"Master Hou, Yangzhou salt merchant Jiang Heming asks to see Master Hou." A guard walked to the door of the hall and said in a respectful voice.

"Let him wait in the side hall first." Chen Yue commanded casually, then turned his head and said to Shan Minglei with a smile, "These salt merchants are in a hurry now." ”

"Hou Ye's tiger power is what they can resist?" Shan Minglei smiled and joked.

"Hahaha!" Chen Yue laughed loudly, "Brother Minglei, when you were in Xishan Town, did you ever think about today's situation? ”

"How dare you think about it at the time? The vicissitudes of life, like a dream of Nanke! Shan Minglei sighed.

When he was in Xishan Town, he was displaced in Xishan because of business failure, and it happened that Chen Yue recruited talents for the Xishan Inspection Division, and was unwilling to be a small account room, Shan Minglei was blatantly recruited, who would have thought that in just two years, Chen Yue would be made from a nine-product inspection to the princes of a town! He is also in an important position and holds great power, which he didn't even dare to think about before.

"Okay, let's talk about the private salt." Chen Yue said with a smile.

"Yes, Master Hou!" Shan Minglei stopped reminiscing and said solemnly.

"The price of salt collected from salt households is too different from the price of shipping it to various places, which is the root cause of the overflow of private salt, and the salt tax is decreasing year by year.

According to the grain price of Chongzhen in 16 years, a salt is 400 catties, and the price of rice per stone in the two Huai areas is three taels, and each catty of salt is about 5 Wen, and the salt is transported from Yangzhou to Luzhou, and each catty can be sold for 3 dollars of silver, which is full of 60 times the profit! Such a large profit is enough to drive people crazy!

Countless people ran around the Lianghuai salt area, earning a lot of money by selling illicit salt, although the salt transportation envoy department had dozens of salt inspection departments in Lianghuai, but they could not prevent and manage, and many archers of the inspection department even joined the ranks of trafficking illicit salt.

According to the imperial court system, the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy pays 700,000 yuan of salt every year, but less than half of the salt is handed over by the stove households every year.

As for the salt merchants who controlled the Wo area, they had to pay more than six taels of tax silver for every salt they bought from the stove households according to the salt guide, so the amount of smuggled salt they sold was far more than the amount of official salt.

The smuggling of countless large and small salt dealers, coupled with the sale of illicit salt by officials and merchants, has caused a large loss of salt taxes.

Under the exploitation of salt merchants, rich stoves, and general urges, stove households cook sea salt all year round, and the income from selling salt is not enough for a family to eat. And the people everywhere took out the money they had saved so hard, but they could not afford to eat salt, and the taste of food was very dull all year round. The salt tax of the imperial court has been declining year after year, and if the annual salt tax is more than 10 million taels according to the salt system, the actual salt tax collected is only one-tenth, and a large amount of salt tax has been lost, enriching a number of salt merchants, salt dealers who smuggle salt, and officials and officials who handle the whole process. ”

"The benefits of salt are too great, there are too many people who rely on it, the whole Yangzhou city is rising because of salt, Lord Hou, if you want to open a knife to the salt merchants, you must be cautious!" Shan Minglei sighed.

The more you investigate, the more you know, the more shocking it becomes. The entire Lianghuai, from the salt transportation envoy and the local government, down to the ordinary salt sellers, the stove households that boil salt, and even the coolies who carry salt on the wharf, have formed a chain of huge interests, and there are too many people who rely on it to survive on this salt chain, which can be said to affect the whole body!

For more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, everyone knows that the benefits of salt are very great, and the imperial court has also tried countless ways to eliminate private salt and increase the salt tax, but it has been unable to do anything, but the salt tax has been reduced year by year. The imperial court is still like this, Chen Yue wants to rely on his own strength to pry the two Huai salt politics, how easy is it to talk about?

"yes, it's so hard!" Chen Yue sighed. If the Ming Dynasty can solve the shortcomings of the salt policy, the annual salt tax will be enough to raise the army, how can it get to this kind of field.

But if you don't use your knife against these salt merchants, where will you go to get money to raise your army? The Pingnan Army's courage and good fighting, its combat power is far superior to that of other Ming armies, relying on sufficient food and wages, and relying on the strength of the soldiers.

What we will have to deal with next year is the Manchu Eight Banners Army, not hundreds of thousands, but tens of thousands of Eight Banners Army that will attack the country! If you don't make adequate preparations, how can you ensure that the Qing army is blocked north of the Huai River?

To deal with the Qing soldiers, the newly recruited troops were too poor in combat effectiveness, and they could only be equipped with a large number of firearms.

According to Chen Yue's plan, at least hundreds of red-coated cannons must be cast and placed at the head of Yangzhou City in order to gain an overwhelming advantage over the Eight Banners. Each red-coated cannon costs nearly a thousand taels of silver, and just making a cannon is a lot of money. Not to mention the need to make tens of thousands of firearms, as well as a large amount of armor, and other materials.

Equipping an army is not a simple matter, and spending money is like running water. Relying only on the imperial court's allocation of silver is a drop in the bucket, and with so many troops in the imperial court, it can't be taken care of by relying on taxes, so Chen Yue can only think of his own ideas.

In any case, I will never let go of the salt of the two Huai, I am not for my own selfishness, but for the sake of the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world! Thinking of this, Chen Yue's expression became firm.

Seeing Chen Yue's expression, Shan Minglei sighed secretly, knowing that since Chen Yue had made up his mind, he could no longer persuade him.

But that's fine, this is the military preparation road that rushed thousands of miles in the snow to attack the Mongolian tribes, this is the governor of Tianjin who saved the king in a million troops, and this is the rebellious general who captured Nanjing City in one day!

From that remote Xishan Town, to Beijing and Tianjin, and then to Nanjing City, this way has relied on the indomitable momentum, which has achieved Chen Yue and the Pingnan Army, and this momentum has also made Shan Minglei fascinated by it!

After so many hardships have come, what is the point of a group of salt merchants? So what can they do with the surgery! Thinking of this, Shan Minglei's expression also became firm.

"Now that you have made up your mind, Master Hou, we have to make a good deployment." Shan Minglei said, "We have to first deduce what means the salt merchants can resist us, and then resolve them one by one." ”

"Hmm." Chen Yue nodded, what he admired most about Shan Minglei was this, although he was not from a high background, he had an uninhibited heart, dared to take risks and loved adventures, which was very similar to himself.

"The countermeasures of the salt merchants are nothing more than the court and the people, and in the court, they will incite a large number of civil officials to impeach us. Among the people, they would incite other small salt merchants and even stove households to make trouble, inciting public opinion against the Pingnan army. It can even cause a salt panic, causing panic and even civil unrest in other areas. ”

Shan Minglei talked eloquently about the measures that the salt merchants might take. Since Chen Yue has made up his mind to attack the salt merchants, instead of simply blackmailing some silver, there will definitely be a big war next, and the enemy will be the first to do it, and what to do in the future must be thought out now.