After thinking for a long time, Zhao Yan only felt that making glass mirrors should be the most profitable, and today's mirrors are still monopolized by the Italians, and it will take about another seven or eight years, more than ten years later, before the French stole the manufacturing process, and after a while, the process of glass mirrors is known to the world.

From the West to the East, there is obviously a distance to go, and if he gets the glass mirror out and some strict secrecy system, it should not be a problem to monopolize it for decades.

And even if the mirror-making process spreads, it can't compete with him. Because the mirrors of this year were made by the homoamalgam method, which was not only not bright enough, but also took a long time, and it took a month to make a small mirror the size of a palm. If you use the silver plating method, it is very convenient, non-toxic, and bright.

In addition, there has been no plate glass in these years, and he can completely overwhelm the European mirror with the volume of the mirror, at least he can monopolize the Asian market.

He is familiar with making glass, and he made glass for the obscene doctor for a period of time in the research institute, and the guy not only asked him to make glass mirrors, but also asked him to make all kinds of glass products, and forced him to memorize a thick book of "Special Glass Manufacturing Process", and at that time he muttered that the guy was psychological.

It's just that this raw material hasn't landed for a while, quartz sand should not worry, there are a lot of reserves in Shandong, and feldspar is not worried, and it is everywhere in the country.

It is almost enough to find the materials and build a kiln, and the annealing process is still at home, and it is easy to bring a few apprentices out.

It's just that the foundation is unstable now, and it's not easy for people to control it, so it's better to do it yourself!

As soon as he thought of it, Zhao Yan immediately took action.

While asking Zhao Quan to go out and send someone out to find materials, he took out some silver to build a small kiln by the garden at the back door, although Zhao Quan didn't know what Zhao Yan was doing, he just thought it was Zhao Yan's whim and got something to play.

So Zhao Quan didn't care, let alone ask, just sent people out to find materials. He was busy contacting the previous Zhao family's connections and preparing to make a big deal.

The Zhao family doesn't have much money now, and if they don't make any more money, the business will be ruined, Zhao Quan feels that the son can't remember things now, and he should take on this burden.

This so-called business is the sale of illicit salt.

"Uncle Quan, you took someone to sell illicit salt?" Zhao Yan couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard Zhao Quan's decision, this selling of illicit salt was illegal.

"The way the master used to do is still there, and it's easy to do this business." Zhao Quan nodded and said, "Now the only way to earn some silver is to go to other places to buy a batch of grain back, so that you can plant crops on all the acres of land at home as soon as possible." ”

"Alright! Then this time, Uncle Quan, you can take someone on a trip. Zhao Yan thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, but his heart calmed down.

Selling illicit salt is dangerous and dangerous, and it is safe to say that it is safe.

The danger is that for those who don't have the strength, they will be finished when they meet the salt of the salt transportation division, not only will the private salt be snatched away by the salt ding, not to mention, but they will also lose their surname.

As for those armed escort teams, the government does not dare to take care of them, and they all let them go. Moreover, private salt was very common in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the annual output of Huai salt was nearly one billion catties, many times more than the share of salt, and these surplus salts were all private salt.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty's control over the local area was very weak, almost reaching the lowest level in all dynasties, which is why the peasant uprisings continued and the official army rebelled one after another.

This has to start with Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang was born poor and can understand the suffering of civilians. In order to ensure that the poor people could live a good life and not be oppressed by officials, they set tax quotas at the local level, and stipulated that officials were not allowed to go to the countryside to inspect, and so on.

What is the result?

First of all, when it comes to taxes, the officials of the Ming Dynasty are very concerned about collecting taxes, and they are even unwilling to collect more taxes. In addition to the stone monuments laid at the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the quota has not increased with the growth of population and arable land, and has hardly changed.

Officials don't care about collecting taxes, and they can't be promoted if they collect too much tax, and then they will be impeached, and the Ming Dynasty's officials are like wolves and tigers, and even Huang Yanjing dares to attack. Of course, there is also greed in corruption, but there is not much greed, and some miscellaneous taxes are generally apportioned.

The second bomb gave the townships a high degree of autonomy, the landlords had a very strong reading power, and their ideological control over the people was very weak. This is also why the Song Dynasty was able to produce so many officials with temperament and temperament, while the Ming Dynasty produced a group of Han annihilators who could sell the country and the nation for the glory and wealth of themselves and their families.

The tax revenue was fixed, which led to the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue not growing, and it was greatly increased once when Zhang Juzheng was in power. At the same time, because the tax is too low and there are too many tax-exempt classes, the state is very financially constrained. The country has no money, and its ability to resist disasters and aggression has become very weak, and it cannot withstand any major changes at all.

Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point is good, but his poor background also makes his vision not very wide, and he is disgusted with the imperial court's tax collection, disgusted with some official styles, and so on.

Zhu Yuanzhang planted these two time bombs, one is the indulgence of the people, and the other is the overly light taxation.

These two time bombs were finally detonated at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was annihilated, and the imperial court's finances dried up......

Of course, these two time bombs also gave the upper class a very happy life, no need to be a soldier, no need to pay taxes, three wives and four concubines, and a large vote for the servants.

It's terrible to do bad things with good intentions and be uneducated.

……

After two days of preparation, Zhao Quan set off with more than 50 family members, fully armed, and even the bows and crossbows used in the army, all of which were of the highest quality.

Zhao Yan knew what he did to make a fortune, it turned out to be trafficking in illicit salt, no wonder he raised more than 100 family members, saying that there were too many people who used it to watch the family care home, and these family members still did not go to the ground.

According to Zhao Yan's estimate, now that Kong Youde's rebellion has just passed, most of the forces in Dengzhou are not strong. Those bandits were all composed of hungry people, and they did not dare to target his landlords. After the other landlords' armed forces experienced Kong Youde's rebellion, their strength was more or less lost, or even destroyed, and it was impossible to clash with his subordinates without a life-and-death conflict.

As for the officers and soldiers, the combat effectiveness of the officers and troops is like that, they are timid and afraid of death, and as soon as the enemy is hard, he will be soft, and there is no need to worry. The only one with strong combat effectiveness is the Guanning Iron Cavalry who suppressed Kong Youde's rebellion, the predecessor of the Guanning Iron Cavalry was the Qi Family Army, and was later controlled by the Zu family headed by Zu Dashou.

The Guanning Iron Cavalry, who came to Shandong to suppress Kong Youde, had just been defeated from the battlefield in Liaodong, he was a grandson in Liaodong, and he was an uncle in Shandong, and Kong Youde was defeated and lost.

From the side, it also shows the weakness of the Ming Court's control over the local area, a small Kong Youde, actually swept more than ten counties in Shandong, killed a Shandong governor, a Denglai governor, and captured the original Denglai governor Mao Yuanyi.

Guanning Iron Cavalry wants to resist the Manchu Qing in Liaodong, it is the most elite trump card force of the Ming Court, and it will not be arranged in Denglai, and the rebellion assessment has passed for a month, and it is also a departure if you think about it.

After the rebellion of Kong Youde, no one mentioned the strategic deployment of containing the Manchus at sea, and the overall armed forces were weaker than before, and they were very depressed and chaotic.

However, the troubled waters are easy to fish, which is just right for his development.

But now it is August of the sixth year of Chongzhen, only ten years before the death of the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty will come to Shandong many times to loot in these ten years, Zhao Yan can't help but feel that time is pressing.

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