Gao Hongtu, the deputy assistant of the cabinet who was accompanying Zhu Youzhen, and Li Ruolian, the commander and envoy, saw Zhu Youzhen's expression panicked, and they didn't know how to speak.

In the end, Gao Hongtu tried to ask: "Your Majesty, don't you like this Huaiyang dish?" ”

Zhu Youzhen naturally didn't look indifferent because of the tastelessness of this dish, and when he saw Gao Hongtu suddenly asking himself, he also asked back: "If I remember correctly, Aiqing is from Jiaozhou?" ”

Gao Hongtu naturally hurriedly said yes.

"It seems that Jiaozhou, Shandong also produces salt, and its land has always been overflowing with illegal salt, and do you have any clansmen in the Gao family who are engaged in the salt industry?"

Zhu Youzhen still remembers that Gao Hongtu defected and did not follow Zhang Shenyan and other rebels to fall into danger in the imperial court.

Gao Hongtu's style is still worthy of Zhu Youzhen's appreciation, which also makes Zhu Youzhen realize that although Gao Hongtu has no talent to help the world, his ethics are still good, and he can distinguish between right and wrong.

Zhu Youzhen suddenly felt that he could actually give Gao Hongtu a chance to benefit the family, and with the position of the second assistant of the cabinet and Gao Hongtu's status among the gentry in Jiangnan, let him lead the reform of the salt industry, perhaps making the resistance much smaller, and the benefit was naturally to make the Gao family an extremely rich and noble imperial businessman.

Gao Hongtu didn't know that His Majesty Zhu Youzhen was going to give himself a great fortune, and when he heard Zhu Youzhen ask about the matter of private salt, he thought that His Majesty was going to rectify the salt affairs, so he had to reply: "Don't dare to deceive Your Majesty, the Weichen family is a generation of salt merchants, and now the flood of illegal salt is indeed a chronic disease of the government, but the traffickers of the illegal salt are either princes and princes or outlaws, and the rectification of salt affairs can be said to be very involved." ”

"Very good, I asked you this, not to crack down on illegal salt, but to eat salt by the people", Zhu Youzhen said and told Gao Hongtu his thoughts.

"Since the Aiqing family is a salt merchant for generations, they should understand that illegal salt is difficult to prohibit and official salt is difficult to sell, not only because of the intricacy of the power of the illegal salt sellers, but because the private salt is cheap and high-quality, and the official salt is expensive and adulterated; Most of the income from the salt industry of the imperial court flowed into the pockets of the powerful and wealthy, but it also benefited the people; At present, even under the iron fist, it is difficult to work for a while, and it is difficult to change the status quo of official salt, which is not beneficial to the people, and it is not a move to win the hearts of the people. ”

Zhu Youzhen said and said: "And the price of salt is set by the imperial court, and the output of salt is agreed by the government, so that the people will not have no edible salt, and the city will not have clumsy salt. ”

Gao Hongtu also understood what Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen meant, and knew that this was a good thing for His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Youzhen to give his family a day of great wealth, so he hurriedly got up and bowed his head directly: "Weichen Xie Your Majesty Longen!" ”

"Get up, you are the first assistant of the cabinet, and your protégés and former officials are all over the world, it is naturally a good thing for you to take the lead in this matter, but if your Gao family becomes an imperial businessman, I can't let you have it alone", as he spoke, Zhu Youzhen patted Li Ruolian:

"Jinyi Wei commanded the same knowledge that Li Ruolian has been guarding me since the beginning of the southward migration, and his hard work is high, you should be able to understand, let him participate in your Gaojia salt industry three percent shares, he Li Ruolian alone gets half of it, I account for two and a half percent, and the rest of the salt merchants you introduced, the same is true, what you have to do now is to count the number of existing salt producing areas in the Ming Dynasty before the start of commercial tax collection in July, how many salt companies need to be established, how to arrange the way out of the salt merchants and salt gang after the salt introduction system is banned, how much benefit the people can get, how much can the government benefit, At the same time, mobilize your students to play this matter, and when the time comes, I will let you take charge of this matter, with the help of your Gao family, and you are the second assistant of the cabinet, I believe that you can handle these things well. ”

After Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, Li Ruolian also thanked him, and from a certain point of view, he is now also starting to be regarded as Zhu Youzhen's royal capital manager in salt affairs.

Zhu Youzhen allowed himself to occupy a certain proportion of the profits of the salt industry, which was naturally necessary.

The imperial finance has always been divided into internal funds and treasury, and the profits of salt and iron mines belong to the emperor, and Zhu Youzhen now only occupies a part of it for the future to stimulate scientific and cultural undertakings and improve the quality of life of the royal family.

Gao Hongtu naturally did not refuse Zhu Youzhen to occupy a certain percentage of the commission, and he believed that the salt merchants who would become imperial merchants in the future would definitely not refuse, after all, this was the wealth given to them by Zhu Youzhen.

When the salt merchants were still throwing stones everywhere to ask for directions for salt introduction, Zhu Youzhen had already begun to unite with big bureaucrats like Gao Hongtu to move their cakes.

However, Zhu Youzhen does not care about the life and death of most of the salt merchants, after all, their families also support many low-level people, from salt transportation to grain transportation, they are all co-ordinating.

Zhu Youzhen wanted to control the price of salt and control the quality of salt, not to make most people unemployed, so he decided to summon Wang Jiaqin of the Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty before returning to Beijing to discuss the matter of encouraging the salt merchants who had not become imperial merchants to take out loans to transform.

Zhu Youzhen established the Daming Central Bank, but until now it is only a savings business, lending has basically not been speculated, and businessmen have not yet been in the habit of lending bank money when doing business.

This time, the salt merchants are transforming, and Zhu Youzhen can naturally encourage them to borrow money from the bank, and stimulate them to expand their capital and business ideas to more industries, rather than just being limited to salt, grain, tea, etc.

In the future, the development of light industries such as textile, leather, paper, and daily chemical industry also needs the participation of a large number of private capital and businessmen, and only in this way can the further development of the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty be promoted.

Zhu Youzhen didn't want these wealthy businessmen to only know about the trade of salt, iron, tea, grain, and cloth.

After returning to the River Governor's Office, the sky began to darken, and Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but ask Li Ruolian: "I have given you such wealth, have you ever thought about what you will do when you get this wealth in the future, answer truthfully!" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Weichen did not dare to deceive Your Majesty, naturally bought land to buy real estate, now the north is occupied by Jiannu, many scholars in the north live in Jiangnan, so that the price of land in Jiangnan rises, housing prices rise, although Weichen is the commander of the Jinyi Guard, but also does not live in two courtyards, there is no real estate at home, the family of eight is all Weichen Yulu and His Majesty's New Year's Festival reward life!"

After Zhu Youzhen heard this, he couldn't help but sigh that Li Ruolian, as a third-grade official, still has living pressure in the Jiangnan where prices are high, not to mention the people at the bottom, it seems that his salt reform is very necessary.

(End of chapter)