"Hehe, okay, with these things, the salt merchants of Lianghuai will obediently admit defeat!" Zhang Ke gritted his teeth slightly, and said slowly: "Pass my order, immediately promulgate a new salt law and abolish the monopoly!" ”

……

As the territory becomes larger and larger, more and more areas are controlled, and the relatively remote Liaodong is no longer enough. Zhang Ke moved the palace to Tianjin, appointed Liu Shaoqing as the commander-in-chief of Tianjin, and also ordered the preparation of the Tianjin Navy Division to protect the maritime trade routes.

In fact, the southeast stopped supplying grain, not only the bureaucrats and businessmen in the southeast were behind it, they did not have the courage to do so, and Zhang Ke was the driving force behind it. Doing so will not only be able to bring Chongzhen's army, but also take the opportunity to abolish the canal.

Although the Grand Canal has been the main artery of north-south transportation since the day it was built, maintaining the life and death of a huge empire. Today, however, the slow and inefficient canal has become a bottleneck restricting north-south trade.

Compared with sea transportation, river transportation has only one advantage, and that is safety. However, with the advancement of seagoing technology, shipping at sea has become quite safe, especially coastal navigation, and many experienced captains can do it with their eyes closed.

The reason why the canal has been kept for a long time, at the expense of high maintenance costs, is because of the fear of the sea, and secondly, there are millions of boatmen up and down the canal, who all point to the canal to live, once the river transportation is changed to sea transportation, they will lose their source of livelihood, and even rebel.

However, these are not problems for Zhang Ke, no matter how many boatmen rebel, they are sure to suppress it. And the most important thing is that Zhang Ke has a huge overseas force in his hands, whether it is farming. Or continue to be a shipwright, or even do business and make a fortune, there is a way to settle. There is a better way out. As long as his brain is normal, not only will he not oppose Zhang Ke, but he will also loyally support the prince.

Sure enough, with the announcement of the news, Tianjin became more and more lively, with five elements and eight works, three teachings and nine streams. Even the wealthy merchants of the capital all gathered.

The original city was not enough to live in, and even the land had to be enclosed to build a new city.

At this time, Zhang Ke announced another new decree. That is, the Changlu Salt Farm is contracted by zoning, abolishing the previous monopoly policy, and all salt merchants who have obtained development qualifications only need to pay a tax of three cents per catty of salt. Produce and buy at will. The imperial court must not interfere.

"What the hell did you do with table salt!"

In the teahouse, dozens of richly dressed and bejeweled businessmen gathered, some of them came from the southeast, some from Liaodong, and some from Shanxi and other places, and now all gathered in Tianjin, to people like them. There are hundreds more.

"Hehe, if you know the prince's new policy. I'm afraid that nine out of ten businessmen in the world will come! "The one who spoke was a big fat man with a tonnage of more than 300 catties, and this person was Huang Delu.

He was the first Jin merchant to deal with Zhang Ke, Fan Yongdou and others were killed, Huang Delu survived, and since then, he has completely changed his ways, followed Zhang Ke's pace, and never dared to have other illusions.

Opposite him, sat Bao Shiqing.

In a few years, he has become the first person in the southeast business community, and he has also been blessed, just a pair of small black eyes, full of brilliance.

"Brother Huang, I said a long time ago that the prince is eloquent, and just changing the river transportation to sea transportation is not worth the prince's effort, and even moved the nest over. Looking at the meaning of the prince, Tianjin will become the center of the north in the future. ”

Huang Delu drank the tea in one gulp, squinted his small eyes and smiled: "Then it goes without saying, there is convenience for shipping." Coupled with salt, in a few years, the wealth of the world will gather in Jinmen. ”

Huang Delu said, hehe smiled.

"Brother Bao, you are the prince's henchman, and my brother wants to ask you about something."

Bao Shiqing smiled and stretched out his hand, "Brother, please speak." ”

Huang Delu looked around, lowered his voice, and asked, "Brother, do you say there is any doorway behind this salt farm?" Could it be that the former nests, stove households, and those who sold salt in the districts are all gone? ”

Bao Shiqing smiled slightly: "Brother, you want to ask if these things can be transferred to you, right?" ”

Huang Delu didn't care much about it, and said with a smile: "Wouldn't it be better if there were!" ”

"Definitely not."

Bao Shiqing sighed: "Actually, I didn't expect that the prince's handwriting would be so big, and he would directly abolish the monopoly on salt that has lasted for more than a thousand years, what a thunderbolt method!" ”

In fact, Zhang Ke has long been very dissatisfied with the monopoly and profiteering of salt merchants, and the result they caused was that the imperial court could not collect taxes, and the common people could not eat cheap salt, but only fattened a group of wealthy businessmen and bureaucrats in the middle, which was extremely undesirable. It's just that these salt merchants, like the Jin merchants, are powerful and have too many spokespersons in the imperial court.

And this time, the southeast cut off the grain, and there are also their shadows, but they just want to take the opportunity to push up prices and make huge profits. But they obviously didn't expect that Zhang Ke's suppression of bandits was fake, and the real target was them.

The maritime merchants in the southeast were annexed, and the Jin merchants were subdued, leaving a group of salt merchants, and it was time to deal with them.

The new salt method divides the Changlu salt field into many small pieces, each of which costs 100,000 taels and is auctioned publicly, and anyone who buys the salt pan can form a company to produce salt.

According to the quantity produced, after paying the tax, it can be shipped to various places for sale, and there are no restrictions.

Huang Delu had read Zhang Ke's salt method several times, and he still had a lot of doubts in his heart.

"Brother Bao, the salt fields are divided, but there are no stove households, how can they produce salt? Isn't the prince afraid that the output will not be enough and the price will skyrocket? ”

"Hahaha, Brother Huang is really worried, who told you that you must have a stove to produce salt. In fact, there have long been salt pans in Lianghuai and other places, and it is enough to introduce seawater into dug pools and dry them in the sun. Although Yangguan does not come as fast as the fire, don't forget that the pool is larger than the pot, and the output will only increase thousands of times, and it also saves firewood money. ”

"I see." Huang Delu nodded, and suddenly wondered: "Since drying salt is better than boiling salt, why ......?"

"The reason is very simple, easy to control the ear!"

Bao Shiqing said with a smile: "A large salt field, no one knows how much it produces, but it is much easier to use a pot, how many catties of salt in a pot, how many pots can be boiled in a day, it is clear at a glance." ”

How long Huang Delu has been running a business, a little bit is clear.

"The prince is really wonderful, but in this way, I'm afraid the stove household won't need much, right?"

"That's right, so the prince arranged overseas fields for them, speaking of which, the stove households are poorer than ordinary farmers, and the profits from the salt are eaten by the gang of Lianghuai. Don't look at us as all upstarts, when it comes to the basics, I'm afraid we can't compare to them. ”

Huang Delu glanced at Bao Shiqing, and sneered in his heart, you just fool!

Not to mention anything else, just the shares of Jiangnan Bank in the hands of the Bao family, plus real estate, and the fleet, let alone tens of millions of taels, even if the salt merchants of Lianghuai accumulate for several lifetimes, they can't compare.

"Brother Bao, what effect do you think the prince may have?"

Bao Shiqing smiled slightly, grabbed a piece of candied fruit, stuffed it into his mouth, and said vaguely: "Brother, do you know what the price of salt is?" ”

"This is different from place to place, some are expensive, some are cheap, but in recent years, prices have skyrocketed, even if they are cheap, they should be more than a hundred yuan."

"Well, what my brother said is right, according to my estimate, if the prince's new deal continues, the price of salt will drop to less than 20 Wen, or even cheaper."

"What?"

Huang Delu was so frightened that he jumped up from his seat, and the fat all over his body trembled.

"How can it be so cheap?"

"Hehe, nothing strange. The cost of a pound of salt is less than one copper, and the tax of three coppers, after deducting the freight, is at most the cost of six or seven cents, and it is sold to twenty cents, which is to fold all the money into the dots. ”

Huang Delu stretched out his fat fingers, calculated, and suddenly his face was full of shock.

Five, five!

can be so cheap, just one salt, how many poor people can Zhang Ke support. For ordinary people, it is nothing more than firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. Whoever can bring benefits to the big guy will follow.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty collects taxes every day, making the people miserable. And Zhang Ke's drastic reforms can only bring benefits to the people, and there will be no need to fight at that time, as long as Zhang Ke waves his hand, the huge Ming Dynasty will collapse!

Where is the new law of salt administration!

It's clearly digging the corner of the Ming Dynasty!

Huang Delu's face kept changing wildly, his hands and feet couldn't help trembling, and he was so frightened that he was stunned.

"Hehehe, brother, let's not think so much about business!" Bao Shiqing said with a smile: "I am thinking about the price of salt coming down now, and the people will have surplus money in their hands." When the time comes, they will have to buy more cloth, more porcelain, more farm tools, and they can eat the same, which is a business of millions, tens of millions of taels. ”

"yes!" Huang Delu sat heavily on the chair, shook his head and sighed: "Just make money, what do you think nonsense, you should be punished, you should be punished!" As he spoke, he replaced wine with tea, and poured three cups in a row.

……

A month after the new salt law was announced, the first batch of salt pans was auctioned off in one fell swoop, and the silver proceeds were 2 million taels. All this money was used to purchase grain, and the first batch of grain was transported by sea to Tianjin, and then sent to the capital.

In the past period of time, the price of grain in Beijing has skyrocketed fivefold, and nobles, officials, and businessmen, all those who have some ability, have hoarded and waited for prices to rise.

The momentum is even more noisy than that of the southeast back then, and Chongzhen can only stare dryly if he has Zhang Ke's courage or not. When the first batch of grain was transported into the capital, the price fell in response, and the news reached the palace, and Chongzhen almost cried with joy.

For the Yizhou soldiers, Chongzhen is both in love and fear, no matter when, they are a sharp sword, and any problem can be solved, but the sword also has another side, which will also hurt himself.

At the same time as the promulgation of the new salt law, Qiao Fu raided twelve salt merchant families in succession, all of whom were hacked and killed on charges of colluding with the rogue, and thousands of families were denounced as slaves.

Outside the city of Yangzhou, the river was stained with blood, and for several days in a row, the prosperous paradise was shrouded in blood. Countless imperial historians and local officials could no longer resist their brutal practices and wrote letters of impeachment.

There was a lot of excitement in Beijing, but the local people were not like this, with the arrival of the first batch of low-cost salt, the voices questioning the Yizhou soldiers collapsed, and only a piece of praise remained! (To be continued......)