I

When the prince was studying the East Palace course, Xu Ying also arrived in Yangzhou, the capital of Jiangsu.

The entire Jiangsu officialdom is wary of the new chief envoy. No way, Xu Ying's previous identity was too sensitive, and the emperor actually sent the "Head of Jinyiwei" to govern Jiangsu?

However, after more than half a month in Yangzhou, Xu Ying didn't seem to plan to change anything.

He just summoned subordinate officials normally, listened to reports from various prefectures and counties, and dealt with official documents step by step.

With this approach, some people are more vigilant, while others are completely relaxed.

Wang Mingran, who had been boating on the West Lake, heard that Xu Ying had become the Zuo Buzheng of Jiangsu Province, and was so frightened that he took a fast boat overnight to Yangzhou to meet him.

After handing out invitations for several days in a row, Wang Mingran was finally summoned.

"Caomin pays homage to the feudal lord!"

As a top salt merchant, Wang Mingran stepped forward to salute politely, standing in front of Xu Ying like a primary school student.

Xu Ying's attitude was very kind, even with a smile on his face, he greeted warmly: "Brother Mingran, please sit down quickly. You and I have known each other for many years, why should we be so alien?"

"Thank you, sir." Wang Mingran sat down nervously.

Xu Ying said: "It's been nearly ten years since the last farewell. My brother Mingran hasn't aged, he's still so energetic, and there isn't a trace of gray hair on his temples."

Wang Mingran apologized and said with a smile: "Your Majesty is concerned about labor, but in fact it is all dyed, and the temples have already turned gray."

Hair dyeing technology has long existed in ancient times. According to the "Hanshu", Wang Mang dyed his hair and beard black to show that he was not aging in order to calm his mind.

There are also unofficial records that Kou Zhun in the Song Dynasty dyed all his beards white to look mature and prudent, and used it to win the trust of the emperor. Su Shi also wrote a poem to ridicule Wang Tinglao, saying that this guy dyed his hair to look tender and shamelessly curry favor with the powerful minister Lu Huiqing.

Hair dyeing became more popular in the Ming Dynasty, and small advertisements were even pasted in the government offices of officials.

Xu Ying asked people to watch tea and didn't talk about business at all. She followed the topic of dyeing her hair and said: "I came to Yangzhou to take up my post this time, but I also found an interesting thing. There is a noble young man in the city who dyed his temples purple and brought his entourage Walking through the market, everyone who comes and goes looks sideways.”

"This hair monster!" Wang Mingran said.

Purple hair was not allowed to be dyed casually in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not prohibited in the Datong New Dynasty.

Xu Ying did not criticize this, but said: "The blue hair and purple temples are novel and interesting, and they look more graceful and noble."

The two kept chatting for half an hour, Xu Ying only talked about trivial matters, and Wang Mingran became more and more restless. He once helped Xu Ying develop a secret agent, and he knew that Xu Ying seemed harmless to humans and animals, but when she actually did it, her relatives did not recognize her.

However, Wang Mingran couldn't guess what Xu Ying was thinking.

He wanted to be completely subdued and tell all kinds of dirty things, but he was afraid that it would be self-defeating. What if Xu Ying didn't know how to investigate the salt affairs?

Finally, Xu Ying picked up a teacup to see off the guests: "Brother Mingran, it's getting late. I still have official business, so let's toast and chat some other day, and we must be drunk by then."

Wang Mingran stood up and bowed to say goodbye, but when he reached the door, he couldn't step over the threshold. His right foot was raised and lowered several times, as if he had some foot disease.

Xu Ying didn't speak, just sat there quietly holding a teacup.

Suddenly, Wang Mingran gritted his teeth and turned around, knelt down and said, "Master, please help!"

Xu Ying then put down the teacup: "Let's talk."

Wang Mingran said: "The villain will take the initiative to pay back the salt tax that the Wang family evaded all these years... No, double the pay!"

"That's it?" Xu Ying remained expressionless.

Wang Mingran finally confirmed in his heart that Xu Ying was sent by the emperor to clean up Jiangsu. He didn't dare to hide any more, and said: "Officials in the Jiangsu Salt Affairs Department more or less accept bribes. The higher the rank of officials, the less they dare to openly accept money. The salt merchant has a calligraphy and painting shop in Yangzhou. They secretly bought official calligraphy at high prices, and the most expensive one was sold for 3,000 taels."

Xu Ying still had a wooden face: "Continue."

Wang Mingran said: "Hui... Hui merchants and Jiangxi merchants joined the government to annex all the business of Western merchants (Shanxi merchants) in Jiangsu."

Commercial mergers are normal, and it is obviously messy for the government to intervene.

Xu Ying asked, "How did you merge?"

Wang Mingran replied: "Although Western merchants are declining day by day, there are also many Western merchants who have obtained franchise licenses for salt merchants. Some Western merchants have opened salt farms in Jianghuai; some Western merchants have been allowed to transport salt to other provinces. Every time the government thoroughly The investigation of the salt affairs only focused on the Western merchants, and those Western merchants did not dare to violate the law. But if they did not violate the law, they would violate the law. According to the law of the court, the first few times were only warnings and fines, and then the franchise license can be revoked.”

The Gan merchants came from the land of Longxing in this dynasty.

And Huizhou merchants supported Zhao Han very early on, and even helped Zhao Han take Yangzhou without bloodshed.

These two forces are united, and the government is still pulling sideways. How can the Shanshan businessmen stand it? Even if they were forced to sell their shops and salt fields, the Shanshan merchants did not dare to appeal for injustice, for fear that they might lose their lives in the end.

Over the past few years, the industries of Western merchants in Jiangsu have been swallowed up like this.

Xu Ying was still not satisfied: "Are you avoiding the important ones and taking the light ones? What's the matter with the rising salt price in recent years? The Ministry of Commerce has issued repeated orders and repeated requests, announcing the guide price of table salt every year. Why is the price of Huai salt getting more and more expensive?"

Wang Mingran swallowed his saliva and explained: "The weather is getting colder and colder, and it is not easy to dry salt. The wages of workers in the saltworks are getting higher and higher."

"So that's it, you can go." Xu Ying didn't refute this nonsense either.

Wang Mingran was even more afraid to leave after being told, he became more determined at this time, Xu Ying had already grasped the truth, after all this was the "Head of Jinyiwei" in the past.

Wang Mingran bit the bullet, gritted his teeth and said: "After the Western merchants' industries were annexed, Jiangxi merchants and Anhui merchants joined forces to raise prices. The merchants (salt transporters) are also ours, and they went up together. The imperial court sent people to investigate, and they all agreed. , saying that the cost of making and transporting salt has increased.”

With the cooperation of the Jiangsu Salt Affairs Department, Jiangxi merchants and Huizhou merchants jointly monopolized Huai salt, not only monopolizing the manufacture of Huai salt, but even monopolizing the export of Huai salt.

Xu Ying was still dissatisfied: "If you want to keep your business, don't hide it. Your Majesty is most concerned about the land administration. Manipulating the price of salt, a light sentence will only result in a fine, and a heavy sentence will at most revoke the license. That's all. , His Majesty will send me to Jiangsu to govern?"

"Tian...Tian Zheng?" Wang Mingran's mouth was parched.

Xu Ying said, "Did the officials of the household office in Jiangsu participate in this?"

Wang Mingran shook his head: "No. The household officials in the county can handle such trivial matters without disturbing the government, let alone the province."

"boom!"

Xu Ying, who had always been indifferent, finally became angry when she heard this, and threw her teacup out of anger, "A trivial matter? You call it a trivial matter to plunder people's fields!"

For the sake of political achievements, Jiangsu officials allowed merchants to expand the salt farms, robbed the people's lands, and changed many grain-growing lands into salt farms. Farmers who lost their land could only be forced to work in the saltworks, so that there would be enough workers in the saltworks, and they took the opportunity to lower their wages.

The government, on the other hand, increased taxes on the salt industry, so the entire Jiangsu officialdom turned a blind eye.

Wang Mingran knelt anxiously, anxiously waiting for his disposal.

Xu Ying patted the table and said, "Here is a pen and paper. Write down everything you know. Which officials and which merchants, the clearer the better. Try to atone for your crimes, and I can keep your salt merchant license. But, We have to make up for the tax evasion, and prepare a large sum of money as a fine.”

"yes!"

Wang Mingran scrambled and scrambled, and ran to pick up a pen to write the confession, his forehead and vest were covered with sweat.

Xu Ying really didn't dare to get rid of all these salt merchants, otherwise the market would be chaotic in the short term, which would affect the livelihood of the people in several provinces. But it must be severely punished, otherwise the court will lose its majesty.

The general solution is to revoke one-third of the salt merchant licenses. Then, redistribute these franchise licenses, recruit merchants from Shanxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and break the monopoly of Jiangxi merchants and Huizhou merchants on Huaiyan in one fell swoop.

Salt merchants whose licenses have not been revoked will also pay taxes and impose heavy fines.

Xu Ying represented the emperor and the imperial court. As long as he dared to do something, no matter how good the salt merchant was, he would be obedient. This is not Europe, and businessmen don't even have the right to jump around.

Take the Qing Dynasty in history as an example. The rich Yangzhou salt merchants actually made "Yangzhou merchants impoverished" during the Daoguang period.

At that time, there were hundreds of merchants operating Huaiyan salt, but they quickly went bankrupt and only a few dozen remained. The bankruptcy rate of Jianghuai salt merchants was close to 90%. Jiang Chun, the commoner friend of Emperor Qianlong and the chief general merchant of Jianghuai, died in poverty. The children of some great salt merchants, the males were the accountants of the masters, and the females were even reduced to Huajie and Liuxiang.

What happened to the salt merchants? Of course it was slaughtered by the court!

Emperor Qianlong was good at making money, but money cannot be changed out of thin air. Every time Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, local merchants paid for his reception. Merchants not only had to bear the extravagance of the emperor, but also donated silver to the court, and then quietly sent silver to the emperor's accompanying officials.

Donate to officials secretly, only donate to the court in the open. In the early years of Qianlong, there were less than 10 million taels. In the later period of Qianlong and the early years of Jiaqing, it quickly increased to 27 million taels.

In addition, uprisings continued throughout the country, and floods and droughts in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River occurred frequently, and salt merchants were asked to donate money whenever something happened.

It is impossible for the Jianghuai salt merchants to be foolish enough to make cash machines. Since they have given money, they will naturally have to get it back from other places.

As a result, the salt tax of the imperial court plummeted, and the price of salt among the people skyrocketed.

In the second year of Daoguang, the imperial court felt that it was time to clean up the salt administration, so as to block the loopholes for salt merchants to make money. For a while, Jianghuai salt merchants were unable to make ends meet, and 80 to 90% of them went bankrupt in more than ten years.

This is the ancient Chinese society. Facing the imperial court, businessmen had to stretch their necks to be slaughtered.

Xu Ying received the confession written by Wang Mingran, and for the next month, she continued to deal with official duties as usual, without any intention of doing anything.

However, the salt merchants took action and surrendered to the government one after another, making up the full amount of the salt tax they evaded. At the same time, they lowered the salt price collectively, earning performance frantically, for fear that they would become the chicken that was killed.

Xu Ying secretly wrote a letter to the emperor, roughly as follows:

"According to the secret investigations by the National Security Council and the Inspectorate, there are not a few farmlands that have been encroached on the Yangtze River and Huaihe coastal areas. Even in some villages a few miles away from the sea, because they are next to the river, there are merchants who set up saltworks and use seawater to cook salt. There are also many illegal small salt farms, most of which are related to local officials."

"The occupied farmland has been salinized. It is very difficult to restore it to farmland, and the operation is not worth the loss. These farmlands can only maintain the status quo. However, the salt merchants must pay a large amount of compensation for the farmers whose land is occupied. For the salt merchants in the farmland, half of the businesses canceled their franchise licenses and recruited merchants from other provinces to take over. The remaining half of the businesses retained their licenses, but all the license holders were exiled, and the licenses were replaced by their family members to continue to hold them. Only by doing this can the salt business be guaranteed No mess."

"Jiangsu's Household Department, Finance Department, and Salt Affairs Department, the chief officials suggested to deal with them more severely. Especially the Salt Affairs Department, the situation of disguised bribery is extremely serious, and a group must be killed in order to establish the prestige of the court."

Zhao Han received Xu Ying's secret report, and when he saw the list of officials who suggested execution, he sighed in pain for a moment.

They are all young doers with outstanding political achievements!

It is estimated that there will be trouble in the court, and Li Rixuan will probably not be able to bear it, and take the opportunity to impeach the faction headed by Yu Shiqin.

As for the clean-up of Jiangsu's officialdom, there will be no surprises. The authority of the founding emperor is right there, as long as Xu Ying, who bears the emperor's order, dares to act, the local officials don't even have room to jump around.

Even relying on Xu Ying alone, the magistrate had to submit without hesitation. Didn't Wang Mingran, a big salt merchant, come to confess on his own initiative?

It is impossible for imperial envoys to fight against local officials, at least it was absolutely impossible in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. If you really dare to act like that, you are forcing the emperor to confiscate the house, turning one person's sin into a disaster for the whole family.