Time flies, into the sixth year of Chongzhen, in the past year or so, in addition to the still noisy rogue, the most amazing thing for the people of the Ming Dynasty is that the price of salt, which has been high, has dropped like an avalanche.

Ordinary farmers work a lot, sweating is like running water, and they naturally eat more salt, and an average person needs ten catties of salt a year, which is almost one or two silver.

An ordinary person, after a year of farming, after deducting all kinds of taxes, field rents, and food rations, there is not a single tael of silver left. So what to do, you can't skip salt, if you don't eat salt, you won't have the strength to work, so you can only plan from the ration, when you work, eat something dry, and when you don't work, you will eat thin.

Digging wild vegetables, fishing, collecting wild fruits and mushrooms, in short, everything you can eat is not spared.

The big foodie empire is actually forced out, and there is no way to do it.

Just like the Han and Tang dynasties, and even the Song Dynasty, the common people ate beef and mutton, and as for the pigs, because they grew in the pickled muddy water, they were all eaten by lowly people. Nowadays, there are more and more people who eat pigs, digging out their minds, using various spices to get rid of the smell, inventing new ways to eat, and making use of internal organs, pig trotters, pig lungs, and pig brains......

Fortunately, since the reform of the salt administration, everyone was surprised to find that the embarrassing days have been much better.

At the time of the initial reform of the salt law, the price of salt was once pushed up to four coins a pound of silver, and there was even no market. The people of Nanzhili privately scolded Zhang Ke and the Yizhou soldiers, and the gentry and bureaucrats in various places also petitioned for the repeal of the new law.

But in the next two months, such a scene could be seen in every county, hundreds of box trucks, pulling bags of salt, under the protection of soldiers, rushed into the city.

In every disaster year, the imperial court would release grain, but now it is salt.

White as snow, without the slightest impurity of table salt. Twenty or thirty wen a catty, which is several times cheaper than those salt merchants. The common people couldn't believe their eyes, and some people had the courage to buy a catty, and after settling the accounts, they were stunned with salt in their hands.

"Why aren't you leaving?"

"Master Jun, this, this is the end?"

"Nonsense, how about letting Lao Tzu send you some?"

Another soldier next to him smiled: "You are the first, send some points." As he spoke, he picked up a shovel and shoveled it for the most part. It looked like it was more than half a catty, and it was poured into this person's cloth bag.

The guy's eyes widened, and he suddenly grabbed a handful of salt and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Be careful!"

Ahem, before he finished speaking, he vomited a lot, tears flowed out, but he exclaimed in surprise: "It's table salt, it's really table salt!" "I ran home with a puff of smoke. It's crazy with joy.

Seeing his virtue, instead of laughing at him, others understood it very well, and sure enough, there was cheap and good salt. Everyone has joined the rush to buy. I didn't have enough money with me, and I was too slow to go home, so I had to borrow money from someone I knew.

As a result, the other party heard that he was buying salt, and he stopped doing it. His money is also going to buy salt!

In this way, the means of near-dumping completely destroyed the power of the original salt merchants.

Ordinary people no longer buy their inferior and expensive salt. After the fall of the city market, the salt merchants also tried to keep the village market, and they colluded with the squires from all over the country to get their help to prevent the salt from entering Changlu.

How do you know that the road is one foot high and the magic is one foot high, Zhang Ke directly issued an order to allow rural and remote mountainous areas to apply for the qualification of agent sales.

As long as you pay between 50 taels and 100 taels of silver, you can set up salt sales points in the villages, and you are allowed to increase the price by up to 10%.

Don't look at it as just one percent, if you can buy a few thousand catties, or even tens of thousands of catties, you can return to the capital in a year or two, and the rest is to make money, and you can climb the thighs, so fools don't do it!

The bottom quickly defected, completely forcing the salt merchants to Liangshan.

Some of the bold ones simply colluded to bribe the Jiangyang thieves and attack the caravans transporting salt. However, they miscalculated, not to mention that most of the people who transported salt were trained soldiers, and they could not fight at all.

Even if the salt merchants have an advantage in strength, they will lose, without him, just the people's hearts!

When the people heard that the salt delivery team was coming, the young and strong people from all over the country gathered together, got wooden sticks and farm tools, and surrounded them to act as bodyguards.

Without the soldiers' hands, they alone could beat the salt merchants and flee with their heads in their hands.

In this way, for more than a year, the price of salt was like the water of the Yellow River, from heaven to earth.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen, the average price of basic salt in Liaodong, Shandong, Nanzhili, including Hangzhou and other places controlled by Zhang Ke, has reached 30 Wen, and the cities near the sea are around 20 Wen, and the remote places are slightly more expensive, but the most expensive will not exceed 50 Wen.

Because of the free supply, the price of salt is too high in some places, and some people will take the initiative to sell it and push the price down. This is the so-called invisible hand, which regulates the market.

Zhang Ke's actions not only made the people who got the benefits applauded, but also deeply shocked the officialdom, and the intensity was so great that it even surpassed the recovery of Liaodong.

The reason is not difficult to understand, after all, Jiannu is a foreign barbarian, and defeating them is nothing more than a strong army. You can fight the world right away, but you can't rule the world right away.

And Zhang Ke's actions shattered this myth!

Salt politics is not only a disadvantage of the Ming Dynasty, but even since the establishment of the salt and iron monopoly system in the Han Dynasty, countless ills have been accumulated.

The imperial court nominally had the power to monopolize the sale of salt, but it was a group of salt merchants who really controlled the salt, and they relied on layers of dots to buy off all the officials, and then sit back and enjoy the success. And all the evil consequences have to be borne by the common people, who work hard all year long, they do not wear new clothes, do not buy oil, do not buy tea, do not eat meat, but they can never leave the salt!

But I didn't even meet this requirement.

Thousands of years of accumulation have made almost everyone, including the emperor, have no confidence in completely reforming the salt administration, and all they can do is tinker, and even more, they have to cater to those insatiable salt merchants.

One day, a force suddenly appeared, smashing the chain of conservative and stubborn interests with unprecedented strength. In the simplest way, all the ugly parasitic groups were swept into the garbage heap.

Simple, rough, clean and thorough!

Start here. Merchants can operate freely, ordinary people can buy and sell freely, salt is no longer a special commodity monopolized, although there are still some access restrictions, but the people of the world, and even most of the merchants, are all applauded.

In today's land, I am afraid that only the officers and soldiers who transport salt are the only soldiers who are not afraid of the common people and really support them. Everywhere you go. Someone brought tea, someone brought eggs, it was like the treatment of a triumphant division.

The fact that salt alone is so loved by the common people shows how low their requirements are for the rulers.

News from all over the world continued to gather in Zhang Ke's hands, which made him feel not proud, but a little panicked and embarrassed. When he knew that some people took the initiative to protect the convoy transporting salt, Zhang Ke even thought of another scene.

Hundreds of wheelbarrows pushed dry food, pork. Military uniforms, artillery shells, dozens of miles, hundreds of miles. Completely expel a decaying dynasty.

Those who win the hearts of the people win the world!

In comparison, what you have done is far from enough, in fact, you can use more powerful power to promote change, instead of being like a daughter with small feet. Stagnant.

He ordered Qiao Fu to continue to investigate the unscrupulous salt merchants, and divide all the land obtained equally among the people who had no land. Resettle refugees. ”

Since Zhang Yuzhen served as Zhang Ke's secretary, she has been helping to draft documents and organize newspapers. The little girl was already very wise, and when she heard Zhang Ke's words, her little face turned white, and she didn't dare to write it down.

"Lord Wang, are you going to declare war on the gentry?"

Zhang Ke really had this idea, but he still knew that the time was not ripe, shook his head and smiled: "It's just a temporary distribution, the salt merchants have a rich heritage, and the accumulated land is countless, according to Qiao Fu's statistics, it can almost settle millions of people." ”

"And what's next?"

Zhang Yuzhen bit her lip, her smart eyes flashed with wisdom, and said, "Lord Wang, if you do this, it will definitely make the gentry jealous, and even unite against you." ”

"You don't think this king should be allocated?"

"No, if you want to divide it, you should divide it thoroughly, just one million people, how many idlers are in the south of the Yangtze River, and how many homeless people are in the Central Plains. When they heard that there was a field, they must have poured in, but if they were not well prepared, what was the point of dividing the fields? It's only going to get you into trouble, so it's better not to do it. ”

In the face of doubts, Zhang Ke was not only angry, but also deeply agreed.

"Sure enough, it's easy to see, this king originally planned to do it all at once, but now there are other options, and I still have room to maneuver."

Zhang Yuzhen blinked her eyes and asked in a daze: "Lord Wang, can you conjure up the land, or can you become a lost man?" "Although the little girl is smart, she doesn't know much about the situation overseas.

At most, I know that Zhang Ke seized an island in the Wa Kingdom, but it is said that there are also poor mountains and bad waters, and there are not many immigrants who can be settled, and as for the Ryukyus, they are even smaller and pitiful, and they can't think of where they can accommodate millions of immigrants.

Looking at the little girl's sad face, Zhang Ke pointed out with confidence:

"Wait and see, soon two lands as large as Nanzhili will fall into the hands of this king. He also told the girl that the fertility of the land and the abundance of the products in these two places are still above the south of the Yangtze River. ”

……

Since the opening of Songjiang to the sea, a county seat has risen rapidly around the location of the city's ship, that is, Shanghai. The city was a miracle from the first moment it appeared!

As if blowing up a balloon, it is expanding every day, with new neighborhoods being built and immigrants pouring in, not only from all provinces of the country, but also from foreign merchants. On the streets, people of all colors, shoulder to shoulder, are looking for wealth and realizing their dreams in this land.

Two years ago, according to Zhang Ke's instructions, Deng Wentong set up the Huaxia Branch, that is, the central bank, from that moment on, all kinds of Yamen army silver had to be deposited into a special account, and every movement could not escape supervision.

And the degree branch enjoys the special power to issue silver dollars and bills, from the moment of its establishment, the degree branch has completely become the center of financial transactions, and the complex financial market finally has unified rules.

The most feared thing in business transactions is uncertainty, the value of gold and silver, copper coins, silver dollars, and currencies fluctuates constantly, and the slightest mistake may turn from making money to losing money.

Foreign businessmen are not clear about the situation, especially so, but after having the degree branch, everything does not have to worry, the foreign gold and silver are sent to the progress branch, and the degree branch will issue bills, and wherever they go, they can be traded, and Tong Suo is not bullied.

Because of this, more and more foreign businessmen are moving in, and financial stability has prompted businessmen to focus on long-term investment.

Relying on trafficking around is not only exhausting, but also may encounter a situation of running out of goods.

They simply built their own workshops and produced porcelain and silk to their liking according to the requirements of foreign merchants, and tea according to their tastes.

Songjiang quickly rose from a trading center to a financial center and a production center, with a large number of goods being shipped in and out every day. From the wharf to the factory workshop, a large number of industrial workers appeared, and the output of the workshop increased exponentially, which vigorously promoted the demand for merchant ships.

In Songjiang alone, there are more than a dozen shipyards, which are producing around the clock.

A large number of ships were like dumplings, and they were filled with caravans at sea.

Don't look at just merchant ships, but all of them are armed, which is also a common practice in the world, the so-called Age of Discovery, in fact, is the era of great pirates. Every ship sailing on the sea has to go through the process of robbing and being robbed, and the law of the jungle also applies at sea.

The ships of the Jiangnan shipyard are generally under 1,000 tons, have four masts, have a lower bow, a slender hull that makes it easy to navigate the waves, have decent seaworthiness, and can be loaded with more cargo.

At the same time, large merchant ships will be equipped with thirty or forty guns, and when they encounter ordinary pirates, they will be bombed to the bottom of the sea directly, and they will not be given a chance to get close at all.

Ming Ruxin stood on the shore and looked up, more than a dozen ships would be launched within a month, which was definitely a veritable dumpling.

From the beginning of the seizure of Kyushu Island, the operation of the sea riot was carried out.

The Lushun shipyard has the most abundant accumulation, mainly building large warships of more than 1,000 tons. The Tianjin Shipyard was personally supervised by Zhang Ke, and it built various types of warships and supply ships.

As for Jiangnan, it was liberalized to enter merchant capital and build merchant ships. Of course, merchant ships can be quickly transformed into warships if needed, and even maritime merchants and sailors can be transformed into navies.

As far as the eye can see, there are countless ships that cover the sky and the sun. Deng Wentong accompanied Ming Ruxin to inspect together, and he sighed and smiled: "For more than a year, Yongzhen invested eighty percent of the silver confiscated from the salt merchant family into the navy. Not only these ships recruited 50,000 sailors and soldiers from Fujian and Zhejiang, but also established artillery factories in Songjiang, and hoarded countless grain, grass and military supplies. ”

Deng Wentong said like a few treasures, and sweat gradually broke out on Ming Ruxin's forehead. If all this money is used on the army, the expansion of two or three hundred thousand people, just like play, now it all falls on the navy, this is trust, but also pressure!

"Lord Deng, please tell the prince that he will go here, he will not destroy Hongmaoyi, he will not take Luzon Island, and he will never withdraw his troops!" Ming Ruxin said loudly. (To be continued......)