The emperor waved his hand and said, "The wealth of the people is the wealth of the country."
He thought very openly, "The people have money, and even if the treasury doesn't help them for a while when they encounter disasters, they can save themselves. It has the same effect as putting money in the treasury and then I use it for the people, so don't worry about salt. The price is too low, at worst I don’t charge this salt tax.”
The emperor said so, what else can others say
They all knelt down and saluted, "Your Majesty is wise."
Kong Jijiu slightly raised his head to look at the crown prince who was diagonally opposite, seeing that there was no dissatisfaction on his face, he nodded slightly in his heart, feeling more satisfied with him.
Counting it, Bai Shan was also the prince's companion, and he was the first to agree to the reform of the salt administration.
The corner of Kong Jijiu's mouth twitched slightly, feeling that Chu Jun finally had the bearing and mind to be a king.
Since the emperor doesn't even care about taxes, then...
Old Master Tang proposed impatiently: "How about a monopoly on salt and iron?"
He said: "Establish a salt transport department to be responsible for operating official salt? In this way, the treasury can not only generate income, but also control the price of salt, so that the benefits can be shared with the people. Isn't it better than letting businessmen earn another layer?"
Liu Shangshu cheered up and nodded, "Your Majesty, I think this is a good idea."
Wei Zhi frowned, he didn't really want to set up a salt transportation company, but rather handed it over to merchants for sale. Merchants are after profits, and they know how to save costs better than yamen. And as the emperor said, the wealth of the country is not as rich as the people, and the merchants also belong to the people.
Wei Zhi has no prejudice against businessmen, and is even willing to strongly support their development.
Old Master Tang is just the opposite. He believes that many crimes in the world are caused by profit, and businessmen are most driven by profit. Although Master Wei said that the government will stabilize the price of salt, Old Master Tang still does not believe in the morals of businessmen.
The two each expounded their respective views, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of their insistence, and then looked at the emperor and others, waiting for them to make up their minds.
The emperor pondered and said, "What do you love dears think?"
Kong Jijiu said: "Let's count the money directly. If it is a salt and iron monopoly, what is the price that can be given now? After all costs are removed, how much money can be put into storage? If it is handed over to merchants, what is the price that they can accept? Will there be a big price increase in the future, and what part of the money do they make?"
They must ensure that the merchants earn enough profits from the salt, otherwise this policy cannot continue, and in the end they will still find ways to get it back from other places, which they absolutely do not allow.
The prince sat on the sidelines, distracted slightly, choosing one of the two, that is to say, they all agreed to reform the salt administration, but they haven't decided how to change it yet.
The prince twitched his lips, feeling that Jiangnan's affairs were all settled.
Sure enough, at the Xiaochao meeting the next day, Wei Zhi brought up the reform of the salt administration again. There were very few opponents, and some people panicked when they saw this.
Before they could inquire about the news, the emperor called a meeting of hundreds of officials and mentioned the establishment of a salt transport department in various places to monopolize official salt.
All the officials were shocked, and they were stunned for a moment. They didn't expect the reform of the salt government to be so big. Before they recovered to discuss it, the emperor asked someone to bring out a stack of papers, and said with a sullen face: "This is the impeachment of the Jiangnan salt government from all over the world." fold."
"Salt is related to people's livelihood. As a result, the Jiangnan Salt Field did not make any preparations last year. This year, the officials of the counties should temporarily break the contract..." The emperor had been suppressing the impeachment of the Jiangnan officialdom and the salt administration some time ago, and now he will take it out together. , Let Gu Zhong take out the notebooks and read them one by one, and all the officials sitting there broke out in cold sweat.
Even the irrelevant Mr. Tang felt frightened, and sat with his head down in his seat, motionless.
But the emperor ordered his name.
Master Tang's heart froze, he stood up from his seat after a pause, stepped out and bowed and said: "The minister is here."
The emperor said with a sullen face: "You go to Jiangnan again to find out why the Jiangnan Salt Works failed in their duties and take all the prisoners back to the capital. The Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Yushitai Assistant Manager."
The bosses of the Ministry of Punishment and the Yushitai of Dali Temple came out one after another and bowed down.
The emperor just got up and flicked his sleeves to leave.
Gu Zhong hastily called out "Back to court" and hurriedly chased after the emperor.
As soon as the court meeting was over, all kinds of news flew out of the capital and went in all directions.
The reform of the salt administration is a major event, and the earthquake in the south of the Yangtze River is not a trivial matter, neither of which is small.
Even Mr. Tang and Mr. Zhuang hurriedly wrote to Bai Shan and Zhou Man, telling them the news about the capital and telling them to pay attention to safety.
As Master Tang wrote, he realized that now he and Yang Heshu seemed to be the most dangerous, especially Yang Heshu.
Master Tang hurriedly concluded the letter, handed the letter to his servants, and then hurried to Yang's house.
Marquis Yang had just delivered the letter. He gritted his teeth when he heard the concierge said that Tang He had come, and said, "Please come in quickly."
Although he and his son have political disagreements, but he is getting old, and the Yang family will finally hand it over to Yang Heshu, and judging by today's general situation, his choice is undoubtedly the right one.
So he had to do his best to keep his son first.
Yang Houye let Tang He in, and the two locked themselves in the study for a long time to discuss, and finally Tang He took away the long-term follower of Yang Houye when he left.
At this moment, Bai Shan, who was still ignorant, was sitting in the lobby of the county government office and looking at the kneeling people below. He patted the gavel and asked, "Do you want a sentence-by-sentence trial in this county?"
The kneeling two people shook their bodies and kowtowed again and again: "My lord, the lowly ranks know that they are wrong, my lord forgive me, we will not dare to do it again in the future."
Bai Shan took the gavel and turned around and asked, "Come tell me in detail what you have committed?"
The two of them lowered their heads and didn't speak for a while. They glanced at each other quietly, and finally the one kneeling on the left said: "We shouldn't get drunk and reveal the secrets of the county government."
"That's right, but we didn't do it on purpose," said the one on the right: "At that time, those merchants were drinking too much, and we went out after talking baldly."
Bai Shan raised his eyelids to look at them, "Does this county look so easy to fool? How do you know that the county's finances are empty?"
"We heard Fang Xiancheng talking to you occasionally."
Bai Shan turned his head to look at Daji who was standing not far away.
Daji looked at their faces carefully, shook his head at him, and said, "Unless their ears are better than mine, it's impossible to hear them."
Although Bai Shan is worried about money, he seldom brings it up with his subordinates. After all, he wants to appease people's hearts, right
Fang Xiancheng is also his subordinate.
Therefore, Bai Shan didn't bring up this matter with him face to face. Every time Daji was there, because it was a secret, they would pay attention to it every time. Even if they didn't deliberately find a hiding place, at least they wouldn't bring it up casually. , so that anyone can listen to it.
Bai Shan stared at them for a long while, and saw that although they were trembling and sweating, they were bitten to death. He just overheard them by accident, not on purpose...
Bai Shan recruited a yamen servant and said, "Let County Captain Dong check the people they have been in contact with in the past three months, especially those from other places. Money or things."