The silence in the Qianqing Palace did not mean that the courtiers agreed, but that they did not know how to respond to the emperor's words.

On the one hand, the emperor did not mention any of the things of buying and selling nests in the salt law, and everything finally fell on the words "reselling illegal salt".

The emperor has already opened a big opening.

If you don't even have these four words, then this eucalyptus will be anticlimactic...... In the end, it is gently peeled off and nothing changes.

But these courtiers are also people who know the emperor, and they have gently exposed it? How is this possible?

However, on the other hand, it is just the resale of illicit salt, which is also very wide-ranging!

In fact, the change of the salt law really evolved step by step with the actual situation, and in the early years of Zhengde, at least several prohibitions were broken.

First, it is the example of the previous grain opening, and then in the orthodox and Chenghua years, there began to be some examples of accepting silver in the middle school, at that time, it was because of financial difficulties, in order to solve a certain problem, so the restrictions were relaxed, and the Ye Qi reform carried out in the fifth year of Hongzhi also referred to the precedent.

In the opening of the silver, the silver is to be handed over to the salt transportation department, and then the transportation department will start to dismiss the household department. That is to say, the first step of how much salt merchants pay and how much salt to open is to be completed in the transportation department.

There's a lot of stuff in it. There are not a few salt merchants who bribe the envoys to do tricks in it.

Second, in the early years, Taizu stipulated that the merchants in the newspaper must go in person to pay for salt, and they cannot find someone to pay for it.

But later, as the problem of guarding the branch worsens, there will be a situation, that is, the person who may be reported is dead, so what will happen to the salt in his hand?

】

Helplessly, in the first year of Hongzhi, the imperial court issued a decree to officially recognize that it could be used on behalf of the government.

In the era when it was not allowed to be paid on behalf of the merchants, because the merchants had to pay the salt in person, he could not do much in terms of physical limitations.

Because the whole process is very complicated, taking the two Huai salt farms as an example, the transportation department is in Yangzhou, and the inspection is in Huai'an, so it takes time to run around, right? And one's time is limited.

But after allowing the substitution, the person in the newspaper is not necessarily the person who supports the salt, so the powerful can use many people to do this.

In this way, the decay of the salt law has accelerated dramatically, and if it continues to evolve, ordinary salt merchants with no background will basically be able to benefit from this.

The third change is also a helpless, but harmful.

That is, the imperial court allowed salt merchants to buy surplus salt directly from stove households in the form of surplus salt supplements. The reasons for this are also very realistic:

After Chenghua, illegal salt has become quite rampant, because the life of stove households is becoming more and more difficult, and these people have to secretly sell the surplus salt.

On the other hand, salt merchants are unable to support salt because of the lack of salt production in the salt farms.

Therefore, the imperial court simply recognized and allowed the salt merchants to buy surplus salt directly from the stove households, so as to alleviate the problem of guarding the support.

At the same time, it is also to return part of the benefits to the hands of the imperial court.

However, allowing salt merchants to buy salt directly from stove households basically opened the door to the widespread use of private salt.

So far, Zhu Houzhao is facing the situation,

A powerful person can obtain improper benefits through a series of methods such as asking the emperor to beg for money, asking relatives or subordinates to report to him, using his own identity to overstep the salt, and directly selling illicit salt.

The situation has basically reached the point where the private salt cannot be removed, and the more it is suppressed, the more it will be.

Yang Tinghe was from a practical consideration, he said: "Your Majesty, the territory of the Ming Dynasty is thousands of miles, and the salt farms belong to no less than two hundred, and they belong to the provinces, and the stove households live in poverty, and if there is surplus salt, they sell surplus salt, and even those who have children and daughters sell their sons and daughters, and it is extremely difficult for the imperial court to blindly prevent the flow of private salt. Moreover, the salt works are distributed all over the place, and the imperial court has to send a large number of officials to supervise them, but if the officials are guarding and stealing, how can the imperial court know? The so-called investigation of illegal salt must be drawn from the bottom of the kettle! ”

Zhu Houzhao asked: "How to draw salary from the bottom of the kettle?" ”

"It's to give the stove a way to live!"

"With the remnants of salt no longer flowing in, and the imperial court cracking down on smugglers, the situation may be eased a little by taking such a two-pronged approach."

"He's right. A two-pronged approach. ”

Yang Tinghe's two-pronged approach did not refuse his intention to strictly investigate the smugglers, and even added to it. Zhu Houzhao naturally did not hesitate to praise.

On the other side, Min Jue, the secretary of the Criminal Department, said a realistic problem, "If Your Majesty wants to be a heavy minister who sells smuggled salt, the minister is afraid that the Criminal Department will be overcrowded." ”

"I'm magnanimous, haven't I?" Zhu Houzhao understood their concerns, "Min Shangshu, everyone knows that private salt is cheaper than official salt, but do you know why it's cheaper? ”

If this issue is to be clearly explained, the government of the state cannot be seen.

So it's hard to tell.

So Zhu Houzhao said one of the answers, "Because private salt doesn't have to pay taxes!" ”

Bang!

As his words fell, his fist slammed into the eucalyptus.

"You are all people who read poetry and books, how can I spare him when I meet such a lord, an internal official, and a literati?!"

Everyone bowed their heads and knelt down.

Since they dare not speak,

Zhu Houzhao continued, "Yang Tinghe, draft the purpose!" ”

Yan Song and Xie Pi brought a small square table with pens and paper on it, which had been prepared before.

Yang Tinghe got up, held the pen in his hand, and waited for the order.

Zhu Houzhao will seem fierce in this matter, once the order is given, I don't know how many families will be broken. But since the eleventh year of Hongji when he was still the crown prince, he had already thought about this clearly.

He wants to be the sage of Zhongxing, and the great things he does must start from the righteousness that is beneficial to the country, be upright, and govern the country with Taoism.

It is like inspecting illegal salt and arresting criminal officials, which is a measure that can stand up in any dynasty and generation.

“…… I inherited the ancestral industry, shouldered the country, the people, and did not dare to forget for a moment, and the salt law was corrupted to this point, especially the smugglers of salt who lost the country and mistook the side storage, which is the most hateful! It is advisable to affirm its prohibition, increase the number of officers and soldiers, and strictly supervise patrols and arrests. Whoever smuggles salt and harbors a house of resellers will seek to be arrested. will be the head of the leader as usual, and the rest of the party also asks to be filled with the army, and the law is strictly feared! ”

The first one is the first to be beheaded as usual!

It's going to kill your head!

The so-called Son of Heaven is angry and ambushes millions of corpses, it is like now!

After Yang Tinghe finished writing, he submitted it with a seal.

After finishing, Zhu Houzhao took it in his hand and said to the ministers: "All are flat." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"I've always been reasonable. You are either the nine secretaries of the imperial court, or the lord's family, the Ming Dynasty has the disadvantages of the salt law, do you say it should be governed? ”

Still no one spoke.

Where did Zhu Houzhao let them go, "British duke, you say it first!" ”

The British public thought to himself, the decree has been written and sealed, is it interesting to ask this question now!

"Returning to the Holy Lord, since it is a disadvantage of the imperial court, it should naturally be treated!"

"Chengguo Gong, Dingguo Gong?"

"It should be governed."

"What about you?" The emperor faced the six books.

The result was naturally no surprise, but Zhu Houzhao just wanted them to say these words.

Say it, and it's easy to do it below.

"That's the case, Liu Jin."

"The slave is here!"

"On behalf of the celebrant supervisor, the three state ministers represent the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and the imperial courtiers, and the six Shangshu Waijiali Temple, the Tongzheng Envoy and the Metropolitan Procuratorate represent the ministers to draft an official document together and act in accordance with the holy decree! There is a seal of the official seal of the yamen, but there is no signature of the yamen! Then spread it to the Quartet, so that the people of the world can see it! ”

Everyone was shocked, they didn't expect the emperor to come with such a move!

If you really want to talk about it, this is not the first time Zhu Houzhao has done this.

When you encounter something more important and a little difficult, this method is easy to do.

Because in the final analysis, the power of the Ming Dynasty is still pyramid-shaped, Zhu Houzhao can deal with the group of more than a dozen people, and it is not easy for the rest of the people to oppose it.

To be more realistic, that is, those people want to trust the relationship, and they don't know who to trust.

And if there are 'traitors' in these dozen or so people, then it is easy to do, you spoke and signed at the beginning, but you didn't do it yourself, who do you blame?

In addition, this form can also show the unity between the emperor and the courtiers in the court.

In the end, this is not the emperor's personal nonsense, but the result of the joint deliberation of so many people.

Although, this is the result of Zhu Houzhao's semi-coercion,

But when he made a statement in front of the emperor, did he only speak and not sign?

There is no such thing as a good thing in the world that is not responsible.

Zhang Fuhua, the imperial history of Zuodu, who had not spoken much, sighed slightly in his heart, the emperor's methods were too sharp, and he had the demeanor of Emperor Taizong back then.

But the Son of Heaven seemed to know this, so he ignored the obstruction and firmly grasped Shangzhi's guard.

It's actually about using a steel knife to open the way......

Although you can't say anything wrong, it's not necessarily intense.

And these people, the emperor actually cares about your attitude very much. It's just that if you really don't sign your name, you may not lose your life, but you will definitely lose your position.

It is still the first year of Zhengde, and in a few years, these high-ranking officials in the imperial court should be the emperor's people.

In the Qianqing Palace,

Zhu Houzhao watched them draft the text, watched the celebrant seal it, and watched the six departments send their respective big seals.

In this case, it is equivalent to the holy decree being issued first, and then all the main yamen in the court are speaking out in support.

Of course, with a big seal, it doesn't mean that there are no officials in the court, such as the chief minister and the imperial historian, who are opposed to it, but their official positions are small after all, as long as these dozen or so people don't take the lead, what kind of climate can the rest of the people become?

Zhu Houzhao came to the front of the Hubu Shangshu Hanwen and handed over the holy decree in his hand to him, "The salt class is under the jurisdiction of the Hubu, and the letter is also from you." Han Shangshu, now I will hand over this holy decree to you, and this is also my explanation to you! From then on, from the royal family and nobles to the common people, anyone who sells smuggled salt and misuses the country can be convicted according to the decree! I will order the Criminal Department, the Military Department, and the Dali Temple to assist, and send an order to the Celebrant Supervisor, the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the East Factory and Jinyi Guard to deter Xiaoxiao! ”

Han Wen has rarely done such a drastic thing in his life, but fortunately he met such a Mingjun.

So he took a step back very formally, bowed down, and then raised his back and shouted,

"The Ministry of Ministers and Households is still in Korean, and the order is received!

”