the cheese with the largest share of the internal money was moved, how could he not be angry?

However, how to deal with this bold and reckless warrior, Zhu Youzhen did not express his position on the spot, but recovered Wen Tiren with the cabinet alone.

"Aiqing thinks, what should be done with Zhao Yan?" Zhu Youzhen wanted to pull Zhao Yan directly to cut it down, but his head was not confused, Zhao Yan had elite soldiers and horses in his hands, and if he couldn't get it, he was a Kong Youde.

"Then Zhao Yan has elite soldiers and horses in his hands, it must be the benefit of private salt, Your Majesty can order him to change the town, as long as he leaves Denglai, then there will be no salt profit." Wen Tiren immediately came up with an idea.

"Then where does Aiqing think she should move to the town?" Zhu Youzhen asked again.

"It's best to move to Qindi, it just so happens that he has elite soldiers and horses, and he can go to Qindi to suppress thieves." Wen Tiren said. Zhu Youzhen frowned and said, "But how to deal with the private salt?" ”

"Your Majesty may issue a reprimand, then comfort him and order him to move to town." Wen Tiren thought about it and said, Zhu Youzhen nodded, it can only be like this, after all, the matter of private salt cannot be ignored, but the harsh handling may force it to rebel, so he can only scold it first, and then comfort him to move to Shaanxi.

"Let him move to Yan'an!" Zhu Youzhen added. Wen Tiren was stunned, the land of Yan'an was barren and did not produce anything, which could be described as a bitter place, and hurriedly persuaded: "Your Majesty can't." ”

"Why not?" Zhu Youzhen raised his eyebrows and asked strangely.

"The land of Yan'an is very poor, what if he doesn't want to go?" Wen Tiren asked, "In the opinion of the minister, it is appropriate to make it appropriate for him to change the town of Hancheng, and by the way, he can guard the crossing of the Yellow River, and by the way, he will be crowned as the general of the Dragon and Tiger." ”

"Alright! That ordered him to move to Hancheng and crowned him as the general of the Dragon and Tiger. Zhu Youzhen thought about it and agreed.

…… When there was a commotion in the court, Zhu Dadian wrote a letter to Zhao Yan and informed him of the direction of the wind.

According to Zhu Dadian, this time it is more than a dozen salt merchants from the two Huai who work together, and these salt merchants are all millions or tens of millions of people, and their energy is naturally self-evident. As the most ferocious Yangzhou to impeach Zhao Yan, although Zhu Dadian patrolled Yangzhou, he was powerless.

(To be continued)