readx; On the small round table are several delicate Huaiyang side dishes: stewed crab roe lion's head, Wensi tofu, squirrel mandarin fish, Taibai chicken, and boiled dried shreds. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The dishes are delicate and exquisite, and the style is elegant. Fresh and peaceful. Pursue the original taste.

Jia Huan was tasting Huaiyang food while listening to Master He talk about the situation.

Yangzhou, as the most prosperous place in Jiangbei and a large city in the world, is not enough to say "gold mountains and silver seas". The imperial court had to collect huge taxes from Yangzhou every year. Taxes are divided into: salt tax, customs duty, positive tax, etc.

Among them, the salt tax is 3 million taels, which is responsible for the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Division. The tariff is hundreds of thousands of taels, and the regular tax is 300,000 taels. Collected by Matsue Prefecture.

The salt tax is the salt tax.

The dynasty followed the salt law of the Ming Dynasty. Only the salt merchants on the Compendium have the monopoly right to eat salt. Every year, the registered merchants submit an application to the Salt Transportation Division according to the woben, which is called the recognition of the nest. When you recognize the nest, you need to pay a huge amount of silver taels to get the salt guide. This part of the silver is only a part of the salt class.

After receiving the salt, the salt merchants went to the salt works to buy salt from the field dealers, and then sold it to the counties. This is official salt. The income from the sale of salt is then paid salt tax to the county government.

The salt tax of the county government is the two main parts of the salt tax that salt merchants need to pay in the salt trading process. In the salt class, there are also various miscellaneous taxes, which will not be repeated here.

The salt industry of the dynasty was a planned economy from beginning to end. Production, sales, and sales areas are all predetermined. In this way, each county will be assigned a certain sales task according to the number of people.

In the same way, according to the characteristics of the planned economy, if the sales volume of official salt in each county is fixed, the tax revenue will naturally be fixed. For example, the salt class in Jiangdu County, the first of the seven counties in Yangzhou Prefecture, is 10,000 taels.

But, here's where things are to blame. The closer you are to the salt-producing area, the more difficult it is to complete the salt class.

Sha Shengguan Ren Huaiyang guarded the road, in charge of Yangzhou Mansion and Huai'an Mansion, the money and grain taxes of the two prefectures were uneven, and the person directly responsible: the evaluation of the county order can be imagined, but as the largest official of the two prefectures, the evaluation will not look good.

What Master He is concerned about is this matter: Huai'an Mansion and Yangzhou Mansion have been in arrears of nearly one million taels of silver over the years.

Jia Huan said in surprise: "This is strange! ”

Master He explained with a wry smile: "The reason is because of private salt. The price of private salt is cheaper than that of official salt. The closer you get to the salt-producing areas, the more illegal salt overflows. In addition, Yangzhou is located in a transportation hub, and there are two Huai salt transportation divisions. Hundreds of millions of catties of salt cross the border every year. It is more convenient to buy and sell illicit salt, and it is necessary to count the smuggled salt carried by the boats and salt ships that transit the canal. If there is private salt to buy, who will buy high-priced official salt? ”

None of the salt merchants were willing to go to the counties of Yangzhou and Huai'an to transport official salt to sell. Who wants to do a loss-making business? Of course, the salt merchants live on the boundary of Yangzhou, and they still have to give the county commanders favor and face.

But even some salt merchants claimed part of the "favor salt" and sold salt. In the market situation where illegal salt is rampant, official salt can only be sold at the price of private salt. In the case of a loss, all the money from the sale of official salt was handed over to the county government as a tax, and the annual salt tax of each county could not be collected. It is the norm to stipulate ten points, and it is the norm to actually receive one point.

Therefore, the salt tax arrears in Huai'an and Yangzhou are serious.

Jia Huan's words were held back, and he picked up the wine glass and drank with Master He.

You must know that the sale of illicit salt in the national dynasty is to kill the head. But with so many people and so many channels being sold, whose head can the government kill?

To put it simply, there is absolutely no way to control the current flood of illicit salt by the law.

Jia Huan pondered for a while and asked, "So, what does Mr. Sha plan to do about this matter?" ”

Master He said: "Since Dong Weng took office, he has the intention to clean up the money and grain taxes, but there are many difficulties. Dong Weng meant that he wanted the salt merchants to make up for this part of the arrears of salt tax. ”

"How can the salt merchants be willing?"

"So Dong Weng is going to talk to Zheng Yuanjian, one of the three major salt merchants, tonight."

Jia Huan shook his head, very unoptimistic, "I think it will be difficult to reach an agreement." "One million taels of silver, even if the Zheng family can take it, he won't dare to take it! It is the norm not to show money. If the Zheng family agrees, future officials will ask the Zheng family to "donate". Sha Guan will not stay in Yangzhou City for a lifetime, and these businessmen, who have been in the salt industry for generations, cannot run.

Master He took a sip, looked at Jia Huan with anticipation, and said, "So, I want to ask Ziyu to help me come up with an idea." ”

Jia Huan, a science student, what research can he do on the salt method? You have to study history. He knew that when a certain emperor of the puppet Qing Dynasty went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he was driven by a salt merchant. The silver spends like flowing water. made a twenty-four scenes of Yangzhou, gathering salt into a tower.

In this time and space, after a while, after Jia Yuanchun chose Fengzao Palace, Jia Lian took Lin Daiyu back to Jiafu, and Wang Xifeng would boast in front of Jia Lian's nurse Mama Zhao: The Wang family took over the drive once that year. The Zhen family in Jinling took four drives.

The way of thinking can only go from the power scheme. The silver must still be paid by the salt merchants. There are 300 salt merchants in Yangzhou City, and it is not difficult to get together a million silver. The opulence of the salt merchants amazed even the emperor. The point is to take the money out of the salt merchant's pocket in what name. Sha observes like that, knows it with emotion, and moves it with reason.

Jia Huan thought for a while and said, "You still have to check the private salt." ”

…

The night sky is like a wash, and the moon is in the sky.

When Jia Huan and Master He were talking, at the home of Zheng Yuanjian, a big salt merchant in Yangzhou City, Sha Sheng, the right political officer of the Great Zhou Zhejiang Political Division, was persuading Zheng Yuanjian to make up for the salt class.

In the exquisite flower hall, Zheng Yuanjian sat at the bottom, drinking tea, playing haha, but he refused to respond.

Sha Shoudao Sha Sheng is in his fifties this year, wearing a light gray Confucian shirt, and his bearing is extraordinary. At this age, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that you are young, and to praise that you are in the prime of life, there is absolutely no problem.

Whether the officials of the dynasty are young or not needs to be judged by their official positions. This is the same as the later Celestial Empire. A 40-year-old deputy minister is certainly a young official. And the 40-year-old county-level is not young.

The ecology of officialdom is like a pyramid. The higher you go, the fewer people there are. The official system of the dynasty, the checkpoint is here from the fourth to the third grade. How many people are stuck at this juncture, and they can't rise for the rest of their lives. Sanpin can be called an important minister of the court.

Of course, the Metropolitan Procuratorate's Gazetteer is not among them. Because, the left and right deputy capitals (佥) of the Imperial Court can serve as governors and governors.

Sha Sheng is in his fifties and serves as the right person from Sanpin to participate in politics, and his age and official position are still relatively compatible.

Sha Sheng said a little tiredly: "Now that the salt class in Yangzhou Mansion is seriously in arrears, if Zheng Yuanwai can donate to make up for it, the imperial court will have a reward." ”

Zheng Wenzhi, the eldest son who sat under Zheng Yuanjian's first guest, sneered in his heart: My family pays for your political achievements?

What Yangzhou salt merchants need to tie up is Yang Yun's envoy from the two Huai Salt Transportation Divisions in the city.

Zheng Yuanjian smiled kindly: "Sha Dashen, if you are unwilling, you really don't have the financial resources." Wanwang Haihan. ”

Dashen is another name for participating in politics. Another name for the senate is small ginseng. For example, Jia Zheng was appointed as the right senator of the General Administration Department at this time, and others could call him Jia Xiaoshen.

Sha Sheng's face gradually sank. When he was a student official in Beizhili, his temper was very upright. Today, he pulled down his face and lowered his body to lobby at Zheng Yuanjian's house, which turned out to be such a result. Snorted coldly and walked away.

Zheng Yuanjian smiled bitterly all the way and sent Sha Sheng out of the house.

After watching Lord Sha's palanquin go away, Zheng Wenzhi sneered: "Sha Shoudao, what's the difference between this and begging? The key is so much, if it is a few thousand taels of silver, my Zheng family will give it to him. What is it worth! ”

Zheng Yuanjian glared at his son.

Zheng Wenzhi smiled, took the conversation, and walked with his father to the house. (To be continued.) )