Man dies for money, and birds die for food. Zhu Youxiao had to admit that Yuan Shizhen's move was very powerful, pointing directly to the weakness of people's hearts.

In fact, it is also true that after the introduction of the "Outline Law", salt merchants rushed to pay the salt tax in order to obtain the qualification of hereditary operation. The salt merchants who escaped also returned to their old jobs.

There is a problem, although the short-term has made earth-shaking changes in the salt policy of the two Huai, and the income of the salt tax has increased. But this hereditary plus monopoly is tantamount to a time bomb, which will bring big trouble sooner or later.

After Liu Ruoyu finished speaking, Zhu Youxiao also came to an instinctive conclusion. Without careful study, he knew why the salt merchants were so rich and why the common people ate salt so expensive.

But now seems to be the time not to reform the salt administration, or to say that it is not appropriate to overhaul it.

First of all, the drawbacks of the Compendium have not been too obvious, and the salt merchants have not yet reached the time when they were as arrogant and domineering as they were in the Qing Dynasty;

Second, less than ten years after the implementation of the New Deal, the salt introduction owed by the Kaizhong Law to the salt merchants has not been paid off, and the government is not trustworthy.

The last point is the most critical, Zhu Youxiao still doesn't know how deep the water is.

There are so many things that go into this, such as how many officials have colluded with salt merchants to form interest groups; How much private salt is squeezing the market of official salt, and why can't official salt compete with private salt......

I'm afraid I'm going to make a secret order to investigate the price of salt in various places, and I'll let the eyes and ears of Dongchang inquire more about the situation of officials and salt merchants.

Zhu Youxiao did not make a decision immediately, and the crux of the "Huai-Guangdong dispute" was again on the demarcation of areas and the diversion of salt, and this problem should be resolved first.

After all, he didn't know enough about the salt administration of Daming, and Zhu Youxiao was cautious.

As soon as Liu Ruoyu retired, the officials sent by the household department were summoned to arrive.

It stands to reason that after the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the salt law system was implemented, that is, "the governor of the imperial history and the Senate of the political secretary appointed a member to be in charge of the salt law", and the household department only put the salt into the warehouse, and did not directly manage the salt administration.

But when the emperor wanted to ask, the household department still found an official who was familiar with the salt administration, although the official position was not very large.

Lin Yundai has been working in the household department for more than ten years, and he looks older than his actual age, but he is still just a man.

This time he was summoned to the palace, and the emperor was in a hurry, and he couldn't find a suitable candidate for a while, so he got this opportunity.

Worried and excited in his heart, Lin Yun knocked inside, and unexpectedly got an embroidery pier to sit on, which made him even more afraid.

Zhu Youxiao didn't care about the size of the official position, he needed to get to know Yan Zheng well, he felt that the time was very long, and it was a little awkward to stand and play.

After just a little thought, the emperor began to ask, first of all, it is relatively basic, how many salt-producing areas are there in the country, and how many salt farms are there under the salt area.

Lin Yundai was really familiar with salt affairs, signed diagonally, and answered one by one respectfully.

The emperor continued to ask, some simple, some complex. Lin Yundai also cheered up and tried to answer accurately in order to satisfy the emperor.

Time passed quickly, and with the understanding of salt affairs, the emperor's questions became more in-depth, and finally asked about the division of the introduction.

"I think the division of the introduction is quite unreasonable, has no one proposed to change it?" Zhu Youxiao took a sip of tea and asked with a slight frown.

Lin Yundai hesitated a little, and thought about it for a long time before bowing down and saying: "Long live, the unreasonable division of the introduction is not a new problem. The whole court also knew about it, but in the end it was difficult to change. ”

Zhu Youxiao raised his eyebrows and asked suspiciously, "Why is this?" ”

Lin Yundai replied truthfully: "The purpose of maintaining the shore diversion system is to ensure that the tax collection, especially the amount of the Huai salt tax, which occupies a large proportion, cannot be endangered. ”

Zhu Youxiao lowered his eyes, pondered for a long time, and bowed his head slightly, "I see, I understand." ”

The emperor didn't say anything for a long time, and Lin Yundai saw the palace people next to him give him a look, and felt that it was time to retire, so he wanted to get up.

"What do you think is wrong with this salt law system?" The Young Emperor suddenly raised his eyes and asked in a deep voice.

Lin Yundai hurriedly sat down the ass again, thinking quickly in his mind, this question is very big, and it is really difficult to answer.

"Say whatever you want." The Young Emperor's tone softened a little and said, "There is no perfect system, there will always be flaws. ”

Lin Yundai swallowed hard, and carefully replied: "Long live, Wei Chen thinks that the defect of the salt law system is that there is no special permanent institution, and the relationship between the salt inspection imperial history and the salt field is not a relationship between superiors and subordinates. ”

The corners of the young emperor's mouth turned up, showing a slight smile, and said: "The system construction is not complete, and it is simply impossible for one person to manage the huge affairs of the salt law and Dao by relying on the inspection of the salt imperial history. ”

Zhu Youxiao did not elaborate, in addition to the lack of skills in patrolling the salt imperial history and the low efficiency of supervision, the cooperation of the local government is one of the keys to the effective implementation of the salt law.

However, the salt law system does not have a rigid requirement for local cooperation, which is very easy to lead to the phenomenon of local disputes and unfavorable affairs.

Moreover, the relationship between the salt patrol and the salt field is not that of superiors and subordinates, and the implementation effect has a very great relationship with the strength of the salt patrol history. If there are too many human interference factors, it will certainly lead to the emergence of a large number of corrupt phenomena such as collusion between officials and businessmen.

In the final analysis, the salt law is not only imperfect in the system, but also involves the ability and ethics of officials, and it can still be attributed to the rule of officials.

The tax authorities have not yet been established, and there is still a lot of talent gap, which is a whole salt method, and it seems that there is more shortage.

Not only these two departments, Zhu Youxiao has long found that the number of local officials is insufficient. How many people can be killed in a county government, but it also has the functions of the county government, public security, courts, taxation and other departments, which is simply ......

"There are too few officials in the Salt Law Dao." Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but sigh.

Lin Yundai thought for a while, bowed down and said: "Back to Long live, since the Wanli New Deal, in order to alleviate financial difficulties, Zhang Jiangling has cut and eliminated a large number of officials. Not only are there very few officials in the salt law province, but also local officials. ”

The drastic decline in the number of local officials has led to the need for a single official to wear multiple hats in order to maintain the normal functioning of the local administration, and it is difficult for the officials of the salt law province to be responsible for their own work.

According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", an official named Du Shi also held as many as seven positions when he held the position of the salt law road, which shows that the officials in charge of the salt law and road system at that time had many tasks.

Zhu Youxiao smiled bitterly and said, "Lin Yundai is very familiar with salt affairs, very good." Well, I'm a little tired today. ”

Lin Yundai hurriedly got up and gave a salute to retire.