Chapter 230: A game of chess across the country! (First update)
There was a commotion in the palace.
Tang He raised his eyes, glanced behind him a few times, and then withdrew his gaze.
Just looked quietly at the figure in the hall.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang also had a strange look on his face. He did not let Tian Jing speak. Tian Jing's sudden voice this time was completely beyond his expectation. However, after Tian Jing said this , Zhu Yuanzhang also gradually figured out some meaning.
Naturally, he had heard about things in the south.
After pondering for a while, he originally didn’t plan to do too much for the sake of peace and stability for the people. He only hoped that the south would settle down as soon as possible. As for those who were behind the scenes, he would find time to calm down slowly in the future. Clean up.
But now.
After Tian Jing’s opening, everything changed again.
These scoundrels in the south, who have hidden evil intentions, originally wanted to use the chaos in Zaohu to threaten themselves and make them make further concessions. To a certain extent, the reason why the south can be so radical is In such a situation, it was because he cleaned up the place too hard that these kitchen households lost their way of making a living.
Of course, the most important thing is the local evil.
The current official of the Salt Transportation Department in the DPRK had already been sentenced to death in his mind.
But now everything is different.
Because originally Nanfang was stirring up trouble to force him to give in, but now Tian Jing's interference has magnified the situation and changed the issue from local vis-à-vis the imperial court to whether to abolish the kitchen household system , should we move these extra kitchen households to the north?
A smile appeared on Zhu Yuanzhang's lips.
When he looked at Tian Jing, he felt a little more pleased.
However, he still hesitated about abolishing the Zaohu system. First of all, the Zaohu system in the Ming Dynasty was inherited from the Yuan Dynasty. Nowadays, these talents have not been Zaohu for a long time. Is it a bit awkward to change their registration in such a hurry? Too impatient and arbitrary?
Secondly, the steam-generated salt was everywhere in the south, which also made him very unhappy.
There is even the idea of outlawing steam-driven salt.
He did not like to see chaos in the Ming Dynasty.
Facing the attacks from Li Shanchang, Mei Sizu and other important ministers, even though Tian Jing had been mentally prepared, he could not help but turn pale and his whole body was a little suffocated and trembling. It was too much to face such pressure alone.
He looked towards the crowd, trying to find a figure.
Eventually.
Saw it at the end of the hall.
Summer White!
Xia Zhibai was naturally coming to the court meeting today, but he did not expect that Tian Jing would be so adamant and start an attack directly at the court meeting. This was something he was not expecting, and it was not only him, Zhu Yuanzhang, but also Li Shanchang and others were also caught unawares and had no time to make any preparations.
But this kind of trance lasted only a moment.
He woke up quickly.
While others were confused or even angry, he saw these things clearly. Since things were already a bit chaotic, he had to win from the chaos and beat the old master to death with random punches. Otherwise, when old foxes like Li Shanchang wake up, their status will be enough to suppress many situations.
This is not what Xia Zhibai wants to see.
Xia Zhibai said: "I second the proposal."
"My minister Xia Zhibai agrees with Deputy Tian Yun's idea."
"It is an indisputable fact that there is unrest in the south."
< br>"Even if the imperial court takes action, since the imperial court is allowed to support the kitchen households, or the imperial court is looking for a livelihood for them, the conflicts between the kitchen households, local salt merchants, and local officials have already intensified. One day, if there is some movement again, it will not be safe. It will turn into a major turmoil again."
"It will be very detrimental to the stability of the country."
"And right now, the Zaohu households don't trust the local government, and the local officials have a hard time trusting the Zaohu households. Even if stability is barely achieved, how can the Zaohu households dare to believe that the local government won't make things difficult for them? And how can the local government not be afraid that they will cause trouble again?"
“The sword has been unsheathed, and it is difficult to turn back.”
“It is impossible for the court to clean up this kind of mess, and it cannot always clean it up.”
“And there is If someone provokes this incident again in the future, how can these people not follow suit again if they taste the benefits? "
"So moving the unemployed kitchen households to the north is the best choice."
"One: It has enriched the population in the north, accelerated exchanges between the north and the south, and made the bridge between the north and the south smoother."
"Second: The north is vast and sparsely populated. When these kitchen households go to the north, there are more opportunities. The choice is not only to enter a salt factory, but also to work on the farm, which are all allowed by the chief secretaries in the north."
"Third: They have no conflict with the northern government, to a certain extent. , they are considered to be 'exiled', this is punishment."
"They dare not make trouble and provoke the government."
"Both the North and the South can be stable."
< br>
"Fourth: To relocate the population, the court will undoubtedly spend a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. In the short term, the huge amount of material consumed is indeed not cost-effective, but in the long run, the court will use this to abolish the kitchen household system. From now on, every year It can save hundreds of thousands of farmers money and food, and within a few years, the court will benefit from it."
"And it can also completely solve the local chaos."
"Now. The salt administration is corrupt, maintaining the "stove household system" and promoting the "factory system". On the one hand, local employment has been greatly reduced, and on the other hand, salt production has continued to increase, but all costs have been passed on to the court. Is this chaos such a mess? Can you continue?"
"The imperial court is not a charity."
"Every copper coin and every bucket of food needs to be calculated carefully. How can it be spent like this?"
< br>
"And."
Xia Zhibai paused for a moment. He looked ahead at the ministers who were looking at him coldly, and continued nonchalantly: "The salt policy in the south is already a bad policy, and the imperial court If the bad government is not thoroughly rectified, it will only hurt the country and the people. "The majority of local governments are reluctant to use bad government because there are huge dividends from bad government." It cannot be carried out for so long”
“It is even more impossible to be allowed to exist”
"Instead of tinkering with things and always cutting the knife to the bottom, why not fundamentally solve it?"
"Completely solve the long-standing disadvantages of the salt policy?!"
"The whole country is playing a game of chess."< br>
“The Ming Dynasty’s policy must also treat everyone equally.”
“Otherwise, if the south has made certain concessions and compromises, should the north also make concessions and compromises?”
"If the north does not change accordingly, will there be trouble in the north in the future?"
"If this happens, the world will be in chaos!"
"So I suggest that the salt explosion in the south be When looking at the political chaos in the entire Ming Dynasty, one cannot just focus on the south. Only when all the pros and cons are explained clearly and deeply can the fundamental problems be discovered and the right medicine can be truly prescribed.”
< br>Xia Zhibai spoke loudly.
Now that the matter has been made clear, let’s open the skylight and speak out.
Li Shanchang, Mei Sizu and others looked at each other.
What Tian Jing and Xia Zhibai said was completely beyond their expectations, and the direction of the development of the situation was even more unexpected. It was completely different from what they expected. They couldn't even change the topic to what they wanted. direction.
The topic today is too big.
Skip the south directly and focus on the entire Ming Dynasty.
This makes them unable to use their strength.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced down silently and said indifferently: "In your opinion, do we really have problems with the salt policy of Ming Dynasty?"
Xia Zhibai said: "Your Majesty, there are, and they are not small."< br>
“The current salt policy of the Ming Dynasty is essentially ‘salt by ding’, and the court’s sudden advance in obtaining salt can be roughly divided into two types. One is to obtain it directly from the kitchen households who produce salt. This One method is in the nature of taxation, which is the so-called "counting"; the other is to obtain the remaining salt from the kitchen households after paying taxes through government purchase."
"But these two methods are different. With the emergence of steam-powered salt, it has been greatly impacted.”
“The salt produced in Zaohu is very inefficient and not of high quality.”
"Compared to the labor cost, it is also more expensive."
"Besides."
"In the past, after kitchen households met the amount of salt stipulated by the court, the excess salt could be exchanged for a certain amount of money and grain. , but now, the steam-driven salt production is very large, which can completely cover the salt consumption of the entire Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the salt in the hands of kitchen households suddenly has nowhere to go.” On the other hand, salt smuggling is also to save costs.”
“Some salt factories will collect salt from households at extremely low prices.”
"After filtering it again, sell it at a high price."
"Under the past salt policy, the production of salt was guaranteed to a certain extent, but it brought a great burden to kitchen households and severely hit them. However, under the impact of the steam engine, the Zao households directly suffered a "catastrophe", and even the court's salt collection suffered greater exploitation."
"This is also true. The reason why the kitchen households got up and caused trouble."
"It is difficult to make a living by making salt."
"On the other hand, the large amount of steam engine blueprints leaked, resulting in a large amount of 'private salt' appearing on the market. , these 'private salt' have seriously affected the salt sold by the government, and the collapse of the salt system will further affect the court's tax revenue. ”
"Today's salt policy of the Ming Dynasty is already in name only."
"If the court does not change the salt policy as soon as possible, the taxes the court can collect from salt will only become less and less."
>"Compared with the turmoil in the south, I am more worried about the corruption of the salt policy."
"Since the old salt policy has been broken, we must establish a new one under the old policy and formulate the most practical and effective salt policy at the moment."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.
He actually saw the chaos in the salt administration.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have thought about ‘putting things to rest’, suppressing these messes and sorting them out again later.
Now that Xia Zhibai has an idea, he might as well listen to it.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Then tell us, how should we change the salt policy of Ming Dynasty?!"
Hearing this.
Mei Sizu's face darkened, and he had a bad premonition in his heart. He hurriedly interrupted: "Your Majesty, I think Xia Zhibai's words are really alarmist. There are indeed some problems in the salt policy of Ming Dynasty, but the most important thing at the moment is The question is not to discuss how to change the salt policy, but how to solve the unrest in the south."
"How can the change of salt policy be decided overnight?"
" However, there is very little time to deal with the turmoil in the south. Once this precious time is delayed and the turmoil in the south becomes out of control, it will really harm the country and the people."
"I sincerely ask your majesty to use your time. The situation is the most important.”
(End of this chapter)