"When we evaluate a period of history objectively, we can see that although the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty sincerely wanted to achieve greater welfare for his subjects, it is obvious that the policies he formulated at the time of the founding of the country, if the timeline is extended, can be said to be diametrically opposed to the long-term effectiveness of the policies.

Before the reform initiated by Jiang Xinghuo, the imperial court was unable to solve the financial dilemma, because the interests involved in the salt law were so important that any change to the existing salt law system would obviously encounter great resistance, and for various reasons, the imperial court had no desire to carry out the change, and the only consensus among the civil officials and gentry was to adhere to the 'constitution', which was the original decision of Emperor Hongwu."

"1,500,000 taels? Yes, that's great!" In the Fengtian Palace, the participating ministers were silent. "Bang!"

Zhu Di smashed the teacup in his hand and said angrily, "Waste! It's all a bunch of rice buckets! I've raised you idiots! If you can't check the books, won't you count the counts? Do the national teacher do the math himself to find out the problem?!"

Salt tax, of course, is no problem from the point of view of the book, people don't do two books at all, and it is just seamless.

It's a pity that Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji have different calculation angles, they directly turned out the salt tax data of the Song Dynasty, and then calculated it in equal proportions, and did not follow the accounts of the salt yamen at all.

Since the proportion of taxes is basically the same, and the market share of official salt is larger, then I directly multiply the data of the Song Dynasty by 0.6 (100 million people in the Song Dynasty and 60 million people in the Ming Dynasty), and the salt tax receivable must be obtained.

The salt tax receivable minus the salt tax collected now, and then subtract the salt tax reduced by the exchange of salt in the opening of the Chinese law, that is the part that has been corrupted.

No matter how you do it, no matter how clever and meticulous you are, you can't avoid this loophole.

That's the beauty of mathematics.

So for so long, no one has found this problem?

Of course, there are people, but the people who find it are either humble and dare not say it, or they can't say that they are interested.

So it has become a secret that some key people know well.

Zhu Di was very angry! The consequences are severe!

Zhu Di originally thought that although the salt method was deep, it was at most a hundred thousand taels.

After all, Zhu Di was clear about the fish that Li Jinglong fished when he was in charge of the silver class before, and the entire silver class of the Ming Dynasty may not be able to fish out 100,000 taels of silver.

Zhu Di is different from his father Zhu Yuanzhang, he can't stand the greed of civil officials at all, here in Zhu Di, as long as you can work, as long as you don't take too much, he can tolerate it.

But I didn't expect that just the two Huai salt farms were calculated by nearly one million taels of silver.

And, it's every year!

In the more than 30 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, how much wealth has been swallowed up in the salt law?

If Jiang Xinghuo hadn't told him the truth, I'm afraid he would have continued to be kept in the dark.

Think about the fact that you have just ascended the throne, and your ass has not yet sat on the hot dragon chair, and there is already a miasma of smoke underneath.

How could Zhu Di be calm?

The saddest thing in the world is this, everyone else has already lied to you, and you don't know anything.

And in this world, the most painful thing is that you already know the truth, but you can't change that fact.

It's like knowing that you've been given green, and you have to pretend that nothing happened, that you should eat, drink, and go to work.

Thinking that this group of people didn't even give the scum to the imperial court, Zhu Di gritted his teeth with hatred.

"Your Majesty is angry!"

There was a chorus of echoes in the hall, and it was clear that the ministers were aware of the seriousness of the problem.

This time, the participants were mainly the three law divisions and the household department, plus the cabinet and the president's law change affairs yamen.

"Anger? You put my anger at ease?"

Zhu Di said irritably: "With such a huge amount, how can I calm my anger?!"

Whether the emperor was really angry or whether he was making some kind of gesture, the officials present at the meeting did not know

, but there is no doubt that someone needs to come out and answer at this time.

Whoever the emperor's gaze swept to, he had to be conscious. Zheng Ci, the secretary of the Criminal Department, Ma Jing, the left attendant of the Criminal Department, and Li Qing, the right attendant, were the focus of the emperor's eyes at this time. At this time, they still didn't understand that the emperor might indeed be angry, but as the secular embodiment of imperial power, his anger was more of a clear political signal than the expression of personal emotions.

- An emperor was very dissatisfied with the current salt law system.

At this time, it was about their personal fate, and they had already met in private before, so naturally they didn't dare to have any objections, so Zheng Ci came out and said.

"Your Majesty, please forgive your courage, the salt law has accumulated for a long time, and it really needs to be changed, and the Criminal Department has no objection to changing the salt law."

"Your Majesty, Zheng Shangshu is justified in what he said."

Jin Youzi, the newly appointed Shaoqing of the Dharma Trial Temple, also agreed: "This matter must be investigated immediately, otherwise there will be endless troubles! If this matter is not clear, today's events above the salt law will be repeated repeatedly, and my Ming will definitely be greatly injured by this

Although Jin Youzi's statement is a bit exaggerated, and he is absolutely selfish, and he wants to take advantage of the situation to fight the first battle of the establishment of the new department, but his position is correct, and when other ministers heard this, they all expressed their approval, and they all felt that this was a huge crisis and that it must be dealt with seriously and quickly.

Think about the feeling of anger and exhaustion in the face of financial embarrassment when reviewing and handling state affairs every day in the past few days..... Zhu Di's eyes were as red as rabbits.

Zhu Di's back leaned back on the dragon chair, his face was so gloomy that he was scared to death, and said word by word: "Chen Ying, read the results of the investigation and tell me what is going on!"

When the ministers heard this, they all held their breath.

This is a big case involving the economic lifeline of the imperial court, who dares to talk nonsense?

Even the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi stood aside honestly.

These days, Chen Ying has been in charge of the investigation of the case, and he has brought out the young imperial historians who have been newly supplemented and promoted by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and he has walked all over the political envoys of Huang Huaibu, and he does not need to patrol the imperial history of salt at all.

Although Chen Ying is ruthless, this kind of cool official is undoubtedly the best knife in the emperor's hand.

Even in the case of unfamiliar life, Chen Ying's Metropolitan Procuratorate still achieved quite amazing results. At this moment, his demeanor was respectful, but his tone was indifferent, and he said calmly: "Back to Your Majesty, through the investigation of the Lianghuai Salt Farm, although the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not find out where the 1.5 million taels of salt tax deficit calculated by the national teacher was, since the Lianghuai Salt Farm accounts for about half of the national salt tax, so there is a salt tax deficit of about 70-800,000 taels in the Lianghuai Salt Farm, there should always be some clues, this time it can be mutually corroborated, and many problems have been identified."

"First, there is the order of receiving grain and receiving salt."

"In principle, according to the requirements of the Kaizhong Law, the salt affairs yamen of the national dynasty was to 'summon merchants to transport grain and salt with them', and the amount of grain that merchants in Kaizhong had to accept for each introduction of salt was determined according to factors such as the distance required by Kaizhong, which was called the rule...... In practice, it is necessary for the salt affairs yamen to compile a survey and base book, and then send it to the political envoy and the capital secretary and the health office corresponding to the destination of Kaizhong. Only when the merchant has delivered the grain to the destination, and the political envoy, the capital secretary, and the health office where the destination is located have signed it, and written the amount of grain and salt to be paid in the form of an official document, and then the merchant can go to the corresponding transshipment department to take the salt according to the number of the official documents."

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang has clear regulations on the order of grain payment and salt extraction, that is, "There is a fixed place for salt, and it is published in copper plates, and those who commit illegal salt are guilty of death, and those who forgery quotations are like this." Salt and separation, that is, the theory of private salt", salt introduction is a certificate that can only be obtained after the merchant pays the grain to the destination, just like a voucher for a certain task to exchange rewards, the essential purpose is to ensure that the salt tax of the imperial court does not appear as much as possible, and Lao Zhu's so-called "salt and separation, that is, the theory of private salt", is even more clear about the attitude of "I would rather kill by mistake than let go...... If you don't bring your homework to school, you can say that you forgot your home, and if you don't have salt when you transport salt, then your head will have to move.

Chen Ying continued: "However, when the imperial historian of the Metropolitan Procuratorate thoroughly inspected the transfer and lifting division of the Lianghuai Salt Works, he found that there were local wealthy merchants who took salt first

and then pay the grain."

As soon as these words came out, the hall was suddenly awe-inspiring.

Order is important, and in most cases, when the order is reversed, a lot of things are wrong.

If it's complicated to play, it's the white wolf with empty gloves, here with the salt lead, don't take the salt, but use the salt as collateral to borrow money, borrow several times or even more than ten times the money, and then open up the relationship to take the salt, if the turnover is not open, first sell the salt for money, and then give the money to the Jin merchants part, let them transport the grain, if it is a lead to salt It doesn't matter, if tens of thousands of leads?

This is the same as the play of some industries, first take the voucher to pull the capital overdraft, and then do things, and finally if the grain can't reach the destination, then there is no way, the salt is overdrawn is a big deal, no one dares to pierce this layer of window paper, can only do their own bad debts.

Zhu Di didn't speak at this time, Zhu Gaochi, Xia Yuanji, Zheng Ci and others also looked obviously a little surprised, the chaos of the salt law was obviously expected by everyone, but no one expected that in just over 30 years, the most important foundation of the Kaizhong Law was shaken.

"What else? And then again."

"The second is that the stove households crossed the salt yamen and came into direct contact with the merchants."

Under the social division of labor in the Ming Dynasty stipulated by Lao Zhu, the stove household is the producer of salt, and the salt produced by the stove household is divided into two kinds in terms of nature, one is the positive salt, and the other is the residual salt.

Positive salt is the prescribed part that the stove households need to hand over to the imperial court, that is, the total salt output index every year, and the quota allocated to each person's head, for example, this year it is necessary to produce 2 million salt, and after distributing it to each salt farm, the salt farm will be divided into different areas, and finally given to the stove households.

As the name suggests, residual salt is the remaining salt, that is, the salt that is boiled by the stove in addition to the regular salt...... There are many uncontrollable factors in the process of boiling salt, just like farming, it is not that there are many seeds or how large the land area is, there must be how much output, although the indicators of the stove households are difficult to complete most of the time, but occasionally there are more than the expected indicators, it is also very normal.

Both the regular salt and the surplus salt in the hands of the stove households need to be handed over in full, but according to the beginning of the salt law, "those who have surplus salt are also the salt left over from the stove households." Hongwu initial system, commercial salt has a fixed field, no over-the-field purchase; There is surplus salt in the diligent stove to send to the field division, 200 catties for a lead (the size of the lead), give rice and a stone", and the surplus salt can get more than twice the cost of the salt.

Well, don't think that Daming is compassionate, this thing is just like the modern Alipay subway card, nominally how much money you spend every month can be discounted, but in fact you just sit every day, and in the end it is just barely a little bit over the line, and the part earned after the discount is not enough to be affected.

According to the provisions of the Salt Law, the merchants in Kaizhong can only go to the warehouse of the salt yamen to withdraw salt after paying the grain, and they cannot have any connection with the stove households, and after the salt in the hands of the stove households is handed over, they also receive the rice from the government's rice warehouse as the cost of work, that is, "order the two Huai Yun Divisions to set up warehouses and hoards at the convenience of each field, and distribute and store them every year in the nearby prefectures and counties of Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Jiaxing, as well as Huai'an warehouses and the surplus rice of the army".

"However, after the surplus salt was changed to gongben banknotes, due to the gradual collapse of the banknote method, the actual value of the treasure banknote was declining, and the stove households could not support their families with the income from regular salt alone, so they could only boil salt day and night to increase salt production to maintain their lives...... However, due to the serious deficit of the imperial court and the chaotic management of the salt yamen, more and more surplus salt appeared unable to be collected, and in the face of the protests of the stove households and the requests of the merchants, the salt affairs yamen began to acquiesce, and the merchants could bypass the salt affairs yamen and collect the surplus salt directly from the stove households, so as to alleviate the dilemma of too much surplus salt and the salt affairs yamen could not collect all the salt according to the order."

"And ......"

Speaking of which, Chen Ying is such a rampant person, he doesn't dare to say it, but the emperor stares at him, and he can't help but continue.

"According to the actual investigation of the imperial history, the most important reason that drove the stove households and the merchants to come into direct contact was not the change of the cost of the work, but the salt system."

Just as rice was used to collect the surplus salt of the stove households at the beginning, the tax nature of regular salt at the beginning is also the same as the current system

The degree is different, and the household salt system is used, that is, the household is used as the basic unit to collect the salt when taxing.

But this system is obviously problematic, that is, some stove households have more mouths and more labor, and it is very simple to complete the task of salt production, and after completion, there is still more energy to boil salt, and the surplus salt that is boiled is their own wealth.

"The two Huai salt farms are fried and run salt classes, and their service is uneven, and those who have one ding and do thirty salt introductions, and seven or eight people who also run thirty introductions."

At that time, the imperial history of the salt patrol discovered this problem, so he wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang and said.

In view of the obvious serious drawbacks of the household salt system, Lao Zhu ordered the salt tax to be levied according to the number of Dingkou, and in the twenty-third year of Hongwu, the Ding salt system was officially adopted in the Ming Dynasty...... However, although it seems fair to levy regular salt according to Dingkou, and it also increases the salt tax revenue for the imperial court, it actually causes a greater burden on the stove households than before.

Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to pay more positive salt, and on the other hand, the surplus salt can only be exchanged for the depreciating treasure money, so it is no wonder that the stove households have to take the risk of violating the salt law and directly sell the surplus salt in their hands to the merchants who offer fairer.

However, the consequences of this are obvious, and it undermines the foundation of the Kaizhong Law - the salt introduction system.

The imperial court gave the stove household treasure money, and the stove household paid salt to the imperial court, which was a closed-loop process, and the merchant wanted to obtain the qualification for salt sales, so he could only buy salt from the imperial court, and the salt quotation was the legal basis for selling salt.

Now there is confusion in the order of salt introduction and grain payment, and the stove households have direct contact with merchants, which has led to the failure of the logic of salt introduction...... Without the middleman of the imperial court to make the difference, which merchant would go to the trouble of Baal to transport grain to the border first and then come to get salt?

It was these two points that caused the revenue from the salt tax to disappear by 1.5 million taels out of thin air.

After figuring out how the 1.5 million taels disappeared, the ministers in the palace couldn't help but feel worried.

It seems that a bloody storm is inevitable.

"The people sent by the minister to various parts of the Lianghuai Salt Works brought back some information and bills, this matter is related to the great cause of salt administration, and the minister does not dare to be proficient, so he has come to present it to His Majesty's Imperial Inspection." Chen Ying said as she handed over a letter with both hands.

Zhu Di opened the envelope, took out the thin letter paper inside, glanced at it, his face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot, looked up at the ministers in the palace, gritted his teeth and said, "How can this be true! The salt tax revenue is insufficient, and you dare to be greedy for so much? Is that how you repay me?!"

"Wechen don't dare, Wechen is definitely not corrupt." "There is no corrupt behavior of the minister!"

"A minister is an honest official, and he will never do such a thing that violates his conscience."

"Wechen didn't do this, please Your Majesty to be aware of ....."

The hall was in chaos for a while, and the ministers shouted one after another, saying that they had absolutely no corruption.

"Yes, I believe in you."

Zhu Di's eyes were cold, and he said, "Then, I want you to explain this."

As he spoke, several bills in the letter were pinched in Zhu Di's hand.

"How did the money end up in the pockets of you central officials? Am I raising you with a swarm of moths?"

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Di named them one by one.

Hearing this, the named officials quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed and begged for mercy.

"The minister is guilty, the minister is guilty!" "I hope Your Majesty will be lightly dismissed!" "Your Majesty's forgiveness! Your Majesty forgives your sins!"

These officials of the Criminal Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate wept bitterly and regretted, but in the three law divisions, it was Dali Temple that was not implicated because it had no connection with the salt administration, and these people now only hope that the emperor can open the net.

However, the reality is always cruel, and when the emperor is determined to investigate and punish corruption, no amount of explanation will help.

"Come, pull them down, and put them in prison after being flogged according to the law, and punish them severely." Zhu Di said coldly.

As the eunuch shouted, "Drag it out—"

Several strong eunuchs walked up and dragged the criminal department Langzhong, the chief officer, the foreign officer, and the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate who were kneeling on the ground like pigs and dogs waiting to be slaughtered

dragged it on.

A scream and wail rang out.

After a few moments, calm returned to the main hall.

Zhu Di pondered for a long time, and suddenly asked, "Zheng Shangshu, I remember that you have always loved money, why didn't you participate in it this time?"

"Your Majesty! Although the minister is a little greedy for money, he always asks His Majesty for rewards, but he is absolutely loyal to the monarch and serves the country, and has never done anything bad that endangers the Ming Dynasty, let alone corruption and bribery!"

Zhu Di snorted coldly and scolded sharply: "What a sentence to serve the country with loyalty."

"In that case, why would your lieutenant take bribes? Is that how you led the Punishment Department?"

Zhu Di took the opportunity to glance at Ma Jing, the left attendant of the Criminal Department, and immediately became angry, and shouted: "Ma Jing, do you think that if I didn't point you just now, there is no evidence of you? I will give you a chance to confess your sins, but you will not shed tears when you see the coffin."

Ma Jing only knew at this time that it was not the time for the Criminal Department to give an explanation to the salt merchants, but that he was already dying, he trembled all over, fell to his knees, and hurriedly kowtowed and confessed: "The minister should die!" The sin deserves death! The minister was confused for a while, so he did the thing of accepting bribes! Your Majesty, the minister knows that he is wrong! Let your vassals live!"

"Let you go?" Zhu Di sneered, "If you go out of here safe and sound today, then what will I explain to Emperor Taizu Gao during next year's salt class?"

"The minister knows it's wrong! Your Majesty spares your life!" Ma Jing knelt on the ground and kowtowed to admit his mistake.

Zhu Di frowned, and coldly spit out three words: "Drag it down!"

Ma Jing was frightened and shouted desperately, "Your Majesty, the minister is really wronged! It is only by being deceived that the minister commits such a mistake!"

Ma Jing was held up by two powerful eunuchs, and he wanted to struggle but couldn't move at all, so he had to let the two eunuchs drag him away.

Li Qing, the right attendant of the Criminal Department on the side, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw this situation, fortunately he cleared up the relationship early, otherwise he wouldn't have escaped this catastrophe now.

Zhu Di looked at this scene coldly.

The meeting between the three law divisions, the household department, and the cabinet ended in an extremely cold atmosphere.

The cabinet was only responsible for recording the meeting, while the household department reported Jiang Xinghuo's speculation, and Chen Ying of the Metropolitan Procuratorate was responsible for announcing the results of the investigation.

Judging from the results, the biggest beneficiary is Chen Ying, who took this opportunity to completely clean up the imperial histories left by Huang Xin, as well as some imperial histories that disobeyed him, and basically controlled the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

The weakening of the Criminal Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is also a subtle benefit to the Dali Temple and the newly established Trial Temple, which are responsible for the review, after all, the power of the Criminal Department was too great and too strong.

A weak penal department is what everyone needs.

Ma Jing was thrown into prison, and after the dismissal, the position of the left squire was probably taken over by Li Qinglai, and who the new squire would fall into has become the focus of contention among the major forces.

After the meeting.

Zhu Di looked at Li Qing, who was summoned separately in front of him, and asked calmly, "I ask you, do you have any private contact with Cabinet Sanyang?"

Li Qing was stunned for a moment, and immediately replied, "The ministers and the cabinet are just general acquaintances."

Of course, Li Qing knew what the emperor meant, and what the emperor asked was not whether he had any dealings with the cabinet Sanyang, but whether he had dealings with the eldest prince.

In the six departments, the eldest prince promoted four left servants, and the emperor obviously did not want him to become the fifth.

For other judicial and legislative departments, the weaker the Criminal Department at this time, the better, but Zhu Di only hopes that this matter will end here, and it is the most in line with Zhu Di's interests to take over the legislative power of the Criminal Department, remove and promote a group of officials, and let the Criminal Department completely under his control.

"General friends?"

Zhu Di squinted his eyes slightly, stared at Li Qing, and said, "Since it is a general acquaintance, how could the cabinet speak for you before? I asked the cabinet what they thought of the people in the Criminal Department."

Li Qing hurriedly said: "This minister really doesn't know, Your Majesty, the minister has no personal contact with the cabinet and the eldest prince, only some official contacts, that's all, absolutely nothing

Other intersections."

Zhu Di's face looked cloudy and changed for a moment, and said, "Get up, I believe you, from today onwards, you will be the left servant of the Criminal Department."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Li Qing said happily, he knew that everything just now was Zhu Di testing him, and he just hoped that his performance was not bad, and Zhu Di should not be suspicious because of this.

After Li Qing left, Zhu Di instructed the eunuchs beside him, "Order Xia Yuanji, the head of the household department, to come to see me."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The eunuch bowed and retreated. Not long after, Xia Yuanji, who was dressed in a scarlet robe, hurried to Zhu Di.

After Xia Yuanji entered the house, he first saluted Zhu Di, and then said, "Xia Yuanji, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, see Your Majesty."

Zhu Di glanced at Xia Yuanji lightly and said, "Aiqing is exempt from courtesy."

After that, Zhu Di pointed to the twists and turns on the dragon case.

This is Xia Yuanji's letter, advocating that the tax reform should be comprehensively promoted in all fields such as salt and tea, including the idea of land taxation proposed by Jiang Xinghuo in the edict prison before, and further levying inheritance tax and family division tax on the landlords and gentry.

"It's too much of a hurry, it's not the time yet."

After Xia Yuanji stood up, Zhu Di said again: "Wei Zhe, you are my right-hand man, I value you very much, you are a smart person, you should know my hardships, and you know why I summoned you today."

Xia Yuanji sighed and said, "Your Majesty, your grievances Weichen understands, but Weichen really doesn't want to get involved in the temple battle, this twist and turn is all for the sake of the country." Look at the book

"I never wanted to involve you in it." Zhu Di was also a little helpless, he rubbed his eyebrows, and said slowly: "Reform the tax system, rectify the banknote law, and clean up the salt tea...... It's not that these things shouldn't be done, but they have to come one by one, and the national teacher wants to eat a fat man in one go, do you think so too?"

Xia Yuanji's eyebrows revealed a strong look of worry: "Your Majesty, the problem reflected in the incident of the Lianghuai Salt Farm this time is really too serious, if it is not handled well, the finances of the entire Ming Dynasty will be over...... Alas!"

He shook his head and sighed, as if he was feeling sorry for Da Ming. "Take this letter back, I won't keep it."

"Your Majesty forgives your sins." Hearing this, Xia Yuanji hurriedly kowtowed, with a look of shame on his face, his expression was obviously for Zhu Di.

Although Jiang Xinghuo did not appear by himself and still worked in Daming Bank, he entrusted Xia Yuanji to make a report.

At the same time, it was also planned that if the scale of the Lianghuai Salt Works incident could be further expanded, then it would take this opportunity to strive for a comprehensive reform of the tax on monopoly commodities such as salt tea.

But at present, it seems that this goal has obviously not been achieved, Zhu Di has his concerns, and is unwilling to suddenly accelerate the pace of reform, and only agrees to do one thing at a time.

With the deepening of the reform process, standing on different positions, Zhu Di and Jiang Xinghuo began to have some minor differences, and at present, of course, it is only on issues such as action steps, and it is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong, and it makes sense to do what to do.

"When it comes to salt and tea, salt comes first; The salt field in the world, the first in the two Huai."

Zhu Di's meaning is very clear, other things will not move first, this time only the salt will be moved, and only the two Huai salt fields will be moved.

In fact, this is determined by the important position of the Huai salt tax in the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue, according to the "History of the Ming Dynasty

Food and Salt Law", as the largest salt area in the Ming Dynasty, only five years of Hongwu, when the Kaizhong Law was just promulgated and implemented, it was able to reach an annual output of 352,000 yuan of salt, accounting for 30.32% of the country's 1.161 million yuan, and the annual tax payment of the center accounted for 55.1% of the country, far higher than the proportion of its salt production in the country, and it was a veritable half of the salt industry.

At present, the external situation of the Ming Dynasty is indeed relatively bad, the war against Annam is underway, and the invasion of the Timurid Khanate is like a hanging sword, I don't know when it will fall, the Ming must preemptively kill the Mongols in the north before the sword falls, and then deal with Timur with all its might.

It is precisely on this background that the domestic reform must be prudent, and it must not be rash and cannot cause major regulations

The change of the mold.

Therefore, Zhu Di's consideration is not unreasonable, Zhu Di believes that Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji can understand his hard work.

Zhu Di waved his hand and said, "You go down first."

"The minister retired." Natsuhara Yoshishi saluted, then turned to leave.

"Alas!" Looking at the back of Xia Yuanji's departure, Zhu Di sighed softly.

Xia Yuanji is a smart person, and he has been promoted step by step, and now his power in the court is even more prosperous than Jian Yi and Ru Yu.

It's a pity that since he was impressed by Jiang Xinghuo's finance and taxation in the edict, he is now getting closer and closer to Jiang Xinghuo, which makes Zhu Di, as the emperor, feel a little vigilant...... This vigilance, while not yet turning into suspicion, is nevertheless unsettling.

But no matter what, if Zhu Di wants to complete his great cause, he has to make money, and he has to make a lot of money, and whether it is the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi or those pedantic civil officials, there is no way to help him make money.

Only capable ministers like Jiang Xinghuo and Xia Yuanji in his eyes can dare to risk the world's disapproval, replace him to fight against the gentry and civil official groups, pry the corners of these inherent interest groups, and give him a steady stream of money.

Therefore, reform cannot be stopped.

Although Zhu Di has some normal thoughts about his subordinates as an emperor, just like "a gentleman's deeds do not care about his heart", he still gave Jiang Xinghuo a happy support.

Soon, a holy decree came out of the palace, ordering the national teacher Jiang Xinghuo to be fully responsible for the reform of the salt law, and at the same time, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jinyiwei cooperated to continue to dig deep into the corruption of the two Huai salt politics. As soon as this holy decree came out, for a while, it shook the whole city.