"Well, now our salt is completely smashed in our hands."

Li Xianshi said.

Ye Shanzong also followed: "Yes, take it out and sell it now, don't say it's for sale, even if it's given away for free, it will definitely be counted as salt of unknown origin, and it will be strictly investigated by the government." ”

"It can be said that this will is directed at us salt merchants!"

"This is so that the salt in our hands cannot be sold or given away except for eating it ourselves!"

Fan Shanjun said two sentences at this time.

Ahem!

Afterwards, Fan Shanjun coughed violently a few times, spit out a mouthful of blood, and grinned miserably: "It's really worthy of being the son of heaven who is in charge of power, whoever he wants to make money, whoever he wants to make can make money, he doesn't want anyone to earn, who can't make it!" ”

"Then how is this good, I have hoarded a lot of salt this time, and I have borrowed a lot of money from Daming Bank for this purpose, and mortgaged all my family property!"

"I'm the same, I can't let the whole family eat only salt every day, right?"

"yes, let's figure it out! So much salt has become salt from unknown sources, which cannot be sold or given away, and you have to spend money every day to prevent moisture and theft, so sooner or later you will lose your family! ”

The salt merchants all rose up without their masters, one by one like ants on a hot pot.

At this time, a person called Cao Youke Salt Merchant said: "If you want me to say, we shouldn't have been against the court from the beginning, we shouldn't have the intention of giving the Son of Heaven a horse, and not letting the Son of Heaven come to Yangzhou!" Now it seems that the arms are no thicker than the thighs after all, and people are really ruthless, and they really give up the salt for this piece, and we have no way to deal with it. ”

"That's right!"

"I heard my brother say that the interest-free loan that the Son of Heaven lent to Xiaomin to open a grocery store to sell salt still used our money, and it was the batch of silver that we asked the imperial court to copy from the Han, Li, and Ling families, and the eight million silver dollars we scraped together."

"Moreover, in order to prevent the people from borrowing interest-free loans and not buying salt, but squandering it, or using it for other purposes, affecting the sale of salt, the imperial court also specially issued only silver dollar coupons when issuing loans!"

"In this way, because only the government-run salt stores collect silver dollar coupons, other merchants do not accept silver dollar coupons because they are not worried about this, so that people can only buy salt to sell after getting interest-free loans, which makes many grocery stores appear in large numbers overnight."

"According to the Ministry of Households, this is also to re-promote the paper money pilot, they used the eight million silver dollars as a stacking capital (reserve), issued a special silver dollar coupon for the purchase of salt, and went around in circles, the eight million silver dollars have been in the treasury of the imperial court, but relying on a pile of paper, they have completed the business of opening a grocery store for many small people, and let a lot of stolen salt enter the homes of ordinary people."

"This hand!"

"I'm afraid that Zhang Juzheng's henchmen Wang Guoguang and these people will do it in the financial department taught in the ruling school! took our silver dollars, smashed our pots, and added a lot of livelihood to the people, but the court itself only paid a pile of beautifully printed Chu paper. ”

"Our benevolent monarch and his favored ministers are really good at governing the world!"

Li Xianshi smiled bitterly as he spoke.

Sonor!

"Too much deception!"

Ye Shanzong couldn't help it at this time, dropped a cup of tea on the coffee table to the ground, and drank it sharply.

Then, he looked at the other salt merchants, and said very depressedly: "In this life, I have never been so aggrieved!" I thought that taking 8 million silver dollars would be like sending the court away, but people directly used the 8 million to dig up our roots! ”

"Bow down."

"We are now fish on the sticky board, if we really want the imperial court to investigate what kind of salt of unknown origin and deceive the world that the salt is sold out, we will definitely be dealt with strictly, and if we are not found out, we will also be a dead end."

"Now I can only ask Your Majesty for mercy, for the sake of the descendants of Yan and Huang, give us a way to live."

Fan Shanjun spoke at this time.

"How?"

Li Xianshi asked.

Fan Shanjun said: "Give him back the face lost by His Majesty in the past, give him back little by little, find a way to let him come to Yangzhou, and beg him to come to Yangzhou!" ”

said.

Fan Shanjun continued to say with a depressed face: "Specifically, it is to return the borrowed money to Daming Bank, even if it is really mortgaged and sold property, it must be repaid; After all, now all the people in the world are the most strong and strong, and they can't even escape with money, so they can only do this; ”

"In addition, if there is money left in hand, immediately do good deeds, build bridges and pave roads, relieve widows and lonely people, donate money to schools, donate money to hospitals, donate money to disaster victims, and do it until His Majesty is satisfied, let him know that Yangzhou salt merchants are concerned about the common people and are actively giving back to the emperor's kindness and people;"

"We must also strictly control our children, and those who are guilty and not punished must be reported to the officials, so that Your Majesty will know that our salt merchants are honest and not favoritism!"

"In this way, Your Majesty may be moved, and feel that we are really subdued, and in the name of our more righteous deeds, we will be given a chance to make salt in the salt market overseas."

After Fan Shanjun said this, the salt merchants fell silent.

Even Cao Youke, a salt merchant who was the first to say that he was soft to the imperial court, hesitated: "This ......"

"When is it?"

"Reluctantly!"

"What Fan Lao said is right, we have no other way out!"

Xu Weihe, another salt merchant, hurriedly proposed at this time.

Li Xianshi also hesitated at this time: "In this way, it is indeed possible for Your Majesty to open up the net and give us a chance to make salt in the salt market overseas, as long as we let the salt in the salt market overseas, then the salt in our hands can be turned into salt made from overseas salt farms, and then sold out, but in this case, we will have to leave Yangzhou to go overseas, and we have to work hard to find salt farms." ”

"If not, what else can I do?"

"It depends on whether people are willing to give you this opportunity, and now that the government-run salt company occupies the domestic salt farm, and it is not yet able to mine overseas, it is willing to let us go!"

Fan Shanjun said with a wry smile.

"Reasonable!"

"That's all there is to it."

Li Xianshi nodded.

"yes, what else can I do?"

"Just continue to give up money to apologize to the emperor."

"If I knew this, I should have honestly spent the eight million silver dollars on entertaining the emperor, and collected the silver to give him the Jianxing Palace."

The salt merchants spoke one after another.

Only.

Ye Shanzong said in tears at this time: "I can't do it, I can't do it, in order to make a living, I want to flatter him like this, I think my ancestor Benqing Gong (Ye Qi) was back then, so that Xiaomiao could accept his words and finally respect him as the crown prince!" But now, I can't even ask the Son of Heaven to pay eight million silver dollars to give me the dignity of a salt merchant, and I am not as far as my ancestors! ”

After Ye Shanzong said this, he left here with a dejected expression.

And that night.

Ye Shanzong chose to commit suicide by hanging the beam.

He really couldn't spend money to buy Zhu Yijun happy.

In his consciousness, it should have always been the emperor bureaucrats coaxing their salt merchants, and there was no reason for them salt merchants to coax the emperor bureaucrats.

Following.

In the city of Yangzhou, the news of the hanging of Ye Shanzong, a big salt merchant, was spread.

Li Xianshi, a salt merchant, was approached by Jinyiwei the next day, saying that he had an affair with his brother Li Yongfang and his in-law Zhang Bing, the Marquis of Longping, and that he was going to be arrested.

Fan Shanjun and other big salt merchants are still insisting, insisting on waiting for the emperor to open up to them.

Therefore, Fan Shanjun and these people began to really do public welfare and charity, and they also honestly repaid the money owed to Daming Bank.

To this end, Fan Shanjun and other salt merchants also donated money to the Yangzhou Mansion, so that the Yangzhou Mansion could renovate Yangzhou City, making the streets of Yangzhou City more prosperous, and also asked the officials of Yangzhou to give the emperor a sparse and ask them to fund the construction of the palace for the emperor.

The salt merchants in Yangzhou were naturally subdued by this, saying that they welcomed the emperor this time.

However, as mentioned earlier, the level of civilization of today's Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the level of civilization that will be there three or four hundred years later.

The Son of Heaven doesn't need you salt merchants to make money for him to raise the army, and after throwing you away, other forces will not only scold the water dogs, that is, just follow the meaning of the court through the media, scold you for a few words, and then show favor to the Son of Heaven, but will directly end up eating people.

"You can't let Your Majesty know that these salt merchants have succumbed, and you can't even give these salt merchants a chance to give in and show goodwill."

"Tell Shen Yin County that the salt merchants' overtures are nothing more than an opportunity to move to the overseas salt production city for regeneration, after all, the imperial court is estimated to be unable to expand the salt field overseas for a while, but the imperial court has no energy, it does not mean that in addition to his two Huai salt merchants, there are no other merchants in the world who do not have this energy!"

"Isn't it just to invest money to make salt in the overseas salt market, and then pay taxes to the imperial court every year, this kind of thing, you can't let the two Huai salt merchants who have not taken the imperial court in their eyes do it, not to mention, overseas is not more than domestic, the variables are too great, so it is more important to let the loyal businessmen go."

Suzhou.

After Shen Shixing sent a letter to Shi, he still kept an eye on the affairs of the imperial court, and at this time wrote a letter to Shen Yiyi, who was in charge of rectifying the salt administration, and hinted that Shen Yiyi should not give the salt merchants a chance to be let go by the Son of Heaven.

After Shen always received Shen Shixing's letter, he naturally understood what Shen Shixing meant.

He knew that the so-called did not mean that other businessmen did not have this energy, and the implication was that his Shen family could also be his Shen family, and the businessmen behind them could also pay for the emperor to make salt and sell salt overseas, and there was no need to give such a large piece of cake to the salt merchants.

In other words, there is no shortage of businessmen who can do things for the imperial court.

The reason is also easy to find, they are more loyal than the salt merchants.

After all, what the salt merchants did was already very disloyal, so it was natural that they were more loyal.

Shen has never been a good person.

Therefore, soon, Shen Yijun was told Zhu Yijun, saying that when the salt works were confiscated, many salt merchants were found guilty of buying Xiyi firearms and raising Jiajiading.

At the same time, Shen always took advantage of the salt merchant Fan Shanjun and others to ask him to intercede with the emperor, as well as the right to act cheaply given to him by the emperor, and summoned all the salt merchants such as Fan Shanjun to the Grand Canal outside Yangzhou. (End of chapter)