"Lord Wang, I want to congratulate you on your humble position!"

"Hahaha, Mr. Chen, if you want to congratulate this king, you have to take out a gift, how about it, do you have any good ideas?"

Chen Qianfu hurriedly said: "Lord Wang, I received your order, and I have been thinking about how to solve the problem of salt administration. I think it's a good idea to divide the salt farms, and then make salt, sell it, and sell it all to the merchants. In the past, the imperial court had to strictly prevent and block private salt, and it took great effort. In this way, we only need to keep an eye on a few big salt merchants, and collect taxes every year, without any difference. ”

Gu Zhenhua also nodded, in fact, he also agreed with this idea very much, whether it was the opening of the Chinese law or the outline law, in Gu Zhenhua's view, it was too backward and cumbersome, and due to the lack of competition, it would inevitably bring inefficiency, which he absolutely could not tolerate.

"Mr. Chen, is this method feasible?"

"No!" Chen Qianfu said sternly: "Lord Wang, this idea looks very good, but there is a fatal problem. It is cheaper to transport salt to nearby places, and it makes more money, and it makes less money to transport it to distant places. What if the merchants were profit-seeking, and what if they didn't traffic far away? In other words, it was shipped over, but it cost an extremely high price, and the people still couldn't afford it. ”

As soon as Chen Qianfu said this, Gu Zhenhua also suddenly came to his senses, it does seem that free competition is good, but it is difficult to ensure fairness. This is a difficult problem to solve in later generations, not to mention the far backward Ming Dynasty, salt is different from other things after all, it is a necessity for the people's life. If there are no merchants willing to sell to remote areas, it will not be a small problem!

"Mr. Chen, this doubt you raised is very good, I wonder if there are any other ideas?"

"Lord Wang, one of the things I think needs to be guarded against is the price of salt. After the auction of the salt farm, if the merchants who got the salt field collude to manipulate the price of salt, the people will still suffer, and the original intention of increasing taxes and reducing the burden will not be achieved! ”

Gu Zhenhua reformed the salt administration. On the one hand, he wants to put money in his own pocket, and on the other hand, he also wants to play freely and bring down the price of salt so that the people can benefit, so that his position can be more stable. Win the hearts of the people and win the world!

But after Chen Qianfu said this. Gu Zhenhua really realized that his ideas were still a little simple, and the Ming Dynasty was far from being able to compare with the later generations of the Ming Dynasty, and some policies had to be put into more thought.

Gu Zhenhua narrowed his eyes, thought about it carefully, and then said, "Mr. Chen." I have a few ideas, the first is to verify the identity of the salt merchants and avoid collusion with each other. Second, it should be auctioned every three years and reshuffled. Third, divide the sales area, divided into the main sales area and the concurrent sales area, in the main sales area. The supply of salt must be guaranteed, and even if some places lose money, they still have to sell it, and in the concurrent area, there is competition between all parties to see who has the lower price. Besides, I am not going to hand over all the salt works to the merchants, and I will leave a quarter to be managed by the military, hire veterans, and arrange for wounded and sick generals. The income obtained can not only increase the welfare of the army, but also compete with other merchants to avoid excessive salt prices. The last is to set a guide price, which must be lower than the current salt price!

Chen Qianfu listened carefully to Gu Zhenhua's ideas. His mind spun rapidly, and when he had digested it, he couldn't help but laugh.

"What the prince thinks about is to be thoughtful, now my worries can be solved, then I will let go of my humble duties and directly attack the salt merchants!"

"Don't be busy!" Gu Zhenhua said with a smile: "The salt merchants of Lianghuai, if not one thousand, but also eight hundred, it would be good to keep one-tenth, and the rest should be disposed of, so that they can spit out all the benefits they have swallowed over the years." ”

Chen Qianfu's eyes suddenly widened: "Lord Wang, are you going to kill again?" ”

Gu Zhenhua smiled slightly: "I asked Yan Yingyuan to feel the situation in advance, do you know how much the total family property of these salt merchants is?" ”

Chen Qianfu frowned, thought for a while and said: "I have long heard that salt merchants are rich, and millions of them abound. I estimate that all of them add up, at least twenty or thirty million taels! ”

"Hahaha, Mr. Chen, you underestimate the salt merchant too much, and you underestimate the wealth of the Ming Dynasty! To tell you the truth, they should be more than 100 million taels of silver alone, and as for the houses, fields, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, all add up, at least 200 million taels! ”

"Two hundred million taels!"

Chen Qianfu gritted his teeth and spit out a few words, he was also completely frightened, how could there be so many!

In fact, there is nothing surprising to know that this is the famous Age of Discovery, the first time the world was connected, and countless gold and silver in the Americas were excavated.

Don't look at the fact that later generations often say that China closed itself off from the rest of the country and missed this great era, in fact, China was deeply involved in the Age of Discovery. And China is the most important supplier!

Silk, porcelain, tea, these commodities exchanged for one-third of the world's silver for China, completely alleviating the vicious deflation that has been all along. And by the time of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the currency was extremely rich, and it created a huge greed like Heshen, you must know that in the Ming Dynasty, even Yan Song's father and son could not be greedy for this Cheng dù, not because of lack of ability, but because of insufficient silver!

In this day and age, just from the dense journey of Western missionaries, Gu Zhenhua dares to say that the silver flowing into China is already considerable.

Chen Qianfu has been following Gu Zhenhua for a long time, and he is also contaminated, and when he hears the money, his eyes are green.

"Lord, what do you say, how do you start and eat this piece of fat?"

"Mr. Chen, aren't those people in the capital making trouble right now, let's take the opportunity to build momentum for the salt administration reform. If you want to go on the Northern Expedition, you want to be ashamed, you want to reform the bad government, you want to accumulate military strength, whoever dares to oppose it is to ignore the mausoleums of the previous emperors, I think this group of people who are full of benevolence and morality, what can they say! ”

"Hahaha, it's still the prince who is smart, and I'm going to prepare for it."

……

With Gu Zhenhua behind the scenes, Nanjing is indeed getting more and more troublesome, and there is a crazy attack between the two factions. With the civil and military officials of the imperial court as the core, led by Ding Huizhen, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he advocated full filial piety, negotiated peace with the Tartars, and welcomed back the bones.

However, Pei Hengwei was resolutely opposed to the matter, and they insisted that compromising with the Tartars was the real national shame and the real unfilial piety!

Pei Heng had instigated the scholars to make trouble before, and this time he was even more proficient, he personally wore filial piety clothes, held a mourning stick, went to the wine and tea house, and went to talk about it.

"In the past, Emperor Chengzu, five expeditions to Mongolia, died on the way back, and the Tartar trembled at the feet of Chengzu, humble as a worm. Now that the descendants are not filial, the country has collapsed, and the Tartars have been allowed to steal the capital and occupy the mausoleum of the old man. To be truly filial to one's ancestors, one should follow the example of Chengzu and be brave and resolute, sweep away the Tatars, and restore the mountains and rivers. Let the Tartars surrender to my feet again, and use the blood of their whole clan to comfort the spirit of Chengzu in the sky, and wash away the shame of their descendants! ”

"However, I am an important minister, I don't want to serve the country, I have no courage, I actually want to cut the land and pay compensation, endure humiliation and shame, and exchange for the bones of Chengzu. Let's ask, even if we succeed by luck and exchange the bones of Cheng Zu back, do we have the face to face his old man, and are we still worthy of being the descendants of the Ming Dynasty? ”

This incident has long caused a sensation in Jiangnan, and young scholars have gathered together to constantly argue about this topic. Now that he heard Pei Heng's words, he was also full of anger, and his blood was boiling.

"That's right, we can't bow to the Tartars, filial piety to the ancestors should be like the ancestors, the north expedition to the Tartars, the restoration of Sheji, and the surrender to the Tartars."

"The whole court is a bunch of soft-boned rotten wood bastards, their corpses are vegetarian, holding on to the cripples, and they have no sharp energy. It was they who made Daming fall to today, and these people should apologize to Cheng Zu! ”

A scholar from Huguang even said: "I have won successive battles in the court, there are King Zhongshan, there are Huang Houye, there are Governor Yan, and there are countless loyal ministers and good generals, how long can the Tartars be arrogant?" As long as you select elite soldiers, hoard men and horses, and rejuvenate the counterattack, it is right in front of you, why bother begging for mercy from the Tartars, weakening the prestige of the Ming Dynasty! ”

These young and vigorous scholars quickly chose to stand on Pei Heng's side, of course, some people were worried that the imperial tomb would be destroyed, the dragon veins would be damaged, and the Ming Dynasty would not be long in coming. But the voice was quickly silenced.

Hundreds of scholars roamed the streets, calling for the imperial court to take a tough approach. A large number of scholars ran to the homes of Ding Huizhen and other officials of the Lord and the faction, some scolded bitterly, some threw stones, and some threw dung.

There are also people who are ingenious, imitating Qin Hui's kneeling statue and burning a kneeling statue of Ding Huizhen, dressed in a big red court dress, and kneeling at the door of his house.

In the past, ministers and emperors have always fought more and less, so that the emperor is tired of coping, such as Jiaqing and Wanli, the pair of grandchildren simply hid in the harem, not suitable for the ministers to meet.

However, compared with the scholars, the strength and weakness of the ministers have changed, and they are chased and beaten, but they dare not be tough on these scholars. You must know that Dai Ying's group of eunuchs in the inner court are all staring at it, how did you scold the eunuchs for interfering in politics in the past, and how did you scold and persecute the scholars!

This is self-inflicted, so that you too can taste it.

Just when the two factions were in a big scuffle, Gu Zhenhua asked people to send the heads of more than 100 Tartar generals such as Azig to the capital, and on the other hand, he had another "light recovery".

In the excerpt, Gu Zhenhua emphasized that the situation of the enemy's strength and weakness has been reversed, and the struggle against the Qing Dynasty has entered a stage of stalemate, and the length of this stage depends on the speed of the internal integration of the Ming Dynasty. As long as tens of millions of people are mobilized and the wealth of the Celestial Empire is mobilized, an army of 300,000 can be quickly created, and it can avenge the ancestors and the emperor!

Later, Gu Zhenhua listed in detail the plan for the reorganization of the army, and also listed the required expenses and other items. In a word, 30 million silver, 300,000 troops, 3,000 cannons, restore the Ming Dynasty!

This report told the Ming army and the people, not only can we win, but also tell everyone how to win, the government and the opposition, all boiling, whether they agree or not, are competing to discuss.

Subsequently, Chen Qianfu, the governor of Nanzhi, Zhang Jinyan, the governor of Huguang, Yan Yingyuan, the governor of Henan, and others jointly wrote a letter, proposing "salt" and "sea", two policies to enrich the country, and asked the imperial court to promulgate them immediately!

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