"Salt! It's salt! ”

Qin Er's wife couldn't stop the surprise in her heart and screamed loudly, in fact, the few men who were watching next to her couldn't control the surprised expressions on their faces when they saw the salt, and they were even more exaggerated than Qin's second wife when they saw the salt.

"Oh my God, it's really salt!"

"I've never seen salt so white and so fine!"

"I'll taste ......"

"You taste a fart! You can take half of it with one finger......"

The men in a shack talked about this small bag of salt with no taste and image, and finally persuaded these people to let Qin Er's wife cook, and Deng Shifeng began to confirm the story about salt in his memory.

The biggest root cause of the civil uprising in Guangxi was the dispute over land, but we cannot ignore that another important factor that provoked the peasant uprising in Guangxi was the issue of salt.

As we all know, salt is a necessity for people's lives, and in ancient times, salt in Guangxi was always more difficult. Guangxi does not produce sea salt because it is an inland province (Beihai has always belonged to Guangdong, and Beihai was assigned to Guangxi during the New China period), and Guangxi has no mineral salt production, and ninety percent of its salt sources rely on waterways to transport from Guangdong, and Guangxi's salt supply has gradually tightened in the Song and Yuan dynasties. After the Ming Dynasty, the salt problem became a serious social problem in Guangxi.

The Ming government axe strengthened its control and monopoly on salt in Guangxi. In China's feudal society, the official policy of salt and iron was followed by successive rulers. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the severe financial crisis, the rulers' monopoly and monopoly on salt in Guangxi was even worse. Because the Ming Dynasty suppressed the rebel army, it cost a lot of military expenses every year, and "the officers belonging to Guangxi were greedy and profitable", so by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Guangxi had a serious financial crisis. In November of the 16th year of Zhengde, Wang Qi, the political envoy of the Guangxi Political Division, and others lamented: "Guangxi's tax grain is 420,000 at the beginning. He was exiled with a household registration, and the local officials refused to admit defeat, and the actual collection was only more than 230,000 stone per year. The Zongfan (referring to the Jingjiang Palace) and the officials and soldiers had 350,000 grains, and the income was not enough to give what they had out. This shows that Guangxi's financial crisis at that time was very serious.

In order to solve the financial crisis in Guangxi, the Ming rulers on the one hand increased the tax exploitation of the people of Guangxi, and on the other hand, they also allocated a large amount of gold and silver property to Guangxi from other provinces. Even the government openly sells official stomachs. "Yingzong Record" and "Jingtai Appendix" recorded: In March of the third year of Jingtai, Ming Zhengaxe posted an edict everywhere, saying: "If the military and civilians can produce 500 stones of rice in the granary of Qingyuan and other prefectures in Guangxi, they will be given a crown and belt to honor for life; Out of a thousand stones, the rest of the army is awarded to 100 households, the people are awarded inspection, and the natives are in addition to the county; Those who give 1,500 stones, the rest of the army will be awarded to 1,000 households, the people will be awarded to the county, and the natives will be in addition to the Tuzhi County. ”

All the above-mentioned means were adopted by the Ming political axe, but they still could not solve the problem of military spending in Guangxi. So the ruler set his sights on salt, hoping to profit from it in order to replenish his army. The rulers of the Ming Dynasty were so interested in Guangxi's salt administration, because Guangxi's salt transportation and monopoly were profitable, so there was a so-called "Western Guangdong, half borrowed salt transportation" or "all borrowed salt profits". "Guangxi Salt Law Chronicle" contains: "The soldiers of western Guangdong are half borrowed from salt. Its method is different from other places. The official out of the salt and boat equipment, the year ordered the county to go to the eastern province to buy and return, transfer to the city of Chu merchants, take its profits to capital, and the officials themselves for the city. It has been made very clear here that the Ming rulers made a special transportation and monopoly of salt in Guangxi, and it was not sold in Guangxi, but "transferred to the city of Chu merchants" and transported it to Huguang, Guizhou and other places to sell in order to make huge profits. Therefore, there is an extreme shortage of salt in Guangxi, "there are many smugglers, and the price of salt is very high." Ordinary people living in cities, counties, and towns have to endure the disguised exploitation of extremely high salt prices, but it is even more difficult for the ethnic minority people in the mountainous areas to buy salt, and for these people, salt is a kind of extremely scarce necessity like grain.

At the same time, the seriousness of the salt problem is also inseparable from the corruption and profit of the palace officials and the merchants. Since salt transportation and salt sales were profitable, many bureaucrats intervened in the salt transportation and embezzled from it. The merchants took the opportunity to raise the price of salt and make huge profits. For example, the Jingjiang Royal Mansion took the lead in doing so. According to the fifth volume of the "Western Guangdong Congzai", it is recorded: "For half a year, the Yanchuan Bay River in Wangfu was held, or the ships were forcibly seized and loaded with salt goods; or raise the price of salt to force people to buy; or they may be captured by an official ship and said that they should be loaded with salt, and they will be deceived by the silver, but they will be released again, and they will be taken again." Relying on its own privileges, the Jingjiang royal government engaged in salt transportation and smuggling, extorted money everywhere, and defrauded money, not to mention that the local officials in Guangxi also vied to do so.

What is more serious is that in terms of salt, the Ming rulers also implemented a policy of ethnic discrimination, imposed a salt blockade on the areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, and used this means to strangle the peasant rebels in Guangxi. For example, in the first year of Chenghua, Qiu Rong, an official of the Ming Dynasty, gave advice to the rulers of the Ming Dynasty in the "Matters Concerning the Use of Troops in Article Chen": "Guangxi does not produce salt, and the two rivers (referring to the left and right rivers of Guangxi) are particularly difficult. It is advisable to strictly prohibit smugglers, and the amount of merit should be regarded as a reward for soldiers. ”

Look, this is to encourage officers and men to take charge of the smuggled salt dealers in Guangxi in a vain attempt to strangle the peasant rebel army by blocking salt, and the means are already quite vicious. At that time, the peasant rebels could not buy salt and had to look for substitutes. There is a poem in "Poems of Western Guangdong" that makes an apt description of the lack of salt for ethnic minorities and people avoiding disasters in Guangxi at that time: "The mountains and roads are far from salt, and the banana leaves are burned to pickle the vegetables. This is the true portrayal of the salt-free life of the people at the bottom of Guangxi at that time.

During the Ming Dynasty, the two most long-lasting and repeated civil uprisings in eastern Guangxi, the Fujiang Civil Revolution and the Datengxia Civil Uprising, were aimed at controlling the two lifeblood waterways of Guangxi's waterway transportation at that time, and these two waterways not only transported various goods in and out of Guangxi, but also the most important thing was the transportation of salt! The Qianjiang River and the Fujiang River were the only routes for the transportation of salt from the government, and the Datengxia Rebel Army and the Fujiang Rebel Army often blocked the river to rob the official and merchant salt ships. Even the Datengxia rebel army went to the salt-producing places to seize salt in order to seize salt, which shows the extent of salt shortage in Guangxi.

From these information in his mind and the supplementary narration of the house full of young and old, Deng Shifeng has a deeper understanding of the salt shortage in Guangxi. When he decided to go out to investigate, he specially took out about a dozen grams of salt and wrapped them into two small packets as a greeting gift. This is not to say that Deng Shifeng has any miraculous skills of an unpredictable prophet, but in ancient times, limited by the salt and iron official camps, except for the people on the seaside and in the mineral salt producing areas, the inland residents are actually very short of salt and passively accept the exploitation of the high-priced salt of the ancient government, but the degree of demand varies from place to place, although dozens of grams of salt are not much, but where it is definitely a pretty good gift. And the information that provided Deng Shifeng was not a history lover, but the memory of a salesman who often reads online novels......

The story about this small bag of salt came to an end, the women of the Qin family, together with other women, took out various items from their shacks under the orders of the men to prepare for the dinner, although these women were still a little reluctant in their hearts, but Qin Er's words were right, the immortals of the people helped them keep the village and the fields today, and this dinner thank you should be said no matter what. The children didn't care so much, they were even happier that they could eat a lot of good dishes in advance today, and under the shouts of the women, the children carried firewood and built a stove on the side, and the whole village turned into a big collective canteen this evening......

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