Lu Nai originally only thought that Qiao Yu was a strong man in Dongchuan, and the power of a big salt merchant like himself was about the same, but since Qiao Yu announced his reading power, he immediately became the governor of Sichuan, and his fierce generals and strong troops gathered, and immediately Lu Nai could not compare, and just before he arrived in Luzhou, he heard that Qiao Yu defeated more than 10,000 people's army, and it seems that southern Sichuan will soon fall into the hands of others, and it will not take much time to be afraid that the whole of Sichuan will also fall into the control of others, and the identities of the two people are suddenly very different.

Therefore, Lu Nai maintained a respect for Qiao Yu, and seemed very deferential, especially when he saw Qiao Yu, he was even more surprised, the other party was too young, and he was about twenty years old, both in appearance and bearing, Lu Nai also saw his daughter, not to mention that these two people stood together, it was really a talented woman, Lu Nai's heart secretly applauded his baby daughter, this vision was really amazing, several elders in his family also forced themselves to marry their daughter to the Zhang family to marry, Now it looks like the Zhang family is also a fart.

Qiao Yu didn't have these thoughts, his attention was on salt, there were too many evils in the Qing court's salt politics, and the profits lost were too much, if he could control these profits in his hands, then he would have capital for construction.

"Mr. Lu has come from afar and worked hard, Ling Ai works here for me, performs very well, and is very capable!"

"Thank you Governor for your compliment, it is a blessing for the little girl to be able to give the Governor General, and the little old man is grateful to the Governor!" After a few polite words, Lu Nai's words changed: "Lord Governor, since the Baolu Movement, the place has been in chaos, and our salt merchants have also suffered a lot, I came this time to see the little girl, and the other is to invite the governor to march into Fushun as soon as possible to stabilize the local order, and several of our salt merchants are willing to pay one million taels of silver for the use of the labor army!" ”

Qiao Yu heard that Lu Nai wanted to give one million taels of silver, and there was a sneer in his heart, this really regarded himself as a child who didn't know anything, and it was no exaggeration to say that the salt merchant was a fart with an oil crotch, and he was definitely a top wealthy group in the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan's well salt supplied salt to hundreds of millions of people in the entire southwest and its surroundings, and the profits were so huge that it was indescribable, and a mere one million taels was too little.

"Mr. Lu, it is my duty to ensure local tranquility, you can rest assured, but the southern Sichuan People's Army is all over the place, and there are some troublesome things to deal with, I will act as soon as possible!"

As soon as Lu Nai saw that the other party was not good, he knew that the price he offered was small, so his face was sweating.

"Your Excellency Governor, it's not that we're stingy, it's just that now the place is in turmoil, and we can't turn around, you can rest assured that as long as law and order is restored, your benefits will definitely be doubled!"

"Hehe, Mr. Lu, you take a sip of tea first, don't worry!"

Qiao Yu didn't speak, but poured a cup of tea for Lu Nai, how dare Lu Nai take it, regret this in his heart, don't look at the young man in front of him, but the greed is not small at all, he also kept glancing at his daughter Lu Wanqing who was sitting on the side, desperately signaling her to hurry up and help him say good things, how do you know that Lu Wanqing deliberately turned her head to the side and didn't look at him, so angry that Lu Nai secretly scolded the girl in her heart for being outgoing, this is not much thinking about the lover, regardless of the father!

"Governor, add another million taels, what do you think?"

"Mr. Lu, you misunderstood, I am not the king of the mountain, nor are I the mediocre officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and I don't want to ask for benefits, and you must also know that I started in business in Yucheng, what I value most is the rules, everything is done according to the rules, you salt merchants should pay all the taxes, if I still ask you for money, you can go and report me, but if you want to give me some silver, you will fool the salt tax, then it will break the rules, and you will definitely not allow it!"

Lu Nai was only surprised when he heard Qiao Yu's words, since the Lu family began to operate the salt industry, the imperial court regarded the salt merchants as a small treasury to withdraw money at will, and they were also constantly filial piety, as for the salt tax or something, they had never paid it in full, or how to make money, the court was short of money in recent years, and had to increase the salt tax again and again, but there was no harm to the salt merchants, they all passed on these burdens to the people by raising the price of salt, but they made more money!

Now that Qiao Yu is talking to himself about the rules and the salt tax, is he still dissatisfied with the silver given, Lu Nai gritted his teeth and said: "Your Excellency, I will add 600,000 taels of silver, as long as the governor can maintain the salt industry system, we will still have a good reward!" ”

"Mr. Lu, you don't need to add any more money, let's make it clear below, the cost of a pound of salt is less than a penny, I'm not wrong!"

Lu Nai didn't know what Qiao Yu was going to do when he mentioned this cost, so he nodded subconsciously, and then shook his head again: "Governor, you can't settle accounts like this, the gold in various places and the taxes of the imperial court add up, and you have to lose money without dozens of dollars!" ”

"That's right, but you've already issued a decree to abolish the centigold, so your cost is definitely not that high, right?"

"That's, that's, it's all thanks to the Governor's kindness, and we are grateful to Dade, and we will do our best to honor the Governor!"

"Mr. Lu, I abolished the gold for the people of Sichuan, which is also the difference between the Republic of China and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, we are for the sake of the people, is to let the people live better, now the people are enduring high salt prices, life is miserable, you know better than me what is going on, I told Mr. Lu the truth, the salt policy must be reformed! It's not something you can fix with how much money you give me! ”

In fact, the cost of salt is not much, Sichuan's well salt is extracted from the ground salt brine, after heating and evaporation, it is much more expensive than sea salt, but the cost of a pound of salt is only less than a penny, if the process can be improved, it can be cheaper, but how much do people have to spend to buy salt, the current market price should reach more than 90 Wen, and the quality of Sichuan well salt is better than sea salt, can reach about 100 Wen, and can reach higher in some remote areas.

A person has to eat about ten catties of salt a year, and a family of three will have to pay thirty catties, according to the price of salt, these salts will cost about two silver dollars, don't look at only two silver dollars, many people can't earn one or two silver dollars all year round, and even have a deficit in some years, so now most of the rural people are busy for a year, pay all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, pay land rent, and leave a little ration, and the rest of the money is enough to buy some salt.

In later generations, there were house slaves, car slaves, and the ordinary people of the Qing Dynasty were authentic salt slaves, simply put, to improve people's livelihood in the Qing Dynasty, the first thing was to reduce the price of salt.

Then some people are going to ask again, why is the price of salt so outrageously high? The problem lies in the layers of exploitation, salt merchants rely on privileges to operate, but the privileges are not so easy to take, they naturally want to give the imperial court enough benefits, officials at all levels can be skilled, and even some gangs in the rivers and lakes, the people responsible for trafficking have to take benefits, after these people are settled, the cost of salt will reach more than twenty or thirty yuan, and then sell it out, and it is a layer of gold checkpoints, it can be said that it can be transported from the place of origin to the place of sale can be more than doubled, It is not surprising that ordinary people can buy a pound of salt for a hundred dollars.

During the Xuantong period, the salt tax reached more than 40 million, which was definitely based on the cruelty of the common people and even the exploitation of madness.

Qiao Yu has become an inevitable choice to attack the price of salt, and as a vested interest, Lu Nai's face became very abnormal, and he reluctantly smiled bitterly: "Governor Qiao, this salt business has been maintained for hundreds of years, how many people are pointing to this to live, you better not change it casually, so as not to suffer the people of Li!" ”

"Dad, don't insist anymore, the salt reform is inevitable, do you still want to earn that money?"