Bai Shan also washed up and leaned on the bed, "Brother Yang always has to make a choice, not now, but also in the future."
He said: "The family in the south of the Yangtze River is too powerful and the government orders are not clear. Whether it is His Majesty or the Crown Prince, they are all ambitious people. They will not endure for too long."
"Furthermore, the power of local powerful families is too strong. Not only will the imperial court be restricted, but it will be difficult for ordinary people to get ahead and become rich." Under certain conditions, survival resources are limited. even less.
Moreover, the opponent is powerful, and at the same time can escape the taxes that should be paid to the country. The country's finances are not good, and in the end it can only be passed on to ordinary people.
Bai Shan, who has read a lot of unofficial history books, has seen several dynasties die because of this. Although those dynasties seem to be fabricated and have never appeared in history, he just thinks that what is written on them is true. of.
If the aristocratic and powerful families of the Jin Dynasty are not restrained, there will definitely be hidden dangers in the future.
Not only the aristocratic family, but also the royal family...
But the meal needs to be eaten bite by bite, and the steps must be taken step by step. He doesn't want to think about too high-level things now, and only looks at the present. The salt tax in the south of the Yangtze River needs to be rectified.
He said in a low voice, "When I was in Zhongshu Province, I saw the documents handed in from all over Jiangnan. Last year, in the battle to conquer the East, because of the preparation of food and grass, I went to check the treasury money of the transfer department on behalf of your majesty. Among them, Jiangnan handed in the previous year. The salt tax is only one-fifth of what is due."
Zhou Man opened his mouth wide in surprise, "So few?"
Bai Shandao: "The salt tax was short of money. The Ministry of Household Affairs and Yushitai sent people to Jiangnan to investigate several times, but they couldn't find any actual evidence. They killed a few people and exiled a few officials, but they didn't care about it. use."
"This is the salt tax only after Yang's accident, His Majesty took over some things from Yang. I heard that Jiangnan paid less salt tax in the past few years. There are various excuses. It is difficult to make salt. , the population is small, the brine is reduced, there is also loss during transportation, and bridges and roads have to be built, anyway, it is losing money every year." He said: "Although Brother Yang comes from the Yang family, he has long been displeased with this matter. His Majesty intends to cultivate him, so he must know about these things, so he was specially mentioned to go to Jiangnan."
Zhou Man's voice was low: "I'm afraid that other families won't see that he is from the Yang family, so they will let him go?"
"Not only in other families, but also in the Yang clan, I'm afraid there are many different voices," Bai Shan said, "Cutting people's money is like killing their parents. Those people have long regarded Jiangnan as something in their pocket, so why are they willing to hand it over so easily?"
Zhou Man only got depressed for a moment, then regained his spirits, lowered his voice and asked, "What can we do for Senior Brother Yang?"
Bai Shan also lowered his voice, "Build the salt field bigger, and build the ferry, so that the sea salt in Beihai County can reach every inch of land in Dajin unimpeded."
He said: "This is not only helping Brother Yang, but also helping ourselves."
Haiyan and Heqing naturally need everyone's joint efforts. Yang and Shu alone can't do it. What Bai Shan and the others can do now is to pave his back road so that he will not be isolated and helpless in the south of the Yangtze River.
Bai Shan sighed, "I don't know if we can communicate safely after he goes to Jiangnan."
Zhou Man: "The prince must have a solution."
People are sent out by them, and they must ensure the security of communications.
She thought of something, and quickly asked: "There are so many people who came to see the salt field today, the method of drying salt must not be kept secret, will His Highness not restrain you?"
Bai Shan leaned his hands on the back of his head, crossed his legs and shook, "Your Highness did it on purpose, even if someone deliberately spread it to Jiangnan, it will not be easy for them to believe it. It will take at least half a year for Jiangnan to try it out, maybe a little longer." Yes, maybe it won’t come out until two or three years ago.”
He said: "Your Majesty and the crown prince wish there would be more and more salt farms where the salt can be dried, and more and more salt will be available on the market."
They are not afraid of too much salt, they are only afraid of too little salt. Things will work well when there is more. Anyway, the salt tax is only one-fifth now. The emperor and the prince are obviously very happy to take out all this one-fifth to make peace with them. The wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River played around.
Many people didn't sleep well that night, but Zhou Man and Bai Shan relaxed a lot after chatting, and fell asleep deeply after the topic was over.
Early the next morning, the prince went to the beach with Bai Shan and others.
Although I glanced at the sea from a distance yesterday, the feeling of standing on the beach today and letting the sea water rush to my feet is still very different.
Mingda put on the veiled hat, and happily walked along the seashore, not wanting to be with these officials. Bai Erlang took her to play.
The prince only took a glance and then looked away. Anyway, the two of them were here to play, and he had already accepted this.
Governor Guo held the crown prince in his arms and asked with a smile, "Is this also the first time Your Highness has seen the sea?"
"No," the prince said after thinking for a while, "Let's count it as the second time."
He had been to the seaside once when he accompanied the emperor on a trip, but at that time he was still young and didn't have much impression of the sea.
The prince saw a boat on the sea, squinted his eyes slightly and asked, "Is that a fisherman?"
"Yes," Bai Shan said, "Xiaowa Village still focuses on fishing."
The crown prince nodded, standing by the sea and looking around, this coastline is indeed very long, except for the mountains, it is a piece of wasteland, and there are few people. Just like what Bai Shan said, there are too few people.
Bai Shan also secretly hinted that they have too few people here and urgently need population resources.
Originally, he thought it would be good to develop slowly. When his official salt is sold and he has money, he can send people around to recruit refugees and settle down. Although there are no natural or man-made disasters, the refugees outside are Less, but definitely there.
But yesterday, after hearing that Yang Heshu was going to the south of the Yangtze River, Bai Shan felt that time was running out, so he kept talking with the prince, hinting: "The salt farm needs soldiers to protect, but we can't just have soldiers without civilians. Your Highness, if it is in other places There are too many people and there is no field division, how about moving some people here?"
The crown prince was so annoyed that he asked, "There are no fields in other places. Do you have any in Beihai County?"
Bai Shan thought for a while and said, "Squeeze and squeeze."
In fact, Beihai County has a large land area and few people, and there are many wastelands. There is still a lot of land for land reclamation, but the problem is that the land here is not very good. Even if it is developed, the planting value is not high. The money may not be recovered.
But Bai Shan thinks that problems can be dealt with one by one. If there is not enough food, they can buy it from outside temporarily. The most important thing is to get someone first, and then slowly think about the land.
They have saltworks, and they can still feed a lot of people.
Zhou Man, who had traveled to many places in Beihai County during this time, answered, "You can still grow some medicinal materials. Some lands are not suitable for growing food, but suitable for growing medicinal materials. Even if it takes a long time."
Bai Shandao: "It doesn't matter, we are not short of time, but we are short of people."
After all, he went to see the prince suggestively.
Ning Yushi coughed heavily, and kept passing behind the two of them, his eyes warning them not to slander.