From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 528

The accumulated problems in Jiangnan can be said to be the most serious accumulated problems in the Jin Dynasty. It involves business, official administration, and even social customs.

In Zhou Yuan's view, this problem is deep enough and covers a wide range. Because the opponent's forces are intertwined, strong and united, it is almost impossible to find an angle to start.

Now it is almost April, and the time for the production of Jianjia is very close. It is estimated that it will be May when it goes south.

What can be prepared in this more than one month?

Zhou Yuan, who returned home, was very troubled by this problem. For this reason, he asked Guan Lu to find a lot of information and planned to study it carefully during this period.

Although this period of time is free, there are too many things to deal with later. The expansion of the Military Equipment Bureau, the manufacture of weapons, the expansion of the Beijing Camp, and the rectification of Jiangnan make people sweat.

This does not include the reconstruction of the Guangdong Navy, as well as the sea control, export trade and the ownership of Haojing.

In addition, the conflicts in the southwestern Tusi area have intensified, and it is imperative to change Tusi to officialdom, but there must be a right time to start.

With many troubles lingering in his mind, Zhou Yuan had to write a letter to his father-in-law Zhao Cheng, asking about the specific situation of Yangzhou Salt Affairs and trying to make a breakthrough in this regard.

After several days of hard work, he had no clues, so Zhou Yuan adopted the principle of proximity and simply invited Liu Jing to his home.

"Duke Wei is anxious!"

As the Minister of Revenue of the Jin Dynasty, Liu Jing seemed to have seen what Zhou Yuan was thinking. While drinking tea, he said, "It's already evening and you still invited me to be your guest. I guess you have something to ask."

Zhou Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "Lord Liu, don't keep me in suspense. The Jiangnan region will eventually be rectified, but now I have no idea and don't know where to start!"

"Lord Liu is experienced. Please give me some advice, even if it's just a chat about the situation."

Liu Jing just smiled and said, "This is a long story. The major business groups in the Jin Dynasty each have their own pillar industries and ways to make money."

"The way of Shanxi merchants is grain and iron, the way of Chaozhou merchants is tea and porcelain, and the way of Zhejiang merchants is salt affairs."

"But there is no clear dividing line, compared to For example, Shanxi merchants also make pottery and sell porcelain, and sell private salt, but their scale is not as large as the other two. "

Speaking of this, his face suddenly became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "But whether it is Shanxi merchants or Chaozhou merchants, their influence is not as good as Zhejiang merchants. Do you know why?"

Zhou Yuan frowned, thought for a moment, and then said: "Coverage and huge profits?"

"Well said, but it didn't get to the essence."

Liu Jing said solemnly: "The court's supervision of grain and iron is extremely strict. Grain is the foundation of all people, and iron is a national treasure. Shanxi merchants can only make small profits but quick turnover for grain. If they want to hoard grain and drive up prices, the government will come to their door immediately. "

"As for the tea of ​​Chaozhou merchants... Duke Weiguo, how many people in the world of Jin can afford tea? Is it 20%?"

"Even the cheapest and cheapest tea is a common poor tea. Can the farmers afford it? They are satisfied with enough porridge. "

"But who doesn't eat salt? Billions of people in the world, who can live without salt!"

Speaking of this, he sneered and snorted heavily: "Do you know how terrible the Yangzhou salt merchants are? They almost monopolize the salt of the entire Jin Dynasty. Except for a few provinces such as Yunnan and Sichuan, all the people in other places have to eat their salt!"

"How much is this? How many officials are involved? Salt affairs are politics, this statement is not an exaggeration at all."

"Your father-in-law Zhao Cheng, the top scholar appointed by His Majesty, where is he now? He is working as a salt inspector in Yangzhou, a small official from the fourth rank."

"But how many fourth rank, third rank, and even third rank Shenjing prefecture governors want to be that official."

"Because they are rich! What a lucrative position!"

Liu Jing took a sip of tea and then gritted his teeth and said, "Salt management is more difficult than provincial management. This is true. The previous salt inspector is now the Minister of Personnel, almost the successor of the Ministry of Personnel."

"You should know the difficulty of salt management by looking at the spots."

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but wonder, "Why is salt management so difficult? I mean, the rampant private salt is already an open problem. Why hasn't the court been in charge of it?"

Liu Jing said, "It seems that you don't know much about salt affairs."

"Why are there salt merchants? Why is there commercial salt?"

"Because everyone needs to eat salt, and there are only so many places that produce salt, so resources need to be allocated."

"The court doesn't have so many people to be responsible for allocation, and it doesn't have the financial resources to pay such a high cost."

"If we do this, more than 80% of the people in the world can't afford salt at all."

"So we can only let the salt merchants do it. TheyResponsible for transporting grain to obtain local salt permits, and then sell salt with the salt permits. "

"In this way, the allocation of grain, the allocation of salt and the profit of salt merchants are completed, achieving the best of all three. "

"But the salt permits are issued by the government. There are so many salt merchants. Who should the government give them to? It must be the big salt merchants who have credibility and foundation. "

"What problems will this cause?"

Zhou Yuan thought for a while, and then said in a deep voice: "Small salt merchants have no way to survive. They have limited grain transportation and can't get salt permits at all. They either go bankrupt or are absorbed by big salt merchants."

"In the long run, small salt merchants will die out, leaving only the few giants."

Liu Jing continued to ask: "In this case, will those big salt merchants become familiar with the local government? After all, it's these few families who come and go!"

Zhou Yuan said: "So, in order to make huge profits, they began to conspire. ”

“Salt merchants bribed officials, officials issued salt permits, divided the accounts privately, lied about the data, and private salt began to flood.”

Liu Jing nodded and said, “Duke Weiguo really understands. For decades or even hundreds of years, batches of officials have been supported by these salt merchants. What can the court do?”

“Kill salt merchants? With those corrupt officials, new salt merchants will soon emerge.”

“Kill corrupt officials? Salt merchants will soon bribe new corrupt officials.”

“Kill at the same time? Where can we find evidence? Does the country not need stability? Does the court not need order?”

“Salt merchants have small officials above them, small officials have big corrupt officials above them, and big corrupt officials have court officials above them. One ring after another, one layer after another, how many imperial envoys went to investigate private salt, but ended up finding people they couldn’t afford to offend. How can they continue to investigate? ? ”

“When His Majesty first ascended the throne, he was determined to investigate. The Inner Court Department only took one month to find out four earls, two princes, and two old princes.”

“How can we investigate this? What the hell!”

Liu Jing looked at Zhou Yuan and sneered, “Do you dare to investigate? Everyone knows that if you investigate, you will die.”

“Whether the masterminds behind the scenes will be dealt with or not, the imperial envoy who investigates salt must be the scapegoat. Even if it is for stability, he must be killed.”

“Private salt is a giant tree rooted in the Great Jin Dynasty. Not everyone can uproot this giant tree. At most, they can just pick off a few leaves and count it as a job.”

Zhou Yuan took a deep breath, and the pressure was even greater.

What the senior sister said was right. To rectify Jiangnan is to face the darkness of the entire Great Jin Dynasty.

This is much more difficult than fighting a war.