The governor of Yangzhou received a report that a large number of troops had come from outside the city, and cold sweat flowed down on the spot. Recently, the civil unrest in Yangzhou has made him anxious, but the civil unrest has been pacified, and a large number of troops have come at this time?

Don't......

Yangzhou Zhizhou suddenly had a very surprising conjecture, could it be that the emperor sent him to copy the house?

The blacksmith emperor Zhu copied the name is very loud, when the Donglin Party was raided, the smuggling Jin merchants were all dispatched.

For the more well-informed upper class, they are very clear about the emperor's house raiding process, usually the factory guards lead the way, and the army cooperates.

Soon he confirmed his suspicion, after these central troops arrived in Yangzhou, they directly blocked all the gates of Yangzhou, and all were allowed to enter and not leave.

All the city gates were taken over by the Central Army, and those defenders naturally did not have the courage to disobey the Holy Order, let alone stop these elite Central Army.

Then a group of central troops, under the leadership of Dongchang and Jinyiwei, went straight to the mansions of the salt merchants. Suddenly, there was another scene of chickens and dogs jumping in Yangzhou City.

The houses of these salt merchants are all beautiful and winding gardens, with pavilions and pavilions in them, and even every grass and tree is carefully carved and arranged, which is like a paradise on earth, even the Ming royal family, is not so luxurious.

All the Yangzhou salt merchants were like the end of the world at this time, and all of them did not receive any news in advance, and the disaster of raiding their homes befell them.

A large number of people soon gathered on the street, and they found that these officers and soldiers did not disturb the people. Just to capture the salt merchants.

Some of the people applauded. Some are terrified.

Those actors, Qinglou women, cooks, garden craftsmen and other groups that serve Yangzhou salt merchants. At this time, I suddenly realized that my job was going to be smashed.

These Yangzhou salt merchants have given birth to a large number of luxury industries in Yangzhou, and have driven a large number of jobs attached to the salt merchants.

After many large-scale raids, Jinyiwei and Dongchang at this time can be said to be experienced, first arrested people, sealed the house, and then found out the house deed, land deed, contract, etc., and all their properties were also sealed.

The entire Yangzhou city was blocked for three days, and dozens of salt merchants were all raided, when the blockade was lifted. The news just got out.

When the news came out that all the salt merchants in Yangzhou had been confiscated, the news was like thunder, and it quickly caused a violent shock in the Jiangnan region.

Jiangnan merchants and scholars are ready to move, and the fate of Yangzhou salt merchants gives them a sense of sadness about the death of a rabbit and a fox. But at this time, a large number of central troops crossed the Yangtze River.

These elite divisions of the Central Army were the elite divisions of the Liaodong Battlefield, and suddenly crossed the river and headed south. One of the three infantry divisions was stationed in Nanzhili, one in Suzhou, one in Hangzhou, and one Marine Corps was stationed in Songjiang.

The emperor's attitude was obvious, and at the same time as the raid on the salt merchants of Yangzhou. Preparations have been made to suppress the rebellion by force.

Under the strong hand, the rioting upper class was immediately intimidated. No one dared to jump out at this time and be the first bird to touch the emperor's mold.

Soon it became a war of words between the north and the south for the seizure of salt merchants.

Southern merchants and scholars frantically criticized the imperial court's raids in the newspapers, and the hand-copied newspapers circulating in private directly sprayed Zhu Youxiao as a faint monarch and a tyrant.

For a time, public opinion was surging, and as the upper class influencing the country's public opinion, the public opinion criticism they launched should not be underestimated.

But now Zhu Youxiao is not Wuxia Ameng, and there is also an interest group that has been formed behind him.

Soon, the royal consortium launched a public opinion counterattack, first counting the ten sins of salt merchants in newspapers such as "Daming Daily", and then directly detaining the basin of Daming salt prices on the heads of these Yangzhou salt merchants.

A few days later, Zhu Youxiao issued a holy edict in the palace, ordering all provinces to fully open salt and reduce the price of salt.

Soon, the Royal Salt Company reduced the wholesale price of salt to an ultra-low price of 5 wen per catty, and directly cut it in half by 15 wen.

The salt merchants were going to go completely crazy, and the price of salt suddenly dropped, and many of those who had stock in hand jumped off the building to sell it one after another, and at the same time began to buy lower-priced salt. But for many unrelated salt merchants, business is much better.

First of all, the salt introduction is fully open, and anyone can get the salt introduction, and there is no problem in selling it wherever you want, as long as the freight can afford it. In addition, the reduction in salt prices has also expanded market consumption.

However, for those salt merchants who traditionally rely on connections to eat, this is undoubtedly a catastrophe. In the past, not everyone could enter this industry, and because of the imperial salt tax, there was an imbalance between supply and demand in the market, so there were huge profits. Now that the imperial court has fully opened up the salt trafficking court, even street vendors can join the trafficking ranks, which makes the salt trafficking directly lose its profiteering.

When the imbalance in an industry is eliminated, profits are lost.

Now that the salt merchants in Yangzhou have been served by the emperor, the salt merchants in other regions naturally dare not jump out to make trouble, so they can only accept this situation.

It didn't take long for low-cost salt to be transported from the salt drying fields in Beizhili and Shandong coastal areas to the coastal provinces and the Yangtze River basin.

The price of salt has fallen wildly, and the price of salt has dropped directly to 6 wen per catty in areas with convenient transportation, and the price of salt has also dropped to around 10 wen in those inland provinces with inconvenient transportation.

The royal consortium is constantly guiding public opinion, attributing the decline in salt prices to the results of the seizure of Yangzhou salt merchants, and the common people naturally applaud, and the reasons for the high salt prices in the past are all counted on the heads of Yangzhou salt merchants.

It doesn't matter if this is the case, the important thing is that the imperial court successfully threw off the pot and put the pot on the heads of the salt merchants in Yangzhou, thus gaining the support of the ordinary people.

In less than a month, public opinion in the provinces of Daming changed greatly. No matter how those upper class society in Jiangnan criticized Zhu Youxiao, they could not shake Zhu Youxiao's status.

After all, at this time, Zhu Youxiao had the army in his hands and the support of the people. Those powerful and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan did not have the support of the people. And there is no army on hand. Can it still be turned upside down?

Moreover, with the arrest of a large number of salt merchants, the corrupt lives of those salt merchants were gradually exposed to the public eye, and various unsightly behaviors were also exposed, which aroused strong indignation and dissatisfaction among the people against these salt merchants.

Of course, not every salt merchant is so unbearable, but the salt merchant who is extremely poor and luxurious has indeed formed a lot of habits. Under the extreme desire for luxury, ordinary enjoyment can no longer make them feel happy, and they will naturally do many unsightly things.

It doesn't matter if you kill a boatload of people with a rod. The important thing is that Zhu Youxiao successfully won public opinion and made a windfall.

The raid lasted more than a month before all the assets of the salt merchants were counted.

"In this seizure, a total of 36 million yuan worth of cash was seized, thousands of boxes of various antiques, jade, and jewelry, 183 houses, 430 shops, and more than 8 million acres of land." Tian Ergeng presented the list obtained from the raid to Zhu Youxiao.

Seeing so many assets, Zhu Youxiao was also surprised.

It is no wonder that after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, these salt merchants could still spend four or five million taels of silver to build a tower for the Manchu Emperor. And this is still after the three massacres in Yangzhou.

During the Manchu Qing Dynasty's entry into Jiangnan, a rich man could get more than 100,000 taels of silver by raiding a wealthy household. Da Ming is not out of money. It's that the gap between the rich and the poor is too great.

In the list, there are more than 3,000 maids in these dozens of salt merchants, which is several times that of the palace maids in the palace. The servants are even more numerous than the eunuchs in the palace.

There are also various assets such as ships, factories, workshops, and so on.

Those antique jade and so on, they all have to be counted in boxes, and there are thousands of boxes, and there are many big guys who can't fit in boxes.

It's just a lot of money!

"It's worth it!" Zhu Youxiao slapped the table, this raid obviously made him completely separated from those powerful and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan, but getting such a rich reward made Zhu Youxiao feel that it was really worth it. The classes in Jiangnan that have too much money are the next groups to deal with, and there is nothing to weigh.

The only price was a reduction in the salt tax, but in reality there was not much to lose. The decline in the price of salt will expand the market demand and improve the image of the imperial court.

In those areas of Fujian, the price of a pound of salt is only a penny is profitable, not to mention that the Royal Salt Company still wholesales salt at a price of 5 wen per catty, and the salt in Fujian will leak, and the salt fields must be transformed, and the production cost is higher than that of the Bohai Bay salt.

In addition, the Royal Salt Company has developed refined salt in accordance with Zhu Youxiao's requirements. And on the packaging will be directly marked with the 'royal use' logo, forcing the price to rise in a straight line, the price of a pound of salt is as high as hundreds of Wen, but the sales situation is very hot.

After all, refined salt is a rare thing these days, and the purity is the highest, with a sodium chloride content of more than 99.5%, which is the selling point! Coupled with the name of the royal family, it is naturally very popular in the market. Those rich people who have a lot of money and have nowhere to spend it, they want the best food, clothing, housing and transportation. The same is true for table salt, although in fact the purity of ordinary coarse salt is not so high, but there is not much difference in taste, but the forced style is completely different.

At present, the Royal Salt Company is expanding its production, not only the salt tax has fallen, and the special salt of the fishery has increased the market demand, but also the newly established Royal Soda Factory has also successfully fired soda ash, which will be supplied to dyes, paper and other industrial activities, and the raw material used in caustic soda is salt. At the same time, salt for aquaculture will also receive special treatment.

The scale of the salt industry in Daming will continue to expand with the development of alkali production and fishery, and Zhu Youxiao does not plan to cancel the salt tax, but only lowers the salt tax.

The salt tax in this year was like the fuel tax in later generations, after all, the productivity of this era was so high, and there was no so-called rude or not rude question of levying a salt tax.

The seizure of the salt merchants to obtain so much wealth this time was simply a solution to the urgent need for the imperial court. The four-year budget of the Apocalypse is already a little tight, the main types of taxes are not perfect, and disasters are becoming more frequent across the country.

The taxes of Beizhili are relatively perfect, but the imperial court also has management responsibilities for other provinces, and it still has to invest in finance every year.

At present, all the land endowments in the northern provinces have been used for disaster relief, and they have been invested in local official operating expenses, and there is still a gap.

There are many places where the imperial court needs to use money, and the infrastructure in Liaodong is being rebuilt, and although the auction of assets has obtained funds, there is still pressure to invest.

In the past few years, the finances of the imperial court were basically maintained by seigniorage and the commercial income of the royal capital, and in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao decided to settle the accounts between the imperial court finance and the royal capital, so he did not embezzle the funds of the royal capital into the finances.

In terms of coinage, the source of silver that can be manufactured in the four years of the Apocalypse has begun to decrease, and it is expected that there will be 20 million yuan of silver dollar minting income throughout the year. The profit from the coinage of copper coins is rising, and the Apocalypse is expected to have an income of nearly five million yuan in four years, although it is not a lot, but it cannot afford to take the lead.

suddenly obtained 36 million yuan in cash and a large amount of assets, what else can Zhu Youxiao say, he can only say that this wave is not a loss.

With this income, Daming will be able to survive the most desperate winter in the future. (To be continued......)