Emperor Zhengxi called King Fujun to the Beichen Palace, where he dealt with government affairs, not to talk to him about his marriage, and when he heard that King Fujun had brought the topic to the lack of money in the imperial court, he hurriedly said: "Since I know that the imperial court has no money, it can be seen how hard I deserve as an emperor, as my brother, should you stand up and help me?" ”

"I'll help you?" King Fujun was taken aback by his words, pointed his index finger at himself, looked at Emperor Zhengxi, saw that he looked serious, and said with a dry smile: "Hehe, sixth brother, are you joking with me?" ”

"I didn't joke with you." Emperor Zhengxi sighed and said: "The court is now either my father's old minister, or the third and fifth henchmen, and there are few people who belong to me. As the saying goes, 'don't change your father's way for three years', what's more, now that my father has only abdicated, those old ministers who follow my father can't move, but the third and fifth people, if I just let it go, it is estimated that it will be one of them to sit in this seat when I turn back.

But if you really want to match the third and fifth children, with their years of operation in the imperial court, I can't win if I don't end up in person, but my identity makes it impossible for me to come forward in person, so this candidate to fight with them must be my people, and it can only be a prince with the same status as them. Of the remaining brothers, you are the one I trust the most......"

King Fujun didn't want to get involved in these treacherous power struggles, so he tried his best to refuse: "Thank you for your trust, but I'm really not that material, and I've never done anything bad before." ”

"Don't worry, I am behind you......" Just when Emperor Zhengxi tried his best to persuade King Fujun to help him, the chief eunuch Gao Shien replied, saying that Lord Chen, the head of the household department, asked to see him.

Emperor Zhengxi asked King Fujun to wait beside him, and after he met Lord Chen, the two continued the topic just now, and then called Lord Chen in.

Lord Chen, the head of the household department, entered the Beichen Hall with a bitter face. Last year, even though he tried his best to break each copper plate in half and spend it, the expenses reported to him by various departments, even if it was such an important matter as disaster relief, although he did not cut half like other expenses, he still did not give the full amount, and only agreed to seventy percent. In this way, he demolished the east wall and repaired the west wall, coupled with Emperor Zhengxi's repeated frugality in the harem, in the end, the two had no choice, so they simply wiped their faces and united with King Fujun to bring out some things from the palace and sell them, which barely supported the various expenses of the imperial court.

But taking out the things in the palace and selling them is not a long-term solution. After all, they don't sell particularly precious items, just some royal goods such as cloth, porcelain, rouge、...... These everyday things are taken out and sold.

It's not that they don't want to sell precious objects, but a lot of precious objects, such as antiques and famous calligraphy and paintings, although precious, but the number of pieces is small, most of them only have one or two, so looking at the high unit price, in fact, it is not as good as selling cloth so that most people with a little money can buy it, the price is relatively low, and the total value of the big road goods that win by walking is high; Moreover, everyone knows these things in the royal family, so it's okay to take out one or two pieces and sell them, but if the quantity is large, it won't work, and it will arouse suspicion.

But even so, the trade will not last long, and there are occasional large quantities of imperial supplies on the market, and everyone does not think so, but this situation often occurs, and everyone will feel strange.

The family has a way, as long as you use a little snack, although you can't be 100% sure, but according to some clues, these people can judge that it is the royal handiwork. At that time, the royal family would be disgraced.

In this era, the status of merchants was extremely low, and the big families were either like the three families of Jia Wangshi among the four major families, looking for a merchant as their "money bag"; Either the servants of the family will do business, and they themselves will not go into battle in person. For scholars, it is ashamed to talk about money. It was as if the business of their servants would separate them from money and commerce, and still maintain the prestige of their family.

As the highest representative of the scholar family, the royal family is at the top of the Golden Tower, so it is natural to maintain the image of "Qinggao", so once Emperor Zhengxi betrays the royal goods for money is revealed, it will inevitably be a great blow to his reputation. After all, although he is now the emperor, he has not secured this position, so those brothers see that there is a possibility of pulling him down, so after he ascends the throne, they do not behave very well.

Moreover, the royal product can be sold at a high price, because it has a "royal" name, so the world will feel rare, feel precious, but once these things become more, then it will inevitably affect people's impression of the imperial supplies, thus affecting the price, after all, there are many things, not worth much, this truth is still understood by the world.

Emperor Zhengde looked at the list of taxes in Jiangnan for the past ten years, and saw that the salt tax on it had been decreasing in the past five or six years, and asked with doubts: "Chen Aiqing, the Ding tax has increased year after year, which shows that the population of my Daqin is also increasing year by year, in this case, how can this salt tax still decline year by year?" As far as I know, the price of salt has not changed since 10 years ago, so there is no possibility that ordinary people cannot afford to eat salt, so what is going on? Don't all these extra people eat salt? ”

Chen Shangshu said helplessly: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister has raised the issue of the overflow of illicit salt with Your Majesty. The reason why the salt tax has been reduced year by year is because the official salt cannot be sold under the impact of private salt. ”

Although Lin Jin asked Wu Jiugong before, the Chamber of Commerce was not allowed to buy and sell private salt, just for fear of attracting the attention of the imperial court. But the profit of private salt is too high, especially after Lin Jin came up with the salt drying method, using this method to make salt, it can be said that in this world where manpower cannot be counted as a cost, there is almost no cost.

Driven by capital, the Chamber of Commerce now every time it does maritime trade business, when it returns, whether it is by the way or not, it will dock at the wharf in Luzon, turn all the ballast stones into bags of salt, and then go on the road and return to Daqin.

Therefore, except for the month when the territory of salt production was changed from Daqin to Luzon, the salt tax rose slightly, and the salt tax collected by the imperial court was lower and lower at other times.

The official salt cannot be sold, although the salt merchants in the chamber of commerce, as well as the salt merchants in other territories who have not joined the chamber of commerce, will still pay some money to buy salt, but the amount has also dropped significantly. In the past, the imperial court asked for salt to discuss donations, although the salt chamber cried poor, but in the end, the amount of money not only did not decrease, but even increased. But now the salt merchants are crying poor, they are indeed crying poor, because they do not sell much official salt on the surface, so the amount of donations has begun to gradually decline.

In fact, Chen Shangshu knows that 90% of the illegal salt on the market flows out of the hands of salt merchants, so those salt merchants who "cry poor" are not only not poor, but even earn more than before because of selling illegal salt, but there are some things that everyone knows, but there has been no evidence to prove that salt merchants are also selling illegal salt.

You must know that although the salt merchants are a bunch of pigs to be slaughtered in the eyes of the imperial court, this pig is not said to be slaughtered, they rely on the assets in their hands, and they have found a lot of backers in the court, so there are still people to help them speak.

Emperor Zhengxi said puzzledly: "Since the appearance of official salt, there has always been the existence of private salt. But unless it is the end of the dynasty, there will never be a situation where private salt exceeds official salt? Now that this situation is happening, am I actually a faint monarch who is about to destroy the inheritance of my ancestors? ”

Although Emperor Zhengxi's last sentence was ridicule, Chen Shangshu was frightened, and he knelt down in fear and pleaded guilty, "The minister definitely didn't mean that." Back to Your Majesty, there is a reason why private salt will exceed official salt. ”

As he spoke, he begged Emperor Jeonghee to send someone outside to wait for his servant to fetch something and come back.

After a little eunuch came in with a small box the size of a palm, Chen Shangshu took the box, opened it, and showed it to Emperor Zhengxi.

The inside of this box is separated from the middle, and the left side of the box contains snow-white, without a trace of impurities, delicate private salt; The one on the right is the official salt, but the appearance is far less than that of the private salt, not only the particles are large, but also the size is different, the color is turbid, and there are impurities.

"Your Majesty, please see, the one on the right is official salt, and the one on the left is private salt, and the price of private salt is less than thirty percent of official salt."

Emperor Zhengxi was stunned when he heard this, and he said for a long time: "Chen Aiqing, are you mistaken, the one on the left is the official salt." ”

Chen Shangshu smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, although the minister has a certain age, he is not old and confused to that point. To tell the truth, when the minister first saw the private salt on the market, the minister couldn't believe it, but this is the truth. Let's say something that makes Your Majesty angry, the minister's family now uses private salt, and as far as the minister knows, this situation is not only the minister's family, but even the internal affairs government purchases this kind of private salt. "So, Your Majesty, you should be able to understand why the salt tax can't come up, right?

Regardless of the courtiers below and Chen Shangshu when they were playing, in the recital, there was no reason to say that private salt was superior to official salt, but it was not as impactful as Chen Shangshu who took out the real thing and showed it to Emperor Zhengxi. He looked at the salt in front of him for a long time, raised his eyes and looked at Chen Shangshu, who was standing aside, and asked him to leave these two kinds of salt and retreat.