Although Zhou Hou didn't know what kind of medicine Chongzhen was selling in the gourd, she instinctively sensed Chongzhen's hostility towards Zhou Kui.

In this case, even if she did not participate in it, she could see that this ostensibly lucrative plan actually had deep hidden dangers.

Zhou Kui is not completely a money obsesser, and when he saw that his daughter's expression seemed to have a hasty reminder, he suddenly thought of the joint.

If you want to distribute the official salt output and persuade the powerful to give up the bondage with the salt merchants, you need real salt goods.

Now all he gets is the emperor's dictation, if he persuades everyone to abandon the salt merchants and let the salt reform go smoothly, but the emperor crosses the river and demolishes the bridge, and does not give a pound of salt, then he will not sit on the spot.

Thinking of this, Zhou Kui couldn't hold back and hurriedly expressed his worries to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen stroked his palms and smiled, but asked the little eunuch beside him to take a holy decree.

Liu Zongzhou was clearly authorized above, as long as the group of imperial relatives mentioned in the holy decree did give up control of the salt merchants, and let the imperial court completely control the salt merchants.

Then Zhou Kui can be their representative, extract the output of the salt farm for a year, and clear off the salt that has accumulated in the past.

Zhou Kui got the holy decree and turned it over and over to check it, it was indeed a genuine holy decree.

With this thing to save his life, even if the emperor repents, he has something to stop the mouths of other imperial relatives.

Thinking of this, Zhou Kui no longer hesitated, and immediately received the order to thank him.

As the news spread, within a few days, Zhou Kui's house was full of traffic and crowds.

After all, this is the only bus, and if you miss this time, the salt in the hands of the powerful will not be worth the original value.

Thousands of miles away, Yangzhou's salt governor Yamen is a crowd.

Only Liu Zongzhou, who was transferred here by the governor of Shuntian Mansion, led Huang Zongxi, Chen Qu and a few other proud disciples to sit idly at the bottom of the steps.

I only heard Huang Zongxi say angrily, "This salt merchant in Yangzhou is really hateful. ”

"Earlier, when the teachers first came here, they all deliberately stammered, and they had to invite the teachers to the banquet after stepping through the threshold."

"Fortunately, the teacher is temperamental and refuses, so there is no way for them. Who knew that when I went to ask them to discuss the matter of cleaning up the salt introduction, they all avoided it, saying that they were sick and couldn't come. ”

Liu Zongzhou smiled indifferently, "Isn't this natural? ”

"These salt merchants came to tie up before, hoping to use a small amount of money to avoid big losses from the imperial court."

"Now that they see that the big one is really coming, of course they are avoiding me like a tiger, for fear that they will be the first to touch the mold."

Huang Zongxi was still unfair, "I, Daming, have always been a farmer and a businessman, and a businessman is the cheapest. ”

"A few salt merchants, but they just made a few taels of silver, so they don't pay attention to the imperial court?"

"Teacher, it is better to send an order to the governor of Yangzhou, and ask him to send someone to check if these salt merchants are pretending to be sick. If anyone is found pretending to be sick, they will be brought to justice! ”

Liu Zongzhou laughed and said, "They lied about pretending to be sick, which violates the law of the Ming Dynasty?" Arresting people in this name will be laughed at by the world. ”

I only heard Chen Qu suggest, "Teacher, Taichong (Huang Zongxi's character) is not entirely unreasonable. ”

"Businessmen are heavy on profits, and blindly reasoning with them will only be looked down upon. At that time, they will be blindly passive and sluggish, which will cost your old man's face, and delay the emperor's errand. ”

"It's better for us to visit one or two privately, there are always those who have done a lot of bullying men and women, and we have to pull out one or two to make an example of the monkeys. As soon as this example was opened, it was expected that they would not dare to shirk it again, and this errand could be done. ”

Liu Zongzhou smiled and said nothing, "You guys." The east sentence and the west sentence are nothing more than purging me to cut through the mess quickly, they are all scholars' opinions, and they can't do anything! ”

Huang Zongxi was unconvinced and said, "Teacher, this quick knife cuts through the mess, but it is the golden sentence of Emperor Gao Huan of the Shenwu Emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty back then." Why is it the opinion of a scholar who can't do anything? ”

Liu Zongzhou patiently explained, "Cutting through the mess with a quick knife looks refreshing, and things are done on the surface, but people's hearts are difficult to stabilize, and in the end it still doesn't work." Just like the Northern Qi Gao Huan, its prosperity is also vigorous, and its defeat is also fast. ”

"Let's take our salt patrol as an example, why do those salt merchants dare not buy my account?"

Seeing the teacher's inquiry, Huang Zongxi said without thinking, "Of course, it's because they have the support of the Xun Qi giant clan behind them." ”

Liu Zongzhou shook his head, "There is someone behind him, this is just one of them." More importantly, because the imperial court also needs them. ”

Seeing that the two high-ranking disciples still didn't believe it, Liu Zongzhou continued to explain, "You don't think that the salt in our warehouse will automatically turn into silver taels, right? ”

"If salt wants to be turned into silver, it must first be sold to hundreds of millions of people in the thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. But how can so much salt be transported to the thirteen provinces? How to spin off to a local trading house? How do you sell bags in bulk to the chicken feather shop at the entrance of the village? Can you two do it yourself? ”

Huang Zongxi and Chen Qu glanced at each other and shook their heads helplessly.

"That's it. The imperial court first needed the salt merchant to pay the silver taels for the purchase of salt, which was a huge amount of money. ”

"Secondly, salt merchants are also needed to sell salt to all the people of the world through their trade routes."

"Wait until the salt merchants recoup their input, and the court will be able to sell them new salt goods the following year."

Huang Zongxi realized, "I see. Although the salt policy is now in ruins, this cycle is at least barely maintained. The teacher is worried that once he makes a move, he will scare away these businessmen, and the current salt government will collapse. ”

Liu Zongzhou nodded, "Not only that, but these salt merchants have huge capital, and they are also closely integrated with the emperor's relatives, civil officials and military officials, just like two chaotic strands that are intertwined and intertwined. ”

"The old man can not be afraid of a Marquis of Wuqing when he is in Zhili, but he must be frightened against this force that cannot be cleaned up."

Huang Zongxi and Chen Quening nodded.

Indeed, a large part of the salt was due to the indiscriminate use of salt by the emperor in the late Ming Dynasty in order to reward the people around him.

But at the same time, there are also some of the silver rewards of the imperial court, and the recipients are all military generals who have made meritorious contributions, or powerful ministers of economic affairs.

offended all these people, even if Liu Zongzhou had meritorious service in patrolling salt, he would be targeted when he returned to Beijing, and he would continue to take eye medicine until he was accused of being assigned to the army.

Huang Zongxi humbly asked, "I have been calm and relaxed these days, and I don't know what way to untie the two messes?" ”

Liu Zongzhou smiled and said, "Everything is decided and then moved." I discussed the method of separating the mess with His Majesty before I left Beijing. ”

"It's like the old way of making hemp, put them in a pot and boil them first! Cook until they are separated. ”

Huang Zongxi and Chen were still hesitating, but they heard a knock coming from the door of the yamen.

The ones who took the initiative to come to the door were the Yangzhou salt merchants who had avoided Liu Zongzhou before.