However, he said that after Ma Yu came to Henan, he came to inspect the local area, and the three divisions put pressure on them to discuss the affairs of King Lu.

On the other hand, he carried out his big plan to accumulate money.

Ma Yu first announced locally that the imperial court would attribute the salt administration of half of Henan Province to King Lu.

It is necessary to set up a large salt factory that can store 37,000 taels of salt in Ji County, Weihui Prefecture, Guidefu Salt Factory, and Huaiqing Salt Factory.

In the main store, a member of the store official is set up, who is responsible for the salt affairs of the three prefectures.

You must know that there is a salt factory in Ji County, Weihui Prefecture, called the North Salt Shop, which can store 3,000 official salts. When the imperial court was preparing to build the Lu Domain, the Son of Heaven had promised to hand over the salt administration of Weihui Mansion to King Lu.

Now add Kaifeng Mansion, Guide Mansion, Huaiqing Mansion, of which Kaifeng is the big mansion to sell nearly 100,000 salt every year, and now several mansions are added, at least 150,000 or more per year.

The current Ming Salt Administration, from the beginning of the glory of 'opening the Chinese law', has now been in full decline.

The opening of the Chinese method means that after the merchants transport the grain to the border gates, they can take the salt back to the inland salt shops to take salt for marketing.

The opening of the law is divided into three steps: newspaper, guard, and market, and the newspaper is that the salt merchants in accordance with the requirements of the Ming government's investment list text, the grain is transported to the granary of the designated border area, and the government is exchanged for salt; Shouzhi means that after the salt merchant exchanges the salt lead, he leads the salt to the designated salt field to wait for the salt; Shiyi is a salt merchant who transports the obtained salt to a designated area for sale.

The opening method sounds very good, but there is a big drawback, that is, it separates the newspaper from the guard.

As a result, he became a merchant who transported grain to the border area and exchanged it for salt, but returned to the salt field but could not get salt.

It's like a merchant who sells something to a customer, but the customer doesn't get paid.

Why is this happening, because, first, the amount of salt in the salt field is insufficient, the imperial court is not kind to the salt households, and the salt households often cannot pay the full amount of salt.

Second, the imperial court also gave a large amount of 'salt introduction' to the clan relatives, these people have the right of first refusal, and go to the salt field to pay for it first, and the amount of salt is insufficient, and it becomes less after the clan lords and relatives stir it up.

Third, the salt amount in the salt field is seriously insufficient, and there will be a situation where there are more monks and less porridge, and which merchant can get salt from the salt field depends on how hard the relationship is.

If it doesn't matter, it's very miserable, and in the orthodox years, the salt government was already very corrupt. Some merchants have been waiting for salt since the Yongle year, but after waiting for year after year, this salt has become an heirloom, and generations of grandparents have not been able to get salt from the salt farm.

Since then, the Ming Dynasty has been making changes to the salt policy, such as encouraging salt farmers to produce more salt, and allowing merchants to go to salt farmers to buy surplus salt, etc.

But by the time of Wanli, Yanzheng was still only tinkering, and there was no fundamental improvement.

Because of the corruption of the salt administration, countless salt merchants who are rich and have thousands of dollars in their pockets have been created.

From the Jin merchants who opened the law to the current Hui merchants, they all started with salt. Therefore, if you want to become a salt merchant, you must have a way to get salt from the salt factory, and if you want to get salt, you have to rely on people to 'divide the meat' to him.

Therefore, King Lu merged Kaifeng, Guide and Huaiqing into the salt administration, and what he wanted was the power of this 'meat'.

Therefore, Ma Yu went around talking about it, saying that King Lu was going to collect the salt from the three provinces of Henan, and suddenly the post station was full of people, and the salt merchants of all sizes were vying to meet Ma Yu with generous respects in order to bribe him.

Ma Yu also knows the essence of officialdom and knows how to extort money from these salt merchants.

So there was a saying among the salt merchants in Henan.

Five hundred taels of tea, one thousand light meals, and two thousand taels for overnight stays.

It means that if you take 500 taels, you can drink tea with Ma Yu, and if you take 1,000 taels, you can have a light meal with him, and as for 2,000 taels, you can ridicule him as a prostitute.

Ma Yu's behavior like this has naturally caused a miasma in the officialdom. If the salt policy remains unchanged, the salt merchants will not have to bribe Ma Yu, but now that the salt policy has changed, they can only complain. No matter how rich the salt merchant was, he could not withstand such exploitation.

The officials are also disdainful, a dead eunuch is a dead eunuch, a sentence is vulgar, and the appearance is too ugly.

Even the cabinet scholars dare not mark the price as clearly as Ma Yu, take a step back and say, even if the cabinet scholars dare to mark the price clearly, they will not dare to receive as high as you Ma Yu.

But Ma Yu just dares to do this, and he is not afraid of you.

The prestige that the officials value, Qingjie, is a floating cloud in the eyes of the eunuchs, and they are not afraid of impeachment by your officials.

The eunuchs scrambled to get out of the palace to run errands, the purpose was to make a lot of money, Ma Yu simply waved the banner of buying for King Lu to buy all the way to the end, except for the account for King Lu, the rest went into his pocket.

Just when Ma Yu was planning to make a big profit, the prefects of Kaifeng Mansion, Guide Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion jointly played the imperial court and the feudal division, opposing the return of the salt administration to the Lu Domain, and wanted to take back the salt administration, which was still the local salt and salt sales. And the household department also presented the Son of Heaven, thinking that the Lu Domain built the palace and occupied the property of the domain, and the imperial court had already given it a very heavy gift, and then the salt administration of the three mansions was attributed to the Lu Domain, which was too much.

The prefect and the feudal division jointly played the chapter and handed it to the desk of the Son of Heaven.

And as soon as the news came out, Ma Yu was suddenly cold.

Yes, if the imperial court returns the salt policy of Sanfu to Sanfu, then why should our salt merchants give you Ma Yu and King Lu money?

But when Ma Yu heard the news, he couldn't help but be furious.

In order to get out of the palace this time, he has borrowed countless debts in all directions in the palace, and if he can't get enough money to return to Beijing, then those creditors can definitely force themselves to death.

So Ma Yu threw three teacups in a row, and he was angry at him for a while.

At this moment, the subordinate told the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture to ask to see.

Ma Yu was immediately angry when he heard this, and the prefect of Kaifeng Mansion had just played a chapter at the imperial court and took back the salt administration, and he came to the door again to ask for a meeting.

It's like someone kicking you hard and then running back and asking if it's painful.

It's just underdrawn!

The entourage asked one after another: "Godfather, do you want to beat this fight and throw it out again!" ”

Ma Yu thought for a while and said, "Call me to ask first, and then call after asking!" ”

The entourage received the order, and immediately prepared burlap bags, sticks, and ropes to ambush behind the screen.

After Gu Ming, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, had already gone to the court, he saw his boots exposed under the left and right screens, and he saluted Ma Yu disapprovingly: "Gu Ming, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, has already seen his father-in-law." ”

Ma Yupi smiled and said, "What's the matter with my parents looking for our family so late?" ”

Gu Ming smiled and said, "My father-in-law came all the way from the capital to run errands for the imperial court, and it was really hard. The official prepared some local products to honor his father-in-law. ”

After speaking, Gu Ming had already taken out a box from his sleeve and put it on the desk beside him.

After the subordinate took it from the case, he gave it to Ma Yu.

Ma Yu opened the box, but saw that the pearl was shining, and a bead the size of a goose egg was placed in the box.

Ma Yu smiled and said: "This is clearly a pearl of the South China Sea, how can it be said that it is a native product of Kaifeng." Kaifeng Mansion can't even touch the sea. ”

Gu Ming said with a smile: "Don't hide it from your father-in-law, this is actually a little bit of the official's heart." ”

Ma Yu put the beads aside and said: "Prefect Gu, our family is in Beijing, although we are in the palace, we have also seen a lot of gifts in front of us and stabbing knives in the back." But the fact that you stabbed the knife first and then came to give a gift made our family unable to figure it out. Let's take the liberty to ask, are you humiliating people? ”

"Don't dare, don't dare, what my father-in-law said is that Kaifeng Mansion is about the salt administration?" Gu Ming sighed and said, "This is not the wish of the lower officials, it is really forced by people." ”

"Oh? You are the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, who dares to force you? ”

Gu Ming has said: "Actually, I am an official, and I will move every few years. Although the official is the prefect, the official will not be appointed for a long time. In the future, when he took office, whether the salt administration returned to the government or not was really insignificant to the official. Why should this official offend King Lu and father-in-law because of this? ”

Ma Yu nodded and said, "That's the truth." So why did some people write against it? ”

Gu Ming sighed: "There are always selfish people in the world, and this is the case with Fu Zhiyuan, the prefect of the Guide Mansion. ”

"The official did not want to mix with him, but this person had already spread the news among the gentry in advance. If the official does not play with him, then the local gentry will inevitably blame the official when they learn of this. Therefore, as a last resort, the official can only play with him, not to be disrespectful to his father-in-law and King Lu, please be aware of this. ”

Ma Yu understood that Fu Zhiyuan was behind the scenes, and he played it together with the three governments.

This thief, Ma Yu was furious in his heart, but after thinking about it again, this Gu Ming had come to himself in the middle of the night to explain this matter, so that he wanted to borrow a knife to kill people and let himself deal with Fu Zhiyuan.

Hmph, my father-in-law is not stupid, how could he fall for you?

Ma Yu thought for a while and said: "The salt class of Guide Mansion is only one or two thousand yuan a year, if this guy is opposed, our family will simply play King Minglu and dispense with Guide Mansion." In this way, there is no reason for this guy to go to the court again. ”

Gu Ming was stunned, indeed, the imperial court's salt production depends on the number of households in each prefecture. Kaifeng Province has a population of nearly 2 million, and Guide Province has less than 300,000.

For King Lu, it may not be worth returning to the De Mansion, and the Kaifeng Mansion sells 100,000 salt a year, which is the big one. For King Lu, without the Guide Mansion, as long as Kaifeng is in his hands, it is also acceptable.

Gu Ming said unhurriedly: "But the chapter has already been handed over!" At present, the three governments are all looking forward to Fu Zhiyuan, if he refuses to change his words, our other two governments will not be able to relax. ”

Ma Yu said with a smile: "Futai might as well say it clearly, as long as we are willing to deal with Fu Zhiyuan for you, you are willing to play in the imperial court, and say that you are willing to assign the salt administration of Kaifeng Mansion to King Lu." ”

Gu Ming didn't answer, but said: "By the way, I suddenly remembered something, can Gonggong Ma know who the Guide Mansion knows?" ”

Ma Yu, the prefect of Kaifeng Mansion in front of him, doesn't pay attention to it, let alone the same official of a small mansion? So he asked disappreciatively, "Who?" ”

Gu Ming had already watched Ma Yuzheng pick up the teacup and drink tea, and then said: "It's the former champion, the Japanese official Lin Yanchao." ”

Burst!

Ma Yu squirted out a sip of tea, and said in a lost voice: "What? Lin Sanyuan in Guide Mansion? ”

Gu Ming had already wiped the tea stains on his official robe with a handkerchief from his sleeve, and then said, "Exactly." ”