At the end of January, the "Salt and Iron Division Merge into the Household Department, Salt and Silver Pledge and Loan Discount" was promulgated by decree.

There is a precedent for salt and silver to redeem grain, and it is not so difficult for the world to accept salt and silver for silver. The officials even wanted to call for the salaries to be paid earlier, and this edict was widely supported and praised.

The Salt and Iron Division was merged into the Ministry of Households, that is, it was included in the civil official system, and Zhang Yan, as a minister, was forced to resign as the salt and iron envoy; The deputy minister and the head of the household department Shangshu Lin Xuwen recommended Liu Shidu, the prefect of Huai'an, to lead the salt and iron division, and added the imperial history of Zuo Du, who was in charge of the impeachment of salt officials, which was also approved.

Liu Shidu successively served as the prefect of Hailing and Huai'an, and was familiar with the two Huai salt affairs, in terms of qualifications, political achievements and familiarity with salt affairs, no one could compare with Liu Shidu - of course, Liu Shidu has cooperated with Lin Tie to implement new policies in Hailing and Huai'an over the years, and has long been marked with the mark of the Huaidong system.

At the beginning of February, at the same time that Liu Shidu arrived in Jiangning to resume his duties, the Yamen of the Salt and Iron Division also moved from Weiyang to Jiangning.

The two-dimensional salt service is concentrated in Viyan, which is caused by various reasons:

In the previous dynasties, Hailing was only a county of Weiyang, and the east of Hailing was the scope of the two Huai salt fields. The salt affairs are concentrated in Weiyang, which is also for the convenience of managing the nearby salt works and prohibiting the inspection of illegal salt. Since the two dynasties, the speed of land formation along the east coast of Chongzhou has accelerated, and the salt field has continued to move eastward, and Weiyang has actually separated from the salt field, but Weiyang is in the necessary place of the north-south water transportation system, so it has become the transportation center of the two Huai salts, and the imperial capital is in the north, and the pattern of the Weiyang salt center has not changed since the Yue, and it is also a matter of course.

To Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne in Jiangning, Jiangning became the political center of half of Jiangning, Jiangning and Weiyang are far apart, the journey is only more than 200 miles, and Jiangning's position in the Yangtze River shipping body is not weaker than Weiyang, the salt and iron division moved to Jiangning, in addition to the need for centralization, there is no special obstacle in other aspects.

As early as the beginning of Emperor Yongxing's accession to the throne in Jiangning, there were officials who discussed moving the Salt and Iron Division, but the traditional forces were still strong and had not been able to make the trip - this time, the Salt and Iron Division was merged into the household department, and there was not much resistance to the relocation and merger of Jiangning.

Once the decree is issued, the salt merchants can only follow it.

The story of the Salt and Iron Division is far from over, after Liu Shidu arrived in Jiangning in early February to take up his post, he immediately asked for a decree to control the salt pawns, prohibit the investigation of illegal salt, and reduce the price of taxes - the salt merchants only became panicked at this time, and Huaidong was always going to be ruthless until this moment.

In late February, the Metropolitan Procuratorate impeached Mao Wenjing, the captain of the Zuo Yan Guard, for embezzlement and misappropriation of salt profits, and asked for an arrest and prosecution.

In order to support more than 500,000 Zhengding soldiers, plus additional funds for Nanyang and Hezhong Prefecture, Jiangning had to raise at least 10 million taels of silver every year—this did not take into account the civil administration, the huge bureaucracy, the clan, the salaries of the nobles, and the consumption of the inner court. The four million taels of silver borrowed by Qian Zhuang to the household department can actually only last for three or five months - in order to solve the crisis of political power, Jiangning does need to copy and kill some big households to solve the urgent need, after the salt and iron division merged with the household department, it has actually become the consensus of Jiangning officials to take the salt merchants, and Mao Wenjing is not the first unlucky ghost.

At the end of February, Mao Wenjing was imprisoned in Jiangning, and more than a dozen of his children were arrested and imprisoned......

The water and land transportation routes leading to other places from the two Huai salt farms have long been under the control of Huaidong.

In order to cooperate with Liu Shidu to investigate and ban illegal salt, the Huaidong Patrol Division, which controls the key points of water and land transportation, closed the bag together, and the Privy Council transferred more than 5,000 soldiers to the Salt and Iron Division.

From mid-February to the end of March, in a period of more than a month, the total amount of illegal salt in the two Huai provinces was 4 million catties, and more than 2,000 salt merchants and military guards were killed and arrested......

Since then, salt has been taxed and the salt price increase system has been implemented. In the Chongguan period, salt households boiled salt at a price of ten yuan per catty to the salt and iron division, and the salt and iron division added a tax price of 200 yuan per catty to resell the salt merchants to traffick in the prefecture and county, regardless of the foot fee, one pound of official salt was worth more than 210 yuan. However, due to the flood of illegal salt, the price of salt in all prefectures and counties is lower than this amount.

By early March, the price of salt in Jiangning City had skyrocketed to a height of 600 yuan per catty of salt, an increase of nearly five times, far exceeding the range that ordinary people could bear.

This is actually the biggest crisis faced by the rectification of the salt matter, and the Queen Mother also summoned Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu into the palace twice to inquire about this matter.

The Queen Mother and the ministers of the Political Affairs Hall directly put pressure on the household department, and the former officials and salt pawns of the Salt and Iron Division also complained, not to mention what the salt merchants behind were thinking, but the real pressure still lies with the people. If the price of salt cannot be suppressed, the people's resentment will boil, the situation will be unstable, and the matter of rectifying the salt matter can only be abandoned halfway, directly bow to the salt merchants, and restore the old system.

The salt matter, until March 16, there is a tendency that can no longer be suppressed, the queen mother directly summoned Liu Shidu to the political hall to ask about the government, Lin Tie, the privy envoy and the former iron and salt envoy Zhang Yan all summoned the decree to the past......

"Jianghuai is full of private salt, Yan Fei does not know, but the salt price increase system has been implemented for more than 260 years, and it is difficult to return. And the people of Jianghuai are really difficult to bear the price of official salt, in addition to the full amount of salt silver, allowing salt merchants to fill with private salt, it is really a last resort, "Zhang Yan in front of the capital, for his iron salt envoy when the private salt flooded, in fact, it is also for the salt merchants involved in the private matter, "the ban on private salt, can increase the income of the treasury, but provoke the people to boil, the real gain outweighs the loss - the first emperor Xu Yan to govern the salt, Yan also to the private salt matter, the first emperor said that the water is clear and there is no fish, the salt silver can be increased, Yan Zhi two Huai salt matter for 17 years, two Huai salt silver from more than 170,000 taels, The highest increased to 2,680,000 taels, but affected by the war, the original two Huai salt sold in the land, Henan ruined, Huaixi dilapidated, last year can still guarantee 1.5 million taels of silver, Yan Youruo, please the queen mother and the emperor to rule...... Salt merchants use private salt to fill it, it is a violation of the national ban, but the official salt does not count the foot fee, and after the price increase, it is worth 210 yuan, before the household department controls the salt matter, the price of Jiangning salt is only worth 140 yuan, and salt merchants are not allowed to fill it with private salt, so what can I do? ”

Lin Jian is a privy envoy, and on the surface it has nothing to do with this matter, but the Queen Mother and the prime ministers forcibly pulled him in order to point the finger at him - anyone with a discerning eye knows that without the support of Huaidong, Liu Shidu would not be able to make such a ruthless hand.

Lin Jian and all the ministers were given seats, and only Liu Shidu and Zhang Yan argued in front of the hall.

Liu Shidu said: "In the time of Gaozu, the salt price increase system was implemented at the beginning of the two Huai, one pound of salt was added to sixty yuan, when the price of salt in Jiangning was only one hundred and twenty yuan, and the salt profit of the two Huai could still accumulate more than 1.3 million taels of silver every year, and the people in the land under the jurisdiction of the two Huai at that time were less than half of today. Since then, the illegal salt has become more and more rampant, and the salt profit has been damaged, and the minimum is less than 400,000 taels. The ban on smuggling could not be done, so the salt tax could only be increased repeatedly, until it was increased to 200 yuan in the near future, more than three times as much as at the beginning. Compare the price of salt in Jiangning today's time with Gaozu, compare the number of Dingkou with today's Dingkou with Gaozu, and compare the salt profit with today's two Huai salt and silver in Gaozu, can this salt merchant still be called good? ”

Lin Jian sighed lightly and said: "That's right, based on the price increase of salt catties in the time of Gaozu, Ding Hu, and Lianghuai salt sales area, compared with today, the annual salt and silver of the Iron Salt Division should be 2.6 million taels, not 1.5 million taels - where is the shortage of 1 million taels of salt and silver?" ”

"Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh, and it can't be repaid by people for several generations," Empress Dowager Liang sat down with her hands together and said, "Salt control, Zhang Yan has no merit, before the Delong year, he changed several salt and iron envoys, and the treatment of salt and salt is not as good as Zhang Yan - those who violate the ban must be banned, but the common people also have to eat salt, and it is also reasonable to accumulate heavy problems." The mourning family doesn't have the energy to listen to your arguments here, and the troubles always have to be solved in a fit manner, so as not to make the people's grievances boil. This court can't afford to make any more trouble, Liu Shidu, Lin Qing recommends you to be in charge of the Salt and Iron Division, you have to have a quasi-idea......"

"It's not like rice grain, there is a shortage of salt, and it's not harmful to be expensive for a short time; The first step was to ban illegal salt, and the next step was to slightly reduce the tax price, and send salt officials to various prefectures and counties to supervise salt affairs, take over the forbidden salt business, and fill it as an official camp; Salt is sold in various places, the government and private are combined, and the price is approved, so that it can benefit the businessmen and the people, but it is not harmful to the community......" Liu Shidu replied.

Lin Jian also had no intention of asking Liu Shidu to entangle Zhang Yan's problem, in the matter of salt control, Zhang Yan still had more merit than demerits in the matter, but he did not make a spicy hand to the salt merchants, and the salt merchants' support for Huaixi last year would only become more rampant - and also use this to wipe down the forces of the Weiyang Mansion.

"In this way, if you widen the time limit for one month, and then you don't lower the price of salt, you can only go back to the old way!" Empress Dowager Liang said.

Liu Shidu hesitated slightly, and saw that Lin Jian and Lin Xuwen had nothing to say, so he could only agree to it: "The minister's decree." "I am not completely satisfied with quelling the salt rebellion within a month, after all, it is the root of the two Huai salt incidents.

*********************

After discussing the matter in the political affairs hall, Lin Lian, an "unrelated" person, went home directly to rest, and Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu then chased after him.

"How much is it appropriate to cut the price of taxes?" Liu Shidu chased Lin Tie to the study hall in the front garden of Chen Yuan and asked.

At that time, there were no macro statistics, only the flood of private salt, but the total sales of private salt plus official salt in Jianghuai, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places, no one could figure out what kind of scale.

The reduction of tax prices should reduce the current price of salt in the market, so that the merchants and people agree, but at the same time, if the reduction is excessive, it will also cause a sharp reduction in salt and silver. At that time, even if the palace and the government hall are not held accountable, the annual expenses of the household department are really inseparable from salt and silver. Huaidong Qianzhuang lent silver to the household department, which could only solve the temporary urgency, but at the same time, it had to eat a large amount of annual interest every year, and the gap of annual interest itself had to be plugged with salt and silver.

Lin Mengde, Qin Chengzu, Gao Zongting, Song Fu and others all came to the study hall for something, and they all felt that Liu Shidu's question was tricky and difficult to answer......

"A farming household, planting ten acres of ripe land, collecting taxes, how much annual income?" Lin Jian asked Liu Shidu rhetorically.

"If you can get thirty stone of grain, it should be counted as a good year." Liu Shidu said.

Lin Jian sighed lightly and said, "Yes, if you can earn thirty stone grains a year, it will be considered a good year." Before the war, the price of rice in Jiangning was 600 yuan per stone, and 30 stone grain was only 18,000 yuan. Even if the price of salt is offset by private salt, Jiangning before the war was not lower than 100 yuan, if the military supply is calculated, a farming household needs 20 catties of salt a year, which is 2,000 yuan - I can't afford to eat salt, I have calculated carefully, so I can know the samadhi in the phrase 'coarse tea and light rice'! ”

Liu Shidu and the others looked at each other, and Lin Jian sighed with emotion, and settled the accounts, but he couldn't solve the actual problems, and he couldn't cut the current soldiers and horses by half because of the hardships of the people.

Lin Tie sleeved his hands and said: "To suppress the price of salt below fifty yuan, the price increase of salt catties cannot exceed twenty yuan, I think it is limited to this amount!" ”

Liu Shidu was stunned, looking at Lin Xuwen, Lin Mengde and others, not knowing how to respond to Lin Lian's words, this was too ruthless.

Even if the private salt is overflowing, it has not flooded to more than ten times that of official salt, and the price increase of salt catties has suddenly dropped to one-tenth of the previous one, and the most direct consequence is to lead to a sharp decrease in salt and silver in the future.

Salt and silver are combined with the household department, and the scale of the household department's annual income is only about 10 million taels of silver, and it is still overstretched to meet the expenses of various places. If you cut another million taels at once, the hole will be too big.

The annual income of the inner government is almost cut out, and the expenses of the court are the responsibility of the household department.

Even if the Huaixi, Chizhou and other armies do not care, only more than 200,000 soldiers and horses in Huaidong, and it will cost nearly five million taels of silver to maintain daily armaments in a year, and this silver will have to be raised by the household department in the future - the five counties of Chongzhou can still save some silver, but it is to prepare for large-scale wars in the future, and the silver of the five counties of Chongzhou is also a big hand and a thigh, and he plans to spend millions of taels of silver every year to run a school, who knows where to poke a gap for him next?

"Isn't it too much of a cut?" Lin Xuwen asked, "Restoring the salt system of the Gaozu period should be able to achieve a general balance. ”

"Restoring the salt system of Gaozu's time, then we will offend the salt merchants and the old salt officials, and we can't please the people, so it's better not to touch the salt matter from the beginning," Lin Jian said, "Since it has moved, it is only serious that we can win over some people." For the time being, it will be tried for 20 yuan, and then a few more spicy hand-copying should be able to make up for the shortage of salt and silver for a year or two. It's really not good, after a year or two, adjust it again - our faces, at this time, we can't ask others to fan them! Moreover, when we return to the salt system of Gaozu, Zhang Yan and Yu Xinyuan will most likely find other excuses to make things difficult and stop; If it drops so low all of a sudden, a few of them will wait to see us make a fool of ourselves with the mentality of watching a good show......"

Lin Xuwen looked at Lin Mengde, Gao Zongting, and Song Fu, and it was still difficult to adapt to Lin Bin's decision.

Lin Lian said: "In addition to the price increase of salt catties, I think there is still something to do in the household department......

"What's the matter?" Lin Xuwen cried and asked, "Seventeen, you won't ask for tax reductions and exemptions from the household department, right?" He can understand Lin Mengde's mood, the plate is so big, Lin Jian doesn't know the heartache at all when he spends the money - the household department comes forward to reduce taxes, and the reduction is the income of the household department, and now the new policy cannot be implemented, this loophole is getting bigger and bigger.

"You guessed," Lin Jian said, "After the emperor ascended the throne in Jiangning, he imposed three consecutive levies on the Jiangnan provinces, which made the Jiangnan farmers bear to the limit, and if the restrictions are not relaxed, the land south of the Yangtze River is likely to cause civil unrest, and then the gains will outweigh the ......losses."

The chaos in Huaisi is still fresh in people's memories, and the disaster in Huaisi is tragic, and it is unforgettable for a hundred years.

In the ninth year of Chongguan, the Yan army Koubian was very devastating to Yan Ji and others, but because the duration was not large, it was easy to recover, and the Huaisi Rebellion that swept the Central Plains and the rebellion of the Yellow River embankment repair people really hollowed out the foundation of Dayue in the Central Plains - to the last years of Chongguan, even if Lin Jian had 200,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, he actually did not have the ability to compete with the Donghu people in the north. In the case of crippling the entire northland, Huaidong soldiers and horses can be thrown to the north by water, but if they leave the coastal area to fight, the supply will not be guaranteed.

"How do I untie it?" Lin Xuwen's face was like a bitter gourd and asked.

As long as the local government does not move fundamentally, only tax reductions and exemptions will be accepted, and the reduction will only be the income of the household department.

"Each household is allowed to reduce the tax of one ding, and it is necessary to ask for a decree to force the local government to reduce the corresponding capitation apportionment!" Lin Jian said.

"Only minus a din?" Lin Xuwen asked.

"Only minus one ding, the rest will not move!" Lin Jian said with great certainty.

Ding tax is also a mouth tax, and Ding men between the ages of seven and sixty must pay it, and only the gentry and nobles can be exempted. Since the beginning of the Yue Dynasty, Ding Zhuang's servant was allowed to be exempted from the service of the mouth, and finally stood side by side with the field endowment, which became one of the most important sources of central finance.

On the one hand, the existence of the Ding tax has inhibited the growth of Ding Kou, but on the other hand, it has also led to the emergence of a large number of evasions.

The actual number of Dingkou recorded by the household department is much less than the actual number - the household registration information of the household department is the most complete, as soon as Lin Jian opened his mouth, Lin Xuwen quickly calculated how big the gap would be: 800,000 taels of silver - fortunately, it was only one ding.

Lin Jian will reduce the tax by one ding at this time, and will not consider exempting it completely in the future, but will incorporate the tax of Yu Ding into the local finance, mainly because of the role of curbing population growth - after the tax of Yu Ding is merged into the local finance, local officials will only contribute to the arrest of fugitive households and fugitives. Good habits should be formed at the beginning.

Lin Xuwen smiled bitterly: "If the two things are done at the same time, Cheng Yuqian and others will not object, they will definitely wait to see our good show!" ”

After two years, the military maintenance in Huaixi will be offset by the taxes of Shou, Hao, Xinyang and other prefectures, and the income and expenditure of the household department will be sharply reduced, which will have no substantial impact on Huaixi. The Xiangtan, Jinghu and other armies also controlled a large area of territory, and the taxes were only nominally reported to the household department, and what would really be affected would be the salaries of the soldiers and horses in Chizhou, Huaidong itself, and Jiangning officials.

These two things at the same time, it is likely that there will be a shortage of two million taels of silver, and the annual interest rate of Huaidong Qianzhuang borrowing silver will be reduced, but the household department will still have to pay an additional 500,000 taels of silver every year - Cheng Yuqian, Zhang Yan and others are naturally happy to watch Huaidong's good show.

"Minus!" Lin Jian waved his hand and said, "The foundation is not solid, and it is impossible to take advantage of it if you fight with Yan Lu two years earlier." The people's will is uncertain, and the resistance to the implementation of the new policy will be greatly ......"

Lin Jian had no intention of implementing the new policy in the seven prefectures of Jiangnan for the time being, so he did not directly control the government. In addition to maintaining stability at the moment, another reason is that because the taxes in the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River are extremely heavy, the people are already out of breath, and the forced implementation of the new policy will not immediately benefit the ordinary people after learning of the local forces, and the local instability factors will increase sharply and be difficult to control.

Lin Jian implemented the new policy in Chongzhou, and it was after the local forces in Chongzhou beat the Donghai Kou extremely brutally and became a force, and it was also after he was sure enough that the new policy was implemented in Hailing, Huai'an and other prefectures.

"Grit your teeth," Lin Mengde became optimistic, and persuaded Lin Xuwen, "It's good to survive the first two years." ”

The annual income of the household department is reduced by 2 million silver, and it is spread to the households in Jianghuai, Zhejiang and Fujian, and each family can get two or three buckets of rice grain, which does not seem to be much, but it can really make the people who have reached the limit breathe a sigh of relief.